Louboutin #7 - black patent Love Me

I love love love these ones.  I saw some pics on tPF of Lovas from a few years ago and just fell in love.  I started scouring the interwebs and found Love Me's which are a close relative of Lovas.  Love Me's are cut similarly to Pigalles so you should be the same size in both.

Finding these babies were insanely difficult.  They come in heel heights 45, 85, 100 and 120.  45 and 85 are too low for me, and 120s are far too difficult to shove my foot into.  The Sydney CL boutique only had 85s in kid leather and I needed 100s in patent leather.  I originally wanted the nude pair but wasn't able to find it in 100 in my size anywhere, but there was one black 100 in my size left on the Barneys website. 

I took these in my Pigalle 100 size (35), which is 1/2 size smaller than my TTS (35.5).  They are one of the more narrow Louboutin styles but for some reason I dont get muffin top in these.  They are more painful than most of my other CLs but no pain, no gain right??  I freaking love these heels to bits.  Love them so much I was willing to pay retail for them, and then another $55 shipping!

Barneys is notoriously slow for handling and dispatch.  I think it took them 3 weeks just to dispatch these?  It was a looong 3 weeks let me tell you!

I've worn them a few times since I got them, but my favourite outfit has to be this I rocked out last week at work:

Din Tai Fung vs New Shanghai

I love dumprings.  I'm not the biggest fan of Chinese food (ironic much?) but I luuurve dumprings.

I've frequented New Shanghai a few times now because I live on the north shore, but tonight I visited Din Tai Fung for the first time.  I must say service was impeccable.  I don't expect much from Chinese restaurants but the staff at Din Tai Fung seated me and my friend D immediately and were very warm and welcoming.  They even brought a little stool/bag thing to put our handbags in.

I was a little disappointed with the menu - I was expecting a LOT more dumpling options than they had.  My biggest gripe was NO PAN-FRIED DUMPRINGS.  They are my favourite.  I settled on steamed crab and pork dumplings with the soupy thing inside.  D got the prawn fried rice but refused to eat the prawns because one of them still had a bit of a poo line :S  We each got a vegetable and pork bun which was the biggest disappointment of the meal.  We both wondered whether they had accidentally given us vegetarian only as we struggled to find the pork.  The bun 'pastry' was also really thick and not soft and fluffy.  The filling was 99% vegetable and really bland.  I didn't even finish mine.  The dumplings were good but overly salty.  Too much of a contrast with the pork buns.

New Shanghai on the other hand - service is certainly not as attentive as Din Tai Fung but it's still reasonable, it's not poor by any means.  BUT they have steamed AND pan-fried dumplings.  Heaven.  And more dumpling flavours.  They're not as excessly salty either.

27 days til Christmas

I'm being organised for Christmas this year as Christmas snuck up on me last year (not sure how that happened.... pretty sure Christmas is on the same date every year and pretty sure after 26 Christmas' I should know, but nonetheless).  I ended up staying up til 3am one night making gingerbread cookies for Tom's grandparents.  They were delicious, but this Christmas I would like some sleep.

To give myself some inspiration I looked back at last Christmas and the stuff I did.

Fibre optic tree my flatmate got from Kmart for I think $20

Snowflakes I made from paper

Christmas coloured Hersheys kisses in a jar which I wrapped with Christmas ribbon

Making gingerbread for Tom's grandparents

Every year for the extended family Christmas Eve we have a colour theme and everyone has to come dressed in the colour theme.  A few years ago it was red & white, last year was green, and this year will be blue and silver so I've decided to adopt this blue and silver theme with other Christmas-y things this year.

Have you started thinking about Christmas yet?

George Gregan Cafes

This is the back story.

Some years ago after retiring from Rugby Union, George Gregan decided to open some coffee shops.  The coffee wasn't great and I don't think the coffee shops did too well.  Eventually, they only existed inside Macquarie Bank Offices (in Sydney anyway - not sure about other states) due to signing some agreement with Mac.

Not sure what caused the overhaul a few years ago but suddenly the coffee was great and other aspects were improving.  They also started using Allpress beans which are one of the better brands (in my opinion).

Anyway, after I left Macquarie I couldn't buy coffee from George Gregan anymore - until now!  I found a new one that opened up 2 minutes from my new office.  After speaking to a few people it seems like they are now opening cafes on the street and separate from Macquarie office buildings. 

The internal decor is actually really nice - LOVE the koi fish mural on the back wall.

The coffee is as good as I remember it being, and they use Bonsoy (THE best barista soy milk out there).

Thanks George ;)

Shopbop - 3 business days international delivery

OMG really?

The mailman delivered this huge box to me earlier this morning.  Could it be my shopbop order that I only made last Wednesday?  As in 3 business days ago?  Crazytown.  I love shopbop.

Love the houndstooth print on the inside of the cardboard box!

Marc by Marc Jacobs cream/gold disc earrings

Love these tan Varinas!

No peeking at this one because it's my sister's birthday present :P

A busy weekend

I constantly seem to find myself exhausted on Monday morning from a very full-on weekend.  Today was no exception.  When my alarm went off at 7.15am I thought it was my boyfriend's alarm for 6am and yelled at him to turn it off.  Oops.

Last Friday, I caught the train into the city and walked through Martin Place which puts up my favourite Christmas Tree in Sydney.  I also love the GPO building.

Tom and I had dinner at Sushi Tei - we love this place but I was actually disappointed for the first time.  We ordered the red bean drink we've previously had and the glasses were about half the size as they used to be but they're the same price.  I also found the sashimi to be less fresh/tasty than it usually is.

