Quikifing Your Look - Part 3: Fabulously Quirky Fashionistas To Take Inspiration From

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People interpret fashion in so many ways; it’s fascinating to see unique senses of style. These are some of my utter favorites.

Gala Darling

Gala Darling is my fashion idol. I love her quirkiness and how she has so much fun with her fashion. She has a really interesting story. She was born Amy Paape but changed her name to stand out. She really does stand out. She has bright blue eyes and pink hair! Most importantly, her fashion is one-of-a-kind. It’s girly and pink and sparkly and one-hundred-percent fabulous! You don’t completely get it until you see a picture. So, check out her extremely popular blog to see one. 

Photo from Gala Darling.com (Link below) 

http://galadarling.com/ 

Emily Schuman

Emily’s style is modern, fresh and really quite delightful. She is always on trend. She combines her love of fashion and food in her blog Cupcakes and Cashmere, which you should totally check out. Photo from Cupcakes and Cashmere (Link below) 

http://cupcakesandcashmere.com/  

Ebony Bizys

The writer of successful blog, Hello Sandwich, really knows her fashion. She leads a lifestyle I am totally jealous of. She lives in an amazingly decorated Tokyo apartment and spends her life riding around on a bike, taking pictures, making little things and blogging. She wears vintage style clothes that are feminine and beyond adorable.  

Photo from Hello Sandwich (Link below) 

http://hellosandwich.blogspot.com/

I Hope You enjoyed 

Xoxoxoxoxo 

Isabella

Qurikifing Your Look-Part 2: Using Brands As The Fuel For a Quirky Style

So, as I said in my Inspired by....Melbourne post, this year I'm trying to add a bit more quirkiness to my personal style. And I encourage all my readers to take that jump with me. If you do plan on adding a bit of quirkiness to your look than these brands are perfect for you! And if you don't then you can still find some not-so-quirky and still ever so cute garments in these brands. These are brands I've read about in Frankie (my favourite magazine) or have just discovered on the Internet.   

All photo's were taken from the sites of the brands they are from. 

Etsy Brands   

Golden Ponies

This little Etsy shop is stocked up on VERY cute brightly coloured oxfords (brogues) and lovely satchels. They are hand crafted in Mexico and are about $39 each. Check them out at  

www.etsy.com/goldenponies/

Oh Leoluca 

Oh Leoluca has super cute garments with bold, eye-catching prints. It’s fun and super modern. It’s closed at the moment. Don’t panic though; it will reopen in a couple of weeks. www.etsy.com/shop/leolunaescobar

PomPomClothing 

This vintage store has a massive range of clothing. It stocks clothing from both the 20^th and the 19^th century. It’s a bit out there for me but I’m sure it would totally work for some people.  www.etsy.com/shop/PomPomClothing/

Kimmy Kuo 

Kimmy Kuo is modern and with clean lines. The beautiful garments are architectural in a fashionable, trendy way.

www.etsy.com/shop/oukymmik/

Katie Jean  

This brand reminds me of spring. The designs are pretty and feminine. It’s fairly formal but very cute. 

www.etsy/shop/ktjean/

It’s Ok My Dear 

This brand is a bit pricy but has adorable accessories. It reminds me of Alice in Wonderland. When you look at the site it’s like going straight down the rabbit hole.   

www.etsy.com/shop/itsokmydear/

Not on Etsy

Garry Pepper Vintage

Garry Pepper Vintage is so utterly delightful I can’t get my head around it. I absolutely adore the dresses. In short it’s a brand full of floral prints and Peter Pan collars.  

www.garrypeppervintage.com/

Lauren Moffat 

When I popped past the Lauren Moffat website for a quick squiz, the first thing that caught my eye was a grey dress with a fitted off-white bodice. It was gorgeous, just like all the other pieces. 

www.laurenmoffat.net

Handsom  

Handsom is crazily quirky. The way they pair their garments (on the models) is totally out there. By themselves however, the garments really shine. They’re great and easy to add a personal style to.   

www.handsom.com.au

So, I hope you enjoyed. My next post will be Quirkifing Your Look – Part 3!

