Snuggle Up

My waiting for the colder weather has been quite futile, as I realized. It's not going to get any colder than it is at the moment, which is averaging 20 degrees during the day. Actually I am really loving the weather but unfortunately, I cannot wear a lot of the warmer clothes that I have bought or brought up from Melbourne. So essentially, there are a lot of clothes that are making their way back to Melbourne with me, which is worrying because my luggage allowance is only 10kg, and I need to factor in my laptop and cameras, which themselves take up quite a bit of weight, and winter clothes are also bulky and heavy. Although generally, tiger airways are lenient with their luggage allowances, and you can be dodgy, and sort holding onto the bag when you put it on the scales, they don't really see it anyways, or you can lean it against your leg. The staff that I've encountered don't really pay that close attention, but then some of them are pretty strict. Anywho, I digress. Well I have one more exam to go, and I cannot wait for it to be over. My first two exams were okay, and the third one wasn't so great, but that's totally my fault, i only had very briefly studied for the exam. Actually this swotvac has felt like holidays with exams in between, I'm not sure if i can get back into proper studying habits but hopefully I have some new found motivation next semester. But all I can think about is getting on that plane on Wednesday, and seeing my family and friends. 

Here are some more clothes from my op shopping adventures, I actually taken these photos over a week ago, but I wanted to stagger my posts. My blogging frequency hasn't been very stellar this year.

 

Sweater: $3

I was drawn to the anchor design on this jumper. I'm a sucker for vintage-y over sized jumpers and have quite a collection already so my mum won't be so happy with the growing amount. 

 

Jumper: $2

Finding this jumper made me pretty happy, I've been looking for something like this for a while. I've seen a lot of similar styles in clothes stores and couldn't justify paying a lot for them. After buying clothes from op shops for so long, I'm so stingy when it comes to buying new clothes. 

 

 Blouse: $3

I was drawn to the collar and the floral pattern. At the moment it is super big and looks like a pjs top, but I plan to cut it down and change it up somehow, not sure how yet.

Sweater: $2

I love love this sweater, it is so amazingly soft, you guys seriously have to touch this in person! And then I saw the collar design with the beaded pearl strands detail and it was so amazing. One of my favorite finds, and the fit is so good too, not over-sized as most of my sweater finds.

Love Squealer

She Takes Me High

I was really looking forward to Friday, although I wasn't able to go to the Simple Plan/We The Kings concert on the Gold Coast, it didn't mean that I couldn't stalk them. In the morning, I got an email from the dental school, with the 2013 draft calender. It had immensely freaked me out because I have to start a week earlier than I thought at the start of next year, I know it doesn't seem like that much more (but it was on top of the already 3 weeks earlier), but I was just coming to terms with the already extended semester for the year. I started having a mini panic attack and just crying, I kept thinking I don't think I could handle spending any more time in the GC than I have to, and had doubts whether I should be here or not. I know it seems quite an excessive reaction, but I haven't had the best time adjusting to this new lifestyle and compounded by my home-sick feelings, finding out the extra week didn't help. It had made me so depressed, and I didn't feel like going anywhere.

However, the day just started getting better when the reflective essay marks were released. I know it wasn't my best effort and I quite struggled with writing and finishing the essay. The mark I got was a lot better than I hoped and such a relief, although there were quite a number of people who did really well. So I tried not to think too negatively.

