merry xmas!

Merry Christmas to everyone in blogland!  Hope you all had a lovely day with friends and family <3

I've just gotten back from my Mum's, and having a quiet night at home before we're up super early tomorrow morning to drive to the Gold Coast.  I've unpacked all the lovely presents I received, and want to share them with you all!

From my bestie, Gucci 'Flora' perfume (yessss!)

From my other bestie, photo hanger (need to get more photos printed!)

Huge metal R and B letters to hang on the wall (mine and my boy's intials, in our favourite colours)

Black onyx ring from my Mum. Love this to bits.

Mimco 'Dark Secret' bracelet. I ended up buying this myself in their 50% off sale, but when I came home with the little gold box, my boy looked so disappointed and said he was planning on buying it for me as a surprise. Aww :(

Just behind it is a black onyx bracelet also from my Mum, to match the ring.

Mimco 'Dig It' watch from the boy.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, also from my bestie. 

There is a bit of a story to this.  As you may or may not know, I'm a Harry Potter fanatic, and have read the books at least 20 times.  I have 2 sets, my 'reading' set, which is the classic coloured covers, and the black set, which is my 'display' set.  Over the years I've accumulated various copies of the books with different covers, and have decided I want to collect a full set for each different cover, so this book is for my collection.

My most cherished present, a handmade patchwork quilt made by my Mum.  She's been taking patchwork classes for years, and started this quilt for me back in May.  I just adore it, and it will definitely be something I hand down to my daughter one day.  She also sewed a little doily onto the other side with a message:

I feel so lucky and spoilt!  I was very excited to receive a couple of things off my wishlist, and as the boy couldn't buy me the bracelet, he's taking me out shopping, and I think I might get the Kikki K albums to work on while I'm on holidays.

Today was my little brother's birthday, and we had a gorgeous lunch under the big willow tree on my parent's property.

Since my family's golden retriever passed away a year ago, my brother has been begging for a new puppy. He finally got one, a jack russell puppy, who is just absolutely gorgeous!  She made herself right at home.

She is yet to be named, my brother gets the honour of choosing a name, but it must be passed by my parents to ensure that it's not a silly name!

Merry Christmas xx

twas the night before christmas

I just love Christmas Eve! The atmosphere in the air is so exciting, everyone excited about Christmas, about finishing work, about spending a few days with loved ones.

Last night the boy and I had our 2 best friends over for a big roast dinner, where we ate lots of foods, wore silly hats and exchanged presents!  My darling friend bought me an item on my wishlist, which I didn't even remember mentioning to her!  She also bought me an unexpected present, but one that is soooo appreciated (more on that in another post!).

I made red and green cupcakes for dessert last night, and for a big brunch we had at work this morning.  I'm not big on baking so this was a big effort for me!  I didn't get a shot of the cupcakes because they were devoured so quickly, but this is a shot of mid-preparation.

Tonight the boy and I are off to stay at my Mum's property until Boxing Day, when it is my little brother's birthday.  I'm so looking forward to this, he will be turning 10 and is ridiculously excited about finally being double digits! Now he wants to reach his 20s to be closer to my other brother and I, but I don't have the heart to tell him he'll never 'catch up'!

I love staying at my Mum's, I'm a city girl at heart, but coming to my Mum's property and playing with the goats and chickens (and the new puppy they're getting!) is so much fun.

My Asos order arrived today!  I was scared all week it wouldn't reach me by Christmas and I wouldn't be able to wear my new red dress, but the delivery guy buzzed my door minutes after I got home this afternoon!

Love my dress to bits:  (and there's Lolly in the background getting excited about the new arrivals too).

Please rest assured I did not put my kitty in a plastic bag, she just loves to hide under things.  Even if they're clear, she thinks she's hidden.

On Monday the boy and I and our friends are off on a road trip to the Gold Coast!  I'm so excited, I'm in desperate need of a holiday, even if it is short.  It's supposed to rain the whole time, which I'm so upset about, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Merry Christmas to everyone, hope you all have happy and safe holidays!

xxx

dear santa

On my wishlist for Christmas this year:

 

Mimco Hands of Time earrings. How freaking cool are these? They're clock hands!

  

Mimco Dark Secret bracelet. I've been obsessed with this bracelet for ages. Words cannot describe how much I love it.

 

Kikki-K black fabric bound photo album.  I'll have two or three please. For years now I've been collecting bits and pieces from my various trips with the intention of creating travel scrapbooks, but I've never found the right album. Here it is. It has plain thick black pages and is just perfect.

 

Parlux 3200 Compact Hairdryer.  I've wanted one for years but for some reason have never bought one. My hairdryer is an ancient pink Sunbeam and it needs replacing badly.

