Beauty Spot - Wet n Wild

When my sister bought me the Urban Decay Naked Palette from the USA last month, I also asked her to go to the drugstore and pick up a handful of eyeshadows by cheapo brand Wet n Wild.

 

And as you can see, she did!

I had heard that this brand has really awesome colours and that the pigment sticks like nobody's business.

And it does! The colours are fantastically bright and the pigment is really thick and easy to apply.  I also love that they have suggestions about where to put them on your eyes (which is super helpful when you're running late for work and you don't have time to experiment). Basically the quality is a lot better than some of the cheapo brands I've tried here.

I really want to try that three colour palette on the bottom right of the picture, but I don't know if I can carry off bright pink eyeshadow. It is a kick-ass colour though, so we'll see.

Oh, and this entire collection cost me about $30AUD. Not bad, huh?

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Monday Morning Melody - Jonsi

Who? I know, I have no idea either. I do know that I watched the cute How To Train Your Dragon yesterday and this song played over the credits at the end. The song, called Sticks and Stones, just has the most perfectly uplifting, overcoming the odds feel to it.

See? While the lyrics may be unintelligble, how great it the vibe as you listen to it? It basically just makes me think of that feeling you get when something amazing it about to happen and you just can just feel it in the air.


I couldn't find an official film clip, so here is some adorable dragon stuff for your Monday morning. Enjoy!

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Fun Friday Links

I have been zonked this week, hence the lack of posts. But you didn't think I'd let a Friday go past without some fun links to make the work day go faster, did you?

Check it:

- Looking for a roommate? Maybe consider this guy - he sounds totally awesome. I mean, he will "fry green tomatoes, cover them with marinated crab meat and smother that shit in bearnaise. EVERY. GODDAMN. NIGHT." That really does sound amazing.

- When I was thirteen, I saw Clueless at the movies with my girlfriends, and fell in love with Cher's wardrobe. To be honest, when I watch that movie I'm still a little bit in love with her ensembles. So thank goodness some kind soul has put together a sixty second montage of every outfit Cher Horowitz wears in Clueless. I can't decide if the yellow outift or the maroon shift dress is my favourite. Damn, that girl could wear knee high tights like nobody's business. Also, watching that clip makes me remember how envious I was of her hair.

- Kanye West with white people. Some truly random photos. Enjoy.

- Feeling a little bit Glee deprived at the moment? Check out this video of the cast singing David Bowie's Fashion. Lea Michele looks completely gorgeous.

- And finally, the new Muppets movie is almost here! So check out the clip below of the theme song, done by OK Go.

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Monday Morning Melody - Gotye Ft. Kimbra

How fricking amazing was the weather in Melbourne this weekend? Maybe Winter will actually BE OVER soon. Anyway, I'm sure many of you have heard this song a lot lately, and I have too, but I though it was worth posting on here so you can have another listen.



This song is so....sort of creepy and sneaky and makes me think of a movie of the Film Noir variety. Like, it would be played over a slow motion crime spree or something. It just has that mysterious vibe to it, don't you think? I find the beat really hypnotic. Pin It

Fun Friday Links

We're halfway through August. When did that happen? And yet the weather in Melbourne remains grey and drizzly. Lucky I have these Fun Friday Links as a nice pickme up on this very blah Friday morning!

- Check out these B Movie posters for classic films. Some of them are really gorgeous - I'd love a big, framed print of either Erin Brockovich or Toy Story for my study wall. The one for Bee Movie is hilarious, too.

- I'm not one for getting too TMI about female "stuff", but you HAVE to check out this piece from The Hairpin called My Period Takes Me Shopping. Seriously, just....read it. You will Crack. Up.

- I really, really wish Banana Republic was sold in Australia so I could buy some of the items from this TOTALLY AWESOME line of clothes inspired by Mad Men. It makes me so happy when clothing companies realise we don't all want to wear mini skirts, jeggings and/or a floral top that looks suspiciously like something we wore just fifteen years ago. Breaking away from the mass consumption mould, yay! Click on the image to watch the slideshow.

- I stumbled across this blog during the week and though it was worth mentioning for the great hair and make up tutorials. Keiko Lynne's blog also has a lot of lovely fashion as well.

- This website featuring Brilliantly Sarcastic Repsonses to Well-Meaning Signs had me losing my shit at work this morning. Have a look and try not to laugh, I dare you. Scroll down a bit to read, it loads kind of weirdly.

- So, you know the book and/or film The Devil Wears Prada? Well, someone over at Conde Nast (publishing company of Vogue, Glamour, Allure, The New Yorker and a bunch of other magazines) has started a Twitter account about thing overheard in the Conde Nast elevator. It's so Devil Wears Prada, but even more delicious, because it's real.

