The Daily Rat

This is just your normal old school blog. We try to capture it all and ensure that no rock gets left unturned. Enjoy what gets put up. Thanks, The Daily Rat.

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Thursday is always a good day for me. Normally, because it means we are one day closer to the weekend. Today, I have decided to plunge into the darkness and follow my heart on a special project. STAY TUNED. 

Happy mood = happy music. 

Ghosts (Bit Funk Remix) - Higher Self 

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Happy Monday!

 If you’re venturing out to fashion week, we suggest pumping this song in the Uber over; it’s an awesome pump up song! 

New Love by Arches ft. Karen Harding 

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Because its a dreary, cold and wet summers day and reviewing contracts (well, for me) is only made easier by a fun, shoulder shrugging, boppy tune. 

This is Illuminate (feat. years & Years) (little loud remix) by Tourist. 

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Something chilled to get you through any weekend blues that may still be lingering on this Tuesday arvo.

-  the rat. 

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Dad's 60th

Over the weekend, my dad celebrated his 60th birthday. He usually isn't one for big events, speeches, alcohol and gift giving. But, it would appear that all went out the door this year.  

The 60th was held at our family friends amazing country house called Finchley, up in Blackheath (small town in the NSW Blue Mountains). We had about 16 guests, with 80% coming from interstate.

I decided to take control of the event (not sure it was the best idea). This meant I was in charge of all things decorations, which naturally i was most excited about. The theme we had running was 'vintage tennis whites'. 

Some of the decorating highlights: 

- beautiful hydrangea flowers handpicked from the garden of Finchley 

- vintage tennis statues found on Ebay, from friends and an auction house in sydney. 

- pots (that usually house plants) being used as a wine cooler. 

- homemade goodies everywhere from deserts to the take home gift (candles). 

- best of all, all done by me!! 

The food side of things was a cooperative effort from some amazing family friends and myself. I also managed to whip up an 'everything free' cake - made from coconut milk, berries and bananas. Easy peasy (check it out below). 

Activity wise  - we were meant to have a photo booth but unfortunately the Polaroid camera didn't want to become friends with the film so we had to go without! We also managed to get a fair bit of tennis in, which is always fun after a few glasses of wine. 

Check out all the pics below. 

I hope this gives you a little event styling inspo. 

Love, 

The rat. 

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Gift ideas: quaint, cute and I WANT ONE!

Are you looking for gift ideas for that special lady in your life - be it your mum, girlfriend, bestfriend, sister or grandma?

Well, the rat has found some ceramic goodness that is bound to make any lady scream with excitement! Enter: Clay Opera. 

These beautiful hand crafted one of a kind pieces come all the way from Poland! Clay opera have both small and large pieces and even have basins.  They are all adorable and range from cute little animal pieces to basins with lounging men and women on the sides; its amazing and I could spend all day going through her pieces. 

You can find your perfect clay opera gift here: https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/clayopera 

Feel free to direct all your thank you kisses and hugs my way! 

- The Rat. 

These are some of my favourites: 

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Simplest DIY ever!

Unfortunately this weekend was packed with social events and necessary female pampering sessions, so I didn't get to the DIY projects that I had planned to tackle. 

BUT, just for a bit of a Monday morning laugh, I did manage to work out how one can become invisible!  

Instructions: Wear a black stripey tee and attend a venue where said black stripes are used as wall paper (in our case, the Woollahra Hotel in, surprise surprise, Woollahra). 

Happy Monday everyone! 

Also, this weekend is my dad's 60th and I have spent weeks planning for this event (long lunch in the country). So, there will be heaps of posts about exciting decorating, flower arranging, and DIY projects that were undertaken to make it a (let's hope) awesome day. 

Check it: 

Happy Monday! 

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DIY: Blowout a candle and make a wish

The saying goes that a Sunday well spent means a week filled with content. In an ode to believe this saying is true, I spent Sunday afternoon making candles. I bought a kit online from http://www.candlemaking.com.au/ .   I was shocked at how easy, time consuming and yet still calming the whole experience was. 

I even had a moment of extreme do it yourself-ness, when I had more pretty pink candle wax than glasses and wix to put it into. So, off I went venturing around the house to find alternate candle containers. I managed to find a large mason jar to wack the rest of the candle wax into. This also meant a quick tutorial on youtube about making candle wix.

All in all though, I now have 11 beautiful handmade, coconut - lime scented, pink CANDLES. Also, its Monday lunchtime and i'm still feeling relatively content!

Check out the pics below. Stay tuned for more exciting DIY projects.  

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Daily Question: What made you happy yesterday?

I am lucky enough to work with a pretty awesome bunch of people. We are all lawyers who are stressed out of our minds about 90% of the time and spend the other 10% trying to forget about the week that just was or worrying about the week to come. In an effort to make everyone around me happy and help keep our little pod's happiness at an all time high, I have everyone answering the following question: What happened yesterday that made you happy?

So far, the most common answer has been to do with an awesome meal or drink someone had. But, there have been the odd event which has meant happy follow up stories and all round happiness (even if it is just a temporary sense of safety and warmth that stress won't kill us!)

So - ask yourself our question and see what made you happy about yesterday. Hopefully something you do today will make you even happier!

Lots of love, 

The rat. 

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What to wear?

This weekend I am off to Melbourne, Australia.

For anyone not in the know, or just presumably living under a rock, Melbourne is easily Australia's style capital. It is notorious for being the birth place of trendy boutiques and amazing street style.

So here is my dilema - I need to find two outfits... one for the "meet the boyfriend's friends for the first time" and the other for "meet the boyfriend's family for the first time". Two outfits you spend hours grovelling about. I need to condense these emotions and get them out of the way before i fly on Friday. Oh and did i mention that they need to be winter (and freeeezing temperatures at that) appropriate?

I have had some 'melbourne style' tips from a girl at work; she reckons the only advice i need is "spend at least an hour getting ready. But, make sure it looks like you spent 10 minutes and just happened to find your mums vintage denim or leather jacket in that time too". Hmmmm.... thanks, I guess? 

I have no doubt that some of you are asking, "Why do you even care?". Great question, and my answer, sadly, is not argumentatively stable to give you a compelling answer about wanting to express myself through fashion and being all about the 'when in rome' mantra. It probably comes down to a self preservation factor and wanting to 'fit in'... who knows? but maybe thats my answer: stop caring so much and the perfect "i don't care" outfit will come together. 

After trawling through fashion blogs all week im starting to get an idea for some outfit potentials. So i have posted some inspiration below....

Feel free to comment below if you have any handy tips to looking fresh, fashionable and awesome whilst not (looking like you're) trying too hard! HA! 

Post trip ill post what I went with. 

- the rat. 

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...... that time on a sunday arvo - when tv is playing nothing more then boring sport or info-mercials. 

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Picture collection for the day

- the rat 

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GIFT IDEAS, help?

Ever had that moment where, after much search, you finally find that special something you really really want? Only for it to get taken away from you by a grubby customer OR because they ran out of your size OR, and even worse, IT BREAKS?

This happened today.

My boyfriend turning 25 has come and gone and to find him the perfect present was harder then finding a peace agreement for Syria. We finally found THE GIFT: an amazing watch! After much umming and ahhing between the selection available, we finally settled on the most expensive watch in the shop (naturally!).  But, this really didn’t matter, the gift had been found and it left the boy happy, me happy; and gosh, even the lady serving us seemed over the moon (probably mentally purchasing herself a holiday with the commission from the watch sale). As we walk out of the shop it happened, the perfect act of indian givery. My boyfriend moves his arm up and down, in a somewhat aggressive manner, and BAM the watch breaks. It just popped off his wrist like it was nobody’s business.

