Merry Christmas + Happy New Year!

A very Paton Christmas

A belated Merry Christmas to you all! I hope everyone had a wonderfully, relaxing day off yesterday, ate plenty of yummy food and got spoiled by Santa. I love Christmas, it's hard not to when you like food, gifts, celebrating and being all round festive. It's the best holiday to take quality time out to spend with your closet family and friends and just enjoy life. Speaking of, life is looking very exciting at the moment as I only have two more sleeps until I leave for a 16 day adventure around Japan! I am looking forward to starting 2013 in a different country with new inspiration and  fresh perspective. I have been busily writing down my goals and resolutions for 2013 and have been so eager that I may have started a couple already! 

I hope everyone has a wonderful, amazing, time-of-you-life New Years and I can't wait to come home and share with you my Japan photos! 

May 2013 bring you lots of love, happiness, creativity and good fortune!

Byron Bliss.

Dress: Vintage

Shoes: Sportsgirl (old)

Bag: Who is Hue? (similar)

Perks of living at the southern end of the Gold Coast: it only takes 45 minutes to drive to the beautiful Byron Bay! When I am stuck for something to do on the weekend (which is a bit rare) driving down to Byron always pops into my head. The small town is always a buzz with backpackers, holidaying families, healthy food, cocktails and alternative shopping. The hardest decision I am always faced with each time I come to Byron is what to have for lunch? The food in Byron Bay is always exceptional! There are just too many places to choose from! This time the decision was easy as I had a recommendation from my friend to try out The Conscious Cafe hidden in the car park near Woolworths. The cafe was surrounded by lush green trees and each table was decorated with fresh flowers; it felt like eating in the garden of Eden. The food was all organic and vegetarian making it my idea of heaven! I had the falafels with sprouted bread and hummus  in the picture above, and it tasted just as good as it looked! I washed it down with delicious fresh coconut water straight from the source and eagerly anticipated the rest of the day. We checked out the new store called 'In This Street' owned by Australian contemporary artist David Bromely, which I would recommend even though I am not a huge fan of some of his work, before heading up the hill to people watch at the beach. Then we went for a ritual drive around Wategos looking at all of the amazing houses and sizing them up for when we are older (and richer). Other places I would recommend going to in Byron would be The Balcony (for tapas and cocktails), the Top Pub (for relaxed afternoons), the Middle Eastern/Egyptian place down the alley near the Top Pub, St Elmo and the boutiques down Fletcher Street.

There is always so much to do in Byron when the sun is shining, all you have to do is get out there and experience it!

Waldorf.

Needless to say that Gossip Girl and I are having a serious moment right now! After a long hiatus of watching the show I recently rekindled it a week and a half ago and have just completed the whole of season five and am moving swiftly onto season six. Not only do I love the drama, the high society and of course New York, I love and admire the styling by costume director Eric Damon. I love how every outfit is carefully planned out, based around the story line and reflects what stage of life the character is at. His attention to detail is incredible and his taste is always so spot on. With sartorial inspiration like that I have been wondering what I have been doing for the past year and how I got by with no GG?! One character that I have a particular weakness for is Blair. She is an immaculately styled, spoilt, scheming, high society bitch and I freaking love her! She never fails to look absolutely polished and classy without ever looking too overdone or old for her age. With plenty of colour, floral and cinched-at-the-waist skirts and dresses, Blair Waldorf has my kind of style. Don't even get me started on her headbands or bows. Enough with the jibber jabber, lets just look at pretty pictures of Blair!

When on a Budget.

I am currently doing the grind of putting every spare cent towards a holiday to Japan at the end of the year. Though I know at the time it will all be totally worth it, the monotony of wearing the same outfit every week is beginning to take it's toll on my mind. It also makes blogging a little difficult too.Though I am pretty used to being on a tight budget after three years of being a  Uni student so I thought I would compile a list of a few things that help me break up the cycle of wearing the same things over and over and over again, or a least make them a little more interesting!

1. Have no money? Make some money... sell, sell, sell!

My friend Meg (pictured) and I cleaned out our cupboards and headed to our local markets!

I know you have clothes in that wardrobe you don't wear. And shoes. And bags. Why keep them from the world in the darkness when they could be living the life of a celebrity on eBay or Etsy or any other buying/selling platform? Another great way to sell your clothes without all the descriptions and fees is to just pack it up and take it to your local markets. Grab a friend to do it with and split the stall fee. You will be surprised how you can go! Like that wise person once said, "one man's trash is another man's treasure", so you might never know who would be willing to splash some cash for your unwanteds. 

