Quality Time

I love spending quality time with Jake! Last week was a very emotional and heart-breaking week for me, where I really need to just focus on my family and the personal crises which we were going through at the time (not really uplifting blog material, so I'll leave it at that). He couldn't be with me at my parents' place through the week due to work commitments so come Sunday, I was really craving some quality time with my man!

Killen Falls

Jake and I decided that it was the perfect day for a picnic and a swim, but since it was so hot at the beach, and we didn't have a beach umbrella, we decided to take a trip out to Killen Falls instead for a romantic picnic and a dip in the waterhole. We sat up under the rock ledge at the base of the waterfall enjoying the view and munching on fish and chips and cheese and biscuits with a cool lemon, lime and bitters in hand for the better part of the afternoon. The atmosphere at the waterfall was so nice, and sitting under the rock ledge was nice and cool in the heat of the day. We watched turtles swim around on the surface, and fish jump out of the water, with their scales glinting in the sun. We talked, we laughed and just really got to appreciate the beautiful place we live in. Both of us wondered why we don't go out to Killen Falls more often - it is only 10 minutes away, after all!

Quick instagram photo to document a nice day

In the end, we decided against swimming in the icy cold, fresh water and headed home around 5, lapping up the benefits of the first day of daylight savings. Spending time just chilling out like that was so great! we both had such a fantastic day that when we woke up on Monday morning, we decided to do it all again, but at the beach that time! Hooray for long weekends, secret deserted beaches, pretty waterfalls and my first big swim where I stayed in for longer than 5 minutes of the season!

Jake at The Point a week or so ago. The Secret Beach is behind his head :)

Jake and I will definitely be going back to The Secret Beach and Killen Falls regularly this summer. Do you have any special spots around where you live where you like to chill out with a significant other?

Op Shop Adventures With Trudie

On Friday, I was lucky enough to get to spend the day with a great blog friend of mine, Trudie from My Vintage Childhood, and her gorgeous daughter, Little V. Trudie has been a great supporter of my blog since it's beginning, and I have been anxious to meet her ever since moving to the Gold Coast, where I knew she lived. Despite the age gap, I felt right at home with Trudie on Friday. We chatted like old friends, visited a few of her favourite op shops and I got a tour of her office and a sneaky peek at all the stock she has ready for her Etsy store, which is coming soon and will be selling some very beautiful vintage children's clothes at affordable prices.

It was so great to finally meet a fellow blogger in person! No one quite "gets" a blogger like another blogger does and it was great to take our friendship out into the "real world" and chat about blog stuff, PR, vintage and all other manner of things which I couldn't really chat to my non-blog friends about. It was also great to have an op shop partner for the day! Not many of my real life friends are into op shopping or vintage, so it was great to have someone to chat with over the clothes racks, and to encourage me to step out of my comfort zone and try a few things on. Trudie is set on converting me to a colour-lover as far as my wardrobe goes, and she certainly did well on Friday with introducing some bright and funky prints to my wardrobe. Trudie is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to vintage, and I really look forward to learning more in future ventures with her.

Unfortunately, I only realised when I left her house late that afternoon that Trudie and I hadn't taken a single photo all day long - not even an outfit picture to post on the blog! Here I was all excited to meet a fellow blogger and I forgot all about doing what a blogger does best! Oh well, you will just have to use your imaginations as to what we looked like on the day! I'll give you a hint though - Trudie looked amazing in a flowy, red maxi which accommodated her growing, pregnant tum.

Now onto the day's haul! I did quite well at the op shops last Friday, if I do say so myself. Since moving to the coast, I haven't really found any op shops that I really liked. If Trudie didn't live right up the opposite end, I'd be half tempted to steal her secret spots ;)

This colourful dress is by The Dress Company. It's got a tapered skirt with pockets and sits beautifully when on. A bargain at $3.25!

This is the top part of a maxi-length night gown which Trudie found hidden in the rack at a Lifeline store. It's so beautiful ad soft with the delicate embroidery around the neck. I'm intending on wearing it as a dress. $8

The embroidery on this green chiffon blouse is gorgeous, as is the ruffled neck. Perfect paired with dark jeans for a dressy casual look. $6

Last but not least, the gorgeous Japanese vintage frock which Trudie gifted to me out of her personal collection. I absolutely adore this dress and have already worn it! It got so many compliments, that I couldn't help but to see the merits of broadening my pastel wardrobe to include a bit of colour.

Since I didn't get any pictures of my outfit while I was with Trudie here is a quick little instagram of me wearing the frock that Trudie gifted to me. Thank you so much, Trudie for such a wonderful day on Friday. I really hope that we can do it again soon! 

Weekend Adventures!

This weekend was HUGE for me. So huge, in fact, that I am still tired from it! Want to know what I got up to?