Stay quirky and fab

Xoxoxoxo

Isabella

PS. I am totally aware that ‘quirkifing’ you look isn’t a word BUT I’m taking a bit of creative license because it takes ages to say adding quirkiness. I’m sure you will agree quirkifing (pronounced quirk-ee-fi-ing) is a really fabulous word even if it isn’t official and in the dictionary. So, feel free to add it to your vocabulary as I have done. 

Inspired by.............................Melbourne

Ever wonder how I get inspired? Now you can find out! In my country there are so many wonderful places and becuase of that there is so much to get inspired by. In Inspired by..... you will see exactly how I get inspired. You will see the Inspiration and then at the bottom of the post you will see the articles. It's quite lucky because instead of just getting one article (post) you get two or three. I've made sure all the articles are utterly FAB! 


It's so great to come on holidays. Just to have a break from routine and everyday life. I especially love coming to Melbourne. Melbourne is a place that really buzzes. The shopping is divine, the food and restaurants are smashingly good and the scencery is magnificent. I'm sure you can tell by my choice of adjectives that Melbourne is a simply terrific place.   

Someone knitted a case for a bike rack

MASSIVE house in Albert Park

Fruit at the Queen Victoria
Markets

The restaurants in Melbourne are smashingly good. The food is great and I've realised that in Melbourne restaurants they really make an effort with design. The way all of the restaurants look is superb. 


The first restaurant I went to when we arrived was called The Milkswyn. It really gave me a taste of what Melbourne was about. The design impressed me most. Inside the look is Nordic-inspired chic and outside it's just like a European cafe. The food was delicious as well. 

Other restaurants I went to included. The Commoner, they had an option where you could just say 'feed me' and they would choose the food for you. It was fantastic having that element of surprise. I also went to The Press Club, Bar Lourinha and The Town Hall. Just to name a few. 


It really got me thinking. I live in a country full of excellent food and I know so many places where you can get amazing food. It's time for me to share those places. So, my first article is all about the restaurants in Sydnay and Melbourne that I love. So, if any of my readers live in Australia or plan on visting it then they will have a few restaurants they can visit. You can find the article at the bottom of this post. 


Moving on to the AMAZING shopping in Melbourne. I went to Retro Star, the largest vintage store in Australia and bought a lovely spotty vintage dress and pair of fabulous geometric patterned sunnies. 

Retro Star

 I also went into a little design store and bought the most fabulous necklace ever. It is a little jar with a cork in the top. Inside the jar is a little bunch of flowers.   




I was totally inspired by all the little funky shops in Melbourne. It made me think about making my personal style a bit more quirky. Quirkyness makes you stand out and makes you look a bit different. And becuase of this I've set it as one of my new year's resolutions. I know exactly how I'm going to do it and I will share how in an article at the bottom of this post. 


The street style in Melbourne was the best I'd ever seen. People looked fantastic. Unique and retro. I saw one girl who had a denium patchwork top. The fashion made me think about YOU! My readers. And if you were looking for style inspiration. I've definitly had my dose of style inspiration. So I thought I'd share some various outfits to inspire YOU. Just like I have been inspired in Melbourne! 






The articles are below.  


Best Restaurants in Australia 
Australia has some really great restaurants. We're known for the multi-cultralism and diversity in our food. I am lucky enough to dine at amazing restaurants and for that I am truly thankful. For the sake of fellow Australians and for tourists coming to Australia I will share some of my absolute favourite restaurants. 


Sydney  


Billy Kwong  
A fabulous high-end Chinese restaurant.


Bird Cow Fish 
Great modern Australian.

Din Tai Fung 
Amazing dumplings and Chinese food. 

Mamak 
Mouth-watering satay and roti.  


Ms G's  
Funky, modern, unique Asian restaurant


Lotus  
Terrific modern Australian. 


North Bondi Italian 
A modern spin on Italian.

Fretelli Paridiso  
Delicious Italian in a stylish restaurant.


Cafe Sopra  
Amazing Italian in a grocery store. 


Porteno  
Magnificent Argentinian food. Beware it's VERY popular and therefore EXTREMLY hard to get in.  




