The Dark Side of the Closet - Episode 2

A couple of weeks ago I thought it would be fun to do a series of posts about the various items in my wardrobe that never get worn. Today we return to the forgotten corners of my closet to retrieve two more dresses that didn't work out. (You can see my first post here!)

These two dresses come from an ill-fated Modcloth order in which I ordered six dresses and only TWO of them fit! I was devastated, but the cost of returning them is too much to bother with, and so they have sat in my closet for far too long. Both of them were purchased with the intention of using them for job interviews and work-related stuff, so they're a little less flamboyant than my everyday attire.

The first is branded 'Fervour'. I love the colours and the cute little collar, and it came with a belt which is always a plus, but my god is the fit bad. The arm holes are HUGE which leads to mega gape happening, I tried to fix that by taking it in at the shoulders, which helped, but there are still other problems with it. The fabric is thick, but clingy, and having fabric clinging around my stomach and hips is a really unflattering look for me. Basically I just had to write it off as unwearable. One day I might get around to selling it on Ebay or something. I'm just so lazy about that sort of thing!

The next dress is from the Modcloth 'Be the Buyer' feature in which users are able to vote on which items of clothing go into production. I love the look of this dress, the asymmetrical seam up the front, the contrasting fabric, the cut, its all so adorable. But alas, it does not fit. It has a similar problem to the above in that the fabric likes to cling, only this one is much worse because the fabric is also incredibly thin. It accentuates every lump and bump, which may be fine for some but not those of us who are particularly lumpy and bumpy! It shows EVERYTHING around the stomach and hips, where it clings the most (ie. where I'm biggest), and I can't say I find highly visibly panty lines to be a terribly attractive look.

So that's two more dresses in the graveyard of unused clothing, and unfortunately there's plenty more where they came from!

Hope everyone is well!

A Holiday is as Good as a Change

I'm lucky enough to be going on a trip to the Gold Coast in less than 2 weeks There's a big cluster of family birthdays mashed into a couple of weeks, so its a big birthday holiday. We were sitting down chatting about it the other day and loads of reasons were offered up as to why we're looking forward to the holiday, legitimate reasons like getting to stay in a big fancy holiday home, visiting theme parks, eating at new restaurants, swimming every day, and it made me laugh to think that the thing I'm most looking forward to is cooler temperatures! I honestly hate these days when its so hot you don't even need to be doing anything to break a sweat. Its always humid and stuffy and just feels disgusting. I hate the heat, I HATE IT! Many people love the summer, but I am most definitely not one of them. I'd rather be shivering than sweating any day. One of the first things I did when the trip was booked was look up the local averages for that time of year. I was so beyond pleased to see the average min and max temperatures for the month being 17-26 degrees (which is roughly 62-79 in Fahrenheit). I seriously can't wait to be able to walk out of the house in the morning and delight in the absence of the wall of wet heat I encounter here.

I also feel like I'm in a bit of a rut lately. I'm not being particularly productive with my time nor am I doing anything especially enjoyable. I feel like a holiday (even a short one) will help pull me out of this shitty routine. What better way out of a funky funk!

I'll tell you what I'm not looking forward to, PACKING! I feel like trying to pack all of my makeup and hair junk is going to be a nightmare. Ugh its exhausting just thinking about it. I'm only going for 5 days, but I'm one of those people who has to be prepared for every possible situation, which means bringing a lot of crap "just in case". I really need to get my hands on one of those magical bottomless carpet bags like Mary Poppins had. So unfair that's being kept from the public!

I'm going to try and get back to outfit photos this week. I misplaced the charger for my camera battery, but I found it today so my camera lives again! Not a moment too soon either. I had two new Lindy Bop dresses arrive today which I'm looking forward to showing off.

Hope everyone is well!

ALIA National Conference Follow-up

Hello kiddies!

