Hump-day stylin'

So its Wednesday and not much is happening but I thought I'd share a pic of a new top that I just adore. The awesome thing is that it was so cheap from a random little store and it's in one of my favourite colours - mint green.  (Although I actually call it ocean green because the oceans where I live are often this colour.)

I apologise in advance for the average photography, unfortunately I don't really have anyone around to snap pics of me when I'm looking stylish. I also don't own a full length mirror to show you the whole outfit,  so I will tell you.

I wore it with jeans,  brown brogues and a beautiful antique locket that my amazing friend gave me.  Since summer is on my doorstep, I can't wait to pull out some cute shorts to style it with!

Hope you're all having a good Wednesday!

Cassandra :-D

top 100 songs list

Music has always been a part of my life and I can't imagine trudging through the low, boggy bits or the high, fun-filled experiences without it. One thing I suppose I am quite proud to admit is that I enjoy nearly all types of music, providing it stirs my soul and moves my feet. My brother in law was telling me how he had started a top 100 songs playlist and I thought,what are my top 100 songs? I have been carefully constructing playlists since my 18th birthday, but this playlist contains my top choices, that is, the songs that I hear and think, 'Man I love this song!'.

I thought I would share this with you all, so in alphabetical order, here is my top 100 list :) enjoy!

AC/DC - Touch Too Much

AC/DC - Hells Bells

Aerosmith featuring Run DMC - Walk This Way

Alice Cooper -Poison

Alice in Chains - Rooster

The Angels - No Secrets

Angus and Julia Stone - Babylon

The Avalanches - Frontier Psychiatry

B-52s - Love Shack

B.o.B - Nothin on You

The Beatles - I Saw Her Standing There

The Beatles - Here Comes The Sun

The Bees - Chicken Payback

Ben Lee - Cigarettes Will Kill You

Benny Goodman - Sing Sing Sing

Billy Idol - Rebel Yell

Bill Medley & Jennifer Warnes - Time Of My Life

Black Sabbath - The Hand That Rocks The Cradle

Blondie - Hanging On The Telephone

Bloodhound Gang - The Bad Touch

Bob Dylan - Girl From The North Country

Bob Marley & The Wailers - Jamming

Bruce Dickinson - Book of Thel

Bush - Everything Zen

The Church - Under The Milky Way Tonight

Counting Crows - Mr Jones

Cradle of Filth - Nymphetamine

Crystal Castles - Not in Love (Feat. Robert Smith)

David Bowie - Jean Genie

Deftones - Change

Devin Townsend Project - Hyperdrive!

Disturbed - Down With The Sickness

Dry Kill Logic - Goodnight

Echo and the Bunnymen - The Killing Moon

Everclear - Santa Monica

Fall Out Boy - I Slept With Someone In Fall Out Boy And All I Got Was This Stupid Song Written About Me. 

Fatboy Slim - Right Here, Right Now

Frank Sinatra - I've Got You Under My Skin

Flo Rida - Low

A Flock Of Seagulls - I Ran

Foo Fighters - Everlong

Foster The People - Pumped Up Kicks

Gerling - Dust Me Selecta

Groove Armada - Superstyling

Hedwig and the Angry Inch - The Origin Of Love

Hole - Malibu

Husker Du - Don't Want To Know If You Are Lonely

Iggy Pop & Kate Pierson - Candy

Incubus - Wish You Were Here

Iron Maiden - Fear Of The Dark

Jerry Cantrell - Angel Eyes

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - All Along The Watchtower

Jimmy Eat World - Bleed American

Joanna Newsom - The Sprout And The Bean

Joanna Newsom - Emily

The John Butler Trio - Betterman

Johnny Cash - Hurt

Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart

Joy Division - Disorder

Judas Priest - Breaking The Law

Kansas - Carry On My Wayward Son

Karnivool - Cote

Lamb - Angelica

Led Zepplin - Babe I'm Gonna Leave You

Limp Bizkit - My Way

Live - The Dolphins Cry

Fear Factory - Invisible Wounds (Dark Bodies)

Hellyeah - You Wouldn't Know

Marilyn Manson - Tourniquet

Metallica - One

Modest Mouse - Float On

Nat King Cole - Smile

Neil Young - Down By The River

New Radicals - Get What You Give

Nina Simone - Feeling Good

Nirvana - Heart Shaped Box

Nirvana - Smalls Like Teen Spirit

Oasis - Wonderwall

The Offspring - Gone Away

Pegz - Back Then

Pixies - Monkey Gone To Heaven

The Replacements - Unsatisfied

Rob D - Clubbed To Death

The Rolling Stones - Lets Spend The Night Together

Rupert Holmes - Escape (The Pina Colada Song)

The Screaming Jets - Better

Simon & Garfunkel - Scarborough Fair

Siouxsie & the Banshees - Spellbound

The Smiths - How Soon Is Now

Steve Vai - Still My Bleeding Heart

Ocean Machine - Life

Ocean Machine - Bastard

System of a Down - Toxicity

T-Rex - Cosmic Dancer

A Taste of Honey - Boogie, Oogie, Oogie

Tool - Stinkfist

Toto - Africa

Type O Negative - Black No. 1 (Little Miss Scare-All)

The Velvet Underground - Pale Blue Eyes

White Zombie - More Human Than Human

This list was quite hard to make, and it took about 4 edits, but in any case, I will never be satisfied with only 100 songs anyway...

