we are children of the nineties

This weekend I sat by a lake with eight others of roughly the same age, and turned 25 as we sang along to the smashing pumpkins, spice girls, ace of base and alanis morisette. We still remembered every word.

We communed with nature, smoking cigarettes and drinking beer and red wine in the mud. Wearing polyester blankets patterned in leopard print. We made new friends and ate chinese takeaway in the middle of a tiny town, deserted at 10pm but for a few hangers on at the pokies.

We talked about Kurt Cobain, 2 Pac and Biggie. We rowed in Kayaks on another lake, our iPods and portable speakers splashed with water but continuing to play incredibly offensive gangster rap. (We turned it off when we realised how many children we were sharing the lake with).

We spent hundreds of dollars, on beer, breakfast, barbecue supplies. We feasted on sandwiches and easter eggs in the middle of the night and powerade and golden pash the next morning. We got lost on the way there and the way home, but we got back to the city in time for the unfortunate few who had to work.

quarter life crisis

 It's my birthday on Monday, dear rich friends and family (all of you) please note:

 I would like the fox dress

 This perfume

These sunglasses

Flowers, always

A cocktail ring or two, particularly this one, in smokey quartz

A timepiece that isn't my cell phone. Preferably a large-ish man-ish gold or silver watch with a big round face

And a new computer,

Thanks.

a banana wrapped in tin foil

My favourite boots fell apart five minutes after I got to Russell, a small town in the Bay of Islands, a few weeks ago and I was left with just my ridiculously high bridesmaid shoes and a pair of jandals borrowed from han. I re-bought the same boots as soon as I got back to Melbourne so it's not as much as a disaster as it could have been, but at the time my only consolation was that I might get to fill the broken pair with plants. Not so, unwearable footwear is not something you want to lug around in a suitcase for three weeks, and they now rest in a bin somewhere in Auckland.

Anyway I'm kind of hung up on the work of Aurelian Arbet and Jeremie Egry (good names too), which features among other things my current favourite plant containers - clothing.

i exist

 And I like things:

My giant velvet polka dot dress from Twenty Seven Names

Wearing said dress with a ridiculous cardigan covered in mini pom poms, burgundy tights, or a skin coloured slip

Smokey quartz everything

99 Problems, my new local* with the nicest proprietors ever

The fact that I am going to see Bone Thugs N Harmony next week

The wonderful, amazing trip I just got back from in little ole New Zealand, and all the babes I got to see naked in the ocean after two of our beautiful pals tied the knot

In fact, everything about that day, except the sweat during the ceremony, and the entire missing outfit

Hanging out with my granny

Hanging out with my friends' babies

Being home

The Asos package that just arrived

This lovely distraction (select journey)**

Winter's approach,

and my acceptance of it.

Thanks for your time

xL

* it is, dangerously close to my house 

** found via Lolita, thanks!

*** both of the autumney wintery photos are from Le Portillon, my new favourite