Outfit Love: Black Week (2)

Hey, it's Tuesday! The past few weeks are a bit of a blur, I came down with the flu about two weeks ago and thought I'd recovered from it last weekend. To my surprise, it just hit me harder last Sunday. I was quite enthusiastic about Organising Life and started with my Black Week series last week Monday. Epic fail! I was so sick and my meds made me so sleepy, I don't even remember half of what happened last week. The lovely warm weather and my grandparents visiting over the weekend had me feeling a bit better, though I'm still coughing quite a lot. Being sick has left me very isolated and I fell out of touch with the world. With audio books being my only company as I slipped in and out of consciousness. I listened to How to succeed by Orison Swett Marden and Letters of a Post-Impressionist, Vincent van Gogh, but I'll talk some more about those later.

Today's outfit (to tell you the truth, I cannot even remember when this was taken) I'm sharing with you as part of my Black week series.

This was the first time wearing my new biker jacket (Woolworths) I really love this jacket, come to think of it, this jacket has actually replaced the soft black jacket I bought last year. I shall be getting rid of that one now. My booties! Ah, I found them at Fashion Express after searching everywhere for a comfortable, pacifical boot. They are so awesome, I ended up wearing them almost everyday! They just slip right on and the go with almost any outfit. I'm very chuffed with the above mentioned investments, they were well worth the purchase.

This little black number was more of a tunic and I've always wanted to lengthen it just enough for it to be worn as a dress. Lucky for me, I found just the right amount and type of fabric for just that purpose. So during my more "awake" times last week, I added to the hem, seemed it and voila! At last! I wore it out to dinner with Dave on Friday night and will definitely where it again. Maybe next time I'll remember to take an outfit photo. The offcuts of this particular piece of fabric were cut and melted, ready to become part of a rose hair clip (coming soon).

I hope you all had an amazing Tuesday and to all my sick buddies out there(cause I hear there are a few others), keep warm and I trust we'll all get better real soon!

xxx

30 Skirts in 30 Days: #19 Rouge Paisleys

...hello again. I just realised that I was still one skirt behind. As I still had the tripod set up, I thought I'd just slip on another old favourite. This way I created a whole new outfit by simply changing my skirt, adding a belt, putting on a different pair of shoes and changing my hair.

 -this skirt has and probably will be one of my all time favourites. It's from Woolworths, I bought it about 12 years ago and it is still perfect! Made of a 100% Cotton, it is both light and airy in Summer and warm and cosey in the Winter. The paisley print is so beautiful and with so much detail. The tag says Made in South Africa, I wonder where in our Country and by whom it was made...-

-these photo's don't really do the skirt much justice... You don't often find such a beautifully designed fabric in our shops. When all this Fast-Fashion nonsense started, the quality of clothing, fabric construction and printed design, declined drastically... But I don't want to get into that now.

Have an Awesome Friday!

xxx

30 Skirts in 30 Days: #18 Raccoon in Red

Hahaha....I'm not the lady in red, I'm the Raccoon in Red. Okay, I'm sorry. I get weird when I'm freezing. I here it's scorching in Pretoria, I simply cannot wait anymore! We're road tripping straight into Summer, yay! This has been the longest Winter since we moved to Hermanus three years ago.

Back to the skirt, This pretty little number has made an appearance on my blog before (have a look here). I bought this skirt when I was still in high school at a shop called Smileys. Some of my South African followers might recall this lovely retail store. Yes, I still wear it very often. Though the length is out of fashion, I don't feel I want to shorten it. It's just so comfortable and if it was creased coming out of my closet, by the time I walk out the door the creases are gone. It's strange, they just seem to fall out.

just a quick what's what: 

-My Raccoon beanie is from Mr.Price

-This lovely red jersey, my friend Adrienn gave me

-My pretty Smileys skirt is made of a 100% Viscose

-My cosey textured stockings are from Woolworths

-My sexy laser cut heels are from Ackermans

...and only two more sleeps before we leave

xxx

30 Skirts in 30 Days: #16 My Mom's Skirt and a Wolf

Okay, it's Tuesday! Three day to go then we are off (I mean up) to Pretoria! We're taking a road trip with my parents and little brother... I can't wait anymore! I'm getting ideas ready to make prezzies for everyone and I might even be there for the birth of my best friend's baby! Crazy exciting!

