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!
This post was sponsored by Nuffnang and Panasonic. For more information on sponsored posts please click here.
Time for some snap shots again 😀
No pretty architecture this time unfortunately because I didn’t really go anywhere… at all. In fact I haven’t left the house since Saturday because James caught the flu that my Mum had when she was here so he’s been bed-ridden for the last week. We were quite worried that he was relapsing into glandular fever again which would have been terrible!
So here are some more pictures from before he was ill!
When James‘ parents visited they took us out to the Mitre Tavern which is a steakhouse near our place.
The guy from some tv show called “Ghost Hunters Australia” was filming right above our table! How exciting!! We asked the waiter about it (who was really nice and super helpful btw) and he said that the place is haunted by a woman who hung herself there. Apparently all the staff are scared of her! :O
Luckly she wasn’t haunting the scallops I had… they were delicious 😉
The day that my Mum and I actually got to leave the house we pretty much just went to a whole lot of chocolate stores. You can see where my addiction comes from! The first on the list was Theobroma.
She got me the *best* thing anyone has ever bought me… a self heating mug!! You put a little candle in the base and it keeps your drink warm! I like to drink my tea slowly so this is PERFECT for me! I can’t tell you how awesome it is, I can drink the same cup for hours and it’s still steaming hot to the last sip. LOVE IT.
While we were making our way to the next chocolate place we bumped into a charity selling cute piggy merchandise to support families with a sick child. You can visit their website and donate here.
My Mum and I bought 2 pens and a piggy bank.
The pen is fully of liquid with glitter and two little piggies in it! SO CUTE!
After that we visited Haigh’s which is a famous chocolate store.
They had some delicious taste testers there! We got some chocolate berry balls and this little suitcase tin full of chocolate freckles. How adorable is the suitcase?? It’s the perfect size to keep my make up in my bag! The freckles inside are the best I’ve ever had too.
Lastly we visited the Face Shop. I normally don’t like to go into the one in the CBD because the staff have been very unfriendly in the past but this time I met the owner and she is just so lovely! I will definitely go back next time I see her in there.
Our combined haul! I’m really looking forward to trying out some of those masks, my skin could really use it right now >_<
The last thing we did before she went home was visit a tiny little Japanese lunch place I’ve been wanting to do to for aaaages called Don Bay. According to James it has 100% positive reviews so we have been looking for an excuse to be able to try it.
It’s absolutely tiny! There were 3 chefs in that tiny space :O
Me with the very important number.
I had the unatama bento. I’ve never had eel before but I really didn’t like this version of it. Everything else in the bento was delicious though.
Mum had the lunch box and it was massive. I tried it all too and it was super yummy.
James had katsu curry and it was delicious too! The wait was around 10min and it was completely worth it. Every thing (other than the eel) was delicious and really well priced too considering the volume of food.
VERDICT: Super yummy and I’m going to go again as soon as I can find another excuse!
Lastly a bonus shot of James enjoying his croissant at our favorite bakery.
I also got some really lovely packages in the mail this week too but the photos are still on my camera so you’ll have to wait until next time ^_^
This post was sponsored by Nuffnang and Panasonic. For more information on sponsored posts please click here.
I don’t really have the energy much for posting at the moment. Just like everyone else in Melbourne right now I’ve been sick with the flu this week.
My Mum came to visit over the weekend and some jerk was nice enough to cough on her the first day she was here and so she was too sick to go out for almost the whole rest of her trip. We only got to go out twice the whole time she was here and that kind of sucked because it was her first time visiting Melbourne.
I took these from the top of the Myer overpass.
And the other direction. For some reason I really like all the trees they have in the middle of the roads here.
One of the places we managed to go to was Easy Way Tea. My favorite bubble tea place ever! EasyWay have a bunch of franchises in Brisbane and I was sad to see there weren’t any in Melbourne…
Luckily the first week we were here they read my mind and opened a store here!
My favorite there is the Blueberry Milk tea with pearls. Super sweet and super yummy. This time I tried out the new Ooolong milk tea and it was really good too, it was sweet but still tasted distinctly oolong…ish?
Verdict: Still my favorite bubble tea place!
Speaking of favorites, this is my favorite alley in the city at the moment, the architecture is absolutely beautiful. You can’t see half the details of it but it’s stunning. I want to go back and take lots of photos.
This week in James’ baking adventures he re-lived his American childhood and baked a pumpkin pie. We don’t have pumpkin pie here in Aus… because… well… it’s quite possibly the most icky thing I can think of! Not that I don’t like pumpkins, they are one of my favorite foods … but the idea of having them as a sweet desert pie just turns me right off! *_*
James was very happy with the way it turned out, I tried a piece but I still think it’s not for me! I just can’t get my head around pumpkin being a desert >_< James gets to eat pretty much the whole thing himself now so I don’t think he cares!
Lastly I leave you with a photo of a bunch of bunnies (still a novelty for me) that I saw in a pet store, funny though there seems to be a very strange looking one hiding up the back! Damn crafty guinea pigs sneaking in with the bunnies!
This post was sponsored by Nuffnang and Panasonic. For more information on sponsored posts please click here.
Snapshots again today!
Starting off with architecture again, I just loooove Melbourne’s old buildings!
The churches here are amazing too, I just want to take so many photos of them!
We tried out the famous Lord of the Fries restaurant and oh wow it was good!
James even ate a burger from there even though it’s a completely vegetarian place… and he loved it too!
There was apparently a fire on our street too though I don’t know where.
Haha this post seems to be all about food… but that’s pretty much all I’ve been doing this week XD
James worked out how to make thin crust pizza, mine was full of fetta… mmmm delicious!