Short break due to technical difficulty

Sorry blog world, I have been MIA as my computer decided its time had come.  Hopefully I will be able to have a new computer in the coming weeks, in the mean time I shall get some more posts ready for when I do.  Have a good weekend! Talk to you all soon! :)

DIY lace and ribbon shoelaces

Winter is knocking on our door which means scarves, gloves, coats, hats and most importantly boots! I happened to walk into a shoe store the other day and I found these on sale for $27.

 I wanted to make them a bit more exciting so I thought I would make some lace shoelaces.

You will need ribbon (in the colour of your choice), lace (in the colour of your choice), matching thread and a needle (or sewing machine).  I used 10mm wide ribbon which was perfect for these shoes.

• I cut the ribbon to the length I wanted and cut the lace to 10cm longer than the ribbon.  The lace was cut to 2cm wide.

• Since the holes in the shoe were quite small I decided to thread the ribbon first and then hand sew the lace onto the ribbon, leaving a lace bow.

• I started to sew the lace about 5cm from the base of the lace, leaving enough room to loosen the laces.  I had to figure out the hard way that I needed to leave room at the top.

As you can see, my first attempt was lopsided.

• I did a few folds at the start of the laces to give it more texture and then I continued to sew the lace straight against the ribbon. 

This is the end result. 

Voila! Simple but funky! I also wore these shoes in my photo shoot here.

For my best girl Evelyn

It's hard to imagine that one year ago tonight I was in hospital, being induced to have my baby, and from the unknown I would have the most amazing, fun and clever girl.  I know that time goes quick and you need to savour every moment, but I had no idea how quick that was going to feel until it happened. 

I remember going for the last walk with just me and my partner, knowing that in a day, there was going to be a little person in our life that would always be around and need us to hold her hand.  Although this day was full of love, it was the most frightening day of my life, half because I had to go through induction and half because there was definitely going to be a baby out of it. 

A long night of induced contractions led to my very comfortable baby to become stressed and we had three separate occasions when baby's heart dropped out and the birthing suite was suddenly filled with midwives and doctors.  You can imagine the horror on my partner Trent's face when he saw the room full of strangers telling me to move different directions while they searched my belly for a heartbeat.  Unfortunately he is more scarred with these memories than I am, with my memory loss a direct result of the gas I was sucking in for most of the night.  Eventually I was prepared for a cesarean section in case I needed an emergency cesarean and ironically I slept like a baby for a couple of hours until morning shift change.  Ten minutes after shift change and baby's heart dropped out again.  It was at this point that they said they wanted to do a cesarean section.  I was very frightened about having major surgery as I have never had any before, and when Trent finally met me in the theatre he very kindly made up a story on the spot to distract me, although in the back of my mind I was waiting to hear the cry of our baby.  Trent had gotten into the story he was telling and being the funny and cool person that he is, he was trying to think of an awesome ending to the story... When a doctor said, "would you like to meet your baby?", and for a moment we were confused.  When Trent came over to me with the baby and told me it was a girl, all of a sudden the world was right again and all the events of that night had for the time being, disappeared into the ether.

Fast forward through the most hardest and sleep deprived year of my life, and I have realised that I have also had the most rewarding year of my life.  And I am generally not a sap (at least not in public), but I truly feel that way.  My little Evelyn is more than I could have hoped for and a year on she is no longer a baby any more.  Evelyn is already turning into a little girl!  Almost running around with a little scientist mind of her own, trying to figure out of things work and learning from me every day.  Whenever she learns something new it blows my mind.  I can't wait to see her grow up into a free-thinking human, hopefully being the best person she can be.

So to my baby girl, Happy 1st Birthday!!  This drawing is for you :)

copyright cassandra bynder 2012

Dress-ups In The Forest

Dress-ups In The Forest

I went down south to my home town of Busselton over the weekend and while the grandparents were happy to spend time with the baby, I took advantage of my spare time by spending it creatively. 

(Audrey Rose Photography)

One of my best friends, Mallory, behind Audrey Rose Photography is building up her photography portfolio, so we drove out to the tuart forest to play dress ups and get some shots.  And I must say, as much as I like doing this sort of thing, I still get really shy and self-conscious and almost talked myself out of sharing these photos with you, but here they are :)

(Audrey Rose Photography)

(Audrey Rose Photography)

(Audrey Rose Photography)

(Audrey Rose Photography)

If you like these, check out her page on facebook - www.facebook.com/AudreyRosePhotography 

All photos copyright Audrey Rose Photography

Cass

hello there! hope you have a wonderful day.

Morning world.  It is raining today and Evelyn and I are stuck inside, so while my girl is sleeping I have been going through some photos of projects that I want to share with you all in the future.  While going through my photos I came across one I took last year at my bus stop and it never fails to make me smile.  I hope you all have a great day and see something that makes you smile!