Outfit Love: Cloudy Greys

Oh wow! We've been having such mixed up weather, the it's hot then it's cold…rainy…sunny. Many mornings we'd wake up with it raining outside. Naturally, I would then put on warmer clothes as I get cold easily. By lunch time it's so hot that I end up taking off all my layers. This particular day was exactly like that.

-I couldn't believe my luck when I popped into the Pick 'n Pay Clothing store and found this totally dreamy bunny print shirt and in my size! I took it immediately! 

-The grey cardi is also from PnP, I bought it at the start of 2014 and have been wearing it every other day. I'm loving their clothes at the moment, it seems more inline with the style I'm into.

-My grey jeans I found at Ackermans, on sale, last year. I wear them a lot! They are just sooooo comfy.

-For the first time in ages, I found exactly the right pair of black boots. They are from Fashion Express, they just packed these babies out, so they are still available to purchase. I've been looking for excuses to wear them, everyday :P

     

-Above you can see the bunny print nicely, and also my statement necklace (Mr. Price). I bought the necklace on sale quite a while back but never had the right outfit to pair it with. This outfit really made friends in my cupboard over night and jumped out at me in the morning! 

-This adorable lazercut bunny brooch is from Hello Bebe, local creatives. Their accessories are vintage inspired and their packaging is just awesome!

~hope you had a lovely Tuesday~

xxx

  

Outfit Love: Minty &Fresh

Wow! Tuesday, huh? Everyday I'm more amazed at how fast time flies! Here we are, with Autumn literally around the corner when it seems Summer has just arrived. Even though it's still very hot here in our little town, I can see, smell and feel a change in the air. Shadows are becoming longer, the sun is setting earlier… I must say that I am secretly awaiting cooler weather. I have a lot of knitting to learn and will be teaching crochet classes real soon.

Today's outfit, as it turns out, might be one of my favourites! I'm wearing my Happy Monday Makings #10 and I simply love it! It's flowy, light and thought it is boxy it still has a sexy element to it. Now, I have to admit, I'm not so good at sexy. I always feel uncomfortable wearing revealing clothes, but now that I turned 30… I feel the need to dress more like a woman and less like a cutesy girl. So feel free to join me on this journey to find my more grown-up style and please do leave a comment with advice or just to say hi or whatever… ha! I'm rambling! Back to the outfit then.

-As you know, I made the Minty box top. 

-My genuine leather, vintage belt is from a local thrift store.

-The denim pencil skirt is from Mr. Price (long time ago).

-My lovely stiletto's are from Fashion Express

    -I just love how "the tuck" can make such a huge difference to an outfit! Smart-casual, classy yet relaxed… Oh, I forgot to mention, all my accessories are made by me! Yay! Finally a post with all-handmade accessories! Accept for my rings, of course-

Hope you had a lovely Tuesday!

xxx

30 Skirts in 30 Days: #26 Paisley Blossoms

Good Wednesday afternoon to you! I had the longest, deepest sleep last night and with the lovely rain coming down through the morning, I feel quite creative today. Only problem is, I have so many half projects and so many new one that I want to start, that I find myself a bit lost. I decided to start here, just because my photo's are edited and ready to be posted.

Today's skirt is an old favourite which I cannot get rid of. Every time I  throw it out, I end up packing it back into my cupboard.   

 -maybe I should add a belt to this outfit to round it off, or take it in at the waist…I don't know. Something about this skirt has made me want to throw it out numerous times. What do you think? Should I keep it or chuck it?-

-I think the reason I've been holding on to it, could be because of the pretty pattern. Another paisley/floral mixture, only this time it looks like the offspring of the two. Paisley Flowers-

~This skirt is made of 97% Cotton and 3% Spandex, which makes it a bit stretchy yet it feels very stark. I found it at Mr. Price too long ago~

Have a good Wednesday!

   

30 Skirts in 30 Days: #22 Pinstripe Pencil Skirt

Hey friends, a very quick post before I go sleep… Enjoy your weekend! 

-this skirt is a perfect fit, I bought it at Mr. Price a few years ago. The style is so retro! I love wearing it but as you can see it has one great flaw…it creases like crazy :( this is from me sitting in front of the Mac working the whole day-

-have a lovely weekend-

30 Skirts in 30 Days: #20 Twisted Bubble

And so the challenge continues. As you well know, I have been struggling with Blogger's block and since it's the busiest time of the year… Let's just say it's not easy to be creative when you're in a funk and you have a backload of design jobs waiting to be handed over to clients. 

