This evening I attended a fundraiser for the Social Studio on Smith Street. Basically it’s an amazing organisation that assists immigrants with specific fashion construction skills to design and sell ethically sound clothing and to keep them out of the slave labour trade. Brilliant. The event was appropriately hosted by the divine Lee Lin Chin who made an eloquent speech about how high fashion houses have a moral responsibility to use ethical means of producing their wares and that consumers cannot continue to turn a blind eye to the origins of their wardrobe. The clothes in the fashion parade were stunning and original – there was a breathtaking purple silk, one shouldered maxi dress that caught my eye. Although I imagine it will look far less spectacular on me than on the six foot four Somalian goddess modelling it…

* Dress by Nina Ricci
* Shoes by Nine West
* Perspex bangles from Equip
* Circle scarf Smaggle Made

Love Carly

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Naught or Nice – Which one are you?

The Ugly Crush

A few tips on how to thrift…

How to Steal the Style of Betty and Veronica

What were you wearing when?

How to Make a Necklace Out of Laddered Tights and Stockings

A Brief History of the Life of Coco Chanel

What are your best features?

Fat Fashion and Positive Body Image

Style and Manners for Meeting the Parents of Your Lover

Enjoy!

Love Carly

xxx

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I’ve been doing some research into the meaning of colour for my next jewellery collection and I’ve been utterly addicted to combining the descriptions and deciphering the meaning behind the different hues.

Here is my summary -

Black

- Proud, elegant, strong, ambitious.

Red

– Energetic, powerful, determined, passionate, desirable.

Purple

– Regal, noble, luxurious, mysterious, creative, wise, magical.

Pink

– Youthful, fun, exciting, immature, childlike.

White

– Innocent, clean, pure, organised, proud, independent.

Orange

– Joyous, enthusiastic, fascinating, happy, attractive, successful.

Yellow

– Intellectual, energetic, cheerful, warm.

Green

– Harmonious, fresh, fertile, inspirational, restful and healing.

Blue

– Deep, stable, trustworthy, loyal, wise, confident, intelligent, faithful, truthful.

Grey

– Timeless, practical, solid, reasonable.

My question is… what colour are you?

Think about it.

Love Lady Smaggle

xxx

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Why don’t you…

* Buy a beautiful tin of artist’s pencils? A magnificent sketchbook filled with blank parchment paper? Fill the pages with delicately shaded scribbles and patterns?

* Take a class? Millinery? Leather work? Embroidery?

* Spend the afternoon at your library in the DIY section? Home interiors? Gardens? Fashion?

* Keep an old fashioned scrap book? Filled it with torn pages from magazines? A whole page of colours you love? A page of beautiful blondes? A page of coffee tables?

* Colour code your wardrobe? Start with neutrals hanging at one end of your wardrobe and slowly work your way to patterns and brights?

* Get out your sewing machine? Whip up a few cushion covers? A couple of pretty head scarves? Some drawstring bags to keep your delicates in?

* Make a cake? For no reason? Decorate it with marshmallow flower petals and pink coconut?

* Paint?

Have a beautiful weekend!

Love Lady Smaggle

xxx

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Ladies and gents, allow me to introduce you to the author of my new favourite blog, Might and Main. The incredible Michelle writes the most inspirational articles over at her site that I just had to have her guest blog here at Smaggle. We did a little swapsie so visit her today to read my guest post on How to Be a Perfect Planner. Today, Michelle writes a kick butt post on how to stop getting overwhelmed.

Break up overwhelming tasks into small, easily attainable goals.

I just finished reading a great book about climbing, No Shortcuts to the Top by Ed Viesturs. One section that really stuck out to me was when he talked about how awful climbing Mount Everest would have been if he viewed it for what it was. Instead, during the 10 or so hours it took him to get to the summit on the final day, he would pick out rocks or other nearby landmarks and tell himself that he just had to make it to that point. Then, once he’d reached his goal, he’d pick another close mark and not stop moving until he got there. By breaking up huge, overwhelming tasks into smaller goals, he climbed the 14 highest peaks in the world. Just imagine what you could do if you applied that same strategy to your life!

