Peach pleats

On Wednesday Logan and I got up early to traverse our pot-holed city for a thrift store's garage sale. Their stockroom was damaged in the quake, so they had to rapidly get rid of all of its contents, and I willingly obliged. The sweet old ladies even let me go through the things they hadn't priced or sorted yet, so I got some seriously amazing bargains, including this perfect peach pleated skirt (say that fast 3 times) and cute lace-ups, not to mention a Trelise Cooper bag. We also got coffee at the Addington Coffee Co-Op, which is not only a cafe but a laundromat and a greengrocer too! And after the most delicious dinner of my life, we set off to see Christie's band open for this small independent artist you might have heard of- Imogen Heap!





It was such a wonderful night, Christie sung and played beautifully and Imogen was so personable and sweet.

Today I had to rise early to collect my family from the airport, as they returned from their little jaunt overseas.




(Breton striped top, wooly scarf, pleated midi skirt, lace-up jazz flats, Girl Guides belt and bow-shaped brooch are all thrifted. My tote is by the band Lawrence Arabia.)

Easter weekend

After a mad week of frantic essay-writing, this super-long Easter weekend has treated me very well.






Photos from a jaunt to Akaroa for a disappointing vintage fair with Hannah and Logan, seeing Mammal Airlines play in a garden shed, my latest Crown Lynn acquisition, and this amazing 1960s minidress that I'm wearing on this lovely day. My family have buggered off to Vietnam, Singapore and Thailand, but I'm kinda past my trashing the house phase, so having the house to myself means oven fries for every meal and drinking ginger-lime cider on the couch with my cat Roger. What a dream.

Crowns Clothing

Every Kiwi is familiar with those wonderful made-in-NZ woolen blankets that riddle our beds and sofas, especially on days as awful as today. They're the kind of thing you never seem to buy, but rather accumulate mysteriously, like bobby pins. I personally have three of them on my bed at the moment, as our quake-damaged house is no longer weatherproof. So I was thrilled to see Morgan of Crowns Clothing has immortalised these blanket-stitched national icons in the most stylish, practical way possible: as duffle capes!


They are available in other colourways, but these Autumnal tones are speaking to me right now. They're available on Foxes, and the rest of the collection is on Etsy.

Brighton

(Wearing a thrifted breton top, thrifted plaid woolen skirt, thrifted woolen beret, school satchel stolen from the costume cupboard, Chinatown shoes and necklace from a music shop.)

Yesterday saw me and my boy visiting his a relative on the other side of the city, and we (well, I) decided to do some thrifting while we were there. New Brighton is a seaside suburb that's not nearly as charming as regular Brighton, but has some wonderful junky second-hand shops to explore. I got this cute breton striped top, and when I saw Kristen's latest blog post, she inspired me to mix it with another print. I'd been waiting for the right opportunity to wear this skirt, as I have a new-found confidence in wearing things below the knee, thanks to all your lovely responses to my previous post.

I also thrifted four woolen berets, including this electric blue one, bringing my collection up to six in total. I'm sure they'll be seeing a lot of light now that Autumn has well and truly set in here. Amongst my other finds was a wonderful embroidered gingham apron, a brimmed felt hat, and a colourglaze Crown Lynn teacup.

For those of you who aren't fellow pottery freaks, Crown Lynn was a New Zealand company that made mostly kitchenware and vases, and had its heyday from the 1940s to the 1970s. It's a wonderful thing to collect, as you can find pieces in thrift shops, your granny's house, or your friend's grubby student flat. The rarer items sell at auction for upwards of $500, but you can still pick up bits and pieces for 50 cents, which is how much my teal teacup was. Unfortunately it was sans saucer, so let me know if you've got one hanging around!


Sadly this is a collection I found on Google, and mine is nowhere near as impressive, but it was still a great find.

P.S. I can play 'Oh When The Saints Go Marching In' on my teeny tiny harmonica necklace! It was a steal too at $5.

Funfair!

Welcome to The Velvettes! Christie and I felt is was time for a change, and spent many weeks suggesting and debating a new blog persona that would suit us to a tee, and we feel we've found it at last! I hope this still shows up on your Google Reader as we were promised it would.

On Saturday I duped Logan into accompanying me to a funfair, run by Gap Filler. It was lovely, all toffee apples and bunting and autumn trees.



I even managed to coax him into the photobooth, where our pictures were taken with no warning in rapid succession. Therefore my emotions are as follows: mid-chat, surprise, panic, and luv ♥.

On the way home we stopped in the park for some photos, then went home to make some home-made Tabasco sauce (which was delicious, by the way) and watch Blade Runner.



(Thrifted 1960s dress, Columbine wooly tights, homemade bow, thrifted Converse shoes and sunglasses from a market in Vietnam)

I found this lovely sparkly 1960s party dress on the returns rack at a thrift store. The returns rack. Like, someone tried on this pleated piece of amazing, with its peach silk lining and mother of pearl buttons up the back, and decided they didn't want to purchase it. There are some things I'll just never understand.

NEW URL

OUR NEW ADDRESS IS http://thevelvettes.blogspot.com

little pictures

blues, reddish oranges, purply pinks, greys and blacks. all pictures from my tumblr. my hair smells like onion and soup and woodsmoke and winter, craving this warm, 70's style winter coat from wild pair: