Our Afternoon Sans Romy

Yesterday Luke & I spent the afternoon together without Romy. It was the first bit of quality time we have had together in a long time and we had a really lovely day. After a restless night for everyone, we got up relatively early so we could go out to the shops to get some things for Romy. Rather than drag the little bear around the shops with us we dropped her off to my parents house so she could spend some time with her grandparents while they weren't at work today. As soon as we got to the shops, we quickly bought the things Romy needed so we could spend the rest of our trip looking at the things we usually wouldn't have the time to look at. I bought some black jellies, a parrot brooch and next month's allocated read 'the happiness project'. Our day ended with an all night sleeping baby, season 1 of Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, whiskey & quinoa fattoush. 

Little Joys In A New Purchase

After we had our scan last Thursday Luke & I stopped by the shops to get some sushi rolls and so I could quickly look for a new everyday bag. Until I can choose the right satchel from either The Cambridge Satchel Company or Bohemian Living, I settled for this navy Agent NinetyNine Oxford satchel. We were on our way back to the car park when I quickly looked in General Pants on a whim and saw this satchel sitting by itself on the bag rack. I was already in the best mood after seeing my baby for the first time, so I quickly snapped this up and made a beeline to the counter. As I was waiting to be served I was giving the bag a last minute once over to make sure I was making the right choice as the side stitching looked a little shabby. I justified my decision by how delightful it was going to be to see the bright and happy pink lining every time I would open my bag. And if the pink lining wasn't a good enough excuse, the surprise $30 mark down sure was! The tag read $49.99, and I ended up only paying $19.99 which totally made my day even better than it already had been. It is these types of little joys and ones similar that happen often, and often go unappreciated. So lately I have been making a conscious effort to appreciate the little joys like successfully making dinner without Luke's help or finding an item of clothing I thought I had thrown out last spring clean. Because little joys make every day life exciting. 

Recent Purchases

In the last two weeks I had a mini break from blogging, but I didn't have a break from going to the shops! These are a couple of my recent colourful purchases. I really can't remember what my life was like before the all types-of-cute store Typo. The first three pictures are my Typo purchases. In the main living area space of my flat I have a polo cube bookcase which is jam packed with books, and on top of the bookcase itself is decorated with these pretty magazine holders. And now on the side of the bookcase my new mini chalk board hangs. I've been wanting one of these for a while, and even though it could be bigger it will do for now. And the last of my Typo purchases were an 'oh deer!' stamp, a measuring tape so I can now safely purchase clothes online and a letter holder to neaten up the notebooks on my desk. One of the best things about having an iPhone, is picking out cute cases. I settled for these two, until I get the melting ice-cream case. The zig zag case was unbelievably cheap at just $2 from Dotti, where I also picked up this floral summer dress for $10. I'm really not much into this whole neon phases thats currently happening (mostly because neons don't suit me), but I thought this necklace looked fun.

Celestial Cat + A Fancy Wolf

Did anybody else take advantage of the $9.99 tees on Threadless last week? These are the two tee's I treated myself too. I've been wanting a cat tee forever and as of next week I'll have one! 

Recent Purchases

Perfume The Body Shop  Earrings Lovisa  Dress Glassons  Cushion Target

Last week when I went to the shops I noticed all the pretty Spring dresses and couldn't leave without one. The end of winter is the best time to stock up on cute dresses with sleeves. I don't like to wear sleeveless dresses, I like the t-shirt style dress and they're always so hard to find in the summer because everything is sleeveless or spaghetti strap. I picked this dress up at Glassons for $49.95, and couldn't be happier with it. I now have three dresses, all pretty similar, from Glassons. Theres nothing better than a dualistic dress. Well, I'm sure there is. Like all the new products at The Body Shop, especially their Japanese Cherry Blossom range.

I got through home ware phases, sometimes I'm particularly interested in them, and the rest of the time I'm focused on dresses or coffee table books. Lately I've been keeping my eyes open for unnecessary home wares and found myself coveting this stamp like anchor cushion from Target. And to my delight, it was marked down an extra six dollars to $20.95!I also picked up two pairs of earrings for $10 from Lovisa. I love big stud earrings but haven't had much luck finding any that I love enough to wear. I didn't realise how much I needed a pair of horse & heart earrings until I bought them! 

