Europe hit list: designer goodies

So with Europe happening in a little less than two months (excitementt), i'm starting to really look into my expenses plan out what i'm going to do and things i'm going to buy. Aside from money that i'm expecting to spend on food and experiences, I've also got my eyes set on a few designer pieces - pieces that would have otherwise been unreasonable for me to buy in Australia, but... perhaps not so much when overseas (lol).
Here two of my must haves:
1) Prada Lux Saffiano Tote with snap lock closure.
I mean seriously, it would almost be a crime if i didn't pick up one of these bad boys while in Italy



2) YSL leather zip wallet (and possibly another arty ovale ring)
Paris baby!! Designer goods are always cheapest when in their home country :)



Hmmm that's about all that I have down as definates. Fingers crossed that both will be in stock :) For the next week or so I'm going to start browsing a few online clothing sites (topshop, h&m, net a porter) along with checking out stores like Zara etc so when i go shopping in Europe, i can just get in, buy and get out (knowing me, i normally take a million years to decide on anything so i'm hoping this will save me a few hours of browsing at least!). SIGH so exciting. next stop.. to the library! need to borrow some lonely planet books asap!

Em and Charlie

Sorryyyy em for the uber delayed posttt, i'm such a lazy arse. haha

But here are some photos from the Sportsgirl shoot I did with my girl Emily :)
A few weeks ago, we entered a Sportsgirl competition that required you to submit a photo showing off your style and your bike! Em and I basically found out about the shoot on the night before so it was all really rushed and EXTREMELY unorganised, but hey, I think we did pretty good in the end.

So I got to Em's at around 2:30 on a Saturday evening, carrying a bunch of clothes (like, a lot) and make up, and we basically just decided on the type of shoot then and there. In terms of the photos, I just wanted to capture movement of Em in her bike, and I also wanted to be able to get some nice portraits to showcase the make up as well as some of the delicate details in her blouse. In terms of the outfit, we had a number of options to choose from, but in the end, the soft creme blouse along with the bright red skirt was able to work well with Em's skin tone (and hair) as well being able to add some colour to Charlie (her bike) w/o straying too far away from the pastel tones.

We didn't have a lot of time for shooting all together seeing as I kind of forgot to factor in how soon the sun goes down, but I think we were able to come out with some nice shots :) In terms of the colour scheme, i wanted it to look like Em was going riding at the crack of dawn on a cold frosty morning.

I tried to experiment on a few different angles and shots of Em on her bike, and I must say, Em was a huge trooper in being able to ride up and down the lane like 20+ times (and w/o complaint, because thats how awesome she is). I'm pretty sure one of the directions I gave her went along the lines of "okay so ride past me, and pretend i'm some cute boy checking you out, and you're just catching a glipse of me and giving me a flirty look" :) Thanks for putting up with me Em! Even though we didn't win :( I hope you had as much modelling as i did shooting :)

hehe i like this cheeky one of you em :)

and some night shots. nylon styleee baby!

For you, B

Louis!

Everybody, meet Louis!

He is a 4 year old shetland sheepdog, and he's the cutest thing in the whole wide world. B's sister bought him in 2008 when he was just a weee little man (imagine a border colie... but chihuahua form). The breeders said that he was meant to be a show dog, but he was a little smaller than his siblings, so they decided to sell him instead. Whenever B is over my place for too long, he chucks a fuss at not being able to see his doggie... lol. Can't blame him though, i think i would be the same if he were my dog.

Today i took him for a walk around the lake near B's place. So strange to think that he was made to go on a diet last year for being so tubssss. He did good today though. 2 rounds around the lake with ample energy to spare. It's so hilarious to watch his cute little feet pitter-patter along the footpath. Oh, and the chicks dig it ;)



Oh Louis, I hope you live forever.

(bahah wearing the same outfit as the last post! don't blame me. i've got europe to save for!!)

Prawn Buckets!!! chyeahhhh!!

So Mr. Dubria and I decided to do something fun together so we went on a little fancy schmancy date at the wharf. It all started really in the office, when all the girls were talking about some spreets vouchers that they had purchased. Two bucket of prawns and a bottle of wine for only around $40. One of my colleagues had been with her bf a couple of times (with the vouchers) so I thought it would be a nice idea to give it a go. I knew that B has always been a fan of seafood, so I was sure that he would like it.

Walking towards the restaurant... mad sunny day!

Looking over our menus!! So much seafood to choose from! But a little on the pricey side. :)

Here's the bottle of white that came with the voucher! Not bad with the food at all! :) Though, if it were up to me, I'd definately prefer a beautiful bottle of sav. blanc from NZ :)

For the entree, we had ordered garlic bread. It was soo good, but hey.. any kind of garlic bread has always been pretty damn awesome.

