bunting, bands and cats

Last Friday night was my boyfriends bands last Australian show before we head off on our holiday, so to celebrate they threw a USA-themed bash!

I had been busy all week creating a flag bunting to decorate the stage with, as well as planning my theme-appropriate outfit. 

Here are a few photos from the night. And some of the bunting. With cats.

Apollo never looks at the camera when I take his photo. He's perfected the art of staring wistfully off into the distance.

Disney just tries to eat everything.

Eli and some of the band!

Oh hai! I wore my American flag shirt, vintage skirt and my favourite vintage shoes. I curled my hair and did a little front roll, and wore my new hoop earrings.

I had to make this almost 6 metres long so it would drape across the stage nicely. That's a lot of triangles!! I found that it was pretty easy to make, except there was WAY too much ironing involved. And I hate ironing.

How cute is this toy soldier print? I actually have an almost-finished dress in this fabric.. I really should get around to completing it!

Sorry for the brief posts guys, still sick and my brain is just not functioning. Let's hope it's back to normal by next week :)

cleopatra costume

Sorry for the radio silence guys, I've had a crazy week and now I am sick :( 

I've a few catch up posts coming your way, and then hopefully it's back to normal blogging so stay tuned!

********

Last Saturday was my best friend Katie's birthday, and for her party she had decided to have a "TV and movie" themed costume party.

I dressed up as a slightly Elizabeth Taylor-inspired Cleopatra, while Eli went for his favourite Marvel character, Ironman.

Unfortunately the lighting wasn't the best so I didn't get a great deal of photos - but here are some (horrid quality) pics from the night via my phone..

The birthday girl and I. 

Katie was a character from a TV show that I keep forgetting the name of because I didn't watch it (Dawson's Creek? One Tree Hill?)

I was wearing a little sparkly gold dress I thrifted when I was in high school, a chiffon dress from one of the Retrostar garage sales worn as a one-shoulder dress, a necklace on my head (from Diva?) and around my neck (Diva for sure) and a thrifted belt. I didn't have any appropriate shoes but luckily the party was held inside so I just didn't wear any.

walk like an egyptiannnnnnnnna!

For my hair I parted it in the center, straightened it and did about 6 teeny tiny plaits on each side at the front (it's hard to see).

My hair and makeup was inspired by this look:

But I used purple eyeshadow rather than blue to match my dress.

Katie and I started decorating and cooking early in the day to get ready.

We had a bit of a cupcake catastrophe:

eeek!

But I used my magic skills to fix it, and then we ended up with these delightful caramel-popcorn cupcakes!

 Candy bar!

Katie made these film reel decorations (BY HAND!!) which I stuck around the room.

Eli's Ironman chest. Those muscles are totes real.

We had some rather potent punch and played beer pong all night! :)

outfit: rock lobster dress

Do you ever have an outfit planned to wear for what seems like forever, and then when you finally get around to wearing it you're kind of... Underwhelmed by how it looks on?

Scarf, belt & jacket - thrifted, dress - Revival, shoes - vintage, brooch - Lovisa

Maybe it's just because I was lazy last night and didn't set my hair (well not lazy, I was up till 11 sewing!), but I have had this outfit hanging up on my rail* for about a week and today while I was wearing it I just felt very "meh".

I'm not sure how one manages to feel "meh" whilst wearing a 50's style dress which is covered in LOBSTERS. Don't ask me how that works. Maybe it's because it's Wednesday. 

I do love this dress though, it is all kinds of rad. It had an attached belt with a bow on it but I ripped it off because it sat in a weird spot and I like matching my belts to my outfits on my own, thank you very much!

LOBSTERS. 

*Yes, I am that kind of geek who puts outfits together and then hangs them on a rail ready to wear at some point in the future. Not even just for particular days or events. Just because.

outfit: umbrella weather

Top - Alannah Hill cardigan, belt & skirt - thrifted, tights - Myer, shoes - vintage

Ok so it wasn't raining at the time these photos were taken, but it sure had been earlier and the wind was crazy!
Just an excuse to use my new umbrella, really. My old Target one bit the dust a while ago and I decided it was time for something new, I'd seen this style of umbrella around and thought it was pretty nifty because it covers a lot more than the usual umbrellas do and you can see through it!

This skirt is one of my new favourite things. It's actually my sisters but I have been getting a lot of wear out of it lately! My Alannah Hill cardigan is still a fave too, and is very warm - great for layering I've discovered.

My hair was doing a marvellous wave at the front this day - you can just about make it out in these photos (all my close ups failed, boo).

outfit: pastel plaid birthday lunch

Today was my sisters 20th birthday, so we both took the day off work and went down to Carlton to have lunch on Lygon Street.

Highlight of my day:

EGGPLANT CHIPS OMNOMNOMNOM!! I am completely obsessed with them after trying them some time last year at a tapas bar in Fitzroy, and they haven't quite taken over the world yet so it can be hard to find them sometimes.. What luck that the restaurant we chose (after much deliberating) had these on their menu!

Sunglasses - Cotton On, cardigan - Miss Shop, sweater clips & dress - made myself, belt - thrifted, bag - eBay, shoes - Windsor Smith

This is the dress that I mentioned I had made - I love it so much!! It's the perfect spring/summer dress with its pastel plaid print, skinny straps and flouncy skirt.

I think it's the best work I've ever done to be honest, so I am extremely proud of it - the whole thing is lined which I have never done before as I've been too lazy but it just makes such a difference to the feel and look of the finished garment - it actually seems like I bought it from a shop!

