summer-winter // SYDNEY

we're so crap at this, we know, we're sorry.

but in a little over a week we will be reunited and there will be so many more posts! (!!!!)

also, happy summer solstice! may your day be full of wild flowers, sunshine, and sticky popsicles. 

     i'm stuck studying today, as i wrap up the end of my semester at university. i don't know about you, but i shouldn't take any more psych classes as electives...

since i'm stuck studying, i figured i may as well embrace this strange winter-warmth we're currently having every few days, and head outside to sit by something pretty.

lucky to live in this place.
while partially due to school, a lot of my absence has to do with the fact that my precious little niece (Juno) came into this world just 3 weeks ago. all my spare moments have been spent going on walks, visiting, and having brunch with her & her mama. i went over and snapped some photos of her and the nursery when she was just a few days old.

Juno May 

     full of so much joy and love for her and her parents. we all went on their first family walk yesterday! my cousin and i are very close, and only 6 months apart in age, it's so strange that she has a daughter now, but also feels so natural! can't wait to watch this baby girl grow and be apart of her life.

like carly's previous post..i too, have been dreaming of paris. i have a friend living there at the moment, and am just endlessly drooling over her outings and stories. she knows she kills me every time she says 'wish you were here! just eating dinner on my kitchen counter looking at the eiffel tower out the window...'

but i was even moreso panged by that wanderlust while watching Before Sunset last night. all 3 of Richard Linklater's sequence of films are magical but i do love that one so much. such simple and quiet pieces of paris frame the two friends' walk. planning a trip for new years! and i do plan to live there for 6 months to a year in the next few years. so i'll just wait it out!

besides all this i've been wearing a lot of florals and stripes lately (what else is new)

and hanging out with friends over gelato...

oh, and wandering around down by the beach (surprise!!)

LA, i cannot wait to be back in your beautiful sunshine, i've had about 2 weeks of winter and i am so over the cold already. summer's child forever.

enjoy the summer solstice!

xo
billie jane

P.S. happy birthday lana del rey! 

Dreaming // PARIS

Hey there all!

long time no post, i know! i've been so busy with school & such, i've had no time to shoot, or write. i'm terribly sorry.

recently all i've been thinking of is traveling back to paris! random, i know. for those of you who followed my previous blog will know i went last summer, and was unable to post most of the photos due to lost memory card/ broken camera. however, i've been able to scramble together a few unseen iphone photos from my trip for you to see.

i'll leave you with this beautiful parisian side street.

i can't wait to return, i promise next time with more pictures.

xx-

carly beth

Thoughts // GLOBAL

In light of the recent violent acts that took place in Santa Barbara, an area we frequent often, an area that is home to many of our friends, we felt it was important to take a look at what it all means.

First, I'd like to address mental illness. Depression is a very real thing to suffer from. So is Aspergers' Syndrome. It's a form of autism that I'm extremely familiar with after working in childcare. People with Aspergers have a lot of trouble reading social situations and as a result struggle to interact with people (they often come across as socially awkward) as they can't read your changing facial expressions as subtle hints in the way that people without Aspergers do. You could see how this could make life a little lonely or difficult. Kids are cruel, and growing up it might be hard to find friends that get you. Not every person effected by Aspergers has this problem, equally important- it's not an excuse to lash out, at anyone.

Elliot Rodger stabbed three students in his apartment, and continued in a shooting spree to kill three more before crashing his car and committing suicide. I won't watch the Youtube video he posted. I refuse to hear his words, I don't want to be haunted by them. Rodger's parents called the police on their own son a few weeks before, he checked out okay- that's all they can do- and he'd been seeing a therapist for years before this rampage. It's obvious that his family was doing everything they could to ensure that he didn't harm others or himself, I don't believe they failed, this blame shouldn't fall of them. They couldn't have prevented this. Gun laws might have.

Most importantly, I want to address misogyny.
m i s o g y n y:
the hatred or dislike of women or girls.
"Misogyny can be manifested in numerous ways, including sexual discrimination, denigration of women, violence against women, and sexual objectification of women."

