Note to Self

Picture via Ffffound

Must try to remember

On Jeans and J Lo

Ah winter. That freezing expanse, the clouds as grey as your mood and the rain that only seems to come when you have your sheets on the line.

I go into cozy craving overload during winter; I have two quilts on my bed. I turn the heater on as soon as I walk in the door. I huddle on the couch with my blanket and I stuff myself with warm comfort foods like casseroles, curries and hot puddings. Unsurprisingly, my weight tends to creep up over this wonderful time of year. Perhaps the only upside of this is that winter is the best time for layering - both for the cold and the hiding of unsightly, pasty bits.

Recently, I went to work wearing a singlet, a long sleeved top, a jersey tunic that was long enough to cover my butt, a scarf and a blazer. On the bottom half, I wore my jeans.

Only problem was, due to my cold climate bingeing, I couldn't do them up.

So I didn't.

I fastened a sort of slip-knot with a hair elastic through the button hole of my jeans and attached that to the button so my jeans wouldn't fall down - and they stayed up all day, no one was the wiser.

This is both the best and worst thing that has happened to me this winter.

I am now taking comfort in the fact that celebrities have these days too.

Ms Lopez is still looking fine. I have no excuse. The only twins I have had lately are of this variety

Ode to my Undies

How do I love thee?

Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My rear doth reach, keeping it out of sight

For my end being far from ideal Grace...

I am very sorry Elizabeth Barrett Browning, but sometimes, when you are wearing a great pair of jocks, you are moved to bastardise the classics.


Bonds do the best underwear ever. (And, according to the girls below, its even good as outerwear)I love my hipster boylegs when wearing skirts or jeans because they never give you a wedgie - before they brought these out, I used to wear the cottontails and roll down the top so they were low cut - I thought I looked so hot (ah, the folly of youth, I think it probably made me look like I was wearing a nappy, but on the up-side, you never saw me unplucking gusset from my butt crack).

Their skimpy cuts actually make your butt look nice and they make hipster gs in every colour of the rainbow for when a VPL will just not do.

I wear a chesty bond singlet for bed and am about to purchase their new sleep pants.

Yup, this is what I look like when I wake up in the morning. Doesn't everyone?

I have bonds trackies in fleecy, organic bamboo, yoga cut, 3/4 length and as shorts. I am always wearing my Bonds hoodie (and Bert's) and, if you need a simple T, take a peek in my dresser. I can always trust them to come up with a cut that is flattering and a colour that is great.


Their opaque tights take forever to get their first run and their business socks encourage business time.


I think their babyclothes are the cutest in Australia and the Bonds babies - well, let's just say that most babies would be getting a complex hanging around the nursery with them.

I mean really, so sweet, your teeth start falling at just by looking at them

If they were ever looking for someone to earnestly spruik their brand, they really need look no further, but wait, they've got that covered by the cutest ex tennis pro and the most gorgeous chick in the world. Swoon.

Gotta Love Bonds.

Tuesday Tunesday - Vale Sophia

I know its slightly late, but Tuesday Tunesday today pays tribute to Estelle Getty, who was best known for playing the wise cracking Sophia Petrillo on the Golden Girls. She was the first of the four to be hired on the show and was 2 and a half months younger than Bea Arthur who was cast as her daughter. She died in her own home in the early hours of yesterday after battling Lewy Body Dementia, a progressive brain disease.

I have had this fabulous necklace in my etsy faves for so long and it seems apropriate to show its awesomeness now. I think I may need to actually buy it now.All of the characters were great, but she always had the best lines on the show - such a fiesty pensioner. Here are a couple of my favourite quotes from imdb

Sophia : Dorothy, where I come from you learn never to turn your back on family! NEVER! When your crazy cousin Nunzio started living with his pet goat, did the family turn their back on him? No. And after a couple of nights neither did the goat.

Rose: I stopped in a diner and Blanche, there's a egg dish named after you.

Blanche: Really? How are they prepared?

Sophia: Over-easy.

So to end on a nice note, (that was a music joke folks) here is the fabulous theme song that I have had in my head all day since hearing it on the radio this morning. Even though it was one sided love affair- thankyou for being a friend Estelle

Flower Power

As I mentioned in my very first post, I am an ebay addict. Inspired by the looks from Balenciaga, Ralph Lauren, Stella McCartney, Oscar de la Renta and Dries Van Noten above, I won the very 80s dress below.

I plan to get out mum's old husqvarna and lift up that v waistline to a more 50s style and lop off the sleeves a la my excellent paintbrush work below...
I may be getting ahead of myself as it hasn't arrived yet, but I am a bit excited! Now to get me invited to some garden parties...

It was this big...

I can imagine these not to be everyone's cup of tea, but I just discovered East End Fish Prints via Design Sponge and am smitten. I want to get one for my folks as they are both mad keen fisher-peoples. They are actual prints made from real fish, using non toxic ink so they can still be eaten afterwards. Puts those coin rub pictures you do as a kid to absolute shame

Tea Party

I think these are the coolest thing ever. Can you imagine how great they would be in a kids' playroom? By kids'; I mean "my" and by playroom; I mean "house".

via Designboom

I think they have possibly surpassed my old faves, these little fellas from Phillipe Starck for Kartell.

PS. I was going to call this post "Stool Sample", but I am way too mature for that.

