and I play in the mud

Stampede in the Valley

The reason for the little craft session last night was to create some basic costumes for the Stampede in the Valley. Stampede in the Valley is a fun obstetrical coarse held at an equestrian park. We climbed up net walls, jumped over logs and rolled in mud. I competed, no, participated with two of my old school friends. The reason I say participated is because we went at a very leisurely pace. They encouraged dressing up so we grabbed some old clothes and created bird costumes. 

My bird mask (brought not made)

Race outfit

Never let me join your sack race team. I am terrible at it.

Action shot

I have also just discovered that birds have created a nest on my patio.There adorable and have such beautiful songs.

Tomorrow is a public holiday. I plan to rest and read a book. But plans never always come about. I hope everyone else enjoying a public holiday has a great day too.

Love, love Elle.

and it's a zoo day

Zoo Day!

Today I headed to the zoo with my boyfriend and a few friends. We went so the boys could play with their new cameras and to see the baby otters. The baby otters were asleep in their den but they still looked pretty cute. We luckily organised the zoo day for Grand Final day for Australian Rules Football and for a Royal show day. This meant that a lot of people were either sitting in front of a T.V. somewhere or where at the show, so the zoo wasn't packed. 

Here are a few happy snaps by me and my boyfriend.

^_^

After wandering around the zoo for a few hours we grabbed some kebabs and some cider (I got perry) and walked to the foreshore where we lazed around for an hour or so. 

It was a perfect zoo day with friends :)

I am off to another friends house now to do a little craft work for tomorrows adventure. Which you will have to wait til tomorrow to see!

I hope everyone else enjoyed today's amazing weather!

Love, love Elle.

and 31 spells the end

THE NEW 31 DAY FASHION BLOGGER CHALLENGE!

Well I have made it. It is the last day of the 31 Day Fashion Blogger Challenge. Yay! My final topic for this challenge is 'the thing you're obsessed with at the moment!'. I think without a doubt it is vintage fashion and vintage styled fashion. I have collected a few new pieces in recent weeks and I know that I will be collecting a lot more.

Just seconds ago put in an order for Bettie Page.

Bubble Up in Blue

This dress is coming my way. I have big plans for this dress so I hope I don't look ridiculous in it.

Alika Circle Dress in Black

This dress has been on my wish list for a while. I also brought a white Crinoline to go with it. Now that I have found Bettie Page Clothing I fear that my bank account is going to take a beating.

In much cuter news, my cousin gave birth last night. So after work I am off to visit her and her darling little boy. I have been sent a few photo's and he is very doll like. I hope there gift shop is open. If it isn't I will need to buy a little something for her tomorrow.

Yay for babies!

Until next time.
Love, love Elle.

and 30 before the last

THE NEW 31 DAY FASHION BLOGGER CHALLENGE!

I left my mobile at home today so I have come home in my lunch break to get it. So I have decided to make the most of it and write today's blog before I have to head back into work. I love being 10-15 minutes from work and having an hour lunch break just for days like this.

'Pretty Hair' for me is curly hair. I don't mind straightening my hair. But I rarely do it. My hair is naturally wavy and it naturally does what it wants half the time.

Cocktail party

Slightly drunk self photo.  Something weird was happening to my eyebrow.

To get my hair to curl and stay curled a lot of hairspray and styling spray is required. It is also best to over curl it, so I look like a poodle, so that it stays in place for longer. Back to work now!

Love, love Elle.

and 29 is clear

THE NEW 31 DAY FASHION BLOGGER CHALLENGE!

Today's post is 'Fave Of The Day' and today being a Wednesday I am at work all day so I haven't done anything interesting to my face. I like to play with make up when I go out and I have a lot of make up in a plethora of colours. I prefer buying the eye shadows which come with several complimenting colours in one compact, so I don't have to think about coordinating most nights. But then I get flurries of enthusiasm and pull out several sets and mix it up a bit.

Don't mind the bags :)

Excuse the harsh office lights and the dodgy camera phone photo. I used the front camera so I could take the photo sneakily and so that I could get my face in the shot in one go, so the quality is worse than normal.

My foundation is a little dark for me at the moment being that winter has just finished. I do use the lightest colour foundation that is easily obtainable. When I remember I put a little powder on to even the skin colour up. I use Bourjois Foundation Healthy Mix in Light Vanilla. It smells fruity and edible. My eyeliner is Face of Australia Liquid Eyeliner in Black. I have spent a long time finding a good dark liquid eyeliner and this one I am the happiest with at the moment. I have been trying out new mascara's and at the moment I am using The Colossal Volum Express for everyday use and I use other Maybelline ones for when I go out and for when I go swimming. I don't like to go without makeup ever. I even exercise in makeup. I use a Nude by Nature brow pencil in blonde. Yes I am wearing it in the photo. I just have very pale eyebrows. My blush is this peach colour from a multi-pack thing I have had for a while that needs to be replaced.