You may remember back in this post where I vented my frustration at the huge fees involves with attending the ALIA National Conference. I also ranted to my lecturer about it and she encouraged me to do something about it and send some emails to people who might be in a position to help. I sent an email to the local delegate as well as to the national Executive Director saying much the same thing as I said in my blog post - that it is important for events like this to be affordable for everyone, particularly students. Today I got a reply from Sue, the Executive Director, who is lovely by the way, I've met her a couple of times and she's just a joy to chat to. She basically said that due to their overheads in hosting the event, they can't possibly drop the price of tickets any lower. She also said however, that she is trying to arrange funds for one sponsored student position and that she'll let me know how to apply if she's successful in organising it, which is certainly better than nothing.

The whole thing got me thinking really. So, I'm sitting here at 1am contemplating the library and information management industry, as I'm sure you all do! (No Amber, no we don't). I was thinking back to the points I raised at the ALIA Advisory Congress last year about needing to get children into libraries while they're young I order to foster that interest and understanding of libraries' importance early in life. I also thought about how high school students thinking about what they want to do with their lives aren't often offered the avenue of the library sciences, I know I certainly wasn't. I wondered to myself why ALIA aren't going to high school career days, speaking at school assemblies and otherwise advocating for libraries as an interesting, rewarding and important career to students considering their options. Then it occurred to me, why don't I do that? Sure, there are people far more qualified than myself, but those people aren't doing it and I feel like it's ridiculous to leave that potential source of growth untapped. 

I feel like it's a bit of a pie in the sky goal for me, and certainly nothing I could accomplish alone, but I'm going to run it by Kathy and see what she thinks of the idea. It would be great to get staff from different types of libraries and with a range of qualifications who can offer varying perspectives on what is a huge and diverse industry. I'm all excited thinking about it, but lurking in the back of my mind is the fact that sometimes what seems challenging but achievable in my crazy tired brain sometimes turns out to be unrealistic and impractical to go through with. But it doesn't hurt to talk about it and see if I can get something happening!

And now here are some gratuitous Ava pics!

Also, if you miss me between posts, don't forget I'm on Facebook! I'm also trying to dust the cobwebs off my Instagram account, so feel free to check things out over there too!

The Dark Side of the Closet

I'm an avid online shopper. A vast majority of my wardrobe was purchased online, and I can't see myself ever relying on actual in-person shopping for most of my purchases. Online shopping has some great advantages like access to a huge range, competitive pricing, and you can shop in your pyjamas and no one will judge you! But it also has some disadvantages, the worst of which is SIZING! Some places offer returns, but if you're buying pieces from some random Ebay user, you can't really return an item because it doesn't fit you. And if you're ordering from an international site, often returning items is too costly to even bother. And given that I'm super lazy about trying to re-sell items, I have a section of my closet which is like a graveyard to purchases that didn't work out.

So I thought I would, over time, share with you some of the pieces in my closet that never get worn, just in the interest of letting them see the light of day once in awhile. So without further ado:

Cue thunder, lightning, a lone crow cawing and the cackle of a crazy old hag. Now that I've set the mood, on we go!

For today's Dark Side entry, I submit two items. They're both the same dress so I thought they should be included together. I bought them both at the same time, which turned out to be a big mistake, because the style just doesn't sit right on me. The top half fits super weirdly, I'm not sure if its a weight issue or a boob size issue, or that it was just designed poorly, but the front is very tight while the back gapes. I can't tell you a great deal about the dresses unfortunately. I bought them both from an ebay seller rather than from a store or  particular brand site. Neither dress has any information about the designer or brand on the tags, just a size and care instructions. There are quite a few brands I've seen that have dresses in this style, but I've been too wary to try another brand in case I have the same issue. I was really quite gutted when these dresses didn't fit. They're really quite pretty and I had great plans for them. But considering how many items I buy online, I have to expect that sometimes I'll have bad luck with the fit.

Doctor Dresses!!!

I don't exactly make a secret of my Doctor Who obsession, similarly I'm pretty out and proud with my love of a fit and flare dress. So when I got an email from the Doctor Who store showing me a fit and flare Doctor Who dress, I was pretty freaking excited. And it gets better. I immediately clicked the link and looked at the sizing, I felt like all my christmases had come at once when I saw they go up to a 3XL. And it gets even better! They have three different style of fit and flare dresses to choose from (10th Doctor, 11th Doctor and Dalek) AND two bodycon dresses for those who like to cut a more sleek silhouette!

