november diy's

i am currently on a blissful 3 month holiday called the uni christmas break, my how i love it. i have spent the last couple of weeks doing what i really love to do, which is painting and sewing (and making lists, ha!) i'm really sorry i haven't been able to show you lovelies many diy's so far, it is just impossible during the uni semester. anyway, here are my latest attempts for your viewing pleasure.

i made this skirt from some op-shop fabric i nabbed for $10. i love op-shops for fabric, i have a whole draw full of pieces as yet to be used.

this one was totally unplanned. i picked up the fabric because spotlight had deviously placed it right where you line up at the cutting table and it was so cheap! and such a delicious shade of lilac. it's a snuggle muslin - like the stuff you would use to wrap a baby in, and is delightfully light and cool which means i will probably wear it a lot this summer. i am imagining myself throwing it over togs to spend a day at the beach, it's quite sheer though, so hopefully no-one thinks i'm just really tarty and displaying my underwear to the world!

this one is a diy a la raquel allegra that camille also attempted a little while back. i decided to do something a little different and try it on a dress. i really love the result.

and last but certainly not least, this is something i whipped up this afternoon. i have been extremely disatisfied by the lack of ridiculously large rings on sale, so i decided to take matters into my own hands :) i'm quite pleased with the result - although i think i'm going to paint the gold parts black. the best part is that it's a little frame, so i can put whatever i want into it, which suits my "i-get-bored-very-quickly" personality perfectly!

that's all for today, hopefully there will be many more to come soon!

ps. i just did a little googling and found an actual raquel allegra collection, and wow. i think she is a new favourite. some of these pieces are incredible! #24 in particular took my breath away. go check it out

i want to be a medievil knight!

ok, so call me crazy, but for a little while now I have had this fascination with finding a chain mail dress-type thing. i've been digging around ebay for a while, but have yet to find anything that could be translated into normal day wear that doesn't cost so much i'd have to sell half my organs on the black market just to afford it. so you can imagine that i nearly fell off my chair 5 minutes ago when i saw this delightful number on primped (which if you have never checked out before you really should go do right now because zoe is hilarious and lovely).

must have must have must have must have must have must have must have must have must have must have must have. must. have.

unfortunately i have no idea whose design it is. anyone know? anyone?

shoe lust

1 | 2 | 3

i do love wittner - you may or may not have noticed i have acquired three pairs this year. these are my current loves, oh those boots! and how glamorous would you feel in this combo. i'm imagining myself as a jazz-age socialite (my ultimate fantasy really):

4 | 5

mmm mmm!

currently obsessed by....

i've been planning tattoo number two. guess what it is? hehe. a lot of my spare time lately has been spent scouring the internet for pictures. i haven't yet found something i like enough to permanently tattoo on my body, but kindly a dear artistic friend of mine has offered to help, hoorah. i'm so excited! do you have any favourite mermaid images? do share!

images from various locations. if you would like specific credit, please let me know.

ps - this is post number 50!! woo hoo!

pps - it appears this image is a little big (at least for my screen) click on the image to see all 15 pictures

rainy day outfit

just a quick outfit post from today, we've had some pretty crazy rain the last couple of days so it's been cooler which is nice! please excuse the hair - straightening on a rainy day is an exercise in futility!

top is op-shopped : jeans from bettina liano : shoes from zoe wittner

a history lesson

a couple of you asked about the book i was reading, so i thought i'd share. it has some amazing pieces featured. this one is actually the one that made me buy it. how amazing would it be as a wedding dress?...

beer (yep, the designer's name) from 1919

the book is split into centuries, and there is a small chapter at the beginning of each chapter explaining the influences of fashion at the time and the social climate. each of the designs featured have an additional paragraph explaining the design. it was so hard to narrow the images down to a few to show you, i want to show you them all, but here are just a few of the best

dress (robe a la francaise) 1775
man's suit (habit a la francaise) 1770-1780's

heels - anonymous 1925
evening bag - faucon 1910
men's suits from 1780-1810

i know the picture's not real great (you can click to make it bigger) but how amazing are these embellishments? balmain eat your heart out.

jump suit - jean paul gaultier 1990
jacket/bodice/pants/garter - vivienne westwood 1997

crinoline 1875

a 19th century cage skirt - i'd love to see what susie bubble would do with this one!

this final one is for wendy b. i thought you might appreciate it :)

thierry mugler 1988-1990

flipping back through it now, there are so many more amazing pieces that i would love to show you, but you'll just have to go find it for yourself!

