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How to Travel in Style with Violet

November 4th, 2009 |

Author: Violet

I’ve done quite a bit of traveling in my time and I love exploring new and interesting places. I try to make my everyday life as beautiful as possible and traveling is no different. You won’t find me in sweat pants and thongs (or flip flops for my American readers), I want to feel as pretty leaving a 7 hour flight as I do going out to dinner!

So with my recent trip to Singapore I thought it was the perfect time to show you all how I travel in style. This is a compilation of tips I’ve picked up on my travels and my “must have” items for along the way.

First thing’s first…

Take something lucky

I’m not a superstitious person by nature but there’s a story behind this one! The day before we went to Singapore James and I were doing some last minute shopping in the city. I was feeling a little light headed so we stopped at McDonalds for some fries. As I was walking away I checked my change and what should be there but a Singaporean 10 cent piece!!

I was so surprised, normally if I get anything foreign in my change it’s New Zealand currency. This seemed so random and fateful that I kept it in a special compartment in my bag the whole trip!

On the plane:

Take some good headphones (and an ipod if you want to listen to *good* music). I hate airplane headphones, they are usually uncomfortable and don’t block outside sounds. Also they aren’t anywhere near as cute as mine! Headphones are super easy to deco, even if you have little ear bud ones a few diamantes will jazz them up nicely!

Keep hair and make up simple but elegant.

If you want to do make up, take a kit with everything you need for touch ups before landing. Keep in mind that you might need to sleep in what you’re wearing. I love false eye lashes because they are hard to mess up even in your sleep! On flights to and from SG I wore little individual lashes on the corners of my eyes for a little punch with no effort (review on the lashes soon). I did my hair in Kitty Rolls which were comfortable, survived sleeping but still looked cute.

Below are some of my travel essentials. Clear zip pouch with make up and liquids, letter writing kit, wet naps, face washer, mini sewing kit and bag tags for checked in luggage.

A cute travel document holder is an essential.

I would be forever loosing my boarding pass or passport if I didn’t have something this bright to remind me! I deco’d this one myself.

And of course a matching passport holder helps too These are all made of suede so they feel soft enough to be used as a pillow if it’s an emergency!

A sleeping mask

Something overly cute suits best! I want to be adorable even when I’m asleep so I picked the sugariest thing I could possibly find ^_^

A jacket

Take it on the plane with you, seriously. Even if you’re going to a hot destination the plane is always freezing and those little blankets don’t help. Good protection against the rain too.

Things to keep you entertained.

I take pens, note book, DS and games and well as my little UFO hand massager which is awesome for when you just want to relax. I am a very fidgety person so I take as many little things to play with as possible. With this I can continue my Japanese lessons on the DS then practice kanji or sentence structure in my note book.

Candy!

Candy is good to pop your ears in the plane and also tastes great. And they are a good conversation starter if a cute boy is sitting next to you

<
p style=”text-align: center; color: rgb(204, 51, 204);”>Beating the climate bug

Pick clothes that are appropriate for your situation. Fabrics that don’t wrinkle or require ironing are great for long flights but synthetic fabrics are horrible in hot climates! On the plane to SG I wore a cotton printed cord dress with a lace cardigan over the top.

Fabric choice is important. While in the heat in SG I wore thin stockings, cotton dresses and cardigans. Everyone was sweltering in the heat, even though I was wearing more layers I was cool because I was wearing fabric that could breathe.

Layering is the key to being ready for any weather! Cardigans are awesome, you can dress them up or down, take them off if you’re hot or add a jacket if you’re cold.

Weapons of choice:

A fan

I picked this one up for $0.70 and added bows, diamantes and lace. They are compact and can be invaluable in the heat. They can also be used to hide yawns behind in boring situations, keep your coughs or sneezes to yourself or whisper gossip to a friend

Keep it in your hand bag!

A singlet

Singlets are the ultimate versatile piece of travel clothing. Wear during the day if it’s hot, layer with a cardigan to go out to dinner, use as pajamas or as swimmers if you’re in a pinch. Cute pajamas are surprisingly important, if you have luck like mine you’ll end up outside at 2am for a fire drill chatting to the other hotel patrons so this is probably not the right time to sleep in the nude

Be prepared for anything because holidays are all about going with the flow!

Sun protection eg. a sun hat, sunscreen etc.

