The Beginning {Outfit Nine included}

I did promise a slew of photographs from the new camera, and being reluctant to break one’s promise I have the beginning of the slew to deliver to you…   ><

These images were taken when I was down with my horse on Monday, it was a lovely sunset so I took a few quick shoots.  Hmm, I just realized…. None of these are particularly sunset photos.  Oh well.   I did have sunset photos, but they were too average to show.  : p

   

  

     ~ Fences:  A Study by Bonita  ~          

And then the photo shoot I did with my younger sister of three old train cars/containers out on the road to Cooma.  

We hopped the fence to get better pictures of the train carriages and there were some animals ~ J. went nuts when she saw the chickens….   I *hate* chickens with a passion, but still a good photographer never turns down an opportunity.

{Read the “Chickens are evil rant” here: 1 Day in the Life of an Italian WWOOFer }

      

 

Of course, the chicken was evil and refused to pose nicely, unlike the sheep and the horse.

Then there was the sunset; which only came out well with the Polaroid filter attached.

 

Finally, the Railroad Crossing signs ~ these are my favourite pictures.  I think that they have the best composition and lighting.  {Although the one directly above this text is pretty nice too…}

 

My gorgeous sister ~ I love this photo of her, but I wish I had have gotten her shoes in.  Then it would have been a perfect portrait picture.  I love doing pictures of people; trying to capture their personality on camera is exactly the sort challenge I adore.

                             

Last, but not least ~ What I Wore.   In other words: the un~official Outfit Nine.   Nothing special as I had no idea exactly where we would end up for this photo shoot, but I did know that it would most likely involve hopping fences at some point.  Jeans and sensible shoes where essential, plus the not caring factor as I also knew I would probably end up on the ground searching for that perfect angle.  

Hence the semi~casual chic farm girl look.   Please note that this is wayyyy more fancier than most outfits I wear out to the horses/hiking/messing about.

 

Accessories  ~ Straw Trilby Hat {Valley Girl}   

Belt  ~  Thrifted

Glasses  {yes, these are my long distance glasses.  I need two pairs and like to pretend I do not need glasses at all!   Oh for a pair of contact lenses…..} 

Jacket  ~  JayJays

Jeans  ~  Tempt

Boots  ~  Horseland {they are my jodhpur boots.  Aka, special extra tough horse riding boots}

J. took the photos ~ Thanks J!

Oh, and I am holding the other lens for the camera.  I think the pictures were taken with the 18mm ~ 55mm lens and I am holding the 55mm ~ 250mm lens.

We had a lot of fun on this photo shoot.  I just wish I did not misjudge the timing of the sun set.  We did not have enough light.  : (    But I guess there is always next time!

xox,

b.

Lolita Fascination ~

Okay, I will admit it.  For all of my new found obsession with vintage and sewing and all the charm of worlds past, there is still another fashion discourse that absolutely fascinates me. 

Not from worlds past, but other worlds far away….   Let me fill you in on the back story.

Myself being the usual hyper attention deficit artist that I am, I can never pay attention to one source of inspiration at a time.  And ever since I was a little girl {around 10 or 11} I have had an obsession with Japanese/Asian/Oriental culture.  It all started with a love of bonsais.   Yes.  Miniature trees. 

 

I remember it most distinctly ~ I was at the Old Bus Depo Markets with my family and I saw a  stall filled with these tiny trees.  I wandered past them, but something kept drawing me back and that something has stayed with me through all the years.  Now what has that got to do with anything you may ask? 

Well, I was reading through some posts on Lolita Charm ~ {Lolita being a Japanese style of dress that I used to semi~sort of relate to.}  Sweet Lolita looks like this ~

No I never actually wore the get up, but I liked the aesthetic of Goth Lolita/Punk Princess and used to apply that idea to my clothing style.  Gothic Lolita looks like this ~

However, back to the post I was reading!!  I found it interesting that once again the relationship between a woman, her body and her clothes was an issue for an entirely different subset of culture.

I asked the question yesterday whether us vintage style ladies deal with a mass of unwanted emotion caused by the number on a tag {or a sewing pattern as the case may be} and I find myself drawn back to this topic again.

