Fun With Collages

My daughter has been rather sick. She has a throat infection and as a result has been miserable and clingy for a couple of days, which has put a bit of a damper on my christmas shopping plans! But nevermind, the important thing is keeping her as comfortable as possible while she recovers. Because of her illness I haven't really left the house and certainly haven't bothered getting dressed up to take my own photos, so I offer another collage up to please the blog gods.

I didn't really have a theme in mind when I started, I just chose a dress I liked and added in some accessories I would wear with it. All of the items I chose are from Modcloth. Their sale is almost over so have a look if you haven't already! Even though I've placed an order and really can't afford to buy anything more, I can't help but to look through all the sale stuff (and the non sale stuff) and pine!

Peach, Cream and Gold by alyzaria featuring flat shoes

               

By the way I'm really enjoying making these collages. I've wondered for ages how I could make magazine style collages easily and found that Polyvore has exactly the tool I need. Its really easy to use and I've been having lots of fun compiling lists of items to use in later collages. Next time I make one I'll try not to use exclusively Modcloth items lol. I swear its not nearly the only place I shop, I've just spent a lot of time browsing the last couple of days for myself and for my best friend. I love making wishlists for her, even though she rarely likes the things I choose! I often wish that I could force her to wear some of the things I pick out for her, I'm sure she'd look great! But she's very particular about the things she wears, which is obviously totally understandable. Maybe one day though I'll pick a dress and she'll decide its perfect and buy it and love it forever and ever. Hey, a girl can dream!

Off the Radar!

I've been MIA and I apologize to anyone who noticed. I had a lot on my plate finishing assignments for my course and also volunteering at the school, and I was feeling pretty down too so I wasn't much in the mood for blogging. I really want to get back into it now though!

Modcloth are having a sale! There are loads of awesome items for 50% off AND they have free shipping to Australia for a limited time on orders over $150. Sooooooo my friend and I went a little nuts and have a few items on the way. There were so many things I wanted to buy. Its rare to find things on sale AND available in my size, and the free shipping made it even more irresistible. I couldn't go too overboard, but I managed to get a few items that have been sitting on my wishlist for months and months, it was like fate! The dresses below are some of my favourites available on Modcloth at the moment. A couple are on sale, some are still full price. I wish I could have bought them all (and more)! If some wealthy benefactor wishes to sponsor my obsessive compulsive shopping habits feel free to drop me a line lol!

Current Favourites by alyzaria featuring a classic black dress

                            

I'm going to try to keep blogging regularly again. Its hard when I'm stuck in a deep blue funk. It feels like I have nothing interesting to say and there's no point to writing, which may yet be true, but when I'm in a good mood I can ignore that! And hopefully no one minds my rambling too much.

I'm finished studying for the year, I now have a couple of very uneventful looking months before I begin again next year. I'm looking forward to when the kids are off school so we can do stuff together during the day, but I'm also looking forward to going back myself, I feel much better when my days are full and productive. I was hoping I could enroll in some other course just for fun over the holiday period, but there's nothing available until next year unfortunately! I'll have to launch myself into some other projects to keep me busy. I have a few sewing projects I've been meaning to do, and I also really want to get back into photography, so hopefully I can manage to get somewhere with those things over the next couple of months.

I really hope everyone is doing well!

Rain, Libraries and Dinners Out

We had some wild weather here yesterday. A storm this time of year is not news, but this one brought sudden heavy wind and even hail in some suburbs which is very uncommon! There's a lot of bushland in my neighbourhood and today on my way out to dinner I saw loads of branches and even whole trees which had been brought down in yesterday's gale. A tree fell in the backyard of my friend's neighbour, fortunately the tree missed her yard, though their other neighbour was not so lucky and the falling tree destroyed their shed.

Yesterday I had my second day of work experience at the school library. It didn't feel quite as busy as last week, probably because I was focused on two main tasks for most of the day rather than skipping around as I was the previous week. I managed to finish compiling the list of books assigned a lexile number and I also finished checking the catalogue entries for a certain area of the library, making sure everything was accurate and up to date. The librarian suggested I organise an activity for the pre-schoolers to do during their library lessons, which is really exciting for me, but also a huge challenge as the kids are very young and I'm just not sure what I can do to for them which will be interesting and engaging but also quick and easy. I've got my thinking cap on for that one!