Twitter is main source for stalking, but there hadn't been any tweets all day, thus I wasn't too sure when I should leave. I decided to leave at around 2.30 to catch the bus and do a bit op shopping while I was waiting. When I got to the venue, Hunter (guitarist from WTK) had just tweeted that they were on their way to the GC, that meant they wouldn't come for at least an hour. I didn't mind, because there's a shopping centre where I could preoccupy myself. About an hour and a half after the tweet, I walked back to the venue, but staying on the other side of the road, because it felt weird to be so close to the venue when I'm not actually going to the concert. Then I spotted Travis standing on the corner where the venue was, I swore he appeared out of nowhere! I quickly called up Monisha, and proceeded to hyperventilate, an unexpected reaction. Then I felt too scared to go up and talk to him, but i did start following him, he went into this complex with a lot of high rise apartments and taking photos. There were another group of girls that had approached him, so I made my way towards him as well. One of the girls asked if he was Travis from We The Kings, and replied yes. I was so grateful for the other group of girls because they a lot of the talking, and they seemed really nice and not annoying as many high school fan girls are. I had Monisha on the phone the whole time, so she could hear the conversation, Travis said "Hi Friend" into the phone, I thought that was so cute! He showed us some songs he's been working on, and it had him rapping in one of the songs! It was amazing because no one had heard these songs before because he just got sent them from the producer or something. Admittedly, the songs were a little too pop-ish for my liking but it's Travis and I will still love everything he does. Then we talked about him being in Australia, and how We The Kings have been here so many times and that I'm so grateful for them coming over. We took some photos, and the lovely girls offered to take the photo for me before I had the chance to ask them. We spent some time talking about his tattoos, and the most recent one he had done, which was a his grandfather's painting, whom was his name sake but they had different middle names. It was a really awesome story behind the painting, and i will attempt to summarize but trust me, it was a lot better when he told us, because you could tell how much it meant to him. The painting was of a girl that his grandfather had continuing dreams about, he knew that he just had to paint her. Then when his grandfather met his grandmother, surprisingly, the girl in the painting looked like his grandmother. And he talked about a dream he had about a girl and how they would go flying together, and that was what inspired the song "She Takes Me High". We then asked if we were keeping him and if he had soundcheck soon. He said it was alright and he's always late for soundcheck and sometimes they don't even do a sound check. A girl asked him about things going wrong on stage, and the worse one was when they forgot to turn on the singer microphone, and it was awkward when he walks out on stage and shouts something, but no one had heard him! He said it has happened about 3 times, but it's such an obvious thing to check, the centre mic for the singer. He also talked about coming out after the shows to meet the fans, but they have been getting told off for doing that because it makes Simple Plan look bad, because they don't do that (Side story, I swore that Simple Plan came out before the show in Melbourne, the last time they came to Australia). But he loved to meet the fans and everything, so now they have to wait for Simple Plan to leave before they're allowed to go outside. Then we got some things signed and I was kicking myself for not bringing anything, so I just got my phone case signed which in hind-sight, was a really good idea because I bring it everywhere with me and it brings happy memories. One of the girl in the group wrote down their twitter names for him to follow, and when they gave them the paper, he asked what my twitter name was too! I was just so shocked and elated, and then I asked him to follow Monisha as well, which had Scissorhands in it. He told us that was his dog's last name, Elvis Scissorhands, because he ruined the couch by shredding it, but Travis said it was hard to be angry at Elvis because he's so cute! Then another group of girls spotted him, and he hugged us goodbye, oh it was wonderful, his hug, he smelt so nice! And I didn't even have to ask for the hug, as which is usually the case. I didn't want to leave him!

Well that was such a wonderful experience, he spent such a long time talking to us! I talked to Monisha for a bit afterwards, which was comforting but sad because I cannot wait to go home. Then I called Susan to tell her the story and we talked for a bit too, oh it's so good to hear their voices! The day ended on such a happy note, and i am so thankful that I got to meet Travis. There were so many things that could of happened that prevented me from doing so, and while I didn't get a chance to see them in concert, meeting him was just awesome! I like to think there are external-out-of-this-world (Maybe its Dave Ghostman getting rid of the negative ghosts in my life, okay I know only Mon would understand that, as lame as the reference is, but let me keep my happiness ;) ) forces that are giving me this balance lately, like I would go through a depressing stage but then something manages to pick me up afterwards.

An outfit-of-the-day photo, I got a chance to wear the coral jacket, yay! 

