The Lion Tamer: OOTD

So, Red Pearl, my wicked tailor, made me a pair of high-high-waisted shorts...with lotsa golden buttons and an overall circus/school-band feel. And I love them! 

I get pretty self conscious in shorts: I don't like my legs that much, but I decided, fuck it, I don't care, I want ringmaster shorts and so, it happened.

To complete this outfit I really need, a whip, a top hat and a full grown lion that I'm hugging seductively, but, sigh, the hat was too hard to find... hahaha.

Gosh I'm funny...

actually, I think I'm a bit hung over...

Anyway, so my new lion taming shorts are from Red Pearl, contact her here. My black zip down top is from some cheap shop in Melbourne, and my trusty nerd necklace can be found on Etsy...sometimes....

Thanks to S.M for the snaps and the use of her white wall

Happy Sunday

Cama Festival Fun

So last weekend I went to Cama's Festival (more info here) This year they had a flea market too with several small businesses and a focus on protecting Intellectual Property Rights in the ASEAN region. It was lovely to see these small businesses with unique clothes and crafts, while I didn't buy anything, I did check out some of their business cards & websites.

2 Shops that really sparked my interest were:

Tohe:   as well as activities that specialize in helping children be creative in a eco-friendly way like drawing classes and volunteering with disabled children, they also have amazingly cute stuff purses, bags and t-shirts with children's pictures. 50% of the profits go towards the children who drew the designs and helping disadvantaged children. Check out their FB page & shop: they also have custom printing available.

Cody Skins: (who only had a FB page cos he just started selling stuff 3 weeks ago when I spoke to him) was selling amazingly beautiful iphone skins. Now, I already have an iphone case, so I wasn't interested in buying one, but his pictures are so amazing that I have to share them... check out his FB page (Cody Skins) or email him. What an amazing artist!!!

2 other local shops worth checking out are City Owls and Mollet Shoes.

Mollet Shoes have gorgeous jute shoes (for littler-than-Jacqui-feet) and their FB page seems to be more updated than their shop page. City Owls is a lovely little shop that sells accessories and beautiful clothes, it's address (for Hanoians) is 27 Phan Dinh Phung.

Pretty clothes!

As well as the Flea Market, there were the bands, which were probably the main attraction. 

One of my favorites was MUON from Singapore. They truly were magnificent just because you honestly had no idea which direction the song would go into, as Cama says, they truly were "genre-defying electronic sound artists "

This smart man didn't see why he should pay when he could listen from his balcony.

Me enjoying the sunshine and great music.

Early crowd of dancers.

Another great band was Blood Sugar Politik from Myanmar, playing in Hanoi was apparently their first overseas gig, and they ROCKED IT!

It was a lovely day all in all, but I was too lazy to do a street style blog like I did last year, (here) instead I just hung out with friends and scoped out the music. Cama does such a fantastic job at organizing this every year, I wish we had more festivals in Hanoi. 

Happy Friday :D 

Top 5: Reasons my mum is f*cking awesome!

So, this is not a Mother's Day post. I want to make it clear that Mother's Day and Father's Day are evil Hallmark inventions to encourage our consumerist culture to BUY MORE STUFF and SHOW YOUR MAKERS YOU LOVE THEM BY BUYING THINGS!
 This, my friends is a Top 5 post to coincide with my Mum's birthday, which ironically often falls on Mother's Day.
 I was actually going to use photos of my Mum for this post from her younger days, but the pictures from here are just way too awesome and deserved a post entirely on their own. So, I will use some pics of my mummy I've got lying around on my Facebook page.

But, without further adieu (?) here's the top 5 reason my mum is fucking awesome!


