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

a little absence

I've been in New Zealand, and it was beautiful!

I'll try and get photos developed this week so maybe there will be some on here eventually... A real post will happen soon, but for now I am trying to readjust to Melbourne time, a whole two hours behind, and am very much still in wedding committee/research mode (the above picture is from Once Wed).

Oh, and tonight I'm going to the Knife opera, yes I am.

river kissed

This weekend we (along with some kereru and tui) watched dear friends become husband and wife under a canopy of native trees, danced to gypsy music under the stars, forded rivers and built dams, dipped baguettes in nutella and star gazed around a campfire. We all saw the same shooting star.

Pictures of the Rimutaka national park from NZ Tramper.

into the woods

See you guys later!

I'm off into the forest for my friend's woodland wedding. Hurrah! Halloo! Hallay!

Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes.

About two years ago all of my closest friends started moving on with their lives. We all lived in Wellington together and had spent four years in each others' pockets. It was the time where I experimented, adventured, and figured out more about what I wanted.

In hindsight, it really was idyllic. There were issues and irritations, but now I appreciate the ease with which we all congregated and spent so much time together. It seems much more difficult these days.

Then we all up and left. There were plans to fulfil and ambitions to meet, so we left a city that we loved, but had begun to feel too small. Perhaps we spurred each other on; if they were leaving, well, then we had to leave too. For somewhere different, but equally exciting. It was a friend diaspora which scattered us across hemispheres.

We have survived - made new friends and found new places where we feel at home. But I suspect that the friends I found when I was on the cusp of joining the real world are the ones who have the strongest hold, and will be around for the longest.

Next week, a large chunk of us will meet again at a wedding in a forest. We're driving there together from Wellington and will spend the weekend celebrating, camping, "clambering, river damming and swimming". I can't wait.


Photographs of the Rimutaka forest from doc and from panoramio.com