Shout out to the corgis

{pic from here}

I so enjoyed watching the Olympics Opening Ceremony. I was prepared for there to be lots of boring bits, but then I was utterly entertained by the whole spectacle. Of course I loved the Queens entrance, mostly for the inclusion of her two top corgis.

True Prep

House of Maryanne's newest lookbook True Prep makes me want to put on a frock with a nice collar, and potter about inside with a warm cup of tea. All the clothes will be available to buy via Maryanne's online vintage store, which is run through her Facebook page.

ALL ahoy!

Before this Winter ends I'm going to have one of these ALL knitwear beanies on my head. I ordered one last week, after going back and forth over these four top choices. Narrowing it down to just one was so hard!

Tropical Times

I took a welcome break from Wintery Melbourne by jetting up to Australia's 'Tropical Far North'. The first stop was Cairns, where we roamed around Rusty's Market, one of the best fruit and vege markets I've ever seen. I wish I could shop here every week, I'd be whipping up tropical delights like nobody's business.

Sugar cane juice - I've tried this once before and it is an absolute taste sensation.

These are from the Skyrail cableway to Kurunda village.

These crazy trees were everywhere in Kurunda. Google informs me they are called Curtain Fig Trees.

This was on the beach at Port Douglas and looks like it is spelling my name, but it actually said 'Happy Birthday Grandma'.

There were some pretty good markets in Port Douglas too.

This dog was so lovely. I said hello to him and received a gentlemanly snuffle to my hand.

The Daintree rainforest was amazing, we spent a whole day up there.

This a Tawny Frogmouth, who greeted us as we went to a crocodile farm.

Here we made friends with lots of crocs! Not really, but it was fun.

MIFF!

Something I look forward to all through Winter is the Melbourne International Film Festival. This years program has just been released and there are some big exciting films that I am dying to see (HELLO Moonrise Kingdom), and some rather enticing sections on Swedish cinema and 70s New Hollywood Comedy, not to mention all the smaller films to discover after some intensive browsing through the program. I can't wait!

Yes please Baggu

I have a bit of a navy thing going on at the moment. It snuck up on me until I realised my wardrobe was so full of navy that I could outfit myself head to toe in it if I wanted. I'm also pretty big on polka dots right now, so when I saw these new navy dot print bags from baggu, well, you can imagine my excitement.

Mid-Winter Blues

Don't let the nonstop rain outside get you down, fellow Melbournians! Try my 'semi-guaranteed' cures for the Winter Blues instead:

1. Surround yourself with fresh flowers. Mine were foraged from the roadside while walking home. The cheapskates way to decorate.

2.  Make Sarah Britton's Split Pea Sunshine & Saffron Soup. So tasty AND healthy. My secret ingredient for delicious soups used to be a huge hunk of butter, but this recipe has proven to me that soup can taste amazing without it!