Dangerfield Giveaway Winner!

And the winner is…

Yay!! Bec, check your inbox, there's a $300 Dangerfield online voucher code coming your way!

Thanks to all who entered, and hello to my new followers, I hope you'll stick around :)

Don't forget the Dangerfield sale is still on for a couple of days, I'm about to head over there myself!

Have a good day!

mustard & leopard print

coat, dress, belt, bag & shoes - thrifted/vintage, beret - dangerfield, gloves - target

Say hello to the cute little 3-legged kitty who hangs out around our house, affectionately known as Lego. She's super friendly and cuddly, if we didn't already have three cats in the house I would adopt her ASAP. As it is I think we're going to take her down to the vet and get them to check if she has a home, she is at ours an awful lot and always seems hungry, and we've already had a few friends wanting to take her home with them!

I wore this outfit out to go look at a new shop that's popped up in Fitzroy, Era Vintage Bride. Run by the lovely Lucy, this little boutique has a great range of beautiful vintage wedding/formal dresses and accessories at very reasonable prices. Not only that, but Lucy can have any one of the dresses in store replicated for you in new fabric which she sources herself. Though I didn't end up actually buying anything, I was super impressed by Lucy's attentiveness, she gave me dress after dress and they were all beautiful and suited me very well. If you're after a vintage or vintage-style wedding or special occasion dress I highly recommend you visit her!

I haven't really worn this lovely dress a whole lot since I bought it, because it was a bit snug and I was scared I'd break it.. It fits much better now and it's the perfect colder-weather dress (with a few extra layers!)

The dress that was going to be, and then wasn't, and then there was a different one, and that didn't work out so well...

So I bought a dress.

Not just any dress. A pretty, white lace one. "The" dress.

Yep, thats right, after blabbing on for months about how I was going to make my own wedding dress I've gone and purchased a very lovely 1950's lace affair off Etsy, and I'm so glad I did.

I was so set on DIY-ing the crap out of my wedding. I didn't (still don't!) want to spend thousands of dollars on frivolous things for one day. Centrepieces, programs, invitations - psh! Primary school stuff! Dresses for my bridesmaids - that shop wants HOW MUCH?? I can make it for half that! Dress for myself - there's no way I'll be able to find the Dress Of My Dreams in a store or online, only I can make my ultimate gown! It was this kind of DIY-or-die attitude, mixed with, I'll admit, maybe a teensy bit of pinterest-fueled one-upmanship.

Well, after months of anguishing over necklines and skirts and lace styles (which culminated in a mild anxiety attack in a fabric store where I was overwhelmed by choice) I've decided to put my pride aside and admit that I'm a control freak - I need to let go a little.
I realised it's less about finding the Dress Of My Dreams, and more about finding a dress that I am going to feel beautiful and comfortable in. If it gives me both of these feelings, then no matter where it's from or who made it, it will set the tone for the rest of my day. And there are many, MANY beautiful dresses out there that will suffice.

So, I went online, narrowed it down to two choices, one sold so I bought the other. Hoorah! I thought, thats done!
But the next day I got a message from the seller. At some point between listing the dress and selling it to me someone had visited her brick-and-mortar store and tried it on rather roughly, leaving the front shoulder ripped and completely unfixable.

Refund received, back to the drawing board.

I've just purchased another dress. It's vintage, beautiful and will suit and fit me very well. I'll wear my ridiculous cute shoes, a necklace that Eli gave me, do my makeup nice and have my hair done and then I will thoroughly enjoy marrying the Man Of My Dreams. I've got that part of it 100% right for sure.



P.S - I'm still making all my (7) bridesmaids dresses, invites and most of the decorations. Because I'm a crazy, control freak DIY-addict. But I also have my enormous bridal party and wonderful family to be my minions and help me out with stuff, so its going to be ok.

Dangerfield Monster Designer Garage Sale & A Giveaway!

*** THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED ***

If you've been reading my blog for a little while you'll have noticed I do a lot of my non-thrifted/vintage shopping at Dangerfield and it's related brands.

I've actually been shopping there now for almost 10 years now, as when I first started getting into "alternative" fashion styles they were one of the only affordable and accessible brands out there that didn't just cater to mainstream fashion trends.
I remember thinking I was super cool going in there with my scene hair (yup.. ugh) and buying cute retro-style dresses and crazy printed tights while everyone else was shopping at surf stores or the local Target.

While my style has changed quite a bit since I first stepped into a Dangerfield store way back when, I'm still always pleasantly surprised whenever I pop into one looking to spend some money. While the quality can be a bit hit-and-miss on occasion, the range of cute, retro styles has kept me coming back - especially their knitwear, they always have super cute cardigans (like the ones in the photos below).

