A Little Variation...

click image for source... and a delicious recipe

So a little detour from the usual ranting about my wardrobe… I am inventing cupcake recipes for one of my editors to publish (mmmmm delicious… and I get paid for it!) but I am running a little low on inspiration. So far I have chocolate cupcakes with a gooey choc-peppermint centre and peppermint frosting and vanilla cupcakes with salted caramel ganache centres and vanilla bean frosting.

Now, my question to you ladies is: what would be your ultimate cupcake flavour? Let your imaginations run wild… If I can successfully invent it then I will post the recipes for you to have a crack at.

Hopefully you guys are a little more inventive than my friends who managed: Rum & Coke and Bourbon & Cornflakes. They’re not alcoholics I swear! Haha.

My Jolly Sailor Bold

Apologies for being such a useless blogger recently, I have been totally snowed under and a little lacking in inspiration. *Sigh* I was also out of the office last week at a trade show for work and seeing as though I do most of my blogging from there I just haven’t found the time – my family, god bless them, is extremely nosy and this little project is just for me, as silly as that seems.


My outfits have been really pared back recently. Today I’m wearing my favourite Breton top, a black cardigan and a grey double breasted blazer. It’s freezing so I also have an enormous black pashmina wrapped around me. As far as pants go, like Lin I also recently pulled out a pair of old favourites in the jeans department. I have a cupboard full of jeans, I love them and I will live in them until I die. While they are mostly standard colours and styles, some pairs are special. A few years ago I had to fly to London at very late notice for a family funeral and in order to distract myself I went shopping. It was the first time I discovered Uniqlo and their multicoloured denim was a revelation. Not because of the bright colours but because of the slightly washed out and vintage-esque treatment of the denim. I bought a pink pair and a purple pair and wore them to death with simple white tees and black/leopard print ballets all summer. The time in which I was wearing these jeans was a bit of a style revolution for me, I cut my waist length hair into a pixie bob and stopped wearing anything remotely girly in an effort to finally define my own self and my own style. I had wanted to dress more androgynously for a while but was afraid of the backlash, in the end I decided that anyone who wanted to poke fun and call me a dyke just wasn’t worth listening to anyway.

These two pairs of jeans were my uniform for a whole season and it felt a bit strange to wear the pink ones again today, like I was slipping a bit back into my insecure old self, unsure of how people would react to my style statement. It’s funny though, when I wore them the first time I got hardly any comments about the colour – my uni was in a very bohemian part of the city so I was dressed rather tamely – but now in an office situation all I have heard is: “Wow, pink pants”. Thankfully it was mostly followed by: “Cool” or “I really like them”. I guess after 10 months my co-workers are finally coming to terms with my dress sense – the leather shorts raised the most eyebrows – and I am eternally grateful that I work in a professional environment that embraces everything from suits to pink jeans and battered biker boots.


What have you guys dug up recently that brings back memories, good or bad?

 PS. the title is because I saw Pirates 4 last night. Love the mermaids! Oh and I tried to post this yesterday but Blogger freaked out.

Holiday Sport

Every year my mother and I used to go on a trip to Melbourne. It was a fun-filled shopping and eating orgy that unavoidably ended in my buying a load of crap from outlet stores for the simple reason that it was cheap. The sad part is that I always planned some purchases in amongst the crap and I was incredibly successful with some of my key purchases, the best two being my black trench and my black pea coat, both of which I still live in years later.


Last year we went to New York instead and I was incredibly self-restrained – despite having an awful lot of money to spend. I stuck to my list, I got pretty much exactly what I wanted and all of the things are still in my wardrobe on high rotation. What really bough home the quality vs. quantity thing for me was the number of times I wandered in and out of H&M trying desperately to buy something. The moment I walked into Zara I picked up, tried on and subsequently bought my favourite olive green blazer (it is still going strong despite constant use) but as hard as I looked, I didn’t even try anything on in H&M. The fabrics were wrong, the cut was odd or it was just not my style at all. And I found that in Europe again just this Christmas/New Year gone. Since dedicating myself to sticking to my personal style no matter what the price/fashionability I have found that cheap shops like H&M overseas and Sportsgirl (not that it’s that cheap anymore) just do not hold any appeal for me anymore. And I was previously a slave to the altar of fast fashion.


So this year I am off for a quick – girls only – jaunt to Melbourne again. But with a very tight list in hand. I only need black pants – fast becoming the bane of my existence – and maybe some leopard print heels. This is another item that has been on the list for a long time. I found a gorgeous pair but, by the time I ummed and erred, they were all sold out. *Sigh*. I’m not really fond of the trashy connotations of leopard print I love the idea of going out in a Le Smoking suit with a crisp white shirt and leopard heels. Like this:

source: Le Laid

I have found many other pairs but they just don’t match up… until now. I haven’t tried them on but I will do a gratuitous posing shot if I do buy them. Fingers crossed!

source: Tony Bianco

The Perfect Shirt

I’ve mentioned before that I really struggle to find shirts. A genetic curse blessing means that I could give any self respecting Penthouse Pet some healthy competition. Like most things it has upsides (getting served instantaneously at any bar) and downsides (my first trip to Italy as a 17-year-old had me convinced I no longer had a face) but by far the worst factor is that fashion is not made for women with breasts – there is a very good reason why runway models never have any. In fact, a quick flick through the archives shows the depressing fact that the last decade in which fashion was made for the busty was… wait for it… the 1950s. It seems I am a mere 60 years too late for the ideal fashion for my body shape.

image sources: tumblr

But I digress.

Shirts. In most stores I am practically in plus sizes before I can get one to button up without straining so much it looks like I have imprisoned several small mammals under my shirt and am attempting to smuggle them out of the store. There are few exceptions to this rule. Equipment is my glory brand. Their Signature style is not only sufficiently loosely fitted that they look amazing but their silk is also thick enough that it not only covers up the mast and rigging that keeps my chest resolutely in the chest area (rather than around my naval) but looks damn flattering in the process.

The second brand whose shirts I have fallen in love with is a local brand that is resolutely aimed at middle aged women. Apparently, middle aged women have rather a lot more going on in the upper torso regions than people my own age. Score! The store was even having a sale just last week and when I tried on this shirt, I promptly wore it out of the store. 

image source: sportscraft.com

It is a lot brighter than anything I have worn in a while but so comfy. I think I have finally found the cotton shirts for me and this little pumpkin has slotted in quite nicely with the rest of my ‘uniform’. Hurrah.

Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing...

image source: fashionising.com

I'll give you one hint: it involves eBay...