I went out to dinner tonight and had a really nice time. I ate a huge steak and enjoyed every bite. I was very tempted to get some dessert, but I had such a big dinner that I felt it would probably be overkill. I really hate having to think so much about what I'm eating, but obviously not thinking about it and just eating whatever I wanted did me no favours! I've let myself get to an unhealthy state, and I do feel good for being more conscientious, but when I go out for dinner I do sometimes wish I could just forget about being good! I decided to wear a dress tonight that I haven't worn in probably a couple of months. I don't even really know why I haven't worn it, probably just because I don't like the slip that I have to wear underneath, the dress is too sheer to go without one.

Happy Halloween!

I love halloween, but I really haven't had the time or money to plan much this year. I didn't even bother with costumes really because the kids were going to a disco at a play centre so they need to be able to run around and have fun without worrying about spoiling costumes. So we just used things we already had at home and had a very simple halloween.

I spent the day at the library hammering out assignments, then after the kids finished school got them showered and changed and went over to my best friend's place for an hour or so because her mum wanted to see the kids. They ate cake and got hyped up on candy and cake, then we went to the disco. It was packed with kids and parents and was super noisy. I actually get kind of flustered in situations like that, but it ended up not being too bad once I sat down and got settled. I even won a silent auction they had going! I bid on a t-shirt with a pikachu dressed as batman. Its super cute! I'll be giving it to my son once I go pick it up, I hope he loves it as much as I do!

Playing Pretend

Today I woke up feeling rather terrible so I went back to sleep for another hour or two before finally dragging myself off to the library to try and be productive. I spent most of the day working on the poster to advertise the "event" I have to plan for an assessment. If we're able we can plan a real event in a library and have it assessed, but those of us who don't have that ability can just do a pretend one, as long as we do all the planning that would go into a real one. I decided to plan a "Kids' Day In" with games and stories and stuff for kiddies. I live in the tropics and it rains a lot for a few months of the year, so I thought it would be nice to get kids enthusiastic about reading on those rainy days when they're stuck indoors. The event would actually be really fun I think, I'd love to try it for real, maybe when I get a job! So the poster is done and I've also started work on the bookmarks to advertise the event, the bookmarks need to be double-sided so the front of all of them will be the same but the back will be slightly different. So I put a lot of time into that today and also worked a little on a couple of other assignments. I'm trying to get as much done as possible this week so when classes start again next week I don't have too much work to worry about and I can focus all my energy on my work placement.

As of this morning's weigh in I've lost a total of 7 kilos. It isn't very much considering how overweight I am, but I'm glad that I'm consistently losing weight at least, as long as I keep doing that I'll get there eventually! I've also noticed a difference in how some of my clothes fit, a dress that was quite tight around the waist is now a comfortable fit, and a belt that I previously couldn't do up can now be fastened on the second hole. I'm not sure if I look any different but at least something is happening! Its all progress!

Work Experience and Weekends

Friday I had my first day of work placement which is being done at a school library. It was super busy but really fun. I did a lot of administrative stuff, updating spreadsheets and catalogue entries primarily, but it was really enjoyable for me. I'm looking forward to continuing, particularly when I get the opportunity to sit in on some of the librarian's classes, which should happen in the coming weeks.

The weekend was pretty quiet. I went out for dinner on Saturday and positively gorged myself. The food was really good though. I've been trying very hard to improve my eating habits and lose weight, and I've been doing pretty well I think, so I decided to splash out on a cheeseburger and had some mudcake for dessert. It was delicious and a well-deserved treat I think.

This week I don't have classes because my lecturer is interstate attending a conference, but I have a practical assessment I need to attend tomorrow doing some cataloguing activities at the library in the city. I'm hoping to spend the week getting caught up on assignments. We've had a pretty big workload this term and I've just barely been keeping my head above water so hopefully when we go back to class next week I'll be on top of everything... hopefully.

I've been feeling a little despairing lately because the cost of real estate up here, whether to rent or buy, is just astronomical. It feels like I'm never going to be able to get ahead. I guess I'll just carry on doing what I'm doing and hope for the best. With any luck the feeling won't linger too long as it isn't particularly pleasant.

Job Interview

I went to a job interview this morning. They got back to me this afternoon to let me know I didn't make it through to the next round of interviews. I'm immensely disappointed, but I did get some good feedback so hopefully another opportunity comes up soon and I can do better. It was done as a group interview with 5 interviewees including myself. We went around the table doing a bit of an introduction and had an informal chat about the books we'd all been reading, which was all very nice. We were then told we'd split into two groups and had 20 minutes to plan a "story time". If I'm honest, I know that what my group (of three people) planned wasn't that great, but what I had in my head was still better than what eventuated. It was just one of those unfortunate circumstances in which you can't really predict how its going to go wrong until it happens. I thought we were all clear on our roles and how it was going to work, but as I opened the book and began to read and saw what my group members were doing, I realised we had different ideas. I assumed that giving 100% was a given, but one of the ladies seemed very self-conscious and it just didn't go the way I'd hoped it would. But as I said, I got some good feedback and I know what I can do better next time, so even though I'm bummed I didn't get the job, there is a silver lining.