When you’re working, do your absolute best.

So many people put less than their best effort into working, and it really shows. A task that could have been completed in 2 hours instead ends up devouring their entire workday. This is especially important if you’re a freelancer or self-employed. Think about it this way: Would you rather work your hardest for a couple hours and have the whole rest of the day free to enjoy yourself, or would you rather drag it out all day and have little time left to do whatever you want?

Remember to take time for yourself.

It’s easy to get caught up in being busy all the time, but without taking breaks to recharge, you won’t be doing your best work. If you’re going to work your hardest to get what you want, great! But make sure you’re enjoying yourself too. Read a good book, go for a walk, head to the gym, eat a really delicious meal, grab a drink with some friends…the options are endless. Take a break before you get burnt out. That way you’ll head back to your work charged up and ready to go.

Most importantly, surround yourself with good people.

No matter how busy or stressed you get, good friends and family will stick by you and support you. Make sure you have friends who you can call or text whenever you’re feeling overwhelmed. If the people around you now aren’t supportive of your goals, find better people. Read blogs of people who have similar goals, follow them on Twitter and strike up a conversation. Even if you don’t end up being best friends, at least you know of someone who’s doing something similar to you who you can consult if needed.

If you loved this post please do share the love and pass it on!

Love Lady Smaggle

xxx

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* Make a big pot of cleansing green tea? Drink it lying on the floor and chatting to your girlfriends?

* Get a fringe cut? Long and thick? Have it brush your eyebrows like a silk curtain so you can peek out from behind it?

* Make maxi dresses your signature clothing item? Wear wooly grey tights and cropped cardigans with them in winter? Long beaded necklaces and chunky clogs in summer?

* Order a sambucca on ice?

* Wrap a scarf around your head? Throw on some giant sunglasses? Cherry coloured lipstick? Wind down the windows and go driving without a destination?

* Smile?

* Make gifts for the little babies in your life? Hand sewn bibs? Little embroidered baby booties? A tiny teddy bear?

* Order Chinese food? Eat it straight from the containers? On a picnic blanket in your own backyard?

* Try navy instead of black? Forrest green? Dark grey? Rethink the basics?

* Floss your teeth? Twice a day?

Love

Lady Smaggle

xxx

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We all know I’m not the brightest crayon in the box when it comes to tech talk jargon. I would cry if you asked me what plugins are. Nonetheless I bravely faced the geek fest yesterday at the Problogger Conference in Melbourne. It was, in a word, awesome. I had far too much percolated coffee and jelly beans so I had the mega jitters at the end of the day but I managed to take some fairly serious and surprisingly coherent notes. I’ve made them a little bit smaggley for those of you who, at the end of the day, had to ask their boyfriends what an affiliate is. In other words this is the dumb-arse version of the main rad points -

1. The Key is to Implement the Behaviour – Not just hear it.

You can read every book, ebook, blog and site and be armed with all the information you need to make a million dollar blog, but if you don’t action the advice it’s as good as useless.

2. You Are Only As Good As Your Last Post. Make it One Worth Remembering.

Don’t pad out your blog with filler content because you’ve committed to posting four times a day. Your readers would rather have nothing than an article that wastes their time.

3. You Need to Constantly Grow. A Rolling Stone Gathers No Moss.

Stand still for a whole five minutes and see how bored you get. Apply that to your blog. Now go mix it up a little.

4. Positive Attention = Good. Negative Attention = Bad.

Don’t stir up trouble for the hits. It’s not worth it. You’ll get a one day spike in traffic and then everyone will abandon you. No one has a lasting relationship with a bully.

5. Write Posts That People Will Want to Share with Their Friends.

Be concise, make your point, make it readable, make it accessable but most importantly make it sharable. No one will search for your Twitter, Facebook or Stumbleupon buttons. You need to make them visible.

6. Be a Good Person and be a Person.

Do you buy your coffee from the same place every morning because you love the cafe? Or do you love the cutie behind the counter who reads you your horoscope? Don’t have a faceless blog. Let people know who you are and be kind, polite and mind your manners. Pretend everyone is your grandmother.

