Sunday 22 March 2015

Rainy Sunday kitchen fest


This is the view from our apartment: super grey and rainy. It's been threatening rain most of the weekend and from about midday Sunday it has been falling nonstop.

I actually really like the rain.  It might be an Australian thing or growing up on a farm or having a country family but rain means everything is getting a wash, the plants are getting water, the dams and waterways are filling up and everything is going to be a-ok.

Of course, urban life means the rain can be a bit of a downer what with having to negotiate public transport and dodgy puddly uneven footpaths in heels etc etc but personally I still really love it. M loves the sound of it falling on a tin roof so he's been a happy humming little bird all weekend. We just have to be judicious about walking the fat dog as soon as it stops, even just for a moment!

Because last weekend was so busy, we agreed to keep this weekend to a minimum and that meant we said no to every social invitation and instead spent Saturday shopping for M's wedding suit. I don't think either of us was really looking forward to it. I luurrrrve shopping for me, but I'm have next to no interest in 'dressing' M, although I know a lot of women do enjoy that.  M is probably about as awkward shopping as the average heterosexual male his age so when the two of us get together, I pity the sales assistants.

Because it was so humid, I relished the opportunity to wear a dress. Not just any dress but my new DvF dress from Matches that arrived during the week and is just as beautiful as I had hoped:

Dress: Diane von Furstenburg (available here)
Sandals: Nine West
Bag: Michael Kors
We tripped off to the city on the ferry, clutching umbrellas. I needn't have worried, as it turned out: we got a wonderful girl to help us at David Jones and it was so nice to have someone professionally guide us through fabrics, cuts and colours. One of the occasions where bricks and mortar retails definitely trumped internet shopping. She encouraged us towards charcoal with an ivory shirt and black or dark navy tie (still to be decided). M has never looked more handsome and I'm so excited to see how he looks on our wedding day.

After that, I had to go briefly into work to do a few things in preparation for Monday. I have such a busy week ahead - not looking forward to it :( It was good to knock a few things over on the weekend so I start the week in a better position.

When I got home, we did one of my favourite DIY things: picture hanging!

I have some photos I took when I was in Paris in 2009 that I've had enlarged and printed on archival paper and then professionally framed. I quite often take photos to use as interior art for either the office or home. It's fun, it allows me to use my (small) creative side and, being ever the economist, it's incredibly cost-effective for the aesthetic end-result.  This is immediately recognisable as the Musee d'Orsay interior clock:




We've hung it in our entrance alcove, which I painted a deep dark blue a couple of years ago and I have to say, all the gold against the blue looks really rather fetching!

We were invited to come out for a drink on Saturday night at around 9pm and I'm rather embarrassed to say, we were already in bed! We're both working such long hours at the moment, I sometimes miss my younger days when I could go out at the drop of a hat but I really don't have the energy anymore. Sleep is so much more tempting than loud music and expensive drinks/food. I'm getting old :(

Because it rained virtually all day today, I decided to break out the baking gear and make this cinnamon pull apart bread from Joy the Baker:

Getting ready to go in the oven...

Ta-da!!
M is the sweet tooth in our house and spent a fair bit of the afternoon snuffling around the kitchen and asking me "Is it ready yet?" I told him to bugger off and it would be ready when it was ready. When I took it out, I almost tripped over the fat dog AND M standing 2 inches behind me desperately trying to see it. I'm really happy with how it turned out and would recommend giving the recipe a go if you're looking for something sweet and a bit unusual for an afternoon tea with family.  Unsurprisingly, it disappeared in a very short time!

Now I'm sitting preparing to watch an episode of The Fall and eat a delicious bolognese. I had quite a bit of veg in the fridge that I wanted to use up so bolognese was an easy choice: it's so versatile and you can put almost any summer vegetable in it and it will be superb.


I'll definitely be off the air this week - sad face! But work is how it is and it's got to be done. I will just look forward to more posting next weekend :) xo

Monday 16 March 2015

Summer sunshine


Happy Monday!!

