Some of these photos are from months ago that I only just found today *_* I don’t know what on earth is going on with my computer’s filing system everything is out of order and I seem to have randomly lost a bunch of photos. Need to be more organised!!
Quite some time ago James and I were working on a video project which needed a voice over so our clients organised a recording studio. The lovely Jen and I are going over the scripts below.
Our sound technician for the day was just awesome, so knowledgeable and being in the industry since the 70’s and working with some absolutely massive names, he had some epic stories!
The whole place was decked out with 70’s style stone walls so it was kind of like stepping into a time machine. James and I were more interested in the tech equipment though, it reminded me of when I worked in theatre a long time ago 😀 So many buttons!
We were lucky enough to visit Doll at the Mount before it closed too, it’s basically a tea house which is filled with dolls, knick knacks and toys run by the loveliest ladies.
They had pink sugar, so cute!
And zomg so many sandwiches and cakes, all of the little details were beautiful! Cupcakes covered with edible glitter, little flowers from the garden as decoration. So many varieties of scones too.
YUM!
Random hair clip that I snapped a picture of so I would remember to try it at home… the picture didn’t work: I completely forgot about it until now -_-‘
Random pretty architecture:
I got to catch up very quickly again with Jessicat before she headed back to Malaysia and we ate at the Pancake Parlour. It was so god to see her again but these are some of the photos that have disappeared >_< If I find them again I’ll post them! On the not of Pancake Parlour, it was nowhere near as good as the Brisbane one. The prices were higher, portions much smaller and the quality of the food was much lower. That said service was better and we didn’t wait long which is a change compared to Brisbane! I really do miss 24hr pancakes in a gigantic old refurbished church though!
We went to a restaurant which is one of the first places in Melbourne to have touch screen ordering, Novelty for the win!
Looking at this photo reminds me that it’s been ages since I curled my hair, I’ve been very lazy! Actually I’m thinking of getting a curling iron for some variety, as I usually just do pin curls or use my straightener. Do you girls have any recommendations for one? I thought about getting the mini curler which is from the same line as my straightener because it’s been so good but I’m worried that with a mini one it will take forever to do my whole head!
Some of the delicious food at that place:
And James being his usual classy self…
Speaking of James’ classy self, we went on a double date with Celina and her partner Toby to a buffet place a while ago. James was sad to see that they had burger ingredients but no burgers so he made his own with a dinner roll -_-‘
I also tried oysters for the first time in like 8 years and this was the resulting face:
He took several photos of my reaction that he’s threatening to make into an animated gif if I didn’t show you a picture of the best steak he ever had… It’s from the Intercontinental hotel and apparently if it was legal he would leave me and marry it.
Back to less manly things, here is some more random architecture. I totally want to live in this building just so I can sit in the turret and look longingly out the window.
This building over in Docklands had a gigantic anchor flag thing on it’s roof which was pretty cool.
Pretty walkway between buildings, I want my future house to have gigantic iron gates like that 😀
And for today’s humour this is apparently what happens when James doesn’t have enough *actual* work to do, he practises his skills and plays in Photoshop and makes fictional magazine covers -_-‘ I swear if there actually was a magazine such as and they actually asked me to be on a cover *cough yeah right* this I would brush my hair and put on a reasonable amount of make up on first.
And I will leave you with the fluffiest puppy ever. EVER.
It’s been a while since I did one in the series of storage posts but my apartment hasn’t really been in a presentable state lately so that’s why! Today on the tour is my clothing shelving area. Yet again since I took these photos I’ve completely redecorated (I tend to do that a lot) so I’ll have to take some more so I can show you the differences. I’ve re-done the dressing table as my hair/make up area, re organised the shelves in the cupboard as less of a display area. So after this last bit of bedroom area I’ve still got to show you my craft shelves, shoe shelves and bathroom… I should probably start cleaning that now XD
So the wardrobes here aren’t actually wide enough to hold coat hangers properly so I’ve got all my dresses hanging and squished in on an angle, everything else is folded and stacked onto shelves we bought at various junk stores. Poor James doesn’t get any hanging space other than for his nicer suits ^_^
So these are the two shelves:
The left one is James’ and the right one is mine though you can probably tell from the fact that his side is full of black XD We stack all of our hats on top and the scarves are folded under that. Seeing how messy it looks makes me want to have a big clean out and get rid of everything >_< I hate throwing things away in case I can reuse them but sometimes when I get in the right mood I will just go nuts and throw everything away.My side of the shelves in more detail:
I do try to be organised and actually keep the clothes sectioned according to type but a lot of the time I end up squishing things where they can fit.
