So I know I did a Snapshots post just recently buuuuut I have so much news to put in this that I couldn’t wait!
Firstly congratulations to Vintage Grrl! She is the winner of the Nuffnang chocolate competition 😀
This is her winning entry:
Chocolate doesn’t judge, it never asks questions, never wears the same outfit as you and doesn’t keep you waiting. Chocolate is comforting, sweet and always lets you talk it out with no interruptions. Chocolate is the perfect best friend, especially when you’re in no condition to be around actual people.
Thank you so much for everyone who entered and good luck for next time!
Secondly!
I’ve been working pretty hard the last few weeks and I wanted to share a little more of what I’ve been up to!I am now stocking vintage style hair flowers in local vintage store Circa Vintage. You can see a selection below, do go in store to check them out! I’m hoping to have time to get some photos of the store and everything to show you guys soon so here’s a sneak peak…
Speaking of local stores… I’ve also started stocking my nails in local alternative store Visage n Viceboutique. I’ve made special sets just for them as well as a couple of old favorites. If you want to see the nails in person just drop in and say hi to the friendly girls there!
I’m talking to another couple of stores at the moment so hopefully you will be able to buy my nails in more retail outlets around the place. If you own a store and would like to stock my nails please don’t hesitate to drop me a line ^_^
Thirdly…
I am trying to get back to being able to blog more often and be a good blogger again. At the moment I feel like I’m working 3 full time jobs… working as a designer, working as a blogger (seriously it takes so many more hours than people seem to think) and then working on the book for every waking second I get spare.The problem with all of that is that all 3 of them suffer when I can’t give my full attention to anything.
I’ve been thinking about it all a lot lately and the deadlines I was working with for the book would not allow me to bring your something I was really proud of. So I’ve re-worked everything to make things a little more fair for everyone (including my sanity). What this means is that while yes it will take longer to get the book out and available for publishing… everything will be perfect to the last detail in it and you guys won’t have to deal with me being a delinquent blogger as much XD This will give me more time to actually have craft days (which I’ve really missed!) and then actually post tutorials again!
In the short term what this means is:
Tomorrow I will be posting up the tutorial on modification of those Bodyline shoes so look forward to it ^_^
Lastly…
I found a bunch of photos I forgot I’d taken 😀
Let’s start with some architecture 😀 I don’t think the photo of this one really does it justice I couldn’t get an angle that wasn’t covered in trees!
There was some kind of big sale on in the meat area of the Victoria Markets, James was swallowed by the crowd trying to get what we needed for dinner!
These seagulls were hovering around the sea food section and looked on like they were ready to swoop. Damn sea gulls, they creep me out for some reason.
A while ago we went out for dinner with Celesteand Kev at a place called Ramen Ya. It’s supposed to be one of the best in Melbourne.
They do ramen and bento. Everywhere here in Melbourne seems to do bento which is awesome!
My miso base ramen was quite yummy but not the best I’ve ever had.
James had the curry bento and he really liked it! It was quite busy but not ridiculous. Verdict: I would probably go again if I happened to be near by and craving ramen but I wouldn’t go out of my way for it.
I thought I should do the typical tourist thing and show my international readers one of Melbourne’s famous graffiti alley ways. This is the emptiest I’ve seen it, normally it’s full of tourists snapping away ^_^
This was my favorite piece there, how cute are the little waves!
I received some lovely packages this week too! The lovely Glowwas kind enough to send James and I some housewarming presents and a beautiful note!
They are cute door hangers! Our house doesn’t have door knobs so she told me to use my imagination with them 😀 I can’t wait to add them to something fun I’m doing with the windows! Photos soon!
I also received a very full package from Angel of Modern Vintage Girl. Angel mentioned a while ago that she was sending me a dress and I was really surprised when all of this turned up too!
Plus this cute orange dress and pink bow belt! She writes all about vintage fashion in Israel and she runs an etsy store with the cutest vintage clothes here. That’s where I got that super sweet white felt hat of mine too! Silly face is silly and has therefore been censored.
Let’s see what else this week? I have to say thank you to all my lovely Twitter friends this week who were nice enough to help me with recipes for scallops! My first time cooking them and I was surprised and pleased at the results 😀
All around the Cbd there are pretty horse drawn carriages. I saw the horses being packed up to go home the other day. Their plated manes remind me of the “My Little Pony’s” I had as a kid XD
Celeste, Kev, James and I went to a farmer’s market too! When they said farmers market I was expecting pretty my a regular market with more fresh product because that’s what the ones I’ve visited in Brisbane have been like… turns out it was actually on a communal farm!
