Season's Greetings

It's Christmas everywhere and Ave thought, why don't we have a semi-editorial photoshoot to celebrate the holidays? Any reason to play dress up lights up the bulb in the daydreams-filled brain of mine so I agreed immediately. And here are the results!

imitating art position that almost break my giraffey stiff neck. i need yoga or pilates asap.

wearing a velvet dress from Hong Kong, H&M velvet gloves and YSL Tribtoo pumps.

the chicken wing pose! whee!

notice the red book thingy? it is actually an old biscuit tin I got from Camberwell Market! so gonna wear it as a clutch. Isn't it so Olympia Le-Tan and Ulyana Sergeenko in one?

don't forget to smile!

failed attempt to be morbid and sentimental. HAHA.

my fave out of the bunch! gone are the fats. pris goes poof!

introducing my cutie pie of a sister, Christy! she was one of the assistant of the day and she came up with lots of brilliant suggestions! yay to the imaginations of a 10 years old!

And here are the sweats, laughter and ridiculously funny behind-the-scenes moments...

fooling around pretending to be the mafia's ladyboss. bahahahahha. look how cute the assistants of the day -Aida and Christy- are!

got lectured by the assistants on how to pose *blush* 

my horsey, man-repelling way of laughing which i enjoyed every second of! always, always laugh to your heart's content, because.. why not?

... which is actually what makes every photo session such a joy to do. Anyway, I'm sure by now lots of you are starting to munch down those glorious boxes of chocolates and gushed it away with some eggnog or whatever your poison is, curling and cuddling beside our loved ones.. so without further ado, happy, happy holidays, loves!

All pictures courtesy of Aveline Gunawan

Brighton Beach

Summer is finally in the air .... so the beach it is! Went to my favourite beach of all in Melbourne with the trustworthy buddies to roll in the sands, jump up and down and most important of all, camwhore! Best thing is, camwhoring looks totally professional thanks to Ave. Hurhur.

the reason why it's my favourite beach of all times : the jolly, colourful beach houses. Kate Spade should totally do some editorials here.

thinking to myself , gee those beach houses totally nailed the art of dressing in colourblocks.

wearing my mint vintage blouse, ASOS lantern floral skirt and metal top keyhole sunnies, Valentino bow pumps.
mr. Cambridge Satchel chilling around with ms. Dotti the round hat beside.

And finally, tadaaa!! This is the treasured stripe dress I bought from the past vintage fair! It's from the 1960's, designed by Joan Leslie for special evenings. This is the original outfit I planned to shoot with .... but the worst disaster happened.

I ... CAN'T FIT INTO IT ANYMORE.   

 *Screams* *Squeals* *Throw myself off a cliff* 

Gahhh I guess I must cut down the sugar or something now. But oh well, eat and be merry for tomorrow we die(t). Blessed be the one who came up with this philosophy of life.

Snow White

After procrastinating for the longest of time, I finally managed to post up the whole outfit for these shots  I love so much by the one, the only Ave! I first used the head shot for my profile picture on Facebook and everyone loves it, calling it Snow White, thus decided the title for this post.

It is indeed a smooth continuation from my previous post regarding the Snow in Daylesford. Just because it is snow related, yes. Okay, I might be too simple minded. Anyway thank God for you guys for deciding because I myself don't really know what should I title this post myself. Hee.

wearing the Ruby & Crickette's fascinator gifted by my dearest friend Jasmine, bought in The Rocks . thank you!
 loving the net, the velvet drops that seems like snowflakes and of course, the giant satin white bow. 

Often, unplanned shots became the best of all. Ave and I weren't exactly doing these head shots until our friend - the reflector holder of the day and soon to be our most loyal prop guy a.k.a the boy chased down by the geese- said we should totally do so after seeing the glorious white flowers sprung up on my cousin's apartment's sky garden. Thank you geese boy for the idea!

clockwise from the top 
1. red lips as blood. *pouts* or as red as chillies. cherries. strawberries. you name it, dear.
2. distracted as always thanks to my short span of attention. but laughs are forever healthy!
3. attempting to disguise myself as simply normal ...
4. ... guess that just won't work. oh wells. teehee! 

Yet of course, Ave did managed to stick to the original plan of shooting the look in the Parliament. First couple of shots done on the lovely steps of the historic building where a gorgeous group of schoolgirls complimented my pair of shoes. Thank you, loves!

doing yet again the one and only pose i managed to master so far. wearing my favourite white lace dress from  ASOS and shoes found by Jasmine along with the Ruby & Crickette's fascinator.
P.S : She has the same exact dress too! yes, you can find half of her closet in mine, we have heaps of the same things that differs only by colours or most of the time, it is simply the same, just like this number.  

details of the shoes. i love them to pieces and of course dear Jasmine much more for surprising me with them.
by the way, notice that 911 engraved on the staircase? someone definitely knew dangerous heels are going to take flight on these steps. 

