Monday 31 October 2011

Fabulous Sites

When I'm not blogging there I heaps of other lovely sites I like to browse. Here are a few you may be interested in. The annoying thing is, links on blogger don't work so you will have to cut and paste. Sorry! 


http://dujourmag.com/category/blog/


http://cupcakesandcashmere.com/  


http://galadarling.com/   


http://www.food52.com/  


http://www.threadsence.com/index.php 


http://www.fashionising.com/ 


http://www.thepartydress.net/blog/  


http://urbanog.com/  


http://decor8blog.com/ 


Check them out!!!  


















   







Friday 28 October 2011

Inspired by....................Sydney CBD

So, this week for my Inspired By I went to the CENTRE of Sydney. And I realised that there is way too much great STUFF in the CBD for me to see all of it in two hours.  



































I actually spent almost all the time in David Jones which is (for those who don't know) a big department store that is incredibly elegant, sophisticated. For the last 20 years it has been the leading shopping destination in the CBD but THEN a huge, literally huge Westfield opened. Westfield is a type of mall for those who don't know. The Westfield is totally AMAZING TOWN, in my opinion. Then again, David Jones is a lot calmer. 

So, I took the bus into the CBD and went straight to David Jones. 


I went for a bit of a wonder and I don't need to go into any details because it was a bit.......well.......boring. 


Then, I went to the food court which is utterly superb. 


















I saw a wall of tea. I absolutely love tea. I like unique tea. Orange, chocolate not just your average English Breakfast. Find unique tea recipes at the bottom of this post.  






I thought about guilty pleasures. I'll tell you why, I went to the lolly part. Sad thing was I had already spent most of my $7 budget (pretty pathetic, I know) on an 'organic' lemon lime and bitters (gross). So I had 50 cents which I spent on strawberries and cream and liquorice bullets (my favourite lollies). My guilty pleasures are lollies (childish I know) and SHOPPING. What are yours? (Feel free to answer in the comments)
At that moment I was thinking one thing
'I wish I had more money'.
  
Mmmmmmmmm.




















































Homewares level. Hey guess what. I love homewares.  
I love when mixers get
stylish


That's a lot of plates

How beautiful are these?
Who doesn't adore candles?
NO ONE!










































This level reminded me of domesticness (yes, I like that word despite the fact it doesn't exist). I know for a fact that it can be very hard to be domestic and stylish at the same time. BUT I assure you it is possible. At the bottom of this post you can find an article about being domestic and obtaining stylishness and sophistication. 


Time was running out, I could only do one more thing. I had a quick look around Westfield. I saw some super cute, super cool and super stylish things. I also saw some SUPER UGLY things. 
Some ugly  enough to make you want to gag over the side of the elevator. Ok that might me a bit too much information.  
Pretty HORRIBLE




I find that sometimes, the problem isn't that the garments are ugly, it's the way they are paired with other things. They can just look HORRIBLE.  Do you know the do's and don'ts of pairing garments? At the bottom of this post you can find an article on pairing garments. 




















So here are the promised articles. Hope you enjoy! 


Unique Tea  


I'm all for trying new things. I'm a big supporter of uniqueness. You know, standing out from the crowd. So, as much I as I love the classic English Breakfasts and Earl Greys, I also am a huge fan of  more original tea. T2 has the most interesting teas ever, Turkish Apple, Chocolate, Turkish Delight!!! Where else do you see them? 


Chocolate Tea 
From http://blog.teadog.com/2008/03/20/make-your-own-chocolate-tea/ 



3 teaspoons of cocoa
3 cups of milk
3 cups of English Breakfast tea
6 sugar lumps
First, set aside about 1 cup of cold milk and heat the rest of the milk. Gradually blend the cocoa into the cold milk and add to the boiling milk. Next, beat the mixture with a whisk. Then, make the english breakfast tea, sweeten, leave to cool. Finally, mix the two preparations together and serve with ice cubes. Recipes makes 6 cups of chocolate tea. 

Turkish Apple Tea 
From http://www.turkishcookbook.com/2010/02/turkish-apple-tea.php 
2 red apples, do not peel and do not remove the seeds, cut in 4 or 6
1 orange, do not peel, cut in 4 or 6
1 stick cinnamon
2 whole cloves
4 cup water

Place all the ingredients in a saucepan, bring to a boil. Turn the heat down and simmer until the fruits are tender. Strain into the bowl pushing gently with the back of the spoon to remove all the liquid. Then pour into the tea glasses.

