Dress 18 : I wish I was a butterfly

Sometimes it takes meeting someone else to discover who you are. 

While in New York I met an Australian girl who had come to the US as her son was in need of medical treatment.  Long stays in the hospital meant that she needed one thing that makes us all feel better: music!  She had left most of her CD’s in Australia and asked me to download some Evanescence.  At this stage I had a few of their songs and really liked them but when Mel asked me to download the whole album I was blown away by what I heard.  It was almost as if Amy (the lead singer of the band) had been stalking my life and secretly using what she saw to write beautiful music. 

Listening more to their music I understood so many things I didn’t know for so long.  Mel and I bonded over our love of music and discovered we were very similar to each other from the way we grew up to different things we thought about life.  Mel being a Goth was well in touch with her dark side, where as I was continuingly trying to fight it away.   She taught me how you can know both.

 One summer her son asked me to join them visiting another Australian family they knew who lived in Long Island.  When I asked where they lived I nearly died when they said the name of the town I used to live in with my ex and his family.  But when a baby faced five year old asks you, no matter how scared you are of bumping into your ex you can’t say no!  After being welcomed to the house by Lynn and her husband the most serious business was put in front of me: did I like my margaritas with salt or with sugar?!  I liked this family immediately and felt sad I didn’t know they were there when I was living in the town.

Lynn was an amazing personality and the fact she liked to make margaritas was even better.  Many summer weekends I would make my way out to the island with Mel and her son and once he was tucked up sleeping in bed we would sit on the porch sipping margaritas with the fireflies buzzing around us in the evening night sky.  We were three Aussie girls who all randomly ended up in New York for many different reasons, varying in age and experience.  But in those moments it didn’t matter we were all there to ponder the most difficult questions in life together and Mel and I could escape from the reality of NY if only for two days.

I remember there were a family of racoons who lived under her porch and we would wait silently sometimes for them to run under our table to the other side and squeal in delight at seeing native American wildlife… the margaritas could have also helped in this excitement.  Once or twice we left Lynn’s husband at home to look after the children and headed for dinner or a drink in town, me hiding precariously behind poles and large pot plants so I wouldn’t see my ex – funnily enough not once when there did I ever see him (or maybe I was just that good at hiding!).

From discovering Evanescence I found other bands who also spoke to me, this band being one of them.  I remember also giving the CD to my cousin who loved this song Butterfly so much she would play it over and over again.  When she and her then boyfriend visited me in New York and I put this CD on he looked at me and said ‘So you’re the reason I have to listen to this song all the time’... I laughed so much!

Mel is sort of like my lost sister who made me resolve a wonder I had held inside for a long time.  She and I get each other so easily and she is almost like a sister to me.  I miss being away from her but the one thing that brought us together in the first place continues to help us stay together, every time I hear Evanescence or she does we text each other and for that moment it’s like we are both back there with each other.

Day 18: I wish I was a butterfly
Bought: 5 years ago
Price Range: $29.00
From: H & M New York
What I like about this dress: I LOVE the many different colours of butterflies and the way they stand out against the black
Tag Info: Made in China, Divide, 100% Viscose
Photo Credit: SCondon

Dress 17 : You're my butterfly, sugar, baby

This song always makes me want to dance!

 I also always think when I see the video it’s the prettiest music video ever made for a rap song!  All these years after its release and I still think it’s a fun song!  I don’t know if the band ever had another hit.  My earliest memories of this song are dancing to it at our local pub that we all used to go to when we turned 18.

The Hallam Hotel was a Melbourne institution.  Hallam is situated about 45 minutes out of the city of Melbourne and people used to travel from far and wide to have a beer and see the Headlining bands and singers that would come perform at the Hallam.  Today it still sees its fair share of Aussie icon acts but the place isn’t what it as in its hay day.  A few years after we started going there the Hallam was shut down and changed to be more of a restaurant / gaming venue.  A new nightclub opened in Narre Warren and the violence, drunkenness and things I think they were trying to stop at the Hallam followed.  I never felt unsafe or anything at the Hallam but it did have a reputation.

