DAILY OUTFIT │Boardwalk. Errands. Work.

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DO1

It’s rather fanciful, taking photos of one’s outfit for the day.  It’s part of being frivolous and fun, and exactly my aim.

I don’t angst over what I’m wearing.  In the last three years I’ve barely scraped the cream off the retail offerings, in fact, let me rephrase, I decidedly did not have any cream!  Hard to believe, but I did it and am still 100% supremely happy (I lie, I am happier!)

DO2

Perhaps it’s age or wisdom or knowledge or a mix of all three, but I’ve swapped out big gulps of mindless and entertaining consumerism for savouring sips of deliberate and excellent quality delights.  I still love perusing and making a purchase, only my modus operandi is vastly different now.

Detail1

Detail2

So this outfit is about working with what you have…over and over and over again, and happily surprising yourself with your sweet remixed creations.  It’s simple, comfortable and still stylish.  Let’s just say I had a great day…I think it went something like this: MagicalMonday ;)

DO3

Details:

Boots:  Wittner ─ birthday gift from the family.

Jeans: St Vinnies Bondi ─ part of my stash from a scouring trip to find jeans to dye!

T-shirt: ASOS

Cardigan: Michelle Ludek ─ purchased in South Africa about 4 years ago.  It was originally designed with a draped cut-out at the back.  Recently, I decided to cut through it for a re-newed look ─ it now has draped sides.

Sunnies:  Marc by Marc Jacobs

Bag: River Island via ASOS ─ best buy ever!  It’s so easy to wear, for both day and night, and it holds  plenty!

Necklace: The Swinging Girl ─ another oldie, and my inauguration into online shopping! Yes, my first foray into the online world of shopping, & via Etsy too!  I don’t remember the seller’s name (it was a cool name, and long)  but I do remember that she was delightful.  I had ordered 2 ─ a white and a black one ─ and the black one arrived broken.  She sent me a new one immediately, no questions asked, and added some other little goodies along with her apology note!

Ring: Hmmm…possibly from a high-street store like Diva?  It was so long ago…

Bag: Funkis ─ bought an age ago from the original Funkis store in The Strand Arcade.  In it, I carry my MacBook Pro,  my Moleskines and Marimekko pencil-case.

Hair: freshly washed and taking curly-shape quite nicely :)

Make-up: I’ll be putting on my Ere Perez ‘Healthy’ lip and cheek balm when I’m in the car!

Clearly no manicure, but a heart full of purpose, focus and excitement!

Inspiration:  ’Do what you can, with what you have, where you are’ ─ Theodore Roosevelt

STYLE TIP ┃Switch and Swap with Colour!

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IMG_0554

The taupe trench is a classic and an excellent piece to have in your wardrobe.  It’s perfect for when the weather still has one foot in the afterglow of Summer and the other in Winter’s shadow.  The perfect transition-piece ─ it’s weekend casual without being slipshod.

It’s easy…but let’s face it, it can be beige-boring.  Solution?  Add a pop of colour.  Swap out the matching belt for a colourful one!  Primary, patterned or in my case, neon yellow!

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Another very simple (and inexpensive) way to accessorise and remix!

IMG_0549IMG_0541Happy experimenting!

MY POETRY ┃dead…dying…beautiful

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Beautiful
the dead
the dying
the beautiful
can we distinguish?
do we want to?
the dead
long-buried
yet taking up space
in my body
in my soul
in my mental parlour
the dead
i want to hold onto her
she is part of me
was part of me
is part of me
relinquish
let her go
scrape up her fragments
and let the wind take her
beautiful soul
once was beautiful
now is dead
let her go warrior princess
let her go
the dead
the dying
the beautiful
can we distinguish?
do we want to?
dying
halfway there
left the gates
but
not going to cross the line
that pure white powdered line
the i-have-made-it line
the pulse of life
still visible
the decay taking over
flipping over…
the other side of beautiful
flipping over…
the other side of life
flipping over…
slipping into
a seamless sleep
the dead
the dying
the beautiful
can we distinguish?
do we want to?
and then to life i come
i bloom
i am beautiful
i am beautiful once more
suddenly from death and dying
comes beautiful
once we were
then no more
and now we are again
beautiful
you don’t distinguish
you can’t
life comes with all three
part of the deal
and you deal
with life
in
these
three
rich
dimensions
a rich experience
the dead
the dying
the beautiful

ANZAC DAY ┃And what I did…

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Anzac Day ─ 25 April ─ marks our most important national occasion, commemorating the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War.

I am so proud to be Australian.  And so supremely grateful for all of those brave and young souls who fought for the freedom that I enjoy today.