His face DROPPPED. I was in shock. The lady, when we came back into the shop, had a look of serious worry (and almost curiosity as to why we were coming back so soon – was it to purchase more watches? More commission? WRONG!)

So, in an emotional rollercoaster of a day, I went from the ultimate girlfriend with a happy 25yr old who wasn’t sure what to do with his massive smile to two upset puppies driving home in the rain listening to bon iver and discussing what could have been; what would have been.

The mission to find the perfect present is BACK ON…. And I’m now accepting only the coolest, most awesome of ideas. If you are a boy (which I know a lot of you are) or a chick with a great sense of present giving (bound to be a few) GIVE ME IDEAAASSSSSS. 

 - the rat. 

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and winter is en route....

June has arrived and with that means coats out everybody! It’s time to vacuum seal away your bikinis, shorts and anything reasonably awesome and short that once swayed happily off your bronze shoulders. We are entering the ‘eat extra; feel guilty in your warm sleeping coma’ phase of the year. There are actually some positives from this time of year:

1) my abilty to perpetually drink tea at a rate faster then a salmon swimming upstream to mate is now accepted as normal;

2) ski season is around the corner..and this year i spied veuve clicot making their way down to thredbo (heellllooooooooo thredbo in the last week of july!);

3) hiding under wooollen mitts and thousands of layers makes enjoying an over-indulgent cheese platter (with extra pate) easier;

4) so many days where the perfect excuse for not getting out of bed is ‘its too cold’, rather then umming and ahhing about wanting to get some extra sleep vs tanning vs getting drunk in the sun; and finally…… but of course not lastly,

5) all the usual num nuts who rampage bondi during the summer months, like a fat kid to cake, have all stayed home. Now, walking around is made a lot easier. As are finding a parking spot and a table at a restaurant (except mad pizza - no matter who you know or how you know them, getting a table there at peak hour dinner time is tricky stuff.. if you havent’ booked).

So on that note, I say WELCOME winter! You have been missed (…come back to me in a few weeks and ill no doubt be complaining about my chapped lips, frozen toes at night and snifffling nose from a head cold).. But in the meantime, I look forward to now being able to sleep without sweating and waking up to the peaceful sound of rain on my window (preferably, this could happen on saturdays and sundays…thanks!)

- the rat.

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Got 40 (or so) mins under your belt and wanting to listen to an awesome set? then this is it!  ENJOOOOOYYYYY

- the rat 

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HELP?

As i come to the end of a: 1 year stint in pre-school; a 13 year stint at school; and now a 6 year stint at uni... i'm about to hit the real world and i am bloody nervous about it. Whether its the fact I can call myself a Lawyer soon and therefore actually defend or fight for people or a business for a living OR that i'll no longer be able to use the excuse 'i'm at uni, i can't work full time' OR ' sorry, i haven't yet covered that at uni' or even worse, 'my centrelink hasn't come through yet; so, I can't afford dinner' its all making me pretty anxious. 

With leaving my bubble comes the great challenge of navigating the unexpected. And, the only advice i've been given so far is 'don't worry, just take it as it comes'. WELL, thats NOT going to fit. Im not generally a 'lets take it as it comes' type person (although ill preach until i'm blue in the face that I am). I like organisation and planning and lists..  I like having some idea of what is coming up in life and what to expect (its why I ask so many questions!). So, when the opportunity comes to finally leave uni and join the long line of train commuters, saturday morning walkers and sunday night grocery shoppers it makes me all very tingly and nervous. 

SO, i'm after ADVICE - good quality advice on what to expect next? give me some light (albeit ill be happy if its just small candle size light) of what to expect as a grown up... 

This is what i've got so far: 

- the daily rat. 

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I am a pretty massive fan of the flight facilities these days.. so a chance for me to blast their new song whilst studying or at work or during any activity in the day is a dream come true.  Flight Facilities - I don't believe ft Elizabeth Rose (this is the extended version)