golden girls

images courtesy of the delectable photographer viktor vauthier x

always / sometimes / anytime

this rocking photoshoot found on always sometimes anytime features some nice karen walker specs currently in store... do your eyeballs a favour and grab some before the summer sunshine hits (if it ever hits) x

christmas creeps

christmas time is slowly coming around once again, and the annoying parts - ie. parking at chadstone, secret santa budgets of $10 and under, ridiculously expensive flights back home, ordering gifts online & never having them arrive etc etc etc etc seem to be overriding my normal christmas cheer. in order to counteract this i've been indulging in more than my fair share of christmas treats and recommend the following to counteract christmas insanity:
1. shop with the "one for me, one for you" mentality. though more expensive, guaranteed to make christmas shopping slightly more enjoyable than carpet burn to your soul.
2. steer clear of chadstone (or any shopping centre for that matter) - regardless of how mad your driving skills are you will likely spend four hours attempting to find a car park before locating one at 2am and having your car backed into by a drunk bogan who has just left hoyts after seeing terminator 8 or equivalent.
3. when shopping use the words 'please' and 'thank you'. sales assistants will go that extra mile if you aren't an absolute douche bag.. it may not prevent insanity on your own behalf, but there will be thousands of happier people in the world if you use common courtesy at christmas time.
4. don't buy your dad/brother/boyfriend/significant other a sporting autobiography, the game, or scar tissue - you are facilitating a generation of my most hated people. and for that i will hate you.
5. a thoughful gift doesn't have to involve the use of clag or macaroni pieces (but is acceptable if you're under the age of 5).
6. smile at people instead of frowning - where's your goddam christmas cheer people?
7. appreciate that bogans spent months of their lives planning the christmas light spectacular which keeps you awake every night with its obscene fluorescence. our saviour was born in bethlehem - and christmas cheer was born in the burbs. give them a toot when you drive past.
i'm running low on christmas cheer again after that list, but am hoping that it will spring back to life by next week! imagine, in just a month they'll be selling easter eggs in the supermarket - and that's something to look forward to.

STONEFIELD rock

a few weeks ago my housemate kiri noted that i am a happily antisocial person every morning, preferring to engage with tom & alex on triple j's breakfast show than my housemates over my morning coffee. when i started talking about triple j hosts as if they were my friends, i realised my obsession with the station was going a little far - hell, i nearly attended tom ballard's birthday party because i legitimately thought we could be really good friends. aside from inspiring stalkers australia wide (see above), triple j also does a pretty amazing job of finding and facilitating the rise of unsigned aussie bands. if you find your ears lacking for new music, get on triple j unearthed and start listening. a new favourite of mine are stonefield - this banging sister act (literally) rock - drawing inspiration from music legends zeppelin, zappa, hendrix, the beatles and pink floyd, the resulting sound is a bit like a rocking blues love child born in a field of canola flowers in country victoria - which is kind of the story of the band. with their youngest member aged just 12 (or 13 - i cant be bothered googling details) stonefield have just been announced on the lineup for glastonbury.. a pretty sweet gig considering these girls were relatively unknown before dominating triple j unearthed high in '09, and only picked up instruments and decided to form a band in late '08... they're bringing in new years at pyramid rock, alongside the temper trap & N.E.R.D, but still play on a sunday at the vic market and really are the sweetest thing to come out of triple j's unearthed comp since megan washington in 2008. if you've been living under a rock, or aren't best mates with tom & alex like i am you may not have heard the song clover by stonefield. get clicking and start listening, they wont disappoint. x

bejewelled blitz

as beyonce once said - if you like it then you shoulda put a ring on it.. these blinging double crystal rings from the melbourne sweetheart friend of mine retail for $198.. get in quickly, if you don't buy them i'm tempted to get one for every finger this festive season. x

pictured: nadja, looking supremely cheerful after i peer pressured her into my super professional photo shoot...

booked

DEAL BREAKER: a recent date, who said (and i quote)'so, you're a lit student... cool.. (brushes hair awkwardly) man - i haven't read a book in years.'

