Outfit Love: Autumn Colours

What amazing Autumn weather we are having! It's raining and the wind is trying to blow our house down… I just love it! It's still quite warm at times, so if you're living in the Western Cape be sure to have a cardi or scarf handy. Layering is more than a trend here, it's a necessity. My friend Natasha says that since they moved here from Gauteng, she's been keeping a spare outfit in the car just incase. The weather is so unpredictable here! Today, I got a good workout from putting my jacket on and then taking it off…putting it back on and then taking it off again. 

- I love this look! Everything just seemed to go together, almost as if they were purchased together-

• you might recognise my winter flower brooch from this post
• the corduroy blazer was a gift from my aunt Zelda - love it!
• Autumn Foilage dress from my HMM post here
• leather "biker" belt, thrifted
• turquoise tights from Woolworths
• mustard flats with cutesy bows from Cotton On

-here's a pic without the blazer, so you can see how cute the dress is! I can already see soooo many outfit possibilities forming around this dress, I can't wait to play with more colours and textures-

  

-these colours have inspired me to make more of these flower brooches, I still have a few bits left of this fabric…some new wintery accessories might be born from this outfit yet-

Hope you had an amazing Tuesday!

xxx

Happy Monday Makings #12

Monday-Monday… We had the loveliest rainy day today, I just adore this weather. It leaves me feeling quite nostalgic. Todays Happy Monday Makings (HMM), was inspired by a pin from my board, for me to sew and some vintage-looking thrifted fabric. The pin took me to Pretty Prudent where I found this really easy tutorial, The Most Flattering Shirt Dress DIY.

-This was my first try, working with bias binding but the tutorial was so great I did it…no probs! I couldn't do the shirring in the middle as I have yet to find the elastic thread needed for the job, but it works well with a belt for now. I love that the print on this fabric is that of a vintage themed Autumn-

-the fabric I used is more of a quilting cotton which makes it a bit rigid, so when I fit the dress on I had Buzz Lightyear shoulders. This was not good! I had to do something about those flying shoulders, so I put little pleats in-

I must say I'm quite chuffed with this dress, I loved this tutorial so much I might just make another dress from it.

Are you favouring any tutorials lately? Please share, we love getting the diy scoop!

xxx

Outfit Love: Bohemian Blue

Although the season is changing, the chill has crept into the once warmer breeze… we still have relatively warm days. It's a very confusing time "wardrobe wise". You have to constantly layer on and then take all the layers off again. But then again, our summers are much the same here. Our weather changes by the hour. I must confess, though, that I quite welcome Autumn. As most of you already know, I like to learn new skills as often as I can. Though I have done it before, I was never really good at it…that is why I decided to formally take on knitting this year. That's probably why I simply cannot wait for Winter to come!

Back to the outfit then, I always tend to lose track of what I intended to share with you. Guess it's like speaking to an old friend…sometimes I just have so much to share, I don't know where to start. Well, today I just wanted to share my half-bohemian outfit with you. I have always had a fascination with the attire of the Gypsies in the movies of old and the Bohemian folk in the movies of late… Sadly, I have never been able to pull it off myself. I still where my odd pieces merely because I love them. At least when I wear my Gypsy attire now, people don't think I'm crazy anymore. Back in the day, people would stare and think I'm weird. I tried and I learned to tone down my style to fit into society but now I wish I hadn't.    

-now, I have ended up with a strange mix of modern/retro/bohemian and sometimes a bit of rock in my fashion style. I seem to love way too many styles and cannot always create a whole identity for myself. One of my aunts once commented that I wear a totally different style every day, but that I make it work. I know this was a compliment but I thought to myself, that is exactly how I feel! Split into so many interests that I think I might have become lost in this sea of possibilities-

-wow! I'm really rambling on, aren't I? My cute shorts, flowy tank and gladiator sandals are all from Mr. Price from a long time ago. My bangles all have different stories: the chunky mosaic one is from an African Market in Natal, the wooden one is thrifted from Matchbox and the bronze one was my mother's. The shell beads are from a holiday spent with my best friend at the time, Katinka, at Sodwana. The textile necklace was made by me and the lovely cotton-knit overcoat was hand-me-down from my Gran. My Mom had given it to her for her birthday a year or so ago, my Gran says that she had picked up too much weight to fit into it anymore. It really is lovely and when I wear it I think of her-

I hope I didn't make your head spin too much, for some reason I have a lot to say tonight.

Well, I hope you had an amazing day, thanks for reading my story.

xxx 

Happy Monday Makings #11

As promised, the Happy Monday Makings post to go with last week's Outfit Love post. I made this dress from thrifted fabric, found at a local charity shop. It's a lovely knit fabric and is thick enough that I didn't need to wear a slip underneath. The pattern I used was inspired by many a pinterest pattern diy. I simply took a dress I love, lay it flat on my fabric, traced the outlines and cut out the pieces. I then sewed and seamed and voila! I did make some minor improvements… 

-This turned out so great, I've worn it so many times already! It's comfortable, practical and perfect for the heat we've experienced the past three months-

-the dress I used to as pattern, had a gather on the shoulders. I decided to knot them instead. As the original is a wrap dress, it had long strips to wrap the dress with. I thought I'd rather put buttons and loops, this way I could accessorise the dress with a belt or two to create different looks-

I must say I'm really happy with this one, it truly was a Happy Monday Making!

What have you gals been up to? Make anything interesting lately? Feel free to share your crafting excursions with us, leave a link in the comments. I'd love to see what my fellow crafters are up to.

xxx

Lucky Friday Finds #12

It's Friday! And for some reason I have a really good feeling about this weekend. We were planning on going "over the mountain", literally. Our closest mall is about an hour away and you have to take a drive either around or over the mountain, so when the locals chat about their trip to the mall they speak of going "over the mountain". This took some getting used to when we just moved to Hermanus because I'm accustomed to having a mall on almost every corner where we lived in Pretoria. Our plans were mixed up a bit when my mom asked if we could look after my little brother André this weekend while they're away. He's quite the character! I helped raise him as he was born when my other brother, Ruan and I were both still in high school. André and I are very much on the same page most of the times, he say's I'm the crazy one but I think he's much crazier than me. As for our weekend plans, I have learned that we can almost never plan anything, we don't know what the future holds and things can change in the blink of an eye. Now I'm not saying not to have any aspiration, I mean quite the opposite. We plan things all the time (as more of a back-up) and then we wait patiently for life to happen, and oh does it happen!

Today is a very good example of how things go around here. Between work, I need to get the house sorted, put some fresh bedding on the guest bed, among other things. Through all this, I'm on standby for a coffee date with my mom. She's meeting with a friend this morning and will let me know when it's my turn so as to discuss the weekend with my little brother and to make all the necessary arrangements.

As for now, it's time to share with you what I found! Again, I found this while in Pretoria last year. I was walking around in a massive plastics store (I love to roam these, they always have hidden treasures) and just before I walked out the door thinking that they had nothing that interested me, I saw it! Packed on a bottom shelf amidst the stationery, I found a few boxes just waiting to be discovered…

 -when I see something sewing, knitting, crochet or any other craft related, my brain turns on a flashing red light…awesome alert! And of course this baby came home with me. It has a very retro, 1970's air about it, doesn't it? If you look closely on the box, there's a little icon on the top left that says "as seen on TV" I wonder if this product did a bit of time traveling…-

-isn't this just the best thing you have ever seen?! It's the perfect little traveling sewing kit, with everything you'll need for a wardrobe emergency or when you're sewing tiny crafty gifts. I love how organised it is. My other sewing kit is in a little clear bag and I always end up emptying the contents out on the table to find what I need. With this sewing box, you can see and access anything you need in a flash!

What have you found recently that's worth sharing with us? I would love to hear from you!

Have an amazing weekend!

xxx

  

Outfit Love: Summer Wrap… and a Happy Birthday, Blog!

I cannot believe I almost missed it, again! There is just so much going on… some of you might have noticed that I haven't quite been myself this year. For some reason I just cannot get myself to wright posts and when I do they seem to come out rather depressing. I would rather refrain from blogging to keep this my "happy place", than force myself to blog when I'm under a dark cloud.

Today's outfit precedes the Happy Monday Makings post which was supposed to be yesterday, instead it will be posted the following Monday. I hope that's alright with you gals…

-This skirt was made from thrifted T-shirt fabric. I'm wearing my new favourite vintage-leather belt again. My handmade goldfish earrings and a beaded necklace I made years ago-

Except for my shoes and belt, my outfit is all handmade!

  

-Originally I tried out the Side Braid, but as I still have a lot of layers it didn't look too good. I decided to just make the braid into a bun and it work perfectly! What do you think?-

Hope you had an Amazing Tuesday!

xxx

Lucky Friday Finds #11

Well-well… it's Friday! The weekend is upon us and I hope all of you have awesome plans for this one. Here in South Africa, Autumn is in the air! I've been sensing a change in the way the sun (although scorching hot) shone with a dimmer light… Then, last night we had our first Autumn rain! Man, I just love it! The sound of raindrops trickling down the window panes, the smell of the wet soil and just as the rain stopped (during the early morning hours) I heard our "friendly neighbourhood" owl break the silence with his calm hoo-hoooooo. Around here, the Cape Spotted Eagle Owl is the most common. We've seen them on many occasions. Amazing birds of prey!

Today, I thought, I'd briefly share some goodies I acquired while visiting in Pretoria last year. My cousin, Zandienne and I spend the day galavanting in the area we used to live and of course had to pop in one of my favourite haberdashery shops. The shop is called Ruby's and they stock almosts anything you need for your crafting pleasures. They don't have a website, but if you're in the Pretoria North area, this site has the address and phone number.

-I really had to hold back, I would have emptied my account in this shop! But since I had to fly back home, my luggage space was limited. Good thing I had a reason, ha! These adorable handbag charms, I got as gifts for my friends back home. I don't know if you can see, there's a funny looking keychain between the stork scissors and the red knitting doll… It's a dual screwdriver, the one side is a flat and the other a star. I got that for David as he can never find his in times of crisis, he keeps it on his house keys and has actually used it a few times already. I thought it a very nice "stocking stuffer" for the guys. The rest of these goodies are cute necessities, except for the necklace, that one's mine! I couldn't resist-

-Have a lovely Friday and an awesome weekend- 

xxx