Foxy foxes

 

A couple of months ago, I was a lucky ducky and won a custom swing skirt from the queen of custom skirts, Betty Le Bon Bon. I've been obsessed with all things foxy for a long while, so I chose a gorgeous woodland animal print that really featured the foxes, but had lots of other colours and animals in the print.

In anticipation of the skirt's arrival, I ordered a fox brooch from Deer Arrow. 

With Betty Le Bon Bon skirts, you always need to wait for a little while for them to arrive (around six weeks), and what's great about that is that you order them, get excited, then forget to watch the post for a while. Every time I've ordered a skirt, its arrival has been a nice, almost unexpected surprise. 

I couldn't wait to wear this one, and this (Queensland) wintery outfit came together really easily. I matched it with a basic orange t-shirt from Uniqlo, navy tights and a navy cardigan. I felt super cute all day!

Outfit details

Skirt: Betty Le Bon Bon Cheek Boutique

Brooch: Deer Arrow

Cardigan: Banned from That Shop

T-shirt: Uniqlo

Shoes: William's (past season)

Scarf was my Nanna's :) 

Picnic print + small white photo bomber

I've definitely shared this Pinup Girl Clothing Jenny dress in picnic print, styled for winter before. But when I sat down to take some shots for Instagram Outfit of the Day pictures, a little friend of mine kept jumping into the photo. He was helpful in the beginning, standing about where I planned on sitting so I could take a test shot:

But then he was all over me for kisses and cuddles the rest of the time I was taking photos! 

Outfit details:

Dress: Pinup Girl Clothing Jenny Dress (sorry, this is a long gone, much sought after Jenny colourway)

Cardigan: Collectif Jo Cardigan Bluebird in black

Shoes: Vintage black Doc Martens (similar)

Pastel Princess

I'm lucky to live in Queensland where we don't get much of a winter. Most of the time, I can add a pair of tights and a cardigan to a summer dress and be warm enough. On the worst days, I add a coat and sometimes a long sleeved shirt underneath.

With spring just around the corner, a few days ago I 'autumised' one of my favourite Hell Bunny dresses with white tights and a light blue cardigan. I'm still getting the hang of this OOTD photo thing and have failed to include my shoes, but let me assure you, they were just the same boring brown oxfords I always wear when I'm running errands. 

I never seem to pair any outfit the same way twice, but I'm definitely making note of this one for the next time the weather gets cold (which probably won't be until next year now). 

Outfit details:

Dress: Hellbunny 'Karen' in lavender from Ursalady Creations (sold out, you may be able to find one on ebay)

Cardigan:  Kmart Australia

White tights: We Love Colors

Late Night Shopping – The boot edition

I’m still dreaming of colder weather and a trip to the shops this week hasn’t done anything to ease that! A browse in the shoe shops which was supposed to be me looking for pageant shoes turned into me wanting to buy about 65000 pairs of boots.

Before I share my favourite boots at the moment, I just want to add a quick disclaimer about my links to shopping sites. For this particular post, the only shopping site I get any sort of compensation from is ModCloth. As an affiliate, I get a tiny commission if you purchase something after clicking through to their site from my blog. This doesn't affect your sale, the price of what you buy or anything like that, it just gives me a little love for passing you on. When it comes to ModCloth, I spend a lot of time looking through their very extensive site, and I love sharing the awesome stuff they stock, so the commission is really just a bonus.

I'm affiliated with a couple of sites, and all of them are listed in the sidebar. If you're considering buying from any of these retailers, I'd love for you to show that you've come via my blog by clicking on the banner ads (and that doesn't mean you have to buy what I've recommended either, just click the link and your browsing experience will be exactly the same and you can buy whatever you like!).

And that's all I'll say about affiliate programs for now. For the other sites, these are just boots that I've found by trawling through websites and wanted to save you guys some of that trawling time!

Short boots
I never used to wear short boots because I thought they made me look chunky. Now I think there are a lot more varieties and styles around that I don’t think that’s the case. Here are some of my picks:

Stud ankle boots from Target Australia

I actually have a pair that's very similar to this, and they're comfy and great for rainy days. They scream tough girl and would go great with tights or jeans, but I actually like the contrast of wearing them with pretty dresses.

Tour date bootie from Modcloth

I love lace up boots, I think they look best with my coloured tights. These are super cute and a good neutral colour.

A lotus to love bootie from Modcloth

I have absolutely no idea where I'd wear these, but aren't they pretty?

