I indulge, you indulge! A Giveaway thanks to Skinny Cow

Sponsored By Nuffnang 

A little bit of what you fancy is something I absolutely agree with when it comes to clothes shopping. There are always more things that I want than I can actually have, and I am pretty sure I am not alone in this! Choosing carefully is of course the sensible plan – yes, the sequin silk vintage party dress is very pretty, but just many times will I wear that, compared with the several cotton day dresses? Yep, sometimes it's not fun, exactly, at the time, but such is life. Having nothing to wear on a day-to-day basis isn't going to be so much fun, either!

Last Spring, I decided that I definitely needed – well, really wanted and could really do with, if not exactly need, but you know what I mean – some summer shoes. I had one or five pairs that were warm weather appropriate and nice and yes, I liked them, but they weren't perfect. They weren't what I wanted to wear for the next 8 or so months. The shops were full of enormous, colourful and strappy platforms with chunky heels, my all time favourite kind of shoes. Temptation and opportunity? I'm going shopping!

As most of you know, though, I didn't go completely nuts. In the same week, I found a pair of red wedges, and a pair of floral wedges – and I bought them both. Ok, I'm not going to break any banks or retail fun times records, but I don't really like to buy all that much all the time, and this shoe-getting felt pretty damn good. I felt really pleased, too: they were both comfortable, perfect with my summer dresses, and comfortable to wear, and have lasted for the next summer too. I am also wearing my red wedges now with stocking or tights – definitely a good investment! For that tiny little retail indulgence, I have had soooo much reward. Very happy! And it was really fun to post them for you, too. I think those red wedges are my most complimented shoes – online and in real life – ever!

When I was given the chance to be sponsored to review cookies, I laughed and said yes – obviously! To be honest, I never bother with low fat or diet foods. If I want a biscuit, which I often (oh, so very often) do, I just have one. Or three. I do eat really well. I love salad and vegetables and I love cheese too; everything in moderation, including moderation!

I am actually rather surprised – pleasantly! – to report that my work cookies, Skinny Cow Ice Cream Cookies, don't taste like the low fat treats they are – 129 calories per 97% fat free cookie, with no artificial sweetener (which is one of the things that out me off low fat treats in the first place) and, the package says, not loaded with extra sugar (another thing that puts me off low fat thingies) to make up for for the lack of those delicious tasty fats. They are actually really very nice and I have found myself eating bits of them when I get home from work. They are also apparently now 15% bigger, but this is wasted on me as I eat about a third of one, feel satisfied and pop it back in the freezer for another time. It's terrible, I'm turning into my mum. Before you know it I'll be doing the same thing with chocolate bars..! I must say I'm not a fan of the packaging; I personally find the boney bovine with the measuring tape utterly (see, friends, I didn't pun there, be grateful) off putting. It's a shame, really, as they're nice biscuits. They come in chocolate, vanilla and caramel flavours. My pick is the caramel. Yum.

But, now I've enjoyed my cookies, I want you to enjoy something, too! I have a $150 Westfield Voucher up for grabs!

Just tell me your biggest, or best, indulgence, and NuffNang and Skinny Cow will pick their favourite story so YOU can go shopping for free!

This offer is open to Australian Residents only, and closes on Friday 8th June 2012. Good luck!

my May

Here is the month of May as seen through my phone. I love Instagram and think I need to take more pictures for it! Here's what I've been up to that I haven't shot with the "Big Camera"...

We had some absolutely beautiful Autumn days here in Melbourne. I remember this one in particular as it was an especially good day for me, but more about that another time! I have been relishing wearing mustard now I have the double header of Autumn and Being A Red Head – yes, it deserves capitals, it's a thing and it changes so much when it comes to good colours for me in clothes and makeup. I am having a ball with it!

I am very pleased to find I can still wear pink. I got a new pink pot plant, and a new grass green rug from Ikea. The plant doesn't live there any more – the middle of the floor is hardly ideal – but for a while we used plants to hold down the edges of the rug as they were still curly from being rolled up (trip count: two by me, none by John – and I'm usually so sure footed!) and it was like an indoor garden. Lovely.

I went to Fashionopolis (thank you Nuffnang!) and loved the unusual flower arrangements. The eggs on the grass were so unexpected and such a good touch! The next week I saw this beautiful basket full of flowers. Wouldn't it be nice to take that home?

That same weekend I was prepared for the rain, and had the most amazing breakfast. Possibly my best breakfast experience ever. Even better than usual!

And last weekend I bought the most amazing vintage apron from Dear Gladys in Northcote. I feel a post coming on..! I also saw these amazing Art Nouveau tiles on a shop front. Aren't they beautiful? Makes me wish I lived in an older house (more than I already do!) and could unleash my love of this kind of thing a little more than I currently can in my mid century modern home...

And that's been my May! Are you on Instagram? Come and follow me, I'm laneway_esme. I promise I'll take more pictures, too!

vintage blue dress with pink buttons and a peter pan collar

Randomly inserted breakfast picture. It was really good!

Good morning, happy Monday! This is what I wore on Saturday, my 1940's dress with the soft peter pan collar and pink button details. Everything is stuff I've worn on the blog before: the dress is vintage and from etsy, the woolly jacket is from ebay, the shoes are Jeffery Campbell, the bag is asos (must do that what's in my bag post) and the hair bow is from Hopeless Lingerie. We had a beautiful day, getting up late, enjoying breakfast (my favourite thing at the moment is avocado and poached eggs on toast) and then getting ready for having friends over for dinner. Don't be fooled by the sunshine here, it was pretty cold! Luckily we were mostly in the car... and had great timing, too. This sun was a rare patch in a super rainy day!