I've placed my order for the 11th Doctor Dress (top middle). The 10th Doctor is actually my favourite (as in the actual character) but I feel like I'm much more likely to wear the 11th dress. I actually feel like a bit of a traitor to my favourite Doctor not buying his dress lol! I may yet buy it, depending on how this first one goes once it arrives. I so hope it fits!!!

If you'd like to get your own, or browse the rest of their range of amazing Doctor Who merchandise, you can find the Doctor Who online store here. Or if you're in the US, some of the range (as well as loads of other coolness) is available through Think Geek.

Box of Goodies!

A few weeks ago I ordered a whole bunch of stuff from Cotton On Group, they have several different retail stores which each focus on a different part of their range, but if you order online, everything gets sent together, which is an awesome way to save a bit of money on postage, especially when they do free shipping for orders over $50! They had 30% off all of their Typo range, so I bought a few canvas prints I've had my eye on, and they had 3 pairs of shoes for $10!!!! I bought a few pairs for myself and a couple for my oldest daughter who can now fit into grown up shoes.

I was so excited to get my order, the box was huge and full of goodies for MEEEEEEE (I have my Smeagol moments from time to time). I'd had a really long day and by the time I got home and opened it up, I was feeling ultra lazy, and as a result I really didn't get the best pictures of my haul, but its enough to give you an idea of the overall purchase hopefully!

Yes, there are duplicates of a couple of pairs of shoes, one in my size and one in my daughter's. She didn't know what shoes I was buying myself when she chose hers. What can I say, she must have great taste lol. The mint green poncho I bought for me but its rather tiny, so she ended up scoring that as well, and she loves it. She's been wearing it every night to lounge around the house before bed. I've yet to put my canvas prints on the wall. I'm still not 100% certain I'm going to keep my room layout as it is, and I'd like to be sure before I go hanging more pictures so I don't have to move them in 2 weeks time when I change my mind. I'm really eager to get them up though. I'll be sure and share pictures when that happens!

"Uniqueness"

The other day I shared a new blog that I'd found with a friend. I had just discovered it the day prior and added the blog to those that I follow, and that blogger then followed me in return which is super nice. I was sharing this news with my friend because it actually is kind of a big deal to me to know people enjoy what I'm doing here enough to want to come back. She took a look at the blog and said to me that she doesn't know how I can feel unique when there are all these other people who look the same. I kind of bristled a little, even though I know it wasn't meant in any malicious way. But it seemed a strange thing to have to explain this to someone who I thought knew me much better than that. I don't look the way I look to be unique, I'm not trying to be anything other than myself. I went through a long (and quite depressing) period in my early 20's when I was actually too afraid and self-conscious to be myself. I suddenly felt pressured to "grow up" and "dress my age", and as a result I ended up living day-in, day-out in jeans and t-shirts or business trousers and plain blouses. There is nothing wrong with that if that's what you're into, but for me it wasn't what I genuinely wanted to be wearing, but what I felt I was expected to wear.

It wasn't until the break up of a 7 year long relationship that I felt a massive urge to reclaim my identity and I felt brave enough to experiment and try new things with my appearance. I became comfortable with a particular style and found a way to represent myself that felt really authentically me. It is not, and never has been, about being "unique", its 100% about being ME, really truly me, the kind of me that I can be proud of instead of feeling like I'm hiding behind some fake persona.

That break up was 3 years ago now and I'm so much happier than I was during those crappy years. I think the caterpillar has morphed into a butterfly and come out of the cocoon, although sometimes I feel I'm still all sticky and wet and bedraggled, waiting for my wings to dry before I look really spectacular lol. I think learning who I am is still an ongoing process but I'm very happy with the progress I've made so far, and I feel like being able to throw on a gorgeous swing dress and leave the house feeling myself has had a great influence on me. I hope that everyone finds their "happy clothes" and feels really good about what they're wearing. Whether you dress like a peacock or more of a wallflower, I hope you're comfortable being authentically you! :)

Remember what Genie said!