Next to my shelf is a smaller shelf that has little things that need to be organised but don’t have a proper place yet. On the top of that shelf is my present bag. My friends and I often give each other little gifts as you’ve probably seen the package swaps I used to do in my snapshots posts (I’ve had to mostly stop now because international shipping is so freaking expensive), so this is where I keep everything before it’s given away. Now when I see something someone I know might like I just keep it in the bag until I can see them!
Beneath that I have sunglasses and James’ belt buckles, I’ve been thinking about deco-ing one of the pairs. I only ever switch between two of them so the other seem kind of wasted!
Below again is scarves and ties all rolled or folded so I can see which is which at a glance.
And below again are the tissues, handkerchiefs and face washers. All of this used to be in the cube part of the wardrobe but it fits much better here.
Moving on to some other random decorating around the house, I decided to take Miss Glo-w’s advice on my diy chandelier and add some pearls. I bought this chain thing which is supposed to go around a wine bottle for $2…
Cut the bottom off…
And glued it to the centre of the piece. Extra cuteness. I’m going to keep adding strings of various things to it as I get them and eventually when I have a backyard again I’ll probably spray paint it with chrome so it’s super shiny.
Someone also asked about one of the places I posed in front of in an outfit post. My apartment has these gigantic glass panels on most of the doors and walls, they are very pretty but also not quite opaque enough for my taste so I covered them in cheap damask wrapping paper for a little extra privacy and an extra pretty detail.
On the other side I use chalk pens to draw when I get the urge. I haven’t done it in a while so they are still decorated in bees from my Pushing Daisies obsession ^_^ I started drawing flowers and daisies at the bottom to match but got bored so ended up temporarily gluing some in place until I can get more inspiration for it.
And I think that’s about it for now! Hope you all enjoyed and it gave some ideas ^_^ I would love to hear/see how you decorated your places!
First off we took a trip to Cacao Green which is a new frozen yoghurt place at 285 Swanston St. Celeste was there for a food blogger event and as James and I have been writing for her on her food blog, we tagged along.
Me with the adorable owner Alvi, she was so sweet!
This is the best green tea latté I’ve ever tried period. I’m completely addicted to them now, I’ve been back like 3 times for more because even the large is only $4.70 XD
I had a delicious berry parfait (again I’ve been back for these!) so delicious.
James’ tried the blueberry waffles and he said it was the best he’s had in a long time.
I love hanging out with food bloggers, they are always so friendly and it was awesome to catch up with everyone!
I know I’ve mentioned visiting here before in snapshots when they just opened but it’s so yummy I could talk about them all day haha!
Everything here is all natural, fair trade, organic etc and the yoghurt is made from organic non-fat milk if you look out for things like that.
Toppings
So that was an awesome day and I definitely recommend heading over to try a green tea latté 😀
I think a lot of this snapshots post is about awesome places we’ve eaten >_< We were recently introduced to Korean fried chicken at a place called Gami Chicken and after discovering they deliver to our apartment it’s become a dangerous obsession haha!
Cute sign at Gami:
Kev and Celeste trying to be serious for 5min so we could take photos.
Kim and I were trying to take photos together but SOMEONE was kind enough to photobomb us, she was so quick though the she looks like a ghost!
And my ever classy boyfriend does not let greasy chicken fingers get in the way of making the same face he makes in every single photo ever.
The poor trees in our area can’t decide whether it’s Winter or Autumn because of the strange weather so most of them seem to have dropped half their leaves and given up in protest.
I can’t believe it’s been so long and I haven’t posted these yet, I need to get organised and do snapshots more often. Months ago we had an MBBE meet where everyone brought make up they no longer needed or didn’t suit them and we swapped. I of course was running on half a brain that morning and forgot my bag of stuff >_< Seriously fail, I have since swapped and given it all to friends/bloggers who it would suit so it worked out in the end!
