More stripes! Bikinis for a BBQ pool party baby shower for our good friends.

I made some delicious gluten & processed sugar free strawberry cupcakes! I hope they’re enjoyed by everyone :)

I would wear stripes every day if I could! I’ve decided to do a mobile post every day the coming week that I am wearing something striped, starting today – navy blue & mustard stripes for Friday at work.

I’ve been a little obsessed with nail polishes & nail decorating lately… I don’t paint my nails anymore for two reasons – 1. I climb, mess up nail and have to repaint, huge time waster, and 2. the chemicals that are still in most nail polishes.

The Deborah Lippmann and Nars polishes below are 3-Free, no formaldehyde, no dibutyl phthalate, and no toluene. This is fantastic and I’d definitely feel better about using these. A lot of the major polish brands have been 3-free for some time (including Butter London, I love their colours) but still, that leaves a lot left to make colour stick to your nails. If you’re concerned about the big three a general rule of thumb is to avoid the dollar cheapies from chemists etc.

1. OPI Matte Nail Lacquer in Russian Navy
2. Silver Glitter French Manicure
3. Nars Galion (Stormy Grey)
4. Milky Way
5. Accent fingernail
6. Matt Black & Gloss French Manicure
7. Nars Dovima (Tomato Red)

I have such and urge to paint and glitter my nails at the moment!

I am completely in love with these rings! They are from Stone and Metal, a contemporary jewellery store in Fortitude Valley on James Street – only around the corner from where I work and they have completely passed me by!

In previous years I would have been walking the length of James Street twice daily to get home to New Farm, but since I’ve changed jobs and moved homes I rarely walk past where they are located.

I will be making time this week to visit. Rings are my preferred jewellery item, even though I need to take them off all the time for climbing and even while knitting (if the ring is quite heavy and I’m not used to the weight my hands feel off balance while knitting anything more complicated than stocking stitch…), but I might be convinced by some beautiful and interesting earrings :)

Just a little sprinkling of my pins over at pinterest that I am enjoying looking at this morning. It’s Saturday but I still got up at 5.30am to try to get some work in that I didn’t finish yesterday… It’s 6.30am now and I’ve drifted over to pinterest – I didn’t last long did I!?

I will be getting back to it shortly though, it’s an interesting poster project that deserves more time than the client (a Government body) was able to budget for it, so I’ll do it in my time and hopefully produce something spectacular… & effective!

I’ve been a bit absent these past couple of weeks, I promise it’s because of some projects I’m working on that I’ll be able to show very soon!

I wanted to quickly share this skirt I bought from etsy seller pamelatang, she has a lot of beautiful linen and wool creations and she has a second etsy shop for destashing! (so many pretty trims).

I pretty much want everything from both stores.

At the moment I’m searching for more Australian based fashion designers (or independents from other countries), so if you have any favourites drop me a line!

I don’t know how I’ve missed this, loving it! … but maybe not as much as this one :)

Filigree Ring by Karen Walker.

Karen Walker Jewellery - Strawberry Skulls

It’s no secret I love Karen Walker’s jewellery line! This latest offering is now available at blonde venus (located in Brisbane, but they take orders).

I love this ring! I’ve imagined taking casts of knitted items for porcelain pieces, so this really appeals to me.

The process is explained briefly on the store site:

Brisbane jeweller Madeleine Brown creates this beautiful piece of jewellery by first hand weaving the piece in cotton by a method of lacemaking called tatting. The lace is then soaked in wax and cast into silver making each piece unique.

I receive the Artisan e-newsletter and yesterday they sent through a three day online only sale coupon code for 20% off all items. Very very tempting… but still quite a lot to spend this close to Christmas so I’ll probably miss the sale – I’ll pop in to see them in person in the new year :)