At least I looked nice! :p

Olia Hair Colour

Last time I had to bleach my roots, I was feeling super lazy. Instead of mixing up bleach I just used box dye and it worked reasonably well, but I was also too lazy to tone it so it was super yellow and icky. Add to this the fact the my ends were pretty close to white from being repeatedly dyed purple and you'll see I had some pretty uneven hair tone happening. Now I have a job interview tomorrow which I only got a call about on Monday, so it was fairly short notice and I didn't want to go with my hair looking the way it did. I spoke to my hair dresser friend and she suggested a couple of dyes I could try but when I went shopping, none of the stores I went to had the shade I needed in the brands she suggested. So I decided to go ahead and try the new Olia hair colour by Garnier. It has no ammonia, which was the primary draw for the brands my friend suggested, so I figured I'd give it a bash.

So, I'll do somewhat of a review I guess. I chose the Light Blonde (9.0), although in retrospect I may have gotten a better result from Blonde (8.0), but I was worried about going darker than I wanted so I decided to err on (what I felt was) the side of caution.

The box contains developer cream, colour cream, a plastic bottle for mixing and applying, a tube of conditioner and a pair of gloves. I mixed the developer and colour creams together, sectioned off my hair and began applying. My hair is pretty short and quite fine and there was enough for my head, but not really any extra. If you have long or thick hair I'd recommend getting a few bottles if you're doing your whole head. Application was pretty easy but I didn't like how thick the mixture was. It felt like it made it harder to spread it out through my hair and have it penetrate through  to coat everything evenly, although the plus side to the thick formula is obviously no drips. I suppose it did the job of coating my hair though and I think the result is pretty even bearing in mind how uneven it was to start with.

Box contents

The product smells quite nice. A lot of dyes get up my nose and have a burny chemically smell to them, but this one smelled sweet, and even after the full 30 minutes on my head it still didn't smell bad. It didn't irritate me scalp or feel uncomfortable, it did tingle a little, but compared to how bothersome I find most dyes this one was extremely mild. After washing it out I actually found that my hair felt really dry and straw-like, which was the only negative in my opinion, but even then my hair was fine and felt normal again once I had conditioned it.

I'm pretty happy with the result. I think it has worked pretty well. It slightly lightened my roots and  slightly darkened my ends so my hair doesn't look so uneven. Its still a bit patchy but there's only so much you can ask of these box dyes really! I do think my hair looks better overall than it did before, and that's what I was going for.

I've taken some before and after shots, though as usual I couldn't quite get the angle and lighting precisely the same between the two so the comparison is not 100% perfect. I've done my best though!

Before and After (please excuse the lack of makeup/styling/caring in the after shot! I was on my way to bed)

Before and After - Length close up

After - the roots are much better blended with the rest of my hair now

After - styled today

Checking In!

I'm sorry I've been absent. I have a lot of assignments going on and I'm feeling kind of down the past few days so I either haven't had time to blog or haven't been in the mood. I'm feeling a little overwhelmed by my workload and our schedule this term is a lot tighter than last. I'm feeling like I'm going to drop the ball and I really don't want that to happen!

I'm starting my work placement this week. The librarian I'll be working under has a lot on her plate and so to start with I'll just be doing Fridays to see how that works for her. I'm hoping I can be useful and do well. I'll be working in a primary school library, learning the ropes there and hopefully being able to put to practical use the theoretical learning I've done. I'm really looking forward to it but I'm also really nervous!

I bought a couple of necklaces a few weeks ago but hadn't worn them yet. They're so pretty and I think they go so well together that it was like they were made to wear that way. One is a plain gold chain with a heart pendant decorated with little peachy coloured "gems", the other is a double chain, one being just pearls and the other pearls and peach roses. I love them and I think they look really nice with my green spotty dress.

Where I live we don't get the joy of four seasons as most people have, we get three: wet, dry and "the build up". The build up is widely regarded as the worst, its the months preceding the wet season when everyday is disgustingly hot and oppressively humid. You walk outside into a wall of thick, wet heat and its awful. I truly hate it. I've been living through it for the past couple of months but I think it may finally be breaking. We've had a couple of good downpours, although we haven't reached the stage where they're a daily occurrence so we're not quite in the wet season proper. I still hate the heat of the wet season, but I do love the rain. Its so beautiful and calming. Sometimes it roars down on the roof so loudly you can't have a conversation. Those rains are my favourite and I look forward to them every year.

