Wednesday 30 January 2013

YSL Arty ring overdose

I've heard reports of the Arty ring being discontinued.  I've also heard reports that they are not.  Does the rebranding of YSL to Saint Laurent Paris have anything to do with it?  Regardless, I decided to finally get me one of these after months years of umm-ing and ahh-ing.

I picked one up at UK retail off NAP.  The next morning they had all these Arty rings at 50% off.  Annoyed.  Anyway, I finally received them all and played around with them last night.  I would say they are TTS.  I bought some size 4s and some size 5s as I'm in between 4 and 5 (which is about a J-K) in normal rings, and as expected I am between sizes in the YSL Arty.


I'm not sure what the official colours are called because NAP doesn't call them anything....  Arty experts help me out!



Please let me know which colours you like the best.  I don't think I'll keep all of them as 6 is a tad bit excessive.

Tuesday 29 January 2013

A patriotic Australia Day Long Weekend

Before I start, I hope everyone in Queensland is staying dry and safe.  It's a bit scary the stuff that's been happening.

We visited Canberra over the long weekend, mainly because we had a wedding to attend there, but we also took the opportunity to be tourists in our nation's capital (and frankly, what better time to be patriotic than Australia Day?).

Windmill type things
Our first stop when we arrived in Canberra was Silo Bakery after Tom's Mum insisted we visit.  The pastries had us salivating but we needed lunch so ordered pasta and pizza, then ordered a peach flan takeaway.





The pasta wasn't anything to write home about - completely bland.  The peach flan on the other hand was amazing.  Probably should've stuck to baked goods given this is a bakery after all.

We visited the War Memorial which was a really special thing to do on Australia Day.  Tom's grandpa fought for Australia during WW2 (and ironically he was stationed in Papua New Guinea where I grew up) so it was super special for us.






After a nice and peaceful few hours at the War Memorial, we were able to check into our hotel.  I had booked the Diamant through a Wotif mystery hotel deal (after doing my research of course).  I know a lot of people rave about this place but I personally didn't see what the fuss was about.  I wasn't a fan of the dimly lit hallways with neon lights and mirrors everywhere - there's something a bit impersonable about it.  The tap in the bathroom gave us hot water when the knob was turned to cold, and cold water when the tap was turned to hot.  The aircon took a loooong time to kick in (about an hour), and then would be freezing cold.  The TV was pretty small and in the corner of the room which meant straining your neck.

The positives?  The wardrobe has given me inspiration for my future walk-in-wardrobe, there was a variety of complementary T2 teas, and the water pressure in the shower was perfect.  Oh and I liked the green apple on the bed instead of chocolate. 


At about 6pm, the thunderstorm kicked in and knocked Foxtel out.  The poor boy wanted to watch the A-League game but had to settle for some cooking program on free-to-air.  Fortunately, we were meant to meet a couple of my highschool friends for dinner so it was relatively easy to pry him away from the telly.  Unfortunately, the restaurant we were booked into had been flooded and weren't operating that night so we decided to move the dinner to my friends' place.  How convenient that the takeaway pizza place is right next to a bottle-o.  Pizza, salad, beer, wine and cider (and 5 hours later) it was time to go home.  The rain had let up a little so we didn't get drenched from their front door to the car.

The next morning we got up early, got dressed for the wedding, checked out, and headed to the cafe for a quick breakkie before a 9am wedding (yes. 9am. on a Sunday. in Canberra.  Now you know why we made a weekend of it instead of driving down just for the wedding?).  We probably looked like tossers dressed to the nines for a casual Sunday breakkie but no one said anything about it (to our faces at least).


Breakfast at Mocan and Green Grout was really enjoyable.  The kitchen is smack bang in the middle of the cafe - no walls, no glass, nothing.  This intrigued me greatly.  You're exposing the heart of your operations, essentially.  No hiding the burnt toast and starting again.  No yelling to the other chefs.  No making a mess everywhere.  It actually impressed me how efficiently and quietly they worked. The downside to this, however, is flies flock here because of the exposed kitchen.






The interiors were very hipster - exposed wood walls which double as shelves, specials written on butcher's paper, bonsai trees on each table.  I loved it!  Will be back there next time I'm in Canberra.

The wedding was a traditional Indian wedding.  I've never been to a traditional Indian wedding before.  I did not realise the first hour is spent standing outside the hall on asphalt.  Obviously had I known this, I would not have worn 6 inch Louboutins.  My mistake.


The groom arrived on a white horse, surrounded by his groomsmen who danced around his horse.  The bride was nowhere to be seen.  Her grand entrance would come 1.5 hours into the 3-hour ceremony.  After the first hour, we were ushered into the hall where we got to sit down (and where I promptly removed my shoes) and watched the rest of the ceremony on the stage in front of us.  To be honest I found it difficult to follow as I don't understand the language or the customs.  Language barrier aside, it was a beautiful and touching ceremony and a delight to watch.  Congratulations P and R!

This is becoming quite a long and rambling post now so I'll keep the rest of it picture-heavy.  Went to the National Film and Sound Archive to see the Gotye Exhibit.  Disappointing.



The Old Bus Depot Markets were good, much better than the Gorman House Markets on Saturday.


Had some Ethiopian food for the second time in my life (first time was Portobello Markets in London), with some fresh orange juice.


Next door to the markets is Canberra Glassworks.  You can actually watch them blow glass and they talk you through it, which is pretty cool.  I saw how they add colour to glass (I've always wondered how it happened).



A few quick stops before we left the ACT: Lonsdale St Traders, Lonsdale St Roasters (closed :( ), and Mount Ainslie.



