Smaggle

Y’all have been bitching about me not doing enough outfit posts so I bought a camera remote. You likey?

This is generally what I wear when I am working at home, in the dead of winter and when I have no intention of leaving the house unless I go to the gym. And yes, I do wear the bunny ears. When I lived with one of my besties we had a Bunny Ears Means Business rule. If I have a deadline, the ears go on until I’m done. It’s weird but it works.

I’m wearing

* Merino wool tights from Big W

* Dress from Maxine’s on Brunswick Street

* Cardigan from Giordano

* Waist tie from a Metalicus dress

* Peter Alexander ugg-boots. Come on! I’m in my own house and it’s 6 degrees outside!

* Bunny ears from Etsy

Tattoos

I just don’t get tattoos, although obviously, some of them are insanely beautiful. I live in a very boho area and I’m often caught coping an eye full of a Rockabilly chick with sparrows on her chest but really. That shit is permanent. I’m fully aware that people with tattoos love them and seldom regret them, but I could no sooner permanently dye my skin, than I could stub cigarettes out on my arm.

Going to Nightclubs and Bars

I can’t understand why people would want to stand on sticky floors, surrounded by strangers, drinking expensive liquor, listening to bad music and trying to lip read because the music is too damn loud.

Watching Sport

So. Boring. Unless it’s figure skating and I’m laughing at Russia in their 80s sequins and shoulder pads, I’m not interested.

Going to the Coast

I don’t do beach. There’s no shade, no running water, no accessible toilets and no way to stop sand getting in my special area. Sure it’s lovely to have a shower, wear a pretty dress and sip cocktails after a day at the beach but that’s only because the beach sucks, and I’m celebrating because I’m not there anymore. I can also do number twos without resorting to what a family friend calls an ‘aqua turd’. I’m a snow baby. I do mountains. I do skiing. I do red wine in front of roaring fires. The beach is just far too variable for me.

Caring About Cars

I drive a Hyundai Getz. It’s the only car model in the world that I can accurately identify without reading the brand tag. When I’m out with my man he’s all ‘Flipping sweet… new Porshe GST 411 Excel… nice.’ I just don’t notice cars. Ever. I’m also completely aware that there’s no such thing as a Porsche GST 411 Excel, but that’s what it sounds like when people say car models at me. An indistinguishable combination of letters and numbers that I don’t give a rats about.

Attending Music Festivals

Unless Madonna, Cher, Whitney Housten (from 1992), Michael Jackson (when he was alive) and Pink were all to perform at the same festival, it’s unlikely that I’ll ever attend one. However I’ve seen photos of these so called ‘music festivals’ and they look awful. Sunburn, crowds, mud, drunk people, toilet lines, heat, flies, expensive and revolting food and serious potential for getting lost/mugged/groped. I know people who plan their whole summer around festivals and drop serious coin to get tickets for them. You couldn’t PAY me to go to one. Give me an air-conditioned theatre, a glass of champagne and a 30 piece orchestra any day.

I have respect for the enjoyment that most normal people get from these things, but I have decided that I must have a fairly vital lobe missing from my brain to have never been remotely impressed by any of the above.

What about you? What things did you miss the enjoyment injection on that everyone else seemed to get double doses of?

You can tweet and facebook too!

Just add a cropped leather jacket, chunky knit scarf, wool tights and sweet ballet flats.

Today’s guest post comes from the delicious Elise from Stuff That I Bought. I only discovered her blog this year and it’s a corker. She buys stuff, writes about it and invariably has me snorting into my morning coffee. She also has a fab nail blog called The Nail File. She rocks hard. Adore her please.

I love a list, don’t you? Of course you do, everybody does. I especially love a list that’s going to help me keep my skin in tip-top shape. There is something about winter that takes me from regularly doing face masks to obsessively masking my face every chance I get. If overdosing on face masks is a crime, mea culpa. Between the icy wind and the air-conditioning, colder months are a dermis’s worst enemy. Ergo, my top five face masks to help fight the winter blues.

Subtle Energies Dry Mix Pitta Mud

This clay mask is the bees knees for sucking impurities out of the skin. It’s a superfine clay called Ayurveda, and it has a cooling effect when it hits the skin. It’s packed full of minerals like magnesium, potassium, calcium, iron and zinc, which gets into the skin to give it a huge nutrient boost, and leaves you all glowy afterwards. If you’re heads (white or black) are giving you grief, look no further. At $52.80 for 100gms (see www.subtleenergies.com.au), this is a steal. I have done about 6 masks already and the level of clay in the tub has barely gone down. And that’s after spilling about 4 masks worth down the sink by accident.

