state of art

An update... of sorts. It's been over a month since I last made myself present here on the blog. I keep telling myself I'm going to be consistent and post but life simply gets in the way and I find it's been weeks since I last log in to my dear corner of the internet. In the weeks since we've spoken (and when I say spoken I am referring to the conversation being completely one sided and you reading what I have to say, as opposed to hearing it... unless you know me, then you'll perhaps know all of this pointless information already), I have:

Wearing a beautiful dress I borrowed from my friend Ella - it's vintage, pink and made of floaty chiffon fabric so naturally it was perfect for photographing in the neighbour's farm (most likely trespassing... whoops).

- Watched The Murder on the Orient Express, and my, what a film! What a story! What a twist. I saw it with my brother the other night after we gorged ourselves on burgers and waffles. It was a brilliantly done film and having not known the story beforehand, the ending was a thoroughly enjoyable surprise. Would highly recommend. - Dropped my phone in the toilet.. this happened this morning actually and it was just a brilliant start to my already stressful week ahead. To be honest, I have no idea what I'll do about it. I have a car service and tyres to pay for this week so the thought of paying for repairs is nauseating but, I've been in difficult situations before and managed to get through it so I guess I'll figure something out! In the meantime, it's bathing gingerly in 500 grams of jasmine rice I miraculously had in the pantry. I was going to eat it tomorrow night with curry, but drying out my phone is a bit more of a priority than me having an exciting oriental meal. 

- I saw Khalid live a few weeks ago in Brisbane and it was AMAZING. I've been a massive fan of him and his music since he first dropped the debut album earlier this year and the concert was amazing - he is such a darling. Despite my room mates and I being completely sober, surrounded by sweaty, half-dressed bodies all night and breathing in second-hand marijuana smoke in the moshpit, it was an exciting evening that I won't forget. It never fully sinks in; the surreal feeling of seeing an artist that you've spent months listening to during your happiest and saddest moments in the flesh. 

Aside from the above highlights - not much has happened really... I'm still making coffee every day for people (and hoping that it's enough to increase their quality of life, even just for a fleeting moment), going to gym classes (I love them... I have so much more energy now!) and looking for full time work. It's pretty frustrating - job hunting, I mean. I desperately want to find a full-time position so I have more financial stability and a routine but haven't had much luck thus far. If you, reading this, have any ideas, please let me know! Email is avenuemblog@gmail.com. 

Anyway, seeya for now! Hopefully it'll still be 2017 by the time I post next..ha. 

my sister's wedding // photo sneak peak

Hello! The last time I blogged was a little over a month ago, and in that time I: went blonder, joined the gym, got my P2 license, went to a few dances, and most importantly, witnessed the marriage between my beautiful oldest sister and now brother-in-law. Plus, I got to be a bridesmaid on that very important day and it was wonderful and I felt so pretty too.
It was a perfect day; the rain held off right up until we left the reception hall that evening with our bellies full of amazing food and champagne, and our feet slightly sore form haphazard dancing and too-high heels. I thought I would share some of the photos I took on my camera after the professional photographer left. I'm ecstatic with how these photos turned out - but at the same time, beautiful photos are easy to achieve if the subject is as gorgeous as Rosey is. Hope you're all doing wonderfully - I'll be back soon with another (proper) update very soon!

flaxton gardens

These photos were taken at Flaxton Gardens on the Sunshine Coast; we went there over the weekend to celebrate my sister's bridal shower and I must say, it was definitely one of the most beautiful locations I've ever taken photos at. The staff were absolutely lovely and the food and champagne was exquisite - particularly in presentation! I'm ridiculously excited for the actual wedding - mainly because my sister's and I are the bridemaids for Rosey and our dresses are currently in the works and the preparation is slowly (but surely!) coming together. I've been to quite a few weddings already this year and I've decided they are my absolute favourite event to attend. Everything from the romantic atmosphere in general, to the exchanging of vows makes for such a special and important reminder of how much we humans need love and devotion. I've always wanted to get married and I do think I will  one day, it's just odd to think of at the moment. I wonder if I'll still be running this blog when I do exchange vows with that poor, poor man! (Just kidding, he'd be the luckiest (and also most patient) man in the world, ha!)