The sun is mean and evil, stay away from it! No one likes sun burn, it’s icky. Don’t stop protecting your skin just because you’re on holiday. ‘Nuff said.

Sunglasses

… ok maybe not “‘Nuff said”… These are only half for the sun protection though. The other half is looking damn good! There is nothing classier that popping on some nice sunglasses when you’re not feeling 100%. Hide the bags under your eyes from the 7hr flight and look like a rock star

A handbag sized umbrella.

These fold down so tiny there’s not much of an excuse not to have one. This one has an aluminum frame so it’s super light and is perfect in unpredictable weather or in place of a parasol.

A scarf

I carry a scarf and a face washer with me pretty much all the time. The face washer was a gift from a friend in Japan, the lady’s bathrooms there don’t have hand towels so most girls carry their own but it’s also useful for mopping up spills on nice dresses, fixing make up, using as a small pillow and the list goes on!

The scarf is not only useful but looks damn stylish hanging off a handbag! Did your hair get ruined? Then wear it like a 50′s movie star. Forget the hot rollers? Use it for pin curls. Sudden hay fever attack and not a tissue in sight? Well you get the idea…

Other travel musts:

Gifts for the new friends you meet!

I didn’t get to hand any of these little babies out because we were just so busy but I really wanted to give them to the organizers at Nuffnang. It’s a really great idea to take something from your home country. These little kangaroo and koala toys didn’t cost much but I hand glued a bow and diamante to each to personalize them. That way your friends will have something cute to remember you by

And you won’t feel awkward if someone gets you something nice because you’ll have something give back!

Slippers

You never know where you’re going to have to walk in your hotel. Whether it’s for that proverbial 2am fire drill or you want to visit a friend down the hall, you never know who’s icky feet have been there before you. Cute little ones like these only cost me $10 and they fold up to practically nothing in your suitcase.

Nail repair kit

I am a big believer in preparing for any situation, James says I should have been a girl scout. That’s why I carry a nail repair kit with spare nails, glue clear polish and anything else you might need.

Bags within bags within bags within bags…

This is important because it keeps everything nice and separate in your suitcase, no searching through the make up bag for a hair band because they have their own bags! Being organized is key to a fantastic wardrobe, if you are well organized you can find all the right accessories at a glance… and there are is always room somewhere in here for more little bits and pieces you buy along the way.

Tiny cute bottles.

These cost $1.50 per pair and they are some of the best things I’ve ever bought. This way you can take all of your usual bathroom liquids with you. You can even get ones with spray lids for things like curl enhancer. Very cleaver.

Business cards:

You never know who you’re going to meet while out and about and if you’ve got a blog or business then it’s a great idea to have a couple of business cards with you. Mine are double layered so there is my blog card on top and by graphic design card on bottom. They stand out because they are fastened with a bow in the top corner ^_^

Foreign currency

Don’t go anywhere without it. Some places don’t accept credit cards etc so make sure you check before you go, it’s always useful to have some foreign currency on hand for taxis etc anyway.

A bag full of cables for your various gadgets.

Definitely important so you can charge your ipod/laptop/phone etc. A power point converter is also a great idea. The most important part of this is the bag, don’t bother going searching through your whole suitcase just grab the bag. On the way home the bag also be used as carry on luggage for all that extra shopping

Luggage:

I hate not being able to find my luggage at the other end. I’m also paranoid because I’ve had luggage stolen before and no matter what compensation you get there are some things which can’t be replaced. So if it can’t be replaced, don’t pack it. I also hate that all luggage pretty much looks the same. Ideally I would have liked one of these babies by Hideo Wakamatsu but as we only discovered how broken our old cases were the day before we left, I didn’t really have time to shop for a new one :(… It’s made my dream list for next time though, in fact I would go as far as to say that this is my dream suitcase! (click the image for the specs)

So in lue of one of those beauties we borrowed plan old suit cases from James’ parents. To make it more memorable I tied some old crappy acrylic lace around it several times. James laughed at me but it worked, we spotted our bags in like 2 seconds at the other end and were out of there!

Super bright bag tags help too if you can’t afford a whole new suitcase.

When you get home…

Unpack everything as quickly as possible otherwise you’ll get lazy and it will never get done! I’ve left a suitcase for weeks before because I was tired when I got home and then got busy at work, don’t fall into the trap! It only took me like half an hour to unpack both of our cases this time.

