Belt, Tuck & Roll

I wore this dress for my birthday last year (see that post here) and its one of my favourites because its made of silk and so comfortable to wear. Now being the average heighted person I am, I find that a lot of Country Road dresses swamp me if I don’t add a pair of heels into the mix. After spending a week in work heels, I want the most comfortable, slipper like shoe possible!

To make a flat sole possible, I employed my favourite styling technique: the belt, tuck and roll. Basically, you take the thinnest belt you own to your midi dress and pull the fabric over to hide the belt so you’re left with a much shorter, weekend appropriate dress. To make sure people get the message that I’m doing Casual with a capital C, I like to add a cap, slip-ons and my trusty new bucket bag! Its not Mansur Gavriel but the structure is freaking amazing. You can’t get it online anymore, but definitely look into your closet Seed retailer for the last few 🙂

Recreate my look

Purse / Dress / Shoes / Cap / Watch

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Nook of the Day

As soon as Christmas was over, I sprung into action and got everything straightened out to welcome the new year. I threw out a lot of junk and added some new bits and bobs to my work nook and bookcase. Here are some of my January rituals that I like to always complete:

• Donate old clothes, accessories, etc. – anything that hasn’t been worn for more than 12 months should go. I let a lot of old costumes go that I had been saving for future dress up events but I decided that I’m better off with a whole empty drawer than one filled with things that I may or may not wear once in a blue moon.
• Delete duplicates of photographs – as I create 100% of the visual content on this blog, I have a LOT of pictures in my hard drive. Whilst I like to keep a few hilarious candids, I have so many pictures that are basically the same that I like to delete as much as possible to free up future storage space.
• Unsubcribe to email lists that I don’t even open. This is a serious chore but just something you have to do. Put on a lighthearted sitcom in the background or some YouTube vlogs and get rid of all that spam.
• Get a new calendar! Kind of an obvious one but there are so many free printables on Pinterest that look gorgeous on a clipboard 😉
• Swap out your photo frames – I always have quotes in my frames so I like to change my mantras every year depending on what life goal I am aiming towards. This year mine is ‘good things come to those who hustle’.

I’m so glad I started early too because would you know it, I caught a cold on NYE ( almost didn’t make it to midnight!) and spent the next few days finishing off the last season of Friends. It was frustrating not being able to catch the new year bug and be all motivated, creative and fit. I’m on my last few sniffles and have been snapping photos, writing emails, editing and writing up drafts all day in preparation for my cruise. As you read this, I will be sailing away from all my responsibilities on the Pacific Eden for just over a week! I am very lucky to be working with P&O to bring you guys some very fun content so look out for that soon. If you have any queries as to where certain decor pieces are from, just ask in the comments but the answer will probably be Kmart or Ikea 🙂 If you are looking for some throwback SS, check out my desk decorating post from last year or my last shelfie. 

‘January’ calligraphy thanks to cable car couture

SSCHRISSY

dress /  flats / laptop case

In an ideal christmas wonderland, I would be able to create 24 days worth of content (an SS advent calendar type thing if you will) to ring in my favourite holiday of the year. Unfortunately, time and lack of wifi for the first third of this month got the better of me so with 10 days left until the big fellow be creepin’ I have created a smorgasbord of festive things that will make you say oh oh oh. Oops I mean ho ho ho! Read on to see what I have been up to in terms of decking the halls and how you can give your house that Rockefeller treatment even if you are experiencing 30 degree plus heatwaves on a weekly basis.

