I really like soft furnishings. The kind that make a house, into a home.

Country House Manuka’s licence for the Picasso collection means these cushions, woven by French craftsmen on a jacquard loom, are vibrant tapestry creations that will brighten any home.

The cushions ($130 RRP- $155 RRP) are made from premium fabrics including 100% silk jacquards, embroideries on 100% cottons and 100% linen and jacquard tapestry. Divine.

I’m moving house on Saturday and think these babies will look fabulous in my new french inspired apartment! 

I am going to be 30 in six months. THIRTY. I know everyone keeps telling me that 40 is the new 30 and I really have nothing to worry about, but besides the incredible pressure I feel to reproduce, I am starting to see wrinkles and experience the effects of ten years in high heels I never thought I would. I am getting OLD and there is nothing I can do about it. Or is there?

One of the things I can pride myself on is my ability to put on sunscreen (nearly) every day, and remove my make up (just about) every night. And when I visited Minoo’s Laser and Beauty Studio last week, my efforts were rewarded – my skin is actually in pretty awesome condition for my age. Hurrah!

The team at Minoo’s (Rebecca specifically who was just wonderful) analyse your skin before conducting any treatments to see where a peel or a scrub would best suit, or whether there is something that can be done to reverse the effects of any sun damage and ageing. An amazing computer program takes a photograph of your face, and analyses the layers of your skin, targeting the areas that are of most concern.

Lucky for me, my biggest worry is dehydration, most likely caused by a combination of my exzema and the fact that I use sorbolene (traditionally a barrier cream, rather than a moisturising one). So what does Minoo’s recommend?

My first treatment (following a delightfully relaxing cleanse) was a Microdermabrasion. A scary sounding name but a a particularly relaxing treatment! This was followed by a Jetpeel with a Vitamin infusion, and before you summon up images of Samantha in SATC with her ‘burnt’ face, I can assure you that this facial like treatment was a dream (besides a little noise from the machine that essentially blows cold air on your face) and all designed to rehydrate my poor dry skin.

These kinds of treatments need only be performed once a month and allow you to feel the effects of the treatment long after a traditional facial would have worn off. 

Following the treatment, Rebecca applied Aspect Redless Serum, an ultra hydrating serum, and then finished things off with some Glo mineral make up (in honey light) and I was good to go for the rest of the day. In and out in 45 minutes.

Visit Minoo’s in the Machester Unity Building,
220 Collins Street, Melbourne. 9654 7562 / 9654 6597
http://www.minooslaserbeauty.com.au/

1. Your lip or nailbed will bear the brunt of your inability to effectively deal with your worries.
2. What If? is the stupidest question in the world, and has no actual answer.
3. Little things will worry you more than big things. Little things will annoy you more than big things.
4. Your ability to fall asleep, and stay asleep, will be compromised. And on the one night you are tired enough to go to sleep, your partner will snore.
5. People who you barely know will ask if you are okay.
6. People who have enough on their plate as it is will be the most caring.
7. You will be prepared to try various therapies that are both painful and expensive in an effort to be rid of this state of mind.
8. The worst anxiety attacks are the ones where you can not even work out what it is you were worried about in the first place.
9. Things you ordinarily found fabulous and fun will suddenly become as scary as speaking in public, naked.

10. But most of all, I know that having a supportive partner, family and friends, and getting through each day as it comes, is the best and most effective way to deal with items 1 – 9.

PS Kerri Sackville wrote a list today too, Things I know about Therapy. Check it out here.

http://www.beyondblue.org.au/ 
1300 22 4636

First birthdays are important. They are important because you are celebrating making it through the first year of something without screwing it up, and in the case of a child, this seems to be an epically crucial point. While you still might screw them up later, that milestone of one is evidence that you are not completely terribly at the parenting gig and that is something to pop champagne over.

Ideally, you will do this in the presence of one hundred of your closest friends, toasting the sweet child with a face full of cake whilst you proceed to celebrate in the only way suitable – with sugar and champagne.

Now, as much as the parents want to enjoy their moment of glory, it is equally important that the guests arriving at this swarray come bearing gifts, much like the three wise men at the birth of Jesus. When buying gifts for a one year old, however, frankincense and myrrh won’t cut it. Gold will.

I encountered this dilemma just last week – what gift of genuine excitement could I buy for a one year old? Something she would cherish and feel had special significance in her older years. My boyfriend scoffed – why would you get a one year old anything??

Having bought her older sister – my first niece – jewellery just two years prior, I felt I had to set the scales in balance. The gift for the second child had to be equal in significance, and impart as much love from me as the first. Oh the horrors of buying for a one year old!!

In the end a visit to Seed Heritage on the Saturday morning the day before the masses descended on fairy bread and honey joys seemed the only way to fulfil the gift buying endeavor. Stuff it – I had thought. She won’t remember anyways!! A little gold polka dotted frock jumped out at me, and I thought ‘oh, I’d wear that!’ and I pulled it off the shelf with vigour.

And then I saw it. The holy grail of first birthday presents for the little princess in your life. This Little Piggy Went to Prada. A collection of nursery rhymes reinterpreted for the Manolo wearing mums (and aunts!!) among us. 

I inscribed the opening page to my niece, wished her a fashionable life, and felt rather fulfilled that I’d found not only a gift she could keep, but one that would educate her in the best way possible as she grew. The best kind of gift an aunt can give, really. Don’t you agree?

