The Eagle has landed!

Only to take off again.
To Noosa
for a week and a half.

While at Nimbin the big boss decided to extend our road trip to include 2 weeks in Noosa. Which of course meant I had to get the train home, and will be flying up again on Wednesday. Oh hassle hassle, money money.

Nimbin was most excellent. I think I would like to retire there. And I made heaps of sales up there! I have decided though that there must be less girls around my age in the country because the boys up there take a lot more notice. I even got asked out by the mate of someone I signed up! What a hoot! (something I have never said, and hope to never repeat)

Of course, with all the working and severe lack of days off, I have spent a wee bit more money than I should have over the last two days. Yesterday I bought a shirt (it was $10 down from 40, and a lovely on-trend peachy colour, all loose and flowy and lacey neck line. So therefore a worthy purchase) and then today I bought a pair of brogues, a pair of studded ballet flats, an ultra tight super-babe navy and white striped t-shirt dress, and an awesome blazer-type-thing made from this sort of thickish warmish material (for a blazer-type-thing I mean) and with awesome shoulder pads and folds. Yes, both!

Unfortunately as Derek is at Mother's and not very good for self portraits anyway, I cannot supply you with photos as of yet. And nor have I uploaded photos from the Hunter yet! But I need to go to Mum's to pick up my medicare card anyway so I may as well grab Derek while I'm there. If i remember...

Ok so in lieu of the recent transition of seasons, here's a list of things I'm loving for Autumn:

-making use of transeasonal irony. i.e. shorts teamed with trenches and hats, cropped jumpers worn as shirts and the like.
-tan. This obsession started a while ago and I've just started really getting into teaming tan with black. I don't know what it is, but I love it!
-ankle boots. My year long search for the perfect pair will hopefully soon end, now that they're in store again.
-Brogues- and I finally got some! they're gunmetal grey :)
-On that note, Grey! All shades with all shades and all that
-Wearing all black and peppering it with coloured accessories (or tan, as mention above)
-Coloured winter coats! A love that began last year and will surely survive a few more.
-Tough, biker-esque boots. especially when worn with flowy girly items or super tight tights.
-Navy.
-Stripes
-High sandals with socks!
-Wacky socks in general. They cheer me up at work, all i have to do is lift my jeans a bit and bam!
-Patterned tights. Not so much coloured ones, they remind me too much of my "I'm not emo I'm alternative" phase so it might take a while for me to embrace them again, but ones that use varying deniers to create patterns.
-Clear, plastic umbrellas. The really big, domed ones
-Gumboots. With aforementioned wacky socks.
-Hats. I desperately want one of those 40s style hats that women wore. The felty ones? (Oh I'm good with words today...) And also beanie-beret cross breads. They're all over gossip girl so clearly that trend has more than survived the year.
-Flats. Simply because it's nice now to not have my options limited to thongs, old, decrepit cons or heels. I can go out to dinner/shopping and not fell like I'm wearing inappropriate footwear! And no longer will I have to look in the mirror and refuse to allow my gaze to slide as low as my feet, where the whole outfit comes undone quite often. It's been torture teaming jeans and fashion tops (specifically the kind that aren't super casual) with thongs I tell you. Oh the shame!

Ok, that is a long enough list I feel.
Sorry about the lack of images, I haven't any of my own handy and it takes far too much effort to search for some! I haven't had time for anything to inspire me lately anyway.

Hopefully should post again tomorrow with some :)
-Mell

Passing by

Long time no post. Aplogies.

But I'm barely home with my new job and when I am I generally cbf blogging.
Also I'm just back from a 3 night trip to the Hunter Valley. It was amazing, although I learnt there IS such a thing as too much wine tasting, and it goes something like this: white, white, white, white, rose, red, red, red, sticky, sticky; new vineyard- sparkling, white, white, white, white, rose, red, red, red, red, sticky, sticky, sticky; lunch; new vineyard- white, white, white, sticky, sticky; new vineyard- white, white, white, white, rose, sticky; cheese factory- cheese, cheese, cheese, cheese, gelato; home- where all retire to bed at 5pm to lazily read, mother falling asleep upright with open magazine in hands.
No. More! We said... Until tomorrow. Actually it was untill dinner, when we shared a bottle of verdelho (pronounced: ver-day-o. Im a connosieur now!)