So hopefully you’ve enjoyed some of my silly tips and they make your next trip even more fun!

Do you have some fun tips to share with me?

Posted in Craft, Decoden, Inspiration, Life, Tutorial |

Tags: angelic pretty jacket, bag tags, beating the climate, business cards, candy, cherry blossom luggage, clear zip pouch, comfortable hair, customised, Cute, cute headphones, cute luggage, decorated, face washer, fan, gifts, hat, headphones, Hideo Wakamatsu, hot climate, jacket, James, jimmy america, letter writing kit, mcdonalds, money, Nail Art, nail repair kit, nintendo ds, on the plane, overseas trips, parasol, passport holder, Plane Trips, Pretty Things, scarf, sewing kit, Singapore, singlet, sleeping mask, slippers, something lucky, sunglasses, sweet dreams, Tips, Travel, travel document holder, traveling in style, traveling in style with violet, travelling, umbrella, Wish List |

25 Comments »

SUPER GIRLY PRINCESS TIME VIDEO

November 2nd, 2009 |

Author: Violet

So remember when I said that I’d have a surprise when I reached 100 followers? Well today I reached 109! How exciting! My surprise is I’m going to start video blogging

Because I’m still working on some real videos I thought I’d share with you a video of the fun Candice aka Super Kawaii Mama had while we were over in Singapore. This is why I was holding back the photos of us over the weekend. It’s so funny when you meet someone for the first time and feel like you’ve known them for years, I couldn’t have asked for better traveling buddies ^_^

So enjoy and let me know what you want to see in my future videos

Posted in Hime Gyaru, Life, Violet Vision |

Tags: candice, candice deville, Cute, Fellow Blogger, fun video, funny, Girly, making singapore cute, merlion park, Nuffnang, pink merlion, Singapore, super kawaii mama, superkawaiimama, trip to singapore, Video, video blogging, Violet Vision |

21 Comments »

Just blogging about Sinagpore again la!

October 31st, 2009 |

Author: Violet

A warning that there are a lot of photos in this post so be warned If these photos just aren’t enough, I’ve uploaded a large selection of everything we took over at my Flickr account. Hey it’s not everyday that someone flies you to Singapore for free so I took a lot of photos!

So starting on Thursday night, our flight was at like 11:45pm so James’ Dad drove us to the airport and we chatted before going through security and customs and doing a little shopping. We were keeping an eye out for Erica from Girl With a Satchel who was the only other blogger coming from Brisbane. We travel in style baby!

This is a kind of silly inside joke but ever since we started going out like 2 and 1/2 years ago James has been promising to buy me a mood ring and he finally did! Hahaha guess what I’m feeling!

The food and service on the plane was lovely, we flew with Singapore Airlines. They gave us little travel packs with socks and tooth brushes, how cute! For dinner we had yummy noodles.

We arrived at the Link Hotel at around 5am and we were all so tired that we piled into bed! Erica was only a couple of rooms down the hall from us which was awesome! She was such a wonderful traveling companion, we had lots of fun together! Here is our hotel room…

To give you an idea of the size, that’s a double bed and the wall is behind the desk on the right. My little laptop Edward lived there but the internet connection was very sketchy so I couldn’t post

After a few hours napping we met up with Erica, Candice and her husband Craig for an… interesting breakfast. Erica ordered coffee with skim milk and they brought her a cup of frothed milk. I ordered tea and they brought warm milk tea like you would have with pearls in it… it was very pretty though!

After breakfast we headed out to a shopping center and shopped around, the girls were super excited that there was a Zara! We met up with Grace and Dave here and she introduced herself by sneaking up behind me, poking me in the back and whispering in my ear “GIMME ALL YOUR MONEY!!” she managed to scare the hell out of me

I bought a pair of earrings and Candice bought me a shiny pink bling ring, the shop assistants kept telling I looked like a Barbie Doll so we took a photo together

Erica was sleepy so she went back to the hotel while Candice and I got pedicures! Ah felt so good and so much nicer than the places here in Aus! Woo for deco iphones!

After that we went back to the hotel to get ready for the awards, which you saw last post so I’ll skip to the next morning which was Friday. I stayed up after the awards and got up early so I could pin curl my hair. I was going to take hot rollers but they were too heavy so I learned to pin curl instead. I was super happy with the results and they lasted all that day and night! James and I met up with Candice and Craig for breakfast at the hotel before the tour started.

