Happy Hanukkah & mixed prints

At the moment I really do feel like summer is here, although I do live in Wellington so the weather is prone to changing without notice. However, today was a beautiful day, too bad I had to spend most of it in an office.

However after work Ria and I decided to hang out and visit the Hanukkah festival that was happening in Civic Square.

The Hanukkah Festival was a really big celebration - I really don't know that much about Judaism to be honest, but I did learn today that on Hanukkah they hand out chocolate coins. I still don't know the reasons for this, but I do know that a nice lady came around and gave us a chocolate coin and told us it was a Jewish tradition.

The festival was so lively and there was loads of music and dancing and our mayor was at the festival, seriously that lady is all over town. It's pretty cool to have a mayor who is so visible and also really approachable and friendly. This afternoon Ria and I got to meet her as we wanted to know if her mayoral robes had real ermine fur on them. I was a little disappointed to find out that they did, I always feel so sorry for little critters like ermine - she told us that sometimes the tails fall off the robes and today was one of those days as she was carrying an ermine tail around in her pocket.

Here's a photo of the Hanukkah festival - the tallest building you can see in the picture is actually the tallest building in Wellington. 

I did also do the Aussie Curves Challenge today - so this post does also include an outfit post. The theme this week was mixed prints and I'm wearing an animal print frock, animal print shoes and a scarf with a love heart print on it.

Sorry there's no close up detailed photos but after this Ria and I headed back to my house to make vegetarian nachos for dinner and I kind of forgot to take any more photos.  It was pretty fun taking an outfit post outside though - perhaps now Rich has finished playing football on Wednesday he can help me to do some more outdoors outfit photos.

OUTFIT DEETS:

Shoes - Number 1 Shoes
Tights & Cardi- Glassons
Dress - Illicit Clothing Aotearoa
Belt - The Warehouse
Brooch - Sucre Noir
Scarf - Equipt
Bracelet  - From Vany
Ring - Op Shopped

Second Day of Summer

I know this may blow the minds of a few of you northern hemisphere folk - but last Saturday (1 December) was the first day of summer for us in the southern hemisphere.

Wellington's weather is extremely mild and we don't really have strong seasons and at the moment the weather is a little more crazy that usual. At the moment you can leave work in beautiful sunshine and return home to rain.

But as Rich always says, if the weather was good all the time in Wellington then everyone would want to live here and we can't have that! It's only the hardy souls that can put up with the less that fabulous weather that remain here.

On the first day of summer my mum and some other family were here from Australia and the weather was alright, it was a kid of overcast day but not really hot or cold.

On the second day the rain set in and it was a bleak and miserable day with really high wind. I guess some people would use that as their queue to spend the rest of the day indoors, watching movies and drinking hot chocolate.

But Rich and I aren't like most people - so first of all we headed out to see the Wellington Underground Markets which are currently open both Saturday and Sunday at the moment in the lead up to Christmas. We grabbed some lunch at the markets and then headed off for a walk along the waterfront. Who says you can't have a fun time in the wind and the rain?

We had WAY too much fun taking silly jumping photos - I hope you're all having a lovely weekend this weekend. Ours has been really busy so far - we've been to our first bbq of the season and been to an art auction with Emi. Today I'm hanging out with Ria and then Rich and I are off to a Phoenix game in the afternoon.

Instagram - Week Six & Travel Questions Answered!

It's a time for another snapshot of my week - via the wonderful world of instagram!

So I won't be picking up my tickets for my flights to the USA until about two weeks before I leave - but I do get an electronic ticket and that's pretty exciting.

I thought I'd see if I could pull off wearing a headscarf - I'm still undecided.

A pair of glasses I ordered online from Clearly Contacts arrived this week - but I need to take them into the optometrist as they don't fit quite right. Also - there are HEARTS on the frames!

I bought this cute little sweater clip from Sucre Noir - so creepy cute!

It was Rich's Birthday last Tuesday - so I bought him this wee cupcake on the way home.

My Mum and Dad bought Rich some art supplies for his birthday - including this cool sketchbook.

So the previous tenant put butterfly stickers on the bathroom mirror - also I look really intense.

I FINALLY go my boots fixed - so I can wear them again - yah!

The next few pictures are all of the BEST Halloween package EVER from Alicia - creepy cute sewing themed doll, pop rocks, Hello Kitty Halloween stickers and cute card!

I had a girls night in with my friend Jaimee on Saturday night, another old friend Emily that I haven't seen in AGES came along too. It was so rad - I want to hang out and have girls nights all the time now. This is the view from Jaimee's apartment.

Jaimee made vegetarian lasagne and it was awesome.

This is Jaimee's cat Luca - she's pretty darn cute. I hate that I'm allergic to cats!

I saw this t-shirt in a shop window in left bank arcade - I don't really need to say any more - do I?

Rich and I went to a Mexican Restaurant at the weekend - I had mandarin soda to drink and a Mexican Jandal to eat. I also thought the big sugar skull was SO awesome.

On Saturday night we went to see Billy Bragg with friends and it was super awesome! We started off with a few drinks at the Little Beer Quarter and then went to see Mr Bragg at the opera house. Such a good night out.

Rich and I went to feed Luca on Sunday as Jaimee was away - she did her best to make us feel super bad for not spending the day hanging out with her.

I had to do more study on Sunday - eventually I will finish up this course.

We went to the Indonesian festival and got free noodles.

I got a late birthday present from my dear friend Alaina in Melbourne. It included basically the best tea towel in the history of the world and boxing kangaroo gummies.

Walking home tonight - blue skies! The days are getting so much longer - summer is almost here.

Thanks for all your lovely comments on my travel post - a few of you asked me where this photo was taken and was it in the sleeper car of a train.

 It's not in a train at all - its a Japanese Capsule Hotel - that's right, this little space was our room for about three nights. Accommodation in Tokyo is VERY expensive! So we decided to spend a few nights in a capsule hotel to cut costs - it was also a very unique Japanese experience. Here's a few more photos.

The nights we stayed the capsule hotel was pretty quiet - which I was actually pretty thankful for. You had to keep your belongings in a locker because there just wasn't any room. We also had traditional Japanese bathrooms - which are communal (men and women are separate of course) and a wee TV in our room. Fun but also crazy times.

Meg asked if I could do a post about "looking adorable" whilst traveling - I think I will do that closer to the time I leave for my trip. I've actually already started to think about some dresses I want to sew for the trip - what a geek!

I hope you all had a super Monday xoxox