2010 – A Year in Review

Wow, I cannot believe 2010 is almost over! I know I’m not the only one who think this year went ridiculously fast. I remember going to the Good Vibrations festival in Sydney, having my 10 year high school reunion and moving into my awesome unit like it was last week (all happened in February) and I can’t believe I have had three, if not four, vastly different jobs in the last 12 months. I didn’t go overseas once this year while I managed to be overseas three separate time in 2009. That’s probably why the year flew by so quickly this year, as I didn’t have major holidays to look forward to, which tends to make time slow down drastically.

If I was going to be honest I’d tell you that 2010 hasn’t been my finest year. As I said, I’ve changed jobs a lot this year with some moves being great and others being not-so-great. Recently I lost my job, a job I loved, only to find myself staying within the company and into a position that I now also enjoy. It was tough but I try not to dwell too much and move on with my life. It did help me realise I am not content with where I am in life and have vowed to do something creative, most likely graphic design, next year. So now I am saving up to do a full-time course or at least a part time one sometime in 2011.

It’s not all been bad though of course. I’ve done some good things which I am proud of. I maintained this blog all year which is a pretty big deal for someone as vague and forgetful as me. I got into nail art and got over my fear of posting photos of me wearing clothes on the internet. I am also the fittest and healthiest (and therefor, slimmest) I have been in years which is an awesome accomplishment which I plan to continue. I’ve done some dumb diets and lost weight but this is the first time I just ate healthy and exercised a lot and I am really toned and so damn healthy, it’s sickening!

I managed to go to a heap of festivals, I didn’t even let the fact two of them were on the same day up here in QLD and went on a road trip down to Sydney for Good Vibes and then got to see one of my favourite bands, Faith No More, play up in Brisbane (and I also got to meet the band Anvil who I was briefly obsessed with thanks to their doco). I also saw Lady Gaga twice in one weekend and Calvin Harris twice this year, both of whom I love very much. I also managed to run one of the biggest events in Brisbane – the Brisbane Zombie Walk. 10,000 people and $13k raised in donations later, we officially run the larehst zombie walk anywhere in the world.

OK so maybe it wasn’t that bad after all. I didn’t travel and I am still without a bangin’ career but I am working on both of those things. In fact I am working on a lot of things already, including getting more crafty with the new sewing machine my mum bought me for Christmas as well as my new found love of scrapbooking. I also intend to totally overhaul my blog soon and so some excellent things with it which I haven’t had a chance to do yet.

I wish you all a fun New Years Eve and hope 2011 is all you want it to be. Don’t forget to keep safe and if you’re heading out, be responsible and look how while doing so! (Just remember to hide the tacky plastic cups when posing for photos, as I quickly learned today. Ooops!)

For my last few days of 2010, I plan to relax a whole heap, sleep in late, catch up with old friends and then head down to the Gold Coast for some trashy NYE fun before the first festival of the new year – Summafieldayze! Catch ya’ll on the flip side!

Christmas Break 2010

So it’s Christmas Eve and I am contemplating packing my car with various delicious ham-related treats and heading to my mum’s for the holidays. I have the whole week off (shock) so will be relaxing, chilling out and generally taking it easy. So you probably won’t see much of me again until the new year (but maybe you will…  it depends on how bored I get).

Have a safe and Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Or whatever holiday season you happen to celebrate. Actually, I just wish you an enjoyable time off work. Yes, that’s nice and safe…

My Vampire Birthday Party

So you’d think that now I’m well and truly in my late 20s that I’d stop having themed parties. WELL YOU’RE WRONG. I love having themed parties, but not just one of those boring decade parties (like 80′s parties or the dreaded flapper/gangster parties you see everywhere) but really specific ones. Like out Doomed Lovers party for Valentines Day one year (Anthony and I were Rihanna and Chris Brown) and our excellent Superheroes on a Budget party! For my birthday this year I decided I’d go for Vampires since I missed out on Halloween this year thanks to the zombie walk (and boy am I sick of zombies these days). I’ve loved vampires for years, especially the old ones starring Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee as well as the recent, sexy TV shows like True Blood and yes, even Vampire Diaries.

I knew it was going to be a smaller sort of party considering it was on the last weekend before Christmas (damn having a birthday on December 23rd) but that didn’t stop me from going all out on decorating the place. I got some awesome vampire decorations from Martha Stewart’s Halloween range from Scrapbook.com and I also had a lot of help from my mum who made gravestones out of cardboard and cut out dozens of bat shapes before spending hours making almost 100 mini cupcakes with me the night before. I scoured the internet in the weeks leading up to the party looking for good ideas but found few that weren’t totally tacky and/or aimed at children. So we just used fake spiderwebs, lots of bats and dark decor to make my unit look like Dracula’s lair and had lots of red foods and drinks to keep the theme. It was so much fun to set up, but I was totally beat before the party even started. I might try not to go so crazy for my next party, I think (haha yeah right).

