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.

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!

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.

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.

✈

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

day and night, night and day

This is my tiny little home (i.e. my shoebox bedroom), or at least, a corner of it. I sit across from here day and night, with my laptop and a bundle of blankets. This is where I work and sleep and cuddle and watch movies and do crafts and basically spend a lot of my time. I think it's awfully sad when people have terrible bedrooms with naked white walls and no nice things to make them happy (unless white walls make them happy... I can't really argue with that). I like having a pretty little place to run away to when I'm sad. Everyone should have one. 

dream shoes

hello! i've been all over the place lately, which means i've been generally pathetic at blog posting. sometimes you just have to put down the camera and watch tv with your boyfriend for a few days. anyway, many exciting things have happened while i've been away. i've started making dresses with my previously neglected sewing machine. i found a brilliant 60's dress pattern, tried to figure out what all of the steps meant, and managed to make three successful dresses. i'll have to show you them soon!

today i will show you my super nice new shoes from asos. i'd been dying over them for months but my boyfriend thought they were too ridiculous to buy. eventually they were so heavily discounted that he let me have them. i generally don't wear heels because i'm already quite tall, so these will take a while to get used to. they're impossibly high, but also impossibly cute so it all works out just fine with me. if you're interested, you can find them here.

i've also bought an iphone recently, which is awfully exciting. although, i have to admit that my decision to buy it was largely influenced by instagram (you can find me by searching allthatisfine). naturally, i've already ordered a billion cute iphone cases on ebay, and found a bunch of cute cake-themed wallpapers to use on rotation.

what i've been watching

i have a few weeks off university at the moment, so i'm powering through all of the tv shows i've been dying to watch but haven't had the time. a couple of them were cancelled after the first season, which is kind of nice because you can watch the whole thing in a few days (although, the last episode is never as question-answering as you want it to be). here are my top five!

1. gravity

this would have to be one of the best one-season series' i've ever seen. firstly, krysten ritter is the cutest thing on the planet. she plays a lonely suicide survivor who joins a suicide help group, filled with a bunch of equally quirky, equally troubled characters. the show probably wouldn't be to everyone's tastes. it gets a bit ridiculous at times, but that's what i like about it. it has so much character and charm.

2. mad men

of course mad men is nothing new, but it's been nice to finally have the time to polish off the last few episodes of the season. i have to say i wasn't a huge fan of mad men to begin with, but it's gradually won me over and now i couldn't do without it. the last season would have to be my absolute favourite. i like that there are finally less of the don draper sex scandals (they grew tiring after the first few seasons) and some really clever storylines.

 

3. bob's burgers

this is, hands down, the best animated series of all time. it's the sort of humor that you either like or you don't, but in my opinion it couldn't be better. each of the characters have been developed to perfection. it's just brilliant.

4. falling skies

i never thought i'd be recommending a show about aliens, or show a terrible amount of interest in a show about aliens, but this is damn good. i literally didn't stop watching it for days, until i finally ran out of episodes. the whole thing is just a masterpiece. i highly recommend!

 

5. persons unknown

if you liked the movie "cube",  you're going to love this. the plot follows a very similar principle, in which a group of seemingly unrelated people are kept captive in a sort of social experiment. however, in this case, we get to see how their imprisonment impacts the outside world, which makes it all the more interesting. it was cancelled after one season, which is a damn shame because i've read that several other seasons had already been planned (and they sounded brilliant). thankfully, they still managed to round off the first season really nicely.

a few other shows that you might want to look at are love bites (which krysten ritter is also in), the event, alcatraz and mental.

a treat for my walls

a few weeks ago, i cleaned my room. properly, i mean, rather than in the usual "throw things in the closet and under the bed and you're all done!" kind of way. as a reward, my boyfriend and i decided that it was only fair to buy a nice new poster for my wall. i had been dying over this one on ebay for a few weeks, so we went ahead and bought it. i have no idea what it's a poster for, but it seems to be some kind of french stage play. regardless, i think that it's the nicest poster i have ever seen. the dress hanging next to it is another nice thing that arrived this week. it's a super sweet little vintage dress from the 60's, which i'll have to show you some other time.

preparing for winter days

yesterday a large package arrived from asos with lots of nice things inside. i've been very active on asos lately, probably because of the damn lot of sales they keep having. in this particular order i got some thigh-high blue knitted socks, a cosy cream-coloured aran sweater, a super nice neck scarf with blue and red stripes (although for some reason the rest of it is a boring brown colour instead of the cream that i was expecting), some candy-shaped earrings and a super nice bag that i've used every day since. in a few days another order is due to arrive with black t-bar shoes and a few cute pairs of socks to accompany them. other than spending most of my time on asos, i've been on an avid hunt for the perfect red sweater and blue cropped jacket. i'm also waiting for about a thousand cute 60's dresses to arrive from etsy, due to a realisation a few weeks back that my collection was looking a bit sad.

happy easter!

i hope you all had a lovely easter weekend! mine was spent partially with family and partially at home alone watching television (because i've basically lost my boyfriend to his awful university course). i still managed to spend some money, though. here are a few things that i've bought.

this super nice glass jewelry box at my favourite florist, which i happen to work across from. they sell the nicest things. it was a bit of a gift to myself for my efforts to not eat too much easter chocolate this year.

i found this brilliant little miniature trolley in a stationary store a couple of weeks ago, and had to have it because i'm a sucker for small things. i plan to fill it with a heap of miniature food items.

and this cute bunny jewelry holder that i bought on urban outfitters ages and ages ago. i had to wait months for them to get it back in stock, then finally it arrived...in pieces. the poor little bunnies ears were broken off, so they're going to send me another one free of charge. thanks to some super glue, i'll soon have two sets of porcelain bunnies! they're perfect for holding my favourite bracelets, and just damn cute in general.

a present

my boyfriend usually tries pretty hard not to condone my online shopping habits. i send him pages of links everyday asking his opinion on my new favourite things. a few weeks ago i showed him this pretty transparent apron on etsy, and he loved it so much that he bought it for me himself! it arrived not long ago and happens to be one of the nicest things i have ever seen, especially when i put it on. damn impractical, though.

in the first shoebox

my super fine new all-white doc martens! (excuse the dirt, i've already put them through their paces). they happen to be the most uncomfortable shoes on the planet (and also the hardest to track down), but apparently if i keep at it i should be walking with ease pretty soon. either way, they're so damn nice!

the nice things that i miss

living in australia, you have to either be very ebay savvy or have super great overseas friends to avoid missing out on most of the nice things that exist in the world. most of the time i find out about things about a year late, if not more. today i found this beautiful lingerie that sonia rykiel made for h&m a while ago. i was aware that they collaborated (i have a sweater from the collection, which you can see here), but not of this. i think i'm going to have to buy it all. it's just too damn nice. i'm especially fond of the bustier bras, i think.