Rodger's targeted women because he felt bullied and rejected by them. Unfathomable that a man thinks that should a woman deny him, he can kill her. Society allows men to degrade us, calls out rape victims for being drunk, dressing in minimal clothing. Society allows girls to be thrown out of school dances because their dancing and clothing 'turns on' the male chaperones. Society allows women to be sexually harassed on the bus, on the street, in the workplace without consequence.
We are not "asking for it" by how we dress, look, or sit. We do not want to be raped. 

Women are raised in fear, to fear men. We are terrified to walk alone at night. We take precautions to ensure we can simply get home okay. We are scared to look at men, incase they come up to talk to us, to touch us when we are not asking for it. 
f e m i n i s m:
collection of movements and ideologies aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, cultural, and social rights for women.

A feminist advocates or supports the rights and equality of women.

There is so much wrong with this world right now. How have we not recognized these simple notions. How have we not yet changed our ways? Men and women alike, educate yourself. 
We have got to change our habits. We are society. Change the way you think and speak out about these topics. We have got to stop joking about these very serious situations, for the safety of everyone. 

(If you haven't already, check out the #YesAllWomen trending movement on twitter. Stand up and together with other women and men who want to end this violence.)

billie jane

Coachella // INDIO

yeeeeesh. it's been awhile.
realizing i should have made some inspiration boards before i headed off to coachella but i was literally scrambling! i couldn't find a thing to wear, i was in the middle of a massive research paper and i was going through some personal stuff.
excuses, excuses.

can i share some coachella pictures to make up for it?

i went with some wonderful friends, and we had a fantastic time. i always stay in a hotel somewhere in palm springs, because although this girl can definitely rough it and camp- it's just so freakin' hot. there's nothing like a shower and a bed after a night at coachella.

i didn't bring my camera along because i was only popping in to la for a week, and it's not allowed at coachella. so we bought a trillion disposable cameras between the five of us. i miss film so much! i used to have two tim cameras that were attached at my hip.

my nutty friend leah crowd-surfing on a dolphin (not ours)

i've attended a few music festivals, but coachella will always hold most of my heart. i've seen some of my very favorite artists there, and it's just always such a loving environment and pleasant experience. i love dancing my heart out with like-minded strangers. lazy days, and electric nights.

already planning next year's!


i had a lovely long lunch with carly upon my return and then sadly i was off again.
back in the swing of things here, as my last month of university for this semester wraps up and we get closer to exams.
i'm heading to a comedy show tonight, my birthday is next monday (...twenty....), i'm heading to a concert, and then my cousin's baby is due pretty much any day now.
things are about to get nuts!

i promise i'll be back soon
xo

billie

planes, and trains, and weddings // MELBOURNE

okay, okay, school definitely got in the way of things.

carly & i have been super caught up in university work, exams, assignments, all while juggling work as well- we've barely had time to talk to each other, let alone blog + (c got a new job!!) and my family was just here visiting for two weeks, which included a whirlwind trip to melbourne for a wedding.

i had never been, so i had a great time and was somehow able to squeeze in quite a bit of shopping- don't you just love outlets? everything was so cheap.

my uncle chris is the youngest of the clements clan (13 kids) and so everyone but one brother headed out to melbourne for this wedding. uhhh, it was kind of nuts. their wedding took place in nicola's aunts backyard with about 100 people. nicola and chris are both very artsy-trendy people, so her wedding dress consisted of a very mod 60s type shift dress with 20's like flapper tassels. everyone was dressed really funky, while i went for very classic black & white. oh well! (commence slew of photos + commentary....)

nicola & chris

hey, that's me! (my dad played paparazzi)

great excuse to catch up on girl-time. these are my cousin-sisters.

sweet photo of my auntie's, lou & charlotte, sharing a laugh

some cousins! top row: jaz, ben, henry, and sam (my brother)
bottom row: ollie, charlie, josh (my brother)

my mama, her twin sister, and charlotte again

i'd had quite a bit of champagne by this point ;)

nicola and chris's wedding invitation was actually a song they wrote and sent out via email, and to carry it out, nicola played a little song she wrote for chris. it was so sweet and charming, and her voice is so lovely. ollie has been singing it endlessly.... (then they sang a duet of 'you're the one that i wan' from grease)


Chris & Nicola from Matthew Stanton on Vimeo.


