Another Week...

It’s a dreary Friday here today - gosh Friday already? Is anyone else having troubles with the fact that it’s nearly the end of January? Where did it go? I’ve been trying to figure that one out since Monday when I realised that this week was the last week of January! Eek!

Work land has still been very busy but with not so many bad things to deal with like last week and I’ve been a somewhat good blogger and posted regularly this week, pats on the back for me.

Do any of you recognise the dress above?

It used to be this dress:

I was planning on dyeing it in October last year and bought the dye and everything except that when I got home I realised I hadn’t bought the fix to go with it. I went back to the shop only to discover they were out of the fix, so over several months I went back regularly only to be told that it was on order. I finally ended up getting it in January this year and only just got round to dyeing it last weekend. It’s supposed to be navy (hmmm) and I just need to decide whether I like this colour or want it slightly darker. There are a few unnoticeable spots where it’s not quite even but other than that I really do prefer it the darker colour, I’ve not worn this dress since my first post on it and I think it was because I was still a little unsure of whether the original colour washed me out.

Right, onwards and upwards to some bloggy awards and tags – Hoorah!

First up - Awards.

The Lovely Ana of On Dressing Up gave me 2 awards, the Proximidade award and the "I Love Your Blog" award and I'm being spoilt because the ever so stylish Eelie also gave me the Proximidade award!!

The Proximidade award has a small write up that goes something along the lines of:

"Blogs who receive this award are "exceedingly charming," says it's authors. This award is a fine one because it focuses not on the glory and fanfare of blogging, but in the PROXIMITY to one another through this online-world.
"This blog invests and believes in the PROXIMITY-nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement! Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut even more friendships are propagated.

Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this clever-written text into into the body of their award."

So the lucky people recieveing both (or all three) are - drum roll please...

Everyone on my blog roll!! Is that a cheaters way out or what? Also, I am sooooo slack about updating blog links, I honestly don't even think about it half the time, so if you would like to link swap please let me know and I'll get around to it, just you watch!!

I've also been tagged twice - once by the Lovely Emily from Resplendent Tranquility with the 4 Things Tag,
Rules:

1. Go to the 4th folder in your computer where you store your pictures.
2. Pick the 4th picture in that folder.
3. Explain the picture.
4. Tag 4 people to do the same!

I'm rather unimaginative when it comes to naming folders - I have a selection of folders called Pics, Pics2, Folder, Folder1, Folder (1) etc which makes it awefully hard to find pictures, but its just the way I am.

So my picture turned out to be this!! Its a picture I found on another blog yonks ago before I even started blogging myself. I have a habit of saving pictures I like and I just happened to really love this lounge, but I can't for the life of me remember whos lovely lounge it is we happen to be staring at. If its yours, do let me know, I love it!!

And by the lovely Casey from Noir Girl to share my top twenty classic film actors - this is a HARD one though and so I may take a bit more time to think and compile :)


Happy Weekend Peeps,

XX
Jen

Ps) Some of you wanted a better picture of my vintage black leather oxfords, I really don’t know why my blog cuts photos in half sometimes, its very annoying, but here they are...

Vintage Shoes...

So I thought I’d fill you in on a little secret – I don’t like other people’s shoes. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have any problems with feet in general, it's just their shoes. I think this is because you can wash feet easily but you can’t necessarily wash their shoes easily, which I find just a bit gross. This makes it quite difficult to buy vintage shoes because I really just don’t like the thought of putting my feet into other peoples shoes where their feet have been. On top of this, I also find it rather difficult to a) Find vintage shoes that I actually like and b) if I find shoes I actually like they still have to fit me.

But this has all just changed - I haven’t been taking lunch breaks at work because its all just a little to hectic at the moment but on Monday the sun was shining, I was wearing a newly thrifted skirt and so I decided to make myself take a lunch break and head to an opshop that I was supposed to go to on Saturday that turned out to be closed once I got there. And oh how I’m glad I did, I found two pairs of beautiful sandals that fit me perfectly and they look like they hadn’t been worn much at all!! And the best thing was they were only $4 a pair!! I also just recently purchased a beautiful pair of vintage black leather Oxfords that have a beautiful weave detail and I also found a stash of fabric towards the back of the shop with which I actually ended up having to restrain myself and only buy two bits (I have SO much thrifted fabric at home now its not even funny, seriously, I need to stop, its becoming an obsession!!).

I do own one pair of vintage heels but they don’t come out too often because they are more ‘special occasion’ shoes, but these little babies are perfect everyday shoes and I can now also join the elusive ‘100% Thrifted’ group – Yay!!