B, lookin all cool with his wine in hand!

Photos of us.. i rarely post these up.. but whatever!

So here's what we had come for! 2 buckets of prawns!! The buckets looked small to begin (considering half of it was filled with ice) but man, those prawns were filling! We were starting to regret ordering all the other dishes, but we were able to get through them in the end! Next time, definately just stick to the buckets and maybe an entree. The thousand island sauce was a little lackluster in my opinion, but the prawns tasted pretty damn awesome with the lemon alone!

Now onto our second dish, OYSTERRSSSSSS!! B's favourite.

Water to gush it all down, and payment at the end! Seeing as i footed the voucher, B was happy to pay for the rest. haha. Seemed fair to me! :) Overall the day went without a hitch. It was beautiful weather, the seafood was amazing (not to mention, we topped it off with a few little extras) and by the end of it all, we were all clutching our bellies... full from the feed, and walking around the harbour to burn it off! Typical B and I.. always overeating.

So i've reached the end of my post! But just something to hold you guys off until the next one... here's probably one of the most amazing songs i've heard all year:

It's called 'Blood' by 'The Middle East' if you have time, i definately recommend checking out their other stuff. Click here to hear more of their stuff. Friken amazing.

Another song i'm currently digging:

Until next time folks,

xx S.

Nails, aqua golf.. and other social things

So it's been awhile since I've last blogged, but to be honest, I've been pretty lazy lately (with a lot of things) and I don't know if its just one of those moods, but i'm just finding it more and more difficult to be motivated! I've been getting up to little things here and there, and seeing as I'm kind of 'off' uploading photos on fb, I thought i might just post some here! :)

So let's start the post off with... Valentines day!! :) B and I didn't really get up to anything spesh, so during some "spare time" at work, i decided to make him a Valentines day card! The picture at the front was something i just found on google. I picked a cherub playing the banjo type thing cause it reminded me of B.. playing my guitar. haha :) I think he liked it! He better not have thrown it away!

Glitter nails!! Kind of a new obsession... I showed my friend my blinggg nails at work and she pretty much chuckled and said "you would have been my best friend if this was in year 3" haha, so i suppose i might've jumped ship a little later in my life, but hey! They still look as cool as fuck!! I don't care if i'm 23!!!

Nail polish from the 'muppets' collection. oOOOooo sparklyyyy.

L to R: Fresh Frog of Bel Air; Rainbow Connection; Servin' Up Sparkle (diff collection); Excuse Moi; and Gettin' Miss Piggy With it.

So this first one i had purchased because i had read rave reviews about it, however when i tried it on, i had found it a little too clumpy for my liking. More of a textual distaste than anything, but I don't think i would wear it again.

Rainbow Connection is by far my favourite glitter nail polishhh! It takes a little skill to apply evenly, and it needs around 3 coats, but it looks amazing. And the best thing about this polish is, when its time to remove it, i could pretty much peel it all off (after a bit of work), so it's not going to be as hard as trying to get the sucker off with nail polish remover!

Last one i tried was this awesome Fresh Frog of Bel Air. I put an Orly dark green colour for the base coat before going over it with the glitters. On the plus side, it's friken amazing to look at and it does not chip.. ever. But on the downside, it does not chip.. ever. Which means its a pain to remove and it basically takes like half a bottle of acetone to get off. Meh, kinda worth it.

--

So on this night, I went out with B and his friends to play aqua golf in Penrith. Was prettyyy funnn. Something I've learnt is that i can't really shoot for shit, and i'd definately wear some kind of gloves for next time.. but it was definately a good stress reliever if there ever was one.

BALLS!! i think we all went through 2 buckets each!! :)

Some cool effects with the S100. Love the blur/ focus

I have another set of photos from when B and I went on a date at the Wharf, but i'll shove that into another post :) Hope everyone's been having a good 2012!!

New year, new resolutions

So i think it's fair to say that I've never been one to keep to a steady routine.

I tried to eat healthy and gym every week, that's failed... I've tried to take photos and blog on a regular basis, that's failed too... i feel like... for the last 23 years of my existence, the only thing I've ever really been consistent with in life is quitting! It really sucks having that feeling, when you know you could have been great at something, if only you had just stuck with it a little bit longer, or tried a little bit harder. I don't want to be that person anymore. I don't want to look back at my twenties, and my thirties and wish I had done more.

I mean, when you think about it, you've only got your twenties and possibly your early thirties to feel young before getting hitched, having children, being responsible, blah, blah, blah. 'No day, but today' as they would say... so from this moment, i've decided, that i'm going to change.