Coming back down to the working week with a resounding *thump* after a busy social weekend that included:
- Pilates
- meeting with milliner (re. wedding headpiece - more on that later in the month)
- lunch at Tinderbox with my godparents and their daughters for a lovely, pre-wedding catch up
- late afternoon drinks with a friend who recently moved here from Sydney
- brunch on Sunday with my gorgeous mother and M

Phew! That was an absolute whirlwind - M and I spent the remainder of Sunday doing all the neglected chores from Saturday and both agreed: next weekend is going to be just us and the fat dog relaxing at home!

This week at work I'm continuing with rolling out the rebrand and finalising our corporate presentations for the end of the month and the next month. I don't have any formal meetings scheduled for this week so I'm actually happy to be a little informal for the office:


Top: Country Road
Jeans: Country Road
Jacket: Weekend Maxmara (at Matches)
Heels: Bally
Bag: Louis Vuitton

This jacket is a bit of a departure for me - it's so bright! Like a lot of redheads, I absorbed a lot of misinformation about what would, and (mostly) would not, look good with my hair. In particular, I was assured by various persons (teachers, mothers of school friends) that I could not, ever, under any circumstances, wear bright colours.  This affected all manner of style choices for me as an adolescent and early twenties female.  I embraced all black outfits and nude lip gloss. Consequently, I blended right into the background, thanks to ridiculous style 'rules' espoused by ignorant women to an impressionable teen.

Fortunately, I eventually discovered just how wrong these 'rules' against redheads are, against redheads wearing colour, being vibrant and embracing prints and other delights of the fashion cycle. I've started wearing red lipstick. I've been slowly introducing colour into my wardrobe over a couple of seasons. Now, when I look through my wardrobe, it's not an ocean of black. There's lightness and brightness, in pockets. I typically pair an ivory/white top over dark slim trousers.

This jacket is quite a leap, by my standards. The boxy cropped cut is unusual for me, I favour jackets that nip me in under the bust and define my waist. The colour is just so cheerful, I wanted it to brighten up my work days. It's made of a refined raffia weave and is light enough for me to wear right now in high summer, even on classic humid Brisbane days.

After a long day, I came home to the usual Monday night routine: exercise, walking the fat dog, unloading dishwashers and dinner. Except my dinner turned out a little bit fancy:


Smoked salmon slices drizzled with lemon and served on a bed of sautéed baby asparagus. I'm trying to mix up our protein a little and thought smoked salmon would be a good option. It's delicious and easy, all you have to do is prepare whatever veg you're having with it. This meal took a grand total of 10 minutes to prepare - very tempting to most of us who come home on a Monday night thoroughly exhausted!

I hope you all have great Mondays :) xo

Thursday 12 March 2015

Match(es) made in heaven



Who loves internet shopping?

Me. I do. I even did a post about things that make internet shopping awesome.

And it would appear people know, because the fabulous team at Matches sent me a super lovely gift voucher to explore the DVF Spring/Summer 2015 collection :)

I love DVF. It's got the right mix of pretty and preppy, with a little bit of #girlboss thrown in for good measure. This season there's a heavy emphasis on checks and gingham, while some more retro-styled classic DVF prints seem to have made a bit of a comeback with a modern reworking across the wrap and tunic dress styles.

I was a bit like a kid in a candy store but eventually settled on the Fleur dress in a really crisp bright red:


DVF always does this great thing and releases designs in multiple colours so you'll be pleased to know this dress also comes in pink and a pale yellow (lemon?) colour. Look at me, describing things :)

The dress is winging it's way to me now and I'm really hoping the fabric is wearable - sometimes crepes and jerseys can be a bit heavy for the Queensland climate. I've been looking for a simple, short red dress for ages, ever since my last red dress (a fetching crimson silk affair) actually tore across the behind/bottom area from overwear. While I was out Christmas shopping. Yes, my underwear may have been seen by quite a few people I didn't actually know. I only discovered the damage when I got home. Le sigh.

Here's hoping I look as good in this little fire engine number as the model does:

 

Gorgeous, no?!  xo


Wednesday 11 March 2015

Casual Thursday

It's a thing: casual Thursday, because I have no meetings for the rest of the week and I am going to be chilling in my office (with my gorgeous fresh flowers that actually have a scent - I didn't even know scented roses existed outside of your nanna's garden anymore?)

