♥ Du Jour

Frankie Magazine: magazines usually served only one purpose for me: to flip through backwards, stopping only to glance at something if it interested me, reading a few paragraphs of articles until I grew bored, and to look at the pretty ads and the editorials. But then I found frankie. Yes, it's spelt with a small 'F'. I knew that frankie had been around for a while, but I never really bothered to go through it properly. Fate, (no actually, boredom), eventually led me to the magazine, and before I knew it, I fell completely and utterly in love with frankie. The editorials aren't fantastic, but the words! MY GOD, THE WORDS!! All the articles are completely amazing and hilarious and quirky, and GENIUS. ABSOLUTE GENIUS. I love frankie.

The Other Boleyn Girl: Nobody really knows how much I love time pieces, or historic movies. I guess that's because all my other favourite genre of movies are Romance, Chick Flicks, and movies involving a lot of dancing. But I guess that deep inside me somewhere, is a geek. Because I really am a sucker for historic movies. And the Other Boleyn Girl is just that. It's so suspenseful and romantic, but evil. Natalie Portman in the movie is so evil and cunning and conniving. It's terrific.

Flipping through old photos: I love that warm fuzzy feeling I get from flipping through old photos. I guess its a combination of happiness, nostalgia and regret. You may think that old photos only really show physical changes. That is kind of true- I was going through all the photos of my friends, taken within the last 4 years, and it amazes me to see how our young, excited faces have changed so much. But it's not just physical. People's personality or social changes are shown, in the way they dress, the way they do their hair, the way they hold themselves. I see people growing more confident and happy, and others more mature, understanding, or perhaps burdened.

Jaffas: I really do hate oranges, but for some unexplainable reason, I completely love Jaffas. You can eat them in many different ways, and it'll still feel like heaven in your mouth. My favourite ways of eating Jaffas? I either chew it (not exactly good for your teeth, I dont recommend this), and let the hard sugary shell mix with the fruity-chocolatey inside, or I just let it sit on my tongue and melt. Then the hard outside slowly disintegrates and the warm gooey inside melts and oozes out. I'm making myself hungry, I should stop.

Emily Blunt: She played the evil snobby assistant in The Devil Wears Prada. which I watched a while ago but I didn't really think much of her performance in that. But I recently watched The Jane Austen Book Club in which she stars as a troubled French teacher, who has a stupid Neanderthal of a husband, and whom she strains to live with, as she falls in love with one of her students.

Under The Tree

I was recently hassled by several people to post my Christmas presents and recent purchases, so here they are! :


1. Ikea Chandelier: I bought this with some of my Christmas money for my soon-to-be room reinvention. More on that in the near future!
2. Influence by MK&A: I received this from my Kris Kringle, and I loooove it so.
3. Fiorelli Leather Bag: My family seems to have picked up on my penchant for black leather and brass
4. Chunky Wooden Wedges: I picked these up from Wanted Shoes for $30! (reduced from $120).
5. Bluebird Leather Clutch: more black leather and brass.
6. Volcom Leather Bag: ditto
7. Beauty in Bloom: received from Rosa, its WONDERFUL. The cover artist + illustrator, Rebecca Wetzler's artworks are FANTASTICAL. I downloaded a heap of them to print for my future room.

What did you get this Christmas?

I'm Dreaming Of A....

White Christmas. It's something that those of us from down under miss out on. We never get to hear sleigh-bells outside our windows, or feel the sludgey snow underneath our feet, or the warmth of the fireplace as we open our presents. Nope, instead, we get the hazy sun beating heat down on us, or perhaps the cool air of the air-con. We feel the heat of the concrete underneath our sandals, and I hear the drunken carolling of my aunts and uncles.

It's not the ideal Christmas, but I love it nonetheless. I love the anticipation of opening presents, the carols blasting out of every speaker at the malls, and the get-togethers. Cheesy, but true. Tradition plays and replays itself over and over each year, but upon reflection, I have realised how much I've changed over the past year.

Each year, my sister and I would run down to the Christmas tree and open our masses of presents with Christmas carols playing. It sounds like the typical perfect Christmas morning, non? Wrong, its mutual tradition that my sister and I fight over which presents are ours, which side of the Christmas tree we must sit on, where to put our mess, who should open the presents we share, et cetera.

