Twenty-one

Easter Monday was also April Fool's Day, and also my 21st birthday. I had a super super super fun day, mainly because I got to go feed the red pandas at Wellington Zoo! They were SO CUTE and friendly and amazing! They had these big blunt claws and if you held the little bits of chopped up pear and grape just out of reach they would use them to pull you a bit closer to have a nibble. They climbed all over us and one of them liked me so much she even stayed on my knee for ages once I had run out of food. Also, even though they are kind of big they are really light because they're like 80% fur. Oh god I can't stop thinking about how cute they were and how much I want one as a house pet. Thinking about how adorable they are renders me unable to find any adjectives other than 'cute' and 'adorable' to describe them. Ughhh. I would seriously recommend doing this to anyone in Wellington who likes cuddling adorable animals, which I really do.

Haha, the pandas matched Jack's beard. I wore this amazing 1950s California Cottons heart-print dress that I have posted before on Instagram here and here. I got it from Ziggurat, a which is the most amazing vintage shop here. They had it in the window on Valentine's Day and I decided immediately that it must be mine. It is in beautiful condition and is basically perfect in every way, and I somehow managed to not wear it once before my ~special day. I wore it with opshopped booties, because we had to have sensible footwear, and a 1950s sequinned cardigan off Trade Me. The rest of my birthday was awesome too because it involved curry and beer and wine and gnocchi and more wine.

 

I also had a really nice birthday surprise when Jack made me this cake! The first photo is from my first birthday, and I was going through a phase where I was really obsessed with Pebbles. My big brother James dropped around so we could recreate this classic shot before we demolished this delicious confection. 

While I am being self-obsessed and posting photos of myself that really have nothing to do with fashion other than the fact I am wearing clothes, my friend Jo of Johanna Macdonald Photography took these amazing photos of me hanging out with my new cat friend, who isn't actually mine but seems to think she is.

I wrote a big post and took photos but now it seems yet another card reader has crapped out, so no proper post until I can muster up the courage to buy another. 

For now here is an example of the searches that bring people to this blog. Hahahahaha.

Whimsy cave

Sorry for the lack of posts on my behalf lately, and many thanks to Christie for picking up the slack with her amazing outfits and photography. Boy do I miss that girl. So... yeah, I live in Wellington now, and it rules. It kinda feels too good to be true, and the amazing fortune I've been having lately is so surreal and wonderful. The last fortnight-ish has been truly amazing. Yesterday I fiiiiinally finished moving into my flat- I live with the coolest people ever, they've been infinitely helpful and kind to me, and it really feels like a proper home. I actually met my flatmate/friend Kita on Livejournal, which is kinda funny I guess. Here's a little look at my room in all its whimsical glory.




My boyfriend scored me this awesome Art Deco-esque chest of drawers with a scalloped mirror, although it got a tiny bit cracked in the process of moving it from his place to mine. Check out my amazing rubbery Bambi lamp (a Trademe score) and my very own Golden the Pony Boy (a relic from a crafty boy I dated at age 16).


Today we all went opshopping together in Newtown, and I got this awesome old school desk and chair from two separate shops, although they go perfectly together. It was only $26 total for both of them! Also pictured: me trying to decide whether or not to get some silver glittery Goldenponies mary-janes. I also got the cross-stitched Virgin Mary today for a pittance.




Also expect some nice outfit posts in the future, as Kita is an excellent photographer and has assured me she'll pick up where my brother has left off.

2011

Here are some of my favourite times from 2011.


Confusion inside a magic glitter cave.



Blogger meetups, both pre-arranged and accidental.


Vegan chocolate peanut butter Oreo pie (and other life-changing confections we've concocted)



Adventuring with Ruby-Rose, finding strangely prismic mushrooms.


Cocktails with Morgan from Crowns Clothing, cheese-related humour.


The Crowns Clothing shoot in the most amazing house.


Vietnam, Singapore.


Appropriating a snow dinosaur.





Various picnics.


Garage sale-ing.




Many blurry wonderful parties with my favourite people alive, countless Thursday drinks and cheap dinners and crafternoons.


Christmas with my extended family.


And my midnight kiss with the most badass girl out there.

Twenty-twelve begun as I mean it to continue- with a metric ton of glitter, craft beers, Queen, and some Austrian guys who showed up at 4am. Thanks to everyone who was kind to me last year, and happy new year to everyone who reads this little blog.

Quake City once more

Just after Christie's recent reflective post on the series of Christchurch quakes, two more massive earthquakes hit us yesterday afternoon. The first was a 5.7, and the second a 6.3. Christie and I were both at home and got in contact with each other very quickly, thank god. They were both terrifying, especially in my condemned and extremely badly damaged house. I ran outside during both quakes, to hear the sound of broken glass and people screaming. We lost power along with 47,000 other households, and still have to boil our water. The earth has barely stopped moving since they hit. Thankfully the historic CBD remains closed, so although more buildings were destroyed in the tremors, only one death has been reported so far. However, the whole city is in limbo and it's a very painful and stressful time for all of us.

The remainder of this post was written yesterday morning, as I procrastinated studying for my upcoming exams. I feel a bit stupid posting it now, but I suppose life must go on.




(Wearing 1950s handpainted deer skirt from Etsy, my boyfriend's tshirt, vintage 1940s necklace that was a present from him, and Goldenponies brogues from Etsy)

This skirt is one of those things I added to my Etsy favourites list hoping that I might win lotto or something. I sorta checked back on it every so often (am I the only one who does this?), even including it in my wishlist over at Ventricular Projects. One day on my usual tour through my favourites, I noticed it had inexplicably fallen in price from $100-and-something to eighteen dollars. Probably the fastest Etsy transaction I've ever made. I adore it beyond words, although I've had trouble figuring out what to wear it with, so have resorted to this tshirt that Logan doesn't seem to have realised I've had for months now. I can't wear it when he's around in case he asks for it back!

I'm just about to head over to a friend's brand new house, where liquefaction (muddy silt that is pushed up through the earth during quakes) has seeped inside and needs digging out. You can read my post on the February 22nd earthquake here. If you would like to donate to the Red Cross effort, you can do so here.

Slip up

(Wearing a thrifted dress, thrifted slip, t-bars off Trademe and rabbit-and-mushroom-print bow from a vintage shop in Athens, Greece)

To take a wee break from the 7500 words I have due for varyingly agonising subjects, my brother Will and I went for a wander to our old school to enjoy the Autumnal colours and bask in the whimsy. I wore this $1 thrifted sheer dress, and I wish I'd had a black slip, because in this light I can see it looks a bit silly with the white. I have so much more to write, but I don't want to fall into that familiar old pattern of procrastination- oh I'll just check my blog comments, I wonder if anyone's emailed me, I wonder how my Google Reader is looking... and so on. I am yet to ever hand in an essay late, but I fear this week may be my undoing. Farewell!


Oh, but, my brother got me these lovely lily-shaped fairy lights in Thailand, from whence he's just returned. Thanks Wills, you're an alright buy.

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.