I have never been to a dawn service, and this year for some reason, my desire to attend was strong.  I had planned on attending the Manly dawn service, but ended up missing the call of my alarm clock!  Insert all kinds of ‘damn!’ equivalents here!

My sister attended – also her first time.  She was in the nation’s capital, and despite the early call and the infamously cold Canberra-morning, she rugged up and attended.  In her words, it was amazing, and humbling to see so many people at the  Australian War Memorial, in the dark, in awe and in complete silence.  It was worth the alarm trilling on a ‘sleep-in’ day, and having to literally wear half of her winter wardrobe!

I took in her experience with as much humility and awe, and vowed that not only will I attend next year, but that I’d attend the dawn service in the nation’s capital;  It will be the 99-year Anzac Day anniversary.

Missed-dawn-service aside, I decided to do a pictorial stream of the things I did on Anzac Day.  It’s quotidian for sure, maybe even utilitarian, but be sure that because of this day and our Anzacs, I get to do these things, and more ─ today, tomorrow and the next.

And for that, I salute you all ─ past and present ─ in my own post-dawn tribute!

pesto eggsI breakfasted on yummy pesto eggs!

Ben QuiltyI wore some Aussie art ─ hello Ben Quilty on my chest!

WorkI did some work.

thongs

I swapped out the early-morning Uggs for some sweet summery thongs.

WaterI drank a jug-load of water.

Action Man

I found Action man!

washing

And did the laundry.

almond butter bark

I snacked on some sugar-free treats.

SparkleTown

And wore sparkles in my bed-hair.

AnzacSunset

I watched as the sun set.

AnzacMoon

And kissed the moon.

With love and gratitude in my heart….till we meet again next year!

Book ┃You Can Heal Your Life.

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YCHYL

I love books.  I love reading.  And I read a.l.o.t.

Funnily enough, I rarely remember the content or rather the details of the books that I have read once I put my full-stop on the final chapter.  Funny, given that my memory is quite sharp!

And I never read a book more than once.  Just can’t.  I ride the tantalising wave, of ooh-what’s-next, far too well.

Until of course You Can Heal Your LIfe.  At the time I didn’t know it.  Now, it’s my most emphatic exception-to-the-rule.

I bought Louise L. Hay’s You Can Heal Your Life in 1991, and have since read it at least 4 times (possibly more).  It’s filled with anecdotes that act not only as that, but as loving reminders and examples of how one can apply it to one’s own life.  Love that.  I am currently reading it again which as a result, became the catalyst for this article.

Louise wrote YCHYL in 1983, and 30 years later, it is still as relevant today as it was then ─ perhaps even more relevant today.  A book well before its time ─ the proverbial and first drop in today’s ocean of the all-encompassing metaphysical thought-thread.

It’s relevant.  It’s easy.  When you read it, it’s like reading your favourite author ─ you can’t wait for the next bit of the story.  The chapters are succinct yet voluminous ─ the message you need, is the message you get.  It’s heartwarming and encouraging… it’s gentle.  It is also practical, and the exercises and affirmations are simple and easily assimilated.

This article was not intended to be a book recommendation, but as I draw to its close, it feels like an apt segue.  If you need some love, some light yet real and grounded teaching, borrow or buy You Can Heal Your Life ─ it has the power to heal your life and change your life…at the pace that you choose.

I like to call it my BlissBible™!  Indulge if you can ─ I often do and in fact, am about to go back for a second serving right now!

“In the infinity of life where I am, all is perfect, whole and complete” ─ Louise L. Hay

I dare you!

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To create your own BlissBible™ ─ It’s like a notebook that’s been given wings…and blessed by you!

BlissBible™

You’ll need a notebook of any description or size ─ black Moleskines are my favourite ─ and a swig of imagination…it’s carte blanche at its best!

Grab a pen ─ black, ballpoint, felt tip, sparkly gels or a rainbow of coloured pencils.  Pour yourself a tisane, some sweet nectar or a flute of FrenchFroth.  Steal a corner somewhere at home, in a park or dans un café, and this is what you do…

♥ Smile.  It’s free and fabulous fuel to get you in the right frame of bliss!

♥ Give it a moniker.  You can most definitely call it your BlissBible, but other names that come to mind:  SoulSister, MagicMemo, RadicalReams, StreamSensation, ProdigiousPad, or simply Dreams, Desires.  If you want to make it really personal, then name it as such: Liesl’s Book of Dreams, Francesca’s Den of Desires, Dan’s Web of Words or Loulou’s PaintedPages!