So much stuff!
Of course wer were all totally orderly about it…
Ok maybe not..
No clue what we were talking about here but apparently it was hilarious and involved some kind of hat!
Taking a change of pace, this is the saddest looking puppy ever:
Second only to this puppy (my Dad’s dog Ruby) who is only pretending to be sad so I will turn the heater on next to her basket.
We went to an event at MadMex so I could write a post for Celeste’s food blog and I had my first taste of “authentic” Mexican food.
James was in paradise here because he misses all of the Mexican available in Texas while he was growing up. I was really surprised how much I liked it too as I’m not a fan of spicy things.
Here in Aus, Mexican isn’t very common so they printed instructions of how to open a burrito on the napkin XD I think I still failed at it hahaha!
I’ve been looking around at a lot of junk stores lately for storage solutions and I spotted these cute garden pike thingies. I want to buy some and break off the legs so I can glue them to the bottoms of our windows, it would be so cute!
An adorable mini tea pot:
That’s all for now, tune in to the next snapshots post to laugh at the face I make tasting an oyster for the first time in many many years. I’m considering making a gif out of it XD
I’ve been putting off writing this post. Seriously, I have withdrawals every time I have to look at the pictures. You’ll understand why by the end. This post is seriously picture heavy, even more so than usual.
Almost a year ago I went to an event at the Langham hotel here in Melbourne. It was right after I moved here and I was so excited because I had never been to a hotel with such pretty decor before. From that event I was invited to join the Press Club which is an extension of the Langham’s 1865 program. Part of that included a complimentary night at the hotel. I can’t tell you how excited I was at the prospect of a night away so I put the press pack away to save until I really needed a break! Fast forward to April this year and I decided that it was time to treat James to something special, it was coming up to my birthday and it’s our 4 year anniversary the end of this month as well as the one year point of coming to Melbourne so it felt like high time for a little time away!
I booked it all in and made sure not to schedule anything that night but kept it a secret from James. Those who know me, know how hard that is because I giggle at inappropriate times and always want to tell James if I’ve done something clever! I managed to keep it a secret though and surprised him with packed bags! He was as excited as me by the time we walked across the river.We were greeted by the doormen who took our bags and showed us the way inside to the check in desk. The lady who checked us in was genuinely lovely and chatted with us while she arranged our papers. She gave a rundown of what was included in our stay and amenities of the hotel and even before knowing who were were she was super friendly (I assume the fact that I was there as press was written on their system). That was a real theme among the staff, every single person we spoke to was pleasant, went beyond the call of duty and was *genuinely* friendly. More on that later!
From there we had a little wander around the lobby which was spectacular with several sprawling staircases and really decadent decorations, then headed up to our room. I didn’t really know what to expect, a free night at a hotel I assumed that we would be in a small standard room… not so! They put us in the spa suite which is the second best one in the entire hotel, that’s saying something too because it’s a 5 star place!
Seriously, when we got inside I almost had a heart attack, the suite was bigger than our apartment!!!!
Allow me to take you on a little tour. Here is the entry hall with floor length mirrors for outfit shots.
There was a bathroom behind the mini kitchen for guests. The kitchen itself was very well stocked with a tea cabinet, mini kettle, a lot of drinks, snack and necessities.
Through the hall was the lounge area, large tv and very comfy couches as well as a writing desk, phone and one of the most spectacular views in Melbourne. To give you a real sense of space here is a panorama James took as I was texting Celeste how excited I was hahaha! Click these pictures for bigger versions to get a real sense of it.
From the entry hall:
On the left is the door to the bedroom, right is the kitchen/second bathroom:
The view from the writing desk…
Better versions of the spectacular view at night/day:
Tea in many varieties 😀 😀 😀
From there you walk through to the bedroom which has full wardrobes, tv, phone and more of that spectacular view.
The wardrobes had bathrobes and slippers and beside the bed there was an iPod docking alarm clock. The whole place was wifi enabled and apparently you could connect to the tv via bluetooth as well.
Through the bedroom was a dressing area stocked with chocolate frogs 😀 clearly they know me well!
Through from there was the bathroom. Oh don’t get me started on the bathroom.
It was like someone had read my mind and designed something perfectly for me! Double sinks, gigantic heated mirror (oh yes you read right), double shower and a HUGE spa behind them! DO WANT.
