Thursday, August 23, 2012

Frock on Friday


For your viewing pleasure, 
I am pleased to present 
my Frock on Friday Frock for 24th August:

1980s Osti dress, Toffs $2
Red cardigan, Butterflies, $4
Fur stole with pom-poms, Trademe $1
Black leather jacket, Salvation Army $8
Blue belt (not visible) Butterflies, $1
Tights and shoes retail
....and because I like cute things, here are two of my companions who share my office:  Little Boy Blue Pepper Pot and his friend Elasti-cat:

Little Boy Blue Pepper Pot, Weirs second hand furniture store, 50 cents
Elasti-cat, St V de P , $2

I am so looking forward to the weekend - fingers crossed for a catch-up with the lovely Vintage Bird Girl!!  Dear H is away to a conference for a few days so Dear D and I are planning to get up to some mischief ;-)  We have a trip to the library and to the swimming pool all planned, but I think she is hoping for some shopping and chocolate as well, and also some DVDS and popcorn.  Last week we watched "The Hunger Games" (awesome) and Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked" (kinda cute).  This weekend she wants to watch "The Lorax".

All in all the forecast is for a good weekend: Hope you all have a great one!

PS I found this truly awesome Poodle Barometer in the "Free" box outside Weirs Second Hand Furniture store which is located a block from my work place.  It is a wonderful store for old furniture especially made from Kauri and Rimu which are beautiful, and now protected NZ native timber.  When I saw this I immediately thought of Vix.  No visitor to my office has dared to comment on it (yet).  I think it is because it is so desirable and gorgeous.  What do you think?

All that glitters is not pink, or polka dotted....

I am not really very sure about the blog title today - but one thing I am sure of, is the content.  Finally I have downloaded some photos!

The first couple are from two weeks ago - the inaugural wearing of the "Sonya Smart" purple floral shirt dress.

Sonya Smart dress, Trademe $5
Pink cardigan, SaveMart $7
Pink tights, No 1 Shoes
Furry Shoes, St V de P
Necklace, gift from dear Childhood Friend
Bracelet, gift from Dear D and Dear H

The colour of the dress is in reality a dark purple and the flowers are two shades of pink with green and turquoise.  I love this dress - I can see that I will be able to wear it with different accessories.  However, on the first wearing I wore it with pink - a lot of pink :-)


Close up of turquoise necklace

In my last post I told you that I had bought 5 new dresses recently.  I have already worn the black and white one (pictured below) but somehow forgot to take a photo of me wearing it!!

Black and White "Level 5" dress, Butterflies, $4

The pink one is a lovely silky polyester and a wide skirt - not quite a full circle.  I haven't worn it yet.

Pink "Sarah" dress, Butterflies, $4
However, I did wear the new "Glamis" dress today and was really happy and comfortable with it.  The neckline is a bit like a funnel, kind like a loose polo neck.  I did wonder if it would annoy me but it did not and teamed up with my silver belt and a grey cardigan I was very happy with this outfit.

Glamis Polyester dress, Orphans Aid Intl 

Here is a slightly closer photo - I think the pattern is like feathers or leaf skeletons and the colours remind me of lava or the agent orange scenes from Apocolypse Now (we watched the Redux version in the weekend and I thought it was amazing).

Black leather jacket, Salvation Army
Silver belt, Portmans
Grey tights, retail
Thankfully it did not rain today, so I was able to take a couple of photos when we got home from work while it was still light.  The garden is looking very very green after the torrential rain we've had.  I found a beautiful tiny mushroom amongst the leaf litter at the back of the garden under some trees.  It is dwarfed by a self-sown hebe which is about 6cms tall.


Blossom is just starting to come out on a couple of trees and my beloved tree peonies are starting bud.  The herbacious ones are already send up red shoots through the saturated soil.  I hope we get some sunny days to dry things out, else the tubers could rot!!!

Okay, that's about it from me for today, tomorrow its Frock on Friday and I think I will go and have a try on in my room as I am thinking of wearing one of my other new dresses.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Clothing Karma

August is "Give it up for Hospice" month.  Instead of taking my preloved treasures to Postie as per the poster below, I delivered my donation directly to the Butterflies shop in Hanover Street.



Although I do buy clothes for my daughter at Postie, nothing there appeals to me.  When I was telling my Dear H about my charitable donation he suggested I do an audit.

