Oriental Bay

Ah, god, we are in our new house and it is SO GOOD. Everything is pale blue and we get so much sunshine and we have all this amazing space to put all our things in. Where clothes used to take a week to dry in the valley, here on the hill they are crisp after an hour on the line. Amazing. I am not quite ready to show photos of it because it's still a bit messy but here are a couple from earlier in summer that Christie suggested I share. My flatmate (former, I suppose) and I were both suuuper hungover the Sunday these were taken, but a swim in the sea at Oriental Bay cleansed us of our sins. Photos by Kita.

 Look at that mop. Thankfully my friend Margot cut off like six inches of it today, it was getting so gross. My 1950s black swimsuit is from Margot's mum's costume box, plus opshopped sunglasses and scarf.


And my obligatory Datter necklace.

Also while I'm here I might as well share these, from a sunny Sunday picnic several months ago in my friend Rose's amazing garden.

Wearing a lily-of-the-valley dress I got made in Vietnam from fabric that my friend Ella gave me, and Columbine tights. Glam, right. Photos by Ben Laksana.

Waddup 2013

Hi guys! Happy new year and all that! I hope everyone is well. Excuse my extended absence. My trusty old Mac crapped out in November, and after 48 emails and many phone calls, I picked up my replacement today. It was close-to-free thanks to the endlessly complicated joys of extended warranties, and now I can do the blog thing again.

I don't really have any proper bloggy photos though, sorry. Jack and I are moving house tomorrow so my dresses have spent the week bundled up in black rubbish bags. However, in December I received a new phone from my parents as a graduation present, and despite previously condemning it and thinking it was a waste of time, I've become one of those people who's really into Instagram. Sorryyyyy. So in lieu of some better-quality photos, here are some recent photos from mine.



 My three 1950s Horrockses dresses, Popsicle, and a vintage cardigan with a Ruby Boutique dress.


Packing for a jaunt to Christchurch and then wearing my dresses - a 1950s California Cottons one, then a 1950s rose-print one that I got for free from the opshop I volunteer at.


On the shore of Lake Tekapo, an opshop we stumbled across in Twizel, getting drunk with Christie.



The great floral couch we picked up from the side of the road, patting Lola in my new birdy print dress, a work-appropriate 1950s gingham dress.

Life is good.

Princess Dress

I got this amazing lilac sheer chiffon collared 1950s handmade dress on TradeMe intending to hem it to a slightly more wearable length, but when it arrived and I tried it on I feel strangely in love with its ankle-grazing skirt and have decided to keep it like this. Usually I am extremely defensive of my right to alter vintage in any way I desire to make it more wearable or practical, but this one has left me stuck. I wasn't planning to go to my university graduation 'cause they're hideously boring, but now I think I may have to just so I have a legit occasion to wear this dress - other than for a walk to the park.

 My flatmate took pity on me when she saw me wearing it around the house and we went for a wander to take some pixxx. I'm wearing it with a vintage lilac lace slip and vintage t-bar 1960s flats. The best thing about starting work at 6am (possibly the only good thing?) is finishing early and being able to enjoy the afternoon sun.

Hi hi hi

Hello! Apologies, et al. I think from now on I will just tell y'all that I will be posting pretty infrequently and then if I manage more than one update a fortnight you can be pleasantly (?) surprised. Work is busy and really fun and I am getting less bad at my job and that's basically my life right now.

I was really just going to post to inform you of some Trademe auctions I have up at the moment (cheap vintage, size 10-12 mostly but some larger, 1950s and 1960s and 1970s) to make some space in my burgeoning wardrobe, but yesterday as I was leaving to run errands and go to a film and enjoy the amazing weather I wrangled my flatmate Kita to take some photos of me in my new dress.

My Mac is in getting fixed so I am using my boyfriend's big clunky confusing Windows laptop, and I tried to brighten these on some programme and accidentally made the second one kinda hazy. Soz.

I'm wearing a 1950s red rose-print day dress from Libertines Vintage on Etsy, an old opshopped leather belt, opshopped $1 blue Roman sandals, opshopped 10c sunglasses and a 1960s banana basket that Jack's mum gave me. 

Edit: I forgot to announce the winner of the Wildfell Hall voucher on here! It was Trees, fellow Wellington blogger and commenter number one.

Misc

I am a bad blogger, etc. I am working hard getting my final assignments done and studying for the exam in two weeks that will herald the end of my time in tertiary education. I've decided not to do Honours and am instead taking a full-time job at the media company I currently work part-time for. Which will mean getting up at 5am every weekday, but also getting paid, which is nice.

Here is some stuff I've been up to lately.

I cannot believe this dress is yet to feature on here, because I wear it SO often. It's become the thing I put on when I look at my wardrobe and feel contempt for all my garments. It is a beautiful 1950s cotton dress with an amazing full skirt and a border print of painterly copper roses over subtle green stripes that get bolder towards the bottom. This was a gift from my manager at the opshop I volunteer at, who saw it in the donations pile and immediately knew I would love it. She presented it to me when I dropped in to tell her I found employment (so, months ago) and I got all red and flustered with excitement. It fits me amazingly well and gets a ton of compliments. So thank you, whoever donated it!

I just thought my dresses looked cool together the other day.


Some 1950s kitchen scales I got for $4, as well as a floral melamine plate and an enamel bowl. I love kitchenware made of non-pottery things, as I am horribly clumsy and accident-prone and it is good to know they won't smash if I drop them. 

 Today I worked then uni-ed then went on a little picnic on the sunny bank at the end of our road. We ruined some perfectly good vege sticks by slathering them in onion dip, a Kiwi culinary delight made of a can of reduced cream, a sachet of dehydrated onion soup mix and a ton of vinegar. It probably sounds gross to anyone who didn't grow up eating it, but it is a truly divine food and I would eat it every day were it not just cream with flavour added. 

I have no idea why the colouring in these two photos is so drastically different? It's weirding me out. I've been experimenting with wearing only one colour lately. It is really easy because you don't have to worry about anything going with anything else - red goes with red. Done. Bam.

 

 I'm wearing this great 1950s red day dress, opshopped red roman sandals and red glittery heart-shaped glasses from a costume shop on eBay. These leave glitter peppered all over my face, and then in my bed, then all over everything I own. 

Also, you know how I mentioned living in the bush? 

 

Our home is somewhere in there. Also, if you haven't already entered the Wildfell Hall giveaway you have until tomorrow, so get onto it.