Friday night started with my university's bi-annual PO MO FO (or post-modern formal for those who aren't too fond of acronyms). It was held at Gov's Espresso and Bar, an awesome little hipster hideaway which I absolutely loved, on it's last night ever of being open! I went with Jake, and met two of my friends there. We dressed in our finest 80's get ups and had a blast singing and dancing along to the bands that played. One of the bands played the infamous Get Lucky by Daft Punk so of course, that got a few people up and dancing, including myself! Unfortunately, it seemed like no one, aside from my friends and myself, really got "into it" until the end of the last band's se. I found that a bit of a shame, because it's always so much more fun dancing when everyone else in the room is up and moving, too! We still had a great night though. So great, in fact, that I forgot to take pictures (oops).

Saturday morning, even after having a late night, Jake somehow convinced me that going to Warner Brother's Movie World would be an excellent idea! I'm rather glad he did, as well because we had such a great time!

We went and saw a few shows, including the Stunt Driver show (which was kind of lame), waved to various characters as they walked around the place, including Austin Powers, Batman and Scooby Doo and went on a heap of rides, which was both thrilling and scary! My favourite ride was the Superman ride, which was basically just a really, really fast roller coaster, but it was closely followed by the Scooby Doo ride, which takes you through a "haunted house" like in the Scooby Doo movie before turning into this fast, jerking roller coaster which had me squealing and giggling with delight! I think I was probably more excited about that ride than the little kiddies who went on it, actually. I've been waiting to go on it since the movie came out however many years ago that was, so it was a long time in waiting and it didn't disappoint!

There were plenty of shops around the place to browse through as well, including a Harry Potter shop, which was rather lame. I can't wait to go to London one day and go on the actual, proper set tour and drink butter beer and eat cauldron cakes and buy some Ravenclaw stuff and a magic wand! (Yes, I am that nerdy. No judgements here, please!)

After all day at Movie World (not recommended if you have back problems, and want to be able to move around the next day) Jake and I just spent a quiet day on Sunday, enjoying a sleep in, and snuggles in bed in the morning, pancakes for brekky and a nice, little movie day. The weather was awful Sunday, so we just closed the blinds and hid from the world, being soppy and romantic and all that stuff while it lasted. We have to fit in as much of that gooey stuff as we can on the weekends, before saying goodbye on Monday mornings. I miss him so much through the week!

So what did you get up to on the weekend? Anything exciting?

Up in the mountains!

On Saturday, Jake and I decided to take a drive up to Mount Tamborine to hunt down Curtis Falls and just generally explore the area. Since we moved to the Gold Coast we have been a little strapped for cash, and because of this - bored! It is tough thinking up things to do on a tight budget but Saturday's drive was a total success, and a pretty good indication that Jake and I should do some more exploring!

The drive up to the mountain was a lot shorter than I expected - it was a nice drive albeit a little stressful with my tiny little car straining to make it up the mountainside! The views when we got to the top were amazing! On one side of the mountain there were views over the city and the ocean, on the other there were green pastures stretching to distant mountains. We stopped at what we thought was a little lookout when we got to the top - turns out is was actually the jumping point for a hang gliding club! We watched them soar overhead for a while, then went for a drive past some big mansions and headed into town.

I had a sneaky ulterior motive for coming to Tambourine - I desperately wanted to visit The Shop That Time Forgot and Kitty's Vintage Kitsch after meeting Celia in January at the Woolangabba Antique Centre. At the Gabba, I was trying on many of her gorgeous dresses and struck up a conversation with her about vintage clothing. I told her about my formal dress, which I suspected could be vintage, although I was unsure because I knew there were a lot of reproductions of that sort of thing around. She told me to take it to the shop sometime and she would have a look at it. Well, boy was I embarrassed when I took it to the shop and Sue, Celia's business partner, took a look at it for me! There, on the right hand side just below the bust was a tag! The tag clearly dated the dress as 80's, not 1930's as the style of the dress would suggest. I couldn't believe I'd never noticed the tag before! I mean, there was only a tiny bit of overlocking on the entire dress, so I just assumed that it was vintage! Oh well, I still felt like a princess on my formal day, and still got the dress for an amazing price, despite it not being as old as I thought it was.

Sue was kind enough, while I browsed the shop, to teach me a little about dating clothing. She also invited me back to have a little bit of a dress-up day and find the right fit of vintage dresses for my shape, minus the boyfriend, where she would teach me a little more. If you're ever in the Mount Tamborine area, I would definitely recommend that you drop in to The Shop That Time Forgot and Kitty's Vintage Kitsch. Both Celia and Sue are lovely and the shop is spectacularly presented! I wish I had remembered to take pictures!

I fit inside the tree! 

I swear there was a cute outfit under that ugly jumper!