The view from my classroom window during a good rain the other day

Weekend Rundown

Yesterday I went to a classmate's house for a study session. We have some pretty full on units this term and are on pretty tight time constraints with assignments so we thought it would be a good idea to get together and pool our research and ideas. Corinna, Sam and I spent the afternoon working on our study materials and then had dinner together and got stuck into a few bottles of wine while chatting about life. I had a really great time, I'm glad to have made some new friends, I don't tend to venture outside my comfort zone too often so I don't meet new people much. Its nice to be pleasantly surprised by awesome people when I am in a new and different situation.

I'm feeling pretty disheartened about the weight loss situation. I've lost weight every week so far but in smaller and smaller amounts. I feel like I have SO much weight to lose to get to a healthy range that losing less than a kilo a week makes me feel like I'll never get there. I have decided though that I'm going to change my weigh in day to the middle of the week. I've been doing it on Sunday and if I go out to eat or have drinks or whatever its almost always on a Saturday, so I feel like Sunday is the worst day to weigh myself because I haven't had a chance to recover from the previous night. So I think I'll do it on Wednesday from now on. I've been exercising and eating well so I feel like the lack of weight loss this week is mostly due to the eating out and drinking I did yesterday.

I got a package from Forever New the other day which contained a bag that I've wanted for ages! I didn't want to pay $70 for it though so I waited until it went on sale. The bag is nice and big and functional and obviously really cute! I've been trying to build up by bag collection so I always have a handbag to suit the occasion. Until recently I'd really only have one bag at a time, using it until it needed replacing. Now that I'm wearing more pastels and lighter colours I needed more than just one black bag. So I've been looking for a large and a small bag in a neutral colour as well as a large and small in black. I now have both my neutral bags covered (this one being the larger one) so I have to keep my eye out now for black ones! I also bought two little pairs of fingerless lace gloves which are ever so pretty and I look forward to having an appropriate occasion to which to wear them.

Back to Busy!

First week back at school and I've already got three assignments due next week! Hopefully they won't be too bad once I get stuck into them, but it does look like this is going to be a pretty hectic term. All of the units seem pretty packed with content so I don't think I'll have the luxury of easy weeks with not much to do like I did last term. I should also be doing my work placement at some point which is going to leave me even tighter for time. But it will all be worth it once I'm finished!

Speaking of work placement... I've applied for a job. I think I briefly mentioned in a previous post that I was planning to but I've actually done it now. The automated email I received in response said they aim to get back to everyone within 6 to 12 weeks or something like that so it sounds like there's no huge rush to fill the position. I'll be honest, I know my chances of getting it are slim and I'm really trying not to get my hopes up, but that's easier said than done because I really want the job. We'll see how it goes though. Depending on when they actually do get back to me I may be pretty close to finishing my course which may make me a more attractive applicant.

So being back at school means getting out of my pajamas and into proper clothing and heading off to classes and the library and whatnot. I ordered some new dresses from Lindybop which I'm ABSOLUTELY LOVING. I posted a picture of the blue spotty one the other day which is definitely one of my favourites. This is my other favourite:

Its a nice light fabric, perfect for the hot weather. I love the colour and the pattern, its so very pretty, and its also a perfect length. You can't see it very well in the photo but it has a matching belt too. I've been really happy with all the Lindybop dresses I bought. They're awesome dresses and priced really well. I think next time I can afford it I'll order more of these dresses. They're all beautiful to wear, they make me feel like a princess and they're super comfy.

I'm having a bad hair life at the moment. I really need a hair cut but I always put them off for ages, and I decided it should be a reward for weight loss so I don't feel so terrible about spending the money on it. My hair looks fine when its curled, but when its straight the ends look really dry. I couldn't be bothered curling it before bed last night but I also didn't like how it looked when I was getting ready this morning so I had to do something to get it out of sight and out of mind. I pinned it up with a bunch of bobby pins and used these cute little decorative flower hair pins I got on sale a couple of weeks ago to make something actually rather pretty. I really just held my hair where I wanted it and threw in some pins not really knowing what it looked like so I was pleasantly surprised when it looked passable lol! The flower pins also matched nicely with the dress I think :)

Hope everyone is well!