I am somewhat of a bathroom obsessive, I love my long showers so this was heaven!
Before I get side tracked on that I want to point out all the little details that were taken care of in the room that put the icing on the cake- big make up mirror so I didn’t have to lean across the sink, box stocked with quality toiletries: nice things like a bathbomb for the spa- not the crap that you usually get at a hotel, big Vidal Sassoon hair dryer- again not the little ones you usually get.
Spa goodies:
Leather box full of toiletries:
Unpacked because I’m nosy:
Just as we were done exploring our bags were delivered and the phone rang. It was the lovely Service Stylist Jamila calling to welcome us and seeing if we would like a tour of the hotel later in the evening. We agreed and decided to have a wander to see the health spa and also hunt up some afternoon tea.
We visited the Aria Bar and were just in time for high tea.
James got the regular one and I got the chocolate one.
The service was great here too, even though we were right on closing the attendant let us in anyway and chatted away with us until the food and tea was ready.
The tea was really nice as were the chocolates, some were a bit much for me but I think I was just more in a savoury mood at the time.I thought the sandwiches were a little old probably because we were so late to get there, but James REALLY enjoyed his.
On the way back to our room we stopped by the gift store and Chaun health spa.
The “Flavours of the Langham” store had not only pretty Langham themed merchandise but also really lovely souvenirs and general items.
Did I mention that everything at the hotel is pink with gold damask and therefore would look awesome in my house?
We took a quick tour around the spa area afterward, they did massages, had a very fancy gym and an awesome looking heated swimming pool. It made me a bit sad I didn’t bring my swimsuit… Then I remembered my room had a spa and I stopped caring haha! The thing I though was very cool is that you could order spa treatments from them to be brought up to your room and they would set them up into your spa! Very luxurious 😀
When we managed to drag ourselves back to the hotel room someone had come by and set up wine and cheese for us as well as leaving a press pack.
After relaxing and taking a quick shower we went back down to meet Jamila for a tour around the hotel.
She brought me a pink rose which was so sweet!
Upstairs they have big function rooms for weddings and the like, they are all decorated in rich dark wood reminding me a lot of my Grandma’s library as a child. So beautiful and the outside had another spectacular view.
Jamila suggested we check out the Club downstairs before going to dinner so she could introduce us to Suzanne the manager.
If you stay in any of the Club rooms it gives you access to this place all the time, they have quiet areas for reading, tables with a view (I swear every place in the damn hotel had a view), open bar and breakfast/afternoon tea/pre dinner canapés etc. The most important thing they have there is Suzanne though. She was the nicest, most entertaining, adorable lady I have ever met. She even looked awesome wearing James’ hat!
We chatted for a while and she made sure everything was perfect for us. It was a real pleasure to watch someone who seemed to genuinely love their job, she was keeping the kids there entertained, knew every guest by name and was just so genuine that the good time she was having was infectious!
We ate a bunch of the yummy appetizers and James even tried his manliest drink so far- gin and sprite hahah!
After chilling there we decided to head back to the hotel room and spend the rest of the night doing absolutely nothing.
Spending time here was so relaxing! I thought it was high time to give that spa a good work out.
At around 7ish someone came by to turn down the room but I felt a bit weird with that much luxury, I mean I have arms, I can remove pillows myself! Luxury is what nights like this are all about though so next time I will make myself take advantage of that while I have the chance!
James has wine, I have… tea XD The little kettle was so cute that we named him max, but max doesn’t like to be pet on the head while hes working. Doing so can result in serious burns for your stupidity…
We were so full from all of the snacking that we decided to leave dinner and just order room service later in the night from the 24 hour menu. Being the super high class people we are… We ordered nachos and chips XD it was very nice though and for some reason came with an assortment of 5 different mustards that James had to taste. Anthony, the man who took the order from James was yet again super nice and very helpful.
The next morning we woke up to James’s music as an alarm and the fantastic view again.
It’s funny how little things from home like having the alarm doc etc can be so relaxing. The bed was so comfy that James started drawing up diagrams of how to sneak it home and the doona wasn’t one of those horrible heavy hotel ones that practically chokes you during the night.