Well that is defiantly enough of talking about my face for quite a while.

Until tomorrow.
Love, love Elle.

and 28 too late

THE NEW 31 DAY FASHION BLOGGER CHALLENGE!

Only a few more fashion blogger posts left to come and then the challenge is over. I still haven't missed one yet but it has meant a few late nights just to complete the posts. Today's topic is 'something everyone has now'. Well I have never really been a head of the curve when it comes to fashion but I have had a top with a Peter Pan collar for about a year, or even more, and now it's one of the most popular features of fashion at the moment. I also have several dresses with peter pan collars, although I don't yet own a collar necklace.

Tokito Collared Top

I often wear this top with a plain black pencil skirt and patterned stockings. A pair of which I put a hole through today pulling them up. Kind of annoyed since they were fairly new but I just wasn't thinking.

I am feeling rather uninspired today. So I am off to make dinner (heat up frozen pizza maybe) and then sit down and watch some TV.

Love, love Elle.

and close behind 27

THE NEW 31 DAY FASHION BLOGGER CHALLENGE!

'Inspired by your style icon' is today's blog topic. I am inspired by a whole range of fashionable women, from the classics to modern beauties.

Grace Kelly

Grace Kelly epitomises femininity. She was always so elegant and, dare I say it, graceful.

Anne Hathaway

Anne has a stunning figure but I much prefer her with longer hair like the photo's above.

Audrey Hepburn

Always cute but smoldering at the same time.

And the most talked about fashion icon of today.

Kate Middleton.

I think I prefer my fashion to always be feminine. I prefer classics over too edgy. But I don't like to be defined by what I wear. Sometimes I want to wear a shift dress echoing the 60's and other days I want to wear a floral dress with a full skirt. Them I might wear my jeans with a t-shirt or shorts with a collared shirt.

I used to be fairly boring with my outfits but around 4 years ago I started mixing it up a whole lot more and I am still working on it. I am still trying to be brighter and funner with what I wear. A lady at work has challenge me to be colourful at work this Friday for the Free Dress Day, as I still wear a lot of black to work. We will see how I go. Maybe I might need to pull out the stockings with roses on them.

Well until next time.

Love, love Elle.

and 26 days in to it

THE NEW 31 DAY FASHION BLOGGER CHALLENGE!

I am a little slow off of the mark this morning. I had a big night last night at the cocktail party. Two nights spent in heels in a row means I was awoken to horrible cramps in my calves last night. The only thing I have done this morning is eat lollies from the goody bags we were given.

Well enough about that for now. Today's topic is 'Whats in your bag'. I don't particularly like my bag. I brought it for cheap because my last one was falling to pieces and I didn't have enough time to find one I really liked. It's plain black because I take it to work with me and it meant I didn't have to think about much when I was buying it.

I never used to allow myself to have a huge bag because I knew that I'd just fill it with junk. But over the years my bag has become bigger and bigger and now it is full of junk.

Essentials:
Wallet
Lip balm
Lip moisturiser
Hand Cream
Foundation
Sunscreen
Paracetamol
Emery board
Comb
Very old iPod (I'm going to use it until it dies)

Non-essentials:
Lip gloss
Note pad (cute owl thing)
Pen
Mints (I normally don't have two)
Hand sanitiser (I brought this for a recent trip abroad now it's staying in my bag)
Sugar free lolly things
Eye liner

Oh and my phone... But that is somewhere hidden around the house at the moment. My phone is in the essentials category.

I managed to pull myself away from the couch today and I headed into Northbridge to check out the Popsicle event for the Perth Fashion Festival. Little shops dotted along William Street took part in the event. There was also a mini market in an empty shop showcasing lots of handmade items. I brought two necklaces from inside the mini market. One from La Boheme and another from another shop but I can't remember which one.

La Boheme

Other one

I also visited Oh Henry!  where I brought an early 1970's dress and I have another dress waiting for me to pick up in the next few weeks. I also brought a dress from Mrs Browns Vintage.. Although I am not sure what era this dress is from.

Early 70's dress from Oh Henry!

Vintage dress from Mrs Brown

Sorry about the bad light. Buy the time I got home the sun was setting.

Love, love Elle.

and a quarter to 25

THE NEW 31 DAY FASHION BLOGGER CHALLENGE!

I am now 25 days in to the Fashion Blogger Challenge. Today's topic is 'A totally YOU outfit'. Although I love wearing dresses and jewellery the outfit that is totally me is jeans, a top and sneakers.

