For the broken hearts club

"Depression is the flaw in love.

To be creatures who love, we must be creatures who can despair at what we lose, and depression is the mechanism of despair." - Andrew Solomon, author of 'The Noonday Demon.'

When we are torn away from those we love, we suffer from intense feelings of longing and loneliness. 

It's also a sad fact that we tend to transform our memories into the stuff of legend and myth - for example, forgetting the negative points of a relationship and emphasising the good points above what they actually were. 

Feelings heal and change. 

And a life setback is sometimes what you need to reassess things and propel yourself forward.

- Just read a little of my neighbour's book: Letting Go of the Person You Used to Be, by Lama Surya Das. Some of the attitudes are pretty uplifting and inspiring! Shared the above quote and paraphrased extract in hope that it might help anyone who is feeling pretty low about a lost lover or friend. 

xZ

My First Day as a Cadet Journalist

A gooby goober pic of me from the third day, wearing a top that my adorable sister Lucy sent my way - cheers Luce! 

Well, that day has been and gone - it was Monday of this week. It's now Thursday, and I'm reeling in the stories and whipping them into shape like there's no tomorrow!

And actually, my first day was quite dull, to tell you the truth. My newspaper goes to print on Tuesdays and comes out first thing Wednesday morning - so any Monday and Tuesday is spent frantically writing up and arranging the stories for that week's edition.
Picture a new little cadet coming into a stressed and frantic working space....
There's not a whole lot she can do.
So that day was spent cleaning out the desk from the previous cadet, known as Tom.

TODAY, however, has been four times as fun and four times as interesting as that. I interviewed my first band - over the phone - and used the resulting notes to write my first story. The band is a little trio called The Floors, who label their music as "dirty, lowdown, gutbucket, spittin' blues" for one, or basically rock n' roll, in simpler terms.
The guy I interviewed is called Luke, who was heaps friendly, and maybe couldn't even tell I was new at this! (Let's hope, haha).
And yeah, I'm pretty proud of the story because it's almost purely original copy, as in I didn't use anything from previous publications or press releases as they seem to do at the paper, to save time.
Hoping I can ask my editor to put my name on it, just to see it in print for the first time :P. That's every rookie journalist's dream, right?

Tomorrow I've got an appointment to go to a woman's house and interview her about her struggle with cancer and the ideas and hope she has about Australia's Biggest Morning Tea. Bit more serious, bit more scary, because I'll be on my own and expected to take creative, professional photographs for the paper as well!

So day by day I'm taking bigger steps, and getting further from the comfortable position of the baby cadet who can just sit there and say "help me!" and get everything done for her. It's scary, definitely, and hard work, but exciting all the way.

Favourite ring of current - double-finger crucifix

 Business-wear is kinda fun in winter...

Blazer - Target

Scarf - JayJays

Shirt - Bardot

Pants - Valleygirl

Shoes - Spendless

xZ

Comfort in a coat

I call this outfit - "Sexy office girl.... with cute, kitschy coat".

Because this coat is definitely not sexy, but I love it nonetheless! 

Sportsgirl brought it out a long time ago - I know so, because I spotted it on one of my fave blogs: Flair to Remember, and decided, "I. want. that."

Lucky for me, it came up for a bargain price on eBay last month.

Nikki - Flair to Remember

Interestingly, Nikki's coat doesn't have the white fluffy bits on it, so maybe she pulled them off.

Anyway, the above is what I wore for my second day of work.

xZ

Dressing the part

Hi guys!

I can't write too much before I start to feel guilty about the upcoming Uni assignment I really should start... so for now, here's a simple outfit post from my first day of work.

Bearing in mind that I have never before had to dress "business-like" - except for a novelty week back in Year 10 - I like to think I came pretty close to the mark! :D

A simple (op-shop) shirt and pants combo, with cute brogues, and an amaaaaazing winter coat - which, by the way, is from Target. Everyone's best friend, right? 

I have been looking everywhere online for the perfect, warm-yet-fun coat to wear, and came close to finding nothing, before I casually walked into Target, saw this champion, and ahhhh... bought it for $25! Reduced from $70. 

