Okay, I was really really excited about this news. The moment I fond out that Kitty Daisy & Lewis were hitting Melbourne, I hit up the ticketing outlet as fast as I could. As it turned out they had only one Melbourne date and that clashed with my upcoming overseas trip. Boo. So Mr SKM did some quick rearranging and next thing you know I had my tickets to go and see this talented family for the first time! Yay!

If you haven’t heard about this group yet, check out this video of one of my favourite songs.

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Know who I’m talking about now? This is one bloody talented family!

So when the evening of the concert came around, we all got tizzed up in the 40 degree heat and headed into town.

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It was really, really hot still even though the sun was on its way down. So combine that factor with a sweaty dance venue and standing for hours and I had to make a creative outfit choice.

The dress is by the fabulous Bernie Dexter and is worn with one of her petticoats underneath. The bag is a denim and pink bow studded number from Yes Style. The cowboy boots I found at Retrostar and where just perfect for the Hillbilly sounds of Kitty Daisy & Lewis… as well as the standing and walking to be done!

Not only are Kitty, Daisy & Lewis very talented young siblings, but they brought their parents to play with them! Mum on double base, dad on guitar, and those ‘kids’ tackling every other instrument known to man, (almost).

I also have some video footage of the night, but thanks to a stupid new file format that the camera I was using was set to, I now have to go through a whole process of conversion that is going to require two computers! I’m still doing it though as I refuse to let it get the better of me… so stay tuned later in the week to see what I shot.

Anyway, it was a great night out. I’ve been really enjoying seeing so much live music of late. It has been years since I’ve had the chance, what with small children and all, but now that they are a bit bigger I’m heading out every chance I get. Especially considering that live music here in Melbourne is an endangered species with the current venue licensing legislation… that’s a whole other story.

All the fun I’ve been having in town here recently has inspired me to go searching for something different on my next trip. I’m heading to Thailand and Singapore next week and thinking how much fun it would be to seek out local bands and see their take on my favourite music. So if you have any recommendations for great locations and or bands, especially in Singapore, do let me know and I promise to take some cool footage to share with you of those too!

Sometimes I’m glad I move things to the back of my wardrobe for a while. Yes, some of those things should never ever see the light of day again, but this dress; well I had a feeling it might just come around again one day.

I first bought this dress about five years ago, back when the whole maxi / Grecian thing was going strong. When I wore it then, it was with a few layers of self tan and large beaded earrings, all very goddess style. During that summer however, I discovered that the reason I was feeling so queasy at a dinner party wasn’t the shrimp cocktail but rather the arrival of Miss 3 on the scene. With only a very little stretch in this chiffon number, it was hastily relegated to wardrobe storage and hasn’t seen an outing since. Until a hot summer night last week that is…

Outfit Details:

Dress – unlabelled and I have no idea where it came from..

Shoes – rope wedges with gold trim from Target about four years ago

Bangle – faux scrimshaw from Diva

Hair flowers – two separate flowers worn together from Something Else Clothing

My style hasn’t changed all that much in the past five years, but I have completely given up on even attempting the self tan look. I much prefer the pale and interesting variety. It didn’t take much to give this rather ‘on trend’ dress a more vintage vibe, just a large side sweep in the front of my hair, a side pony tail and a couple of oversized fabric flowers. I’m pretty darn pleased that I kept this dress after all these years now. It was cool, comfortable and perfect for dancing in the rain at midnight…

*This is not a sponsored review in any way. Just me attempting to see what results, disasterous or otherwise, may come from my intrepid beauty adventures. As usual, all opinions, expressions and bad jokes are my own. *

Having amazing hair all of the time isn’t impossible, it just takes dedication. The only problem with that is that some days I’m just not feeling all that dedicated. Other than my usual routine of a once a week set, I’ve been trying to come up with another hair option that doesn’t leave me feeling like Wurzel Gummage. (If you know who he is I salute you!!)
I have the kind of hair that responds badly to moisture. It is super thick, it has a natural wave and due to the dryness of the blonde streak, I try not to use a blow dryer on it whenever possible. If I set it in simple pin curls it comes out fine, but I don’t always have the time to spare, and sometimes I’m just too plain done in to bother with anything. (It has been school holidays for a month here already…) So I’ve been trying to come up with another choice.

Back when I was about 13 years old, scrunching your hair with mousse was all the rage. I had the full Flash Dance head of messy curls going on that would crunch under your finger tips and god forbid you should ever attempt to run a brush through it. Every now and again I’ve entertained the though of trying mousse again, but those images came back to haunt me. However, last week in a moment of exhausted desperation and advertising brain washing, I gave in to the promise of “violet scented” mousse in the form of the new Clairol Herbal Essences product that promised me a softly tousled look.

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Okay, it says it is flexible so that sounded promising on the no crunchiness front.  I applied the mousse in the regular way – to wet but not soaking hair, while my head was upside down. I find that doing it this way and running your fingers through the top and bottom gives the best coverage.  I was loathed to ‘scrunch’ it as I still can’t get past that mid ’80′s look in my nightmarish memories.  So instead I just let it fall where it may and dry naturally. This meant no combing or brushing, just leaving the loose kinks to sit wherever they wanted.