After saying goodbye to Sue, Jake and I followed her directions to get to Curtis Falls. There we enjoyed a quick strawberry milkshake before heading down the path through the rainforest to get to the base of the waterfall. The walk through the rainforest was beautiful, albeit a little cold and Jake and I had a ball mucking around on our way down, and then back up the path.

When we got to the bottom of the path, Jake convinced me to climb over the fence which was up around the viewing platform so he could get a better photo of me near the waterfall. All I could think of as i edged around to the fallen tree was how bloody cold the water looked! I was pretty tentative walking out to the end of the log, even though it was about 3 times as wide as I am. I have come to learn the hard way that clumsiness and water don't mix!

Jake had to be a daredevil, as usual, and go right out to the tip of the log, of course! I am guessing he was a little disappointed at how small the waterfall was, because he was making some pretty sarcastic comments as he stood with his hands splayed like that!

Me, Being an idiot and pretending I am Tarzan or something.

On our way to Curtis Falls we noticed quite a few different little restaurants which we thought might be fun to go to. There was a German beer place which looked quite interesting, as well as one called Camelot, but the one which I decided I just had to go to was The Polish Place. The smells wafting into our car windows as we pulled up to The Polish Place were amazing! Unfortunately, we got there just as the kitchen was closing, so all we could get was coffee and cake. That wasn't a big matter though, because just being there was an experience, and we have already decided that we will be going back there some time for dinner!

I was a little shy to take photos, as there were quite a few people eating in the restaurant at the time, so Jake took a couple of quick pictures on the sly for me. This is basically the only one which isn't completely out of focus! It shows pretty well the amazing decor of the restaurant, as well as the traditional Polish costumes of the waitresses. Total bonus for me was that all the aitresses were wearing floral crowns! They looked so cute! Oh, and of course I wanted to rip those lights out of the ceiling and take them home! Blue and white porcelain for the win!!!

The hot mocha which they brought me was absolutely delicious, as was the Rum and Chocolate Torte, which was finished before I even thought to take a picture! The food that everyone was eating looked so delicious, and Jake and I hadn't eaten since breakfast so we were devastated that we couldn't order.

Through a little side door in the restaurant was a gallery of Polish stuff, which was really cool, and The Polish Place is also a boutique motel, with four chalets to stay in, featuring an open fireplace, mountain views and a twin spa bath in the lounge room so that you can sit in the tub and watch television! After looking at the prices on their website, Jake and I are going to have to just keep dreaming of our romantic weekend getaway to the mountains, unfortunately.

After warming up in The Polish Place for a little while, it was time for Jake and I to head home. Since we set off so late, we really did miss out on quite a lot of stuff. That's okay though, because I know we will be back! When we got back to Coolangatta it was well and truly time for dinner. Steaks at Higs Breath Cafe had bsolutely nothing on The Polish Place, but that's what we settled for and it was a great way to round of such a wonderful day.

Life Lately: Crystal Castle

Last Wednesday, before I bunged up my knee, I headed over to my friend Ellie's place for a pot of tea and a catch up. Since we are both currently living in different cities doing uni, we have been hard pressed to find time to catch up with each other, so this little get together while we were both home for Easter was much needed and appreciated. Plus, being the poor uni students that we are, catching up at her house was super nice on the wallet. Or so we thought it would be!

As with most "quick little catch ups" that Ellie and I have, we had wayyyy to much to talk about and ended up emptying that tea pot pretty quickly! So, naturally, we decided to extend our catch up to a day out and some lunch, and so headed out into the Byron hinterland to Crystal Castle.

I have no idea how we ended up deciding to go to Crystal Castle, but I sure am glad we did! It was absolutely beautiful out there, and the food in the little cafe was delicious! Ellie and I were absolutely gobsmacked at the prices of the crystals and were half tempted to bring the boys back there at night to pinch a few of the big ones they had just lying around the place. I settled for just buying a few of the little half priced ones in the shop instead.

True to the spirit of this hippy land we live in, the Crystal Castle was a deeply spiritual place, although the booming prayer voices suddenly coming out of hidden speakers around the place did little more to Ellie and I than freak us out! You could say that we are a little too rational for the hippy mumbo-jumbo I guess! Nonetheless, the beautiful big crystals around the place, the many different statues of buddhas and various other godly creatures were totally awe-inspiring. It was such a beautiful place!

Quick life update:

I just totally enrolled into Uni for semester 1, 2013!!!

Woo-hoo!

Tomorrow I will make appointments with some real estates to find a place to live and hopefully by this time next month I'll be a Queenslander! This whole growing-up-and-moving-out thing is just starting to feel real and I can't help but feel nervous and excited about it all! This last year since finishing school has gone too quick. Is this what it feels like to grow up? The years get shorter and life goes faster. I can't wait to begin this next chapter of my life!

Are you embarking on any new endeavours or adventures in 2013?