He also tried to top last week’s heart rice by making 4 hearts XD
The big event we went to this year was Taste of Melbourne. Basically it’s where all the fine dining restaurants come and offer little stalls with a couple of their famous dishes to choose from in smaller portions so you can try lots of them and decide where you want to spend your money later. They have lots of different stall holders from local markets with free samples and information too.
This was the place it was held…
We had to change our money into “Crowns” which is the currency of the event XD
Just after walking in James found his ultimate dream car…. one full of Ben and Jerry’s icecream XD
These were some of the dishes we tasted, I don’t know much about food so if you want to read about the details click here for Celeste’s run down.
James was so excited to try a Wagyu beef burger, apparently it was really good XD
The building it was in was incredible! Every surface had the most beautiful paintings on it.
I want ceilings like this in my house!!
For some reason I kept getting photobombed all damn right! Look at this guy at the ice cream sandwich stand XD Yeah muscles Hahahaha!
And then James decided to see how many of my photos he could get into! Damn you James!!
That photo was actually taken by a lovely lady from a stand selling flavoured oils an vinegars. Their brand is called “Pukara Estate” and her and her partner were just so friendly and lovely! Their products tasted really good and I’m totally going to put an order in for the truffle oil I tasted! I had never tried truffles before then but clearly I have expensive taste 😉
It was absolutely packed!
There were a whole lot of free wine tastings too so there was a lot of this going on:
One of my favorite exhibits was the Smeg kitchen appliance one!! They had the coolest fridges, including a matching set of baby pink retro fridge and laundry! I want them so badly! One day when I’m rich right haha!
I’m sure if I had an apron like this I would probably want to be in the kitchen more XD
By the end of the night the venue was soooo hot and we were all very tired so Celeste, Celinaand found a nice cool spot to wait while the boys lined up for $1 pasta.
Kev managed to find a little coffee stand, how cute!
So the verdict on Taste of Melbourne? AWESOME! I had so much fun! I found the fine dining food was about 50/50 good/bad but the stall holders and the variety greatly made up for everything. I will most definitely be going back next year. Thank you so much Penny for our tickets!!
We visited the DFO at South Warf too this week though I don’t think it was really anything to write home about.
The most amusing thing about the trip was the gigantic windy bridge we walked across that looked like a big snake skeleton.
And some sea gulls taking a bath!
The lovely Candice also had a party on the weekend which was lots of fun. The most amusing party of the night happened on the way there on the train though. A bunch of drunks were having a loud conversation about football and which teams they were going for etc. They involved me to settle the argument as apparently the bow on the back of my hair was Collingwood colors while my hair was Hawthorne colours thus making me impartial LOLOLOLOLOLOL! When we got to the station the Police came and arrested them for drinking on the train XD
And today I will leave you with the coolest lamp post I’ve ever seen. I need a garden full of these!
This post was sponsored by Nuffnang and Panasonic. For more information on sponsored posts please click here.
And welcome to another edition to Snapshots! To be honest since I started writing the book etc I haven’t been going out as much so it’s taken a bit longer for me to get enough interesting things to put together into a post >_< I’m keeping my head down and being a good working girl though!
James has been refining his cooking skills which I am loving! He worked out how to make Krispy Kreme style donuts at home!
And he even filled them with chocolate custard 😀
Everything he’s made lately has been heart shaped which is completely adorable. This is some curry we had.
Omg I found the coolest idea the other day… It’s a hot chocolate dispenser! Overkill for normal people but fricking perfect for my addiction!
I totally need one!
We visited this lovely tea shop in the Dandenongs too, though there is a post coming with lots more photos of the inside. Look at all of those tea pots! I was in heaven :O
I thought this label in the cafe we went to there was hilarious!
For no reason here is a toy dog wearing rollerskates.
We went to a bead store in Melbourne Central to pick up supplies and the owners were so nice! The store was closing down and almost everything was $1. I went back so many times and every single time he remembered me and remember I liked pink things so he would pile extra cute pink free things into my bag XD So friendly!
I picked up this awesome jewelery stand there which I’m going to pretty up in and upcoming tutorial ^_^
Omg bunnies! You all probably think I’m crazy but bunnies are illegal to keep as pets in Queensland so this was the first time I’ve ever seen one in person. They look so soft and cuddly but I have a feeling they secretly might just like biting people XD
An awesome chair in Melbourne Central deserves a photo op right?
Oh one of the funnest things I’ve done over the last few weeks was finding this little store via Celeste! It’s up just past the Target complex in the city and it’s called Tokuya… You have to enter through an optometrist and go down stairs so I think a lot of people might miss it…
But it’s totally worth it because it’s a Japanese 100Yen store!
Everything is actually $3.50 or $4.50 which makes some things a bit overpriced and some things ridiculously cheap. There are things there you just can’t get anywhere else so yay!
There’s cooking stuff, deco, stationery, gift wrapping, make up, false eye lashes, nail polish… and the list goes on. They have just opened and they are still adding new stock but I’m so excited about it!
I met one of the owners and she was just the cutest girl ever! She loved my phone deco and she said they are going to get lots more deco supplies in soon.
Verdict: totally must go back!
With all the work I’ve been doing it’s been great to have packages in the mail to cheer me up too! I had been waiting for coloured acrylics for ages and here they are along with lots of new nails to start painting 😀
I got a Bodyline package too but that’s a review for another day.
The best thing in the mail this week was a package from Tiff! She went to Japan recently and was so sweet to bring me back souvenirs!
She wrote me the cutest little letter! I lover her drawing 😀
Totally sweet eyelashes:
And the best part, it’s from the Hikaria Bakery 😀
It’s a tiny banana and blueberry waffle magnet! Finger there for size comparison.
Look at how detailed it is, she is so skilled at making little foods! You can visit her store here. Very awesome!
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!
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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