Bee Love

 I've had my eye on Melbourne City Rooftop Honey ever since I heard them speak at The Hive earlier this year. Local beekeepers, they are committed to save the honey bee because:

If The Honey Bees Are In Trouble, We Are In Trouble As Well!

Read here for more.

One of the many things I love about Rooftop Honey is that Vanessa and Mat would like to have hives in different Melbourne suburbs so that we can each be proud of the honey our suburb produces and perhaps get competitive about; similar to the way we get competitive about our football teams!

So that's something I've had back of mind throughout the year, even going so far as to referring to Rooftop Honey about what plants I should have in my garden to help bees; gardening being a new hobby I'm fostering...

Then on the weekend just past, I experienced a dessert made with Rooftop Honey at O'Connells in South Melbourne when I was out for lunch with some tweetettes. Chef Paul Cooper has made this lovely iced nougat dessert that quite simply made me happy:

The iced nougat by Paul Cooper at O'Connells Image: Lou Pardi

The next morning I happened to notice that the lavender bush in my garden was full of bees that were merrily doing their thing! It was a lovely morning and I was fascinated such that I ended up standing for sometime in my PJs watching and photographing the bees at work whilst thinking about whether this meant that the honey for my suburb would have notes of lavender...

Coincidentally later on in the day I visited Moral Fairground at Federation Square when I came across Mat and Vanessa of Rooftop Honey giving a cooking demonstration and talking about their work! Interestingly, I heard Mat share that a bee will only make about a teaspoon of honey in their whole life which leads me to suppose that the chances of Richmond honey tasting of lavender are actually quite slim...

Mat and Vanessa of Rooftop Honey at Moral Fairground

Nonetheless I've been happy to observe that there have been more and more happy bees in my lavender each morning that I inspect it! Today I got to see one of my dear partners in crime Lara McPherson where I confessed to her my new found obsession for bees. Imagine my surprise when Lara promptly showed me this blogpost she had put together over the weekend featuring the following images:

Bees taking in the lavender at Dederang

A bee taking in the lavender at Dederang

SO the moral of this random shit is that bees are integral to the survival of human beings who eat, which is most of us and I think that more of us need to learn about bees - although we don't all have to get as fixated as I have...

I next hope to plant some strawberry plants which are on the list of what plants bees like. And I'm trying to think of ways that I can help support the Rooftop Honey cause - like would anyone be interested in buying greeting cards bearing my photos of bees in the lavender?

If the answer is no, check out the more useful things you can buy to aid the bees, here.

Random Homewares (aka how to bring Dolly Parton into your bedroom)!

So like as a fashion blogger, something I read about a lot and do myself a lot is do the high-low. This means to mix high-end labels with low-end labels, like wear your Chanel with your weekend denim in order to create an awesome new outfit that is copied by high-street stores the world over!

So I thought that I'd apply this concept to my own home... my own bedroom in fact! So here, take a gander at the latest editions to my boudoir ;)

low: This week I went to the Dolly Parton concert which was AWESOME where I bought this "I Will Always Love You" pillow case - I LOVE YOU DOLLY!

high: This weekend I visited The Design Files (TDF) Open House - it was AWESOME!  The volunteers working the house were wearing very cute tshirts with yellow polka dots - so I bought a CASTLE pillow case which has... yellow polka dots!

Random shit, Chez!

The moral of this random shit is that as Miranda in Sex & the City once said, "if I make my bed a place that I want to be in, then others will want to be in it too."

What do you think? Is this a bedroom look that will be copied the world over... or  quite simply scare off potential suitors??? :P

How to line your hallway with astroturf!

Springcleaning. I went wild with the activity this weekend. Bathrooms cleaned and floors mopped, heck in the process I even vacuumed the house four times! No, I am not developing OCD - vacuuming was required after I executed a rather messy activity known as "lining a hallway with astroturf." Check it out:

1. Get the idea to line the hallway with astroturf.
...need I say more?

2. Measure up the hallway

3. Cut the astrotuf to required dimensions. This is a little messy.

4. Random shit, Chez!

5. It ain't perfect; smells that way too! :S

It's unfortunate that after a few hours of this installation I found the plastic-rubber smell of the astroturf so strong that I had to roll it up and stash it in a safe place: out of sight and smell!

The moral of this random shit, is to smell things first before you install them in your home. Random shit might be fun but smelly shit is unpleasant to live with. 