Here are 10 resolutions (that i'm hoping to keep) for 2012:

1. To be more of a 'yes' girl, than a 'no' girl.

2. To be self-motivated. The only person that can change my life, is me.. so no more relying on others to push me to do something with myself.

3. To socialise more! (working 5 days a week, it's easy to just want to be a hermit and sleep on the weekends, but i just gotta get out more)

4. To eat right and exercise (for obvious reasons)

5. To take more photos and blog more regularly!

6. To take work more seriously and be focused on what i want for myself in the future.

7. To read more. At least one book per... 2 months! lol

8. To spend more time with my mum and my family.

9. To constantly be inspired.

10. To really stop and appreciate the people that i care about and love (more than i already do!)

So those are some (if not all) of my resolutions for this year. what are yours? :)

They know, they know, they know

Oh, you know... just a little wish list for santa

Dear, Santa...

I've tried very hard to be a good little girl this year.
Please do me a big, big, favour by buying me all these things... i'll believe in you foreverrr!

On the wish list:

1. Michael Kors Watch - Rose Gold or Gold?

2. Jeffrey Campbell El Carmen platforms!

3. Moscot Lemtosh shades!!!

4. Christian Louboutin - Rollergirl flats

5. Canon G12 (or possibly G13 if it ever comes outtt)

6. Alexander Wang - Diego bucket bag (black/lambskin)

7. Topshop Skater Dress

arghhhh want so bad. please suddenly appear under my currently-non-existent-tree!! i'll leave cookies! :)

My first attempt at No-bake, Mars Bar Cakes!!

So... i work in this pretty awesome work place, bustling with life, and full of women.

And something that usually happens when you're in a work place full of ladies, is that, well, we all tend to talk about food, a lot. We talk about buying food, making food, baking food and eating food. It's one of our main topics of conversation.

So one day, the team mates all come up with a brilliant idea. Lets have a 'Golden Spoon' event (/thing)!

So, the way it works is that every Monday, one person from the team is nominated to make some kind of dessert for the team. In the past, we've had red velvet cupcakes (nom, nom, nom), carrot cupcakes, jam donut cakes, lemon tart, hazelnut meringue, chocolate mud cake, halloween cupcakes, and generally any kind of baked up cake-y goodness! So a few weeks ago, it was my turn to show the team what i was capable of! Now, keeping in mind that the last time that i had to do golden spoon, i had tried to make biscuit-icecream sandwiches that turned into such a disaster that i resigned to bringing packets of tim tams to work instead... i was eager to redeem my 'Betty Shocker' image to one that was more reminiscent of Crocker herself! however, as i'm oldschool and we don't even have a proper oven (lol old school, or povo?) I decided to crack open the women's weekly cookbook and spent close to half an hour trolling for a non-bake recipes that was simple, fast and delicious!!

In terms of the spectrum of non-bake desserts, i did look into cheesecakes/ tiramisu and triffes for awhile, but after reading the list of ingredients that i would need for each recipe, i felt that it was just wayy too much to be putting my weekend into! So what did I find? friken awesome mars bar cakes. The presentation looked amazing, and the steps were hardly worth writing and there were only four ingredients: mars bars, milk chocolate, rice bubbles and butter. That was it!

So here's what i did:

Step 1: I got two packets of fun-sized mars bars and took out around 25 treats to chop up into little pieces.

Step 2: I placed my chopped mars bars into a pan added around 100g of western star butterrrrr!!

Step 3: crank upp the heat (ok fine, maybe low heat will be fine)!!



Step 4: with a large spoon/ spatula etc, mix ingredients until you end up with a runny/ smooth consistency.







Steps 5 & 6: add in the RICE BUBBLES babyyyyy and ALL OF IT! mix/ stir/ shovel until even!





Step 7: line two 4 by 3 baking trays with double paper/foil cupcake holders!

Step 8: Spoon the mixture into the baking trays and using a spoon, shape the mixture until surface of rice crackers is flat!!



Step 9: get around 250g of dairy milk eating chocolate and melt (i used the microwave).



steps 10, 11 and 12: using the melted chocolate, spoon chocolate over the mixture (one small spoon) until chocolate evenly covers the top of the cakes. Then, using remaining mars bars, chop each fun-sized treat into three and place each slice in the middle of the cakes! Place into fridge for half an hour, and wallah! ITS DONE! TBH, it ended up taking me around 2 hrs all up to do this, but i'm a perfectionist, so it may not take you that much time!

Unfortunately, i didn't have time to take the photos of the cupcakes when they were out of the trays, but let me tell you, they looked friken delicious and tasted soo yummilicious that i was almost giving the tooth fairy a run for her money! hope you guys all get a chance to try this out, its GLORIOUS!