2012 in a nutshell

I love doing these review posts because it forces me to think about the last 12 months and appreciate the things I've done.

• Melbourne in March with Tom for my birthday/some eating and shopping
• Malaysia and Singapore in April with Tom and my family.  Again a lot of eating and shopping
• Changed jobs from one bank to another bank.  Haven't decided whether this is a good thing or bad thing yet......
• South Coast (Callala Beach) with half my family in May
• Quit the gym.  Didn't really go enough to justify paying for the gym.  Haven't missed it to be honest.
• James Morrison concert at the Enmore.  Amazing.
• Swannies winning the AFL Grand Final!!!
• Weekend away in Leura/Blue Mountains/Jenolan Caves
• Cirque du Soleil with Tom and my parents.  Not as good as O in Vegas but still up there.
• Melbourne trip in December for Boxing Day sales
• Falls Festival in Lorne

.....and it hasn't happened yet but I'm sure NYE at the Opera Bar will be a highlight!

AND this year was the first year since 2009 that I DIDN'T MOVE HOUSE!  Phew!

24 hours in Melbourne

I mentioned in a previous post that Tom's band was playing at Falls Festival in Lorne.  We took the opportunity to spend a few additional days in Melbourne and decided to stay in St Kilda as we love the area and frankly, a bit sick of staying in Melbourne CBD every time we pop over.

Interior of the elevators at Urban Hotel, St Kilda

We arrived mid-afternoon on Boxing Day, dropped our gear off at the hotel, and caught a tram (96) into the city.  We walked around Bourke St Mall for a bit, fighting the shopping crowds and eventually had enough.  We walked up to Little Lonsdale and Exhibition and had laksa at Laksa Bar.  This was the first place I ever tried laksa in my 26 years of being (yes I am the worst asian ever) and I absolutely loved it.  What I love about this place is they pack all this stuff into the bowl that most other places don't.  I'm talking green beans, seafood balls, crispy chip things, tomato, fried egg, lemon, and tofu in addition to whatever protein you choose.

The next morning we wandered down to St Kilda Beach, past the baths and Palais Theatre/Luna Park before heading down Acland St for breakkie.  We stumbled across 95 Espresso which seemed to have that Melbourne vibe we were looking for.  The waitress was super duper friendly and breakfast was really good.  I ordered the big breakfast on pumpkin bread with bacon, sausage, hash brown, and mushrooms whereas Tom ordered the corn bread breakfast.  I loved that the hash brown had rosemary running through it - super tasty.  The pumpkin bread was also pretty amazing (homemade I think I heard the waitress say).

St Kilda Pier

Luna Park

After lunch we thought we would actually brave the sales and headed to DFO Southbank which was empty and therefore much more pleasant than Bourke St Mall.

We bought a few things, then headed into Melbourne Central where I dropped Tom off at a music store so he could play with guitars, and I went to meet Ling from Pork Chop's Nest.  I got to meet her famous boys and they are every bit as adorable as I thought they would be.  D and I had almost an hour-long chat about anything and everything.  That 3-year-old is one smart cookie.  The highlight for me was when he told me "I am Chinese, and Mummy's Chinese, and L's Chinese, but Daddy's not."  When I asked him why his Daddy isn't Chinese, he replied "because he's big."  hahahaha.  Then Tom came to meet us and I asked D, "Is Tom Chinese?"  He looked Tom up and down a few times and said "No... because he's big"  hahahahaha if that isn't adorable I don't know what is!

I love random laneway art

Afterwards we strolled Bourke St Mall and Chapel St a bit and picked up some more goodies.  The weather which had been a pleasantly warm 32 degrees and sunny, turned cold and windy very suddenly.  Novices to Melbourne weather, we didn't have extra jackets so promptly took the next tram home to put more layers on.  Tom had a hankering for pizza and I had read about a fantastic pizza place just down the road from our hotel so we popped in to see what the fuss was all about.

The menu is on a big blackboard at the back of the establishment, which is part restaurant part bar.  We ordered 2 pizzas and a salad with a beer and a cider.  After demolishing an entire pizza and half a salad, Tom decided he needed another pizza.  After 30 mins later I had to roll him home!  The sun was setting as we rolled home and peeked out through the trees.

