Orthodox Easter 2016 - Egg Dye Trial

I know this is a little (lol VERY) late, but oh well. I'm pregnant, forgetful and slow. Whaddyagunnado..

This year, since becoming pregnant I thought I would make a effort to start becoming a proper domakinka (Macedonian for housewife but it means so much more than just 'wifely duties'. I'll have to do a separate post about it). I figured my first domakinka duty would be Easter egg dying and seeing as though I had never done it myself before I bent the rules slightly.

In my Easter post from last year there's more information about the traditions involved with Orthodox Easter (link here). I wanted to follow the 'rules' but I figured this year could be my test run. I say this mostly because I knew something would stuff up and I didn't want to be disappointed in my efforts. It was all to lesson the blow really haha

I went to a wog deli to scout the things I would need and was half successful. I had wanted to do traditional red eggs as well as some pink eggs. Pink isn't a colour that people dye their eggs because, as I found out, pink dye is so fricking hard to find. The usual colours people use aside from red are blue, green and yellow. They come in the same type of foiled packets as shown above and you can sometimes find them in your local Coles or Woolies depending on how woggy your area is. Some people had suggested to me that food colouring would work if I couldn't find pink dye...

On the left is a pot with the regular red dye colouring the eggs and on the right is the pot with food colouring...

Can you tell which ones are pink and which are red? hahaha 

Needless to say, using food colouring was a big fail. I don't know why the pink dye made the eggs red and I don't know why the eggs had stripes across them, but I guess its ok because lucky this was a test run, right? When Easter passed and people were posting pictured of their eggs I saw some GORGEOUS colours being used. There was baby pink, mint green, hot pink, bright purple, lavender and baby blue. It was like nothing I had ever seen before! I asked around and apparently they were all made through packet dye just like the red colouring but you had to go to the markets at just the right time before easter to be able to find them. At least I know now for next year!

I didn't take photos of the feast because it was making me feel nauseous looking at the mix of food but I was alllllll about the sweets. I could've eaten these two trays by myself. Damnnnnn!

I can't wait to take the little lessons I learnt from this years trial and hopefully I'll have some better coloured eggs next year!

Orthodox Christmas Haziness

I am so pleased to say, I have posted all older OOTD's and blogs and such and am now back on track to regular posts! YAY! I am so excited to take more new photos! I had everything on pause for a little while so I didn't get backlogged with photos all over again.  

On January the 7th it was Orthodox Christmas. That's right. Another Christmas. The reason behind this is described well by Google..

Many Orthodox Christians in Australia celebrate Christmas Day on or near January 7 in the Gregorian calendar. This date works to be December 25 in the Julian calendar, which pre-dates the Gregorian calendar. It is a time to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, who is believed to be the son of God.

The way people celebrate Orthodox Christmas varies. For some it involves going to church, fasting, prayers, etc, but the most important thing (just like regular Christmas) is trying to make time to spend the day with your family. Oh and theres always a feast. But really, theres always a fest at any wog occasion, so its not really a surprise haha
We went to my grandparents house with the fam and had a massive lunch. It's kind of hard to have a 'massive' lunch when you've got a lapband, but you do what you can. It's also especially hard when your wog grandma still doesn't fully understand the concept of lapband so she's borderline offended that you didn't stack your plate completely full and then go back for another round later haha

Wogmas, as Sam and I like to call it, used to be a little more exciting as a kid. You'd have celebrated regular christmas a few weeks before, then the excitement from that all wore off, then you have this second Christmas and get more presents and cash so you're buzzing! That pretty much ends when you become a teenager though. Shattered.

After we had finished the rounds of food, Sam, my sister, my cousin and I had a savage game of Cards Against Humanity. Probably the worst game you could play on Christmas, but its seriously the absolute best!

What would a day out be without taking an OOTD? It was particularly hot that day so I opted for cool comfort. I had been looking for shorts like this for freaking AGES! Something tight, not boxy like most plus size shorts are and something that sits above my knees. I found these in the funniest way...my mums sewing room. A few days before she had been complaining about a pair of pants she had bought that had started tearing at the thighs from chub rub (something that us plus size girls would know all too well). The tear became a massive hole on either side of the pants making them unwearable. Mum decided to cut the legs off at the tear and turn them into shorts! Absolute genius! I don't know why I never thought to do that! Turns out it ripped at the perfect length for me so I claimed them haha

Sam said I looked like a tough biker chick haha

Who says fat girls cant wear short shorts and show their arms? FUCK THAT! It's when I wear outfits like this that I feel fabulous AF.



Did anyone else celebrate Orthodox Christmas? What did you get upto?

Top: Stussy  // Shorts: H&M DIY  //  Shoes: Vans

Christmas/Boxing Day Haul & Stories

I figured I should post this before it becomes irrelevant but this is my little recap/haul from Christmas & Boxing day.

