My precious.

June 12, 2013 / Lisa / 2 Comments

For the last six months I have been coveting one of Coach’s legacy leather duffle bags in tourmaline.

In fact, it is this one right here:

I even blogged about how much I wanted it back in January.

And now I have it:

To be quite honest, half of the allure was actually getting the dust cover and massive carry bag as well.

I’m a sucker for dust covers and massive carry bags.

Having been using the bag for the last couple of days, I’m more in love with it than when I was just staring at pretty pictures. I can definitely see this bag being with me for, well, the rest of my life. It is made of leather, after all, ensuring some level of quality.

So, yay for my first designer, and leather, handbag!

Side note: I’ve also got my eye on a couple of other things at Coach in the same colour – a wallet and a legacy leather swingpack. Although it will possible take me another six months to get one of them, if at all. Cause, goddamn, I have expensive tastes.

Fall Out Boy saved rock and roll*

June 7, 2013 / Lisa

It has taken me a while, but I’ve finally gotten around to listing to the new Fall Out Boy album ‘Save Rock and Roll’ and I am addicted!

Even though it was released back in April and I downloaded it from iTunes immediately, it has taken me till now to actually listen to it properly. It has been on repeat for the last two days.

I’m already pulling lyrics out because they just stand out to me.

Case and point:

I may have also created this in photoshop and then instagramed that shit.**

I think my favourite song on the album is Just One Yesterday (feat. Foxes).

I’d trade all my tomorrows for just one yesterday.

Another lyric I love is this one from Save Rock and Roll:

I need more dreams and less life and I need that dark in a little more light. I cried tears you’ll never see, so fuck you, you can go cry me an ocean and leave me be.

And Elton John is in on this – HOW FREAKING COOL.

I also really love what they did with the videos – watch them all!

So yes, I’m horribly addicted to Fall Out Boy again.*** If you have not listened to the album or any of their past work, seriously, just do it.

*See what I did there?
**I’m fine with it.
***Well played, dudes, well played.

Questions of Morality

June 1, 2013 / Lisa

Last weekend I attended one seminar as part of Sydney Writer’s Festival. I really wanted to go to a few more, but there were so many people there – you needed to queue for an hour beforehand to get into them. Maybe next year I will go to a few of the paid ones to make sure I get a seat – most of the ones I wanted to go to were free with no bookings. My bad.

The one seminar I did manage to attend was Questions of Morality.

I found the panel really interesting and some of the things they said have made me want to get over some of the qualms I have about writing fiction.

A few of the things I picked up from the seminar include:

choose to be good, or a good writer
all good literature is immoral in a way
be true to your own story
people like stories of transgression – we like the dark and the deep. That type of literature is part of the experience
proceed until apprehended
if all your family were dead, it would be easier to write
a writer in the family is hell for all families
if you really want to get something off your chest, you write a novel.

Some books that I aim to read because of what came up in this seminar are Mein Kamph (Karl Ove Knausgaard recommended this for every writer), American Psycho and some Ayn Rand. I’m also keen to read some of Krissy Kneen’s work, some of the examples she provided about her own work piqued my interest in a ‘how do you write that’ and ‘how does that even work’ kind of way. Especially something about a pony beastiallity scene. That just makes you go WFT?!

Maybe if I follow some of these ‘tips’, I might overcome some of my apprehension of, not only writing, but also letting people read my fictional writing. Only good things could happen, right?

Vivid Sydney

May 30, 2013 / Lisa

Last weekend I went down to check out Vivid Sydney with my aunt and experiment with doing some night photography.

It was actually so much fun. I hadn’t picked up a camera in months, so it felt good to be behind the lens again.

I would highly recommend going to check out some of the installations if you’re in Sydney, but it does get quite hectic with all the people around.

Here are a few of my snaps, but you can check the rest out on my Flick (which they now give you 1TB of space! Score! I’m totally going to utilise this so much more.)

City scape – looking towards Circular Quay train station.

Sydney Opera House and cruise ship in port. This is one of my favourites from the night.

Harbour Bridge from the public viewing platform on top of the Overseas Passenger Terminal.

Towards The Rocks from the Overseas Passenger Terminal.

Ferries passing in the night with the Opera House in the background.

The Museum of Contemporary Art.

Fashion Fabulous: City Chic has a sale – I spend up large

May 27, 2013 / Lisa

I love clothes. I especially love clothes from City Chic. It is my favourite store, and pretty much the only store that I shop from. So when they have a sale, like the one they had last week, I shop a lot.

Adding to this is that Sydney has started to get colder and I find myself in the predicament that is I have no winter clothes because I left them all in New Zealand.

In the CC sale I bought a few basics and few statement pieces. All of them pretty much more than 50% off. Win!

So here are some of the new additions to my wardrobe.

The Two Cats Top with one of last year’s black blazers with stripped lining, paired with Rock My World skinny jeans, now sold-out online.

One where I actually show my face! Notice the studded detail on the shoulder – very in this season.

I bought several of these Basic Puff Sleeve tops. They are so comfortable and come in numerous colours. I got them in this blue colour, teal, black, and purple. they will serve me well over winter in Sydney. Paired with the skinny jeans again.

Paired here with the Studded Military Jacket. I coveted this for quite some time and resisted buying it at full-price. When it went on sale, there were no questions about buying it. I love it. This has also sold-out online. Here you can also see the detail on the back pockets of the jeans.

Here is the black puff sleeve top, which goes well with Baroque Print skirt, which is sold-out. Ain’t that the way with sales!

And here I am trying to actually be a model. Yeah, nah.

This is the Lace Contrast tunic. Lace is amazing – delicate and pretty, it adds nice detail to plain pieces.

Close-up detail of the bow and lace.

I paired the tunic with the Lace Panel leggings. Possibly a bit too much lace for one outfit, but I don’t care – I LOVE LACE. (Also, Man Piece hasn’t quite mastered the art of getting photos in focus – if only I could be in the photos and take them.)

This is the Dark Lace tunic, again with the lace! It is the same cut as the Lace Contrast tunic, but totally different. I paired with the Lace Panel leggings again.

Below is the Sequin Stripped Jumper. It’s quite a light jumper, so will be good over a singlet, but under a jacket. Man Piece says I look like a panda. I’m fine with it. I’m also wearing my TDF Apple Skinny jeans – the hands-down best jeans I have ever owned. If you want a pair of jeans, get these, or at least the TDF jeans to suit your body style, you cannot go wrong. I have a plain black singlet on underneath.

As you can see, I definitely splurged a little. There is just something about City Chic I cannot resist – the clothes fit and they are definitely my style.