hat

A Different Kind of Easter

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feeding the chickens in my easter outfit

Happy Belated Easter everyone….I’m only posting these 2 1/2 weeks late, but better late than never!

It’s been a very strange year so far, I’m sure we can all agree, but the hardest part for me so far was Easter Sunday. We woke up bright and early… and then weren’t able to leave the house to go to church. To be honest, I debated whether to dress up in my traditional Easter dress and bonnet or not. I’m so glad that I decided to after all: even if only my family (and now you) saw me dressed up, it really did make the day more special.

It’s been a busy April. I ended up having to move-again- right before Easter weekend, so even though I wanted something fresh and new to wear, I wasn’t sure whether I was going to have the time to make something. In the end, I was able to grab a bit time to refashion an old dress into a new wrap skirt just in time for Easter!

pressed wishes pendant necklace

I made the dress about… 7 years ago? You can see it here. It was Butterick 4790 and it was never a very good dress, since it’s not a very good pattern. It’s made to wrap from back to front, but the overskirt of the dress is heavy compared to the underskirt, so it had an awful tendency to pull from the shoulders and for the fabric to catch on the underskirt making it crawl up. I did love the look of the dress and the fabric it was made of but, even though I did wear it quite a lot, it really wasn’t the most fun while wearing.

While looking through my closet a few weeks ago, I saw the dress and started thinking about how I could reinvent it. After a few hours of unpicking, cutting and reassembling- I had a new circle skirt! Paired with a cream lace blouse, navy peep toes, my new botanical necklace by Pressed Wishes and a vintage straw boater, it was the perfect festive Spring outfit.

new hummingbird patterned wrap skirt

I’ve already worn this skirt several times since then, that I am thinking about adding another in this style to my wardrobe- the only difficulty is that the fabric stores are closed. Maybe I can find something in my stash that would work….? I’ve got so many plans for sewing projects, now that I’ve got some more free time, but we’ll see how many of those plans end up coming to fruition. I don’t always have the best track record- remember the “made one” of my #makenine challenge? And in case you’re wondering, I haven’t sewed any more of the things on that list…. 🙁

easter 2020 outfit

I’ve been wanting to take some pictures with our chickens (my mom’s chickens, rather) for quite a while, but the weather has only just started warming up in the past couple of weeks. You can tell that the chickens really don’t care about me: while we were taking these pictures, they kept wandering away since I had no treats for them. At least we got a few photos with them in the frame! And what better friends to include in an Easter post than your flock of chickens with their pretty speckled eggs?

speckled eggs and black copper marans chickens

How was your Easter this year? And how have you been doing these past couple of months? Have you been dressing up for special occasions or everyday events even though things are all topsy-turvy right now? And have you been finding any time for extra sewing/crafting/other assorted hobbies?

vintage straw and navy ribbon boater

black copper marans chickens and a new easter outfit

easter straw boater hat

new circle wrap skirt and flock of chickens

Changing of Seasons

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It’s taken me a little while to get used to the changing of the seasons this year. We have had such a cold and rainy summer this year, that these past few warm and sunny weeks have seemed rather like summer has finally come. But the calendar tells me that we are already here at the first official day of Fall, and the golden leaves and chill in the morning air reminds me that it must be the season after all.

Falltime is my favourite season so today on the first day of Fall, upon reflecting, here are some of my favourite things about this season. Even if I haven’t done all of these things, or they haven’t taken place yet, I am looking forward to them in their turn!

  • golden fields ready for harvest.
  • the cool crisp air in the mornings that makes my bike ride to work chilly.
  • the soft autumn sunshine in the afternoons that makes my ride home much warmer!

  • harvesting produce from the garden (my mom’s garden that is!)
  • cooking a meal completely with homegrown vegetables and herbs.

  • riding my bicycle through scattered leaves and hearing them crunch under the tires
  • baking
  • cozy cups of tea- especially chai lately!

