Feeling Dotty

I have a lovely friend staying with us this weekend and we did a little wander around the town.  It was so fun to look into a few shops I've admired but haven't been into before, catch a movie, have a coffee (or two) and just generally get caught up.

While we walked around I got inspired to complete two quick DIY projects.  I have a much bigger project in the offing, but these were so quick and easy to do and turned out pretty great!

The first came about because I saw a wee bag of felt rounds in Minerva.  I just glued them to some white craft paper and popped the whole thing into a frame for a bit of colour 'round these parts.

Then we headed down to Swonderful where I spotted some pretty necklaces.  However, the colours weren't for me (brown and green).  The concept was simple though, so I just stopped in at the bead shop on our way back down the street and bought a plain copper chain and some beads, to create this necklace.

In fact, I liked it so much that I grabbed a few extra beads and used a chain I had lying around at home to create a second one.

 

In total this jewellery project cost me $19.  I felt this was a pretty good bargain since the original necklaces were priced at $36 a piece!

Who knows where this spot obsession will take me, but I'm loving the little bits of colour here and there as the days get darker.

Making Progress

Saturday night was the Mt Vic Crew Progressive Dinner.  A progressive dinner involves entrees, mains and desserts (plus drinks) but each course is served at a different house.  Very fun, and a great way to share the stress of a dinner party!

The Doctor and I, as well as A (who lives directly opposite us), hosted entrees.  A and I decided on what we'd make on Friday night - and by that I mean that A, who is a wonderful cook, took pity on me and gave me a recipe on Friday night!  We also decided to host at our house as it is larger and has a dishwasher.

I made spinach balls, which were SO yummy (recipe will follow later this week) and A made blinis with sauteed vegetable toppings.  I ate a lot, so much so that I felt full before the mains.  Whoops!

We also served drinks and I decided we'd keep it simple with some Rekorderlig ciders, fruit to jazz it up, and some fruit juices and mineral water for our teetotal friends.  Total deliciousness!

It rained right before we left for the next house, and the view from our sunporch looked awesome:

Just ignore the UFO, it's my living room lights (dang it).

But in the end the rain held off, and we enjoyed a wonderful evening with friends. Hooray for progressive dinners!

The Natives

I feel bad even claiming this as an arrangement since all I did was buy a bunch of "native flowers" from Moore Wilsons and shove them in this vase (literally...it's a tight fit).

I buy these on repeat when they're available.  The colours and textures are so great and I like to pat the feathery petals on my way past. They also last and last and last and last, and at $14 they are great value.

Sunday Song

When people ask me if I'm "in to music" (which they do with surprising frequency), I usually say that I like music but it's not a particular passion.  However, I do love the way music can affect your mood and attitude - having a down day? Crank out something upbeat!

This song has been a favourite for over half a decade, and is guaranteed to have me dancing in my living room no matter how tiring or grump-inducing my day might have been.

Enjoy!

Casual Friday in Fashion Week

After a hectic day yesterday I didn't quite get to photographing my outfit.  Today, though, I not only dressed for fashion week but also for casual Friday.  It was quite an exercise for the ol' noggin trying to find something fab-but-not-too-fab to wear!

I finally settled on bright colours and this sweeping top.  I got a lot of comments at work but since they were all complimentary I think I got away with it...

Shoes: I Love Paris; Jeans: Zara; Top: Stax; Anorak: Portmans; Jewellery: HRHCollection and Witchery

Odds and Sods

A weekend jaunt around the secondhand shops is more than likely to result in a few bits and pieces making their way back to Capital City with me.  As well as a sensible navy skirt (awaiting a trip to the tailor to be shortened by several inches) and a little wooden dish that is being tarted up, I snaffled up...

This leather belt - I'd been on the hunt for a narrow studded leather belt with a heavy buckle for a while.  This immediately caught my eye and I was delighted to find it's the perfect length for my waist.  The $4 price tag was an additional incentive. 