After making full use of the heated mirror again I got dressed and headed down to the Club room for breakfast.
There was a good selection of breakfast foods including bacon, eggs and delicious honeycomb.
While staring out the window I really could imagine myself as being quite the Victorian lady dining at her club.
Fresh flowers in the room:
We had a late checkout at 12 so the rest of the day was spent in our room lounging about and taking photos. It was really wonderful not to worry about packing and just relax. They treated us like royalty and it was such a breathtaking experience I didn’t want to leave!
As we checked out I thought seeing as this is probably the only time in my life I’ll have access to a concierge I should ask for a recommendation of a place to get my nails done for my birthday. Again I was blown away by how genuine and friendly he was. He found some fantastic sounding places, offered to book me an appointment, drew me a map and then as we were in no hurry to leave we got to chatting about all the important things: science fiction and fantasy novels! Peter=the best concierge ever. I made him take a photo with me and at 151cm I look so little next to him!!
On the way out the doorman offered to get us a cab and then when we said we were walking he offered to store our bags until later, I know things like that are part of his job but still so thoughtful.
Hahaha James was greatly amused that this was the face I made at the thought of going home:
Competely unrelated but how cute are the gigantic bee statues on this building? I noticed it out the window ^_^
I’m sure you can tell by this point what a good time I had there being a princess for a day! Looking back through all of the photos makes me miss it XD I’ve had a taste now and I want to go back! James has stayed in a lot of 5 star hotels in his time and he thought this out classed them all by a mile. Even Dubai!
In fact I think I will make it my life’s mission to visit every Langham hotel location all over the world.
The idea and decor of them matches me perfectly I think and how much fun would a blogging world tour be?? I could have meet ups in every city along the way 😀
Ah a girl can dream.
Until then I’ll be staring wistfully through this album and remembering that one awesome night 🙂
Thank you very much to everyone we met at the Langham, we had a wonderful time and hopefully we’ll see you again soon!!
Best birthday/anniversary/Melbourne anniversary ever.
As promised here are the images from the blogger meet up/interview at Illamasqua meeting the creator Julian Kynaston ^_^
Stef and Jacie asked a lot of really intelligent questions, I’m not good with interviews because I prefer just to listen and learn. We talked about up coming plans for an Illamasqua scent, the S.O.P.H.I.E charity’s launch here as well as so much more.
The lovely You’ve Got Nail got it all on video so I would suggest taking a look see for a really interesting interview!
The highlight of the night for me was when he mentioned that the Illamasqua girls at the Chadstone counter had recommended me to him and told him to look out for me. So sweet!
That week was so busy, the previous day there was an event at Kiehls to promote the fact that they are lowering their Australian prices to be more in line with the international prices. OMG A BEAUTY COMPANY LISTENED TO OUR COMPLAINING!!!
We were treated to yummy sushi 😀
The full list of prices being dropped can be found in store, some of them are up to 50% less now!
Celina and I with the lovely PR agent Jess who is super tall and had the cutest outfit.
I had to take a photo of her shoes because they were EPIC! I can’t believe she had been walking in these all day!!
Most of the MBBE girls were there as well as other bloggers, it was awesome getting to meet so many new lovely people!
We each had our skin looked at and were recommended custom products to suit. This is my attendant Daniel, he was super nice and even managed to squeeze in advice for James XD
No other company has ever bothered to ask James if he wanted samples so he was pretty chuffed! I’m going to force him to write a review of them here too mwahaha! I’ll be reviewing the products I was given too after I’ve tested them suitably.
We learnt about the history of the brand and spoke about the price drop. I have to say that I am in favor of anything that involves bringing Aus prices to a reasonable point compared to the rest of the world.
Dr Skeleton is in the house!
Favorite photo of the day involved stealing James’ hat 😉 It was a really wonderful night out yay for Kiehls and I’ll let you all know how I go with the products!
I’ve been digging through all my old photos looking for something specific so I thought I would posts some of the ones I found on the way today.
