This weekend...

I was craving a relatively quiet weekend this week and I thought I had managed that quite well…until I realised I had actually packed a lot into it!

On Friday night my sister and I drove down to Coolangatta to stay overnight with our friend D.

This is what lies across the road from his apartment. I know! I want to live there too! Literally 2 minutes walk to the beach and loads of restaurants and shops too. Sometimes I wonder what I am doing living in Brisbane...

We met some of D’s work friends at the SoundLounge in Currumbin to see some local live music. Local band Colourfide were full or energy and I’d highly recommend checking them out if you’re on the Gold Coast or in Brisbane. If you’re a little further afar, just click on their name and got to their myspace.

No weekend is complete without brunch. You can quote me on that.

On Saturday we brunched at Bellakai. I had avocado, haloumi and poached eggs on a piece of sourdough toast with a drizzle of some herby-lime oil. It was seriously delicious but also ridiculously huge. The treadmill is going to be my new best friend this week.

Saturday night I just couldn’t stir up the energy to go out so I hung out with my wonderful BFF who is known on this blog as ‘C’. We made taco salads (without the taco) and watched The Social Network and Scott Pilgram vs. The World. I kind of hate Mark Zuckerberg now. However, on the bright side, I love Michael Cera even more. I know he always plays the same kind of character but he just does nerdy-sweet so well! Oh! I also found out that one of my best friends from high school and her lovely boyfriend got engaged which is very exciting news! Congrats to A and M!! xx 

I spent today baking (look out for a separate post on that) for my friend Mrs Challen Charms B’day picnic at Newfarm Park. It was a perfect day in Brisbane today and the park was full of people of all types: families, lovers, indie hipsters, exercising old men, gay guys taking their pug for a stroll. An excellent spot for people watching J

How did you spend your weekend? Is brunch an integral part of your life like it is mine? After seeing Scott Pilgram do you now find yourself wishing that your life was narrated in comic book style? No? Just me then…

A little wine on the weekend

Kafka, existentialism, the situation in Libya…not the exact topics I covered with my friends S and G at our Saturday afternoon drinks but still very important none the less. Our conversation revolved more around our failing shopping bans, nail polish, how delicious blue cheese is and why on earth none of us had bought any, and which Disney Prince is the hottest (Eric from the Little Mermaid wins hands down in case you’re wondering). What do you think?

Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Aladdin accompanied us for our afternoon of white wine and camembert and I have to say that I think we all had a lovely, happy afternoon/evening.  

This was our amazing spread (not including chocolates and my failed macarons). Impressive no?

Today was also a food filled day starting with breakfast with 4 of my girlfriends at Mondo Organics. I had the Spelt, pumpkin and pepita pancakes with cinnamon ricotta and maple syrup and a Green Fix juice (apple, celery and ginger). It was all amazing but I couldn’t get through half of it!

I wore this Motel dress with a vintage Bally belt that used to be my mums.

And I have Ulta3 ‘Pacific Fever’ nail polish on which is an eye-popping turqouise green. What do you think? My friends H and S also had lovely painted nails so G took a photo for us. [NB: S was advocating the use of willyweather instead of the frequently incorrect iPhone weather app hence its appearance].

I am still obsessed with my heeled brogues and can't wait for winter to come to wear them more. Aren't they just beautiful? I don't think the picture really does them justice.

Other weekend things?

I had a sexy date with my friend Char on Friday night. We ate sushi and watched this gorgeous man in this super depressing but beautifully made film. I also visited my Grandad in hospital and am please to say that he is doing really well considering the circumstances and that he loves a structurally unsound macaron.

What did you get up to on your weekend? Did you enjoy some wine with friends?Watch a film or dine out? I'd love to hear from you xx

Golden times & good friends

In the spirit of keeping my mind from wandering to a sad place, I have spent the morning drinking tea and reading and am now feverishly punching at the keyboard to write this post.

As you know, this past Sunday I had some unfortunate news but prior to this my weekend was actually rather fabulous. So here's a quick recap of some time spent with my wonderful girls L and M.

Me, M and L :)

On Friday night, L (who has just returned home after living overseas for 4 years!) met me at work and we made the traffic filled trip down to the Gold Coast. I dropped her off with an old friends and continued my drive to pick up M from Coolangatta Airport. After eventually negotiating our way into our unit at Broadbeach we headed out for a lovely Italian dinner which we followed with a bottle of wine on our ocean view balcony eventually stumbling into bed in the early hours..

Biggest French Toast I've ever seen!

Saturday started with brunch at Broadbeach and then shopping pretty much all day at Pacific Fair. I can honestly say i was completely surprised with the shopping at the Coast. There were so many bargains!! Me bought 2 dresses, a necklace and i think some other stuff but I can't be sure...I may or may not have broken my shopping ban to buy a jacket from Chicabooti.

I know. Terrible aren't I. Although in my defense it will actually save me from buying a much more expensive jacket in the coming months which I was planning on doing anyway so really I am actively saving money by purchasing it right?...Right?

This is not the jacket I bought. More to be used as evidence that I look awful/9 months pregnant in overly fluffy leopard print jackets and should therefore not buy one!