  • supplementing my decor with branches and other collected finds from nature.
  • pressing differently shaped and coloured leaves

  • picking apples and eating them fresh from the tree, and then making juice and crisps with the rest
  • pumpkins
  • pulling out the wool skirts and cardigans and scarves

These a just a few favourite things of this season- what are your favourite things about Fall?

outfit details:

skirt- homesewn from vintage fabric

shirt- thrifted

hat- Lack of Color

necklace- Grandmother’s Buttons

Seasons

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vintage styled vogue 1044 summer dress and straw hat

I’ve been been stuck in a creative block lately. I look back to last year when I was blogging weekly and posting frequently (if not daily) on Instagram. And here it’s been almost a month since my last blog post. I feel like I just haven’t gotten back into the swing of things. And I wonder why something that gave me so much enjoyment last year, is such a struggle now. I think perhaps I’m just going through a season right now; there’s been stuff going on in my personal life, and it’s not that I don’t have time, I’ve just given myself the permission to take a step back, and take a break. I don’t want something that is fun to start being a chore.

But even though I haven’t been feeling particularly inspired to write and blog and share lately, that doesn’t mean I haven’t been having fun with my wardrobe. I’ve still been experimenting with my clothes, and enjoying my summer wardrobe, and working on sewing one of the pieces from my #makenine list, even though I haven’t been documenting it all.

straw-boater and vogue 1044 summer dress

I’ve been going through a different season in my style lately too, and have been drawn to a more subtle and subdued palette lately. I’ve put some of the clothes that I used to wear in regular rotation to the side, as they just aren’t feeling very “me” lately. As much as I like bold vintage prints and styles, I feel more like “vintage mixing” right now. Most people would probably still look at my clothes and think that they are quite vintage looking, but to me they don’t feel authentically vintage, but more modern with a touch of vintage, and I’m enjoying styling my clothes this way for summer.

andrea shelley earrings-and-straw boater

You all know that I’m an avid thrift shopper, and that I don’t buy very many new pieces, but I recently purchased this new straw hat, and these black pearl earrings. I’ve been drawn to classic, feminine styles lately, and both of these pieces felt very fresh. I love how they go with my existing pieces and add a bit of variety to my current wardrobe, such as this dress, purse and shoe combination which I’ve worn before. This is one of my favourite summer dresses, so I’m happy it’s the season to wear it again!

This boater is one that I saw in the window of a local shop, and popped in to check out…and then ended up buying the next day! (Placing items in shop windows really does work!)

andrea-shelley- black pearl earrings

And these lovely gold and pearl earrings are ones that I bought at a handmade art show. The artist is Andrea Shelley Designs. I saw the earrings, walked around the show thinking about them, and then came back to her booth to get them. Well, to be honest, I wasn’t sure if I was really going to get them, but there were some other ladies looking at her jewelry- and when they picked them up, I felt that anxious “No, don’t buy those!” feeling, so that sealed the deal. (And those ladies bought some other items, so Andrea didn’t lose out on a sale!) She describes her jewelry as “minimal and feminine”, which is just what I am liking lately. I also just bought some of her tiny pink pearl earrings, and I’m excited to wear those soon too.

Well, look at that. I just said I was feeling a creative block, and here I have written an entire post. I’m not going to promise that I’m going to be posting regularly again….but I do have some other outfits, so we can always hope.

straw boater

summer-floral dress vogue 1044-and-straw-boater hat

vintage button ring

apple blossoms

vintage summer floral style vogue 1044 dress and straw boater

A Very Belated Easter Outfit, and Spring is Here

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A very Belated Easter Outfit, the artyologist

This is actually not the outfit that I wore for Easter this year, but it is the outfit I wanted to wear.

Easter Sunday (which I know was already a month ago…) this year dawned bright and sunny, and it would have been the perfect day to wear this straw hat, straw bag and lace jacket. Alas, however, I wasn’t able to wear this outfit, because when I went to get dressed, I realized that this hat was actually not in my closet where I thought it was, but was packed away somewhere (since I am temporarily living with my family). Sunday morning about an hour before you are to leave for church, is not the time to discover that almost all of your hats are packed away, that you have no idea which box they are in, and that all of the hats that are unpacked are winter hats, or ones that don’t work with short hair!

So, at the last minute I had to change the plan of what to wear for Easter Sunday, and ended up wearing this previously worn outfit instead. It was actually a rather nice thing to wear for Easter as it was the first Spring-like day we’d had, and that dress is so cheerful, but it was still kind of sad that I was unable to wear an “Easter Bonnet”!