 

Jacket: Op Shopped, $4

Shirt: Op-Shopped, $2

Jeans: Glassons

Belt: Op-Shopped, $1

Necklace: Bought from N's garage sale

Shoes: Jay Jays

Love Squealer!

The Reckless and The Brave

So you guys know that I have an addiction to op shopping that has grown exponentially since I've been studying on the GC, just because I have no friends and sometimes being at home sucks, op shopping is something I love to do. Well I have accumulated quite a bit of clothes from my trips, so I thought it would be nice if i could show you some things that I have bought (I really should be studying). I haven't had a chance to wear some of the pieces, just because I'm a little shy wearing them and partly because of the hot weather and amount of walking, I just want to wear jeans and a t-shirt just so I don't have to worry. I think I'm going to bring back a lot of the clothes to Melbourne, so I can get a chance to wear them.

 

Pink Shirt: $1 

Skirt: $1

Dress: $1 

-I really like this pink shirt, it's so versatile and i wear with a lot of things, although the down side is that it shows sweat stains really prominently I'm sorry I don't think I can get over how much I sweat. So this pink shirt is saved for the cooler days or when there minimal exercise.
-When I first saw this quilted skirt, I thought it was super awesome! I think I must of shrunk it a little in the wash because the lining is longer than the outer piece, but that is easily fixed
-As for the dress, I think it's more of a tunic because it has slits on the side, so wear something underneath is a must. I just liked how school-ish it looked, and hopefully make me look younger.

 

Pants: $2.50 

Skirt: $2

-I thought these pants would be good to wear in the cooler months, except it's a little too high waist-ed. But if i wear a jumper over it, then it should be alright. It's so hard to find tailored pants that fit me in op shops, and I was pretty happy that i found these. Also they're country road branded so it's pretty good quality, well that's before I destroy them by vigorously hand-wash or machine wash them. 

-This brown skirt was a way too big but I like how it was simple; it's got a suede-ish feel on the outside. I added in the two pleats and if you see, I may have burnt the material a little when ironing it. 

 

Shirt: $2

Pants: $2

 -Oh I love this blue shirt, it's so light and dainty and a little grandma-ry. I just love the details in this shirt and how it's different to normal shirts. 

-I'm pretty much attracted to anything that has bright colours, and these pants were no exception. Again these are super high-waisted, but they fit quite well so that's good. I have still yet to wear them, but maybe i can wear them for an upcoming exam, they can be known as the pink pants (in reference to the orange cardigan). 

 

Polka dot Blazer: $2

Cord Black Shorts: $1

Coral Jacket: $4

-I just like the simple polka dot print on this blazer, it's a little big but I don't mind. I thought it was a really good light jacket to wear when it get a little colder at night. Plus it has functional pockets which are so useful. 

-I've been seeing cord shorts a lot on blogs, and I wanted one for myself, actually I would like maroon one but I'm still looking. I think I will wear this with stockings because I'm quite self conscious about my legs and they're quite short too.

-I LOVE this jacket, the colour is amazing and nothing like i've seen before, it's a lot more brighter and richer in colour in real life. But I've only wore it once so I'm a little bummed. I can't wait to go back to Melbourne, so i can put this jacket in more use. 

 

Dress: $2

Blazer: $2.50

-The bright colour and pattern was what attracted me to this dress, and the small size as well! It would be perfect for the hot summer, but with stockings and jackets I can also wear this in winter. I just need to shorten it despite I like the feeling of wearing it that long. It's such a bummer I don't have access to a sewing machine up here. It means I have to bring clothes back and forth. 

-You can never have enough blazers, right? I like the double-breasted design of this one, and again it's not super huge on me. It goes with pretty much anything although it does get wrinkled, so it doesn't look that great when I like to shove my jackets in my bag.

So that's some of thrifted clothes I have for now, I'll take some more photos of the other clothes that I didn't get a chance to photographing, and there are a lot more! Oh man, I feel like going op shopping now.

Love Squealer!