I’ve been cooking. More often than not lately. There is something soothing about it. Calming. Peaceful. All the chopping, simmering, cleaning and even the heat. This year I hope to share more recipes with you.

Coming up; Chick pea patties, buttermilk scones & warm Russian salad. Which would you like to see first? Here’s a preview to help you decide!

There was, in December, a little band of bloggers who joined me to give it a go. We had varying levels of success. I know I had a day or so where my resolve left and I caffeinated my butt off. Mostly, the experience was good. I slept better and felt better overall. I’ve been able to keep my caffeine levels really low since. For anyone looking to get back to a cup or two a day, I highly recommend it.

Now. There was something else. Something I promised the players. I took a look at the posts {and so did hubby} and we choose a winner. Congratulations to Kate from UndomestiKated. You my dear will get a package of love from the Suger household. Send me an email with your postal address and I’ll get it in the mail to you.

If you want to check out the brave Decaf December souls, here they are;

Welcoming you along to week three of Friends of Suger – Your Style, Sugers. Thanks for dropping by and I hope you’re enjoying the glimpse into readers wardrobes. This week we are featuring Lizzie from Chookarelli. I first came across Lizzie and her blog playing Polly Dolly over at Danimezza‘s blog. I am so glad to see her love for fashion boards come to life for this post. Check out Lizzie and hear her {super succinct} description of her style.

My style would probably be classic casual with a trendy edge … I think! I’m a bit of a chameleon so dress corporate for work; and at play sometimes trendy, sometimes preppy, sometimes classic.

Join in Friends of Suger – Your Style by emailing me at melissa {at} sugercoatit {dot} com
Click on the image to see the whole series.

I consider myself a good wife. A lot probably wouldn’t, old dudes especially, but I do. And I’m petty sure most days my Hubby does too. So we bump along, doing our best to be kind to each other, trying to balance our ‘stuff’ and making sure we make time for each other. Hence, another date night. Yeah, yeah wanky but true. It was our Christmas gift to each other this year.

Over dinner we ran into a couple that Hubby does some work for. He waved, their daughter popped over to our table to visit and they went back to their dinner, we went back to ours. As usual, I wanted to know who they were and why I didn’t know them. I know EVERYONE you see. Who are these strangers? I demanded. Ok, so that’s not how it went down, and no I don’t know everyone. I asked nicely and Hubby told me. About the work thing.

Then after a minute sitting quietly gazing off into space, he mentioned that the wife gives him beer while he works. It’s amazing, he said, I can barely get the gear unloaded off the ute and she has brought out a beer. Sometimes their daughter runs it out. I looked at the little girl all bouncy curls and chubby cheek smiles. Oh yeah, use the cute kid to lure my Hubby into your beer in the afternoon world and sparkly perfection, I thought. Frowning. Hmmm, up stage me will ya lady. Well, we’ll see about that!

The clouds cleared. The foggy cloud of thought and rambling conversation in my head, that is. And I looked at Hubby. He was doing it again. And no, I don’t mean the far away look of gazing off into space. That one had been momentarily retired. He was doing the uh oh, what the heck is Melissa up to now face. I looked up at him. Smiled. Then screwed up my nose, wiggled my finally growing back eyebrows suggestively and said, well isn’t that lovely, you got yourself a beer wife. Try not to get drunk and sleep with her.

Because, I am, after all, a good wife.

For me. This makes perfect sense. It CALLS to me. But then, in a lot of ways my Dad reminds me of one of these guys. Smart, underrated by some, successful, generous and wise. I’m not going to bag out my generation. There’s good and bad in all of us. I’m not going to say that we all need this reminder or that we need it at least when raising our kids. I’m just saying, hey, it works for me. Gets me excited about, well, just stuff!

What about you?

Agree or disagree with the points made? And yes, clearly it’s from the nineties, don’t you think? VERY nineties references.

I miss the sun. It hasn’t been gone for long but I miss it. I should have been at the beach today. Soaking up some rays. Living it up. Instead I was in a luke warm pool hiding under a pool cover from the driving rain. Fun, yes. But not exactly what I had in mind for today. Strange how these things happen. I hardly ever makes plans to go to the beach. Lesson learned, I guess. There’s plenty more rain to come, they say. Lots of localised flooding and washed out roads and stuff. So, about the sun.

Please sir {madame?} can I have some more?

I don’t get why or how people can hate celebrities and sports people. Where do you find the effort or the will to hate someone enough to comment on them or their life and you don’t know them. Or worse, as it’s the season for all things tennis, celebrate their losses! I think you need to take a long hard look at yourself if you will celebrate someone’s losses. As a human being. As a person. As someone who has lost yourself. A long hard look at yourself.

I’ve seen it all this week. It floods through my facebook and twitter streams. So I’ve backed away. I’ve said my bit sometimes. More often than not I unfollow and remove the voice from my stream. You see, I believe that we are connected. Energetically. As in, by energy. That if as people we focus on hate and negativity then at some point we will tip the balance and negative things prevail. A bit hippie or something, sure. But the way I live my life.

So excuse me while I cheer on hope. While I scream for joy and love. And mostly while I hold to all that is wonderful about life and about people. Because THAT is what matter to me and what I want more of. I hope you’ll join me. And if not, than step aside, we are changing the world here.

Growing herbs is easy, sometimes. I grow mint like a pro. But then, most people can grow mint like a pro. I used to excel at growing basil and cos lettuce. But it seems, I’ve lost my touch. We were discussing our garden at dinner the other night as our local council offers two free plants per rates notice. Given that at times we’ve had 6 rates notices a year, we LOVE the program. Various houses that we’ve owned have LOVED the program. It was time to cash in the notices and get us some free native plants.