Introducing Dallas!

A lake where I take my dog for a walk

High top fluoro pink Dunlops  

Last night we went to The Village for a friends birthday drinks. I never knew where the place was even though I had been shopping right near it just two months ago. We got there a bit early and ordered dinner. I had a Chicken Pie and it actually had a lot of chicken in it. Which is always a plus. Then for desert I had a brownie. It was amazing. I was thinking it was just for one person since it only costed $10, but it was huge and came with 2 spoons. I had a willing participant to help me eat it.

Chicken, mushroom & sweet corn pie with mash & peas

Warm chocolate brownie, vanilla bean ice cream & choc cherry

The Village is nice but the music was a bit loud. Probably because we were right near the DJ. It was a good spot for the end of the night for some dancing but at the beginning when we were trying to eat and talk it was a bit hard to hear anything. The music they played was from my childhood and teenage years with a few new ones. The DJ unfortunately had no idea how to blend songs. He would start scratching when one song was coming to an end and then stop when a new song started.

The night ended with a quick trip to Gelare on the way to the car for some late night icecream. Always a brilliant end to the night.

Off to get ready for a girls night in and a very cocktails!

Until next time.
Love, love Elle.

and get ready for 24

THE NEW 31 DAY FASHION BLOGGER CHALLENGE!

'An item that brings all the boys to the yard'. Errrrmmmm. Sexy clothes time? There hasn't been too much in my recent wardrobe that 'brings all the boys to the yard' and if there was it would have been completely covered in a coat.

I love this peplum shirt I brought from Dotti a few weeks back. I paired it with a thin black belt I had from another top. It accentuates the waist even more. I am also wearing black denim shorts and plain black heals.  One upside to being tall is that I have by default really long legs so shorts are a bit of a favourite of mine. I will be wearing a variation of this tonight. Instead of the shorts, I am wearing dark jeans since it's pretty cold outside. I will then cover the whole thing in a giant red coat so you can't see any of it. Unless we are inside in the warmth!

Mexican last night was great. Well my food was anyway. I am becoming a huge fan of Chicken Fajitas. I prefer them over burritos because you can choose to had a tonne of cheese and sour cream or only a smidgen. Others were less impressed with their meal but mostly because of a mistake by the waiter or the kitchen.

Off to dinner again tonight. This time a nice bar meal at The Village Bar, Subiaco for a friends birthday drinks. We are heading in early for dinner. I have been scouring the menu for a few days. I like to prepare myself for whats to come. The specials always throw me though!

Until tomorrow.
Love, love Elle.

and 23 be it

THE NEW 31 DAY FASHION BLOGGER CHALLENGE!

Today's topic in the 31 Day Fashion Blogger Challenge is about 'Something from your favourite store'. My favourite store was a toss up between Portmans and Forever New. For work clothes and some dresses I go to Portmans while for more casual clothes I go to Forever New. Although I do own some pretty nice dresses from Forever New.

I decided to go with Portmans as my favourite and this is the dress I love by them.

Portmans - Bold Stripe Dress

Like a lot of my dresses it has sleeves and also like a lot of my clothes it has stripes. The one downside to this dress was the fact that the silky tie keeps slipping and I have to keep adjusting it.

I wore the dress to my work's Christmas dinner last year from which this photo was taken. As you can see, the tie had slipped. The dress was also released with short sleeves and also in a pink. This year it was re-released with an alternating striped pattern.

I'm off to get ready for dinner now. It must seem that I go to dinner a lot. I never really used to but recently I have been out for dinner at least once a week or close to it.

Mexican tonight!

Until tomorrow.

Love, love Elle.

and 22 is the way

THE NEW 31 DAY FASHION BLOGGER CHALLENGE!

The topic for today is 'A piece of clothing or jewellery that was a gift'. My selected topic for this blog is a necklace that I wear pretty much everyday. Other than a pair of simple sleeper earrings it is the only jewellery that I wear all of the time. Only when I 'dress up' my jewellery do I not wear it.

It has a tiny little elephant pendant. I got the necklace for Christmas in 2008 from my boyfriend. We had only been dating for a few weeks but we had been friends for about 2 years before hand. He has brought be jewellery since then but it's a lot fancier and I only wear it for special occasions.

A couple of weeks back the chain broke but luckily it was in my lounge room. There is a tiny little soldering mark at the back from where the jeweller fixed it. Hopefully it will stay in place for many years to come! But he did say that if it breaks and I lose it, he will buy me a new one which is even better. But nothing could replace this simple, cute necklace and the memories it holds.

Well until next time.
Love, love Elle.

and by the power of 21

THE NEW 31 DAY FASHION BLOGGER CHALLENGE!

