Earmuffed: July 2009

Wishlist

Cupcakes and Cookies

I had an 'OFFICIAL HOLIDAY TO-DO LIST' in my diary. Every holiday, I would build giant mental lists of things to do, then never get around to doing anything. I am proud to say that I managed to accomplish everything on my Holiday To-Do list, except learn to drive. It's probably a good thing that I never got around to driving, otherwise some of us wouldn't be conscious right now. But other than that, I got everything else done. Yes, I went on a shopping spree, bought heaps of books, watched Coco Avant Chanel, finally bought a signature perfume (Echo by Davidoff in case you were wondering), redecorated my room, and yes, I baked cupcakes.

'Bake cupcakes!' wasn't a serious suggestion. It was an after thought. It was the last thing on my list. I put it on to make it look like my holiday was going to have a lot of purpose. I really did not think I would actually get aroudn to baking cupcakes. BUT YES I DID, on monday, the Jenny and I pulled up to Jenny N's kitchen and we had a BAKING FRENZY for four whole hours. 32 cupcakes and 45 cookies. I felt like I was on Master Chef:

After a lot of screaming, wrecked clothing, trying to identify our biscuits by covering our hands in butter + food colouring before moulding the cookies, jamming a glove in egg beater, then killing the egg beater, throwing sprinkles all over the kitchen table, and choking over flour floating around the kitchen:

It was all tasted pretty good yesterday. And I woke up without any funny symptoms. But we brought them to school today, and the biscuits were rock hard.

At least they looked cute though.

Room Makeover II

Around six months ago, you might remember that I redecorated my room *click click if you want a reminder!* In a temporary moment of insanity, I decided that my room didn't have enough personality, and I wanted more space to move and breathe.

I didn't do much, other than remove the legs and head from my bed, rearrange my furniture, and stick a bunch of posters up. Oh, and my shoes and books overflowed their allocated shelves, so I decided to move my shoes out into the craft closet (LOL I feel like such a granny for having a craft closet. It's basically just shelves of beads, felt, fabric and a heap of crap that shouldn't be in the 'craft closet'), I moved the stuff from the craft closet down to the sewing room, and my books onto my old shoe shelf. Problem solved!

I tried to clean upmy room as well as possible, but as you can probably see, I have a few boxes of stuff I bought online that have yet to be unpacked hidden in some corner, I forgot to make the bed, and I still have a pile of books and sketch pads on the floor:

I love the illusion of space that I now have- the lowered bed makes the whole room look three times bigger. The tall bookshelves and curtains on either side also makes my room feel so much taller, like the ceiling has been lifted by a giant.

I also used my newfound hammering skills to create a "jewellery wall":

The other half of my room (ignore the hammer, broken alarm clock and pair of speakers on the dresser, I don't know what to do with them so I'll leave them there until someone claims them):

And a picture of my new shoe closet (which I also consider part of my "room", even though its like across my bathroom, 3m away from my room):

Oh, on a completely different note, for those who want a preview of my Design & Technology dress, it should look like this when I finish:

It is getting there, I'M REALLY EXCITED ABOUT THIS, it's the most extravagant dress I have ever made. It's kind of nice to design something for no particular purpose, knowing that you'd never wear it, and therefore going as over the top as you like. Now that it's nearing finish, I kind of want to wear it though. But I never could; I can't walk around in something made of CDs and cotton wipes (the ones they use to wipe baby bottoms)- the dress would probably explode or disintegrate if I touch water or something.

White Moon Rising

It seems that selling your designs at market stalls is the way to go in Australia- that's how Lisa Ho started off, and also how, I recently discovered, Susien Chong and Nic Briand of Lover the Label launched off. Maybe I should start my own stall at Paddy's Markets.

Lover the Label - in my eyes, they can do no wrong. Their collections are whimsical and romantic, they often use leather, lace, and soft flowy cotton. And there is structure- not in the architectural way one would immediately imagine once the word 'structure' comes to mind, but willowy frills and graceful draping, juxtaposed with jaunty jackets, leather high waisted shorts and playsuits tapering down to just above the ankles.

The fact that they started out in a market stall, as well as their latest collection, forced me to blog about them. Those of you who have been unfortunate enough to be in my line of fire after I examine one of their latest collections, would have experienced my coercion as I attempt to make them too, fall in love with the collection. Not that it is a hard thing to do. Falling in love with the collection that is, not coercing people.

