The Silver LiningAztec in Broome
Posted on June 13, 2013
Wearing – American Apparel t-shirt, Sparkle & Fade skirt, Gorman sandals, Profound Aesthetic cap, ring and metal bracelets from So We Are, Freckle & Co tassel bracelet
If you look really closely you can see I sunburnt my nose! I don’t know about you, but sometimes as painful as they are, I often cherish my little sunburns as signs of a great weekend just passed. Rach said she was itching her mozzie bites fondly on their return to Perth! (And yes, I do not condone getting sunburnt and heartily endorse the whole slip-slop-slap thing, but I think I missed a patch on my nose!)
I’m absolutely digging the whole neo-90s look that’s sweeping the UK at present. I’m slightly obsessed with the crop-top-pencil-skirt silhouette, updated with new prints and colours. And can you blame me for adding neon into the mix? I bought this skirt from Urban Outfitters in London and it is oh. so. comfortable. The downside to comfort? No external holding in of the gut so I have to remind myself not to carb load just before wearing this one! But hey, who cares – I love it!
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Sunrise at Kooljaman
Posted on June 11, 2013
There is definitely something energising and invigorating about the air in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Not only did my niggling foot injury miraculously improve whilst being there, but all four of us suddenly became morning people! Waking up before sunrise in order to catch those first orange rays on our faces is something most of us would never even contemplate doing in the city. Yet there we were, awake as anything, eager to watch the spectacular show of natural beauty as the sun made its glorious arrival for the day.
We topped off the sunrise with a beautiful breakfast, prepared on the balcony overlooking the ocean and the trees. Sarah had brought along lots of supplies, so this morning it was to be a scrumptious feast of French toast doused with honey, strawberries and mint. What a treat to be able to spend time with family and friends in the most beautiful of places – the wilderness, the sounds of the ocean, the laughter of great company.
Do come explore this corner of the earth – its raw beauty will change you, I guarantee it.
Kooljaman at Cape Leveque / Accommodation / (08) 9192 4970 / reservations@kooljaman.com.au
Photos by Jinn
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Cape Leveque
Posted on June 10, 2013
Is this the Broome edition or what?! I suppose I’ve been up here for about three months now, but to be honest it’s been more about work and settling in, but now that’s well and truly done let me show you what we’ve been up to.
The Kimberley is absolutely nothing like the southern half of Western Australia, coming up here you really feel like you’re in a completely different country. It’s so much better than I expected it to be, and for a professed city-girl I have found myself totally falling for the sheer wildness of the land and just how alive it feels. The rich soil, the roiling waves, the calls of the wildlife, the trees reaching for the skies, the scintillating sunsets that show you colours you never knew existed.
One place that must be seen to be believed is Cape Leveque, 220km north of Broome, right on the tip of the Dampier Peninsula. Jinn, Jeff, Rach and I hopped into the four-wheel drive and at first I was like, “You call this a road?” but very quickly threw fear and trepidation out the window and embraced the joy and freedom of driving over those crazy bumpy trails, feeling almost indestructible. I must have had a a wild look in my eyes and a wickedly wide grin on my face for much of the drive which possibly got even wider on our arrival when I realised we’d reached a coastal paradise.
Leave Broome behind, hire a four-wheel drive (or find yourself a friend with one), and get up that bumpy-as-hell dirt road to Cape Leveque, also known as Kooljaman in the local Bardi language. Bring a fishing rod, your bathers, some Matso’s mango beer, plenty of sunscreen and insect repellent, and most of all throw your worries and preoccupations into that blue water and breathe in your fill of the freshest air on the planet.
Photos by Jinn
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Welcome Jamie!
Posted on June 7, 2013
Back to Planet Perth! (Haw haw so not funny…) After the crazy amazing time we had overseas, it was also great to get back home to see my beloved folks before I headed back up to Broome for another three months. And what better way to spend that time but over a relaxed and scrumptious meal at the newly opened Jamie’s Italian at 140william in the CBD.
I love the vibe of the place, I badly want those pendant lights in my own kitchen, and it has a nice cheery hustle and bustle to the place, not pretentious at all. The place was packed (people line up for hours just to have dinner here) so I expected our food to take a while – but it didn’t! We started off with a few share platters, each overflowing with bundles of goodness. Yummy crisply fried morsels of fish, tasty cockles, aubergine caponata, layers of prosciutto and bresaola…Mmmm…Yeah, there are no pictures of them because we kind of ate them all before anyone had the chance to get their cameras out!
The pastas were just as tasty. I may have sabotaged myself by ordering the wild rabbit tagliolini. I always order rabbit thinking, “Ooh! That sounds rather exotic” and only remember that I don’t really like it when I take a bite. That said, the pasta itself was perfectly cooked and delicious. I’d have to say the winning pasta dish was Ericius’ prawn linguine. Al dente pasta coated with an incredible tomatoey-garlicky sauce. Tasty to the max!
Thanks Jamie for bringing your signature honest but O-M-G-so-delicious food to Perth! Oh, and the icing on the cake? The awesome Kyle Hughes-Odgers mural on the wall as you enter the restaurant. Read more about this guy and his art, he is on the up-up-up!
Jamie’s Italian Perth / 140 William Street, Perth CBD / 9363 8600 / Monday – Sunday 11:00am to 10:30pm
Photos by Jinn
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La tour Eiffel
Posted on June 6, 2013
Wearing – Sessun dress, Tintoretto stockings, Madewell boots, Freckle & co earrings
One of my absolute favourite cold weather colours is mustard. I just love the way it works so well with other earthy tones as well as a great red lipstick. I’d been dying to wear this cute little Sessun number since I bought it in New York last year! I waited and waited through the Australian spring and summer only to find out that work was sending me to the Kimberley for six months, the land of eternal summers! There went all my dreams of styling my 50kg of NYC-acquired clothing…Yeah, first world problems, I know! So I jumped at the chance to bring some of it halfway across the globe to France with us on our recent holiday. 🙂
These amazing suede tassel earrings were handmade by none other than my super-talented sis-in-law Rachel from Freckle & co. Be sure to take a look at her other equally pretty creations on her Etsy site, the perfect destination to find that special and unique gift!