WHAT I WORE:

Dress: From Retro Metro, Paddington (I think it was some sort of costume as they had heaps in various colours)
Boots: Bought off a good friend who got them from Pulp – an amazing investment!
Gloves: From Adornments, Paddington.
Necklace: Not sure, probably from Diva or somewhere similar.
Hat: From my sister – from Dollars & Sense of all places!
Hair: My trusty extensions from Price Attack
Stockings: Ambra from David Jones (the best fishnets ever, I assure you).

And just for fun here are few snaps taken during the night (hover for descriptions):

Oh and in case you’re wondering how I got such kickarse vampire teeth, you’ll want to check out Dracula House. We got the werewolf fangs as there are four teeth which seemed like a good investment. They stick with this weird putty stuff that sets and become small plates that come out easily but stay put amazingly too. Don’t try and use these with crazy acrylic nails like I did – they stick like shit to a blanket! Get someone else to put them in for you, which is probably the best way to do it anyway as you may end up throwing many tantrums if you try and do it by yourself!

See the rest of the photos on my Facebook gallery.

Night Walks in Brisbane

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I love walking in cities at night. I love how much a city changes just by being lit up after dark. Tonight I went for a walk around and through Brisbane City because I haven’t done that in such a long time, and I loved it. I actually really miss working in the City, even though I’m sure I’m saving heaps of money by working in the most boring area on earth. As I walked I made a few observations:

• The boardwalk is crazy-busy at 7pm on a Tuesday night. You can hardly walk for runners, bicycles and couples strolling along the riverside. It’s nice to see people getting out and about and enjoying the beautiful weather warm weather tonight.
• There is this smell as you walk along the boardwalk, as you pass under Jade Buddha that smells like a thousand dead vagina’s. I’m serious, it’s just the worst smell ever. I try and hold my nose as I walk through there but it always manages to get me. Just FYI.
• There are a lot of bars and restaurants around Brisbane that I’ve never gone to that I’d really like to try someday. I think 2011 will be my year to try them all out.
• The Brisbane wigga’s still exist! They apparently hang out outside the Timezone on Albert Street. Or maybe they always did. Either way it was hilarious!
• There are some really pretty lights up across Queen Street (between Edward and Creek streets). They remind me of the ones they have around Oxford Circus in London. They need more though, only a couple of sets of them just aren’t enough.
• The City Cycle bikes are everywhere now, I really want to get a membership. This is why I should be working in the City! I can ride one to work and then walk or train it home without worrying about leaving my own bicycle unattended. I love it!
• They’ve really overhauled a few of the dodgy little parks, particularly the ones near the Valley. It’s good to see some landscaping and interesting street furniture instead of scary dark spots and angry drunk hobo’s.
• Brisbane is actually very quiet. As I walked I was impressed by how tranquil and peaceful it was. Of course there are traffic sounds but it was a dull hum in the background without car horns or loud engines hooning by. I doubt there are many cities in the world that can boast that.

I probably noticed a lot more but I was trying to exercise/didn’t have anything to write my observations down on. It was just really nice and I’m going to do it more often.

Tell me about your City and the  nice, strange, stinky and funny things you notice!

The Big O and why I’m glad she’s here

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So Oprah is in Australia at the moment. Never before have I heard such a hubbub about a celebrity visiting this country. I can’t say I’m a huge fan of her but I do enjoy watching her show whenever the opportunity presents itself (ie. sick from work). When I heard that she was coming to Australia I thought “Oh that’s cool” and didn’t think much of it until she was actually due to arrive and BOOM the media circus really took off.

There seems to be a lot of negativity coming from the general public about her coming here. People complaining that our taxes are footing the bill for the security and police presence she’ll inevitably need, the fact her visit will be disruptive, that she’s not important enough to warrant so much attention and so on. Then there was that McDonalds ad which I admit was pretty stupid and misleading (um so only guys have business meeting while women do nothing but “catch up with friends”, please). Oh and the terrible scandal of how there was a quiz on her site with some tough questions testing peoples knowledge of Australia. Oh come on, while wasn’t the best quiz I’ve ever witnessed, it was actually kind of interesting and the fact a bunch of boon’s didn’t even know about the Dingo fence, it goes to show it may have actually helped some Aussie’s learn something about our country. Everyday there’s something new in the news, almost always with a bunch of nasty, whiny comments from disgruntled Aussie’s who just don’t get it.

Love her or hate her, she’s a HUGE influence on a lot of Americans. While we’ve had to spend a lot to impress her and keep her safe, the amount of money our country will make when all of her generally clueless American fans suddenly find out what Australia is all about and start coming here to holidays will be countless. The amount of knowledge the average American has about our country could barely fill a matchbox. And now they will not only get to see all of what we have to offer, but also get a first hand account of how great Australia from Oprah, who we all know can sway millions of people to buy anything that she says is good. Having her here is way better publicity for us than it would for Obama to come, because he wouldn’t be making a bunch of shows to document his trip like Oprah is. And let’s not forget, she’s about to retire and this will be her big finale which just makes it all that more important and exciting.