My girlfriends and I would go to the Hallam at that age for many reasons: it was free to get in before 10, the bands would throw out ping pong balls with drink specials, as it was close our parents would alternate driving us and we would all have left over money to get a hot dog and a taxi home at the end of the night.  The only problem was there was generally 5 or more girls who would go together so being small I always had to lay across the girls laps in the back seat to get there.  My view would be the stars moving through the window in the darkness and I was amazed one night when I actually go to sit upright and see where I was going!

So back to the important ping pong balls.  With collecting the ping pong balls from the band my friends and I always had a strategy.  My friend Megan was a netball player and very tall so she would catch the high ones, being small I would get any that went low or on the ground and our friend Kara took out the middle.  She was also our keeper of the ping pong balls, we always made sure she wore a cleavage top to hide them as she was blessed with a more voluptuous chest than Megan and I.  Together we all made a great team.  When the Hallam closed down and we had to go to the new Nightclub in Narre Warren the same band went but without the ping pong balls.  To show our displeasure one of the first weeks it was opened we took all the ping pong balls we had left over and threw them at the band .. I don’t know if they were more shocked that we threw them at them or that we had so many!

At the Hallam we danced, scored free lolly pops, met boys and bumped into old friends.   Your shoes would always stick to the floor and it was always a hard decision to stay for the band or head to the other room to see what music was playing in there.  Since moving home I have headed to the Hallam to see Wendy Matthews play (yes I will admit that) and also to try out the karaoke they host on a Thursday night.  It’s funny because the guy who runs the karaoke was the DJ when I was 18… weird to think that someone could work all those years at the Hallam Hotel.

The dress I’m wearing today actually comes from my one hour shopping spree in Mexico while docked from our Cruise ship.  On that trip it was very much like the Hallam but on water.  There was a great dance club where we danced, met boys and spent an amazing holiday with old friends.  The only thing you couldn’t get at the Hallam which I could on that trip was some amazingly cute dresses .. oh well Hallam we had to move on some time.  There was a movement a few years back lobbying to bring the Hallam back to its former glory.  For now though it seems that a nice chicken snitzel and a play of the pokies is as close as you will get to the Hallam we once knew.  But every time I see a ping pong ball I will remember the fun times I had with my girlfriends and that’s the best thing of all.

Today I thought I would attempt to take my dress photos myself .. well at least you can see the dress maybe I’ll take some better shots next time!  Oh and I promise Rachel I did iron this dress but it has been hot in Melbourne and sitting down I think it crinkled!

Day 17: You’re my Butterfly Sugar Baby
Bought: 2 years
Price Range: 10.00
From: Mexico
What I like about this dress: I LOVE the colour
Tag Info: No tag info!
Photo Credit: SCondon

Dress 16: You have become a butterfly

When I was little you would either find me talking or singing .. and I guess not much has changed!  My first love was Whitney Houston when I was 5 years old.  I would get in trouble for singing along to ‘Greatest Love or all’ with my fisher price tape player in my room when I was meant to be asleep.  At the time Whitney had a shaved head and still a respectable reputation. 

As the years went by I found a new love: Mariah Carey.  Funnily enough after ready a biography on Mariah many years ago she was actually marketed as the one to match and out sell Whitney.  In Grade 6 I bought a tape of Mariah Carey’s ‘Music Box’ from Brashes with a voucher I had received for a Birthday and it cost me $19.95, CD prices haven’t changed much.  That tape was played backwards, forwards and repeated as I sang into my hair brush.  I loved the variety in her vocal range and the way her voice could tell a story just in its tone.

