Blaze of Glory

I am really uncool. Like watch The Big Bang Theory on Friday nights (GUYS SHAMY!), crack dad jokes and prone to flushing from any kind of alcohol consumption kind of uncool. But these shades make me feel hella cool and when I leave my house I imagine I’m off to my warehouse converted to office sharespace where I lounge around in curvy chairs and think of fresh ideas to make the world more yeezus. In reality, I’m just off for the daily commute where I spend 40 minutes reading about influential people in The Collective and Times but let me do me, kay?

The outfit unpicked:

Plaid on plaid, yes on yes. Miss Shop Coat (similar) and Old Button Down (similar)

Shadiest Shades from Ray-Ban

The best tee ever which I have worn here and here from Lil Muse Clothing (c/o)

Leggings for speed walking across campus from Dotti get them in store for 60% off

Fresh new Converse for ruining from Urban Outfitters 

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Gold Coast Digger

A fortnight ago I was lucky enough to score a last minute deal to the Gold Coast. It’s like the Miami of Australia and where our version of Spring Breakers herald every November. Not exactly in with that scene, I decided to postpone Gold Coast digging until the end of January 2015. The holidays I go on are usually intensely packed – sometimes with 3 am wakeup calls and past midnight showers so it was nice to head somewhere sunny without a plan for once. Click the scrapbook to see it expanded and try and spot my dress twin (I’ve been keeping count and so far I’ve seen it once in Gold Coast and once in Sydney!)

Transport

In order to maximise out time there, we took a 6 am flight with Jetstar! This was probably the most tiring part of our journey but we were in chill mode from here on. Watching the sunrise while we took off wasn’t too bad either. The traffic around Gold Coast is pretty easy to navigate – we usually took a bus or tram. Our hotel was right beside the Surfers Paradise tram station which was super convenient. Check out that surfboard carrier on the tram below – if this isn’t a surfer’s paradise then I don’t know what is!

Accommodation

We stayed at a 3 bedroom apartment at Q1. It was insanely spacious for four people and had everything you needed: kitchen, 3 bathrooms, balcony, dining room, Foxtel, game consoles, board games and even DVDs (there was Mean Girls haha!). My favourite part were the views! My goodness we could see the jetty, the coastline, I basically could touch the clouds and we were only on floor 31! The facilities were pretty sweet as well. I loved lying on my back in the pool and staring at the tip of the hotel. They even had poolside tents with awnings if you didn’t want to burn.

Sights

Gold Coast is a bit like Florida because it is home to a lot of amusement parks. Since this wasn’t our first time here, we skipped Dream World, Movie World, Sea World, White Water World. Instead, we spent our days never too far from the ocean or the pool and went to Cavill Mall and Robina Town Centre for shopping.

Food

Although our apartment was fully equipped with a kitchen and even a food processor, we went out to eat most of the days we were there. Some of my top meals included the all you can eat pancakes from Pancake Paradise (you can order unlimited pancakes and they’re HUGE … I stopped at four), the pesto rosso from Vapiano (the wait is tiring but they make it in front of you) and the Hawaiian chicken with curly fries from Hog’s Breath Cafe.

Night Life

The Gold Coast is alive up till late and I just loved watching the skyline from up high. They have markets along the boardwalk every Sunday and we would usually walk along the beach back to our hotel in the evening.

I hope you enjoyed my postcard, one by ones and trademark GIFs!

No Shaking Required (DIY Polaroids)

We are all guilty of getting something new and then wanting something more. Except if you took the time to reflect, this greediness could be zapped (or at least leak out) from your system. I have a 365-day journal from Kikki-K that I write in every day. It’s a very healthy way of letting stuff out of your system or being thankful for what you’ve been able to do a particular day. Sometimes, I’ll just write a recipe down or attempt to write my name in different fonts. You don’t need to have an epic day for it to be worth recording because some of the best days are those lazy days where you don’t do anything but you appreciate everything. If you don’t think you have the enthusiasm to keep up a diary for that long, why not try do it just for the summer?

If words aren’t your forte, then maybe photos are? I saw a quote once that constantly resonates with me: “The photographer takes photos of things they are afraid to lose.” This quote troubles me because of the nature of my blog and social media. I take so many pictures of myself and inanimate objects that the ‘afraid to lose’ part becomes weirdly egocentric!

I have also had another great internal conflict for far too long. That is whether to buy a Polaroid camera or not succumb to the trend. I’m just not cut out for leaving things to luck and with a Polaroid, that’s exactly what you have to do and I’m sorry but I’m just not hipster enough.

Wait … but here’s the thing, today I have a DIY that’s different and less mainstream so I guess I can just say I out hipstered all you hipsters. HA! The other day I realised I had never printed out any of my photos from high school. That’s six years of photographs that have never made it off my screen. That’s a lot of cringe …which leads me to my third and final installment of my New Year series: Reflection – a DIY.

Start off by gathering all the pictures you want to use. Instagrams are the best because they’ve been squared already but by all means squarely crop all your other pictures and pop them into a folder.

Download Pixlr if you want to give your pictures that faded, timely, accidental look. I like my pictures brightly lit and sans filter but go ahead and filter that baby out till your heart desires. Pixlr in my opinion has the best filters but if you want to throw some better ones out into the ring, comment down below!

Open Photoshop or Gimp (free but very powerful) and open a new file that is 4 x 6 in size (standard photo printing size). Then centre your photo and don’t be afraid to give it a lot of white space.

Print your pictures out and trim to size. Then take a Sharpie and write the date, a song lyric, the location, whatever!

Your fake Polaroid is good for all kinds of stuff. If you have heaps make an entire feature wall filled with them or hang them up on twine. I think printing off a whole stack, writing cute messages on the back and boxing them makes for a cute, personalised gift.

 No vanity mirror? No problem! I would much rather stare at my beautiful friends and family instead.

STYLE.

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.