i'll have it in every colour you've got!

There are some things (okay, a lot of things) that I'm a complete sucker for. One of them is cropped sweaters with high necklines. When I saw these on sale at Cue the other day, I knew there was no way that I could leave without them. Not only are they cropped with high necklines, but they're in pretty pastel colours AND they've got this glittery sheen to them that lights up my whole face.

I wore this outfit the very next day. I've since found nicer outfits (both sweaters look super cute with black or white a-line skirts), but my boyfriend insists that this is his favourite. I don't know how I ever lived without them.

the world's best bag

Here is probably one of the best bags I've ever owned. It's the Fred Perry Tall Saddle Bag (which is now sold out on the website), and it's got just about every feature that a bag could ever need. I was worried that it wouldn't match all of my outfits and that I wouldn't like it as much as I'd hoped, but we actually get along famously. I'm still trying to decide what to put in the little transparent pocket at the front, but I'm sure it will be something love heart/bow/bunny rabbit related.

three nice dresses

I've been having such a dull few weeks. For some reason I'm suddenly in high demand at work, which means a lot of time spent wearing my uniform rather than sporting cute outfits. To make me feel better, it seems only fair to buy myself some nice new dresses. Here are my favourites on ASOS at the moment!

ASOS skater dress with ruch detail, available here.

ASOS knit dress with lace collar, available here.

ASOS mini dress with pleat skirt and drop waist, available here.

cat- themed things

I'm not really much of a cat person when it comes to real-life cats, but there's something amazingly cute about cat-related things. Here are some of my personal favourites.

♥  I found this adorable cat mirror in Morning Glory, a Korean stationary shop in Sydney's Chinatown.

♥  This cute little pill box-style cat hat is made by Michelle Mignon, who also makes cute dresses. 

♥  My cat headband is from a jewelry store in Chinatown, and is probably my favourite because it instantly makes me look ten times cuter.

a dress for the new year

My boyfriend and I have a bit of a new years eve tradition where we spend most of the night at a drive-in theater watching the best movie they're showing, then speed back into the city just in time to illegally park and catch the midnight fireworks.

I found this dress (by Topshop) in the back of my closet which I remember tirelessly tracking down on ebay a few years ago, then never really wearing. And so, it became my new years eve dress. It's not the kind of style that I like to wear very often, but my boyfriend loves it so I thought it would make him happy.

Here you can also see one of my nicest Christmas presents, a beautiful new imac. I found this brilliant chair to go with it, which must have been made just for me. It's white (like most of my best furniture), huge and comfortable enough to nap in. And if you're wondering why I'm holding the world's cutest toy horse, I found him at ikea (my favourite place in the world) and I haven't put him down since.

post-christmas wishes

Here are a few of the things that I like very much at the moment. It always seems to be the case that I don't discover what I really want for Christmas until several days afterwards. At least my Christmas money gets put to good use! 

World map art print by thepixelprince on Etsy

One thing that I've never been particularly good at is Geography. Somehow I've managed to live this long knowing very little about the world I live in, despite how academic I've always been. I made it my mission to find the perfect world map to put up on my wall to remind me to continue to learn and explore the world. I think this one is just perfect.

Landscape photography print by EyePoetryPhotography

Even though the wall space in my room is just about overflowing with decorative things, I keep coming across more and more nice prints that I'd love to put on my walls. I think this one is particularly magical.

Tall saddle bag by Fred Perry

This bag actually arrived on my doorstep a couple of days ago. I fell in love when I spotted it in the Fred Perry sale on Christmas Eve (of all days). I was worried that it wouldn't suit my style very well, and look a bit severe against my cutesy clothes, but it doesn't at all. It's such a beautiful thing.

Bow smart bag by Asos

It seems silly to buy two new handbags at the same time, but I thought it would be lovely to have a pretty pastel bag to wear when I'm in a lighter mood. Plus it reminds me of the 1960's, which is always a good thing.

Nail polish trio by Pixi

I wish I had thought to buy a set like this before the holiday season, because there's nothing better than glitter nail polish at Christmas, but really it's just as nice all through the year. I already have a silver glitter nail polish that I wear nearly every day, so I can only imagine how much I'll like these.

Womens cap toe flat by Crocs

This has to be the least likely pair of shoes to ever have caught my attention, but they're so perfect for me in every way (other than the price tag). Basically, I have huge feet which rarely fit into nice shoes. I mostly wear flat shoes (I'm also really tall and quite thin, so heels can make me look like I'm going to topple over at any second), but the ones that I can find in my size are never very comfortable or cute and it's all very frustrating. ANYWAY, these shoes are not only built to be comfortable, but they're made in my size and they're actually very cute. 

lots of love

On Christmas day I decided to wear an old favourite - my Review dress (shown previously here and here). I try not to wear it too much so that when I finally do it feels brand new again. I was somewhat regretting my dress choice by the end of the day (it's not exactly appropriate for summer weather), but at least I felt pretty!

And here is something that I love equally as much - my new wall lamp from Ikea! Even though it makes my room glow like a red light district, I think it's so wonderful. It also happens to match my poster perfectly. I've found so many brilliant things at Ikea lately that I've decided I might as well live there.

And here is my lovely family on Christmas day!

christmas eve

I had a really really lovely Christmas this year, although most of it ended up being spent traveling between the houses of different relatives. This was the outfit that I wore on Christmas eve, which I spent with my dad and my little brother (the cutest boy I know).

