Warm and fuzzy things

Etsy creation by Cammobear

Etsy creation by Prettyditty

Modcloth - "One Tweed coat, three ways"

I'm not a winter person - spring and summer will always have my heart - but there are certain things I look forward to with the colder weather. Cosy knits, hot chocolate, having an excuse not to go out for a walk (haha).... now's the time to indulge.


xZ

Guilty pleasures

Do you have a TV show that you love watching, but would rather initiate a two-hour discussion with door-knocking Mormons before you admit your favourite to friends?

I myself am guilty of forcing a late bedtime every Thursday night to stay up and watch Desperate Housewives. That, or I'll be up first thing Friday morning to catch it online. 

In fact, I wish every day was a Thursday. I often find myself counting down the days until I can watch it again.

Why? Because it's funny, it's light, it's dramatic. The characters are a mix of reality and pure absurdness, and I love the satire. It's actually pretty clever.

But I believe that if people knew how much I loved it, the "desperate" tagline would somehow rub off and become plastered to my forehead, to be associated with my very being.  

In a world [or my university community, at least] where people are swapping stories they picked up from the latest Four Corners report, or proclaiming their love for a genius blockbuster with in-depth themes and masterful visuals, I feel that sitting down amongst them and saying, "HEY, OMG DID YOU SEE DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES LAST NIGHT?! BREE IS SLEEPING AROUND!", is somewhat wrong.

Today, though, I don't care.

I'm pretty much an internet warrior, with no time for social fronts and judgements. 

So here's a short snippet of what I love about DH - petty conflicts and unrealistic plot-lines included:

- The crazy, but well planned story-lines 

Recently, the four main characters became accessories to a murder. They hid the body in the forest, and the last couple of episodes have been about that body almost being uncovered by a building development. One of the characters - Susan, aka: the ditzy one - was, at the time, working on her artistic talents, and she spontaneously produced a painting that was an illustrated confession... which wound up on display in a gallery.

See, how silly is it? 

But at the same time, that story-line carries deeper issues and dialogue. The person murdered was actually Gabrielle's stepfather, whom had molested her when she was younger and had returned to abuse her. After the murder, which was somewhat justified in defense of Gabby, the stepfather's current family is visited and it's revealed that he was also abusing another young girl, who is now saved from such horror.

It can get very emotional at times, and I swear that I can laugh and cry out loud in the same episode.

- Secondly, I've grown to adore the unique and loveable characters. 

The woman above is a new addition, and at first I found her altogether unbearable, with her glamourous dressing and self-centred ways, but the directors have slowly introduced traits that have made her out to be one of the most supportive and genuine people in the story. She helped talk another character out of committing suicide, and stuck by their side, despite not knowing them very well.

Anyway, in revealing this guilty pleasure of mine, I suspect everyone has a secret love care of their TV. Or even a movie. What's yours? Please share, and feel free to give me a short summary of why you think most people might find it ridiculous. 

xZ

Fields of Gold

Ta-dahh!
After weeks months of neglecting my 'landscape' piece from art class, I finally finished it!

I kept mixing up a myriad of different colours in each of the three sessions, which made it tricky to keep it all in harmony - ie. there's there's random dashes of contrasting colours all over the place - but I think it turned out alright in the end.

Personally, I love the sky, with the dashes of light blue and purple; and the hay bales which were fun to paint.

The photo I used to paint - taken in 2010 - some hay-fields near Murray Bridge, SA;
a scene close to my heart.

>_____<

So hey, do you want to hear some poetry?? 

[Hell yeah, everyone digs poetry!]

I sent the picture to my friend Gemma and asked her to write a short poem about it. 

This is what she wrote:-

It’s so peaceful
Being here
Looking up at the clouds
Gently enticing me to enter them

Feeling the rough hay beneath
The soft panic blanket you brought
You ask if champagne is appropriate
I don’t answer

I'm scared this scene is false
I'll opens my eyes to being in my room alone
In the false light of the television

I open my eyes to you
With your arms around me
Your flaxen hair in the wind
This is heaven

It's so peaceful being here

- G. M. 2012

(She literally whipped that up in less than fifteen minutes!! Amazing. Thanks Gem! x)

Finally, I'd like to ask YOU:

If you had to choose one landscape image to paint, what would you choose? Is it a meaningful spot for you, or just a place of serene beauty?

Comment now, don't be shy :) 

xZ

Not worth crying over

- this was posted by a friend on Facebook a few days ago, and became relevant to me just tonight when I was sitting on my bed feeling sorry for myself...

What upset me was the fact that I'm here alone in Margaret River with no friends and nothing to do on a Saturday night. I was desperately missing my boyfriend - who recently went back to live in South Australia - and even felt annoyed that he was out having fun while I was bored and lonely.

And then I remembered the little story quoted above. 

And I thought, "Hey, I'm on the brink of tears here... and what for? Because my boyfriend has left me? I've already cried over that!"

