Sarahs Style Emporium

I'm getting married!

Well, not anytime soon, but one day - and yesterday, I found THE dress.

Actually, it's probably more the dress to change into, or maybe for the rehearsal dinner, but it is THE dress, and its amazing.

Visiting Paris 99 is always a wonderful experience but yesterday was particularly epic. THE dress, created for a fashionista somewhere in New York (I die!), was handmade and designed by Luca Luca, a label founded in New York in the early 90s by Italian Luca Orlandi.

Image thanks to Yahav at Paris 99

Luca Luca is a very Upper East Side; glamourous, luxurious and gorgeously put together label, for the gorgeously put together woman. For a stage in the early 2000s the label turned in the direction of the 'new young things', catering to the New York party scene, but in 2008 Raul Mendoza took over from Orlandi as creative director and brought a new freshness and refinement, creating beautifully designed and lovingly produced wardrobe pieces for everyone. (Descriptor thanks to Yahav at Paris 99).

But back to THE dress - the fabric is a crispy dense silk organza and swirls beautifully. The floral print is just divine and hidden underneath are metres and metres of tulle, providing the perfect amount of volume. Hand finishing everywhere and a watermelon silk crepe belt.

AH-MAZING.

While this dress did cost more than most women pay for their wedding dress when it was created, it is just a fraction of the cost at Paris 99 and by the time I lose the required few kilo's so that I can afford to eat whilst wearing it, I may just have saved enough to buy it.

I did have to leave this gorgeous dress behind yesterday, but I did come home with a Rodarte metallic blue silk skirt.  I'll be back to visit THE dress again soon though!

Wow, that's an awful lot of F's in one title!

On the 31st of March this year, the inaugural FASHION FIX FROCK FUNDRAISER will be held, where fashionistas can snag their friends (and friends-of-friends) fabulous pre-loved frocks from $50.

But before then, they need your help…….FROCK DONATIONS.

Search your closets and donate a dress (or 2!) to help raise much needed funds.

While this might be the excuse you’ve been looking for to tick off one New Year’s resolution by finally cleaning out your closet, please only donate dresses which you would be caught dead in and ensure they are pressed, dry cleaned or in a condition you would be happy to buy.

This year ALL funds raised will go to THE ALANNAH AND MADELINE FOUNDATION – a charity keeping children safe from violence.

Please check out their website and read about the great work they do. Specifically funds raised will go towards their Buddy Bags Program.

Please pass on to friends and family and thank you for your support.

One of my oldest and dearest friends told me a few weeks ago that she planned to shave her head for the World's Greatest Shave this March.

This isn't something I could do. My own personal vanity gets in the way. I realise that this makes me superficial, vain and shallow, but its just not something that I could do. But she is going to and I am prouder of her than perhaps anyone I have ever been proud of in my life.

So I ask you, who probably feels like I that our hair is an intergral part of our persona, to sponsor my brave friend and find a cure for luekemia so that we all may keep our hair in the future.

Sponsor Wendy here - this is her message to you:

Hi Everyone!!

I'm being brave and doing the Worlds Greatest Shave! Yes I am crazy and hope you will join me to see the locks fall off on Saturday 17th March.

Please sponsor me now! Otherwise, its just me looking like an idiot.

It is so easy to believe these things can never happen to you, and to understand the pain and suffering that occurs with cancer can not be duplicated. But! I hope that my decision to brave the shave will show my loved ones who have been through so much know how I wish I could take away their suffering and share the hardships endured.

- The money you give will help fund important research into leukaemia, lymphoma, myeloma and other blood disorders.

- Today, 31 Australians will get the news they have blood cancer. Your donation will support them from the moment they are diagnosed. All the Leukaemia Foundation's services are free. Let's keep them that way.

Wendy

It's getting warmer. FINALLY.

In the past week I have worn new clothes that are over a year old - yes, I do have clothes in my closet that still have tags on that have been there that long - and managed to spend enough time outside to feel like I may expire if my body temperate raises just one degree.

(Entertain me, if you will, cause I know you are still smarting over the 12 months old, new clothes. We didn't get a summer last year. Especially not the kind that requires skirts from Paris or playsuits from eBay. We are about to have more than 3 days in a row of warmth and I plan to take full advantage. Three changes of clothes a day is acceptable, is it not?)

There are lots of cool things to do in the city (in Melbourne town that is) like the Queen Vic Night Market (every Wednesday in summer) the South Melbourne Style After Dark Market (Thursdays, from March 1) or simply grab a Slurpee in fresh new summer flavours like Lemon, Lime and Bitters, Gingerbeer (a world frirst!), Tropical Mango or Orange, Mandarin and Passionfruit (and Slurpee also have cool tee's available now, designed by 2 of australia's hottest street artists. $15 RRP or free if you buy 15 supersize Slurpee's!) and head to St Kilda beach (where there is also a market, every Sunday).

