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!

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?

Holidays

Lots of things happened in two months.

Like beach holidays. Mid-winter beach holidays. Mid-winter beach and thrifting-at-lovely-country-villages holidays. Wait, what? That's right. I live in Queensland. There is no such thing as winter at the beach in Queensland.

Currumbin aka case in point.

Mooball, the greatest town name on earth.

No big deal, really. Just visited shops stocked completely by my dreams... And giant seventies pottery lamps in electric cobalt. 

I changed the sideboard around again. And again and again and again and hey, look! More cacti in the bedroom!

And there was a frost in Brisbane. Actual frost. On my car. We figured out what it was eventually, after sitting in the car for five minutes, wondering why the window wipers weren't doing anything and also why the glass looked "really weird." It was ice! Outside a freezer!

I also bought a bunch of radishes because I really wanted to cut heart shapes in them.

We're not allowed pets in the apartment but we've 'adopted' a blue-tongue lizard that lives under our porch. He sunbakes all the time. He's Lizard Friend. He lets me sit on the stairs next to him sometimes. 

I painted a few things. And dreamt about studying fine arts. 

I sat in the sun and looked at the sky a lot. I also drank a lot of tea.

I also remembered that the kitchen wasn't just a place to store leftover takeaway. 

Best of all, I was asked to be godmother to a cherished friend's youngest little lady. I adore this tiny, roly poly girl and can't wait to watch her grow. As a person raised by a Buddhist mother and an atheist father, it's uncharted territory for me, but all very exciting. And such an honour. And, y'know, babies!

Breakfast, fast.

I had planned to go to the markets today with a beautiful friend and her perfect little blonde nugget of a baby girl. I planned it.

Well, I also forgot my wallet and then I had to go home to get it and then I was really late and then I am the worst, really, so J and I ended up turning around and going to breakfast. We went across town for breakfast. (I'm not used to the southside. Living over there, even if it was only for a few months, made me feel like I had moved cities). Despite my complete, utter glee at moving back 'home' to the inner north-west, I really miss Lady Marmalade. I really miss it a lot. I would revisit the southside solely for their coffee.

He's all "nyah-nyah, you still drive to the southside just for me". 

I love going there with J. I love the coffee and I love the food and I love the staff. I also really love the animal table numbers, especially Mr Licky Giraffe. It was the best breakfast today. Baked eggs and date with boyfriend? Excellent. What? Did I take a photo of the eggs? I didn't have time to, honestly. I was halfway through the dish before I remembered to take a breath.

Licky licky licky. 

The giraffe was fantastic, okay? And just so licky.

I also put up some of my op shop finds from the holiday. Strange String Thing is just right for the space next to Thoughtful Man's head. That space has housed several not-quite-right pieces since we moved in, and don't you just know that now I'll find six million billion other great things to put there? Don't worry, though, Strange String Thing. You're pretty great.

Nuggety.

I also made another nugget necklace. Oh, sure. The colours look a little bit muted in this photo. Sure they do. My dreams of having necklaces full of pastel nuggets were ruined by the fact that the white (pictured here living a lie of whiteness) is actually not white. It is actually glow-in-the-dark. As I opened the oven door and saw it glowing neon I thought my oven was going all small-scale Chernobyl on me. When I realised the other once-pastel beads were their almost blindingly bright original shades, I realised what must have happened. And it obviously has nothing to do with me not checking price tags. What are you even talking about that is not possible obviously. 

They see me strollin'

I went to the Botanic Gardens yesterday. I remember my father taking my younger sister and I there almost every weekend. It was about three streets from our house. And it was free. And my mother the nurse usually worked night duty on Friday and Saturday nights and needed to sleep.

I remember my father taking us through all of the different areas; the lake with the ducks (and terrifying eels), the arid area full of cacti, the place where camellia grew in soft areas of dappled light, the tropical dome. I loved it. I only remember my mother being there once; we walked through the tropical dome. It was also a butterfly house then. I remember turning around to see that my mother had paused, and butterflies were slowly starting to land on her, and the pram with my sister. I froze, and they eventually floated onto me, too.

Now trees are taller and I ended up growing up into a florist. That's pretty perfect.

I can still see all of the old, seventies structures behind the plants. So much of my childhood had heavy, brutal cement walls as a backdrop (I'm also looking at you, Queensland Museum) I can't look at them with anything other than loving, loyal fondness. 

Inspired.