Warm Afternoon Photoshoot

All photos other than the third are un-edited
(Sorry if I'm frowning a little in some of these photos)

In my last post (which was three weeks ago - I've been a little neglectful of this blog) I mentioned this Yves Saint Laurent dress I found at a charity shop. Well, here it is in all it's splendour and glory! The photos were taken yesterday afternoon in a nearby cow paddock, although the fact that it was nearby didn't stop my sister Ireland and I from borrowing the car to get there. She drove and I hopped out to open gates, or, like in the third photo - sit on them. Then skillfully we avoided weeds and climbed through fences in impractical outfits. Once we were there it was an afternoon of quoting Monty Python, laughing, scaring off cows and kangaroos, soaking up the warm afternoon sun, posing, pulling silly faces, and wielding a camera.

Summer is only a day away, and I'm longing for Winter. I'll pull out my corduroy 60's mini skirt and wish I could pair it with the maroon tights it almost always seems to end up being worn with, or have to wear a lightweight singlet instead of knitted jumpers, and sandals rather than my converse or boots. I'm even thinking that an undeniably summery teal silk dress I have would go well with a black wool cape for Winter. I guess with most of the blogs I read being located in the Northern Hemisphere, it's kind of hard to be thinking about sun-dresses and bare legs.

But our horses have their sleek summer coats, the mango trees are fruiting, mosquitoes biting, and the sun is burning within a couple of minutes. And I'm spending my days hanging around in my sister's room (she has air-conditioning.) As well as doing lots of sleeping, and at one point I woke up at six in the morning due to the bloody rooster coming into my room, jumping onto my bed, and crowing in my ear. I wish I could say that was the worst way I've ever woken up, but not when you have an older sister. And of course, lots of reading (currently on five books) and my mum just bought about six new books the other day - along with a season of Absolutely Fabulous which I'm looking forward to watching.)

My impractical outfit is comprised of the silk YSL dress, a charity shopped vintage felt hat and vintage watch. A 60's flower pin and handmade cuff - gifts from my mum, and she made and lamp-worked the purple glass bead bracelet and mermaid lariat necklace (both of which I borrowed from her.) Rings, one of them being my grandma's and the other was a gift from a close friend. The 80's boots were my mum's.

Trips to the beach

Photos taken by me. Ireland is wearing a dress from a shop called 'Destiny Boutique'.

The water was just a bit cold.

Photos by Ireland. I'm wearing Supré shorts, and the silk top is second hand 'Bluejuice'.

Photos by me. I'm not sure about where the shawl Ireland's wearing is from.

All the photos are un-edited (except for the third photo which I changed to black and white.) 

 My weather update for the past couple of months is: mostly sunny, and very hot. The temperature makes me want to slap the back of my hand to my forehead and fall down dramatically, saying: "Oh, the heat!" Imitating Keira Knightly in a scene from Pirates of the Caribbean (the movie that gave my sister and I our wonderful stick-fighting techniques). While it's not yet Summer, it feels like is has been since Spring. It really gives the temptation to go and live in the freezer when it's 34 degrees Celsius. So regular trips to the beach are necessary - although sometimes the weather decides it wants to be cold and windy as soon as you arrive at the beach. On the bright side, I enjoyed running after the 'beach tumble-weed', something that became a game between my sister and I - which I won (my beach towel made an excellent winner's toga.)
All the shoots above were taken on various trips, the last one wasn't pre-meditated but I had my camera and my willing model, and could not resist that glorious light.

Along with the beach trips, I'm trying to go on walks regularly, as well as doing yoga. I recently finished doing a yoga thing for teenagers which was about an hour and a half of yoga every Monday afternoon for four weeks - it was amazing how much better my back felt afterwards. I think the yoga's definitely helping my back, along with Bowen therapy (my Bowen therapist did some kind of respiratory move and my ribcage  is now significantly less twisty.) It was also great being able to visit the charity shops before yoga started, I picked up some great things including: a silk Yves Saint Laurent dress with a rayon bodice for four dollars (which I am eager to feature after the size is adjusted for me), an apricot silk button-up shirt for two dollars, a completely new Yves Saint Laurent scarf for one dollar, and my sister found a silk Stella McCartney top for three dollars (although it's kind of strange, and has wings of some sort.)

Well, I hope everyone's great, and that the weather for you is much better than the weather here.