PS: To my friend - I hope you aren't mad at me for using this conversation as blog fodder! <3

Time Flies

Where has the week gone??? Seriously, I can't believe its Thursday already. I've been keeping busy organising the house and a few other activities that seem to have made the week just disappear on me!

Yesterday I went on a tour of the CDU library as well as the NT Archives. They were arranged as part of a particular unit of the Cert III course I was doing last year, but I asked if I could tag along for interest's sake and my lecturer was happy for me to join in. I've visited the CDU library many times, but it was still interesting to have a guide to explain more about the library's inner workings. I also found out they take on casual workers as shelvers quite often, so that might be a foot in the door of the library industry for me! It was my first time visiting the Archives, in fact I didn't even know they existed until I began the course last year! It was super informative and a really great opportunity for me to find out more about another potential career path once my studies are finished. To be perfectly honest, I don't think a job like that is for me, they do amazing work and certain aspects of it are absolutely fascinating. But I don't think I possess the required patience to pore over paperwork for hours on end, especially when its a completely uninteresting topic like financial documents or something!

I really wanted to wear my Ikebana skirt from Modcloth (aka my favourite skirt ever), but I wanted to wear it with a different top than usual just to mix things up a bit. I had the hardest time trying to decide what to wear it with. I didn't really have any other tops that matched but thought I'd try layering it over a dress for something different.

Some combinations I was considering

I ended up going with the outfit on the top right, which is actually one way I imagined I'd wear the skirt when I first got it. I wasn't 100% happy with it for some reason. I can't quite put my finger on why. I think maybe the colour or style of the dress just doesn't feel delicate enough to go with the skirt. I wanted to wear my super long string of pearls, but it just wasn't working for me, so I changed to my trusty gold chain combo and felt a little more put together.

I don't know, I'm still kind of 'meh' on the outfit. I may give it another chance sometime and see how I feel about it then. It wasn't terrible, just not quite what I hoped it would be.

Hope everyone is well!

Sunday Spotlight: Polka-dots

I'm crazy about polka-dots. I love them. Every colour and every size, I want them all! I have many polka-dot items from dresses and hair bows to underwear and pencil tins. It may actually be considered some sort of unhealthy addiction. So it seemed only natural for my second Sunday Spotlight to focus on the spots I love so much.

I've kind of given up on Polyvore, its great for creating the collages but for some reason I'm just having no luck sharing them here lately. As usual I've included a link below the pic so you can head over there if you'd like more information about any of the items.

http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/set?id=115081052

And an post dedicated to polka-dots would have no integrity at all if I failed to include my absolute favourite dress. You've seen it a few times on here, I have it in navy but I honestly want it in every colour. Its so gorgeous and flattering and perfect for every occasion. I definitely want to buy more!

You can find these dresses and many more here:
http://stores.ebay.com.au/Hourglass-dresses?_trksid=p2047675.l2563

I was rather busy tonight so I've technically missed Australia's Sunday by an hour or so, but the rest of the world has a Sunday too so I went ahead and posted anyway!

Do you have your eye on any spotty items at the moment? I'd love to see them in the comments! :)

Too Tired for Titles!

I feel exhausted today! It's 6:30 pm and I'm feeling quite ready for bed. I honestly can't wait until I can go to sleep.

I've spent the past week (almost) unpacking, shifting and organising a whole big pile of my junk that has finally been sent up from NSW. I kind of didn't intend to stay here long term so I left loads of my stuff down there when I came up, but recently I finally bit the bullet and decided to bring it all up here and begin the tedious process of sorting it all out. A vast majority of the stuff is stowed away in a nearby self-storage facility and I've been steadily working my way through it, but some of the things I've found have made their way here, and as a result my house is a mess! A real proper mess. There are books and clothes and sheets and toys everywhere I look. I can't cope with clutter, it drives me batty, so my top priority is trying to find places for everything. I'm fighting an uphill battle I'm afraid and some tough decisions must be made as to what stays and what goes. Traditionally I've been quite the hoarder but I'm trying very hard to let things go, so wish me luck with that!