everyone had a wonderful time, and it was so good to see so much family all at once. the following day we went out for breakfast and then met up again with all the family to do some lawn bowling and have some sausage rolls before everyone headed their separate ways. ben & i teamed up and we won! my first time, and i was way better than i could have hoped to be haha!

strategizing

it would randomly bucket down with rain, and everyone crowded in under umbrellas via standing on the tables. this is don & stasia doing reverse titanic

photobombing every photo.

ben & i found melbourne to be very hipster, so if we ever move there & start an indie band, this will be our cover.

my beautiful cousin jess model-posing for my dad

getting back to school has been a bit of a transition, but i'm coping with the workload and have met some very lovely and talented people already. it's going to be a great year!

australia hasn't really welcomed fall yet, and our temps are hovering around 80 in sydney- which is perfect because it's got me in the right mind to think about coachella and plan some outfits for that trip. 3 weeks! here i come!

can't wait to be back in la to lunch at lemonade, go to disneyland, and drive my mini coop again!

all photography taken by my pops on a canon 5D.
for more of nicola's music, like her on Facebook! 

VIDEO 01 // LA

a video!

this is actually more embarrassing than anything else, and probably only really funny to us... but i threw together some footage of our trip to the farmer's market two weeks back in between carly & i being really stupid in the car.

i now have my australian twang back, but whenever i hang around carly i get a severe valley girl accent ;) and apparently a.d.d.

(we're obsessed with the spice girls) enjoy!

the videos can only get better from here, right?

see our full blog post from that day here.
xo
billie (and carly).

Reem Acra FW 14' (Day 3) // NY

i don't even know how to begin this post, because i'm speechless. just a few hours ago, i sat front row at two shows at NYFW. lincoln center, yada yada. the whole nine yards. i'm literally dying. i talked my way in through the front security and went passed standby at both shows...and sat front row at BOTH! what? that doesn't just happen.

the first show we got into was Katya Leonovich. she was very different & it was definitely a smaller show, which was nice. i'd heard her name before, but never seen anything she had designed. all i knew was that she showed last year at fashion week! being my first show at lincoln center, i was down for anything. it ended up being great. we were even able to go back stage after. i was all smiles. unfortunately my pictures from that show didn't turn out too great, but i did get a video and it's on my instagram! @carlyybethh

okay the next part of the story is the best, so hold tight.

after we got into this show, we checked the schedule to see when the next one was. 6pm for reem acra was the answer! it was 4:30 at the time, and we decided to wait, determined. 

we sat in the lounge at MBFW, and ate and chatted with our new friends we made while waiting for all the shows. then it was time to get in line for reem acra. the place was poppin' and literally everyone had a ticket, we thought we were out of luck. we were just about to leave, when i thought, okay lets just try.

so i walked up to the registration, and said "hi i'm carly, and i'm here to collect my standby invitation, for reem arca. and just when i thought they were going to turn me away, they said "okay great carly, here's your ticket!" and handed it to me. i then grabbed hannah and nicole and said "but wait! i have friends!" and they gave me two more tickets.

idk how. let's not question it.

we strolled back to the line outside of the salon. (the room in lincoln center where this particular show was being held.) there were a million, jillion people there. that isn't even an exaggeration.

we then were finally let in. and were allllllll the way up top and in the back on standby. whatever, we were in.

then i looked across, and saw that there were empty seats on the other side of the runway, i said "lets go" and practically dragged hannah and nicole. on the way down, a lady pointed to me and came over and said "hey do you mind filling those three seats in the front row?" 

to which i replied" oh sure, yeah no problem. DUH.

we sat across from giuliana rancic. no biggie.

the show was ridiculously brilliant. the music, the models, the colors. i can't.

(i teared up, no lie.)

i'll stop rambling now and just show you the amazing shots i got on my camera!

(i used my cannon t-3 with a 50 mm 1.8)

hey giuliana!

hey again giuliana!

tears.tears.tears.

can't wait for nyfw in september. hands down one of the most amazing experiences in my life. i'm so thankful for being able to see all of this at such a young age. 

#blessed

sorry, that was cheesy.

i'll be heading home tomorrow night. :( i'm still a full time student & i have a math midterm wednesday morning..yuck. wish me luck!

xx-carly beth