Friday I'm in Love

Thought I'd take advantage of the amazing weather and spare time due to my car being serviced to take some photos! Seriously, this weather is so perfect, it puts a smile on my dial all day.

First up, I'm showing off my new dress that I bought from K Mart for $29. K Mart have some really great stuff at the moment and I had to suppress a squeal when I saw this dress because I've always wanted one like it. It's floaty, feminine, soft green, a little bit boho and looks great with boots. It ticks all the boxes!

Below is today's outfit, teamed with the ultimate handbag - ultimate because the colours are awesome, the size is perfect and I paid a measly $1.99 for it at Salvos!!! Cha-ching!

Spike

Just though I'd update y'all on the newest sandals to appear in our Betts S/S range. Behold:

This is Spike, it retails for $89.99 and I'm pretty sure was made for me. While I'm at it, I really should buy the Anaconda heel from Zu while it's on sale.

What do you think? Love or hate?

Evil Twin Summer Lookbook

Aussie label Evil Twin (the twisted sister of Mink Pink) have released the lookbook for their first Summer collection, Black Magic Woman, and it is an absolute winner. According to the Evil Twin blog, the release is a bit late and we can expect their second summer range next week! How lucky!

The collection, if you couldn't already tell from the title, is a continuation of the themes we saw in their A/W collections and full of 70s nostalgia with a nod to rock-and-roll and tribal mysticism. While the cuts and silhouettes featured in this first collection are not ground-breaking, they boost the retro trend finally making its way to our shores. The collection is versatile and very wearable, highlighting one of the main reasons this brand continues to be a favourite of mine.

Breakfast of Champions

My apologies for the lack of fashion-related posts. I have been so busy lately visiting other cities and working extra hours, I promise to upload pics of all my wonderful new things soon! But firstly, I finally finished reading Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions. Honestly, I found it to be a tedious read as I never quite got used to the staccato narrative littered with illustrations of the signs, animals and objects Vonnegut was describing. However, his descriptions and commentary on American society and human behaviour are spot on and well worth the read. By describing facets of modern life at a basic level, Vonnegut exposes the absurdity of the world in which we live in and the rules and reasons we create for ourselves and our society.

"Dwayne Hoover's and Kilgore Trout's country, where there was still plenty of everything, was opposed to Communism. It didn't think that Earthlings who had a lot should share it with others unless the really wanted to, and most of them didn't want to.
So they didn't have to."

p.13, Breakfast of Champions.

I ear marked a few other pearls of wisdom:

""You are pooped and demoralized," read Dwayne. "Why wouldn't you be? Of course it is exhausting, having to reason all the time in a universe which wasn't meant to be reasonable.""

p.253

"He began the five mile walk down Fairchild Boulevard - toward a tiny amber dot at the other end. The dot was the Midland City Center for the Arts. He would make it grow bigger by walking toward it. When his walking had made it big enough, it would swallow him up. There would be food inside."

p. 284

""Mr. Trout - Kilgore -" I said, "I hold in my hand a symbol of wholeness and harmony and nourishment. It is Oriental in its simplicity, but we are Americans, Kilgore, and not Chinamen. We Americans require symbols which are richly colored and three-dimensional and juicy. Most of all, we hunger for symbols which have not been poisoned by great sins our nation has committed, such as slavery and genocide and criminal neglect, or by tinhorn commercial greed and cunning.
"Look up, Mr. Trout," I said, and I waited patiently.
"Kilgore-?"
The old man looked up, and he had my father's wasted face when my father was a widower - when my father was an old old man.
He saw that I held an apple in my hand."

p.293

I'm about to start Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five which should be just as interesting and thought-provoking. If you have any other book recommendations, send them my way!

Melbourne

On Sunday my dear friend Chris celebrated his 25th birthday, so in honour of the occasion we packed our bags and drove 750km to Melbourne to party with him. We left Adelaide at 5am and arrived in Melbourne at about 3pm. Chris, Rach, Amanda and I stayed in the Space Hotel  in a dorm with two other lovely room mates, Geoff and Michael. We ate the most delicious fried chili tofu at Dragon House then partied like there was no tomorrow  at The Provinical, Cape Live Bar (later known as "Cape Fear") and Laundry. Saturday consisted of sleeping in, big brekkies, a few hours of shopping (we were too fragile to hit it hard) and naps. On Saturday night we had drinks at Hells Kitchen, dinner at The Quarter, then more drinks at Lustre Lounge before buying a few cheeky bottles of wine and Fosters and heading back to the hostel. At midnight we sang Chris happy birthday and partied out front of the hostel with all our new friends. Sunday started with hostel check-out, breakfast at the amazing Tin Pot Cafe in Fitzroy and a long drive home. It was an amazing weekend with my dearest friends, but I sure was glad to sleep in my own bed again.

Delicious meal at Dragon House

Starting the night at The Provincial

Skittle bombs

Chillin at The Basement

Occupy Melbourne protest

Tree art

Trunk bar - sadly we did not get to wine and dine here.

Geoff and Chris

Rach and Sarah at Tin Pot Cafe

Sydney

On the weekend I spent three days in Sydney with my family and Pete in celebration of Dad's 50th birthday. We stayed in the heart of the city on George Street and had access to cheap eats in Chinatown, a free shuttle to take us to Circular Quay and beyond and Starbucks across the street! I love visiting Sydney because there's always so much to do and see. We took a jet boat ride through the harbour, which was incredibly fun, took the ferry to Manly for lunch and shopped at markets, walked across the Sydney Harbour Bridge and spent the day at Luna Park. At night we drank beer and cheap cocktails and ate $10 meals. It was nice to have a little family holiday and have a change of scenery for a weekend.

Papa bear at Adelaide Airport

Yours truly at Sydney Airport

The Harbour Bridge, which turns 80 in March 2012!

Dad enjoying some quiet time on the balcony.

Night time view from the balcony

Manly wharf

Lunch time at Manly

One beary happy family (tee hee).

A toy llama we bought enjoying the ferry.

Llama on Pete.

Getting ready for a night on the town.

Llama enjoying cocktails and good company.

Pete getting excited about Luna Park.

Fun times at Luna.

Waiting to leave the hotel. 

My epic sunburn which I am very ashamed of. 

Just sayin'

I just wanted to post a quick note before I jet off to Sydney tomorrow morning. You can always, always look good on a budget. People ask me, "where do you shop, where do you get your clothes from?" I shop cheap, I am a regular at Valleygirl, Target, and the sale sections of Dotti, Sportsgirl, General Pants and Trims. I'm not embarrassed to check out what's new in Big W and K Mart. For instance, I previously posted about my new pair of wedges bought from Big W for $34.95, here:

You could also spend more money and get basically the same thing at Novo for $79.95

Or spend more money and get the Tony Bianco version for $179.95

Similarly, I can get these blue wedges I have been lusting over from Novo for $79.95

Or splash out on the Tony Bianco wedge at $179.95

And if anyone cares to drop a pair of those blue bad boys in my letter box (size 8, fyi) I will be so happy.