I’m also enforcing a two week buying ban on myself (David did have a little chuckle when I told him this – I don’t think he believes me…). I have so many clothes to get through and show you all (a lot still from last year) and I really just need to get out of the habit of buying clothes that aren’t in season. I have a habit of buying things for winter if its summer and then buying things for summer if its winter. This is bad because I immediately want to wear my ‘new to me’ clothing but its completely the wrong season and then when the right season does come around I end up completely forgetting about half the stuff I’ve already bought and start buying clothes for the next season. This is evidenced by the fact that most of the skirts I got on the weekend are wool and I have 3 woolen dresses that are begging to be taken out for a spin!

I’m going to be passing on all my awards on Friday, so keep your eyes peeled, they may just go to you - Oh and this is my 100^th post which is exciting! And thank you all so much for your well wishes about my terrible week, they made my day.

XX

Jen

I'm Back!!!

Contrary to popular belief, I haven’t actually fallen off the face of the earth - last week just happened to be an extremely busy and stressful week in work land. I really didn’t have time to post nor reply to any comments or emails and I feel really very bad about that, I’m mending my ways this week I promise!!

I really hope nobody has to go through the week I had last week – due to some of the issues being sensitive work issues I can’t really go into detail about them, but let me tell you, I hope none of you ever have to make the decision I had to make last week. There were a few telling times when I had to sit down with myself and ask whether I could actually do this – I’ve been the manager for two weeks now and boy what a two weeks they have been - character building *cough*.

So this weekend I decided that I really needed to fill it with things I love doing – due to my sewing machine still being away I couldn’t do any sewing or finish off those two skirts I’m currently working on but I did do a few other fun things. On Saturday morning I went op-shopping and came up trumps – lots of skirts, belts and fabric, yay!! And that night we had home made Devonshire tea again for dessert. Sunday we watched Battlestar (it’s finally started in the States again!!) and then went to the movies to see Revolutionary Road that night. I’m one of those people that can watch a bad movie if it has a good set and costumes – this movie had both and it was also a great movie. However, don’t go to see it expecting to come out feeling happy, it’s a very depressing movie and quite shocking with some of the things that happen. I almost feel like the moral of the story was don’t get married and have kids, especially if you lived in the 50’s.

The outfit above consists of one of the skirts I managed to pick up on Saturday, a cardi I thrifted last year and my trusty red flats. The necklace is from This Charming Girl and it’s an envelope that opens and inside is a tiny little letter that you can pull out that says “I love you”.

Now, I know I have awards and tags to pass on – I promise I haven’t forgotten!! I’ll divvy them out this week!

XX

Jen

Tea Anyone?

This little dress is a vintage number from the 70’s I believe, however I do feel a bit 80’s in it especially with my new hair!!

Details:
Buttons going all the way down the back (and don't ask me what i was doing here, because i really don't know!!)

Shoulder button detail - it also has buttons on the sleeves :)

How was your weekend? Mine was lovely and relaxing, besides a small amount of work that I needed to finish on Saturday morning. David and I went to the Farmers Market for a late breakfast of Galettes from the Crepe cart and ended up buying some of the loveliest tea called Grandpa’s Orchard. We initially tried the tea in Arrowtown and loved it, and much to our luck it’s made by the Tea Company who have a store at the Farmers Market every Saturday. Its made up of rose hip, peaches, raspberrys and lots of other yummy fruit and it smells like a lolly store and tastes amazing – unlike those herbal teas that you buy in a packet that smell yummy but taste like nothing.

I also had to take my sewing machine in to get looked at because its been playing up of late – I’m in the middle of trying to finish off two skirts and its really annoying when you get into a sewing rhythm and your machine throws a spaz at you! I hope its okay and isn’t going to cost me a lot to get fixed. To be fair though, I’ve had it for two years now and never taken it in to get serviced, so it probably does have the right to throw a bit of a tantrum at me.

On Sunday I decided that it would be fun to have a home made Devonshire tea with our tea from the farmers market and so made fresh gluten free scones to go with it – and I know I’ve already sung the praises of using a gluten substitute like Orgran, but seriously, since using it my baking tastes just like real baking and the texture is perfect!! David popped down to the little shop that’s close to us and picked up some fresh cream and by the time he was home the scones were piping hot, fresh out of the oven and it was time to sit down and relax. I think the key to a good Devonshire tea is the cream – it must be fresh cream though (none of that in a can instant cream stuff!!) and to let you in on a little secret - David added a little vanilla essence to it before he whipped it which made it perfect!