To be honest though, I mainly buy from them when they're having a sale, because I'm cheap and their sales are amazing - like the one they've contacted me to let me know of just today;

After 18 years in the same spot, the Dangerfield brands warehouse is moving down the road to Marine Parade in Abbotsford, and they're having a huge sale to try and get rid of as much stuff as possible! I am kind of shocked I didn't already know about this, because I am so there.
The sale will be held between Saturday 28th June and Tuesday 1st July, where they'll also have live music, giveaways and food trucks.

As well as this, the kind folks at Dangerfield have given me the opportunity to offer Australian readers of Dear Mr Rabbit a chance to win a $300 voucher, redeemable on their online store and valid up to 6 months!

If you want the chance to win some free retro cuteness, simply follow my blog (please no follow/unfollow business) and leave a comment below (one entry per person) with a way to contact you and I'll draw the prize on Sunday 29th June and post the winner here on the blog. Again, this giveaway is open only to Australian residents (Dangerfield don't post overseas at this stage, sorry guys!)

And don't forget to head down to 17 Marine Parade, Abbotsford from Saturday 28 June - Tuesday 1st July to get yourself some cheap threads!

red polka dots

Hat, scarf, coat, sweater, bag - thrifted/vintage, skirt - stolen from my sister, boots - purchased from the lovely Katie-Louise.

Oh, how I love the winter.
Today we did a little bit of exploring around the suburb that we've called home for a whole month now. It's so nice having a lovely park, shopping strip with pretty much anything we could want and lots and lots of beautiful old homes on tree lined streets to look at all within walking distance from our house.

This skirt is my sisters, and I have no idea why I haven't borrowed it before, it is lovely! I was so happy when I realised I could make a pseudo-suit out of it and my recently repaired coat (which I have had now for about 5 years now, and has been sitting in my to-mend pile for about 2 of those.. oops) the colours match almost perfectly!

Lion's tooth

Hat & shoes - vintage, belt - thrifted, skirt & top - made by me

I mentioned in my last post that I had picked up Simplicity's 4044 so I could make the swing trousers, but while I'm searching for the perfect fabric for that project, I decided to use some of the printed voile I picked up at a Spotlight sale recently and give the blouse a try.

How cute is the dandelion print?

One day I will learn how to match prints… 

I am SO happy with the result. The pattern is originally for a long-sleeved blouse, but I wanted to try a short sleeve option for more versatility. The whole thing took me only a couple of hours to put together and came out really well!

I decided to wear it with another made-by-me piece from a while ago which I've only just begun to fit into again (thanks to many a cheeseburger on our holiday last year.. oops).

I would definitely recommend this blouse pattern for anyone who wants to whip up a cute, 40's-inspired blouse in a reasonable amount of time :)

swing trousers in the city

cardigan - sent to me by my lovely friend Sheree :) , bag - thrifted, blouse - ASOS, trousers - Vivienne of Holloway, shoes - Wittner, necklace - present from Eli

Sorry about the bluuuuurry iPhone photo's, I realised halfway through our outing that we weren't going to make it home before the sun disappeared, darn.

I am so in love with these trousers at the moment, I've got heaps of outfits involving them in my head, it's hard to stop myself from breaking them out at every chance!
If you follow me on instagram you would have seen that I recently purchased Simplicity 4044, I can't wait to make myself some more of these trousers in other colours.

Also, how cute is this bag! I picked it up from the op shop around the corner from my house (yep, literally around the corner. Dangerous) for $3.

cape crusader

cape - American Apparel, sweater - Dangerfield, skirt - made by me, everything else vintage/thrifted

I bought this cape quite a number of years ago from American Apparel. It was rather expensive but I justified it because it's wool and a neutral colour and a pan collar and I really, really wanted it. I wore it a handful of times but then my style changed and it was banished to the back of my wardrobe until a summery warm day this year when I realised that capes + pencil skirts = perfect vintage style!!

My hair was a bit of an epic fail turned accidental kind of win, I set my hair but the top layer didn't want to play nice so I had to improvise. Turned out ok in the end!

neutral novelty

 Cardigan - dangerfield, everything else thrifted/vintage

Helloooo!

We are finally (mostly) settled into our new house and have just gotten the internet set up today so I thought I'd get straight to it with an outfit I wore the other day :)

Even though it is now officially winter (yay!), and therefore now gets dark at about 5:30, I can still manage to take semi-ok photos because our new house has LIGHT and WHITE WALLS. So excited. Now I have no excuse.

This dress has narrowly escaped being thrown out many, many times - something about it just makes me hold on to it, even though I don't have that much that goes with it and it has rips near the waistband (which I will fix.. one day) which means I constantly have to check that the belt is keeping everything in place. So when I pulled it out of my closet and magically threw this colour-coordinated outfit together I was very glad it had survived through so many wardrobe purges.. It seems I've picked up a few more neutral-toned pieces recently, so this dress lives to be worn another day!

Anyway, I just thought I'd do a quick post so I can stop feeling bad about not posting, I have a few things lined up (reviews! work outfits! sewing!) so expect those over the next week or so :)