Beautiful Girls

Watching Natalie Portman today in "Hotel Chevalier" reminded me of "Beautiful Girls", a film she was in when she was just a wee girl more than 10 years ago.

The boyfriend has not seen it so we took it out of our friendly neighbourhood video store this evening and it is STILL great in a chick-flicky kinda way.

Boasting a stellar cast of hot-in-the-mid-1990s actors such as Timothy Hutton and Uma Thurman, Natalie Portman's character "Marty" (not short for Martha but named after a grandfather she never met), however, stole the show.

The scenes with Marty and Willy (Timothy Hutton) were so gut-wrenchingly sweet that I wanted desperately, at the end of the movie in 1996, for Natalie Portman to grow up quickly so a sequel set 10 years later could be made. But, to my dismay, that is not be as Ted Demme, the director, sadly passed away in 2002. Maybe, just maybe, someone else might pick it up?

Hairstyles In Films

Just how hot is Natalie Portman's gamine/pixie haircut in "Hotel Chevalier" , the short before "The Darjeeling Limited" that we saw today?!




And Angelica Huston's salt-and-pepper version in the later part of movie! Did Wes Anderson mean to have his females leads spotting similar styles? I've never had long hair my whole life for I'm convinced that long locks are a cop-out and her look as Sister Patricia has just put a bigger stamp on my growing-old-gracefully-with-short-hair plan.

The longest style I've had was this Meryl-Streep-as-Lindy-"The-Dingo-Ate-My-Baby"-Chamberlain-esque pudding bowl cut of varying lengths and gradients which we (my hairdresser Ben and I) have cultivated over the last two years, which we have since lopped off last month to a more summer-friendly short layered boyish 'do.

Phew!

I'm so glad Christmas is over and done with! I really am!

Christmas shopping was such a chore, even for a shop-shop-shopping-girl maniac like me. So much so that I didn't even attempt to go to the Boxing Day sale at the major departmental stores here today - they open at 6am (!) and the prices are really marked down. I never thought I'd say this but I'm seriously shopped-out.

So what we did was go watch "I'm Not There" which opened here today.

The boyfriend is a big Dylan fan. I'm not (at all) but I do love Todd Haynes' films. It is a damn fine-looking picture but for non-Dylan fans, I think it's quite hard work sitting through it compared to, say, "Control", a recent film about the life of another musician.

With the latter, you can just walk into the cinema not knowing anything about Ian Curtis or The Joy Division and still thoroughly enjoy it because it is a beautifully-shot film which tells a tale of a character, and better if you are familiar with the man, his band and their music.

"I'm Not There", on the other hand, requires the viewer to have some sort of background knowledge of Dylan before buying the ticket. I would have no inkling of anything if I hadn't been pre-briefed by the boyfriend.

I suspect a lot of non-Dylan fans would go watch it because of the extremely talented Cate Blanchett - she didn't disappoint for she was hot!-hot!-hot! playing the Dylan-gone-electric persona and I'm loving her wild mop of hair and the polka-dotted shirt and high-waisted pinstriped pants combo.

Pwetty Things Come To Those Who Wait

I've been coveting In-Sync Design's range of colourful art-to-wear jewellery ever since I first laid eyes upon them at Collect last year and subsequently at the National Gallery Shop in Canberra on our last driving holiday and at the many contemporary jewellery galleries that have popped up in Sydney in recent months. I've walked away from them all those times, frustrated, because there were just too many colours and designs available to be able to pick one.

I'm so glad I waited because at the Powerhouse Museum's Young Blood: Designers Market yesterday, the creators of these minimalist-but-statement pieces were manning their own stall! To me, there is nothing more special than buying a piece of art from the artists themselves - to be able to chat with Iris Saar Isaacs (artist/designer) and Jane Barwick (contemporary jeweller) about their work, and to be be able to place a face and personality to the pieces.

Besides being darn fine artists, they were also great salesgirls! They had simple-to-read charts breaking their range down into colours and styles available (all their stockists should have one!) and before we knew it, I had narrowed my choices down to three, not an easy feat considering there were at least seven designs for brooches, six designs for bangles and ALL available in seven colours!

The lime green bangle was picked because it was the first-ever piece that caught my eyes. With the brooch, it was a toss-up between a limited Christmas edition (turquoise with tiny yellow speckles) and this pure turquoise one - this one won because I liked the lines better.

Hopefully, the good people in Europe will soon be faced with the same dilemma of which In Sync pieces to take home as the girls will be showing, for the first time, at Top Drawer Spring 2008 in London. Charm their pants off, girls!

All I Want for Christmas...

...is this silver lock bracelet by Ina Seifart . Saw it on Creatures of Comfort yesterday and haven't been able to get it out of my head.

Loving the raw hard industrial feel of the leather and the brass clasp set against the fineness of the silver chain. Exactly what I had in mind for the de-girlifying of certain outfits.

Also found her Timeless Bracelet here. What clever word-play and visual imagery!

Apple Trees & Honey Bees & Snow White Turtle Doves

The accessories that Geneine Honey at Love makes certainly evoke that I'd-like-to-teach-the-world-to-sing vibe. Her simple playschool-style outline drawings of all-things innocent, translated into wearable art, have this positive radiance that somehow makes everything seems alright.

Lyd (my Singapore "personal shopper") was so enamoured with my "I Wish I Was A Real Boy" necklace that her latest task for her "personal shopper" here was to purchase either this adorable "Apple Tree" or the "I Wish I Was A Real Girl" brooch.

Like me, she couldn't decide between the two equally-cute designs. Well, the shop where the range is stocked, Mushu, made the decision for us - "Girl" is only available there in necklace form.

From My "Personal Shopper"...

...via the Superior Courier, the Bella.

Melissa "Night" in White
I can't seem to get enough of these super-comfortable and well-designed Brazilian jelly footwear - these white hot Gattaca-esque ones are pair #6.

Saw and bought my first pair at Novo, a shoe shop in Singapore, when I was last home for a holiday - naughty me brought a total of three pairs back to Sydney on that trip. And Lyd, my "personal shopper" in Singapore has been popping in to Novo periodically ever since to see if they have new ones to buy me.

Melissa shoes are available in Australia but at thrice the price so I am eternally grateful to Lyd and her sister, the flying Bella, for delivering my fixes. And also little surprises in the care packages like this...

Dogeared "Make A Wish" Wishbone Bracelet
The question is:- Do I wear it until it falls off and have my wish granted? Or do I take it off when wear-and-tear sets in and not risk losing it as it's too sweet to lose?

This Likkle Girl Wurves Her New Likkle Bwoy!

He says, "I am a delicate little wooden boy and need to be worn with love and care. To keep me safe at night, please tuck me into my little package to sleep." Awwww...Isn't he cute?! Movable limps and all?!

Lovingly made by Geneine Honey at Love (whom I'm a big fan of since her perspex days), this "I Wish I Was A Real Boy" necklace was too hard to resist. And even harder was trying to decide between him and his cute little sister in a pretty red dress. I promised her that I'll take her home some day, hopefully soon.

To Market...To Market...

It's the first Saturday of the month again! No prize for guessing where I was early this morning. Yes, the Surry Hills market.

The weather wasn't that great (again!) but the rain stopped when it came to set-up time so yay, lucky for us bargain-hunters.

Saw this maxi Mexican wedding dress (that's what I called these type of dresses but it might not be the right term) at the first stall we stopped at but walked away only to go back to buy it 15 minutes later. I'm glad I did because they was nothing else worth buying today. And my other Mexican wedding dress now has a friend.