Growing up my tapes morphed into CD’s and I continued my admiration for Mariah, poor Whitney didn’t get another look in, until the Waiting to Exhale Soundtrack in 1995.  I took singing lessons and one of my proudest moments was when the singing teacher asked me to come and help in another students lesson who was trying to sing Always be my Baby – a challenge for any singer.   Still at school Mariah featured.  The song Butterfly I remember was played at a year 12 camp when the religious teacher said she would play us a reflection song in religious class.  I cringed at the time thinking oh no not another Jesus song, but it was quickly replaced by a smile – from me at least – when Butterfly by Mariah came out of the stereo. 

Moving to America in 2002 there was a big hope that we would be able to see big musical acts that never made it to Australia.  At Christmas time in the US all the State local radio Stations like Fox FM each host a ‘Jingle Ball’.  At this concert big name recording artists come together to sing a few songs each to span over a few hours for a Christmas celebration.  When Kirsty and I moved to California we tuned into their equivalent of Fox FM – KISS FM.  When we heard about Jingle Ball we immediately wanted to go, the line up (at the time) sounded amazing!!  It was: Destiny’s Child, Goo Goo Dolls, Kylie Minogue (go Aussie!), Avril Lavigne, Kelly Osborne (still no idea why she was there), Nick Carter (oh Backstreet Boys!) and the two main acts were Justin Timberlake and ………… Mariah Carey!  I was so excited .. Mariah Carey was in town and I could see her live in Anaheim.. there was only one slight problem; you couldn’t buy tickets you had to win them!!

The night after we heard about the concert we immediately went into action mode.  We called the radio station and asked to win tickets, they advised that they had already given tickets away for that night but they thought our Aussie accents were cute so they instructed us to call back at a certain time the next night and we would be the winners!!  I wish we had of recorded that conversation the next night, two Aussies girls on LA radio explaining to the DJ how to say G’Day ..while excitedly screaming down the phone we had won.

The Concert was a lot of fun, Kirsty and I danced along to Kylie and screamed for Justin.  When Mariah came out she was bigger than life bringing a massive entourage with her.  From memory I think she only sang 3 songs, it was very short!  But I had finally seen her live.  I can’t say it as a life changing moment but it was something I look back and still can’t believe that the little girl who used to sing along to Vision of Love was seeing her sing in real life.  Many years from that day I did get to see her again in her own concert only this time it was in Madison Square Garden in New York.  Nobody would come with me to the show but I went anyway by myself.  Sean Paul was the support act and it was quite strange because everyone around me was smoking weed and when Mariah did come out and sing ‘Hero’ it felt very weird to be sitting there by myself with pot smokers and one of my greatest singing idols there in front of me.

I have sang Mariah on occasions and Whitney especially at karaoke in New York.  I generally get requests for Dream lover or I Still Believe by Mariah .. I generally pull out Greatest Love when I want to win a free drink at the karaoke place that scores you on how well you sing!  Dream lover is especially fun to sing because it is now the polar opposite of songs I general sing – Steve once commented that I only sing sad or angry songs haha .. but I think he was happy when I would put in some Delta or Mariah to lighten it up.  Mariah may have now been replaced with Amy Lee but I feel lucky that I have been able to have such diverse powerful beautiful women singers to inspire me to sing.  I am nowhere near where they are vocally and never will be but I still have my hair brush and my mum can still tell me to be quiet when I sing too much.

Day 16 You have become a butterfly
Bought: 1 year ago
Price Range: 39.00
From: Boutique in the Royal Arcade in Melbourne CBD
What I like about this dress: I LOVE the butterflies and the ruffle on the neckline
Tag Info: Made in China, Sunny Girl, 100% Spun Rayon
Photo Credit: KMcKinnon

Dress 15 : You're my butterfly

This week I will be wearing butterfly dresses and coincidently many of my favourite songs are called Butterfly.  I’m hoping to blend dresses and music this week – two of my favourite things together wrapped into a story.

Delta Goodrem - Butterfly


When I moved the first time to California, Delta Goodrem had just been unleashed on the music industry in Australia and I remember walking down the Streets in Orange County when we felt home sick singing along to Born To Try.  When I returned to Australia Delta was everywhere!!  I had met her a few times while working on Neighbours and she was always a friendly, down to Earth girl playing the Bishop’s piano during set breaks.