Anyway. After shopping we napped until L came over and we got LOOSE. Lots of vodka was consumed and way too much information was shared. Gotta love awesome girlfriends.

Drunk already

This is one of a series of '10 shots in 30 seconds' we decided to take. They are all hilarious and prove just how drunk we were. I've put it up mainly so you can see my Motel dress and the one M bought (FOR $40 DOLLARS) on my advice a few hours earlier.

Taken towards the end of the night...

Then we hit Onyx and East and danced our butts off. My neck and shoulders are still sore from tossing my hair around like the dance whore that I am. Overall, it was a super fun-filled couple of nights and on waking to the news that I needed to gohome and say goodbye to my grandma both L and M were amazingly supportive. I honestly love these girls and feel so lucky to have friends like them :-)

Growing pains and goodbyes

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? 

Was it a marine biologist, an astronaut or a painter? Perhaps you dreamt you would discover a new species of dinosaur as an archeologist or that you’d win an Academy award.

Whatever it was you wanted to be, I would like to know – are you doing it now? Does your current reality resemble your childhood imagination in any way?

And if (like me) it doesn’t, when was the point you realized that you weren’t really cut out to be a Pilot/Baker/Zoo Keeper because you hate flying, can’t eat bread or have an abnormal fear of giraffes? (For the record I love flying and giraffes but could probably live without bread).

I can’t remember a single time in my childhood where I thought to myself ‘you know I really want to grow up and work in marketing’. Not once. Where did that idea even come from? Oh my father…moving on then. 

Anyway, this weekend I was able to live my childhood career fantasy at a ‘When I grow up’ themed house party.

Naturally, I went as Snow White……..

Nordic Princess + Disney Princess (and yes I know my cleavage is ridiculous, just avert your eye if it offends)

Mmmm Fairy Bread. Just as delicious as I remember.

Shenanigans

Snow White and A the Masterchef

I also went to my friend KL’s going away brunch at Sassafras – a Paddington institution. KL is going to London for a working holiday. This makes me jealous. BUT if all goes well I will be over there in no time myself.

Lovely brunching ladies - Bon voyage KL!

In other news I have been inspired by Gem Fatale’s colourful digits and decided to try something a bit different on my nails. I’m still a bit unsure where I sit on the nail art scale (I don’t generally love it but the more blogs I read and the more of it I see the more I am beginning to like it –call me a follower if you want, I don’t really care).

Anyway, with the costume party looming (giving me a convenient excuse to have ‘crazy’ nails if I needed one) I had my first foray into nail art: a Half-Moon mani using Kit’s High Kick.

I freehanded the white half moon so it’s not exactly perfect but for a first timer it’s not totally atrocious either. And of course it matched my costume too – win-win!

What are your thoughts? I’m actually quite partial to it and think I may try it again with some different colour combinations...how does Ulta3's Spring Blossom and OPI's Chapel of Love sound? 

Oh and this is how my first attempt at Rose Macaron's went. I know. They are far from how they are meant to look but they tasted perfection.

Rose and White Chocolate Macarons

Until next time xx

Gangster's, daemons and strawberry smoothies

Whilst I’ll admit that this weekend hasn’t exactly been packed full of excitement a few lovely things have happened which I wanted to blog about.

To make it easier for you to digest I’ve decided to put it into dot points.

1. I enjoyed brunch with some girlfriends at Anouk. I ate the delicious breakfast quesadilla and drank a ‘ok but could have been better’ coconut and mango smoothie. Oh and brunch always requires a coffee. Mmm coffee.
2. Brunch also meant that I received my belated Birthday present from my lovely friends H and J. Behold the magic that is this necklace!!

This gorgeous little bird, sat around my neck all day long.

3. Had an unfortunate encounter with an ex boyfriend…and his mother. Aaaaaawkward. Consequently, instead of going to the gym my lovely friend G accompanied me for a strawberry smoothie. I think the talking and the icecream in my 'healthy drink' worked some magic on me as I felt ten times better when we parted.
4. I had a wander around West End with my sister and saw this bike outside avid reader. I. Love. It. Of course I will need to overcome the fear of breaking my arm/legs/face/all of the above that seems to overcome me as soon as i step within a 12 metre radius of two wheels but that's a simple technicality. Besides, the Boy said he may be able to help me with this when he moves to Australia - in 12 weeks!!  YAY!

Different coloured wheels? Yes please!

5. I went to a going away party where we spent 2 hours locked in a room singing karaoke. I’m not going to go into too much detail here but let’s just say that knowing all the lyrics to Gangster’s Paradise is no longer a hidden talent of mine…oh and here’s a couple of non-incriminating pics from the evening.

As you can see from our drinks - Karaoke is classy.

6. I finished reading Northern Lights by Philip Pullman. It was a gift from the Boy and I absolutely adored it. It really opened up my imagination and it made me want my own animal daemon. I’m a pretty slow reader and often start a book without ever finishing it so it is always wonderful when I find a book I can’t put down because I am so involved in the story. I am now on the hunt to find matching editions of the other two books in His Dark Material’s series. Perhaps when my shopping ban is over…

Overall my weekend has made me very thankful that i have such wonderful friends and family. How's that for a nice mushy thought to go to bed with.

Sweet dreams everyone xx