Loving this week! T2 Tea, Ikea and Topshop

As someone who likes to make and create when I get the time, I love the new kooky aesthetic creeping into everything from homewares to fashion. You can of course DIY, but there's not always the time to research a craft, how to do it, and then create your piece without it looking like it was found in a bargain bin, (regretsy anyone?)
Sometimes it is just easier to buy something. I found these cute and kitschy owl tea cozies, just like Nan had at T2 tea. They come in Green, Red, Purple and Brown and add just the right amount of sweet and handmade to your teapot. Also a very cute gift idea for any quirky tea obsessed friends, or your Nan.

Owl Tea Cozy from T2

There is one item that come in the mail every year that I without a doubt, stalk. The yearly Ikea Catalogue is a kind of house decorating porn that I pour over. Why not when everything inside is affordable? I'm at a stage of life where I'm living out of home, no kids in sight, on a comfortable wage and slowly starting to look at buying instead of renting. Disposable income ahoy! This year they have released a limited edition designer range with a wealth of new objects that have the potential to be collectors items, But I'm still loving the classic Hemnes collection and the awesomely priced linens.

I found it! The perfect bag to wear folded up and carried as a clutch! The sort of thing I was talking about in this post. To wear it like that, remove the long strap and do not overfill the bag. Fold it just under the handles, and hold with your wrist on the outer and your hand scooping it from underneath. It also comes in a gorgeous go with anything biege (they call it camel), as well as this popping transeasonal teal.

Bags available from Topshop

What are you guys loving this week? Found something awesome? I'd love to know about it!

Splurge vs. Steal: Watch this

Watches are having a renaissance at the moment and I couldn't be happier. For too many years we've been moving away from this classic accessory as the need for them has diminished. After all, who needs a watch when you have a mobile phone?
Two major looks that have come through for this season in jewellery are colours and rose gold. I love rose gold, it goes with both gold and silver and adds an air of vintage elegance. but brights are also calling, one for work and one for play? I think so!

These are two of my picks for the Rose gold look, Diva for a touch of bling and Marc by Marc Jacobs for it's sleek lines, (and duh! it's Marc Jacobs!)

Available at Diva and ASOS

Next on my roll call are colours. If you want to be bang on for this season, a pastel is perfect but I think the zing of a bright colour will pop on my wrist. For cheap thrills, I do quite like the White Cassie watch by Lovisa it looks awesome with a nice faux tan, but I love the bright pink It Girl Watch by Thomas Sabo (it's on sale too!)

Available from The Iconic and Thomas Sabo

Link Love: 9 September 2012

DIY Elastic Hair Ties: A cute DIY by Reese Kristal on how to make those cute hair ties that have been popping up in stores lately. Cute gift idea!

10 Shapes for your Eyeshadow: A great page for anyone that needs a helping hand understanding eyeshadow application.

Pimp an Old Tee: Five Cute ideas to take some of the old and boring shirts you might have lying about your wardrobe, I especially like the screen print idea.

Winner Winner! Ulinx Giveaway

Hi everyone,
Thank you to the people who entered the Giveaway, I entered the number of entries into a generator and correlated it to what order the entries were made, Leaving me with Thanhluu3 as the winner! I'll be getting in contact with you very soon over Twitter,

Also a big thanks to Ulinx for making this possible. Great Jewellery and service too!

Quick style updates for items you already have

You guys are no doubt aware of my love for a a cheap fashion update, but what's better then a free one? Chances are you have the items to do any of these already in your wardrobe, the trick now is to style them in a few different ways to how you're used to and you'll come up with looks that are huge right now.


Hold your bag like a clutch.
A lot of high fashion labels sent their models down the runway with their handbags folded over into a clutch shape, and held on the side of the body with the hand scooped underneith. You can do this very easily with a bag you already own, it just has to have a sturdy base to hold some of it's shape (it helps if the bag can be totally zipped up as well, or you might get the contents of your daily life spilling out everywhere!
Do-ability rating: 3/5, This look works so well, so long as you use the right bag, but it can also be a little annoying not having that arm free, and annoying again having to fully seal your bag up every time you want something.

Original Source

Cuff your trousers
This will work the best with trousers that taper at the hem, or straight legs so things like your skinny jeans.The trick is to keep rolling them up just the once, look in the mirror, and if it's not flattering on your legs, either try another roll up or down until they do.
Do-ability rating: 5/5, I barely know a person without skinny jeans.

Nishe Blouse & Shorts Available from ASOS

Wear all your pastels at once.
A few seasons ago we started with the 'gelato' trend, lots of gorgeous pale colours, mostly in block items. It took a little while but now pastel colours are everywhere, and will be massive this Australian summer. lots of key looks this season are all over looks and this is another great one to try. Try pairing a pair of pastel skinny jeans with a floaty pastel print top, perhaps a white singlet with a light kimono style cover up? Nude heels too and top the look off with some nude or pastel coloured nails. Perfection.
Do-ability rating: 5/5, Because pastel colours can suit a myriad of skin tones and colours and styles of fashion, it's really quite failproof. You can also style them suitably with tan and beige coloured accessories.

Source

Learn to fishtail braid.
Braids are becoming the new top knot, (Hurray! The trend of looking like a pre-schooler at a dance recital is coming to an end!) You can find a stack of videos out there explaining how to do this hairstyle, but like anything else, practise (and the right tools!) make perfect. And this look is so much better messy then perfect anyway. Regular braids are just as good for the time poor (or just uncoordinated like myself).
Do-ability rating: 5/5, only thing standing in your way is the length of your hair.


Head to toe prints.
We've been wearing a lot of these in the past few season so I assume you have at least a small collection? As I bought mine I tried to buy ones that would suit the wardrobe I already had, so unsurprisingly they mostly followed my usual cool colour palette. My advice is to not wear the same print, as it is sort of reminiscent of pyjamas and growing up in the country, only daggy people wore their pyjamas out of the house. Wear maybe a top and a bottom, with a block coloured third item to break it up a bit, if you work with the colours in both the print, and they share perhaps a colour or two, you can't go too wrong.
Do-ability rating: 4/5, It's really not as hard as it looks, if in doubt, ask a friend or try again.

Sister Jane available from ASOS

Button your shirt to the top.
As a girl with a large bust this trend is something that still kind of feels odd to me, but with the right shirt it works! (just make sure it's big enough not to gape!) Button your shirt right to the neck and then pop either a statement necklace, collar chain or a tie over the top, there are some very cute bow ties out there, or one of the gorgeous 'look at me!' necklaces from recent seasons work perfectly too.
Doability raiting: 5/5, cuff your sleeves into whatever length suits you as well.

I hope I've given you some ideas for updating your style into the upcoming season. Don't be afraid to try something new if you haven't seen anyone else on the street wear it yet, it just means you're way ahead of them.

What are you doing differently to style your clothes this season?

Loving this week: Ulinx Jewellery and giveaway!

The lovely people over at Ulinx sent me a gift! A gorgeous bracelet of my choosing from their extensive collection of magnetic jewellery. Ulinx are a collection of various jewellery elements that are magnetized so you can change your look at any time. I choose a summery blue theme to my bracelet which looks great with blue denim and a (faux!) tan. You can check out the range and see how it works at www.ulinxjewellery.com

My Ulinx Design

Also Ulinx have given me to opportunity to give one of their bracelets to one of my readers! All you have to do is share this post on either Facebook or Twitter (tag me with @birdettebuys!) and let me know by commenting in this post. I'll be drawing a name at random and announcing the winner on my blog on the first of September. Competition closes Midnight EST on the 31st of August. Limit of one entry per person, per platform, so if you post to both twitter and facebook, that's two entries.

Good luck!

Best time to stock up on accessories!

Hey girls, I know I've been a bit sparse lately, I've started up a new team sport and the training is often and brutal. I'm sorry that I've been lacking my usual post frequency. During the week I don't have much time to do stuff, but on the weekend I do, so I'll have to sort something out.

One thing I do want to draw your attention to is a particular facet of the sales that are going on. This is the best time of the year to go and stock up on costume jewellery at Diva and Lovisa. Arm yourself with about $100 and you will get a stack more then you would at any time of the year (also post-Christmas, amazing!), and it can be very surprising what you come away with. Stuff that has barely been dropped in store are often part of the markdowns. I always keep an eye out for things that look like they don't belong in there. I get asked time and time again where I bought my massive statement jewel necklace and I love saying smugly it got me change from $10.
I think some of the really trendy items that are worth picking up at the moment are collars and torques. IT's a slight blast from the nineties, solid colours and metal finishes are really hot right now too and will see you right into summer.