So if you’re one of those “Oprah go home” types, have a think about the bigger picture. It’s not about her, it’s about how many of her American fans will soon be pumping their US dollars into our economy and how soon we will have less people out there who think we all ride kangaroos to the shops and wear green khakis everyday after wrestling crocodiles while shouting “crikey” (no offense to Steve Irwin, of course).

Nailin’ It – Rainbow Gems

OK this is a quick one. Someone didn’t take photos before half the gems started falling off. Luckily I took pics of one hand, but still, the whole thing would have been nice.

Just for the record, that’s a bottle of lemon juice. I took photos holding my roll-on deodorant but it kind of looked like a little vibrator so I scrapped it very quickly! It’s a shame I didn’t take a photo of the other hand, I actually got my mum to help with it and it looked a whole lot better. So just imagine this but even better on my other hand, aight?

I had the idea of making a rainbow out of gems on my nails a while ago, and this is my attempt. It was time consuming and not quite as glorious as I’d hoped. Firstly I really didn’t have any orange gems which was a bummer, so I had to kind of create the illusion of orange with various red and browns which was pretty effective, though I am still puzzled by why they have brown bloody gems and not orange ones!

While I am getting better at applying big-ass jewels to my nails, I now work in a position where I use my hand a lot, so they’re just not practical. I’m pretty sure I have customers unwrapping boxes and finding random coloured gems in the bubble wrap, which I think would be a lovely surprise, but maybe that’s just me ;)

I plan on doing a tutorial on nails soon, so keep an eye out for that later this month (as I will have time off work over Christmas/New years and can bling the hell out of them). If you have any suggestions for designs or any questions you’d like me answer about nails, let me know!

What I Wore – A Night Out in November

I don’t go out clubbing that much any more. Not because I’m necessarily over it or anything, but I am trying to be responsible with money plus the migraines that come with a big night out are getting worse as I get closer to the age of 30 (*shriek*) so I tend to only go out when I have something to go to. This is my outfit from last Saturday night, which was a friends 30th at one of my favourite Brisbane clubs, Alhambra. I have to admit it’s one of my favourites, which I also have in black. It’s real silk, plus there’s sequins and fancy straps and oh man… I love this dress. I got it from Forever New earlier in the year after falling in love with it a month or two earlier. I couldn’t justify the $150 or so that it cost, and couldn’t decide which colour I liked more. Then one day I found it on sale for $80. I went to get the black one, discovered it was 50% sale items so I ended up getting the black and pink/purple ones for $80 altogether. Best day ever!

Detail

I cannot get my camera to get the true colour, it’s actually more pink than this, but you get the idea. It’s only downfall is that the sequins can scratch the shit out of your arm as you’re dancing. But the amazing, swishy skirt more than makes up for that!

And just for laughs, check out an action shot of me at the club. Ruby Velour = True Class.

Dress – Forever New
Fishnets – Ambra
Shoes – Rubi
Hair flower – Dotti
Bracelet – Found on the floor of a club one time ;)

It’s a small, Deutschrock-loving world

Let me tell you a little story about a cool thing that happened to me today. I was asked to grab something from the chemist by my boyfriend after work. Luckily for him I needed to needed to grab a few things so ran up before they closed. As I walked in I saw this guy with the above shirt. Now, unless you’re German or really into German music, you won’t have a clue what that shirt is about. Briefly, it is a shirt of my favourite band Die Ärzte who is a German rock band that I have worshiped since I was 15 years old. They’re the reason I made my way to German back in 2004 (where I saw them live 10 times!) and I actually happen to have three tattoos related to them. So seeing a guy in this shirt at the chemist near my house was pretty damn shocking. In fact the only other time I ever saw someone in a shirt of theirs was a German girl who was lined up before me at an ATM last year. Despite the fact I hate approaching strangers, let alone initiating polite conversation with them, I asked him “Is that a Die Ärzte shirt” and we had a bit of a chat about the band as we were both pretty excited that we’d randomly bumped into someone who knew this obscure German band in lil old Brisbane.

But that’s not even the best bit. he then asked me if I know Fettes Brot. Well, of course I do, they’re my favourite hip hop group of all times (and yes, also German). So much so my ringtone is their song Da Draussen! He then tells me about how something similar happened to him a few years ago where he was in a club wearing a shirt with their Demo tape icon on it when someone went up to him and asked him if he knew Fettes Brot. Now, it might just be a massive coincidence but I’m pretty sure that was me back in 2004, right before I moved to Germany at my work going-away party! Sure, there might be another Deutscher hip hop fan out there, but I doubt it. It was me, for sure!

So that was a cool and completely random twist to the end of my day. It makes me a bit sad and nostalgic for Die Ärzte as it’s really hand being a fan of  band that sing in another language that no one knows anything about. It’s such a shame too, because one look at their merch and you know they’re going to be an amazing band! Oh well I’ll just crank them up nice and loud on my drive to work tomorrow morning :)