♥ Now do an impassioned VerbalVomit!  Use your imagination…absolutely anything fun, fabulous, exciting, positive, positive, positive…how you want things to be ─ it’s your life so write your script!

Imagination

You can:

♥ Jot down divine affirmations……about yourself and your life

♥ Doodle……from a ‘Dream BIG’ sign to a pair of shoes you’ve always wanted to design

♥ Write a letter to your 16-year-old self

♥ Choose your favourite quotes and put them in there too

♥ Brain storm your Core Desired Feelings for this year (no, it’s not too late!).  Give it as many pages as you require.  Then slowly narrow it down to 3-5 words.  Come back to these words often to remind yourself of how you want to feel, and even transfer them to a piece of paper for your wallet or an index card for your fridge.  It’s BrainBliss and BodyBliss in a nutshell, and in ONE neat hit!

PicturePaste

♥ If you’re not such a fan of words, don’t fret, this BB is for the doodler, the sketch artist, the illustrator and the cut-&-paste fiend alike.  Whatever drills to the core of your bliss, do it and give yourself some ecstasy-through-imagination-and-intention.

♥ Keep in mind, this is not a one-session-wonder.  This can be undertaken once or several times a day, week or month ─ it’s completely up to you.  It can be hours of creating your desired life or 5-minute-snatches here and there.  Whatever you can afford, claim it and do……because this is one teensy yet powerful step towards your greatest bliss ─ that of simply & joyfully being!

And finally, with the biggest BlissBomb of LOVE that I can muster, I too remind you to carry your BlissBible with you ─ keep it close, and even if you’re unable to write, sketch or paste, you can most certainly re-read what you’ve already written or simply glance over everything, and give yourself some daily, repetitive and on-the-spot bliss!

xoxo

WarriorWoman™┃Diana Vreeland

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a woman who stands up
a woman who courageously stands up
a WarriorWoman wants to live…and I mean really live
in spite of her fear
in spite of her doubts
and
in spite of what others may say
a WarriorWoman smiles when she
can
wants
must
she also openly engages in myriad mini meltdowns
a WarriorWoman knows her place, but doesn’t necessarily take it!
a WarriorWoman does her thing even though she is unaware that she is doing it
she is steel…and magnolia
she talks, she listens, she advises and she advocates
she cries and damnit, she laughs her big bodacious laugh too ─ often
she kisses. gently. with passion
a WarriorWoman speaks her truth whether you like it or not
a WarriorWoman wants to give to the world more than the world could ever give to her
she sees through and beyond
she can make magic…on a dime or a million dollars
she can make, and she can create
she can produce and offer, and she does so generously
she is both loathed and loved
embellished and stripped
a WarriorWoman is revered and pulled down
yes, all of these, and all at once
there are no short-cuts to a WarriorWoman
her work is long……but far-reaching
her inspiration on high beam
she goes about her business
at home, on the streets, in open fields, and big fancy offices
with the love or loves of her life, her brood, or simply alone
she is fierce
a gentle soul with a will of solid gold
she is as much yours as she is ours
say hello, blow her kisses…thank her
and most of all
allow her to be your light, your guiding light
in this rite of passage to becoming
a WarriorWoman!
Photograph by David Bailey

Photograph by David Bailey

And know that you are in good company as I present our first of many Warrior Women ─
Legendary fashion editor of Harper’s Bazaar (1936-62) and editor-in-chief of Vogue
(1963-71), special consultant to the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, and queen of aphorisms!

 

15 things you didn’t know about Diana Vreeland:

1. The pillows in her home were infused with perfume via hypodermic needles.

2. Before becoming a fashion editor, Diana had a lingerie shop in London. Legend has it that Wallis Simpson seduced Edward, then Prince of Wales, while wearing one of Diana’s nightgowns. “Mom’s store brought down the British Empire,” her son Frederick once joked. She often had her own nightgowns tailored, with up to three fittings on a single one.

3. She always had her dollar bills and her tissues ironed before putting them in her handbag.

4. She ate the same lunch every day: a whole-wheat peanut-butter-and-marmalade sandwich, washed down with scotch. “Peanut butter is the greatest invention since Christianity,” she said.

5. She rarely left the house before noon, and she often conducted serious business from her tub.

6. The only thing Diana loved more than fashion was reading, and her favorite book was Moby-Dick. ”My life has been more influenced by books than by any other one thing,” she said.

7. Hollywood director Joel Schumacher got his start working with her as a fashion stylist.

8. Diana’s signature color was red, but she never found the perfect shade, which was, according to her, “the color of a child’s cap in any Renaissance portrait.”

