Spending Spree

I am not normally a shopper, I like a good browse but I don't get that purchase rush, but I saved my little heart out so I could buy whatever I fancied whilst in Melbourne this last week, and I think I did good, well my top two pricey purchases were a $49au American Apparel dress and $39 op-shop blouse, so I was still thrifty so there is no post shopping guilt. Marvellous.

Matryoshka measuring cups.

Purchased for display means mainly, & have seen

them in NZ, but found some cheap so I went for it!

Treat bags from Poppies for Grace.

Too cute not to buy.

Ikea I love you.

$5 sets of cookie cutters & got some extras as gifts.

People should protest march for Ikea in Auckland.

Also from Ikea, indoor/outdoor lights.

Looking forward to finding a new flat in 2010

where these can cutely live.

Gah were so cheap, I'm serious about that protest.
For when I was resting my poor walking feet.

Hit the sales, nothing like a bit of mainstream Sportgirl

purchasing. Needed both, in a want more than need way.

Had spend 10mins earlier looking at Princess Tina fox

pouch, so at about 1/3 of the price combined this wallet and

keyring just made more sense.

Plastic fantastic set of trays and cups. 6 each!

Loved the colour, had to have even though were

an annoying shape/size to get home.

From Chapel St Bazaar, could have spent the day in that one shop -

fabric and trims galore, shame people know vintage fabric is

so coveted, too pricey for this girl.

Aforementioned American Apparel dress.

What fun to shop in an American Apparel shop.

Also a place to spend some time in and try on all those basics!

Got me a tshirt dress in Ash Grey Apricot.

In the washing at this point (just went to grab a

pic of it from AA website, is that a slapper pose-a-rama fest

website or what, yikes) but heres a pic of it in anther colour.

Super simple, super comfy, got it a couple of sizes larger

for that non-tragic non-bodysuit look, just a dress!

Lovely op-shop blouse (could do with an iron) from new

place (couple of wks old) off alley on Degraves St.

Lotsa cute stuff.

Cute beanie/beret, cause I have an addiction.

& I finally got that Kikki K bag!

+ purchased a many cupcakes (cutest & loveliest place I found was Little Cupcakes on Degraves St), macarons from a handful of places, multiple snacks on cones of fries from Lord of the Fries and a cute afternoon tea high tea style at the NGV. We also went to Phillip Island to watch the Penguin Parade, but of course no photographic evidence of that as it is a no no, but oh my I want one, probably a baby one, fatter and fluffier is best!

Have photos of dumb touristy sites, will track them down, mainly graffiti and skylines though, I am a predictable tourist.

xx

New dress

I was waiting for a nice sunny day to photograph it, then realised the wait was becoming a looonnng one so I tried my best with what the NZ sun was giving me.

Dress is sitting pretty at www.victorianbird.etsy.com

A new favourite

I came across Sessun on Urban Outfitters recently and decided to have a browse at their personal website & love love.
The Autumn/Winter collection is out and since I am grasping onto the colder weather - I am not ready for the impending summer brights and lights - I am loving the darker tones. The range mainly consists of basic pieces you could wear in a bunch of ways to create cuter than cute outfits, and a bunch of such ways can be found in their lookbook.


& looking through past seasons, sold!

Not literally, oh I wish.

24 under $22

My picks for 24 gifts under $22. All from Etsy. Why $22? Absolutely no reason. Why 24? 'Cause it fits nicely in a grid.

1. $12 2. $17.50 3. $20

4. $12.50 5. $12 6. $8
7. $22 8. $18 9. $22
10. $2 11. $12 12. $17
13. $18 14. $10 15. $12
16. $20 17. $21.50 18. $12
19. $4.25 20. $14 21. $13.95
22. $14 23. $10 24. $15

If it's good enough for Alexa Chung

Pinafore dress-o-rama.
Victoria n' Bird Pinafore Dress
Fashionable since... oh ages ago!

Need indeed!

My my I do need one of these.
That is one all round super bag. Eeep hand-drawn bicycle fantastic-awesomeness!
$1 from the sale of each bag goes to Climate Positive & at only $10 (thats AU$, am sure price will be similar or the same in NZ) I won't even need to justify the purchase.

Bag I'm coming to get ya.

Miranda July

Miranda July is on my list of awesome people, some people do not agree, but then some people are weirdos. I overly recommend her books No-one Belongs Here More Than You & Learning To Love You More (both available at Akl libraries for those in the area). Her work brings me instantly back to an art school way of thinking, oh and I love it, no matter how hard I may try, it is hard to keep that thinking and that way I experience things active in my day to day life post-art school.

So when I saw these pillowcase sets today I had to blog them.available from thirddrawerdown.com $65

21 items!

For the first time ever the front page on my etsy is full!
One day I'm sure i'll drift over to two pages. So the update is done, taking wayyyy-hayhay longer than it should have, a few mins to write up my descriptions, calculate pricing then waiting bout 20 mins for each set of photos to upload (I investigated and it is a common Etsy problem at the moment, so I can't really complain... well I can and I have been). But 12 listings later it has been a longggg night/next morning.

Fave things from my update that I think are pretty swish, 3 wee dresses. & now I'm going na nyes. xx

Shop Update

I will be popping some new things up on Etsy in a week!

There will be some dresses & skirts for the warmer weather, some new scarves for folks on the other side of the world and I will be popping up seconds and samples that have been hanging around taking up space.

& Happy Spring!

image from heartdew.net

Birthday Cupcakes

I decided to make some birthday cupcakes for myself this past weekend, I guess you get to that age that if you want silly bday things you just have to do them for yourself! I don't bake much and was a little scared, I found a simple but yum sounding recipe on the internet for chocolate cupcakes, tweaked it a little and also copied down the recipe for Magnolia's Buttercream Frosting (adding a touch of cinnamon), though even that sounded scary to the boring cake icing I usually bust out on my poor attempts at cakes.
& wow they turned out great! The cupcakes are nice and moist and actually taste like chocolate even though I only used a cocoa based recipe, got the good stuff though of course. & the frosting is great even though the milk was a tad too cold when I added it and it separated ever so slightly. So fun to decorate, and the frosting set to that perfect consistency where its not going slide slowly off the cupcakes overnight but you can bite into it and it's still nice and soft.
Oh and yum yum!!!
All in all I'm pretty proud of my cupcake attempt, and I will definitely be making more in the future.