And I thought, "Actually, no, worse. I'm about to cry... because he's having fun, and I'm not! Ridiculous."

And I pulled myself together, made an entirely blank face, void of emotion, and planned where exactly to source my fun from.

I'm now off to the pub to play pool with my Mum. Yeeeeahh! :D

Hope you can remember this in times when you're way down about one particular event or situation - remember, there's better things to be doing with your time! 

xZ

Something Old & Something New

Hi guys!

I wanted to share two brilliant new things that have entered my life recently.

I know what you're thinking - "TWO new things? Your post title led us to believe there was something old as well! False advertising, I feel ripped off, two new things in combination is just way too much shiny-ness for me to handle."*

But wait, I can explain! 

One of the 'new' things is actually an old Mercedes, but it's been given a breath of fresh life in my little hands!

Until now I've been rocking around in either of Mum and Ondy's two work vans, but I decided it was time for my own vehicle when we came across this beauty sitting on the roadside. It was test driven two nights in a row, and evaluated by my mechanic-minded relative, before I allowed myself to fall in love with it. 

I handed over $1500 and a bottle of boysenberry port to the lovely English guy [who wished to sell it for traveling funds] and here we are!

I'm actually a sucker for old cars - they have so much more character than the masses of cheaply-made cars of today.

This one has all kinds of quirky little things to love about it:  a sweet retro brown interior; a start up key switch on the left of the wheel; a windscreen wiper that darts all over the place like it's on steroids... oh and a little first-aid kit on the back dash! If I ever crash, I'll be reaching for those band-aids right away. :D

Secondly, dun dun dun dahhh!! My brand new dress from Modcloth arrived today.

See, I'm flailing my arms. I tend to do that in moments of excitement.

It came with a hat and some sweet teal tights, as pictured below. All amazing quality, so I'm feeling very successful for my first-ever internet purchase. My bank account could cross into dangerous waters from here.

Amazing green-yellow lace

Anyway that's all in terms of updates from my life for now.

Sorry I haven't really written much lately... just working on some big changes! 

Will fill you in as soon as I can.

You stay classy, San Diego. 

xZ

*Note: I know 'shininess' is a real and appropriate word, but somehow this spelling looks so wrong!

Viva Piñata

Images sourced from sheknows.com

THIS is the most exciting thing that's happened to me all day - coming across these amazing piñata cookies!!

Check out the full receipe here and make them for yourself at times when you're in need of a small children's party to munch on.

xZ

A little tale of morals

Image source: Twin Reality

Today at work, I made my first mistake on the till. 

A woman was placing her order for lunch, and I couldn't remember whether or not I had already charged her for a latté in amongst the other items. I shrugged and hoped I hadn't while pressing the latté button.

Our till is an old fashioned model and unfortunately hard to check up on. A small receipt prints out each time, but the words are still nestled inside the machine until the next person comes along and orders... then the previous order gets pushed up and becomes part of this huge long line of paper that we let snake its way down to the floor.

When the next person stepped forward and ordered, I saw the previous lady's order come up - 'latte, curry, toastie, latte'. Damn. I finished the current order and pondered what to do.

You see, I knew it was only $3.80, and not a huge deal. 

But I wanted to fix it. Preferably without telling anybody else so they wouldn't know I stuffed up. The woman had told me she was planning to come up and order dessert later on, so I grabbed a copy of the handwritten [yes, we do that too :P] order for her table and stashed it in my apron pocket.

While waiting, I worried about the possibility of the woman deciding to skip dessert and go home. Then I worried about her coming up to the counter and watching me stumble my way through some dramatic refund process on the till. I had no clue how to even start with that.

Eventually I said to myself, 'You know what? Who cares what I have to do - these people will appreciate not being ripped off, and my managers would prefer to have happy, trusting customers.' I swallowed my pride and approached Sarah for advice. 

It turned out being really easy. Sarah suggested I grab the lady and she'd show me how to do a refund on the till, but I had another plan in my head which involved doing some deductions when the dessert order was placed. 

The woman's husband actually came to order, and when I explained that I'd accidently overcharged his wife and wanted to make up for it, he was stunned.

"Oh, no, that's no problem at all - thank you for telling me!," he said

"That's okay, I had to fix my mistake!" I replied.

I just left the pot of tea he'd ordered for dessert off the bill, and it was all sorted.

He went on to say that I could've easily kept it to myself but it was really honest to own up over such a little amount.

And I heard it two more times after that, even when the family got up to leave twenty minutes later and I was clearing their plates.

"Thanks for coming in!" I called after them.

"Thank you again for telling the truth about the change," the guy smiled back.

And I felt happy that I hadn't put my desire to seem like the greatest worker at this workplace in front of my morals that had been with me for a lifetime. 

xZ

Come into the Lion's Den

...Except it's a shed. And there's no lion, just a whole bunch of people buzzing around, arms full of bargains. They bump into you and squeeze past, craning their necks trying to get a glimpse of what's on the racks ahead.