Photos by Jinn
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Jardin des Tuileries
Posted on June 5, 2013
Wearing – Madewell shirt, Comptoir des Cotonniers jacket, Orla Kiely trousers, Camper shoes, Kate Spade necklace
The French people have seriously got the whole “aesthetically pleasing” thing down pat. Take this incredible Tuileries Garden which is so perfectly symmetrical that it’s hard to believe that these are trees and not some manmade structure! We wandered here after spending an amazing day at Musee d’Orsay which houses a vast collection of Impressionist and post-Impressionist art (the largest in the world in fact!) including paintings by Monet, Cezanne, Degas and Van Gogh just to namedrop a few.
I absolutely had to have this Chanel-esque boucle jacket. I had so much fun shopping at Comptoir des Cotonniers where I found it! The shopping attendant was so amazing, if I even simply lingered on a piece of clothing for a moment, I’d turn around to find he’d already put it in the change room for me – and in the correct size! Impressive!
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The green green grass
Posted on May 31, 2013
The beauty of the Breton countryside completely took my breath away during our drive from Pointe Saint-Mathieu to Paimpol. The allure of the lush greenery and meandering hills were such a vast contrast to the sunbaked ochre desert plains my eyes are currently accustomed to. Once we’d stopped freaking out about driving on the “wrong side of the road” we really began to enjoy the peaceful scenery. Occasional golden canola fields punctuated the endless green with their surprising pops of happy yellow, and tiny towns whizzed by on the way to our destination.
I have to mention that our experience with our GPS was very hit-and-miss. We were on more than one occasion led down a lane that was clearly through someone’s private albeit very pretty farm and also had to very scarily reverse out an unbelievably narrow street when we directed straight into a dead end. Good one GPS. I wasn’t aware there was a “scenic route” option!
That aside, I would highly recommend staying at Pondervann, a lovely family-owned bread-&-breakfast in Paimpol. The hotel is situated on a large plot of land with its own stream, vegie patch, and friendly dog! Make sure you have a good set of muscles if you’re staying on the top floor as, like many French hotels, there is no elevator! (Thanks Jinn, my muscle man!) Interestingly we found a tiny piece of home in the B&B’s garden – a gum tree! See if you can spot it in the pictures…
Photos by Jinn
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What a beautiful day
Posted on May 30, 2013
Yes, yes it was. Such a beautiful day. One of my dearest and best friends recently got married and the happiness, love and spontaneity that flowed throughout the day was just unbelievable – it felt like everyone was simply swept up in it and then ran with it! The ceremony was held in the amazing Notre-Dame de Bonne-Nouvelle cathedral in Paimpol. I had the absolute honour and pleasure of singing for the service, and to be honest I just didn’t want to stop! The acoustics were incredible and made my voice resonate and soar high above the people, almost weightless.
Don’t you love how there seems to be a castle or manor just about on every corner in France? Well, the beautiful ceremony was followed up by a righteous shindig at the Manoir de la Noe Verte, where we partied on down til the early hours of the morning. The reception was a great mix of Chinese and French cultures. Once the champagne was flowing and the dance floor warmed up, there took place a number of quaint French folk dances amidst a lot of raucous yuuuuuum-SENGing! For those of you who are not familiar with it, “Yum seng!” essentially means “Cheers!”, and the aim of the game is for your table to yell it for longer and louder than any of the other tables. It has something to do with more prosperity, longevity and fertility for the bride and groom, and of course the pride and glory of being the all-conquering winner. Asians love anything to do with competition.
Other highlights? The real-life croquembouche wedding cake that arrived via paddle boat (I kid you not), Danielle and Yann’s steamy salsa wedding dance, and the impromptu crazy karaoke which deteriorated so much that a certain wedding guest may or may not have lost all his clothing by the end of it!
It was the wedding of the century! A beautiful bride and groom, great food, great company, dancing galore, all in the presence of beloved family and friends.
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Pointe Saint-Mathieu
Posted on May 29, 2013
Wearing – Karen Walker t-shirt (on sale at Anthropologie!), ASOS overalls, Madewell sunglasses, Fossil bangle (similar), Donelli shoes (similar)
What he’s wearing – Urban Outfitters jumper and jeans
Our first destination in France was the incredibly picturesque and tiny little village, Pointe Saint-Mathieu, perched right atop part of the spectacular coastline of Brittany. It gets its name from an old abbey in the centre of the village (sixth century according to legend) which was said to have housed the skull of the apostle Matthew until it was lost in the ocean off the point. After the icy cold of Glasgow it was nice to get out into some sunshine. Look! No coat!
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Rest and be thankful
Posted on May 28, 2013
During our time in Glasgow, Steve kindly took a day off work and whisked us off for a wonderful drive through the Scottish countryside. Apparently it’s springtime in the northern hemisphere but it’s not exactly “springtime” as we would know it in Australia. It was bitingly cold! Hence the lack of people in the photos – it wasn’t really “posing weather”!
The landscape and scenery are simply spectacular however, and just barely out of Glasgow too. We drove past the famous Loch Lomond and stopped off at the perfectly named Rest and Be Thankful as well as Gare Loch and Loch Long. The ride was accompanied by this great driving playlist that Steve put together for us. It was one of those amazing days on holiday that we will always remember.
– Jinn
The Silver Lining 