When the Stars Align

Today was so amazing it was almost like a suspension of reality. Today was the first day of the 8th Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) Top End Symposium (yeah perhaps it doesn't flow of the tongue quite as nicely as it should) and I had the opportunity to attend. I was really excited but also nervous to be meeting tonnes of people from the library industry, I'm taking any chance I can get to meet people and learn all aspects of the job I'll eventually be doing. So I wasn't sure if anyone I knew was going to be there but as it turns out three of my classmates did attend.

Now let me try and jump through the day as chronologically as possible. When I first went in and got my name tag I looked around and saw one of the girls from the Northern Territory Library who had given my class a tour. As she was the only person I sort of knew I went to where she was sitting and chatted with her. She was also talking with three other women and we all chatted merrily and laughed and joked and whatnot. We got onto the topic of jobs and I mentioned there was one I'm applying for, one of the girls I've been chatting with is on the interview panel and another works at the library the position will be. Both of them strongly encouraged me to apply because they think I'd be great. So that was win number one for the day.
During the tea break I was standing on my own for a moment when an old lady comes up to me and reads my name tag and says "oh, you're Kathy's student! I've heard wonderful things about you, she says you're doing really well!" Apparently she used to teach library studies and after she retired Kathy took over. So that felt like a huge win to have a total stranger come and acknowledge me because she's heard good things!

Third amazing thing happened at the after party. The Executive Director for ALIA came up to me and said she'd seen me sitting up the back while she gave her presentation and she thought I looked amazing. She said she wants to do a piece in their magazine early next year on chic, stylish librarians and revamping the library image and she wants me in it. I honestly don't know if that was all hot air or if it will actually eventuate, but regardless it was an amazing compliment. Of course I told her I'd love to and she took my details and we chatted for awhile. She seems like such a lovely person. She gave a great presentation on the future of the industry and how libraries can continue to meet the needs of the public.

So after that I was chatting with several other attendees when the Brisbane Manager of Library Services comes up to talk to me. She gave me her card and told me if I want to fly down there for my work experience she'll make sure she has a place for me. She was great too. In fact, everyone was so lovely and welcoming and supportive. I feel extremely lucky right now. And to top it all off, in addition to the informative talks and amazing social experience there was swag! They gave us all a sample bag which had in it a whole bunch of pamphlets and brochures as well as a bunch of little goodies. My two favourites are the coffee mug with cookie holder groove in the bottom and a little stylus I can use with my phone, but there were also a few nice pens, and who doesn't like pens!

I know this whole entry sounds super braggy and gauche but I'm really happy and excited about the way the day panned out and I just want to share. Its not everyday everything goes this well! ^_^

Dress by Lindybop

Goodies!

Feeling Good

So as some of you may have noticed, I'm overweight. I was aware of this but I didn't realise just how overweight I was until I stepped on a scale recently for the first time in almost a year and saw I'd ballooned and was suddenly heavier that I've ever been in my life (including when heavily pregnant). Needless to say this came as a bit of a shock to me and I decided I needed to do something about it.

A week ago I joined Weight Watchers. I signed up with them back in... 2010 I think and lost a bit of weight before getting bored with it and abandoning the plan. But now I think (I HOPE!) I'm ready for some long-term commitment. I've been feeling lethargic all the time, my knees and ankles get sore, and I'm grossly unfit. Its actually really embarrassing for me to talk about, but I figure if I can be honest I have the best chance of remembering why I'm trying to do this in those hard moments.

I've just done my first weekly weigh in and I've lost 2.4kg (which is about 5.3lbs for those of you who are into that sort of thing). I feel super good about that. I know its a lot to lose in one week, but people tend to lose more in those first few weeks on a diet and bigger people even more so because they have so much more extra to shed. I'm really glad to see a good result though, I was sticking to my points but I was really worried that for some reason it wasn't going to work, so its obviously great motivation to see that it is working well. Even just this week there have been hard times for me, I'm a hugely fussy eater, so even with no restrictions or considerations for losing weight its hard for me to choose a meal a lot of the time. Hopefully as I progress with the program and know more recipes and ideas choosing what to eat won't be such a difficult decision.

So I'll be doing this for quite awhile before I get to my goal weight (I'm trying to get back to where I was before I started working in sedentary office jobs and before I had my youngest daughter). I'm certainly not going to turn this into a weight loss blog, but I probably will share my progress if that's okay, because its nice to share :)

Hope you're all well!

