Projects

Busy weekend. 

Birthday celebrations on Saturday morning. Dropped J at his afternoon class. Decided that doing so was my lucky roadside-thrift charm. Since it's October and October means jacarandas and jacarandas are perfect, I went for a drive around. I live in my favourite part of my city; filled with beautiful worker's cottages and art deco bungalows and sprawling Queenslanders with sweeping verandahs. It's an old part of the city, so the trees are tall and leafy. The hills allow for the most beautiful views, and the jacarandas were at their purple-puff best this year. 

I ignored the heat and the humidity (it felt like the hot, sticky wind was slapping you in the face with eye-watering sunlight, imagine) and walked along one street while I was waiting for J's class to finish. All of the gardens were full of flowers. Most of them had a jade tree somewhere near the gate. I loved that. I found a secret garden, too, with a perfectly placed frangipani flower at the gate. I love my city.

I also love it extra much when the roadside collections are on. This year I've found a solid expandable maple table (!) and now a couple of old wooden chairs. For zero dollars. Because I basically hate free time and relaxing, I dragged the chairs into my car and headed to the nearest hardware store. Tangerine dipped chairs for all. Actually, just for my apartment, sorry. 

Soon these babies will be denuded of their protective Coles plastic bags (because I am a professional) and be sitting next to their fellow roadside-thrift friend, table. It's an easy process, but I'm pretty lazy relaxed about this sort of thing. Basically, the process is sand, undercoat (don't forget to use primer on bare timber), top coat. Wear a mask and eye goggles. Don't take my advice (except for safety things, do those) and read the instructions and do things the proper way.

A new dining setting for free? Okay.

I also finished some art pieces for my Dad's birthday and he loved them which was great and maybe now I can art for serious. I also went swimming for the first time in years and forgot that my ivory skin immediately reverts back to luscious olive the very second it is exposed to sunlight. I actually thought (for a second, okay?) that the chemicals in the pool dyed my skin.

What?

Don't look at me like that.

I liked swimming, though. I even did a backflip!

Home

I can't stop rearranging furniture. Right now, my apartment is divided up into zones. Pretty and neat? Yep, that's the living room and kitchen. Okay? That's the bedroom. Disaster? That's J's office.

Did an Ikea trip and finally found all of those things that I never knew I needed. Special white jars with wooden lids for teabags and everything? Definitely. Approximately sixty dollars on cacti alone? Certainly. Blissful new sheepskin that is ostensibly for decoration but really a replacement for the one that I refused to part with and that remained with me from cot to first apartment? Sure. Whatever, the house is looking excellent.

This new quilt cover changed the entire bedroom. The previous black and grey geometric cover was very dark and really drew the eye. New black and white quilt cover is wonderful. The crystals and that cacti moved out into the living room before long. 

Hello, friends. 

Oh, what? That? That solid maple midcentury extendable table, you mean? Right. That one that I found on the side of the road? Just checking. It weighs a ton, it's in almost perfect original condition (save a few superficial scratches on one edge and a terrible attempt by a previous owner to add a black ombré detail to the edge. Why did you do that?). I was driving past on my way to an op shop when I spotted my new table friend upended on the footpath. My neighbourhood has been doing the footpath collections lately. After screeching to a halt and determining that yes, it is solid wood and yes, it is in almost perfect original condition I waited around for almost twenty minutes to see if anyone was coming back to claim it. Nope. Nothing. It was mine. Thanks to the toolbox in my car, the legs came off and fit in the car. The top didn't. Heartbroken wasn't even the word.

Then the guy in the ute pulled up. After making polite conversation (he was doing a talk at the church building next door) he offered to drive the table top to my house. And he did, as soon as he was done with his talk. Stranger danger? What? I wanted that table. I got that table.  And we all lived happily ever after and only complained about American thrifters always finding incredible things very quietly every few days.

Bliss.

Vibrantly ridiculous.

I feel like I need to start by saying that I've never been quite so excited about a season's wardrobe as I have been about my Spring/Summer one for this year. I've added a few colours and patterns to my base of black/white neutrals, and some incredible statement jewellery. I feel like my style direction for this season isn't really anything more complicated than vibrantly ridiculous. I've been really happy with the pieces that ASOS Curve have recently released; lots of colour and interesting textures. However, I'm a little disappointed in the special ASOS Australia line so far, in terms of their Curve offerings. So far I've only seen a few Curve designs in the entire promotion. Having said that, they've been updating regularly and, of course, I've been very happy with the main line. 

The palette.  Amazing sequins (multicolour pastels with a few strong shades give an overall shade of mauve/purple) and digital prints. This particular botanic print shirt is incredible. Slightly sheer, it's a feature... without wearing you. 

New, perfect necklace. Wore it yesterday to a total of seven "not now/I'm busy" jokes from strangers. Success? I love it. I think I grabbed one of the last ones, it was limited release (from ASOS, of course).

My shirt finally arrived. It's even better than I had hoped it would be. It feels a bit odd to wear in the sense that I wear a statement necklace almost every day and I couldn't with this shirt. I like the baggy, masculine cut of the shirt. I find I quite like wearing tailored or masculine cuts. I have a pronounced hourglass figure and I find sometimes I look exaggeratedly feminine (far more than I like) when I wear girly cuts, fabrics or colours so it's a nice balance. Plus, it's a pain to have things taken in at the waist all of the time. 

Ridiculous new shoes. Ridiculous because I can't actually walk in high heels. Oops. Practice, right?

Another view of the skirt. It's quite difficult to get an accurate representation of the colours - they're either darkened or very bleached out. Either way, it's fantastic to wear.

I've got a few peplum tops (black and olive green) that I love, and I'm looking for some tapered black harem pants for work. Since I haven't found a single pair that I like, I'm considering buying some fabric and making my own. Yikes. High waist, tapered fitted leg to skinny ankle. Shouldn't be too difficult. Having said that, I am the girl who sewed over her own finger in grade eight Home Economics.

Poor fingers.

Spring beauty

Spring snuck up on me this year. Every day is slightly warmer. The city is hazy and beautiful and there are unfurling feathers of new growth and ripening flowers everywhere. It feels as thought the entire city has been fleetingly carpeted with soft purple. I can't walk under a jacaranda tree without craning my neck upwards in the hope that I'll catch even one tiny, down-soft flower. The fallen flowers bruise quickly, and I always feel like the tree is trying to hide the brown petals with another layer of purple as soon as it can. They're my favourites. It may be warming up, but this sub-tropical city is a nature baby's dream in spring. 

They're worth the wait, honestly. 

I even bought my own bougainvillea plant. He sits by the front door and is beautiful and cheerful whenever I get home. 

As a florist, living here and travelling out to the farm promises a seemingly never ending supply of incredible colours, textures and scents. One has cacti and almost tropical forests and the other, temperate classics. I went completely mental over a wisteria vine. I've never smelt anything so good. 

Except, maybe, for the Toowoomba Flower Festival. Toowoomba is a very, very pretty town. This visit was almost like walking through paintings. Part of the joy of flowers comes from a love of pure naturalness, I think. There's no hatred within a flower. They're an embrace for the eye and a balm for the heart.

Beautiful curiosities.

This is the perfect time of year. For anything. Especially fresh starts. Does your city wake up in Spring?