Our Summer Bucket-list '15/'16

Hello my lovely friends! 

How about that rain last week? As I was wearing my LL Bean Boots and clutching a red Starbucks cup I was beginning to get confused as to which hemisphere we live in! Now that we have finished exams for the year, we cannot help but get excited for the Summer time, even though Summer is technically a little over three weeks away. 

We have the habit of being all talk and not enough action when it comes to how we want to spend our breaks, and our social life in general. So this year we have decided to actually write a Summer bucket list! Hopefully we stick to it and actually achieve everything the want to do to make sure we make the most of the break and make the memories Summer deserves. 

[source]

1. Explore more suburbs

2. Go to the beach

3. Sew at least one thing    

4. Blog more!

5. Eat out with friends

6. Sort out interior decorating of our apartment

7. Spend time with family

8. Go to Camberwell Market

9. Visit a winery

10. Go on a mini road trip with best friends

11. Go to Andy Warhol x Ai Wei Wei at the NGV

12. See The Night Before with our siblings

13. Host a Christmas movie marathon

14. Pet more dogs

15. Read a book a week (Grace) / Watch more movies (Claire)



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What is on your Summer bucket list?

Stay Gold,
Claire & Grace. 

21.6.15 | Claire

Sunday the 21st of June, 2015.

Good morning! We were off to the train station at 9:30am, and it was quite the brisk morning. Also, I debuted my new bag, which I purchased at the op shop on Saturday. It's a carpet bag in the style of a bowling bag. It's perf and I'm so in love. (Plus it was only $8!)

Brunch at: Brighton Shoolhouse

We shared the Glee Club Pancakes (blueberry and ricotta pancakes with a scoop of white-chocolate ice-cream, bacon and maplebutter)

 It was delicious. Sorry for the lack of pic, we were just too eager to eat it all!

We had brunch with our fave, Lizzie. She's moving to Boston on Saturday, so this was a bit of a last hurruh for a while. We are going to miss her immensely.

OOTD Grace:
Bag from Collette (similar), Shoes from Target, Scarf from boohoo.com and coat from K-Mart

OOTD Claire:
Dress form JayJays forever ago, Coat form Target forever ago, Hat from Target (recently), boots from Target, bag from The Shop of Op on Chapel Street.

Photographic proof that Lizzie has been in our apartment.

Hard at work or hardly working? We spent the afternoon on the couch, under a mountain of blankets watching The Lizzie McGuire Movie and The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants. The perfect movies for a lazy Sunday afternoon.

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Hello, all!

This blog is a learning process for us, so we are still trying to get a feel for what type of posts we want to do. So here is the first post of a new approach: a photodump/A Day in the Life. Often we feel like we don't know what to post about, but since this blog is about our lives in Melbourne, why not document it this way? So let us know what you think, there will be more to come!

Stay Gold,

Claire

A Post About Grocery Shopping | Claire

Hello, all!

EXAM PERIOD IS AT ITS END! 

I (Claire) finished last Wednesday, after having 4 essays due in 3 days (living the fast life), and Grace finished today! For all of you who have also finished, congratulations! May your days be spent in bed binge watching Netflix/Stan/Presto (ok, let's be honest. We're all using Netflix, aren't we?) as your life is free from academia once more. 

And to those of you who are still going, YOU CAN DO IT. But ugh, studying is the worst, isn't it? Remember to take breaks and don't work yourself too hard. Passing is important but so is your health. 

With swotvac and exam period, we were two very busy bees. So much so, that by the end of last week we had no washing powder, had squeezed the last bit of toothpaste out of the tube, and all we had to eat were 2 minute noodles, soup, and mac and cheese. All great food options, but not ideal to live off. When you have so many essays to write, grocery shopping just doesn't seem like an option. So last Friday morning, when I was enjoying the start of my Uni break and Grace had a couple days until her next one, we wrote a list, took our personal shopping trolley (this nifty thing from ikea), and set off to our closest Coles. 

Now, if you haven't already gathered, Grace and I live out of home, and so grocery shopping is up to us. Planning meals is probably the hardest part of independent living, as well as finding the time to go to the supermarket (check out  part one of Grace's adventures in the kitchen here). However, grocery shopping is Grace's favourite time of the week, and I will have to agree. You see, we have a routine. Every Saturday morning we clean the apartment (somewhat) and then we go grocery shopping. This is the same routine our Mum has back at home, which we helped with and carried through with us here. (Thanks, Mum <3) 

We really enjoy grocery shopping, but we are not sure why. Is it the freedom to put whatever food you want in the trolley without someone to say no? (Kind of. We still stop each other from getting unnecessary food items from time to time. Remember to keep an eye on that budget!) Or is it the "adult-ness" of it? It is all so grown up, doing your own grocery shopping. We think this must be it. 