Lazy Arse Me

I live very close to my work.

"How close?" I hear you ask.

"Very close," I reply somewhat cagily.

"Why so cagey?" you ask.

"Well," I dither, "If you knew how close, you would judge me for driving to work this week."

"Never!" you exclaim, "There is not a judgemental bone in me. Pray tell"

"OK," I concede, "But let me preface this by stating that it has been cold and rainy and I can't find my umbrella"

"Noted" noted you.

It is approximately 200 metres from my front door to my office

"Get out!" you scream, "There is a special place in hell for lazy, unenvironmentally friendly gits like you. Get thee to an umbrella shop"

So, I have been looking. So far, I like these...

from Kate Spade, Outblush, Simply Umbrellas, Guy de Jean and Brollies Galore

and this is my fave

from I am a Greedy Girl

But, I'd rather grow me one of these so I don't ever run out

Picture via Apartment Therapy

Book Fest

Image from Jane Mount

So I've just seen this over on The Peach Tree (check out her cute earrings here) and think its a great idea to keep people motivated about reading.

Here's how it works

The Big Read says that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italics for those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you love, and strikeout the books you read but didn't like.
4) Reprint this list so we can try and track down these people who've read only 6 or less and make them read.

So...

THE BIG READ TOP 100

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. The Harry Potter Series JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible (I've read about 3/4)
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller this is my FAVE book ever
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare (about half)
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh .
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen .
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini (this is going around my office at the moment)
38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery (like a million times)
47. Far From The Maddening Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel (waiting for my Dad to finish)
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte's Web - EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams (this was the first book I owned)
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Scary thing is, I read most of these at least 10 years ago. I'd actually like to read all the ones I haven't read to get me back up to scratch and so I can say I've done it - although I could knock a few more off cos I've seen the movie...

Navel Gazing

The only good thing about winter is oranges and subsequently orange smiles.

from Flickr

How cute is this little ginger?

Fish and Chipboard

These little fish from Beachwood would be perfect on cupboards in a beach house or in the cat equivalent of a gingerbread house. Functional, yet tasty.

Nautical but Nice

I love this site. I have spent way too many hours on it. For example; today's effort So much fun. Kicks the arse of morse code.

Just Doing My Bit...

Image via Flikr

I love the term powernap. These road signs in Victoria are great. Who knew being lazy could be so beneficial. I must have saved thousands during Year 12 Religion classes.
As it is quite late again and I have to get up for work fairly soon, looks like I'll be helping out again right now.

Tuesday Tunesday - Respectable

I headed to my folks' house for dinner tonight as my aunt is over for a visit from Canberra. Its always great to see her as she is full of stories from years of travelling and she has a house in the greek islands, so I'm all for strengthening those familial ties. The last time I saw her, she and my other aunts (mum's sisters) were at my parents' house having afternoon tea. Although they never discussed what they were going to wear, they all rocked up in blue tops and white pants. (That's Sal on the front right with her eye's shut, she's my Dad's mum, but also in on the blue shirt theme - she's a good team player like that).

Mum and Auntie Heather had been on a wine tour of the Adelaide Hills today, so were still quite "excitable", but the thing that cracked me up the most tonight was the fact that they had practically donned the same outfit again. This time it was pale pink (Mum)/pale mauve (Heather) woollen skivvy, each with a black knitted top over and black pants. To top this off, my Auntie Jeanie had gone along with them earlier in the day and Mum said she had turned up in a pale pink skivvy with black pants too (no black top for her though). Freaks.

So, in the theme of sisterly love and similar sibling suiting, here is the wonderful Mel and Kim.

I loved these girls. I had this song as the personal ringtone for my friend James as she ain't never gonna be respectable.

Letter Love

The only good thing about your friends being away, especially on your birthday, is when they come back. My beautiful buddy was slumming it at a wedding on Lake Como(!) when I turned 29 and has brought me back the most stunning Mulberry keyring in a delicious, chocolate brown leather. So spoilt. I need to get me a new bag that is up to its standards.

First time I've ever wanted to get "P" on my bag. (Heh heh, I am soooo funny)

Spicy Springer Roles

I just did a double take. Is that Jerry Springer and Scary Spice hosting the Miss Universe awards? So appropriate.

When I was Younger - Bros

Speaking of bros, when I was younger, I thought that the twins from Bros were actually girls.

You do make friends with salad

I just caught this ad

Gotta get a couple of these for my bros.

Look at Moiye

I love love love the fug girls, but found myself pouting when they fugged Selma Blair. I think she looks a little bit cute here. Can't wait to see her playing Kim.

An Apple a Day...

Picture from Design Sponge

Love this chair and pillow combo.

If this was my house, despite feeling rather smug at its general gorgeousness, I don't think I would be able to leave that cockatoo in peace. I think it would look rather fine in one of these

From ASOS

and maybe some nice beads

from J Crew

Greek and Penguins

Tonight I had my Grandma, Sal around for dinner and a dvd.

Twas a night of firsts.

It was the first time she had visited my new place

and she said it was "flash".

She tried her first Yiros

and quite enjoyed it (though "not as much as Subway").

She had her first felafeland couldn't believe it wasn't meat.

She tried Baklava for the first time

and licked the plate (OK, that was me), but she liked it too.

And we watched Happy Feet, Sal for the first time.

and she sang along.
Great night.