To paint my shadow on the wall

Today was a great day. I had the day off work, everything was $3 at the op shop in the city, and I had a devine vegetarian lunch involving bento boxes and Rose tea.



I also finally got to wear the plaid wool skirt I bought earlier this year. It was such an '80s gem - thick and pleated and still with its original store tags. (I'm allowed to buy 'new with tags' things from op shops as they have clearly been bought, and not worn by, someone else).



The bag is another NZ find. I know the cardinal rule of op shopping is to never try and find a specific item, but I must admit I had a mini-Gladstone type bag in mind after seeing Esme and the laneway's version. When I found this navy blue one in a small Salvos store in Dunedin, I wasn't sure if I wanted it because I had my heart set on a brown one. The shape was so perfect I bought it anyway, and now it's one of my favourite treasures. It is so unique. Also I'm really loving navy at the moment, so it goes with a lot of what I'm wearing.



Top: vintage from my mother
Belt: also from my mother
Skirt: from an op shop in the city
Tights: Sportsgirl 2007
Shoes: ebay
Bag: from an op shop in NZ

On the pier

Just a quick post tonight before this (very busy) weekend is over.

This is a story about a dress. It came to me via an op shop, but isn't vintage. It was originally from a well-known store.



This dress surprised me, crept up on me amongst a rack of jumbled mess of other, non-dress garments. Being only $3, and sheer, it willed me to buy it - putting forward a good case of its potential as a beach cover up.



It sat unloved for several cold, miserable months. Then when the weather warmed up, it persuaded me to try it on again, and made me love it again. 'Look at my batwing sleeves!' it said. It made me dance to some music in my living room, to prove how fluttery its sleeves really were.



This dress has come from humble beginnings, but I'm not prejudiced. I love it anyway.

Thus ends a very, very cheesy and long winded post about the dress I wore today. I'll ask you all in advance to forgive me, I think I'm over chlorinated from my swim. Happy Sunday everyone!


Dress: Supre(!) via op shop
Slip dress: from an op shop pre-year 2000, dyed black by yours truly
Cardigan: vintage, Northcote high school market
Bangle: Sportsgirl 2007 (how chain store am I today?!)

What's sweeter than a sweater?

I was pretty happy when Sunday turned out cold - which is unusual for me. The reason was that I was able to wear this '70s(?) sweater dress that I thrifted recently. It had been packed up, relegated to the ranks of future-cold-weather clothing. I thought it would be at least a year before being pulled out again...



It's got to be one of the most comfortable items of clothing I own. It's so snuggly!



These are the shoes I mentioned in my last post. They weren't as uncomfortable as I thought they'd be - but I was rather overdressed for a casual Sunday lunch!



What else did my Sunday involve?



Baking raspberry-topped cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World. Messy but delicious!



Admiring the devine bunch of tulips the boy sprung on my as a surprise last week. Yes I know, I'm a total bragger but fresh beautiful flowers are one of my favourite things!

Now onto something serious. I've been thinking a lot about what I'm going to do next year, with both my resolution and my blog. Obviously things will change somewhat on January 1st 2009 (which is coming up awfully soon), but the last thing I want to do is leave this blog to shrivel up and disappear. I have some ideas but as it's late (and I have an early start at work tomorrow) I'll leave those thoughts until another time!


Dress: thrifted, Northcote opshop
Tights: my sister's old school tights
Shoes: ebay (that ebay habit again, ha!)
Necklace: gift from a friend

Setting sail

Wednesday's weather was a strange not-quite-warm, not-quite-cold combination, so I used it as a good opportunity to wear this thick polyester dress I found in NZ for $5. To me it's rather nautical, but the boy described it unromantically as looking "half like a uniform".



The tie around the neck was originally a waist-tie.

I mainly bought it for the collar:



I had wanted to wear it with my newly-acquired vintage triple strap black Mary Jane heels but knew the day would involve a lot of walking, so grudgingly settled on flats. This internal debate is one that happens often... My brain says heels, but my feet plead otherwise!