Fun fact: the Ayurveda clay in this mask is the same sort of clay that was used to restore the Taj Mahal in 2002 and 2009. If it’s good enough for one the seven wonders of the world, it’s good enough for me!

Super by Dr Nicholas Perricone Ginger 3-Minute Facial

When it’s single-digit temperatures, you don’t have time to be sitting around in face masks – there’s cocoa to be drinking and doonas to be hiding under. Enter the 3-minute facial from Super, Dr Nicholas Perricone’s new line made from natural ingredients like fruit and vegetables (all superfoods, hence the brand name). This mask packs a 20 minute facial into 3 – you get intense hydration, while the ginger stimulates the skin to make you all glowy. It actually tingles as you take it off, rather than while it’s on. Perfect when you’re looking a bit dull and need to be sparkly for a night out (or in). This is $75.95 for 59mls (from Kit Cosmetics) and you even get a little spatula with it, so you don’t have to stick your icky fingers in the jar. Clever.

Dermalogica Multivitamin Power Recovery Masque

Sweet, sweet antioxidants. This baby fights all the free radical damage you get from wind and air-conditioning without even trying (ok, it tries a bit). Think lots and lots of vitamins packed into the tube and they work to soothe your skin when it’s angry, stop if from getting angry again in future, and then reverse the damage that has been done. If you sit in an air conditioned office all day and then stand at a freezing cold bus stop at either end, then this will cure what ales ya. At $76 for 75ml, it’s about $5/mask. Worth it.

The Jojoba Company Botanical Hydrating Face Mask

This is a clay mask that doesn’t feel like a clay mask because it’s so silky and smooth. While the clay sucks the nasties out, marine collagen, honey and golden jojoba oil restore hydration – think of it as a push-pull action: bad stuff out, good stuff in. You definitely need to leave this on for at least 20 minutes, so have a cup of tea ready to go and spoil yourself with a good book (or catch up on your blog reading). Fun fact: It doesn’t smell like a clay mask. To me this is a good old fashioned mask that does what it promises without any bells and whistles – squeeze it out of the tube, slap it on, let it work, Bob’s your uncle. At $49.95 for 80mls, you can’t complain (seewww.thejojobacompany.com.au)

The Jojoba Company Skin Refining + Brightening Face Masque

Firstly, I have no idea why The Jojoba Company have called one a Face Mask and one a Face Masque (if anyone knows the difference, please tell me), but this is another mask that delivers what it promises without being flashy or show off-y. This is clay as well, and once it has finished detoxifying the skin it also fights pigmentation. Salicylic acid does the renewal work (you know about salicylic, yes? it cleans away dead skin) while ingredients like Kakadu plum and bearberry extract (made from real bears*) improve skin tone and make skin look brighter and more even. Genius! This one is $59.95 for 80mls (www.thejojobacompany.com.au) and smells like instant coffee. I know, random.

If you’re skin doesn’t look amazing after our little chat, then nothing will get you there. I have given you the tools, now go! Go forth and glow my little beans!

*no bears were harmed in the making of this masque/mask

If you have any questions for Elise, feel free to ask in the comments below. She knows things about ingredients and buys cosmetics from places other than the chemist. Take advantage while you have the chance.

Repeating the same behaviour but expecting different results.

What can you DO differently?

I’ve recently started watching The X-Files, because I was too chicken shit to watch it when I was a kid. It’s every kind of awesome. I feel that I relate more to Scully than Mulder, but that’s because I’m exceedingly practical, almost to a fault.

I love reading about ghostly encounters, and visiting Port Arthur was easily the highlight of the year that I turned thirteen, but I remain sceptical about the concept of an after life. I say this now, even after I have had, what I believe to be a spiritual encounter.

I actually forgot all about this incident until I was driving home from my play rehearsal last night, and a special song came on the radio. ‘Only the Good Die Young‘ by Billy Joel. It’s special because it was the theme song to the last play that I was in, that was directed by my high school drama teacher. He was a fantastic teacher. He introduced me to theatre and my life was never the same again. It’s ten years later, and I still think about him every time I’m about to walk on stage. He was extremely talented and very generous with his knowledge. I was lucky to have had him in my life.

When I finished school, we remained in contact. He moved interstate, so we exchanged emails regularly. He fell ill four years ago and shortly after that, he died. I received a phone call on a Wednesday night, saying that he had passed and that the funeral would be held the next day, in the town where he lived. Over 1000 kilometres away. I was rehearsing for a play at the time and opening night was the next night. There was no way I could attend the funeral. Naturally I was quite upset about this, but being the practical person that I am, I gave myself a grieving deadline. I received the phone call at 6.30pm on Wednesday. I gave myself 24 hours to be sad about my friend and then all my energy was to go into the performance of my play. He would have wanted it that way.

