Adventures at Rebound in Petone

Yesterday Ria and I headed out to Lower Hutt to go to a Japanese Spring Festival - we were pretty excited as we are both fans of all things Japanese. First up we couldn't find the place, the GPS really wasn't being useful and the event wasn't right in the city centre and neither of us know Lower Hutt very well. We finally found the place where the festival was happening, but when we go there, NOTHING was happening. Then we spoke to a lady who looked like she knew what was going on - she told us the festival was happening, but on SUNDAY not SATURDAY! 

We felt deflated, went to Petone for a coffee and met a friend of Ria's whilst we were there who recommended we head to Rebound for a good shopping time. I remember going to Rebound when I first moved to Wellington, but I haven't been back since so I was keen to check it out. I'm so glad we went, I'm still sad I missed the Japanese Spring Festival - but Rebound is so amazing I can live with it. 

We hit up the vintage and retro section for reasons that should be obvious to anyone that reads this blog.

They had the most fabulous wall of old hats which made me think of Helga - Ria picked up an adorable pink hat. I REALLY loved that orange hat with stripes, but it was WAY too small for me so I didn't buy it. But that kind of hat really wouldn't be too hard to sew. If anyone has any recommendation for vintage hat patterns I would be forever grateful as I really want to make a hat like that.

The shoes were next to the vintage and retro section. They had about a million pairs- but all the nice ones were way too small for me, story of my life when op shopping.

After realising no shoes fit us at all we went to check out the vintage and retro clothes - there were some real gems here, you just don't see this kind of stuff in Wellington unless its in a vintage store and being sold at a ridiculous price.

Look at this giant red thing I'm holding! What do you even call this? Is it a kaftan? It was in perfect condition and the trim was beautiful condition. I did briefly consider buying it for a refashion, but I wouldn't know where to even start and a part of me feels that it should remain just as it is.

There were a lot of amazing vintage labels to be seen - especially in the coat section, this one was on a raincoat and I thought it was awesome.

We also checked out the 1980's section - so many amazing, and often horrible things. The ball dresses were especially epic.

Here's a few more general shots of Rebound - so many clothes, more shoes and they even have a bridal section.

Finally it was time to head to the changing rooms and despite picking up like a million things to try on - I ended up buying only two (very restrained of me really). I bought this simple little frock for work - I usually don't like the matching sash that these kind of frocks come with, but I actually thought this one looked ok.

I've been thinking that I would like a few more maxi frocks for the summer months, especially weekends and I've been looking at my fabric stash and patterns to see what I can make. So with that in mind, how could I leave this amazing maxi behind? I'm sure Curtise would approve of this one.

We were all ready to leave then we noticed a few more treasures at the counter and I couldn't resist picking up a scarf from this box of scarves.

So it wasn't the Japanese Spring festival - there wasn't any cherry blossoms or delicious Japanese food but it was still a pretty fun afternoon out. Also I think I need more of an effort to head to Petone to go shopping at Rebound, because as you can see its totally amazing.

Hope you're all having a fantastic weekend xoxo

Wednesday Wardrobe Challenge - Floral

First of all - I want to say thanks for all your lovely comments on the skirt and dress I made - I am such a novice dressmaker. I am at the stage where everything still seems quite difficult and when I talk to friends who are sewers or read sewing blogs where someone has whipped up a dress in an evening my mind in blown! It still takes me HOURS to make something simple, so its really great to have people say great things about what I make - you all rock!

Onto yesterdays challenge which was "floral" - I have about three floral dresses I thought I could wear. The first one I call my "nineties dress" as it looks like something I would have worn in the nineties had I been cooler and dressed more like grunge rock chicks I aspired to be like. I was wearing the grunge/nineties dress for a few hours before I realised some of the stitching had come away at the shoulder and I was showing off a rather striking bra strap! So the dress had to come of and has been added to my continually growing mending/alteration pile. Before I had a sewing machine I never had one of these, now its growing ALL the time - what's with that?

This is the frock I changed into - its not vintage, but it retro and handmade to boot which makes it even better. I think it has a kind of Sixties vibe with Seventies floral fabric.

You may be wondering where exactly I am standing? Well I did meant to ask Rich to take a photo of me when we were out on a walk earlier that day but I just forget. By the time I did remember that I needed a photo it was almost dark.

We did decide to do something a little different for a photo though as I am standing in the lift in our apartment - I love this lift as it reminds me of something out of an Alfred Hitchcock movie, we rarely use it as we only live on the first floor but I do think its pretty rad.

I really love living in our building, there are a lot of apartment buildings in Wellington but a lot of them are really modern and soulless - unlike our art deco apartment building.

The dress has a whole bunch of buttons sewn to the neckline, which is a cute feature and I think it looks great as it keeps with the black and white of the dress.



OUTFIT DEETS:

Shoes - The Big Shwop

Tights & Cardi - Glassons

Dress - Trade Me

Necklace - Equipt

I also finished another dress yesterday! There was much drama surrounding the making of this one which I will explain when I post pictures, but Rich was notably impressed last night when I showed him the completed dress and he isn't easily impressed!

I also have plans to do a spot of shopping today for my January/February trip whilst all the sales are on, I really need some sandals and as mentioned previously togs!

First ever outfit post! Its a bit rubbish....

A lot of my friends have outfit posts on their blogs, in fact fashion and craft are my two favourite blog themes (with travel being a very close third).

So I decided it was time for me to try my hand at a few outfit posts - because I do love clothes, fashion and making my own accessories. Plus my friend Sadie has been encouraging me to do an outfit post, so I figured I may as well give it a go.

My friend Kat runs a weekly wardrobe challenge on facebook that I take part in (you can join in here if you would like too). Which I thought would be fun to blog about and a good start for this whole outfit post thing.

The weekly wardrobe challenge is pretty simple, Kat gives us a theme each week and we have to dress on Wednesday according to that theme. Its a good way remeber the long lost parts of your wardrobe and break out of your regular fashion routine.

Below is what I wore today for the challenge which was "I forgot I had this" - now I hadn't actually forgotten I had this dress (how could I! its so darn cute) but I hadn't worn it since I returned home as a button had fallen off and I hadn't gotten around to fixing it.

So here's todays outfit with an incredibly bad photo - we took it after work and as its turning to winter it was dark at about 4:30 today due to stormy weather and our apartment is dark. I think I need to take the photos (or that should be have Rich take the photo) whilst the sun is still up.

Here's the outfit details - for the record:

Dress - Broad Minded Clothing from Baby Girl Boutique

Cardy - From Glassons

Tights - Farmers

Shoes - Op Shopped

Necklace - Bling

Brooch - Bought from Craft 2.0

So fashion bloggers & regular bloggers that like to do outfit post can you please help me out with some tips, hints and advice on how to take a great outfit post photo. Clearly I need it!