Spilling out from the 19th century Royal Exhibition Building and into the Carlton Gardens, the Melbourne International Flower Show was a random event I went to last week with my platonic date of choice: The enigmatic Yumi. Just how beautiful is the Royal Exhibition Building from the inside? I had my Japanese exam here last year and I probably wasted the first 15 minutes of my allocated exam time distracted by the wondrous paintings that line the giant arches. It’s a spectacle on its own, really. It’s almost always closed to the public so I try to find some excuse to enter the building again! I wish I’d taken a photo of the building’s exterior too, it is just as majestic. Meanwhile, you can check out the building’s wiki page for photos if you are ever so inclined. Did I mention it’s a World Heritage Site? God, I was just reading up the list of World Heritage Sites and I’m outraged that Singapore’s not on it! What the fork, guys! WE HAVE HAW PAR VILLA MMKAY!
What else can I say about flower shows, apart from them being very, very beautiful? It’s almost like a giant Monet painting had come to life, especially when paired with such Victorian settings. I had to buy a couple of things for the garden back home on my mother’s insistence (honestly, I think she was more excited about the flower show than I was and she wasn’t even there!) I’m still trying to think of ways to fit a silver floral-embellished watering can, a filigree lantern and a vase into my suitcase.
Anyway, I hope these photos brighten up your day! Flowers are inherently romantic, aren’t they? Sorry I disappeared last week, I had a lot of assignments due and I still do sigh. 2 more essays to go before Easter rings in with an extremely desirable one week break!
I’ve been switching between tea and Red Bull all week, I don’t think it’s very healthy but I’m hoping my increased tea intake will cancel out whatever bad effects prolonged intake Red Bull might have on my body. Diet-wise, I’ve been cooking a lot the past week so it’s nice to have control over my nutrition again. Sorry I don’t have any recipes to share though: I’m in this ‘home food’ phase so I’m cooking dishes the rest of the world would rather not know lol aka SAMBAL PETAI OMFG I CRY. Petai in English would probably mean ‘stink bean’ and yeah well, that’s all you need to know rofl. I wouldn’t consider it a delicacy but it’s certainly an acquired taste.
Slight digression but long before the advent of FaceBook, the kids in my school would pass around diaries for each person to write their ‘profile’ in and I remember distinctly it was a trend then to write “mom’s cooking” under the Favourite Food section. OMG SUCH LITTLE LIARS PLX! If 11-year-old me had my way, I would be eating kebabs and pizza for every meal. Well, a decade later and I take it back. After living in this country where the most heavenly-tasting kebabs and pizzas are in abundance, all I really want is mom’s cooking.
I don’t think I’d have the time to blog in the next 2 weeks, just a head’s up 
I know, I feel terrible but these essays won’t write/reference themselves. I need to catch up on all my comments too argh, I fail at this blogging thing. The silver lining? I HAVE ANOTHER GIVEAWAY COMING UP 8D That should keep you on your toes for a bit huh? Take care, everyone!
Also plugging my best friend’s portfolio:OPTIKPOP//hosted by tea noir It’s looking supremely fierce! So proud of you darling, it’s an amazing accomplishment! ♥ ♥
UPDATE: Deadline extended to midnight at the request of my friends!
Tomorrow marks tea noir’s 2nd year of existence in the world wide web and to celebrate two years of frivolous fun, I have a giveaway for all of you. Some of you discovered my blog by accident but many have been reading my stories since the beginning. I now have about 110 subscribers to date, which I think is just INCREDIBLE. I’m only a rambling idiot with too many shoes, guys! Surely, I can’t be that interesting (considering there are probably millions of blogs with better content out there)?
Well, 110 people seem to think so. I’m stunned but so very grateful. I know I haven’t been updating as regularly as I should have the last year due to school so I thank you for your patience and again, thank you for reading.
I’ve been toying with the idea of hosting a giveaway for a couple of months now and it was hard coming up with something substantial, something that would appeal to everyone. I had no clue what to do for a giveaway but I knew what I didn’t want: One of those increasingly popular giveaways where you simply submit your name and winners would be picked randomly. I don’t think that’s fun at all and ironically, while it is done with the intentions of giving everyone an equal chance of winning, I think it’s a wee bit unfair to leave everything to fate. Because fate is never fair. Still, the winner of this giveaway will be picked at random as well, but with a catch!
Photography is a central part of this blog so it is no surprise that my giveaway will involve something along those lines. Don’t worry, I’m not expecting anyone to whip out their cameras to take photos and impress me with their skillz lol. It’s all very easy.
To take part in this giveaway:
1) Tell me a little about yourself (your name, your interests, how much you love your mom, anything at all!)
2) Copy & paste a link to a photo you’ve come across recently. It doesn’t have to be taken by you. It can be from flickr, a fashion blog you love reading or even Google Images lol. Let me know why you think the photo is special? Is there a story behind it? There has to be a reason why you picked it, oui?
Leave your name, email address and your blog/website url (if any). 10 of my favourite entries will be chosen and the names of the 10 finalists will be entered in a draw in which a winner will be chosen at random.
Just an example of how easy this is:
Freja Beha is one of my favourite models and while she is often shot before and after the shows, I love this photo especially. A private moment: unguarded for a second, eyes lowered, tiny slits in her tee – I don’t even think she was aware she was being captured on camera.