However, I was able to find my hats during the next week, and so the next Sunday, I decided it was time to put together this “Easter” outfit to wear. It would have been the perfect thing to wear on our sunny Easter Sunday, but not so great for that Sunday, as we got snow that weekend! The weather took a turn for the worse the weeks after that, so I wasn’t able to get pictures…and then one thing after another…and here we are a month later, when I am finally sharing what I wore 🙂

Although, this isn’t exactly what I wore, because in the meantime I forgot that I had actually worn sandals and then I found a brown belt at the thrift store last week, which looked better than the original gold belt…so I guess I improved on the outfit! It’s got kind of a “New Look” vibe to it- at least that is what I was going for.

Anyways- I was finally able to get pictures this past week, since the weather has warmed back up, and the trees have leafed out in “new leaf green” in the course of a couple of days! Spring is finally here- and I am so ready for it! (That’s also why I have so many pictures of the new leaves in this post…this isn’t even all that I took- I was just so excited to see all the tiny leaves, that I was snapping pictures left and right!)

I never used to notice that Spring comes late to this part of the world (compared to other places in the world) until I started an account on Instagram, and follow people from all over the world. Now I see people posting pictures of cherry blossoms and crocuses months before we see any green here! Oh well- even though we live with cardboard brown for a lot longer than other climates, I still wouldn’t move away!

Well, it’s been so long since I last blogged, that I’ve almost forgotten how to, so I’ll leave this here. My plan is to start blogging regularly again, but we’ll see how that goes. . .

I hope you all have a lovely weekend- and a Victoria Day weekend, to my fellow Canadians!

Have you ever planned to wear a specific outfit, but then weren’t able to because a key piece didn’t work out? Do you like to dress up with an “Easter Bonnet” for Easter Sunday? Have you ever worn an outfit, and then improved on it later?

A New Look

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new-look-feature

One of my favourite iconic vintage garments, is the Bar Suit by Christian Dior, from the 1947 collection. After the austerity of WWII, Dior’s designs must have been a breath of fresh air to women- although it is interesting, if you read about the time period, that not everyone thought that the new styles were a good change!

I’ve always loved this silhouette; maybe because it’s one that really works for me. I love so many of Dior’s designs from the late 1940’s through the 1950’s- the so called “New Look” of the era. Interestingly, the image below, often cited as from the 1947 collection, is actually an image taken in 1957 of a newer version of the suit. It has a few changes and, while the look is very similar, it is a bit looser than the 1947 version, which was more tailored, featured a padded hip to accentuate the waist, and a smoother line on the jacket without the peplum flare. Personally, I like the 1957 version more, and I love this image, so I decided to try and recreate it myself.

new-look-then-and-now

I’m not very good at replicating the pose, as it turns out. . . I guess this one won’t be going into the #myvintagecover annals!

As to the title of this post – yes I was alluding to that New Look, as my outfit was definitely inspired by the Bar Suit, but I was also referring to the fact that I got a new haircut, so it’s a bit of a “New Look” for me too! You probably can’t tell in these photos, because of the hat, but I got the sides trimmed (actually shaved) quite short and then left the top long and layered. I had a cut similar to this a few years ago, and it was the best cut I have ever gotten. This one was with a new hairdresser, and although I do really like it, there are a few tweaks that I will get her to do next time to make it perfect. It’s so hard to get a perfect haircut, isn’t it? I personally find it so hard to communicate what my vision is- when their vision might be quite different from my own!

walking-away-and-yellow-trees

Back to this outfit, though, I wore the same ensemble back in the spring, but never got photos. As soon as the weather started cooling off enough to wear wool, though, I decided to wear it again- and this time get photographs! The photographs were taken the day after I wore this outfit, and I didn’t actually wear the hat when I went out, because it was raining and windy- and I have no hair to pin the hat too! So, the hat is purely for styling purposes 😉

new-look,-arch-of-trees

We got snow quite early this year (September 15!), and even though it melted away again, it’s been quite cold. I was a wimp and didn’t go and get very many photos of the fall leaves. . . these are actually the only ones! But, there are still some trees with leaves on them, so maybe I can get some more this weekend.

Well, I’m off to my family’s place for the weekend . . . to all of my fellow Canadians: I hope you have a lovely Thanksgiving!

Did you know that there were two Bar Suits made? (I learned that just recently!) Have you ever tried to recreate an iconic vintage outfit or design? And have you had a nice Fall where you live?

archway-and-portrait

shoes-and-leaves

twirling-and-sidewalk-of-leaves

belt-and-jacket-detail

walking-through-leaves

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