Yayoi Kusama 'Life is the Heart of a Rainbow' at QAGOMA

 On the weekend I had the absolute pleasure of being the guest of the fabulous QAGOMA in Brisbane for the Yayoi Kusma 'Life is the Heart of a Rainbow' exhibition opening. To say that this was the most incredible exhibition I have ever seen is an understatement. I have loved Yayoi Kusama actually since first discovering her work at the very same gallery in 2002 at the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (well when it was just the Queensland Art Gallery as GOMA opened in 2006) when I went to Brisbane on my own version of a 'schoolies' trip (schoolies is an end of high school giant party typically on the beach, like spring break in the USA I guess. My version was more visiting art galleries and markets whilst staying with friends than drinking too many UDL's before passing out on the beach). So to me having that very gallery where I discovered the artist for the first time as an 18 year old invite me to the opening and fly me up was mind blowing, a full circle moment, honestly 18 year old me would not believe it for a minute.

 Seeing 'I want to Love on the Festival Night' in person was everything to me.

 My friends Lucinda and Haidee checking out the art at the media preview.

 I wore my new Mireia Ruiz for Gorman dress and Twoobs for Gorman shoes to the media preview.

 'The Spirit of the Pumpkins Descended to the Heavens'

 'Dots Obsession'

 This is the 3rd time I have now seen 'The Obliteration Room' at the gallery in Brisbane, the first time was all those years ago as an 18 year old.

 I got to meet the fabulous Brisbane creative identity Rachel Burke from imakestagram 

 We were a bit drunk from free champers at the opening night and kept setting of the door sensors for the 'Soul Under The Moon' piece and didn't get to experience the full sensory overload. An excuse to revisit before the exhibition closes I think.

 'My Eternal Soul' is a series where the artist challenged herself to make a series of 100 canvasses over an 18 month period in 2009-2010. Once the challenge was over she decided to keep working at the same pace and has continued to paint in this way ever since with her paintings now culminating in the high hundreds.

 I wore my rainbow outfit from my last blog post to the opening night in honour of the rainbow theme of the exhibition.

 'Experiments in Japan' from her return from NYC to Japan in the 1970's.

 I was put up in the fabulous Art Series Hotel in Spring Hill called The Johnson. Upon checking in I was informed they had an award winning pool so I immediately knew what I was going to do after the mornings media preview - champers and uber eats by the pool of course!

Outfit details
Scarf Julie White
Fruit Bikini Mireia Ruiz for Gorman
Sarong Ken Done I bought from his old Melbourne Central store with my xmas money when I was 13 because I saw it in Girlfriend magazine
Sunnies Tsumori Chisato
Sandals Twoobs for Gorman

 Living the life!

 My Brissy bff Lucinda and I own matching Barbie togs (although mine were from Myer Miss Shop and hers from Big W) so we decided to do an impromptu photoshoot with the inflatable flamingo my sister leant me for the trip.

 Barbie Girls!

Not content with one fabulous day by the pool. the next day Lucinda, Felix the Flamingo and I decided to spend the day in the pool at Lucinda's parents amazing apartment. Honestly I had the most amazing trip up to Brisbane, as I always do, it's one of my favourite cities to visit in Australia and I can't recommend a trip up to visit the gallery and enjoy the sunshine enough.

Yayoi Kusma 'Life is the Heart of a Rainbow' is on at QAGOMA until 11 Feb 2018 and has Free Entry!

Big Kid at Heart

 Luna Park in St Kilda has always been one of my favourite places. I have fond memories of riding the Scenic Railway rollercoaster with my mum as a kid and infamously (in our family) proclaiming "this is radical mum!" as we went down the first drop as she sat there quietly terrified and fuming that my dad had chickened out of going on and left it up to her. Sadly the Scenic Railway wasn't open yesterday when we were there otherwise I would have gone on as it is one of my all time favourite rides in the world. I love how rickety it is and that it is still operated by someone standing in the middle of all the carriages to manually apply the breaks. It was built in 1912 and is the oldest continuously operating roller coaster in the world, which makes it pretty bloody cool in my opinion.

