Hair last week - Victory Roll Over

Hi everyone!  I got my hair done last week my hairdresser, who I have been stalking (in a professional sense) for about 16 years, asked if she could style my hair in a kind of victory roll.  I thought you might like to see the results:

I am wearing a thrifted cardigan and polyester dress

I was very pleased with the results - I have tried Victory Rolls before but not with this kind of success.  I think the original inspiration was Katy Perry:

 Or something like this:

WOW, look at  Rita Hayworth:

Definitely not inspired by this:

My hair is the one thing that I spend my money on - I may scrimp, save, thrift and scavenge for my clothes, shoes and accessories, but my hair gets the full treatment.  I started dying my hair as a teenager, usually only semi permanent, and then advanced to permanent in my twenties when the evil curly greys started coming through.  My hairdresser and I have a great relationship, she has known me for years (through various ups and downs) and we always have a good laugh while she is making me feel like a princess.  For the record, my natural colour is dark brown and I have a naturally occuring white streak in the front which has got more prominent as I have aged...if only it was elegant as this:

 Hope you are all having a good week :-)
 Bye
Penny-Rose

Something short and someone sweet

Hi everyone, I seem to be a bit behind in my blogging and its Sunday night and I am trying to catch up (a bit).

First up, I want to show you something short:

 

Leather Jacket, Salvation Army

Black boots, Hospice shop

Black corduroy dress, Toffs

Leggings, retail

...a short dress.  It was off the $2 rack at Toffs, I think its made in Hong Kong or somewhere similar.  It is made of a nice wide rib corduroy and its fully lined.  It is very small, although the tag says large, I had to remove some of the elastic around the middle to give myself more breathing room!  Anyway, when I saw it I imagined it with leggings and boots and leather.  I persuaded my 11yo to take a pic of me outside the Harley shop.  The bird (top right) is one of my favourite, a kereru or known as the New Zealand pigeon.  This one was sitting forlornly in the cherry trees at the end of my garden almost blending in with the mist and the grey branches.  

Now I want to share with you the highlight of my week  - a morning with my dear sweet Vintage Bird Girl:

 Bonds dress, boots, bangles and bow brooch all op shopped

 

I met VBG and the Captain at the amazing Modaks for brunch - pancakes and bacon and maple syrup (yummy).  Modaks is a great cafe coffee bar which is decorated with all kinds of kitsch donkey, deer, rabbit, squirrel ornaments, cool furniture and pictures, prints and mirrors and is a blog post all of its own.  We had so much fun, talking and eating and talking.  We swapped stories about the various op shops in Dunedin and talked all things retro vintage and opshopping.  As I had arranged a couple of hours off work so we had time to visit Toffs too!   VBG bought me a beautiful gift which I am going to share in another post and I am happy to confess I had tears in my eyes when we had to say goodbye.  Blogging has really opening up my world - I feel so blessed to have made a friend like VBG.  

Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend, I look forward to catching up on all your posts 
bye
Penny-Rose

It feels like time is speeding up

This weeks feels like it has gone extra fast - it seems like only yesterday was Friday and I was looking forward to the weekend.  Alas, the weekend went fast, and the week went faster.  I started the week wearing what I consider a fairly demure outfit:
 

Vintage home-made woollen pinafore dress, found at the Presbyterian Support Shop; 

frilly blouse from Savemart, necklace, purple tights and bow boots both retail.

Tuesday was my birthday.  Just realised that the mini rainbow cake   matched my outfit:

 Diane Freis dress, found at Toffs for $2, 

worn with Atmosphere cardigan and black boots both from the Hospice Shop

My dear family made me feel like a princess and even though there was work and all the normal things to do, it was still a very special day.  

Work has been frantic all week and I don't think my photos really convey how I have been feeling at the end of the day.  My ever patient photographers know that a pic must be taken within minutes of getting in the door.  The cats somehow don't understand my sense of urgency and have to fed immediately.  Food is more important to them than participating in my blog!

By the middle of the week I decided to wear black and turquoise:

Black frilly Victorian looking blouse which is actually made of a knitted jersey and labelled Debenhams!

worn with old pleated turquoise skirt, black tights and shoes

Art Deco inspired necklace, gift from lovely family

The weather has been unseasonably warm this week and in the centrally heated office I have had my fan on most days in a valiant effort to keep cool.  My cloak had an outing this week - its not at all warm but I like the swishy feeling as I walk and I think it went with my paisley dress too:

 Vintage home-made cloak, Savemart

Vintage home-made dress, refashioned to fit, and cream boots both from ReStore

Yellow bracelets, Toffs $2

Yellow and white vintage glass necklace, Salvation Army

I have to say, I am SO GLAD it is Friday.  Today I decided to mix luxury gold embroidered ethnic skirt with the black cotton "dunedin" long sleeve tee shirt (designed here in Dunedin of course).  I gave a respectful nod to Coco Chanel with the oversize pearls and the black bow, which is a bit backhanded really, because I piled on some bangles and left my nails chipped and untidy.  Coco may have made pearls and simplicity her style, but it sure isn't mine. 

 Ethnic rayon skirt with gold embroidery, ReStore

Iconic Dunedin Tee shirt, designed by Nom'd, found in Toffs 

purple leather belt from Hospice Shop

bangles and ring all thrifted

shoes, tights and oversize pearls all retail

This weekend I will be chillaxing as much as possible and I am looking forward to Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries on Saturday night - the costumes and set are just wonderful.  I hope that time slows down a bit over the next couple of days, I feel like I need to catch my breath - or maybe that's just the aging process!!!

