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Galentine’s Day

gday3Happy Friday The Thirteenth! Ominous much? Also infamously known as Galentine’s Day – the neatest holiday invented by my favourite public sector gal Leslie Knope from Parks and Recreation. According to Leslie: “Oh it’s the best day of the year. Every February the 13th my lady friends and I leave our husbands and our boyfriends at home and we come and kick it, breakfast style. Ladies celebrating ladies. It’s like Lilith Fair minus the angst. Plus frittatas.” 

Due to some bad post scheduling on my part, it is yet again another illustration filled post so please excuse me! I am however super ecstatic to be featuring Yasmin from yours truly, Yasmin in today’s post. She is super talented and does amazing little drawings and typography so make sure you give her some love because it is Galentine’s Day after all! Personally, I think three things make a party: food, friends and some groovy tunes. Unfortunately, I can’t help you with the friends part but food and music? Yesiree!

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Heart Beats Martini: /Alcoholic// Fill shaker with ice. Mix 1 part Vanilla Vodka and 3 parts Godiva White Chocolate liqueur. Add a couple drops of food coloring and shake. Assess coloring and add more food coloring if needed. Pour into martini glass decorated with a pink sugar rim. //Non-Alcoholic// Place sanding sugar in a shallow dish or plate. Slice six thin rounds from the middle of lime; set aside. Rub lime wedge around rims of six glasses; dip each rim in sugar to coat. Pour 1 teaspoon pomegranate syrup into bottom of each glass. Place grapefruit juice and 2 cups ice cubes in a blender. Process on high speed until ice is crushed. Pour frozen mixture into glasses, and stir to combine with syrup. Garnish with reserved lime rounds, and serve immediately.

gday4Heart Pie Pops: Using a heart shape cookie cutter, cut out as many pastry pieces as your heart (haha) desires. Then add the apple pie filling into the centre which consists of: 1 medium tart green apple, peeled and grated, 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon, 1 tablespoon packed brown sugar, 1 tablespoon flour, 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice and 1 tablespoon cold butter, grated. Pop in some lolly sticks and bake until golden.

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Pink Pasta & Red Pepperoni Hearts: This one is really very easy but fun to cook! To make your pasta pink, cook it like you usually do and then ‘dye’ it using either red food colouring or you can try boiled cranberry juice, red beet juice or pomegranate juice. To make the hearts just cut our your pepperoni pieces to heart shapes.

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A Galentine’s Day Playlist: Run The World (Girls) – Beyonce // 22 – Taylor Swift // Girls Just Wanna Have Fun – Cyndi Lauper // Dancing Queen – ABBA // New Romantics – Taylor Swift // Wannabe – Spice Girls // BOSS – Fifth Harmony // Girls Chase Boys – Ingrid Michelson // Team – Lorde // Hit Me With Your Best Shot – Pat Benatar // Primadonna – Marina and the Diamonds // Milkshake – Kelis //  Do It Like a Dude – Jessie J //  Work – Iggy Azalea // Man! I Feel Like a Woman – Shania Twain //  Hollaback Girl – Gwen Stefani // Wings – Little Mix // How to Be A Heartbreaker – Marina and the Diamonds // Flawless – Beyoncé

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With those final few words from Ms Knope, I bid you adieu!

sign offPS: Happy Valentine’s Day for tomorrow as well!

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“Your lipstick stain is a work of art” {5SOS ‘She Looks so Pefect’}

I hope you guys are having a lovely weekend! I recently went to The Art Gallery of NSW to visit the Pop to Popsim exhibit which runs until March so I totally encourage you to check it out if you live near by! I think one of the reasons I love this movement so much is neatly summarised in the guide itself: “Pop was one of the defining art movements of the 20th century. It was radical because it brought the realms of mass entertainment and consumerism into the halls of art galleries and museums …. While for many this new art was a shocking betrayal of high cultural values, for others it was a liberating encounter with the world that people actually lived in.” 

Although, I wasn’t able to take actual photos of the exhibition, I still shot some of the patterns found in this really neat pop art book that they had in the interactive area. Then I took my pictures in the permanent areas of the gallery which are architecturally breathtaking.

Taking cues from pop itself, I went with a lemon yellow cropped tank top with little ruffles at the bottom. I haven’t worn something this cropped since my middle school days but I thought this was so cute with high waisted pointe pants and some easy ballerinas. Then the highlight of the outfit is my cute little speech bubble bag which is the definition of pop and something that I have been obsessed with since my friend Emi got it for me. They’re like the Sophia Webster ones which have cheeky phrases all over them 😉 I have a bit of an affinity for small unpractical bags like these so lookout for some potential DIYs in the future because I hear Olympia and Spade inspiration calling!

So tell me, do you love a bit of Lichtenstein or do you admire Andy Warhol? What’s your favourite decade in pop? Pop to Popsim itself was divided into seven sections: The Future is Now, Swinging London, The American Dream, Euro Pop, Made in Oz, Late Pop and Popism. I hope you enjoy the visual delights and check out those crazy rainbow flowers i saw in Martin Place!

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STYLE.

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You got that long hair, slicked back, white t-shirt And I got that good girl faith and a tight little skirt And when we go crashing down, we come back every time ‘Cause we never go out of style {1989 Taylor Swift ‘style’}

I think its plenty ironic how I finished my last High School Certificate exam yesterday (which meant that I would never have to wear a school girl skirt again) but then the next day I go for a plaid skirt with a white top? If this outfit has any deeper psychological meaning to it, I really do not care to know.

Instead I would like to think that I am paying homage to Taylor Swift’s 1989, particularly my favourite song ‘Style.’ As a post HSC celebratory gift to myself and an inevitable purchase anyway because she is one of the few artists I still buy physical albums for, I got 1989 yesterday after agonisingly having to wait a few extra days. My favourite songs after Style are: Blank Space, Wildest Dreams and Wonderland. If you are think Taylor is a Slayor, then we are automatically friends and you are obligated to tell my what your favourites are too 🙂

Anyway, the plaid skirt is a nod to the whole No its Becky inside joke that she has with the Tumblr community, the cropped tee is for all the cropped tees she’s been wearing lately and the brogues are for Fearless era Taylor because that will forever be one of my favourites. And to top that all off, the heart sunglasses are inspired by her last era: Red.

Apologies for my rudeness, but HEY, welcome to THE BLOG. My name is Karen and I’m in that blissful, wonderful period where I have just graduated high school and have four beautiful months of mindless wandering and a summer vacation that is really, genuinely going to be longer than 104 days*. I figured that in between my trips to the beach and marathoning situational comedies,  I would do something that’s been on my summer bucket list for a long time: start a blog and have a domain! Thusly, Style Smorgasbord DOT COM was born on the 1st of November 2014. So make yourself an iced tea (or maybe a hot one if you’re in the northern hemisphere) and take a look around. I hope I can bring a little bit of sunshine into your day and if all goes well, some leaves, rain and flowers too?

* If you can get that reference. FOUR FOR YOU.

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