Now for the skirt... Today's skirt, is quite special. It was my mom's, she wore it when I was about 8, I think. She threw out a bunch of her old clothes when I started studying and of course I got the first pick. I took a few of her vintage items (1989-1995), that count as vintage, right? I wore them proudly throughout my studies at the Tshwane University of Technology. Knowing that I was wearing authentic 1980's to 1990's fashion when the trend made a comeback in the 21st Century.

Here I'm wearing my mom's office skirt, it's a wrap pencil skirt design. Oh, I'm also wearing my Wolfy that Dave got me in January and hid from me up until a month ago... I woke up one morning (he'd already gone to work) when I turned to his side of the bed, there was a wolf on his pillow staring back at me. It was quite fitting to wear him on my head today as there is a full moon tonight, hahaha.

 -The skirt is from Woolworths, it's a 100% Linen with a Viscose/Polyester lining. I might even use this skirt to draw a pattern, it's such a simple design. You hold it outstreched behind you, then your left hand folds the one edge over to your right and fastens with a hidden button. Then your right hand folds the other edge around and over to you left where it fastens with a show-off button-

  

-see? this would be so easy to make, I might just do one-

Do you have any sentimental vintage items that you still have or wear today? I'd love to see, leave me a link in the comments below if you have picture of it on the interweb.

xxx

30 Skirts in 30 Days: #4 Satin Colours

Oh what a day! I felt like a roller coaster had chewed me up and spat me out! ...And on the other hand, I felt so summery yet it's still quite cold here! I so wanted to wear my new cardi, so I did and I half froze to death! I bought it on the Woolworths Winter Sale, it's so lovely! It's a mixture of Acrylic, Nylon, Viscose and Cotton. It has that "comfy-worn" feel to it and I really love the texture. I would say it's more a Fall cardigan, it's light, airy and cool to wear. So it's perfect for Spring although it's a bit too cold still. I'm babbling again, aren't I.... my head is in about a million places right now so I hope you forgive my yabbering.

Back to the skirt then? Okay! This skirt, I found at a local Indian clothing store when I still lived in Pretoria. It's the most synthetic satin you can get but it feels awesome on freshly shaven legs (hehehe). For some reason I keep hanging on to it, I take it out during the first week of Spring, wear it once and the pack it away again. Weird how one mood and brain works sometimes. 

 -I know I look funny in this photo but I couldn't help looking at the stars. They are extra bright tonight due to the New Moon. Wow, there are so many! Our town is still quite small and there aren't as many lights as there are in big cities so we can even see the milky way with the naked eye from where we stay. It really is amazing... rambling again, sorry :P -

 -It's hard to put this skirt in a style category, I do want to say I'm getting a bit of an Art Nouveau vibe but I don't know. Maybe a slight hint of African design? What do you think?

xxx

30 Days of Dresses: Dress #25

Hi Friends! No, I didn't get lazy and skip the weekend. I went out with my parents and little brother on Friday and got sick after having a Blueberry milkshake and a plate of chips at a restaurant in Somerset Mall. I was sick throughout the weekend with terrible nausea, severe cramps, headaches. I have never had such terrible cramps in my life! It felt like someone was playing pin-the-tail-on-the-intestines with a butcher knife. I realized that the only thing that could be making me so ill was all the milk I had on Friday, as I got sick straight after I'd finished my massive milkshake. And again on Sunday night after eating half a slab of chocolate with Dave. So now I have a huge problem! How am I ever going to cut milk out of my diet? I'm addicted to coffee and chocolates...

...back to the dress challenge, here is Sunday's dress. Note how puffy my face is, that's from my not feeling very well and having a terrible night with almost no sleep.

 -Sunday was quite a bit cooler which gave me the opportunity to wear this amazing dress that Yuseon(my sister-in-law) gave me. All the way from South Korea! It really is beautiful with it's soft layers and boho pattern design-

 -my hand cut leather heart trio necklace (OddOneOut) I kept one for myself. I'm so glad I did because the whole batch I made had sold out. I really need to make some more, they're really lovely to wear. Ah, my very first genuine leather shoes! A gift from Dave. We recently opened a Woolworths account, he got a jersey and coat for work and I got THESE! We had this deal going, you see... There is a pair of shoes I love that he absolutely hates! So he said that he would get me a new pair of shoes if I throw that pair out. When we got home and I tried on my new shoes(which Dave very happily approved of) I realized something, I'll have to take photo's of the two pairs together so you can see what I realized...in a continued post. Hahahaha!

xxx

   

30 Days of Dresses: Dress #21

What a day! It's seems our winter is a bit delayed this year, it was a lovely sunny day! I've been working on a few things that will be revealed soon. It is both challenging and exciting and should be ready to take flight in the beginning of June. So stay in touch for some mystery news! On another note, we were discussing blogs and so forth at Natasha and Martinus's house warming and someone dared me to put Dave in a dress as part of my Dress Challenge. Dave accepted that dare for me and as May has 31 days, Dave will be posing in a dress on the 31st. 

The dress I wore today, is quite a gem. It's probably from the 1960's, judging by the pattern. It is a handmade and on some places hand stitched dress. The fabric is a lovely soft, fine cotton it is quite thinly worn on places. Though it is slightly to big for me I don't have the heart to cut it in any way. I actually just want to frame this one. It just feels so authentically mysterious, like it should be preserved or something. Strange, I know.    

-I know, I know...I wearing the same shoes as yesterday. They just went so well with this outfit! Once again, how amazing that a pair of stockings can pull together a brand new outfit! I bought these Woolworths Fashion Tights when I got the black ones from yesterday's post. It say on the packaging: "The perfect solution to keep warm & cozy. Wear with boots, Flats and heels. NEW IMPROVED Yarn with Viscose." my favourite fiber! They're really lovely-

xxx

30 Days of Dresses: Dress #20

Ooooh... Happy Monday! You've probably noticed my written work has become a bit distant... I've been struggling with quite a bit of sadness. As most of you who read my blog know, I lost my Grandad last year and also our two family Dachshund doggies a year apart. There's been quite a lot of underlying sadness that I suppress and then it surfaces every now and again. Like today, we finally set up our old PC which has a working CD-Rom so now I can access all our backed-up photo's which I haven't even been able to blog since the move 5 months ago. So I was looking for some images and came across pictures of my Grandad with Vicky on his lap... naturally the tears started flowing. And than last week I had this terrible back pain that just wouldn't go away. Anyway, we are all fighting our own hard battles just like that pin says. I just hope you'll be kind to me as I am to you.

Today's dress was on it's way out but after seeing how this outfit turned out I think I might just keep it. I haven't warn this dress in over four years and just as I was ready to let it go it managed to grab hold of me once again.   

 -the colour combo is so different to anything I would normally put together but paired with this Grandpa cardi I found at the animal welfare shop last year... it's almost like the dress was just waiting for the right company. These stockings are so awesome, I bought them at Woolworths, they are Body Sensor Temperature Control stockings. They're perfect for the cooler weather and I love that they're vertically ribbed! It gives it a bit of a 1920's look-

-There is this really awesome bead shop in Pretoria called House Beads, I don't know if they're still there but I found these tiny buttons, purple crochet beads and purple shell Frangipani flower there when we were still staying there. I strung all the buttons onto some cotton thread and crocheted plain chain stitch till I felt it was thick enough. It's quite easy but took quite a while to finish-

xxx

 

Outfit Love: Thrifting all the way

Hermanus has decided that Spring is canceled this year... we had lovely warm, sunny days in August and went October hit, winter was back. It's been two weeks of very cold, windy and rainy day! Most all of our little town's shoppies are fully stocked with summer clothes and swimwear. Now it's freezing, my winter wardrobe is worn and I can't find a decent jersey anywhere! In defeat, I decided to go thrifting to cheer myself up and it worked! I came home with a lovely chunky Woolworths jersey which I found at the Animal welfare shop for only R25. My Ivory earrings were a gift from my friend, Irma. I made this statement necklace using wooden beads which I collected from various places. And for the grand finale, my Sissy Boy jeans! These are vintage high-waisted skinny jeans. I found them in a bag of clothes a friend of my mom gave me to do what I can with. Anything I can't wear, cut up or make something pretty with, goes to local charity shops. 

  

-love-

-i do so hope the weather turns warmer soon, i sure could use a tan-
xxx