MOVEMBER

You either love 'em or despise 'em, but either way, there's no escaping the annual arrival of Movember. Males everywhere will be growing them, shaping them, trimming them, waxing them, styling them; this is serious business. Handle bars, Vikings, Capt' Hooks, Caterpillars, 007's, Connoisseurs, I expect to be spotting them all this Movember as proud males take to the streets sporting the latest facial hairstyles. 

I personally love Movember because it makes for a good laugh at the competitiveness of facial hair growth and the seriousness with which men take their upper lip. I also love the Movember incentive because it's actually aimed at generating support for prostate and testicular cancer, and the guys who run the organization have done a sterling job at creating a worldwide community all in favor of moutaches and helping fight cancer.  If you've never been to the Movember website, be sure to check it out here and enjoy their quirky graphics and great web design. So boys, get growing your Mo, and may the best man win.

List Love

Tomorrow my room mates and I are welcoming in the fall season by throwing a "Pumpkins, Pies & Spicy Chais" party at our house. I've made it my mission this year to really clothe myself in the holiday spirit and celebrate all the USA festivities as a true 'Merican would. So, on that note, today we went shopping for fall-themed decorations and all the most delish seasonal foods. I'm going to be making caramel apples and pumpkin cupcakes with cream-cheese frosting. I can't wait to get my apron on tomorrow and fill the kitchen with the odors of fall. When our friends arrive we will be carving pumpkins and gorging on all things pumpkin flavored whilst sipping on hot cider. The good life.

Here is the rest of my fall bucket list:

On being organized

Secretly, I've always wanted to be the that girl that floats around with chopsticks in her hair and paint stains on her hands that tell tales of late nights in her loft-apartment-turned-art-studio. You know, that girl that always looks oddly beautiful in her weird thrift store ensamble compromised of colours and fabrics that should never be within a 5 mile radius of each other. She's far too obscure to hold to a schedule of any sort, but blows where the wind does (or doesn't), she's never tied down, she walks to the rhythm of her own drum. 
Well, I'm the kind of girl that dances more on the edge of OCD than flower child. My brain functions in assembly-line format and even my thoughts are colour-coded (not really, but kind of). I do schedules, I do daily planners, I do time-management. I even plan for spontaneity. I'm that girl. And do you know what? I'm fine with that. I'm learning to love how I've been wired, even if at times I freak myself out. We can't all be the cool girl that wakes up one day and decides to buy a one way ticket to some Asian country that we've never heard the name of. Some of us are the girls that like to "get 'er done;" you know, the movers, the doers, the ones that have a black belt in checking off to-do lists. The ones that live their lives where no minute goes unaccounted for. Are we intense? Are we extreme? Yes. But that's why we're wonderful and we're saving the world one productive task at a time. 
Some wise guy who's name Google doesn't seem to know once said "Time management is self-management," and there you have it, the method to my madness.

Ps: If you read this and know you're on the nerd-girl team with me, check out Frankie Magazine's new journal for 2013, it will solve all your organizational issues one list at a time. Isn't it gorgeous?

{Buy online here. All Images courtesy of Frankie.com.au}

Weekend musings

On a scale of one to couch potato, my weekend has ranked scarily high on the unproductively scale. I've scarcely left the house, actually, if we're going with honesty here I've scarcely left my bed as I've succumbed to your standard change-of-season 'my body hurts, I'm tired and my sinuses need an exorcism' kind of common cold. I've spent the most part of my weekend horizontal, with a cup of tea in hand, book in the other and my bedside table looking like a chemist. Sometimes though, you've just got to let your body do what it's begging you to do; rest. And that's okay. One of my most thrilling activities of the weekend was finding some indie engagement photographs. I think it's actually ironic how 'hipster' was once a niche and now it teeters more on the edge of cliche. Whatever. There's always room in this world for another bearded bloke, right?