My New Tattoo

Outfit:

Dress + Bag - Mink Pink / Cardigan + Tights - Kmart / Shoes - Rivers / Necklace - Louvisa

Okay! So yesterday was my much anticipated tattoo appointment that I was completely anxious about as a result of a horrible dream a couple of weeks ago. After I booked the appointment months ago, I dreamt that I fell asleep whilst being tattooed (because that is completely likely to happen!) and woke up with a horrific scene on my arm! I was a bit nervous about this tattoo because I sent a picture to Chris (who also tattooed my babushka) and asked him to incorporate a banner and something in the background to tie the two elements together. The first draft had waves rather than roses and I had a pretty strong negative reaction to it, so he changed it to some roses. The original illustration is by Angelique Houtkamp. When I was thinking about what I wanted to get for my next tattoo I had a picture in my head of an old fashioned looking lady with hair topped upon her head with a hair ship and banner "loose lips sink ships", which is one of my favourite sayings. I'm really pleased with how it turned out and I especially love the small touches of teal.

My whole day was quite pleasant, the weather on the coast was nice enough considering it has been raining for the past two weeks. Luke & I spent a little bit of time together before we went about our days. I got to catch up with my lovely friend Joshua before my appointment and indulged in some Grill'd, the most amazing burger chain ever. There aren't any stores on the coast which is disappointing so it was pretty exciting to have a Garden Goodness for the first time in almost two years! And most importantly, I got to wear my new Mink Pink dress that I bought during the week.

When my tattoo heals I'll take some neater photos & I promise they won't have those really lovely sparkles that the first picture has. Before I dropped Luke to work he kindly photographed my outfit, only my camera was on the sparkle setting for the one photo that he was able to get my whole outfit in! 

New Things: Dresses

I went to the shops yesterday to get some craft supplies to make a friend something. And while I was there I thought about how new dresses make me happy, and me being happy makes Luke happy. And I had Luke's bank card, so he bought me some dresses! I wanted to get a sheer type dress with a collar to wear under cardigans for this in between cold weather and found the dress on the right from Cotton On for $10. And I was just leaving the shops when I heard this yellow shirt (in the middle) call out to me, and before I know it I was in the change room trying it on with a forrest green skirt that I also bought. And just because I was going to be trying things on anyway I picked up the dress on the left and tried it on and had no intentions on buying it. But I saw it was marked down from $70 to $25, and when I paid for everything the dress scanned at $10, the skirt was marked down to $10 and the shirt was $50. I really love the style of the yellow shirt, they had plain colours that I didn't see until I had already committed to my purchase, so I think i'll have to make another trip to the shops on Friday. Any day that involves two $10 dresses is a good one!

New Things: Necklaces + Dress

While picking up some things for a diy I wanted to try, I walked past Lovisa and saw their 3 for 2 sale on at the moment and decided I needed some new necklaces. Every time I go to the shops I almost always leave with a new pair of earrings, and as a result have neglected my necklace collection. For a couple of weeks I've been thinking about buying a bunting flag necklace with pastel coloured triangles and I found the exact one I had in mind! Whenever I go to the shops with something exact in mind, I never find it, so I was pretty fracking excited yesterday. I wanted to get some new things that I wouldn't normally wear, like the wooden block necklace. I picked the Peter Pan collar necklace first, and only when I got home and tried them on did I realise that I don't really know what I'll wear it with. So give me suggestions!

I've had such good luck lately with bulking out my dress collection and this week the streak continued! I buy a lot of dresses that I love the look of, regardless of our compatibility, and end up 'saving' them for a good potential occasion, or never having worn them to date. But lately I've been able to talk myself out of such purchases and focus on practical everyday/weather appropriate dresses. I don't have many long sleeved dresses and with the fast approaching cold weather I will need to change that. I love that the bottom stripy part of the dress puffs out as well, and its super comfortable. I wore it last night out on a dinner date with my friend Holly. 