The next morning we had to check out by 11am, so we popped downstairs for breakfast and walked back to the hotel to pack and check out.

Boxing Day sales haul

I didn't actually buy that much during the Boxing Day sales but given I wasn't intending on doing ANY shopping I guess I did shop a bit.

I visited Bourke St Mall, DFO Southbank, Melbourne Central and Chapel St. I'm taking the following with me back to Sydney:

Top left: Marcs 3/4 blazer in hot pink
Tracked down the last size 4 in Melbourne and trekked out to Chapel St to get it.  So glad Marcs does a size 4.  Shame on you Cue for making huge size 6s and no size 4s.
$159 down from $250

Top right: Forever New grey marle tank with fuchsia piping
Again, thanks Forever New for making size 4s.  Clings nicely but not too tight.
$5 down from $20

Bottom left: Peter Alexander bunny jumper
Bought for my animal fanatic sister.  It's made of merino wool which will keep her nice and warm in winter.
$39.98 down from $140

Bottom right: Pilgrim lace skirt
Size 6 as Pilgrim hasn't adopted vanity sizing yet, which is nice to see.  Long enough that I can wear this skirt to work, but fancy enough that I can wear casually.  I love the lace print as it's quite unique, and the way the bottom layer peeks out is really cute.
$50 down from $120

All up I spent $255 when retail for these items was $530 so very happy with myself.

It got unexpectedly cold last night in Melbourne so I had to wear the Marcs blazer when we went out for dinner.  The only footwear options I had were Havaianas or Dunlop Volleys (for Falls) so I wore thongs with a nice blazer haha.

The pink piping on the tank matches the pink blazer really well:

Signing out for now, about to drive down to Lorne.  See you next year everyone!!

Christmas Presents!!

I hope you'll let me indulge a little in this post about the gifts I received (because I cleaned up good this year!)

Myself: Christian Louboutin Pigalle 100 bleu saphir
Mum & Dad: HUGE pearl earrings and Prada glasses (that are still 'in the mail')
Sister 1: Ted Baker red Ikon shopping tote with glitter bow
Sister 2: Earphones with an extra converter that has a big plug (you can tell I have no idea what it's called)
Sister 3: Maxwell Williams red teapot
Tom: Folding deck chair (not pictured as it's out on the balcony)
Tom's parents and sister: Jamie Oliver cookbook, Kikki K plastic sleeves (to go in the recipe folder they bought me last year), and Kikki K recipe cards
Tom's brother: Westfield gift voucher
Tom's patern grandfather: Glasshouse Candles Christmas Collection Miniature Candle Trio (Montego Bay, Positano and Marseille)
Tom's maternal grandparents: Crabtree & Evelyn handcream
Tom's uncle: Hamper
Tom's Uncle, Aunt and kids: Brie baking dish
Cousin K+bf: Purple/pink tank top
Cousin S+husband: Royal Doulton cup and saucer
Cousin K+bf: Crabtree & Evelyn hand cream and exfoliator
Aunt: L'Occitane bath gel
Flatmate: Cupcake making kit and 4-pack elephant mugs
Best friend 1: Amazing smelling M&Sense candle
Best friend 2: Necklace
Best friend 3: High heel cookie cutter, Sally Hansen nail polish

Best of all, I got an awesome prize from a Bonbon: cuff links - perfect as I've been stealing my Mum's/boyfriend's cufflinks so it's about time I got my own.

What did you guys get this Christmas?

Merry Christmas to you and to you and to you

Christmas is always a crazy time for me.  This year is crazier than normal and I'm not even halfway through.

Christmas Eve is always with my extended family.
Christmas Day is volunteering at Wayside Chapel and then lunch with Tom's family.
This year, Boxing Day will be spent on a plane to Melbourne.
30th Dec we fly back to Sydney.
31st Dec (NYE) will be spent at Opera Bar.

Christmas Eve with my family always involves a colour scheme which everyone must adhere to.  This year was blue and silver/white which is the same colour scheme I used with my snowflakes, gift wrapping, and gingerbread cookies.  I wore a silver dotti tank top with sequins, a blue skirt with white piping from ebay, silver snakeskin peeptoes from Glamourpuss, blue and silver nails, and standard silver T&Co jewelry.

