Yes Novelty Thursday

This isn't my garden, but god damn I wish it were. Today Kita and I went over to her boss's house to dogsit, and by that we mean eat loads of fancy food and hang out in the beautiful terraced backyard and drink posh tea and marathon The L Word and play with her animals.






(1950s horse and carriage-print skirt from Recycle Boutique bought with credit, striped tee a present from my mum via Uniqlo, thrifted leather belt, old tights and Goldenponies t-bar flats.)

I am jumping in the last photo which is why it looks so odd.

I am trying to magic up some money from nowhere, because the best jumper has appeared on my clothing radar and I have never wanted a garment more. My intense job hunt continues with me, surprisingly enough, still unemployed, so the best way for me to make some money right now would be to sell a dress or two. Because I hate Trademe with a fervour and a passion, would anyone be interested if I made a small sales post on here? Because I live in New Zealand, shipping to the US would be around $15 for a dress, so not that viable unless you live locally or REALLY love something. But would this be a happening thing, potentially?

On that note, does anyone in Wellington know of any jobs going? I am really nice, a fast typist, and am always on time.

Not Novelty Wednesday

So you know how I said I was lazy and unmotivated? Yeah, I didn't wear novelty prints today. Possibly because it's not as cold as it's been here lately (despite being the very middle of Winter) so I took this opportunity to wear The Best Dress In The World. Let me tell you a story about this dress.

As I'm sure every person on the internet is, I've always been a huge fan of Effie of The Snail And The Cyclops, which was one of the first blogs I ever read. Her outfits and styling are such a huge inspiration, and I still have a big creepy folder in my computer full of my favourites from her outfit photos. I saw these photos on her tumblr a few months ago, and immediately fell in love with the dress she's wearing.




I adore anything with a rose print or motif, they are lurking all through my bedroom and my wardrobe and my name. So I went on a quest to find my very own painterly red rose 1950s dress, dreaming of all the outfits I could wear it with. I Googled and Etsy'd and Ebay'd furiously for months, searching every day or so for 'red rose 1950s' and 'rose halterneck fifties' and every possible combination of words that could possibly lead to this amazing garment. I thought I might find something similar, but I never imagined I'd actually find THE dress. But I did, not by searching for any keywords but by browsing Croatia Vintage, one of my favourite Etsy shops. The dress had been listed a few hours before I found it, and was in my size too. It was possibly the fastest purchase I've ever made.

And when I was waiting for it to arrive, even more Googling lead me to believe this dress must've been mass manufactured and quite a popular design, because I've found lots of them! There is one still for sale here, some already sold here and here, and apparently an identical one was even worn by Sarah Jessica Parker on Sex and the City. There's also this one which is made of the same fabric but in a different style. So there's basically a league of extraordinary ladies (or gentlemen) who own these dresses, strewn across the world. AWESOME. I wonder if this sort of thing will happen 60 years in the future with dresses from Glassons or Forever21. My guess: no. I wear mine all the time alone as a dress, but today I'm wearing it as a skirt with my faithful fifties knit tee.




(Wearing a 1950s red rose halterneck dress from Croatia Vintage, 1950s mustard knit tee from an opshop in Taranaki, Goldenponies t-bar ballet flats, and the neighbour's cat Poppy)

My regular photographer is back, yay thanks Kita. She took these on the balcony outside my room, which has an awesome view of all of Mitchelltown. Today she roasted and ground her own coffee beans, so now everything in the house smells delicious and roasty.

Novelty Tuesday

I decided I was going to do a thing called Novelty Week where I wore a different novelty-print vintage garment every day for a week and photographed it and posted it here, to motivate me to actually do outfit posts. Also, to motivate me to actually put on clothes. But then I remembered I am terribly lazy and can't be bothered doing that, so essentially I'm going to wear 7 novelty outfits eventually and we can all pretend they were done over a week consecutively. Alright.

Failed jumping photo, haha.

Today I'm wearing the excellent mustard wool knit 1950s tee I picked up in an opshop in some small Taranaki town for $2, with this 1960s balloon-print skirt. My shoes and coat are vintage, and the banana basket was a gift from Jack's mum. This skirt holds a special place in my heart because when I was 16 I opshopped a very similar one with a green background, that I then sold on Trademe for a couple of bucks. Why did I do that? WHY? I also sold a pale yellow 1950s kitten-print skirt at the same time, but that's another, even more devastating story. Anyway, I found this one in a vintage shop in Wellington and couldn't leave without it, so thank god it was really cheap.

