What I Wore: Fashions on the Field

So I’ve had these photos on the computer for a really long time, waiting to be posted. Tonight I finally got around to editing & uploading, so I present: what I wore to enter fashions on the field (no, I didn’t win).

I’ve never entered a competition based even loosely on looks before (I really don’t think the fact that the winners are always very conventionally beautiful is a coincidence). Nevertheless, I love dressing up and seeing as how I’d put weeks days a lot of thought into what I’d wear to Canberra cup, I figured I may as well give it a crack. Plus my friends were completely sick of hearing me talk about it super encouraging!

Ever since my sister got my this adorable dress from Mackenzie Mode for Christmas I knew it was destined for a race-day outing. Add some matching accessories, including my new favourite shoes and it was a match made in coordination heaven!

Sadly I didn’t get the chance to take a full length pic, but here are some S took on her phone (as always).

My excellent blurring skills in full force!

I curled my hair with hot rollers in an early 60s Betty Draper inspired ‘do.

the famous cat shoes!

Dress: Mackenzie Mode | Shoes: T.U.K via That Shop | Tights & Lace Gloves: Myer | Belt, Bag & fascinator: Alannah Hill

Until next time
xx

Eat Me: It’s so good to meet you! Strawberry and lemon melting moments

Happy Sunday!

So as part of my mini-makeover of Bows&Bunnies, I thought I would open up blog topics to include one of my other favourtie hobbies… BAKING

I love to bake, because not only are baked goods pretty and tasty, but they are a lovely way of telling someone how much you care. Meals are a great way of showing someone how much you care, because you would starve without them. But I think that something sweet and fun feeds the heart .

I brought these into work, as a woman who used to work with us was bringing her new baby in to visit for the first time. He was simply adorable and the little family looked so happy <3

It’s so good to meet you! Strawberry and Lemon Melting Moments

Recipe modified from Taste because i never met a recipe I didn’t think I could improve like to tweek things. I am pretty in love with strawberry and lemons in combination right now – for my birthday I did a glorious lemon cake with lemon curd and strawberry swiss merringue butter cream – delicious!

You will need

(for the biscuts)

250g unsalted butter

240g plain flour

95g icing sugar

105g custard powder

1 tsp lemon essence (or juice)

zest of one lemon

(for the filling)

85g unsatled butter

150g icing sugar

1 tsp strawberry essence

pink food colouring

How to do it:
Preheat your oven to 150C for fan forced (like mine) or 160C.

Cube the butter for both the biscuts and the filling and allow to come to room temperature (should take between 10-20 minutes depending on the warmth of the day).

Using the butter for the biscuts, beat until pale and creamy, about 5 minutes, add the lemon juice.

In a seperate bowl, add all of the dry increadents, plus the lemon zest. Sift into the butter and beat to combine.

Scoop out teaspoonfulls, roll into balls and placed on a baking paper lined tray (no need to grease), about 3cm apart. Press down lightly with a fork (be sure to not flatten them too much or they will go brown and crispy!)

Bake for 10-15 minutes, do not let them brown! Then put them on a wire rack to cool.

For the filling, beat the butter for about 5 minutes until light, creamy and fluffy. Add the icing sugar gradually and beat to combine.

Add the strawberry essence and pink food colouring, mix well.

To assemble, take two biscutes of the same size and sandwhich with a generous amount of filling.

Makes about 40, depending on size.

Enjoy with delicious coffee and good company

Birthday Madness Part 2: Canberra turns 100!

Well hello there internet!

As promised and surprisingly close to my last post: what I wore to my birthday lunch, and some centenary festivities!

So first up lunch outfit pictures
(I feel like my garden looks really pretty in these, so I didn’t really edit them)

I feel particularly Alice in wonderland in this one

what are giant poofy skirts for if not twirling?

I feel like the exposed zipper stops it being TOO twee

As those of you that live in Canberra (otherwise known as the friends that I forced to subscribe ae totally interested in my wardrobe) will know, this year Canberra turns 100!. I realise that to people from pretty much everywhere places that are a lot older are unimpressed by this, but you know, any excuse for an event! (and there have been so many)

SO, enlightened is an annual event, where a bunch of the national institutions get lit up, people go look, it’s all pretty cool. This year it was even better there were acrobats! bars! strange hairdressers! massive games on snake projected onto buildings! did I mention the bars

My friend SS and I hit it up, the National Library had a pretty cool Jazz bar thing going on. ALSO scrabble cushions and fun book tower things! Of course we needed pictures (apologies in advance. SS took these on her iPhone so they’re not the most amazing quality)

of course I was going to spell out my name

Wine! Stacks of books!

Dress: Cue | Petticoat & Cardigan (inadvertently worn inside out): eBay | Shoes Kmart (not recommended) | Belt: Portmans

ALSO: Strangely while wandering around looking at buildings, I would swear a woman took several pictures of me and the giant skirt, so if you see them somewhere on the internet, do let me know.

Until next time!
xx

Birthday Madness Part One: I turn 26

So this is a little late, but I thought I’d share some of my outfits and adventures from my birthday celeberations. This year I turned 26 (goodbye early mid 20s!), meanwhile Canberra, the place I never expected to like yet somehow fell in love with is this year. A post on some of my centenary adventures will follow shortly (I have been lazy and not edited the photos yet!)

