༺ Swan Lake ༻

Please don’t laugh at me, but I have kind of been obsessed with ballerinas and the idea of dancing ballet ever since I was a wee lass. It is the first thing I ever remember really, really, really  wanting to do.

I never did get the chance to dance ~ my mother thought my thighs would get fat when I stopped dancing {er, not true I don’t think? Also, why would you stop?} and that my feet would be ruined {true, true, completely true!}. So I was put into gymnastics instead, and for a long while wanted to be a competitive gymnast.

I stopped gymnastics when we moved from Armidale to Canberra, and took up horse riding. {Forever happy I did that! ❤}

However, I have never truly stopped wanting to dance in the bottom of my heart. I sporadically dream I can dance en pointe, effortlessly gliding across light-filled, echoing ball rooms with flying jeté and ceaseless pirouettes.

Then I wake up, and for a moment, I live in the dream ~ only to feel fettered when I remember that my body doesn’t know how to move like that….

Buuuuttttt…  Sometimes that secret desire breaks through and I end up dancing around anyway.

I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed this {I sure have while editing my blog pictures!}, but pretty much every time I’m doing a photoshoot in flats, the majority of the photo I’m up in demi-pointe, as high up on my tippy toes as I can be. I rarely take the pictures standing normally! Whoops… (=⌒_⌒=)'

This is particularly a problem if I’m wearing a floaty dress as well as flat shoes.

….Even more so if it’s a windy day when I’m wearing said floaty dress…

Which it most definitely was in these pictures!

That combination meant I spent eighty percent of this photoshoot on my toes. And I didn’t even notice!! I think it was pretty appropriate that I was wearing a “Swan Lake” inspired ensemble and even had a swan painted wooden box bag to match!

Anyway, if you recognize this outfit ~ yes, it is the one I was wearing on the day of this year’s AAVGM.

I had parked my car at Sydney University for the day, and when I was walking to the Rock’n’Roll Markets in the morning, I was walking past all these gorgeous buildings! I found the all the old English influence enchanting, and was longing to take some pictures, but I had to keep going.

However, when I was walking back to the car after saying goodbye to everyone, I thought ~ well, why not take some pictures before I hop in the car and drive home? It’s pretty much my only chance to do so ~ and that settled it.

I grabbed the camera and parked myself in front of the Old Lecturer’s Hall to take my pictures before the rain started blowing in. And when I was done, that was finally the end of my epic solo trip to Sydney.

Yes, I drove up by myself and to be honest, it’s been ages since I’ve done a solo long distance trip in the car {though, does my trip to Bowral count? …Nah ~ I think that was a mini warm up…}, and it was certainly was the first time I’ve done any real driving in Sydney. Does having a GPS count as cheating though?!

I couldn’t have done the trip without it; I’m a hopeless navigator and I tend to get a bit stressed when I’m driving in thick traffic in an unknown city! It’s as bad as trying to find a car park in a busy location when you are running late… Ugh.

But I didn’t have to deal with running late at all this trip which was also a high point for me ~ maybe my dreams of one day being perfectly organized and on time are actually possible!  And maybe, just maybe, one day I’ll learn to dance for real. (•ᵕ ᴗ ᵕ•)❀

xox,

bonita

༺ ♡ ༻

Retrimmed Straw Boater Hat | Old
Red Signature Double Roses | Daisy Jean Floral Designs
Swan Lake Hell Bunny Dress | eBay
Ruby Red Patent Belt | Thrifted
”Swan Queen” Boxy-Bag | Teacup Girl Art
Wine Red Lace Wrap Flats | Zulily

༺ ♡ ༻
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༺ WoreSawHaul: AAVGM 2016 Rock’N’Roll ༻

It’s that time of year again ~ the Annual Aussie Vintage Girls Meetup {AAVGM ~ a mouthful I know… :P Here’s last year’s post}!

This time we were at the Rock’n’Roll Markets being held at Sydney University. I thought this worked quite well as it was slightly less crowded than the Round She Goes Markets in Marrickville Town Hall we were at last year. This was mostly because at this particular venue, all the vintage vendors where outside the building and the rockabilly/pinup/retro vendors where all inside with the bands and dance floor upstairs. 