A lot has already been said on the case of sizing and body image distortions.  Gertie, from Gertie’s New Blog for Better Sewing, has already had a number of posts address this issue in thoughtful, insightful discussions.  I can not count the number of posts I have read about body issues on various fashion blogs.  Unfortunately, no matter how much we may want the art of fashion to be about expressing ourselves through the clothes we wear, {for me this is a very important element of my artistic expression!}  it always seems to come back to what you can fit into or not.

I must confess, I thankfully have never had any eating disorders, but like most women, still have that love/hate relationship with my body with a quite a lot of “Let me stay at home with a brown paper bag over my head.” days.   And as such, I am always interested to read what other people have to say about the matter.

Victoria, from Lolita Charm has this to say on the topic ~

Yogurt is Not Cheesecake: And Other Lies We Tell Ourselves

The average woman has a very weird relationship with food. ….

 Fashion is to create an artwork out of an ordinary human being - to be a work of art. But when the canvas you see in the mirror is not like the ones you want to create, how do you cope?

 Measure out clothes in beauty and comfort.

~*~ Note: For the full post please click on the title.  ~*~

So, what you think?  Is this a topic we can never talk too much about, or do you think that we mostly are down with and can ignore the messages we are being sent?

Or for that matter, do you think the messages of “thinspiration” are still being pushed because mainstream fashion on the street is still crying out to be skinnier? 

xox,

b.

Outfit Eight ~ Red Alert

So I promised I would show how I style my crochet collars, and here is the outfit for it.  :D

      

      

 

Accessories  ~  Hair Bow {Diva}    Earrings  {Equip}    Collar  {b dot depictions ~ me!!  :D}   

Ring Featured in the Last Picture ~ My wedding bands, designed by me and made at The Village Jewellers in Manuka

Glasses  {I actually need them for reading ~ so they are the real deal}

Jumper  ~  Thrifted     Shirt ~ Best & Less {although you can only see the bottom of it}   

Jeans ~ Primark {UK ~ Oh, I miss that shop…  : ( }     Shoes ~ I can’t remember. 

 

I love my red shoes although they are quite hard to walk in!   You have to have bare feet in them or they fall off, which is so bad for summer, and they are just really stiff so they don’t flex with your foot.  But boy, they look cute!  So naturally, I don’t care.  I tend to wear them more in winter and only if I am going places that are flat and I don’t have to walk all that much.  ; p

And *gasp, shock, horror* I am in jeans!!  Yes, I do wear pants occasionally {besides to the horse, where they become a must, not an exception}.  I would love to have a pair of linen slacks ~ bother, I can not think what era it is, but I can see them in my head perfectly.  Or maybe more than one pair!  Just so when I feel like having a pant wearing day, I do not have to wear jeans unless I really, really want to.

Oh, here’s a picture of the style I am talking about. 

The only difference I would have would be to raise the crotch of the pants substantially.  Other then that ~ it have a tick of approval.  I would also love a pair that had buttons down the side and wide cuff for the pant leg hem.   I can see future projects coming up!   Now I just have to track down this pattern in my size….

Which is a  Bust 36” if anyone finds the pattern and does not want it!  Incidentally, that makes me a size 16 for the first time in my life….  O___o   That is kind of trippy.  >>  Does anyone else get weirded out by vintage sizing?

It is strange, but I have noticed that the number on the tag seems to make quite a difference to whether you feel great about wearing an article of clothing or not.  Or is it just me?  I try to go on how the clothes look and fit rather than by tags, but I tell you what, it still throws me off from time to time.

It is very easy to get into the mentality that size “….” equates to being “fat” or larger than what you would happy to be.  I think personally, it’s because we keep being told that over dot size is fat and that in order to be pretty you have got to be a size eight {US size 6} or smaller.

Never mind that fact that every brand of clothing uses a different sizing system, so a size 6 in one store is a size 12 in another!  {Yes, I speak from experience}

So what about you ~ do you find it hard to accept that you may be a vintage size 20?  Or is it an non issue?

xox,

b.

