Dolly's Dress

This was my outfit the other night when going to tea and the movies with the boy. I picked this dress up almost a month ago while I was up north and for a steal at only $6.00. It is a home sewn early 1970's vintage dress, lined and with nice white roped detailing around the collar. It is a bit shorter than what I usually wear and the fit is very unusual. But when I tried it on at the little charity store I bought it from I thought that it was way too nice to pass up just because it didn't fit me quite perfectly. I think it worked alright. I wore it with my trusty vintage white 1960's heels with bows on top and the new vintage beaded bag that I won from the Austin Vintage giveaway last year. Upon being seen by my mother in this outfit I was called "Alice in Wonderland". And upon being seen by the boy I was called "China Doll". Ha! But when I think about it this dress actually reminds me a lot of one of the dresses on a doll that my mother played with in the early 70's as a little girl that she passed on to me in my childhood. I still have her to this day. So I've decided to name the dress "Dolly" after her. I wish I could share a picture of the doll but she is packed away safely in a box with the other dolls of my mother's from the 1970's to protect them from damage. 

In other news, my second year of University has commenced this past week. I am quite excited to be back and hopefully it will not mean that posts on this blog will become less regular. This session I have one class based upon the creative arts so I am quite excited about that. It will involve a solo musical presentation as an assignment. How exciting! So I've pulled the guitars back out and have been trying to get back up to scratch and build my calluses back up. This year will be my tenth of playing guitar, but trust me if you heard me you would not think it! I should have been more consistent with my practicing. Other than that I've been munching on all my chocolate and candy from Valentine's Day. 

What have you been up to? Have you been getting back into any old hobbies lately?

Liebster Blog Award II + III

Thank you to Abigail from Sweeter Gets the Journey and Sarah from Lostvestige who have so kindly awarded me with a Liebster Blog Award!

The German word "Liebster" roughly translates to "Dearest". The Liebster Award is given to bloggers with fewer than 200 followers whose blogs are deemed worthy of more recognition.

Receivers of the Award Must:

• Answer the 11 questions posed to them by their nominators
• Post 11 interesting things about themselves
• Create a new list of 11 questions for future award receivers to answer
• Nominate 11 more bloggers with less than 200 followers for the award

This will be my second and third nominations for the Liebster Blog Award. You can see my first here. And so, I have simply decided to just answer the questions posed by my nominators and create my own questions for the new nominees to answer. 

Abigail's Questions

1. Do you or have you ever played any musical instrument? If so what is it? If not, what would you like to play?

I have been playing guitar for approximately nine years, self taught on a little broken guitar from the 1950's that my father found on the side of the road. There was also a time not long ago when I was teaching myself piano and advanced quite quickly but due to life circumstances I did not keep up with practice. The drums are another instrument that I seem to be able to just pick up and play with relative ease and of course, I can still play the good old recorder from my primary school days. Ha!

2. What makes you laugh out loud?

Being part of a group put in silly situations (this happens a lot in my University classes), playing with my dogs and cats, my boyfriend and family, or at times when it is most inappropriate. When I was a young girl I'd have laughing fits during Church or serious talks to the class from my school teachers. 

3. Are you a morning or a night person?

I find that it is a lot easier for me to get things done in the mornings. I don't feel good if I wake up too late. Definitely mornings for me.

4. What do you like to do in your free time?

In my free time mostly I like to visit my boy and spend time with him. I also love spending time with my family. I am very close with my siblings and always enjoy a laugh with them. I love to relax and listen to my records, play guitar, take my time and browse through the local second hand stores and of course, blog!

5. How would you describe yourself?

Hmm. I seem to be the person in social situations that does not say much (really, I'm quite shy) but when it comes to my passions I open up, become very enthusiastic and it is no surprise if I end up giving a lecture upon the history of 1960's fashion, how a particular song by one of my favourite bands came to be or why certain things occur in the world of science. I am a very romantic person, and see beauty and find joy and satisfaction in doing the most simple things in life. Yet I still long to do and see the amazing. I seem to day dream a lot (which leaves me quite forgetful!), put others needs before mine and I also tend to be a bit of a dark horse. I am very determined when it comes to my studies, projects or developing a new skill and I have very strong morals and principles. I am also told that I am very wise.

