Today I’m off to the big tourist spot Patong Beach to each seafood and teach my girls about just how much fun / challenge / drainingly exhausting, bargain hunting in the markets can be.  This means we’ll be in the blistering sun, the afternoon pouring rain and be walking a lot from store to store. What does one wear?!

I’ve chosen a favourite hot weather standby. A little faux silk (eBay forgot to mention the faux bit), chiffon dress with a geometric print, soft shoulder strap and fully lined skirt.  It is floaty enough for the hot weather, but also not so sheer that the afternoons down pour would create a problem. It dries off in no time and manages to retain a happy go lucky look, instead of drowned tourist in bad sarong, look.

The shoes I found last week at Novo especially for the trip.  I wanted a wedge that had good height and some platform to take away the extreme height, but also something that would stand getting wet and keep me just that bit elevated out of miscellaneous puddles and gunk.. ewwww…

They are pretty much all plastic and the straps have a fine zipper edging which makes a cute detail. The bows sold me on these though, as I knew they’d work with just about everything in my holiday wardrobe. ( A word on how I plan that and make it happen is coming up in another post)

As for hair and makeup, I keep it simple.  Mineral makeup for sheer light coverage, my usual winged liner, a soft mauve shadow with highlights and just a light lip gloss. A strong red lip doesn’t last long here for two reasons – the heat melts it as does the oil in the food, and I’m not giving up my green curry just for the sake of my lipstick!

Today it is off to Turtle Beach, to see if it lives up to its name. But either way, it is simply divine here; I may have to hideout here for a while…

Hi everyone! Well we finally all made it here and after two days down time, which is offline time for me, I’m logging back in (why are there always tech problems when you try to do this on holiday?) to keep my promise and share with you some of the sights, fun and of course the outfits that make this holiday.

Travelling outfits can be a challenge at the best of times, but when travelling from Melbourne’s 14 degrees into hot and seriously humid Thailand, there is even more to be considered.  It wasn’t just weather that was a challenge for me this trip, but the fact that we’d decided to take both the girls with us on their first overseas trip.  So whatever I wore had to deal with being sat on, jumping up and down for 50 toilet breaks, carrying tired children, taking me in and out of cars, trains, restaurants and security checks. So jersey and ballet flats it was!  I also brought along my trusty pashmina that has a billion and one uses on trips like these; from blanket to scarf, to hair saver in the rain and modesty provider in religious locations.

I didn’t get any photos of my outfit before I left, but I did snap this one when we finally arrived out our Thailand destination – a whole 15 hours travelling!

So its day one, and the weather is amazing. Yes it is super humid, but not too sunny and there is a gentle breeze.  Its that feeling you get the first day of holidays when you don’t know what time it is, you don’t want to get dressed, you just want someone to arrive and bring you cocktails and peel you  grape or two.

Knowing there would be days like this, I made sure I packed a few dresses that I could just throw on with little to no effort and still look presentable.  This is one.

Its a simple jersey maxi dress, nothing constricting and not too revealing, but has a great hawaiian style print which is why it caught my eye.

I found this one at Harris Scarf and it set me back a whole $19! Worn with my hair simple and loose, with one side pinned back with a yellow hibiscus is all it took to create todays relaxed, pool side style.

Usually the humidity wreaks havoc with my hair making it all fluffy and impossible to do anything with. But it has held up very well the fist few days thanks to one thing – its not clean.  Yes, that does sound a bit ick, but what I mean is it isn’t freshly washed and light as air.  Instead, because I had a shoot the day before I left, my hair was set and filled with quite a bit of oil based product.  The oil has helped to seal the hair making it much harder for the moisture to get in and ‘fluff’ it up! So I’ve managed to keep my long loose curls for a few extra days on the beach!  So the plan today is to test out the effectiveness of using macadamia oil to achieve the same results..

I have so many fantastic and fun things planned on this trip that I can hardly wait to share it all with you, but of course these things take time. So while I’m on the run and between internet connections, make sure you check in with my Facebook and Twitter where you’ll get to see pics of all kinds of things that you won’t see here on the blog. (I’m even meeting up with some very special international guest bloggers!!)

I’ll be showing you outfits, fabulous food, monkey adventures, places to shop, gorgeous people, how and what to pack, travel tips… all kinds of things! And if there is anything you’d specifically like to see or hear about, make sure to let me know in the comments and I’ll do my best to cover it for you in the coming weeks.

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!!

Happy New Year’s Eve everyone!! I’m super excited about 2011 for some reason. It has been feeling for the last half of 2010 that things are going to be on the up next year with far less fails and far less dramas. Don’t know why I think this, it’s not like I’ve taken to hanging out with Gypsies on my vacation, it’s just a feeling.

Anyway, I did have big plans for tonight until 24 hours ago. Big plans for someone with two children on a babysitter impossible night, involves hanging at a friends house and watching fireworks and being poked into consciousness at around 6am by said children. Anyway, when that riveting plan went belly up I was a little sulky, knowing all the great things I could have been doing and all the parties my friends are playing at. But really, it is just another night and it is all about what you make of it. So I decided to give myself a good kick in the pants and make my New Years start the right way; with friends, food and shopping!

We all slept in then got fancy before heading off to breakfast as a family. Instead of our usual go-to of Eggs Benedict, I decided to shake it up a bit and find somewhere we could all indulge our culinary cravings, even the kids. So it was off to Box Hill for traditional Chinese breakfast of congee and steamed pork buns! For two small girls you’d think they’d died and gone to heaven such is the reaction to a meal like that. As for me, I am very (very) partial to a tasty congee, so I was grinning from ear to ear.

Then it was off for a spot of indulgent post-Christmas sale shopping and a few treats each, before heading to lunch with fabulous friends. Here is where I’ll let my pictures tell the story…

It is really hot today… 40 degrees celsius, thats 105 for you Northern hemisphere people. That explains the ‘white out’ in this pic. The sun is so strong and bleaching it is hard to look anywhere, especially when it keeps hitting back at you from the pavement.

We went and met up with my long lost buddy Violet ( I say this because we’ve both been working so hard we’ve only seen each other on Twitter these last few months!!)

How amazing is her hair?! She not only styled it herself but did the incredible colour too!

Lunching with other bloggers will always mean one thing…. photos!

Yes, we are both photographing our lunch.

A spot of shopping lead to the following for my afternoons entertainment.

I picked up the ‘new’ (read October issue now imported) of Vivi to read in the shade on this hot afternoon.

Laying around in the near dark with fans going and reading all about cute Korean spring looks.

And I did buy one other little treat to add to my ever growing vanity collection. Not only cute and practical, but exactly what you need in this weather.

Anna Sui blotting paper in the trademark gloss black case! I’ve been collecting this whole series piece by piece and nearly have a full set now. So pretty!

And that’s it… so far.  I’m heading off to get started on part two of my day. This is the bit that involves Margaritas, foot massages and movies. Now THAT is how you spend an evening celebrating the year!

Happy New Year Everyone!!!!