I celebrated my actual birthday with cocktails, canapes and of course cake! The always delightful Playground Martini and Tapas Bar hosted our group.

A few (terrible) mirror-pics of what I wore

& bonus sneaky bunny pic!
Dress: ASOS (worn with petticoat from eBay) | Belt: Forever New | Shoes: Sketchers (I actually wore different shoes out, but changed them when I got home)

Sorry I was too lazy busy to pick the stuff up off the floor, I didn’t even notice it totally look at my pictures before posting them. Sometimes.

The Saturday after my birthday, as is our tradition, S, C and I went to lunch at the wonderful , which I cannot recommend enough, as always it was lovely. Here’s a peak of what I ordered:
(strawberry gazpacho)

(chocolate delice)

As I said above, I haven’t edited the pics of my outfit yet, but when I post them you’ll discover that I made petticoats something of a theme!

I’m planning to edit the rest of the photo’s I’ve taken sometime this week, so shall hopefully have another post for you every soon.

xx

The hard truths… or, why I’ve been MIA so long

When I first started blogging, I had delusions of grandeur (as is typical of my when embarking on a new project). The reality of photographing, posing, editing and writing brought me down a little, but comments and the fun of documenting my life though clothing –the best form of art- kept me going.

But then I changed jobs – twice and the daily reality of work in a high-stress environment took its toll – I was am exhausted. I drink too much. I eat too much – especially cake. My coffee consumption is at an all time high. The very last thing I feel like doing is sewing, blogging, photographing, putting myself out there.

BUT I still love sewing, clothes and blogging. Even though my “sparkle” has dimmed, I still get up everyday and try to wear something fun. To represent my personality. To make people smile.

I even dyed my hair pink.

So, as another year passes (I count years by my birthday, not the year) I have resolved to find myself again. To get back to the gym. To show the world my sparkle.

…and also to move away from baking and towards sewing as a stress relief…

(I must say that baking is excellent for stress – quick & easy plus you get delicious cake at the end. Oh, and my co-workers love it!)

The TGIF funfetti cake with lemon swiss meringue buttercream.

The I’m sad your leaving cake in progress

Oreo: Stealer of fruit.

Oreo: Lover of cardboard in all its forms.

xx

Sorry I’ve been away so long!

IMAG0009, a photo by LadyxBec on Flickr.

Work did not slow down, and my laptop issues went on and on (and on!).

Things will be back up and running here over the coming days and weeks.

In the meantime, here’s a sneak peek of what I’ve been wearing lately (and my fab new pink hair). I have a bunch of posts to write, and so mnay plans for fun things to make (and bake!)

xx

Getting Crafty With It – DIY Glitter Heels

So a few weeks ago, my friend N, and her boyfriend R came to visit for a weekend of fun and frivolity. N brought with her the most gorgeous pair of glitter covered ballet flats. After convincing her to lend them to me for a night I was sold. But after searching the shops for weeks, I couldn’t find any glitter shoes that matched the vision in my head – so I decided to make my own! I did a quick google search and read some posts from other bloggers on the creation of their glitter shoes (Pixie in Pumps, Trinkets in bloom, and Heather Says) for inspiration. To be honest, I went about it quite differently to them (as you’ll see below).

Thoroughly inspired, I headed to my local art & craft store for supplies. I saw glitter Mod Podge and decided to save myself some work by just using that – but be warned, it is not as glittery as you will want for this project – I used probably 4-5 fairly thick coats, and you still get a lot of show-through.

You will need:
• Shoes to glitterfy – I used an old pair of cream fabric heels that were so stained they were unwearable.
• Mod podge
• Glitter
• Tape
• Paintbrush/s

Before (you can’t see the stains in this photo, but believe me they’re there!):

Midway:

Drying, you can start to see the glitter coming through:

After:

To be honest, I was a bit disorganised in this – I actually didn’t bother to tape the sides of my shoes where I didn’t want glitter, and although I brought two paintbrushes, I didn’t end up using the small one. I just went for it and brushed on a thick layer of mod podge. As it began to dry, I could see it wasn’t enough, so I kept building it up until I had the level of sparkle I was after – it probably would have been easier to go buy more glitter to add, but I couldn’t be bothered, so just used A LOT of mod podge.

[I was going to put up some modeling pics, but I have only worn them once so far & forgot to take pictures!]

This was a super fun DIY! The supplies cost me about $30 and the shoes I already owned, so it was pretty cheap too – I have a fair amount of mod podge left, and if you made your own glitter mix using normal mod podge you would have even more leftover (it is also quite a bit cheaper than the glitter one I used). I also like getting to “recycle” a pair of shoes that otherwise would probably have been binned. I will definitely do this again, and maybe even try a solid colour sometime!

Have you glittered shoes before? Did you have as much fun with it as me?

*I do have to add that the first time I wore these, I got some little cracks where my shoe bends – honestly I’m fairly certain that the one reason this happened is because I used SO MANY coats of mod podge, so it was too thick. I really recomend adding glitter to your mod podge to avoid this issue

Until next time,
xx

PS I am picking up my laptop (still not fixed, but working with a monitor connected) this weekend, so I should be able to get back into regular posting soon.