And off to Nimbin for two weeks tomorrow, for work. V. v. excited. Will even get to laze aout on the beach on Sunday! And no doubt get drunk most nights... Thankfully I am back on the 13th, which is the day before mine and J's 2nd anniversary :) unfortunately that means I have to leave it up to him to organise the activities, which probably means we'll do nothing like last year lol.

Anyway, that's pretty much it, all that's left is a hugely belated but entirely neccessary acknowledgement to the tragic death of genius Alexander McQueen.
With all that beauty buzzing through his head it's not surprising he was unstable. I'll always remember him as one of the first designers I noticed, and the fashion world is, and will continue to, miss him dearly. May he find the peace he lacked in life.

-Mell xxx

P.S. I'll probably be AWOL during my stay in Nimbin, but since my workmates are all backpackers and have to take all of their belongings with them, I may be able to borrow a laptop and check in. Also I got some uncharacterisitic nature photos in the Hunter so I'll get them up soonish.

Gorgeous GaGa

Just want to say I think Lady GaGa looked absolutely STUNNING on the Grammys red carpet. Thankyou Giorgio Armani!

Although I must say- give the girl a sandwich! She was so sexy and now she's wasting (or should I say waisting?) away.

Basking in doing nothing today, since there won't be much of that once my new job starts. But I will be able to go crazy buying clothes in Europe so it'll be worth it. But the New York plan is on hold for a year. It's just not looking possible right now. Thailand or New Caledonia or something may be a possible replacement for a nice beachy chill holiday.

Also, I bought this really cute necklace from GPco yesterday after my interview. I can't find a photo online but I'll put one up when I wear it. Also, I've decided i want to invest in some Cheap Monday jeans. I mean, they're like $90 and they have this really nice indigo colour that I've been looking for. I'll wait till it cools down a bit though so I can justify the spending.

I'm itching to go out and wear my new shirt so much! Grr...

-Mell xx

New

Marlow/Corpus photos from the 29th at the Bull and Bush.

And a new job. Which I am both excited about and dreading.

And new hair. Which is good all round

Firstly, the job. I am about to become a door-door sales "guru" for Integral Energy. The job actually sounds like it could be fun and I don't start till 12pm which means I can sleep in. But, unfortunately, I don't finish till like 7:30-8pm which makes going out very difficult unless I take my oh-so-chic work satchel with me. Therefore- I have no reason to sleep in! Also, it's 6 days a week. But I'm hoping I can negotiate it down to 5 or even 4, because i'll be getting payed entirely commission and bonuses so it'll only be a negative to myself.

And that brings me to the bit that makes it all (hopefully...) worht it: The pay. Or should I say THE Pay!!!

$25 per sale, and set bonuses for certain ammounts of sales in a week. $150 bonus for 15 sales, $250 bonus for 25 sales and so on. So basically, If I make 15 sales in a week (2.5 per day average) I get $525. And if I make 25 sales, (4 on average) I get $875. Now, $875 sure makes 40 hours of work worth it. I will have no life, so almost all of that money will go to Europe funds and clothing that I'll never have time to wear.

So, because I took photos of my interview outfit before I left the house, here it is: (+see my new hair)

Shirt; $19.95, Belt; $12.95 and Necklace; $6.95, all from Temt

Skirt; $32.95, from Forcast

Shoes; $115 from Betts

They're half a size too big so I glued elastic on, to keep them strapped to my feet. Unfortunately, I was a little too frantic with putting my shoes on outside the office before my interview today and one snapped. So I had to rip them off and put up with my shoes almost falling off.

Close-up of my belt- Ain't it pretty?

Close up of necklace plus shirt ruffles.

Me and my new "do"

(Posey McPosePose)

Half of my face, and my lippity lip piercing.

And now, for the Bull and Bush pic-a-tures.

Corpus. I like it because the crowds in focus, not the band.

