Reviews of books, products, services
Last night I attended the launch of a new clothing exchange boutique – Penny Lane, which is the brainchild of one of my former image consulting students Peta Stephenson. Located on Sydney Road in Brunswick (number 145 to be exact) Penny Lane Clothing Exchange is a little different from many consignment stores. Instead of…
I decided to take my daughter and a friend of hers to experience the Express Yourself: Romance Was Born exhibition for children at the National Gallery of Victoria this weekend. Firstly before we even got into the exhibition she enjoyed experiencing the waterfall window at the front of the gallery, and lying…
Recently I went to see the Jean Paul Gaultier exhibition at the NGV (National Gallery of Victoria) and I can say that it’s the best fashion/clothing exhibition I’ve ever been to! And one of the first thing you see is that some of the mannequins talk! In fact there is Jean Paul Gaultier mannequin who…
Sponsored by Nuffnang I’ve always loved the theatre and music (here’s a small fact you probably didn’t know about me, I played violin and viola in orchestras from the age of 10 to 18ish), and I’ve been around music and stages for a long time. One of my favourite experiences was playing in the orchestra…
For a long time (well most of my life) I never ran. Well I couldn’t run without pain or holding my breasts and that’s exhausting, not being able to move your arms in the regular running pattern makes you tired way more quickly. After 30 years of searching, I finally found a sports bra that…
Given that I’ve changed many things about myself, and my clients need to be able to recognize me when they’ve never met me, but we’re meeting for a personal shopping expedition in a public place, I decided it was time to invest in some new professional photos. I chose to use photographer Neil Creek again…
This week I was sent a review copy of Debbie Roes new ebook UnShopping: Recovery Solutions from an Ex-Shopaholic. It’s a guide to help shopaholics shop less, and shop smarter, but is a relevant book for many of us who many sometimes shop for reasons other than necessity. This book is packed with some really…
While I’ve been recovering from my recent operation, I was fortunate enough to have the time to read The Priority List: A Teacher’s Final Quest to Discover Life’s Greatest Lessons . As someone who teaches (I train people who want to be image and colour consultants and personal stylists), I enjoy reading about people who are…
Light is a super important part of my job. Having the right lighting allows me to see colours clearly, essential for doing a colour analysis as without light, there is no colour! In my studio I have 12 lights in the ceiling. They make for a bright enough light when it’s darker, but when you…
Last weekend I went to Bendigo to check out the Modern Love exhibition at Bendigo Art Gallery. This exhibition is a collection of clothing from some of the world’s most influential designers loaned from FIDM Museum at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in Los Angeles. From Valentino, Christian Dior and Vivienne Westwood,…
Ok here’s my confession, my thighs touch! Can you believe it! I’m like the majority of women who don’t have a gap between her upper thighs. Now my care factor for this is pretty low, except when it comes to hot summer days and I want to wear a dress or skirt and if its…
Have you ever thought that you’d love to do what I do? I know that it was something that I always had an interest in, but didn’t realise that you could get training (until I met another image consultant). It’s the most fabulous job, being able to help people look and feel great, give people…
You may have noticed that I’ve been a little quite on the blog these past 2 1/2 weeks. It’s because I’ve been so busy running our Certified Advanced Personal Colour Analysis and Personal Stylist and Image Mastery training course – a 14 day download of my brain into my students’ brains. To give you a…
Last night I finished reading Sally McGraw’s book Already Pretty: Learning to Love Your Body by Learning to Dress it Well. Sally you may know from her blog Already Pretty and this style guide is based on her philosophy of loving your body and dressing it with respect in a way that makes you happy.…
Many of you regular readers may wonder where I’ve disappeared to this past week. So I thought I’d do a quick post to tell you a little of my past 10 days where I’ve been attending the AICI (association of image consultants international) conference in Phoenix Arizona (USA). After the conference we went…
I’m really excited about sharing with you the new AICI Global magazine which is the online magazine for the Association of Image Consultants International (our premier professional body) publication – it’s got lots of great articles and so I want to share it with you. Read AICI Global here. With articles on a range of…
The peeps at GHD sent me the latest limited edition styler to review. Each October GHD put out a pink styler and donate $20 to Breast Cancer research. I have been using a hair straightener for years, I’ve found that my hair which has a kink to it, ends up looking a bit frizzy on…
Nope, I’ve no real idea what a Scottish man wears under his kilt, but I can tell you that this morning, as I was figuring out what to wear for cold Melbourne winter day, I remembered that I’d been sent a Snugbod Body Suit to try out. Now I layer a lot in winter, most…
I’m going to start out by telling you that I hate ironing. I don’t find it theraputic as a few people have told me that they do find it. I find it boring, repetitive, frustrating and frankly I’d rather be cleaning the toilet. When I was asked to road-test the Tefal Pro Express Turbo Anti Calc…
L to R Sheila Wong, Vandita Singh, Catherine Ong, Miselle Bergonia . Denise Ng in a Dita Sandico-Ong creation During the AICI SE Asia conference there was a session on doing business with Asia and understanding some of the cultural differences, manners and customs. The presenters wore traditional dress of their culture.The Filipino presenter Miselle Bergonia…
So last night I joined a few hundred other women (and a couple of guys) at the Look Good Feel Better charity screening of Sex and the City 2. The evening started with a cosmopolitan and a goodie bag, and I got to meet Anna, one of my lovely blog readers who had come along…