Melbourne (There's not as many as I don't live in Melbourne 


Movida  
Incredible Spanish food in a lovely environment. 
The Press Club  
Modern Australian inspired Greek food. Very expensive. 
The Milkswyn 
Modern Australian food in an amazingly comfortable room.  
The Commoner  
Modern Australian with a hint of surprise. 
Bar Lourinha  
Medertarainien food in a bar-like space. 
Il Solito Posto 
Italian in a chic restaurant   
Flower Drum  
Amazing Cantonese (Chinese). Very popular so quite hard to get in. 




Quirkifing Your Look 
As I said before this is one of my NY resolutions. I've got a plan and I'm pretty sure it will work. So, if anyone wants to take the jump with me then read on. Go on, I dare you to. 


Being quirky means looking completely different to others. Having a COMPLETELY unique style. In Melbourne almost every second person had a quirky look. It's fab. So I think there are three steps to Quirkifiying your look. 


Buy Quirky Accessories  
Having quirky accesories is great. It allows you to ease into quirkyness. So if you start by just adding quirky accesories to your normal look if should work well. 


Experiment  
You can use the clothes you already have to make your look a bit different. It's about experimenting and doing things you wouldn't normally do. 


Buy Quirky Clothes 
Once you have eased yourself into the quirkiness you can start buying some quirky clothes. Then you should be a quirky fashionista. Congrats! 


Places to buy quirky clothes and accessories. 
-Vintage stores
-Charity stores 
-Little design store 

Street style 
Need some outfits for clothes inspiration. Here are some of my favourites  
All photos from http://www.sydneystreetstyle.com/ 

Thanks for reading 
Hope you enjoyed 
Xoxoxoxo 
Isabella

What Defines A Foodie?

Foodies are a super common term in this day and age. You hear it everywhere. But, what is a foodie? At first I thought it was quite simple. A foodie is a person who loves food. But I had no idea how far someone's love for food has to go for them to be a foodie.  

Photo from http://www.cookrepublic.com/images/blog/features/
christmas2010/cr_christmas_gifts_foodies12.jpg

So to find out a bit more I googled the word foodie and there was a whole Wikipedia page dedicated to foodies (click here to see the page). I realised that foodies are people that love food so much they dedicate all or some of their life to food. Some foodies love food more then others and they all show their love in completely different ways. So I sorted them into a couple of catogries. 


The Subtle Foodie 
This is the least extravagent foodie. They love foodie but they haven't dedicated their whole life to food. They go to restaurants quite a lot, they savour every mouthful of what they eat, they watch food T.V, they follow food fads and they just love food. (they may not do ALL these things) 


The Food Bloggers 
It's really obvious people love food when they have a food blog. They usually do all the things 'The Subtle Foodies' do as well, all foodies do those things. 


The Chefs 
Some people love food so much they dedicate their whole career to it. These people are chefs. They love food the most. 


A List of Good Foodies 

Nigella Lawson 
Nigella loves food. She never stops eating. On her shows she can be hilariously pig-like. But she is very good with food.   

Leo Paten 
This guy is 9 years old and has a really great food blog where he reviews various restaurants is Sydney. He is really great at describing food. I met him when I was away at an island. He seemed really plugged in with food. This is the link to his blog  
http://leosfeast.blogspot.com/ 

Gwyneth Paltrow 
Turns out this celebrity actress can actually cook, she wrote her own cookbook. I was surprised too.  

As well as.............
Jamie Oliver  
Martha Stewert 
Bill Granger 
Kylie Kwong 
Emily Schuman 


Thanks for reading  
I hope you enjoyed 
Are you a foodie? 
Answer in the comments 
Stay fab 
Xoxoxoxoxo 
Isabella








  







     

When you are low on clothes and very low on inspiration

We all have days when we look at a closet full of clothes and think 'I have nothing to wear!' But some people really have nothing to wear. It can be really tricky to dress well when you are so limited.   

Photo from http://hellobeautiful.com/special-features/kasey-
inderdahl/report-women-waste-a-year-of-their-life-in-their-closet/

So this is my list of closet essentials. 


- A plain white t-shirt 
- A pair of jeans 
- A simple black cotton skirt 
- A casual summer dress 
- A long sleeve top 
- A formal dress 
- A pair of shorts 
- A cardigan 
- A jacket 
- A t-shirt with some sort of print 

So basically if you have all that you’re fine. If you don't you should probably get some more clothes. Your goal when you are limited (and also when you are not) is to make sure no one thinks you are always wearing to same clothes/outfits. There are three ways to do this…………… 

1.    Experiment

Mix things together. Roll up the sleeves of one thing. Tuck something in. Fold up your jeans to make them ¾ jeans. Have a little bit of creativity. Remember you will learn from your mistakes and also from your successes. 