My obsession with this type of glazed pottery continues and I was more than happy to take every cup off the rack in order to reach this one at the back.  It needed a good clean (the inside was very stained from what must have been hundreds of cups of coffee) but I can't wait to enjoy my first cup of tea from this $1 cup. And perhaps I'll stir in the sugar with this Girl Guiding souvenir teaspoon!

I was inspired when I saw this old sheet music at the Salvation Army and snaffled up a few sheets.  The plan is to frame them and pop them in the sunporch.  However, it is super sunny out there so in order to make sure these don't fade in five minutes, they'll have to be professionally framed with proper protective glass.

And finally, a little bit of gaudy bling.  I loved the use of natural minerals in this bracelet, and  you can see the gilt is wearing off.  I think this was probably a souvenir (it has the level of quality you see in mass-produced souvenir jewellery) but I look forward to layering it or wearing it peeking out from under a cuff.

All in all, a very fruitful trip.  I especially can't wait to frame those pieces of music and get something up on the wall in the sunporch!

At Ruby

Today was my busiest day of WFW, with a private viewing, retail "experience", group show and the Kathryn Wilson show.

Here's a wee snippet of the beautiful treats on display at Ruby...

Wellington Fashion Week: let the games begin

Last year a young man decided to make a dream a reality.  That dream was Wellington Fashion Week and I, in my capacity as a contributor to another blog (prettyprettypretty.com), got to toddle along and play fashion journalist.  It. Was. Rad.

There's a few rumours about whether or not last year was a total success, but whatever, because WFW is back.

I'll be blogging the show content on PPP but I figure it would be good to capture a few memories here.  Starting with: what did I wear to the opening party that I was nearly an hour late to?

Dress: Forever New; Pants: Glassons; Shoes: Hannahs; Purse: vintage; Coat: thrifted; Jewellery: Witchery & handmade.

I totally ran into the house, threw on this outfit ("conceptualised" in a panic on the bus), re-did my makeup, threw my hair up and ran out again.  I was a bit worried that it might be a bit casual but it turned out to hit exactly the right note.  The shift dress is silk, which gave a bit of much-needed fanciness (as did the red lipstick I wore).

Those shoes were an absolute killer.  It took everything I had to leave them on for these photos (taken after the event).

Tomorrow I have a private showing, a retail experience, a group show and a shoe catwalk show.  Which means I better go dream up some more outfits...

Sunday Stroll

I spent a couple of hours wandering through the quiet city on Sunday.  It's a retail holiday and with the exception of a few cafes, service stations and dairies, every shop was shuttered. It was nice to wander the streets without the usual hustle and bustle.

Clockwise from top left: Bunting at a church; the city is full of trees and beautiful old buildings; the Eleventh Commandment; I love that someone decided to tile the outside of this building; street art ranges from this graffiti'd wall mural; to this - which has escaped the painter's brush; a stroll in the city isn't complete without a swing past Flowers Manuela; more trees, more beautiful buildings.

Easter Outing

This four day weekend came along just in time.  I had a big work meeting on Thursday and flew home to Capital City with a song in my heart. Friday was a quiet home day but on Saturday I headed out early to visit with the Ladywife.

After a short stop in Levin to scope out SaveMart (borderline unsuccessfully - boo) I collected Ladywife and we headed out with the Designer to Foxton to hit the secondhand shops.  After a more successful (and fascinating) day of rummaging around, we headed into the festival at Waitarere Beach for some tasty ice-creams and a ride on the swings.

It was the perfect day.

Vintage toys, including a doll I nearly bought for my Mum

Pretty sure the Doctor would love a juke box...right?

Beautiful packaging on the donut maker

Someone took a lot of time and effort over this set of tins

For Amusement Only. No Prizes. No Wagering.

Old buses from Capital City, in a car yard in Foxton

I actually regret not buying this. A polar bear playing an accordian?!

You get the radio on Tuesdays and Sundays, and that's quite enough

The wags at Radio Foxton - a toilet that's labelled conference room? Classic.