Then we'd go to one of my maternal cousin's house, and have a barbeque there. Normally, I'd be loading my plate with chicken kebabs and hunks of steak. A lot has changed, huh?

And for dinner? We'd head over to the dwellings of someone from my dad's side of the family, and all hell would break loose. For example, last year, my cousin John received some sort of a Japanese sword as a present. I kid you not, a sword. A SWORD!!! You can probably imagine the consequences actually. My family is weird like that, but they're great fun, I swear.

I hear that this year, my cousin Rosa will be turning up with a black eye. No, she wasn't involved in a fight, or anything valiant like that. She simply ran into a pole. Now her right eye is purple and green, as if some unskilled costume-makeup artist tested their expertise on her. I'm looking forward to it immensely.

Anywhos, I must prance off to enjoy my day.

Merry Christmas darlings~!

♥ Du Jour

1. Double sided tape is my new god. No kidding. I discovered it when my dress needed some sticking power for the formal, and I have fallen in love since. At that time, everyone thought I was a total weirdo for even thinking about sticking my dress to myself, and I had to explain to them it was totally normal, and yes, there is such thing as double-sided tape made for clothing. I’m not using the cheap craft double-sided tapes you get from Big W when you’re scrapbooking.

What’s best however, is that they have a whole variety of uses. They come in handy when you’re trying to wrap Christmas presents, or when you’re trying to seal a plastic bag, or when your belt keeps sliding off funny. Or you could always use it for scrapbooking, I guess. Like those cheap double-sided tapes you get from Big W.

2. Moleskines: I am going to get one as my diary for next year. What’s so special about them? They feeeeel like heaven. And apparently, they’re really good quality too. But I can’t say, because I’ve never really owned one. But I will! Soon enough.

3. ‘Chocolat’: This movie may be too sweet for its own good, but it is beauuutiful. Honestly, it’s romantic, leaves you with a warm fuzzy feeling, and it’s set in France! FRANCE! What more could you ask for?!

4. Reading: I've finally gotten back into reading. I used to read like a crazy bookworm until one day I simply stopped. I don't know why. Maybe it was stress from school or something, but I gave it up altogether. But now that its the holidays and I've more time on my hands, I'm reading like crazy again.

5. Darrell Lea’s Rocklea Road: I really shouldn’t be eating chocolate right now. I’m not even to THINK about chocolate in the next two years of my life, says my orthodontist. Sure, I nod. Whatever you say.

Do you HONESTLY expect me to stay away from chocolate for the next two years of my life?! I don’t think you do, so I am going to act accordingly and shove another piece of rocky road in my mouth. Hah!

Missing You Already...

So this week marks the end of year 10. This not only means that we upgrade from blue to white shirts, it also means that we actually have to start actually paying attention in class and stressing about our marks. No longer can we absolutely fail an assessment and think ‘Yeah, whatever. That was only Commerce’, because it does matter. And there is only one word I can say: Shit. I am scared, panicked.

It also means that there will be a small portion of our grade we will most probably never ever see again, and that there will be another group of people coming in to replace them. I don’t want to sound hostile, but I don’t like them already.

The people who are leaving play a huge part in the dynamics our grade. A lot of them are what makes our grade what it is, and although I can't say I am close to the majority of them, I’ll definitely notice their absence. I’m sure everyone will.

So, to all the leavers (even if probably none of them will read this), I’m already missing you all dearly. Best wishes, and I hope to see you all again.

Directions

The year is coming to an end, and Juicebox and I have been thinking of steering earmuffed.com into a different direction for the coming year. A physical makeover is already underway, but we thought we'd ask for your opinion before we make any drastic personality makeovers. So please help us make earmuffed.com a better place, and answer whatever questions you can below:

1. Should we blog more or less?

2. Should we continue our love du jour posts every Tuesday?

3. Should we play music on our website?

4. Here's the big one. We're thinking of making earmuffed.com more ~cultured~. Which means that we would still write about fashion, and our lives, but also about other aspects of life that we fail to write about, including music, art, and inspirations. So what do you think? Yup or nup?

