OOTD: Birthday Presents from Rich!

I bought this vintage dress at the weekend from recycle boutique - it was pretty darn cheap and I had two comments today about the dress, so it must have been a good buy.

So today I wore the jewellery that Rich bought me for my birthday - so I thought I would share it with you.

First up is a brooch to show my love of sewing - including tiny scissors, thimble and button. Very cute.

He also got me this cute ceramic bone brooch - I really love bones! For my 30th birthday Rich bought me a sliver bone ring and not I have a bone bracelet as well - even though it looks a bit weird in this photo.

Finally, Rich bought me this DIY pop art badge kit - I love craft kits a LOT, they are pretty much one of my most favourite things ever. I love craft in general, but there is something about having EVERYTHING you need to do a project on hand in one box that appeals to my love of all things convenient.

Rich and I made up the badges over the weekend - it was a pretty simple and fun craft project. We did two each - mine are on the top row and Rich's on the bottom. I really love the little bird badge he made, especially seen as it's carrying a ribbon.

OUTFIT DEETS:

Boots - Avon
Tights - Glassons
Dress - Recycle Boutique
Belt - Valley Girl
Ring - Clothes Swap
Brooch and Bracelet - Birthday gifts from Rich

Upcycled birthday bunting

Hello All! I hope everyone has had an awesome weekend. Mine has been pretty fabulous - I've been to a photography exhibition, watched two films at the New Zealand International Film Festival, caught up with friends, had brunch, met some cool new people and baked my first even brownies. Plus the sun has been shining pretty much ALL weekend which makes everything better.

 This morning I had a birthday brunch with my friend Jaimee - she has just moved into a new apartment and she told me she wanted to buy a few bits and pieces to brighten the place up. So I decided to make her a bunting to bring a little bit of colour to her new place.

I decided to make an up-cycled bunting - a few weeks back I found this pajama top at an op shop and even though I knew I would never wear it, I had to buy it because I thought the fabric was so cute and I new I cold make something fabulous from it.

 The fabric is pink with hearts and has lots of birds in birdcages on it - here's a bit of a close up of the fabric.

Making a bunting is pretty easy if you have basic sewing skills, the most time consuming part is making a pattern and then cutting out lots of triangles.

When you've cut out all your triangles, all you need to do is get a piece of bias binding (or ribbon) and sew the flags to the bias binding. I prefer bias binding to ribbon as you can fold the triangles inside and it looks much tidier I think. Here's a small part of the finished bunting - I was pretty happy with the final product and Jaimee seemed to like it as well, which is the most important thing.

Hope you've all had a super weekend xoxox

Looking for a new home

Here's my most recent creation - its from my favourite sewing book "Chic and Simple Sewing" - it's  simple baby doll style dress I made from vintage fabric I picked up in a op shop last time I was in Taranaki.

This dress made me a little crazy whilst I was sewing it - the pattern wasn't too difficult and the instructions were clear, but I kept on making silly little mistakes which drove me crazy. The quick unpick (that's what I call a seam ripper - is that a NZ thing or what?) became my close friend - especially when it came to added the sleeves.

It has a yoke and puffy sleeves and I thought that the whole design was suited to this mad vintage fabric - I really love the fabric design and colours.

So here's the thing - I liked the fabric, I liked the pattern and it took me quite a few hours to make this dress with my mistakes and all, but I just don't like this dress. I've tried to wear it - I really have. I've added boots, belts, badges, tights, beads - but I don't like it - I just plain don't like it and there's nothing that can be done about it.

BUT I've spent way much too time working on it to let it languish in my wardrobe unloved and unwanted - so I've decided to give it away, here on the blog.

This isn't a competition as such - I just want to give my frock a good home! I made this dress in a size "L" from my Chic and Simple sewing book which is a US size 10-12, although its loose fitting so I think a range of sizes could fit this dress.

I am a NZ/AUST12-14 and it fits me - but I think it could fit between  NZ/AUST12-18, that's just my best guess though - I can't make any guarantees.

So if you want this dress - just be the first person to leave a comment stating you would like it and its ALL yours! I'll post it out to you for free even.

Have a great weekend xoxox

Birthday Adventures Part II - The Vanity Case

Last weekend I decided to have "Part II" of my birthday celebrations - why should birthdays be limited to one day or one weekend?

For the second half of my birthday I decided to have a glamour party with a local Wellington business - The Vanity Case. Its a bit like having a tupperware party - only about a MILLION times more awesome!

When you hold a glamour party, the lovely Claire will come over to your house and give you a vintage make-over, which includes hair and make up. Claire also sells a lovely range of products from the USA called Besame and as well as hair styling products.

Claire is also so knowledgeable about vintage beauty and make-up as well as the Hollywood starlets of old - she's part make-up artist, part historian and all awesome.

Before deciding upon my style she passed around this vintage hair styling book and asked my friends to choose a style for me. They actually chose something quite similar to the style on the cover - a kind of 1940's style with a fringe! I don't even remember last time I had a fringe - primary school I think.

Claire told us that most vintage hairstyles are based on curls - so first up I had to have my hair curled and then she worked her magic in regard to the style.

Oh DARLING - I look FABULOUS!

I think the I actually like this look better with my glasses than without - I actually meant to but my contact lenses in before Claire arrived for the party, but due to a little bit too much time spent at a jumble sale in the morning (opps) I kind of ran out of time to sort myself out. When Claire had finished up, all my friends were like - oh that looks great and when I put on my glasses they seemed really amazed. A good pair of glasses is certainly worth the investment. What do you all think about my 1940's style?

