As I mentioned in yesterday's post, it was my little sister's birthday on Monday, and so Monday night I took her out to dinner at the Como Hotel. I was actually pleasantly surprised, it was quite a bit better than the standard pub fare. I had shitake mushroom and three cheese ravioli, YUM.

Now I am relaxing with season 1 of America's Next Top Model and Facebook chat to keep me company. Have a good day!

x

Just some photos from around my apartment. I have been living here for just over a year now, and been through quite a few roommate changes (gaining two in a year!). These are my favourite - and cleanest - parts of my place.

Hello! This is a new little feature on the blog. I say that now, but we will see. I have a habit of starting amazing! new! features! on my blog and then forgetting about them two weeks later. But I thought I would see how this goes. This is a quite mellow playlist for the long weekend (in Australia). Hope you enjoy!

Nick Lowe - Cruel to be Kind


Wilco - cover of Thirteen (originally by Big Star)


The Flaming Lips - She Don't Use Jelly

Hello! This has been an insane week. I was so stressed out for most of it (it's production week for the uni newspaper, and two of my units relate to that so a heap of assignments were due) and have had the oddest sleeping pattern, so I feel disorientated and grumpy most of the time. However, yesterday the photo editors of the uni paper asked me to take some photos at the Charles Hotel Comedy Lounge, which was definitely a perk! It was hilarious and I'll definitely be going back (but I doubt I will be treated as nicely as I was when lugging around a huge SLR camera!). And I found out today that one of the photos made it into the paper, so yay!

I didn't get to see Date Night earlier this week, so I'm off to see it tonight. This is what I wore. The photos are really blurry for some reason.


My week has definitely improved so fingers crossed the weekend is good too, a long weekend is very welcome!

x

p.s In my opinion, the best two comedians last night were Michael Burke and Ben Russell. And another guy! But I can't remember his name! Or be bothered to go and check my ultra-organised journalist checklist which is names scribbled on the back of a poster in black texta! Anyway check them out if you have the chance. Although I think that was Ben Russell's last show before he goes to Chicago. So... good if you're in Chicago, not so much if you're in Perth....

I have to admit that I've never been a huge fan of streetstyle sites. That's not to say that I don't find them inspiring, but I'm not a devoted disciple of The Sartorialist or Facehunter or anything like that. However, I found The Streethearts (via this post from The Clothes Horse) and the style of these girls (and guys!) is amazing.

Do you read any street style blogs?

x

Hello! This is my new dress from pineapple mint on Etsy. I love it! It's a little big so I can't wear it without a belt, but the print is amazing. It reminds me of little owls and is so insanely comfortable, as comfortable as wearing a snuggie maybe. I never wear red and in the past few months I have acquired about three red dresses. Why? I'm sure there is some symbolism but, eh.

I did need some comfort because I had a pretty bad morning at uni. So I went to Garden City and found possibly the most cheer-inducing shoes in existence. They will get their own post later on!


Tonight I'm going to see Date Night. I love Tina Fey and Steve Carrell so I really, really want it to be good but my expectations aren't very high. Has anyone seen it?

Bye for now!

x

♥ I went to see my sister play keyboards for the UWA pantomime, called Sex, Drugs and the Holy Grail. It was not as horrible as anticipated! In fact, I actually laughed! Out loud! And did not shoot myself in the face at the idea of audience participation! It's finished now, but I would recommend going to one if you live in Perth. Very, very funny.

♥ I made my first sale for Louise & James! Remember you can get a 15% discount with the code GINTEACUP15, until this Thursday. Also, I found a bunch of new stock to go in the shop. It is rad.

♥ My friend Renee and I got up at three in the morning on Sunday to have a stall (or, more accurately, a car boot) at the Melville Markets. My wardrobe breathed a sigh of relief when I got rid of five boxes of stuff. It was a little bit heartbreaking pricing it at about two dollars, but it needed to go. We didn't do too badly, but... NEVER. AGAIN. Also, I am SORRY but what is it about Melville Markets that brings out the cray-cray?

♥ I handed in my first feature article for the year. It was on Perth fashion and I got to talk to Claire from Harbourmaster, and the founder of the Unwrapped markets in Perth. It was really interesting to hear the perspectives on Perth fashion, especially from Claire as she lives in Melbourne now. Would you guys be interested in seeing the article?

♥ I got sent home sick from work, so slept for about five hours and then bought a stack of magazines to amuse myself. Booo.

♥ This wasn't last week, I think it was the week before, but I saw Kick-Ass at the cinemas and absolutely loved it. It was as if Quentin Tarantino did a superhero movie but with crazy cool nine year olds instead of Uma Thurman. And usually I am NOT a fan of Nic Cage but he was awesome in this.

Next time, on Gin in a Teacup...

♥ Will Tara earn enough money to go to the best Splendour in the Grass festival ever?

♥ Will Tara be able to tear herself away from reading The Dairi Burger and actually get on with important things, like assignments and cleaning and actually leaving the house?

