༺ Rose Red & Curls ༻

I think I’ve finally done it. I’ve finally found the perfect sunny weather style. This look really is my dream summertime ensemble!

The miniature roses, the sweet strawberry dangles on my straw purse, combined with chic wooden clogs ~ all these details add the finishing touches to my ideal red gingham dress. For me, it doesn’t get much more summer than this!

I’ve had the vague ideas of this look floating in my head for a while now, so it really felt great to finally put it all together. We wandered the streets of our Moo Baan after a long afternoon of shopping to find a picture perfect spot, and thankfully we had the road to ourselves.

We only just managed to sneak these photos in not long before we left Thailand, so they are a few weeks old already! It’s been a rather crazy year, and I really can’t believe it’s almost over… Eeek!

We have made it safely back, and now that we are finally over the jetlag; I can safely say that I’m definitely more acclimated to a tropical environment than I ever thought I would be…

You guys, Canberra is COLD! And grey. And cloudy. And it really makes me miss the gorgeous sunshine we had over in Thailand, like when we took these pictures!

However, one thing that I’ve bought back with me, and that I’m still enjoying very much ~ funnily enough ~ is my natural curly hair!

Quite a while ago I posted a picture on Instagram where my hair had gone pretty curly ~ almost to the point of an afro(!), or a Vogue editorial ~ and honestly, the response I got was quite astounding to me! I had people commenting on it left, right and centre ~ just about on every social media platform and I was shocked.

Everyone seemed to just love my natural curls! Even as wild and crazy and bouffy as they were that day. I mean, they were soooo fluffy! I would have firmly pegged it as a “bad hair day”! Yet, no one else seemed see it the same way.

So I got to thinking, maybe I should just roll with it and let my curls do their own thing? I wasn’t sure though, so polled it on Insta, and everyone was super positive about letting my curls run wild and free. {Yes, hair can totally run wild and free ~ the mane is unstoppable and untameable! It just wants to have fun and do it’s own thing… Haha!} And again, there where random supportive, and super positive comments all around the place from people I would NEVER have expected to chip in!

I was kind of overwhelmed, but ready to go for it. Since then, that’s what I’ve been aiming for ~ the curliest of curls I can possibly get!

It’s a bit strange, as I have been trying to tame, smooth, and flatten the mane for such a long time! I’ve worked hard on achieving a good pin curl set on my hair type over the last six years. To let it just do it’s thing feels very weird. But it seems like it was the right time for something new.

I feel like all these little changes I’ve been making since moving away at the beginning of this year has really transformed my style. And while I will always have a soft spot for a neatly defined pin curl set, I do have to admit ~ this natural mop is by far soooo much easier to achieve!

I’m not sure I’m even ready to go back to pin curls yet, but maybe in time I will revisit them. If I haven’t forgotten everything I have learned by then! Haha!

xox,

bonita

༺ ♡ ༻

Miniature Rose Hair Flowers | Chiang Mai Night Market
A Gingham Summer Dress | c/o Sisjuly
Palm Straw Purse | Chiang Mai Night Market
Black Strap Clogs | OPERA, Malaysia

༺ ♡ ༻
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༺ Currently: When Time Flies ༻

‘Currently’ posts are a series of memoirs, featuring snapshots of one small life story by briefly touching on events that are occurring in my day-to-day journey. These episodes feature photos from my Instagram, do come and say “Hi!” if you are around. Also, if you would like to participate in this feature yourself, please feel free! I’d love to read your posts, so don’t forget to leave a link.  ♡

READING: LISTENING:

I haven’t had the time to pick up any books recently, but I have had the chance to listen to a few podcasts ~ mostly with my Mister as he is a big podcast fan. I’ve really enjoyed recent Tropical MBA episodes and The Startup Chat, but those are entrepreneur pods. If you are looking for a vintage-centric podcast ~ check out This Retro Life as they cover a really wide range of interesting historical topics.

WONDERING:

Not much actually! To busy doing…

FEELING THANKFUL:

That I have family and friends that support me in so many ways.

EATING:

Pho! Yummy! Grapefruit, and lots of vegetarian dishes. Mushrooms have really great anti-inflammatory properties I’ve discovered, so I’m eating a lot of those too whenever I can. 