Loving how kind the guards were there, pointing us the pretty doors we can shoot from too! The world needs more of them. Seriously.

the pose, again and again. ok i totally should learn how to do another.

failed attempt of mimicking Twiggy. oh well! i love how the doors emphasizes the details of the ASOS popping lace dress. notice the pop up lace?

Funny to say that I originally planned to wear this ASOS dress for my pre-wed shots if I do, somewhere in the future, meet Mr.Right and lives happily ever after. Not so confident on that, still, you never know what will life brings you, eh? But then I thought, oh screw the idea, I'm not keeping yet another gorgeous dress sitting in my closet for an imaginary event in the future. Trust me, I have heaps of pretty dresses bought the last couple of years, tags still on, never worn, gone buying some more. Shopaholic alert. Anyway, it's definitely time to stop because this is exactly why the blog was made, to help me commit on wearing them, doing them justice. So let's just wear it now. And I did. Yay!

Snow in Daylesford

Road trips are the best thing ever besides losing a few kilograms over a Krispy Kreme diet - not that it has ever happened to me, but if that works for any of you please let me know- a brand new pair of shoes and late night ramblings. I got to visit Daylesford during my last road trip with my dearest friends on spring break and guess what we encounter: SNOW! Does that drop any jaws?

mine did.

can you see those glistening drops? the most perfect veil of all.
lucky i brought my winter soulmate, the Forever New throw, along.

For your information, there is no snow in Australia unless you're on some mountain top or any of the sort so this is groundbreaking. At least for me and my friends. We ended up sticking our tongues out desperately, jumping up and down and frantically clicking on any cameras we brought. Long forgotten is the plan to pay a visit to the lavender farm. Oops. But I did attempt to take some outfit shots as originally planned! It's not down to the details I wanted to since it was seriously freezing cold but here are some of the quite successful attempts.

seriously faking spring. excuse the unraveling knots behind. blame all the tremblings. hee.
wearing my favourite silk floral dress from Forever New and my go to picnic/road trip hat from Dotti.

pretending it's easy, breezy warm with my ASOS sunnies.

favourite shot out of all! on the downside, i missed the view of my friend being chased by not one, but TWO geese while doing this. too bad. good thing i did hear him screamed like a girl while chased down by furious quacks, something all of us won't forget in a long, long time. bahahahah,

 my princess heels from Valentino. pointy and pink with bows attached, i couldn't feel any girli-er. wheeee!

After attempts done with blizzards and storm in between, I finally gave up and return to my good old throw. Ave still managed to capture some lovely shots though! Thank God for Ave, I wouldn't manage without her.

say hello to mr. Cambridge Satchel again! Borrowed Ave's sandals from Windsor Smith as suggested by her, she loves how it goes with my outfit.

my hilarious friend, note: the one being chased by the geese, broke my icy smile as soon as he stepped in. guess i'll laugh much more at him without any consideration of his annoyance. gosh that sounds so proper.

anyway you get what i mean. i'll laugh and laugh and laugh 'til he's pissed and laugh some more. hahahahahahahahahah.

my male model of the day, Ren! Isn't he cute? By the way, this is Ave's baby boy.

i made myself his godmother without any acknowledgment of his parents. heehee. a kiss for Ren, looking chic in his Harry Potter glasses and breton shirt, for being such a good company at the shoot!

Good times indeed. Definitely wishing for more trips on 2013!

Take Me to Seine

Back in the hometown with heaps of spare time in hand, my dear and extremely talented friend Natalia and I came up with this shots by the river.

I'm wearing one of my favourite dress from Hong Kong that has been sitting in my closet for too long since I banned myself from buying black and white. It's been my possession since I sat in junior high. As you can tell, I was forever a giantess, thanks to the world's greatest sin: gluttony. But due to that, I get to keep my clothes from back then to wear to date, so I guess I'm kind of lucky. Hee.

doing the one and only pose i am capable of doing since the age of six. obviously i haven't grown up.

i love, love, love ruffles, collars and pleats. and this dress have them all.  not forgetting to mention, it's a swing dress so it allows me to eat. yaaaaaay.