♥ And finally, will she get crushed by the massive pile of assignments that threaten to topple over and spell her inevitable doom? Keep watching, same time, same bat channel.

x

{EDIT: I went through and actually put the links in to all the amazing sites/people I mentioned.}

Hello! Just letting you know that my vintage shop, Louise & James, is up and running!

                                                   
I have probably mentioned before on this blog that I was a huge fan of the Babysitters Club series when I was younger. I started off with the Little Sister series (with Karen Brewster, GEEZ she was annoying) and then graduated on to the oh-so-grown-up BSC series. Although I was most like Mary Anne - without the overbearing father, but with all the shyness, awkwardness and with zero fashion sense - but my favourite by far was the sophisticated ex-NYCer, Stacey. I think I even went through a phase of dotting my i's with hearts, like she did, such was my dedication.

So, I was very excited to see that Ann M. Martin was not only writing a prequel to the Babysitters Club series, but also re-releasing all the old books! While the books do have some unintentionally hilarious scenes and dialogue (remember when they decided that they would say "chilly" instead of cool?), they had a message that I probably didn't realise at the time, instead flicking to Claudia and Stacey's outfit descriptions. A lot of young adult books today are written by ex-reality stars, about being heiresses or rich private school kids. The Babysitters Club was started by Kristy to make some money after she couldn't find another job - as I'm sure you remember, as it was mentioned about five times in every book. However much it might have seemed unattainable, a twelve year old starting her own business is pretty inspiring and I think that now, a lot of twelve year olds could handle it. Very chilly indeed.

And although when I look back, the books were almost overwhelmingly wholesome (even more so than a High School Musical movie), when you read stuff in the news about twelve year olds sexting and people making child-sized condoms, there is something quite comforting about reading books where the biggest problem is asking a boy to the dance, or having a friend turn into a snob. And it's nice that everything can be resolved in 129 pages.

Were you a fan when you were younger? What do you think of the re-relase?

x

Or, the post in which I give my mum a heart attack. I have money in my savings account, mum, I swear! This is some stuff that I have bought from around the internet lately.

Drown "Prism" earrings from Alegorie

The lovely Alicia from Sea of Ghosts posted these on her blog a little while ago (she designed them and makes them) and I was smitten. I was waiting for the pre-order date to come around, and was stressed that they would sell out straight away. Alicia assured me that the earrings were made after all pre-order requests were received, and so I was a happy little clam. I can't WAIT for them to arrive, usually my jewellery is limited to the Diva/Sportsgirl collections so it is nice to get some "grown up" jewellery. Hopefully they will make me look as gorgeous as the model in the campaign!

Rodarte for Target Ochre Tulle Dress


This is actually my first ever eBay purchase! I'm a little nervous about it, reassuring eBay success stories would be very welcome... I guess the secret to getting those limited edition, designer collaboration, Target collections is to search for them months after the hype for the collection has died down... that's my method anyway. I am particularly stoked because I found this picture of Natalie Portman wearing the same dress. Oh yeah.

Vintage 1960s dress from pineapplemint


I found another fantastic vintage shop on Etsy (write-up coming soon!) and I bought this dress after eyeing it off for ages. The owner of the shop is so lovely, she upgraded my shipping for free even though I got the dress on sale! So nice when people do things like that.

I also bought a dirndl from Keiko Lynn, one of her own that she was selling through Postlapsaria, but sadly I wildly understimated the size of my bust.To add insult to injury, it zips up so there is no way it will fit! So, my sister got lucky and got a beautiful dress for free.

And, in my defence of buying all this stuff, it has been cold and rainy in Perth (FINALLY! Hello winter!) so I have had no inclination to go outside! Ah, internet, let's never leave each other.

x

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{this post is NOT sponsored by or affiliated with Sportsgirl or Kim Ellery. Thanks!}

♥ The Calivintage dress from Modcloth is absolutely gorgeous, and I love the accompanying interview with her as well. I am quite interested to know about my favourite bloggers so I find their interviews really quite fascinating.

♥ I first found Mademoiselle Robot through this interview she did with Matthew Gray Gubler (sigh! I have been watching a lot of Criminal Minds these past few days while I get over a cold) but have fallen in love with the whole blog. If you haven't read it already, I'm sure you would love it too.

♥ Speaking of Criminal Minds, if you want to watch from the first season you might enjoy this...


♥ I always love finding Perth fashion blogs, and one that I really enjoy is Hug-sized. Lisa has a very cute style and mixes chain-store finds, quirky accessories and vintage very well.

♥ I really want to try this exercise that Miss Corrine, Miss Peregrin and Alex from Shut Up, Vita have written about - a stocktake of your wardrobe, which seems to end in either working out what you need to add to your wardrobe, or marvelling at all the stuff you've accumulated over the years.

♥ I love the Miu Miu shoes featured in this post by Tavi from Style Rookie. The other two "Miu Miu still life" posts are here and here.

♥ Super Kawaii Mama is holding a competition to win a dress made by Vitae Clothing, in Australia's first Lolita print! The print is super cute and I'm sure no one would turn down the chance to win a free dress...

♥ And what would Easter be without some Sassy Gay Friend?







Happy Easter break reading!

x