We browsed, coffee’d up, shopped, chatted, shopped some more, then decided to go for lunch. So after a short walk and a long {relatively, haha!} photo session, we ended up at a gorgeous café for delicious food and tea. It was such a fabulous day! ✧*｡٩(ˊᗜˋ*)و✧*｡

But as I have a whole post dedicated to what I wore, let’s skip that bit and head straight to the SawHaul parts…. :P

~ WHAT I SAW ~

~ These gorgeous ladies! L to R: emmaamie, ladylaurabell, awildteaparty, lilajeanvintage, ….& me – lavenderandtwill! Thanks to the lake’s bridge we had a great prop for the camera. Though, as LilaJean pointed out, anyone spectating would have wondered what on earth those nutty ladies where standing there smiling at… Why, a fence post with a camera on it of course!! … As you do. Naturally… ~

~ Sydney University, with loads of lovely architecture; more coming later… ~


~ Park near Sydney University which we walked through to get to lunch; but first! Stop and paparazzi time…!! #bloggerlife #vintagegirlsgoout ~


~ Outside at the Rock’n’Roll Markets ~


~ More park scenes ~

~ Saying goodbye to the girls after lunch; so didn’t want to end the day, but I had to drive back home to Canberra… ~

༺ ♡ ༻

~ WHAT I HAULED ~

Surprisingly not much. There where some decent prices, and pretty vintage {always pretty vintage to drool over… Haha!} but nothing that really caught my eye or struck my fancy. I did pick a couple of things though ~ a wooden découpage handbag from the 70’s, some clip on earrings and the cutest Deer Arrow brooch.

I was really pleased to find the Blue Birds brooch as I’ve been thinking about buying this particular piece for a while. I do love a lot of the Deer Arrow designs, but somehow it took me a long time of thinking before I made the plunge and bought my first brooch.  When I found it in person though, I knew I wasn’t walking away without it, and I didn’t! 

༺ ♡ ༻

So that was my day out in Sydney with the girls ~ I had such a lovely time, and once again had a lot of fun just chatting and giggling over all the the things that girls do.  Our meetup was a bit smaller than originally planned, we were missing some ladies that couldn’t make it, but that’s okay, we will see them next time hopefully. ٩(+๑╹+ꇴ╹)۶

Large or small groups, long or short times ~ hanging out with your friends is always a good thing!!

xox,

bonita

༺ ♡ ༻

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༺ High Times at the QVB ༻

Um, too many photos. Too much good foods. Too many giggles! And gelatine…. Wayyyy too much gelatine…!

I want to leave the giant pile of pictures to do most of the talking, but the gist of the story is that we had high tea at the Queen Victoria Building on George St, in Sydney. The lovely Ellen from A Wild Tea Party hosted the event and we were a small, but definitely glamorous, party at the Tea Room in the stunning, historic QVB.

It was such a dazzling venue, there were pink crystal chandeliers on the ceiling! All the gold gilt and embossed features reminded me of the glittering palaces in Europe… We were even treated to dainty fine china ~ the Royal Albert Old Country Roses collection. A timeless tea set covered in roses and gold, which of course, I adored.  ﾟ:*✧❀❁❀✧*:ﾟ

~ All of the ladies around the table: AWildTeaParty, MissHarlowDarling, LadyLauraBell, CurveCreation, EmmaAime, LilaJeanVintage, Rozelle_Rose ~


~ The gluten free scones were the best I’ve ever tasted… Total food melt down here!  ~


~ A behind the scenes snap of our little walk that landed us at a church a block from the QVB; after we had finished up at the Tea Room. It was blogger chaos, dozen of pictures being taken, chatter and loads of selfies… Hilarious to see I’m sure!! #bloggerlife… : P ~

Everyone looked perfectly fabulous! We had a range of decades represented; from 1930’s elegance to early 1960’s Audrey Hepburn inspiration, and then of course, some gals were dressed in the ever popular 1940s and 1950s fashions.

~ All of our group together! There was definitely an unofficial red & black theme going on here, but somehow Ellen and I missed the memo! Haha! ~

I went for a 1950’s cocktail inspired look myself, as I had a very special piece of vintage that I’d been dying to wear out. ヾ(≧∇≦)ゞ Sometime ago an extraordinary hand painted, hand sequined, novelty print circle skirt arrived in the mail for me {that was a red-letter day I can tell you! Even my non-vintage friends who were over for coffee at the time could see that it was a unique piece of vintage; judging from my excited squeals over the parcel and how I simply had to try the skirt on straight away!!}, and I knew I needed a extraordinary occasion to wear it.

Skirts are one of those odd clothing designs that can look casual, even when they aren’t. This skirt definitely falls into the tricky spot of being a daytime special event piece. With all the bling, it’s definitely dressy, but being a separate tones down the special effect of the sequins…. If you can tone down sequins that is!