This years gifts were particularly badass! In my family we tend to buy a lot of little gifts for each other which just makes it more fun. My husband and I on the other hand buy one more expensive gift for each other because our anniversary is on Boxing day so its kind of like one big Christmas/anniversary present. 

Sam knows whats up! I've wanted this from Louis Vuitton for aaaaageeessss and he got it hot stamped with my initials! I'm so absolutely in love with it!

My family don't usually do anything like this for Christmas because our Wog Christmas is the 7th of Jan, and we feast hard then. Mum was feeling particularly festive though and decided to make us a nice dinner and my Grandma happened to come over which made it all even better. We had the biggest laugh together and it was especially hilarious because my grandma is so wog that christmas bonbons are a foreign concept to her. She was so amazed that it was even a thing and was amazed at the silly toys that come out and the dumb jokes.

I may or may not have worn my pjs the whole day...

My sister got a Instax camera for her birthday so we had a play around with it and again, my grandma was amazed at this 'advanced technology' haha She knew of Polaroid cameras but they never got to experience that sort of stuff so she was pretty intrigued. Needless to say we took a shitload of photos haha

When dinner was over, Sam and I headed into the city to stay a few nights. I was going to have a super early morning for the boxing day sales so it helped that we weren't going to be too far away from it all. I got up at 6am the next day and it was raining (thanks Melbourne. The ONE time I have to be walking around outside in summer, you decided to rain. Cheers bro) and I was without an umbrella... 30 mins later I found one stashed in the house and I was on my way. My first stop was David Jones to see what kind of designer bags they had on sale. As expected. Nothing worth buying. I usually have a bit of a game plan when it comes to the sales. Buy anything I can online Christmas Day when the sale goes live then the rest of the stuff I try and pick up or suss out on Boxing Day. I find that makeup is the main thing worth buying because its the only thing that I wouldn't be able to buy at that price throughout the year. There are sales on clothes a lot throughout the year so why waste time looking at that when you could be buying the stuff you normally couldn't, y'know what I mean? And Lush! Bless them and their 50% off Christmas sets! I did get really pissed off at the Melbourne Central Lush store though. There were legit over 30 people waiting in line to pay and the two cashiers didn't seem to give a shit and just wanted to have a chat with themselves, then try and include the customers and whatever. Now, I get that working retail at this time of the year is hard, but you know what would make your life less hard? Just serving the fucking customers and not making us wait in like for 45 minutes while you 'entertain us' and make me nearly fucking faint from having to stand so long..Just scan the goddamn things, take the cash and move the fuck on. What ticked me off most though was when I was (finally) served, I handed over my cash and the dumbass serving me called out to the whole store 'Excuse me, everyone! Make sure you have your notes unfolded and stretched right out so we can make this all go faster'. I was like, really bitch?... You just wasted my time embarrassing me when in that time the cash could've been in the till and I could've been gone. And what if I had major anxiety? You've just pointed me out in a crowd of now 50 or more people. What if I now just wanted to die? It made me so mad. Again, I get that its a hard time of year working in retail, but if you're that 'bored' working, try 1. working a little fucking harder & 2. conversing politely and quickly with customers instead of making them want to crawl in a hole and die. Cheers. #rantover. Aside from the idiot at Lush, the sales were a success. When you go that early it's as if its a regular shopping day, but once about 10am hits, its an absolute shit storm and you have to start being slightly aggressive when you walk otherwise you will get trampled. Thats why I go so early. I don't want to have to elbow people out of the way and get all stressed and annoyed. 

The only thing I didn't manage to pick up was a Camila & Marc tee that I have been eyeing for weeks. I was hoping I could find it in store to try on because the largest size they had was a 12 but I couldn't find it and bought it online when I got home. It should be arriving in the next few days so I'm prayyyyiiinnggg that it fits.

At about 10.30 I was completely done and ready for breakfast, so I called Sam and he met me at our fave place on Degraves St, The Quarter. I was dying for some eggs and hashbrowns!

You're probably looking at that plate and thinking 'uh, I thought you said you had lapband done, bro? wtf?'. Well heres what I do. I mostly still order a regular meal because when I'm out eating I'm usually with my husband so whatever I cant eat, he eats. So he doesn't have to pay more and order extras because I'm handing him half a plate of food haha. What I had from this meal though was one hashbrown, both poached eggs and the tiniest bite of the bread. I find that bacon isn't worth eating anymore. It just takes too long to chew and doesn't break down enough for me.
The meal hit the spot and it was so nice to finally be able to sit down and chill for a little bit amongst the beginnings of the crazy.

We got back to the apartment and just relaxed until my brother in-laws came over for a LAN.
It was a fantastic Christmas break and hope that next year we'll be able to be celebrating from our own house! That would legit have to to be a Christmas miracle though haha

Hope you guys had a great time this holiday season!

