weatherboard houses, autumn sunsets and new habits and plans

Eeeee I've been wondering how to bring this up for a few weeks and had a few different ideas but let's do it this way... oh, no, I've already made it sound a bit more exciting than it is. Or have I? Because I am really excited about it!

I have taken up running.

Da da DAAAAAAAAAA!!!

There's a bit of a story behind it – about early mornings, sun rises and realisations, the good kind – but I'll save that for next time. For now, I wanted to share what I see when I go for my runs. Yes, I have to bounce on the spot for a bit during the walking interval but that's ok. Beautiful sun sets in the crisp, misty Autumn air, the trees dropping their Autumn coats on the floor and replacing them with their stark winter get ups, pretty houses soaking up the last of the golden warmth while they can. It's so amazingly good to be outside!

I am just beginning, and am getting up to running 5km. I have been doing it for four weeks, and can't believe the progress I've made already. When I started I honestly couldn't believe I'd even be able to trot along for 30 seconds, and now I can easily do three sets of five minute runs with little walks in between. Of course this isn't much for a lot of people but for me it really, really is – I've never been a runner, even when I've been pretty fit, and I am the unfittest (that should definitely be a word!) I've ever been in my life at the moment. Or at least I was four weeks ago!

Anyway, I'm loving it, and actually look forward to going on my runs..! I am due to run two sets of eight whole minutes (!) this evening and I am a bit nervous as it is a big leap, but I'm really excited, too. The feeling of doing them – and easily – has been amazing so far so I have that to look forward to.

Also, these two pictures from my instagram are doubly good for today, as right now I am feeling really nesty. Super nesty. I want to paint the bedroom, do the backyard, and spruce up the shelves and the door in the kitchen. I am feeling all inspired to do some vintage interior decorating at the moment and I can't wait to get started! I really love blue, and want some pale blues about the place. And, finally, it's cold enough to start the backyard project! Oh, to have a little outdoor spot that is nice to be in, with a little table for breakfast in the sunshine, or, with where the sun hits our backyard, evening drinks... yes!

adventures in vintage hair styles and symmetrical victory rolls

So I've been enjoying doing some vintage hair styles lately. A recent go-to has been symmetrical victory rolls. Strange moving my parting to the middle but I like it!

green smoothies and afternoon cravings

For once I have taken to a trend – I have totally got into green smoothies. My lovely friend Iolanthe made one when we were down in Dromana, and I had a bit to try and I loved it! I've always loved smoothies (who doesn't?) but the thought of the green business seemed potentially icky and also, well, a bit faddy.

I've always wanted to try juicing, too, but as I am allergic to both celery and carrots I feel a bit limited with recipes. However, the one I tried with Iolanthe was before it had the celery added, and it was delicious. I love them now, and have been playing around with recipes to vary it up and get some different things in them. Ginger is lovely!

Today I made a favourite. It's really simple and really yummy too. And I love knowing that I am getting a good amount of raw leafy greens in there! It's quite thick but quite creamy, too, and makes a really lovely sweet snack, and a good replacement for my daily biscuit cravings.

To make this, you need:

one banana, one apple, one orange, and several good handfuls of baby spinach.

Pop the banana and apple (sliced) in a blender with a small glass of water. Wooj wooj. And the orange and wooj again. Then start adding the spinach, slowly blending until the spinach gets sucked down the middle and chopped up (it's like it's being eaten by a tiny, noisy monster) and then woooooooj for a bit longer to get a nice smooth consistency. I transfer mine to a jar, and if it is a bit too thick and goopy (I like substantial but who wants goopy?) I add some more water and shake it all together to mix.

And that's it! It looks rather green and lively if you haven't had a green smoothie before but trust me, it's yummy! And I just love how virtuous I feel by upping my daily fruit and veg intake. Double goodness! I look forward to drinking it outside on crisp sunny days when I've got my backyard sorted. Soon!

how to: rag curl long hair for vintage styles

Here it is: rag curling for long hair. How to curl long, fine straight hair. It's super simple, and all you need are around 10 strips of fabric (the rags), and, well, that's it! Trish has beautiful silky long hair, and it's also straight and very shiny – the kind that seems the hardest to curl. It can also be hard to pin curl long hair, as even if you can get it into a curl (a snail! Thanks B. MacDonald!) it will be quite big, and not exactly comfy to sleep on. And we don't want that!

So, one sunny late afternoon, I popped round to Trish's gorgeous house and we did rag curls – with excellent assistance from Betty-dog, as you'll soon see! As Trish had washed her hair earlier and it was already completely dry, we brushed it and then sprayed it with a little water, so it was damp. Not too damp, though, you want it to dry overnight! I find it curls much better with a little watery help, but to keep this simple and something anyone could do without having to get anything form the shops for it, we didn't use any setting lotions and so on. Just water. And it looked very dramatic, catching the light! Then, starting at the tip, start to wrap a smallish section (about the thickness of a big texta/permanent marker) around a rag. Roll it up towards the head, and then tie the rag in a double not. Don't go too close to the head, or it will be uncomfortable to sleep on and the curls will start too high. Betty showed us her couch-matching skills as we went. And then got a bit bored. But seemed interested in the final result. The hair all curled up. The ones at the side are a bit shorter, as in curled closer to the head, than the ones at the back, to make a nice curved shape. The next morning, they were still all in place. We gave them a quick blast with the hair dryer (on hot) to make sure they were toasty and dry. And then waited for them to cool. And then started to take them out. Betty was quite used to this by now. Cute little spirals! Boing! Finally, we carefully brushed them out. We used a little bit of smoothing product followed by some hairspray, and voila! A cascade of curls ready to be styled. Easy!