Blue sky, sand, and a lifesaving caravan

Productive

We are having a ridiculous summer and autumn here, complete with a terrible drought over the North Island.  It is difficult to enjoy the warmer days when you know that farmers and growers are struggling.  I'm capturing the extra water from our showers to keep our little garden going, and it's just enough water.

In fact, due to the warmer weather, our garden has been a bit of a bonanza.  This has been my first attempt at "real" gardening, and it's a rousing success so far.  We've eaten lettuce, spinach and zucchini as well as basil, mint and parsley from the garden over the past couple of months.

Go little zucchini!

Baby brocolli are starting to peek through

Baby spinach, rapidly outgrowing its box

These flowers died in the height of the drought, but magically regenerated during a short period of rain.

Buttercrunch lettuce, mint and parsley

More lettuce, basil and the dreaded oxalis

Out of the garden and into my tum!

This is the downside of a bumper summer - these bulbs were supposed to hide away and come up in the spring time.  With the warm weather they've come up right as winter kicks off.  Or maybe this is supposed to happen?

This is the laundry door - this time last week it was possible to walk through it without your face getting clawed open by the climbing roses.  Seriously, out of control, so I spent some quality time with the old hammer and got them back against the wall.

Decorate

After two months in our new house, we have done a lot of decorating (I want to say we're 97% done and we're down to details, but that's only true if I ignore the spare room).

In the rest of the house I'm running out of bits and pieces to finish off.  There's just a few more "spots" to tidy up and then we'll live in it for a bit (until I score some vintage treasure and rearrange the house to accommodate it).

www.houzz.com

 I'm hunting down new knobs for our reclaimed rimu dresser - the existing knobs are plastic, with some kind of coating to make them look like chrome (?!).  I would love something in blue and white glass to match our overall blue and white bedroom theme, but failing that I will track down some mid-century metal knobs to finish it off.

Sadly, not my wardrobe: blog.freepeople.com

 There's no room in our teensy wardrobe for all my clothes, so the majority of my things live on a garment rack in our bedroom.  I hate it. There's just way too much stuff crammed on there!  My goal is to whittle it down by 30% so that it all fits neatly onto the rack with room to look for things.  I love the idea of just having key pieces on there that I truly love so I'll be working away on the cull while I also transition to my winter clothes (currently in the storage closet downstairs).

Etsy - saving the day

We have a small white dining table in the sunporch that the Doctor bought at Ikea and shipped back to New Zealand.  It isn't the best but it's the only table we have for now.  We need something to jazz it up (and hide its previous bad treatment) and so I am trawling through vintage tablecloths, trying to find something that isn't too girly or expensive!

via www.homebunch.com

Finally (for this post at least!), I want to utilise our sunporch over the winter and keep my fingers green.  I like this collection of greenery and I have the perfect table/sunny spot to work with too. I'll have to keep my eyes peeled for some nice pots (since the ones at the garden centre are frequently terrible) - I sense a spot of thrifting in my future.

New and Old

The past few weeks has seen a few new additions to the Capital Lass/Doctor household.  Let's be real - the additions are all down to me!  Here's what I've been splashing the cash on (and a couple of kind gifts).

A nice lady in Farmers randomly recommended this brand. SO GOOD (and cheap!)

My sis-in-law to be brought me candles from Canada. Already started on the delicious peach scent.

I was out with LadyWife this morning and we stumbled onto a new sweetshop.  Mint flavour got our vote.

New beauty treats to update my routine, on a pretty plate I found for $5.

Left to right: MAC Contrast, Revlon Nude Slip, MAC Club (a beauty of a duochrome)

Left to right: Nation Rosewood blush, Lollipops Jungle Art

Left to right: Kate Moss for Rimmel in 03, Revlon Colorburst in 050 Hazelnut

A new-to-me book left by a departing friend.  Loved the Natural History Museum so this should be good.

Do I ever decant things? No - but this does match my vintage water jug so I picked it up anyway.

And finally, vintage postcards of Capital City.  These date back to the early 20th century and I plan to frame all 6.