Saturday morning we were up early to visit Tom's Pop in his nursing home.  On our way home we dropped by Chatswood Westfield to pick up a Christmas present I bought my sister on JB Hifi online, had some lunch, got some groceries.  I went home and had a power nap, only to wake up at 4.30pm when my train came at 4.49pm.  I chucked on some jeans and a top and flats and managed to make the train and got into the city to start the Pub Crawl/Scavenger Hunt.  Scavenger Hunt was loads of fun and we won!!!

Sunday morning I made spanish eggs which were a hit with the boyfriend:

I can post the recipe if anyone's interested?

After breakfast I tried out my new deck chair on the balcony (no pics as the balcony is filthy!) then spent the arvo at a mate's pool.  Come on Vitamin D!

Raced home for a shower before heading to my parents' for dinner.  My Dad's curry dinner was an absolute hit, topped with salad + yoghurt dressing, and fruit salad with cream.  Zomg cream.

That's my hand there, just to give you an indication of how freaking big this fruit salad was!

Played a few games after dinner with my sisters and finally home by 10.30pm.

And now it's Monday again.  What did everyone else get up to this past weekend?

I have spent so much money this month.

Seriously.  So much.  Let's do the math:


Nudies $50
Brandsexclusive grizzly boots $70
Asos $62
Opera Bar NYE $350
Shoe repairer $58

Chiropractor for the next 12 months $1200

Brandsexclusive Sass & Bide goodies $70
Forever New singlets $20

Airfares for my parents to Singapore $540

Powerbuys $310

Asos $30

Hollywood Style $35

Cirque du Soleil Ovo $240

Louboutins for a steal $205

Movember donation $30

Salvatore Ferragamo Varina flats in black patent $290

Shopbop order $681
Aldi goodies $30
Beats by Dr Dre headphones $260
BuyInvite Cocolatte clothes $49

Asos order $76

That is a grand total of...... wait for it.....  FOUR THOUSAND, SIX HUNDRED AND FITY SIX DOLLARS.  W.T.F. BRO

This does not include my mortgage repayments, utilities, public transport, food, phone bills.

Ok.  Intervention required.  What a bad time to go on a shopping ban with Christmas coming up and all but it needs to be done.  The only thing I can spend money on until the end of the year is Christmas presents that I haven't bought yet (apart from living expenses). 

Terrible.  I'm off to chastise myself.  Excuse Me.

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ETA: What a depressing post with no pictures.  Here are some pictures stolen from Instagram.  Thankyou Casual Friday, Thankyou Mr Louboutin, Thankyou Camden Markets.

Forever New singlet, Asos drapey top, Nudie jeans, Louboutin Love Me, random necklace I bought at Camden Markets in London, H&M blazer from Singapore

Also, a picture not stolen from Instagram but still worth sharing.  This is what is sitting underneath my desk at the moment.  You know you have a shopping problem when.....

Move over ClickFrenzy, Thanksgiving sales have started

WARNING: If you are my sister stop reading NOW.  Right now.  No seriously......










OK, now that I've gotten that off my chest, is anyone else as disappointed with Australia's answer to Thanksgiving/Black Friday sales as me?  I was hoping to pick up some Christmas presents but after not being able to access the site at all last night, and having a look at the abysmal 'sales' this morning, I've walked away empty-handed.  Don't get me wrong - I didn't expect it to blow my socks off.  But I expected it to be better than it was.  One of the retailers had FOUR items "on sale" as part of ClickFrenzy, even though the entire site sells things at less than RRP.  Off to America's Thanksgiving sales I go.

I was in America for Thanksgiving last year.  After a massive dinner with extended family I had met only that day, Tom and I ventured out to Macys 42nd St in NYC.  It wasn't as chaotic and hectic as I thought it would be and only ended up with a full-priced Mac blush and full-priced Chanel eyeliner.

The next morning the sales were still going so we went to Fifth Ave and popped into Uniqlo where I grabbed 2 pairs of work pants for something stupid like $39 or maybe even $29 and had them taken up for free (PS love Uniqlo).  My only other bargain was a Marc by Marc Jacobs Classic Q Baby Groovee in bronze which retails for $395 and I nabbed for something like $125 at Neiman Marcus.

ANYWAY, after the failure of ClickFrenzy I visited the Vogue forums and found out about the shopbop sale.  CRAZYCRAZYCRAZY.  Spend some money and get 20, 25, 30, 35 percent off.  Oh did I mention FREE INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING.  Ah man I love shopbop.

I promptly placed an order.  I got myself another pair of Ferragamo Varinas (my second pair in 3 days oops) in a gorgeous tan colour to replace my current tan Michael Kors ballet flats:

I got a bag for my sister's birthday next year (hence the crazy disclaimer at the start of this post) which she has been lusting over for a year or so - the MBMJ Too Hot To Handle tote.  I actually love it myself.  That might be my next bag purchase in a fun, bright colour hopefully.

This brought my total to $953.  If I spent $47 more I would get 30% off instead of 25%.  So what's a girl to do?  I chucked in a pair of Marc by Marc Jacobs studs:

The earrings were $48.  Boom.  Total cost $1001.  30% off.  $0 shipping.  New total $700.70

Wedding in Sydney

My cousin got married over the weekend.  The ceremony was held at St James Church, King St and the reception was at Vaucluse House Tea Rooms.  It was nice seeing the extended family all dressed up and having fun.  Here are some pics from the day.

I wore an Asos dress, Christian Louboutin lace/satin Very Prives, Mimco bow cuff, random bracelet, Forever New earrings, and cocktail rings from Hollywood Style.  Initially I was taking my Chanel medium beige caviar with silver hardware but changed it last-minute to my Marc by Marc Jacobs Bianca Jane on a leash clutch.

At St James church

The bride and groom, and the bride with the gorgeous flower girl.

Me and my sisters love the bling!

My beautiful family + random white guy haha