Moving to Melbourne and having our own apartment/routine in the city is something we have always looked forward to while in high school. Is that weird? Perhaps we watched too many movies/TV shows growing up. But which TV show glorifies being an adult? Because Suddenly 30 (That's 13 Going on 30 for you non-Australians), definitely doesn't. Maybe it's our love of watching YouTubers and their vlogs... 

Nonetheless, trivial things like going grocery shopping makes us happy! It's like we have control of our lives, and being twins, I guess being independent is more important to us... even if we are being independent together, it's more like we get to ease into it together. Grace has been doing the independent life longer than I have, since I was at a residential college on campus last year and all of my food was prepared for me (shout out to the kitchen staff!), so we help each other. 

If you have made it this far with a post about grocery shopping, we love your dedication!

We don't have that many tips with grocery sopping, other than always look for specials, and even then, check all the price tags and see what the cheapest option is. Just because it is on special, doesn't mean it is the cheapest option. Also, try and plan your meals for the week before you go. That way you can stay focused and get what you need, as well as get in and out of there without wasting 10 minutes staring at a shelf. 

All in all, we appreciate the trivial things in life. We are so happy, and lucky, to be able to living in Melbourne and have this as our life. Like, we are living the dream, basically. Living in Melbourne with jobs, great friends, and studying what we love at a University we love. We are so grateful to have these opportunities. So yeah, we are happy we get to go grocery shopping. It means we are growing up and are at a place where we can afford to do that. Which is pretty special. 

Now that we are on Uni break, let's see if we post more! Here's to hoping!

Stay Gold,

Claire x

January: Month In Review

Hello Friends!

So, a month left of summer and a month left of Uni break! We know we haven’t been the best posters last month (we are still getting onto our feet, of course) so we thought we should let you guys know what we’ve been up to. Living in the city means we have become champs at public transport and we can do many amazing things, including:

The St. Kilda Foreshore Market.
This market runs every Sunday along the Esplanade and is filled with some lovely booths. We purchased some lovely homemade soap and also matching rings! There was also a lot of cat merchandise <3

HOME <3
We visited home for a couple of days, which was very hot (we miss that hometown summer heat. Melbourne doesn’t even know what summer is). We got to catch up with friends we miss dearly and saw Into the Woods! Cinema tickets are much cheaper in the country.

Oscar Nom Watch 2k15
As we mentioned earlier, we are totally award show junkies and Claire takes the Oscar’s very seriously. When the Oscar nominations came out we made it our mission to see as many of the Best Picture nominations we can before the award show on February 22^nd (23^rd for us Australians). So far we have seen 5 of them (The Imitation Game, Birdman, Whiplash, Grand Budapest Hotel and The Theory of Everything) with three to go! 

This included a double feature (we literally had like 7 minutes between each showing.) of Birdman and Whiplash at Cinema Nova in Carlton. $7 tickets on Monday’s is a godsend. If you are going to take advantage of that ticket pricing, especially in the morning, we suggest you either order online or get there early because that line for the box office is LONG. And thank you Emily for joining us!

The Royal Croquet Club
We love the Melbourne online publication, Broadsheet. Honestly, if you haven’t already liked them on Facebook, followed them on Twitter (like we do) or even read the publication and you are passionate about experiencing what Melbourne has to offer, then you simply MUST. They give you the heads up on the best places to eat and simply amazing evens to attend. For example, their recent success of creating The Royal Croquet Club, a whimsical setup along Birrarung Marr with food trucks, Pimms Tents (PIMMS <3), live music, fairy lights and of course, Croquet!

We went twice! Once with the family and once on Australia Day with some lovely friends. We went in the afternoon, so we didn’t get to see it in its prime at night, but we loved it all the same. And my goodness, the bunting, the logo, the lights, the croquet, the vibe? 100% our aesthetic. Claire was heart-eyeing all over the place.

St. Kilda Beach
We live like 5 minutes from the beach, but we haven’t been much yet. One Friday evening though we did enjoy the best fish and chips ever (Tommy Tuckers onAcland Street) at the beach. Now, we are new to the whole beach thing, we haven’t really been an overwhelming amount of times, so he sand and wind was new to us, but who doesn’t love summer evenings and the sun setting over the ocean?

Friends & Family <3
And of course, we caught up with many of our friends and the fam-bam. We are so lucky <3

We Watched:

We also had a lot of downtime on the couch, and this mean, we watched a lot of movie and binge watched The OC Seasons 1 & 2, and Season 1 of Friday Night Lights (fun fact: movies about sport are some of our faves. Don’t ask why). We are really into American Football at the moment (and the South?) and we even watched the Super Bowl this past Monday. We still love country AFL the best, though.

