A day in the life of an extra ordinary person

On Friday night I walked in to Priceline with the intention of buying some velcro hair rollers and some dry shampoo (Seriously, get on this people. Life changing, no exaggeration.) and leaving quickly thereafter. For the record you do not "pay less at Priceline" if you buy more than you intended (they lie through song, jerks) and I somehow walked out significantly poorer. But on the plus side I now have a lot of stuff... because I really needed more of that. I also got some nail polish in jade green and a nail art pen, and armed with both these things a night’s worth of frustration. Win win!

Owen and I went to see Griff the Invisible and grabbed some lunch at Mappen before we went in. I almost chickened out because I’m one of those people who doesn’t like to look like they’re lost or like they don’t know what they’re doing. But stress not my neurotic soulmate, Mappen have a sign with clear steps telling you how to order so you won’t lose any cred, or look plain stupid.

They also have this apple drink – WITH REAL FRUIT JUICE! - all 1% of it. The food was decent and cheap and it’s a matter of opinion as to whether I got a little “over-excited” at the tempura self serve. Either way I walked out of there covered in a thin layer of broth – Emma, udon and chopsticks do not a match make. And why yes my boyfriend does have pretty hands, thanks for noticing!

While we're on the minutae of my life - I recently discovered that my Japanese Kit Kat collection was kind of old... as in, they were kind of out of date (don't ask me if I still ate them, I won't answer truthfully). I’m not normally the kind of person to ration sweets of any kind, give me a tub of ice-cream and I will soon return said tub back to you empty, accompanied only by the milky smile on my face. But because they’re so damn expensive and relatively tricky to find, I went against my better judgement (better judgement which would have required me eating them all in one hour). So I headed to IGA in Market City to replenish my stocks.

Lemonade and Coca Cola! I’m a bit (read: incredibly) indecisive so this threw me for a minute... until I realised I could just eat both. Problem solved! I like solving problems.

Lessons in being thrifty - travel edition

They say change is as good as a holiday right? Well I'm banking on that being true and the change being my hair colour, because I can't exactly afford a round the world ticket at the moment. But as I was previously explaining (or was it complaining? eh...tomato tomato... okay, that doesn't work on the internet) I'm learning to be creative with my financial situation... or lack there of.

Step 1 - be eternally grateful your grandparents built a shack near a beach for you 70 years ago (yes, just for me I'm sure) and then thank all your relatives for letting you stay there for free on the best weekend in March. And shriek like a girl every time you run to the outdoor toilet in the dark (it's part of the authentic experience). If you don't have said shack, ring your oldest living relation and demand to know why.

Step 2 - make crepes with your mumma and pretend you're in gay ol' Paris (even though you've never been there and they probs don't have Sunbeam over there. Hey lets not get caught up in details people). Optional is how much crepe mixture you get on the crepe iron... I think the less is more approach works well for me. No crepe iron or just too lazy? Buy a french stick or raid garden for escargot... a good wash and they'll be right.

Step 3 - flick through happy snaps from previous holidays and be grateful you've already had a few nice trips, appreciating that not everyone is quite so lucky. Or alternatively flick through happy snaps from previous holidays and slide into a mild depression at the thought that you're sitting at your computer writing a blog entry instead of maxing out your credit card at Urban Outfitters in the East Village or hurrying across the Shibuya crossing with oh.. you know... a couple of hundred other people. (If you've read my whole "About Me" spiel, you'll know that Japan and the Japanese people have a big chunk of my heart reserved specifically for them... probably equal to the square metres that chocolate and or Youtube videos of animals sneezing current take up combined and times by two (yup I have a heart so big I must talk in square metre). We totally intend(ed) to head back there later this year and I'm hoping that's still a possibility.) 
Cue photo dump...

But c'est la vie. I've done both of those things and more so I'm just going to count myself pretty damn lucky and pinch my pennies (oh so hard) til my time rolls around again. And probably start from Step 1 again... oh man, I'm going to be so sick of crepes by the time I can afford a holiday.

Lessons in being thrifty

I'm trying really really hard to pinch my pennies - between buying a house and having a handful of friends get married I'm somewhat lacking in the funds department. I shouldn't complain because I very rarely go without - I have plenty of food to eat and a roof over my head, and if anything actually thinking about money is forcing me to be a little more creative.

Take for example the fact that there is no way in hell I can justify buying new shoes at the present moment.
Solution = shoe clips!

I'm not sure about your mother, but my mama has always had amazing style. And I remember in the early 90s when she clipped chic navy blue bows onto the front of simple court shoes. She transformed relatively plain shoes into something special - special enough for me to remember them 20 years later. I won't even try to pretend for one moment that I'm chic or stylish like my mum, but I still have style... it's not just necessarily any good. But either way, my desire for cute shoes was waging a war with my new thrifty mindset, so I took a pair of $8 flat black shoes from Kmart and raided my craft stash (and by stash I mean pile, and by pile I mean mountain) and some clip on earring backs to make these clip on flowers.

And while I may be thrifty for the moment, I'm still plenty greedy... so I made myself multiple pairs.
I've been dreaming of shoe clips for a while now and might sell them/pay people to take them at Glebe markets as a bit of a test case. So would you wear an oversized flower on your footsies? Say yes!