My other home

 At the high school I attend we have 'homebases', a group of 15 or so students of any age that hang together a lot and are bound in harmony by one teacher (which we call a 'learning advisor'). I have a wonderful bunch of people in my homebase, creative, arty and crafty people that make our homebase area very cute and a perfect place to be on a sunny spring day like this.

I took some photographs to capture the essence of our lovely space.

 

 This is my beautiful talented friend Yssie. She makes amazing eerie music with beautifully poetic lyrics. Check out her Last.fm here (you won't regret it)

 Mitchell also makes sweet ambient folky lo-fi music with awesome diy vibes. He also likes this cat that wanders around our school. Check out his Last.fm too.

This is my awesome 'learning advisor', Frances (like a teacher, but better). She lives in a great little place called Lyttelton and wears Kate Sylvester dresses while teaching us about health issues and language features. She also tells us a lot about her life, which is good, cause she has a pretty interesting life.

 This girl, Zea, takes amazing photos and has hair like a goddess.

St. Rupertsberg

St. Rupertsberg are an all-girl octet from Wellington who make music that's endlessly appealing- lyrics that are mythical without too much whimsy, unwavering vocal harmonies, and an impeccable brass section. They combine everything I love in one cute package with their music, and I feel very lucky to have seen them play a couple of times. I seriously cannot get enough of their recently-released Seasonal Glimpse EP, and it's become my theme song for riding my bike around in the wonderful Spring weather we've been having lately.

The Bandcamp flash player isn't working at the moment, so here's a download link to my favourite track off the EP, I'm So Fucking Goddamn Lonely. To buy the whole thing for a miniscule price, which I suggest you do, go here!

Full bloom

Today I had a tonne of work to do- a million readings and reading tests and starting and finishing an essay on the male gaze, not to mention yoga class to go to. So instead, and in true uni student style, Will and I went to wander in the spring sunshine and eat sherbert-covered icecreams in a local park.





Ah, it was so lovely! I wore this amazing new (old) 1950s dress that I got from Croatia Vintage a couple of weeks ago, that has been waiting for the right time to be worn. I also wore my usual accessories- black t-bar flats, my thrifted beige and white belt and my old grey Zara cardigan for when the sun was behind clouds. Sorry for all the self-indulgent self-portraits, but Will and the camera were working very well together and he took a million lovely (and deceptively flattering) shots. Also my hair is fiiiiinally long enough, after 5 years without proper haircuts, to do the perfect Heidi braids with! Hoping to make them my ~signature style~ over summer.


How gorgeous is this oatmeal cabled sweater with amazing leather elbow patches? I found it in the men's section of a thrift store the other day, and ran flailing to Will to force him to buy it. Of course, as soon as he put it on I realised I should've kept it for myself! Thankfully he is still a growing boy, and has promised to bequeath it to me when it becomes unwearably small on him.

Eh, I guess I should get on to all that work now. Seems like such a waste on a day that's still so beautiful!

Pigtails + Goth Boots

On Saturday night I went to a double sweet sixteen with a 90s dress up theme (!!!) sporting pigtails, a shorter fringe and lace-up goth boots. I had so much fun and ended up with some truly spectacular photos.

wearing thrifted crop top and skirt, baby necklace from Quick Brown Fox in Melbourne, and boots from Retro Funk in Oamaru

My boyfriend Adam went for the 90s grunge skater look. Four flannel shirts and a white cat later...

Adam wears four thrifted flannel shirts, his sister's Radiohead t-shirt, his father's jeans, cap from his dress-up box and shoes from the Warehouse

This is my babin' friend Heather who is always wonderfully dressed and so talented and has beautiful hair. Stay tuned for a Heather-centric post soon...

Strawberry fields

The first time I ever met my friend Zea, and she was wearing this strawberry-print dress with black patent Doc Martens, I knew I was going to like her. Zea is a thrifter extraordinaire, with a seriously enviable vintage wardrobe, but nothing ever came close to that strawberry dress for me. I coveted it openly, for years. When she recently suggested we could do a clothing swap, I nearly died when it came up for grabs. It now resides in my wardrobe, and I donned it today for the first really warm Spring day we've had.



(Wearing vintage dress from Zea, ancient Zara cardigan, thrifted belt, Urban Outfitters sandals bought on eBay, and sunglasses from a street market in Hanoi).

Now that the weather's warming up, I can actually leave the house without tights and not fear for my life. These sunglasses are old favourites, but the paint is starting to peel off the arms after many seasons of constant wear. I can't find anything that even comes close to them now, except lovely horn-rimmed 1950s ones that are invariably well beyond my student budget. How tragic.

Wellington + Two Squirrels

Ah, so much to catch up on. Ok, so, I went to Wellington. I didn't actually take many photos because it was a mad, ruckus, feverish, drunk few days and my camera took a back seat, but here goes!





Hanging out with my gorgeous friend Kita on Friday! We went to the New Zealand Vogue exhibition at Te Papa, which was disappointing, and did a little vintage shopping. In the evening we hit the box wine hard, with very successful results.




At the Mighty Mighty Market I met up with the lovely Pinky and Megan of Sweet Boutique! Such sweethearts, and not just cause they scored me some free punch.


I also met the lovely Laurel of Ooh La La Vintage, in whose presence I was mortified by my raging hangover and subsequent inability to form a coherent sentence.

This is where my Wellington photos, or at least those suitable for public consumption, end. I've said this a billion times, but it's really the coolest city ever and I am super super excited to move there. I have some wonderful reasons to visit a few more times before I move though- I don't want to jinx anything or give too much away! But anyway. I flew home, I powered through all the essays I procrastinated on my trip, then today Will and I took a drive to Two Squirrels Vintage's new premises.






It was lovely to see Warren and Vanessa again and to catch up after all they've been through. With two premises in the quake-hit CBD, they had the horrible misfortune to have one of their shops demolished with all its stock inside. Think of all those beautifully curated vintage wares rotting in a landfill with bricks and mortar! So devastating for them and their many loyal customers. However, they've re-opened in the studio of their home, and it was so good to get back amongst their lovely, friendly brand of vintage. I picked up a beautiful floaty floral dress and a suede belt, which will likely feature in a near-future outfit post. There was also a zodiac-print 70s skirt that I begrudgingly left behind... might need to make another trip back in the near future.

Crowns Clothing SS11/12!!

It seems like every entry I make lately had begun with an apology, but: sorry for being such a shithouse blogger lately. I had big plans to do a proper outfit post today, but my flu has caught up on me and rendered me unable to dress myself successfully. However, the release of the Crowns Clothing lookbook I styled a few weeks back gave me something to get very excited about. I hope you guys are as thrilled with them as we are!

Aren't they stunning? This was the most fun shoot ever, and we're all so pleased with the results. I'd like to say a big thanks to Morgan for not only opening a lot of very exciting doors for me by inviting me to style this shoot (more on that later), but also letting me sleep on her couch at an alarming frequency. Love that girl. Keep a close eye on the Crowns Clothing Etsy too, rumour has it all of this will be up for presale pretty shortly.

Clothing: Crowns Clothing
Photographs: Louise Hatton Photography
Model: Daisy @ Red11
Makeup: Grace Margaret Howarth
Hair, Styling: Georgia Rose (that's me! omg)