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It dried off quite well but still required styling to pull it into some sort of manageable shape.

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While the bottom had good curl and volume, there was still the issue of the frizz or fluff around the edges.

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So I combed the top bit and smoothed it with a little macadamia oil to stop so many fly-aways.

Over all, I’d have to say I’m happy with this as a relaxed casual day look.  The mousse was light and easy to apply, and yes it did smell like violets.  It didn’t go crunchy, so it meant that I was able to brush my hair into another shape the following day and with the addition of a little smoothing serum after a 24 hours period to let it all settle, the curls formed a smoother look.

So what do you think? Relaxed, tousled hair – is it a winner?  Oh and a note on my lipstick here; as it happens I was also trying out a new liner and allegedly matching lip colour combination. On viewing the pics it seems that they are not so matching after all. I’m trying to decide if this graduated tone look is good or if I just remind myself of Pamela Anderson circa 1998… Hmmm…

You could call my style eclectic, possibly a little eccentric, but I like to think of myself as a fashion tourist.

There are far too many rules in life and there are far too many rules in fashion. And yes, while some of those life rules might be there for our own good, there are plenty of fashion rules that will do us all the more better if only we have the courage to break them.

I’m not saying that you should go out and unleash yourself in leggings as pants, but just change the way you see your look and mix it up once in a while. For me by far the best recent experiment has been the addition of a great pair of cowboy boots to my wardrobe. Of course when these were on trend you couldn’t have gotten me near a pair for love nor money. But given the right moment, (cowgirl photo shoot) I had the opportunity to wear a pair and feel a vibe I hadn’t felt before.

Even though I did go out and get myself a few ruffled gingham  and plaid shirts to complete the look, that doesn’t mean that it should stop there.  Over the next month I kept the boots beside my mirror and every time I pulled something else out of the closet would think about how I might be able to work it back with those boots. Clearly it wasn’t going to work with a cocktail frock, but a cotton 50’s day dress and those plum boots soon became good friends.

I don’t go in for short shorts, but something with a similar length was next on my ‘things to find that will make love to my cowboy boots’ list. Then I found a little tea stained layered tulle skirt.  Add loads of chiffon in floaty floral prints, and the boots anchor the sweet girlyness of it to stop me coming off like a fourteen year old.

My boots have become good friends. They come to tea parties, markets, dances, they even made part of my Melbourne Cup outfit this year! (The one day on the calendar here that everyone wears frock and hats, it only stands to reason that that is the day I shouldn’t!)

I like the way they make me stand, the way they make you want to put your hands in your pockets and flick your thumbs out. The way they make me smile ever so slyly, and the way they look on the dance floor appearing underneath my big skirts and ruffled chiffon petticoats.

This is how I wore them this week.

Outfit Details:

Pink crochet top – GAP

Floral dress with tulle trim -Chicabooti

Plum cowboy boots – Vintage

Faux scrimshaw bangle – Diva

Pink hairbow- Hopeless Accessories

Purple Scotty dog clip – Art Box

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This is one fashion tour I’m so glad I took. I think I may just move in here.

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Food is always so much better with a face on it. If that face is Hello Kitty’s all the better! It’s no great secret that I’m not the world’d greatest chef, I ADORE food in all its glory, but I am in truth, a very lazy cook. Mainly because I prefer to be doing other things, or even when I do cook I get distracted and things burn. But then that is my own stupid fault for having twitter open on the laptop while trying to make white sauce.

Food with a face on it is also a brilliant way to get kids to eat healthy, that’s why they have been making faces out of peas and mash for generations. Luckily for me, this reasoning comes in handy when justifying why I’ve been buying myself Christmas presents from Japan this year. Wanna see?

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Why Hello Kitty – what fabulous task might you perform?

Ahh – turning plain old rice into a party for your mouth! The girls are going to love you.. but wait, what’s that? A Kitty-fier that does even require cooking?

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You cut the crusts off the sandwich AND turn my lunch into a happy face?! I think even if I filled you with anchovy paste the kids would still eat this. Me, I think I’ll fill you with Nutella and hundreds and thousands.

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But wait… Christmas morning we had a very special breakfast; a Christmas miracle if you will.

Is that the face of….?

It is! It is Hello Kitty pancakes!

Given you can only make one at a time, but they do take the time to remind you that this is “for Mama to cook”, so clearly it was meant for me. I can’t tell you just how fantastic breakfast was that morning. If you want to impress a loved one, bring them a tray of these in bed and watch the happiness quotient explode.

Of course, none of this is out of place at my house where Kitty graces more surfaces than I’d care to count. And after breakfast, bubble maker kitty is there to help with the washing up too!

So where did I find all these treasures? I took a visit to J-List which, (hide your credit cards) will have you going ‘click to buy’ happy! I found it near impossible to stop adding things to my cart, so thank goodness it was Christmas and I could justify the addition of so many of these things as gifts for other people.  I didn’t just stop at Kitty however, because as soon as I saw they stocked so much Totoro merchandise, I couldn’t help myself.  So now I am eating my Hello Kitty pancakes propped up against my Totoro nap pillow on my 1950′s couch! Yeah, that’s pretty much how my house looks – Like you dropped Betty Draper into Sanrio Land!!