If you like you may sweeten with honey 

ICE TEA 

1 large (300g) orange
½ cup (125ml) water
½ cup (110g) caster sugar
1.25 litres (5 cups) boiling water
3 black tea bags
3 peach-flavoured herbal infusion bags
1 2/3 cups (400ml) peach nectar
¼ cup loosely packed mint leaves
ice cubes, for serving

NOTE: This recipe can be made several hours ahead; add ice cubes just before serving.
METHOD

Peel the rind thinly from half the orange, avoiding white pith. Peel off pith, cut orange into thin slices.

Place water and sugar in a small pan; stir over a low heat, without boiling, until sugar is dissolved; add the orange rind. Simmer, uncovered, without stirring, for 5 minutes or until thickened slightly; remove the rind. Cool, then refrigerate.

Place boiling water in a jug; add the tea and herbal infusion bags. Infuse for 5 minutes; remove tea bags. Cool, then refrigerate.

Place sugar syrup, tea, orange slices, nectar and mint in a large jug; stir to combine. Just before serving, add ice cubes.

Suitable to freeze without orange and mint. Suitable to microwave  





How to be stylish and domestic AT THE SAME TIME  


Being permanently stylish and sophisticated really boosts your self-esteem,to be permanently looking great makes you feel just over the moon. This includes at the home. Here are some tips to keeping your self and your kitchen completely sophisticated.

1.Wear a nice apron.  
I am obsessed with my apron, I'm constantly wishing it is a dress so I can wear it out. Even if there's a catastrophe in the kitchen at least I know I look great in my APRON.  
This site has a range of stylish apron's 
http://www.jessiesteele.com/kitchen/kitchen-aprons.html  


2. Keep a nice soap near the kitchen sink 
LOTS, of things get on your hands when you cook. LOTS, sometimes your handling raw meat and then you have to go straight to carrots. It's good to keep your hands smelling nice. Wash your hands frequently while cooking by keeping a hand soap next to your kitchen sink.  

3. Create an atmosphere 
Keep your kitchen and dining area looking beautiful. Have flowers in a vase or incense and candles burning. Be original! This makes it more enjoyable to cook and to eat. 

4. Keep everything SUPER neat 
Have your spice rack all laid out with labeled jars. Your herbs neatly together. It's much easier to cook in a neat space. Plus, it makes your kitchen look professional and nice. 

5. Have two essentials on hand 
Everything gets messy in the kitchen so it helps to always have a cleaning spray, this way you can clean up as you go. Also have a little pot of lip balm (I use Lucas's Papaya Balm) for applying when your lips get chapped.  




SO, the final article  


7 Fashion Pairing Mistakes That Don't Look Good on Anyone 
  
Sometimes you see someone and you think. 'Why would they do that'. The thing is, some outfits look ok in the darkness of your bedroom  or feel good because they're comfy but look shocking in the full light of day. Here are 7 mistakes you NEVER want to make. 


1. Sneakers and Jeans 
My least favourite fashion pairing mistake. EVER. Ok, converse don't count but your running shoes. Egggghhhhhhh. It looks so awkward and well, just plain awful. You may as well write 'I DON"T CARE ABOUT FASHION' on your forehead. 


2. Ugg Boots and Skirts (or even worse Dresses) 
I don't really like Ugg Boots at all but they can look ok with jeans. With a skirt they are just hideous. 


3. Socks (especially white ones) with sandals or thongs
If there is something that screams OLD it's this. Even if you were wearing the prettiest top and the best jeans the outfit would still be unbearable to look at if you wore sandals and socks. 


4. Leather Boots and shorts  
Boots are for winter, shorts are for summer. Pairing them doesn't make sense. Don't do it! 


5. Spots and thick stripes 
Print vomit. Colour vomit. It makes me want to vomit. Way too much (thin subtle stripes can look ok).

6. Hoodies and Dresses
A combination of formal and casual can look really good and REALLY BAD. This is an instance were it looks REALLY BAD.

7. Heels and trackies
That just completely stupid, why did I even list that?







Thanks for reading.