So, here is my list of donations:

Green dress polyester bought from Gypsy Fair $10 (no photo of this dress.  To be honest it did not fit me properly, it was about 2cm too small across the shoulders and I could not do all the buttons up. Still I worked out I wore it weekly for about three months so I got my monies worth!!)

Black and white shirt dress from Restore $1 - here it is worn to celebrate NZ winning the Rugby World Cup late last year.




Red floral shirt dress from Salvation Army Milton $4 (I think) Again, I can't find a photo of this dress.  Its lovely fabric, but again it was a smidge too small, and short.

Orange Atmosphere cardi (always worn with Green Gypsy dress and goes with nothing else) Recycle Boutique $4.50

Home made purple peony batik dress - fabric bought off trademe $5 and bias binding from Hospice shop for 20 cents.  The dress was based on a 1960s Simplicity pattern and for some reason it just did not look right.  I think I wore it once.

Modified denim skirt from Presbyterian support $1 fill-a-bag, so probably 20 cents as well.  This started life as a denim maxi which I cut the top 20 centimetres off and made a new waist band, which meant that I could keep the top stitching around the hem and buttons.  When I bought the skirt it was almost brand new.  I have worn it so much that the denim is now soft.  It owes me nothing and has been usurped in my wardrobe by a Levis denim maxi I bought from the same place for 50 cents.



Lastly, a 1970s polyester dress - from Purple Rain.  Originally it had a spectacular frill around the bottom which I cut off and unruffled and then re-attached.  This dress had an annoying stain on the bust which I tried to conceal with a bow made from the leftovers from the frill.  I did not really like this dress, but I wore it because I think I paid $15 for it.  Above I am wearing it with a shirt underneath - dear god what on earth came over me???  It was a pullover style and looked better on a sunny day.  Alas the bow pulled forwards and seemed to be a magnet for biscuit crumbs and chocolate.

So all together I spent $39.90, which I have now donated to Hospice Shop.  Do I dare go in there and see what prices are on my clothes????

Anyway, this all sounds very altruistic and kind, but the truth is, and I am sure that those of you who know me, I need to confess that I acquired 5 dresses in the last two weeks.

Firstly when in the Butterflies shop at the beginning of last week....

Polyester pink "Sarah" dress with huge pink flowers and a big almost circle skirt $4
Polyester dress with pleat skirt and slightly poofy sleeves $4

Dear H who has been my accomplice spied a Johnny Cash DVD, Live in Denmark no less for around $7.

Then in the weekend, I made a mad dash in the continuous and depressing, pouring and drenching rain late on Sunday afternoon to Toffs.  In 2 minutes I found 2 great dresses in the $2 section!!

Polyester Osti dress from 1980s with batwing sleeves and full skirt in a wild pink blue white and purple floral

Poly-Cotton sundress in white with black pattern like amoeba's and dark red buttons up the front.

Finally, today Dear H and I went on a bit of a pilgrimage to South Dunedin.  First up we visited the Salvation Army Shop.  Slightly shocked is the way I felt when I wandered around - the prices seemed too high.  The clothes seemed to average around $10 and there were some charming old paintings and prints but the prices were ridiculous - $20, $25, $65 and $100!!!!!!! The other thing that annoyed me was that there were lots of cute ornaments including an adorable cat with a really long neck, but none of them had prices on them.   I did buy something but I am not going to show you just yet, but it also had no price on it and the assistant had to go and ask someone.  Dear H bought a train book in pristine condition for $20.  About the same as Trademe prices without the hideous postage costs.

Next, we looked in the St Vincent's de Paul....very nice and tidy but nothing appealing.  The two adorable elderly ladies ignored us and chatted non stop while we looked around.  I was tempted by an Elvis record for 50 cents until Dear H told me it was a covers album and not really Elvis.  The first global event that I recall as a child was the death of Elvis.

