Pink sofa for grey sky days.

Decor Design Review

After days of full, beaming sunshine, humid heat and swims at the beach with almost everyone in the city, the clouds have come over to give us some relief. Today's grey sky and cool change means cups of tea, cosy-ing up on the couch, reading and watching these pretty sweet Kinfolk films. If only I had a pink, plush sofa...

Secret beaches.

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I know I talked about my resolutions last time but I'm still sticking with them and enjoying them much the same. One of my personal resolutions is to get out and explore more of Sydney's secret beaches during summer. I stumbled upon this perfect list on Friday afternoon and picked out Shelly Beach for a Saturday adventure. The main reason I picked this beach was because it involved a ferry ride and I like those. Being out on the Harbour,  in a big boat, even if it is just public transport, out amongst all of the yachts and fancy boats is one of the best cheap thrills available in Sydney. I had only been to Manly once before and its similarity to the Gold Coast  really resonated with me. Before we trekked over to the mysterious 'secret beach' L and I stopped for quite possibly the best burritos we have ever consumed. I am still thinking about the freshly made tortillas and the mushy mess of rice, black beans, sour cream and guacamole left at the end. 

It was the perfect summer day in every notion; heat moving slowly, if at all, crystal clear blue waters, not a cloud in the sky, people with colourful towels and umbrellas dotting the shoreline as far as the eye could see. 'This is summer' I thought when I stopped to take the above photograph. 'This is living' I thought when I dived into the deep cold water for the first time. We stayed in a shady spot under some trees for nearly four hours. Just reading, thinking, talking and lying, taking intermittent runs across the hot sand for cool dips. We left lightly sun kissed and blissed out. This 'secret beach' was well worth the adventure. 

Update: If this day was a song, it would be this.

CJ Hendry Exhibition, Surry Hills.

Last weekend we visited the CJ Hendry exhibition in Surry Hills, Sydney. It was held in a private home on a very busy Sydney street. On a first approach it looked like your average warehouse home but once you stepped in the door and on to the black and white marble tiled foyer it was a whole different ball game.

CJ Hendry is a Brisbane based artist who works mainly with pen and ink to create large scale hyper-realism  images of iconic objects. From afar her work look to be nothing more than big black-and-white photographs but on a closer inspection you can see the labour of hard work that goes into each piece with every stroke of her black pen. I've read that some of her works can up to 200 hours to finish and go through more than 40 UniPin pens! 

Her first solo exhibition was housed in a converted warehouse home with features such as an indoor pool, nightclub area, smoking area, dj booths upstairs and downstairs (!), a specially made white bedroom pod, flooring made from leather belts, glass ceilings, multiple courtyards and an immaculate metallic kitchen. Though the home is incredibly extravagant it was even more pleasing to see that the small details, joins, finishes of all of the different areas have been well considered. The building was huge and there was so much space, yet it never felt like there was too much space. Everything just fitted in, where it was meant to be, perfectly. 

The house, the art, the floral arrangements to accompany both, was nothing less than amazing. It might have been someone's home, it might have been an art exhibition, but more than that it was an experience. So much so that we left and then came back two hours later to make the most of it.

Sculpture by the Sea.

Wearing Cotton On singlet (similar), ASOS jeans, ASOS bag, Converse shoes, Le Specs sunglasses

It's Saturday night in Sydney and after a hot, sunny day it's now storming and raining. I'm going through my backlog of photos on my camera and have found these ones from our trip out to Bondi Beach in early November for Sculpture by the Sea. To beat the crowds we got up super early on a Sunday morning and ventured down to the beginning of the walk. Sometimes getting up super early is hard but the rewards can be great. For our efforts we were greeted with beautiful, soft, early morning light, a few wanderers and time to take all of the surrounding sculptures in. Although Sydney beaches are typically very crowded and the water is a little cool they are incredibly beautiful when they are uninhabited early in the morning.

Blue jeans.

Images via Pinterest

There is no doubt that a pair of blue jeans are a girls best friend. They are effortless, versatile and never outdated and always make for a trusted ally when you are not sure what to wear. I am loving the true blue shade of jean paired with a simple shirt, some cool shoes and tote for easy spring days. 

Weekend Outfit: Get up to go out!

Wearing: Top, Zara (similar), Skirt, Finders Keepers (similar), Boots, Country Road, Clutch, ASOS (similar)

After nearly six months of living in Sydney I am finally back online and can resume working on my blog! Words can't describe the excitement last night when the little wireless symbol lit up on my Mac and I was back in to the portal of the online world. There were all of these things that I had made a mental list of that I would do as soon as I got back on to the internet but when it finally happened everything was so overwhelming that I just dipped my toes in Pinterest-land for a little while before venturing out into the inter webs. 

However living without the internet did have its positives, like watching Seinfeld every night, going to bed earlier, reading books (remember those old things...?!), writing in diaries and learning how to crochet. So it hasn't been all that bad. 

In regards to the above photos, this has been my go-to going out outfit of late. The mercury has begun to drop overnight as autumn is well and truly setting in. This calls for more coverage in which I've turned to a long sleeve blouse, skirt and boots. The bare legs can weather the cool brunt for a little longer while the boots keep your feet nice and toasty.

PS - apologies for my scarred legs - they have taken a beating of late; firstly falling on the stairs at work and requiring three stitches and secondly, and very embarrassingly, taking a tumble on the treadmill at the gym... it wasn't as bad as these though, promise!

Summer Bay.

Wearing: Top, Sunny Girl, Shorts, Tigerlily (old), Hat, Seed Heritage, Sunglasses, Le Specs, Shoes, Windsor Smith

As a new Sydney-ite I have been out and about exploring the town but last weekend I decided to really get out and visit the northern beaches, in particular Palm Beach, that little beachside town that is otherwise known as Summer Bay. Ah yes, I am a Home and Away fan from way back and then some. My mother is a devotee whose 7pm to 7.30pm time slot is always reserved for that precious television show! Of course, like mother like daughter and up until my uni years I too was a Home and Away tragic. Not so much any more though.

Walking around Palm Beach, or as I called it all day Summer Bay, was a very surreal experience. It felt like I was walking around in an episode, going to the beach to meet up with my love interest or grabbing a smoothie from the Surf Club to talk things over with Indi and Dex. What I wasn't surprised by was how beautiful the area is. It is everything that it looks like on TV but even more stunning in real life. Those original set researchers sure made the right decision!

We spent most of the time on the beach which was surprisingly empty for its beauty and then ventured to the other side of the Bay to The Boathouse Palm Beach for lunch and a sweet - which I believe is used as an outside shot for The Diner... The Boathouse was an amazing choice for lunch. There were bunches of fresh flowers and floral arrangements everywhere, bowls of fresh fruit and citrus and not to mention fresh and tasty food! I had an yummy meringue and huge ice coffee which was just what I needed to get me through the two hour bus ride back to Sydney!