Every one of these fine establishments houses a bevy of fashion and jewellery to make your closet sing. My favourite from the Queen Vic Market last week is the Swan Emporium (248 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy 3065 Ph 9417 0677) - a place so cool, they don't even have a website yet.

Happy Market days - or nights!

Celebrate the most sacred of days in ways only Honey know how.

It's fairly safe to safe I had a pretty average start to 2012. It seems luck just wasn't coming my way. There was a little house flooding, I was pulled over by the police not once, but twice (just for the record I was only doing the wrong thing once) and I have managed to make it through the whole of the first week of the year on cheese slices, Christmas chocolate and muesli bars.

But then yesterday my faith was restored. Not only in my luck, but in people generally. I headed out to Fitzroy to buy bread from my favourite organic bakery, only to discover it was closed. Yep, more bad luck. And then whilst trying to put money in the meter so I could enjoy breakfast with friends at Birdman Eating next door, the machine ate all my silver change and didn't spit out a ticket.

My frustration was immense. I texted the number on the meter advising what had happened and that I was only staying an hour. And then I went to breakfast - if I was fined I was going to fight it!

Breakfast was great and I returned to my car an hour and ten minutes later - only to round the corner and see that tell tale white slip of paper sitting on my dash. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

But then as I got closer, I discovered it wasn't in fact, a ticket. Whether it was a parking inspector or a good samaritian, someone had paid the one hour parking fee and placed a ticket in my car. It had been done only 5 minutes after I left my car and as much as I have no idea either way as to whether it was an inspector or a stranger, my faith (and luck) was restored.

Amusingly, I had trouble with the parking meter at my next destination as well, but my trip to Fitzroy yesterday will bouy me for weeks. I have kept the ticket as a good luck charm and when I feel like everything is against me, I am going to look at that ticket and remember that sometimes, you find luck where you least expect it.

Tomorrow (Sunday), I will be 27 and 11/12ths. I am starting to feel old.

There are several factors that have led to this conclusion including my long hours at the office (very middle aged man), Friday nights at home alone on the couch with Sex and the City (very middle aged - single - woman) and my increasing desire to be in bed at a reasonable hour (just shoot me).

Nevertheless, in my quest to find a better work/life balance (ie. less time at the desk AND the couch), I am going to endeavor to stop looking at these things as negative and just start thinking positively - I mean, it can't hurt right?

While the long hours suck (I don't care how much you love what you do - no one wants to be at work for 15 hours a day, watching the sunset from their desk), I am changing my thinking to a more 'look at what I am achieving' point of view.

The Friday nights watching SATC are often preceeded by a drink with a friend, or in the case of last night, a swim (okay, we swam two laps, thought we might die and figured the water slide and wave pool were safer). We laughed at ourselves quite easily (very healthy) and then returned home for noodles (where we both ate the whole box) and bad free to air TV. And a GOOD NIGHTS SLEEP.

Which is why I am feeling so positive this morning. The sun is shining and I have had a productive - if long - week. I have no definite plans for the weekend and I can't wait to just go for a walk, have a coffee, read the paper, watch some new Gossip Girl, have an impromtu catch up with a friend, or just be.

Cue skirt, on sale for $118

On a more fashion-y note, this week, I finally made it to some of the after Xmas sales. While I definitely should not be shopping (I confess I owe Civic Compliance a little of my salary at the moment), I managed to pick up a gorgeous Blair-esque Cue skirt (above) and an ASOS dress (below).

ASOS Fit and Flare Dress $76

Shopping just makes life more positive, doesn't it?

PS Mum, I didn't paty $118 for the Cue skirt. I got an extra 20% off for being a Cue Card holder and I had a $50 gift voucher from my birthday eleven months ago. It was going to expire so it was totally justified. Skirt cost me $40. Awesome bargain huh!

The start of another year and a time traditionally reserved for resolutions, new beginnings and the symbolic time to commence anything ‘big’.

In the recent months you will have noticed that I have been unable to blog as regularly as I did in the past, and certainly not with the humour (or at least I like to think!) that you are used to. I know the quality isn’t as good (much as I hate to admit it) but life got in the way (so to speak) and my whole work/life balance became more of a work/work balance (you know what I mean).

I love fashion and Melbourne, events, food and the general happenings around me more so when I don’t get to experience them on a daily basis. I lie in bed at night, knowing I have to get up for work in 5 hours, thinking about all the things I am missing out on by sleeping (and working), and all the things I could be writing about if I had the time.

Recently, a friend quit social media because she suffered incredibly from watching Facebook and Twitter statuses while at work, or at home – FOMO (fear of missing out). I can totally relate to this – but there is no way I am giving up social media.

So here it is. Until I find a bit more work/life balance (and if you know where to find it, hook a girl up), I resolve to only blog the good stuff – and if that means blog posts are two weeks apart, then I have to be okay with that. I hope you are too.

Happy New Year Everyone. Here is to a work/life 2012.