The cure for boredom

Hey all,

Sorry for the delay between posts. Uni is proving to be incredibly time consuming, so much so that I've barely spent any time at home at all in the last couple of weeks. I'm at work at the moment and it's completely DEAD so I'm using the computer, thank God they have the internet here because no one's come in for about half an hour and I still have two hours left in this shift. No idea how this store turns a profit...but anyway. Random questions for your enjoyment, feel free to copy and paste to your own blog!

1. What time did you get up this morning? 9:15am. I had the alarm set for 9:30 but my mum called me before it went off.
2. How do you like your steak? Rare with lots of garlic butter and fries.
3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? It's actually been that long that I don't remember...I think it was Up in the Air, which is a brilliant film.
4. What is your favorite TV show? I haven't really watched TV since uni started, but Doctor Who would have to be my favourite. I used to watch NCIS but haven't for a little while because I have no time...
5. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be? London, or near to an F1 team that I would be working for.
6. What did you have for breakfast? A crumpet with peanut butter and honey, cup of tea and special K with milk - I'm on my feet for five hours so thought I'd get a big meal in because I probably won't eat again until dinner.
7. What is your favorite cuisine? Malaysian or Italian.
8. What foods do you dislike? Capsicum, liquorice, cooked salmon.
9. Favorite Place to eat? At home with my family.
10. Favorite dressing? A cheeky vinaigrette never goes astray...
11.What kind of vehicle do you drive? Honda Jazz. I call it the Cardis - it's blue and boxy and bigger on the inside. In my dreams I drive an Alpine White BMW M3 Coupe with black interior. Reow.
12. What are your favorite clothes? Jeans, a funny t-shirt and converse.
13. Where would you visit if you had the chance? Italy
14. Cup 1/2 empty or 1/2 full? Full
15. Where would you want to retire? Here in Melbourne. The weather is mild and it's a lovely city.
16. Favorite time of day? Home time...
17. Where were you born? Adelaide
18. What is your favorite sport to watch? Formula One, funnily enough.... :) I'll watch most motorsports though as long as they're not racing on an oval track (I still don't get NASCAR and speedway) or drag racing...but I like watching most sports. Thank god for One HD.
19. Bird watcher? Noo.
20. Are you a morning person or a night person? Both!
21. Do you have any pets? 1 dog, 1 mouse and my sister has a rabbit.
22. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share? I might actually make it to the end of the day without selling a single thing. Bah.
23. What did you want to be when you were little? A Forensic Scientist
24. Are you a cat or dog person? Mainly a dog person, but I am warming to cats. I'm still scared to pick one up though.
25. What was your last drink? Water
26. Always wear your seat belt? For sure.
27. Been in a car accident? Nope
28. Any pet peeves? People try on lots of clothes and then don't buy anything...
29. Favorite Pizza Toppings? Bimbo's does a delicious Bianco al Pomodoro...Mascarpone, mozarella, tomatoes and basil....delicious.
30. Favorite Flower? Roses
31. Favorite ice cream? Hokey Pokey
32. Favorite fast food restaurant? Maccas, or Hungry Jacks if I'm heading home after a big night for the obligatory whopper.
33. How many times did you fail your driver's test? er....twice....ehehehe.
34. From whom did you get your last email? One of my lecturers at uni.
35. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? Borders or Cose Ipanema
36. Do anything spontaneous lately? My whole life right now is one big spontaneous blowout.
37. Like your job? It pays the bills...I do actually like working in the boutique, but this store it's really hard to make budget which is depressing.
38. Broccoli? Ooh yes.
39. What was your favorite vacation? Last December when I unexpectedly spent three weeks in Europe, namely Paris, the French Alps, Switzerland and London. It was BRILLIANT.
40. Last person you went out to dinner with? My lovely Easter Bach peeps!
41. What are you listening to right now? Some mix of pop songs from when I was back in high school...one of the few CDs in the shop I can stand listening to. That song 'All Rise' just came on...ah the memories!
42. What is your favorite color? Black
43. How many tattoos do you have? None...yet! I'm in the middle of a six month cooling off period for one though - I had the idea back in January, and if I still want it by July I'm damn well going to get it. At this stage I definitely still want it :)
44. How many are you tagging for this quiz? None right now...it's hard to do this and keep an eye on the foor at the same time...
45. What time is it? 4:24 pm...half an hour to go and no sales yet....
46. Coffee ?? No. I'm a tea/hot chocolate person.

