10 months ago

It's crazy to even think that 10 months ago I turned 30. So much has changed within 10 months and I realised that I haven't even shared the pics from my 30th birthday with you all. I don't know why people freak out about turning 30....when my 30th birthday rolled around the corner it felt like another birthday. I've never really made a big deal out of birthdays and I think I wanted a birthday party last year because I was getting ready to move over to London.

I didn't want anything fancy....just a good old fashioned backyard party with family and friends. When I grew up, I attended some really good house parties....you know the kind where strangers rock up but everyone leaves knowing someone new, with a few new stories to trade with friends on Monday when errbody got back to school.

We kicked it 90 styles because that takes me back to my doe-eyed-I'm-so-innocent teen years. When friends wrote letters to each other or shared a 3-way chats on the home phone. When music was recorded off the radio and when you scrawled the name of your crush on school books and had you to wait and hope to see them around school. Those were the days.

The weather was weirdly and ridiculously cold for May and I honestly felt like we were going to freeze. Biggest shout out to my family and friends who all made the effort to dress up and perform (my friends and family performed some of their fave hits of the 90's) IT WAS THE BEST!!!

I really wanna host a summer party when I get home to my big back yard! I didn't edit these because I kind of like them as is, with all the imperfections. Eyes closed, mouths open...these are what my pics looked like back in the day anyway. I will see if I can find some of my old backyard party pics to share with y'all.

Anyways here are the pics of my beautiful people (some who drove interstate from Melbourne and Mildura and some who drove down from Sydney to surprise me). Thank you to everyone who made it possible, especially my little sister who ran around organising everything so I could try to enjoy the party. Love you.

Blue sky & sunshine

It's hard to believe that one week ago, we were on mid term break. A whole week to catch up and kick back with my ever growing London family. We're up to 8 people over here at the moment from our old college with a friend visiting at the moment and another 2 to arrive next month.

Last Wednesday my Leyton tribe went to go and visit the Human Rights Human Wrongs exhibition at the photographers gallery. It was such a beautiful exhibition because it was an extensive collection of film generated photographs and I am completely drawn to it. It's easy to be overwhelmed at the first hand historical accounts of human treachery and to think "How could we?", yet the very same thing, if not worse is still occurring today. It just put it all into perspective ya know.

I liked how this exhibition reminded me; that we are all here for a mere moment. Once our heart stops beating here....our chance to make a difference, to help, to grow is over. I left feeling committed to living an honest and purposeful life that involves doing things that help others because there are so many people today who do not have the liberty of freedom.


I also really loved seeing the We Could Be Heroes exhibition because I got to see two of Bruce Davidson's  Brooklyn Gangs photos. Emma showed me a link to these gorgeous photos from the 1980's capturing French rockabilly gangs taken by Gilles Eli Cohen and that led me towards Bruce Davidson's images so I was stoked to be able to see two of his photographs.  Go check it out!

After that we went to the Mudchute City Farm where we were blessed with the brightest blue day since moving here. It was still freezing but we had the best time wandering around feeding the animals. We shared a lovely meal at the cafe (even though it was really busy and took a look time) and just enjoyed the company.

Worn / Vintage Cowboys Sweater / New Look Jeggings / Converse / Thrifted Gola Bag

Sister wore / Thrifted Fresh Jumper & Collar Shirt / New Look Jeggings / Converse / Scarf 

Big love,

Falala Mele

Cut for Evans

My Look /  Dress -Made it / Boots-New Look  / Makeup NYX on the eyes / Peach Lips

Met these blogger beauties Nancy, Rosie & Becky. 

Two weeks ago I attended my very first unofficial blogger event in London. Even though I've been off the blogger radar for a while, it was nice to dress up, go out and meet new friends. Since arriving in London we've been extremely busy basically setting up our lives and doing boring stuff like work and we're usually buggered by the time the weekend hits.

So after randomly bumping into Callie at the Portobello Road Markets in Nottinghill, she invited us to come and check out the new Cut for Evans range launch at the Marble Arch store. We were running late and we didn't know what to expect, but we were surprised at the turn out of wonderful bloggers, fun music and flowing drinks.

My highlight was meeting the lovely bloggers, I recognised a few from Full Figure Fashion Week in NYC. It's also so nice to know that there are real things happening in Plus Sized Fashion here.


