photography

Forcast of the Day: Winter is Coming

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Forcast of the Day: Winter is Coming. Its Monday. You need something subtle, something that says pay ah-tention to get through the week. You remember the steal of a dress you picked up a month ago that you’ve forgotten about. It sucks everything in and has cut outs in all the work-appropriate places. Its figure-hugging but not so tight you can’t skip up the stairs if need be. You slip on the court heels that you’ve been wearing all week (no breaking in needed! haven’t had any blisters so that gets a huge tick!), shrug on a coat in this season’s it colour and you’re done.

Recreate my Look:

Sydney Double Breasted Coat / Sophia Exposed Dart Dress / Adelle Contrast Court Heels (all c/o Forcast)

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Mint Condition

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Hello hello! 3 weeks without posting :0 This is the longest absence I have had in a year and I’ve missed the excitement of scheduling a post to go live. I could tell you work got in the way or mid-semester exams took over or Sydney was having terrible weather but in actuality, I was not feeling the buzz to shoot. Then, during the ANZAC long weekend, the clouds parted, the stars aligned, I was finally digging my Insta feed and my creativity fuel was back!

Kicking things off, we have this autumn-appropriate outfit, shot in the cute little streets of Surry Hills. The hero piece is a great thick and structured double-breased blazer perfect for work and dressed down with boyfriend jeans for the weekends. So here’s to a better month ahead filled with blog posts!

Recreate my look:

Blazer / Tee / Jeans / Shoes / Sunnies 

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Man Child

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Fundamentally, there’s nothing more man child than a grown adult in a pair of overalls.

Conclusively, they are so comfortable and hide the stomach with just a silver of skin so you can put it over all your cropped tees. Transition it for the colder months with a chunky sweater and make it exam time appropriate with a collegiate jersey lazily thrown on top.

Basically, they’re my new go to denim and these patched ones from Cotton On’s 91 denim range are exactly what I was looking for at $10! Same price as a pressed juice people. Loose, bronzed, brushed buttons and pockets for days.

Overall, go get yourself a pair of overalls.

Thanks for putting up with all my synonyms and I hope you have a lovely easter long weekend (if you’re lucky enough to get one!).

Recreate my look here:

Shirt / Overealls / Flats

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Biker Jeggings

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These Rockmans’ jeggings with their stitching and panelling are appropriately called ‘biker jeggings’. My first instinct was to run far far away because the word jegging takes me back to my first pair which were from Valley Girl and made of a thin material that was excellent for tucking in to tall Ugg boots but not so much for hiding my neon coloured panties. My second instinct was to pair them with studded biker boots and a leather biker jacket. But that’s not what Style Smorgasbord is about. Instead I pared it back with some neutral boots and a flouncy shirt.

Recreate my Look:

Top / Jeans (c/o) / Boots / Watch (c/o) / Necklace (c/o) / Bag

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Black for the Summer

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Happy New Year! I have had a two week break from Style Smorgasbord because I wanted to recharge, reflect and redirect my energy towards the holiday season. Whilst we should aim to improve upon ourselves daily, the first day of the year is always a great ritual of self assessment that demands personal honestly and reinforces humility. Instead of coming up with new year resolutions for 2016, I decided to create a list of 101 things I want to achieve in 1001 days. You can see my list here

I would say I am a very excitable person. Thusly, I rarely wear black especially head to toe black. However, I love a good oxymoron and black in the summer is refreshingly that. I received this boater for Christmas and plan to wear it forever. The brim is wonderfully wide and perfectly practical and adding it to any outfit just makes me feel like I am on vacation somewhere tropical.

Hat / Top / Skirt / Scarf

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/ Photography Credits – Matthew /signoff2

Conservative Trending

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Top / Jeans / Belt / Bandana / Watch (c/o) / Flats / Bag / Nails

I’ll always go to the clearance section of any store before I even glance at the new arrivals. Further 50 percent off emails and banners make my hands sweat with excitement. Pricing an online store from lowest to highest gives my great satisfaction. Lets face it, I’m not the biggest fan of spending money on trends. Its easy to see what’s going to go out of style and what to invest in. I like the whole 70s thing that every chainstore is shoving down our throats but not enough to commit to a pair of flared jeans for more than a month. Instead, I add a red bandana and brown cross body both stolen from my mum’s wardrobe and I don’t have to spend a dime.

That’s not to say I don’t like to splurge on the finer things. Timepieces are something I thoroughly enjoy and this year I have managed to acquire quite a few unintentionally. One of which includes this Rumba Time piece. The beautifully cut edges reflect light and create the prettiest rainbow effect on your walls. Unfortunately Rumba Time’s website only ships to certain places. However, you can buy this exact style on ShopBop which I recommend because the shipping is crazy fast even if you live in Australia.

So save those dollars and invest in lasting pieces that your children can steal from you down the road. Or put it towards that holiday you’ve been meaning to take yourself on. Experiences are always greater than material things. Period.

rumba14rumba3rumba4rumba8rumba13rumba12rumba15Edit: I have decided to update my sign off with a more personalised touch. Writing Christmas cards and gift tags helped me come up with a new way of spelling out ‘much love karen’. Let me know what you think of it and thank you so much for reading.