Nails & New Things

Nails / New Dresses from Dotti / Hour Glass + Jar

I had the loveliest Friday today. I started off with a sleep in with Luke, and a quick tidy up before getting ready for the day. After Luke went off to work, I paid a bill, printed our Band Of Skulls tickets at the library, did some banking and got some coffee from my work. And then I went to the shops in search of a new hand bag that I just can't seem to find. I have something in mind, and always get distracted by all of the other pretty bags and never get what I actually want - a plain black envelope style satchel. After I couldn't find what I wanted I gave up on bags and bought some dresses from Dotti. The white + black dress has teeny polka dots all over, and the dark plum dress has lace diamond shape cut outs. Both dresses  are knee length, and both were on sale coming to a total of $29.95. My luck continued when I went to Target and picked up a large hour glass that was priced $25 and marked down to $9, and an old fashioned tall jar priced $13 and marked down to $6. Luke & I have decided to change up our bed room which is currently plain white and add some colour, so this lime green hour glass is perfect. And the jar will be great to fill up with things and sit on our bed sides. 

When I got home I painted my nails in diagonal stripes using some new colours from the Australis range and made the most amazing toasted sandwich. When Luke came home for his break we went for a walk and got some afternoon coffees, and I visited my parents for the afternoon. It was such a pleasantly productive day!

We Went Out For Cocktails Instead

1. Mexican Bean Pies I made for Luke 2. This weeks purchases 3. Milkshakes!

4. Stripy Nails 5. Vodka Quatro Cocktails 5. Out for Tapas & Cocktails

Next Sunday I'll be going away to Fiji for a family holiday, so throughout the week I've been getting a couple of things ready. Along side a ticket to Fiji for Christmas, Luke & my brother-in-law Allan, also got a huge money tin. Luke & I almost filled ours with spare coins over the past three months and we opened it this past Sunday so we could bank it in exchange for Fiji money. Afterwards I started to get really excited because next Sunday is starting to get really, really close! I also slightly started to freak out because I had planned to get a couple of new holiday pieces to take with me. So on Wednesday I made a quick trip to the shops to get some holiday pants and a new dress. Sometimes when I go shopping, half way through something just clicks and I suddenly get sick of it and need to go home. I didn't have a dress to come with me, so I stopped by Cotton On to pick up a dress that I already had in different material. When you find a dress you like, I find its best to get it in a few different types of material. I finished my afternoon off by exercising my awesome baking skills and made some mini Mexican bean pies for dinner.

Luke's day off this week was Thursday, and I had to work so we couldn't go to the plant nursery, or bake blueberry bread together like we planned. So we went out for cocktails and tapas instead. I think I have bad luck with dining out because something always usually happens, whether its being served a meal that is missing the key ingredient (i.e., pasta without pasta sauce. Seriously) or finding a rock in my lentil burger. However, Thursday evening almost was a perfect evening! I had the most amazing vodka quatro cocktail with lime, cranberry & passionfruit. The restaurant was right on the water, so it's tapas had a bit of a seafood theme to it which was great for Luke, but not so much for me. They did have three fantastic vegetarian friendly options - polenta fries & aioli, goats cheese & eggplant garlic bread, and broccoli & mushrooms in chilli sauce. 

It's been a pretty laid back and productive week so far. Luke & I broke our milkshake mixer out from its kitchen cupboard captivity and we've been making them all week! I also painted my nails with coral punch, metallic brown & smokey purple stripes. I've been heaps into painting my nails differently since I did painted my zig zag nails a couple of weeks ago. I've been looking for easy nail art tutorials and found so many interesting, creative ways to use your nail polish. Blogging still excites me everyday!

Don't Make A Spectacle

New Glasses!

I've wanted new frames for a while, but wanted to wait until I needed to update my prescription.