Sick! *cough cough*

I've been pretty sick this week. I've had a cold which has mostly been congestion and head/muscle aches but today progressed to coughing and loss of ability to make proper sounds from my throat beyond airy squeaks and honks. I was meant to donate blood tomorrow but had to call up and cancel the appointment and the poor lady who answered my call had a hard time hearing me. Anyway despite the coughing today my muscle aches seem to have gone and my throat isn't as sore as it has been other days, so hopefully I'm on the road to recovery.

I finished up the two business units I had to take and emailed off the assignments for each of them yesterday. Hopefully they're to the lecturer's satisfaction and I can cross them off my list! I'm also still waiting for the grades to be uploaded for 3 other units I've done this term. I'm sure they're all fine and I've passed, but I really need to SEE it there to be satisfied. I'm very much a list person and being able to see the list of things I need to complete get smaller and smaller gives me a real sense of accomplishment.

<3

Trying a New Dye

The other night I decided to try a brand of dye I haven't used before. Normally to lighten my roots I use bleach and then sometimes I use a blonde dye to give it a nicer tone, but I've never tried lightening my roots with a box blonde. Even though box dyes work out more expensive, they're much easier to use, so I thought I'd give it a try to see if it lifted the colour enough. I have to say, I think it did a pretty good job.

I used Live Salon Permanent dye in Extra Light Ash Blonde. It was super easy to mix and apply. It did have a chemically smell and it burnt my eyes initially (the vapor that is, I didn't actually get any product in my eyes), but not nearly as badly as the brand I usually use. It only took a few blinks to get rid of that initial offensive odour which tends to hurt my eyes and leave them watering. The instructions don't say to section your hair off, and it isn't strictly necessary, but I find it makes application a lot easier and helps to ensure its even throughout and there aren't any spots missed. I have fairly fine hair and not a tonne of it so sectioning would probably be more important to those with thicker hair.

I find dying hair much easier when I start at the front and work my way back, but as I bleach regularly, I alternate each time I do it to prevent the hair at the front getting too damaged (wherever you start the dye will be on longer there, therefore being more likely to damage the hair). Starting at the back can be a little trickier but it really isn't as bad with box dyes because you can just massage it into a chunk of hair rather than having to paint it into little sections. Once my roots were completely saturated with the dye, I left it on for the recommended 30 minutes. I then washed it off and used the included conditioner (which smells rather nice) and this was the result:

Left: Before, Right: After

As you can see, my roots didn't go a nice white blonde but have stayed rather yellow. But I don't think it is any worse than my usual results with bleach (although I've been told there's a better brand I should use next time I stock up.) I could probably have left it on a touch longer, but I didn't feel like that would make a great deal of difference as I was checking it periodically and it didn't really appear there had been much change in shade in the final ten minutes; I'm also hesitant to risk leaving a product on longer when my hair is already quite fragile. It should also be noted the pictures were taken under bright white light, so the contrast is actually less noticeable in normal indoor lighting which tends to be more yellow, but under neons or outside in the sun you can definitely see the yellow. The yellowy roots are still an improvement on mousy blonde though! And I will fix them up eventually I'm sure.

Hope everyone is well!

Salty and Spicy

This is called the Salty and Pepper dress from Modcloth. The brand is Hell Bunny, who don't appear to have their own website, but if you google it I'm sure you can find stockists that service your area. I've been a fan of Hell Bunny for ages and have a few of their items so I had high expectations for this dress, and it met them. It fits very nicely, perhaps just a tiny bit loose in the bust but not so much that it would be visible to others. The skirt comes down past my knees, it skims nicely over my hips and swings and flows and the hem. I also love the cute little heart-shaped pockets, adorable and functional! I love these big voluminous skirts, they just feel great to wear.

In other news I went out for dinner last night with some friends. I had a steak and guinness pie which was pretty good. Afterward I went home with my best friend and stayed the night at her place. We tried to set up her karaoke set which wasn't working, then tried playing Lips on the Xbox but there was so much lag it proved unplayable even after reconfiguring the microphones. So we decided to watch a movie, I chose Spice World because I haven't seen it in a million years and , like most girls my age I think, I was crazy for the Spice Girls back in the day. It was everything I hoped it would be, still so much fun. It was a bit strange to see Posh Spice actually displaying some sort of personality. I'm so used to seeing her as skinny, big boobed Victoria Beckham that I had kind of forgotten she might have a personality. But for me it was always all about Baby Spice (I bet you're super shocked), and I owned as many babydoll dresses and platform sneakers as my mother would let me have. That wardrobe phase didn't last terribly long, but it was fun while it did.

So how about you? Did you like the Spice Girls? Who was your favourite?