one morning, close to two years into a relationship with "bruce", i rolled over and saw the following stacked on bedside table;

scar tissue by anthony kedis

a sporting autobiography by a cricketer whose name i didn't know (and clearly did't care to remember) and

the game (ie. the lame man bible created by a bunch of dudes who learnt sexual strategy from 30 years of playing world of war craft)

as i perused these titles i wondered what i was doing with "bruce".. in retrospect- had i been a book snob prior to entering the relationship, perhaps i would have avoided the heart breaking reality three years in; that perhaps we just weren't right for one another. admittedly my 3 years of education (give or take a few failed subjects and probable summer units) at a wanky university majoring in literature has caused my somewhat irrational hatred for faux reading (by which i am referring to the world of vampires and babes and vampire-babes). if you've invited me to your house recently and wondered where i've disappeared to - it's just to inspect your bookshelf. creepy perhaps, but if i've called you since that inspection it means that you have more of a chance than "bruce" did - and that's saying something. anyway, as you can probably tell, this post has nothing to do with the store - except that i work here and like reading books and criticising things (often unnecessarily). something all the folks at DY are fond of though is the selby project - if you haven't checked it out yet, put aside a few hours of your weekend and have a look at some of the most incredible interiors of the homes and offices of celebs like lagerfeld, roitfeld, the geldofs, dan single, the head office of ralph lauren and more! there's something voyeuristic and marvelous about scrolling through page after page of the selby project.. and now i can criticise not only my friends bookshelves, but celebrity's too! isn't the cyber world rad? get your eyeballs wandering here - www.theselby.com

keen as mustard

i liked mustard on my food before it was cool to wear it as a clothing colour.. new stock from our beloved denim label neuw has just arrived - the banging high rise mustard skinnies (pictured above) are in store now! get in fast - they're sure to be scooting out the door ever so quickly. x

yeah we did

so we may not be as famous as brangelina, but wait - the DY revolution is coming! above is the sydney morning herald article which featured down yonder - wait until we get a rainbow family - we'll be making the front page of every paper.. x

pots of peonies please

i have a bit of an obsession with flowers, particularly peonies.

alexa love and sweet specs

at down yonder, we love all things chung.. this styling brit dates arctic monkeys frontman (appropriately named alex) and - to be honest - doesn't do a heap more that i am aware of. but her fashion sense is so eclectic and delicious that i will admit to googling her at random intervals to see what she's been wearing... she's a big fan of karen walker shades (see above piccies), and we're a big fan of them too.. get in store to see the latest from the nz designer, retailing from $279 x

always wear a helmet

as a small child i hoarded piles of toyworld catalogues under my bed, obsessed as i was with the various power ranger toys available at the time. today the location of my obsession has moved from toy aisle to catwalk - in my bedroom alone i have 3 tables dedicated to stacks of magazines. as a subscription holder to frankie, russh, oyster, anOther magazine, and being long time lover of the fairly recent melbourne publications spook and fallen, i was delighted to find a fat stack of the latest (and perhaps greatest) mag to pop out of aus on the counter when i rolled into work today.. enter HELMET magazine. editors tom & jordie begin the mag with a talk to their readers - telling us that "failure is always an option", wise words. fortunately, failure isn't on the cards for this mag.. it's the indie paper incarnation of a girltalk album, an eclectic mash up of music, fashion, film and art. and for $22.95 you'd better get in quickly - the first issue has already sold out at mag nation. xx

p.s last pic features friend of mine threads from DY! kitty shirt and isla skirt, hop on down to 485 malvern road and check them out in real time. x

are you a lad insane?

generally speaking, i suffer from mondayitus, tuesdayitus, wednesdayitus, thursdayitus and fridayitus.. my parents call me a hypochondriac, my doctor calls it a low immune system, and my housemates call it bullshit. anyway, for some reason friday usually ranks as my most hated day of the week. for those young enough to be frequenting "sweet" venues like Qbar, fridays are characterised by hangovers and maccas runs. for those of us mature enough to be working full time - fridays are marked by a longing for the weekend (and - though we'll never admit it to our bosses, a hangover). for some reason, today has been a good day - brand new stock from friend of mine and karen walker have arrived along with the glossy goodness of melbourne magazine helmet - providing me with the perfect excuse to dust off my party shoes for a weekend of foolish behaviour. friday might just be the new monday; definitely not a day that should be included in the working week - but not quite as bad as i thought it would be this morning. x