Summer Garden

 Photos of me taken by my mum mid-December last year in our garden. My silk dress is Victoria's Secret that I got for $4 from a charity shop and dyed (it was originally a light blue). Sorry it's a bit crinkly, but ironing is weird...

Also, Happy Sort-of-New Year!

Last bursts of Summer

We've now had two weeks of Autumn here in Australia, but we're still getting a few super summery days (like today) which my sister and I took advantage of with a quick shoot in the morning. One of my favourite things about Autumn is that it alternates between glorious warm days with dark blue skies and cool cosy days perfect for reading (at the moment I'm right into classics, and have almost finished 'Jane Eyre'), listening to music, watching movies and drinking several cups of hot tea and coffee. As well as that it's not too hot for tights or jeans, but not too cold for bare legs.
I'm looking forward to getting a lot of wear from the gorgeous seventies boots I'm wearing in these photos, and Autumn is the perfect season to be wearing them. They go with so many things, especially when paired with my favourite maroon tights, which were whipped out as soon as it was cool enough, and I'm expecting for them to be worn a lot this Autumn - as well as the boots.

The boots were bought from this Etsy shop, and I was very happy when I received them and discovered they were a perfect fit. I love vintage shoes, but I struggle to find many that fit my size forty feet (I have the same trouble with gloves, hats and clothes too.)
Here I am wearing them with a yellow lace dress from a charity shop, which I customised by adding white lace and brown buttons (I've lost the fourth one I was going to put on, and still don't have any ribbon for the bow, so it's still a work in progress.) Over the top of it is a sixties or seventies crochet lace top, also charity shopped. The seventies satchel is my mum's, she hasn't quite said she's given it to me yet, but I've already managed to slowly introduce it into my room. I'm also wearing a vintage watch from a charity shop, which I wear most of the time, even though it doesn't work (which is interesting when someone wants to know the time.)

Green after the rain

These photos were taken yesterday morning when my sister and I put a pile of clothes in a garbage bag and dragged into a now very green paddock. The clothes I wore ended up looking a little bit more "faerie princess" then I thought, which made me feel a little too "girly" which isn't my usual style. But I'm still very happy with the resulting photos (I especially love some of the ones I got of Ireland, doesn't she have the most glorious, heavenly smile?)
Anyway, here's the outfit details:

In the first and last photos Ireland is wearing a handmade sixties style dress I found at a charity shop. In her second ensemble she is wearing a JayJay's hat, the silk top and suede skirt are charity shopped, and my 70's boots (luckily we have similar foot sizes) which I bought from this etsy shop. She is also wearing a pair of green sixties cat-eye glasses in one shot, and vintage charity shopped sunglasses in some others.

As for me, the green suede shoes (worn throughout) were bought at a charity shop early last year (they only fit now.) In the first photos I'm wearing a vintage silk Christian Dior slip, and 40's tap pants (a Christmas present from my mum) and the bracelets and cuff were also gifted. In the second outfit I added a white lace dress and silk sash over the top with a necklace made by my mum, and in the third I'm wearing a seventies silk skirt that used to belong to my grandma, which I hitched up with a charity shopped belt so I could wear it as a dress. Hope you like the photos!

Thinking Summer Thoughts

As soon as summer came, frivolous stick battles with my sister were replaced with merciless water fights, and umbrellas were used to shield oneself from the sun rather than the rain. As well as the fact that suddenly everything I think about is summery. While I'm still wishing it was winter, the things I'm pulling from my wardrobe are seventies cotton sundresses, summer shorts, vintage lightweight skirts, translucent silks, boater hats, and long flowing dresses.
I often tend to romanticise the opposite season to the one I'm in. When it’s winter, I only remember the best of summer, and vice versa. In winter I would wish for summer’s longer days, thinking about how the sun comes up at 4:30 AM and goes down at 7:00 PM - though choosing to ignore the fact that the sun is already burning by six in the morning.Instead, I would remember days when my sister, a friend and I would go riding around on our horses bareback, picking mangoes, mistletoe berries and lychees from trees. We would go swimming with the horses, jumping into the water, splashing and picking waterlilies. Then we’d dry off in the sun, watching the horses and laughing as they played and rolled in the grass. Although now, as it’s summer, I’m often thinking of the times in winter when I can wrap myself in shawls and curl up with hot tea or coffee and a book. Or how nice it is to go to sleep because my doona seems to be extra cosy in winter, or the feeling of going to sleep when it’s pouring down with rain outside. I can easily forget about the sluggishness one can often feel in winter, as well as the fact that winter’s weather gives awful grey light (which is not so great when you want to go outside and take photos!)

A couple of posts back, in this post, a few people in the northern hemisphere commented on it about longing for warm weather (while I had been talking about wishing for the cold!) it seems that it's not just me that's craving for the opposite seasons.
But while I don't cope well with the heat, I feel a little anxiety as Summer nears to an end. I want to get some more summery shoots done (and possibly a few more water fights.) And basically just embrace Summer while it's here, because when it's gone I'll be missing it.

So, above is a couple of photos from a very brief shoot last week. My sister's wearing a charity shopped rayon Tree Of Life dress. My dress (which has already been worn over a Christian Dior slip in a shoot here) I got from a local charity shop for $4, it's a Victoria's Secret silk dress that still had it's tags (showing it was $57). It was originally light blue but I dyed it teal (though of course you can't see the colour in the black and white photo.)
And below is some more summery pictures to fit the theme of this post which were taken last year in late spring.

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.