The dos and don'ts of being a Chain Store Whore

Sorry I haven't updated in a while...since starting uni I've been incredibly busy, plus I've been wearing really boring stuff - I get enough stares for being one of the few girls in Automotive Engineering without wearing something kooky to boot! Today I'm wearing a beige knee length cargo skirt from Esprit, dark grey singlet top and thongs. Yawn central. But I do feel like having a bit of a rant about things that I feel are unacceptable appearance wise, the lesson being that even if you are cheap, doesn't mean you have to look it:

Trackies outside the house (unless you are exercising): Just. Say. No. This, along with ugg boots outside the house, is possibly my biggest pet hate, because it's so SLOPPY. And 'but it's ten o clock at night and I'm doing a supermarket run!' doesn't cut it...on my first day of uni I had to run to the supermarket to grab batteries at 10:30pm and I changed out of my trackies. This is my alternative to a super comfy trackies outfit that hopefully does not look so sloppy:


Leggings: Target; Top: Primark; Cardigan: Country Road; Shoes: Steve Madden; Pashmina: Little India, Singapore.

Chipped nail polish: Another one that is so easy to fix...just take it off!

Applying makeup in public: last week I was sitting on the train opposite a very stylish and possibly expensively dressed lady, although she wasn't wearing obvious labels, it was all very discreetly posh. She ruined the image however by getting out the mascara and I spent the next ten minutes watching her (from behind the comfort of mirrored sunglasses) apply a full face of slap. Classy.

*end rant*

Anyway I should probably get onto doing some awesome Engineering Mechanics homework...one last thing though, I've taken the plunge and gone completely blonde, and will never do it again because it was PAINFUL, and I've got a job working at Dizingof. Evidence of both items of interest in photo below:


Dress: Dizingof; Bride: The very lovely and lately-married Jess.

- Robyn

uke love

I recently got a ukulele, after suffering severe music playing withdrawal symptoms when I was overseas late last year and had no access to a musical instrument. This will prevent that woeful situation from ever happening again, hopefully. So far I can play 'Dream a Little Dream of Me' and 'Imagine', and I'm learning 'Toxic' (yes, as in the Britney Spears song).

I'm also wearing ridiculous shoes today because I probably won't leave the house until I go to my local Indian tonight for Vindaloo Against Violence. I've had these shoes for more than a year and have worn them maybe three times. I had forgotte all about them but just found them when I was looking for tap shoes.


Top: G2000; Skirt: Ice; Shoes: RMK; Ukulele: Mahalo

Pls ignore laundry and general mess. thks.



Also, a friend of mine has pointed me out to an uber uber UBER cool company called Dashing Tweeds, who make bespoke tweeds, including a fabulous fabric called Lumatwill, which looks like normal tweed during the day, but by night or when using flash photograhy, reveals reflective amazingness - perfect for some smart and safe cycling clothes. You can check them out here. They also have a range of beautifully tailored garments for men and women. I'm absolutely in love with their Lumatwill Cape, although at 400 quid I fear it may be out of my price range...


How perfectly lovely!

- Robyn

Of mice and women

Hello lovelies,

I had my last day at BMW yesterday... :( I'm sad to leave there but it just won't work for uni. They said I can come back any time though and they'll find a job for me...That's pretty cool! They also gave me an X6...ok so it was a model of an X6 but anyway...

Here's what I wore on my last day:


Blouse: Quirky Circus; Skirt: Jay Jays; Vest: Dotti; Shoes: Sportsgirl.

Close up of the shoes:

I heart them so much. I'm considering getting them in tan as well.

And here are my two adorable little guy mice, Leopold and Magnus:


They're having a nap in their new mouse palace.

I was going to write more but I have a splitting headache...it's the heat! Tonight I'm going to the Blue Tile Lounge to see my friend Penelope play with her awesome disco band Knight at the Discotheque, then tomorrow I'm life modelling for a friend...how arty of me!

- Robyn

Today's outfit

I seriously can't think of a witty title today my lovelies...I was up at 5:45am to do my uni timetable. I somehow got Mondays and Thursdays off, which hopefully bodes well for a job I'm going for...if the manager who interviewed me ever returns my calls! Tomorrow's my last day at BMW....*sniff*. I've enjoyed this job a lot but it's full time and just won't work with my uni hours. Lucky person who takes over my position...

My only gripe is a pretty common office one...namely that the offices are FREEZING. It's warm and sunny outside and even in my outfit I was shivering all day.



Dress: Witchery; Cardigan: Jay Jays; Sunnies: Oakley; Shoes: Steve Madden.



I honestly don't know what I'm going to do when I wear this cardigan out...I bought it five years ago for $5. It's still going strong...also I have a scary addiction to mirrored sunglasses. Luckily I only bought one ridiculously expensive pair of Oakley Frogskins off eBay...the rest are all cheap knockoffs.