Bought! Floral Jeans and Kitty Headscarf

I've been eyeing off a pair of floral jeans for sometime to add to my arsenal for the season. If you do or don't know, I've started training five days a week and don't have as much free time as I used to, but one perk is indeed my shrinking waistline. I thought I might have to send them back due to fit but I don't!
ASOS currently have a small but good range of floral denim, you need a choice of prints to ensure you can buy somethng that will work with the rest of your wardrobe. For me it was a fight between this pair and a lighter pair, which the darker print ultimately one... though the lighter pair may be saved until Spring if they're still available, such bright and zingy shades!

Also picked up this too cute headscarf, You buys know me! How could I resist this print?? It's a long rectangle that I can also tie around my neck, Scarves are my next fashion trademark, I've come to realize just how good they are in the sort of cold but still not freezing weather we get in Brisbane, and are easy to take off and on in my office environment.

Can you see the little bows around their necks??

Both Items are available from ASOS.com

Brisbane Warehouse Sale Alert! April 2012

Just wanted to let my fellow Brisbane readers know about the outlet sale over at the RNA Showgrounds happening over the next week. (So don't fret if it's too wet to go outside today, it's on until next Saturday!)
Here are the details that count:

Who?
Gap and Guess are the headline brands, covering their entire ranges (mens womens, footwear etc) the sale also features Aldo shoes, United Colours of Beneton accessories, Tumi luggage, Carlton luggage, Sisley leathergoods,  Travelite luggage and well as other leathergoods and items.

When?
Opening this Saturday the 28th of April and Closing Next Saturday the 5th of May. Opening hours are 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM every day except Thursday where it will stay open for an extra hour in the evening.

Where?
RNA Showgrounds, The John Reid Pavillion, Bowen Hills Brisbane (Note there is a lot of construction happening there at the moment, so be warned, if you walk, the entrance you know may not be open to public and you may have quite the hike ahead of you.)

Bonus! They are accepting cash, EFTPOS, Visa and Mastercard as payment.

Let me know what you buy if you go!

Bought! Typo and Sportsgirl

So now I have brought my loot home it dawns on me that I didn't really bargain hunt, but as previous posts will tell you I have a soft spot for the odd, and love to fill my house with conversational pieces. Even my laundry.

How cute is this! It's not like the same old retro style laundry buckets that you see in all the fancy-pants home stores (hell, even Aldi has cottoned on with their own range out this week ...) The miniature washing washing design won me over, and you can quickly see how much powder is in there without needing to take off the lid. Perfect. (There is also a handle, but you can't really see it with my awesome photography efforts)

Secondly, I caved in and bought the glitter booties from Sportsgirl, no, not the imitation Miu Miu's but the black ankle boots with the little heel, it's love!

Perfect amount of heel to get about it all day without pain, they go with the mountain of black opaques I get about in in Winter, Work and play appropriate, (they're used to me and my strange outfits.) And they're covered in glitter!

Have you bought anything awesome in the mid season sales? What did you get?

Bought! Decadence envelope clutch by Mimco

So I had some loyalty vouchers lying around and there's a 25% off handbags sale going at Mimco at the moment, what does that equal? A sparkly new envelope clutch for $45, down from $179! Bargain of quite possibly the year at this stage. Mimco does have an epic rewards program so long as you act on the vouchers quickly as the voucher expire within about a month, and since mine were due to demise in a week, I took advantage of them as much as I could.
Envelope clutches are everywhere at the moment, and this gorgeous number is actually the first one I own, I realized I don't own any nice evening bags, I own many, many large day bags but hardly anything that would suit a date night. I've been watching a lot of early Sex and the City and picked up on Carries numerous and classic clutches and thought 'me too!'. The only thing I don't like about this bag is the name... the word 'decadent' really irks me ...
Looks fantastic with my little black dress!

Splurge v Steal: Concealed wedge sneakers

<3! Give me a quirky fashion item any-day.  While trapsing about at my local mall I found these beauties sitting on the shelf at Rubi Shoes, Concealed wedge sneakers. Isabel Marrant has some undoubtedly amazing shoes but my wallet is a much bigger fan of getting the look for less. They're so comfy too! Rubi shoes sells these in black, dark red, royal blue and I think the other colour was either beige or mostly white. I'm personally going to snap up the red, there's no point in hiding them! I'll wear them with my skinnies and short shorts. Also for a really in look, you can take then to the next step by customising them for a style that's completely your own too, (and being a budget buy, you don't feel awful about changing them!)

