Weekly Top 5: 01/06/09

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Free Thought: 31/05/09

"History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce."

Karl Marx

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Weekly Rambles #043: 29/05/09

Tonight I'd like to introduce you to Rumi who runs the website Fashion Toast. She's a model living in California who uses her website as her portfolio. She posts up regular, almost daily versions of Sweet Outfits as well as her professional model work. You definitely have to check her out this week.

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Weekly Inspiration: 27/05/09

Winter is my Inspiration

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CHK CHK BOOM

Okay, okay, I think it's funny.

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weekly top five: 25/05/09

Colourful pastels and vintage pieces

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Free Thought: 24/05/09

"Happiness is not something ready made,
it comes from your own action."

- Dalai Lama -

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HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY!!!

Hello my Sweetharts,

Today is the 1st birthday of this website. It's had a lot of different content over the past year, in fact it began solely as a fashion website but as time went on I started writing about other topics. This blog has conquered criticism such as the dumb concept. I've written about sales, new purchases of mine to reviews on history books and my frustration at choosing QTAC courses.

This blog has welcomed a personal growth in me. I don't know if that would have happened without having to post a blog everyday for a year. Posts were there for you while I was in Japan, while I was at schoolies & in Sydney. Posts were there when I was happy and when I was sad. Posts were there when I simply wrote a weekly top 5 because I'd planned it. My organisation has certainly improved since May last year.

So thank you for your support, your emails, your questions.
To the next year.

♥ Clairzy

Thugs by Micah D. Halpern

My books seem to be getting more and more about non-fictional things, historical events & figures. Although a good novel can mend a bad day a historical biography can keep me up all night turning the pages waiting for the moment in history where the world stopped. I have just finished reading the book 'Thugs' by Micah D. Halpern, written in 2007 in the United States.

Thugs is basically a brief analyse on the thugs since the time of Alexander the Great to those who still hold power, or did in 2007. His choice is sometimes unforgiving. He put Czar Alexander III and first lady Imelda Marcos in there, which I found quite strange. He can be forgiven however as he also had the most famous tyrants of history, those we love to hate; Henry VIII, Julius Caesar & Ivan IV.

His grammar is at times poor with him miss spelling Vladimir as Valdimir several times. The book is a good brief overview of the most notorious despots in history but not the best source for a scholarly essay.

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Weekly Rambles #042: 22/05/09

I've been thinking about moving away quite often lately. My university is a 'national' university so there are campuses scattered all over the country. All of them offer the same courses and you can exchange for a semester or more with no hassle. I thought about moving to Melbourne next year for a time but now I've got my heart set on Sydney. I was looking at subjects and units I can do in my course at the different campuses and one of Sydney's campuses has units in Roman history and the expansion of the united states. By the looks of it I shall be saying goodbye to Brisbane for a semester next year.

I'm still not sure about my accomodation; I have family living near the campus so I may stay with them but if that doesn't work out student accomodation is offered through the campus with not much expense. The other option is a new scholarship, with my grades at the present moment I can apply for one to pay for my accomodation and living expenses while I'm down there. As I tell everyone often though, dont count your chicken before they hatch, so I'll see what happens and hopefully a new adventure will be awaiting me soon.

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Five Ways To Fix A Rainy Day

So it's been raining quite a bit on the east coast of Australia. It's flooded in low parts and pouring in many others. This is why I decided that a list of five things to do on a rainy day would be appropriate. Here are my top five things to do on a rainy day, my five ways to fix a rainy day if I may...

1. Read a book: for rain day reading I'd suggest 'The Duchess' or 'Anastasia'
2. Watch a good film: 'Devil Wears Prada' or 'Troy' anyone?
3. Go Shopping: shoes, cardis, even umbrellas. Rainy day essentials
4. Bake some cupcakes: fluffy pink icing & butter cake mixing. heaven.
5. Games with Friends: monopoly, twister or trivial pursuit are easy faves

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Weekly Inspiration: 20/05/09

As north brisbane is flooded and I was there today I figured rain and floods could be my inspiration this week.

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Exams - Wish Me Luck

So I start university exams today. Exciting or nerve racking? I don't really know yet. The worst of the exams will be over by tonight with Literature taken care of. Suprising to some but University study of Literature is actually quite difficult, considering I'm a history researcher as well doesn't help. Then tomorrow I've got my Communications exam which involves case studies, multiple choice and short answer. Should be pretty straight forward as introduction of communications is pretty much the study of common sense. Next week I have two internet exams for my history units. I have to write three essays in 24 hrs for european history and another three essays the next day for australian history. Lucky it's open book. I think I might head to uni and do it in the library with the books handy. I don't know how I'll tackle it yet but I'm sure it will be good. So this time in two weeks I'll be a free woman; that meaning from university for two weeks before I begin my intensive winter module. So how is everyone going with exams? With essays? With school if you haven't graduated?

