Violet. Frills, lace, pearls and video games. Sometimes Hime Gyaru. Loves rain, hates summer. Workaholic multi-tasking champion. Likes a good cup of tea, hates to run out of Buenos. Wants a puppy, is a house cat. Currently living in Melbourne, Australia.
This post was sponsored by Nuffnang and Pictionary
For more information on sponsored posts please click here.
I’m an only child so growing up board games were never my favorite pastime. It’s kind of hard to play them with one or two people-me and my mum. James however has 2 siblings so he grew up loving them and his love has forced me into many a game of Scrabble!
So when Nuffnang contacted me to test out the new incarnation of Pictionary I was well… apprehensive. I’ve never played Pictionary before so I don’t really have anything to compare it to but I took it along to our romantic getaway at the Langham to see if we could have some fun. That’s what happens on romantic hotel getaways right? People play board games? Uhuh. Well this is what happened…
Yeah I didn’t say the extra imagination I had was actually any good…
Of course we totally read the instructions. James and I were Team Awesome and Shakespeare and the apple were Team Not As Awesome. The game was fast paced and full of smack talk. Some of the clues were very hard, we considered switching to the children’s deck of clues.
So the idea is that you roll the dice, move your piece and then pick a card. You have to draw the item on the card with the corresponding colour for your partner to guess. If you do it within the time limit you get to roll again. There are several versions of the game but this seemed the simplest to me XD
Unfortunately we are both very competitive with short tempers.
It’s all done in 60second time limits but considering we were the best, most awesome Pictionary players ever that didn’t bother us!
Who knows what James was trying to draw there! Try and guess in the comments if you want, I bet no one gets it mwahaha!
We would definitely never let a game effect our relationship…
Luckily, when you’re playing with fictional opponents you are pretty much in control of the outcome…
And we were very gracious winners.
For some reason everyone left after that… noooooooooo idea why.
So competition time!
Here’s what regular-people-non-scary-competitive-Pictionary is all about…
- Quick sketches and crazy guesses
- You don’t need to be Picasso to have fun! The worse you draw the more fun it is.
- You can play anywhere, anytime
- Fast-paced game of imagination, comical drawings and players’ ability to interpret them.
- It will transform your next family get together into an uproarious occasion where anyone has a winning chance.
- Kid-directed clues/cards make the game more accessible to a wider audience and levels playing field for kids ages 8+ playing with their parents
- Fun, vibrant and engaging family game play experience.
- Game play is collaborative, social and engaging for everyone involved
If you want to win your own copy of Pictionary so you can have heartwarming family moment just like ours all you need to do is guess what James was trying to draw in his picture. The winner will be selected on creativity. Click here for the Terms and Conditions.
Here’s his picture again incase you forgot:
Good luck everyone and I hope your board game experiences aren’t as traumatic as mine :P
After seeing my reaction to the Jesus Diamante dress she sent to me Marie (who is just about the nicest person ever), the owner of One Day in Paradise was lovely enough to send me 2 more dresses. Seriously, I was drooling when she dropped them off! I figured to show them off appropriately I would make a post with each dress co-ordinated in 3 different ways.
The first outfit I wore it in was to meet Julian Kynaston who is the founder of Illamasqua! Oh my gosh exciting :D I was so nervous but he gave an absolutely fantastically frank interview to us. Check out You’ve Got Nail and The Lip Print for footage of the day and I’ll be posting more of the photos next Snapshot post.
This outfit was the most fancy of the 3 I did with this dress.
This was the best shot I got of my outfit that day but clearly he and his suit was outshining me with it’s awesomeness!
I paired it with simple white stockings and shoes because I was running very late that day. My hair has curled and piled on top of my head/down the side for an effective style that took all of 5min not including the curling!
Here is a better picture of the hair…
Yay for hair that is pretty fool proof to do :D
The second time I wore the dress I was in Brisbane staying with my Dad while James and I were working there last week. This time I paired it with black accessories for a less sweet look.
My Dad’s house is full of fancy old knick knacks so I couldn’t resist taking extra photos while we were there.
Both of the bows on this dress are detachable so I wore one on the bottom and one at the small of the back under the lacing area.
This cardigan is one of my favorite things in my wardrobe, the best part: it only cost $3 :D :D :D
I was pretty happy that on this trip I managed to make curling my hair the day beforehand last all the way until the day after we came back! Yay for forward planning :D
One last photo then I’ll stop for this time XD
The third time I wore this dress I wanted something a little more classic and how it was originally intended to be worn. No fancy make up, just low shoes, cute socks and a simple looped plait hair style. Definitely NOT Lolita but I suppose more towards that area that I usually dress XD
Obviously the dress was meant for Lolita so there was ample room for one of my old less floofy petticoats to show just how much room there is in the skirt. I prefer the shape a lot more without a petticoat but that’s just my taste. This time I pinned the larger of the bows on the top front.
This is a bit of a better view of the back so you can sort of see the lace up area.
