Stuff I've been doing, buying and wearing

Well hello 7am!!! I don't often leave for work at this time so I am pretty wowed by the fogginess of the morning. It's not shown in the picture very well but it was kinda cool. I've been doing long hours lately and I've pulled a few 12 hour days since it's end of financial year. Blech!

For the first time in a long time I found some non-designer shoes that I adore. They have the cutest zipper rosettes on them and I'm a sucker for anything with zipper embellishments on them!

Poor Bailey was sick on Friday night. Something must have upset his stomach as he wouldn't stop vomiting. His bed and blankies went into the washing machine and the poor thing had to sleep on towels and a set of pj's I had been given but never wore. I would have had him sleep on the bed with me except for the fact that I didn't really want to wake up to a sea of dog vomit! I don't think anyone would to be honest not matter how much they loved their dog.

Saturday night we had a birthday dinner at El Bulli for a friend's birthday

Outfit: jean leggings, black top and jacket with Christian Louboutin Madame Claude in leopard patent.

The boys being cheesy!

This is the most extravagant paella I've ever seen!!!

The paella confirmed my belief that crab is not worth the hassle. It's so much work to get to the meat and then there's not a lot of it!!! I prefer lobster for sure!

It was a cracker of a day on Sunday and we decided to go for a wander around once our heads were firmly back on our shoulders after the festivities of the previous night! I got a chance to wear my new Christian Louboutin Almeria wedges and they are simply the best!!! Stylish, practical, and they get major points from me in stability too. I didn't walk for hours but I think I might have been able to in these! Can't wait to really work them out.

Didn't quite get the picture I was after here - wanted the soles to show too, dammit!

I'm off to bed now to prepare for one of the most hellish days on earth, followed by one of the biggest nights on earth....June 30th! I'll let you know how I pull up on Thursday :)

Is this a new Australia?

Hmmm, something must be in the air down under! It's a pretty historic week in history in Australia.

Our first female Prime Minister Julia Gillard being sworn in by our first female Governor General Quentin Bryce... WOW! 

PM on left and GG on right

I didn't think I'd see the day the world progressed like this. New Zealand has their female PM, the US had the choice of Hilary Clinton or Barack Obama and they elected the first black president. Now it's Australia's turn to prove they've climbed up the evolutionary chain. 

Ok, whilst it wasn't a voted result by the public it was a party decision. In Australia we don't actually vote for our head of country we vote for the party that we think will do the best job and they in turn chose their puppet. It's not the greatest systems on earth but then again, what kind of leadership system is? They all have their flaws.

Actually Australia is a bit more progressive than I remember as we have several women in power right now and in the past. Carmen Lawrence was the Western Australian Premier, Anna Bligh currently rules Queensland and now Kristine Keneally leads New South Wales....wow a few more women in power and we'll be an all female powerhouse! Who said women shouldn't vote?! Now they're making the decisions!!!

Naughty, naughty, naughty me!

I've gone a bit nuts lately...we had a long weekend last weekend and I'm afraid I kinda bought a whole heap of goodies! That's what happens when I have time to trawl through the internet and call around stores...eep!

A few things popped up (or I found them) and I couldn't resist. Well, some of them I had had on my mind for a while and then finally took the plunge on buying them, some were impulse buys and others were things I thought had disappeared and when they reappeared I just had to snap them up quick smart! Am I convincing you that I needed all of them yet? Hahahaha!!!

First up, a couple of items from Asos that I justified I needed as I haven't got a yellow dress or black jacket yet. Plus the yellow dress will go perfectly (I hope) with a future shoe purchase of mine.

  

Next up, some Gilt.com purchases - a dress from Torn and Amrita Singh Napea earrings in turquoise. I had been drooling over these earrings on Gilt for a few weeks but only the red version was available and I was only interested in the turquoise version. All of a sudden they popped up and I just had to nab them before they disappeared again!

I have been anticipating the arrival of my next purchase for a few months. I am waitlisted for them in London in both peacock AND prune satin but they had looked like not appearing until September/October as part of the main Fall/Winter collection. All of a sudden I found them on one of the smaller stores in Europe and it was instant love/lust and I just had to have them...may I present my gorgeous Christian Louboutin Madame Butterfly Pump 120 in peacock satin!!!! *swoon*

I will have to post some outfit pictures of them soon. Can't wait to wear these babies out and about to show them off! I'm also waiting for another parcel to arrive but I'll leave y'all to wonder about what it is. That way I can leave something to the imagination and so that you tune in

Oh, how could I forget to post food shots? We went to brunch on the long weekend last week and I just realised that whilst I actually took pictures I forgot to post them on here!! We went to one of my favourite brunch cafes, Omlette.

Mine: potato hash with wilted spinach and poached eggs

M's: french toast with banana, bacon & maple syrup

M's brother T's: eggs benedict with double smoked ham & avocado

Now it's Saturday night, well Sunday early am and we've gotten home from M's cousin's party just in time to watch Australia vs Ghana. I'm steaming with annoyance here with the rubbish refereeing at the World Cup! Plus I'm constantly annoyed by those bloody stupid horns blowing in the background.

I mean, Harry Kewell got RED CARDED for not moving his arm in time while Ghana tripped us and only got YELLOW carded...WTF?  UNFAIR!!!

Anyway, I'll leave you with that little rant before I really explode over this travesty of a game!

Thursday Funny!

A real man is a woman's best friend.
 

He will never stand her up and never let her down.

He will reassure her when she feels insecure and comfort her after a bad day.

He will inspire her to do things she never thought she could do; to live without fear and forget regret.

He will enable her to express her deepest emotions and give in to her most intimate desires.

He will make sure she always feels as though she's the most beautiful woman in the room and will enable her to be the most confident, sexy, seductive, and invincible.

