Well… the face of the online planet anyway, in real life I’ve been ridiculously busy! I started back at uni in March and with that, working 20-25 hours a week, keeping on top of my uni assignments & housework plus trying to have a social life, I don’t have much time to sit on the computer any more! I’m trying to organise my time a bit better though, so hopefully I can start posting a bit more regularly again.

Here’s some photos of outfits I missed posting and some other stuff…

So what has happened in the last couple of months? I started uni, I went part-time at work, a coworker moved in with us, we almost maxed-out our credit card, I got a $950 stimulus from K-Rudd and should be getting $900 soon, almost paid off my iMac (next is the Macbook…), I’ve procrastinated a lot… surely there’s more, but my brain is fried at the moment from how stressed out I’ve been!

KARAWEST.COM is also in dire need of an update (maybe even a redesign) but I realistically don’t see that happening until the break between this semester and next, which isn’t until mid-June but time is absolutely flying for me lately!

I hope everyone else is doing well and I’ll try hard to make more of an online presence over this half of the semester.

They’re back together!!! Blink-182 are picking up where they left off. I (along with a milion other die-hard fans, I’m sure) have been hoping for this day since their indefinite hiatus began. Yayyy!!

Photo from U.S. Navy

Photo by Brian Appio

Well, they are reuniting in a way…

On Thursday (February 5), the Recording Academy announced that Blink-182 will reunite at Sunday’s 51st Annual Grammy Awards … as presenters.

It will mark the first time that all three members of Blink — Mark Hoppus, Tom DeLonge and Travis Barker — have shared a stage together since December 2004. They announced they were going on “indefinite hiatus” in February 2005, and since then have been trading barbs and focusing on new projects…

Read more @ MTV News.

It’s a start! Ever since their “indefinite hiatus”, I’ve been hoping they’d get back together. I think that now it’s only a matter of time, and I’m sure other Blink fans will agree! Fingers crossed!

Related Links:
David Kennedy Appears to Confirm New Blink-182 Album
Mark Hoppus Talks About Blink-182 Reunion
Travis Accidentally Triggers Blink-182 Reunion… Offstage

If you live in Melbourne, I suggest you go and check out the current Series 2 Sketchel exhibition that kicked off on Wednesday…

What are Sketchels, you ask? They are messenger bags that feature limited edition (or one-off) art pieces as part of their design. The bags start at $130, which is actually extremely good value if you consider that you’re purchasing not only a bag but your own piece of original art. I’m not in the best financial situation to splurge on one of these bags right now, but if I was, I’d definitely go for this Jon Burgerman design…

Pure awesomeness!

…That I can’t afford… but I can dream, for now.

I bought tickets in the pre-sale for Big Day Out last year. I started going a couple of years ago, so Tim and I just decided to make it an annual thing because you get to see a lot of bands all in one day. This year I wasn’t heaps impressed by the line-up, but there were a few bands that would be good to see anyway (although I probably wouldn’t have paid to see any of them if they were to headline their own show). When I saw the forecast for today, however, my mood towards Big Day Out ‘09 changed drastically. I began to dread going to the festival that I usually enjoy. Last night while I was working, I even asked Tim to try and sell our tickets. No such luck though, so this morning we reluctantly headed into the horrible weather to go and see a few bands we only “sorta” wanted to see.

Every other year we’ve got to the festival at 11 and left at 11, but this year we didn’t get there until after midday. We saw Birds of Tokyo, The Grates (I loved Patience’s energy [especially in the heat!] and her marching band outfit!), Youth Group, Eddy Current Suppression Ring, The Ting Tings (…much to my disgust! I can’t stand them, but Tim likes them - needless to say, we didn’t stay long at that stage), Mercy Arms (one of the boys was wearing a dress!), Cog (pure torture, but we needed to have a rest in the grandstand [i.e. the shade]), Bullet For My Valentine (my favourite for the day! Each time I’ve seen these guys, I’ve just thought back to that fateful night that some of my friends and I hung out with them!), TV on the Radio (pretty impressive!), Sneaky Sound System and Lupe Fiasco (kick, push…).

Part-way through Lupe, we’d both just had enough. The heat was over-bearing (I commend those who lasted longer than 5 hours!), Tim wasn’t feeling very well and I was getting progressively crankier. We decided to leave. I felt like we wasted money, but I worked out we’d paid roughly $12.75 each to see each band, so I guess that’s not such a waste.