7. Be Remarkable.

Leave an impression. Give people something to talk about.

8. Contribute.

You are never too cool to stop communicating with your peers and despite what you think you are never too busy either. It’s all about the karma. Don’t expect love if you ain’t handing it out.

9. Be Humorous. Let Your Readers Have a Giggle.

There’s no need to be so serious all the time. Tell your readers stories, engage them, acknowledge your mistakes and write about your solutions. Failing that, everyone loves a good poo joke.

As you can tell from my child-like enthusiasm I was rather inspired by the conference. Darren is an amazingly lovely guy who you just want to stand near to soak up his goodness, Chris was hilarious and provided most (if not all) of the tips that really stuck with me and I think Mr Smaggle developed a crush on Collis. Understandably.

And if you are interested I was asked to contribute my thoughts on blogging over at Frock and Roll alongside the magnificent Sally from Already Pretty and my gorgeous friend Sarah Von from Yes and Yes.

Please let me know if you found these tips useful and if you have anything to add please feel free to comment. If you attended the conference please comment and leave a link to your blog – I barely got the chance to mingle with the guests.

Oh and don’t forget to follow me on Twitter and become a fan of Smaggle on Facebook!

Love Lady Smaggle

xxx

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Lady, Alicia from Sea of Ghosts, Angela from Angela See, Angela Blog.

The gorgeous Grant from Ink and Leather

Canberra. Represent.

The afternoon was lovely – we had delightful treats, amazing coffee, chatted a little about blogging but mostly about food!

I must also mention the sultry Ellie from Adulterous Ellie, the lovely Selena from Dear Selena and the stunning Lady Melbourne who I only just missed on my way out.

Love Lady Smaggle

xxx

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Lady loves…

* Hot chocolate

* My callous covered hands. I like to think they tell little stories about the pretty jewellery they helped to make.

* Gilmore Girls. It is truly spectacular. I particularly love Rory’s commitment to the late nineties sartorial palette of brown paired with pastels and the over rehearsed banter between her and Lorelai. It’s genius.

* Chilly evening swims with friends, paddling up and down the lanes catching up on the days events.

* People who go out of their way to help you.

* The yearly Ikea catalogue. Swoon.

* Young men on bikes. Wearing trousers and lace up shoes.

* Chandeliers.

* Dressing in beige, cream, and pale pink.

* That this is my 800th post on Smaggle! If only I had some champagne…

Lady loathes…

* Having twelve jobs because that equals twelve group certificates which equals a total disaster at tax time. Grumble.

* That it’s too cold to sleep.

* My recent addiction to Vegemite. I was a fierce Promite activist for years until I started living with Vegemite eaters and I slowly changed my preference through utter laziness. I feel so disloyal and utterly powerless to stop this Vegemite invasion. This is only exacerbated by the fact that I think Vegemite is delicious.

* When my GPS sends me from Fairfield to Footscray via ST KILDA!!! I know that only Melbourne readers will get this but seriously – Is GPS ‘Karen’ on acid?*

Love Lady Smaggle

xxx

* Equivalent for non-Melbourne readers – it was like going from the North of your city to the North West via the South. Yeah. I need to get back to basics and get a map…

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Why don’t you?

* Have a glass of red wine every Sunday afternoon? As a tribute to a beautiful week?

* Wear a designer scarf every day? Wrapped around your head? Tied to your bag? As a belt? Make it your signature piece?

* Consider the beautiful combination of pear and blue cheese at your next dinner party?

* Wear lip stain? With a tousled ponytail? Look like you’ve spent the afternoon rolling around in fields eating fresh raspberries?

* Make pancakes? Open the windows? Play French music? Drink coffee on a sun-drenched morning?

* Wrap all your gifts in white? Crepe paper? Cotton? Bleached calico? Tie them up with creamy raw silk ribbons?

* Use terms of affection? Beautiful? Handsome? Gorgeous? Delicious?

* Read a novel? A good old-fashioned fiction? From a second hand bookstore? With that distinctive second hand bookstore smell?

Love Lady

Xxx

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