NETFLIX & HEAT

I.e. stay horizontal to the ground as you wait for the thunderstorms to roll in and signify the end of yet another 30 degree Sydney day. All the Home Alones are always a classic, Love Actually, Elf and Santa Clause are viewed with greater enthusiasm each year and any Christmas themed television episode is always a delight. I watched Christmas Eve on the weekend which is a 2015 film – very realistic but not the greatest. Vlogamas has also become quite a tradition my favourites being: Zoella, Rachel Jade Annear (Australian), Aspyn + Parker & the Sacconejolys. If you want to feel like a Christmas Grinch, go watch these people. Do it in style with a marble laptop vinyl like mine from CaseApp and get 20% off your next order with the code SMORGASBORDCASE20. 

recipe

BAKE IT OFF

Make like T-Swizzle and have a baking day with your squad. Listen to Christmas albums with some JB on the side because as much as we love to hate the Biebs, we all love Purpose. Was our icing intentionally crafted to look like snow or was it purely an accident? Only you and your friends will know this delicious secret that you will take to the snapchat grave. Great bonding sessions guaranteed. NB: No gummy bears were hurt in the process of building our gingerbread mansion despite the fact that they do look like they are falling off the roof.

pocketprints

MONOGRAMMING IS SO 2015

Personalise your tree with print outs of photographs from the year. If you could do this on a 2 metre pine, it would be the perfect conversation stater piece slash subtle bragging ensemble. Oh yeah .. this quick snap was from the Maldives in early Jan and ah I look so tan here from my 2 week Greek Island escape.

golden wonder bath bomb

TREAT YO SELF

As important as giving and receiving is blah blah blah … you know whats the most important? When the giver and receiver is both yourself. Yeah that’s right hun, you go and spoil yourself silly this silly season. A nice long bath away from all your responsibilities and to treat those paper cuts from over wrapping is a start. Lush knows whats up with the Merry Christmas gift set filled with their most popular Christmas treats: Cinders Bath Bomb, Golden Wonder Bath Bomb, Lord Misrule Bath Bomb, Father Christmas Bath Bomb and Dashing Santa Bath Bomb . If you’re feeling generous, I guess you could give them to friends and family too. Look at those smart cookies, saving you from doing any wrapping.

Products featured c/o Pocket Prints / Lush / CaseApp 

Don’t forget to follow me on Instagram @stylesmorgasbord for all the latest #sschrissy updates and I wish you all a safe and happy holiday season! 

Early Bloomer

It’s not even spring but the flowers on this street are in full force already. Perfect for twirling under in drop waist dresses like this great marble print one that’s made of silk and a dream to float about. My last week was so messy and I think its because I didn’t work out properly thus my schedule became completely off kilter. So! A new week begins and its time to start everything up again and make it a stellar one.

//Dress: Country Road / Booties: Forever New //

DIY Marble Side Table

Thought I would up my bed side table game by hopping on the marble trend in the least expensive way possible. Considering marble will be out of trend within the next few years, I wanted to do something that would cost me next to nothing. I have been contemplating ordering marble contact paper for a few months now but some rolls cost up to $50 on Etsy which is ridiculous since my side table was probably less than half that price!

ONE To create this side table, print off several copies of this marble print (download here). Take out your drawer and unscrew the knob. TWO Then, trim off the whites of your marble paper and affix it to the surface of your drawer using a gluestick. THREE Neatly, cut away all excess paper and fold it behind. FOUR Measure a piece of contact paper large enough to cover the surface of the drawer and the edges too. FIVE Slowly peel back the contact backing and smooth it over your drawer. If you fail at contacting surfaces, maybe practice contacting some old magazines to ensure your final product is always bubble free. SIX Trim off excess contact and re-pierce the hole where the knob is meant to go. SEVEN Screw knob back into place and you are finished! EIGHT (option lol) Artfully style your DIY, take many photographs and boast to family and friends 😉 Make sure they always stand 5 metres away so they can’t tell if its actually marble or not.

OPTIONAL: Before attempting this side table, I actually made a jewellery holder first. I printed off the marble sheets, glued them to card stock, contacted the whole thing and affixed it to my cork board using white push pins.

June, Came Upon Us Too Soon

June was an uneventful month with finals so I spent my time making my own fancy drinks.

I always appreciate some good tiling particularly marble and Moroccan.

2 reads: Pretty Honest – Sali Hughes and the last Princess Diaries – Meg Cabot. Highly recommend both.

A bit of a sneak peak of some gorgeous photos to come.

Title Lyrics: ‘June’ – Spock’s Beard

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.