My favourite summer-appropriate sweater from the Sonia Rykiel for H&M collection.

My new sequin-covered gold skirt by Sass, which made me feel like a Christmas ornament in the best way possible (not that there's a bad way to feel like a Christmas ornament, in my opinion).

And my new favourite shoes, found in a strange Chinese shoe store in Sydney. They have little one-inch heels which are perfect for me because I don't end up wobbling all over the place or looking ridiculously tall.

I hope you had a lovely Christmas!

another very she & him christmas

As much as I would love to get some more Christmas records, I could honestly listen to this one on repeat throughout the whole holiday season and never ever tire of it. One of my favourite things to do is make a hot chocolate and sit in front of my record player listening to A Very She & Him Christmas from start to finish. This album was my favourite last christmas as well, but I didn't have a record player so it wasn't quite the same.

a very merry christmas

One of my absolute favourite things about Christmas is the decorations. I like them so much that some of them end up staying all through the year. Here you can see a picture I posted a while ago of my mini christmas tree which never really leaves my bookshelf. 

My boyfriend and I saw this tree in a shop window a few days ago with a big 50% off sign hanging off it. We loved it so much that, even though it was completely impractical (we already have a tree in my house so this one sits in the middle of my not-so-spacious bedroom) and very expensive, we just had to have it. It makes me so happy.

Clearly I'm a sucker for cute things, and one of the cutest things I can think of is miniature sweaters. When I found out that they were selling tiny Christmas sweaters on tiny coat hangers, I nearly died. I have eight little santa coats scattered around my room, as well as a beautiful knitted sweater.

60's cheerleader

I found this cute vintage 60's sweater on Etsy and I think it's perfect. It has the best bell sleeves and makes me feel like a cheerleader. The skirt is from Chinatown in Sydney. I got it for only ten dollars, which was brilliant because it's the perfect red skirt. The belt has been in my closet for years, so I'm not quite sure where I found it. 

making slow progress

When I'm not busy with uni, I find it very very hard to not be curled up in bed watching tv at all times. As such, progress on my shop(s) is moving very slowly. It's also not helping that every time I put something on to take pictures, I decide that I actually want to keep it. So here's some proof that I'm making a little bit of progress - a header that I've made for the etsy shop, and one of the dresses that i'll eventually be selling. 

the hair i wish i had

When it comes to my hair, I'm really really lazy. I have big ambitions, but always end up with about ten minutes in the morning to make it look cute, so it rarely does. Here are a few pictures of how my hair looks in my dreams. I've always wanted to dye my hair blonde and try a brigitte bardot look, but I think this is a bit more achievable for the time being.

insanely clever

This has got to be one of the best things I've ever bought. It's an iphone case, believe it or not. I found it just in time for my mini holiday, and it was perfect in so many ways. Just about everyone wanted to know what it was (it looks a bit too thin to be a real camera), and thought it was insanely clever when I showed them. Ironically, I barely took a single picture the whole time... possibly because I was too busy spending all of my money at American Apparel. 

In the not-so-cute end of day outfit pictures, I'm wearing:

The top was originally from Romwe, but was bought from Le Blog de Sushi's shop. The jumper dress is vintage and was bought on Etsy. I'm also wearing my two face watch from Urban Outfitters and my replica Hermes bracelet.

✈

Tomorrow I fly off to Sydney for a week with my boyfriend. We just about die every time we get the chance to go anywhere for a holiday (as working in a supermarket pays for cute clothes and not much else). This trip was a Christmas present from my mum, which was awfully nice of her. I'm beginning to pack up my Pan Am bag and figure out where I can find all of the nicest second-hand stores.

See you again soon!

making cute dresses

Every now and then I get a sudden urge to do something creative that I've never tried before.  In my last break from my studies, I took up dressmaking. Usually I give up on things like this pretty quickly, but this time it managed to stick for a few months. My boyfriend absolutely hated it, because I would spend whole days and nights glued to my sewing machine until I produced something half-decent. I happen to be particularly bad at cleaning up after myself, so I would emerge covered in thread and pins. We did a pin count every few hours, and there always managed to be about ten scattered across the floor. Anyway, here are the three dresses that I managed to create (using the pattern shown above and a bit of creative license).

so many dumb ways to die

Here is the most impressive and attention-grabbing rail safety campaign I've ever seen. It also happens to be insanely cute. Enjoy!

heart tips

I was completely uninterested in the idea of painting my nails until about the start of this year when I suddenly got really into it and decided that it was the cutest thing in the world. I've always been terrible at it, so the first time I wanted to try something more interesting I went and got a proper manicure and asked them to paint hearts on the tips of my nails. I liked it so much that I've tried to replicate it myself a billion times in different colours with varying degrees of success (and failure). I think I'm actually getting progressively worse at it... but that's not going to stop me any time soon!

christmas wishes - part 1

Here is the start of an inevitably long list of things that I like this Christmas. I think that Christmas is one of the nicest things in the world, even if I have to experience the best of it vicariously through people in cold climates who get nice things like snow and fireplaces and real Christmas trees. Nonetheless, it's one of those things that's nice no matter where you are.

1. Christmas garland by paperklipdesign     ❤     2. Fawn candy dish from Modcloth

3. Red velvet bow belt by rkitekt      ❤     4. Embroidered reindeer by sleepingfoxstitchery

5. A Very She & Him Christmas record     ❤     6. Large red bow headband by deadxgirlsxdontxcry