In the afternoon I received my bleu saphir Pigalles from matchesfashion (ordered Friday, received Christmas Eve Monday) and they just so happened to  match my nails and skirt perfectly, but I wasn't game to wear new Louboutins out in the rain.

This is my adorable puppy dog (Hi Bailey)!

I made a banoffi pie ahnomnomnom:

After getting to bed at 2am, we were up at 7am this morning at Wayside Chapel in Kings Cross to help them feed 600 homeless people.  Nothing more satisfying than volunteering to help the less fortunate.

Around midday we went back to Tom's parents' for lunch with both sets of his grandparents.  After an amazing lunch, some chit-chat and an intense game of Trivial Pursuit, we finally arrived home at 6pm.

It's now 10:20pm and we've just finished watching Home Alone.  Still need to pack for Melbourne eek!

Wishing everyone a very very Merry Christmas time.  

I hope you were able to spend it with your loved ones.  I also hope you ate a lot and drank a lot and were merry.

Gingerbead House!

This morning I "assembled" this gingerbread house (with the help of Mr Aldi and something in the vicinity of $7).  There is no way I would attempt to make a gingerbread house from scratch after I know how long and tedious gingerbread cookies are to make.

Before

During

Adrer

Louboutin #9 - black patent Ron Ron

I know this style is meant to be great for women with wider feet but they just don't feel comfortable for some reason.  Something to do with the arch support and my flat feet.  The widest part of my feet fit nicely in this as it is a wider than average Louboutin shoe.  I also have no problems with the short toe box since I have short toes.  But there's something about it that makes it uncomfortable.

It's also too round toe for my liking.  I don't like round toe pumps in general because I feel like they make my feet look shorter and stumpier than they already are.  I originally bought them to complement/replace my black patent almond toe Prada pumps but I think I'll sell these and go back to my trusty Pradas.

DIY 3D Snowflakes

These are super super easy but look super super amazing.

You'll need:

• Paper (any paper really - but not magazine/newspaper as it's too flimsy)
• Scissors/blade
• Sticky tape
• Ruler
• Pencil

Basically for each snowflake you'll need 6 identical squares (the bigger the square, the bigger the snowflake obvs).

These squares are 10cm and make my medium sized snowflake

Fold each square diagonally TWICE.  Rule 3 lines starting from the side last folded, and leave about 1cm at the other end (there are different tutorials that rule and cut differently but I find this the easiest by far):

I'm OCD so my lines are 1cm apart, and 1cm short on the right.  For the top line, it's 8mm short on the right.

Cut along the ruled lines and open  up:

Then fold and stickytape the 2 innermost corners together:

Flip the square and stickytape the next corners together, and continue until you have a completed piece:

Repeat with 5 more squares and you will have this:

I used 5 blue squares and 1 white square 

Because I'm OCD, I have each piece facing the same way (longer side turning clockwise).  Stick double-sided stickytape to the inner bits and stick them to each other.

Voila!

Large snowflake uses 20cm squares, medium snowflake uses 10cm squares, small snowflake uses 7cm squares.  I personally wouldn't go much smaller than 7cm squares as it gets fiddly and difficult to fold.

Happy craft-ing!

Mr Louboutin, GPO, $1 Frozen Coke

4 weeks annual leave.  1.5 weeks down.  I actually left the house and went into the city today.  Amazing, given yesterday I lay on my deck chair on the balcony watching TV all day long.  Yep, talk about gluttony.

Today I went in to visit Mr Louboutin's store, and to have lunch with some ex-work colleagues; also finished wrapping the last of the Christmas pressies.

Soy flat white, Nudie tight long johns in flat blue, Asos tee, Ferragamo Varina flats

I went to GPO to post a few Christmas cards and walked around for 5 mins looking like an idiot, trying to find those bright red and yellow post boxes.  Public service announcement: the GPO post boxes have been removed.  They have been replaced by the most inconspicuous slots hidden in the PO Boxes.

Mr Louboutin's store is doing well.  I made a purchase, to be revealed later (although my Instagram followers will already know).

I visited The Strand which had some pretty decorations:

All this walking around made me a bit thirsty so I bought a Hungry Jack's $1 frozen Coke.  Delish.

Eventually got home and finished my pressie wrapping: