Quilty McSchquilty!

1. Handsom Rainy Day Cape - This young Australian label is fast becoming a favourite for the same reasons as I love Strummer.

2. Army Jacket Liner - For soldiers to button onto and wear under their uniforms in cold environments but I wear it as it is. I love it for its tremendous body shape-altering properties. Haha. If the olive drab in this Comme des Garcons collection + the quilted poufiness in this Junya Watanabe show had puppies, this is how I would picture the runt of the litter. Maybe also the ugly older stepsister of these silhouettes shown recently at Celine and Balenciaga.

3. Vintage Husky Jacket - In my favourite navy blue with corduroy trims. Made in England before the company was sold to Italians. Nicely oversized for my Nanna-Goes-To-The-Country look. Also a good fit on the boyfriend (it's menswear afterall) so we share it.

4. A very old coat - By a Singaporean label, Paperdoll. I bought it yonks ago because I've always loved quilty things. And that green (also came in a burnt orange and brown)! But had nowhere to wear it to in hot and humid Singapore. Of course it had to come to Sydney with me! Wheeeeee!


So, quilted things. Another fabric obsession of mine. Just like chambray and denim. Some might find it a little boring to have too many items of clothing made from the same type of textile. Not me! Make them in my favourite blues and greens too! Yeah!

Chasing The White Dragon

Back at Katsu Yachiyo on Saturday. To try food off their newly-launched lunch time menu (super value-for-money and delicious!) and hoping to taste the elusive White Dragon but they sold their last bottle the night before so it was Geisha time again. Boo.

I've been thinking a lot about getting a new tattoo (it's been twelve long years since my last one) and traditional Asian motifs like the dragon has never appealed to me but looking at the label on the empty bottles (taunting us!) has made me kind of reconsider getting a typically-Asian gangster one.

Birdie Bong

It was a birdie-shaped whistle (such a cute one too!) that I found just this afternoon on our weekly op-shopping trail around our neighbourhood. Until the boyfriend dropped it on our bathroom floor when he was transferring our bag of newly-thrifted clothes, including the vintage Pringle sweater which Birdie was wrapped in for protection, into the laundry basket. Oop-sie-doops. And it's not fixable. Boo. Too many tiny shards (not in the picture because they are already in the bin) that would be a pain to piece and glue back together. *sooky puppy face*

120 x 120

Three out of the six gigantic 120 x 120cm scarves from the Sportsgirl x Temps Des Rěves range by fashion photographer/designer Adrian Mesko that dropped earlier this week.

Sportsgirl, an Australian high street fashion chain, does seek out pretty interesting designers to partner up with but their recent collaborative efforts haven't got me as excited as I am by these squares of printed fabric. In 100% cotton (not of silk like those from the Temps Des Rěves main line and not of yucky man-made material) at $50 per pop, it's highly likely that I will be taking one of these (the other three are definitely out because they have too much black on them) home from the shop if I like the print, colour and make upon closer inspection.

Neck Bags

The Mini Leather Locket by a clever (as in, "A simple idea turned into a brilliantly-executed product! Why didn't I think of it?!") lady named Jen Booth.

A birthday pressie from my pal Ms Carpet. She's a cheeky girl, that one! After we first laid eyes on and squealed in excitement over these cuties months ago in The Standard Store when we took her mum (Hello, "Louise"!) on a little shopping tour of our neighbourhood, Ms Carpet sent an email out to us the next day, with a link to the maker's website, asking us what our favourite colourway was. Thinking it was just another of our shopping girl-maniac post-shopping discussions/dissections, I innocently replied with my top pick and weeks later, it showed up, beautifully-wrapped, on my birthday! Surprise! Wooo! Plus a second surprise on finding the little strip of "fortune" in hot pink that the maker had tucked in the locket! Jen Booth is a cheeky one too! Tee hee hee.

And here's another sporran-type thing for the neck...

From a long while ago. An eelskin bag charm by Becksondergaard that I've attached to a necklace.

And, no, I'm not about to start another of my crazy collections. I don't have that many tiny secrets to carry around.

Let's Katsu!

A big big Fried Food Fest for six at the new-ish Katsu Yachiyo in our neighbourhood. Another izakaya-style eatery and you know know how much we love those! And this is one of them good ones! So delicious was all the food that we only thought to stop our flurry of chopstick-ing (well, two greedy people didn't!) and face-stuffing for a single picture of their Chicken Katsu (it's not a Japanese Fried Food Fest without some of those!).

That was a month ago now and I think it's time to go back to work our way further down their extensive menu (they've just started doing lunch too!). And to chase some White Dragon! Or slurp a Geisha.

Katsu Yachiyo

208 Devonshire Street

Surry Hills

Phone: (02) 9690 2424

Website: yachiyo.com.au/katsu

42

The "soundtrack" to my 42nd birthday a month ago. Another mixtape by the boyfriend (he makes the best ones!) and he took me to see The Raveonettes (our third time and they still rock our world!) and The Brian Jonestown Massacre (their stage lighting design is one of the best that I've seen so far - very simple yet so effective) play a double bill! Woooo! And I received more feedback-laden music* in the mail from my best bud Ben! If you listen to these bands too, you'll see that there's a bit of a theme going but I know that the boys didn't plan it. They are boys and boys don't plan things. Haha. We are just three old farts who, because of our years of friendship, know what each other like. To more predictable "soundtracks", I say! For birthdays. And life in general. Woo!

* We watched the documentary of the same name some time ago and man, it was another major old fogeys' reminiscing session! Haha. The music that soundtracked our yoof! I don't think there's going to be another time in the history of music that's going to move me like that period did. I highly recommend viewing it. Even if you're not an old fart.

Mayo Flower

Don Don on Oxford Street was our go-to little Japanese take-away shop when we first moved to Sydney nine(!!) years ago. Their food was simple but delicious and very cheap-and-cheery. And still steamy-hot when we get it home to our first apartment across the road. As we explored our new 'hood and discovered more quick-and-tasty take-away options, our visits dwindled and a couple of years later, we stopped going altogether. We wondered why we did when we went in for lunch, our first visit in a long long time, one Saturday last month! Nothing, except the owners, has changed.

Don Don
80 Oxford Street
Darlinghurst
Phone: (02) 9331 3544

Wallpaper Bag

Finally got to use the roll of William Morris-esque vintage wallpaper I bought at the charity shop months ago! Woo! To wrap a pressie for my pal Meeps who love a good floral print as much as I do.

I wanted its maiden "voyage" to be spectacular but look at this oddly-shaped thing that had to be ensconced...

Folded, this vintage nanna cakestand was still a pain to wrap...

As much as I love having fun with packaging, I saw only two quick-and-easy solutions as we didn't have much time before we were due at the party - to plonk the thing in a box and then wrap it, or make a lunchbag-style paperbag. We didn't have a right-sized box at home so the bag it was.

And it was still in such good nick after the gift was carefully unwrapped so I brought it home! Haha. Waste not, want not, right?

The wallpaper was coated and was so sturdy (and the bag so well-constructed...ahem!) that I think I might use the bag as a clutch like this lady, inspired by this Jil Sander piece. Until it falls apart.

Golden Golden

For a Middle-Eastern-themed food party last evening, I made shotglasses of passionfruit mousse + Lebanese* orange blossom water caramel jelly + pistachio praline. And spiced (cardamon + ginger) fig + walnut cigars, brushed with a sticky Turkish* rosewater syrup, to use as spoons to eat the mousse with. Fun times!

* That's me taking the piss. Who else is tired of this recently-gone-mainstream food trend - the wordy listings of the source of ingredients on menus? It's starting to make me wonder if some of these Johnny-come-lately establishments are honestly championing the wares of small growers/producers/makers or are merely jumping on the trend-bandwagon to make a few quick bucks. From diners who willingly lap it all up, proclaiming themselves "locavores" only minutes after consuming a piece of meat that travelled only blah-blah-blah kilometres from paddock-to-table. Their very first. When they live twice that distance away from the table at that restaurant. It's all one big wank fest, I say.

Oh, just in case you're wondering...the rosewater is indeed from Turkey. A present hand-carried back by the boyfriend's boss for me. It's the best one available, she said. And she would know because she's Turkish. I bought the orange blossom water from our local Indian spice shop. It's imported from Lebanon. My "Golden Golden" is definitely not a dessert for hardcore locavores.
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The picture is the first Instagram-ed one on this blog. I've been using the app for some time now. Only for quick show-and-tell pics for pals on Twitter. I like the pretty pictures it makes but I still feel strange using a very thin phone as a camera. I think it's a grip thing? My little Canon Ixus is not much thicker but I feel that it's more ergonomically-sound as a camera because it was specifically-designed to be one? Or maybe I'm just being the biggest fussy-pot in the world. Ha.

Things That Make The Cold Almost Bearable

Flannel pie-jam-mahs! Oversized because I share them with the boyfriend. Which I think is kind of sexy.

Retiring the old and ratty ones every other year (a sad affair because we've had some with real funky prints) and shopping for replacements (woooo!) in all the K-Marts and Targets on our puppy car rides to the 'burbs, tracking down those with happy prints/patterns in our size that are not found in the inner city stores. Good fun at $20 per pop!

Naming them when we get home. And having faux-fights over who gets to wear which.

I think it's time for a pie-jam-mahs party! A Christmas-in-July one, perhaps. A grown-up version with mulled wine and single-malt whiskey. Loads of hearty fatty food. And guests have to arrive in their sleepwear (tee hee hee!) with their favourite soft toy/pillow/blankie. We'll watch silly movies and tell scary bedtime stories. We might even build a blanket fort Troy-and-Abed-style. Plan? Plan! 

Flash Sale Shopping Wishlist

Online flash sale sites.They are a bit like brick-and-mortar pop-up discount shops. Products are up for sale for a limited amount of time and if you miss them at the bargainous price that they are sold for, it's back to buying the goods at recommended retail prices for you. That is if you can still find them.

If the boyfriend hasn't banned me from adding more Likkle Bwoys + Girls to our collection until I get off my lazy ass and start hanging them up, I'd love to a pair of these hilariously gross Garbage Pail Kids from Kwerkee*. Before they are taken off their flash sale schedule next week.

*Regular readers will know that I don't often respond to requests for products/services plugs on this blog from marketing people but Kwerkee is based in my old 'hood of Singapore and I like that more young people there are doing fun and exciting entrepreneurial things these days. Oh, and shipping of their wares to you is FREE! Go sign up for regular sale notifications now!