༺ Peppy Robins & Navy Plaid ༻

Two things you need when blogging in the tropics ~ mozzie spray and a water bottle!

Oh gosh, I got eaten alive taking these pictures, and it’s a bit silly because I have had this happen before when doing a blog shoot, but it was so long ago that I completely forgot about the necessity of mosquito repellent! D’oh!

Also, I’m super glad I took a chance on doing this shoot. It’s the first time I’ve taken photos by myself since getting my 50mm lens for my birthday last year.

Because the depth of field is so shallow, it’s really easy to get the focus wrong and I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to get the camera to focus correctly and stay focused while running into place before the self-timer goes off!

I have been severely psyching myself out for the last month. I was so certain I needed the Mister to take the pictures for me, and that I couldn’t do it myself.  Of course, with the whole family being so busy that means I have to wait for weeks and weeks and weeks because every time I think we might be able to shoot *this* weekend, something comes up without fail! Or the children are crazy, or need naps, or I need a nap, etc…. It’s really difficult to line everyone up.

It rarely happens and it’s so much easier if I can just sneak off when I have the time to take the pics myself. But I wasn’t doing that because I was afraid of my new lens…. Haha!

I discovered the trick was to focus the camera on an object that was where I’d be standing, so either a leaf on the ground, the chair, or the tree trunk in this case. I’d push the button to start the self timer, then swing the camera to frame the shot. It worked surprisingly well! Though I had to run pretty quickly to get into frame, as well as a lot further! The camera had to be so far away to offset the shallow depth of field, so I ending up with a bunch of photos that are just of my back. Haha!

There where definitely batches of pics that didn’t work out and I needed to retake them, but for the most part I am fairly happy with the results. Next time I’ll make more effort to go find a better photo shoot location.

This time I just went to some of the gardens in our Moo Baan because I figured if none of the photos worked out I wouldn’t have wasted too much time driving all around. It’s not the greatest backdrop, although I do really love these giant trees. It’s very hard to show how cool they are because they are soooo big!

I am wearing a vintage dress that I picked up in Thailand last year at a street market. I’m fairly certain it’s a 90s-does-50s dress, the shirtwaist cut is very interesting with strong Asian styling. The waist is quite boxy, the dress naturally just hangs off the bust without any shaping. It did have one of those little slide adjusters at the back of the bodice ~ you know the kind you often find on 90s vests?

I took off the slide part and knotted the two halves together to pull the waist in. It’s a really comfortable dress to wear like that, but for the pictures I wanted it to look a little more vintage and styled up so I threw on a belt as well.

It still turned out as quite a casual look, so I added my trusty Anello backpack and Miss L Fire wedges for a slightly peppy-come-collegiate-come-summer-boardwalk style. Once I added my trusty Peppy Chapette red-breasted Robin to pick out the red of the plaid, it was all good!

I am all for a casual sundress and brooch with sandals these days. It’s my go-too look as I find anything else adds too much fuss and bother for such hot weather.

I like all the accessories and details that vintage ensembles have, but I really don’t think that it’s super practical for tropical environments. Certainly, it’s really hard to get my hair to behave neatly, it’s just wild and does what it wants these days!

I’m happy for it to be super curly, but I do feel like it detracts from the overall vintage vibes of my ensembles… *sigh* Well, you can’t have everything!

xox,

bonita

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90s-does-50s Peppy Plaid Dress | Street Market, Chiang Mai
Peppy Chapette Red-Breast Robin Brooch | Peppy Chapette
Tan Virginia Leather Sandal | Miss L Fire
Navy Mini Backpack | Anello Bags

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༺ Sunshine Paradise ༻

Oh, this day was such a perfect day!

The sun, the sand, the surf ~ there’s nothing better for an Australian summer holiday, especially on these golden beaches. Naturally, while I was up at the Gold Coast with Harlow Darling and my sister, we went to Surfer’s Paradise Beach to spend some time hanging out in the sunshine.

