My New Home Possibility.

I've been looking for the house I want to buy in Italy because it's only a month away. 

This house is 6 bedrooms with the possibility for more rooms to be built on. 

It's only $17,000 Euros. 

It has potential. What do you think?

When You Were Youngggggg

Ahh, remember the days..

When you were a bad ass if you owned a straightener because that was something that only hairdressers had. Before extensions were so easily available they may as well have sold them at the supermarket and before shaving one side of your head was the must-do of the season.

Back when guys had undercuts and wore baggy jeans. Back when girls thought the coolest thing you could have was a belly button piercing or a nose ring.

Before 15 year olds had tattoos and before solarium was the new black.

Maybe all of those things were still big in society back in the early 00's.
Perhaps I was just too young to take any notice, either that or I was living under a rock.

It just seems that back in the old days, things were much more simple. In the early 00's I don't know a single girl around who would have messed with punk or goth fashion. You would have been ridiculed for wearing too much black, anything leather, studded or spiked. The most daring thing to own was a pair of Doc Martens! But now all of that has changed, now it's extremely chic to wear a studded & spiked leather jacket over a baby pink lace skirt and silk pastel top. It's chic to wear ripped fishnet stockings, military boots and a sweetheart dress.

It seems like the sky is the limit.. And I'm happy about that. No more labels, no more outcasts, but does the fact that we can be a different person from one day to the next mean we have lost our individuality? The way fashion is going, women dressing in mens clothes, guys dressing in womens.. Are we all going to blend together? Are we losing what makes us different? I am sure that whatever we wear now, someone else has worn it before.

When did we lose the 'norm'? When did we lose the 'standard'? When did we lose our boundaries?

I dunno about the rest of you but it kind of intimidates me. This whole, no limits era. Maybe it's because I'm living in Australia at the moment, maybe it's because I feel that I need to lose 10kg before I can go all thigh high boots and a mini dress on ya'll or maybe it's the simple fact that I was raised in a small town where blue and green should never be seen without a colour inbetween. Haha, how tacky?!

Don't get me wrong. I'm the first to break most fashion rules. I buy the most stunning, stand alone, 'no-one else would dare to wear this' items but it seems that they do, have and will wear them. I'm moving to the fashion capital of the world and I'm worried that I'm throwing myself in the deep end and that I'll drown.

It's time to start taking chances. To get off my ass (however proud of it I am) and lose some kgs so that when I get off the plane in Italy next month, which is their hottest month of the year.. I will be able to wear my new YSL sandals, a MINI dress, some fantastic accessories and a freakin' awesome bag that consists of 50 colours and walk to the car without having to adjust my skirt 1500 times because I feel like it's riding up and you might accidentally see a part of my leg that I don't like.

I gotta get with the size 8 program.
(For all you UK, Euro and US ladies.. A size 8 in Aus is pretty damn small)

Wish me luck.

Oh, I almost forgot. From today onwards, It's Drew Barrymore Month. Will explain in my next post.

Peace.

The Tramp, The Mannequin & The Wardrobe.

My mum has the most amazing stories from when she was 16 - 22.

Tramps was the major disco in her small country area. Each panel of the dance floor would light up a different colour, it was an exact replica of the one in Saturday Night Fever. The Italian boys (which was 1/2 the population) would always be in trouble for running a muck. One weekend they even drove into a clothing store front window by accident (due to being very drunk at the time). They then jumped from tray of the ute, snatched a naked mannequin and drove around with her over the next few weeks. They named her, clothed her and attempted to take her to Tramps as their date!

Hahahaha, seems it wasn't a boring place to live when the weekend began. This was back when nationalities stuck together. The Greeks and Macedonians on one table, the Italians and Albanians on the other main table, the Aussies on a table and the rest either sat together or sat on mini tables.

Despite being blonde hair, fair skin and piercing green eyes, mums family was Italian so she sat on the big table. She was only there in the beginning to give her cousin Gina an alibi. You have to remember that these were the days that if you wanted to go out on the weekend you had to give the excuse that Gina was apparently sleeping at mums house and mum was apparently sleeping at Gina's house.

The clothes and the shoes my mum had is like a wonderful dream. They are a perfect vision in my mind, so real that I can feel the milk soft silk and hard heavy metal sequins on my hands as I run them through the clothes in her wardrobe. My toes have never been so sore, that'll teach me for wearing her shoes that are half a size small. I see and feel all of this, only to wake up with the harsh realization that out of her entire wardrobe, even the things my aunty Gina bought back from Paris and Italy, mum only kept two items. A pair of Prada shoes in a size 8.5 (which are a tad too big for me) and a one off pair of gold and sunflower-yellow 'Mr Christian' butterfly ankle wrap heels.

I think it was the fact she realized she hasn't kept any of her clothes that we came up with the concept that when we move overseas, her and I are going to turn an entire room into our wardrobe. It will have all of our clothes, shoes, bags, accessories and sleepwear. Doesn't matter what size it is, it all goes into the wardrobe, colour coded. Even our jewelery!

We decided on this because when I have kids and my brother has kids, we want the girls to have a fantastic fashion knowledge and appreciation for what they wear on their back. What better way to teach that than to invite them to share a wardrobe of new and vintage clothing. No-one really does things like that anymore. It also works because I know I'm going to be at a French market one day and see the most beautiful dress, slip, pair of shoes, hat, nightgown etc that will never fit me, so why not buy it and keep it there for someone else to be able to enjoy. There are just some things you can't let pass you by. Just because it doesn't fit me, doesn't mean it shouldn't be mine. If I can afford it, why not?!

I can't wait to get over there and post photos during the renovation of the house.

Until then, my imagination, words and 9 scrapbooks full of magazine clippings will have to be enough.