And being all topical, how FREAKING AWESOME is the American winter olympic team's snowboarding uniform for Vancouver...Gore-tex jeans!? Genius! Pure genius. I want a pair SO badly.



If Burton ever sell these to the public, I'm sooo buying some...because I go skiing all the time, *sigh*. Maybe I'll save them for when I other live in Europe or for when I defer uni for a year to live as a chalet girl in the French Alps...

- Robyn

Blingy nails!

After reading Super Kawai Mama's latest blog entry I remembered that I bought some nail jewels while I was in Singapore. I'm kind of fascinated by this particular form of adornment so last night I decided to go for it and bling my nails up. It's a bit of a rough job but maybe with practice I'll get better. Kind of weird having super bumpy nails as well. I'll see how long they last before I rip one off accidentally stuffing my hand in my pocket.



Incidentally, the nail colour is Shortcake from Sportsgirl...picked it up on sale so not sure if they have it anymore, but they do make some cute colours. I'd stay away from the pale, matte ones though...they don't go on very evenly.

For the last two weeks I've been working at my local BMW as Service Concierge...it's just a temporary position while they look for someone permanent. My last day is this Friday. I'm going to miss getting paid $25 an hour to meet and greet customers in the morning then spend the rest of the day on the phone to the previous day's customers, but I'm not going to miss 7:30am starts (even if they do come with 3:30pm finishes!). I had to do an emergency corporate wardrobe search as I'd not worn my work clothes since quitting Centrelink in late November, but I think I'm making a passable effort.


Blouse: Witchery; Skirt: some hippy shop in Newtown, Sydney; Shoes: Steve Madden.

I'm going to dinner tonight with some girlfriends...would much rather heat up a bowl of leftover pasta and watch the winter olympics, but that's not deemed socially acceptable...maybe I will have a nap before dinner. I'm so rock and roll.

- Robyn

I heart Sportsgirl shoes

I find their clothes can be a bit overpriced, but Sportsgirl shoes are absolutely where it's AT. I just got these adorable black leather oxfords - very useful for my current (and unfortunately very temporary) job as Service Concierge at my local BMW dealership, because I spend the first three hours of every morning standing up and ballet flats just don't cut it then, and I'm lusting after their black suede high heeled over the knee boots like nothing else.





Tres adorable, non? I've worn them out (apart from work) once, and already got comments on them. When I finally get paid for my job, after paying off all my debts, those OTK boots are MINE.

- Robyn

I'm baa-aack!

Hello my darling blog readers, yes all two of you,

After a long, long absence, I am back in the blogosphere. I do apologise for leaving without so much as a goodbye, but I trust that my sister Kathryn has been taking good care of the place while I've been gone, and to be honest most of the interesting stuff I got last year she's posted in her outfits anyway.

Last year I worked full time for Centrelink, a job which I would wish on very few people. It takes a special sort of person to withstand 7 and a half hours of phone abuse every day, and I am not one of those special people, but having worked there gives me a new admiration for anyone who can. Sartorially speaking, I saw a big change in my wardrobe, from good excuse to play dressups to something a little bit more corporate. I also didn't feel I could post a lot of my outfits, seeing as I went from Jay Jays and Kmart to Witchery and Cue, which are arguably chain stores, but not in the super tight budget way that was the original spirit of this blog.

HOWEVER. This year I'm returning to full time study, and having so far been unable to find a job to see me through the year, I've dived back into chainstore shopping with a vengeance. I'm starting an Automotive Engineering degree at RMIT in the city in a couple of weeks time, which admittedly is not the most conducive environment for some of my more...shall we say....creative styles, hopefully once my fellow engineering geeks are used to me I can slowly start breaking out the fun stuff again.

Anyway, this blog is worthless without pics, so I humbly present to you a selection of my most recent chainstore purchases:




Enjoying a terribly civilised day at the tennis. T-shirt: Cotton On Body; Skirt: Dangerfield; Cardigan: Country Road; Hat: Mimco (which was reduced from $230 to $50. Yeeeahhhhh.)




Braving a night out in the city in heels - I am not a heels wearer. For good reason. Dress: Charlie Brown (OK again not a chain store, but it was $25 down from $200....); Heels: Rubi; Bag: vintage.




Another night out on the town...dress: H&M; Bag: Vintage.

I went to Europe in December, a few days in Paris, skiing in the French Alps and a week in London. This blog would be a lot easier to write if I lived over there....Primark and H&M are possibly my two favourite shops in the world. When the cooler weather comes my Primark purchases will almost certainly be making an appearance...

- Robyn