Outfit details
Pink coat Savers
Gingham dress Naomi Murrell
Pink top Uniqlo Heattech
Crossbody bag Sammy Dress
Pink flatforms Gorman
Earrings Kitsu
Pink flower ring & red Love ring Paris Kids Harajuku
Bangle Sly Pony
Pink knickers pin Creepy Gals

Every expert on thrifting and shopping vintage always has the same advice - don't go in looking for a specific item because you will leave empty handed, always go in with an open mind. Now I don't actually think that is terrible advice but this pink coat proves that it's not always true. I went to the coat section of my local Savers looking for a pink coat and this was sitting there in my exact size as if it were waiting for me. It definitely was an opshopping miracle, but it goes to show that if you are after that specific piece you may very well be lucky like I was. It was also something ridiculously cheap like $7. Such a lucky find!

Pink coat Savers

Never going to stop wearing these earrings!

Earrings Kitsu

This pin is basically the best pin to ever exist!

Pink knickers pin Creepy Gals

Naomi Murrell is an Adelaide based label who had a pop up shop a couple of months ago at the now defunct Limedrop store. I picked up this super cute gingham dress there and have been wearing it all winter. I have always been obsessed with anything in classic black and white gingham, and I think paired back with pink it looks super cute.

Gingham dress Naomi Murrell

I am so into crossbody bags at the moment, and this one is just so adorable with it's red hearts and cute gold chain straps. J'adore!

Crossbody bag Sammy Dress

These Gorman flatforms have been on my wish list for so long. They were in a lookbook released last year but then never seemed to go into any stores. There were lots of rumours on Gorman buy sell facebook pages as to why this was the case, apparently the pink section was very easily scuffed, which doesn't really bother me all that much. It appears they went into stores very briefly before being recalled and on one of those same Gorman buy sell facebook pages recently I saw someone post a pair for sale and I snapped them up right away. Obviously it would be great if they don't and up scuffing but they're so beautiful I don't actually mind.

Pink flatforms Gorman

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Pink Snow

Yes it really does snow in Australia! I know it's hard to believe maybe for my international readers but Australia isn't permanently in the midst of a heat wave, we do actually have four seasons and in my part of Oz we have a pretty chilly winter. It doesn't snow in the heart of Melbourne but you can drive for about two hours and find yourself in the midst of a beautiful white wonderland depending on the direction you go. My friend and I headed to Mount Donna Buang to see the snow for ourselves and had a pretty fun time making snow balls and throwing them at each other. The snow season is sadly now over for another year, but I think I'm going to try and make the effort to go every year from now on.

Outfit details
Pink Bomber Jacket Show Time in Sydney's Chinatown (the mall housing this boutique is AMAZING and my number one spot to shop in Sydney!)
Pink Turtle Neck Jumper Gorman
Stripe Glitter Dress Gorman
Pink Cableknit Tights Obus
Pink Glitter Boots Golden Ponies
Pink Pom Pom Beanie Gorman
Pink Earmuffs Daiso
Pink Gloves H&M
Pink Backpack Ebay
Pink Pom Pom Charm Seed Heritage
Pink Flower Bangle Materiel

I couldn't be wearing more pink if I tried!

Pink Pom Pom Beanie Gorman
Pink Earmuffs Daiso

My sister gave me these super kawaii gloves from H&M. I don't recommend making snowballs with them though as they're not waterproof and your hands will freeze like mine did!

Pink Gloves H&M
Pink Flower Bangle Materiel

Truth be told these are not the best boots to be wearing in the snow, I actually changed into a pair of gumboots I brought along after we shot these photos. But they look super duper freaking awesome!

Pink Cableknit Tights Obus
Pink Glitter Boots Golden Ponies

My love of backpacks never dies!

Pink Backpack Ebay
Pink Pom Pom Charm Seed Heritage

This jacket is all kinds of amazing. Those little patches also say "Leave Me Alone" - how freaking perfect is that?