Well I am on the home stretch now. The topic of today's post is 'Something that is your favourite brand'. My favourite designer at the moment is Alannah Hill. I don't own anywhere near as many Alannah Hill clothes as I would like. The amount of clothing I actually own by her totals one... This dress I brought for a Kitchen Tea earlier in the year is my only item of clothing, although I would love a lot more.

I Heart You Frock

It's from her 2011-2012 Spring-Summer collection. 

 Kitchen Tea

Lulu Pointelle Cardigan Mint - Forever New

Are You Red-dy Lipstick - Maybelline

Wedding (different friend)

Lulu Pointelle Cardigan Cream - Forever New

My sister has also borrowed this dress for a 1950's style maternity photo shoot.

Alannah Hills has just released her new collection and this is my mini wish list!

1. Bake Me A Cake Frock

2. Are The Birds Singing? Frock

3. Lips To Kiss Cardigan

4. California English Necklace

5. Oh Just Pretend Dear Coat

I don't think I am in love as much with this 12-13 Spring-Summer collection as I was for the Autumn-Winter collection.

and to 20 and beyond

THE NEW 31 DAY FASHION BLOGGER CHALLENGE!

20 days in and the topic today is 'Shoes you love but hardly wear'. The shoes I love but hardly ever wear are a cute pair of heels I brought last year for a 1920's Hen's day. They are a cute pair Mary Jane heels from Target.

I don't wear them very often because I don't wear heels very often. Even in flats I get comments on how tall I am. I also get woken up in the middle of the night with cramps in my calves if I wear heels for too long.

These heels aren't too high though and they are pretty comfortable to wear.

Dinner last night was great. We met some friends at a pub. It was a last minute thing but well worth it. I had Tandoori chicken for dinner and an amazing sticky date pudding for dessert.

Sticky Date Pudding - Greenwood Tavern

I have a big week of eating ahead of me. I have a dinner both Thursday and Friday night and a cocktail party on Saturday. So maybe expect a few more photos of food.

I hope everyone else's week is full of amazing food!

Love, love Elle.

and finally 19 has arrived

THE NEW 31 DAY FASHION BLOGGER CHALLENGE!

Well we are on the home stretch of the 31 day fashion blogger challenge and today's topic is 'An article of clothing/jewellery that instantly makes you feel great'. The article of clothing that I love and make me feel great straight away are my favourite pair of shoes.

I was in an op-shop looking at some work clothes when I noticed these shoes on display. I tried them on and from the other end of the shop the sales assistant called out telling me how great they looked. They fitted perfectly and were only $13. When I got home I looked up the brand 'Vickie' and found that they are a custom shoe company in Hong Kong.

 My feel good shoes. 

The reasons why they make me feel good as soon as I put them on, other than the fact that they fit so perfectly, are because they have a nice comfortable heel which doesn't make me feel ginormous and because there pattern is slightly quirky

The reason for yesterdays extremely short blog was because I had spent half the day baking and then spent the rest of the day travelling and partying. My sister commented on her Facebook page the night before her party, that she wanted to know if it was lame to buy her own birthday cake. After toing and froing about it with me I told her she should have let me know earlier and I would have made her one. It was decided that I would buy her one instead, since there wasn't much time for me to bake one. Then that night when I was getting ready for bed, I decided that I couldn't buy my sister her 30th birthday cake. I pulled out some of my cook books and picked out a few cake choices. I woke up early the next morning, chose the cake and then headed to the shops to buy the ingredients and the cake tins.

The cake I chose was a Donna Hay recipe. I used her chocolate mud cake recipe, doubling the ingredients to make two cakes (this was hard since I didn't have a mixing bowl large enough and ended up using a giant pasta pot). I then used her chocolate fudge icing recipe to sandwich them together and covered the whole thing in her chocolate ganache recipe.

30th Birthday Cake

Half way

 I used a cocoa powder which was darker than I normally would use and I used a good quality 70% dark chocolate as well. So my dad and all of the other dark chocolate eaters loved it. For those who weren't such a fan of dark chocolate, the cake was served with vanilla icecream to sweeten the deal. My dad said it was one of the best chocolate cake's he has ever had. So he had seconds and kept a slab of cake for later.

A few quick photo's from the rest of today. Breakfast was at a little cafe called 'Benesse Coffee'. Pancakes of coarse. Then we took a quick stroll to the beach and sat and watched the waves crash over the basalt rocks. We then me up with some of my family and spent the rest of the morning at the park with my nieces and nephew. Lunch was at my dad's then back home. Off to the pub for dinner tonight. I'm exhausted already and still quite full.

Weird mint thing coming out of pancakes

Art Gallery

Beach

Well until tomorrow.
Love, love Elle.