I couldn't sleep this morning so got up early and walked the fat dog. Then came home, downed a green smoothie in record time and got ready for work. As I suspected, navy skinnies, flats and an ivory tank were calling my name, but I wanted something else, something more. I've been moaning over the past couple of weeks about how hot it is and how I'm seriously lusting for some autumnal fashion. So, despite the temps outside, I decided to add a scarf to my outfit today:

Top: LK Bennett
Pants: Country Road
Flats: Jimmy Choo
Scarf: Gucci
Bag: Hermes
This scarf is a classic old Gucci in a light and dark blue that goes really well with a lot of my wardrobe staples.  Because I went sleeveless, the scarf is just perfect for keeping me comfortable in the office aircon.  The bag keeps the blue theme going and just looks awesome all the time anyway :)

I want to start getting better photos going - a bit less 'me-in-the-mirror-trying-to-look-photogenic-with-an-iPhone-smack-in-front-of-my-head'. I'll let you know how that works out...

It's nearly the weekend kids - a good couple of days to nail away the last tasks of the week before the fun social weekend ahead. xo

Hump day happiness!



Isn't it nice when we decide to make a change and we actually manage to keep it up? Ok, so fresh flowers for the office is hardly life-changing, but still, they're making my office look and feel fabulous, like an aesthetically-pleasing space I actually enjoy spending time in. Go me.

I am spending the rest of the week putting together a series of presentations we are giving later in the month to key stakeholders on the consumer side of our business. To be honest, I've been slightly procrastinating over it and, well, there's really no time for that! It's the old story: when you get so caught up in wanting to do a thing perfectly, you become frozen and can't move forward. I finally seem to have made it into a great productive headspace over it and things are now going ahead to plan. I put it down to the flowers :)

So given that I'm in creative-mode rather than business-mode, I'll be slightly more relaxed, outfit-wise, for the final two days at work and you know what that means: Jimmy Choo flats, come at me!

I've had a number of little pieces of deliciousness appear at work this week and I thought I'd share a little happiness around for Hump-day:

1. Tom Ford Plum Japonais






Ooooooh. Looks like someone got a bit fancy.

So I posted about my search for a 'date-night' fragrance and haven't had a great deal of luck, although I have found some really lovely perfumes. They simply haven't been quite...what I'm after.  This one has sufficient depth and smokiness to show promise. We're off to dinner on Friday night and then drinks on Saturday, so I shall be testing this one out on M.  I'll keep you posted, politely of course ;)

2. Stripes and slogans


Iris and Ink and Zoe Karssen 
Who doesn't love a Breton tee? When it comes with saffron stripes, it's like a unicorn made out of sunshine. If that was a thing.

The slogan top just made me giggle. Not everything has to be an outfit for work, these are two I can see fitting very nicely into my relaxed-weekend wardrobe.

3. Nude sandals

This bit hardly needs any content at all, just enjoy the glamour shots :)

Come to mumma...


I love a suede shoe and these strappy sandals are making me excited about dressing up weekend outfits that little bit more than usual. So much more fun than flats, no?

4. Streamlined accessories


Top: LK Bennett
Pants: Country Road
Heels: Bally
Bag: Louis Vuitton


Camel and taupe - delicious!
Sigh. This bag is a lesson in understatement. The colour is quite hard to describe (ok, it's probably not hard to describe for someone who actually knows the correct names for colours - I'm just not that person) but it goes with my outfits seamlessly.

Secret? I fell for this bag the moment I spotted Christine Lagarde carrying one at a recent forum on the Greek debt crisis. I'm such an economics nerd :)

Here she is hanging out in my office looking quite the professional:



Well, all those little things certainly cheered me up - I hope everyone is having good weeks - it's a sleigh ride now to Friday :) xo

Tuesday 10 March 2015

Working week: black, white and beige



Top: Vivienne Westwood Anglomania
Pants: Vince (available here)
Heels: Bally
Bag: Louis Vuitton

Work is so busy at the moment and still so hot! I'm eagerly scanning northern hemisphere blogs for coats and boots and scarves and generally feeling a bit put out that I have to slather sunscreen on every morning just to walk the dog. I know I shouldn't complain, the sunshine is good for general cheeriness, but still: maintaining one's chic while sweating profusely is no mean feat. 

