Melodrama in Mexico: Follow along as an American power broker conquers the jungles of Mexico and might also be involved in seducing someone else’s wife, in this Jazz Age tale of Big Business.
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That is all I could find out about this novel Tampico, by Joseph Hergesheimer, and it all sounds quite tedious. The novel was also apparently made into the movie “The Woman I Stole“. Considering that no one has ever heard of this film either, I am going to guess it wasn’t a blockbuster hit.
Terrible sounding story aside, it made for a great cover to replicate for #myvintagecover! My friend Chantelle was visiting for a few days, and we decided that we wanted to make a cover together. Finding a magazine cover that had two people in it, proved more difficult than we thought it would be, though. After diving into the depths of google, we eventually found this 1920’s cover art by Erte, and decided that it wouldn’t be “too” difficult.
Why we decided to wear fur and wool hats on the hottest day of the year (it actually was the hottest day we’ve had all summer!) who knows- but after the debacle involving a forgotten camera (it was sitting at home on the desk), a hot and grumpy person (oh- that would be me) and a background that required being completely photoshopped in the end- it actually turned out rather well. Part way through photo editing, I realized that this was not going to be a simple crop and splice sort of editing job, and it took quite a while to get the pictures lined up, the background edited and the colours correct, but I’m glad I persevered, as it is definitely one of the most fun covers I’ve ever done!
There’s still a week left of August- do you think you’ll be joining in with the challenge? There are some pretty great covers over on Instagram- make sure to go and check out the hashtag!
If you follow me on Instagram, you will know that these photos are from a couple of weeks ago because. . . I’ve since cut my hair! I was going to post these before that happened, but time just got away from me. (I took at little holiday last week, when a friend came to visit and everything else kind of got thrown out the window, but it was a much needed break!) I still wanted to post these photos though, because as you know by now, I never seem to post “on time” lately anyways.
I rediscovered this peach skirt in my wardrobe a couple of weeks ago and have worn it several times since then. By “rediscover” I mean that when I moved into my new apartment last month, I decided that it was time to finally start “curating my closet”, and during that process I discovered this skirt again.
I’ve talked about my desire to curate my closet before, but I have never actually got around to doing it, so when I moved I decided it was time for a fresh start. There are actually a couple of things that I did to streamline my closet.
The first is that rather than going through my wardrobe all in one go, deciding whether each item was something to keep or get rid of, I am trying another method I’ve heard about. Because I actually do like all of things in my wardrobe, I don’t need to sort through, and pare down my closet because I have things I don’t like; I need to sort it because I’m not actually wearing some of them! So, when I moved into my new closet space, I turned all of my hangers around backwards. As I have been putting clothes back in my closet after wearing them, I’ve put the hangers in the correct way, which makes it easy to see which pieces I’ve actually worn. I’m going to be doing this until September, which is when I will be switching to a Fall wardrobe anyways. Of course, I’ve been taking into account seasonal items! (“I haven’t worn this down-filled parka all summer!”)
It’s looking a bit messy right now, with the hangers going all directions (only another month to go!), but it is definitely making it easy to see which pieces aren’t getting worn. As I’m doing this experiment, I am trying to determine why I wear some things, and pass over others. And, when I am getting dressed, I look at the items I haven’t worn first and decide whether I can wear them instead of the same three things I always turn to. If I wear something and I decide I don’t really like it for some reason, then I know that it is time to pass it on!
Another way I have made my closet a bit more streamlined, is by moving all of my Fall/Winter garments out my closet and packing them away in a suitcase. I used to have quite a large closet, and so I stored all of my clothes in there. The problem I had was that when I went to get dressed, it looked like I had twice as many clothes, but I actually couldn’t wear half of them, because they were out of season. I also moved all of my old clothes out of the closet and put them in a separate drawer. (By “old” I mean, worn t-shirts/pants which are perfect for painting or doing chores in, but not for wearing in public!) Having all of these extra clothes in the closet was making it difficult to get dressed for work, because it looked like I had so much to choose from, but actually a lot of the pieces were unwearable. By moving them to a separate area, I can easily see what I have to wear.
By doing this closet experiment, I decided to try this peach skirt again, since I’ve tried wearing it before unsuccessfully. I sewed it last summer, but never really liked it. I felt frumpy in it for some reason- the gathered waistband perhaps? Maybe I was just in a bad mood? Maybe I was pairing it with the wrong top? I don’t know what it was, but I’ve tried wearing it again this summer, and I love it! I’ve worn it several different times- once with my black Hell Bunny blouse, once with a black drapey rayon top, and once, here, with this sleeveless ruffled cream top. I’ve even worn it with both heels and flats, and I like it both ways, so I guess this time around, the skirt is a keeper! And seriously- the pattern is little people dancing, so what’s not to love about that? I guess it’s a good thing I am sorting through my closet, or I wouldn’t have come across this outfit combination.