There were a bunch of kids playing in these barrels. Free range children mwahahaha!
There were gigantic fluffy chickens!
And smelly piggies:
And a strangely flexible and apparently itchy goat that we dubbed “Yoga Goat”…
That’s all for today so I’ll leave you with one last image that had me laughing so hard! For those overseas Moxie is a brand of overly cutely packaged… feminine products. This is apparently their new advertising campaign MWAHAHAHA!
Nuffnang was nice enough to send James and I to see a new movie called “Easy A“. To be honest when I first got the tickets I wasn’t thrilled at all. I don’t like the typical American teen comedies that have been popular in the last few years. I just don’t think gross out stuff is funny at all and having seen the trailer it looked kind of… meh. James loves those kind of movies though so I went along for the ride.
I’m actually really glad I went because the movie was the complete opposite of what I was expecting.
This is how it’s described by Sony:
After a little white lie about losing her virginity gets out, a clean-cut high school girl Olive Penderghast sees her life paralleling Hester Prynne’s in “The Scarlet Letter”, which she is currently studying in school – until she decides to use the rumour mill to advance her social and financial standing.
And this is the trailer:
I understand it from a marketing point of view but it only describes one aspect of what is a fairly complicated film. The actual movie is really smart, well thought out and involves some really serious issues like bullying. I think it struck a chord with me because I’ve been thinking a lot about bullying both online and in real life lately and what a disgusting pass time it is.
I can think of 2 examples even in the last few weeks where rumors in the blogosphere have been so out of control it has come to the point of death threats and people’s private information being leaked online. In both of those cases too it turned out that the rumors were completely unfounded and yet people were so quick to jump on the bandwagon that they destroyed their subject’s lives. Perhaps this is a lesson to all of us online that we should put less stock in gossip and take bullying like this a little more seriously.
I think this movie would appeal to anyone who has ever been the target of rumors or who have spread them. Even more so I think it would appeal to people like me who miss good old fashion teen movies of the 80’s and 90’s!
One of the most enjoyable parts of the movie was the mirroring of the novel “The Scarlett Letter” which got me thinking about which novel my life is currently similar to…
I thought it would be easier to draw you all a little comic strip, enjoy!
So competition time again!!
To enter to win a double pass to go see Easy A for yourself when it opens next Thursday just leave a comment answering the question:
Which book mirrors your life either now or when you were in highschool?
There are 5 double passes to give away and this competition is open to Australian residents only (sorry everyone else!!).
I think you all know that I love chocolate… but I don’t think you guys know how *much* I love chocolate. When I was sent some of Cadbury’s new range to test out, I just about jumped out of my chair screaming in excitement. Seriously. They are giving you a chance to win some too but first…
…Want to know how in love with chocolate I am?
One day James came home after a long day out shopping…
He is clearly the best boyfriend ever because he brought chocolate with him!
Two of Cadbury’s new range- “Bar of Plenty”! Berry fruit/vanilla shortcake and Roast hazelnut/honey roast cashews… WIN!
How good does it look?
Captain downer comes to the party unfortunately…
My life is so hard right??
And the scheming begins…the cogs and wheels turn..
SUCCESS!
With your chocolate powers combined (cue Captain Planet theme… please don’t make me feel old by telling me you didn’t watch Captain Planet as a kid)…
That’s right… I love chocolate *so much* that I would split myself into two just to get another piece!
OH YEAH!! That’s Berry fruit/vanilla shortcake Violet on the left and and Roast hazelnut/honey roast cashews Violet on the right.
Unfortunately even though there are now two of me… we are very much the still “only child”.
We don’t share.
James is ever the optimist…
-_-‘ Fail.
We also aren’t very nice people… but we work well together! Go team Violet!!
Mwahahaha! That’s how much I love chocolate!
The power of chocolate!
Oh yeah!
What Cadbury say about the new choc:
1. New Bar of Plenty combines interesting combinations of natural ingredients, all covered in smooth and creamy Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate.
2. Available in two different flavours: Oven Roasted hazelnut and cashews gently flavoured with honey and Summer berries with crunchy vanilla shortcake.
3. Available in local Coles, Woolworths, IGA and other selected outlets.
What I say about it:
Vanilla shortcake flavor is like someone was reading my mind… this has become my go-to chocolate for the last week!