Today I had to do some shopping and take Ava to the vet to be desexed, microchipped and vaccinated. Everything went swimmingly though I brought her home and she immediately started chewing on the stitches! I had to take her right back to the vet to be fitted for a cone of shame and make sure she hadn't done any damage. She's quite unimpressed with the cone, but she's eating and drinking and playing and seems in good sorts.

I wore my blue spotty dress with a red belt and cardigan because it seemed like a bright colours sort of day. You may have seen it here before styled a little more neutrally.

Sorry the pic is blurry! It was a blurry picture sort of day too I suppose. My camera was having a little tantrum and wouldn't play nicely.

ALIA National Conference Rant

If any of you were reading my blog back in October of last year, you would have seen my post about the ALIA (Australian Library and Information Association) Top End Symposium, which I had the absolute pleasure of attending. Having had such an amazing time at the "local" conference, I was super excited to read about the National Conference occurring in September of this year. That is until I saw the cost. The student concession price is $650! Plus there are additional fees to attend the dinner and breakfast workshops to the tune of $305. So if I wished to attend all of the events (and I would) it would cost a total of $955.

I'd would LOVE to be able to attend. As a student looking to enter the industry, there is simply so much for me to learn, and to be able to be at the cutting edge of what's happening in libraries is really something that should be encouraged and facilitated. Having tickets cost almost $1000 would obviously be pretty prohibitive for a lot of people, but particularly students who are typically on tight budgets. And on top of the cost of attendance, many people would have travel and accommodation costs to worry about. As a student, its simply out of reach for me. And that is most unfortunate in my opinion. Students should be at the forefront of new learning opportunities, they haven't been in the industry so long that they're jaded or daunted by change. Students coming in fresh, unafraid of bold ideas will be the innovators and groundbreakers of tomorrow. To deny them these sorts of opportunities is to potentially deny the industry invaluable perspective and infinite possibility.

I sent an email to the events team in hopes that some sponsored positions may be available, and received a reply saying there will be no sponsored positions, but I may wish to consider a single day registration "are a bit more affordable at $565 per day". To quote my best friend's reaction when I told her "genius". I'm not sure if there are any other avenues to pursue, but at this point being able to go seems out of the question, which is more than a little disappointing.

Hope you're all well!

Strictly the Necessities

The other night I had a sudden desperate urge to watch Roman Holiday, which I didn't have on DVD! I decided it was absolutely imperative to go out the next day to buy it. And buy it I did! Along with several other things I decided were essential to my life at that point.

Shopping haul!

I bought an Audrey Hepburn box set on sale and a Marilyn Monroe set that was also reduced. Fourteen movies between the two sets, loads of special features, plus a disc dedicated to Audrey's influence on the fashion world. Woot!!!

I also found this brand of makeup I'd never heard of, W7. All of their products were $5 each at the pharmacy, AND they had an offer where you get a free eyeliner pencil with any purchase over $15. So I bought two eyeshadow palettes in natural shades (one with lots of shimmer and the "Naked Nudes" pallete with less), and an eyebrow pencil in a blondey-brown shade. I got a free black eyeliner with my purchase, which I honestly probably won't even use, I rarely use pencil or crayon, but hey, it was free! Also pictured here is an Essence brand nail polish which I bought at Target. Such a pretty colour, I don't think the photo does it justice. I'm such a huge fan of Essence. Their products are consistently quite good and so cheap!

By the time I got around to photographing the eyeliners and eyebrow pencil, Ava was pretty ready for me to move my crap and get the hell out of (what she suddenly decided was) her spot, so I forgot to include close up shots of the two pencils. They're pretty stock standard pencils though, so you're not really missing out on anything special.

So, AWESOME shopping trip for me! I've spent the week watching childhood favourites and becoming acquainted with a few that I hadn't previously seen. I've been watching a lot of them with my kids too, hopefully I can spread the love on to the next generation. Both sets were definitely worthwhile purchases!

How about you, have you had any great purchases lately?