SHOUT OUT TO MY FRIEND RACHAEL - 1917

Gosh I'm an idiot. XOXO Clairzy (stolen from?)


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Weekly Top Five: 18/05/09

Splash a little colour into your wardrobe.

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Free Thought: 17/05/09

You could own a million dresses but the test is not in owning them,
thus it is in how you wear them.

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Weekly Rambles #041: 15/05/09

So I was talking to one of my close friends the other day who is friends with someone I had a falling out with recently. The wounds have healed and I'm not angry but I'm not happy about the falling out either. My close friend got me thinking about forgiveness. Would I say yes to a sorry? I dont know. It could be on the cards but I'm not going to initiate it. Have a fabulous day. A little weekly ramble but a ramble all the same.

♥ Clairzy

The Countdown

So it's coming that time of year, Birthday Preparations and I'm filled to the brim with ideas. I honestly don't know what I'm going to do exactly. It's in less than three months, Gosh isn't it exciting? It's going to be the biggest birthday as of course it is my eighteenth. Yay!

I'm currently coming up with ideas for music, catering and decorations. I'm thinking nibbles with DJ and pretty lights everywhere. It's going to be good but not so over the top gossip girl style.

What did you do for your 18th? Any ideas? :)

♥ Clairzy

weekly inspiration: 13/05/09

Gossip Girl
Fashion Editorials
Typewriters
Mornings after

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No Image. Realisation

Dearest Dearest Sweetharts,
I have quite suddenly realised that I have been blogging quite randomly out of context, rambling every few days instead of once a week. Oh well, it's going to be a reoccuring theme as the way I blog is starting to change. This blog was ever so blatant and serious aboout fashion, about style, about class, but I was missing stupidity, real life and my story. I got so wound up in having to have a weekly top five each week and scheduling which blogs would be written for which days and then writing them a week or so in advance that I lost all fun. It became a chore, like work without the cash; although turning eighteen soon does mean ad revenue is permitted. So get your friends to visit! :)

So today I decided that blog posts can be random, scandalous and benefiting to both fashionistas and other people. It should, above all, let me lift a load off to you my fellow fashionistas. Fashion changes and so do blogs. I will write, as I have been, about fashion and style and as I've begun to I will write about life, both mine and others, about stories, about what I hate and what I love. I will not write about my love life as I'm very private concerning such antics. I may write about something that happened to me but I will not write whom it happened to, nor will I write my friends names alongside their antics. Weekly Top Five and inspiration boards etc will occur I promise but the other posts may be a little different.

So I just settled an agreement with myself. Quite a nice agreement I believe. Nothing in small print.

Love to you all
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Weekly Top Five: 11/05/09

Bring a little colour into your life. ♥


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Free Thought: 10/05/09

Those who don't look to their history will have trouble looking to the future.

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Nat. Bass ♥

She's been on "Neighbours" and "So you think you can dance" but I became a fan of her when she joined the "Rogue Traders" (ONE OF THE BEST BANDS EVER). Sadly she's left but Nat Bass. still has her style and she's still friends with James Ash, who's quite the DJ. Sequins, lycra, policeman caps, it gave her 'that' edge in The Rogue Traders and with her new album out (1000 stars. very good album) she's wearing floating dresses and sky high heels, which makes her a little sexy minx. She's in tune with fashion but not afraid to break the boundaries.

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Weekly Rambles #40: 08/05/09

Good morning all,
I've been asking myself and my friends recently 'why do relationships have to be so complicated?' Is there a reason behind breakups, cheating, bitching? Are we the culprits or is it fate for things to go upside down? Even when you have friends or that special someone it's still complicated. You have to organise when to meet up around each other's work, study, other friends. You spend all your savings on phone credit and you only ever see your friends once a week. So why so complicated?

Why can't be just skip all the nonsense and end up with a clean slate with no complications. For instance one of my friends has just turned 18, she's super excited. She went out clubbing for her 18th birthday but only a week or so later she had to get her wisdom teeth out; this caused her to have to stay in for a week or so without any parties, clubbing or drinks with friends. The usual things you do when you turn 18. It's very complicated, she's probably getting invites out here and there but can't go and it's not really her fault at all. It her teeth! But because they are her teeth is she munipulated her own wants so she cant go out, subconciously? I don't think so but that could be a possibility.

One of my other friends was seeing someone kind of special for a few weeks. They met up every so often, msn-ed like crazy and she was seriously falling in lust. However, she was 17 and he was turning 18. For his 18th and went off and slept with someone else... interesting? Because she wasnt there he went off and forgot about her, but then again no one can no if he was trying to ruin the relationship or if he was simply drunk. Needless to say its over between them.