Note: big thanks to Natalie for donating so much astroturf to my cause for when I had an idea to wrap a vase in astroturf, that I was able to envision and execute this project. muchos grazias, lady! x 

Sarah Jessica Parker and the Pear.

Pendant le weekend, je suis allée à la plage.*

During the weekend, I went to the beach.

J'ai acheté une poire céramiqe. Je l'aime.

[Random shit, Chez!] I bought a ceramic pear. I love it.

Elle est verte comme cette robe de Sarah Jessica Parker.

It is green like Sarah Jessica Parker's dress here.

That is all!

Pear is from Gallery Sorrento from the very fabulous Have You Met Miss Jones.


The moral of this random shit is that Sorrento has some interesting homewares and green pears are in season!


Thank you to Lou for the photo of me carrying the larger version of the pear. Merci encore Lara pour aider avec la langue française!

*we also watched AN EDUCATION - a brilliant coming-of-age film in which French-obsessed schoolgirl Jenny takes every opportunity to speak it!

KÜK Crafters | TRIAL AND ERROR | Do It In A Dress

An amazing day today where I got to learn how to make my first ever paper crane AND meet some really ace peeps whose work I much admire; all because I sent out a random tweet!

So today I went to my very first KÜK session. KÜKs (Kamikaze Über Krafters) is a growing community of crafters who inspired by quiet conversations about *things we'd like to make*, come together and make stuff that matters. A few weeks back, I randomly tweeted that I wanted to learn how to make a papercrane. This tweet was seen by the group's Bambi Gordon who passed on the message to the group's head KÜK, Toula Karayannis who organised for the paper-ace TRIAL AND ERROR to come and present a workshop on their creative enterprise and to show us how to make a paper crane, heart and flower bomb!

First up though, a funny coincidence: I found out about TRIAL AND ERROR some months ago after they created a magic papercrane installation for the window of mettascents - a shop belonging to another Twitter friend! When I first saw the installation, I was so moved that I emailed Trial and Error to express my admiration for their work and to share my paper pinata costume! Check out the clip below:

THOUSAND PAPER CRANES from trialanderror on Vimeo.

So here are some images from today's KÜKs session:

Sarah and Cyndi from TRIAL AND ERROR start off the paper session nice and easy with making love hearts

Random shit, Chez! These buggers are tricky to make but here is my very first papercrane - my tweet wish come true!

Cyndi and Sarah demonstrating how to make a flower bomb

Pictured with Sarah from TRIAL AND ERROR modelling our flower bomb headpieces! Images by  @joidesign and @digitalkulcha

It was a super fun and kooky day with with the KÜKs as demonstrated by Cyndi and Sarah in the gif I've made below! I wanted to showcase their ace workshop wear - coordinated coloured jeans from zara and accessorised with the paperheart necklaces and flower bomb headpieces they showed us how to make!

Cyndi and Sarah demonstrate the joie de vivre of TRIAL AND ERROR!

I'm also hoping to get Cyndi and Sarah to join forces to help the Do It In A Dress Campaign. Did you know that there are 60 million girls in the world who are not in school? One Girl Org aims to raise funds to send girls in Sierra Leone to school and Do It In A Dress is their major fundraiser. The campaign asks individuals to do something they normally do between Oct 2-9 - but in a school dress! By asking family and friends to sponsor their efforts, Do It In A Dressers will be raising much-needed funds for One Girl Org's awesome programs in Sierra Leone to send girls to school!

Boys and Girls Do It In A Dress to raise funds for One Girl Org's programs in Sierra Leone to send girls to school!
Will you?

Campaign co-founder Chantelle Baxter hopes to wear a new school dress for each day of the campaign- I'm helping to find interested designers and crafters to create a dress either by using an old school dress (we've been receiving donations..) or crafting one out of the resources available to you! In the case of TRIAL AND ERROR - that could be paper! In return we are working to get more media interest as well as promoting your creations through the One Girl Org, Twitter and related blogs like randomshitchez and the more serious BusinessChic.com.au ! If you are interested, please drop me a line in the comments below and I'll email you further information!

