Fish Eye 2

I recently brought a Fish Eye 2 and have been having fun experimenting.

Haven't quite got the hang of it, after years of exclusively using a digital camera and snapping away freely, a film camera has taken some getting used to! I have to admit I had trouble putting the film in, oh the shame. 

I didn't know you could get copies of your film shots put on CD now! Handy.

Here are some pictures from NYC. A bit dark unfortunately ( though it was really overcast) , I need to do a whole lot of practicing.  

Central Park

Midtown East

Super convoy of police during the U.N General Assembly

This was my second roll, I had some better shots on the first roll I took but unfortunately don't have them on a CD.

Does anyone else use a Fish Eye? 

November Goals!

Ohhhhhhh hello!

I hope you had a fantastic weekend my lovelies. I know I sure did, a combination of sleep ins, fancy dinners, cocktails, friends, pub lunches and sunshine saw to that!

So I have again forayed into the world of videos and now produce my second video!

This time I thought I would share my goals for the month of November ( yep, I'm getting in a little early!), I hope you enjoy. 

Would love to hear if you have set any goals for this month x

Now and Then

Can't believe it has already been a year since my 21st, how time flies!

I was just looking at this post on my old blog, ah memories! 

With the lovely K on my 21st!

I had a very low key birthday this year, just the way I prefer it really. Took myself out for some pancakes and widow shopping on my lunch break yesterday and spent the evening on the lounge with T watching movies in between stuffing myself with all the delicious food my dear mum cooked up for me!

Pancakes!

Mmmmmm crumble, it was all I could do not to eat some for breakfast this morning.

T is taking me out for a nice dinner at Rockpool Bar & Grill tonight which was my one and only birthday request! I love the dining space , its just beautiful. Last time we went was for our 4 year anniversary, I have such fond memories of having to wait at the bar whilst they got our table ready. Long story short, it was a long wait and we accidently got kind of hammered ha ha!

Yessssssssss!!!

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend, and thank you for your comments on my last post !

Shake It Off

I feel like I have been stuck in a bit of a glum mood the last few days. Not good, not good at all! 

There is nothing worse than being in a bad and or sad mood, I can't stand it myself because I hate feeling down and I especially hate when I inevitably take my feelings out on unsuspecting bystanders eg. poor T!

Time to retreat to my standard mood-busting activities I think!

Spend more time with my boyfriend:-

Mushiness alert! T is so suuuuuuper cute and shares an incredibly bizarre sense of humour, he never fails to make me laugh. He is also really good at bringing me back down to earth and helping me realise that some things really aren't a big deal, and instead of whinging, do something about it!

Source: We Heart It

Boxing:

 This ALWAYS work for me. I don't visualise punching peoples faces or anything, but just hitting something as hard as you can for an extended period of time is amazing. Always works, whether you've had a bad day at work or your everyone is just being a JERK!

Hot Bath:

 Get that bath tub nice and full and jump on in. Add something that smells nice, light a candle, put some music on. RELAX.

Sleep: 

When shit gets too real or you can't shake your mood, sleep on it. Call it quits early ( no playing on your iPhone for hours in bed either) and just sleep. Chances are you'll feel better when you wake up, even if you don't at least you had a good solid 8 hours of unconsciousness.

What do you do to shake off a bad mood? Please share your wisdom with me !

Another Weekend Wrap Up

Ahhhh so I didn't manage to post anything since last weekends wrap up. My bad. Here is a wrap up of this weekend. 

I wore : 

Anthropologie striped maxi dress with asymmetrical top. I am into maxi dress' in a big way at the moment, I like simple colours and absolutely NO halter necks myself. So comfy and easy to wear.

I drank:

A truck load of cider and too many vodka sodas. Loving it. 

I went:

Out for drinks with my girlfriends for some pre-birthday celebrations, damn you mid week birthday!

Was so looking forward to downing a few million mojitos but the place RAN OUT OF ICE. No thank you I don't think I will be waiting 20 minutes for my drink, give me a Strongbow ( poor substitute by the way.....).

Our table number is my soon to be age, damn this past year has gone quickly.

I burnt:

Glasshouse Coconut & Lychee candle. So summery, so good. A big thank you to my gorgeous bestie for gifting this to me!

I hated:

The fact that my skin is getting it's freak on and has morphed into a itchy mess! WAH! WAHHH I SAY! 

My mum is sooooo nice and brought me a bodywash from Lush to try help, thanks ma!

All up it was pretty good as far as weekends go!

