The Lighthouse

I used to try really hard to limit the amount of nautical things in my wardrobe. However I am now at the point where I'm not going to bother with these restrictions anymore because the fact is - nautical always look fabulous. Living in Australia means that I have many opportunities to go to the beach, so I may as well embrace it and get all the nautical things! Lately I've been enjoying adding nautical looks from different decades to my wardrobe and have a number of nautical outfits planned for summer.

On our road trip to Grafton we stopped for coffee along the way and came across the most beautiful lighthouse I have ever seen. It was tiny, and I'm not entirely sure how functional it could have been, but it was incredibly sweet. Unfortunately that day it poured non stop, but on our way home we stopped by the lighthouse and luckily it wasn't raining this time. Instead it was a golden afternoon and we watched the sun set over the ocean and the lorikeets gorging themselves on the banksia flowers.

The dress I wore was a rayon Trashy Diva dress with the biggest pockets - perfect for making sure I don't lose my sunglasses! I've often worn this dress to the beach with a swimsuit underneath as it's so soft and comfortable and the large pockets hold all of the pieces of shell and sea glass that I love to collect.

Dress - Trashy Diva

Shoes - Novo

Sunglasses - ebay

Grafton

This week has been all about getting things ready for the wedding which is only a month and a half away now! We spent the last few days in Grafton where the wedding will take place, visiting the reception venue and the cathedral to organize the wedding ceremony. I'm relieved to say that things are coming along nicely, and today I had a dress fitting with the seamstress who has been working on altering my vintage wedding dress.

We chose to have our wedding in Grafton because this is where the majority of our wedding guests live, but also because it's a truly beautiful little country town full of historic buildings, antique shops and lovely countryside. It's still cold in New South Wales so our visit gave me the opportunity to wear this beautiful dress I bought from Marianne of Esme and the Laneway who has been selling a number of her vintage pieces. I have always wanted a dress like this because it reminds me so much of Eva Marie Saint's dress in North by North West!

Giant Sunflowers & Gingham

I wish I'd had a chance to photograph these sunflowers a few weeks earlier when they were less wilted and absolutely magnificent, but although they look a little sad and worn now I still think they are most impressive for how tall they are! I think it's spring - I never really know what season it is here and on the day we took these photos it definitely felt like summer so I ended up wearing this light gingham dress to pop into the garden and water the plants.

I should probably mention that this is most definitely not what I wear to do gardening in - only when I pop in to quickly water things, for actual heavy duty gardening that requires digging and planting I wear my Freddies of Pinewood jeans. Some of you asked me on instagram whether this dress is vintage, and it is actually not - although it sure does look it! It's by a UK vintage reproduction company called Heyday who make great quality pieces that have a true vintage look and feel.

Dress - Heyday

Shoes - Forever New

Sunglasses - Ebay

Anything Goes - 1930s Beach Wear Inspiration for Summer

Last Friday Nuffnang invited me to go see Anything Goes at QPAC, and ever since I have been dreaming of nothing else but 1930s beach wear. Of course it doesn't help that I was already madly scouring the internet for 1930s beach pajamas (to no avail - drop me a line if you know someone who has an Etsy and custom makes these and I will love you forever...) so you can only imagine how excited I got when I went to see Anything Goes where it was beach pajamas and other fabulous 30s nautical outfits galore.

When the performance first started my number one priority was to pick my jaw off the floor and accept that I was in for an entire night of beautiful 30s fashion and that it was really not a good look to sit there mouth wide open without blinking for the duration of the show. No heavy breathing either. The wardrobe department of the production really outdid themselves when it came down to how authentic the costumes were for the era and the hair and makeup was equally superb. If only I could master the 30s wave hairstyle already!

The story being set on board of a luxury liner meant that there was a great selection of 1930s fashion with characters ranging from stockbrokers, millionaires, heiresses,a gangster and his moll - with the costumes being as equally diverse as the characters. This has left me with a huge amount of outfit inspiration for this summer, and an equally long list of things that I need to buy - large brimmed sunhats, palazzo pants, platforms, playsuits....ahhh!

I have always been a fan of broadway and of all the shows I have seen over the years Anything Goes would rank at the very top for the outstanding performance of the actors and the brilliant live musical score. This is a show that truly has a lot to offer even for those who are not fans of vintage fashion as it is a wonderfully written story with great humor and some fantastic one liners, as well as great music and dancing. If you love vintage however, then this is something that I would truly recommend seeing even if you are not usually a fan of musicals because this might just be the show that will change your mind about musicals all together. And potentially rock your bank account when you find yourself desperately trying to recreate some of the beautiful outfits from the show!

Anything Goes is on in Brisbane until this Sunday and will be making its way to Sydney in early September!

The Ekka!

August - my favorite month! You can smell spring in the air and all of the pink flowers are in bloom, but best of all is that it's Ekka time. Since it's spring the mornings are still quite chilly but the days are very hot - like it's summer already so I went with a simple, comfortable outfit - a light cardigan, a rayon dress and some comfortable shoes for walking around in.

Cardigan - Dangerfield

Dress - Trashy Diva

Shoes - I Love Billy

Coven

A few weeks ago now - because that's how long its been since I last blogged, I had a very bad hair day. A bad hair day that lasted for a very long time. You see, I had the brilliant idea to go buy a good quality toner to turn my hair a lovely silvery 30s movie star colour and had all sorts of dreams and anticipation for how great my hair would look. So you can only imagine my horror when my whole head turned purple, a complete nightmare scenario. There were solutions to fix this, all of which required putting a lot of chemicals in my hair, so at the risk of having no hair at all I settled for purple hair.

On Friday afternoon when I headed out to see Anything Goes with Nuffnang my hair was still very purple - but nothing compared to how it had been a week before that! Since purple hair doesn't look particularly great with the majority of my wardrobe and reminds me of witches, I decided to fully embrace the "witchy" vibe. This is one of my favorite evening dresses and any time I wear it Hugh always makes a series of jokes about eye of newt and dancing naked around fires in the woods. When I got dressed that evening I originally styled this dress with a crystal pendant only for Hugh to insist that people might get the wrong idea that I am a little too keen for Halloween which is a few months away...

So I feel this post will answer any concerns of those who saw me on Friday night, or saw my instagram snap where I had purple hair! I had the most wonderful time seeing a brilliant show (more on that later) and finally got to meet one of my favorite bloggers who I've been following for many years now, Maria from Avenue M!

Dress - Trashy Diva

Heels - Novo

Necklace - gift