The fascinator I am wearing by Morgan & Taylor is a purchase done when I first discover it as a really, really young girl. I've always been a sucker for outrageous headpieces. Thanks to Melbourne Cup and outdoor weddings, at least once a year everyone got to enjoy wearing one and feel its magic.

And the last bit of the outfit but certainly not the least, a pair of lucky find from Wittner. Doesn't it look like this pair of Miu Miu teacup heels?

Natalia and I had so much fun shooting this and I'm pretty sure we will come up with more.... so stay tuned!

Twenty and Six Espresso

Without any doubt, I crowned Twenty and Six Espresso as the best brunch spot in Melbourne to date. Food there is always innovative (not just some random stack of greens with some proteins and simple yolk porn you can put together easily at home), coffee backed up by Proud Mary's blend has never been disappointing and service is always awesome, therefore giving us the actual Melbourne's own brunch experience.

my all time favourite - the hunter. mushrooms and chorizo just couldn't get any better with their dressing combined.

my original love - the traveller. amazing moroccan sort of taste - hummus, flat bread, amazing lamb sausage hidden beneath the glistening spicy sauce. too bad they've stopped serving this.

and they've replaced it with this - the cassoulet. fancy name for baked beans and sausage drowned in sinful duck fat. it stands equal to the traveller in terms of presentation and cooking method but to me the traveller is still the winner.

this poor little fellow looks too ordinary sitting next to others at the table. there, there.

Apart from their marvelous food aesthetic, owners of this successful little cafe - Nedin Rahmanovic and Majda Falan - are graphic and interior designers. No wonder every details the eyes caught in the place also seems to be thought of carefully despite the limited space and the deceiving simplicity. Both the eyes and the tummies are satisfied at once. What's more to ask?

notice anything unusual here?

it's the water glasses! certainly not some crappy-dented plastic cups. they used to serve water with these when they started but as they grow very crowded, sadly they've stopped. 

innovative use of empty bottles, light bulbs and pot-pourri. no?

crates as racks. brilliant.

more crates as seats with old coffee sacks as cushions; industrial chic done right!  nigahiga should have made an ad about crates rather than the inflatable green ball, agreed?

wonder what is he throwing?

a paper plane!

that ends on the other side.

i just have a thing for cream and this shade of greenish-blue. and they have it all.

Oooh I know. Ask them to be open on Wednesdays as well, maybe? And also bring back The Traveller? Or maybe a slightly expand the location? Or make bookings available so we don't have to queue up on weekends? Okay I better stop here, I'm starting to ask for too much.

Disaya

It's a shame that I only recently discovered Disaya. Playful, quirky, yet oh-so-chic at the same time, how could I have missed it for all these years? Just look at how beautiful their fall winter 2012 collection is.

Okay you got me. I might be biased since the collection is based on afternoon tea. Still, Disaya deserves serious credit for amplifying the idea, making me blasting this image to its full size here. Notice how thoughtful every single detail in these pictures are? The china, the cakes; all of the essence of tea time are captured and developed into the eye-catching earrings, rings, bracelets and of course the outfits - not to mention the uber cute puppy with a hat and bow tie imprinted as a china print on the chest. Brilliant.

Pardon me for the slightly pixelated image but I just can't help not posting this major  think-pink editorial.  Loving the swan-heart print Disaya is bringing this round, simply romantic.

Extremely in love with the props on the picture on the left. Best thing for those residing in Bangkok, Disaya's store display in its flagship store consists of these!

Swing dresses! Definitely my favourite cut of dress - although I kind of look stumpy in this cut since I don't possess those gorgeous spidery long legs - it allows you to look chic, breathe and most importantly eat at the same time. Rare that these qualities can coexist at once.

Another slightly pixelated one - sorry for that - but I can't help posting it since it's so gorgeous!

 When you are tired of all those florals, this cake print is definitely refreshing to the eyes.

Disaya is named after its designer, Disaya Sorayakritikul, another amazing Thai originated talent educated in the prestigious Central Saint Martins. The brand was established on 2007 (yes, I've been living in a cage apparently) and the first collection was picked up by 70 stockists at once, followed by luxury retailers such as Harrods and Harvey Nichols! Thanks God for that, it proves that I'm not the only one in this world full of studs and bolts that finds all these girly, whimsical, dreamy clothes and jewelry a must.  Don't get me wrong, this doesn't mean I hate studs. I do love them to a certain extent - seriously, who can resist against these mighty yet classy Valentinos?- but the world needs some sprinkles too and I believe Disaya is one of the magic fairy dusting the world with its addicting sweetness.



Images from various sources