 

Flora by Gucci perfume.  I fell in love with this when I was in the US earlier this year and am kicking myself for not buying it. So lovely.

 

Mimco Dig It watch.  This is one thing I definitely know I'm getting, as my lovely boy has bought it for me for Christmas. My last watch was a big silver DKNY watch that I got for my 20th birthday from my lovely Mum, but my style has changed in the past nearly 4 years and I needed an update!

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Some recent nail polishes I have been wearing:

Unripened and Tease-y Does It are relatively new additions to my collection, but they are fast becoming favourites. Just look at that stunning green shimmer in Unripened! This polish is from OPI's 2010 Halloween collection, Go Goth.

All A-Bordeaux the Sled is from OPI's 2009 Holiday Wishes collection, and ever since then has stayed firmly in my top 5 favourite colours of all time. I believe it is a close dupe for Chanel Rouge Noir.

Eiffel for this Colour is another stunning colour, it's a deep eggplant purple with hidden silver and red shimmer that comes to life in the sun. Go pretty!

outfit post: ootd

Today was my Dad's birthday so the boy and I and my brother and his girlfriend went to visit him and his partner.

This is what I wore:

 

Agent 99 cream tank;  Forever New floral skirt;  Forever New cream knotted belt;  Witchery tan sandals; 

I just adore this skirt, I bought it last year for only $30, but it looks like it's worth so much more. So pretty <3

today

Some bits and pieces from today:

My (first) Asos order came, with my earrings and ring (ring shown with another thin silver band above it)

Topshop dress

Had a lovely night tonight, went to dinner in Annandale with the boy, and wandered up Parramatta Road for ice cream. Love my new jewellery additions, and wearing this dress for the first time (despite having it for ages), which took a good 20 minutes to get on.

purchased: another asos order

Thanks for all your help with choosing a dress girls! I ended up going with the last one :)

I also may have bought a top and a skirt:

I love black full skirts, I absolutely live in them in both summer and winter. I have a Review one that I have worn so much it's now more dark grey than black. I figured it was time to replace it! At only $120 for all three items, I'm very happy!

Now let's hope the order comes before Christmas so I can wear the dress on Christmas Day! All I have to do now is decide on what nail polish to wear. Decisions decisions!

red dress

Lately I've been obsessed with finding the perfect red dress to wear on Christmas day. I absolutely adore red and it looks great with my hair and skin tone but my wardrobe is sadly lacking in pretty red dresses.

I'm loving these dresses from Asos, but am agonising about which one to get! Help please!

I'm leaning toward the last one, it's so cute, and has a great open back. 

xmas tree

This weekend we put up our tree! Every year we seem to inexplicably lose the tree we had the year before, so this year we were thrilled to find the $15 tree we bought from Go-Lo still in the top of my wardrobe! Off we went to buy some new decorations, only to come home, pull down the tree and realise we were missing the stand. No idea what happened to it, I think there is a Christmas tree black hole in our apartment? Of course, it could be more along the lines of the fact that we have moved house every year since 2007, so it just gets lost along the way.

Back in the car we went to the Christmas Warehouse in Alexandria, where I immediately fell in love with a white LED tree. I just had to have it. It was a bit out of our tree budget (ie. what we spent last year), but I loved it sooo much. Of course, they were sold out, so I moped around the store for a while. Eventually the boy persuaded me that we could get one next year, so here we are with a traditional green Christmas tree.

Now that it's all decorated I'm happy with it. We even wound some white icicle fairy lights around our balcony (which you can kind of see in the background), which looks fantastic! It also provides some handy light out there, since it's pitch black at nighttime!

My wrapped presents! It looks like a pretty pitiful amount but I'm not done yet, and there are a few gifts of cash and vouchers this year, which unfortunately don't get to get wrapped. I love wrapping presents.

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I don't normally get too creative with my nail polish, with layering, stamping and nail art etc. But while bored last night I painted my nails with OPI Give Me Moor (deep, dark eggplant) with one coat of OPI Mad as a Hatter over the top.

 

Love how this turned out! I think I shall do this sort of thing more often.

purchased: new stuff

I had a pretty shit day today.  But two things cheered me right up when I came home:

 

Sportsgirl black oversized silk tee purchased in their 20% off sale today for only $60, and my Topshop sequin top that arrived in the mail!

The Topshop top wasn't really what I was expecting, I thought it would be more of a tee with sequins on it, but it's a sheer, mesh kind of fabric.  Still gorgeous, but bit more of a dressy top than I thought it would be!

I love the Sportsgirl silk tee too, surprisingly, in my huge collection of black clothes I don't have many black tops.  Will wear this over skinny jeans, tucked into pencil skirts, maxi skirts, full skirts, anything!

Much happier now :D