The lovely team at Peppermint asked if I could send them a couple of pics last month, then surprised me with this delightful feature!

Just click to enlarge and read detail.

Thanks Peppermint. You put together a great mag and I’m honoured to be n such great company this month.

This October issue is currently in store now!

Sunday, we braved the chilly morning and headed in to Camberwell Market with Jimmy America and Violet Le Beaux for a day of treasure hunting. It was one of those days though, where you find yourself too short on cash for all the amazing finds. I must have found half of the things on my lust list in one morning! So to satiate my desire, I photographed some of my favourite things to share…

Just you wait Camberwell Markets… I’ll be saving my pennies and I’ll be back!

You saw the Nautical / Military inspired outfit I put together last week for Westfield, and this week I was still feeling the same vibe.  I wanted something casual for a Saturday afternoon’s work that was quick, easy and comfortable. It took about 10 minutes to pull together the outfit as well as doing the hair and the makeup for this one. It just comes down to a bit of forward planning and having a classic, well practiced look.

Outfit Details

Striped Top – Friends of Couture Winter ’10 season
Wide Leg Pants – By me to my design.
Shoes – Keds
Swallow earrings – Diva
Cherry nail art stickers – The Face Shop
Lip colour – “Poppy” Savvy by DB from Priceline

Do you have a formula for how you accessorise your outfits each day? Is it just down to necessities, current trends, mood or colours? When I see a woman who has put as much thought into her accessories as she has into her outfit, it always blows me away.   More often than not, even bothering to do their hair is seen as too much for many women ( yes, lady in the lift this morning who bothered to put on a suit but tied up your wet hair in an elastic band – I’m talking to you!).  It is the difference between looking good and looking fan -friggin-tastic!  It is that extra effort that leaves you gobsmacked in the street wondering just how they managed to pull together something so cohesive.

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I have a few friends who are always so perfectly accessorized that I can almost see their wardrobes materialise before my eyes.  It isn’t just about matching black bag to black shoes and gloves, but down to the finish.  One has total crocodile finished sets in an alarming array of colours. Another has her shades and opalescence of yellows down to such a fine art, she appears to be cast by the hand of Murano.

When I see these women I also imagine that their methods for storing and cataloging said accessories must be far superior to mine, and that if perhaps I found this secret to storage, my own efforts would end up a similar testament to orderly beauty. But then again perhaps not…

We all have different ways of thinking about the “cherry on top” of our looks, and my own methods vary greatly depending on the day, the mood, and what hasn’t been ransacked by small hands. (I recently found three missing earrings in three different boots in the house).  I have a method of storing all my accessories which also determines how I wear them.  I have several jewelry boxes and each one houses things not by colour or type, but by feel.

For instance, one box houses only vintage jewelry sets from 1950-1960, another houses only pink lolita style pieces. There is a small glass coffin that houses all the more goth pieces, the chokers, the lace, the black; and yet another that houses all the modern rhinestone pieces. Of course if it is vintage rhinestone it has to go in its era appropriate case.  It may sound like a chaotic system to some, but at this point it works for me.

But I’m curious. Curious to know just how do you accessorise? What is you method of finishing your look and what is the logic behind how you keep all your pieces stored? Perhaps I can learn something to keep those earrings out of boots…. or perhaps I should just buy a safe!

Yay! Finally it is tutorial time again!

This time around I’m going to show you that long promised tutorial on how to use liquid liner to create a simple, retro, winged liner look.  This is a great starting point for beginners and those of you that don’t have such a steady hand.  You can use this same technique to bump it up a notch and go for a heavier Amy Winehouse style of liner or keep it a more subtle Marilyn Monroe style wing.

Enjoy!