Saving the World

Elk bracelet :: Anne-Marie // Mount Royal // No flashOn the weekend I found this wonderful, sculptural bracelet by Australian label Elk in a charity store. I have dubbed it my ‘porcupine bracelet’, for obvious reasons, although it’s woven from wooden beads so presents no danger to anyone! It’s quite big, so I like the fact that it is a pinkish-beige colour (basically my skin tone!) so it takes less visual space than it otherwise might. Elk’s bracelets retail for around $30–$40, I paid only $12, so I scored myself a bargain. Shop second-hand: save the world, and save your pocket, I say.

Blue Mood

Blue Mood :: Big Up // Watts // No flashMy cousin and I have quite different styles (and very different figures), but on many occasions our tastes coincide. Here is one such lovely instance when we were clearly both in a blue mood one morning and donned cobalt accessories. I am wearing a pair of patent and suede wedges, and my cousin is in tights. Of course you can see just how our taste in office footwear differs!

Rag Trade

Dishrags :: Melodie // Sussexx // No flashWhenever I see really cheap and ugly clothing on Ozsale, one of the sales websites I shop at, I hear my mum’s inimitable Croatian accent in my head, disdainfully pronouncing judgment: ‘Krpa!’ This means ‘dishrag’. As in: ‘Why would you want to wear such a hideous, rubbishy garment?’ Far less waste money on it.

A krpa, to me, usually implies any shapeless garments with uneven hemlines made from cheesecloth or cheap cotton-poly fabric and featuring brash, chintzy prints and other bedraggled details such as cheap polyester lace trim, rick-rack and the like. These are some expensive dishrags above.

India Inspires

India Inspires :: Tinto // Pistil // Laser Lemon GelWhenever I see something shiny in a store, you can guarantee, like a magpie, my eyes will go big and round, and my lips purse as I breathe, ‘Ooooooo! Shiny!’ My hands involuntarily reach out to caress these pretty objects and admire. Sometimes I buy them.

India is a wonderful source for all things golden and tinkly – anyone at all familiar with Bollywood fare will know that. I remember staring into a shop in one of the souqs in Dubai displaying a myriad of Indian trim – soutache and braids, ribbons embroidered in gold and silver metallic thread, bejewelled and bedazzling. I was like a kid in a candy store. But, overwhelmed by choice, I didn’t buy anything (tragic).

India Inspires :: Tinto // Pistil // Laser Lemon GelIn celebration of that childish wonder, here is a little collection of Indian-inspired jewels, slippers and scarves. Some of them actually are Indian, bought in Melbourne boutiques or foraged for in charity stores, and some of them are my own souvenirs from faraway lands (ironically not India though). Be dazzled.

India Inspires :: Tinto // Pistil // Laser Lemon GelIndia Inspires :: Tinto // Pistil // Laser Lemon GelIndia Inspires :: Tinto // Pistil // Laser Lemon GelIndia Inspires :: Tinto // Pistil // Laser Lemon GelIndia Inspires :: Tinto // Pistil // Laser Lemon GelIndia Inspires :: Tinto // Pistil // Laser Lemon GelIndia Inspires :: Tinto // Pistil // Laser Lemon GelIndia Inspires :: Tinto // Pistil // Laser Lemon Gel

Princess Tatiana is On the Case

Homeward Bound :: Doris // Sussex // No flashLast week I visited family in the country for a few days. I managed to come back with more luggage than I left with!

I’ve been searching high and low (or should I say north and south) for a vintage hatbox or suitcase to use for storage, and while I was in northern Victoria, my niece and I jaunted about browsing in the various charity stores there. We even ventured over state lines in pursuit of my mission.

Bluebelle knew I was looking in particular for a suitcase of some sort, but in every op shop we drew a blank. It was at the last Salvos in Wodonga that we visited that I hit the jackpot. I had my pick from a stack of vintage luggage! (I was extremely excited but I had the presence of mind to take a photograph.) Although the grey-blue suitcase trimmed in brown looked better on the exterior, the inside of the brown case was in much better trim. (Also it is striped, and I can never resist a stripe.) And how awesome is that doctor’s bag? I should have bought that too!

Which Case Suits? :: Doris // Sussex // No flashThese days it’s not so easy to find a case like this (at least in Victoria) – there are slim pickings in charity stores and vintage bazaars, and what can be found is either deteriorated (ie, decomposed) beyond usefulness, or very expensive. Bluebelle later told me she was certain she had seen one somewhere, but she couldn’t recall where, and she didn’t want to get my hopes up by mentioning it.

Of course I found a few other little things to purchase as well, so when it came time to pack for home, I found myself actually utilising the new suitcase as luggage. Bluebelle took some snaps of my ridiculous quantity of baggage at the station, but to quote her: ‘at least it all matches!’

Case solved. 

Bag and Baggage :: Doris // Sussex // No flash