While Luke & I were at the shops about 2 weeks ago, we were walking past Spec Savers and I went in to look at new frames and they had a spare appointment so I ended up walking out with new frames! Well I had to wait 8 days for them. I also bought prescription sunglasses, which have proven to be anything but daggy.

They felt to big on my face the first couple of days, but I have been given so many lovely compliments that have eased me into them even more!

Busy Bees

Luke & I had quite the eventful day together. 

We were little busy bees crossing things off our to-do-lists.

I had an 8.30 am appointment this morning, so our day started a little earlier than I would have liked. I defied my alarm for as long as I could, and gave myself little time to get ready. After the appointment, we went to the cafe where I work to have breakfast & coffee. Trying new things is something I'm pushing myself to do, so today I tried blueberry pancakes. And aren't I a fool for putting it off for so long, as I always go for banana. And I also tried some of Luke's French toast. My boss made our coffees and as her & her gf were making them, I could see them huddled over & giggling. Rather than the normal cute little heart in the froth, they'd branched out and tried their hand at doodles! So that was a pretty funny start to the day. 

After breakfast we went to the shops to make a quick purchase - my new Mac desktop! I'm so fracking excited! My desk won't get here for a few days, so I won't set it all up until it arrives. Which gives me time to find the perfect decorative desk chair. Working on my new Mac will be so much easier having a bigger screen, 21.5" to be exact! Luke had a voucher for a book store, so while he was looking around I read some of the new children's books which generated an abundance of much needed creative motivation. I also picked up a new floral print dress from Cotton On, and a 'L' scrabble necklace from Diva for $2! I am a bit late to the scrabble jewellery phase, but I got on the wagon cheaply!

Aside from buying a new Mac, buying new mascara was on the top of my to-do-list for Thursday. As we were driving home I realised I had forgot to, so we pulled into the shopping centre which is closer to our house to get it and dinner things. Just to make my day more awesome, Rimmel had a buy 1 get 1 free purchase offer. And while we were close to the post office we finally got out passport photos taken. We've been meaning to get our passports for ages for our Fiji trip in March. And to finish our lovely little day together, Luke is going to make burritos and we're going to watch the tennis!

Belated Birthday Boots Illustrated

New boots.

Last Tuesday I went to Newtown in Sydney by myself for the first time ever. I've never had a solo adventure to the city, so I was a little excited and nervous. I have no sense of direction & whenever I'm in Sydney I rely on whoever I'm with to get about. 

My birthday was about a month ago, and because Luke works so much and there aren't any places around the coast that stock Doc Marten's, I only just got my present last Tuesday. New black Doc's.

Here they are, illustrated rather than photographed.

Unpacked

As I previously posted last week, Luke & I moved house. We've have the majority of our things packed up for a year now, so unpacking these last couple of days has been pretty exciting. I've found some things, books, & home wares I had forgotten I owned. And have been able to unpack some lovely gifts from last years birthday & Christmas such as the babushka doll stack coffee mugs & red polka dot tea cups. They were my two favourite things to unpack so far! Last year Luke & I lived in an interesting house that had a shed packed with previous tenants discarded belongings and amongst them was a triangular A-frame bookcase that was painted a horrible shade of green with black patches all over it. I really like the shape of the bookcase, and thought it would look better painted red. So we held onto it for a couple of years with the hopes of a colour change, and when we found our new flat that had recently been painted all white inside, we thought it would suit the space painted white. So while I was a work last week, my Dad painted it for us all white & snappy ready for our new flat. 

The first things we unpacked were our books, and let me tell you Luke & I have a lot of books. We couldn't open a library or anything, but we are definitely not in any shortage of them! There are a couple of things that I own way too many of and they are Jackie Collins' books, tea cups, coffee mugs & dust collectors. Our flat isn't a very big space, so its been interesting trying to fit everything in and arrange it so it doesn't look like a storage room. The most exciting thing of all was having a new lounge delivered yesterday! It is super comfortable, while I was waiting for Luke to have a shower so we could do more jobs I fell asleep on it & woke up a few hours later! Once our bed side tables arrive and we've fully unpacked and arranged everything, I'll post some more pictures.