- Apparently it's Humanitarian Day today, so I was pleased to read about how $78 million in cash has been recovered from the Japan earthquake and tsunami wreckage and TURNED IN but honest people. How great is that? Hopefully it can be put to good use helping the displaced and injured start the recovery process.

Have a great weekend everyone!

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Gadding About - Daylesford

We took Friday off last week and headed up to Daylesford for the weekend. It was lovely to get away, despite the (very) cold weather. We took lots of walks, ate a LOT of good food and saw lots of lovely scenery.

Chocolate Mill!

The most divine smell greeted us as we walked through the doors into the shop. You can also see the chocolate being made through a window, and they do demonstrations at 11am and 2pm daily. They have only ever used fair trade, Callebaut Belgian chocolate and oh, my. It was divine. I highly recommend the peanut cups and the nougat parcels. There was a vat that held 30kg of tempering milk chocolate in the kitchen, and to say I wanted to swan dive into it would be an understatement.

Wombat Hill Reservoir

We went for a meandering drive and ended up here at about 4.30pm just as the sun started to get low in the sky. It was a brilliantly sunny day there (MELBOURNE: TAKE NOTE) and the light and the reflection of the trees on the water was beautifully golden.

Field somewhere outside of Daylesford

All the rain we've had this year has made the country side so green. We were heading back to the B & B when we came across this cute little landscape and pulled over to snap a couple of shots. Sometimes I forget how lovely the state of Victoria is.

We also ate at some really, really lovely restaurants and cafes - I highly recommend Kazuki (Japanese/Australian fusion), Ego's Culineria, Frangos & Frangos restaurant and Wombat Hill House Cafe, just to name a few.

I ate the greatest toasted sandwich of my life at the Wombat Hill House Cafe - slow roasted lamb on brown bread with dijon mustard and tomato relish. It. Was. Divine.

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Movie Review - The Glee 3D Concert Movie

The Movie: The Glee 3D Concert Movie
The Players: Glee cast (in character: Rachel, Finn, Puck, Mercedes, Kurt, Tina, Artie, Quinn, Sam, Brittany, Mike Chang, Santana, Lauren), guest appearance by Gwyneth Paltrow as Holly Holliday.
The Makers: Kevin Tancharoen (director), Ryan Murphy (producer)
Run time: 84 minutes

Song spoilers / set list spoilers after the jump....Read on if you dare!
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Monday Morning Melody - Wear Sunscreen

We have a digital radio at home, so we get lots of weird internet stations from all over the world, and my favourite thing to do is to search for radio stations by genre. I have two or three stations marked as favourites, and they're all nineties stations, so I get to listen to songs like this and this and this, which makes the fifteen year old in me utterly delighted.


The other day I was in the kitchen listening to the radio and the song below came on. I had forgotten all about it, and as an almost-thirty year old, it was interesting to see how much the lyrics have become pertinent now that I'm older.


Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to stop for five minutes today and listen to this song from start to finish.




Trust me (on the sunscreen).



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A break in blogging

We're headed away for a long weekend this morning, and unfortunately I didn't have time to put together the Fun Friday Links this week (sorry!). Check back on Sunday or Monday for your links and feel free to comment here with anything cool you've seen online during the week.

In the meantime, I'll somewhere in the vicinity of the below location. Relaxing, eating and sleeping.

I can't wait.

Happy weekend, everyone!

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Movie Review - The Green Hornet

The Movie: The Green Hornet
The Players: Seth Rogen, Cameron Diaz, Christoph Waltz, Jay Chou
The Makers: Michel Gondry (director), Neal H. Moritz (producer), Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg (writers) 
Run time: 108 minutes

2011’s remake of The Green Hornet, directed by Michel Gondry, is a superhero action comedy co-written and starring the Judd Apatow alum Seth Rogen. Rogen stars as Britt Reid, the irresponsible son of newspaper magnate James Reid. Reid senior finds nothing but disappointment in his son, a fact he doesn’t try to hide throughout the boy’s life. When James dies suddenly, Britt finds himself in charge of his father’s newspaper, the Daily Sentinel, which is a mere inconvenience to his playboy lifestyle. He forms a friendship with his father’s mechanic/barista, Kato, and after a night of drunken mischief where they’re mistaken as criminals, they decide to continue working together as a crime-fighting duo. Before long, their escapades are front page news, and Britt realises that as the owner of a newspaper, he can spin the stories to his advantage, with the help of his new secretary, Lenore Case (Cameron Diaz).