WATCHING:

All the Youtubes. Haha, art videos are my jam at the moment.

WORKING ON:

Packing. Life. Teacup Girl. Getting healthy… That’s a long road back.

LOVING:

The pool at our Moo Baan! All the sunshine and flowers. Webtoons. Squishies. Washi tape. New art supplies. Watercolour paints. Tiny bebe cacti I bought to sit on my desk. Date nights at the movies. Caramel butter popcorn….MMMM….. Sleepy after nap cuddles with my girls {Like most mothers, I still can’t get over how big they are getting!}, and bed time snuggles with all my babies. Iced Coffee. My new camera lens. Soap & Glory “What a Peeling!” Face Mask.

ATTEMPTING:

To get back to Australia all in one piece without forgetting anything vital. Haha!

WANTING:

To see family and friends. Yay for holidays!

DOING:

The packing. Only one and a half days and we fly out! Whoo!

xox,

bonita

༺ ♡ ༻
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༺ Roses in the Park ༻

I’m not going to lie ~ I’m slightly okay, majorly, in love with this park we found last weekend. Is that a weird thing to say?

If it is, I’m going to say it anyway!

We haven’t really had much of a chance for sightseeing yet, I’ve been way to exhausted and there’s just been too many other things to deal with. Sort of like what happened in Malaysia, we’ve spent our time in Chiang Mai mostly exploring all the shopping centres trying to find what we need/what’s available to us, rather than just looking around for fun.

Oh, don’t get me wrong, the shops can be fun {hehehe} but I really just love exploring a city and seeing all the landmarks and beautiful spots. I’ve been aching to do that here, and now I have the perfect reason too!

For those of you that follow me on Instagram, you would have already seen this, but my Mother-In-Law flew over from Australia last Friday. It’s mostly an “emergency” trip ~ she came bearing gifts ~ namely my desperately needed supplements, and help in the form of looking after the little ones while my body adjusts to being in a more balanced state. Which is actually a fairly rough ride {at the moment I’m on a quarter dose and I’m still dealing with fatigue and all the usual, plus a new symptom ~ nausea… Yay.}.

But it should be over in a few weeks, if it follows in the pattern of my previous experience with this treatment. At least I’m sleeping better at night, and actually feeling somewhat refreshed in the mornings!

Anywho ~ now that my Mil is visiting, I hope that we will have a chance to explore more of wonderful Chiang Mai with her. The Night Market is so much fun, the Old City is really beautiful and interesting, and I’d love to show her the botanic gardens as I think she will really love them!

The weather at the moment is absolutely fantastic for outdoor explorations. The rainy season has finished now, and the days are mostly filled with sunshine and cool breezes to whisk away the majority of humidity. It’s really the best weather you could ask for when sightseeing, so I absolutely want to make the most of it.

We did stumble on this park a bit by accident, we had some time to kill before attending church, but not enough time to go all the way back home and out again. So I searched for the nearest park on Google maps and this is what we found!

It was soooo much better than I was expecting, it was a stunning garden with gorgeous old bridges, pavilions, man-made lakes and canals, flowers galore and tree lined avenues. But best of all, there was really great play equipment for the children!

Yes, I really wanna go back there again….. Haha!

Something else I also love, and that I just have to mention, is my new brooch by Natalie of Fancy Lady Industries.

There’s been a ton of new makers and brands pop up in the brooch scene recently, and it’s really exciting to see all the talent and creativity each brand brings to their designs.

I ordered a bunch from a few different makers, and most of them are still back in Australia, as I get all my mail *cough*online shopping*cough* sent to my mom’s house.

However, my Mil kindly slipped a few of my recent purchases in her suitcase and now I have some new pretties to play with!

I have to say, I was really impressed by the solid workmanship of Natalie’s pieces. The lines are clean and everything fits together beautifully which makes the final piece look so polished and professional. Her artwork is beautiful too, and she has some great designs available!