white picket fence

Somehow we've managed to reach Spring already and somehow I've devoured three strawberry punnets in one day. The way I see it is that I may as well eat as many as I can now while they're still in season and I can get away with it because a) they make my skin glow, b) they whiten your teeth (apparently...) and c) they're kinda amazing taste-wise... but then again, there really isn't a fruit I won't eat. Speaking of skin, a few of you have been asking me about roaccutane and whether I'm still on it etc. The answer is yes, I'm taking about 60mg a week (which is one 20mg capsule on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) just to keep any acne at bay. It's amazing looking back on the improvement in my skin since 2013. I'm still very prone to congestion on my forehead and my chin but the dosage my dermatoglist has prescribed for me has been extremely effective in keeping my skin clear which = an extremely happy young lady who relishes in going makeup-free most days! 

Tess and I took these photos last week on a relatively bleak day while I was visiting home. We went on a little adventure trying to find the perfect backdrop for the photos and, of course, I ended up taking a wrong turn and we were halfway up the Blackall Range tourist drive until I realised where we were headed. It was pouring with rain, there was roadworks everywhere and the road was slippery  - a recipe for disaster! So, Tessie decided to listen to the dulcet tones of the Beach Boys and their slower sounds to remedy the situation while I stuck to an average 40km/h speed all the way down the mountain range. In the end, we rounded a corner on the way home to reveal the perfect picket fence framed with red blossoms and the clouds had miraculously parted to reveal lots of pink and orange filtered sunlight. We even got a rainbow! 

heart-shaped face

Good morning! Or afternoon (or even evening, wherever you're reading this from). I'm currently sitting at my desk, sipping at my third cup of tea for the morning from a giant teapot that reminds me of a prop from Beauty and the Beast. I'm looking into different career pathways at the moment - I'm still a little unsure of what I would like to do, and as much as I enjoy being out of university, as I said in my last post, it would be nice to have some element of direction! I love the idea of working in hospital admin because I enjoy working with people and helping them with their problems (social work too) so at the moment I'm considering various courses through Tafe via online or internal study. Floristry, photography and all things creative are what I'm naturally good at and always seem to be drawn to, but I feel like they are nothing more than remnants of a pipe dream - or at least until I can get myself feeling financially stable. I'll keep you updated though - it's weird that I've been doing this since before I was a teenager, now I'm in my 20s! It's a little surreal going through the archives on this blog and I'm so glad I documented a lot of my "growing up" process because it's such a beautiful thing and there's so much I would have forgotten had I not taken a photo of it, or dramatically recaptured it for my blog, ha! 

Before I head off, here's a playlist I've made for the month of September - it's a bit premature (since we're only on the last day of August), but, regardless, I promise that if you have good taste in music, you'll love every song on it ;) A few standouts if you don't wanna just press "shuffle" would be Arty Boy, Let Me Down Easy, Water Flow and That's What You Get. Enjoy listening!   

homegrown

I don't remember requesting so much time off from work but it was a pleasant surprise opening my roster to see that I had four days to do whatever I wanted! This morning I had brekky with my friend Ellie at a cafe called "The Jam Pantry" in South Brisbane and despite the coffee being slightly burnt (after visiting Brown Dog cafe in Woolloongabba numerous times, I've come to the conclusion that their baristas and coffee blend are the best in Brisbane and no other cafe can compare), the food was  absolutely lovely and because I actually stuck to the gluten free options I didn't leave the place feeling like my stomach was going to explode. Also! Didn't get a parking fine today too which is also a massive bonus. After getting a well overdue haircut in West End I drove to the Sunshine Coast listening to The Last Shadow Puppets and Methyl Ethel the whole way there. My friend Dan introduced me to TLSP and I've become obsessed with their sound ("Miracle Aligner" is a personal favourite).