I recently found a stash of hair accessories that I had packed away a while ago to keep safe whilst doing housey stuff. In it was lots of lovely goodies from Hopeless Lingerie, and I am loving bringing them out again. I can't wait to get back to curling my hair – it's amazing how you feel about your hair affects you. Damn well affects hair comb attachment too. Silky straight hair and hair combs do not stay together! I do love this big bow. I wore it on a beehive some time ago, and I have an inkling that might be repeated soon..!

To be honest with you, one thing this outfit made me think about was how much I really need a pair of black shoes for winter. I've been looking for ages and I'm being really picky about it; no peep toes! Which is hard as there are beautiful peep toe shoes everywhere at the moment. And I LOVE them! Guess I'll just have to keep looking, how terrible! ;) Enjoy your day!

strawberries, croissants and kitties – small sunday treats

A Sunday treat: warm croissants and fresh strawberries. Babycat was interested, too, which is understandable, really. A small moment to pretend it isn't freezing cold and grey outside. I had some sweet strawberries, I had half a delicious croissant (the croissant is to share!) and I had the green grass, of sorts. All I needed was some sunshine..! Babycat cat wanted more than sunshine, she wanted croissants and strawberries too, which of course are not for Babycats – and that explains her grumpy little face at the end here ;) Happy Sunday!

my clothes racks and what's on them

A little while ago I had some requests to show what was on my clothes racks, so here it is! These two full racks hold my op shopped things, mostly skirts and blouses. I've now moved them to the other side of the room, and culled a few things too – I was hoping to get it down to just the one rack but I'm not quite there yet! Here are a couple of things from them. If there is anything else you want to know, just ask me!

On the left rack are my summer tops (and I have no where near enough of those! THE hardest things to find, new or otherwise) and all my skirts. The one on the right has my 1970's and 1980's dresses that I don't wear very often anymore but don't want to part with, the four pairs of pants I own, a few cardigans and my blouses. The way our windows and roof are means that no direct sunlight hits these racks, so while keeping things like this is not ideal – yes, they are exposed to dust and, le gasp, potentially moths – it's working out well for me. I love those beautiful old vintage dark wooden wardrobes, but they are too big for this little room and make it too dark. Having two light racks on wheels is so much more convenient.

These two summery skirts have not had enough wear lately. I am going to shorten the floral one a little, and straighten out the hem; it's a circle skirt and doesn't sit quite evenly at the moment. I love the dots and stripes one and will get lots of wear from it this winter as well as next summer!

Two full skirts for winter. The one on the left is a pure wool 1980's one, in a dark grey and white weave. I bought it from a local op shop and shortened it to a bit below the knee. You can see me wearing it almost two years ago (!) here. On the right is a vintage black skirt with bows at the pockets – I can't wait to wear that one!

Two more full skirts, both from asos. I love the black one on the right, as it reminds me of those old hooped petticoats.

And two more pure wool skirts, this time from the 1970's. The one on the left is a fairly recent find, and I am looking forward to wearing it now it's cold enough. The blue and orange are the perfect colours for me!

As you know, I love pussy bow blouses! I don't wear them quite as often as I used too, but still have a soft spot for them. I love peachy pink and mustard together...

And patterned blouses. The yellow one has tiny birds in blue and white.

Sweet tweets.

A deep rust coloured pussy bow blouse, and a bright sky blue 1980's blouse. Fun things to have. I especially love the rust one. I wonder if it will layer under some of my dresses this winter?

black and white and coral and gingham

Yesterday was quite sunny and warm, and much more autumn-like. Beautiful! And I just realised I wore almost head-to-toe asos – that doesn't happen very often! I still love this gingham sun dress. I did say I'd get lots of wears out of it..! I find that especially satisfying when I've bought something brand new.

Not entirely head-to-toe, though: the hair bow is from the amazing Hopeless Lingerie, who have the most beautiful blog here. The belt is from Dotti and the shoes were thrifted, brand new and unworn. Babycat clearly saw the matching opportunity. The jumper, dress and bow tights are all asos.

Speaking of new clothing, I am hoping all the vintage inspired stuff in shops at the moment for the Northern Hemisphere's Spring and Summer carries on into their Autumn and Winter – I really want to get some cropped cardigans and jumpers, so I don't have to fold them up like I did with this one. Fingers crossed, right?

moving furniture, things to come – and thank you

I have a new place to take photos! No, don't worry, they won't all be reflections in mirrors. When I got home yesterday I was pretty tired and had a lot of things to do so I decided that it was a GREAT time to move all the furniture around in my room. It's one of those rooms where you feel like it should be easy to get things to fit, but then find that they don't quite work after all; there's a window, or a door, or the built-in robes in the way, or the one plug socket can't be reached from here, or the room gets to dark with that there... do you know what I mean?

The darkness was a bit of a problem for taking photos, especially as we are heading into winter now and have lots of gloomy days ahead. I swapped everything over and this seems to be working much better! I even moved the dressing table all by myself, thanks to Ugly Carpet underneath. As soon as we get these floorboards finished, Ugly Carpet will be gone. Yes!

And soon I want to post my hair tutorial video, once my thumb is better. I want to post about what happened to my thumb – well, no, not exactly, that would be a bit gross – but I actually want to post about my new rug and a lipgloss, as that is what caused it! You'll see!

But really why I am posting is to say thank you. You are the best readers and I am so happy to have you sharing everything with me! I love to read your comments and they make me so happy – and really cheer me up if I've have a hard day. The past six months have been pretty hard but things are finally improving and in lots of ways are starting to look really good!

I have lots of give aways lined up for you, and I can't wait to get started with them! Give aways have been a bit thin on the ground lately round here and I look forward to being able to really show my appreciation :) x