It’s a popular spot, so there were lots of people around, and I’m sure at least some would have been wondering who was the crazy chick dancing around in the surf taking photos, but eh… Life of a blogger right??!

After the lazy, sun kissed morning at the beach, we decided that some food was certainly in order, so we walked down to the QT Hotel which is just a block or two away. Boy, oh boy ~ the food was delicious! We had Mexican, and the yummiest tropical cocktails in the cutest tiki tumblers!

Unfortunately, the end of lunch also signalled the end of my little holiday ~ we had to say a fond farewell to Harlow and zip back to my sisters home… Oh, boy! You should have seen me run! Haha! ヾ(≧∇≦)ゞ

I’d tried to pack in the morning, but really there wasn’t much time, or much that I could actually put away. So when we got home I flew into a whirl wind of packing and craziness, and changing into warmer clothing for the flight home. We made it with fifteen minutes to shape ~ {yay! We were worried for a bit there!} and obviously I got home safely. Very tired, but very happy to have such a lovely time with my friends. It’s always a good thing to make memories with people you care about. ❀❤❀

This Lady K Loves seersucker two piece set was really the perfect beach outfit though! I’d ordered the matching blouse and skirt at the tail end of this summer season, and when it came I knew that I wanted to snap it at a beach. I hadn’t had that chance and it was suddenly the end of autumn! I resigned myself to waiting until next summer to wear it, when lo and behold… Yep! The Gold Coast trip happened, so into the extremely over-stuffed suitcase it went.

What I really loved about wearing it to the beach was the chance to style this set with a super casual look. Sometimes I feel like there’s a standard of ‘dressed up’ that my vintage outfits have to reach in order to be on the authentic side {which I do like to try for most of the time}, so it’s fun to pull together a ‘casual’ look once in a while. Annnd then you realise that your casual look can still be pretty darn dressed up; comparatively! Hat ~ good sun protection, matching sunglasses ~ fairly standard I suppose, and… a brooch? To the beach??  Haha!!

Well, anyway, I felt super relaxed and casual, and that’s all the really counts in the end I think! And yes, seersucker is the perfect summer fabric. I need more in my wardrobe, I really do. Cotton is awesome, don’t get me wrong, but for a lightweight, breathable fabric that is fairly nearly crush proof ~ you really can’t beat seersucker. I had to iron everything else from my suitcase, but not this!! (•̀o•́)ง✧

I do just want to ask though ~ for the sake of a good holiday photo, how crazy have you gone? Snaps in crowded locations? Sitting on the edge of a cliff or lookout?  Sneaky pics in the *gasp* art gallery?

{Actually ~ side note, last time I was in France you were allowed to take photos in the museums and galleries {yes, even in the Louvre!} and it was actually really cool! Except that you couldn’t really see the Mona Lisa at all due to the amount of flashes in the protective glass casing… Haha! I laughed and moved on as there were many other amazing paintings and artworks to see besides that one.}

xox,

bonita

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Vintage Daisy Straw Boater Hat | eBay
Vintage Mint Nylon Scarf | eBay
Vintage Yellow Enamel Hat Brooch | eBay
So Retro Sunglasses | Zenni Optical
Limited Edition Bow Bangle | Pandora
Peppermint Two Piece Seersucker Set | Lady K Loves

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༺ Hop, Sock, and a Jump ༻

Warm, lingering evenings at the park with the family ~ that is pretty much the epitome of summer isn’t it?  ｡･ﾟ☆ヽ(*^ｰ^)人(^ｰ^*)ノ☆｡ﾟ･｡  We took the children out for a before-dinner play, as the weather has been quite hot lately, and it’s been too scorching to go outside for long during the day. It’s as if the first day of autumn arrived and summer decided to burst in with a loud “Hellloooo! I’m here!”