the most worthy gift

i don't want to scare you, but there's only 38 days until christmas! this season i would like to urge you to think about those less fortunate than yourself. last year i discovered that oxfam does a christmas gift program called oxfam unwrapped which allows you to send a gift such as a duck, water filters or even a bridge to people in need all over the world. the duck above (probably minus the cape, hehe) provides a family with eggs, is an environmentally friendly pest controller to protect crops and will only cost you $20. gifts start from $10 for a chicken and go all the way up to $6500 for a watsan kit which is used by Oxfam water engineers, and includes a GPS system, tools and equipment for testing the sanitary quality of water supplies following an emergency situation.

if you would like to give these gifts to someone in lieu of a 'traditional' gift, oxfam will even send you (or send it directly to the recipient) a card explaining exactly what the gift is and how much it will help those who are receiving it (don't worry, the card doesn't say how much you spent!). you could even add a chicken (remember, it's only $10) to your traditional present as well if you are uncomfortable with the idea of not giving someone a present.

to make it easier to decide who you would like to support, oxfam have divided the gifts into categories, which are:
- action packed packs
- educate and eradicate poverty
- fun-raising gifts
- gifts that keep giving
- healthy heroic gifts
- lifesavers
- marvellous money makers

so please, go check out the website and do your bit to making a difference in someone else's life this christmas. i promise you that the feeling of satisfaction knowing you are helping someone will be a gift for yourself also.

tag-age

image from mama maddog via flickr

i have been tagged by gem over at half accidental (go check her out, she's a spunky talented little thing)

1. Were you named after anyone? sure was - my first name comes from my mum's best friend and my middle name comes from my mum's grandmother. makes me kinda proud of my name actually.

2. Do you still have your tonsils? yes.

3. Would you bungee jump? eh... negative.

4. What is your favorite cereal? not really a big fan of cereal, breakfast for me is usually yoghurt/toast/boiled egg.

5. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off? i don't often wear shoes with laces, although right now i'm wearing converse (which happens about once every few months!!) and yeah, i undo them.

6. What is your favorite ice cream? oh my i love icecream. i love english toffee (blue ribbon... mmmm...) and the triple chocolate kind (ooh, i feel so naughty eating that one!)

7. What is the first thing you notice about people? funnily enough, their teeth. then their shoes :D.

8. What is your least favorite thing about yourself? i procrastinate and then i stress out (a lot) when i haven't left myself enough time to do something.

9. What was the last thing you ate? a cheese stick, lol.

10. What are you listening to right now? the cicadas outside - the sound of summer!.

11. Last movie you watched? i saw burn after reading yesterday. i didn't really know anything about it, so i was expecting a serious movie and i was disappointed. the boy loved it though.

12. What did you dream about last night? i don't remember.

13. What book are you reading? i just bought a book of fashion history from the 18th to the 20th century - the pictures are amazing. will probably show you guys soon.

14. Summer or winter? i used to be all about summer, but i really loved dressing for the cold weather last season, and it is disgustingly hot already here. mind you, i hate being cold. so i'm going to be contradictory and say 'both and neither'.

15. Do you have any special talents? wouldn't you like to know ;)

well, i was going to tag lady smaggle and vixel but, alas, vixel has already done it and i fear lady smaggle is far too busy with all the moving to do one of these so i'm going to throw it out to you lovelies. if you read this and you have a blog, and you haven't commented before, comment now and i will tag you! i want to know who's out there :)

update: i hearby tag....

katie at tres lola has a fancy pants blog that you have to be invited to (:p) but she has a lovely website that you can go look at. she has a fabulous section called 'why not wednesday'. so go look! you know you want to ;)

lux at i eat bitches for breakfast is a little cutie who has possibly the best blog name ever. she has just started her blog so go show her some love!

and...

*insert your name here*

just a quick note...

just dropping by to congratulate barack obama and the american people on an excellent election day! we have been watching eagerly all day today (and in fact, throughout the campaign) to see who would win, and are so excited that obama has taken it out. i may be an aussie but what happens in american politics does affect us quite a lot, so it's good to know the american population have made such a wonderful decision - yay! well done to all you usa-ians.

on another note, i have successfully (well, i hope...) finished my third year of university, only one year to go! i am absolutely exhausted, so you'll have to give me a little longer till blogging picks up again. much love!

introducing...

...josephine: wicked, jewel-toned witch of the south-east

so i really didn't have time to do this today, but i couldn't help myself! it's halloween and i had ideas running through my head and i just had to do it - even if it was just for me and it was only for 20 minutes. so i pulled out my wig and some black threads and my meanest glare and i did a halloween photoshoot. and it was the most fun i've had for quite some time! what do you think? do i pass as a mean fashionista witch? haha.

i was so close to wearing this wig to work today... but then i chickened out. shame on me!