Berry boots from Rivers

These berry boots would look so great with mustard tights! I think I might have to get a pair.

Docs
God I love Docs. When I was twelve I begged my parents for a pair of Docs. Mostly, I wanted them because everyone else had them, but I promised my mum if she got them for me, they would last. In general, we didn’t ever get to keep up with the Joneses, but for my thirteenth birthday, I got the best pair of shoes ever, black Docs.

I’ll turn 33 towards the end of this year and guess what? I still wear those Docs. So yes, Mum, I didn’t lie, they really did last.Unfortunately, I don’t think modern Docs are made in England any more and the quality isn’t as good. But the prints? Are fabulous.

Vintage daisy print

Japanese tattoo print

English vintage rose print

Long Boots
I tend towards brown or grey boots over black with long ones because I feel they can look a bit heavy. That’s just personal opinion though, and all this being said, I do tend to wear the boots I bought for my Black Widow costume a lot during the winter with all types of dresses. I think it’s whatever mood strikes me when I’m getting dressed, really.

London Rebel 'Bamboo' style from Famous Footwear

I really like slouchy boots, and these ones might make it onto my shopping list.

'Femya' napa leather boots in tan from Wittner

These tan boots look like they would be soft and lovely!

What I have found in the shops this year (so far, it's only early days in the season yet), is that there aren't a lot of tall boots around. I wonder if they're not as popular?

Would love to see your boot styling, or hear if you buy anything I've recommended!

Winter pinup

This is my wardrobe.

Yep, I’ve got a few clothes (that's not even all of them).

I live in Queensland, which means that 90% of what’s in my wardrobe is more suited to summer. With the exception of maybe four long sleeve dresses.

We have about… a month of cold weather, if that, every year. Which means I manage to get by with cardigans over dresses, stockings or tights underneath and when it’s really cold (this week it’s been properly cold for Queensland), I wear a plain black long sleeve shirt under my dresses (usually hidden by the cardigan). My normal, everyday work outfits range between a sort of toned-down version of pinup me, or more conservative vintage girl.

Today’s outfit is my case in point:

But last week, I headed down to Tasmania to visit my family. For those of you not Down Under, Tasmania is cold. It’s very cold.

My other dilemma is I went for five days and decided to only take carry-on luggage. This means I need to plan my outfits very carefully around one pair of shoes, one coat, and as little outerwear (scarf, hat) as possible.

When I was planning my outfits, there was a temptation to spend the whole week in leggings. But as much as I love all my Black Milk leggings, I don’t have a hell of a lot to go with them for the colder weather (I have a lot of cute t-shirts and cardies that I pair with them, but when it comes to layering…).

So I tempered my packing with two pairs of legs (navy matte and my favourite yellow tartan), and then I went for layers. I tried everything on beforehand to make sure they'd go with my Docs (but what doesn't go with Docs, really?) and set them out on my bed in outfits so I could be sure I had enough stockings, singlets and socks to go with each and then rolled them into my case. I picked dresses with thick, flared material. Even though I only folded my dresses in half at the very top of my case, there was still a good chance they'd get crumpled, so by picking the thicker material, it meant they could crumple a bit without me needing to iron at the other end.

Here's what I wore:

You can't see it in this picture, but I wore a nice warm wool skirt from Retrospect'd with a long sleeve black shirt, my Collectif cardigan, stockings and boots on my first full day in Tassie. Here, I'm dressed to go out for lunch on what was a cold, windy, wet day and have my grey pea-coat, red scarf and red hat on to brave the cold!

I've had a kind of love/hate relationship with this gingham Jenny dress from Pinup Girl Clothing since I picked it up. On the one hand, I'm super in love with the pattern, especially since it's a big gingham, as opposed to many of my other gingham dresses. But it's a perfect dress for travelling because it's a heavy, gathered fabric that doesn't really crease in a suitcase. I wore it with black stockings, my Docs and my Collectif Clothing black swallow cardigan. When I was outside, I had my grey pea-coat over the top and a scarf.

I have never had anything but love for this Bernie Dexter Osterly dress in Winter Wonderland print. I know it's a very Christmassy print, but it's technically Christmas in July time here! Again, I wore it with black tights and Docs (and a coat outside), but this time I wore a black undershirt for extra warmth and a purple jumper over the top.

The conclusion is that layering worked and I was happily very warm and comfortable the whole time and still looked retro. I got a few funny looks walking down the street in my lovely Bernie Dexter dress but when I went to visit Ms Katt, she said it happens a lot in Hobart!