I’m not a big fan of nuts in chocolate but James says the Hazelnut bar is very yummy too and not too hard to eat unlike other nut filled chocolates.
The bars and actual pieces are massive, 190 grams I’d say the actual squares are about twice the size of regular ones… this makes me a *very* happy girl.
I was send one bar of each of these. I actually loved the Berry/Vanilla one so much that I bought another 2 bars since then and ate them all myself! DO WANT!!
So are you hungry yet? I want some more!
This is the fun competition part of it!
To win AU$50 of chocolate you just need to leave a comment answering the question:
“Why are you in love with chocolate?”
Unfortunately this one is only open to Australian readers. The competition closes Midnight AEST 22nd September.
I’ve been wanting to try blue circle lenses for aaaages so I was so happy when E-Circlelens.net offered to send me some!
Yay for parcels in the mail! I was very happy when the post man delivered this 😀
Lots of careful packing with Styrofoam so nothing was broken. Shipping was nice and quick too.
I received two pairs, firstly the Belita Blue which have a diameter of 14.5mm. They are US$40 and the manufacturer is Dueba
They are the ones I wore in the poufy hair tutorial…
They have a black ring around the outside and very dramatic bright blue. On the website they look really crazy blue but when they are actually in I think they are more subtle. On darker eyes these would be quite subdued but I think they would really pop on light blue eyes.
My eyes are green with a brown ring in the middle so they blended quite well, I have fairly large pupils though. I think they might work really well for girls with lighter eyes too. After around 7 hours I found them to still be very comfortable and my eyes were only a tiny bit dry.
Verdict: Look massive, very cool for day to day wear. DO WANT
Secondly I received the Super Star Blue set which have a diameter of 14mm. They cost US$40, last for 1 year and the manufacturer is New Bio.
These ones are smaller than a lot of lenses but the black ring around the outside makes them pop anyway.
These ones have a much more subtle blue to them. Well there really isn’t very much blue but they have tiny blue stars! How cute is that? When you are a reasonable distance away it kind of looks just light blue flecks in you eyes but close up they really pop!
I wore these ones for around 6 hours and they were comfortable too. The only thing I didn’t like was that because my pupils are larger than average every now and then I could see blur from the stars entering my frame of vision.
Close up you can really see the little stars. I think these ones are really fun for photoshoots!
I think on darker eyes the stars would be more obvious. These photos were all taken with James’ DIY ring flash so that’s why there is a white circle in the middle of my pupils, it’s not part of the lenses XD
Verdict: Very cute effect but best for photoshoots. DO WANT
Read more about my policies on sponsored posts here.
Morning! Everyone is always asking me where I get my ideas from. How do I come up with craft ideas? What possesses me to add lace to everything I own? Why on earth do I insist on wearing such impractical looking clothing?
Today I thought I would try to give you a bit of an insight into myself and take you into a very scary place… my brain.
I was given the opportunity by Nuffnang to take a Panasonic Lumix TZ10 camera for a spin so I thought it would be a good way for you all to take a look into how I see the world! The best part is that there’s a competition at the end too ^_^
So are you ready to go in my brain? Make sure to wipe your feet before you enter, I don’t want you tracking mud all over my pretty pink brain!
Step 1.
Press play on the video below. It’s “Super Jet Shoes” by Perfume and it’s my favorite song at the moment. It’s been stuck in my head for several months now! This will be your soundtrack to my life ^_^
Step 2.
Hover your mouse over each of the images below to see the difference between how the Panasonic Lumix TZ10 sees life and how I see it. You might have to hover a few seconds for my view to load but don’t give up, they are all there!
Step 3.
Put on your Super Jet Shoes (mine are my boots) and let’s get going!
My constant companion for the day is my phone. Music, friends and fun are just a second away with this…
ThePanasonic Lumix TZ10 is around the same size as my phone though it’s a little heavier. I have been keeping it in my jacket pocket ever since I got it. It has a lot of features that a gigantic camera has like a big zoom but it still has a little body. Great for snapping on the go. The “Intelligent Auto” feature makes it quite difficult (even for someone as uncoordinated as me) to take a bad photo.
We have started to catch the tram places now to see friends but it’s so different to Brisbane public transport!
Quick start up means you can get photos in a few seconds and snap stuff you wouldn’t normally see like the inside of a tram without the driver.
I actually think trams look like gigantic electric kitties. The second I saw them I was reminded of Susie who is obsessed with kitties!
