Wellington friends!

Hey, Wellington friends, my pal Laura and I are selling vintage tomorrow at the Frank Kitts Underground Market down at the waterfront! We have SO MUCH STUFF and all priced to sell, so do come down. Most of it is 1950s but there's some 40s, 60s and 70s as well as a handful of more modern things.

Here is a small sample of what we've got to go:

Catching Up

I haven't done an Instagram roundup post in like four months. Here goes!

 
My beloved original ABBA tshirt, overcast day in Christchurch, close-up of the 1950s kangaroo-print dress!

 
Some Repettos I got for $20, belts opshopped while road tripping around the North Island, and the beautiful mid-century beside table my fella opshopped for me and carried home! So good to finally have a proper table, rather than just piles of books that collapsed onto each other all the time.


Some of a huge pile of books I got for 50c each, my lovely perfumes c/o Smelly Cat, some 1950s cardigans opshopped recently.


A good makeup day, presents to me from me, opshopped cutout belt and a novelty print 1950s dress that I've since sold (too tiny!).

 
INSANELY GOOD NOVELTY PRINT SKIRT on @carmenzelda when I picked up some purchases off her, and said purchases - Swirl dresses!

This only goes back to like January. Better start work on the next one! 

Outtakes

Argh, soz, work, busy, etc. Here are some outfit-y photos taken over the last few weeks, none of which are good enough on their own to warrant a new post but I guess if smooshed together they are somewhat okay?

1950s kangaroo-print novelty dress worn with opshopped braided leather belt, banana basket from my bf's mum and shoes from Ultra.

I LOVE THIS DRESS.  I Instagrammed it the day it arrived in the mail and I think it's my most-liked, most-commented-on photo ever haha. The print is KANGAROOS and the cut makes my bosom look majestic, and it was made in Riccarton in Christchurch, which is just around the road from where I grew up. The best part is I paid $26 for it. Nobody bid against me on Trade Me. Why?


Wearing 1950s Josella blue rose print dress and bolero set from Trade Me, 1950s sunglasses from Trade Me, shoes from Ultra, Cambridge Satchel from Recycle Boutique, 1950s yellow cardigan from Christie and Mac Fixed on Drama lipstick (in the second photo).  This set of photos is sort of hilarious because it shows the difference between how I look in a Macbook selfie and how I look in real life. Hahahaha.

This one is another amazing Trade Me find that nobody bid against me on last week. It is pretty much everything I look for in a garment, plus it has the matching bolero still with it! It is in pretty much brand new condition, and the colours are still very bright and perfect. Ugh. I love it so much. I've had such good Trade Me luck in the last couple of months!

1950s rosey dress from Recycle Boutique, sparkly pink Ruby belt from Recycle Boutique and purple 1960s Mary Janes from Recycle Boutique - a whole Recycle outfit, whoops. I didn't think this outfit looked very good, retrospectively.

Another reason why I've been meaning to update this blog for aaages is that the amazingly friendly and understanding folks at Smelly Cat sent me over some perfumes to blog about! I was actually looking at purchasing some from their website anyway, as their fragrances are way cheaper than buying in stores, so the gift came as a lovely surprise.

I chose Chloe Eau De Parfum, which a lot of my friends wear, and L'Eau d'Issey Florale, because my mum wore Issey when I was growing up. The Chloe is really beautiful, but the Issey is just something else entirely. I've been wearing it for maybe two months now, and I still do covert wrist sniffs throughout the day because the smell is so so good. It is rosey in the way that actual rose bushes are, and there is a fresh water undertone to it which keeps it crisp. Since I've started wearing it, a lot of people have commented on how good it smells. THANK YOU to Smelly Cat and I would very highly recommend them, not just for their bargain prices but their incredibly helpful and personable customer service.

 

Pefumes in a blog-friendly environment.

 

Perfumes in their natural environment, on my dresser with all my other beauty junk, Golden the Ponyboy in the background, stray bobby pins, etc.

I Went To Taranaki And Some Other Places

Warning, there are a lot of photos and they are a mix of proper camera and iPhone.

This post takes place over Christmas/the start of January. So after Christchurch I zipped back to Wellington and had two hours to pack for a two-week camping trip in the North Island. My fella and I flew to Taranaki and had a beautiful Christmas with his family, who, like my family, eschew traditional Christmas celebrations and opt for a backyard-cricket-and-Pimms vibe, which suits me nicely.

And then, post-Christmas, Jack and I set off on our road trip! There was rain forecast for the entire time, but we remained optimistic, hit up some amazing small-town opshops and made roadside sammies on our way north. I found some great 80s cotton print dresses for $1 each, perfect for balling up in the bottom of our little shared duffel bag until my other clothes got too filthy to wear.

So first up we drove to Otatu Bay in the Coromandel, and on the way in we drove past a sign that said "FRESH OYSTERS", at which point we didn't even need to consult each other because, fresh oysters. We ate a dozen each, half battered and half raw, and they were a third of the price they are in Wellington. When we got to the campsite, we found that the family camping next to us had a boat and fished every day and they brought us even more beautiful fresh kai moana. It was a great start to the trip.

 It rained on the second night we were there and so we moved the mattress from our teeny tiny tent into the back of the car, at which point we realised the car was ten times comfier than the tent. So for the rest of the trip we used to tent to store our chilly bin, and just slept in the car, with our heads up the back looking out the boot window at the stars every night. It was gorgeous and perfect and I was grateful, as always, for being 5"1' while my tall boyfriend's feet dangled off the edge of our folded-down-back-seat makeshift bed. Sleeping in the car for that long also cemented my view that yes, I CAN live in a van while driving across the United States, which is something I've always wanted to do but been unsure whether it would be liveable.

The campsite and beach were great, in a calm little Coromandel inlet with pohutakawa everywhere . Also looking at these photos makes me regret not using my proper camera more and relying on my iPhone so much.

I Went To Christchurch

So I spent Christmas this year with my boyfriend's family in Taranaki, so I wanted to catch up with my parents before Christmas. The festive season doesn't mean a lot to us, but I barely get to see my parents because they live in Vietnam for 95% of the year so I was super excited to hang out with them and drink sav in the sun.

When I arrived, I saw Aaron Gilmore in the airport! So the trip was off to a good start.

 I was also super excited to see Christie and go opshopping with her, such is customary every time I go back to Christchurch. First we stopped off at her place where I tried on everything in her wardrobe and we, as always, dressed in matching-ish outfits. It's a pretty regular occurence when we hang out that people ask if we are sisters, which is hilarious because do you know any sisters who have the same haircut and dress in the exact same way? Nooo. But we just run with it.







But yeah, after like 5 hours of shopping and bargain-finding and a little bit of arguing over 1950s dresses (THANK YOU CHRISTIE, I LOVE THE DRESS SO MUCH!!!) we were parched and some fancy drinks at The Tannery were in order. The Tannery is a new development in Christchurch, full of sickeningly beautiful boutiques and homewares shops and cafes. We took some outfit snaps too, in front of the beautiful Christmas tree.

Christie is wearing a 1950s floral dress that her grandma made for a sewing contest, with Urban Outfitters t-bars and her Cambridge Satchel.

I am wearing a 1950s rose-print velvet dress that I got from a vintage garage sale thing, with won-from-Mimco t-bar sandals, opshopped belt, bangle from Ziggurat, 1950s sunnies from Trade Me and my Cambridge satchel.

I always sort of forget to take photos on my proper camera but here are some Instagram shots from Chchchch:

Drinking something minty and delicious / Overcast garden in my childhood home

Cracks in my (condemned) childhood home / The flat my mum lived in when she was my age, where she met my dad, now earthquaked

My mum and I both wearing opshopped 1950s dresses / Returning home to my massive wardrobe

Stay tuned for Part 2: I Went To Taranaki And Some Other Places