Last night I went to a Pilates class and it was really tough but a good finish to a busy work day. I had one of those days where I started at 7am, left the office at 6:30pm and although I cleared loads off my desk, took phone calls and returned dozens of emails, I still didn't feel like I achieved all that much. 

Whenever I get like this, I try to shake it off (thanks Tay) with some loud music and some natural endorphins. Not pot brownies (I'm not that natural) but natural endorphins from exercise. I'm trying to go to Pilates twice a week. I'd really recommend it for anyone with a mostly sedentary job as it's great for core muscle strength and keeping your back strong (and pain-free!)

I got home around 8pm and was in the mood for some comfort food so I made a variation of my chicken noodle soup by subbing in frozen corn for zucchini and shallots, with loads of mushrooms and fresh chives from our herb garden:



This is quite a quick dinner to whip up and it's nicely low cal, especially if you choose to leave the egg noodles out. Obviously, I didn't: it was late, girl was hungry, bring me all the noodles!! 

I'm super sore today but it's the best kind of soreness - happy hump day, everyone :) xo

Tuesday 3 March 2015

Lightness of being

Top: LK Bennett
This week's theme of lightweight pieces and cool-coloured accessories continues in an effort to beat the heat - 33C today!

It's so hot I didn't even bother with a blazer or jacket - just a light ivory tank by LK Bennett and my (new) favourite silk pants from Vince.

As my style continues to evolve (being 32 now, not the spring chicken I once was) I place more and more value on multiple buys as well as ensuring quality cut and fit.  I have three of this ivory tank because it drapes nicely at the front, is really practical (read: no dry-cleaning) and translates well for me across my full wardrobe, from work to weekend.  It is quite a generous cut and I tend to size up in tops anyway due to my bust. To mitigate any potential oversize/sack-effect, I have the tops tailored with a couple of modest darts, just to draw the lines in a little.  Tailoring is such a worthwhile investment, I couldn't recommend it more highly particularly for clothes that are part of your sartorial uniform on high closet rotation.

That said, it all might still look a bit frumpy in the photo. I'd love to have really awesome street-style blog photos. M isn't the world's best photographer though so I may have to recruit another helper...

Monday 2 March 2015

Blue tones



Blue shoes. Blue bag. Blue rug. 
Suede pumps first appeared a few seasons ago and now virtually every brand has at least one in their collection. They have become a true working wardrobe classic. Finding them in navy is sort of piling classic on top of classic!

I rely heavily on monochrome and neutral tones in my wardrobe generally. Where I do introduce colour, I like it to be really set off by the understated nature of whatever else I'm wearing. I adore my blue birkin and thought it would be fun to pair navy pumps with the bright blue bag, against a neutral top and black and white print pants:

Top: MSGM
Pants: Country Road
Heels: Pierre Hardy
Bag: Hermes
I do occasionally get asked about some of the furnishing in our apartment and I want to do a shout out to the navy and white wonder that is our living room rug. Secret? It's from Ikea and cost $59. It's one of those pieces that styles waaaaayyy more expensive and glamorous-looking than it is. I love my luxury, obviously, but I also have a dog and I like to security that comes from owning a rug that he can do an occasional sick on without me tearing my hair out.

Summary: go Ikea!

Day 2 of six weeks to sexy started like this:



The green smoothie is obviously an old favourite but what is that jar of amazingness, you ask?

It's homemade prawn pot noodle, inspired by this post by Lily Melrose



I didn't follow that exact recipe as I had to improvise using what I had at home. It's based on an asian noodle soup, the idea is you can pack the (mostly) dry ingredients in the sealed jar and take it to work, add boiling water at lunch et voila:



Honest feedback? I need to refine this as a working lunch option. I make a killer asian noodle soup for dinner quite regularly with either chicken or pork, so I think my expectations were probably a little high on the basis of that. I need to shop properly for the sauce base ingredients and work out the best noodles to use etc.