Thanks for all your good wishes last week, am pleased to say I did pass my exams! YAY! YAYAYAAY! Although they did sent the results to my house early so I was convinced it was a letter of failure and spent a good two minutes having a nervous breakdown before I opened it :/ :/

This week: re-enrolling for uni, my birthday, boy toy taking me out for a super nice dinner on Friday!!

Weekend Wrap Up

I am loving that Sydney is slowly easing its way into the warmer months, it's so lovely this evening which is helping to dull the pain of the fast approaching Monday morning. 

I had a pretty nice weekend, although I am certain I have never consumed so much sugary junk in such a short space of time!

It started when I got home on Friday and my sister was holding a Girl's Night In to raise money for breast cancer. So many delicious things! Like these pink cupcakes for example. 

T took me out for a nice dinner on Friday night , we ended up going to a Lebanese restaurant that I adore. I ate so much lebanese bread and labne ( my favourite!) that I practically had to be rolled out of the place. 

Despite this feeling of being about to EXPLODE, I still managed to suggest we go to Cold Rock for ice cream. Clearly my stomach knows no bounds. 

They have a Red Bull flavoured ice cream, can you imagine how horrific that would taste?!

I discovered that orange juice with frozen ice cubes made with pureed strawberry is really yum. 

I got my first film developed that I took using my Fish Eye 2 camera, some of them look really good! Others, well I forgot to take the cap off the lens.....duh. Looking forward to experimenting further.

I saw my Aunty who gave me an early birthday present, a cute little coin purse she brought for me when she was in Spain recently. I haven't heard of Loewe before, but apparently they are known for their excellent quality leather. I like the little 'L' on the zipper as my family nickname is Lila, cute!

Today T and I went on a bush walk, it was such amazing weather for it! It ended up being pretty challenging! I love getting out and enjoying nature every now and then, so invigorating.

I can't wait for this week to be over, I am expecting exam results on Thursday ( after waiting for nearly two months!) and am so nervous. Fingers crossed for me please!

Hope you all had a lovely weekend, now excuse me while I attempt to shake myself out of this sugar coma x

Instagram Anonymous

I like to think I am relatively up to date with social media etc etc, so how did I not know how amazing Instagram is until recently?!

I've had this app on my iPhone for ages, but I am completely thick and thought it was for making your photos look cool, I didn't realise that you could post, follow and comment much like Twitter ( oh how I love thee!).

Now that I have seen the light, I am addicted! 

I'm posting what I am wearing, what I am doing and what I am eating!

I think you all ought to follow me, my user name is xxgillpillxx. I need more people to follow too, so shoot me your user name please!

Jo Malone Wild Bluebell Cologne

Wild Bluebell is my first Jo Malone fragrance. I have wanted to try one of these colognes for the longest time so jumped at the opportunity when I had the chance to pay US retail which of course is significantly lower. 

All wrapped up nice and pretty!

As I find it near impossible to put into words what I am smelling, the description from the Jo Malone website is as follows:

"Deliciously dewy, this cologne drenches the skin with the delicate scent of bluebells. Luminous with lush persimmon, lily of the valley and eglantine. Mesmerising."

I brought this from an absolutely charming sales person at Bergdorf Goodman. Damn that guy was nice! They really know how to do service well in the good ol' US of A. Anyway, I digress...

I really love the smell of gardenias/ freesias so I asked him to show me something along those lines. Not sure how I ended up smelling this, probably because it is a new fragrance so they were pushing it! Somehow I decided at the time I loved this the most although it has no gardenia or freesia. It does have lily of the valley which I also love, maybe that was it.

I didn't open this up again until I got home. Now I am not so sure about this? As I mentioned above, I am terrible at describing fragrances but I'll do my best to explain. It has a lovely fresh and clean scent, but there is something to it that puts me of a little, perhaps a little to sickly sweet for my own tastes. I have since learnt ( after purchase of course!) that no natural extract of wild blue bell exists. I distinctly remember having a Tommy Hilfiger fragrance YEARS ( like 10!) ago which had a similar note and I could never wear it. I fear this may head the same way unfortunately. 

All up, I like it, but I don't love it. In restropect I probably would have been happiest with plain old Vintage Gardenia. Ah well, we live and we learn. 

Not sure what to do with it now, as I doubt I will get through it because it just doesn't smell right on me, although I am sure others would love it!

This is a picture I took after I brought it. The guy was so generous with samples! I have been keeping them in my handbag, and can attest that English Pear and Freesia and Nectarine and Honey Blossom are TO DIE FOR!! Makes me sad because I wish I had them instead!