I really love it when a maker puts a lot of care into creating their pieces, and I adore seeing all the new brooch designs coming out. It’s amazing to see quite a large community of brooch lovers continue to grow, and to know I’m not the only one with a serious brooch addiction…. (｡> ౪ •｡)  Brooching is definitely something I’m enjoying a lot at the moment. I love collecting wearable, miniature pieces of art! I could write a whole essay on brooches, and the art in fashion, but I think I will leave that for another time.

xox,

bonita

༺ ♡ ༻

Peach Peony Hair Flower | Old
"Florence” Japanese Flower Brooch | Fancy Lady Industries
Navy Rose Dress | Zulily
Tan Virginia Leather Sandal | Miss L Fire

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༺ Poolside Pineapples ༻

You guys! I’m so excited! It was my birthday this Monday past, and I was so lucky to get a new camera lens for my present!

I’ve been longing for a new lens for years, but never got around to upgrading from my kit lens {trust me, I’m seriously kicking myself that I didn’t do this sooner, but oh well…}. Darling Mister gave me the Cannon STM 50mm f.1/8 lens ~ for people that don’t speak camera speak ~ it basically means that the lens lets in a lot more light, creating crisper colours and clearer details. That is balanced out with a very shallow depth of field which gives you a bokeh-licious effect in the background by essentially blurring it out!

I could go on and on about why I love this lens, but mostly it just comes at the perfect time as I was really struggling with my current lens and the lighting situation here in Thailand. I’m not sure if it’s because everything is so lush that the light is absorbed more and might also reflect more darkly than it did at home ~ here in these photos it was so bright there in person, yet they actually turned out quite dark compared to what I saw!

As well as that, those lovely high mountains surrounding Chiang Mai also affect the low light a lot. Because they are so high, when the sun starts to sink, it disappears much faster and you loose most of that “golden hour” because all of the delicious light is blocked by the hills.

So you can see how my new lens is so exciting ~ it deals with low light situations so much better and I can’t wait to thoroughly test it out.

The second exciting thing I want to write about is that Sisjuly is having a big sale on tons of their summer dresses, and this gorgeous tropical pineapple dress is one of them!

I have never been a big pineapple girl in the past ~ don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love eating fresh pineapple! And those pineapple lollies in the Starburst party mix are my favourite of all the Starburst lollies ~ second favourites are the “cherry grapes” and the strawberry jellies…

*ahem!* 

But back to the dress ~ I like the simple cut of this frock as it allows this awesome pineapple and tropical leaf print to shine.  The fabric is really light weight and breathes well, but it doesn’t crush easily which is always a giant plus in my books. It paired beautifully with my peach double rose from Daisy Jean Floral, and also matched the giant checked tote bag I had with me.

I really enjoy this dress, it’s easy to wear and comfortable ~ perfect for travel or a day out. One of the great things we are enjoying in Thailand is this gorgeous swimming pool in our Moo Baan, so right after we took these snaps I changed into my swimsuit and jumped right in!  Ahhhh… It was so good!

A perfect end to a lovely day, I couldn’t ask for anything more.

In the mean time, don’t forget to hop over to Sisjuly if you want to pick up some great end of season bargains. I know it’s autumn in the Northern Hemisphere, and everyone’s obsessing over knits and pumpkin spice {Man, if there’s one thing I am sad about missing out on autumn besides the gorgeous leaves, it’s my knits! I really miss wearing chunky cardigans and knit tops…  I didn’t know this could be a thing, but it apparently is for me!}…

However, I do really love a good sale, so maybe you will too!

xox,

bonita

༺ ♡ ༻

Signature Double Rose in “Peach”  | Daisy Jean Floral Designs
Pineapple Blues Dress | c/o Sisjuly
Rose Check Tote | Local Thai Craftsman
Black Strap Clogs | OPERA, Malaysia

༺ ♡ ༻
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༺ A Tropical Garden: Thoughts on Invisible Illness ༻

We went out this weekend and had a lovely time at the movies, {we saw Ninjago: A Lego Movie}. We don’t get to visit the cinema much unless it’s a family friendly feature ~ would you believe we left all our babysitters behind in Australia? Haha…

As luck would have it, a parcel had arrived on my doorstep the morning before, so I got to pick a new dress to wear! I really love this one with cheerful flowers, and it went perfectly with a simple scarf and my Erstwilder Pink Lemonade brooch.