Incoming: Ladylike Glam Pieces

This is one of those trends that hides in the background for a few seasons before coming back with a bang. Prada did some beautiful frocks a few years ago that evoked a very classy fifties feeling, and the accessories -particularly handbags- have been slowly taking on the look.

Must have piece one: The structured handbag.
I did post about this a little while ago, anyone remember this bag I stalked for weeks? To help bring this look to life, a structured handbag is going to be the quickest and most worthy investment, look for details like a top handle, a twist or kiss lock of some description and a solid shape.
If you want to go completely on trend with the new season, I love this bag by Mimco. The texture and colour-blocking are brilliant.

After something more cheap chic? Dotti has this cute little magenta number, while Ooh la la from Myer has some gorgeous styles.

Click through for piece two!

Loving this week: Finishing touches

I'm going gaga over all the new styles coming out, February and August are two of my favourites months of the year as the new seasons come into store with full force after the sales. Epic.
One of the things I am loving is all the opulent fur details. Even better, they are so easy to add to clothes you already have for a cheap and chic update to last years numbers.
In my opinion, you can't go wrong with neutral and natural colours and prints, think fawns, camels, browns, they will last you years longer in the style stakes then a some of the neons out there. Check out this gorgeous set from ASOS at under $10AU each! (One pair of cuffs or the collar).

If you're looking a little more local, you can also pick up some cut as fur collars from Sportsgirl at the moment, The jewel tones are incredibly glamorous and will work quite well with heaps of different hues for colour blocking. You can pull the look together with one of the matching felt fedoras to instantly finish an outfit and keep warm.

Sportsgirl Panamas and Fur stoles

Splurge vs Steal: Glitter Booties

Looks like I'm not the only one who fell in love with the glittery take on shoes released by Miu Miu last year. I also can't be the only one who cannot quite justify the price-tag!

Glitter is a weakness of mine that harks back too a childhood where I wasn't allowed to get too messy, and glitter was considered something heinous to clean up. These shoes will quickly add a bit of oomph to your outfit for the new season, and bootie styles will be your best style friend. I'm going to wear mine with both jeans and shorts skirts with tights for winter.

Recap: January 2012

Wear it first:

Twin bag Trend

Wish granted: 

De-Slick in a Tube

Cheeks to die for: 

Benefit Hervana

Make it flattering: 

Quick fix a bad neckline

What stories did you enjoy this month?

The new Block Colour trend: Mod

Translating last seasons clothes into this season can be tricky but always fun, when the new seasons looks start to trickle out it can pay to keep an eye out for what looks similar to what you're wearing! I'm glad to say that last seasons bright colours trend has a friend in the new Mod stylings coming out now.
So let's have a look at what we can do.
The shift dress is often the first thing anyone thinks of when they think of Mod, and for good reason. It was a style staple to have your hems tiny and dress like a baby-doll. There are some incredibly cute variations that actually will suit a stack of shapes an sizes. To really amp up it up, buy some bright tights in a coordinating colour to really oomph it up, Something I'm loving at the moment is mustard gold and deep burgundy. Of course if you're not quite feeling it, a pair of black opaques will go with almost anything, and black shoes with black tights will make your legs look longer.

Otherwise a tunic and skinny jeans is a modern take on this trend. Sportsgirl have taken this trend and run with it, with cute collars, boxy tops and the perfect pants to wear with them, their Stevie style is ideal.

If you already have some cute high necked tops and want to add something to them, a lot of collars are in the shops waiting to be added. I bought one a while ago too.

Loving Sportsgirl's range out this month, all the items in this post can be found instore now.

Tip of the day: Quick fix for a bad neckline

Fashion Math time! There's always a dress on the rack that you adore and everything works on it for you, except the neckline. High necklines only ever seem to flatter those with a smaller bust because when a larger bust wears it, it can make you look ... well large. Meanwhile the opposite can be said as well, a low cut neckline on a small frame has made some of the girls I've seen out there look like a chicken wing. (Perhaps I was hungry at the time?)
Either way, there is a quick fix to this that doesn't involve a tailor. Grab some statement necklaces!
The big chunky bib styles that have been fashionable recently are amazing for this. In effect they create a new line for the eye and cut through that massive expanse of either skin or fabric, the bigger and bolder the necklace, the better job it does.
So next time you're trying on a dress with a neckline you would normally discard, think of what you already have (or could pick up cheaply) to try this trick with!