I saw it online yesterday and the truth is, I just get obsessed by things (especially food things) and decided I needed to try it immediately. All in all, it was a perfectly adequate working lunch but I want to try it a few more times to make it completely delicious. Then I'll post a full recipe :)

Hit Tuesday out of the park everyone xo

Things I'm looking forward to: March




As I write this, in my head there's a tiny version of me running around squealing because it is TWO MONTHS TO THE WEDDING today, officially.

Let's let that sink in for a moment...

So I haven't been posting these in a timely fashion and I have said I want to try and get this blog back on a track. With that in mind, allow me to present the things that are giving me butterflies this month:

1. Fresh flowers for my office


Having fresh flowers in my office is a new thing that I want to keep going since my fabulous office redecoration. The purple/magenta (guess who didn't do art at school?) beauties above are carnations, they cost $20 and lasted a full two weeks. Hands up, who's impressed? I sure am.

Now they did die a sad death over the weekend and when I came in this morning I spent about 15 minutes wondering vaguely 'What is that slightly rank smell?' Nice. Still, for value for money and longevity, I couldn't go past this bright punch of colour to smarten up an office and put us all on top productive game :)

2. Wedding (!!!)


Ok so this is officially number two below fresh flowers because it makes me feel a combination of excited and terrified, but mostly the excitement is starting to heat up because a lot of the decisions are made now. The only things pending really are hair and accessories. There's this delightful piece of frippery in the form of a clutch from Kate Spade which I am pretending to deliberate over whether I really need or not:


I know, it's stunning and I'm obviously going to buy it so I should just pull the trigger and be done with it. It goes perfectly with the shoes I'm wearing from Nine West:


I'm wearing these babies with my reception dress rather than my actual wedding dress. I sound like such a celeb, no?  The truth is, girl loves any reason to dress up and more dresses rather than less dresses always sounds better ;)

Wedding hair is currently under debate. I wear my hair up normally:


My hairdresser did an asymmetrical slightly rough/loose style which I really liked at the front where she gave me a (tiny) bit of height, but not so much at the back:



Bearing in mind, this was a very rough version that she did in a bit of a rush. It was based on these two looks that I found online:


The very neatly pulled-back look is more my style and I think I'm more comfortable with it. So I may have to trample on her creative dreams and be a boring client but I can live with that. I know the neat look needs some refining to look great from all angles - how I wear my hair everyday is a bit dull after all. I'm hoping we can work out a happy medium. I'll never be more photographed than on my wedding day (not being an actual celeb, so that's good) and I want to be sure that I love everything about my look on the day.

3. Family and friends lunch


In the spirit of wedding lead-up, my lovely mother is organising a ladies lunch with some very old family friends (as in, we've known them for ages, they aren't old people - just wanted to make that clear). It's not my hen's or anything like that, it's really just to have a chance to catch up before  We're going to Tinder Box on James St because their specialty is wood-fired pizzas and there is nothing on the menu I don't like.

4. Six weeks to sexy


Mmmmmm...
As we're now officially 8 weeks to the wedding, I am kicking off a 6 week intense health focus with a view to dropping the last couple of kilos and toning my upper body. My plan is basically to adhere really strictly to the 5:2 fasting diet with elements of paleo. I will also be combining 20 minute high-intensity spin cycling sessions with 40 minute runs around Kangaroo Point and 2 Pilates classes a week.

I commenced March with a lovely green smoothie. I make a green smoothie for breakfast most mornings during the week. I find it really quick and easy, especially as I can take it to work and enjoy it at my desk. My usual recipe is:

- 1 tbsp A2 organic yoghurt
- 3/4 sliced fresh banana
- 1 handful of fresh spinach
- 3 ice cubes
- 1 tbsp honey

I hope March is a great month for everyone :) xo

Saturday 28 February 2015

Three days in Melbourne

Top: MSGM
Pants: Pierucci
Heels: Bally
Bag: Chloe

Right at this moment, I'm sitting in Qantas club at Melbourne airport waiting for my flight back to Brisbane. In the spirit of free wifi, I thought I'd post this while I'm waiting.