Claire also teaches vintage styling classes here and I'm hoping I can take some of these classes soon, I'm particularly interested in the 1960's class. But I'm always keen to learn more about hair and make-up and generally being fabulous!

Wednesday Wardrobe Challenge: Patterned Tights

Today's Wednesday Wardrobe Challenge and the theme was patterned tights (or socks) and despite it being a rainy, cold, miserable day I was determined to wear these mad tights!

I decided to base the rest of my outfit around pink - because I just love being "matchy-matchy". I wore this little pink dress that I bought from my friend Chloe's blogshop - she sells lots of pre-loved (& sometimes new) clothes for $5 or $10 Singapore dollars. You should check out her blog and her online store - both are rad.

I wore this creepy lady necklace - to avoid being too cutie cutie! I bought this creepy lady at the Rose Street Markets in Melbourne when I visited last year.

I'm kind of into wearing a whole bunch of brooches/badges at the moment, rather then just one. These badges I received from my friends Conor and Sue for my birthday last year.

Rich told me to pull a silly face, I'm not the best a pulling silly faces though - as you guys may have already realised.

Hope you've all had a rad week so far - half way to the weekend already!!

OUTFIT DEETS:
Shoes - Retro Room
Tights - Equipt
Dress - Chloe's Blog store
Necklace - Rose Street Markets, Melbourne
Cardi - Glassons
Badges - Birthday Gift from Conor & Sue

Birthday Fun Times

I have been meaning to do this post for my birthday for a while - truth is my birthday day didn't go so well. We locked our keys in our apartment and our body corporate and our property manager did not do a single thing to help us to get back into our apartment, despite that being part of their job! Also we had planned to go to the zoo, but it ABSOLUTELY poured down ALL DAY! The perils of having a birthday in the middle of winter I guess.

But I did manage to have a great brunch with friends and later on I had a high tea at Martha's Pantry.

Also I got loads of amazing presents from friends and families - include this epic package of cupcake goodies from my Mum and Dad.

I also got a few books from my family - first up - a vegetarian and a pasta cookbook from my little brother Jake.

I also got a book from my brother Josh and his family - its a really sweet craft book full of all kinds of amazing projects. I want to try out the soap making and candle making.

I also received a book from my friends Nankz and Paul "The Crafty Girls Road Trip" - its a book which outlines craft stores throughout New Zealand and also 10 craft projects.

They also gave me these passive aggressive post it notes - perhaps I shouldn't take these into work!

I also got a wee package in the mail from Alicia - a cute cupcake painting and also a My Melody pez dispenser and candy!

I got some cute cupcake paper clips from my friend Matt as well as some goodies from The Body Shop (including my favourite lip gloss).

My friend Jaimee gave me these adorable watermelon earrings - so cute!

My friend Hiliare bought me this relaxing tea - its in the cutest tin and the tea bags are made from silk! How fancy!

More baking goodies - this time from my friends Kai and Diane - an awesome letter press cookie cutter set. I'll have to bake some for our next movie night.

My friends know me so well - so many baking or sewing related presents. I got a voucher for my local fabric store, Arther Toye fabrics from my friend Celia. Just in time for their half price sale.

Ross and Shelley bought me macaroons from their favourite chocolate store in Petone - the picture isn't the best, but the macaroons were delicious (yes, I did share them with Rich!).

I also got a vintage pattern from Ria as well as my waffle ring - I will upload a photo of the pattern soon and Rich's parents gave me a voucher for Farmers. But finally tonight - ALL OF THE CARDS (well almost).

The Happiest Country in the World: Part IV: Atmosphere Tours

On our last full day in Vanuatu Rich and I decided we wanted to do a full island tour around Efate, however, there was a wee bit of a problem in that we had been in Vanuatu almost a week and we seemed have been to at least one of the attractions on nearly all of the round Island tours. Finally we found a company called "Atmosphere Tours" that had a tour that was a bit more unique, so we decided to book with them.

Our first stop was a traditional Vanuatu Village - which is apparently less common on Efate than the other islands. This man took us around the village and taught us some of the tribes culture and tradition.

 This lady (and the little girl that you can't really see) were preparing bananas to be preserved.

 The tribe did some of their traditional dances for the visitors to the village.

The visit to the village was finished off with the display of fire walking/dancing over some hot rocks. These pictures don't really show how impressive it really was.

Next up, we stopped off to "Eton Beach" that was more a fresh water swimming hole than a beach, for a swim. We also had a delicious morning tea of fresh fruit whilst at Eton Beach.

We drove around and saw some more sites around Efate - but our next stop was for lunch at a very cute restaurant near a beach where we saw another Vanuatu string band.

The lunch was amazing - I wish I had taken more photo's of it, because it was such a good meal. It was like something delicious you'd eat that someone's grandma had made for you! Next it was back into the van for more island adventures, including the old US army base from World War II. It is mostly grown over now though. We also drove past the largest coconut plantation on Efate - where they graze cows under the coconut trees so they can sell both coconut and meat.

Our next stop was my favourite on the tour - I love museums, especially low-fi museums run by a local with a passion. This one was a "coca-cola" museum run by a chap in his 70's. He has been collecting coca-cola bottles from the ocean for YEARS. The American troops left a lot of things behind when the left Vanuatu - including coca-cola bottles, this chap had been collecting them for years and he new all about the different factories in the States each bottle had been produced. He was incredible!

 These final photo's were taken at our final stop on the tour - I don't watch much TV, but the guide told us this was the spot where "Survivor Vanuatu" was filmed. To me it was just a stunning beach - where Rich made a new friend!

Well - that's our holiday to Vanuatu holiday - it was an amazing time. I really hope we can go back and visit sometime soon and see more of the country. It's a beautiful and fantastic place!