'Twas the night before Christmas

I hope you are all enjoying the festive season! Here are a few of my favorite things for today...

It is warm here, and I am happily cooking away listening to the She & Him Christmas album. Also enjoying my Mum making trifle, and my Dad secretly wincing cause he hates it! :) Was lovely to spend time Christmas party shopping with the lovely Irene last night, (first pic is us last Christmas) soaking up the happy Rundle Street atmosphere. (Images are either my own, or borrowed from Tumblr.)

Don't forget to enter my Christmas giveaway!

Bec Bruise Mobile Style

Bec is my gorgeous cousin. She is a baking, roller derby chic smashing lady who never fails to look stylish and just a tad hard core. I have shown friends pictures of her before and they flipped, so I thought I would share some with you... Also am posting up inspiration pics from real life men and women I know and love, so I am not always coveting celebs, bloggers, or runway shots. Plus they are amazing, inspire me and hopefully will inspire you too!

Inset is a pic of the two of us at her birthday, me left, Bec right, Ninja Turtles cake and all! You can read what she is up to here. Hope all is well! Looking forward to sharing some pics from my latest shoot- they rock!

Pictures I took lately...

Really eclectic mix up of pictures sitting in my iPhoto library. From all around lately. Berry farm adventures, to winery visits, Babies!, to horses, Reney on Rundle and more...

White to Black With a Rainbow in Between

Went for a walk to my local school Fair yesterday, sun was warm, kids were colourful and I picked up a cute black Velvet bag for 50 cents! Loved the art gallery (pics above and below). Have been listing items to sell on eBay and hoping to be rid of some items that I have never used! At the moment it is just dvd's and cd's but I have a LOT of new designer clothing to sell soon and will post up a link when I do!

Loving my bright red nails and seeing my colleagues dressed so swanky for a party the other night, will post up one pic, but didn't take any of whole outfit so you'll just get a peak. Wore my fave Wayne Cooper Dress, Zac Posen jacket and a black driving gloves. Completely loving the super cute Maddy (pictured with me at top) and her amazing fringe.

Currently listening to Sia and flipping through US Vogue and Elle while awaiting recently waterproof sprayed shoes to dry. Going to pick up my new glasses soon, way excited! I've had my Dior ones for 5 years it turned out! Time for a change!

Sculptures by the Sea

While my Mum was over recently, we headed down to Cottesloe to check out the Sculptures exhibit. There was a lot there, it was really colourful and fun, here are some of my most loved. PS. The Kissing sumo men were super cute. 

Day Four (of trip)

Day Four…

Wake up. Happily realise that I have slept. Doubly happy to realise it has made me feel way better. Spend a good deal of the morning filling the birdbath so the tiny native birds can stop looking so sad when they fly down to find it empty. Watch as they splash in and out of the water over breakfast. Pack up the hippy cottage, take one last wander around and make sure to photo document the stuff the weirded me out. Pictures to follow this post. Unicorn and Shrine included. (That is not a joke). Decide not to look inside the red urn on top of the TV cabinet- I really don’t need to see what is inside. Say goodbye to Layla, apologise that I gave away her water to the birds, attempt the trampoline again and head off. Think how I will be okay not seeing another dolphin for a while.

Drive past the alluring winery entrances and note the gimmicks adopted to ensure patronage. The ridiculous gold diving man statue always gets me. Wanker winery.

Walk up and down Margaret River, looking for a wifi place to pay bills, not many options. Just a heads up if you are heading down that way- your options are slim for connectivity. Decide to head to one last winery for lunch, discover that the map says Devils Lair is somewhere completely wrong and find the Watershed instead. Eat and embark on the long drive out to Pemberton, our last destination. Notice the change from bush to forest with pleasure.

Towering trees and dense vegetation surround the imposing roadway. Pemberton is small. It is like a town, only lesser. Than you would expect. They have a general store. Excitedly drive to check in at our Chalet. I chose this place because it is a lavender and berry farm. Those are two things I am really into. Reception/gifts store smells amazing. Lots of dried things hang from the cealing and I cannot wait to try their homemade lavender ice cream and scones. And milkshakes. Mmmm. Owner Pete hands us a bottle of milk and says, “this will make my trip over to you with the daily breakfast basket a lot easier.” I loved that sentence. Fresh laid eggs, homemade berry jam, cereals, bread, etc. Pete also wrote out directions to the local swimming spot, so we headed over. It was a dam with a sandy beach part, and shallow area for swimming. The water was clear and rather yellow and warm. It was sort of like swimming in pineapple jelly- before it has set. The surrounding trees were stunning.

After dinner we wandered around the property, around the lake, and visited the Alpacas. One sneezed at us and both were kind of staring. Discovered a grove of lemon trees, with giant lemons, picked one for my tea. Caught up on some podcasts I hadn’t watched yet, attempted to play Guess Who, but not everyone quite grasped my rules. This made me roll my eyes so much they hurt, so I opted out. I like my imagination, it often saves me in times of boredom. Don’t diss it man. Then we discovered the rats. Well, as they are about ten centimeters long, that makes them a Rat, right? Plus large body of water outside, berries, lavender? Yeah. So I am at this point considering pulling an all nighter, as these rats climb down the walls. Not sure how this will pan out.

Things do not look good for our heroine.

I have my imagination to keep me entertained, right?

Oh, man, my imagination flicked over to paranoia.
There could be like, thousands of them. And they could have glow in the dark teeth. And hypnotic eyes, and claws that rip open your flesh with poisonous gas for breath.

Aw crap.

Day one (recent trip down south)

On holiday down south of WA. With family and Daniel. Adventures and observations to follow...

Day one…
Woke up in what seems to be hippys-ville. Momentary confusion; followed by recognition of foreign place. In hindsight, the name “Innercraft” should have given it away. Beautiful cottages in bushland, with stained glass dolphins aplenty. Ahuh.
Mmm, breakfast of gluten free cereal and Casa yoghurt, eaten out on the deck overlooking the tiny birds flitting between the trees. This is good. As good as finding that I had no cell reception (yey no one can contact me at all!). Pile into the hire car and drive down to wander through the gardens of Voyager Estate. Sit back with a teapot, homemade jam and scones. Oh and this time we remembered to pay as we left (last year- we sorta forgot). Wine tastings on the way out. Since Voyager’s 2007 Shiraz beat Penfolds I had to try it. One bottle added to the collection, and a pack of six amazing grape juices- you have to try them!!!
Onto Leeuin Estate, housing a fairly decent art collection. After some driving around in the wrong direction for hmm… let’s say an hour, we stopped off at a brewery. Not my thing, but hey, we weren’t there long, and there were geese. With animals around, not even beer can ruin things. (Did I just loose part of my audience?) We stopped off at the distillery for il Gelato vanilla bean ice cream and a shot of macadamia liqure. I didn’t think that ice cream could get better, I was wrong. Crocodiles and blow up doll men with George Clooney’s face were to be anticipated here, but at least the latter was somewhat of a surprise.

Driving around I read Joking Apart- my mid-year show, which made me laugh out loud from the first page, definitely a good sign. Looking forward to that project, tennis courts and all. We tried to eat at Providore, but alas, it was closing early. Skipping through the organic veggie patch was cool though. Hungry at this point, we booked into dinner and headed to Bussleton to wander down to the jetty. How late our booking seemed… but it was worth the wait, since it was in an old homestead and I got two entrees. Scallops= melty melt. Episodes of 30 Rock with the ever funny Salma Hayek before crashing and that’s day one. Xx