Aussie Curves: Picnic

Super quick one. On my way to another wedding today so I gotta go get ready but these shots were taken a week ago in Mildura because it was some anniversary of the paddle boat. The river was packed with boats and people and while I didn't sit down to an official picnic (we do them all the time....see HERE and HERE) I did enjoy fresh strawberries and cupcakes from the local stalls.

Perfect picnic attire should be comfortable and allow for the sun to kiss your skin ;) 

Big Love,

Falala Mele xo

Dress: Best and Less / Cardigan: Thrifted / Boots: Gifted from Gabby / Glasses: Salvos / Belt: Gifted from Amra

Aussie Curves: Stripes in NYC

Hello lovely ones,

It is officially the start of the school holidays! I have been busy and I crammed every ounce of work I could pull out of my backside in before Friday afternoon. Had pancakes with my lovely girls in Mildura. Slept at 1am. Up at 7am. Packed and started the 12 hour drive from Mildura with my sister. Made it home by 8:30pm. Greeted by my parents and Aunty and have been busy ever since.

Spent yesterday:

6:30am morning stroll with my Mum, Aunty & Snoopy

Picked up my gorgeous baby niece

Spring fair with my Mum, Aunty and sisters

Lunch with my sisters

afternoon snooze (OMG I am living on the edge)

editing US pictures

and a movie marathon (I never get to watch movies and my hard drive is full)

What's coming up:
2 weddings
a graduation
nieces birthday
op shopping raid on all my local spots "HONEEEEEY I'M HOMEEEE"
Lady Antebellum concert
beach time :)
catching up with all my friends <3

Anyways that's where I'm at right now.


This week called for stripes and I just so happened to have an outfit featuring stripes ready to go. I found this top and I loved it for a variety of reasons. I based the rest of the look around  this one piece. I love that it has a high cut around the neck. I have been wearing a lot of that lately. Fell in love with the low cut back. It's nice not hoochie and that's how I like to roll ;)

I combined some of my favourite never-fail combinations with the look and I felt cooooool in my OOTN. The red lips and gold eyes are one of my fave makeup looks. The city chic skirt gave my body extra hips and shape and it allowed the top half of my body to be accentuated by the stripes. One of my favourite New York outfits of this trip :)

So this night we went out to Shadows in Manhattan. Sooooo many funny stories from that night but I guess you just had to be there. NY night scene is on another level. We are so timid here in Australia. Those New Yorkers like to party and it's a good thing cause we do too.

Major thanks to our Trini-Sissys. They took us out and danced the night away. This was our last night in New York. Next afternoon we flew out to Vegas. Danced all night and walked to Maccas for some chicken bites. That was the only thing open and all that dancing made us hungry. Sorry about the poor picture quality. Just took the little point and shoot because we planned to dance our asses off!

Striped Top: SES Westfield / Skirt City Chic $15 (sale) / Shoes Target $35 / Bag Earring Chain: Thrifted

If I hear music and I like it, then I will dance. I'm not shy at all (see above). I love dancing with my girls!

Candice, Mele, Ruth, Gabby and Theresa

OMG I love my gold drop clip-ons. I think they were like $2. Thrifted find baby!

Last shot before leaving shadows.

Big Love,

Falala Mele xo

Aussie Curves: Tribal

Printed Top: Thrifted $2 Skirt / City Chic Swapped / Chain Thrifted $2 / Earrings Louvisa (gifted) Shoes: Converse $40

Super quick one. 

Sunday

10:30am woke up (slept in a little because I went to sleep at 5am)

Left over potato salad for breakfast

washing clothes

car wash

groceries

cooking quiche for dinner tomorrow and pumpkin for the salad

dishes
play with Kohaku

Nice and quiet with no complaints from me or my housemates.

Didn't get a chance to pull anything fabulous together but I guess if I am going to do this challenge to the end I will most likely share some of my general OOTD stuff. This is the sorta stuff I run around in on the weekend. Comfortable and easy to chuck on and go. Gotta have my Converse shoes too!

Can't wait to see all the other ladies take on tribal. I have a feeling it's going to be a good week ;)


Big Love,


Falala Mele xo

Aussie Curves: Sparkle in Las Vegas

Hello lovely ones,

How are you all? So I'm back again with another submission for the Aussie Curves challenge. I'm stuffing up my own rotation because in my head I wanted to share all my USA holiday posts in order (see Harlem post HERE)  because that way I will actually get it done this year (fingers crossed). Since this week called for sparkle I knew what I wanted to share with you all. 

But for one moment; let us forget about the challenge so I can talk to you about someone else.