So, after a hectic first week back (none of this easing back into slowly nonsense) it was nice to have a relaxing weekend, even if I did have to do a little work.

XX
Jen

A Quick Post...

This is a little vintage skirt I got just the other day – and it has POCKETS!! Anything that has pockets is always better in my opinion!

Details:

My first two days back at work have been non-stop – as I was driving home last night it felt like it should have been the end of the work week! I’ve been working 9 hour days at the moment with no breaks (lunch is eaten in front of the computer still typing or on the phone, in meetings etc) and my days are only going to get longer as our first big event for the year approaches quickly at the end of Feb. It’s truly exhausting being a manager and I’ve only been doing it for 2 days! Every single decision rests at my feet and it’s up to me to hopefully make the right one, which means I think about work a lot (especially at night when I’m in bed, its so very hard to turn off!!). I have to be informed of what every one in my team is doing at all times, I need to make sure they are completing their tasks and to a high standard all while doing everything I have to do. I’m just very thankful that my team are an awesome bunch of people who know what they are doing, phew!

I also dropped off my little car into the garage this morning, it needs around $1000 worth of stuff needing to be done to it – ouch!

And with that, I’m keeping it short and sweet!

XX

Jen

Working Girl...

Its my first day back at work and its crazy busy – I’ve already got millions of meetings this week alone!



Lately for some reason I’ve been attracted little vintage cropped sweaters, and this little one I got on big sale. I’ve never really been one to wear much brown and so I was a little skeptical, but when I was carrying it around the store (as you should if you can’t decide whether you really like it) I was told it was on sale from $35 down to $8 and so I made my decision straight away!!

I thought I’d do a quick Monday post (now that I have faster internet again) and fill you in on my last couple of days of holiday. If you know me, you know I love to watch cooking shows – poor David is suffering through one at the moment that he hates!! I also love baking – but since being gluten free the joy of baking has become somewhat less because it just never ever turns out the same as it used too. Any way, I was watching a cooking show where they were making pastry and I got inspired to try and find a good gluten free recipe for short sweet pastry. At this point I found a feed talking about the wonders of a gluten substitute (not just your average arrow root or guar gum). So I found a recipe in the Jaime at Home cookbook that I have and decided that I was going to make a gluten free bakewell tart. David popped off to buy the gluten substitute and I was away laughing.

I spent the better part of an afternoon making my tart, but this pastry was the best gluten free pastry I’ve ever seen. Easy to work with, didn’t fall apart, wasn’t dry and crumbly, it was perfect! So all you gluten free ladies out there, the answer to your baking problems is not arrow root or guar gum it’s a gluten substitute! I used Orgran but I’m sure there are many out there. When I make my gluten free flour I tend to just throw in what ever I have (a mix of potato flour, tapioca flour, rice flour etc), I think most of the mixes out there are just made up proportions too, I’m not one to follow instructions exactly when it comes to mixing flour.

Any way, here are the results of my tart (it was yummy and has since vanished into thin air):









The silver spoons and cake forks I’ve had for a very long time and need polishing badly - I got them from a little antique store and the teapot is the one I got from Akaroa.

Happy Monday,

XX
Jen

The New 'Do'...

Well, I did it, its all gone and I'm letting my hair do what it naturally wants to do. What do you think?



My hairdresser was amazing and knew exactly what to do, what advice to give and what products I should use in it. She also mentioned that it would get better over the next few days as it slowly realised i was going to let it do what it wanted instead of whipping it into submission with a hair dryer and straighteners. I am allowed to blow dry it but only on hot and low and i need to scrunch it when i do it, i also need to leave a little moisture in at the end so that it can form together nicely.

I was actually really quite nervous when i left for my appointment, but now i really love it - i think its cute and its what i wanted :)

Here is the button detailing on the top i'm wearing - i've had this top for the longest time and always get compliments on it for some reason...



I'm really sorry for the short post, there is much i want to talk about but my internet right now is going at a snails pace, its painful, hence why i haven't gotten round to replying back to all of your lovely comments. Any page with a picture takes a million years and it took forever to even get this post up!! My google reader won't even load!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh...............

XX
Jen

Knitwit...

This is a little knitted sweater I got before I went on holiday but didn’t have enough time to show you before I left. The colour is perfect and its also a great little top for Dunedin summers where it tends to be four seasons in one day.

One thing that I actually really like about buying vintage is that most of the time the country where you bought the garment is more than likely the place the garment was made. I think every single vintage piece I own was made right here in New Zealand – today, although I’d like to support New Zealand business, buying new garments made here is quite far down my list of priorities - the prices alone put me off completely.

