Retail therapy – so much more expensive than the other kind

…but so rewarding!

I was feeling a little otherwise, which is probably how I came to completely mistime my walk into the city for a lazy lunch. How to fill a 45 minute gap?

1. Mecca Cosmetica, Little Collins St

Amazing staff, always very helpful and friendly and totally non-judgmental when an unmade-up person with scarily unkempt brows walks in and starts poking around.  As soon as I’d said “lipstick” the assistant was rummaging around painting colours she thought would both appeal and suit on the back of her hand.  We narrowed it down to two, and I walked out with an Ellis Faas lipstick and a booking for the Nars event. Huh?

I was tempted to buy the Nars "Damned", just because of the name...

2. Myer – 35% off cookbooks

No, I don’t need any more cookbooks.  Let’s face it, I don’t need any material possessions beyond basic clothing, right?  The frivolity of cosmetics purchases needed to be balanced by something more practical.  Something more useful.  Something I could almost justify as being a money-saver in the long run.  So now I am the proud owner of bourke street bakery – the ultimate baking companion.  Of course, now I think I’m going to need a proper electric mixer… Recommendations welcome!

About to hit the kitchen to try the olive oil loaf

3. Sole Devotion, Degraves St

Last year I bought some shoes online from John Fluevog Shoes, which means that they now send me regular emails to tempt me into further purchases.  As far as I’m concerned, the existence of these shoes makes up for Michael Buble and Celine Dion.  Anyway, SD in the city also stocks the shoes and I was in the area… sort of… and couldn’t resist dropping in.  Once you’re in there, it’s impossible not to try on shoes and once you’ve tried them on, it’s unlikely you’re going to be able to walk away without them.  My new black Viardots are similar enough to the Malibrans to sneak under the shoe-monitor’s radar for a while, I suspect.

Daily Drop Cap

Sometimes there’s nothing I particularly want to write, but I know that if I let too many days go by without posting I’ll fall out of the “habit”.

This is why I was excited when @melbournebitter tweeted a link to Daily Drop Cap.

Instant post, and a gorgeous resource!

Madmen vs Manga

I think I’m happier with my Madmen avatar than I was with my Manga:

madmen_fullbody

Now, as it’s almost cocktail hour, where’s my martini?

Digital killed the Polaroid star?

Last Monday, the New York Times ran a story about a group of scientists in the Netherlands who are trying to reinvent Polaroid film.  It seemed like a quirky little project and I wondered how many people would be interested beyond the novelty.  Alongside the story, the Times asked readers to send in some of their polaroids.  They were probably expecting a few die-hard polaroid fanatics to submit a couple of photos.  In the end, they received over 900!

Our amazement … soon gave way to grateful and respectful astonishment. The quality of the work was even more impressive than the quantity. Lens readers in this hemisphere, in Europe and in Asia showed an imaginative command of the medium. Their work exploited the idiosyncracies of the Polaroid formats, especially the SX-70 films: the square format, the slightly soft-edged rendition, the occasional defects from the developing process, a color palette that paradoxically seemed warmer than normal but also bent a bit toward blues and greens.

And here they are.  It’s best to look at them in full screen mode.  Amazing!

A break from reality

This is infuriating in so many ways:

“Some African leaders mentioned that we should bear in mind that Mugabe will retire in a few years. Putting pressure on Zimbabwe, including sanctions, might lead to internal conflict. We should be discreet and careful,” a spokesman for Japan told the paper.

[Tanzania's President Jakaya] Kikwete said at the G8 summit: “We are saying no party can govern alone in Zimbabwe and therefore the parties have to work together, come out to work together in a government and then look at the future of their country together.”

BBC News

Just. Rendered. Inarticulate.

So, after the break are some things that make me smile despite all of this.

Continue reading A break from reality

Internet time-wasting

There are a number of ways to lose hours on the internet, but I have found none so effective as the RSS reader. My web-browsing had become a matter of a routine run through my bookmarked sites. Admittedly, this could still waste up to 90 minutes of my day off when the posters had been busy, but this is nothing compared to how long I have been spending since the RSS reader came into my life.

Continue reading Internet time-wasting

It's better with Lego…

…although it’s still funny without the visuals.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv5iEK-IEzw&hl=en]

I’m interested in seeing? hearing? how Eddie Izzard does as Reepicheep in Prince Caspian.  I’m sure there won’t be trays.  Or Penne alla Arrabiata.

James Franco

I hadn’t realised that James Franco was… funny.

Acting with James Franco Episode 3: Scene Work on FunnyOrDie.com

Improve the web with Nofollow Reciprocity.