# 5 - Ali7son 

When I was a child I remember having a conversation about silent letters. I can guess perhaps I was learning to spell. I remember my mum saying she would like to have a silent 7 in the middle of her name. This moment was when I realized how insane my mum was, insane in a good way. I imagined her introducing herself to people, "Hi, my name's Ali7son; the 7 is silent," and how it would completely confuse and  confound the listener because they wouldn't hear the seven (cos it's silent) and would only know it was there if she wrote down her name. Anyway, this insane ridiculous brain is the fifth reason why my mum kicks arse!
(This picture was taken from the boat at Halong Bay, Vietnam)

# 4 -A love of ferns, coupled with the inability to grow one

This reason is more ironic than anything else. I know that my mum loves ferns, especially Maiden Hair Ferns, but she's never been able to successfully grow one. My theory here would be a bit of reverse psychology. I think, because Mum wants to nurture and care for these beautiful plants, she waters them too much and cares for them too much, and the universe goes "Ha ha! NO!" and kills them. My sister, even more ironically can grow a kick arse Maiden Hair... I've never tried, cos they seem like way too much effort. But, this is the fourth reason my mum is awesome, and universe, give the lady a break and let her grow a goddamn fern!
(This picture was taken a long time ago when I was in South Korea working and my parents came to visit me)






# 3 - Piratical Swearing


Now, in case there are any "Judgey McJudge-a-lots" who read my blog, I want to point out my parents rarely swore when me and my sister were growing up. We also got yelled at if you we swore or used bad language, but, when I hit about 16, that all changed and I realized how hard it must have been for my parents to suppress their cursing for the past years. They swear. Quite a lot. It doesn't concern me at all, in fact, I think it humanizes them and as a teenager it made me certainly have more empathy (wrong word?) for them. I need to clarify that they never swear at each other or us, but it's more just general swearing.  But, while my dad might let out the occasional "fuck!" when he stubs his toe or can't solve a cryptic puzzle clue, my mum's swearing is a bit more colourful. I have, on more than one occasion likened it to a pirate. And I love it. I love that she'll be talking to the dog, and just casually say "Oh Bonnie, fuck off, I'm busy." Or, it'll start raining and she'll groan "farrrrrrrrrrk" before sprinting outside to rip the clothes of the clothesline.  Perhaps that's a weird reason to think your mum is awesome, but I enjoy it. I enjoy her swearing and the fact that my whole family realizes it isn't a bit deal.
(This picture was taken last year at our family Christmas)

# 2 - Drawing Rabbits ( and Bears) on notes to me

My mum is a big note writer, and a big list writer. Anyway, she always used to write notes to me, for instance if I was still in bed (as a teenager) and they both went to work early, she would write me a note to remind me of something. Over the years this has meant that when I am receiving instructions from my mum about something, I usually have trouble concentrating unless it's written down. Now, occasionally, but not always, my mum would draw a rabbit on these notes on the bottom corner. I could theorize that that is why I draw bunny ears on everything, but that could be connecting a dot that isn't really there. Anyway, she does this because her and my father joke about her being Rabbit from Winnie the Pooh and my dad being Pooh; this is much more their private joke that doesn't really have much to do with me, I don't quite know the origins of why they think that about themselves, perhaps it's when they were reading the stories to me and my sister as children? Anyway, I have to say, that many of these notes in the past have bossy looking rabbits on them and smiling bears. I love it. I wish I'd kept them. When my parents were here in Hanoi recently, Mum and Dad went out one day while I was napping, when I came downstairs and saw a note with a rabbit on it, I was so happy! Now, it's stuck on my wall next to a photo of them. So, maybe this reason is also weird, but I love the rabbits and bears that adorn my mum's notes to me.
(This photo was taken in Istanbul when my parents and my sister visited me there.)