We arrived home from the shopping mall just in time for me to drive to the park that’s in our Moo Baan and snap some quick photos before the light completely disappeared. The ground was so soggy, my platforms just about sunk in the mud all the way over the top of my shoes!  (○ _ ○)

It has been raining a lot recently, they don’t call it the rainy season for nothing. I don’t mind it all. It means I can stay inside.

Admittedly, things have taken a turn for the worse regarding my health. It’s like the last of the strength I had gained on my supplements has finally depleted, and my body has checked out.

You can see it in my acne troubled skin, my extremely puffy face and body {guess who’s back, dun-da, back again – dun-da, bloating’s back – dun-da, it’s bought a friend – aching tum-my!}, and in my belly which, due to insane levels of inflammation -no joke-  looks like I’m six months pregnant most days…

Am I exaggerating?

Sadly, no…

I think I’ve been asked at least three times when my baby is due over the last few months, and the other day an older Thai lady said in rather broken English that I looked “extremely pregnant” and that I was about to have baby number four any day! Colour me mortified. I think I flushed redder than my lipstick.

There’s nothing worse than trying to explain to someone who doesn’t really speak or understand English, that no – you are not fat, or pregnant. Just really, really, really ill. Even though you are somehow standing {swaying sometimes, when it’s really bad} on your feet, not looking completely like something the cat coughed up thanks to the modern miracle of makeup and a pretty dress.

Honestly, it’s amazing what a dress does to your look. Even without the makeup, or my hair done, I’m immediately way more presentable if I wear a dress. It’s an instant glamourous transformation, though it doesn’t help you to be any less ill.  Which is an important point that I was discussing that the other day with my friend on Facebook.

It’s interesting to me how there’s this perception in society that in order to be ill, you need to LOOK ill ~ literally, you can feel like you are dying bit by bit each day, but it doesn’t count unless you LOOK like you are on death’s bed to society… Which I can only imagine is a look something like a cross between what the cat coughed up and a zombie?? I guess? *shrug*

Anyway, unless you LOOK like you are ill, CLEARLY you aren’t. Somehow. Like, somehow everything worth judging a person by is only visible on the outside…. and if you are chronically ill, clearly it should be flashing like a neon light on your forehead… And if it’s not, maybe you are just imagining it all in your mind, and you should stop being so lazy and just get up and get on with it…. Right?

Right…

Needless to say, this kind of guilt is an extra burden that is really difficult to cope with when you have a chronic illness. It’s hard enough to believe what your own body is telling you at times, let alone having to convince everyone around you that you are literally too tired to get out of bed, and no, you are not just being lazy. I think that’s why a lot of people with these invisible illnesses don’t say anything, they just keep quiet and suffer alone.

It’s too hard to explain, when we most often don’t understand it ourselves.

Wow.

That got intense.

Where was I? Oh, dresses!

Man, speaking of ~ chronic illness brain fog has set in so hard I can barely remember what day it is, let alone anything important ~ like oh, food. Or moving. Or how to English, coz bad I does it…

But pretty dresses save the day again, and help me to feel a least a tiny bit better, even on the days when I find it hard to smile. {Seriously, it’s too much effort. I’m too tired to smile…}

And if you are struggling for words to explain what you are going through; I have found that even something as simple as reading a blog or a website where other people explain what it is that they are experiencing can really help… Please don’t just leave it, and suffer with the belief that you are alone. Even if you are just on the internet, there are others out there who are facing the same things you do to some extent. See if you can find them, and maybe you won’t feel so alone with your invisible illness.

For thyroid disease sufferers: this blog has been extremely helpful for me. Endo sufferers may resonate with this lady’s journey, and there is a range of stories of many chronic illnesses on this site that I also found helpful.

And that’s one part of my story for now. Another day to get through, but we will make it.  ʚ♡ɞ

xox,

bonita

༺ ♡ ༻

Vintage Nylon Hair Scarf in Petal Pink | eBay
Floral Picnic Dress | Sisjuly
“Pink Lemonade” Brooch | Erstwilder
Tan Virginia Leather Sandal | Miss L Fire

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