mad hatter

I am sorry for my lengthy blogging delay. My Mum came to visit and I took a break from the computer.

Mum went home on the weekend and I have been catching up on my reading and online shopping wish listing and on my travels came across a new collection by Shabby Apple.

It's called Mad Hatter.

I think the styling is wonderful and I love the makeup. I also love the perfect dresses and the bows and pleats of the maxi skirts.

Sadly the dresses in this collection will not accommodate my generous bosom as the dresses fall under Numbered Sizing.

Shabby Apple have two different sizing options - Numbered Sizing and Fits Generously.

For me, Numbered Sizing most likely will not accommodate my boobs (by an inch!) but Fits Generously does. I have a gorgeous dress from Shabby Apple and I have room to spare. Also buying from overseas that one inch can be a huge difference when deciding if you will risk the purchase or not.

So I will have to admire this collection from afar.

Lotta and The Hasbeens

I am lucky enough to own a pair of Swedish Hasbeens which I found up for half price through ASOS.

They are beautiful shoes and so well made and very comfortable....once they wore in! I was walking like a cross between John Wayne and someone walking across hot coals for a good month. I was actually going to cheat and wear them in a bath of water, but was afraid they would stretch too much.

The shoes came with a care sheet and it said that the light colour can age to a deeper tan with sunlight and it's best to not wear the wooden shoe on a very wet day. The wood can also stay in good condition if you rub it with olive oil and if you get a dent in the wood, give it a light sand and apply the olive oil.

My Swedish Hasbeens.

I also scored these beautiful wood shoes on Etsy. They are vintage from the 60's.

These little wooden clogs came from Rubi shoes and cost $20! I must admit they have been fixed by me more than I can count (with lots of smalls nails and a hammer) but for $20 you don't mind hitting them with hammer after every wear.

The new collection of Swedish Hasbeens are due to be released in March and I love the styling inspiration for the the beautiful shoes.

I love these Margot shoes in Mint

and the Pink High Saddle Shoe.

If Swedish Hasbeens are a little out of the price range, Lotta from Stockholm have clogs for half the price.

I am dreaming about a pair of red Highwoods for winter.

Dream. Dream. Dream.

if I had $200.......

If I had $200 and needed an outfit to wear to a special occasion, say Valentines Day.....this is what I would purchase -

This pretty bird dress by Laura Ashley is lovely. Soft pink with green, blue and red parrots. $119.

Romantic long lace cardigan by Ruche $37.

Vintage drop earrings from B Ellen Designs $3.60.

Vintage purse from Nice $10.

Vintage red bow heels from Aquanetta $27.15

I am very fond of the side bun and would style my hair this way.

Total: $196.75 (does not include postage - don't have to tell your other half this amount because technically you can't wear postage.)  :)

modpodge

Yesterday I did a bit of rearranging. This is not a new thing. I spend most days moving stuff from one place to another. Poor Ben is constantly banging into and tripping over things that I move.

I had a couple of wooden boards long forgotten in a cupboard that I dragged out. The round board had long ago lost it's glass dome in a smashing incident, and the long wooden board I picked up on one of my many op shopping expeditions.

I knew I wanted some lovely vignettes so I took out my old faithful...my tub of mod podge to pretty them up.

To say that Mod Podge is used sparingly around these parts would be an understatement. I love this product and have used it on at least 60% of our furniture. I am pretty sure if Ben stood still long enough I could Mod Podge him a whole new outfit.

So I basically found some paper I had laying around and mod podged it onto the boards and now I think they look really special.

If you haven't used Mod Podge before it is a no-brainer. It's a thick white glue. You paste the back of your paper (or vinyl or fabric etc) place it, then glue over the top. Let it dry and glue again until you have a nice coating. It always looks better the next day when it has had proper time to dry and you stop playing with it.

And a tip - if you adhere paper to canvas, use a toothbrush to apply your mod podge. If you swish the brush in x strokes, when it dries it looks like an oil painting!

Mod Podge haven't paid me anything or given me a life supply of product. I just really love talking about products that work really well.

sag

I love awards season.

I turn on the tv and watch the red carpet and give my own commentary such as, "love it" "hate it" "what was she thinking!" "what is with the hair?" "move! I can't see George Clooney!"

Today was the Screen Actors Guild Awards and my picks of the day were - Emma Stone.

A cocktail length gown by Alexander McQueen. The best length in my opinion. It always looks old school and classy. Emma looks gorgeous!

Dianna Argon looks so pretty.

The pink dress with the v neck is so lovely and soft and feminine. Complimented with maiden braids she looks beautiful. 

This is the best I have seen Jane Lynch.

This stunning blue dress is the most gorgeous colour. V neck dresses are so flattering and best thing about the full skirt - it has pockets! I am a pocket girl.

Jane looks amazing.

Oh to be a movie star and wear beautiful dresses.

toni journal

I have a couple of different journals that I made to jot down what is going to happen this year.

The first one is my Forever journal.

I saw the idea on Design Sponge and loved it. I also wanted to do something like my Mum does. She has a diary every year that she carries in her handbag and she can tell you everything that happened on a particular date for the past 15 or so years.

I put this on the breakfast table and every morning I write down what we did yesterday.

I made this out of cheap index cards and the box I found at Office Works and the cover pages for each month are from recycled Frankie magazines. I had a date stamp and ink already.

You won't see any results for a couple of years, but you have to start somewhere.

The 365 journal is my ideas journal that I got from Kikki K.

When the year is over I like to gather up all my favourite photos and I make a little book.

This one was printed by Blurb and I really love the way it turned out. Elton and Audrey have been wanting me to read it at story time which is really lovely.

I really wanted to take part in Project Life but I didn't want to purchase a binder, card pockets and paper if the project died at home. Meaning...I wouldn't have the time to continue on and it would have been a waste of money.

I went to Office Works and found this recycled binder for $2, some plastic photo protectors and have used index cards and recycled magazines for my paper.

I also journal when I want to. I didn't want to set any rules or be too strict on myself. I have a little photo printer at home and I use my sewing machine to bring it all together. It's been nice having most of the resources at home if I just looked for them.

I am really enjoying it and at the end of the year I will bind the sheets together and make a book.

marilyn dress

Whenever I think of Marilyn Monroe I think of these photos.

To me this is her iconic dress.

These blue dress photos are so gorgeous and are called Summer 1957 by Sam Shaw.

I have always wanted to have a replica made and I am very thankful that in September we are having a holiday in Bali. I am going to find some blue and white polka dot material and give it to one of the many amazing dressmakers.

I can't wait.

Etsy stores such as Cherry Pie Vintage can make you a replica like this one.

Dainty Rascal also makes a replica Marilyn dress.


**photos from Marilyn Monroe