# 1 - Taking the other person's side

So, when I was a kid and I had a problem, I would come home and talk to my mum about it and cry that my friend was being so unfair because she teased me about something something and how mean and horrible she was, and all I wanted was for my mum to say "Yes Jacqui, you are right, your friend is a big poopie meanie head who sucks because you are right and your friend is wrong and she is stupid!" She never did. Never once confirmed that I was right and my friend/teacher/sister was wrong. She always gently reminded me of the other side of the issue, always said something like "well Jacqui, you should think about why your friend did something something and try to feel blah blah blah." And I hated it! Man I hated it. I felt that she was always taking the other person's side over her own daughters!!  But, now that I am older, I cherish the fact she did that to me, I love the fact she made me see other people's perspective and think about the situation holistically and from every angle. While as a child it may have sucked sometimes, it made me into the fair person I am. This is the number 1 reason why I love my mum!! (This photo was taken at my sister's wedding)

Obviously, I could actually write a fucking novel about the awesomeness of both my parents, but for this birthday, I chose 5 things that make me love you so much. Happy Birthday Mum! xox

A Parliament of Owls

Today, after feeling under the weather with some kind of flu for at least a week, I had energy to go out and have fun. The sun shining helped. We went out for some sangria & tapas at La Salsa, like I did for this shoot from last week.

It was a lovely day, with good friends and it reminded me of why I love Hanoi and how I'll be sad to go in 6 months.

As far as my outfit, the black shirt is from Cotton On, the skirt is a new one Red Pearl made for me, I love the tribal pattern. The turban headband is also Red Pearl, and the shoes (know as my liquorice shoes) are from a cheap shop in Istanbul, thus, they've had to be re-soled twice. 

Here's the funny thing about owl jewelry  I've never bought any for myself, however, over the years, I've accumulated a lot of it. I have another owl ring that I didn't wear today, I featured it here,  but I thought 4 owls was enough to constitute using the collective noun 'parliament'. The super bling owls (the one on the left and the middle one with the red eyes) are from one of favorite students, the gold circular one is from one of my best friends from Aus, and the ring is from my friend Tracy, who is getting married in a couple of days.

Posing with West Lake.

close up of the liquorice shoes.

Thanks to S.M for these shots.

That's all folks. 

Happy Sunday, I hope you had a great weekend.

Sunshine is a Lady: OOTD

Today's a Public Holiday! Yay! There is no better way to spend them than basking in the sunshine with nargile and sangria and of course,  good friends to talk nonsense with. 

Hanoi has properly warmed up now, and it's weird to think that I won't be here for another winter. I finally moved my winter clothes into storage today and brought the summer ones out. This dress was one of the ones I forgot I owned.

Just chilling with some shisha...

Anyway, this dress is from a Ginger Tree outlet, the belt is thrifted and my awesome turban headband (here) is from my tailor Red Pearl.

Yellow roses are beautiful!

I really like this summer time dress with the orange & yellow merged with black and white stripes, I'm glad I didn't cull it last summer as was my plan.

We had our copious Sangria from La Salsa.

Thanks to M.K for the photos and nonsense talk.

And tomorrow? 

Tomorrow is a public holiday too!

YAY!!!

That 70's Inspiration: My Parents

I asked my sister to email me some photos of my mum & dad for a top 5 post I'm going to do, the gold photos she sent deserve their own post tho!  Isn't the photo above adorable? It is probably my new favorite photo of my mum in existence! 

My parents went and explored the world straight after they got married, they lived in Venezuela for a while and went to many other countries as well. They took lots of photos that they got printed as slides (I dunno why...) and so my sister got them all converted onto CDs/jpegs for a present awhile ago. She picked the best ones for me to coo over. 

Doesn't my Dad look handsome? And my mum modelling her kicking threads! 

Dad looking like a British model on the Prime Meridian.

Winter styles.

Looking well chuffed and suave in all black. I like the reflective sunnies too.

a very 70s outfit...but awesome!

Dad, who had been sick for about a week in South America, looking skinny and kinda creepy lurking in the jungle.

Mum, looking like Rosie the Riveter and I have no idea what she is doing... but it's an awesome photo. 

So, Mum and Dad, and my awesome sister, I love you all, and these photos make me realize, style is in my blood (as is travel) cos you guys look amazing in these photos!

I miss you.

:)