Newtown Fair Anna Dress

Today is definitely feeling like autumn, chilly and windy - I wore my coat for the first time in weeks. Weather changes pretty quickly around here, last Saturday it was the Newtown Fair and it was about a million degrees.

Rich and I went along to the fair with our friend Matt who lives in Newtown - I only ate ice based food all day because it was so hot.

That's right I had gelato, shaved ice and an ice block. The "Mr Pops" ice block was pretty amazing and made in Newtown which is pretty great.

There were all kinds of performances, musicians and general carry on at the fair - it was pretty rad.

I decided to make a maxi dress to wear to the fair and chose the Anna Dress by By Hand London, 
about a million people have made this dress already, and I don't think I can add much more about it! It was pretty easy to make, but next time I make it I think I will make it from a more stable fabric (this stuff was so floaty) and also work on the fit in the bodice a little bit.

 So the fit isn't perfect, but I'm still pretty happy with it! I know this is an easy pattern really but for some reason I kept telly myself it would be "too hard" for some reason.

The fabric cost a total of $3 from an op shop, its not the nicest fabric to wear, but I kind of didn't want to use the "good fabric" the first time I used a new pattern.

Hope you all have a fun weekend, I have another fair to go to tomorrow with Ria and then another one the weekend after that - autumn is the season for fairs it seems!

Springtime in pink!

The first of September was officially the FIRST day of spring and now its actually starting to feel like spring. There is actually light left at the end of the working day which means we can take outfit photos again!

Yesterday I was in the mood for pink, pink and more pink! I've noticed that since the weather has become nicer again I am taking more care in the way I dress - does anyone else find that?

Nothing in this outfit is made by me - but most of it is second hand, its a mighty "cheap" outfit really.

Cardi - Clothes Swap (originally Glassons)

Skirt - Op shopped at Opportunity for Animals, Newtown (originally Cue)

Beads - Given to me by Chloe (from a bulk lot of jewellery she no longer wanted)

Tights - I don't remeber

Shoes - Avon

Also seen as the sun isn't setting until much later Rich and I headed out for a walk before dinner and even the sky was pink last night - so beautiful.

Have a lovely weekend!

Wednesday Wardrobe Challenge: I forgot I had this!

Today's Wednesday Wardrobe Challenge was "I forgot I had this!" so for this challenge I thought I'd head straight to the mending pile. I am terrible at fixing things on my mending pile - often I'll pick up something at the op shop that I think is awesome but needs so kind of small alteration, then it will end up sitting on the mending pile for MONTHS before I actually mend it and wear it. This dress is a perfect example of that, I have had it so long I can't even remember where it is from (I know its an op shop but I have no idea which one) the only problem with it was that it was too long. It took me all of 15 minutes to shorten, I'm not sure why I didn't do that months ago. The main reason I bought the dress is because I loved the colours - I think they just work together so well, the pattern is pretty rad as well.

I decided to team the dress with BRIGHT pink tights and of course my favourite shoes, I was going to wear my suede boots today for the first time, but it was raining again as I left home, so they had to stay at home. I am beginning to think I've bought suede boots at the wrong time of year. It does seem to be raining a lot lately, a sign spring is on the way perhaps?

The dress includes a rather lovely pussy bow - I always like these, but I don't actually have many tops or dresses with them.

I was having an exceptionally bad hair day today - bleh! I am in a bit of a hair rut actually. I'm not sure what to do with it next, I do like having it mostly black with a shock of colour, but thinking maybe I could dip dye the ends some crazy colour or bleach one small part and dye it a bright colour. Then I think I'm most likely too lazy to have a wild hair colour that requires maintenance (whereas extensions require nil maintenance). First world problems right?

Tiny doughnut ring - when I first bought this ring, Rich thought it was weird that I bought the doughnut ring rather than the cupcake ring that was also being sold on the same stall. That's because I LOVE cupcakes and I don't generally don't like doughnuts (also, doughnuts aren't really a big thing in NZ). But the answer is simple, if I was wearing a cupcake ring it would make me want to go and buy cupcakes, but I don't like doughnuts, so I can look at the ring and think its cute but have no desire to eat doughnuts. It's much better for my health than the cupcake ring!

)

I had a couple of compliments at work about my outfit today - one lady in particular said she looks forward to seeing what I wear each day as my clothes are always so bright and colourful. That made me smile, and almost made me get over my bad hair day (almost).

OUTFIT DEETS:

Dress - Op shopped, I don't remember where!
Shoes - Retro Room
Tights - Equipt
Belt - Glassons
Necklace - Clothes swap
Ring - Newtown Fair
Bracelets - From Chloe

Wednesday Wardrobe Challenge: Colourful Scarf

Today's wardrobe challenge was "colourful scarves" I wear a scarf pretty much every second or third day so it wasn't too much of a challenge. I decided to wear this white and red scarf that I bought from a local Asian import store - I rarely seem to wear it so I thought it was a good chance to crack it out.

I wore my little heart shoes for the second Wednesday wardrobe challenge in a row - this time with my white poka dot tights.

A whole bunch of brooches - the fish is op shopped and the other two I received in a craft swap.

You can't really see it in this picture - but my ring in an octopus!

I bought this top at a "$5 fill a bag" jumble sale a couple of weekends ago - it was a kind of mad sale, so MANY clothes!!

A couple of you asked me yesterday if Rich is regularly a crafty type - the answer to this is yes! Although he doesn't get to do creative things as much as he would like to these days as he is working full time plus doing his Masters degree which doesn't leave him with a lot of free time for art or crafts.

But he does still update his blog "Rich made this" and he has his own cross-stitch pattern store on esty called Robotsoon.

It's good he is also crafty - I'm not sure a non-crafty guy would be so understanding of piles of fabric, beads, buttons, zippers and other crafty bits and pieces!

OUTFIT DEETS:

Shoes - Retro Room
Tights & Bracelet - Equipt
Skirt - Made by Me
Cardi and Belt - Glassons
Top - $5 fill a bag Opportunity for Animals
Ring - Uijeongbu Underground Mall, South Korea
Scarf - Asian import store, Left Bank, Cuba Street, Wellington
Fish Brooch - Hospice Shop, Kilbirnie, Wellington
Flower & Boat Brooch - Craft Swap