Hope you all have a great weekend, 
Bye
Penny-Rose xx

 

Frock on Friday: Short and Sweet, Blue and Green

Hi Everyone, a short and sweet post from me tonight for Frock on Friday.  Sometimes I find it hard to think of something different for a Friday - and today I remembered some silly saying about "Blue and Green should never be seen".  So here I am; Vintage Camette green dress, with vintage Glengyle cardigan, belt, bracelet and boots all thrifted.  I am off to make some scrambled eggs and then sit down and do some blog reading and watch Avatar.  Hope you all have a good evening!
Bye
Penny-Rose

Pleasant Point - all things nice and steamy

Some of you may not know of a very special little town in the South Island of New Zealand named Pleasant Point.  I can tell you it is pleasant by name, and pleasant by nature.  

I spent a really lovely couple of days there with my family last weekend and I would like to show you some of the things we saw:

 Interior of the first class carriage - with heated, padded leather seats, frosted etched fanlights, and beautiful lamps.

The packet exchange - back from the days when the train carried the mail

Restored Gangers hut with coal range and the sign from the cemetery

Ruston Hornsby Class LBT Diesel engine

Drure Tr 18diesel shunter

the spectacular AB699 - without her coverings waiting for her boiler inspection

 D16 2-4-0 Steam engine reversing into the station at Keane's Crossing

Wonderful old signs in the locomotive shed

interior of the ticket office

 me and the D16 2-4-0 Steam engine

The Legends Cafe (formerly the Post Office) and once the home of the famous Den Heath Custard Square.  I can vouch for the yumminess of the custard square - sadly no photos to share of this culinary delight!

me outside the Pleasant Point railway station - it was so cold I changed from hat to earmuffs!

 Oamaru Thames Street, St Vincent de Paul and a old shop facade

On the way to Pleasant Point (and home) and I can now tell you that in Oamaru I have visited the following: St Vincent de Paul, Hospice Shop and both the Salvation Army stores (most well organised Sally Army stores I have ever visited).  In Timaru I called in to the St Vincent de Paul (the biggest St V de P I have ever seen and very well laid out) sadly, the Red Cross was closed.

When I ventured into Temuka I discovered that the Salvation Army, SPCA Op shop and another op shop were all closed on the Saturday so I am planning another visit in future.  I did however find a great antique shop "Temuka Treasures"  and had a long talk about art and politics with Colin Higgins and Maria Foley in their artists studio aptly named "Out the Back".  

I had a great weekend and am planning to go back to Pleasant Point again in the near future.  Hope you enjoyed the photos!

bye
Penny-Rose

Don't you fur-get about me....

Dear Readers, I have been a bit quiet for the last few days, but I assure you I have not forgotten you, and hope you don't forget about me. 

Yesterday was quite cold - but not raining thankfully.  So I wore what I call my Teddy Bear coat, and a dress from Toffs which is not a great fit, but I don't care, because the material is so gorgeous.  It was originally a maxi, but as I wanted to get more use from it, I had to give it the chop.  I also wore a new-to-me pair of boots found at the Hospice Shop.

 Fake fur coat, Hospice Shop $8

Vintage home-made dress, Toffs $2

Vintage bow tights, Hospice Shop $2

Black boots (modern!) Hospice Shop $3

I called into the St Vincent de Paul yesterday lunchtime and while I was looking in the linens I noticed a basket of what looked like aprons.  On closer inspection, I saw a picture of man and a woman kissing, and I thought to myself, "that's a funny thing to have on an apron".  So I tugged out the piece of fabric and what I pulled out of the basket seemed to be more like a wrap around skirt.  So I bought it ($4), loving the picture straight away and today I wore it:

Atmosphere cardigan, Hospice Shop

Black top, Toffs

Chagall wrap skirt, St V de P

Purple beads, St V de P

Turquoise beads, Jetty St Hospice Shop

Laser cut perspex Space Invader earrings, retail

Tights and booties retail 

So, I did some research and the painting is by Marc Chagall and called The Birthday.  There are two panels, so the loving couple feature on the front and on the back.  I found similar skirts on this website here

I was so delighted with this outfit that I went back to the St V de P shop today to show the staff!  Have you been back to an op shop to show off?

Bye for now, 
Penny-Rose 
 

Several outfits for your viewing pleasure

At the end of last week I managed to post a Frock on Friday pic to Facebook, but was so overcome with opshopping exhaustion that I was not able to post one to my blog.

So without further ado, I present the $1 dress from Presbyterian Support:

 

 

Vintage polyester dress from Presbyterian Support Shop $1 (previously $12)

White knitted bag with plastic handles, Toffs $2

Red vinyl bag, Hospice Shop

I called in to the Presbyterian Support Shop again earlier this week, and this time, all the items in the "Lower Shop" were half price.  So I rummaged around and found this vision of loveliness:

Bonds Knitmaster Dress with awesome border print - 50 cents

Blue belt, beads and bangles all thrifted

Today, I called into the St Vinnies on George Street and saw a pair of Christian Laboutin (they looked genuine to me) priced at $10.  Now they may have been knock-offs but they were still in perfect almost unworn condition, and still a bargain.  Alas I am not a size 40.  

I am going to round of this week with a trio of skirt outfits.  Yes, round off, because I am going away tomorrow for a long weekend.  I am not sure that I will be taking part in FOF, because when I am travelling I tend to wear jeans and tee shirts, but I might surprise you!

Left: pleated Sally Small wool and cotton skirt, gift from colleague, worn with blue polyester vintage shirt, Glengyle cardigan, thrifted belt 

Centre: pleated vintage skirt from School Fair, pink georgette blouse gift from a colleague, belt, shoes and tights all retail

Right: vintage embroidered Indian skirt from Toffs with thrifted cotton cardigan and black top

Bye for now, I hope you are all having a good week,
Penny-Rose