6. What would you do with a billion dollars?

Invest, invest, invest! Make your money work for you as my Grandma says. That way in the future I can be sure that my family is financially supported for the rest of their lives so that they can live very comfortably. I would also love to travel and see places in the world that I've always dreamed of, and pay homage to the idols of mine who inspired me throughout the years by visiting significant destinations related to their lives. I've also always wanted to exit the Earth's atmosphere, and see the planet from space whilst experiencing the weightlessness of outerspace - with that sort of money I think it is safe to say that that would be achievable for me! Toss in some orginal dresses by Barbara Hulanicki, Ossie Clark and Mary Quant and I should be one happy gal indeed! And there would of course be a fair share of donations to a variety of charities in there too.

7. Why did you and what was your inspiration to start blogging?

I used to read blogs many years ago before I decided to start one of my own. But I feel it was more so Tumblr that made me at last put the foot down and start. I had run The Carnabetian Army for a few years as a 1960's/70's fashion database, and I thought perhaps blogging might take it to the next level and also provide me with the opportunity to make it more personal. And so here I am!

8. What is one of your pet peeves?

Not too sure. Perhaps finding the perfect seat in a movie theatre and then at the last minute having a group of quite noisy people coming to sit right behind you?

9.  If you could visit any place in the world, where would you go?

Cheltenham Cemetry, Gloucestershire, England. 

10. What is your guilty pleasure?

Ferrero Rochers. 

11. If you could have one dream come true, what would it be?

Very unrealistic but to be a master musician at every musical instrument in the world, being able to play whatever I want or please without having to think, only feel. 

Sarah's Questions

1. What are your hobbies?

Collecting records and anything from the 1960's, drawing, playing guitar, blogging, listening to records and I love to sing and dance. 

2. What inspired you to start blogging?

See Question Seven of Abigail's Questions. 

3. If you could move anywhere in the world, where would it be?

Most certainly somewhere in England, Ireland or Scotland. 

4. What is something that always makes you happy?

I would hands down say The Beatles, as silly as it may sound. When things get too stressful or things start to seem quite dull I will listen to The Beatles and all of a sudden I am reminded of this immense passion that I have for their music and what it has done for me as a person and I feel like everything is going to be alright. Their music is so familiar to me in every way. Listening to them after a an extended period of time without doing so is like coming back to the comfort of home after a long hard trek.

5. What would you do if you won the lottery?

See Question Six of Abigail's Questions. 

6. What is something you could eat every day for the rest of your life?

I am nicknamed "Andy" after the artist, Warhol, in my house for multiple reasons. One of those being that my family joke that I could eat the same thing every day for twenty years. I would go with potatoes cooked anyway or two minute noodles - terrible!

7.  Do you prefer living in the city or country (or somewhere in between!) and why?

Most certainly somewhere in between. Growing up I spent my childhood in two places. My home town, on the edge of one of the most busiest strips of city in Australia, and my mother's hometown, a small country town way up north. I love being able to access everything in the city and be able to just take a quick bus trip and travel through multiple towns within 15 minutes. I also love the anonymity that you can choose to have. However, I love the peace and tranquility of the country and the feeling of having time and no pressures. Thus, seeing as I love both a place in between is just right for me!

8. What is your dream vacation?

An epic trip traveling through Great Britain, staying in a different place each week and exploring here, there and everywhere. I'd want to see and take in everything. I've also always wanted to go to Paris and have breakfast at a different cafe/patisserie everyday. 

9. What is your favourite decade or era from the past?

The 1960's of course!

10. What is something that you like to collect?

I collect many things. Records (you can see my collection here), Beatles merchandise, vintage clothing and accessories, vintage knick knacks, movie tickets and little found charms.

11. What is your favourite time of year?

Mid Autumn! Nice cool weather, ah!

And now for the new nominees!

(Note: some of these blogs are a little over 200 followers but I thought they were still really worth having a look at if you love finding new blogs just as much as I do!)