9. She had her custom-made shoes shined for years before she ever started wearing them. And once they entered her rotation, she had the leather and the soles shined every day.

10. She approved of jeans but only on the right body: “I think blue jeans are the most beautiful things in the world, and they can be as tight as you can wear them, but only if you look well and have long limbs.”

11. Paris’s Hôtel de Crillon reserved her personal bed linens for her frequent visits.

12. Her grandson Nicholas is a Tibetan Buddhist monk (the first Westerner to be made an abbot), while my husband, Alexander, has always worked in fashion.

13. She loved surfing though she’d never been on a board.

14. Diana’s Kabuki-like blush was a signature that not everyone understood. A kindly flight attendant once offered,”Here, honey, let me rub in your rouge for you.”

15. Her “Why Don’t You…?” column was parodied in a 1938 issue of The New Yorker: “If a perfectly strange lady came up to you on the street and demanded, ‘Why don’t you travel with a little raspberry-colored blanket to throw over yourself…’ the chances are that you would…hit her with a bottle.”

(taken from the original article in Harper’s Bazaar)

Most recently I had the pleasure of feasting my eyes on Diana Vreeland:  The Eye Has To Travel ─ it was diiiiivine and I highly recommend that you let your eye travel over this visual feast of deliciousness!

Thank you!

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There is nothing like the little thank-you prayer to wake up your well of abundance, and this week, I am truly grateful for…

Working Saturday

Working Saturdays ─ they are seriously the best…no interruptions, you work from a place of chilled-the-hell-out & want-to, and productivity is simply prodigious!

Starting my mornings with a glass of water and Apple Cider Vinegar.  My daily gift to my liver.

Coffee…always, and best taken early in the morning ─ hot, in a small glass and preferably outside where the water glistens and the sun greets you with her smile!

Bulb dresses…sheer with a lick of sequins, and at least 4 years old.  FancyFeelin’ for a Saturday night out!

Dinner with real Southern hospitality!

Meeting like-minded folk.  There’s nothing like getting closer to your jungle and closer to your tribe.

Spiked sweet tea!  Oh-em-Gee!  For someone who is not a dark-spirits drinker, this little refresher goes down a treat.  Plans to serve it at my casa soon!

Wine deals…sweet sweet sweet!

Water lilies!!!  I have always loved this flower…they feel so incredibly decadent, and even more so when you gift them.

Beautiful Bloom

Good friends.

Mini, sweet Kumato tomatoes eaten with chopped up Lebanese cucumbers.

The May Cause Miracles online conference.  So many magical peeps in one divine hit!

Being guided…by my inner-guide and the Universe.  So good.

Exotic Green smoothies

Exotic Green smoothie

Air-conditioning and cool breezes ─ both essential in the last few days here in Sydney, and both greatly appreciated!

My humongous reading capacity…and thank God, as I adore reading-&-learning!

SundaySundowners…especially when they are impromptu, the evening is balmy, the location, beachside and the folk just lovely!

SundaySundowners

Impromptu dinners with friends…where they cook for you with love!

Good music!  This week…Supreme Beings Of Leisure ─ yes!

Homemade yoghurt infused with orange blossom. Uh…DEEviiiine!

Entrepreneurial friends who are going after their dreams and getting there.  So much in common…so much with which to confer.

Girl on a swing

Family.  Full-stop.

Coconut butter.  The raw, organic kind.  So versatile….I eat it, cook with it, put it in my hair, on my face and on my body.  Pure goodness.  And it smells divine.

Wednesday’s moon.

Harbour adventures ─ mid-week!

msbrownskin

Being helpful.

Waking up ‘in the middle of nowhere’

Using everything in my fridge, freezer and pantry before hitting the store!  Such an accomplished feeling.

Making stand-out meals, twice in one week, with pretty much ‘nothing’ in the way of ingredients…it’s Nigella on a WHOLE new level!

Being so incredibly well-looked-after, when out at my local grocer’s…service…kindness.

Fresh sheets!

Lavender essential oil…and pure rose water.

The best things…because they are always freeeeee!

“This man can monologue like nobody’s business”!!  ”louche and raucous”…”broody and belligerent”  So so so grateful for words…such wicked wizardry!

Salmon soaked in Harissa, and mini baked potatoes together with organic butter, sour cream and fresh coriander… all joining forces on my plate-party.  Sooooo beyond YUM!

Inner hustle (!!!!), a gooooood Good Friday, chilling and only minor plans…& serious anticipation of Diana Vreeland’s The Eye Has To Travel!

Happy Easter!  Inhale some LOVE as well as the chocolate!

xx