Would you try this? Let me know how it goes if you do!

two vintage 1950's dresses, two australian birds and an autumn afternoon

I have finally been able to make a start on doing some vintage hair tutorials! First up will be a rag curling tutorial – how to rag curl long hair for vintage styles. I did this with Trish, through whom I am living out my dark hair dreams (I've been missing my dark hair lately, but there's no going back for me!) and who has long straight hair. The challenge was there to curl it, and curl it we did. I'll post it tomorrow!

Afterwards it was such a beautiful Melbourne Autumn day that we just had to get outside in the glowing sunshine. After some sweet chai with extra honey, we bought some balloons for Truly Vintage, and then checked out some op shops in the foot of the mountains that seem so far away and yet take just minutes to get to in the car. It was so nice to see the trees turning orange and red and rusty against deep blue skies. We saw some rozellas enjoying a meal with some galas! I now see that we were mirroring their colours..! They let me get pretty close before deciding it was time to fly up in a tree for a bit. They're in there somewhere! We both were wearing 1950's dresses with full skirts. Mine a pale yellow with embroidery along the hem in blues and greens... ... and Trish's in reds and oranges... ... with an amazing vintage print! There was a cute little chair outside a house covered in 1940's style bow print fabric, so of course we had to check it out and then take it in turns to sit on it. But we were soon back in the sunshine looking at dream weatherboard houses with pale blue woodwork and perfect picket fences. Such a perfect afternoon. Again, again, please!

stretching out the days especially the weekend ones

Weekends. Long breakfast-lucnhes that you want to go on for hours. Another coffee, please! I've felt like there aren't enough hours in the day letely. Today I am going to (hopefully) buy a pair of shoes – closed toe closed toe closed toe is my mantra – and then climb up on the roof (not in my new shoes!) to do some house-y fixing. I had a lovely Saturday that included a few hours in the afternoon doing some vintage hair styling for a lovely lady, and today I have a day free! Clear to do whatever I want. Best feeling! What are you up to today?

a trip to the coast, brilliant blues and lots of mustard -- peninsula getaway, part one

Happy Friday! Let's make an early escape, yeah? I can't believe it was almost four weeks (?????!?!?!?!!!!) ago that I headed down to Dromana for a blogger's getaway weekend. With Iolanthe at the wheel, we drove down on a golden early afternoon to the Peninsula, for two nights and three days of relaxing, good eating and brilliant company by the sea side. After a short drive, mostly along the coast, with blue skies and bluer seas around us, we were at our Aquabelle apartment, where we would be staying with Stasia for the weekend. And, just a few doors down, were Cecylia, Leeyong and Candice – five people I was absolutely chuffed to be spending a whole weekend with! And check out our view..! I'd packed with a mustard theme in mind – oh, um, I sound a bit like Kath from Kath and Kim, here, but it's true! – and when packing light(ish) (I had to fit sportswear in there) (more on that in a minute) you need to have things that go together. Obviously. So, I chose mustard – perfect for the Autumn that Melbourne was trying to conjour up, and doing a marvelous job of in a sunny kind of way – and O HAI I matched the apartment's decor! Loved the mustard couches, high ceilings and the wall of glass that opened onto a large balcony overlooking the sea. We could see massive ships go by. I'm always impressed by these. They look so dramatic on the skyline. Isn't it great that the angle of the horizon and gravity are helping the ship along..?! Note to self: think spirit level next time! My vintage mustard cardigan fit right in to its new home. The main bedroom, Iolanthe's – well she did drive us and so she more than deserved it – had a gorgeous blue ensuite. I love these tiles, and this colour is one of my favourites. And erm, yes, I may have stood in the bath – shaped like a big half egg – to get a photo. Looking back now, I feel like I should have gone for a brisk walk along the beach, taken the air, put some roses in my cheeks. Instead, drowsy from the drive (being a passenger, ha!) I made the most of the free wifi (thank you Aquabelle this is brilliant!) and did some blogging, some instagramming, and some general internetting, and then watched a big storm blow in. I love watching Victorian storms come in, and the best place for it is by the sea. I was warm and cosy in my cashmere socks. This was pre pom pom sock days. That evening, we went with Stasia to the other apartment where Candice, Leeyong and Cecylia were staying, to have cocktails – totally worth the 30 second trot! – and then we all headed back to ours where I cooked us dinner. I made a pea and goats cheese pesto pasta with roast tomatoes and rosemary – based on this recipe on Pip's lovely blog.

I didn't count on cooking for 6 taking so long – maybe the cocktails slowed me down a bit! – and we had a lovely late dinner, talking about everything and including the next morning, when we'd be up early to do a yoga class. Yoga! This is what the sportswear was for. Early morning outdoor yoga. Yep, I did it. And... more about that soon! First, we somehow managed to stay up far too late and eat far too much pasta... which has got to be the nicest introduction to a long weekend with friends.