{Images found at Sincerely, Kinsey}

I Love It - October

Tree-lined streets. Days were no morning alarm needs to be set. Sincerity. Cuff jewelry. Costume Parties. Morning breeze on the back of my neck. Laughing ourselves to sleep. Compliments. Father of Lights. The smell and feel of clean laundry. Helping a friend in need. People who treat everyone of equal importance. Watching freedom take place. Grabbing hold of a forgotten memory. Sitting at the feet of wisdom. Scented candles. Trying a new recipe. Eggplant and Ricotta stacks. Trader Joes' food samples. Dry humor. Being needed. New jeans. Hipster wedding invitations. Midnight patio picnics. Pumpkin flavoured greek yoghurt. Succulents. Thrift store jumpers. Distressed wood. Design done right. Bow ties. Hummingbirds. Smells of the forest. Mixed media art projects. International calls. Positivity. New book purchases. Frosting layer cakes. Solving puzzles. Being cared for. Black and gold. Studded collars. Sales. Fall decorating. Piles of lifeless leaves. Pumpkin carving parties. Being personally responsible for giving children sugar highs on Halloween. Sleeping with the windows open. Black tea. Victorious Mindsets. Using South African slang in America. Finding forgotten money in last week's pockets. Spontaneous trips down the I-5, San Francisco bound. Revisiting the 90's: Clueless, Blink 182 and Dawson's Creek. Men in boots. Kids with manners. People that have embraced individuality in some form. The Castle. A clean bathroom. Lengthly afternoon naps. The different shades of the sky at dusk. Watching Ben Howard caress his guitar. Flinging off my shoes after a day of productivity. Lone walks to nowhere. Losing myself in an infinity scarf. 

{Background image: FaveIm}

Things I Know As A 20 Year Old

- Cereal tastes better at night
- Unforgiveness is masochistic in nature. By choosing not to forgive, you're only keeping yourself in prison.
- We are all products of our experiences
- I don't love talking on the phone
- We were made to need attention. The desire to be noticed doesn't shouldn't be swept under the rug of denial.
- It's perfectly okay to say no
- The more we learn, the more teachable we should become.
- Facebook is a black hole that devours time
- I was not made for big city life
- Few things excite me as much as handwritten surprises in the mail
- I'd very much love to fall in love
- It's of vital importance to live passionate and live inspired
- There are times when pajamas all day is not only acceptable but completely necessary
- There's hidden powers inside a smile
- When it comes to making someone's day, it's always about the little things 
- A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush
- The dreams you have, carry with them the ability to be fulfilled
- Time management is self-management
- Every problem is just an opportunity in disguise
- The future belongs to those who believe. In people, in themselves, in their dreams
- The right font can be a matter of life or death
- How fast I run is directly proportional to the greatness of my playlist
- The future is now
- Listen.
- Wisdom is no respecter of persons or age
- I love change as much as I love routine
- Believing is not seeing, it's what takes place right before seeing 
-  Chivalry goes such a long way in my world
- Sometimes, a Venti is exactly what you should order
- There are seasons in nature. There are seasons in life. Embrace them. Dress accordingly 
- Revisit your childhood at least once a week, even if it looks like singing the rap to 'Fresh Prince of Bel Air' or finding hidden pictures in the clouds
- Midnight often brings with it all kinds of inspiration. Flow with it
- Rest is of equal importance to productivity and making deadlines
- Surround yourself with relationships that are two-way streets
- Make-up and beauty have nothing in common
- Differences are for celebration not criticism
- Children are great teachers; qualified by their purity and sincerity
- Excellence, good. Perfectionism, bad
- That friend that makes you belly-laugh. Hold onto them
- Control has no place in love
- A good writer is simply a good reader
- The key to knowledge is in asking great questions
- Everyone's life contains lessons from which I can learn

The Best of Fashion Bloggers

I always admire the glamorous women of the world wide web that daily uphold a standard of fashion excellence and religiously document their unique trends in photographic form. These are the modern day trend setters, these are some of the best bloggers of our day (in my opinion), and they inspire me in more ways than one. 

Wish Wish Wish

Late Afternoon

Tuula

Pandora

The Cherry Blossom Girl

Gary Pepper Vintage

Frankie Five-Oh

Congratulations to Frankie Magazine and their brilliant team of creative masterminds on releasing the 50th issue of this divine magazine. Frankie is one of my favorite things about Australia, and what an inspiring, beautiful and brimming-with-goodness mag it really is. A huge congratulations to every person behind the monthly making of Frankie, and thank you for always upholding a standard of creative excellence, the world is a better place for it.
The team has outdone themselves (as always) with this 50th edition that comes with a special crafty embossed cover, and it's contents include "life advice from Beth Ditto, real-life magic tricks, progressive Swedish pronouns, a philosophy of stuff, lots of sarcastic '90s girls, a look at life on the farm, multi-coloured pigeons, famous people who flunked, musings on being 20-something with Tori
Amos and a bumper baking special that'll keep you in the kitchen making cakes well into next year."
If you are lucky enough tot get your hands on a copy, Frankie is best served with a cup of tea and an arm chair. Enjoy.