Vietnam

I'm off to Vietnam today, which I am very excited about! This might mean that I won't blog for a while, but I may be able to report back from time to time to post some pictures and tell you about my travels. I can't wait to go! (Which is good because I don't have to wait long!)

Love and Joy xxx.

Gifts for a...(Part Three)

1. Lime Teardrop Vase, a lovely shaped, green vase to put bunches of flowers (that she so likes to arrange) in. Price not available. 

2. L'OCCITANE Lavender Hand Cream and L'OCCITANE Relaxing Foot Cream (lavender scented as well), some lavender scented hand and foot cream too make her feel luxurious. $29.95 (each) 

3. Antique Leaf Stencil Kimono, so she feels pretty as she potters around in the morning. 

4. Herringbone Australian made Alpaca Throws by Creswick Woollen Mills (the best kind of wool), to snuggle up with on cold nights. $199 

5. Bee House Wood Tea Tray, a Japanese style, wooden tray to use for afternoon tea. Price not available. 

6. Stephanie Alexander's Kitchen Garden Companion, a cookbook to give her new ideas and things to do.  $99.99 

Love and Joy xxx. 

Gifts for a...(Part Two)

1.‘A Slice of Organic Life’ by Sheherazade Goldsmith - $49.95

A book to give her new ideas and projects to do. 

2. Running Bare Easy Fit 7/8 Jazz Pant – Black - $49.75

Perfect for going to the gym or doing yoga in.  

3. Darjeeling Limited DVD - $36.99

A DVD to remind her of her travels through India, and one that will make her laugh.  Even better, it has a ripping soundtrack! 

4. My Touch, Wittner - $65.95

Sandals for walks on the beach and hot days at summer music festivals.

5.  Woodford Folk Festival Tickets - Adult Season tickets from $297.00 - $424.00

The best folk music festival in all of Australia. Can get expensive so best to get in early (to late for cheaper tickets now, so maybe next year?), but an extraordinary gift that will never be forgotten.

6.  Front Wicker Basket - $46.00

For carrying back fresh fruit and vegetables from the farmers market on a Saturday morning. 

Love and Joy xxx. 

Kitty, Daisy and Lewis

This is a group called Kitty, Daisy and Lewis, who I read about in last weekend's 'Spectrum'. Their music is fun and makes me want to dance! What do you think? 

YouTube - Kitty Daisy & Lewis - (Baby) Hold Me Tight

Love and joy xxx.

Gifts for a...(Part One)

I am finally on holidays, and so free to do whatever I want, in the most part. Feels so good. As christmas approaches I am going to put up a collage of gift ideas for what loved ones (don't you just adore that term 'loved ones'?!) might like. This is the first one in a series of more to come. Enjoy! 

1. 'Bach for Book Lovers: A Soothing Companion for Reading' from $7.66 

Some beautiful classical music to enjoy while reading (two of his favorite pastimes in one). 

2. Hem & Haw Men's Soft Grey Heather Cardigan Sweater $89.95 

A good quality, sensible cardigan that is just his sort of thing.  

3. 'What Flower is that?' by Stirling Macoboy $54.73 

If he doesn't already have it, a must have for the curious man that knows everything and wants to keep learning more.

4. Carson SuperZoom - Z- 80S Binoculars $ 275.00 

Binoculars to identify birds on his numerous bush-walks and camping trips. 

5. 'Beyond the Brink: Peter Andrews' Radical Vision for a Sustainable Australia' by Peter Andrews $ 35.00 

An interesting book to keep him up to date and give him something to talk and think about. 

6. Sony SRF59 Portable AM/FM Radio $50.00  

This portable radio will mean that just about wherever he is he can listen to the news, the cricket or ABC Classical FM. 

Love and joy xxx.

Sandals

Yeah, well, I should have been working on my English speech, but I've been working non-stop lately, so when my mum wanted me to go down to the shops with her, I for once agreed. She was shocked. Don't get me wrong. I love shopping, I just have no time. Also Lots of shopping annoys me, its badly made, out of cheap materials and has no beauty. There are a few certain places that I tend to regular though, when I get the chance. 

Anyway, I've been needing sandals for a while now and have been admiring such one as these on Unruly Things:

 

And so the shopping excursion was primarily to get some sandals (but I justified not doing work by also purchasing some balsa for my set model design - its seriously amazing stuff!). Not expecting to find much, as is normally the case, I found, fitted and fell in love with these.

Zensu Gallaxy Shoes in tan

And guess what? I now own a funky new pair of shoes. They are comfortable, groovy, and I can't wait to wear them (non-stop). 

Love and Joy xxx. 

Black Dress

A nice photo of Ms. Spinach from fashion is spinach. 

Farmers Markets

This morning, like every other Saturday morning, I got up early to go shopping at our local farmers markets. Literally just down the road. I love them! Everything is so fresh and natural, it's a bit of an escape from the commercial supermarket, everything prepackaged world. It's seasonal, which makes the experience exciting, as new and different fruits and vegetables appear. This week for instance a nectarine store popped up, but we decided to wait another week before venturing into the stone fruit world, fruit picked too early is always so disappointing. (These guys are my favourite store holders, you can't get tofu anywhere as fresh as they have it, and they're so friendly!) 

This week I got my hands on a large mushroom, I believe they're called portobellos. I plan to recreate a delicious dish I had once in my future hometown Bangalow (on the north coast of NSW). It's a breakfast dish I suppose, or a least that's what I had it for, and it is basically a large chopped mushroom (or two), cooked in a balsamic vinegar sauce, sliced up and served with shaved parmesan on top and toasted bread on the side. Delish! I'll make it and post it up with results and a recipe. (If it works...fingers crossed). 