Perfume is a funny thing, can smell so wonderful one minute and completely different the next

Have you ever been disappointed with a perfume purchase? 

NYC Part Three ft. A New York Moment

Despite some last minute self doubt on whether or not it was a good idea to do this trip by myself, it was without a doubt the best decision I have ever made. The sense of absolute freedom and independence was addictive, making coming back home that extra bit harder. 

To those contemplating a solo trip, I strongly encourage you to do so. It was a great chance to self reflect, get caught up in my own thoughts and helped me clarify my future goals. 

Despite this, there are of course times where you wish you had someone to turn around to and say "Did you just see that?!" or to be there to take your happy snaps. Rather than have my photo album looking like I robbed a post card shop, I took to accosting innocent bystanders when the view was too spectacular to pass up so I have a handful of photos with me in them.

On one particular day I was on an absolute mission to get to The Metropolitan Museum of Art as I had been told that they hold Friday evening drinks on the rooftop during the warmer months and the view was to die for. I had a plan formed that started with me visiting the MoMA and then going straight to The Met, this was of course thwarted by 5th Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman, Henri Bendal and Laduree. Somehow 5 hours disappeared into a retail black hole. 

By the time I got to the Met some hours later my feet were screaming for mercy. I also severely underestimated just how HUGE the place is. After seeing as much as I could, I began to try find the rooftop which was another mission in itself. I was THIS close to giving up, but I made it in the end and you know what, it was so worth the effort.

As it happens, my camera battery died just as I got there so all I have is my faithful iPhone snaps. Looking over the treetops of Central Park out to the city skyline as the sun set was a view I will never forget. 

I knew I had to have a photo, so I bit the bullet and asked the people next to me if they wouldn't mind taking one. The obliged, and the next thing you know ( and I am talking within the space of 2 minutes!) they have invited me to join them for dinner that evening! Now I am not the kind of person who usually does things on a whim and would usually politely decline, but I thought, why the hell not? The only thing I had planned was going back to the hotel to massacre some macarons. 

We got to talking there on the rooftop, and after deciding that it didn't seem likely that they would murder me,   we caught a cab down to Hell's Kitchen to a thai place for dinner. They were a great bunch of people, so much fun and their stories had me dying with laughter. Somehow I found my second wind and powered on through the evening and had the most amazing time before parting ways.

And you know what, I have my one photo from that rooftop to remind me of that evening for the years to come. 

Ahh, memories!

xx

October Goal - Buy Nothing New

I stumbled across this initiative this morning , where you pledge to Buy Nothing New for the month of October 2011. The campaign aims to makes us sit back and think about why we buy things, where it all comes from and where it ends up when we throw it away.

I know I am constantly looking around my room at all my 'things' wondering how I managed to accumulate it all, buying a cheapie dress that I 'NEED!' for a girls night out and never wearing it again. 

Whilst Buy Nothing New is about raising awareness on consumption, I'm also really inspired to boost my savings at the moment so I am extra motivated to see this through. After all that spending on my trip which can only be described as a savings massacre , my bank account needs a little extra loving.

My biggest challenge will be that fact that it is my birthday at the end of October which usually is accompanied by shopping splurges. The way I view it is that I just brought everything I could ever need, using my birthday to go crazy is no excuse. I think that will be easier said then done.... but I will survive! I will also be actioning some major decluttering to donate what I don't use and to help me realise what I already have.

Luckily, all the good savings habits I have built up over this year are still going strong and I am already back into it. You can check out my post here for a few tips.

I've come to realise that it is imperative that I go to Paris ( amongst other places) in the near future and that will form part of my inspiration to stay away from the shops and buy nothing new!

Source: We Heart It

Check out the Buy Nothing New website here.

What do you think of this idea, and do you think you could do it?

Essie Fiesta Nailpolish

Just a quick post showing off one of the new nail polishes I brought recently.

I know I've said in the past that I wouldn't buy a Essie nailpolish again due to a few disappointments but as it only cost me $8.00 I didn't feel too bad about breaking that vow.

This is a bright creamy pink that I think will be amazing for when summer rolls around and the weekends where I live in my swimmers and hit the beach begin.

You'll get full coverage with one coat, but a second coat amplifies the brightness.

Chip wise, this hasn't been too bad. This picture was taken 3 days in and not too much damages has occurred though I did do a top coat.

You'll have to excuse my cuticles, they are still in recovery after a manicure I had a few weeks back.