This lady is someone who I admired ever since I was a little girl. She is perhaps (and I know I'm making a big call) one of the last standing divas of my time because I love singing and when I was a little girl I would try and emulate 3 singers: Whitney, Mariah & Celine. Sadly Whitney is gone, Mariah lost her sparkle (lol thinking of her movie Glitter) so that leaves one lady standing. 

Now you must understand that I am not crazy, but I basically extended my plane ticket to head towards Las Vegas instead of Sydney after New York to see her in the flesh after I found out her show was back in Vegas. I had to let that heavenly voice bless my ears. To hear her sing for real. 

 I may blare her 'Think Twice' and 'The power of love' when I'm cleaning. 

Even though I try to belt it out with her power and finesse and even though I never will be able to do what she does, at least I can say that I saw Celine Dion and I heard her sing her songs even better than I could ever have imagined.

She is flawless, effortless, humble, warm, talented and blessed.

And I got to see all of that.

And I am blessed because of that.

So while my dress may sparkle in the photos; honestly and as cheesy and silly as this may sound......my heart sparkles because I remember the glorious melodies she shared with us on this night.

Thrifted: Chain $2 Earrings $2 Dress $20

Bag: Thrifted for $2 / Shoes: Target $30

What I wore: 
I picked up this FABULOUS sparkly number from my favourite Op Shop Mickey and Mallory (Nowra, NSW) for only $20. Jess actually said she put it aside for me because she thought I would like it. Don't you love it when shop owners/assistants get it right!

I wanted to look cool when I went to see Celine and this event took precedence over all other events. This outfit was chosen first and saved till last.
When packing for this trip I had to be sensible and pack a pair of comfortable shoes that went with a lot of outfits. So these Target wedges won out (I really do love them anyways but it sucks when you can't take everything that you want to). I kept everything else simple and let the dress do the talking.
Also had big dreams to style my hair in may different ways but I kid you not EVERY TIME we had a show on or an dinner date to meet up with others we were ALWAYS LATE. That combined with the heat (and uncooperative frizzy hair) I always ended up throwing my hair back into a bun. Boring I know, but it was reliable and slick so I will not complain about it now because that's what I had to work with ;)

 I got ready in 15 minutes! Literally ran off the strip had 2 minutes in the shower to rinse of the dirt. Throw the hair up and douse it in hairspray. Bronze the face, apply eyeliner and a lick of my favourite matte colour. Perfume, moisturiser and I'm ready to go! Ruthy decided to rock the bed hair look with her pretty Forever 21 dress that she picked up in Times Square. My sister Theresa looked adorable too but I think she is saving her post to share with you lovely ladies herself. Caesar's Palace was cool but it was basically like all the other casinos in Vegas; big, smokey, kinda tacky, packed and well used.

Big Love,


Falala Mele xo

Day 7 NYC: Harlem and Amy Ruth's

Hello Lovely Ones,

How are you all? I have been a bit slack with posting on my New York Summer Adventure because I have been busy with work and a little caught up with the Aussie Curves Challenge (see my Celebrity Copy Cat submission of Solange Knowles HERE) and weekend getaways with my lovely friends. 

But here I am again. Back to share some more of my most deliciously wonderful memories of my summer holiday in New York. This was day 7 and I made arrangements to meet up with my lovely blogger friend Daisy. I was so glad to meet up with her because everyone had such a busy schedule. Deja was flat out with school but it just so happened that the day we planned to wander around Harlem was the very day that her morning was free from classes. COOOOOOOOL!

So on our first visit to New York last year I had plans to go visit a few places to eat.

1.  Katz's Deli
2.  Grimaldi's Pizza
3.  Sylvia's Soul Food

Last year when we were wandering around Harlem we asked a few locals where Sylvia's was and if it was any good. The girl told me that Sylvia's was cool back in the day but everyone eats at Amy Ruth's now. 

So by this time it was getting late and we were all shopped out. Sadly we found the subway before Amy Ruth's so we made our way back to Manhattan before we found our soul food. 

This year however, we promised that we would find Amy Ruth's. It was even more sweeter that Daisy could meet us and have some brunch (aka chicken and waffles) before she started class for the day. It had been a whole long year since we last saw each other. Daisy was looking amazing since she made the pledge to be Fit Fab and Fierce and while we encourage each other weekly with exercise routines and praising healthy choices we promised that we would enjoy our soul food because I was on holiday and this was a special occasion for the both of us. Daisy was my first ever blogger friend and we had such an amazing time meeting her last year.....to catch up again was THE BEST! 

I love getting around with the locals especially this lovely lady. She possesses that old school class that is rare these days. Softly spoken and composed and she never seems to be bothered by anything.

"Are you gon' eat chor' coooornbread?" 

Chicken and Waffles. Hot Damn! So delicoious with maple syrup & tobasco sauce :)

Had to try Mac n Cheese with candied yams.