I found this photo the other day and it made me miss Brisbane a bit, well not so much Brisbane as our old house. We used to have a direct view into the city from our old place, this was the view from our balcony at sunset:
Speaking of pretty views this is the view from James’ parents place on the Sunshine Coast. Sometimes they would let us have a holiday there and I totally miss that too! Waking up to the ocean is nice, though there was about 12093091283 birds that lived in that tree outside who made it their mission to wake me up every morning at like 5am *_*
Saw these ages ago, heehee clearly someone who works for this company has been spending too much time listening to me…
James and I are mature as ever…
We do pay for our immaturity though, there was something in that icing which burned like hell! We ended up having red marks in the shape of the moustaches for a few hours after *_*
I found these photos of progress doing embroidery and it made me want to start up again.
I have so many half finished crafts laying around that it’s probably a bad idea though >_< They are all really long term projects though like cross stitches or big embroidery bags or other things that take lots of time and commitment so I find it hard to have motivation to keep going if I can see the end in sight. I really want to start knitting something again too but I feel like I should finish the other stuff first. Bleh, I’m in a crafting rutt and I need to re-motivate myself.
I think it’s probably all the rain that makes me just want to sit inside with a hot chocolate and nap all day. Very bad for productivity but damn nice anyway!
I’ve set up my sewing machine properly now so it’s out all the time in hopes of motivting myself. Maybe I’ll set up my tea warmer there too to bribe myself off the couch and away from the computer haha!
All the rain makes me want to buy cute gumboots for walking around town too XD I keep seeing cute designs around…
I also tried to clean out my nail polish collection but that just resulted in making a bit of a mess >_<
James continues to experiment with alternative hair styles but I’m not sure any of them are working for him…
I’m still completely fascinated with the architecture here and it seems everywhere we go has a pretty building or a stunning interior…
And I suppose that’s about it for now… I should stop procrastinating by writing this and go try to finish those crafts I was talking about!
Do you guys get into a crafting rut sometimes too? How do you all find motivation to get started again!? I need suggestions ;_; Should I try to persevere and finish my big long term crafts which I’m bored of or should I get right back into it with something small, easy and fun?
Today is my birthday so no proper post because I’m off doing something that requires me to expend no effort whatsoever 😀 I don’t usually celebrate it but as I mentioned a while ago I’ve been in an out of character good mood for this time of year hahaha.
I think it’s because 1 year ago James and I moved in to our first apartment here in Melbourne and it’s been one of the best years of my life so far. I love the city, I love our apartment and I love all the new friends we’ve made over the last year.
It’s been one of the most eventful years of my life, to give you an idea in this last year (give or take a few weeks) I have:
Saved for a house deposit
Almost moved to Ipswich
Visited Victoria/Melbourne for the first time
Used said house deposit savings to drive down and move to Melbourne in the biggest gamble I’ve ever taken
Made SO many friends both online and offline and met a bunch of awesome bloggers in person that I had been chatting to for years online
Had my email account hacked and moved servers for the site
Picked up friendships that distance separated almost 6 years ago right where they left off
Fell in with a bad crowd (of awesomely sweet and adorable beauty bloggers who I love to death!)
Started blogging every day
Started my mobile blog
Wrote and posted 108 new tutorials (zomg I didn’t realise it was that many *_*) and 313 posts overall
Rode a tram for the first time
Had my nail art stocked in real shops
Had my hair flowers stocked in real shops
Dyed my hair pink
Opened my blog store and moved about 7000 images to my own server
Launched an ebook and started writing a craft book, put the craft book on hold because there was too much graphic design and site update work to handle
Started saving that house deposit to start things all over again!
Plus so many more awesome things that I can’t even remember now XD
I’ve read deleted and reported 27,379 spam comments up until around August when I installed a new spam system to try and help with it. The site got 4320 real comments and I replied to each one of them too so thats 8640 hahaha 😀 Thanks to you guys for reading and commenting, it makes all the time I spend writing here worthwhile!
It’s been a really good year and I’ve had a fantastic time in Melbourne, I hope we get to stay here for a good few more years to come!
So what am I doing today? No clue yet, I think I’ll relax in bed all night with a book, maybe go out to some markets and to my favorite Japanese place for dinner tonight, maybe get my nails done. Earlier in the week James and I were treated to a lovely night at the Langham so I’ll post all the photos from that soon!
Hope you are all having a fantastic weekend and here’s a picture to tide over until tomorrow ^_^ Thank you all for your support over this year and here’s hoping for many more!!
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.
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