The next evening, my mother was driving me to opening night of the play and she asked me how I was feeling. I looked at my watch. It was 6.25pm, Thursday night. I told my mother that I had five more minutes to be sad about it. I then said that I hoped my friend was okay with me not going to the funeral. That was when his song started playing on the radio. I turned it up, and cried until I got to the theatre. When I stepped out of the car, I wasn’t sad anymore. I haven’t cried about him since.

I know that many of you will say that this was a coincidence, but my mother was in the car with me and there was a definite change in the air. I often hear that song and I always think of him when I do but on that night, I swear he was playing that song for me. Just that once.

Have you ever had a ghostly encounter? Or a spiritual moment?

Feel free to share on Twitter or Facebook.

The internet broke my brain this week. Here’s all the awesome.

Have you met Smitten Kitchen? She’ll change your life. I swear on cake.

Rather Orwellian… via Code for Something.

A Cup of Jo shares her thoughts on life balance.

Google + Circles That You’ll Actually Use… via Swiss Miss.

Clients from Hell. As always.

My girl Sally gives advice on How to Give Good Compliments. Not quite the no-brainer.

I’ve got a double whammy from new blogging lady friend Just a Titch with her articles on How to Make Internet Friends and What I’ve Learned While Losing 40 lbs. Gal after my own heart.

1000 Awesome Things – For all the rocking administration champions. We heart you.

I’m making Chantelle’s Zucchini Pie this week. Yes I am.

And Joy the Baker’s Coffee and Lavender body scrub…

And Pink Lemonade Cupcakes from a Beautiful Mess…

Oh and Sea Salt Spray from Beauty Bets…

For all the Canberra ladies out there this is classic… Via Her Canberra. Please tweet or facebook me if you want to virtually scream with laughter about it. Please email this to every Canberra girl you know, they’ll get the biggest kick out of it.

Erin’s Excite-o-meter via The Fierce Beagle gave me the giggles. Couldn’t agree more.

Any links from this week that blew your mind? Do share! Facebook and Twitter count also!

Kerri Sackville wrote about this somewhere last week (can’t find the link!) and my answer is a resounding yes. If I’ve peed in your toilet, then I’ve looked in your bathroom cabinet. It’s just what I do. I’m not looking for anything and I don’t touch anything, but I like knowing what moisturiser you use. I’m also perfectly comfortable with other people doing this to me. It’s human nature to be nosy.

This is probably why I love looking at what I like to call ‘Organisation Porn’. Observe.

Delicious is it not?

Do you like to sticky beak in other people’s cupboards?

Seriously, if I could find a way to look in other women’s handbags I would. I’m such a voyeur.

I definitately suffer from Dysania. I find this slightly bizarre because I’m a brilliant sleeper. Extraodinary, in fact, but it doesn’t matter how long I’ve been in bed, I always want to stay there, even on weekends.

Do you suffer from Dysania? Do you have any tips to help remedy this?

You can comment on twitter and facebook too.

My mother is not what you would call a glamourpuss. She never had drawers full of cosmetics like my friends’ mothers. She had, and still has, a simple make up case with only clear mascara, black mascara, concealer, translucent powder and a chap stick. Needless to say I didn’t expect to get much beauty advice from Little Miss No Make Up. How wrong I was. Here’s what I learnt.

Don’t shave your legs.

I’ve shaved my legs maybe ten times in my life, and only in emergencies. I’ve waxed and/or epilated for fifteen years and my body hair just gets thinner and softer.

Choose light facial coverage, or none at all.

I’m pretty sure my mother has never owned foundation in her life. Neither have I. We stick to light tinted moisturisers or subtly applied concealers.

Moisturise. Twice. Every day.

My mother has done so every day since she was thirteen. As have I. People are shocked when my mother says she has a 27-year-old daughter. They are even more shocked when they realise that the 27-year-old is supposed to be me. It’s all about hydration. Also, I’m the only fish-belly white one of my very olive-skinned immediately family, so I added my own daily sunscreen caveat.

Fork out for a decent hair dresser.

My mother is a total tight arse with all beauty products, except those relating to her hair. It’s your crowning glory. Treat it as such.

Pedicures are good for your soul.

Even in winter, there’s something about bright berry toes that makes me smile.

What great and unexpected tips did you adopt from your mother? Let’s share the wisdom of our greater generations!

As always, you can share on Facebook and Twitter too!