For some reason I woke up this morning thinking it's time I finish my challenges and when I started to plan it out I realised that I was picking up exactly where I left off. My last skirt from my 30 Skirts in 30 Days was #19 and today is the 20th, so here is skirt #20.

 -this is possibly the cutest little skirt I own, sadly I have only worn it out about twice. It's not an easy wear and it's difficult to pair when it comes to putting an outfit together-

-I found this little skirt at Mr. Price a long time ago. It's still brand new as I haven't really worn it. I was first drawn to this skirt because of it's unique design. It's a bubble skirt with cross over pleats and a twisted waist band. It's really cute and I hope to wear it more often in the future-

-enjoy the rest of your Wednessday-

Outfit Love: The perfect dress for a High Tea

Ah, I used to share my Outfit Love on Tuesdays before I started with all my 30's challenges (of which two of them I still need to complete). This one was taken on the day we had our High Tea at Delau Wellness Centre.

-I found this dress mid-winter, at one of our local charity shops, Rotary Ann's. It seems to be a 1950's style dress with a bit of a sailor theme to it. The fabric still looks brand new, like it's never been worn and stored well. The brand is Manhattan and it is my size! I couldn't believe it! I know I should probably take the hem in, I just thought it looked more vintage to leave it the was it is. What do you think? To hem or not to hem…that is the question-

Well, my Tuesday is gone now, hope you had a good one!

30 Skirts in 30 Days: #6 The High-low

Just a quick share! I bought this skirt from Mr.Price in January of this year. I loved that it is made of a cotton knit and the colour is beautifully soft. I do find that this particular High-low is designed for ladies of over 2 meters tall. Seeing the photo Dave took for my skirt challenge, I realise that I will have to wear this skirt with SUPER HIGH heals. It had also been dragging on the ground as I walk.

Besides all that I had an awesome Saturday with Dave, we went through to Cape Town for the day and attended our very first Design Team Sale. We then went to Charlie's Bakery but the queue was so long that we decided to go to Honest Chocolate instead. We ended our day with a browse in the Canal Walk mall. What a nice day, Dave really spoiled me! I will share these titbits soon.

-hope you enjoy a lovely rest of your weekend-

xxx

30 Days of Dresses: Dress #30

Yay! I'm done! Its been a crazy time. So many things happening, crazy things and exciting things. We sold our car, it was taken away today. It happened way faster than we thought, so now we're without wheels. It's quite crazy, I know. I think sometimes in life we are forced to rely on others because if it were up to Dave and I, we'd never ask for help. We don't like to burden anyone with our problems. But then life happens and we're left with no choice... This might just turn out to be the start of quite an interesting adventure. It's really not easy to have to depend on someone else to get buy. A HUGE thank you to friends and family who have helped us in the past and still continue to help where ever you can, we really couldn't do it with out all of you!

This challenge has taught me so many things! Things like, how to get creative with a limited wardrobe, how to use what I've got and also what I need in order to extend my outfit possibilities. Something quite personal that I got out of doing this challenge is that I'm not quite as ugly as I feel and that complete strangers aren't remotely as critical as I am of myself. Thank you for your kindness friends, I hope you stick around long enough for us to become friends.

This is it then, Dress #30, the last one of the challenge...

 -this is a really lovely dress, I'm not big on the whole"animal print" trend but this one kinda chose me-

   -the posy in my hair, I made while experimenting with flower making techniques(still working on it). This silvers star necklace was given to me when I was a little girl. I cannot quite remember who gave it to me but I had it for, like, ever! I still love it, there's something magical about it-

-so that is that for this challenge, hope you'll join in the fun with my next challenge-   

xxx

30 Days of Dresses: Dress #27

It's been a long Tuesday... We've been having our winter rain, it's the most amazing feeling to wake up during the night with the sound of raindrops against the window pane. Ha! I just thought of my previous post, I did it at 2AM and Dave only got round to reading it now. He pointed out that I made some terrible spelling mistakes. I told him that it was on account of the early morning hour I wrote the post, my concentration wasn't quite what it should've been. I will go and fix those mistakes now, I promise!

So this lovely dressy was almost thrown out a couple of times. It just never seemed to go with anything I had. Just as I was going to get rid of it for good this time, I dug it out of a storage bin and tried it on one more time. This time I think we have a winner! It's awesome how (sometimes) an outfit creates itself.   

 -the dress is from Mr.Price about 7 years ago, I've probably worn it twice. Now I'll definately wear it more often. My all time favourite scarf, Dave bought for me whilst on honeymoon. It's form a spinning mill somewhere in the Midlands Meander, Natal. This awesome scarf is made from all natural sheeps wool, carded, hand-spun and knitted by ladies on a farm. It's a little scratchy, but I love it-

 

-just a detail shot of my "Mori Girl" dress and my lovely scarf-

-enjoy the rest of your day-

xxx

30 Days of Dresses: Dress #26

So Monday came and went quite speedily... I was still preparing my post when suddenly, it's Wednesday! I named Monday's dress Fast Fashion because I bought this dress about four years ago and I think this style of dresses went out of style a month after I had bought it. I love it though. The colour is lovely, it's versatile and quite unique.

 -I love all the interesting details on this dress, it is really well made. My Protea print shirt is for a local shop called BigBlue, I recently died it purple. I will show the before an after soon-

 -this swallow caught my eyes just as I was walking out of the Chinese shop, I know I need to stop buying from them, sometimes I just think that they also need to eat and support their families-

-you've met my frog ring, now meet my charming wrist frog. This little fella is from the China market in Jo-burg, again, I know... he still is a beauty-

xxx

30 Days of Dresses: Dress #23

It's Thursday! That mean tomorrow is Friday, and then it's weekend! So I'm standing on day 23 with my dress challenge, only 7 more to go, yay! Everyday I think to myself, "what did I get myself into?!" but I stuck it out and managed to do this even though at times I felt "stuff all of this!". This has been good for me and I now realize after reading Maria from Little Tree's post, that I'm not the only one who feels self-conscious and awkward doing these outfit posts. I don't have the confidence to put myself out there so doing these outfit posts is quite scary. It makes us vulnerably to criticism and nasty comments, thank goodness I have the friendliest readers! I have received nothing but positive feedback even requests for other challenges. Thank you for all your kindness, it means so much to me.  

 -Ah, I love this dress! I've had it for like, ever! I don't even remember where I got it anymore, but the label says Collection. I'm not familiar with this brand but they made one hell of a dress! This thing never seems to go out of fashion and the fit is perfect-

-my beaded bow clip is from my sister-in-law, Yuseon. I have worn it so many times, it goes so well with anything, really. Starry-starry earrings, I found then at a market in Pretoria. This black resin rose is just so awesome and bulky, it's from Mr. Price. Lastly, my owly cluster necklace, I made it to go with my earrings-

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 #13

Whoooo-hooooo! Lucky #13! Wow, I can't believe I'm almost halfway with this challenge. Today was another warm day here in Hermanus and I could'nt help but long for spring a little. So I thought that this floral print dress would be quite suited for my Spring mood.

 -I found this circle knit shrug at the Rotary Anne's Charity shop in town. It's lovely and soft and cuddly warm... It cost R10(1.09 US Dollars), just the kind of thrifty thrill I'm addicted to-

-just a quick piece of info on my heart locket, It was a present from Dave on our 3rd year of dating. It opens up to form a four-leaf-clover, it's quite something! Inside Dave put little pictures of us from when we just met which was 12years ago(crazy, huh?)-

xxx

30 Days of Dresses: Dress #11

Man, I'm so tired tonight, I just started falling asleep while editing the photo's. Now I'm completely lost for words! I named this dress/outfit Plain Jane simply because it's a one-colour dress and the fact that it's made of a knit fabric, makes it oh so comfortable. My aunt Bernadette gave this dress to me for a birthday present quite a number of years ago. I wear it so often, it's just such an easy going dress. What I love most about this dress is that it isn't Plain Jane at all! It's got the cutest little details around the neckline, with the finest lace.

 -this dress is perfect for a busy Saturday. We cleaned the house, went out to get some goodies for the braai (or barbeque as most of you know it), came back home, baked this tart. Drove out to the property my Dad just bought, had some bubbly, came back home had a braai with my parents and they just left, few-

-Ah... my Odd Ones! Just some of my older products. I always try to keep at least one item when I make a batch of products-

xxx 

30 Days of Dresses: Dress #8

For some reason I was very down and out today. No matter how hard I tried, nothing seemed to lift my spirits, so to speak. My day's schedule went down the drain although I tried my utmost to stick with it. I started feeling slightly better when Dave phoned to say that he was coming home a little earlier. Then, even better when it started to rain and then much better when Dave helped take my Dress #8 photo's. And the best feeling was when we went for a quick walk around the block and saw Flamingo's and many other birds gathered at the salt pan which is about a block away from where we live. So my day turned out pretty awesome, thanks to my Dave!

-this is what I come up with in the morning in an attempt to cheer myself up. it didn't help...but it didn't hurt-

-oops! I forgot to add these two pics above...now you can see, I wasn't lying about the Peter Pan Collar. Ha! Cute, isn't it?-

xxx

30 Days of Dresses: Dress #6

Shades of Grey and a tiny hint of red... I must say, it is getting much cooler now. I'll have to start wearing a bit more layers. This outfit was fine till about 5 pm, then I had to put something warmer on. What I love about this dress is that it is a great "between seasons" kind of a dress. The knit cotton fabric makes it warm enough for cool breeze of Autumn. The cold shoulders makes it cool enough for the heat of the midday sun, which (by the way) is still quite scorching.   

 -man, I love it when Dave takes my photo's! just look at the lovely flair he managed to get for me-

oh deer! what happened to the D in "Cold Shoulder Dress"? above

 -here you can see my dress' cold shoulder detail-

-this one's for my aunt Bernadette, I know you'll absolutely love these! I do-

So day 6 is done and I am really struggling not to put my jeans on in the mornings... This is a much bigger challenge than I thought! It has it's good points though. This challenge forces me to plan my wardrobe for the next day, it forces me to get creative because of the cooler weather and it forces me to wear the stuff I have in my closet. Not to get stuck on a hand full of items which have become my comfort zone. 

Oh, I'm participating in another group giveaway! This one is for my friend Natasha's birthday, it starts tomorrow! Keep an eye out...

xxx

30 Days of Dresses: Dress #5

For some reason this outfit reminded me of the 1920's. Don't quite know why, maybe the very fine polka dots on the dress or my polka dotted stockings... Anyway, this dress is made of Viscose, one of my favourite textiles. It's light and flowy and oh so comfortable. The colour scheme reminded me of the Autumns back in Pretoria where we used to live. All the trees would be covered in shades of red, orange and yellow, some even turn deep dark plum before throwing off their leaves. I do miss that, being able to see the seasons change... Here in our new town, Hermanus, in the Western Cape, we have winter rainfall. This means everything turns green, it's quite strange but nice in a way.

 -this dress is awesome, I have worn it many different ways and right through the year. Did you see my cute little Alice band with the bow? It was a gift from my father-in-law, I just love it! The bow is stuffed which makes it squishy-

-this lovely brooch(top) is from my Country Charm range. It's earthy and goes with almost everything. My awesome pumps (below) are so comfy and versatile, as you'll notice in my other post that I tend to wear them a lot-

xxx

30 Days of Dresses: Dress #4

...Okay, here's a quick one! This dress can be styled up or down. I made this dress last year, December, when my Aunt Zelda and her family visited for the holidays. My cousin, Zandienne, had received a sewing machine for Christmas so I took her to our local fabric shop to buy some fabric. It was there that my eyes fell upon this awesome Navaho printed T-shirting(knitted fabric). I bought a meter and as I couldn't get myself to cut this beautiful print, I decided to use the whole piece to make a maxi "beach" dress. 

 -this dress probably took me 10min to sew and it looks awesome! It's also crazy comfy-

xxx

30 Days of Dresses: Dress #3

The other day I was blog hopping and came across the term "Mori Girl". This described a Japanese street fashion style meaning "forest girl". This style is basically a feminine layering of textures and fabrics in earthy "foresty" tones. I then realized that I might just be a Mori Girl! Aside from the "trend" items and styles that I love, my default fashion seems to be Mori Girl.

 -It was quite a cool day and surprisingly enough I kept warm in this outfit-

-I must say, I'm quite enjoying myself with this challenge. I love how the colours and the textures came together on this one-

-As each item I own usually carries a story, I would like to add that the Ivory necklace around my neck was purchased when I was very young and naive. I bought it at an African market in Hartebeestpoort Dam. The lady who sold it to me said that it was made of bone. At that time I wasn't too clued-up as to how these things work. If I had known it was Ivory, I would never have bought it-

xxx

30 Days of Dresses: Dress #2

Okay, here is the dress you've all been waiting to see... the After of my Revamp post of earlier. I must say that I think that the outfit was mostly inspired by the adorable style of Kate from Scathingly Brilliant...

 -I am quite happy with how this dress turned out, it's crazy comfy-

 -Oh, that breeze... 

1. My lovely butterfly earrings are from my lovely Sister-in-law, Yuseon
2. My pretty deer brooch is from Tamarillo Designs 
3. My awesome vintage belt is from Hospice
4. My Minty butterfly ring is also from Yuseon
5. Minty flats from Mr.Price 

 -Mmmm, and that's why I mostly wear jeans nowadays-

xxx