I do a lot of walking, which is mostly motivated by guilt. My place of work is in an unforbidding hell-hole of a suburb and working 10+ hours a day means that I drive each day. This flagrant useage of my personal carbon footprint (and the guilt accompanied) means that on my days off I try to take public transport or walk everywhere. Which then leads to a depressing lack of heels. (I've still amassed a huge number of them, some of which have never been worn, only stared at wistfully).

Many things in my life are, in fact, motivated by guilt. This blog, and the nothing-new policy for one. I have real materialistic tendencies, particularly with clothes. I am also the WORST for buyer's guilt.

One thing I've had a happy lack of this year though, is the lack of buyer's guilt. I never feel guilty about buying second hand. Even if I don't get around to wearing it, I can send it back out into the sphere of vintage clothing for someone else to purchase, and (hopefully) acquire good clothing-karma. Plus, things bought from op shops give money to worthy causes, even if the said things weren't really a good purchase to begin with.

I should really work on kicking my ebay habit, though... That's next on the list!




Dress: thrifted from op shop in Dunedin, NZ
Beret: gift from my boy
Shoes: ebay
Belt: vintage from my mum
Bag: from Newport op shop

Too tied up

Well I'm back from my 9 wonderful days in New Zealand, and the concerto of snow, sleet, hail, rain, wind, and sunshine that occurred there means that I don't have many blog-worthy photos of my experience. However, although the first half of my trip was decidedly unglamourous (kayaking in a remote fiord; tramping up to a secluded alpine lake; struggling to stay warm under 5 layers of thermal clothing) the second half of the trip was spent dragging my ever-patient partner into countless op shops while driving around the southernmost end of one of the most southernmost countries. I have a huge NZ thrift store haul that pushed my check-in baggage up more than 2kg!

Yesterday was a beautiful sunny Melbourne spring day and I spent it having afternoon tea in a posh hotel bar followed by a alfresco engagement party of one of my uni friends. This is the outfit I wore during the day - for the night's party all I did was change into tuxedo-style dress pants and throw on a cardigan.



The scarf was found crumpled in the bottom of a CBD op shop's 50 cent bin. It still had a 'Made in Italy' sticker on it. Scarves are my newfound love, I bought a few in NZ and I'm going to endeavour to incorporate them more into my outfits.



The shoes are from a NZ op shop - a tiny one in South Dunedin. They were squashed into a giant box of smelly $1 shoes, which I approached with some trepidation. I'm glad I did because these were gems. They look virtually unworn and are adorably nerdy.



Close up of the shoes (and our horrible carpet).

I've pretty much caught up on all your blogs today but didn't get around to commenting, for which I apologise. Will get back on track soon though, I promise.


T-shirt: thrifted Witchery from CBD op shop
Scarf: thrifted from CBD op shop
Skirt: thrifted from Northcote op shop
Shoes: thrifted from Dunedin, NZ

I'm off!

Flying to New Zealand tomorrow and won't be back until November 13th. Have a great week all!

All hallow's morning after

Now I am posting a bit out of order because I've been really slack (been sick with the 'flu this week) and haven't gotten around to posting pictures from World Vegan Day last sunday... but with all the Halloween photos going around I thought I'd better post Friday night's Halloween party outfit before missing the boat.



Can you guess what I am? Probably not!

Having been sick, my costume was a last minute cobbled together affair. I originally wanted to go as Carmen Sandiego but not having the necessary parts just decided to go as a random Nancy Drew-ish girl-detective. I had my grandmother's dress, my belted trench coat, a hat, and super high heels.



The dress and hat match perfectly. The only thing missing was a giant magnifying glass, like this:



I really really really love this dress. The style is so flattering, but I also love that it was my grandma's, and that she made it from scratch herself! I went to Malaysia earlier this year and visited my grandma, and she gave all the female relatives free rein to raid her closet and take any dresses she no longer wears.

I took home 4 dresses, and felt like the luckiest girl alive. One day I will show you the other three, they are all perfect.



Just check out the belt detail -



Also, we got trick or treated by a bunch of giggling school girls - the poor things were in tutus trudging around in the rain! They didn't want my vegan chocolate bar though, I think the vegan-ness scared them off. Oh well, more for me!

Hope you all had a great Halloween.