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The Real Middle Earth

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I have returned from the real middle earth, hair slightly still smelling like the sulphurous hot springs of Rotarua and sleep deprived with enough photographs to share with you but not too many because I was trying to see stuff outside of my camera lens. The Hobbtion Movie Set was one of the attractions that I was most excited to see and it was a wonderful little half day adventure that took around 4 hours in total and $110 NZD. It is located in Matamata which is an hour’s drive from the city centre of Rotarua and there’s a big tour bus which takes you from the souvenir gift store to the movie set. Once you start seeing the rolling green hills dotted with sheep, you’re almost there! Our tour guide and bus driver were wonderful and very knowledgeable about the films (they shared a lot of filming secrets) and at the end they shouted us drinks in the Green Dragon Inn. In the future, I would love to go back and do an evening tour because seeing the sun set and tip toeing around the hills with lanterns sounds like the most magical experience! There’s not much else to say so I’ll let the photographs do the talking and I’ll be back with some festive blog posts next Monday!

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Did you get the Memo(bottle)?

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As a business student, I have looked a lot into start-up businesses this year, in particular, the importance of crowd funding and how it has changed the landscape of entrepreneurs in the last decade … Mind you, the word crowdfunding really only emerged in 2006 so technically speaking not even a decade ago but lets not dwell on examinable details like this because ITS SUMMER TIME! Oh golly I am so excited because I’m going on two trips and I’m decking the halls tomorrow!!!!

If you ever have a moment to spare, go onto Kickstarter and have a look at some of the innovative ideas out there. There are some weird and wonderful ideas like the Folding Lamp & ONELID and something that personally interests me greatly: The Spark Planner but there are plenty others that have great potential. One of these ideas that has successfully made it off the site is Memobottle, a project that was launched back in May 2014 and backed by 6118 pledgers and $ 261 148 AUD. To learn more about their journey towards production and distribution, click here.

Memobottle is kind of a sick concept. I don’t know about you but when I used to be a basic beesh with a cylindrical drink bottle, sometimes I would walk around with this curved thing pressed against my spine … well Memobottle has solved that weird back rubbing for me. Its very slim and flat which means it’s the perfect shape to fit in those made to look battered messenger satchels and this season’s It bag, the Chloe Faye, so essentially its hipster and couture approved. I fit into neither of those demographics and after using it for a month I approve too and so do my secretly jealous friends haha. They’ve also just released an A6 size next to their original A5 bottles and you can learn more on their Site, Instagram, Pinterest, FB and Twitter. #ONEBOTTLEMOVEMENT

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Namastay in Bed All Day

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Namastay in Bed All Day‘ – is that the general consensus among students this time of the year? Yeah … you and me both buddy … but we soldier on knowing that in a fortnight’s time, ‘school’s out, we can sleep as late as we want too’.* Here’s a little lifestyle editorial for your viewing pleasure today in collaboration with Shhh Silk. They launched their online store a few weeks ago and specialise in fancy schamncy silk pillowcases to keep your hair silky soft (the puns continue, apologies). I’m a violent thrashing sleeper who often wakes up in the morning looking like Hermoine so hopefully this will minimise the damage. My favourite thing about these pillow cases aside from how they make me feel like Eloise at New York Plaza is that they come with a zip! I haven’t found a pillowcase with a zip ever – they usually have nothing or little fussy buttons that no one has time for. For some more dreamy photographs, check out Shhh Silk’s Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Also, if you are interested in learning more about my creative process, have a look at my Pinterest Board to see the inspiration behind this editorial.

Since this is a collaboration and all, I would like to address something that has been on rotation in the social media loop in the last week. As someone who uses Instagram and the like I feel like I should talk about the whole Social-Media-Is-Evil-Essena-O’Neil-Quits-Everything matter. I use my blog and other social media channels to express myself creatively and part of this process involves collaborations with companies and brands that I am proud of. I am proud to be working with Shhh Silk because I think the fact that the founder quit her 9-5 job to pursue something she was passionate about is inspiring. I have been offered paid content before but I’ve turned it down because it meant giving the reigns to someone else. I’m not saying that I will never publish a sponsored post but when I do, it will be disclosed and it will be in line with my brand. I also think very highly of my readers and I am confident that they are smart people who can tell that my content is staged. Because, no, I do not have breakfast in bed like this every morning. If you would also like to read another opinion on this click here for some lolz.

*Millennials I do hope you get that reference because if you don’t SHAME ON YOU 😉

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Single Silk Pillowcase in ‘Blanc’ (c/o) Shhh Silk

Copper Wire Basket, Fairy Lights and Breakfast Tray from Kmart

Bustier from Cotton on Body (navy and pale blue are my favourites)

‘365’ Diary from Kikki-K 

 Bowl from Freedom; Vase from Ikea  

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Mini City

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Everything is just so much more precious in miniature form. Look at this ‘Hong Kong in Miniature‘ pop up exhibit located in Westfield, Sydney. Ain’t it just so squealin’ cute? My parents both lived in Hong Kong at one point so it was lovely to see what Hong Kong looked like for them when they were young. The detail is flipping amazing, if you look closely at the sticker store, you can see the individual characters: Dora The Explorer (pretty sure that did not exist back then); Disney Princesses and Hello Kitty! Then there are the signs and cameras which flash discretely, something that could only be captured by a good old GIF.

All twenty-four models have been flown in from Hong Kong and include a one-metre tall ‘Bun Tower’ made from 5,000 buns and a mini-replica of the Tai Hang Fire Dragon Dance which lights up through optic fibres. The miniature models showcases Hong Kong’s old traditional shops, such as an Incense House and Chinese Medicine Store; festivals like the Tai Hang Fire Dragon and Cheung Chau Bun Festival; and culture, such as Chinese Opera and the Lam Tsuen Wishing Tree. The exhibition is organised by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, Sydney (HKETO), with Hong Kong Tourism Board as a supporting partner. #MiniHongKong

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