Glinda Glinda Glinda | The biggest dress I've ever owned

Somewhere over the rainbow is a place called etsy where wonderful quirky things can be bought from wonderful people with the maddest range of goodies to fulfil any quirky desire. I have previously blogged about the felt doughnuts that came in surprisingly handy one day... In today's post, we will look at the frock I've just received - my first ever etsy frock and dare I say it, the biggest effing dress I've ever owned!

Its sparkle, volume and shade of cotton candy pink remind me of one Glinda ~ the Good Witch of the South in one of my favourite childhood films, The Wizard of Oz. Do you see the resemblance?

Glinda - The Good Witch of the South makes an appearance in a bubble of pink

Not clear enough? Ok here's a line-up to facilitate voluminous shoulder detail comparison:

Random shit, Chez!

RANDOM FACT: Glinda is the Good Witch of the South. I live in South Yarra. Coincidence!? :P

Many thanks to seller Calico Vintage for being amazing as I ummmed and ahhhed over needing this piece.

There's a pink fairy in all of us, have you gotten in touch with yours lately?

But the moral of this random shit Chez post is that everyone needs a fairy godmother and sometimes... she is you! xx

Two parties, one jumpsuit

Dearest Carly,

I'm sorry to hear that you are unwell and stuck in hospital. As such here is a post dedicated to you. You see I had a conundrum this weekend: two parties but really only the time for one outfit. One was the launch of Hussy's new store at GPO (not far from where I photographed you), the other was a friend's housewarming that naturally was a costume party with the theme, Alice in Wonderland!

So you can understand that I needed an ensemble that could cut it with the fash pack but then look appropriately OTT for Alice, et voila! I pulled out a hot pink jumpsuit that I got from American Rag, what do you think??

The first two images are me trying on belts from Hussy - I settled on the black one in the end as while the gold goes better with my jumpsuit - it's not everyday that I wear a hot pink jumpsuit!

I saw Lady Melbourne and Emma from $30 Dollar Date at the Hussy launch, here is a pic of us:

And here is a pic that Emma took of me with the Hussy designer, Marie Ritchie:

Afterwards I was naturally very late for a very important date and skipped off to my friend Leanne's housewarming where I popped on a pair of bunny ears and tail that I picked up from my local $2 shop which naturally cost me $5.50 ;) Here is a pic of me with uber-cute Leanne and I don't know who the guy is - oops!

So what do you think of my outfit? Reckon I can be forgiven for wearing the same thing to two events!? And how are you feeling? I've been thinking of you lots and hope you are big time on the mend - keep us posted and hope you get well soon! xx Chez.

PS: must thank my friend D for taking the bunny pics :)

The magic outfit

Tresna: There's a party on tonight, you should come. But it's a costume party and you have to get dressed up. The theme is magic.

Chez: cool, I'll try find some glitter or something.

Lou: ummm, yeah cool - only I think I'm already dressed for a magic party.

Lou's already-magic-party-appropriate outfit

Random magic party!

I found a bunny outfit, tune into Random Shit, Chez for an update on what the bunny did next!

The Tooth Fairy Collection

Last year, I played the role of the tooth fairy on community tv show, Story Time. Since then I've been thinking about what sort of accessories a modern day tooth fairy might craft and wear in the workplace, et voila!

The Tooth Fairy Collection by busichic on Polyvore.com

Tooth Fairy / Keep Calm and Floss On 13x19 Parisian Blue by...
pinterest.com

Tooth Fairy / Tooth in a Jar Hand Blown Glass Life Sized Molar by...
pinterest.com

Tooth Fairy / Tooth Ring in Black and White white glazed tooth by...
pinterest.com

Tooth Fairy / Human Molar Replica Cufflinks Be Meyer by monsterkookies...
pinterest.com

Tooth Fairy / Tooth Studs by nappyhappy on Etsy
pinterest.com

Tooth Fairy / Special Edition Dentistry Vintage Dictionary by...
pinterest.com

Tooth Fairy / Conjoined Teeth Ring by charlotteburkhart on Etsy
pinterest.com

Tooth Fairy / Solid 14k Gold Wisdom Tooth Necklace as seen in by...
pinterest.com

Can you help me decide which tooth accessories/art I should invest in? Will it be the 14k Gold tooth that has appeared in Spanish Vogue? The tasteful artwork for the bathroom? or perhaps the earrings which I could wear and point to when someone is giving me an earful?

Decisions, decisions... this tooth fairy might need more teeth! mwah-ha-ha!

This is some random shit, non?