We’ve had more hot days in a row this March than all of summer, two weeks of soaring low to mid thirties temperatures. It has been okay though, because they have also come with lovely cool, crisp evenings that calm everything down with a hush, rather than leaving it sultry and breathless. I feel as though these dog days of summer have me longing for autumn, for the fresh air and the energy that always come with the turning of the season. Ah, but I can enjoy the end of the warm weather with a few more floaty dresses and fun skirts!

To the park I wore this sweet vintage 1950’s ‘Farmer’s’ blouse in robin egg blue with tiny black and pink rickshaws all over it. It’s my first vintage novelty print blouse, and I think it’s super cute! I do love novelty prints, but I tend to prefer them to be kind of subtle, so nothing in particularly bright colours. But then again, I don’t tend to do bright colours of any description ~ novelty or not ~ so that shouldn’t come as a surprise to me. Haha! (*≧▽≦)

With subtle novelty in mind, I couldn’t resist an obscure reference to the good ol’ Sock Hop dance, in the form of random pun. Sock Hop… Hop, Skip, and a Jump? ‘Coz I’m wearing socks…Anyone?? Haha….  I’m sure no one particularly finds my feeble attempts at witticism that hilarious, but if you can’t amuse yourself just for fun, well then, that’s a rather sad state of affairs is it not?  (๑•̑з•̑๑)੭

Lame jokes aside, is it just me that find vintage novelty prints often do a fantastic job of creating simple and punny {haha, you know I just had too!} ideas that are not just cute, but also really clever?  My favourite novelty print, and I’d love to own a dress or blouse with this kind of fabric, is the much sought after “lady’s hand holding a letter” or “lady’s hand holding a posy” print. Almost everyone loves it, and so do I! Which one is your favourite, or do you prefer a plain or non-novelty print prints?

xox,

bonita

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Bunny Dot Hair Tie | eBay
So Retro Sunglasses | Zenni Optical
Vintage 1950s Rickshaw Blouse | Vintage Pop Up Fair
Blue Blue Candy Stripe Skirt | Forever New
Linen Paris Luncheon Bag | eBay
Dotty Socks | Dollar Shop
White Plimsolls | Woolworths, Old

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༺ A Day Of Books ༻

I wanted to call this post “A Day At The Library” but realised that was rather misleading as I don’t think my bookshelf at home is a library per say ~ even though it might be my ‘personal library’.

Yes, the writer side of me is being persnickerty again.

And technically, it wasn’t a day of books either. We went to playgroup instead.  (⌒▽⌒) ☆

So today I’m introducing one of my favourite outfits for around the house or casual outings, like playgroup, for this winter. It isn’t a terribly period accurate look as far a being either 1940’s or 1950’s, which are my two main decades to dress from, but I do feel like it has a bit of an Edwardian feel, or perhaps 1910s?

Anyway, it really is a comfortable combination. I love this emerald plaid skirt paired with my favourite grey Victorian/Army mash-up boots, and the ankle length keeps me surprisingly warm, which is fabulous for cold winter weather. Add a delicate lacy choker necklace with my black knit top, finish the look off with an oversized floral bow, and it’s a perfect simple-but-effective outfit.

I feel like long skirts for winter should be more of a thing. I know that skirts in general tend to have a bad rap for letting your legs get cold, but I’m always surprised at how warm my legs stay when wrapped with all the excess fabric of a longer skirt. Mind you, this one is lined as well, so that helps. Also, we don’t get snow. I’m pretty sure that’s probably a factor too.  
(~￣▽￣)~

Do you like long skirts for winter? Or do you prefer to stick with the longer lengths in summer? I’m always surprised at the versatility of skirts ~ they seem to be able to keep you as warm or as cool as you want to be. Perhaps I shouldn’t be though ~ there is a good reason they are such a firm favourite in my wardrobe!

xox,

bonita

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Giant Bow of Floral Awesome | Me Made, Old
Pearl & Apple Lacy Choker | Me Made, Old
Basic Black Top | Primark, Old
Emerald & Black Plaid Skirt | Osasp, Old
Grey Stomp Boots | FSW, Old

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