I could style it with a casual vibe to rock it to a vintage fair or something, but for it’s first official outing I was dying to glam it up. Therefore, it was an easy choice to pair it with the Collectif gold lurex top I’d purchased a while back, and once I added some more gold, beading, and rhinestones in the form of accessories, it really gave this ensemble the elegant feel I wanted for this amazing meetup.

My clear rhinestone decorated clutch, gold lurex gloves, beaded bow fascinator and burgundy fur shawl were all vintage finds that brought the perfect finishing touches to the outfit. The shoes were Betty Page, and arrived in the mail two days before the trip! Lucky last minute… Whew!  So between the breath-taking outfits on everyone, and the melting delicacies of the table, it’s a wonder we had anything to say at all…

Haha! Just kidding! I think we just about gabbed the whole time away without a second to spare!! In between the giggles, there were multitudes of pictures taken, as you can tell, but I’m going to pop in some more… Sorry, not sorry!

Let’s finish with the fun "polaroid" pictures, because every time Ellen and I try to take a serious photo together it usually dissolves into a fit of silliness.... So there’s also a gif of goofiness, brought to you by our fabulousness. You're welcome!  ₍^·͈༝·͈^₎◞♡

xox,

bonita

༺ ♡ ༻

Vintage Marigold Beaded Bow Fascinator | eBay
Vintage Fur Shawl | Round She Goes Market, 2015
Gold Lurex Top | Collectif
Vintage Gold Lurex Gloves | eBay
1950s Clear Clutch with Rhinestones | Oh La La
Glitter, Gleam & Glamour 1950s Novelty Circle Skirt | Oh La La
Gold Ruffle & Rhinestone Sling Backs | Betty Page

༺ ♡ ༻

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༺ A Vintage Girl Goes Snowboarding ༻

…Sometimes there’s more to life than vintage…

Have you ever wondered about the secret life of vintage girls that’s hiding behind our dress obsessions?

We love our petticoats and high heels, and all the beauty of the elegant, fabulous fashions of the past. But the brilliant thing about living in this day and age is that we can follow all of our interests ~ whatever they may be. We can have our heels, our petticoats, and our cake ~ speaking literally of course!  ;P 

I think it’s so fun that I can wear vintage every day; or not! Or that I can decide that one day, I’m going to turn up to ride my horse with a full face of makeup ~ red lips and nails included ~  wearing the scruffiest jeans!

Vintage crosses over and permeates almost every area of my life, yet I also have passions and hobbies that are almost completely unrelated, such as horse riding, or snowboarding ~ among other things. I thought that maybe it would be fun to share some of those things that don’t make it onto my blog, because my life has more to it than the glimpses of the times that you see here. ヽ(*⌒∇⌒*)ﾉ

So today I’m introducing a new series to feature to our vintage community doing things that they love outside of vintage ~ a chance to talk about our so-called ‘secret’ passions and hobbies. As you probably can tell, it’s called ~ “A Vintage Girl Goes (insert fun thing here)”!

I think it’s kind of awesome to rock up in my red lipstick and surprise people when I’m doing something that’s not associated with any kind of vintage fashion or style; I like to be totally unexpected! So here I am, kicking off this feature with my favourite winter sport ~ snowboarding! ☆ﾐ(o*･ω･)ﾉ ❅❄❅⛄❅❄❅

If you follow along with my Instagram, you’ve probably already seen a little bit of what I get up too, but I thought I’d share a vlog of a day on the slopes, and hopefully you’ll get a glimpse of why I love to shred powder so much… Or should I call it a “Snowlog”? Hehee!

So I’m wondering, what interests do you have {that fall outside of vintage} that you love to do? I know I have a few sports and the like, and being the curious person that I am, I’d also like to learn about the secret ‘other’ life you have beyond your vintage. If you’d like to take part in this feature, I’d love to have you here on Lavender & Twill!

If you want to participate, please leave a comment with either your email address, or if you prefer, you can contact me through email and I’ll send you further details about being featured in the “A Vintage Girl Goes” series.

I hope to be introducing a whole bunch of different things from the other side of our vintage loving lives to you all very soon!  ヽ(*^ｰ^)人(^ｰ^*)ノ

And if you have a favourite winter sport ~ is it snowboarding or something else? I know why I love snowboarding ~ it’s that flying-free feeling of carving over the snow, swooshing down the hill! It’s totally addicting…

xox,

bonita

༺ ♡ ༻

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