An Awesome Boater Hat DIY

I am really busy trying to get my studio website online ~ *stress ensues*…..   All  the images are running around like Thing 1 and Thing 2 {also known as Thing A, Super Thing, Thing King, Kid Dynamite, Chocolate Thun~DA or Ben} causing all sorts of chaos and havoc.   And just as I manage to get it mostly sorted out, I stupidly have to go and move the images to try and ‘tidy’ my file manager…      All I can say is ~  W.R.O.N.G. M.O.V.E!!!    *melt down* 

Thankfully, I somehow bumbled my way back to where I had been, with the added bonus of everything else that was not crucial still being organized and tidy.  I do not have the foggiest clue as to how this came about, I am just excessive grateful that it did!!

Anyway,  I am going to finish up by posting this fantastic tutorial I found today ~ do not ask me how as I can not for the life of me remember.  I am a chronic link clicker, so I end up in on the remotest sites sometimes!  This was one of them, but boy, it was a gem.

Oh, and please do not be misled by the title ~ I have never heard of a CanCan hat, but I do know what a boater looks like, so please go visit Violet’s site  if you want to find out how to make your own.

Diy CanCan Hat Tutorial ^_^

http://violetlebeaux.com/2010/05/diy-cancan-hat-tutorial-_/

I have been wanting a boater, but all the online sources where oh so expensive {!} and to add misery to woe, I have never seen a hat like these in Australian shops anywhere ~ vintage or no!  But now, thanks to this delightful DIY, I am on the hunt for the perfect straw hat to convert in the perfect boater.

xox,

b.

*Edit ~ I have removed the full tutorial at the request of Violet.  I appreciate her request, although I would like to note that full credit as well as links to her site were provided with the post.  I only wish to promote the work of other fantastic bloggers I found out there, nothing else.  Thank you for your time.    b.

Photography & Crochet

I was over at my in law’s place for dinner and I had my new camera with me, so I thought I would do a quick shoot.  I wanted to play with the monochrome setting; focusing on light and shadow, texture and contrast as the subject matter.

I restricted myself to object inside the lounge/dinning area of the house and took a few shots.  I think that a few of the them came out alright. 

   

   

          

                 

Another project I promised to post about is my crochet Peter Pan collars.  I think they came out quite well considering that I had to translate from USA to UK crochet instructions.

The first one I did came out quite lacy and loose and unfortunately way too small for me to wear!  For the second one I changed the size of my crochet hook from a 3.5 to a 2.5, and naturally, the result was tighter all-round.

I really like how the collars look, and I have photos of them ~ one day I shall have to wear one in an outfit shoot to show how I like to style them.   But for now, here are the collars just as they are.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have one more collar to finish off in purple ~ I am experimenting with the length of the initial chain to see if having it sit wider around the neck will look better.

After that, I am going to try it in a black 3 ply cord rather than the 2 ply that the purple is.  I would like to perfect this pattern than start creating variations to sell on Etsy.   Would you be interested in one of these collars do you think?

xox,

b.

P.S. ~ I am putting the first collar up on Etsy for a discounted price as it is rather small…. I am not sure who it would fit but maybe someone can find a use for it.  I would prefer to make these to order ~ I.e., the customer sends me the size and colour they would like and I crochet it for them.

Outfit Seven ~ Teal Tricks

I wore this skirt twice this week because I really like it.  It’s 100% wool, so it’s great for winter.  I am loving the colour too ~ the powdery, teal duck egg shade just seems so vintage to me! 

                

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

~ Amabelle decides to join in the fun!  : D    “Hey Mom, can I lick you pweeaaassse??”

  

Accessories  ~  Pearl earrings {Christmas Present}      Pearl necklace {antique shop}      Bracelet   {gift from my sister}       

Blouse  ~  Salvo’s         Skirt  ~  Thrifted      Stockings   ~  Valley Girl      Shoes  ~  Salvo’s

 

I did cut more hair into my fringe like I said I would.  I like even better than I did before now! 

Next post I am planning to put up a small study I did with the new camera ~ really playing with light and texture in the monochrome setting.  I shall also put up my finished crochet project ~ the peter pan collar.   I have actually completed two of the collars and am in the middle of a third.  Yay for finishing projects!

Speaking of projects, I started Sewing Project 102 today ~ the Dirndl skirt.  It seems that the wool skirt project keeps getting pushed back….  But I think it’s handy to have some sewing experience under my belt before launching into the $30.00 a meter project.  So I am happy to work on others until I am ready.  Hopefully winter will not be over before I finish it though!

xox,

b.