2.    Accessorize 

You can make something look totally different if you put a scarf on or a n necklace.

Stock up on tons of scarves, bracelets and necklaces.

If you put a printed scarf over a plain white tee it takes it to a whole new level. Different necklaces can make an outfit look totally different as with bracelets and scarves. Even a different bag can change an outfit. 

3.    Attitude

If you are confident with the way you can change something it will seem like it’s changed.

If you do all these things and you still feel like you’re ALWAYS wearing the same clothes then there is only one solution TO SHOP.

Now, this may be hard because usually the reason people are low on clothes is because buying clothes can be expensive and they don’t really have the money to do it.

If you are really quite broke, set yourself a very fixed budget and only shop at the cheaper stores.

Start at the bottom. Start at secondhand stores, charity stores and even $2 shops. Then work up to Target and stores like that. You will be surprised at the things you can buy. Only bring the money you plan to spend. Don’t bring your whole wallet, then you will be tempted to buy things beyond your budget.  

Other ways you can get some more clothes is to organize clothes swaps and ask friends for old clothes (this can sound a bit desperate though).

So, I hope you enjoyed this post. This week I’m going to Melbourne! Which is Australia’s fashion capital. So up on the post agenda is an Inspired by Melbourne as well as a few other surprises. 

Stay wonderful and FAB

Xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Isabella

20 Steps To Calmitity, Organisation and Happiness

It's the beginning of the year and everyone is still settling in to 2012. It's all a bit chaotic really. So, I've put together an instruction manual, for want of a better word. This will help you become calmer, more organised and ultimately happier. Let's get started! 


Step 1 
Sit or lie down and reflect on 2011. Think of all the things you did well and all the things you can improve on.   


Step 2 
Write down the things you did in 2011 you want to continue in 2012 and the things you want to stop/can improve on. 


Step 3 
Clean up your Desktop on your computer 


Step 4  
Clean up your real desktop 


Step 5 
Go around your house and get rid of all the things you don't need or want anymore. 


Step 6 
Dust your house (get rid of any dust on surfaces). 


Step 7 
Go for a big clothes shop. Get a couple of basics and some on trend things  for the season. 


Step 8 
Stock up your kitchen. Go on a huge food shop! Buy baking materials, fruit, veggies, salsas and other things you may need. 


Step 9  
Clean out your handbag and refill it with goodies. 


Step 10 
Have a few hours of really good excercise. 


Step 11 
Calm your soul and body by doing some yoga 


Step 12 
Have a very long soak in the bath. 


Step 13 
Clean out your pantry and organise everything into boxes 


Step 14  
Write all your events for the year in a diary and high-light the most important ones!  


Step 15  
Have a picnic with friends (helps you to be calm)  


Step 16 
Write a Misson Statement (see this Gala Darling article) 


Step 17 
Get a haircut 


Step 18 
Delete old contacts 


Step 19 
Make yourself an apple, pear and ginger juice 

Step 20  
Plan and look forward to a great year  


I'm going away to a small island with absolutely no internet reception for a week. So sadly, I will not be able to post. Sorry!  


I hope you enjoyed this post 
Stay calm, organised and HAPPY 
Lot's of love 
Xoxoxoxox 
Isabella 

Florence and the Machine

I just realised I haven't done a music post for a really long time. So I thought I'd do one about one of my favourite bands. Florence and the machine.  


Florence and the machine is an English indie pop band. The singer is Florence Welsh. I love it because it seems very pure. The band isn't trying to be something it's not. It's just trying to make good music. Her voice is amazing and the songs she sings are fab.  


The style is Alternative with a few influences fom pop, rock and soul.  


Her fashion style is unique, retro and quite rock band like.  It's a bit 80's. She wears a lot of strange yet fabulous dresses. 
  

My favourite songs by Flo and the Machine are Shake it Out, Dog Days are Over and You've Got The Love. 


Hope you enjoyed 
Stay fabulous 
Xoxoxoxoxoxo 
Isabella