The big back wires that hang everywhere remind me of spider webs or maybe knitting… or maybe gigantic knitting spiders.
Fancy “Intelligent Auto” feature means I can take photos in terrible lighting without having to fiddle with stuff or have the technical knowledge that James does.
Sometimes not having a car can be tough with getting all of our groceries or bigger items home but it’s much easier with a little help ^_^
Of course you really just can’t go past the shopping here 😉
We visited Chadstone that day too and it’s massive!
Do you see a bit of a continued theme here yet??
More interestingly is what happens when I see something like this…
That happens quite a bit. I really try to see what something could turn into rather that what it already is 😉
I wish our landlord allowed pets but I can always dream!
Very big zoom which allows you to take covert photos of other people’s pets from the tram 😉
That pretty much sums me up I think… I hope you’ve enjoyed being in my brain for a day!
This shot was taken using the “Pin Hole” setting which is my favorite of the ridiculous amount of settings. I’ve been using the food setting lots too ^_^
So all of the photos in this post were taken with the Panasonic Lumix TZ10 aaaand thanks to Panasonic and Nuffnang you guys have the chance to win one just like mine! Well maybe not *just* like mine because I’ve already deco’d mine mwahaha 😉
So about the actual camera, I’m going to do a big proper pros/cons review on the Panasonic Lumix TZ10 this week in terms of being a good camera for blogging and showing the quality of the HD video etc but here is a quick run down of my 3 favorite features:
-The big thing with Panasonic Lumix TZ10 is that it has built in GPS so if you go on holidays or you’re traveling around town near landmarks it will remember where you were and tag your photos with the location! The drawback to this is that unless you specifically switch the function off, it chews through battery even if the camera is off. The photo organization software it comes with also only works on a PC so I wasn’t able to test it.
-My absolute favorite feature is that you can register people on it so when you focus on me it actually says “Violet” and comes up with a little heart, how cute is that?! You can even register your pets!
-It can also take HD videos and fits neatly in my bag or pocket which is very useful for blogging!
This is the basic information from their website for the more tech savvy of you:
Key Points for the Panasonic Lumix TZ10:
Built-in GPS for easy organization of the photos you took on your holidays!
25mm wide-angle 12x optical zoom f/3.3-4.9 LEICA DC VARIO-ELMAR lens…allowing it to have twice the shooting area of the standard 35mm lens
Double hand-shake correction allowing you to take beautiful night shots at slow shutter speeds without blurring
Record movies in HD with no loss of image quality!
12.1 Megapixels
RRP AU$650
More information for the Panasonic Lumix TZ10 can be found here.
NUFFNANG COMPETITION TIME!
If you like the look of this camera you can enter into the draw to win one very easily ^_^
To enter just leave a comment on this post and answer this question “Where in the World would you take the Panasonic Lumix TZ10 and what photo would you take?”
Comments here will go into the draw to win the grand prize!
So up until now I’ve been selling nail art on Etsy and privately when someone emails me… but now I’ve officially opened my own store attached to the blog 😀
The first wave of products has been uploaded and they are ready for sale! I’ve been working on this for quite some time so I really hope you enjoy it all. I’m still tweaking a couple of things and updating all of my links so please do let me know if you find any problems!
For now I will be selling just nail art but eventually I will be adding deco’d items and prints of my art work! I will be taking commissions too so if there is something you would like me to make you please just let me know ^_^
Now let me introduce you to the nails I’ve been working on… These are just small snap shots to give you a taste, to see the full set just click the picture!
The Princess’ Afternoon Snack
Pink Safari
Spring Fling
Bling Bling
Come Over to the Dark Side
That 70’s Pattern
The Snow Princess
Chocolate Disco
The Dark Flower
Rockabilly
Ice Cream at the Malt Shop
Happily Ever After
Red Glass
Stripe Me Down
Tea Party
Losing My Marbles
Bad Dog No Biscuit
Leopard to Match a Hat
Private School
Pink Safari
Icing Stripes
Plus many more!
Thanks so much for looking everyone! I hope you find something you like!!
Stay tuned tomorrow because I’ll be having a big give away to celebrate a couple of milestones here including the nail art store 😀
Illustrator. Strong tea, knitting, watercolours, and making a video game called Moonlight in Garland. Living with her adorable husband Jimmy, fluffy puppy Miss Lottie and Bergamot Bunny in Melbourne, Australia.