Bibliography
Ice Tea
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP52SLkbyI1KszR82WgmUk5WFWOBeqIpdDQSIZchIvHBoyf5CKnHqxdno0vPNX8atDIZ9IPjjG2V-6avaU1X1bgZHO1QkS0GKjF1kSdPUX2f-FhVf-CesJxpXOfkhy8V0wft3yxoGiR99F/s1600/lemon-tea-ck-1065493-x.jpg

50's Domestic
http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lozqic4ODR1qij82jo1_500.jpg


Sneakers and Jeans Picture
http://ssjustice.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/41786_2235901754_1606_n.jpg
    
    

   










     




   

































Tuesday 25 October 2011

Defining a personal style and how it's more important then you think

Defining a personal style

Having a defined personal style makes you seem fashion forward and cool. It lets you show your personality to people. First impressions can be tough;you want people to look at you and think 'that person looks nice.' It's not difficult to show your personality through your clothes.  Seriously, and it makes you feel better about your whole style if you know it's unique and cohesive. Here’s how to do it.

Decide what you want your style to be?

So the first is to take a very long look at your wardrobe. Choose you absolute favorite garment. It can sum up your personality, be your favorite color or just be something you love to bits. Look at it and think of the first word (actually a style) that comes into you head. For a floral dress it would obviously be something like floral or feminine. For a maxi dress it may be something like boho or chic or hippie.  This will be your personal style. It makes sense for your favorite garment to sum up your style.  Alternatively you can decide on you style before this and look at your wardrobe to see which of your garments best fits your new decided personal style.  Or you can even decide on you personal style and go shopping to find one thing that suits it.  

Once you have found a single garment that sums up your style take out the things in your wardrobe you actually like.  Throw out the stuff you don’t like. There’s no point having things in you wardrobe you don’t like. Is there?

 SO, take out the things you like and have a little play around with them see how they work together.  The thing is. I hate to break this to you but your wardrobe isn’t going to automatically work together.  You will have to find accessories that you think sum up your personal style.  Girls looking for a feminine style may look for little flower hair pieces and lockets. Buy lots of things, you don’t want to be wearing the same accessories every day. It all depends on the style you have chosen. By putting a little bit of your style in your outfits (with the accessories) your outfits will be more cohesive. As time goes on your whole outfit will be part of the style.

So, this is a long term thing.  For the next month or two take a photos of outfits you wear. Stick them in a book if you want. Your own personal lookbook. See how things work and how they tie together. When you go shopping buy things that tie in with a personal style.  Soon enough you will get to know your style and it will come together. A good aim to have is to try and make all your outfits look like one collection. 

Photo from
http://www.featurepics.com/FI/Thumb300/20080120/Camera-Sketch-584587.jpg



Here are a few inspirations, just so you can get the idea of what a style is and some certain ones that are quite popular. They may be similar to a style you may want so feel free to be inspired.   

Urban/Indie/Retro AKA my personal style
A urban look is designed to look cool. Like something you would wear in a cool suburb buzzing with culture. Wondering why I listed retro first, because it’s my style. Despite the fact many other people have a vaguely retro style mine is still unique.  Urban wear has lot of vintage influence.  Urban style can look a bit old, I’m not talking Victorian dresses, no, I’m talking about old fashioned looking oxford shoes or a pair of 50’s sunnies. Retro is usually in darker shades. My personal retroish, urban, indie style is cool. I like to wear things like a loose knit beanie, brogues,loose tops with prints on then, vintage looking necklaces are it all ties together to make my style. 

Boho/Hippie
This 70’s inspired look is quite popular. It includes maxi dresses, frayed tops and bags . It’s carefree and loose. Designed to look comfy. It can be good for someone who has never really cared about fashion and is opening out.  I love it, it’s lazy in a fashionable kind of way. Look for things with patterns (not floral) and things that look comfy and loose (But still fashionable NO trackies).  

Sophisticated
I’d say this is designed for people who work a lot. It is very formal wear. People who go for this kind of look tend to wear things like formal blazers, wrap dresses and things in colors like navy, peach and lots of black and white. Even on weekends this look is always very formal. Work dresses are favored. It’s not a look a particularly like because you cant experiment much and it tends to be quite boring.  Even still it can look very sophisticated and it always looks professional. 

Feminine 
Feminine is a nice style. It’s feminine as the name suggests. Skirts, dresses and floral patterns are what you generally see. It’s nice and is very garden girl. It looks really pretty in my opinion. It’s still quite free but not as much as a hippie look.  If I didn’t wear a retro look I’d go for this. 

A few styles. The first one is the most similar to mine 
Photo from
http://www.thechicfashionista.com/images/french-cool-street-fashion.jpg
  

Already have a personal style? Or have any questions? Share it in the comments?  