So yeah, I’m writing about food again. Seems now that I am skinny enough to fit into all the couture, all I want to do is talk about eating. Ironic, no? Well it amuses me but that’s another story. Today we are going to talk about food. Again. Anyways…

Being gluten intolerant, dumplings are one of those ‘food journeys’ I’ve never really been able to go one. While others dive into yum cha on a Sunday, I stick to meat and potatoes, all the while wondering what I am missing out on. My first (and only) dumplings experience was a number of years ago, at the Oriental Teahouse on Little Collins Street, for a colleagues going away. I was impressed, sure, but enough to do it every week? I don’t think I was convinced.

Skip forward a bit and I am invited to David’s Country Shanghai in Prahran, an institution in the south (it’s been around since 1989!) and a restaurant founded by the same guy of Oriental Teahouse fame – David!

David’s Prahran has introduced a speedy lunch service, and delivery, to help appease the locals of settling for Noodle Box – or worse. David himself greets us at lunch and we sit down to take in a world of tea and tradition.

                                                        Tea. Image thanks to Little Miss Melbourne.

The tea lesson David gives us is invigorating. It’s easy to walk into T2, or even the tea aisle at Woolies and be overwhelmed with the flavours and promises of better sleep and digestion, but David talks us through just three kinds of tea, pointing out the benefits of each.

A favourite is the Diamond’s & Rose’s tea, a blend of wolfberries, Chinese Hawthorn slices, sultanas, Chinese dates and Pure Rose, Mai Feng Green and Sweet tea, excellent for circulation and great for the skin.

Then dishes appear before us – more food than the six in our party could eat in a day, let alone one meal. There is chicken stirfry with radish, cucumber and cashews, spicy eye fillet with sweet potato and pork belly to die for.  I eat it all with gusto and go back for more.

David’s has an extensive gluten free menu to try so there is no way you can miss out on the wonders of this yummy spot to eat. Whether you are rushing through a lunch, ordering take away for home delivery or sitting down to spend a few hours taking in the delicious décor of Davids Prahran with your best friend or partner, I think I could eat here every week. With so many menu options, it would be hard to get bored quickly!

Of all the clever people I have met through social media, Caroline is one of my favourites. Perhaps its because of her bubbly personality; perhaps its because she sells shoes, but either way, I’m thrilled to have made her acquaintance.

She recently launched Tragen, an online fashion retailer providing Australian women with access to designer quality international labels – starting with Arezzo, from Brazil.

The shoes are fab – gorgeous colours and styles in suede and leather and remarkable heels. Super comfy, the designs are all about all day wear and the ultimate style choice – buy once, wear forever, kinda deal.

A limited selection of their current AW13 collection is now available exclusive to tragen with 30% off until the end of June. Simply enter EOFY30 at the checkout.

Just a few weeks ago, I deleted an article on my desktop, entitled ‘anxiety’. The wonders of modern computers means that file still exists, and reading it today, I note that it was penned in September. 

I can’t remember what was happening in September that made me feel that way, to write about how I was feeling then, but I know I deleted it those few weeks ago while cleaning up my desktop because everything in my life was so wonderful, I couldn’t imagine even finishing it.

My history with anxiety goes way back to my early teen years – I’m pretty much a textbook case. And as with any textbook anxiety case, it never really goes away.

So now here I am, almost nine months later, wondering where I went wrong and why I am currently experiencing a new bout of anxiety – one that feels worse than all the others put together.

My brain won’t stop thinking, and I constantly have the shakes. My body temperature won’t regulate itself and my appetite is all but non-existent. My thought patterns go from worrying about little things that don’t matter, to what will be happening in my life five, ten and fifty years from now.

If you too are a sufferer of anxiety, know you are not alone. 1 in 4 of us will suffer, and no matter how good your life might be, it’s okay that you are feeling this way, and there is help to be had.

http://www.beyondblue.org.au/
1300 22 4636

I know its cold and wet and miserable, but what better reason to get out of the house than to come to Trivia at Honey on Wednesday night, and try to knock the raiding champions off their perch?

7 o’clock. See you there.

So completely in love with this film.

The clothing, the hair styles, the way the characters speak, the author, the houses and the parties.

Go see it. 

And visit the website too. So many galleries, clips, extra info and amazingness.

PS This is THE dress I am totally in love with from the film, but of course I can’t find a full length shot of it. 

PS The soundtrack is just as epic as the movie. Test it out on SoundCloud.

You guys know I like to support worthy causes, and if those worthy causes just happen to use fashion as a fundraising outlet, who am I to question their methods? I am only too happy to help.

From my first foray to the Very Special Kids Clothing Sale with a Uni Chum many, many years ago and I remember arms laden with clothing, an endless wait for the changeroom and asking the girl at the register if she was sure when she told me my total was only like $70. (Seriously, ARMFULS of clothes).

The winter sale for Very Special Kids is just two weeks away and this edition will be bigger and better than ever. To start with, the venue has changed and the Malvern Town Hall will now host the 2000 odd women who turn up to buy clothes from The Just Group, Portmans, Witchery and SO MANY MORE.

Plus, I’m helping them out with a few bits and pieces, so you know its going to be good.

Hope to see you there for a coffee and a shop!!

PS. A tip from a pro – ARRIVE early. Sizes can be limited and bargain shoppers are crazy.