On a completely different note, I’m thinking about cutting my hair off. Not drastically, but maybe going for a cute, edgy little bob with a bit of length. I do have to be very careful about going into extreme bob land because I have a very round face and very fine, naturally curly hair that tends not to behave in wet, windy and humid conditions. Yesterday I let my hair dry naturally for the first time in a very long time and being my hair it went super curly around my face, had limp waves at the back and frizz like you’ve never seen before. And then because its so fine, by the end of the day most of the curl was gone and by this morning I had lightly wavy, still frizzy hair.

The problem with fine hair is that it goes flat really easily, especially on the days I don’t wash it, and so I kind of have a liebemarlene current hair cut in mind, but slightly longer. I think my curls go flat because my fine hair can’t handle the weight of it being long and I figure, if I’m going to start letting my hair go a little curly, I may as well go all out and get big, messy bed hair curls using an awful lot of product. Hopefully it works…

What do you think? A change for the start of 2009? I’m going to book in with the hair dresser next week if they are open, so let me know if you think I’m making a mistake I’ll regret. I’m feeling nervous already and I haven’t even made a commitment yet! Also, if you do have fine curly hair yourself and have some tips for me, I’m all ears…

Xx

Jen

Happy New Year...

Happy New Year readers!!

I hope you all had a lovely break over Christmas! This is one of the pieces I got on my little holiday and I'm betting you're sure I bagged a lot of loot while on it, but lo and behold I didn't actually buy all that much. I got a cute little teapot in Akaroa and this cute little vintage 70's halterneck and a pair of navy blue vintage gloves (which I've wanted for a long time!!) and that's it.









Our little road trip around Central Otago was amazing - and while I certainly have itchy feet when it comes to traveling international waters, it was great to get out and explore my own backyard. New Zealand has some of the most diverse scenery from wild tussock covered mountains to pretty english country side and some of the most beautiful little towns from Arrowtown - a miners settlement from back in the gold rush days, to Akaroa - a beautiful French seaside village a short drive from Christchurch. The weather was also beautiful and warm, I finally got my summer :)





Christmas was spent in Naseby with David's dad and some old friends of theirs and it was lovely - lots of great food, wine and conversation (and a great game called the Dictionary game which I'll fill you in on if you're interested!).

As we drove around, we slowly learnt the game of fruit buying from the side of the road - the number one rule is don't stop at the first place you see. They are bound to be the most expensive because they are counting on you thinking they are the only one's there, we made this fatal mistake and spent $15 on 1kg of cherry's (which where mighty yummy though). The second cherry place we stopped at we got two 1kg bags of cherry's for $10 and a box of jam cherry's that were $10 for 5kg. The only difference between jam cherry's and normal cherry's are that they are a few days older and so still perfectly yummy to eat - over 10 days 5 people attempted to finish them and David and I are still munching our way through a bag of them now.

I took these pictures last night of Mocha playing with a cherry, she was only interested in eating the stalk but had great fun playing with the cherry after that!!





I also got the chance to catch up with the lovely Andrea for coffee before we left to come back down to Dunedin, of course silly me made sure I had my camera with me but then totally forgot to take a photo with her. I find I'm one of those travelers that has good intentions of taking photos but then always forget to take any. I think I prefer to experience everything in real life as opposed to through a lens. However we did manage to take some token photos... (more of which are available for viewing on my flickr)









Some of you may have noticed that I have a new banner! I'm in love with it and have a very good friend to thank for it, Caroline and I used to work together and now she's up in sunny Nelson doing design work. Thank you so much! I know i really wasn't any help in the process, all I told her was that I wanted it to be clean, simple and have a blue theme. And after about two different concepts this magically appeared, so thank you again - I hope you get my little package soon :)

David and i have spent the last couple of days getting back into being at home, tripping over mocha because she's so happy to see us she doesn't let us out of her sight, eating the rewards of our road trip in the sun (fresh cherry's, raspberry's and yummy cheeses) and now enjoying one more relaxing week before i have to go back to work (which reminds me - I'm officially the manager as of today!!)


So, that's the end of my first blog post for 2009! I have many more vintage and thrifted lovelies to show you all in the coming weeks and months that I never got around to showing in 2008 and I have some different plans and ideas for this blog that I hope you all enjoy.

xx
Jen

Ps) I do have a few resolutions (as we all probably do) but I'm not going to list them here, nor do i plan on writing them out anywhere - they are safely tucked away in the back of my head for something to think about when things get a little tough.