Nice, casual and very comfy :D
Taadaa, 3 outfits with different feels with 1 dress ^_^
This is the Infanta Spring Whisper Lady Charlotte OP in Pink. Price is $120, available here. Available in Australian sizes 6, 8 and 10.
One Day in Paradise will be at Supanova Sydney and Supanova Perth. Currently the store in Fitzroy is open Fridays 11am-7pm and Saturdays 11am-6pm and will be open 7 days a week from June. Exciting! They will also be at the Illamasqua counter this Sunday the 29th of May 10-1pm with a group of Lolitas, Mori Girls and special Visual Kei guest Gothique Prince Ken of GPKism doing make up demonstrations for the various style. All are welcome and it sounds like a fun day out!!
I can’t wait to show you guys the other dress, it’s become my absolute favorite Winter dress at the moment :D
Mother’s Day is coming soon, here in Aus it’s on the 8th of May this year so only a few weeks left to think of things to get. I’m quite a bad daughter, I usually forget about these kinds of things. I don’t really celebrate holidays and Mother’s Day changes every year so it’s hard to remember!!
This is my Mum by the way… She didn’t like the photos I took of her so I’ve made and artistic representation of her for this post.
She’s been on the blog a few times but now she’s also come to live with us for a little while. I feel a little sorry for her, we haven’t lived together since I was 17 and back then she didn’t have to deal with all of my blogging related quirks. Back then it was my artwork littering the entire house and she put up with tripping over paint pots and picking up random comic book layout pages from the floor… Now she comes home from work to find the entire floor covered in nail polish swatches James is photographing for me and the bathroom overrun with make up and lighting umbrellas while I shoot a video and bits of lace or craft supplies everywhere. Don’t even get me started with the diamantes… It is impossible for James to make it through a week in our house without having to pick diamantes out of his feet. At one point when I was doing a lot of deco commissions I used to call James Diamond Foot Jimmy XD
So yes… Back on point, I’m not the easiest person to live with so she probably deserves something better than I can afford for Mother’s Day.
Our conversations are usually fairly sarcastic and nonsensical, and the one about Mother’s Day went something along the lines of this…
Of course, after this conversation Nuffnang let me know about the new competition from Magshop!!
Here’s the information:
Currently Magshop are having a big sale on selected titles just for Mother’s Day and if you purchase a subscription on the selected titles you go into the draw to win a trip to Italy. There are lots of different titles to choose from and a magazine subscription is the perfect gift for your mother – they are relatively cheap and will last the whole year.
Besides having discounts on selected titles, people will have a chance to win a unforgettable trip to Italy.Now that would probably be a good Mother’s Day present!
Subscribe now to Madison Magazine or to one of the fashion magazines and you could win a trip of a lifetime to Italy. Lots of others are on sale so there is a magazine that matches everyone’s tastes.
Much better than tech support lessons anyway haha! So what are you guys doing for the holiday, do you all have special traditions?
I think most people are aware of the situation in Japan. I just wanted to bring this charity to Australian reader’s attention in case they can help at all.
Help Heal Japan is a simple little idea to help raise funds for Japan: Get patrons at Japanese restaurants to donate $2 for chopsticks, which of course is normally free.
BMF ad agency took the idea up and within a week we launched the ‘Help Heal Japan’ campaign.
So far we have over 100 Japanese restaurants on board, in 5 states (NSW, ACT, VIC, QLD, WA) with more to come!
Please check out our Facebook page which has all the information, including the growing list of restaurants.
All proceeds go to the Australian Red Cross – Japan and Asia Pacific Disaster Appeal.
I’ve eaten at a lot of the restaurants participating and you’ve probably seen some of them mentioned on this blog before. If you have the means to help, please check the page out.
BPAY is having a competition and you could win $3000 :D I sure could use $3000 so I’ll show you my entry in a little bit!
What is BPAY?
BPAY is a payment method that banks use to allow you to pay bills quickly and easily without having to deal with many separate companies. For example I can now pay my water, electricity, rent, phone etc bill from internet banking through BPAY in about 10 minutes rather than the long boring task this used to be 15 years ago when you actually had to go to each place to pay. Therefore I can now spend more time filming nail art tutorials, yay!
About the competition!
Everyone loves things short and sweet. They put smiles on faces and give us a warm glow inside. So we at BPAY figured if we could take a long arduous task like queuing at the post office to pay a bill and make it a short and sweet process online, the world would be a better place. And so we did.
To enter, you need to write either:
1. A recipe
2. Give a film synopsis
3. Pen a love poem
4. Write a short fiction
BUT the catch is you need to do that all in 120 characters or less.
I decided that I would write one of my favorite quick, easy, lazy fudge recipes. It takes about 5 minutes to make and is pretty much impossible to screw up! This is what I came up with…
Put butter, 1pack marshmallows+block choc in container. Nuke 30sec, cool in fridge, cut, STUFF FACE WITH FUDGE!
111 characters, oh yeah 9 characters to spare=champion!
So want to see the long version of it?