Britt decides he and Kato should pose as criminals to try and infiltrate the Los Angeles underworld in an attempt to clean up the streets of the city, and they quickly make an enemy out of Benjamin Chudnofsky (Christoph Waltz), a Russian mobster who controls the crime in LA. As Britt and Kato are unwittingly drawn deeper into a tangled web of blackmail, involving his late father, the District Attorney and Chudnofsky, they begin to realise there are powers at work that are well beyond their amateur crime fighting skill and understanding. Britt and Kato’s partnership also becomes more and more competitive, as does their affection for the beautiful and intelligent Lenore. As The Green Hornet’s profile rises, so to does the price on Britt's head, with Chudnofsky and the District Attorney eager to remove him from the picture.

The film starts of with the potential to be a slick, comic book franchise film, but its weaknesses are apparent from the start. Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s script is insubstantial and lacks the punchy, comedic, and heroic dialogue that should be one of the main drawcards for audiences. Rogen’s portrayal of Britt Reid is somewhat uneven, as the character swings between boyishly amusing and brazenly obnoxious, often making him unlikeable. Christoph Waltz is disappointingly underused as the movie’s villain and Cameron Diaz doesn’t quite seem like the right fit for Lenore Case. However, it’s Taiwanese musician and singer-songwriter Jay Chou as The Green Hornet’s sidekick who brings the most humour to the film. His impressive superhero gadgetry, witty banter and the madcap car chase antics between Kato and Reid are what saves this film from being a complete disaster. One definitely gets the feeling that Michel Gondry’s individual style was quashed in by the studio, which disappointingly could have been the deciding factor that turned a mediocre action film into a quirky, memorable and fun superhero flick.

In a word: disappointing Pin It

Retail Therapy - Winter Obsession

In Summer I was obssessed with wedges (and I already plan to buy a couple more pairs this coming Summer, too), but this Winter I've been constantly drawn to something other than ballet flats. Instead, I keep checking out loafers. So I was pleased to see this brightly coloured pair a month ago in the same shop I bought my handbag in up in Sassafrass.

I had chosen my handbag and was on my way to the counter to pay when I noticed a really, really low shelf with shoes on them and a big sale sign. I stopped to check the selection out, and this bright pink colour jumped out at me straight away. Then I tried them on. In the words of Chandler Bing, OH. MY. GOD. These might possibly be the most comfortable pair of shoes I have ever worn. EVER.

Some people might think they're old lady shoes. But I'm seeing loafers more and more in shoe shops where old ladies definitely do not shop. I find them to have more of a European French Riviera feel - all I need to complete the look is either a multi-million dollar yacht to wear them on, or a cute little retro convertible to drive around in with a scarf over my hair and big, Jackie O sunglasses.

Note to self: become rich ASAP.

They are 100% leather, made in Brazil and $205. On sale though? I picked them up for a cool $30.

Bargain.
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Monday Morning Melody - Andy Bull

There's something about Andy Bull's voice that is so unique. I think the fact that he sounds a lot like Carole King has a lot to do with it. But it's just a stand out sound - you know as soon as you hear him sing the first line that it's an Andy Bull song. We saw him last month when he supported US singer Joshua Radin at The Forum. He played some old stuff, a few covers and a lot of stuff from his new EP, including this song, which I love.



Definitely head over to his youtube channel and listen to this, this and this. Tell me what you think in the comments! Pin It

Fun Friday Links

Woo, Friday! Last month of Winter, unusually balmy weather and blossom trees flowering. It's enough to make me want to sing my heart out like some kind of Disney Princess. But I won't.

Instead, let's just jump straight to the links, shall we?

- Do you love stationary? Post It notes in particular? Bet you don't love them as much as this person, who created an entire piece of art from a bunch of fluoro Post Its. Kind of mesmerising.

- I'm so in love with this photoblog of New York. The best part is the moving photos - just beautiful. But there's also lovely fashion and New York scenery pornage to enjoy.

- So you all know I'm fond of Dad blogs. You know, the kind where we get to see Dads in their natural habitat (ie. dorkville). This blog, Dads On Vacation is no different. I don't know what it is about being on vacation that makes Dads act a little crazy, but they just love putting on their shorts, socks and sensible shoes and getting CRAZY.

- So, you know how people like to watch cat videos on YouTube? Yeah, you better check this one out (language is not safe for work - but it's actually the best part). I want him to make a sequel, ASAP.

- Don't forget to follow me on Twitter and Like the Boredom Abounds By Julia Facebook page!

Peace out, peeps.

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Book Review - Four Women, Ten Years Later

Title: Sisterhood Everlasting
Author: Ann Brashares
Publisher: Random House
Year of Publication: 2011
Page Extent: 349

Ten years ago, we met Carmen, Bridget, Lena and Tibby. Four teenagers, best friends and polar opposites of each other. And yet they were stuck together with a bond so unbreakable nothing could penetrate it. Four books and ten years later, author Ann Brashares has given us the final book in the series, Sisterhood Everlasting.
 