I think at one point in time the stats said that 1 in every 3 households owned Delta’s first album Innocent Eyes and returning to Australia I became one of those.  I loved her vocal range and the way she actually would sing on pop songs.  She became a favourite in my stereo, microphone and mirror combinations!  When I came home to Australia I had started to date a boy from New York, let’s call him Boyfriend C.  There’s some people you meet in life and you have this indescribable connection like you’ve met before in another time and place and the universe is returning you back to the other.

When I met boyfriend C it was that feeling.  I didn’t matter he had a thinc NY accent and I couldn’t understand a word he said there was something there.  We dated long distance for 6 months and then I returned in NY summer to spend two weeks with him and meet his family.  Dating long distance you have to get creative in the ways you communicate.  I had started sending him CD’s of songs that reminded me of him and when he said his American buddies had caught him listening to ‘Never tear us Apart’ by Inxs I couldn’t stop laughing.
 
I had an amazing summer in NY learning about catching fire flies, drinking at his local bar and meeting his friends and we went on a road trip up to Niagara Falls.  After the two weeks was up being the romantic that I am I wrote the lyrics to this song and left it on his bed on the way to the airport - even though I had made him listen to Inxs I knew I may be stretching the relationship a little too far to make him listen to Delta.  About 3 months later the struggle with distance, miscommunication and leading different lives we broke up, my first real heartbreak. 

But as fate would have it I was offered a job in New York and a few months after we had broken up I moved back to NY.  I ended up moving in with Boyfriend C and his family on Long Island (not the smartest move to move in with your Ex and his entire family – readers never, never do this!!).  Our story did continue for a while after that but ultimately we were not even meant to even be friends and after a period of time for us which is a whole other story in itself I felt strong enough to flee to New York City.  I finally became the independent and brave girl that was hidden behind a small girl from Australia.  I contacted him a few years ago when I heard his Dad, who had always been so nice to me had passed away ,and he thanked me for my email.  We have also since become Facebook friends but it still makes me sad to think of that innocent 21 year old girl who thought he was the rest of her life to him now being pretty much a stranger to me.

Once I arrived in New York City I remember on nights when I was lonely I would put on Delta’s Innocent Eyes CD and fall asleep to it.  It was something comforting that listening to this it always brought me home in some way.  When I started at my Australian office I told people about Delta and they had never heard of her!  A few years later she did come to New York as they were trying to launch her in the States and my office and I went down to support her appearance on NBC’s Today show.  As did Molly Meldrum who was doing a special for the Sunrise show in Australia.

After her interview Molly brought her over to meet us and as she got closer to us she gave me a funny look.  As I was at the end of the row of people I was last to speak with her.  When she got to me she said “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to give you a funny look but I feel like I know you from somewhere” and that’s when I laughed and said “Yeah I used to work on Neighbours”.   She breathed a sigh of relief and laughed to herself and said “Oh good I thought I was going crazy I’d love to chat some more but I have to run and sing in the studio, it was so nice to see you again though”.

Delta songs became a favourite to sing at karaoke – there was never any competition to sing them and many times people would come up and ask who the artist I was singing was.  Steve even learnt back-up vocals to ‘A Little too late’.  Delta has had moderate success in the US and maybe this year will be the year she finally takes it over.  The US is always in the sites of ambitious Aussies and if I can take on the USA and make it .. I’m pretty sure Delta can too .. and I hope she does.

Yours in Dresses
Skye 

Day 15: You’re my Butterfly
Bought: 1 year ago
Price Range: $35.00
From: Valley Girl, Perth, Western Australia
What I like about it: I LOVE the fact I found a dress that makes me happy to wear white!  I love the butterflies!
Tag Info: Made in China, Valley Girl, 100% Polyester
Photo Credit: DWhite, SCondon