Minty Fresh

This is one of the dresses I got from Modcloth. This one is quite loose around the top, but I love it so much I can't resist wearing it anyway. I'm hoping it can be taken in somehow so that it will fit me properly, but I doubt I'll get around to having that done for ages knowing me! I put the pro in procrastinate!
The brand is Mikarose, the same as this dress which fit me beautifully. It feels so comfy to wear, the fabric is so soft and flowy and light. It also has hidden pockets! I do love me some pockets. The length is great, I love dresses to hit within an inch or three either side of my knee and this one fits nicely into that gap. The colour is super pretty. I just loved wearing this today. I wore it with my beige cardigan and one of the rings I got for my birthday (I picked the purple one just to add something different into the outfit). I really do need to do something about the top part though, its so loose. Bah! I'll get to it eventually!

You can see up close just how baggy the chest is in the bottom right pic. Its loose around the bust and right up into the shoulders

The Good and The Bad

So lets get the bad out of the way first. I picked up my Modcloth dresses today and out of 6 only 1 fits perfectly :( One is still okay even though its loose around the top, and there are another two which I may be able to get altered to make them work. All in all really disappointing though. I've just gained too much weight recently and my body is all out of whack. I do love the one dress that fits me well though. Its gorgeous, I'll take photos as soon as I get around to wearing it.

Now for the good! I went out with the bff today and she gave me my birthday present. I also did a bit of shopping so between the two I came home with quite a haul! The gifts I got were a pretty lacy bag, a little shimmery coin purse with a birdy clasp, and three pretty rings!
As far as my shopping purchases go, I bought myself two pearly necklaces, one that has a little pendant and looks more fancy/formal and one that could be more for everyday use. I also bought a chunky cold necklace and a smaller silver one both for wearing with audrey dresses and other higher-necked items, and some earrings.

I love the pressies Snow White bought me ^_^ The bag is so pretty, the pictures really don't to it justice, same with the little coin purse, its much prettier when my camera flash isn't washing it out. And the rings are gorgeous, I love the blue/green one. Its really big and chunky, which isn't something I'd usually pick, but It looks great on and is such a pretty colour. Everything was awesome, she knows me too well!
Here are pics of my new pretties!

Birthdays and Business Attire

Yesterday was my birthday. I tend to prefer quiet birthdays to big celebrations, so all I did was take the day off from studying and ordered chinese food for dinner. The real fun comes tomorrow! It looks like my Modcloth order arrived today, no one was home for the courier though so I'll go pick it up tomorrow. Yay for dresses!

I had my mock job interview today for class. I know it was all just pretend but I couldn't help but be terribly nervous. It all went well though! So now I've finished all of my work for those units. I have a couple of assignments for the business units I attended last week, but I've also added an extra unit on. I spoke with my course coordinator and realised that by the end of next term I'll only be missing one business unit and an IT unit in order to finish my certificate. I really don't want to have to carry over into next year if I don't have to, so I got in touch with the lecturer of the business units and she sent me the course material to complete it externally. So I now have a bit over a week to complete those three assignments. Shouldn't be too bad though, I made some decent progress today so each assignment should only take me a day or two of solid work.

I had to dress a little more conservatively for my interview today. My "professional" wardrobe is very limited at the moment, because when I initially came to Darwin it was only meant to be short-term and I wasn't planning on working so all my business attire stayed in Sydney. I'm trying to build up a decent range of work-appropriate clothing now though. I want to look professional and sensible, but I also want to still be myself and have my own style. I'm hoping that isn't unreasonable or unrealistic! I suppose it depends on where I end up getting a job.

I ended up wearing a lot of black for my mock interview today

Tomorrow I'll be spending the day with my dear bestie, and hopefully in the course of our travels we'll be able to make it out to pick up my dresses from the courier! I hope the all fit. I feel so nervous buying clothes online if I'm not familiar with the brand. One dress in particular I'm concerned about because I am rather large and despite being a plus sized dress it seems like it may run on the small side. We'll see though.
Wish me luck!

Books and Birdies

I took the day off of studying yesterday and sat in bed watching Gossip Girl all day. I stopped watching back in early season 4 and haven't watched again since, so now I'm playing catch up because I'm sick of avoiding spoilers and not knowing how everything turned out. I admit, I watch the show with equal parts interest and frustration. I get so annoyed at the characters when they completely fail to talk things out in situations where just explaining themselves would solve everything. USE YOUR WORDS, PEOPLE! But I can't resist finding out what happens. Stupid Chuck and Blair suck me in every time!