Image source

Now women in the last year of their twenties, the Sisterhood has scattered across the United States, and, in Tibby's case, across the world. Carmen is a successful actress in New York, engaged to a guy she doesn't really love, Bridget is living with Eric in San Fransisco where she temps and zooms around the city on her bicycle, Lena is in Rhode Island teaching art classes and occasionally selling her work and Tibby is in living Australia with Brian. Brashares gives us glimpses here and there of what life was like after the girls graduated from college, mostly as a way of illustrating how their bond remained unbroken as they chose their paths after school, but it's the present that's focused on for this final installment.

We learn quickly that growing into women has taken its toll on their friendship, and the closeness the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants once had has faltered somewhat, and although none of them will admit it, they each privately acknowledge that their relationship is not as it once was. For a myriad of reasons, each woman feels lost, wondering why life hasn't quite turned out the way they thought it would.

A letter from Tibby, with a plane ticket to Greece arrives in each of their post boxes, and Carmen, Bridget and Lena's spirits are lifted at the though of a reunion in the place that gave them so many happy memories as younger women. But upon arriving in Santorini at Lena's late grandparents' house, it quickly becomes evident that this trip is not going to be the happy reunion they were all hoping for. When a life-changing event takes place, the girls scatter back to their corners of the world, more restless and desolate than ever, questioning themselves, their lives and their friendship.

Brashares' writing of these four characters is, as usual, pitch perfect. Each character has their own distinct personality, but the reader will find themselves relating to each one of the girls numerous times throughout the story. Brashares has such talent for writing female characters - the nuances, the thought patterns and the heart breaking raw emotion conveyed through each character is unbelievably real, and it speaks volumes to Brashares' ability to understand not only her characters, but her audience as well, who have grown up reading about the lives of the Sisterhood. The story flows naturally and while it's seeped in the disappointment and tragedies that come with growing up, the writing is outstanding and affecting.

If you're unfamiliar with the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series, I highly recommend you get yourself a copy of each book and set aside some weekends to get lost in these beautifully gripping stories. Despite the first three books being Young Adult fiction, they appeal to people of all ages (females in particular, I'm sure), and I know that I'm definitely going to miss reading about these girls. I think it will be a long time before a YA book comes along that is as poignant and enjoyable as these books have been.



In a word: beautiful

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Welcome!

Thanks to the blog conference I attended on the weekend, I've had a bunch of new Twitter followers and some new Facebook fans join the Boredom Abounds ranks. So, if you're new to my blog, or if you just want a trip down memory lane, here are some of my past posts to help you get an idea of what goes on around here.

In case you're interested, you can read a little bit about me here.

Enjoy!

1. I love awards shows, and I especially love award show fashion. So , whenever there's a big awards show I love to feature the red carpet fashion.

2. I enjoy cooking and try to feature it from time to time, with varying degrees of success. I can't wait to get a better camera soon to improve my food photography by about one billion degrees.

3. I love the TV show Glee. I fully acknowledge that the storylines and characters are often totally inconsistent and kind of stupid, but gosh darn it, I love me some crackalicious cover music! So I do a Glee highlights post each week when it's airing on TV here.

4. I love to read, and do a book review every couple of months. In fact, I'll be posting another one tomorrow, so make sure to check back then!

5. I also review music every once in a while, which is always fun. I love having a new CD on rotation in my car!

There are also Fun Friday Links posted every Friday morning to help your workday go faster before the weekend, a smattering of photos of things I've bought, movie reviews and giveaways a couple of times a year, so do stop by each week to see what's going on!

You can follow me on Twitter here, and Like my Facebook fan page here to stay up to date with all the latest blog posts!

As always, thanks for reading! Pin It

Monday Morning Melody - Sarah Blasko

I had the TV on channel 7 few weeks ago waiting for The Amazing Race to start, and caught the last two minutes of No Ordinary Family. It was literally the last scene of what Google tells me was episode 1.13 and the first few bars of a song started playing. It instantly caught my attention, so when my iPhone SoundHound app FAILED ME I turned to Google to find out who that sweetly voiced female singer was. Turns out it was Sarah Blasko, an Australian singer, and this was the song:



My husband looked at me and laughed, saying "That is such a YOU song", which is sort of ironic, because I've never really heard much of Sarah Blasko's music, and what I have heard didn't really resonate. I didn't dislike it, it just didn't grab me. I may have to reassess my attitude though and check out some of her other stuff, because this song it just lovely. Pin It