Saturday 22 October 2011

Inspired by.............................Darlinghurst

Yesterday my friend and brother and I had a little explore around Darlinghurst. I only had $10 in my pocket but I still loved it and bought some nice things. It was absolutely boiling and it had been for the whole day. The sun shinied on until evening when it died down a little. Anyway we  walked down Oxford St and then turned into Victoria St. We walked past the hospital which wasn't paticulary pleasant and the (FINALLY) we reached the nice part of Victoria st. 


We went to Messina, which is an AMAZINGLY GOOD ice cream store. I had two scoops one of Coconut Lychee and the other of Coconut Pandan.  


LOTS of flavours




























It was totally DELISH, I love coconut! SO, the first thing that came into my head (after OMG, this is YUM) was, I really love coconut. So I thought I'd share my TOP 3 coconut recipes. 
So, since I should probably get on the story and I don't want to interrupt the flow of things you can find my top 5 coconut recipes at the bottom of this post. 


Next stop Bakery. Infinity Bakery, one of my favourites. The bread, cakes, food and organic drinks are all great  







 I love to bake. Full stop. I also love to eat things that have been baked so the bakery was a perfect stop for me. I was looking at the bakers and thinking how many people in the world love to bake. So I thought I'd list the 14 things every baker should have in their pantry. You can find this at the bottom of this post.  




So we walked down into the city, past the famous Coca-cola sign. It looks much better at night when all the lights come on. It's sorta advertising but in a way it's sort of street art. Well, maybe not BUT it did make me think of street art. Which I love. You can see a quick, short and snappy article about street art and the bottom of this post. 




Final stop. Grandma takes a trip. Guess what type of shop it is. Guess! You guessed right, VINTAGE! I loved all the 50's style dresses. I got a quick shot back to the past and thought I should do a quick summary of the trends and styles through time. 50's 60's 70's and 80's. You can find these at the bottom of this post. 


  
























SO, here are the articles. ENJOY 


Firstly 


My FAVOURITE coconut recipes!!! 


1. Coconut Ice 
Ingredients 5¼ cups (840g) icing sugar
2½ cups (200g) desiccated coconut        
395g can sweetened
condensed milk
1 egg white, beaten lightly
pink food colouring 

Method 
Line deep 19cm-square cake pan with strips of baking paper.

Sift icing sugar into large bowl; stir in coconut, then condensed milk and egg white.

Divide mixture in half; tint half with pink colouring. Press pink mixture into pan then top with white mixture. Cover; refrigerate about 3 hours or until set before cutting into squares. 








Photo and recipe
from
http://aww.ninemsn.com.au
/food/freshtv/790415/coconut-ice








2. Moist Coconut Cake 
INGREDIENTS








125g butter, softened
½ teaspoon coconut essence  
1 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
½ cup (40g) desiccated coconut
1½ cups self-raising flour
250g extra-light sour cream
1/3 cup (80ml) milk

METHOD


Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan-forced). Grease deep 22cm-round cake pan; line base with baking paper.

Beat butter, essence and sugar in a small bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time.

Transfer mixture to a large bowl. Stir in half the coconut and half the sifted flour, half the sour cream and half the milk, then add remaining coconut, flour, sour cream and milk; stir until smooth.

Spread the mixture into the pan; bake for about 50 minutes or until cooked when tested. Stand cake in pan for 10 minutes before turning onto wire rack, top-side up, to cool.   

Photo and recipe from
http://aww.ninemsn.com.au/food/cookingtips/776621/
moist-coconut-cake-with-coconut-ice-frosting




    
















3. 
Recipe for Yellow Curry with Chicken and Potatoes


Yields 3-4 servings
Ingredients: 
  • 1 14-ounce can of coconut milk
  • 2 tablespoons yellow curry paste
  • 1 large chicken breast
  • 2 cups water
  • 2 medium potatoes
  • 1/2 of a large onion
  • 1 14-ounce can of baby corn (optional)
  • 1 teaspoon fish sauce
  • 1/2 teaspoon sugar
Instructions: 
  1. Prepare your ingredients.  Slice the onion, baby corn, and chicken into bite-sized pieces.  Peel, cut, and parboil the potatoes for ~5 minutes.  Set aside.  
  2. Open the can of coconut milk and scoop the top thicker cream part into a pan.  Heat this cream over medium heat until the oil just starts to separate from the milk.  Then add the yellow curry paste and saute with the cream until it becomes fragrant.
  3. Add the chicken, coat in the curry paste, and cook until it's done.  Then add the rest of the coconut milk and water and bring to a boil. 
  4. Add the potatoes, onions, and baby corn (if you want) and cook until just done, but still firm.  Adjust seasonings with fish sauce and sugar to taste.
  5. Garnish with thinly sliced kaffir lime leaves and red peppers.  Serve with jasmine rice




Ok, following on from that.  
My 14 things every baker should ALWAY have in his/her pantry. 