Marky Mark-et.

It's 7.34 and I can't sleep. I've stayed up all night watching movies while fixing my blog layout and taking photos of items for the website. You will love the bookshelf and vintage mannequin. We've decided to also start selling the furniture and larger items now so we aren't stuck with them at the last minute before we move. I know we are cutting it close but my brother is staying behind a little longer than we are to secure safe transport for the dogs and to finish his building/carpentry course so whatever we don't sell goes on a huge discount sale to get rid of it all so we don't have to pay to transport it overseas. The great thing is that because we are setting up a .com store we can easily sell the stuff we buy at the London markets and designer Italian warehouses internationally rather than being stuck with the .com.au problem.

We will still be shipping to Australia, the shipping rates will obviously change but Australia Post are a frigin rip off anyway. International postage is a hell of a lot cheap than Australian postage. I can get a lipstick sent to me from the UK for around $2 AU. Here, even to send to another suburb of Melbourne is a small parcel which is $4.35.

The markets overseas is what I'm looking forward to the most for my business. Designer items there must practically grow on trees. Even vintage items that aren't necessarily considered 'designer' will be more fantastic than most of the current season items we have here. Australia hardly gets ANY of the stock the rest of the world does. Not to mention that because designer items are more rare to find in Australia, the mark up is outrageous - even basics & second hand items.

I am realistic and I know that designer items wont just be dirt cheap just because they are from Europe. They wouldn't be so sacred if they were a dime a dozen.

Has anyone reading this been to the markets and warehouses overseas? If so, feel free to send me an email or some comments on your experiences there.



Peace.

Warts And All..

I woke up this morning extremely excited.. And then I realized I have to clean the house. I sat down on my Macbook Pro to choose a motivating playlist and couldnt stop myself writing a new post. I think this is going to be addictive so Im rushing this entry while my mum is in her room updating our site, which is what I will be doing after the loungeroom is spotless.

My mum and I have a website selling vintage new & designer clothes, shoes, accessories, beauty products, mens clothes, shoes, accessories etc etc.. Plus we have homewares, sewing items, scrapbooking and everything else except the kitchen sink (we currently need that!)..

Anyway, as I was telling you lastnight.. My family and I are moving overseas and we were going to sell all the things we cannot take with us on a popular auction website but my friends have told me that to sell on there the fees are ridiculously high. We then decided to make our own site. My brother is a whizz with computers and despite the fact this isn't his area of expertise he agreed to do our site for us so we can sell almost everythinggggg we own so we can afford to move to Italy. When the site is ready for unveiling, you will all be the first to know!

Oh my...
My mum has just come out of her room wearing grey and black striped knee high socks from JayJays that she got yesterday. I think everyone loves the feel of new socks, although I'm a bit surprised to see her wearing them with a silk pastel pink Yves Saint Laurent night gown. I told her she looks like a mix of sleeping beauty and a Tim Burton version of Wheres Wally. Hahaha.. She can see that I'm writing this now and she said the most amusing thing to me.

'Anastasia, you know you don't have to write warts and all!' - I think that's fantastic!!!!!!

I'll wait until shes out of the room making an espresso before I take the blanket off my lower half revealing my pair of hot pink and black knee high socks that I also got at JayJays yesterday ;) At least I'm not wearing the skulls pair. Although, I think Peter Alexander is more forgiving of skull socks than Yves Saint Laurent would have been. Besides, I don't think either of us quite wear them the way Kate Beckinsale does.

I am going to write another entry later tonight as my friend Bertie Beetle (I am not going to give real names) is taking me to Toorak with him. Then I'm going out to dinner with Tuesday, although its Thursday. It will all make sense in my next post.

Have a good day people!

Peace.

El Intro

For longer than I can remember, I have sat in awe of people who have made fashion blogs, beauty blogs and every other kind of blog. I would sit and read about what new makeup tips they had to demonstrate, what the latest Cavalli range had to offer and what is the quickest way to get my hair to grow.

I never thought that I could do that. I guess I just never thought anyone would be interested in what I had to say. I've recently put all that doubt aside and told myself that you don't start a blog for other people, you start it for yourself. This is going to be my way to experiment with my own creativity. I have a lot to say, about a lot of different things but I think I'll start simple.

My name is Anastasia-Evangaline. I'm 22 years old, single, no kids, living in Melbourne and in 8 weeks and 6 days my mum and I are changing our lives. We have made the decision to pick up and move to Italy. My older brother will follow a few months later after he finishes his course in carpentry.

To say that we are throwing ourselves in the deep end, is the understatement of the century. I may be half Italian by blood but as for everything that comes with being an Italian..? Lets just say I'm lacking in almost everything - except the food, talking loud and moving my hands a lot when I speak. (That I have down to a fine art!)

I'm excited, nervous, happy, terrified and ecstatic all in the same moment. I have never done anything like this. I'm the kind of person who used to walk instead of catching the tram rolling alongside of me, in case I made a fool of myself trying to navigate my way around the ticket machine. I get embarrassed easily, not that anyone realizes!

I guess I have a long journey ahead of me and I am sick of having to get a sore hand from writing in my diary every day. Plus, my grandparents just bought a laptop and I promised that I'd keep my life constantly updated online so that when we move overseas, they can keep up to date with the goat we traded for some olive trees and the fact the roof has fallen down for the third time. Hahahahaha, no no no, just joking.

I am most looking forward to sharing the photos I take along the way. Oh the markets overseas. Paris for the weekend, London the following month. So many countries surrounding my soon to be, home town/village.

For now, the one at the top will have to do. I really need to learn how to use this thing properly, cant even get it to put an image under all my text.. Shoots straight to the top. Oh well. Next time I might get it right, til then..



Peace.