“ I grew up in Chilten, Victoria and stayed till I left home at 18. I started travelling the world. I was a horse riding instructor in the States for a couple of years. I grew up with horses on a little farm at the edge of a forest so we could ride everywhere. It was beautiful.
I did all sorts of jobs but I always had an interest in hair. I had dreadlocks for about 7 years growing up and I never had confidence as a teenager. I never felt I could be someone. One day I got brave and I walked into a few salons and handed out resumes to do free work experience. One of the best salons in Albury put me on and then offered me an apprenticeship. It totally changed me having a career and that gave me confidence in myself and it was at that time I met my husband. It was such an uplifting environment and I worked there for 4 years.
I needed a change so I started working in a day spa which was a slower pace and gave me the opportunity to start working in makeup and skin care. Hair and makeup goes hand in hand. I stayed on there for a couple of years and I loved it.
The reason we ended up here in Lismore was my husband works for Essential Energy and he found this job at Byron Bay. I said, where’s that? I had no idea. He asked if he could apply for it and I said sure! We were in Cambodia and he got the email to say he got the job. I had to google where Byron was. We came home, sold the house in a week, packed up and moved to Ballina. We stayed there for 6 months because someone told us it was a good area to live but we actually ended up loving Lismore and bought a house here. Now we call Lismore home.
I like fashion, vintage fashion in particular. We have a ’52 Chevy we take to car shows. My husband was always into vintage cars and I used to get a bit bored tagging along but I really loved the fashions the ladies wore so I started making a lot of my own clothes. It all changed and now I’m dragging him to shows. I then started getting into the Pin-up Competitions. They had one in June in Murwillumbah and I came runner up. I won a trip to Japan so I’m going to Japan this Wednesday. There’s a really big car show in Japan, nothing like we see here in Australia at all so my husband is so excited. A lot of people come to me here at The Boys for vintage styling whether it be for a Rock and Roll dance or styling for that era.
When I first arrived here I was thinking I would open my own salon but being new to a town you don’t know where and you don’t have clients. We had dinner one night at Miss Lizzy’s and walking home I noticed a ‘help wanted’ sign on the window. I was sort of worried as I’d read Alex’s story on HOL, saw all the amazing things he had done and I felt intimidated. As soon as we met we hit it off and we have a really great working relationship.
Working in the day spa we did a lot of makeup. We only did Australian owned and made which is important to me but what I found was even though they were beautiful no-one would buy a $48 lipstick from us because they were so expensive. I decided I wanted to make my own lipstick range, an Australian product that was affordable to people. I’ve spent the last 2 years working with manufacturers and testing until I found a product I was happy with and now I’m having it manufactured. The range is Paraben and cruelty free and called Miss Peta Elizabeth which is my pin-up name. It won’t be exported as it’s only for the Australian market. There are 8 colours in the range. It has already been popular here at The Boys and one of my friends is also stocking it at Cut Loose in Keen St. Eventually I would love to do a clothing range as well. I love to design and it was just such a flattering era.
When we first came up to Ballina I saw my first pod of dolphins. I nearly started crying as I’d never seen them. It was such a welcome to the North Coast.
The first time we came here people that didn’t know Lismore were saying ‘Oh don’t live in Lismore’ so that’s why we first moved to Ballina. I started pole dancing here and I’d never danced a day in my life. When you move to town and you don’t have any friends, what do you do? I started with Roxy Rose Dance which is Burlesque. Megan Phillips is her name and she’s created a real community around dance. I was travelling from Ballina to Lismore and then we found we were travelling here for so many events as there is always something on.
The houses are really beautiful which is another thing we really love about Lismore. Our house was built in the 30’s, stained glass windows, original fireplace. It suits us to a tee. Just driving around here is so pretty. I can ride my bike to work, walk everywhere, walk to the pub and we love it here.”
https://www.facebook.com/The-Boys-Lismore-
I did all sorts of jobs but I always had an interest in hair. I had dreadlocks for about 7 years growing up and I never had confidence as a teenager. I never felt I could be someone. One day I got brave and I walked into a few salons and handed out resumes to do free work experience. One of the best salons in Albury put me on and then offered me an apprenticeship. It totally changed me having a career and that gave me confidence in myself and it was at that time I met my husband. It was such an uplifting environment and I worked there for 4 years.
I needed a change so I started working in a day spa which was a slower pace and gave me the opportunity to start working in makeup and skin care. Hair and makeup goes hand in hand. I stayed on there for a couple of years and I loved it.
The reason we ended up here in Lismore was my husband works for Essential Energy and he found this job at Byron Bay. I said, where’s that? I had no idea. He asked if he could apply for it and I said sure! We were in Cambodia and he got the email to say he got the job. I had to google where Byron was. We came home, sold the house in a week, packed up and moved to Ballina. We stayed there for 6 months because someone told us it was a good area to live but we actually ended up loving Lismore and bought a house here. Now we call Lismore home.
I like fashion, vintage fashion in particular. We have a ’52 Chevy we take to car shows. My husband was always into vintage cars and I used to get a bit bored tagging along but I really loved the fashions the ladies wore so I started making a lot of my own clothes. It all changed and now I’m dragging him to shows. I then started getting into the Pin-up Competitions. They had one in June in Murwillumbah and I came runner up. I won a trip to Japan so I’m going to Japan this Wednesday. There’s a really big car show in Japan, nothing like we see here in Australia at all so my husband is so excited. A lot of people come to me here at The Boys for vintage styling whether it be for a Rock and Roll dance or styling for that era.
When I first arrived here I was thinking I would open my own salon but being new to a town you don’t know where and you don’t have clients. We had dinner one night at Miss Lizzy’s and walking home I noticed a ‘help wanted’ sign on the window. I was sort of worried as I’d read Alex’s story on HOL, saw all the amazing things he had done and I felt intimidated. As soon as we met we hit it off and we have a really great working relationship.
Working in the day spa we did a lot of makeup. We only did Australian owned and made which is important to me but what I found was even though they were beautiful no-one would buy a $48 lipstick from us because they were so expensive. I decided I wanted to make my own lipstick range, an Australian product that was affordable to people. I’ve spent the last 2 years working with manufacturers and testing until I found a product I was happy with and now I’m having it manufactured. The range is Paraben and cruelty free and called Miss Peta Elizabeth which is my pin-up name. It won’t be exported as it’s only for the Australian market. There are 8 colours in the range. It has already been popular here at The Boys and one of my friends is also stocking it at Cut Loose in Keen St. Eventually I would love to do a clothing range as well. I love to design and it was just such a flattering era.
When we first came up to Ballina I saw my first pod of dolphins. I nearly started crying as I’d never seen them. It was such a welcome to the North Coast.
The first time we came here people that didn’t know Lismore were saying ‘Oh don’t live in Lismore’ so that’s why we first moved to Ballina. I started pole dancing here and I’d never danced a day in my life. When you move to town and you don’t have any friends, what do you do? I started with Roxy Rose Dance which is Burlesque. Megan Phillips is her name and she’s created a real community around dance. I was travelling from Ballina to Lismore and then we found we were travelling here for so many events as there is always something on.
The houses are really beautiful which is another thing we really love about Lismore. Our house was built in the 30’s, stained glass windows, original fireplace. It suits us to a tee. Just driving around here is so pretty. I can ride my bike to work, walk everywhere, walk to the pub and we love it here.”
https://www.facebook.com/The-Boys-Lismore-