Bad Romance

This is so unlike my usual mood, but last night I pulled together my most fashionable pink clothes including my American Apparel rose jumper and vintage blouse for an outfit post of epic proportions. As luck would have it, I also received my This is Make Believe resin rose necklace in 'red' but it has more of a pink quality to it. I'm so happy to finally have it in my possession and see that it's safe too- while the resin isn't as flimsy as paper I don't want to bang it about too much in case I chip one of the petals.

Wearing: Cotton on Black Skirt, American Apparel 3-D Ribbon Rose jumper in Blossom, vintage silk blouse, This is Make Believe resin rose necklace, various homemade pink bow clips, prison issue plastic rosary bead in pink and pictured holding Cocoa-Cola in Cherry as well as Mr. Pink Diana F+ camera from Lomography and magenta satchel from Typo.

I chose not to wear all the pieces included in this photoset at once since it made it look too messy and instead indulged in mixing and matching various pieces together deciding the rosary necklace looked better without the jumper as did the medium format camera in a pink plastic body and coke can.

There's a few things I'd like to wear tomorrow since it feels like it will be my first day of transition from high school into university, and I do like the combination of the rose necklace as well as the pink plastic rosary from afar. I might give the double bows in my hair a miss though and hopefully it will dry straight for tomorrow.

You haven't seen the last of my beloved can of Coca-Cola cherry since I haven't popped open this bad boy yet. While in America last year I got to drink Dr. Pepper which I loved and it was described as being coke with a cherry flavour. So surely the real deal is going to blow my mind and be the best tasting thing ever- right?

The most frequently used 120 format camera in my arsenal is the Diana F+ Mr. Pink edition which comes in fluorescent pink and boasts an all plastic body. At the moment it's fitted with an external viewfinder which also acts as something to gauge what the lighting in the environment is like. I still haven't gotten any of my films developed yet, because I'm such a lazy bum.

Although this is a bit too much pink to handle, I do like the different materials of the necklace blouse and jumper as well as the shades and the way the interact with the bright flash from my camera. I'll almost be definitely wearing my resin rose necklace tomorrow and maybe give new people something to talk about when they first see me. Bringing a little icebreaker to the party as it were.

Because of the multiple swirling ribbons hand sewn onto this sheer jumper, it's surprisingly heavy and weighty and the elastic cuffs as well as hem is a bit of a shocker to when you first wear it but it's a really beautiful piece. I just need more incentive to wear it out and make use of it's unusual texture. Because I'm low on cash and I never wear it that much, I'm selling it on eBay for $100 AUD so if you're interested, pop a comment below and we can talk about it.

Welcome to the Jungle

Wearing: American Apparel Sheer Floral Blouse, Skirt from Miss Shop (Myer), This is Make Believe Resin Rose necklace, vintage scrunchie, elephant purse from Melbourne Zoo.

The purpose of this post is two fold, I had been collecting clothes together in a neat pile with a jungle sort of theme and this morning the delivery man gave me my new rose resin necklace! I'm super excited to finally have it, although I must admit the colour of the red is more pink then I originally thought it would be.

I'm sort of tempted to wear shorts, this blouse and necklace as well as my hair out tomorrow to my university enrollment day, the resin roses are faceted with double chains and some of the thickest clasps I've seen. I'm absolutely in love with my necklace, I wish the New Zealand label made more of this amazing necklaces! There are some available for sale on the Good as Gold online store, but I payed a sum total of $60AUD for mine instead of over $300! I love eBay and picking up on what other people don't want anymore.

My mother bought me this skirt several years ago and I usually get a few compliments when I wear it; it's reversible and has plain green on the underside but I love the sketched leaves in black and their pencil-like markings. It's pretty stretchy too so when going out for a big celebratory meal at a restaurant it never lets me done and is really comfortable in soft cotton. The elastic gather around the waist also makes it pleat gently down at the hem, one of my favourite features of a skirt these days.

I brought this sweet little purse to my Indonesian oral examination since I was discussing conflict between farmers and elephants on an Indonesian island- it just fits a few cards for ID as well as maybe bank card but I can't quite cram my phone in there. I really should wear my leaf skirt and elephant purse together more, maybe even go back to Melbourne Zoo to buy some more colours of this purse.