Lastly, and due to time and parking constraints, we went to Orphan's Aid International.  This is a lovely shop made up of two "rooms", everything is neat and tidy.  Everything was priced.  Reasonably.  With proper stickers like a real shop.  Orphans Aid also sells fair trade chocolate, coffee and some beaded items.  Dear H, the book worm he is, found another book, this time on the Sharemarket, it 50 cents.  I was not holding out much hope that I would find anything, and then I saw it.  An amazing Glamis dress in red and orange and grey and cream that kind of looks like brush strokes.  $6.00, and it was freshly washed!!  The hilarious thing is that when I was paying for the book and dress, something had not been done properly and the amount showing on the EFTPOS machine was $65,000!!!! Laughing I told the nice lady at the counter that would be a rather large donation and could we please cancel the transaction.

In conclusion.  Clothing expenditure on me this fortnight = $18.

Right, Dear H thinks I should start a ledger like an accounting book with all my transactions in it.  I told him that my blog is my ledger!!  Hope you are all having a good week,

xx Penny-Rose



Friday, August 10, 2012

Venturing out of hibernation......


Well, I thought I might come out of hibernation to see what is going on in the world.  My family and I have all been sick with the ghastly flu like virus.  This week just passed was a real struggle at work because I spent most of the previous week at home.  The only good thing to come out of it all was that I watched quite a lot of the Olympics.  While at work, my colleagues were wonderful, threatening to take me home, put me in quarantine..... etc.  They all made me feel better by making work fun.  I totally agree with the saying "laughter is the best medicine".

Anyway, to celebrate Frock on Friday I decided to make a real effort and here are the results:

Photo by Penny-Rose
Astrakhan Coat - Refind Rig $10
Black and white 1070s evening dress chopped off below the knee - Toffs $2
Red flower and black and white scarf - retail
Red cardigan and "cow bag" - Butterflies Hospice Shop
plastic bangles - various op shops
Black shoes - SaveMart $8

Photo by Penny-Rose

I got the sewing machine out today to add some extra length to the sleeves of a sweatshirt for my daughter.  The sizing of modern clothes is really weird - she is 11 years old but wearing size 14 girls clothes and nearly all the tops have really really short arms.  Polar fleece sweatshirts which are the right length in the body, for some reason only have the equivalent of 3/4 sleeves.

So I chopped off the cuffs, added some fleece I bought in the scraps section of the Presbyterian Support Fabric Sale and then added some ribbing bought from St Clair Design sale a couple of years back.

In terms of my own sewing I am in the midst of modifying a 1970s over dress into a skirt.  I bought it at Christianne's in Port Chalmers.  Its dark green with white polka dots.  The bodice was really small for me - I could not even get my arms through the arm holes, but when Christianne offered it to me for %4 (instead of $25) I immediately said yes, knowing that it would make a lovely skirt.  I cut the bodice off and now, I am putting some pleats in the top of the skirt and about to re-fashion a waistband from the bodice.

Despite vowing I will not buying anything else from Trademe I find myself drawn to items of clothing in the vintage section, or in the Art Deco and Retro category.  Because I have not been well I have not bought anything for a while, so an easy purchase online alleviated my feelings of missing op-shopping.

Below is a bad photo of the Sonya Smart dress - size 18.  Its made of some kind of cotton twill type fabric which reminds me a little of very fine needlecord.  Although it has a couple of buttons at the neck it also has a zip in the centre back .....which is completely unnecessary.  I can easily get it on over my head.  So I intend to remove the zip and sew up the back.  I also need to re-hem the dress and one of the sleeves.  Its a funny shade of purple with bright blue green and two shades of pink spots and flowers.  Very kitsch.  What do you think?

Photo by Penny-Rose

At the moment it is on the washing line - I would type drying, but as it is a gloomy grey Dunedin afternoon it is not technically drying.  It is hanging in the air.  Limp and lifeless.  I will bring it in shortly and leave it to dry properly in front of the fire.  Nearly 11 yo daughter is at a birthday party/sleep over so Dear H and I are going to Little India and then coming home to watch a DVD Tyrannosaur which appealed to me amongst all the other nauseating romantic comedies and dreadful action adventure.

Lastly my dear readers, I want to show you my pink hair...its only light pink but it is definitely pink:

Photo by Penny-Rose

Here it is the night it was done - my fabulous hairdresser Kerry did it in a cute curl.  I felt like a character from Dr Seuss - and I mean that it in the nicest way.  As I have learnt from reading Peetee's Palace, you can never be too old for pink hair.  Next time I might try violet.

Okay, all for now, hope you are all having a lovely weekend, and may the thrifting and crafting goddess be kind to you all,

xx