And lastly, 5. What do you want to see more of? Less of? What should we introduce, and what should we stop doing? How can we make earmuffed.com better?

Guns, Liquor & Synced Stomping

As you may or may not be aware of, last Friday was my sweet 16th. Being the party animal Teacup is, she organised a birthday party for me last Sunday. I don't know why I'm not blogging about it, but here's Van's version of it:

I have a really strange habit of choosing outfits to wear on the day that I am due out with it. It’s also known as pure, disgusting laziness. Whilst I have never doubted my sense of style, I have hardly ever been particularly proud of things I wear out because it was pulled together at the last minute. It surely doesn’t help when nature acts against you and give you overly crappy weather which makes outfit choosing even harder because you’ve got limitations.

When Alex, Gary & I finally arrived at Sophie’s house, after many minutes of walking uphill and trying to avoid getting mugged by Bankstown gangsters, we were greeted by the rest of the crew. Sophie’s house is very cool (temperature-wise), which is nice and allowed us to recover from our heat strokes, or maybe it was just my largely and rapidly deteriorating state of fitness.

Dance Dance Revolution.
Those are the priceless moments that no words can describe enough, you must see to believe. Thank God Teacup had the synced stomping recorded so I can freely muse over it for the lonely days to come.




Truth or Dare/Spin the Bottle (well, in our case, it was Spin the Gun)
Well, if I told you the game went perfectly fine and smoothly, I’d be lying. In fact, there were a lot of interruptions and pauses which we could have done without, but nonetheless it was memorable. I think I was the only one that chose truth – I just wanted to stand out.
Someone was dared to go ask the next door neighbour for toilet paper. Another person was asked to go tell the gangster downstairs that his hair makes her hawttt. Someone also came up with the idea for Sophie to shove her hands in the smashed wall, and swirl around, which could have been potentially dangerous but then again, we are dare devils. Besides me. Whatever!

Jessica with her new-found roll of toilet paper

Make-Daniel-a-Pimp.
Self explanatory! See photo, please. We weren’t quite successful, and shall attempt again to get a perfect pimp shot next time the opportunity arise.

All the girl's faces had to be blurred out. Everyone either looked drugged, drunken, or recently punched in the face.

Buffet Dinner
It was unreasonable that we paid $19 + @2 drinks for dinner, but we are young and we are stupid. It was not bad actually, considering the amount of food (which were good quality as well) made available to us. Not only that, it wasn’t time constrained like many other buffet places. They had like many categories of food and a large variety. Too bad I’m such a stupid idiot who is too choosy about her food to take full advantage of everything on offer.

Hike to Jessica’s House
I’m not sure why we decided to hike to Jessica’s house in the first place, but I think it was a combination of many minor reasons. Anyways, Teacup, Juicebox, Gary, David & Daniel tagged along with Jessica & I to Jessica’s place

After disgraceful flying abouts of skirts everywhere due to hefty wind, we decided that we would change to something less scandalous. And so, Jessica & I did. I borrowed her colourful sweetheart cut dress and she got into short shorts – they were somewhat scandalous still if you had asked me but it was much better than hugging your hem to avoid flashing unnecessarily and embarrassingly.

Liquor Store
It’s kind of intimidating that a family friendly video store is located at the heart of a semi abandoned liquor store but that was exactly how it was. We got into the store, to the shock of Daniel, David & Gary.

“You’re underage!” says Gary
“OMG, it’s a liquor store!” says someone else
*Daniel silently slips away in fear & shock*

That was before we told them that it was a video store if you look closely – they came in silently and amused once they realised this was true.

Now I'll leave you with the rest of the photos:

Alex the pilot preparing to crash his 20 passengers


Jess being shot while shooting Jenny N's butt.





David and the Blue Bonds Panties.


Moi, Jess, Van wearing his paedo face, and David


A toilet paper fight erupted when night arrived and people started getting high on sugar/drunk.