No wait... sorry... I'm thinking of wine.


Never mind 

Hurrah for the Queen!

I'd like to personally thank the Queen for having a birthday holiday this weekend. Really it's just another excuse to eat, drink and be merry!

There's not too much to update y'all on this week as I've been flat out trying to cope with June. I think the most interesting thing I've done all week was some cooking and catching up on some tv!!! I promise I'll have some more interesting adventures once June 30th is done and the winter chill lets off. I tend to hibernate in winter, sorry!

Without further ado, may I present my photo journey of the last week or so...

I am so proud of M for making these delicious burgers! As you can see they're a work of art and very, very tasty!!!

7th June dinner: beef burgers with egg, tomato, lettuce, bacon, carrot & BBQ sauce

I don't think I told you but I have been slowly running out of my current foundation Nars firming foundation and wanted to try something different. I've heard great things about Shu Uemura and being part Asian I thought I should try something that was uniquely formulated for our skin.

Off I trotted to get made over by the Shu Uemura artist and apparently I'm a shade #764 which is a medium light beige. So far, excellent results! I think I will also have to get the cream version as I love a thicker, smoother, glowing look during winter. Plus the cream has a SPF 10 in it whilst the fluid doesn't have any SPF.
 

10th June: Cue dress, black shirt and tights, Christian Louboutin Penny Girl flats in grey

On Friday I received some sweets treats from my Hawaiian cookie angel. Thanks T!!! xo

You know how I have the creative cooking bug right now? I decided to buy some chicken tenders and make some homemade crumbs. I love having a food processor as it opens up possibilities for creative ideas that I haven't been able to do before. 

I made the crumbs from a couple of slices of bread, mixed herbs & garlic. So easy!!! Dip tenders into beaten egg and then onto the crumbs to coat and shallow fry in a pan. 

11th June: Chicken tenders with steamed vegetables

Our long weekend has been basically spent with M's family as his grandparents celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary. It's so rare for people to celebrate 50th anniversaries let alone 60th's!

After a weekend whirl with the H clan we finished off with tapas at El Bulli tonight and it was heaven as always. No pictures because it's always too dark to take any but we had a feast and I introduced M's family to churros. If you don't know what they are, they are the best desert ever! Fried dough sticks coated in sugar with caramel & cream for dipping.

14th June: Supre pinstripe skirt, black singlet & cardi, Pinet boots

I'm very full after a weekend of wining and dining so on that note, I'm going to try and roll off to bed.

Girls night out!

Friday night was girls night out and what better way to do it than cocktails dinner and an exotic romp in the desert? The company was sensational, the cosmos were awesome and the movie...well the movie was fun but unnecessary. Don't get me wrong, I'm a great fan of SATC but I just felt like they were trying to milk the cash cow on this one. I loved the shoes and clothes so I was easily pleased but seriously there were some cringe inducing moments in it.

And since I was going to see a brightly coloured, fashion forward show I felt it only right to wear my own very brightly coloured outfit to honour it.

DVF Julian mini in ruby spotted cat, Diana Ferrari boots

The big news of the week? I've actually sold 3 pairs of shoes that don't fit. I couldn't bear to part with them but I know that the homes they are going to will love them just as much as I did. This takes my beautiful collection back down to 6 pairs. I was actually looking forward to having 10 pairs soon too! Oh well, gives me something to aim for now doesn't it?

Saturday was a great day with a brief reprieve from the rain that had drenched us all week. Good thing too as we were going to a BBQ for a friend's birthday that night and the BBQ area of their house is outdoors!

And now it's Sunday...I had plans to do stuff but since it's gone back to raining & miserable I delayed them. Plus we stayed a lot longer than we intended to at the party so motivation levels are sitting at about -10 right now!!

I've recently started getting interested in cooking again. Not that I ever really lost it as I would cook dinner etc but I mean the passion and creativity and the gumption to get off my ass and actually cook stuff from scratch. No packet stuff. 

Just last weekend M and I went to Victoria's Basement and drooled over pots and pans. Sounds extremely daggy I know but I get excited when I think of all the good food we could cook with a better set of cookware. We ended up getting a nice kitchen knife block as all our knives are getting a bit old and ratty. It's such a fresh change to be able to cut something first go with a knife that's as sharp as it needs to be!

We also went to Ikea to get an idea of building our own kitchen island as we have ideas to help us increase the storage area in the kitchen to accommodate all these pots and pan we want to buy plus help us store the stuff we already have. Our one bedder isn't exactly crawling with storage space unfortunately. Why are home improvements so exciting? Well I find them exciting anyway and if that makes me a giant nerd, then so be it!!! :)

Speaking of all this desire to cook from scratch I have done a bit of cooking lately and I'm loving it. I made a chicken drumstick casserole I haven't made in ages. I browned some onions and herbs in some olive oil, added the drumsticks and panfried till a nice colour had been achieved, then added some diced tomatoes, tomato paste, some wine, water & bacon and simmered for an hour or two. The result? Some seriously tasty, tender chicken!

Another great favourite I had to pull out of the archives was shepherd's pie. Not done the traditional way with left over lamb roast but with beef mince. I know I seem like I'm cheating but it was tasty. Mince, carrot, onion & red wine done like a bolognese sauce and then baked in the oven with a fluffy mashed potato topping until brown and slightly crispy. Delicious!!

Today I made pancakes from scratch which I haven't done in more than 10 years! Those shake bottles are just so easy! I had forgotten that batter takes 30 minutes to rest and I was starving by the time I got to eat but the end result was so worth it!

Don't they awesome?! And the best thing is that we have enough batter to do desert tonight - apple & cinnamon pancakes! I'll keep you updated on how I go with dinner and desert!