So today I was back at it bright and early, went to the library and spent most of the day working on stuff. Unfortunately due to lack of sleep I wasn't very focused and didn't get as much done as I'd hoped. But I'll go back Monday and try to be more productive. I've really only got the two new assignments from the business units to deal with. They seem pretty straight forward, so hopefully they won't be too much work.

Today while at the library I took a walk to the vending machine to grab a drink and made a new friend. This little butcher bird hopped right up to me, only about a meter away and kept tilting his head from side to side inquisitively, waiting for me to feed him something. I didn't give him any food, although he was super adorable and I was very tempted! But I did take a couple of pictures of him being cute. Sorry they're a little blurry! I was using my phone and it obviously wasn't focusing too well.

Busy, Busy, Busy!

Hello!

So the past few days have been full of cafeteria food, windy weather and getting very well acquainted with the computer desks at my library. I've finished all but one assessment from my current units, but I also have to start two business units tomorrow which will both require assignments, so I'm sure I'll be feeling snowed under again soon! In my spare time I've been trying to read as much as I can because I've been taking forever to finish this damn novel. Normally it really only takes me a few days, but I've only bee committing little bits of time here and there and it has made it impossible to get through a book.

In much more exciting news, I placed another order for some dresses from Modcloth. I'm super eager for them to get here but I know it will take awhile. I think it took about 4 weeks last time. I'm hoping it might be a little quicker this time as I have a 2 day conference I'll be attending in early October and I really want the dresses here for that! I'm also equally worried about the dresses fitting as I was last time because I still haven't figured out my size. Last time I ordered 2 dresses in a 3X and one in a 2X. The 2X fit perfectly and so did one 3X, and the other 3X was slightly large... so I'm still not sure! But even if I was "sure", they're all different brands and cuts anyway, so it doesn't mean that I could order a dress and be certain it would fit. So I've just done my best to order based on reviews and whatnot and hope everything works out! I tried to make sure I ordered dresses that would take me from work to play easily, because I need to start thinking about looking professional. Hopefully the ones I've ordered all fit well!

Accessory Board

I found this cheap little cupcake memo board and thought it would be handy way to store some of my accessories for several reasons, a.) because digging around in jewellery boxes annoys me, b.) its nice to have things on display, and c.) I'm an extremely messy person so I tend to leave my accessories strewn around the place and can't find them when I need them. So now I'm using this for my most commonly used items and have found it awesome. It encourages me to put things back where they go because its easy and pretty.
The board was only $8 from Kmart, definitely worth it for me! :)

Last Dress from Modcloth

So this is the final dress from the little lot that I bought from Modcloth. This one is also from Mikarose and its lovely. The fabric is quite sheer and I need to wear a slip under it, but that's alright. The seafoam green overlay is sooooo soft and extremely floaty. It was meant to come with a little sash, but it was forgotten, but it goes fine with the belt from my other dress anyway, so its all good!

I spent the day at the library today again. AGAIN I got given more assignments when I thought I was done! So cue extension of busy beaver mode. Was really hoping to relax a bit this week, but alas! I did get another assignment completed today though, so at least I'm getting through them. Today my bestest buddy accompanied me to the library, so there was plenty of shenanigans in between bouts of productivity.

Top: Bored... draw orks!
Left: My bestie takes only the sexiest photos of me; Right: bathroom selfies ftw

This morning when I took my rollers out my fringe was doing a nice little barrel roll thing. Anytime I've intentionally tried to roll my fringe it has failed miserably, so I decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth ad just went with it. I put two bobby pins underneath to hold it and sprayed it with a generous amount of hairspray. It stayed in for the most part, but I did feel very self-conscious about it and had the urge to fuss with it all day. But hey, my hair was willing to let me almost do a faux fringe (bangs, whatever you want to call them) so we'll call it a win.

I've also decided I no longer like my glasses! I got them probably almost 2 years ago and at the time I wanted the biggest frames I could get. Now I feel like these just don't suit my face at all and I need something smaller and more feminine. But glasses are so damn expensive, so I doubt it will be something I can do in the immediate future. We'll see how things go though.

New Camera!!!

For about a million years I've wanted a dslr but for one reason or another I never got one. I used to be big into photography back in high school, just before the world went digital. Its been a long time since I played around with an slr and I've never used a digital one so it will take some getting used to. I played around with it a  little after class today taking pictures around the house and in the yard. I can't wait to take it out and get some nice pictures.

I haven't edited these in any way other than to fit them to the square frame

Using the 'miniature' setting

Left: Auto setting, Right: Miniature setting

And what would it be without a selfie. I tweaked the colours on this one to make it all blue-tinged