Faye from Oh! Darling

Jaime from Hard Crimson

Anneka from Everything's Find and I Dig Everything

Nicole from Manic Pop

Nicole from Wanderlust Stardust

Hannah from Tea.Three.Sugars

Sara from Swing the Day Away

The lovely lady behind Stylepeaches

Cam from Sincerely, Cam

These Here Are Your Questions

1. Who is the one pop, scientific or historical figure that you feel you most identify with and why?

2. What gives you inspiration on those days when you are wondering what to blog about?

3. What are your favourite blogs?

4. If you could see any singer/musician/band from any time in concert who would it be and why?

5. Describe your favourite place in the world.

6. What is your favourite item of clothing in your wardrobe?

7. If you could have any career you would like in the world, what would it be?

8. Do you have any phobias? If not, what are you afraid of?

9. Choose any person alive that you could swap places with for one day. Who is it?

10. Think back to a moment when you were completely happy. Describe it. 

11. If you could raid anyone's wardrobe, who's would it be?

Thanks again Abigail and Sarah, and congratulations new Liebster Award Winners!

Houndstooth Dress And A Black Beret

Here is the outfit that I wore the other day. You cannot really see it in the picture (as it is a really bad one) but it has a tiny houndstooth print. I bought this dress years ago when I was first beginning to buy vintage and sixties styled clothing. Its label is Revival and it was sold through Dangerfield. Though it may not look it so much, this dress is actually two sizes bigger than what I usually wear. I haven't worn it for a few years because I always felt it was too big. But for some reason upon trying it on the other day it just seemed to work. I was thrilled, for I really missed wearing it. Perhaps it was all those chocolates I had over Christmas, ha!

Recently I've also been having a little dilemma with accessorizing. I used to be nuts about it, wearing vintage beaded necklaces, bangles, rings, earrings, brooches. But I feel like it just hasn't been working for me lately. I barely even wear rings anymore, coming from someone who used to wear them on almost every finger. I wonder what happened. Things just sort of feel empty with my outfits now. Aside from that, I've been trying to re-initiate my old hype for it, giving headbands and hats a test-run here and there. How do you think it worked with this outfit? I think it looks very Cynthia Lennon. Though I suppose it is not the most appropriate for a steaming-hot-Australian-Summer, is it? I ended up having to take it off because my head got way too hot. 

Oh well, enough of my ramblings about clothes. Here are the little knick knacks that I picked up over that week. 

Two vintage glasses and a vintage Avon "Pony Decanter - Wild Country After Shave Lotion" Bottle.  I simply love glassware in this gorgeous amber colour. Whenever I walk into a second hand store or antique store my eyes are always drawn to it almost immediately. Perhaps it is less popular because I never really see any other colours about. I also love any vintage glassware that is green. Beautiful. Do you have a favourite?

There She Goes Again

There are some ladies (and gents) in this world that seem to spend on an item of clothing, wear it once, and never touch it again. I can understand if it is a wedding dress, or something of the like for a one-off special occasion, or even if a certain bad experience deters one from wearing due to superstition, but I am most certainly not one of those people. I am not afraid of wearing something twice, or even outfit repeating. If I like something, of course I am going to want to wear it again and have fun mixing and matching it with different things in different ways. So when I see my favourite ladies (and gents) from my favourite decade wearing something from their closet again it puts a little smile on my face. 

This new posting series, similar to my "Seeing Double" series, will just include quick little posts of famous faces here and there from the 1960's wearing an item of clothing of theirs again in a different way at a different time. Just something quick, simple and fun. I hope you like my "There She Goes Again" series. 

First up we have Marianne Faithfull and her completely gorgeous pair of silver Bally shoes with cross-over ankle straps. These are some really snazzy shoes and in my eyes would be perfect to wear to a dance party back in the sixties. If I had to choose a modern day equivalent to these lovelies I would choose ASOS Smithie Heels, and me being me would cross the straps over just so they look more closely like Marianne's Bally shoes here. You can purchase a pair of ASOS Smithie Heels here. They are currently on sale too!