Overall it wasn’t that bad a day, I just kind of wish that we stuck it out a little longer because we planned to see Little Red, Pendulum, My Morning Jacket, The Living End, Cut Copy, Arctic Monkey and Dropkick Murphys as well. I’m happy because I only got a little sunburn on my shoulders and I wasn’t too heatstroked by the end of the day. Next year, however, I’m definitely going to check out the full line-up (both releases!) before I purchase tickets to make sure it really is worth the while (and the possible heat)

A bit of a belated outfit post, but I’ve been quite busy over the past week! Also, I was planning on taking more photos for What I Wore so I could post a bulk entry, but then we’ve had this blasted heatwave so I’ve been dressing for maximum comfort. My outfits have been boring and simple, and I have been hot and cranky - not much in the mood for taking narcissistic photographs of myself! However, here is what I wore last Saturday evening…

Dress: Ladakh
Leggings: MINKPINK
Shoes: Bonbons
Necklace: Diva
Clutch: eQUIP

My face is dumb in the photo because Tim won’t take outfit photos for me unless I have a gumby smile on my face. Anyway, Tim wasn’t feeling well that night, so I accompanied my work friend Andy to Tara’s 21st (a girl who used to work with us). The party was in the hills, so it was a bit cold, but it was a good night anyway! Andy and I got lost on the way home though… his iPhone’s GPS sucks!!!

Edit: I don’t have a tattooed foot… that’s a Freddo frog temporary tattoo that a few of us put on ourselves at work earlier that day!

Contrary to the look on my face in the first photograph, I’m actually extremely happy! I found out on Monday that I was accepted into a Bachelor of Design (Visual Communication) at university, so I will be returning to study this year. I finally enrolled this morning (after a few days of trouble with overdue library fines, etc). I’m so excited to be doing something new and going back to actually getting intellectual & creative brain stimulation once more!

And, in case it gets cold…

Close up of my accessories:

Dress: Zoo York
Bangle: Portmans
Ring: Diva
Necklace: Given to me by Tim
Earrings: Diva
Headband: Diva
Ballet flats: Keds
Cardigan: Myer Miss Shop

So, this afternoon I’m off to work the late night shopping shift and also discuss my options with my boss (as I’ll still need to work as much as possible, otherwise we won’t be able to afford to eat!)… I hope you all have a lovely Thursday!

I am completely in love with this new skirt I bought; It totally reminds me of happy pants and M.I.A…

Boob tube: Cotton On
Skirt: Industrie
Low strappy heels: Novo
Rainbow beads: Diva

Anyway, I’m off to have a catch-up lunch with my mum and then grab a couple of things at the shops.

By Roberto Bernardi

Decorating on a Budget
This really hits home because, as you all know, we have just moved into a house, we’re both on rather low incomes and we can only just afford the basics, let alone decorative luxuries! The article provides some helpful hints to decorating a home on a tight budget.

How to Establish a Fabulous Daily Routine
My daily routine is a bit skew-whiff currently, what with still trying to unpack everything and set up the house the way I want it - plus keeping on top of cleaning and cooking, etc, etc. Once we’re all unpacked, I hope to fall into a more consistent routine so I will have time to do the necessities and also relax or do recreational things. Gala’s article and links are good reads that have pushed me in the right direction to get a great routine going again!

The Rasterbator
This has been around for a while, but I’m sure there are still some people who haven’t heard of the Rasterbator. This handy online tool creates massive, rasterised images from any picture or photograph you choose to upload. You also choose how many pages the image spans across and then you may download the resulting image as a multi-page PDF file. Print it out and you have an amazing looking poster!

Roberto Bernardi
My gosh, this man creates amazing art. They are not actually photographs, but oil paintings! It’s really hard to believe, just check out the image at the top of this post!

Today, the weather forecast for Adelaide was 37°C. I walked to work in the morning and it was pretty warm already at 8:45 AM. Thankfully, I didn’t have to go outside again until just after 6:00 PM and I’ve spent the rest of the evening in our air-conditioned house. This outfit was cool and comfortable, but probably would have been a bit too heavy if I’d spent the day outside.

Blouse: Dotti
Skirt: Quick Brown Fox (Little Collins St, Melbourne)
Pointed flats: Novo
Necklace: Given to me by Tim (you can see it a lot better in the close up here)
Bangle: TEMT, I think, around 2002
Hair clip: Given to me by a friend

I was having a bad face day today, hence the looking away. Two co-workers, who were only joking (I think… hope!), even pointed it out to me.

First:

Co-worker 1: What’s up?
Ugly Kara: This accessory pack needs to be repackaged.
Co-worker 1: Your face needs to be repackaged!
Ugly Kara: My face doesn’t even have packaging…
Co-worker 1: Well it should have… a paper bag!
Ugly Kara: Oww

And then:

Ugly Kara: This is crap!!
Co-worker 2: Your face is crap!
Ugly Kara: Oww

Time for me to go and paint my nails to cheer myself up!