2. Op Shopping

My regular Lifeline

You have to be prepared to look through a lot of crap to find the good stuff. My best friend also uses this saying when referring to finding a boyfriend which I find funny though it does have some truth to it. Going through all the bad to find the good is all part of the fun, when it comes to op-shopping anyway! You never know what you are going to find and best of all it's cheap and the proceeds help a worthy cause.

3. Target. Seriously.

Some of my best Target buys: black pointed toe heels, black wedge boots and knit turtle neck jumper

Target as in the department store. I am always pleasantly surprised when I go into Target by some of the things they have. In winter you can find some really good knits and coats for really reasonable prices and there is always some kind of sale or special on their clothes. Also, they are known to make really good, on-trend shoes for a fraction of the price that other high-street sell their products for! So next time you're near a Target, pop in, have a look, you never know, you might find something really great for not a lot of dollars.

4. Maximise accessories

Add a statement necklace to a little black dress for an instant update.

Accessories are the easiest, cheapest way to update an already worn outfit into something new and exciting. Invest in a statement necklace from somewhere like Sportsgirl or Diva and add it to your most worn outfits. It will reinvent them a little bit and you will have that glowing 'this is new' look!

5. Nail Polish and Lipsticks

All the colours of the rainbow

Give yourself some salon treatment with a home manicure and coat your nails in colour to pep you up when you look at your hands. Alternatively lipstick works just as well. Pick up a nice, bold matte colour, coat your lips and woolah - something different and new. You can pick up really good nail polish from Ultra3 (usually stocked in chemists and Target) for about $2. Australis make nice lipsticks in a range of colours for about $12.95 too (and they don't test on animals).

Do you have any money saving tips? Feel free to share below in the comments section!

Viktoria + Woods.

Top: Viktoria + Woods

Skirt: Viktoria + Woods

Shoes: Cheap Monday

Bracelet: Dannijo

Majorly obsessing over this Breton stripe singlet! I have my long sleeve Breton that I wear nearly every day in winter and now that the weather is too hot I am a little lost without it. This Viktoria + Woods top would be perfect to fill the void! Also, I have been obsessing over asymmetric skirts lately and have finally found the perfect one... only to know discover that this yellow one, also by Viktoria + Woods, exists. It also comes in black and white just for extra lusting measure! If I were to have both my most wanted items I would pair them with my black ankle boots and a silver cuff - maybe not this Dannijo one because it's way out of my price range but a girls gotta dream right?

x.

Oui, Miss Dior Chérie.

I just saw this clip for the first time in too long. Oh, I used to watch this over and over and over again! In less than a minute my love affair with Paris has been reignited and I want to be more than ever this beautiful girl, running around beautiful Paris, eating sweets and smelling like a flower bed. Nothing like a little French fantasy before bedtime mid-week!

Blue crush.

    

Earrings: Colette 

Nail polish: Sportsgirl

Mascara: Australis

This post started with me typically not checking the colour of mascara that I was purchasing - just trusting that because it was in a black tube that the colour would be black. Just another blonde moment on my behalf. I realised it was blue when I got to the end of my make-up routine before going out for the night. My first thought of blue mascara was a 90s nightmare. Something I would have worn with blue glitter eye-shadow to a school disco in grade seven. Not as a 21 year old heading out with her girlfriends for the night. It has been sitting in my dresser draw ever since. The other day I found it in there and thought for the fun of it I would put it on and see how bad it actually was... Needless to say I was pleasantly surprised! Not as tacky as I thought! It's like it gave my eyes hint of freshness and you could hardly notice, except for the tips, that it was in fact blue mascara. To embrace the blue mascara, and put my spin on this 'mermaid-style' trend floating around spring, I have paired it with these chunky earrings  my favourite sea blue nail polish from Sportsgirl and simple make-up including a nude lip (not to over do it). 

Is there anything you have been pleasantly surprised from lately?

Retro flower.

