A whole lot of hoop-la

I can't believe it's been 3 weeks since my last post! So much has happened, I have been run off my feet. We've finally booked round-the-world tickets, and we leave on May the 3rd (eek so soon!) but not before heading up to Arnhemland, NT to do some volunteer work first...





From the country, I've now moved back to my parents' house. Living in my childhood room is strange - it's bursting full of memories, mementoes and old childhood toys. This hoop I unearthed from languishing beneath a pile of old tennis rackets. I used to spend hours on end with this thing, trying to perfect the hula-hoop. It was fun to pull it out again, but needless to say I'm just as bad as ever!

I'm still here, somewhat...

Huge apologies for my extreme absence of late. The truth is I've moved to the country for a while, and have very limited internet downloads... Which means I can't spend time perusing all of your lovely blogs. It's heartbreaking, I really miss it, but I promise I will catch up soon!

In the meantime, here is the country as I know it, for now.





I have much to tell, including tales of wonderful thrift finds, a swap with the lovely Hollie of Vegan and Vintage, an amazing 4 day music festival, and my store - but these will have to wait until I have more time! Until then, au revoir!

All aboard!

So the aforementioned op shop in the country had the most divine collection of cute blouses, including this adorable sailor-esque '80s Country Road number. Being light, cotton and airy it's perfect for running around doing errands in, which is exactly what I was doing last week!





We've been busy this week packing up the house, which is such a daunting experience. I hate moving house, and I've done so 5 times in the last 5 years. Dressing up in cute shirts gives me a little bit of escapism that is more than welcome when faced with such a monstrous task!







I wore the following blouse the day after Valentine's day... I kind of wanted to wear it ON Valentine's day, but thought it would be a bit too cheesy, hehe. What do you think?






Blouses: both from Camperdown op shop
Skirt: Witchery via op shop
Sandals: ebay
Bag: Newport op shop
Necklace: Drink me, Alice

One buses, two trains, one car, several hearts, one week.

Oh, what a week. On Tuesday my car died spectacularly in the middle of nowhere in country Victoria. We had to be towed to the nearest town, then it took a bus, two trains and 9 hours to get home again!

My car was fixed in the country town, so we had to traipse back out there to pick it up. One good thing did come out of it, though - I found the dearest little op shop out there. It's now my favourite op shop outside of Melbourne - full of lovely old lady volunteers and packed to the rafters with amazing vintage... I got 10 things for $19 and would've gotten more if I hadn't just forked out $150 for my car!



I picked up my Valentine's day dress from my other favourite op shop... The one where I've been volunteering the last few weeks. The pros - I've been able to find some amazing treasures I'd never have had a chance at before. Also, a volunteer discount, always welcome! The cons - while I'm there I don't get a chance to browse the store properly, and if I went outside of my volunteer hours I'd feel guilty for not volunteering then, too!



This dress definitely falls into the 'pro' category. It was the first thing I saw when I walked in for my shift last week, and I fell in love and grabbed it and never want to let it go! It's a beautiful '50s dress from Sydney, and it's made out of 100% cotton. Which is so great, considering 95% of my vintage wardrobe is polyester or other variations on the theme.





Loving the darling row of covered buttons (strictly decorative!) on the front...



In other news, ebay unceremoniously cancelled one of my auctions on Friday, because apparently my note about donating part of the proceeds to charity contravened ebay's listing policies, or something. Can you believe it?! On the plus side I've been pillaging my closet and making new listings so head on over and help me get rid of my stuff!

Happy Valentines Day everyone!


Dress: Northcote op shop
Necklace: Drink me, Alice
Tights: Myer
Shoes: ebay
Bag: Newport op shop

Just a quick post

No big post today, but just wanted to express how horrifying the bushfire situation in Victoria has been these past few days. As a consequence, I'm now donating part of the proceeds from my ebay auctions to the Red Cross for their bushfire fund.

Hope you're all safe and well.

There's more in store

Oh, I have been so so slack with blogging lately, but I do have an excuse! Remember that store I keep harping on about? Well, in the past week I've been feverishly learning how to write HTML (so I can write ebay descriptions), taking photos, listing items... It's so labour intensive, I can't imagine how hard it must be for all those lovely lasses who do this full time!

Now I finally have a fair few things listed on ebay although I'm sure there's plenty more I could rustle up from my wardrobe, so stay tuned. In the meantime, for those of you who were interested:





I don't have any outfit posts, even though I actually have been wearing clothes. Just been so busy I haven't thought of taking photos! I've also had some amazing thrift finds - now that I'm not working I've started volunteering at the local Brotherhood op shop. It's so fun!

I also completely blanked and didn't take photos at our cocktail party last week, even though I wore a '50s day dress and my friends were all wearing amazing vintage outfits (one had a 1920's lace blouse and another a little '60s scooter number). All I took photos of were the cupcakes I baked for it... I hope that makes up for it, at least a little?



Vegan choc chip cupcakes




Vegan margharita cupcakes (with lime and tequila in them - super yummy!) The brown sugar around the the edge of the cupcakes is supposed to replicate the salted rim on the margharita, probably white granulated sugar would have been better but I didn't have any... oh well!

I promise I'll make an outfit post and pass on my tags very soon!

Ode to a fan.

Melbourne bloggers are probably sick of hearing this, but it is so hot. It was 44 degrees Celsius today, which an online converter tells me is 111.2 degrees Fahrenheit. It's so hot that the poor birds are falling out of trees. It's so hot that the train lines are buckling. It's so hot that it's actually incomprehensible to do anything but sit in a darkened room. Which is basically where I've been the last few days.

Today however, I had to bake some cupcakes I had foolishly promised for a soiree we are having tomorrow. To make myself feel better about turning my kitchen into a sauna I donned the best baking outfit I could think of, comprised only of natural breathable fibres, and dug out my trusty hand held fan.







We do have pedestal fans, but they're not very convenient for carting around with your while you're doing stuff, like baking. Blessed fan, you were only a few dollars but how I love thee.



I also wore my fringe (or bangs) up today, which is very strange for me. I hate the way I look without a fringe, I think I look pretty stupid, but it's definitely too hot (and I'm too delirious from the oven heat) to care.



Also here are my new favourite shoes which I thrifted the other day but haven't worn until today (on account of not having left the house, pretty much). Was so stoked when I spied these sitting on the bottom shelf at the op shop because I've been coveting this style for ages now, even had some on my watch list on ebay!



They don't photograph well but they're lovely... and so comfy. Perfect baking shoes.


Scarf (worn as headband): thrifted from Northcote op shop
Linen blouse: 50c thrifted from Northcote op shop
Belt: vintage via my mum
Skirt: Christmas gift from my mum
Shoes: thrifted from Abbotsford op shop
Fan: Chinatown


Edited to add: apparently it actually reached 45 degrees today! Holy moly.