What you need:
1 packet of marshmallows
1 block of chocolate
Some butter, around a tablespoon
Microwave proof container
You can use margarine or real butter, I didn’t want to waste the expensive margarine so I used cheap block butter.
So cut off a slice of butter.
And stick it into the microwave safe container.
Add the marshmallows…
Break the chocolate into pieces…
Add that too!
So this is what you should have…
Pop it in the microwave for 30 seconds. Mine is 1100w so if yours is different please adjust the time.
Use a spoon to mix it all up, the marshmallow should be liquid and sticky. Don’t worry if the rest of the ingredients are still solid because the marshmallow will melt them nice and slowly.
Mix until it looks like this:
If it gets hard before it’s combined just put back in the microwave for another 10 seconds and remix.
You want to end up with something like this…
Cool the whole thing in the fridge until it’s hard again.
Cut into squares…
And enjoy!
Deeeeeelicious!
So if you think you can do something awesome in under 120 words here’s how to enter…
You can enter via the BPAY competition website, SMS or by Twitter, with the best entry from each category winning $3,000. Not bad for 2 minutes worth of effort, just like paying your bills via BPAY.
2) Via SMS, text your name, category and your 120 character entry to 0427 777 743
3) Via Twitter, tweet the category and your 120 character entry to @BPAYSS
Category names:
Love Poem = POEM, Recipe = RECIPE, Short story = STORY, Film and Book synopsis = SYNOPSIS.
Hope you enjoyed my superfast marshmallow fudge and give it a try! I only got that one piece because when I went to get some later it was all eaten *_*
Finally a competition open to international readers too, I hope you all enjoy it ^_^
One Day in Paradise is to date Australia’s first and only local Lolita store and they celebrated their second anniversary this past weekend :D
While I personally no longer wear Lolita fashion I do still enjoy seeing it on others and I know that lots of my readers wear the fashion so when Marie (the owner) invited me along I was delighted to see what they were doing!
Early that morning Marie came over and I helped her out with her hair, she really enjoyed my tutorial on over the head plaits so she borrowed some of my flowers and I tried out the style on her. This proves that even those with short hair can try it because Marie’s hair is barely shoulder length!
The store is located over at 248 Johnston Street and shares a shop with Visage and Vice who sell mostly gothic clothing. Make sure you go type the suburb as Fitzroy into your GPS when you go otherwise you’ll end up walking like 10 extra blocks because there is a second 248 Johnston St in the next suburb over XD Yes ok I am speaking from experience on that one and no it’s not fun to walk the 10 blocks in the middle of an unseasonal storm especially when you’ve spent a ridiculous amount of time on your hair and make up for a party only to have it completely ruined by aforementioned rain!
Once you see this in the window though you’ll be ok:
Inside the first room might be a little bit of unfamiliar territory for the sweeter Lolitas ;) Keep going up the back of the store though and you’ll spot a trail of arrows leading towards the frills!
Follow the arrows…
You might feel like Alice down the rabbit hole at this point but you’re almost there!
The further you go, the pinker it gets XD
And you made it safely!
Now before we get to the party, here’s some info about One Day in Paradise:
They sell both new and second hand brand and off brand items
They ship locally within Australia and internationally
The store is open to the public every Friday and Saturday (other times can be arranged by appointment only)
They stock JSKs, OPs, accessories, shoes, socks, magazines, wigs and pretty much anything else you could think of.
While they specialise in Lolita clothing they do also some times stock Hime Gyaru pieces too :D
So on to the party!
The place was descended on by about 30 Lolitas so all of this yummy food was gone in a flash! Hot tea on tap and everyone was very happy ^_^
It was a lovely setting for everyone to chat and meet/catch up with each other.
Of course with that many like minded girls in one place there was a whooole lot of shopping to be done XD
I didn’t get a chance to do any shopping because I was busy being behind the camera interviewing all the girls for a video about the store which is at the bottom of the post ^_^
Of course when I spotted a Jesus Diamante dress at the back of the rack I had to play with it at least XD Think I should go back and get it?
Completely unrelated but I totally also wanted this awesome leopard print shower cap XD
There were lots of girls meeting for the first time…
And of course lots of old friends…
There was even an artist sketching people ^_^
At the end of the night Marie gave a little speach thanking everyone and outlining her plans for the new year.
I got to catch up with Stephy, the owner of Visage and Vise ^_^
And of course Marie! I wanted to steal her dress so badly because it was just lovely!
You can see the rest of the photos in the slide show below…
Up for grabs is a AU$100 gift voucher to One Day in Paradise to be used by the end of January 2011. This giveaway is open to everyone including international readers!
This competition is now closed!
What you need to do:
-Be a follower of this blog (either by Google Friend Connect or RSS and yes I will check this)
-Leave a comment saying what on their website you would spend your voucher on.
-Please use a valid email address!
This giveaway will be open for 7 days until midnight Melbourne Australia time 29th January 2010 and the winner will be picked at random.
I can’t wait to see what you all would pick, good luck everyone!
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