But, the herb garden needs a tidy up first, I said. To do this, the mint has to go. I’m pulling it out and putting it in a small pot. Something, anything to contain it. I said. I’m always trimming it, tidying it, reining it in. It’s frustrating, I said. Well I just whippersnip it. Said Hubby. I gasped. Involuntarily. Don’t do that! All you’ll do is fling tentacles all over the lawn. I bet mint is like those aliens where if you chop the arm off it grows a whole new one for you defeat! Arms waving I emphasised my point. Eyes wide. Drama building.

Hubby smiled. Wryly. And said, you’re going to write a post about this, aren’t you?

Well. Don’t mind if I do.

Autograph dress, Big W bow suede heels

Those that follow along with me on Instagram will have some idea of what my work wardrobe consists of. A lot of black and white and a whole bunch of gray. Now I’m pretty restricted, I am working in a real estate environment for a franchise with plenty of branded work wear they would love, love me to wear. Given that I’m here 20 hours a week {usually 4 hours most days} if I’m wearing corporate’ish attire that will suffice.

So for that, I go to my wardrobe. Stylish and modest black dresses, usually with a cardigan thrown over top {my cubical is sub zero being right under the air con vent} and more often than not comfortable black flats. Because in real estate, you do an awful lot of running around. And not always on pavement either. In paddocks, through mud, over fences and under back decks.

I also find that spending the $50 per shirt for branded attire is a pain in my shopping budget. At Coles, with the Mix Apparel range, I can get three tops and 3 cardigans for that! So while I HAVE a corporate shirt and a polo or two I save them for occasions that I have to look like one of the lemmings, err, team. I buy from Moda for Target, Avella and Emerson for Big W, Mix Apparel for Coles and my wardrobe regulars {and must haves} Autograph and Virtu. I keep the pieces basic and classic. I buy what I can afford and will buy off-season if I have too {hello 3 cardigans from Mix for $24, yesterday!}. With these basics I set to work mixing them up, so the same dress will look different every day of the week, if I have too. And that, looks a little something like THIS…

Virtu Alessandra Dress, Big W emerson heels

mix Apparel cardigan, Basque Women top, Moda for target skirt & Big W flats

Forever 21 blazer, grey t-shirt Avella for Big W, Autograph skirt, Emerson flats Big W

Autograph tunic {worn as top}, Moda for Target skirt, Big W flats

Virtu Benita Maxi, Autograph waterfall cardie, $9 Payless tan flats

Autograoph grey cardie, black tunic from City Chic, Autograph jodpher leggings and Big W flats

Target dress, Mix Apparel cardie, BigW flats

So there you go! And this post has planted a little seed for me. So watch this space for a wardrobe essentials post series {once I publish the last Sugers Summer post – YES, there’s one more to go}. Wardrobe essentials will cover the wardrobe staples you need to build your wardrobe. Well, the ones I used to get started and we’ll go from there. So watch this space. Suger will hook you up. Haha.

So my nails are finally long enough not just to file but they require trimming too. Wow weee, right!? And after a few different creative attempts I decided to use my new bonder, top coat and sexy colours from Orly Australia and do a nail polish tutorial. Yeah, yeah. I’ve had nails for less than 3 months, what do I know, right? Well it turns out, not much. BUT I’m a fast learner. My main flaw in my quest for nail world domination is patience, it seems. Sound familiar?

For those interested in achieving the perfect French tip {I called them French, but heck, what do I know!?} read on. For the rst of you, carry on. Nothing to see here! 

Steps to take;

1. If you are using a bonder {such as the Orly one I was sent, apply now} and allow to dry.
2. Apply your first coat or two of paint as normal. Allow plenty of time to dry.
3. Using masking tape, tape up the ‘tips’ of your nail {pic one below, tape sizes! pic two showing the amount to tape}
4. Gently and without using too much polish paint the exposed tip of your nail.
5. Blow dry for a few seconds before applying a second light coat {this is best done with a fast drying polish – view pic three for a view of TOO MUCH polish}
6. Before the tip colour is dry, dry remove the tape. Peel away from the nail. If you wait too long, just like when painting a wall, the tip polish will tear off with the tape.
7. Allow the polish to set fully.
8. Apply final top coat {like the ahhhh-mazing ORLY top coat I was sent – It’s like a hard plastic, shiny top coat for your nails} and allow to dry.
9. Hey presto, a million hours later, you’re done!

Stuff I learnt in my first fancy schmancy nail attempt;

• Don’t apply your next coat until the first is entirely dry. Like, DRY DRY.
• If possible, apply your first coat and leave for an hour or so. This will assist the masking tape not to impact on the shine of the polish.
• Stick the tape firmly into the corners of your nail. The better it’s attached to the nail, the better the result.
• Take your time, with each and every step. Patience is a virtue.
• Don’t apply the tip polish too liberally. Paint as though the tape isn’t there. Otherwise, THIS might happen and you’re back to square one…

And taaaah dah! The final result, after some fiddling and a bucket load of patience, looks like THIS!

Oh, but wait. This is not a magical fairy tale ending. Because I rushed the various layers of polish. Not allowing them to dry properly before applying the next coat. My nails appeared dry LONG before they actually were. So a mere 20 minutes after I took, and showed off the final result photo, THIS happened…

So there you go. Did you learn anything?

Visit Orly Australia via their website or facebook. Tell them Suger sent you. I was not paid for this post. I was doing it anyway. I just happened to receive these products around the same time as I got brave and gave it a go. Serendipity, yes?