Super Cool Nail Art

Okay, okay. So I know I said my book nerd-ishness was going to be just that one day. But then I found these! Nail art inspired by classic children's books, how cool is that! And its nail art, so it doesn't really count as being too bookish, right? In case you don't feel like clicking through to the article, I saved my three favourites to post here for you guys: The Lorax, The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Horton Hears a Who.

The nails are the work of nail artist just_alexis, have a look at her Instagram! It has loads of examples of her amazing work. Not only does she have some really cool ideas, they're beautifully executed! And its definitely not limited to literary themes! She has a bit of everything, including lots of different movie nail art. I love love love her Disney movie themes!

I've saved some of my very very favourites (so hard to choose!) to share, but I strongly encourage you to check her out. There are so many other cool designs!

School Struggles

I had a pretty wretched start to my week! I've been so looking forward to classes starting up on Tuesday. I've spent much of the uni break being a bit of a hermit and looking forward to being back with my friends and having a regular schedule and purpose each day. Then I found out on Monday that I can't do the diploma classes due to financial issues. I'd been expecting to be covered by HECS (which is like our Australian version of a government student loan type thing) based on the information I was given at the end of last year, only to find that my course isn't eligible! And because I didn't plan on studying elsewhere, I missed the application deadlines for all of the traditional universities so I was unable to enroll in a Bachelor degree through them. I spent the morning a bit of a mess searching online for options and making phone calls. I found a university that has the course I need and I can apply for mid-year acceptance, which I will be pursuing. In the meantime I've enrolled in Open Universities Australia to do a few units toward a Bachelor so that I'm not sitting idle for months. I already feel like I've lost my routine and discipline and its only been 8 weeks. Imagine me after 6 months! Being enrolled in an entirely external course with classmates I'll never see and lecturers I won't know isn't the same. I really enjoyed actually attending classes and had a great relationship with the people there, but at least I'm still working toward the goal! And I'm trying to see the positive side too, by going straight into a bachelor it will save me a bit of time off the total length of my education, and by studying externally it opens up my options in terms of where I live and work and all of those sorts of things. Hopefully this all turns out for the best, wish me luck!

In WAY SUPER DOOPER BETTER NEWS:

I have a kitty!!!!

Ava

She came to me as a foster kitty through a local rescue group. Honestly I had every intention of caring for her only until a permanent home could be found, but she was just far too sweet and I didn't want to let her go. Her name is Ava and she's so beautiful. She falls asleep with me at night and wakes up with me in the morning and entertains me with her crazy kitty antics throughout the day. Its lovely to have constant purry furry company and I'm so glad she's staying!

Happy Valentines, Everyone!

Marvelous Manuscripts

This article showed up on my Facebook feed about a 16th century book made of 6 different volumes bound together into a single item. The book is owned by the National Library of Sweden. I went browsing their Tumblr account and found some absolutely gorgeous old books and I seriously just had to share them.

1. Embroidered cloth binding: This is probably my favourite item they've got on display on their tumblr. Not only is the spine (pictured here) beautifully embroidered but the entire cover is. In addition the page edges are etched and coloured and look simply amazing. The gallery for this book is here.

2. Papier mache and plaster binding: This book is a 19th century creation imitating a medieval style of binding. Its very detailed and incredible really even given its slightly more modern creation. More images of this book here.

3. Filigree silver binding: This binding is seriously awesome. The book is from the 1690's and the craftsmanship is kind of epic. I think the result is gorgeous. More pictures here.

4. Blind-tooled binding: Blind-tooling as I understand is like a method of stamping or branding, a heated metal tool is used to press designs into the leather binding. This item is from the mid 16th century and is really beautiful. More pictures here

5. Codex Gigas: Its not all about the outside being beautiful! An unbelievable amount of effort went into making the insides beautiful too. This is a photo of one of the pages of the Codex Gigas, a European text of unknown age, although it is known to predate 1295, which is the first record of it changing hands. Texts like this overwhelm me. Its mindblowing to think about all the ways in which the world has changed, all the people lived and died and ages passed by, while this book continues to survive. Its just amazing. There are more photos of this book here and more information about it here.