This is possibly the best little bun that I've ever done, but it still fell out after about an hour or two; the scrunchie isn't really supporting the bun instead I use the hair and twist it into itself and hold down the ends using clips. Still, I'm glad I'm getting some use out of my floral scrunchie. I only payed 50 cents for it at my local second hand shop and they had a whole bunch on display at the time. I wish I had bought more though.

All the Beautiful Flowers

I'm in one of the most wonderful romantic moods but I'm also zonked out after sleeping-in today past noon. I've spent the day gathering research and hand-writing notes on a brand, putting together images of Alexa Chung and reading a soppy love story from the library. Another thing I dedicated today to was organising pictures of flowers and arranging my own fake ones that are gifts from my boyfriend. While this is probably just one of my wild moods brought about from a hormonal imbalance I hope it stays; I quite like organising space in my room for an armchair, looking at photographs of pretty flowers and chasing up a pink Yves Saint Laurent arty ovale ring.

About twice a year a line of rose bushes along the back of my garden light up in full bloom and give off a frenzy of budding flowers, it's about as wild and numerous as the roses pictured here but there's less of a red tinge to the pink and the petals are a brighter and hotter shade of pink. Unfortunately since plants are lacking in intelligence they just don't know when to stop and keep growing until they fall over due to their own weight. At one point of the year a few of out best roses were crushed into the ground by the heavy weight of rain and gravity. A real pity. 

Even if my romantic and flower-loving hippy mood dissipate I would still like to make my way to the annual flower show in my city and visit it with my mother and a good SLR film camera in hand. I remember last year when I burned with agony at the invitation from my mother and had to turn down the opportunity due to the amount of study I had to do to keep up with my subjects but this year I am free to do as a I please as long as I keep up with university study which should be a lighter load in comparison.

I love the dreamy purple tinge to the photograph created undoubtedly by the low light and mystery of a camera lens- I wish I could return to final year celebrations with my friends. In Australia it's somewhat tradition to head off for a week or two after finishing exams on what is known as 'schoolies' and drink plenty and head down to the beach. With our collective and emptied bottles of drink I would have loved to find some gorgeous flowers to sink them into just as someone else has done before me.

I'm in desperate need of floral skirts and more vintage or vintage looking pieces within my wardrobe, but before that takes place I really should sell the unnecessary items in my room to make space and money for new things. If I could, pulling together a garage sale would be ideal but eBay will have to do and this way I don't have to deal with haggling and much human interaction. To be fair, my yard and driveway would not make the ideal setting for such a sale anyway.

The filtered effect of this photograph is subtle, but with the darkening edges of the image as well as what looks like gentle distortion I would say a toy camera with maybe a fisheye lens has been used or something that vignettes at the corners such as a Diana of Holga camera. I quite like the combination of pink and red tinged flowers and purple as well. I wish I could be bothered finding an ideal spot for flowers to grow in my yard but goodness knows that I am more interested in flowers I can look at in photographed and film form.

An interior decorating idea I'm currently toying with at the moment is buying a small square of fake grass but instead of using it as a rough rug I could place some small potted flowers and species of cactus with a little piece of outdoor furniture like a patio chair or a beach chair. My father was a great fan of gardening but he doesn't seem to quite have the energy for it anymore and when I played basketball he would always volunteer to drive me to games and watch on a Saturday. One of the things I guess I can look forward to when I'm an adult and own my own home is looking after plants and enjoying beautiful flowers.

I'd love to have one of these trees in my own garden- some of my favourite and more artistic film camera shots have come from photographing the flowers and the blue sky of this tree. Everyday from walking home from school I would pass a neighbour's house and in their front yard was one of these trees and its seasonal cycle is quite different from many other trees- there's little growth in Winter and bare looking spindly branches and a sudden explosion of petals and flowers and what follows that is new growth. I would love to be able to have one of these trees in my garden, especially if I live to be a little old lady.