1. All purpose flour (thats a bit of a DUH) 
2. Self-raising flour 
3. Baking soda 
4. Bi carb soda 
5. Vanilla essence 
6. Eggs 
7. Butter 
9. White sugar 
10. Brown sugar 
11. Yeast 
12. Salt 
13. Frozen puff pastry 
14. Chocolate  


Street art  
Ok, so I love graffiti. Sometimes it can look really amazing. You don't have to go to an art gallery to see amazing art. Street art can also look really bad and in fact, most of the time it does. I hate swear words and strange pictures drawn in neon paint. That's gross and looks horrible and around Sydney when you see street art you usually see that. Where I do like to see street art is on the internet at http://www.streetartutopia.com/ 

Here are some of my favourite paintings (I guess that's what you call them) from street art utopia are. 


  
























Fashion through time 
50's Fashion 
People were happy in the 50's. War was over. Rationing finished. People thought they had never had it so good. The style was tailored sophisticated and feminine. Pearls, white heels and gloves were favoured. Older women liked straight pencil skirts and younger women liked wide swing skirts and dresses. Do I like the era? Half-half. I like the sophistication to a certain extent but not when it goes too far. Then it's just.......well.......grandmaish.    


Teen Fashion
Photo from
http://womenfashioncostumes.
com/wp-content
/uploads/2011/09/1950s-
fashion-sull-skirted
-dress-and-parasols.jp
g
50's looks
Photo from
http://www.fashion-era.com/images
/1950s/mich1950x6.jpg
  
  
60's Fashion 
It started off exactly like the 50's but as the decade went on extravagance rose. The 60's was glamorous, colourful and big. Big hair, very big hair. Prints were popular especially checks and florals. In 1965 the mini skirt was invented this sort of changed the decade. Things became tighter and shorter. Ok, the sixties is hard to explain because unlike the 50's it wasn't all one style. It started with floral dresses  (much like the 50's), then vinyl like shiny, space looking dresses with white leather boots and finished in hippie maxi dresses. Through the whole decade mini skirts were wildly popular this continued on to the 70's.   


60's office wear
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QPfCCosl6g4/TiVoKW0g0UI/
AAAAAAAAADo/GG8jRMrVuuY/s1600/madmen6.jpg
Photo from
http://edu.glogster.com/media/4/
30/86/89/30868992.jpg






  
Photo from
http://sp.life123.com/bm.pix/
historyfashion1.s600x600.jpg














































70's Fashion 
70's fashion was fun, lose and carefree. It started with a very hippy look. People saw tie die shirts and maxi dresses. Then came in Disco fashion, sequin bandeaus, colourful lycra jumpsuits and glitter belts. Through out the whole era flare jeans and platform shoes were wildly popular.   


Photo From
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_N7FiXwKHEhs/S2ibvdP-
zSI/AAAAAAAABj4/LoahfGt2EaQ/s400/68hippies+-+
vintage+clothing+patterns.gif




Photo from
http://www.fasioncostumes.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/70-S-Fashion.jpg












































































80's Fashion 

80's fashion was cool and music inspired. It had a few main trends. One was Valley girl. A sporty look where girls would wear leg warmers and mini skirts. Madonna inspired thousands of women all over the world. Her sexy, daring and slightly punk look was recreated all over the world. She loved lace gloves, fishnet tights and tight leather skirts. Punk was in my opinion the most popular look of the decade, people wore lots of leather, ripped and skinny jeans and coloured mowhaks. Leather was very popular in all forms. Mini skirts, jackets, pants. Souly, the 80's was about self espression, about pushing boundries. It was a great era.  


Photo from
http://www.simplyeighties.com/resources/
81_physical_98.jpg?timestamp=1241374068971
Photo from
http://www.thegreat80s.com/images/
80s-Fashion/madonna-clothes.jpg


Photo from
http://fashioncelebrity.org/wp-content/uploads
/2011/08/80s-punk-fashion1.jpg