Holiday Hiatus

Unfortunately there won't be too many posts from me soon as I've jetted off for my holiday in a huge rush. I sat my exam then rushed to get myself organized but the main thing is I'm enjoying my holiday now and will report back soon! See you in a few weeks :)

Life in Photos: May/June

I'm right in the middle of studying for a major exam at the moment, which of course means I've been procrastinating to no end! I have the week off work with the intention to study hard-core but my sister decided that this would be a good time to get Words with Friends and start playing!

But the very first game I played, I won! Yay!

Winning by 3 points at 359 :)

And some other random pics I have from my iphone from the last few months...

Rainbow layered jelly - this stuff is so pretty to look at and yum! I don't have the patience to make it unfortunately but we're regulars at a local restaurant who likes to serve this up yum yum

Laser Tag!

I went to laser tag for a work function and here is our scoreboard! It was tonnes of fun and surprisingly I didn't do too badly...I was round the middle somewhere in terms of ranking :)

Meanwhile, I caught up with watching the finale of Secret Diary of a Call Girl and noticed in the very last episode she was wearing something that looked familiar - a pink/black Marc Jacobs silk taffeta strapless party dress! I wish I had a picture of it on Belle (I'll do a screenshot later) but it reminded me that I haven't worn it in ages. In fact I've only worn it once in the photo below to a reunion dinner 18 months ago. Now to find another fun occasion to wear it to again...maybe the hens night I have to attend later in the year!

Marc Jacobs pink taffeta party dress - excuse the name badge tacked to the front, it was a reunion after all!

The photo doesn't really do the dress justice, but it's a beautiful weight of silk that is bouffanty enough to give it shape without being over the top. I managed to get the dress at an absolute steal of a price too and in Australia, shock horror, where we hardly get any MJ stuff! From memory it was more than 50% off, but because it's so classic it doesn't look off season

#4: YSL Tributes

It's been a little while but I've made another NAP Shoe Subscription purchase - Yves Saint Laurent black patent 14mm Tributes! An awesome platform heeled sandal in black patent seemed a must-have item in every wardrobe, plus I gave into the sincere begging of my sister who has been wanting these for ages. We share our shoe wardrobe, so this seemed like the perfect choice!

Beautiful clean-white box

To be honest, I kind of liked them in the plain leather better but since they sold out I contacted NAP to see if anymore stock would be coming in. When they said there would indeed be a new shipment sometime soon, we started stalking NAP religiously hoping for their return. The black patent is admittedly a little too squeaky clean and shiny at the moment, but I can't wait to wear them and dirty them up a bit to make them the perfect balance between patent shiny and matte calf leather.

 The best thing about this purchase is how comfortable they are! I could dance all night in them, and they're definitely a practical shoe for all those times I need a little bit of extra height :) Too bad it's officially Winter here so these might need to wait until it warms up a bit (though I'm thinking a good coat and a pair of tights might do the trick)

I'm actually surprised these haven't sold out yet (though my size is already sold out because it's one of the most popular), but get your hands on a pair here: Yves Saint Laurent Tributes on net-a-porter.com

Mojo Tapas, Bondi Beach

I rarely venture to Bondi Beach because parking is a pain and it's just natural as a Sydneysider to try and avoid the tourist areas. Bondi Beach is lots of fun in great weather, but I somehow found myself taking the trip there on a rainy Saturday night for a Tapas night at Mojo. I'd never heard of it before but it has a really nice, intimate feel and has loads of space which makes it great for big groups.

The prices were fairly decent (considering the dish sizes and the Bondi Beach location) so of course we ordered tonnes. The menu selection was wide and we definitely weren't disappointed with anything we ordered

These are only photos of some of the dishes we ordered too! I wish my photos of the lovely chargrilled octopus and burrito had turned out because they were amongst the tastiest of the dishes. There's always next time, right?

And of course after dinner we couldn't help ourselves but trek over to Pompeiis for some gelato. Yum yum.

Baking Adventures: Scones

Last weekend when I was procrastinating from studying, I decided to satisfy my craving for baked goods by making scones! I love warm fresh-out-of-the-oven scones with beautiful jam and freshly whipped cream and unfortunately so many 'High Tea' places just don't get the scones right, mostly because they're too busy concentrating on the dessert aspects.

Anyway I went for a simple Bill Granger recipe (because he is awesome and he is the King of simple cooking) which substitutes cream for butter so you avoid having to rub butter into flour. It was so simple and within 30 minutes I had fresh scones! (Well...maybe a bit longer because I took a while to get all my ingredients together because I was getting distracted).

Straight out of the oven

With requisite jam and cream :)

Apologies again but the next few weeks my posts will be few and far between as I'm ramping up to what will hopefully be my last exam (!). Stay tuned for my newest NAP shoe purchase though...ordered them on Friday so they should be here by next week!!

WIW: Shoe of the day

I've been a bit lazy with posting snapshots of things I've been wearing, partly because it's been freezing cold here in Sydney and I've been staying in a lot but also because on the shoe front I've been wearing my decollete's to death!

They've become my basic black pump work shoe and despite the steep arch and angled toe box, I've become really used to wearing them! I sanctioned myself a 'Louboutin-free' day last week so I decided to wear these flats instead on a day I was doing a fair bit of walking/running around:

Ferragamo 'Varina' bow flats

But you know what? They're still fairly new and were more uncomfortable than 10cm heels! Insane!

So I was straight back to the decollete's the next day. But today I decided to wear an oldie but a goodie - a classic black block heel with a twist. A friend at work remarked "Oh the chunky heel are back in fashion are they?" I don't really mind either way, in-fashion or not they're insanely comfortable and in my opinion a classic mary-jane never goes out of style!

Bally 'Iliane' mary janes (excuse the bad photo - my computer won't let me rotate it!)

Here's a photo wearing my decollete's - I was shopping at Marcs and ended up buying the plain but practical-for-work LBD that I was trying on in this photo (almost 50% off too!)

Met Ball

Apologies for the lack of posts lately - this will unfortunately continue for the next few weeks as I have just under a month to study for my huge and important exam in mid-June. Somewhere in between all of that, I'm also trying to organise my holiday which is straight after, so life is busy busy busy!

Anyway, I'm loving all the events that are on at the moment. Between the Royal Wedding, Cannes Film Fest, and The Met Ball, there has been plenty of pretty pictures to look at. Love!

I loved celebrity watching and looking at all the amazing outfits from The Met Ball, this year honouring the one and only Alexander McQueen. In the last few weeks, I even made sure to wear my McQueen skull scarf in honour of all the McQueen related events!

I didn't love a lot of the looks this year unfortunately, but I did think the following celebs looked stunning.

Taylor Swift in J.Mendel

I love J. Mendel - absolutely exquisite couture which is uniquely clever but still so...refined!

Dakota Fanning in Valentino

Ashley Olsen in vintage Christian Dior

Okay, so maybe I have a bit of an obsession with the Olsen twins and Christian Dior (New Look, anyone?) but this look is just pure simple elegance. A bit of cleavage, and those sleeves. I don't even think I have the words to describe how much I love this!

Jennifer Lopez in Gucci

And finally, just because I thought she looked cool (though I don't know who she's wearing)...

Janelle Monae

Now I'm really excited to see the Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty Exhbition at The Met when I visit NYC!

One of the exhibition pieces

All images thanks to Getty.