But since it is early morning and there is no one to show yet, I thought I'd show all of you! My favourite looks from their latest collection, named 'White Moon Rising':

Need: GPS Installed Into Brain

It seems that every time I decide to venture into the city with Van, we end up lost, desperate and sweaty. Take last time for example- we wanted to go to Pancakes on the Rocks; Van thought that the place was actually on a rock, near Central station. We ended up walking directionlessly to Town Hall station, until we realised that we were very very lost.

This time, we were already thirty minutes behind schedule, and trying to get to this indie theatre that no one has ever heard of. I relied on Google maps to point me in the right direction, but alas, it failed us. It pointed us to the wrong side of the harbour. So we ran around desperately, handbags flailing on our shoulders, maps clutched in our sweaty palms, asking surprisingly nice construction workers where the cinema was.

We ended up running around the entire harbour (that's right ladies and gents, from one side of the harbour bridge to the other side, and no, not across the bridge. Around. On land).

In my delirious state, I actually ran up two flights of stairs into a bar, and breathlessly asked the poor bar man "are we too late to watch the Chanel movie?" and when he replies with a confused stare, I repeat even more loudly "THE CHANEL MOVIE!! HAS IT STARTED?!?!?!" Luckily, Van caught up with me and reminded me to look up at the sign that says 'bar', or perhaps behind the bar man for the numerous liquor bottles and wine glasses, and maybe realise that the bar was actually a bar and not a theatre desk.

It turns out that we were in the wrong building, and that the cinema was actually a few more minutes of running away.

We finally arrived at the theatre and watched Coco Avant Chanel dangerously close to the screen. No I actually mean dangerously close. You know when something is so close to your eye that is actually out of focus? Well the screen was so close to my face that it was out of focus. It was all a dizzying blur, which I was okay with most of the time, except when it came to the hot and stuffy sex scenes. As some of you might not be familiar with hot and stuffy sex scenes, they usually involve zooming right in, abstract movements and very dim lighting. All this combined with breathy noises, plus the screen RIGHT IN FRONT OF MY FACE was extremely nauseating.

But other than that, THE MOVIE WAS FUDGING AMAZING. I am serious, THAT MOVIE CHANGED MY LIFE!! I walked out of the cinema dazed (it may have been due to the fact that I had run for twenty minutes prior to the cinema, then sat like 10 cm away from the cinema screen), and all I could think about was... EVERYTHING. The movie made me question so many things- design; not necessarily fashion, social conventions, marriage, men, life, everything! I am totally serious, that movie is making me really think.

Some screencaps:

Some other things I did, although I don't remember in what order, include:

wandering into massive book sales and buying everything
buying $10 pancakes, which I now regret
buying $5 icecream, which I also now regret
going perfume shopping, although I didn't end up buying anything (wallet was emptied prior to this point in time, buying wasn't an option)
going lingerie shopping, although I didn't end up buying anything (wallet had not magically filled up with money by this point in time, buying wasnt an option)
convincing the cute McDonalds guy to give Van large chips
paying the cute McDonalds guy, saying 'keep the change!' and walking off, forgetting to grab the bottle of water I bought

PICTURE TIME!!:

At Pancakes on the Rocks. This time, we knew the place wasn't on a rock, and managed to get there hassle-free.

Asking a nice gentleman for directions.

That was where we were. Do you see the Opera house on the other side, across the vast vast sea? We ran to there.

Insanely reduced books. Do you see that sign? TWO BOOKS FOR $10. Isn't that amazing?!

Pictures above + below: the bags and bags of books Van & I bought. Teehee I'm so happy with my book purchases.

On another note, I was supposed to blog about my new room ages ago, but my shopping has managed to leak out of their shopping bags and now I have shoe boxes, books and plastic bags all over my floor. I'll take pictures once I remember to clean up my room. Which might not be for a while, I am way behind schedule for my Design & Technology dress. Why did I opt for something so overly ambitious and tedious?!?!

Interiors

I have almost finished redoing my room! I spent 5 hours yesterday cooped up in my room, rearranging posters, jumping on my bed in attempt to stick posters up near the ceiling, misplacing wads of blu-tack, and trampling on scissors (ouch).

Sorry to keep you waiting through, I still need to clean up a bit before I can show anyone. My room looks like a construction site that was blown apart. To make up for it, I'll treat you with some pictures from my 'interiors' folder- pictures that I have accumulated over the past month to gain inspiration and ideas: