This time last year...

Dress - Trashy Diva

Do you ever have one of those moments where you stop and think back to where you were and what you were doing on that exact same day last year? I've been looking through a lot of old photos from last year that I never got around to posting, a few snapshots from a beautiful summer day when I picked bluebells and blueberries in the forest.

All of these photos were taken about a five minute walk from where my family lives and where I used to live, in a Moscow suburb about half an hour out of the city. The green domed building as you might have guessed is a (Russian Orthodox) church; the bells used to wake me up every Sunday morning and it's a sound I'd give anything to hear again even though I always complain about the noise when I'm there.

Blue Hawaii

Dress - courtesy of Trashy Diva, get it here!
Shoes - I Love Billy

This week I bid farewell to summer and tropical dresses with this gorgeous Hawaiian print Trashy Diva dress that I have been sent to review. I picked this dress because I adore how glamorous rayon looks and how it feels airy and soft against my skin on a hot summers day. I also love the cut, because when you live in a tropical climate, you can never have enough halterneck dresses!

I consider myself to be a bit of an expert when it comes to dressing for summer, but surprisingly I do not have very many short summer dresses, which is why I thought it would be fun to try one of Trashy Diva's mini dresses. At 5'6" this dress hits me just above the knee making it a perfect length for my conservative taste, but at the same time fun and flirty.

Although summer is now over in my part of the world, in just a few months when its hot again, I know that I will be taking this dress on holiday with me, to wear between the beach and the cocktail bar!

Suburbia

Dress - Bernie Dexter
Shoes - I Love Billy
Sunglasses - Juicy Couture

I love Australian suburbia for how bland and ordinary it is. Last year we came very close to renting a tiny apartment right in the city, excited by the idea of how cosmopolitan and exciting it would be, but in the end I think I much prefer the quietness of suburbia with its barking dogs and picket fences.

Paradise

April is my favorite because its the month we celebrate our anniversary, and with it being my partner and I's 6th anniversary this year we splashed out and went away to the beach for the week. We ate some absolutely glorious seafood and drank delicious tropical cocktails. These things taste all the more amazing when being eaten right by the beach while looking onto white sands and azure waves. I also decided to be a little adventurous and tried oysters for the first time in my life! I have always avoided them and found the concept of them frightening, but to my surprise, drizzled with a bit of lemon I found them to be absolutely delicious.

Kangaroos and a Patio Dress!

Kangaroos are the sweetest, most gentle, darling creatures. As you can see they are pretty inquisitive too as they wasted no time walking up to me to check me out! I think it's fair to say that Australian native animals are some of the strangest in the world, which is what makes them so charming.

Lately I have been a little obsessed with 50s style patio dresses and looked at all of the vintage reproduction brands to see if any of them had made anything similar. This Hell Bunny dress is pretty close I think, or at least as close to this style as I have been able to find among repro. While this isn't a true patio dress, the tiered skirt is still quite similar to that of patio dresses, the gingham and the black rick rack is absolutely irresistible!

Chrysanthemum

Dress - Trashy Diva
Sunglasses - Wildfox
Shoes - Wittner
Parasol - gift

I've noticed that in the last few months I have accumulated quite a number of dresses that have an Asian influence. What excited me most about this dress is the way it is a combination of two styles that I love to wear - the top half is similar to a qipao, and the lower half is like a swing dress. I also love the swishy pleats and the soft fabric- this dress just makes me want to twirl! I don't have enough yellow in my wardrobe and after wearing this dress I think it might be one of my new favorite colors to wear. Another thing I'm really loving at the moment are these round 40s style glasses that I bought especially to wear with my 40s dresses, whenever I put them on they make me think of Barbara Stanwyk in Double Indemnity!

Tennis on Sundays

Dress - Forever New
Sunglasses - Juicy Couture
Shoes - I Love Billy
Brooch - vintage, gift from GracefullyVintage

I'm not at all good at tennis - but I still enjoy playing! I hadn't played tennis since I was a child but this year one of my resolutions was to be more athletic so I have decided to take up tennis again, just for fun. When I bought this dress a few weeks ago my dear friend Kayla surprised me with this beautiful vintage brooch that she insisted I have to go with this dress! Isn't it just perfect?