Classique partaye game, Twister





Last but not least, the Birthday Girl

♥ Du Jour

Strawberry licorice: it's getting stuck between my teeth as I speak, but that's okay because it's lovely taste makes up for all the sticky business

Twister: We were playing this at Sophie's house just the other day (more of this on Thursday), and even though it feels like you're doing yoga with people's limbs intertwined into yours, it's great fun..

Fairy lights: I love the look of fairy lights in shop windows, front of houses and on Christmas trees.

Postsecret.com: this website manages to make me laugh out loud, cry, and melt inside. Some of the postcards are so sad, whilst others are so sweet. It makes my day every Sunday.

Black sequins: they're glitzy and glamorous at the same time. It's a newfound obsession.

Change The World

Isn't it funny how you can know someone for years and hardly notice them. Then suddenly, they catch your eye and you fall in love with them? Or, how you suddenly become friends with someone you've never really talked to, after you get the chance to find that you have things in common?

It's because you haven't given yourself the chance to know them, or you stuck with previous impressions or judgements. Imagine this: everyone accepts each other wholly, no one judges each other, and first impressions aren't really important because people would give each other the chance to express themselves fully. Wouldn't the world be such a nice place?

So starting from today, go out there and change the world:
- do not hold people to the first impressions they give you
- do not hold expectations upon others
- accept people for who they are, imperfections and all
- forget and forgive
- remember that people change, for the better and the worse
- strike up conversations with people who you normally wouldn't talk to
- keep your mind open, accept other people's beliefs and opinions, and state your own
- accept that people make mistakes
- learn that people can learn from their mistakes
- make mistakes of your own, and learn

It's not that long, and it's not that hard, so GO.

P.S. We reach another milestone! Today, earmuffed.com officially turns half a year old!

Life Lessons

So, as of tomorrow, I will have been alive for 16 years. The little life lessons I have learnt in that time:

If you know you’re not going to able to wake up at 5:30 in the morning, then for Pete's sake, don’t set the alarm to ring at that time! You may think that maybe, maybe this time you’ll be able drag yourself out of your warm cozy bed, maybe. But you’ve never been able to, and it’s about time that you know you’ll always stay in bed until it is absolutely necessary that you get up.

Your grades in year 7 do not count in the real world. Neither do detentions. And surprise surprise, your future employer is not going to want to know what mark you got for your Science report either. Save yourself the eye bags for when you’re that rich and successful business woman. In the meantime, go to sleep.

Browsing clothes online has got to stop. It brings you nothing but depression for lack of affordability.

People change. So when your first ever best friend turns up with a boyfriend all of a sudden, don’t be offended. There is no need to remind her of that pact you made when you were eight about growing old together in the absence of the male specie.

Should you ever have the bright idea of stalking someone, then for the love of god, don’t tell them! You will only scare them off. It’s a natural reaction.

You and shopping trolleys. You guys are just not meant to be! Don't push it!

Next time you write yourself a sticky note reminder, make sure you actually understand the meaning behind the strange codes you make up for yourself. Honestly, “medi m+c” either means you can’t understand yourself, or you need to take mac and cheese as medication.

So your brother likes olives. Just because you picked them out everytime you ate your food when you were his age, doesn’t mean you get to steal his now!

♥ Du Jour

1. Kris Kringle: So it’s finally over. And it was, THANK GOD, a success. Only two people managed to forget their presents despite both Teacup and my constant reminders throughout the week. They have their chance to redeem themselves tomorrow, and another reminder will be going their way soon enough.
I received a pair of bleach washed skinny jeans from Phuong, which I adore. Thank you, sweetie!

2. Christmas: Following on from above, I am loving the Christmas spirit! Teacup has got me into listening to Christmas carols on repeat, and they are absolutely impossible not to start singing along to. Even if, I get weird looks thrown at me from my sister every now and then.

3. My new wardrobe: I received a tonne of new clothes from work experience recently, and I LOVE getting dressed even more than I used to.

4. Owned on Facebook: I am addicted. It is so stupidly addictive. And a waste of time. And pointless. But I am addicted to it nonetheless. The idea of making big money, even if it is only “lunch money”, is drugging me.

5. Anticipating the school holidays: For once in a very long time, I actually have things PLANNED. Well, I’m not entirely planning anything, but there are things planned. Which I plan to attend. Like Van's beach outing.