So why do we let small minor things, like wisdom teeth, and big things, like sexual antics, get in the way of a clean slate? Why are they more important than our friends? Let's just say that life is what happens when you're planning. Everything happens for a reason. The wisdom teeth had to come out and people have to deal with that and well he was going to cheat eventually lucky it happened at the start of the relationship. As for those that simply ditch there friends because they think they're beneath them go dig a hole and crawl into it. haha.

Haha, a little bit to grasp on a friday morning? That's what I'm here for. What do you think on this issue? Drop us an email on clairzy91@hotmail.com

Such a random.. thanks to my examples. I love you girls!

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Confessions of THIS shopaholic

As I write this I’m on the train to my university. The clock on my computer has just hit 7am. I’ve been up for two hours already and yet I feel compelled to go back to sleep. The temptation of letting my body jostle as the train moves along, swaying my unconscious head from side to side is haunting me. I want to sleep so badly and yet I can’t, because I’ve got a lecture in an hour and my stop isn’t at the end of the line. I feel asleep on a bus once and missed my stop completely, only to be awoken by the bus driver who wanted me to get off ‘his bus’. He was tired and so was I, too tired to argue, so I got off the bus at the last stop and caught a bus back to my planned destination.

When you get to that destination what do you do though? The trip has ended, there’s no point in sleeping, that stage of the journey is no more. So you trudge up the hill in your opaque stockings and aline skirt, a satchel full of text books and those few buys you bought in the city on your way home. You didn’t plan to buy the pieces but heck, you did anyway. There’s that gorgeous Cable Knit Dress and that fabulous pair of Marc Jacob flats that you just couldn’t resist. They’ve left a dint of about half a grand in your wallet but because it’s on the credit card it’s all good.

Credit Card? These seem to be the answer to our prayers but no, no, no they aren’t. Interest and growing dependence on the cards are dangerous substances to work with. It’s like you’ve covered yourself in fuel and you’re smoking a lit cigarette. I personally don’t own a credit card and it’s not in my future plans. So when I’m thinking about my latest purchase it strikes me, I COULD have used a credit card... but I’m glad I didn’t. I don’t have my own home loan to contend with, I don’t have a car, I don’t have children and I have a job so it’s COMPLETELY out of the question. As much as I love Marc Jacob shoes and Chanel handbags I’m not going to get myself a credit card or apply for a loan to buy their latest collections.

Don’t sound like much of a shopaholic do I? I remember watching “Confessions of a Shopaholic” in March, a while back now, and feeling shopper’s remorse without even buying anything. I walked out of the cinema and there it was, that big pit of shame, I couldn’t buy anything for a whole two days. It got me thinking, is this guilt selfish guilt or is it honest guilt? Are we honestly worried about someone else? About our partner or our family?; or are we so caught up in our own selfish guilt that we are more worried about what others (the outside world) will think about our spending habits? It’s not about our bank balance at all. It’s about our reputation.

Years ago it was cool to own the latest thing, to spend a lot of money to look fashionable, in some areas it still is, but the majority of the world are more fixated on getting the best price and finding the best bargain. If you get the latest Prada bag it’s nice but selfish guilt kicks in and you start to think about how you will be viewed by the rest of society. Will they look down on you for being materialistic or will they look at you and think you are looking down on them? The uncertainty of your position in society tends to make you feel concerned for your reputation. Those who have already established a firm reputation as ‘a shopaholic’ have broken through the stage of ‘reputation concern’. The stress of the situation has decreased dramatically and their self esteem has sky rocketed as a result.

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Weekly Inspiration: 06/05/09

Grace Kelly!
A Goddess. An Artist. A Saint.

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Romantic White

There's something a little bit romantic about a white winter and although Australia is not the place for snow you can still take a tip from Paris and dress in white. The tip to this trend is to show of a 'bit' of skin, but keep it to one area. If you're showing a bit of leg then don't show your bosom and vice versa.

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Weekly Top Five: 04/05/09

Soft Pastels will help breath life up your wardrobe this winter.

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Change... for the better?

Hey Sweetharts,

I am so happy at the moment I have to write about it all. I know this blog has turned somewhat into a lifestyle one, with weekly rambles, style tips and reflections. I love coming on here and writing everyday. I love having a routine of Free Thoughts, weekly top fives and weekly inspirations. I love writing...

but I have recently come to a realisation, thanks to my most amazing group of friends, my mother who is almost always right and one of my fabulous history professors; instead of solely writing as my career I will most probably teach others to do so. Haha. Funny it may seem now but i may be your child's history teacher!