Bargains like that make me laugh. With joy.

Shirt - Op-shop

Coat - Target

Pants - Valleygirl

Shoes - Cotton On

Bag - Mimco

xZ

What to pack for SA: a picture of my essentials

I call this post, 'What to pack for South Australia?' - a rhetorical question,

but if the above photo was expected to provide an answer, this answer would clearly be "an absolute chaotic mess of things". 

And you are probably thinking, 'Good luck cramming all that into one bag'.

Well, call me a wizard, but I managed to transform the above.... to this! (see below)

Ta da!

And even then I cut out a few more things, to form the basis for my list of 'essentials'.

Things you absolutely need; the bare essentials:

 - A pretty dress, and tights

 - Jeans (two pairs)

 - A shirt that can be dressed up or down

 - Casual lace up boots

 - Simple flats that can be kicked off at any time for relaxing

 - PJs

 - As many undies as you can fit

 - A singlet that provides warmth when layered underneath

 - A fat book of Uni notes

 - Any medicine you regularly take

 - Glasses

 - Nail polish

 - Tinted moisturiser, eyelash curler, mascara (all the make-up I use)

 - A small bag of accessories - necklaces, headwear, rings.

 - A comfy top in a wicked colour like mustard

 - Deodorant 

 - A razor

 - Bank card (duhh)

 - Phone charger + phone

....Looking at this, I can see that I barely wore any of the clothes. In fact, as soon as I reached Perth by car, I went opshopping with my cousin Meg and bought a whole heap more to take. 

I think I actually therefore fail at packing cleverly. 

But I do have one tip for you: if you need to minimise luggage, and you're looking sheepishly at your super duper bag of pretty girl cosmetics... think about your hair. Your hair can be your best accessory at times, so you need to look after it, and in rainy weather, the worst thing that can happen is frizz.

Considering this factor, the one thing that I would choose to take? 

Moroccan oil. 

Dayummm, it's good.

Smells amazing, so you don't need to worry about perfumes or anything, and it tames frizzy fly-aways so your wavy or curly hair can just chill out and not cramp your style. 

By the way, don't forget your toothbrush either.

xZ

Hiding away

Slightly unrelated photo, of my brother Louie at Easter time - I just like it.

Arghhhh, I haven't posted for ages, I know, I apologise.
So much has been happening at once! 


I won't leave it all a mystery - the biggest thing that happened was I got accepted for a job as a cadet journalist at the local paper here in Margaret River!

Upon hearing the news, I quickly used all my 'savings' (and more, c/o my lovely father), to fly back to South Australia and spend a week visiting my friends and family before I needed to start the new job.

From there it's been a whirlwind of exciting outings, emotional reunions, extraordinarily fast cash outflow, and a bit of agonising over what to buy and wear for my new professional position as a JOURNALIST.

I plan to write a few catch-up posts, sharing a few key events and experiences as following:
- Essentials when packing for a holiday to SA
- What it's like to see a movie in Gold Class
- Nursing a poor sick doggy to health with my awesome pal Narelle, and buying islands with Blacky
- Being fined $70 at the airport
- My first day as a cadet journalist

So you can look forward to those!

xZ

Excuse me, it's not normal to look that cute all the time!

Let's, for a moment, get this blog back to what it started out as  - a fashion blog, with a focus on all things pretty and materialistic.
Yes, that was the agenda planned when I suddenly had the "What am I doing with my life" thoughts that every twenty-something-year-old person has, and answered to myself, "I'm going to be a fashion designer!".
I later realised that, 'Errrrrr, Zann, you aren't that great at putting together outfits'. Haha oh well.
Not as stylish as someone like Amy, who I just discovered through Modcloth and her gorgeously cute blog - Amy Flying A Kite.

Now I will post some photos and you'll see what I mean...

She is the perfect example of bohemian glamour, as free and enviable as the likes of Julia Stone, and even more creative!
HOW ARE YOU DOING THIS?!?!
Freak.
Is all I can say.
And, on this note, I have added her to my 'Recommended Reads' on the side of my blog.
Just wanted to let you know what the new addition to this list was all about.

Good day.

xZ