Orthodox Easter Coloured Egg Tradition

I was really excited to see a comment pop up on my Orthodox Easter blog post asking about the tradition of dyed eggs. I was trying to find a way of structuring my answer but one of my fave blogs already had the perfect post that explains it all wonderfully.

The Modern Domakinka (domakinka means housewife in Macedonian.) is a fantastic new blog all about traditional Macedonian recipes and I'll insert her post below.

"The traditional red, hard-boiled egg is the most prominent symbol of Orthodox Easter. Orthodox Christians will spend Thursday (Veliki Cetvrtok) dying dozens of eggs and decorating them with different colours and designs. However, it must be noted that the first three eggs should be dyed before dawn on Thursday, before Good Friday. It is said that these three eggs will not go rotten for years to come if they are dyed before the sun rises.

The first egg is dedicated to God; the second egg is dedicated to the head of the house or the 'Domakin'; and the third egg is for good luck. The first egg is said to be magical, and is therefore placed next to a religious icon in the house. It is even believed that this egg can cure illnesses. It is for this reason that the housewife or the 'Domakinka' should not attempt to dye these three eggs on an empty stomach. She must eat at least a mouthful of bread, as any eggs dyed on an empty stomach do not bring any luck. It is even believed that they can bring bad luck and illness. The egg placed on the icon last year should be buried in the ground before placing the new egg on the icon.

With the first rays of sunlight, the housewife or the 'Domakinka' will wake each member of the household by rubbing the first boiled egg on each of their faces saying "Crveno, belo, debelo," or "Red, white, plump!"

This beautiful tradition of egg dying represents life and birth; and the red dye symbolises the blood of Christ. The tradition stems from the story of Marija Magdalena who travelled to Rome to inform King Tiberij of the miracle of the resurrection of Christ. She offered a dyed red egg to the King and said "Hristos Voskrese!" or "Christ has risen!" From then on, Orthodox Christians have been dying red eggs to symbolise the resurrection of Christ."

I honestly couldn't have put it better myself. The whole process is a tradition and when I was a kid it was a fun one. You would never see the stuff that happened really early in the morning but when you got up baba (grandma) and/or mum would be dying the eggs and you'd stand at the stove with her and it was some good bonding time. You buy the dye at most delis (you can tell which ones will have them by how woggy they look) and I remember there being a lot of egg stickers that you could put on them too. Nowadays theres heaps of fancy things you can do to the boiled eggs. People paint them, add stickers, add textured coatings and all this stuff but they're especially beautiful when they're kept simple. 

Usually over Easter the Eggs are given to basically everyone you interact with. For example, one of my grandmas makes eggs for her household, then gives my family a dozen for us to share, then some for my other grandma, some for my aunties family and any of her friends that are Orthodox, and then everyone that receives the eggs gives her some of their batch. So its basically a lot of egg swapping haha

If you want to know more about being a Modern Macedonian housewife and learn about some great traditional recipes do check out The Modern Domakinka's blog  &  The Modern Domakinka's Facebook page because I'm honestly obsessed with it.

Orthodox Easter

I know its a bit late but hey, this blog didn't technically exist yet to be able to post this at the right time. Two weekends ago (Sunday April 12th 2015), it was Orthodox Easter (Yes, Orthodox Easter, not Greek Easter. All wogs aren't Greek so plz don't call it Greek Easter). Its usually a week after 'normal' easter and its a pretty festive time especially if you go to the church gatherings.
My family doesn't go to church for Easter because we're not really that religious but we do always go to my grandparents houses for lunch/dinner. Wogs everywhere gather with their families and stuff their faces with good/greasy food on Easter because most of them had been fasting in the weeks leading up to it.

After spending the whole day at both grandparents houses, you basically roll back home while carrying a tray of more food to last you the next week and a half. I'ts pretty frickin awesome.
As well as the great food, theres also a mountain of sweets that all the oldies make usually just for Easter and Christmas (Christmas is also on another day but more on that when the time comes around). I'm so bummed I didn't take more photos of all the food but as soon as we got there, we pretty much got straight into eating haha

We take a pretty chill approach to our Easter gatherings but some people go all out and dress up really nice to go over to each others houses. That's not how we roll. The uniform for my family is basically jeans and a tee (or jumper depending on the weather). I haven't been a jeans person since I was about 16. All that changed about a year ago when a friend gave me basically all her plus size clothing and amongst it all was a pair of jeans. The most perfect pair of jeans to grace my plus thighs (ha! see what I did there!) since I was an inbetweenie. I've since worn them to death and haven't been able to find the same pair anywhere so I've been looking for a new pair to replace them and I think I may have found them *choir sings* 

When I told my husband to take some outfit photos he just groaned and wasn't having a bar of it, but then we got into it and he was like 'ok, now you take some of me' haha he's pretty cute.

Hope all you guys had a great wog easter/regular easter!

Jumper: Miss Shop (from a few years ago, but similar here) // Jeans: Suzanne Grae // Shoes: Converse