Nothing makes me feel more in touch with nature than cruelly ripping a flower from a nearby tree or bush and pushing the sprig behind my ear and in my hair. Flowers are on of the more traditional affluent symbols which have been incorporated into design for years and years but with so many different species the possibilities are endless and they will never truly tire.

Seeing Red

After walking around my local area for about six hours, getting light sunburn on my cheeks and waking up with a horrible searing pain on my shoulders I have resolved never to deliver catalogues again. Though it was good for the fitness, it's not worth all the repercussions. I may just hand in my resume all over the local shopping centres and try my hand at that rather than intense manual labour. And the whole ordeal stemmed from me wanting a little more cash on the side to buy nice things. I guess being money-hungry and just plain greedy can turn you in to a bit of a monster.

In my defence I need to save what money I can before my term deposit matures and also there's a range of book bags I want to buy at the store I work out- they look just like the penguin classic book covers in simple horizontal colour blocking design and they come in purple, green, orange and pink. I want them all! There's also luggage tags to buy, iPhone covers and a whole bunch of goodies I'm planning on making a part of my 'back to school' stationary shopping.

 

While there are several rose bushes and climbers hanging around my house we have never really grown this cheery bright red colour. There's been bright pink, pale yellows, pale yellow with tints of pink at the edges as well as a single dark, deep blood red rose. But I quite like this cheery red colour, a symbol of a high romance- I wish we had roses like this around my garden. Then again I may just be going through a large phase with bright red, I can think of a red bag I want as well as a vintage quilted jumper to match. I've really just got red on the brain.

Another proof of my current madness and love for red is the effort I went to adopt a chair abandoned early for hard rubbish collection- it took a blue lifting trolley and careful balancing to fit the rather large chair onto the bottom and walking down two streets earning myself curious looks to put it away safely in the garage. Unfortunately today it's raining and I suspect there will be some mud on the bottom, the garage has a tendency to flood a lot these days. Still, at least I didn't leave it out about and in the open. It's the kind of chair I've been thinking of buying with a large wing back at the top and an upholstered look. It's only red vinyl and ripped in quite a few places but it also reclines so I'm happy.

I love the drama of red and the holiday spirit associated with it as we are know left in the wake of Christmas 2011, which has left us behind. A colour for boys and girls and I have tried to combine the best of the two together; for example the second photograph of the red lion sweater is a mens sweatshirt but I'm itching to try and get my hands on it for myself. I find great comfort in wearing baggy and loose red jumpers- my Literature teacher once advised me that when one is sick, one tries to cheer oneself up by wearing red. This held true for me when I was sick for about the first time in five years and wore a red jumper I favour quite a lot on my trip to the doctor.

I don't even care that it might be a wig- I love the colour coordination of all red clothing with blue hair lying against a red and blue rug. It's a very healthy and homely look and I wouldn't mind getting a rug for my room when I find the room and the time to rearrange everything. I have the perfect rug in mind- it has a moon on if and it's from Urban Outfitters but it is quite expensive and well- it would be nice to have the space waiting for it before I order it. Otherwise if it's just sitting around and waiting to be used it's a waste really.

Tomorrow I get to catch up with all my high school girls and watch Disney movies and eat garbage junk food! I'm quite excited, I've been really slack and haven't seen anyone since schoolies and it's been even longer since I've seen my closest friend. Luckily everyone else has been much the same and this is our first major gathering I guess since study scores were released and it's the Thursday before our University offers come out on Monday. I expect to hear some lovely gossip and see everyone giddy with excitement. The friend's house we're going to is tripped out with a home cinema, heaps of beanbags and pet ferrets! It will be a very good day indeed.

I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of an American Apparel blouse in white and a resin necklace I bought on eBay- you may remember my post about the brand 'This is Make Believe'? Well within just one search I got a red rose necklace for only $60 including shipping. I'm very excited; when it all comes in I'm going to try and have my armchair in my room by then and I'll take photographs of my reading books in it and wearing my red American Apparel cape. So there will be a lot of red around when all that comes to fruition. I could also throw some red lipstick into the mix as well- but I think wearing the blouse and my red rose necklace with lipstick and maybe plain black jeans or slacks would be quite enough colour coordination.