And the winner shall receive the following prizes:
A tube of CoverGirl Aqua CG Smoothers, previously reviewed here.
The popular Lioele Silky Highlighter BB Touch! You can use this as a make-up base or even a foundation if you’re fair enough and if you have a darker skin tone, this makes an amazing highlighter for your face. It kinda reminds me of the Dior Skinflash ;D
And my favourite mask of the month! Baviphat’s Mango Magic Brightening Oxygen Mask. Ginger tabby may be included but terms and conditions apply. I bought this mask when I was in KL, tried it out for a night and was enamored enough to buy another one the next day just for this giveaway. YOU GUYS BETTER APPRECIATE K LOL.
This giveaway is open to everyone worldwide, including my dear friends who have absolutely NO EXCUSE not to enter (THAT’S RIGHT, BITCHES – Nadzirah, my lovely friend from Melbourne Uni, that includes you) One entry per person please and submissions will end on Sunday, 13 February 2011, 11:59PM Singapore time. The winner will be announced shortly after that. Please leave a valid email address, you don’t want your prizes to be given away to someone else!
Things have slowed down quite a bit since my last update so I’m taking a well deserved breather before I start going full throttle again. Mid terms are over and everything’s been smooth sailing so far. I recently discovered vanilla soy milk and it’s the only thing that’s keeping me away from dishing out AUD$4.00 for a cup of bubble tea. Spring has finally decided to move out of the shadows of winter, she’s about a month late but ah spring is quickly becoming my favourite season- the wind has mellowed down to a slight breeze, the trees are slowly regaining their greenery and oh the warmth of the sun!
I’m slowly breaking out my spring wardrobe, which is honestly my summer clothes being remixed for Spring – I’m a poor student now guys, can’t afford no McQueen ._. It actually feels foreign to me now since I’ve been wearing a blazer/trench everyday for the last 3-4 months. It’s nice not to feel icky when wearing a blazer after 10 minutes as opposed to when I was in Singapore but you cannot imagine how liberating it is to be able to wear just 1-2 layers of clothing without running the risk of freezing your bits.
Yumi and I headed to the Docklands last weekend for the Finders Keepers art and design market! The Finders Keepers markets offer a collective of stalls run by emerging designers and artist. Typically only held in Sydney and Brisbane, last weekend marked Melbourne’s first Finders Keepers event yay!
The Docklands is somewhat detached from the city in terms of its architecture and layout. You have clusters of futuristic buildings built near the water and evenly spaced out with large planes of wooden planks. It reminds me a bit of Singapore’s HarbourFront/VivoCity area except on a much larger scale.
The enigmatic Yumi with her kitty holga! No photos of me sry, as much as I’d like you to believe I look effortless everyday – I don’t.
The market’s held in a huge warehouse named Shed 4, I had weird visions of Warhol’s Factory the whole time I was there except no one was tripping on amphetamine.
Frankie was one of their major sponsors so naturally, there was a couple of tables dedicated to Frankie magazines and merchandise.
Scratch greeting cards, I thought it was an interesting concept. Greeting cards are usually passive but these cards only reveal their saccharine messages when you’ve scratched off the silver coating with a coin.
SQUEE! Animal rings! This stall was easily one of my favourites from the market. Look at those bunny rings! I usually go for antiqued gold when it comes to jewelry but that matte black finishing some of the rings had were stellar. Yumi bought a bunny one for herself and she sneakily surprised me with a ring from the same store before we left.
Trying on some cocktail rings at another stall. Such (expensive) beauties. My nail colour’s CHANEL Le Vernis in Particuliere. It’s an offbeat a brownish shroomy grey, it’s not a colour I would normally pick but CHANEL has somehow made mud look elegant, folks.
I really, really wanted this beautiful light green/blue ring (the silver ring’s mine) but it was $125 urgh. That’s 5 times over my allotted budget for rings. It’s sterling silver and the stone’s Aquamarine which prolly explains the price tag.
Kitschy cute hand-printed stationery!
My Finders Keepers loot! You can see subtlety isn’t for me when it comes to my rings lol. Scored this carved rose cameo ring for cheap.
This ring is a mystery to me, it looks like some sort of gilded, textured metal coated with a thin layer of acrylic. It fascinates me somehow, gold often has that effect on me.
The ring Yumi surprised me with, any guesses what it is? I think the antlers give it away ;p
FORK YEAH A MOOSE RING! This is so kick-ass I don’t even. Thank you so much, Yumi <3333 Btw I still owe you a slice of cake, Brunetti's soon? Let me know xx
You can find out more about Finders Keepers here. Remember they have markets in Sydney and Brisbane too so if you’re based in those areas or flying over for a holiday, check to see if a market’s happening in your vicinity ;D
In Asia for the very first time, close to 80 spectacular costumes and 60 sketches from the collection of the Centre National du Costume de Scène (National Stage Costume Centre, Moulins, France) and from Lacroix’s personal collection, will take stage at the National Museum of Singapore from March to June 2009. Organized by the Centre National du Costume de Scène, Moulins, France and Artex Art Services.
Venue: Exhibition Gallery 1 & The Canyon Date @ The National Museum of Singapore
20th March 2009 – 7 June 2009 10:00am – 6:00pm
OMFG très excited! Who wants to go with me? Click here for more info of the exhibit.
img credit: foto_decadent & brandingstyles