In year 11 and 12 I had the privledge to be taught by, in my opinion, one of the greatest highschool teachers I've ever come to face. His marking was harsh and critical and he knew what he was talking about; he was able to drop a date out of the middle of nowhere. He began my fascination with Ancient Rome, as I knew only concise information before my classes taught by him. I still keep in contact with this teacher of mine and I use many many of this things he taught me in my work at university.

Before senior schooling I had never thought teaching was an option, that I could possibly be a historiographer with a class of students. I had never thought the label 'historian' could fall next to my name, but my history lecturer at university told me recently when he was reviewing my marks that 'you write like a very practised historian'. I was so thrown back by the comment that I took it to the side and didn't think about it, until I was talking to mum about the book I'm reading 'TYRANTS' by Colin Foss. It is a great read by the way. She said to me, "Fashion Journalism would be wasted on you Claire. Why aren't you reaching higher? Write about history." She also added, "and I don't know how you can read that before you go to bed. It's gruesome. Vlad the Impaler?" haha

So thanks to these two and my friends at university as well as the only person I trust with everything, my best friend and sister, "SHOUT OUT TO YOU BEAUTIFUL!", I think i'm on a new path, or at least i've gone right instead of left. After my study in history & communications I plan to do a post graduate in either teaching or journalism depending on which way I'd like to go and I'm already starting to write notes for my biography on Julius Caesar (the most fasinating figure in history).

I've also made a transition with work. I used to work in a jewelry store and before that a cinema franchise but now I am glad to stay I have been working at my new job, in homewares and furniture, for three months! It is a great permanent position that lets me interact with people and a great product and my manager is really nice.

So study & work is great. My friends are great but my group has changed since I graduated. In fact im not only part of one or two groups but five haha. My best friend and I go out to dinner, movies, parties every week with a group of girls, some went to my highschool, others didn't and we laugh. I love them because they are mature and although I love my other friends not all of them understand the term 'adult'.

My second group revolves mainly around my other very close friend. She is there for me when I need her and I'm there for when she needs me, whether it be to laugh, cry or just have a good bitch. We have organised a trip away in the winter break, just the two of us, as we had so much fun at schoolies last year.

The next two groups are present at uni. I have my history friends who are all fasinated with what I am, yay. We talk about the Romans and the Russian Revolution constantly. It's nice to have people who enjoy what you enjoy and are planning on riding the same path as you. The last group is my communications girls. We go on little adventures, watch the most random videos and just have an absolute ball. They are the funniest girls I know.

My last group live in a whole different state but not state-of-mind. They and I have been friends since middle school and we visit each other once as year at least. We have so much fun and I always wish the catchups would never end. There are other people I am friends with that I see often but we aren't a 'group' of friends neccesarily.

So yess it's a strange feeling. This sense of adultness, this sense of responsibility. There are friends everywhere, relationships change even if we don't want them to. So as a shoutout to all these people, they know who they are, thanks for sticking by me and not taking out friendship for granted. I meet people everyday but only a handful will change my life and quite frankly the above are there to help me along the way, they nuture my needs in different way. I laugh with some, I party with others, I can talk for others with others. Life is about the journey not the destination so I don't mind if I don't end up being a writer or a teacher or even a historian I care about what gets me to where I have to be.

I am happy but with happiness there's always a sign of a shadow. I recently had a biff with an old friend of mine, it wasnt the first time a friendship had fallen apart. Her niave view on the matter of argument as well as her irresponsible behaviour pushed me to cut her out all together. "Sorry" is such a strong word and frankly if she used that word with an explanation she may well be in for a second chance. Everyone deserves a second chance. Of all the people who could have walked out of my life I don't understand why she had to but it's over now, as I know it to be anyway. Well I have got to go and get ready for work. What's changed in your life recently?

Is it just me or did I just write an essay of the top of my head?


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Free Thought: 03/05/09

It's never too late to start taking care of you and your needs.

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Tess of the D'Urbervilles

In a time where Britain was losing their empire, civil wars were breaking out all around the world and the age of discovery was coming to a close Thomas Hardy stood out from the rest. His novel 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles' was so controversial that in 1891 when it was first published many sections were not released with the volumne.

For many years Tess was someone who had done and was punished for it, until that is the book was published in its entirety in the early 1910's. It is now a classic book which shows that Tess was done wrong as a result of her beauty and the infactuation two very different men had with her.

Do not, and I repeat, do not watch the film if your writing or reviewing the work. Read the book because the films I watched do not portray Tess correctly. They elongate what could have been without and scrap on of the most crucial chapters in the whole text.

Do read the book if you are one for drama, tragedy and romance. It will make you shiver with concern, squirm with delight and cry with sorrow. Tess is one of the greatest book ever written.

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