Bye Canberra!  It was fun!

Friday 25 January 2013

Questionnaire Friday!

I wanted to do something slightly different today as I've recently been feeling like a somewhat one-dimensional blogger (shopping shopping shopping). 

I found this questionnaire off the interwebs and deleted a whole heap of stupid questions.

BIRTHDAY: 2nd March
ZODIAC: Pisces
CHINESE ZODIAC: Tiger (yep this = loud and bossy)
HEIGHT: Short.  Final answer: 1.48m I would guess.  See, I told you 'short' would have sufficed.
EYE COLOUR: Boring brown
HAIR COLOUR: Currently medium-dark brown.  Fake obviously.  I have been known to have 'rainbow' hair.
HANDED: I write with my right hand, but was always a better dancer on my left
FROM: HK/PNG/AUS
PETS: 2 adorable doggies - I will blog about them soon
FAMILY: 3 younger sisters, a Mum and a Dad.  Millions of cousins/aunts/uncles/grand-aunt through marriage once removed/blahblahblah
PERSONALITY: I found this description of Tigers and it pretty much sums me up: the Tiger symbolizes such character traits as bravery, competitiveness and unpredictability. Tigers love to be challenged and will accept any challenge if it means protecting a loved one or protecting their honor. They don’t worry about the outcome because they know they’ll always land on their feet. Don’t let their calm appearance fool you though; Tigers will pounce when they feel it’s necessary. Born to lead, Tigers can be stubborn if they realize they’re not in charge. They have a slight tendency to be selfish but overall, Tigers are extremely generous. They’re very intelligent and they’re always on alert. Tigers are very charming and are well-liked by others.
HOBBIES: blogging, filling out questionnaires, cooking, baking, planning things (yes I consider this a hobby), crafts
LIKES: coffee, wikipedia, and my credit card
DISLIKES: cooking asian food, selfish people and poor grammar/spelling

THREE THINGS THAT SCARE ME
1. the dark (I am deadly serious)
2. my bf when he gets angry (because he's normally such a calm and placid person)
3. scary movies (again, deadly serious)

THREE THINGS I'D LIKE TO LEARN
1. to enjoy exercise
2. a second language
3. patience

THREE THINGS ON MY DESK
1. 4 reams of paper propping up my laptop and monitor
2. empty tissue box
3. a ruler still in its plastic wrapping.....?!?!?

THREE THINGS I WANT TO DO BEFORE I DIE
1. work overseas for a year or 2
2. get married
3. have babies (1 and 2 can be done in any order but 3 definitely comes last haha)

THREE WAYS TO DESCRIBE MY PERSONALITY
1. loud
2. organised and punctual
3. will do anything for my family

THREE BAD THINGS ABOUT MY PERSONALITY
1. lazy (as evidenced by my lack of exercise)
2. lack of self-control (as evidenced by my shopping habits)
3. judgmental

THREE THINGS MOST PEOPLE DON'T KNOW ABOUT YOU
1. I have a 5cm scar on my bum (pirouettes in the garage gone wrong)
2. I can sew (I have made a pair of pants from scratch before, and by scratch I mean with a pattern.  These days it's mostly to alter jeans or fix hems/holes)
3. I had aspirations to be a checkout chick when I was little.  My parents promptly pulled me aside and told me it's not very glamourous.  Thanks Mum and Dad.

THREE THINGS I SAY THE MOST
1. Aloha
2. Large soy flat white please
3. No I haven't been shopping again, this (insert item name here) is old!

THREE PLACES YOU WANT TO GO
1. South America (ticking that off the bucket list in September)
2. Cambodia (again)
3. Hawaii (again)

I'm spending this weekend in our nation's capital before returning to Sydneytown for Australia Day.  Have a good weekend!

Wednesday 23 January 2013

This is quickly turning into a shopping blog

I'm materialistic.

There I said it.  I love shoes, and to a lesser extent bags.  I get distracted by sales and sparkly things.  I work to earn money to live a life that I want to live, which includes shopping and eating nice food and travelling overseas every year.  I also value immaterial things such as spending time with my family (I make an effort to see them twice a week and almost always over for Sunday dinner), and hanging out with friends and spending time with my other half.  I also have no children or husband to support (yet).  I already own property and whilst I have a mortgage to pay off, I also have rental income.  But yes I do also pay rent.  And I do love to shop.

The Vogue Forums are really good at helping me spend money.  I found out about the ridiculously cheap Missoni scarf from Stacey which I blogged about a few days ago, then I found out the NAP sale was reduced further and being the inquisitive person I am, jumped on to see what had been reduced further. 

Only 10 minutes and $1000 later......  I am the owner of the following:

Giuseppe Zanotti swarovski crystal-embellished suede sandals


Marc by Marc Jacobs sequinned leather ankle boots

YSL Arty ring in blue

Both pairs of shoes were 70% off - the Giuseppe Zanottis were £334.50 (A$501) down from £1115 (A$1,671) and the Marc Jacobs booties were £98.75 (A$148 - you'd be lucky to get Tony Bianco booties at that price!) down from £329.17 (A$494).  The YSL ring was retail at £158.33 (AUD$236) which is still cheaper than the Aussie RRP at AUD$295.

These are the items I did NOT buy (to show you that I do *sometimes* exercise self-control):

Miu Miu Glitter-finish leather ankle boots


Christian Louboutin Pigalle 100 nude


J Crew Tipped Wool Peacoat (only because they don't have my size)

Did you pick up anything from the NAP sale?

Ok I promise my next few posts will not be shopping-related!