Thursday, April 26, 2012

The begining


22.04.12
The excitement is finally creeping back into my consciousness. Im learning a little ritual I have before travel. Of course while its still in the distance its all very exciting, then as d-day draws nearer a more mundane me comes to light. One which forces most thoughts from my mind before anxiety takes over.
Now I’m on a rather bumpy flight to Singapore. My darling Kelly will no longer be joining me at the airport and my flight is 4 hours longer then I realized, I got a shallow 2 hours sleep last night at the most and well, I’m flying with Jetstar…need I say more?
BUT the excitement of the people I will meet who will change my life. The people who will meet me and in turn have their lives altered. The idea that every single face I see will be a new one with a new opportunity. Around every corner a new adventure. That is keeping me going. Oh yes the excitement is back!

Later… (into the 23rd)
I am now 12 hours in to my stop-over after an 11 hour flight to Singapore. The bright orange sunset that reflected onto the ocean spotted with islands and boats as we flew in last night was beautiful! As we neared the land the matching red rooved houses and tall white sky rises shot up in every direction as far as the eye could see.
My new friend from the plane and I said our goodbyes and wished each other luck. I never even found out her name, but she had become my little Indonesian grandmother temporarily. I then entered the glass maze of Singapore airport. A lovely taxi driver battled away at my bags and burnt the wrap off with his lighter since the only knife we could source was inside the encased bag. After I proceeded to set about finding my bearings, some good food and internet but the glass boxes had me at a loss.
I could see where I wanted to go but getting there was another issue. I was starting to get a wee bit frustrated with all the dead ends. After doing my third lap my little friend came bustling out of a fancy Chinese restaurant embracing me, taking my hand and gushing that I must come in to meet her family for dinner. The idea of today’s failed budget flew across my mind before I agreed. How could I turn down such an offer?
We sat at a large spinning wooden table and her son-in-law picked and ordered in Chinese for a confused me. Now anyone who knows me, knows picking food for me to eat is not an easy feat. I fumbled with my chopsticks chasing food around my plate trying to act like I knew what I was doing. The food I did actually get in my mouth was pretty amazing! And dairy free! Or so I was told after I insistently badgered them about every form of dairy that could be in each dish the put in front of me. Delicious long bean omelette with preserved turnip and no milk or cheese! Stewed peanuts and some kind of steamed greens mixture with a garlic, ginger and tofu sauce, which was not only amazing but I had to make a mental note to tell the grange crew how many greens I had just digested.
After goodbyes, again, I set about finding a posie as far away from the “no sleeping” sign as I could find. After about two hours of dropping in and out of sleep on a horrendous bench in a cold and empty viewing room I found a pal and we set up camp on the tile floor instead, this time I was tired enough to crash for longer, after muttering crap to Chad from Phoenix Arizona (I thought that was quite classic) for a few hours, to drift off into an unsettled snooze.
Later Chad jumped on his flight. Since then I have failed to locate the airport pool and slept a little more instead, got lost in the airports cactus garden, treated myself to some stupidly fancy spa for a shower (spoilt huh!) and I have about 9 more hours until I touch down in Bangkok. I really can’t wait to hit those streets with my camera. x

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Frankly

Recently (a day before october begun to be specific) whilst reading back issues of the stupidly inspiring Frankie Magazine, as if its the first time, I came across an ad by the "salvo's" (sallies to us kiwis) promoting their October challenge to buy nothing new. Of course this idea immediately appealed to me, the idea of been more sustainable, resourceful and creative ( plus an excuse to raid every op shop I see) is always one I am open to. I decided, hesitantly given my shopping addictions, to make the October pledge... Now I would love to say as of the 8th of October I have been sober of waste shopping but Im totally useless. The very next day ( the 1st) at work I came to the realization that I needed some new mascara and a bunch of birthday presents that month. After much discussion on how I could bend the rules and technicalities of the pledge I decided I was well and truly defeating the purpose. Thus resulting in a spending binge for the next week. And here we are. It seems by, just the thought, of depriving myself of new treats a spiral of cravings and "oh but I need's" begun. But there is a point- the justification and thought process...
The justification branched from the idea that I do love vintage and second hand pieces regardless of the month and more often then not choose this way of purchase. I almost never biff old items and almost too regularly donate half of my belongings to the sallies. I would in fact like to claim an over all status of "not so wasteful in general life". 
The thought process was that this small and totally unsuccessful pledge made me all to aware of how bad my retail therapy has become, proof that when you try to deprive yourself of something, such as chocolate, you want it 110% more and that my self-control is quite potentially at an all time low. 
In conclusion I decided to share this ramble with you just incase you think you are any better then me and want to try this, because although I openly admit I could never do it, I totally support it and think you should man up. haha. 

And because I don't have a picture to share with you right now Im going to share this instead purely because it seems to be a nice little mantra I like to repeat each day...


Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Neat meets and sweet treats

Finally I have gotten around to posting pictures from a friends birthday!  The oh so talented Olivia over at Lilysmakebelieve celebrated her birthday a few weeks ago with a backyard screening of the old school movie Scream (sad to say I was still on the edge of my seat/blanket a couple of times). But this wasn't your average sheet on the wall with a projector (still awesome) outdoor movie, I should have known better of such a creative critter. Instead the backyard doubled as the sweetest cosiest cinema I have ever been to with amazing home baked treats! Needless to say I couldn't have been happier I brought my camera in tow...

Yes Please!

Follow me said the pretty lights

Welcome to paradise 

The lovely lady herself handing out popcorn, yum!

 The best kind of party favours 

Passionfruit cupcakes for all! 

Delish!

SMILE, you're so yummy!

Cosy nighttime

Friends 

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Fly away with me

Im not sure what relevance this title has but for some reason sweet little caravans such as these make me feel like running away and living in such a perfect little bungalow having picnics with beautiful treats ALL day long...










ahhhh oneday, oneday....

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Strawberry Dye

I have a pair of hippy patterned commmmfy pants that have hidden away in my glory box all winter. I have also recently been on the hunt for a pair just like them in a cute peachy colour so today I decided maybe its time to try my hand at dying clothes. After a few google hits I found this tutorial and suddenly strawberry pants sound so much fun! Such a great idea i cant wait to try it......and eat some strawberries too, come on summer!


Saturday, August 13, 2011

Jars

Move over teacups!!! My obsession with collecting glass jars is taking over! Why you wonder? Look, see....All the beautiful and amazing, not to mention simple, things you can do with a simple ol jar <3 










ahhh LOVE!

Monday, August 8, 2011

Ink

After finally successfully fighting the urge to get another tattoo my good friend emails me today with a few samples of something she is thinking about. This of course leads me to do a little research too, ya know to give legit feedback and contribution on ideas....and bam just like that I looking at pages and pages of amazing, adorable and just plain awesome tattoos....

The ones I LOVE





The adorable 








And the beautiful talented