Our first stop was the Mint Toy Museum… which is exactly what it implies: a museum for old toys in mint condition. Our tour guide was hilarious, this kind of sums the whole thing up:

I got to pose with a life size model my childhood hero Tintin and his dog Snowy as well as Captain Haddock so I was happy!

We were literally like kids in a toy shop amongst all of the memorabilia! Old favorites like Strawberry Shortcake brought back childhood memories and it made me sad to see the new slutty version they’re trying to pedal now.

Next we went to the Museum of Early Chinese Settlers. You should all note that I’m saving the cutest girliest photos for a special treat on Monday or Tuesday You’re going to love it!

We stopped for lunch at an insanely busy crowded pavilion. Everything was so cheap and there were so many smells in one small area!

It was so awes
ome to be with other people who understand the importance of photos

Our next stop was the Singapore Planning Museum. They had a replica of all of inner Singapore in miniature! Oh what’s that I spy down there?

ZOMG IT’S GIANT VIOLET ATTACKING THE CITY!

We stopped off for a spot of shopping but the museum of planning kept reminding me to look at the architecture There were so many pretty buildings, I wish my windows were rainbow!

The next stop was Merlion park which I was totally looking forward to!

We spent ages just being silly and taking photos, most of those will be in the post on Mon/Tues.

Lots of posing!

Our next stop was the Singapore Flier which is basically a very fancy ferris wheel.

The view from the top was great!

We were fortunate that our capsule was full of awesome people!

Group shot! James, Me, Candice, Craig, Christie with little Immy and Erica.

It was such an action packed tour that Nuffnang had planned at this point we took some time out to just chill with some cocktails at the bay. I had a mocktail version of the “Sinagpore Sling” and it was yummy!

Little Immy was so adorable she had herself a bunch of admirers when the day was done. Here she is with Martin from Nuffnang, she was eating ice cream, too cute!

James made me take this picture of him next to the bus. Low brow humor…

That night we went to a crazy shopping center called Mustafa. There is no way to describe it other than insane. So huge, sold everything from cosmetics to diamonds to cheap shoes to frozen goods to ANYTHING. It was so hard just to find the exit once we were in *_* The lights outside were beautiful though.

We had dinner at a celebrity hot spot (apparently) and out the front there was the ultimate deco project… a motorbike!

I had the most disgusting grass jelly drink for dinner. It was like frozen rice noodles in sugar water. ICK.

After a good night’s sleep we were ready for shopping again Quick breakfast and some photos.

We headed off to Orchard Rd for fancy upmarket shopping.

I bought a bunch of Japanese magazines, I was so happy! They are like 1/3rd of the price compared to Australia!

The boys played Wii Sports Resort while we all shopped.

Then it was our last shopping stop for the trip…. SIM LIM SQUARE! Everyone had been waiting so long to get here, it’s basically a whole shopping center devoted to gadgets and cameras I wanted to get a video camera (mission unsuccessful) and James wanted to look at lenses. We ended up spending 3 hours there because everyone wanted to bargain for things! Some of the guys got really good deals t
oo I had a hilarious experience with Grace as she put on her famous Singaporean accent to try and bargain on my behalf The shop keeper was a nut job and he was yelling at us not to leave! Grace’s bargaining skills were so awesome she even got $5 off a steam iron which was supposed to be set price!

While we were wandering around waiting for the boys to finish haggling Kruppy took us on his magical tour of the past and educated us on the subtitles of the landline phone

Apparently his tour made him so tired that he felt the need to try out a magic eye massaging gadget… hahaha! I sure hope he didn’t sustain any lasting damage ^_^

Oh and I couldn’t help but share the signs we could see from the hotel… Frog porridge sounds interesting! We were all daring each other to try it but there just wasn’t time!

After all that there was time for one last hurrah online and then a dash to the airport!

Erica can testify to the fact that our taxi driver was the funniest man in the universe! He was giving us the good old cab driver philosophy and saying we should work less and enjoy life before our retirements! We were convinced he should write a book.

At the airport we grabbed some dinner and did a dash to the plane (almost missed it oops!). James couldn’t believe there was a Burger King, he was so excited! In Australia Burger King is called Hungry Jacks because when it first arrived the name was already taken, so it’s a novelty.