I know this post is a little bit on the special interest side, but I'm hoping everyone can get on board with appreciating the time and effort that went into producing books back then. It wasn't like today where machines print everything quick as a flash. Back then hours and months and years of work were required to produce one single manuscript, and you can really see the blood, sweat and tears that went into every item. They're awesome... and I mean that in the annotative sense of 'inspiring awe'. I would strongly encourage everyone to have a squiz through the National Library of Sweden's Tumblr or you can find out more about their collections on their website.

Sunday Spotlight: Florals

I thought it would be fun to do a post on a particular thing that I'm into, whether its a style or a particular store or whatever. I've been LOVING floral print lately. Its one of those things that I was never really into when I was younger, maybe I was just never presented with the right options. But suddenly the world is full of gorgeous floral prints in pretty pastels and bold brights in every conceivable colour combination... say that ten times fast!
So my various online shopping (mostly window shopping, boo!) searches have led me to a lot of floral items, dresses, bags, jewelery and even homewares. I thought the I'd do a collage with some of my favourite things I've come across recently.

I love love LOVE the quilt cover set from Modcloth (which I shared on my Facebook page already) and the blue Lindybop dress, they're absolutely gorgeous and I've realised my life cannot be complete without them lol. Although the quilt set is a bit out of my price range, I'll definitely be trying to acquire the dress in the near future.

Again I'm having some issues with broken images when I post the collage here from Polyvore, so I've just attached a picture of it and included a link below if you'd like to check out the original and get more information about the individual items!

http://www.polyvore.com/floral/set?id=112790555

So, obviously I have a bit of a crush on floral, even my new blog theme couldn't escape a bit of floral action! Do you have a favourite trend, pattern or style at the moment? Feel free to share!

Three A.M.

Woops! I may have stayed up a tad too late. But you know how sometimes you just get in a mindset for getting something done? I decided my blog desperately needed a makeover, and through a series of mishaps only I could manage, I somehow made the process take all night. Ah well, these things happen. I'm pretty happy with the result though! What do you think?

Also, you may have noticed the new link on the sidebar stating that I'm now on Facebook. I hear that's where all the cool kids hang out! There's obviously not a whole lot there at the moment given its brand spanking new, but I will definitely be working on that!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fairytales-and-Following-Trails/453010014800096

Well, I think I'm suitably exhausted for one night... morning... period of wakefulness. I shall be retiring to my bed post haste. I hope everyone enjoys my new blog layout as much as I do. Have a lovely day!

Twirly Dress Tuesday

Because, you know, everybody loves a little alliteration.

This is another from the last Modcloth order I received. I've worn it several times but haven't gotten around to photographing it. As with all my Hell Bunny dresses, its lovely to wear, and I do love a dress with pockets!

I'm so extremely tired today. I think I need an afternoon coffee before the kids get home from school else there may be bloodshed!  I'm trying to avoid napping because that will mean I stay up all night and I really need to try and normalize my sleep schedule. I'm always terrible during holidays, it only takes me a few days before I'm going to bed at 5 or 6am and waking up at midday! Once classes start again my sleep will be sorted out, but I'd rather become diurnal again beforehand so I don't have to sit through classes half asleep.

I spent some time yesterday making a floor plan of my bedroom with separate bits of paper for each of my pieces of furniture. I was trying to work out the best layout to maximize space. With my Mo Bird coming back to me I need to find somewhere to put his cage, and my bedroom is rather small. It took some shuffling but I think I've worked out the best way to put everything. I'm in no desperate rush to move things yet though. His cage should be here in about two and a half weeks, so I'll worry about it a little closer to then. I'm looking forward to it though. Along with his cage will be coming all of my other stuff I left in NSW when I came up here. Sorting it out is going to be a MASSIVE job, but I'll be glad to have a proper bed and more shelves and storage stuff for the house!

Bye Bye Baby!

So today is a happy day, but also a sad one. My baby sister is moving interstate to start university. I'm really happy for her and I'm sure she'll love her new city, but I'll also miss her terribly!