What other tricks do you use to make an otherwise unflattering style work? I'd love to know!

Incoming: Bag on Bag trend

This was a trend I noticed emerging a little while ago but now that I've seen some more sites putting their weight behind it, I have more confidence in it. Twinset bags are not entirely crazy so much as it's actually quite useful. A lot of women I see about the city tote two bags around, albeit one of them is often either the large shopping bag of somewhere prestigious and not in Brisbane, (Harrods and Topshop anyone?) and the other is their handbag. Why can't the two of them match for a more chic look?
I'm not so much a fan of the two bags in the same style just in different sizes. I think if you get the smaller one that is certainly a handbag and put it with a larger tote style bag you're onto a winner. Look for the same fabric across two different styles for an easy way to do it. Check out my finds!

Matt & Nat do it with Fuchsia

More ideas after the jump!

Boxing day 2011 sales wrap up

So I shopped, and shopped, and shopped some more, what else would you expect of me really? Here's what I thought, there will be posts later of what I bought, but I'm pleased with my bargains. I didn't post yesterday purely out of exhaustion. I shopped, til I dropped.
One of the things every one who worships at the alter of the credit card needs to experience in their lives is to be in the crunch of people waiting to get into Myer or David Jones on boxing day. Hilariously the news-people filmed the outside entrance where no one really lined up, while people were milling around the indoors entrance to Myer for a good hour before it opened. I know, because I bypassed the crowd and went to find other shops that were open instead! Kind of disappointed they weren't open before 9, but I found early bird bargains elsewhere too.

In the city and Carindale I went to the following:

Dotti: Picked up some cute gear from their gift table, but other then that they have some good mark downs on clothing, good to refresh your wardrobe for summer.
Lorna Jane: Finally! I stalk Lorna Jane for cheap clothes because I can never quite justify the full price. Not as large a markdown as I like but still a lot more affordable with tights and older collections getting a good price chop. Full piece Malia Swimsuit for half price? Yup, nice one.
Forever New: Also good for having a pick over their gift table, I wanted one of the gorgeous bird print suitcases but they hadn't been marked down *sadface* my god wouldn't that have been fun to lug around during sale time!
Myer: The big one, it's certainly best to go to the first day of sales for Myer because they have all kinds of extra one day only sales on top of the rest of their specials. Gift packs were awesome, but in my opinion the clothing sale will only get better so I'll come back with fresh eyes after new years.
Sportsgirl: I didn't actually think they were going to improve on their pre-Christmas sale but I was wrong, They had all sale items marked down an extra 30%, and added all their gift-ware too, very nice. Though my experience was sullied by the occurrence I have noted in the last paragraph ...
Diva: Disappointment of the day, but I suppose I'm so used to the epic boxing day sales they normally have that this seemed really sub-par. I think barely a fifth of their stock was marked down, and none of it was the decent stuff, just what was marked down a few months back (I lie, they did add their Christmas gift stock). I seems that all they really did was stick up sale signs. No purchase.
Lovisa: Have marked down more of their stuff, there's some good stuff if you have a trawl, different stuff has been marked down compared to the recent sale so it's worth a look.
Alannah Hill: No real difference to pre-Christmas, but there's still lots of stock available. I think they'll have to mark down further if they want to move it by February.
David Jones: Impressive, lots of good solid mark downs, but lots of stuff that gets wheeled out for every sale too. If you keep to the shelves there's some good bargains. I noted that in among the Mimco handbags they had marked down bags that weren't on sale in the Mimco shops.
Mimco: Not a big improvement on prior to Christmas at all really, they say they've added more stock to the sale but I couldn't tell.
Peter Alexander: The one store I took a look at, look at the throng of people shopping and went 'F this!' and fled. Must've been good! Lol. I think I'll be shopping that sale from the safety of my armchair. Looking online it is good, Peter are known for having sales rarely, but when they do, they're epic.
Target: Faithful, well stocked Target. Good savings across the store, I had a good look at homewares, clothes and leftover Christmas decorations, alas, no fairy lights still available @_@. I recommend having a look at kitchen drapery, and classic clothing items,

One last point for anyone, for the love of god, leave your kids at home! (supervised of course, what are grandparents for?) I spotted one little girl in absolute tears because her mother had ditched her out the front of Sportsgirl because the girl had reached the end of her patience for following mum around all day. And FFS(!) it's fun enough trying to haul your shopping around without having to dodge people with strollers who think they have right of way!