Before I begin, let me just say I really didn’t understand what all the fuss was about. I’d never played Angry Birds but my girls do, and like everyone else I spoken to who has; they are obsessed! Suddenly, this game that has not yet stolen away a portion of my life, is everywhere I look.  Hats, back packs, toys, t-shirts and now nail art. I’m not about to start carrying my possessions about in a large fluffy bird back pack, but these I think, may be too good to resist.

This tutorial from Cute Nails may or may not be your thing, but it is certain to make you smile.

Check out her channel for some of the most fantastic DIY nail art.

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.

How do you challenge yourself as you develop your personal style? When we have a very clear cut style or even find ourselves flowing with the tide of trends, it can be hard to look outside our narrow vision and find wardrobe inspiration that is truly our own.

Last night I kicked back and watched The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus, which got me thinking. What if we took some of those strange dreamscapes of our minds and turned those into the basis for a daily outfit inspiration? It is the sort of approach that artists and designers turn to each day, but is it something we even consider when getting dressed in the morning?

So here is my idea. Just for a bit of fun I want to give myself, and you a challenge and the chance to participate in the community of this blog. All you have to do is take four images that come from the dreamscapes of your mind and use these as an inspiration point to create a new Daily Outfit.

Here are the rules:

• You may use FOUR images to represent your dreamscape – None of these images can include any actual clothing pictures or direct clothing references.
• Put the image references together with a picture of yourself in the outfit you’ve created from this inspiration.
• The outfit must be put together from items already in your wardrobe – no extra shopping allowed! ( No I can’t police this, but shopping for these would just be cheating yourself)
• To submit your work, simply either publish it on your blog and link back to it in the comments section of this post so everyone can visit you and see it, OR if you don’t have a blog, you can email me your submission to  info at superkawaiimama dot com dot au.
• The five best submissions will be published on Super Kawaii Mama and the best submission will win a SURPRISE gift pack!
• Entries are open to everyone, no matter your age, location or gender.

I haven’t created my outfit yet (seeing as this only occurred to me very late last night), but here is my dreamscape reference.

So what do you think my friends, are you up for a little challenge?

EDIT- Due date for this assignment is MONDAY 20th September, with results to be published that week.

Already it is June and I wanted to give you the May highlights before the month ended.. but still.. here we are!  May has been a HUGE month for me with so many new ventures and adventures that already are snowballing into the next few months. Here are a few of my favorite things….

Doing a very Super Kawaii Mama activity with my most vintage of friends.  Purikura with the Lindy Charm School girls on our Hobart trip!

Being invited to guest lecture at Whitehouse Fashion School with Jamie from OhJamieedotcom and Celebrity Stylist Philip Boon.

This image is courtesy of Oh Jamie – find more images of the day over on his fabulous blog.

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My Fan-Freeking – Tastic new business cards by Nuclear Studio.

Celebrating the launch of the new and improved Candice Deville portfolio website (also designed by Nuclear Studio), and the launch of my Vintage Hair & Makeup side arm.

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The lovely write up and chance to be a covergirl for Fairfax Newspaper! (Story here.)

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A brand spanking new MacBook Pro from the darling Mr. SKM so I can FINALLY get back to making new tutorials without smoke coming from the computer!

Stay tuned for a whole new series of wonderment.

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Now what’s next? Well I fly out to the Goldcoast on Monday morning for a whole week of the Wintersun festival!  I’ll be blogging, tweeting and facebooking all the events as much as possible, so if you want to live vicariously make sure you’re following me.  It is bound to be an amazing week for which I’m told I’ll need at least 13 different outfits to survive!  So stick with me and come along for the ride.

Welcome to the NEW and IMPROVED Super Kawaii Mama.com everyone!

As you can see there have been some significant changes around here in the last week, and although there are still some sections to come on line, there is lots of new stuff already here to explore.  After a good six months of design work, thought, feedback and exploration; I’ve put together what I hope will be an even better blog experience for you here.  My aim is not only to give you the best possible content I can but to help you FIND it all!  Because Super Kawai Mama is now 2 years old (Happy Birthday blog!)  there are well over 500 posts in the archives to search in. That is a hell of a lot of writing, photographs and information to help you out.

As you’ll see there are special gateways to take you into each area of interest (these should all be fully up within the week I’m finishing the code as fast as I can) and all those requests you’ve been making for new posts, information and especially tutorials will be found here.  As soon as everything is all completed I’ll give you a proper guided tour and help you to find your way around.

But that is not all.  March 2010 is set to be a milestone month for Super Kawaii Mama – why? Well…

Super Kawaii Mama is the first Australian blogger to be invited to design a capsule collection with local Australian fashion label Friends of Couture!

This is just about the most exciting news I could possibly tell you as not only is it a total dream come true to be able to indulge my love of fashion and design, but it means that you’ll have the opportunity to tell me exactly what you want to be wearing and get your hands on a collection of my very own unique style!  I’ll have loads more to tell you about this as it all progresses, but suffice to say that if you are here because you love my style, you are going to LOVE this collaboration.  The collection itself wont be available until later in the year, but you’ll get to read first hand all about the inspirations, ideas and innovations, as well as being the first to see any sneak peaks!

In the meantime,  you don’t want to miss a minute of the action,  hear about exclusive news, offers and events; as well as just the general (somewhat offbeat) meanderings of my mind –

FOLLOW ME on Twitter, FRIEND me on Facebook,  ADD me to your Technorati and remember to SUBSCRIBE to the YouTube chanel to see all the new videos first!