Smaggle Style

Today was the worst washing day I have ever had so I am posting yesterdays outfit instead. Yesterday was lovely - Mr Smaggle and I dragged our hungover selves to the Kingston Markets where we ate Ethiopian food and chocolate covered strawberries. I then visited my lovely friend Matt at the Glassworks. In the afternoon we saw an anime film before having bangers and mash for dinner while watching The Office at our mates house. What a pleasant weekend. Today I worked and then visited my auntie on the way home. She has a very cool secret fashion related business opening soon that I can’t wait to tell you all about…

 * White blousy shirt from Newtown

* Denim skirt secondhand from Ebay (has a James Bond picture and the words ‘The missing link is moving underground’ written on it in permanent marker)

* Black sandals from Marco Gianni (or Giovanni… can’t remember)

* Wood dinosaur necklace gift from friends from Itrip Iskip

* My new ring that I adore!

When I went to the Glassworks my lovely friend Matt (who works there) gave me my birthday present. It’s this gorgeous glass ring by a Japanese artist called Itsuka Ito. She was studying English at the ANU and came into his work and asked to make some stuff to sell while she was here. These pictures are pretty bad but I had to get up close to show you how it looks different from different angles.

I know the photos are terrible but this ring really is stunning. It’s all smooth and bulbous like a drop of rain on a flower petal. It’s also a total mind spin because at different angles it can be all black, black and purple, clear with slashes of black or completely clear. This ring is so structurally perfect it’s just a completely satisfying piece of art. Thanks Matt and Ged - massive kisses and love to both of you!

Okay Etsy, I forgive you. Today I recieved in the post a beautiful package from Tilly Bloom. My two gorgeous pins arrived in a lovely box with a red flower nestled softly in cotton wool. I also received a personal receipt, a ginger tea bag, a voucher for free shipping with my next purchase as well as a few business cards. All I can say is that the customer service I have recieved from Ms Bloom is exceptional and I am also delighted with the product. I am off to Etsy to leave much positive feedback and praise for this fantastic store. And so my abusive relationship with Etsy continues…

Etsy. My love. Why do you taunt me so? I give you hours of my time and lovingly devote my finances to a few of your stores when you abuse my affection by throwing more in face? Today the object of my deception is Robin’s Jewellery Box. I am sure that Robin is a lovely lady and has no idea the part she plays in this sordid nightmare. Take one look at her treasures and you will see she is full of sugar, sunshine and roses. In polymer clay form. Her tiny little plates of heaven are hand crafted and look so life like one salivates at the very sight of them. And I am sorry to say that she is firmly in the grasp of the evil Queen Etsy and is not set for release anytime soon. Here are my favourites of her delectable treats. And in true Smaggle form I am going to blog about her store and try to kid myself that I am strong enough to resist the temptation of purchase. And then tomorrow I’ll cave… But can you blame me?

Colossal Blueberry Pie Sundae necklace

Little Desserts necklace

Love Coffee ring

Sliced Cake necklace

Sweet Cakes necklace

Oh Etsy you saucy minx…

Etsy will kill me. I am not kidding. It will either send me broke or insane and to be honest I don’t know which one will come first. For those of you are new to the magical world of Etsy here is a brief description of this wonderland. Etsy is just like Ebay. Only younger, cooler and way out of Ebay’s league. This little online marketplace is full of indie designers selling their wares so everything is hand made. There is jewellery, clothes, art, photography, toys, accessories, bags, shoes… I want to marry Etsy and have lots of tiny crafty babies. The search options are so awesome you can search by colour, by category and also in their Time Machine which actually terrifies me slightly because I don’t really understand it. But anyway today is momentous day in Etsy land for me because I have discovered my favourite search option - Treasury! This is where a selected member picks a dozen items within a theme and it’s updated daily! So it’s the coolest kids of the Etsy crew choosing other cool kids to play with. Oh my… Here are my favourite shops of today… and a pair of earrings that I bought. An evil, evil temptress lies beneath the innocence of the name Etsy. Beware, there are pleasures here that you are yet to experience.

Tilly Bloom

This girl has gorgeous illustrations printed on white perspex in necklaces, earrings and pins.

Holly Hawk

 Leather goddess and incredibly well priced.

Circa Ceramics

Funky tabs in interesting colours with quirky illustrations.

LePhotique

I adore the Paris metro necklace and they do custom orders as well.

ThreeFiveEightyFive

Such incredibly delicate work and the colour combinations are outstanding.

So buy up big my pretties and support independent designers!

I am a fabulous shopper but a shocking consumer. I will happily wander around a shopping centre for hours and be perfectly satisfied if I leave with a mere hair tie as long as it was exactly what I was looking for at exactly the right price and only if the shop assistant didn’t piss me off. I very rarely buy for the sake of buying and I will state with confidence that I will never be talked into something by a shop assistant. Ever. There is nothing in the world that irritates me more than that horrible small talk they insist upon, asking how my day is and following me around throwing coat hangers in my face. I also can’t stand it if they ask me ten million times how I am going when I am in the change room. Chances are that I am naked and struggling into a dress while checking out how much worse my cellulite looks in this mirror so please just ask if I am okay once then leave me alone! I don’t know you and I don’t want to talk to you while I am in this delicate state. And I LOATHE IT when they hang around outside the change room and upon your emergence jump all over you exclaiming how cute you look. Cute. I am 24 years old. I am a little beyond wanting to look cute and a lot beyond wanting to hear that I look cute from a 17 year old on prosaic. The reason I am writing this piece today is that I have discovered several lovely stores in my area with fabulous clothes, wonderful sales assistants and like minded customers who understand that playing dress up in a clothing store is not on. I had a little epiphany today when I realised that there are a few glaringly obvious similarities with all of these stores. Not one of them is located inside a mall and all of them are independently owned by real life people. Enough said. I am hereby limiting my mall shopping to Borders and Big W. The rest of my shopping will be done on the Internet (Ebay and Etsy), at little clothing boutiques near car dealerships and of course St Vinnies. And if I feel strong enough to push through the gaggle of uniformed school girls in Diva I think the occasional accessories  run would be acceptable…

Here are some of my favourite images from Lady Westwood’s latest collection…

Shaggy messy hair and white eye make is a rockin look for spring

I really love unstructured drapey cardigan-like garments that reveal the collar bones. Minimal accesories is another thing I love about this look.

An evening gown, footy socks and scrunchy ankle boots. How does this look so good?

This cape is simply marvelous. Very Little-Red-Riding-Hood-got-the-shit-beaten-out-of-her-by-Vivienne-Westwood-and-Gwen-Stefani…

Bring back the hair chopsticks! I love the colour and shape of this dress. Although the grandpa socks and sandals combo frightens me slightly.

Today after work I went op-shopping and found some gems. I am feeling much better after my disastrous retail weekend for I now realise it’s fashion’s fault that I can’t find clothes and not mine. Bloody tulip skirts and pregnancy tops making me feel like a whale. Anyways here is a peeky-boo at my op-shopping treats…

This little grey knit dress fits beautifully and is really soft. I have been looking for one of these in retail all year and I finally found an almost new one at the Salvos.

 This stripey skirt that was originally from Sportsgirl. It’s also knit and it has a funky belt.

This blue beaded top that still has the original tags attatched!

Here is a close up of the bead work

And this is a perfect denim vest that actually looks really ugly in this picture. It’s dark denim and those buttons look cool in real life. The material on the inside is hideous but I plan to wear it buttoned up and no one will ever know! I am looking more closely at this picture and I promise you the vest is no where near that gross.

It was quite a successful afternoon really. I did have to stop myself from buying an 80’s tuxedo style suede jacket with puffed sleeves and a massive collar. It was the most wrong jacket I have ever seen but it was spectacular.

I am a little slow on the uptake in the blogging world as far as long socks are concerned but how cool is this girl I found on Stylesightings? How does she wear over the knee socks without looking like she should be bent over someone’s knee getting a thorough spanking? I was cruising through American Apparel this morning and I found some opaque over the knee stockings that I am planning on purchasing until I manage to find some lovely soft cotton grey ones that will sit a little winkly when I wear them. I am hoping I can pull this of with Lolita-esque ease and not end up looking like Jordan dressed as

Today I cleaned out my car and my bedroom for the first day of October. Then I went to see a movie called The Jammed which was great. I highly recommend it because it’s really engaging and I think it’s important to support the Australian film industry. I also got my first comment on my site today about my post on Zara in Australia! Except I think I accidentally deleted it so sorry to Daniel and thank you for commenting. Today I wore -

• Black dress from Felt
• Black shrug from SES
•  Teal Opaques from Myer
• Black flats from Zu
• Blue scarf from Sportsgirl
• Black rose ring gift from Baldren
• Aviators

I got a strange comment from a butcher today. He asked me how my night out was last night. When I questioned him he said I looked like I just came home from a night on the town. I think he was trying to be complimentary by saying that I looked nice but it was odd because what I was wearing was not exactly ‘night out on the town’ attire and also people usually look like crap when wearing the previous nights attire after being out until the wee small hours. Anyway he was a lovely guy and I took what he said as compliment however strange it might have come out.

 I then bought Australian In Style Magazine

And I plan to read it while my brother puts fun music on my puty! I don’t normally read In Style but I can’t resist Gwen. 

On Saturday I went shopping. With great difficulty. I am having a lot of trouble finding flattering clothing. There doesn’t appear to be any clothing available that actually fits my body. I don’t mean in size I mean in volume. Everything is huge and flowy and makes me look pregnant. Sorry to be a little a Wingey McWingerson but I am really struggling with the fashion that is available at the moment. So I left the shops with a funky black plastic necklace from Itrip Iskip and a red and gold neckerchief. I found this fabulous old fashioned scarf shop that sells different sized square scarves brand new for around $8. I do love a vintage scarf but it’s rather lovely to own a new one that doesn’t smell like mothballs and the previous owners perfume…