Also looking at these photos I've realised this outfit is really unflattering and boxy, so have since changed into a different coat for my expedition into town to take clothes to a consignment shop. So there we go- positive outcomes of blogging! Also these photos are quite bad because Jack doesn't know how to use cameras. Sorry. Maybe he will get better as the 'week' progresses, maybe I'll find a new photographer.

Siem Reap

I'm back in Wellington! Yay. I'm always so happy to come home to my moldy flat even though it was a great trip. Pix:


 So much hair. I got this dress made in Vietnam, from the vintage novelty jetskiers fabric I opshopped in Taranaki. I gave the amazingly talented tailors at Chi Chi a dress that my friend Grace sold to me for a fiver when she left for Europe recently. It's a beautiful 1950s dress but it's had a long life and the fabric is disintegrating. I'm also wearing the excellent Roman sandals that I got on Trademe for $4. My flatmate just went on a huge rant about how much she hates them but SORRY they are comfy and durable.


The highlight of the trip was definitely the quad biking through the countryside and rice fields. Man, it was SO BEAUTIFUL. I didn't take many photos because I was covered in dust, mud, insects, mosquito repellant, sunscreen and sweat but trust me. We biked for nearly 3 hours through the rough terrain and by the end of it I was wasted but so happy.


Here I am in front of an ancient building we found in the middle of nowhere, looking rugged as with plastic bags on my feet. I got these obnoxiously touristy pants from a market and they were perfect for the 35 degree C (95 F) heat, and the tshirt is an old one of my mum's. They're both ruined by the clay-y mud we drove through constantly.


The Angkor temples were utterly awe-inspiring. I didn't take many photos because you can just google it really, but it was excellent.


My brother took this, I wish I could claim it.


This monkey was such a badass. Here is the narrative of these pictures: it was just wandering down the causeway where it spotted something in the distance and started running towards a large group, it jumped on one of them who got such a fright she dropped her bag of food and tried to fend it off with her umbrella, the monkey tore the bag open, stole the food, went over to a shady spot and proceeded to ravage it and snarl at anyone who got too close.

Condensation inside my lens made everything a bit whimsy.

 

Nah thanks.

Sydneyside

So as you may have gathered from my somewhat-delirious last post, I went to Sydney and it was awesome. My little brother lives there studying Architecture, so we spent two hilarious nights cramped in his cube of a dorm room. AND IT WAS GREAT. 

We had to take the train out to the Anglicare Depot in Summer Hill (105 Carlton Crescent) to score some bargains. Oh, and to hang out with Caitlin Shearer! I was so excited about being on a train I got Will to take a photo for me. But then I remembered I had my 50mm lens on, so this is just a photo of my face. Blogger problems eh. 

This was the second time I'd been to Anglicare, and it did not disappoint any of us. After an hour of picking through these huge bins of clothes, shoes and junk we were all pretty exhausted, and dragged our sacks of stuff into the curated opshop part to have them weighed and priced.

I'd already found a red cotton pinafore. a vintage Australian tourist teatowel (that Caitlin actually found and let me have), a polka-dot tablecloth that will soon become a skirt and a pink cotton gathered skirt, and I thought that was a good haul. However, last time I was in Sydney I found an amazing coat in the kids section of the opshop part, so decided to have another look there. And damn, did I make bank. I found this A M A Z I N G white chiffon 1950s cocktail dress with an embroidered floral overlay. God, it is SO PRETTY. And it was $25. Which is certainly more than I'd usually pay for a thrifted dress, but a lot less than I'd usually pay for a divine fifties frock! It has a couple of small brown marks on the front, but I'm hoping a soak will get these out. It also has an excellent made-in-Melbourne label, and 3 huge layers in the skirt. So I consider it a very, very fruitful trip.

After all this picking we were pretty tired, so headed into Newtown to get some falafel for lunch, browse some more vintage shops (mostly overpriced), and then Caitlin introduced us to the best gelato we've ever had. Proof we actually met/me looking extraordinarily haggard after a loooong day/peanut butter and caramelised fig gelato.

I love this city so much. 

The next day Will and I spent at the Glebe Markets which was fruitless but fun, we had cuddles with this AWESOME cat, and Will showed me the lovely campus where he studies. Then explored the other end of Newtown and had dinner at one of its (literally) 25 Thai restaurants. We were awfully surprised when Caitlin walked into the same restaurant, especially after our discussion the previous day about the ridiculous number of dining options in the suburb. Even more coincidental was when I ran into/was chased down by some German couchsurfers I went to see Beirut with at the beginning of this year in Wellington. Small world.

Now we're in Vietnam, woo.