Jess! Will be stoked I put this on here :D

I introduced Jess to the Lion's Shed sales this morning. I think I've written a little about it *here* before, but never actually shown you pictures inside the place, because it is a danger zone for cameras! And plus, I'd usually be concerned about missing out on the good clothes due to a lack of flexibility and physical force that carrying a camera may cause.

But today... I had no wishlist or needs, and I was freeeee to flash the shutter here there and everywhere!
Have a look for your own eyes, the mystical wonders of the Lion's Shed!

"Hmmm... how much of this do I really need?"

What Jess and I came up with in the end.
Total: $7.50

My favourite pieces from today would definitely be an orange cropped sleeveless shirt, and a light green patterned dress. As soon as I got home, I chucked them on together - 

This pose cracks me up. Mum was saying, "I want an action shot! Pick some lemons!"

Love that I have a whole new outfit for 80c!

And I'm looking forward to seeing Jess wear an amazing purple velvet dress we found for her. We already decided it'd be awesome styled with grey leggings and a black ribbon in her hair for uber cuteness! 

xZ

Just a quick snap

Me in mah work uniform.

Yesterday was a good day, despite being pretty non-eventful. 

A forty-something-year-old man did fall over, and I felt bad but I was amused by this, because it was just a clumsy mistake of forgetting the step whilst he spoke to his wife, and you could tell that he was very embarrassed when he got up. He was perfectly alright though, I made sure of it. :]

Other than that, I just ran about with plenty servings of scones, and learnt where all the light switches were! Haha. 

After work, Mum and I went to collect some DVDs from town, and discovered a flurry of people and market stalls up and down the main street, with all the shops still open! We walked along, and wanted to check if one of our favourite stores had a sale price on a beautiful birdcage Mum likes, and who should we come across inside but my manager & one of the employees offering free samples of liqueurs and ports?! I thought the raspberry port was amazing, but you should try boysenberry! Mmmm. It was nice to introduce my Mum to my workmates. 

Well that's a short summary of my Friday.

I'll also tell you that I watched 'Midnight in Paris' with Owen Wilson and Rachel McAdams and it was a slightly dull film but I really enjoyed the 1920's scenes! 

Hope you enjoy your whole weekend! 

xZ

On a down day

The other day, I was feeling glum, so I quickly scoured the internet looking for uplifting photos.
These are a few I saved to my desktop.

I'm a little annoyed with myself because I deleted the two that meant the most to me on the day, and I can't find them again! I'll try and explain them in brief...

#1 - Picture a grandma in a wheelchair, and she is holding up a frail arm whilst looking at her shadow on the wall... her shadow resembles a beautiful and limber ballerina. The quote alongside it says something like - 'What other people think of you doesn't matter. What you think of yourself is everything.'

#2 - Picture a bunch of crayons - a close-up photograph - with words over the top: "Use what you have, where you are."
This one reminded me that I have everything I need to be happy; there's no point looking for it elsewhere. I just have to work out how to put all I have to good use.
Also, more specifically, I was looking for something to do so that I would have a satisfying day, and this image simply inspired me to go and find my art stuff.
I also think this is a good quote for making a difference in life. It really reminds me of a story my friend Jess was telling me, about a man who recently visited an underdeveloped country and had enough imagination to fix a big problem with a simple solution - he used Coca-Cola bottles to bring light into the roofs of houses that lacked electricity! Amazing. Something that we regard as trash became a hugely valuable thing to others.
Basically, the quote is saying, you don't have to look too far for what you want and need. Just open your eyes and take action any way you can.


xZ




Ps. I do not take credit for any of the above images. They are simply the results of Google searches.

Milkmaid Braids

I wanted to try this hairstyle after seeing Kelly from Elegantly Academic looking so cute.

Look at her!!!
She accessorises with milk, too.

Not sure if the hairstyle suits me; it feels kinda weird not having a blanket of hair protecting my neck and ears.

xZ

Like a princess with no real jewels

Guess what?!
I got paid!!
And as soon as I saw those figures in my online bank account jump from $3.70 to $300+, I hopped on ModCloth and BOUGHT A DRESS!
...and two other things as well. I couldn't resist!

So, you're wondering, which did I pick?

Well actually I've had my eye on it for a while... and it's not the kind of dress that everyone would suit or even like, which is why I love it. Beautiful lace; an awesome A-line figure; an out-of-the ordinary colour in limey greeny yellow? Here it is:-

Flourish De Lis Dress ~ Modcloth ~ $70

Do you like it? :)
If so, how would you personally style it?

I can't wait until it arrives, and then I'll probably want to buy a gazillion more pretty things. Online shopping has finally got a hold of me.

Happy Friday night to you all!

xZ