It's pretty exciting to witness young female designers have their dreams recognised. I'll applaud Evans on providing that opportunity and for being open to new ideas when it comes to plus size fashion. They definitely hosted a fun evening. My fave piece was the Purple Digital Print Bomber Jacket and that retails for 55 pound. Be sure to check out the collection and shop it HERE.

Managed to snap a quick shot of Ellie who designed half of the collection. Doesn't Cheryl Fergison look glam?

Doing those cool 'robot-arm' poses

Meeting these beautiful blogger babes <3 Picture from @daniellevanier

 Big Love,

Falala Mele

Beautiful people: CJ Wello

Our beautiful Koori girls sang and brought down the house. Keep an eye out for them in the future.

The visionaries of Waminda and current CEO of Waminda Faye Worner.

Proudest moment watching my best friend shine <3 You're the bomb sis!

Two months ago I was invited to attend the Waminda Ball that was held to celebrate 30 years of service to the Aboriginal Women on the South Coast in New South Wales. I've known of Waminda for as long as I can remember because my best friend's mother had worked with them for years.

It was a familiar office that we'd call into when walking through town. We would see the same faces and feel that sense of community when walking through the door. When you're a young Polynesian girl growing up in a predominately white community, you find community in a sense of familiarity and belonging and this was one of those places for me. 

As I've grown up and gone out into the world, I've had the good fortune of possessing a loving family, a hefty collection of true friends and a chance to travel and see outside of my community. I seem to come and go on the regular and upon my return I notice that too many things remain the same. Same jobs, same pubs, same people, same story; so much so that I could only ever seem to stomach the place for a good couple of months before getting itchy feet again. 

But when I arrived home late last year, I was eager to be back to rejoin with my Dead or Deadly Sisters. Dead or deadly is a well-being program offered by Waminda to Indigenous women in the community. This program taught me so much about health and well-being. It taught me how to move my body, how to increase strength and how to grow and encourage others to train and make healthier choices. 

Not only do Waminda offer programs led out by local Indigenous women but they are also committed to training their workers. These women are valued and it shows as they are paid above award wages. Waminda offers a whole bunch of SERVICES to the community and are continually growing every year. Services like this don't just pop up over night. Services like this are rare and I'm so proud of the women who continue to pursue the dreams of their Elders who envisioned a service to help Koori women thrive.

It is something that I am honoured to have witnessed. I've watched women walk through the doors and have been transformed mentally into a whole new vibrant life force. I was so caught up in my passion for this particular program that I failed to notice the metamorphosis of my very own best friend. 

The once well-known 'shy girl' -who asked if I could attend school Koori camp with her because she didn't know anyone else- was standing up in front of a room full of Elders and politicians proudly directing guests to their seats. I don't know how the hell I missed this one.

CJ was far from the quiet Koori girl who would only write me letters with the initials of the boys that she loved inside them. She had outgrown the girl who'd preferred not to walk to the school canteen alone. 

She was exactly what she was meant to be. 

A strong, knowledgable woman of culture and apart of Australia's future. She is driving towards closing the gaps of inequity for her people. She is a special soul sister and I'm thankful I was home to witness this. To Waminda and every woman who is apart of this service, thank you. 

I can't wait to see your achievements in the next 30 years.

Big Love,

Mele Falala

Shein + Jadey

A few weekends ago I met up with my wonderful college friends to celebrate Jadey's lovely little bundle of joy. Shein and Jadey met whilst studying nursing and they've basically been inseparable ever since. Jadey is such a loyal and giving friend and she was so nice to allow my sister and I host the event before we moved to London and we thought it'd be fun to arrive with baby bumps of our own.

Jadey loves all things novelty so we picked up anything that was fun or cute. All of our friends were given an item of food to bring or to organise a game and it meant that everyone contributed to a relatively stress free baby shower.

Worn: Thrifted skirt (it was a tiny waisted dress and I chopped it because I wanted it so
badly! Worn with my thrifted floral blouse and a Kmart tee. Probably still in store now.
Also my thrifted vintage earrings found in original package and only 20 cents. WINNING!

Time to put the diapers on!

Pauly was an awesome games host. Guess the baby food flavour?

It was so lovely to catch up with our college friends. Such fun crammed into a few hours and it's something we need to do more of. Lol, so who's having the next baby??

Big love,

Falala Mele