Have you ever had a piece of clothing that you didn’t like, and then tried it again with success? And have you tried this method of wardrobe organizing/curating?
What is more chic for Summer than the classic straw hat? With a rounded brim and soft golden colour, this piece is perfect for the season, no matter where you will be.
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So, it is already August 8th and I still never announced whether #myvintagecover is happening again this year. It is.
You can read here for more info (it’s exactly the same as last year: just insert 2018 instead of 2017). Oh and check out the instagram hashtag too- there are already lots of amazing posts. It’s been lovely seeing people join in! I was planning to only do one cover this year, because I wasn’t sure if I would have enough time to do another, but this one went together relatively quickly, so maybe I will get around to doing another one after all? Do you plan to join in and recreate a cover?
Well, this does feel strange sitting down to type out a new blog post. It’s been ages since the last one. . . and these pictures are about 2 months old now as well- oops! Oh well. Even though it has been so long since I last blogged, I did want to post these images, because they turned out rather nicely, and I was pretty happy with this outfit too. And, I do love lilacs, so don’t mind looking at them again in July 🙂
I picked this little green velvet hat up at an antique store a few months ago, and was very happy to discover that it matched the green of this sundress perfectly. The hat is a bit squashed, and the netting is torn, but it isn’t unwearable, and I rather like the shape of it. It does look nice with my straight hair (an absolute must for hat purchases these days) but I decided to be extra special and curl my hair (my sister did it for me!) for the hat’s first outing. I used to curl my hair almost every day, a few years ago, but now I don’t bother as my hair doesn’t hold a curl for very long and it is so much work!
On to the rest of the outfit- you’ve probably seen this Vogue 1044 dress before, so there’s nothing new there. . .
As for the makeup in these photos, and why it is a bit out of the ordinary for me, I have been thinking of getting a Suva Beauty Hydra Liner, so I decided to try out my sister’s to see how I like it. However, she has a white one, so I decided to get her to do some crazy makeup for this shoot to coordinate with the lilacs. It’s hard to see, but she did green and purple eyeshadow, and a white winged liner. To be honest, I don’t like the white eyeliner on me. On her it looks amazing, and she is the sort of person who can do any kind of makeup and it looks great. And, when I do it. . . I just think it looks weird! Well, it was fun for this photoshoot, but you certainly won’t find me walking around with it in the future 😉 (also- if you aren’t following my sister’s instagram account @therougedgirl you should definitely go and check it out!)
Anyways, I don’t really have anything else to say. . . if I did have anything else to say about the photos, it’s been so long that I have since forgotten it!.
Happy Friday everyone, and hopefully I won’t be waiting a month in between the next post this time!
I did not spend my Easter in the laundry room. However, I did not want to brave the cold weather for photos, so my laundry room had to serve as an impromptu photo studio for my Easter Sunday outfit this year! It actually worked surprisingly well, though, so you might just see more of this location in future posts, especially since I refuse to take any more photos out in the snow.
Anyways, regarding the outfit, which is probably what you want to hear more of, (though I could keep talking about the laundry room if you’d like. . .) I like to wear an “Easter bonnet” each year. Actually I like to wear them every other day of the year too, but on Easter it just seems more appropriate to wear your most outrageous hat, don’t you think?
This navy blue tulle 1960’s pillbox with a random blue ribbon decoration, won for this year’s outfit. It is my most ridiculous hat, and it is all the better because it only cost $1 from a thrift store. (Some people might say that $1 was too much…) It was as flat as a pancake when I found it, and required steaming it back into shape, but I’m so glad I got it because it’s the most hilarious hat I’ve ever worn, it vaguely resembles a cake, and every time I wear it, I love it all the more, simply because it is so over-the-top.
I did originally want to wear a new (much less ridiculous) hat I bought last week, and a sundress, but this year Easter came early and Spring has come late and so, instead of sunshine and flowers, we were dealing with snowstorms and bitter winds. Thus, that outfit will have to wait until the weather warms up a bit more. And so for Easter Sunday, this was my “It’s still Winter out there so I am wearing this navy dress, but I have put a lace jacket over top to make it feel a bit more like Spring is on the way” outfit.
I really don’t have much else to say, so that’s all for now- I hope you all have a wonderful week!