Love and Joy xxx. 

Bedroom Photo

Thought this was kinda cute. 

Bedroom by Candi Mandi.

Love and Joy xxx.

Avocado Shakes

I've been told that avocado shakes are really good, but I haven't yet had to opportunity to try one. What do you think? I love avocado's so I think I should give it a try. There is a Vietnamese shop that sells them in Dickson that I've been told to go to, however I'm going to Vietnam at the end of the year, so maybe I can try it then. Here's one I (coincidentally) found on the blog Appetite for China. 

Vietnamese Avocado Shake - Sinh to Bo

Makes 1 large drink, or 2 to 4 mini drinks

1 large ripe avocado
1 cup ice cubes or crush ice
1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup milk or unsweetened coconut milk

Scoop avocado flesh into the blender and add the rest of the ingredients. Pulse, then blend until smooth. If needed, adjust sweetness with more condensed milk or sugar, and thickness with more milk/coconut milk. Pour into glass and serve cold.

A Series of Unfortunate Events

Lately I've been looking for costume ideas for my costume design assignment. I'm going for a gothic feel, so I checked out the outfits for A Series of Unfortunate Events (which on a side note were my favourite books as a child), and found the amazingly dressed Emily Brown (who played Violet Baudelaire). In fact looking over it again (in picture form), I discovered that the whole set and costume design was quite extraordinary. As a kid going to see the movie I just remember being very disappointed with it, but I now have new respect for the movie on a different level. This coat in particular is pretty special. 

Also I just absolutely love this animation. 

Love and Joy xxx. 

Things of Interest

Well, it's been a while since I last posted, mostly due to the massive workload I've had (and yes), still have. I'll just post up a few things that have caught my eye recently. 

Taylor Neil's "Six Perfect Outfits To Shake Up Your Fall Dressing". I know it's not fall over this side of the world, but gorgeous. 

These tops. In cotton or silk. What other fabrics could you ask for, and also in what better colours? American money though, just a bit too expensive! (Even on sale, sigh...) 

"Offline Inspiration: How To Find It And Get The Most Out Of It", by Kayla Knight was an interesting and pretty good read. 

Something so sweet about this girl, from The Satorialist. I think it's her smile. 

During research for an English assignment I found these gorgeous designs by the talented Emily Golden. Aren't they amazing? I loved them! 

That's all for now. 

Love and Joy xxx. 

Tea and White Teacups

I’m a big tea drinker. I like coffee better, but I love teacups, and am in fact a teacup collector. Lately I’ve been getting into drinking tea any time in the mornings, after school and/or after dinner. For each time of day I have a different type of tea. The traditional English Breakfast for mornings, an Afternoon Tea for afternoons, and a Red Chai for after dinner. Sometimes as dessert I make a proper chai (boiling the milk up with the tea leaves, instead of infusing the tea leaves in boiling water and then adding milk as I do with the Red Chai). One of my favourite shops is T2, where I got the Afternoon Tea and Red Chai (the English Breakfast is just a normal Twinings), and my beautiful white teacups and saucers. There is something to be said for drinking tea out of a nicely shaped white teacup. Maybe it’s that the colour (or non-colour) makes the form of the cup more distinctive, or maybe it’s the contrast of the colour of the tea against the cup. Whatever it is, it is certainly a soulful experience. 

Shopping Trip

I haven’t had an enjoyable shopping experience for a while now. Everything has just seemed a little pointless. The clothes have no meaning to me, after a while they all just seem so tacky, useless and wasteful. Shopping centres can do that to you. Living in Canberra means that you can count the number of good shops on two hands, and one hand during a bad season. While increasing numbers of people (and I’ve noticed especially other bloggers) now shop on the Internet, finding many stylish, vintage items, I am without a credit card. Leaving this world closed off to me. Maybe it is just as well.

The other day, however I went to just two stores that I love, and bought two articles of clothing that I can’t wait to wear out. You see, I have a shopping philosophy of quality above quantity, which basically means: buy beautiful, worthwhile clothing that you love, will wear (and enjoy wearing it) and that will last. It means not buying heaps of cheap, badly made clothes. Also, I try to buy clothes with only or mostly natural materials. I couldn’t find a picture of the brown dress I bought, but I can take my own picture of it and post it up. Above, however, is the green top I bought and my grey/blue converse shoes and black skinny leg jeans, that I think will go really well with the purchase. A black cardigan I found, but didn’t buy is also there. I am waiting for it to go down in price. If it ever does…

More Beautiful Flowers

While looking for pictures of the little star flowers, I found some other pictures of flowers that are quite pretty. So I thought I would put them up on my page as well. As you can probably guess I am getting into the idea of spring.

Blue Flowers

When I walked out of my house yesterday morning I was expecting to be greeted with the usual icy, cold air that is so common these winter days, and in the mornings in particular. I was pleasantly surprised however, when I walked outside into reasonably warm weather. I did not have to brace myself and go into automatic shutdown, defense mode so as not to let the cold in. Adding to my general delight was the fact that some of the bulbs in our garden had popped up. These pretty blues flowers that look like small blue stars come every year, they normally mark the ending of winter, and by around the middle of spring a large section of our lawn is gloriously covered with them. So although we still have one more month of winter to go, and the coldness of September to get through, the blooming of these blue stars marked a change for the better for me. Winter will come to an end! Here are some pictures I found of these flowers. 

I'll take my own pictures of them in my garden and put them up, once I figure out how to use the camera.