Smothered fried chicken with potato salad and grits.

We ate at 11. Breakfast was over and the lunch rush was starting to come in.

Seriously I was sooooooo excited to make it to Amy Ruth's. I swear I had this ridiculous chingy grin on from the moment the corn bread arrived on the table. For my sister and I, we grew up watching movies like Soul Food, Life & Friday; all with some sort of reference to food and we would drool over it and imagine how good it could really be. 

The verdict? Something so simple as fried chicken and waffles is just really yummy. It was crisp and hot and fresh and workers were friendly and the prices were reasonable too! 

After we finished our lunch, Daisy invited us to come and check out her campus at City College New York. Again all the teen memories of watching all the college frat parties and general college life came flooding back as we walked around feeling like little cool dudes as if we belonged ;)  

Honestly I guess you have to know my sister and I to not think of us as major losers (cause we kinda are). We will happily own that label because we have so much fun being genuinely impressed by silly things we watched in movies when we were younger.

What I wore: I was just extremely excited to being to going Harlem to eat some fried chicken. So amongst all the excitement I didn't get to take a proper outfit shot :(   But I can tell you what I wore.

Basic short tights for comfort, a beautiful fluro patterned top was found at Mickey and Mallory (a FABULOUS OPSHOP in the main street of Nowra) for only $3. It was too tight so I cut up the side hems so I could be comfortable when I wore it. I also wore my cute sunflower hair comb that I picked up for $3 at my new local RSPCA opshop in Mildura. Earrings from Vinnies for $2 and my sisters Converse boots that were $50.

I also got to meet one of Daisy's besties Ashleigh. 

 These ladies are all sorts of smart! Ashleigh is studying medicine while Daisy is studying law.

Girls I hope you are still dominating all your studies! I can't wait to come back and visit you guys again.

And of course the only photo that was in focus of Deja and I was the one where we were pulling funny faces.

Oh well no cool photos for the blog but loads of cool photos for my wall at home and my fridge. These are type of photos you take with your real friends.





Big Love,



Falala Mele xo

Aussie Curves: Celeb Copy Cat Solange Knowles

Hello lovely ones,

How are you all? Well I scraped in with this weeks challenge Celebrity Copy Cat only just! And by just I mean on Friday I left Mildura to go Melbourne for a weekend. At this point I had a list of about 5-7 celebrities who I'd consider a super stylish lady . I had a quick scour through the internet for images of my most favourite ladies when it comes to person styling. The first person I typed in was Solange Knowles. Even though she is my most loved style icon at the moment I couldn't find any photos that I could use (each time I found one I liked I would run to my cupboard to see if I had something I could work with.

Flash forward 2 days in Melbourne with my lovely college girls and by the time I arrived home to Mildura I noticed that a lot of the women taking part in the challenge had said they were done and ready to post. It was 5pm and I still had NOTHING! So I began to sift through blogs when I found some photos from Solange's interview with the Time Out New York magazine HERE. 

There are many reasons why I adore her personal style. I love her choice of prints, colours, afro, box braids and her ability to keep changing things up. I can strongly relate to her approach to style being an opportunity to express yourself. Some days I like dressing a little old school, classic and clean and other days I am happy to cruise around in baggy jumpers and beanies. It's about being practical and showcasing a reflection of what is important to me in my life right now and being able to wear items that make me feel beautiful, alive and vibrant. DAMN if only I had a fro. I would never straighten it. Look at how fly she is!

Special thanks to my darling sister Pulu for allowing me to wake her up the afternoon after a sleepless 3 days in Melbourne. She was cold and tired and she still managed to get these shots. 

Thanks Theresa Jean xo

Skirt :Lilly and Lou $15 / Wedges: Target $35.00 / Pink Collard Blouse:  Vinnies $4 Cardigan $6.95 SES

What I wore: 

 All found in my cupboard :) Skirt is old I picked it up at Best and Less 2 years ago I think, shoes are new and probably still on Target shelves as I type and they belong to my sister. I was soooo tempted to go out and buy something new just to make this work but thankfully I had a lot of similar items to the styling of this shoot. My glasses were a birthday gift from my friend Moala but they were a opshop/thrifted find and my lip colour is called Burnt Orange and it's a range where I pick up most of my lip colours from. It's a matt colour and you can pick them up at most chemists for under $5. Hair was left natural like Solange. No real styling or hair products. I just washed it and clipped it back.

I currently can't get enough of collared blouses. I wear them all the time because it makes me feel a little polished.

Isn't the colour just so pretty? I have also been using my Burnt Orange colour a lot lately so I combined two of my have things into this look. Solange Knowles I love your style. Let's hang out when I'm in Brooklyn ;)

So my lovely ones. Who inspires your personal style?

Big Love,

Falala Mele xo