There were also movies:

The Graduate, Charade, Cabaret, The Kings Speech, The Iron Lady, Moneyball, The Reader, The Vow, God Help The Girl, The Riot Club, Remember The Titans, Into the Woods, Whiplash, The Imitation Game, Birdman, Monster’s University, just to name a few.

And now it’s February! And it’s due to be a big one. We have University starting again in the first week of March, more blogposts to write, apartments to hunt, the Oscar’s, and the last traces of summer to soak up! So stay tuned, it’s going to be a wild one.

Also, we promise to post more on the blog and on our Instagram account so feel free to give it a follow! And tell us what you’ve bene up to this new year? We’d love to hear from you!

Stay gold!

Claire & Grace.

15 Things for 2015

Happy New Year! (Again)

Claire, here! As you can probably tell, this week we are really digging into this whole "new year" thing, here at Graceful and Claire. Now, I'm not one for making new years resolutions, and even then, 15 seems a bit much. That's why this post is all about things. These "things" are not resolutions, but rather, reminders of things to do and remember during this year that is 2015. 

2015 for us means moving out into our own apartment, our second year of university, more blogging and more of experiencing what Melbourne has to offer!

**** This has been edited. I found the original 15 things I wrote in our notebook, and I like these better *****

1. See more movies (obviously)
2. Get involved more at Uni
3. Glee is finally ending (this is a good thing)
4. Parks and Rec is ending (this is a bad thing)
5. Shop more (Treat Yo' Self)
6. Hold onto old friends
7. But make some more friends, too
8. Take Your Passion, and Make It Happen
9. Find a Bar (go to bars)
10. Branch out more (in what, who knows)
11. Good Vibes Only
12. Be less bitter about those who travel (Seriously. Your time is coming)
13. Go to the Melbourne Museum, festivals, markets etc. Experience what Melbourne has to offer
14. Slow down
15. Blog Blog Blog Blog

We look forward to seeing what this year has to offer!

Claire x

Twin's Day Out: Christmas in the City

Hello all!

Another Christmas post! (Don't worry guys, there are only 10 days until Christmas, and soon they will be long gone)

So, there are two things Grace and I love more than life itself: Melbourne and Christmas. And the best thing ever? CHRISTMAS IN MELBOURNE. Christmas in any city is wonderful, even for young adults! So, on the morning of our 19th birthday, we took our good friend Alice and headed into the city for some Christmas cheer and everything we did was free/cheap. Hooray!

First stop: Christmas Square! Each year City Square on Swanston Street turns into a beautiful Christmas park. It's absolutely free, in the heart of the city, and my gosh, look at that tree!

Grace (left): high-waisted shorts and sheer shirt both from Savers.
Canvas shoes from K-Mart.

Claire (right): Dress from Cotton On, brogues from Salvos.  

Naturally, as the common/basic white girls we are, we love going to Starbucks for holiday themed flavours, and of course, the Christmas cups. Sorry we're not sorry!

Since Christmas is in the summer here in Australia/Melbourne, Claire's favourite is the gingerbread frappachino. The gingerbread flavour is mighty strong, and it tastes soooo good.

Grace isn't much of a coffee drinker, but since there aren't holiday flavoured teas, she tried the peprmint mocha frapachino (peppermint, her favourite)
Grace's sunglasses are from Rubi Shoes

Town Hall looks like a christmas present and we love it so much. The building itself is beautiful and one of our favourites in the city. This just takes it to a whole new level. *heart eyes emoji*

We were delighted to see that the Myer Christmas Windows were actually Chritmassy this year (just like they used to). The Christmas windows are free! The lines get quite long, but as not only tall people, but as young adults, you can pretty much just walk behind the lines and look over their heads. This year is Santa Clause and the Three Bears. We always knew Goldilocks was actually Santa (wait, what?)

The Myer Christmas Windows are an institution, and as kids, our parents or school would take us into the city and see them every year. Now that we live here, we take ourselves!

Department stores are always super christmassy in their decorations, and Claire believes that there is just something with the shiny white floors, the bustle of people holding numerous shopping bags, the touch of Christmas paraphernalia everywhere just screams Christmas and makes her super happy. We blame Elf  and every other movie with a department store ever. 

Myer also has the Giftorium! Which has a bunch of great Christmas ideas (if not a little pricey) obviously, but we love looking at the Christmas trim shop for decorations, and the gift-giving vibe is just awesome. there is also a Christmas miniature train ride and photos with Santa available for kids!

And lastly, every 15 minutes, from 9pm until 11pm each night, the town hall has a stunning christmas light show! We went Saturday night with the parents and it is truly beautiful. 

We hope you enjoyed this post. You can also see our Christmas in the City adventures on our amazing friend Alice's YouTube channel madasalice! Which we will link here when it is uploaded. Also, please check out her channel! She has just started her own youtube channel and is doing VLOGMAS! Hell yeah.

Merry Christmas, everyone!