When I was going through my wardrobe and decluttering some of the items I don’t wear anymore, a thought kept going through my mind as I picked up item after item of clothing that I haven’t worn in two years. Some I haven’t even worn before.

What the hell was I thinking when I bought this?!

In my stash of unworn items, I discovered two teenybopper pieces which, in my age (and *ahem* size), looked quite ridiculous on me. I hadn’t a clue why I even bought them in the first place. Soon I discovered they weren’t anything I would be able to wear without putting on scary-looking stomach-holding-in panties ala Bridget Jones.

Not a good sight, that I can tell you.

I decided that from this year on, I will only buy clothes that 1) fit me nicely, screw the size label, 2) I will wear often and 3) timeless. This means cutting way down on current fashion trends of bright colours, crappy material (goodbye 100% polyester) and odd styles regardless of how cheap they are, and sticking to pieces of good quality. A fine quality wool cardigan, that can be layered over tank tops of various colours, will have a lot more use out of it compared to three frilly blouses which I would only wear once every few weeks. You know what I mean?

I, for one, love fine Merino wool. Despite the heftier price tag, it’s not expensive if you take cost per wear into account. Here are a few of my favourite pieces:

Left: Country Road fine Merino wool cardigan
Right: SABA wool turtleneck

Yes yes, all black. What can I say? I live in Melbourne 😛

So, for me, I’m saving my money for the good stuff. It’s worth it in the end. Non-versatile, fashion-y-pieces-that-go-out-of-style isn’t.

What about you? Are there any good quality items of clothing that you love? Do share 🙂

When I watched the movie Clueless years ago, I wanted a feather pen. And I did get one eventually, even when mostly used as a piece of decoration on my stationery holder (as a pen, it was absolutely useless). What can I say, I’ve always been a fan of pink, girly stationery. In fact, I’m a fan of all sorts of stationery, but I’ll leave that for another post.

When I was working in an office, climbing the corporate ladder, I obviously couldn’t use feather pens or flowery sticky notes (could you imagine what it would be like if I used a feather pen in a meeting with the director and stuck pink Post-Its all over the agenda?). Now that I’m working from home, it’s a joy to be able to bring them all out once again.

Sticky notes: Sussan (I adore these. How cute are they?)
Assorted notecards and envelopes: Sussan
Pink damask pencils, pink notebook and stationery holder: Myer
Brown notebook: Pepe’s Paperie (not so girly, but I just love the design)

Okay, first of all, a papaw is a papaya. I had no idea till I came to Australia. Eh.

Lucas’ Papaw Ointment is apparently, very popular amongst celebrities, claiming to bring this little red tube (or jar) with them when they’re traveling on an airplane. Being the nosy parker that I am, I had to check it out.

Ingredients:

Carica papaya 39mg/g fresh fermented fruit, potassium sorbate 0.1mg/g as preservative. Note: this product is petroleum-based.

Now that I know that a papaw’s a papaya, this smells nothing like one. It reminds me of petroleum jelly, very VERY thick jelly. It actually takes a bit of might squeezing the thick jelly out of the tube.

The ointment is used as a local topical application for boils, burns, chafing, cuts, cracked skin, gravel rash, splinters, open wounds, insect bites and nappy rash. I haven’t tried it on most of those (God forbid!), but I have to say, this is simply a marvel on cracked lips. I simply apply it on cracked lips before I sleep, and regardless of how terribly painful the cracked skin was the night before, it would be healed the very next morning. It’s a miracle!

As the ointment is very thick, all you need per application, especially on the lips, is about 1/4 of the size of a pea. Maybe even 1/5. That’s how little you need for it to work. It’ll be ages before it even finishes.

I’ve also applied this on my dry, cracked heels. It works wonderfully too, but I don’t do it often as the ointment is thick and sticky, and it would be difficult to walk with greasy heels slapping on the wooden floor and carpet. I bring this along with me everytime I travel; whether it’s on the plane or on the road, it’s a skin saver.

I do wish that the good people of the papaw ointment would come up with a smaller tube that I may carry along in my purse. It would be a lot handier. Other than that, this is really good stuff.

Lucas’ Papaw Ointment comes in a 25g tube, 75g and 200g jars. It’s available at all leading pharmacies and supermarkets. The tube and 75g jar cost less than 10 bucks, whilst the 200g jar costs about $20. The papaw ointment is made in Australia.

What I like about it: It’s the best remedy I have come across for dry, cracked lips.

What I don’t like about it: Other than my preference for it to also come in a smaller tube, nothing.