Travis (J's Brother)

Blake. I love this one. The sillhouette effect.

Hey Jim Morrisson, didn't you die?

For the rest of this shoot, and my other photos, go to my spizz:

myspace.com/mbphotos

So, that's it. If you don't hear from me much after next week, it's because i'm too busy making commission...

-Mell

How so Halso?

So I was totally inspired by spying one of his photos in a blog I follow (brookestyle365.blogspot.com -have a look see) and thought I might revisit the work of Ilkka Halso. I discovered him early year 12, upon the advisory of my art teacher, as she thought he'd make a good "artist of obsession" for my process diary (hate that term, basically it means an artist that somehow inspires us. All a load of bullshit because he had absolutely nothing to do with my concepts or practice so...)

Anyway, so here is some of his amazing stuff:

Very similar to the one posted by Brooke

As you can see, he's mostly environmental and very into photo manipulation. But he actually does build some of the structures in his photos- They take ages! Now that's dedication to a cause.

Tonight is the Marlow/Corpus gig at The Bull and Bush in Baulkham Hills. So new, exciting photos of different people will be up soon! Lovely!

Still hunting for a job, unsuccessfully. Haven't heard anything from last weeks resume thieves but oh well. Something will happen soon I'm sure (I hope or bye bye Europe. And I have to book it soon so it'll be bye bye deposit on flights. I guess I could just go UK and Oktoberfest and maybe tack a bit of Germany on the end...)

Exciting news! 1. I'm getting a hair cut tomorrow. And I mean cut. I'm saying bye to my hair and hello to a new, Ruby Rose-esque do (not the blonde, just the cut). 2. I'm going on a snow trip with the RS crew in June. I'm not going to take Derek (the D90- I finally named him) but I should have a compact by then so I'll still be able to get some OK photos. I'm pretty excited.

Ok I just scrolled to higlight everything and a Spanish translation of my entire post appeared in a little box. Odd...

All for now.

Spizz

I totally have one now. Well I mean i had one before but I made a new one.
Go forth!
http://myspace.com/mbphotos

P.S. BDO was amazing on Saturday!

I made the smart decision to remain sober the whole day, since I don't really cope well with heat. Despite this, and drinking about 5L of water (not even exagerrating...) I threw up into and empty lemonade cup during Dizzee Rascal. But I recovered by the end of his set and was well enough to sing and even dance a bit to Lily Allen. God love her... she's so damn cute! Also loved what she was wearing. Unfortunately I can't find a photo of it but I'm sure some will surface soon.

But of course, the highlight of my day was Muse. I managed to survive 4th row of the mosh for about an hour without passing out, which is good!
Man they're fantatsic. Can't wait till they come back here at the end of their tour. Hopefully I'll be in the country at the time...

OK that really is all

Shacklers at Lewisham livehouse, January 9th


OK so photobucket so isn't working for me... I made a flickr, but unfortunately that has a monthly upload limit of 100MB, which really isn't much. So I'm either gunna have to downsize my photos to the extreme or pay for the pro account. So for now, it has no photos.

Also, I made a fan page for my photos on facebook ("which I'll admit, is both bogus and sad"- Wayne Campbell) but I figure once I get a few fans going, their friends will notice and I might find some bands who are actually willing to pay me! Maybe... Anyway, I have 92 fans so far so I'm doing something right.

Here, finally, are the most recent Ramshackle Pictures, from the 9th of January. Sorry it took so damn long...

J's part of the stage didn't have very good lighting.

He is way under-represented in this shoot.

Dedication-

risking broken ankles and embarrassment to climb on stage for a good shot

The set list, for those who missed out.

Tony, however, had very good lighting on his part of the stage-

There were too many excellent photos of him!

On another note, Uni offers just came out. Got into my second preference, so as of now I begin studying fine arts at COFA on the 28th of February, 2011. Untill the 3rd or 10th, when hopefully I will get a late offer from UTS. It's scary to have my studies for next year confirmed already, I don't even have to reapply! Eek!

Now I am off to do some job hunting (eurgh so not in the mood...) Good luck to myself.

-Mell