Pink Bomber Jacket Show Time in Sydney's Chinatown

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Purple Rain

This year is my 10th year of blogging, which is actually crazy to me. I can't believe that it was 10 years ago, on September 1 2006 that I began this blog. As the anniversary draws ever closer I feel myself reflecting on what an incredible 10 years it has been, although it really doesn't feel like it's been 10 years since I moved to Tokyo and had the best year of my life. The years following saw my blog grow in ways I never expected nor could have imagined when I first began, and my life change in so many ways over the years, which is especially true of the past year. There's been so much change recently that I have been neglecting my blog, but I'm hoping to change that now and post more frequently. These photos were actually taken over a month ago but the outfit is still a firm favourite. I love all the purple hues that bring the look together.

Outfit details
Denim jacket Vintage from W♡C Harajuku
Dress House of Holland
Tights old season City Chic
Flatform shoes Gorman
Backpack A shop in Noosa
Earrings ASOS
Bangle McKean Studio Tokyo City Bangle

I actually wanted this dress for ages, as I actually saw it in one of House of Holland's Tokyo stockists late last year but they only had size 8 in store. I finally took the plunge and bought it when ASOS had a sale around Easter. So yeah I've had it a little while now but only just getting around to blogging it.

Dress House of Holland

I'm slowly adding patches to my vintage denim jacket I bought in Tokyo. Can't wait until it's fully covered.
Denim jacket Vintage from W♡C Harajuku
Patches Vintage from Tokyo, Skinnydip via ASOS, Ohh Deer via ASOS, Save Yourself Shop

I got my first ever tattoo recently by my friend Tessa, an apprentice tattooist doing amazing work. I feel bad that all I wanted was a small love heart on my index finger when her beautiful botanical flowers are where it's at, but who knows I may still decide to get one of those, but for now I am content with my cute little love heart, a nice reminder to love myself after the tough couple of months I've had. Btw how awesome are my pom pom eyelashes by Shu Umera I picked up in Tokyo?

Tattoo Tessa Claire
Earrings ASOS

I adore this Tokyo bangle by Sydney design dyo McKean Studio. It features all my favourite elements of Tokyo, from swan boats to Tokyo Tower and Mt Fuji. Wearing it brings back so many fond memories of my favourite city in the world.

Bangle McKean Studio Tokyo City Bangle

These Elke Kramer x Gorman collaboration flatforms are just so freaking incredible. Purchasing them was a no brainer. It started to rain at this point in the mini #ootd photo shoot so please excuse the droplets of water - not ideal or professional blogger looking at all.

Flatform shoes Gorman

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Picnic at Hanging Rock

Last weekend I went on an amazing road trip with a guy from tinder (lol) down to the Macedon Ranges, staying in the nicest hotel room I think I've ever stayed in as it had a huge spa with an amazing view out over the mountains which you can see over on my instagram. The next day we woke up and got brunch in Woodend before making our way over to Hanging Rock for the day. I was still a little sick from my bout of glandular fever which had flared up my asthma so I was only able to climb up to the halfway point but that was beautiful enough. I wore my new (to me) Kuwaii dress from the kinda recent Magic Designer Sale which I thought would look stunning beside the rock formations for my photos, and I was right!

Outfit details

Dress Kuwaii

Pink leather jacket Gorman

Pink skivvy Uniqlo Heattech

Earrings Kitsu

Navy tights City Chic

Pink backpack ASOS

Pink brogues Topshop

I got so many compliments in the town that day, I forget sometimes that my extreme pink matchy matchy style stands out in the sea of black and grey that everyone in the world seems to wear. Give me bright colours any day!

I felt so free! It's so nice to see some nature every once in a while.

Not going to lie, kinda vibing myself without glasses recently.

Earrings Kitsu

Pink pom pom Kmart but it broke so my friend Jack Mannix gave me a safety pin from his ear #punkrock

Pink backpack ASOS

I've been a fan of McKean Studio's work for a while and had been waiting for them to release a Tokyo version of their city bangles, so when they finally did and it included my favourite things in the word - swan boats - in a pastel purple'y pink I just had to buy it. It's so freaking awesome!

Pink waves ring Frapbois Tokyo
Pink flower ring Paris Kids Harajuku
Bangle McKean Studio Tokyo City Bangle

I've worn these shoes to death!

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