I haven't been switched on with this blog recently. It's like I've hit the beginning of the year and while life is taking off, blogging is falling by the wayside. Maybe that's what happens? Irrespective, it's not how I want things to be - this is an important creative outlet for me. I like writing, I enjoy creating a post and trying to put together visual highlights to go with it. Time is just getting eaten up by so many things at the moment - work, wedding prep, social life, family commitments, exercise, housekeeping. Blah, I know. It's boring me, I can imagine it's incredibly boring to anyone else.

So, if you've suffered this far, I apologise for the lack of organisation and priority on my blog. It needs a more focussed direction and I am going to do my absolute best to get it there :)

Back to my trip: I had to go to Melbourne for a conference on Friday and thought I'd stay until Sunday and hopefully see a few sights, have some relaxed time to myself and a little light socialising.  I haven't actually had a short work trip in a while and it was fun to bust out my carry-on case and plan a 'hand-luggage only' weekend away:


One particularly exciting aspect of this weekend is I tried on my official favourite pair of black trousers ever, a wool-silk blend wide leg pair by Pierucci AND THEY FIT! I haven't been able to wear these pants for about 5 years (actually probably longer than that if I think about it...) I can't describe how strongly I feel about these trousers - how I've carefully stored them and brought them with me for every house-move despite not fitting into them, thinking one day, one day - and it's happened! I feel so affirmed that all the healthy lifestyle changes M and I have brought into our lives over the past 8 months are really working - the weight loss is real, I feel better and I look better. What more can a girl ask for?

When packing for a short trip and particularly when not checking luggage, everything has to work well with everything else. I tend to rely heavily on slim trousers/jeans and 2 neat light tops for day, with usually one cocktail dress for going out. No matter what, you always need at least two pairs of shoes and I generally take three: a pair of work pumps that I will usually wear on the flight down as I'll head straight to the conference or meeting, a pair of smart flats for city sight-seeing and the flight home and a pair of dressy sandals for evenings. I don't waste precious space on sneakers/trainers - I take a pair of flip flops/thongs to pad around the hotel room/visit pool/head down to a yoga class and that's it.

One of the funniest things I find about travel/packing articles etc is the emphasis people put on dressing like a tourist. Sure, if you're off backpacking for 8 weeks, a money-belt, wash and wear fabrics and a strict 'flat shoes only' policy makes perfect sense. But for city breaks? Relax! I don't know about anyone else, but I spend plenty of my working days walking in heels with no problems. I don't wear 4-inch nightmares, certainly, but I don't wear ballet flats like a perpetual intern either.

If I sit on your stuff, you can't leave...
It's fair to say that fat dog knows when a suitcase comes out, something's up. He doesn't like either of his humans going away and does his best to trick us into staying. It's sweet and slightly unnerving at the same time...

I flew into Melbourne and headed to the Sofitel on Collins. After getting the work stuff out of the way, I spent Saturday afternoon and Sunday doing lots of walking around the city and particularly Fitzroy Gardens where I tried to get into Cook's Cottage but was a little too late :( Next time maybe.




This is a Bill Henson photograph at the Westin hotel on Collins St. I love Bill Henson pieces and always pop into the Westin for a quick peek when I'm in town.

Then it was on to food, natch:




I went to Collins Kitchen for a lovely luxe dinner on Saturday night and had seafood linguini and beautifully crisp crunchy chips. I also got a spot of sauce on my beautiful new top from MSGM, so that was a little less of what I was going for. Spilling food on myself is a bit of a personal trademark, so I've become a dab hand at laundering in hotel room sinks :)

Breakfast at the hotel was included in my booking and it was really lovely both days. I indulged with poached eggs and smoked salmon on Saturday and this morning elected for a slightly less calorific option with fresh fruit and a sweet little bircher muesli pot. Sidebar: how cute are these mini jar/pot things??! I want some immediately. Not exactly sure what for, but they're too awesome not to own some.

Overall, while I did have to travel for work, I really enjoyed the extra day spending some time doing nothing in particular. I wandered around some gardens and felt still and quiet in my thinking for the first time in a while. I was impressed with how well my hand-luggage packing skills have held up despite not doing a short trip in a while.

I hope everyone is having a relaxed Sunday, either lounging at home or heading that way :) xo