Dress + Bag: vintage

Shoes: ASOS (sold out)

Headband: Market find

Long time, no blogging. I feel like it has been ages since I have done something new for here. Though I must explain that the reason for my lack of fresh posting lately is because I booked a two week holiday to Japan at the end of the year! Probably the most expensive time to go there but when I can say I rang in 2013 in Osaka it will all be worth it. Plus everything else there is to look forward to like the food, sight seeing, shopping and fulfilling my childhood dream of visiting Disneyland. I don't really mind that it's not the American Disneyland, it will still be Disney to me! Though I digress. It's mostly because I am on a strict savings budget and haven't bought anything new, and by anything new, I mean nothing, zip, zilch, zero, in over four weeks. That is a record for me! And I feel that since I haven't bought anything new then I have nothing to show off therefore nothing to blog about. Which is kind of silly because if it was going to be like that then this whole blogging experience would get a bit expensive for me. I am good at being thrifty when it comes to clothes and shopping. I found the above dress for $7.50 in a closing down retro shop, the clutch for a couple of dollars at an op-shop and the shoes on sale on ASOS for $15. For the next three months I will be doing my absolute best to get by on what I already have in my closet and using a little imagination. And keeping in mind that my holiday to Japan will totally be worth it!

Nana's House.

This is not a me-wearing-clothes-trying-to-make-them-look-good-and-not-be-awkward post. It's about a little getaway that I went on a few weekends ago. I think it's really healthy to just take time out from work, you routine, social commitments (eg: catch ups, partying etc.) to just escape to a different surrounding and have some 'you' time. In my case, whenever I just need to get out of the Gold Coast, I head an hour and a bit inland to my Nana's house in Beaudesert. To me it is basically in the middle of nowhere and for a weekend I absolutely love it! She has a little house on five acres which is filled with all of our family memorabilia and cute little knick-nacks that she collects. The "farm" as we call it has a vege patch, fruit trees, a dam, chickens, old tin sheds and lots of pretty flowers. Oh and a black and white cat who when he puts his two front paws together, his patch makes a love heart. Just couldn't get him to sit still long enough to get a photo! I see a lot of myself in my Nana: homeliness, routine, love of clothes, cooking and ornaments, bargain hunting, her humor and her kindness. I just wanted to share something a little different and write about something dear to me. Hope you all have a little special place like this!

PS. Her lemon butter tarts are amazing! 

Spring.

Shirt: ASOS

Shorts: Vintage

Shoes: Rubi Shoes

Sunglasses: Karen Walker

Spring: the entree to summer. It has finally arrived fresh from the kitchen in its most delicious form. Days are a bit longer, the sun is making us warmer and flowers are in blossom everywhere you look. There could be no better way to fully appreciate this change in season then by soaking up all of its glory on some sand and near some water. All I need for my spring days is for my legs to see the light of day in my denim shorts and something white to bring some light after what felt like a very dark winter. So cheers to you spring, may you add a little something special to everyone's day.

Cream flowers.

Op shopping is one of my favourite past times. I love the unpredictable nature of it; some days are better than others and you never know what you are going to stumble upon. The environmental and charitable sides of op shopping are also great reasons to get in there and get hunting! There is so much history from pieces that can be dreamed up. Where has it been? What conversations have been had whilst someone was wearing it? The nostalgia of another time and place gets me every time. This week I had some scores at the op shop near my work and again yesterday at the Salvo's in South Tweed. Above are my two favourite: a floral 50s 'skater' skirt with a killer flare and a cream knit jumper. The tapestry purse was a kind gift from my room mates who left me to go on a cruise last week. It just so happens that it ties in perfectly with my nana-esque purchases. They know me too well!

White party II.

So we had another White Party! It was just so much fun the first time that it needed to be recreated for a second; and hopefully a third, fourth and fifth! The Gold Coast was out it it's most spectacular form last Saturday as you can see by the first photo up the top. What you won't be able to see are the many whales that were out and about enjoying the spectacular day and giving everyone a show with their frolicking. We ate home made hummus, baba ghanoush, pear, olive and ash-coated chevre on toothpicks, red velvet, white chocolate and pink/vanilla cupcakes, banana and macadamia loaf and much much more. Everyone went above and beyond getting into the classy spirit of the white day. Especially the boys who all looked very smart! Unfortunately, or fortunately, I am not in any of these photos, I had to leave early, so I left the camera behind for everyone else to play with and this is what they got up to! I for one can not wait to see where our next white adventure takes us...

x.

Aztec statement.

Dress: Tigerlily (a few seasons old)

Jacket: Jeans West (old) similar one here

Shoes: Converse

Clutch: ASOS (old) similar one here

I am feeling a bit out of words at the moment after a busy weekend and now being back into the working week. Just took these photos really quickly down a walkway near my home before the sun set to close the weekend that was. Whilst mucking around I found another secret abandoned walkway that will need to be explored sometime soon. Gotta love some suburban mystery.