To farewell our darling girl, we went out for a family dinner together, our parents, my kiddies and our two other sisters. We went to a lovely little Thai restaurant I'd never even heard of in the city. It was all outdoor seating on a large covered balcony, fortunately the night wasn't very hot and was quite windy so we got a good breeze to keep us cool. The seating arrangement was on cushions around a low table, which was actually really comfortable and the atmosphere was very cozy and intimate despite being a fairly busy night.

Everything felt normal, like any other dinner together, until it came time to say goodbye. Its strange saying goodbye to her and not knowing when I'll see her next, knowing she's not going to live nearby anymore and I won't have infinite chances to spend time with her now. And I'll be honest, I've done my share of crying tonight!

It was a lovely night though and I'm so happy we all got to spend it together.

Decor

Since we moved into this house I've been trying to do everything I can to perfect my bedroom. Its a small space but I think I've done a pretty good job of decorating it so far, though there's still a lot more I want to do! I realised that its been a long time since I had my own space to decorate however I pleased, I've always been sharing with someone or had constraints of existing furniture and paint jobs to work around. This room was a blank canvas and I've really been enjoying putting my mark on it. However budgetary constraints mean that for all the window shopping I do, I can't purchase most of the things I'd like to. I recently bought a couple of canvas prints on sale from Typo, but they have about a million other things I'd like to get. I've never really had pictures hanging on walls but I'm really into the idea of buying several and making a big collage on one wall.

I made a set on Polyvore of some of the things on my wishlist, but for some reason its just displaying a bunch of broken images when I share it on here as I normally would, so instead I'll post the image with a link to the page if you'd like more information about the items.

Collage available here <http://www.polyvore.com/typo_decor/set?id=111337563>

The kiddlings went back to school today. They've been on school holidays as long as we've been in this house so the quiet of a child-free home was something new! I don't have terribly long to bask in the peace though, as my own classes will be starting again in less than 2 weeks now. I still have to go into the uni to sort out which units I'll be enrolling in and all that jazz, but that shouldn't be too difficult. I'm looking forward to resuming study, but I'm also a little nervous because I'm onto the diploma level classes now which are harder and have a much higher workload or so I've been told. Hopefully I can keep up without falling on my face!

Dawn

I'm really NOT a morning person... at all. Getting me to wake up early is akin to drawing blood from a stone, except with more grumpiness. However every now and then I end up neglecting sleep entirely and staying up all night. I kind of love those nights because when morning comes I can actually appreciate the sights and sounds that make it such a cool time of day. This morning I happened to be in my living room reading when the sun started creeping up over the horizon. I had quite a nice view toward the sunrise from my balcony, and decided to take a few photos of it as well as the birds that were hanging around nearby and the general outlook over the neighbourhood. My suburb is brand new and still developing so there's a lot of empty lots and open space, also a lot of mud and construction equipment, but I think its beautiful all the same.

I'm not sure what kind of bird that is in the top right, some kind of kingfisher or something? There are loads of corellas that hang about but they were all either slightly too far away or moved too much, and some rainbow lorikeets which were far too quick, so I didn't get any good pictures of them unfortunately. Maybe some other day!

Happy Monday!

Today I've spent much of my day on the phone getting quotes to have my birdie transported up here. I have a pet alexandrine, his name is Mozart (Mo for short) who has been living with my ex for quite some time! Ex was kind enough to look after him for me while I found a suitable place to live up here where I could have him. So now that I'm finally settled in to a permanent place, I'm trying to make arrangements to have him sent! I can't wait to get him back. I've missed him so much, I feel like part of my family is missing, so I'm looking forward to having him with me again.

Me with his royal derpface in May 2012

So awhile back I discovered the fun to be had making collages over at Polyvore. I haven't made one in awhile but I did promise last time I posted one that the next one would NOT be full on only Modcloth items, so I decided to deliver on that. This one has bits and bobs from all over the place. The dress itself is Lindybop and the accessories are from here, there and everywhere!

Red Dress with Black and Gold by alyzaria featuring button jewelry