I also DIY-ed these sweater clips using earrings and a small piece of chain. So simple and I can still use the earrings for their intended purpose.

I was having a pretty good hair day too - this was my first ever successful pin-curl set which I managed to brush out into something that could almost pass as a pageboy. Very happy!

The dress on it's own:

And the back. Sorry about the wrinkles, I'd been sitting all day at this point:

Should have pulled up my belt too, oops. 

The pattern I based the dress off was this one from the 80's or 90's by New Look.

I shortened the top and made my own gathered skirt, as well as having to take it in a bit (although not enough it seems) and also incorporated the lining, which wasn't part of the original pattern.

After today I am going to find it very hard to go back to work tomorrow. Luckily I have a great weekend coming up to look forward to.

Hope everyone had a lovely day!

1920's costume party

It's no secret that I adore costume parties -- see this post for a photo of the costumes I made for my boyfriend and I when we attended a 1990's party for proof!

Basically any kind of theme is always going to make a party 100 times more fun for me, especially if I can get super creative and make my own costume out of nothing or things I have lying around.

The other night my sister and I waved our hair, donned pearls and rolled our stockings down (and all that jaaazz!!) for our friends 1920's themed house warming party.

{image}

Now, if I'm going to dress up, I'm going to put some effort in so I did some research on what the ladies were wearing back in the roaring twenties - I wanted to look a little bit more authentic than just a fringed dress and feather boa.

{image from my pinterest}

A lot of the images I came across showed very layered and busy looks, lots of draping fabrics and different lengths in the one outfit.

I found that the colour palette of the 20's tended to be fairly neutral - brown, cream, black and blush tones were standard, but deep, rich colours were also in vogue - think emerald green, dark royal blue and sultry deep reds.

There was also a big influence from 'exotic' Asian cultures in the types of fabrics and prints worn.

{all images from my pinterest}

So here's what we wore!

I went for a slip-like night dress with lace trim and an uneven hem, with a sheer gown over the top for layering. I wore pink fabric-covered pearls, cut off some old nude stockings and rolled them to under the knee (they stayed there with the help of some elastic tied around my leg under the roll) and some vintage shoes.

My sister wore a different slip - very plain but with a ruffled layer, an amazing bat wing batik-print jacket, black pearls and a fringed necklace, a turban (with her long hair stuffed underneath to create a faux-bob), rolled black stockings and simple brogues.

For my hair and makeup I tried to channel the beautiful Clara Bow a little. My hair was already curled somewhat 30's styled from the night before so I simply grabbed the ends and rolled them under a little, pinning them to my head to make sure they stayed.

For the "finger waves" I used my triple barrel curler and just clamped down for a few seconds, then clipped the waves in place to cool and hairsprayed the crap out of them!

I extended my eyebrows as per the 1920's style and filled them in to look rather thin and straight-ish, the eye makeup is kind of easy once you get the right shape happening because you can be a bit messy with it!

I also had some extra makeup help from watching this video I found on Youtube:

The party was so fun, and I was amazed at how many people really got into the theme - the costumes were fantastic! Even most of the gents dressed up in suits and suspenders and hats which I just love to see.
What do you think? Did we do the look justice?
I have another costume party coming up this month so I can't wait to share my outfit for that one with you!

outfit: floral tea dress and mustard

Boo for wisdom teeth, and boo for photos taken in the almost night time.

I hope you liked my last couple of posts, I had grand plans of posting a different non-outfit related post each day but in the end the swelling and weakness got the better of me so that went out the window!

Actually, while I was recovering last week I was very productive - I made a new sun dress (that I am very proud of and will be showing to you all once we have a decent weather day!), I started on a band-related craft project and I fixed a range of clothes that were sitting in my mountainous to-fix pile, including this darling dress!

Dress - Revival, belt - vintage, brooch - eBay, tights - Myer, shoes - Wittner, coat - vintage

Hopefully the cuteness of this dress is apparent in these some-what blurry photos.. I got it from the Clear-It outlet ages ago, got home all excited to put it on and promptly broke the zip. Can you believe it's taken me about a year and a half to replace a zip?! Bad Taygan.

I was having a good hair day.. until the wind came along! #vintagegirlproblems

This coat is SO WARM which is great because we've been having some pretty cold days lately, and apparently there's more to come!

DIY: pet silhouette portraits

I completely adore my cats, Apollo and Disney. 

I also think the word "silhouette" is an awesome word. Seriously. Look at it. Say it. So great.

Anyway, I've been meaning to do this for a while. I actually want to do one for each member of our household eventually, so I thought I'd get the ball rolling with some cute silhouette portraits of my two favourite felines. 

You will need:

Photos of your pet(s), facing side on. 

A very good black marker or black paint

Scissors

Backing paper (I just used some lined paper ripped out of a notebook)

Frames

1. Print your photos so that they will fit in the frame you have chosen.

2. Outline the shape of your pets head, and a little way down their chest and back, closing off the bottom with a sloped line (it helps to google "silhouette portrait" to get an idea of the usual shape)

3. Colour in the outline with your black marker or paint

4. Carefully cut around your silhouette. I actually did this one earlier and I left some parts not-coloured so there was a bit more of an obvious shape around Disney's ears

5. Ensure your backing paper fits into your frame, or cut to shape if not

6. Stick the portrait cut out onto the backing paper, and put into your frame.

7. Display your finished portraits somewhere noticeable so that your guests can coo over them when the real things are feeling less than sociable!