1 / 2 / 3 / 4

Title: "There She Goes Again" - The Velvet Underground

Lemon, Butter-Cream and Mrs Stephen

Not too long ago I did a post on my vintage sleepwear collection. Well, here are the latest additions, both of which I found sitting together on a second hand shop rack. They are a lovely butter-cream coloured nightie and a pale lemon yellow coloured brunch coat made of lace with ruffles around the collar, cuffs and hem. I can't remember the price I bought them for, but both were under $10.00. 

The nightie is extremely soft and very comfortable to wear. It has soft little ruffles around the colar as well as white and blue lace, which may be quite difficult to see in these poorly lighted pictures. Inside the dress at the back someone has written "Mrs Stephen", well obviously herself really. I love finding little things like that and trying to imagine what the previous owner (or owners) was like, such as name tags on clothing, messages written in the front page of an old book or names written on the labels of records. The brunch coat fits quite nicely but I must say it is just a little bit itchy to wear. Perhaps in winter it would be more comfortable. The ruffles around the collar are also a bit damaged and coming loose but that does not bother me too much. I like to think that this Mrs Stephen owned both pieces, seeing as they were displayed together. Who knows?

The Rain, The Park and Other Things

Finally things are beginning to cool down here! About time! We've been getting little showers of rain almost ever day and I am just reveling in it. I'm looking very forward to the day when I can start wearing my polo neck sweaters and big fancy coats again!

Lately the boy has been teaching me some photography theory and how to operate his camera. Yesterday I used my newly acquired knowledge and went about the house with the camera taking pictures and experimenting with ISO, aperture and shutter speed. I also did some messing about with the macro lens which was quite fun. After lunch we planned to go to a nearby park with a lake for me to take some more pictures and experiment with different lighting and the macro lens but upon arriving it unfortunately began to rain. Either way, I still learnt a lot from what a did around the house. I have taken pictures here and there on his camera before but I've never operated it manually, and I must say I am very proud of myself. We both agree that I got some pretty good shots for my first attempt. Hopefully I'll be able to share some of them with you soon! Anyway, this is what I wore that day. When I came home my sister said I looked like Abra from "East of Eden". Ha!

In other news! I've been struck with luck yet again!

A few weeks ago the man that sold me these records left me a voice-mail. He said that he would keep an eye out for any early Pink Floyd records and hold them for me if he came across any, particularly their first two LPs with Syd Barrett present, "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn" and "A Saucerful of Secrets". They are really quite hard to find here in Australia, so I was very pleased to discover that he had found this and was keeping it for me!

Pink Floyd's "A Nice Pair" is a compilation album that was first released in 1973 and consists of the band's first two albums. And so, it is exactly what I was looking for! Its release would introduce new Pink Floyd fans at the time to the psychedelic sounds of their earlier period with Syd Barrett. The album art was designed by Hipgnosis, which you may know were responsible for designing many other album covers for Pink Floyd, and consists of unused ideas for past cover art. 

Because this man's record store is quite a few towns away from me I have to set aside time to travel up their and have a visit. I had been quite busy and unable to go up there to buy the record from him, and for a very generous price of only $70.00, and was beginning to feel awful for him holding onto it for so long for me. But kindly whilst the boy was up in there area he picked it up for me and surprised me with it upon seeing me next, also expressing to the seller how thankful I was for him finding and keeping the album for me. Now I am almost there in having all of Pink Floyd's albums in my collection! I know some collectors will not consider this album as enough to cover the first two from 1967 and 1968 but in reality this is the best I can do for now and I am very grateful for it!

I also picked up this LP recently too from a record booth inside one of our local shopping malls whilst waiting to see a movie: "The World of Marianne Faithfull". The man at the booth asked me to mind his store for a little while and for that he kindly gave the record to me for $7.00 instead of $10.00, as well as a lovely compliment, telling me that he thought I looked a lot like Marianne. How nice!

And these here be my latest 45s, some bought from the gentleman who sold me the Pink Floyd album, and some a surprise from my mother. She is always on the lookout for records for my sister and I. 

Has there been anything new that you've tried out lately? Or a new skill that you are interested in learning? I'd love to hear!

Title: "The Rain, The Park and Other Things" - The Cowsills