It was really nice getting back into some photography and editing today too - as always, Tess took my photos and, again, surprised me with how well she knows how to work the settings on the camera and hoisting up her bossy boots in order for us to get the photo just right ("No, don't stand there, the lighting is terrible!", "Your pants look weird, fix them", "Oh that's good, do that pose and stand still again"). I really miss how much blogging used to be such a massive part of my life back when I used to live on the coast. Every afternoon after school I would dedicate hours of my time to get different photos, research new products and work on new ideas for what I would post during exams and busy periods. A part of me wonders what it would have come to if I had stuck with it full time like a lot of bloggers do and I hope one day to be able to do that, as this does make me so happy.  It's a hobby that leaves me with that wonderful feeling of fulfilment. Kinda the same feeling when I eat Mum's chocolate slice, or when petrol is less than a $1.10 per litre, ya know? 

I hope you're all doing well and the weather where you are is as beautiful as it is here! We didn't get much of a Winter in Queensland this year but you really can't complain when you wake up to such beautiful temperatures every day and all the flowers are blooming everywhere.

the stroke of midnight

I just thought I would check in tonight while I had a small moment of calm amidst the frenzy that's been my life lately. Things are good in my corner of the universe. I'm still in the middle of a "I don't know what I want to do with my life" phase, but I've been told by a number of people lately (majority of whom are over the age of 50!) that no one really does know what they wanna do/ be when they "grow up". It's comforting, because I know I'm 20 and I have plenty of time but I've got a feeling of FOMO at the moment because if I had stuck with my original plan, I'd be a UQ graduate with an Arts degree under her belt in November of this year, much like a lot of the people I graduated high school with 3 years ago. Alas, I'm no longer at uni, nor do I really want to be anyway. I guess you could say I'm in limbo - I'm not exactly sitting on my ass doing nothing, but I'm not headed anywhere in particular either. I don't mind it mostly because my days are extremely lovely; I wake up around 7 each morning, head out for a stroll before breakfast, go to work, buy flowers and read books and don't have to stress about deadlines and readings on mundane topics that I care very little about. Yet, there's a feeling that something is missing, and I'm not quite sure how to fill that void. 

Despite all of this, (and at the risk of sounding like a broken record) I feel like I've at least made up for not learning a lot in the academic spectrum by learning a lot of "life stuff" in the last 6 months. I know it sounds cliche, but I learn something new about the world and myself every day - often multiple things that change my perspective for the next day, and the next day after that. As much as I poked fun at Kylie Jenner's interview regarding what she wanted/ hoped for in 2017 and finding her response extremely vague and brainless - "I don't know, like... I guess 2017...will be the year of just, like, realising things" - it kinda has been that sort of year for me! 

Anyway - enough waffling about me realising things. Here's a few snippets of what I've been up to lately, because no, I didn't just wear that dress pictured above on a regular day out (although we wouldn't put it past 2013 Maria). 

 - Annually my parish hosts a fundraising ball/ dinner and (understandably) the tickets are quite steep in price so since my car registration was due in the same week as the event, I dismissed the thought of going and carried on. At the last minute, my room mate offered me a free ticket from the newspaper she works for and (obviously) I wholeheartedly accepted. I trailed all the results of Gumtree until I found this beauty of a dress for a measly $60 and despite only needing a few minor alterations, it was the perfect fit and find! I felt like an absolute princess in it and it was a splendid evening of champagne, dancing (haphazardly, mind you... I'm very uncoordinated) and admiring all the beautifully dressed people in the room. 

 - As you know, music is a huge part of my life and lately I've discovered a number of wonderful artists that have contributed to my overall quality of life. Lord Huron being a recent find ('The Night We Met' and 'The Ghost on the Shore' being two stand-outs), as well as Alex Crossan (otherwise known as Mura Masa), releasing his debut album which is an absolute work of art. 

 - Reading: The Dark Tower series by Stephen King. Now, if you know me well, you'd be very surprised that I'm reading books by a world-famous horror story author, but alas, here I am, sitting at my desk, my elbow resting on an opened cop The Gunslinger, the first book in the epic series by King that so many rave about. I'm dipping my toes into the horror genre because as scary as words can be, I do enjoy being on the edge of my seat, sucked in by a gripping novel. I'll let you know how things go - and you'll know if I start posting at 3am that I can't sleep due to nightmares. Heh.

I hope everything's going well for you, dear reader. I hope you're reading a good book at the moment that's making life interesting, or maybe you've got an exciting new romance blossoming, or you've just discovered an amazing new song that you'll probably play over and over until you start to hate it. I hope you're going well and that you're happy wherever you are.