All I Want For Christmas...

Santa's coming, so I think it's about time we all compiled our wishlists (you know, in case we're on Santa's good list this year). I realise that I'm a greedy person who wants too much, but if you're reading this Santa, give me one of the below, and I promise to be a good girl for the whole of next year:

1. A really cute blazer.
   
2. 'Influence' by Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen
3. A super soft and comfortable robe from Peter Alexander
   
4. Fred Flare black lace gloves
5. Gwen Stefani's fragrance collection: Harajuku Lovers
6. Miss Dior Cherie by Christian Dior
7. White pendant lamps from IKEA
8. 'The Gift' by Cecelia Ahern
9. Fred Flare super cute necklace (it comes with the key too!)
10. Valerie Tolosa cream lace dress
11. Bloom Lip Balm (the packaging is adorable)
12. Kookai jumpsuit (I thought I was against all jumpsuits in existence, until I saw this)
13. An apple green Sony Vaio
14. A pretty sleeping mask (I went with Van to buy this really cute mask that said 'Love Is Blind'. Ngawww!)
15. Juicy Couture Sea Salt Soak (I really have no clue what to do with this, but I fell in love with the goblet)
16. 'Beauty in Bloom' by Natalie Bloom

What do you want this Christmas?

Reasons Why I Love Christmas

1. The festivity: It’s all about the spirit of things! Everyone gets into it, whether they celebrate it religiously or not. You get to shout out “Merry Christmas” to anyone everyone who passes by, instead of your usual silent passing bys.

2. The shopping: Walk into Westfields and you’re greeted with tasteful Christmasey interior decorations. Not only that, it’s the season where store windows are graced with discount offers that just beg you to walk in. It’s a chance to overdose on the shopping, whether it be for yourself or others because this time, you actually have an excuse; it’s Christmas!

3. The presents: It’s always nice to be able to open a present you received from someone and absolutely love what’s inside. It’s even better to be able to find the perfect present you know someone else would totally adore.

4. The Christmas lights: It’s the only time where a drive out in the middle of the night can give you a warm cozy feeling. The streets are adorned with countless multicoloured little twinkling lights that promise to melt any heart.

5. The family time: My family always has a Christmas BBQ where everyone gathers around and fills each other in on the little adventures of life. It’s one of the very few opportunities to do so throughout the year. We don’t chuck that many big parties.

I can’t wait until Christmas. Another 21 days.

To: The Future Successful Me #6

Hey future me. Your year 10 formal is probably a distant fuzzy memory that you think back on occasionally, and I hope it makes you smile, because the formal was the best night of my life (so far). It opened my eyes in so many ways, and I now view the world, my fellow classmates, and even myself differently.

I am somewhat a control freak. My piano and violin teachers tell me so. They say that I should allow myself to make more mistakes instead of aiming for perfection. My parents think that I often make plans and stick to them too strictly.

Now, as I view back at these comments as post-formal me, I can see how right they are. I simply plan too much. Before the formal, Juicebox and I were coming up with conversation starters to make the atmosphere at our table less awkward, we were planning on how we would eat as to not wreck our lipstick, and we planned on arriving looking fresh as daisies, and departing equally poised.

But of course, our arriving one hour late wrecked the grand master plan, and at first, I thought this kind of sucked. But then I realised that the people on my table are interesting as they are, and don't need my prompting to start a conversation. I realised that once I licked off my lipstick and simply stopped caring about how my face would be wrecked, I had so much more fun. I realised that if I simply let go and stopped caring about what other people thought of me, I could dance for the fun of it, be carefree, less self-conscious and seriously have fun.

Who knew that breaking plans could be so refreshing?!

When I look back now, I'm proud of the wild and carefree me that is somewhere deep within me. I am also so glad that the rest of the people in our grade broke free of my expectations, and deep inside them too, were wild carefree party animals. The fact that everyone stopped caring and let loose made the formal so much better than what I expected.

That's why the formal was so perfect for me. It was completely unexpected; the way I was, the way everyone was, the way it turned out. I hope that sometime in the future, there can be some other event that can bring out that wild and carefree side of me again.