Gratitude 15: Slinky Leona-esque dress

I love Leona Edmiston's style. Lovely dresses with sleeves. Understatedly feminine.. Hair up. Perfect.

My new eshakti dress is a little Leona Edmiston. Slinky and lovely. It's my go to evening dress at the moment.

Gratitude 14: White Wrap Shirt

My beautiful white wrap shirt by Jane Lamerton is evidence for the quality argument. I've had it three years now and it still looks new. It irons like a dream. It is in the spirit of the shirts below but not exactly the same. It has an almost seventies retro big collar and a fetching black buckle.

Gratitude 13: Cherry Earrings

I am loving my gratitude project. It's training me to think a little differently. As my items of gratitude get a little older I may need to get out the camera as it's getting harder to find images online!

Gratitude 13... hmm is that unlucky?

Here are my cherry earrings from Paper Biscuit on Etsy.

They are so pretty and add a little rockabilly sweetness to the outfit du jour.

Gratitude 12: Girl-Power Maxi

Ooh eshakti! This is such a lovely dress. It fits. It's lined in cotton. It doesn't have ridiculous plunging cleavage. The length is perfect. It's straps stay put and most importantly it's in white, purple and green the colours of women's suffrage.

As always there's a few custom options. I chose "wide straps". Simple and lovely.

Gratitude 11: Minnie Mouse Dress

My sister tells me that this eshakti dress makes me look like Minnie Mouse, but in a good way!

It can only be good, as Minnie Mouse is a style icon of mine.

It's a look that works for everyone!

Eyebrow Role Models

http://www.spencerandrutherford.com/blog/?p=1615

Deferred longing: Queen of Holloway

This morning I discovered  Queen of Holloway, a UK site that makes new "vintage" clothes from old patterns.

They post to Australia rather reasonably, but apparently they are a little slow.

But oh! The dresses!

You can also have a dress custom made from a vintage pattern.  

I see wedding dress potential here. You can choose what ever fabric you like.

Imagine the lovely long sleeved black dress in this fabric...what a lovely bride you'd be!

Gratitude 10: Ipad Satchel

Catherine Manuell has beautiful bags and her factory outlet is on the way home. 

I am grateful for my lolly pink ipad satchel. The outside flap fits the ipad perfectly. The lining is gorgeous all floral and satin.

Here it is in green.

The long cross body strap makes it so comfy to wear. Your forget you are wearing it.

Gratitude 9: Spots!

This dress is from Chicstar. It's such fun to wear! The cotton is soft and the skirt is so swirly The high waist gives a lovely shape. Very cute with a bright cardigan.

Gratitude 8: Red Mary Janes

Yesterday I watched a cute video of Caitlin Moran on Youtube, a feminist tour of her home, She has a very posh TV purchased by refusing to wax her girly bits! She also had two tubs of shoes under her bed - one of shoes she has bought and one of shoes she actually wears. I could relate to this, big time!   

These shoes Zander by Ziera are definitely shoes I wear. Mine are so well-loved I've just repainted them and they look cute again. Sadly these are mostly out of stock now. 

Gratitude 7: Tulle Skirt

I tend not to make the trek to Dream Diva in Richmond anymore, but quite a few of my well-loved pieces come from there. Like this gorgeous tulle skirt. The tulle is uber soft and it sits just on your hip. 

Here is the Lazy Madonna wearing it. She looks great. Love those blue shoes!

Gratitude 6: Magenta Magic

I love this shirt dress from Igigi. I tend to keep it for special work occasions such as meetings with the boss and parent teacher interviews. You can see the collar in my profile pic

Its so bright and lovely, professional without being boring. Amazing quality.

Here it is worn by Savonne from Stylish Curves.Love those ankle boots. Gorgeous!

Gratitude Five: Comfy Heels

I bought these shoes on a prowl around DFO with my sister. I didn't wear them for a year, thinking them ridiculously high, but in fact they are ridiculously comfy.

I can wear them all day. This is my favourite type of heel. I'm not sure what it's called?

Hunting around the net looking for this snap, I found a site with very reasonable Naturalizer shoes.

These shoes go with most things - giving vintage dresses a modern look.

Gratitude 4: Hello Sailor!

When I was in my twenties I had a pale green sailor suit. It's one of those ones I wonder about! But now I have a new sailor ensemble this lovely dress from Chicstar.

It's back view is also very pretty. Look at the detail on the collar.

I love wearing it with my ASOS wedges to add a modern feel. I didn't wear this dres for a while - it seemed to much of a "statement" but it's had a few outings now and gets lots of compliments!

Gratitude 3: LBD

Like many people, especially Melbourne people, I have too many black ckothes, but a versatile LBD is so handy.

I've wanted a black shirt dress for a long time so was so happy to find this one at eshakti. I ordered mine with elbow length sleeves. The skirt is deliciously swirly and the waist deliciously cinched. It looks beautiful with my Domino Dollhouse petticoat.

Gratitude 2: White Dress with Red Flowers

If had to start my wardrobe all over again, my second item, after a versatile black dress would be a white dress with red flowers.

The one I have - and am grateful for - is this one from eshakti.

I ordered this dress with elbow length sleeves. It always attracts admiring glances and compliments when I'm out and about. 

I wear it with red mary janes, white thongs, a big red flower in my hair. It's jusr beautiful! 

Heart on your Sleeve: Literary Trinkets

I have recently just finished listening to Persuasion by Jane Austen on my ipad, a gorgeous reading by Moira Fogarty on the Librivox site. Ah romance its so darn compelling.

Perhaps wearing your heart on your sleeve is not such a bad thing? Or perhaps around your neck?

Or dangling from your ears

Or on your trues love's chest.

(the son's not going for it)

Or on your own

The Gratitude Project: Day 1

When I started this blog, it was with the hope of enjoying my love of fashion without draining the pennies. However I wonder if it just fuelled longing! So for the next little while I'm going to blog about items in my wardrobe I already have.

Today it's my Castles in the Air dress from eshakti. It was on a whimsical wishlist of mine and arrived as a new years present.

Its the sort of dress that you'd usually see at a sweet retro store but not in curvy sizes. I love how from a distance it looks rather elegant, but when you see the print...

the whimsy catches up with you!

Blogger Atlanta styled it in a cow-girlish way. Lovely!

but I also like it with pin up hair and read lippy

Lisa Freemont Street has the best hair tips! 

Chic at the Shops

Like a lot of people, I've drifted to online shopping, but today I decided to have a flip around the shops. Retailers have been bleating in the media about the public's defection to the new chum, but the retail experience really needs to lift its game.

It took half an hour to find a park, unpleasant. In the end I booked Lola into the car wash, resisting the upsell. Point one online shopping - no stress from deflecting the upsell. First stop Myer and a Leona+ dress, I've got my eye on. Still $80 and not tempting enough. The floor is deserted by customers and shoppies alike. The display is tired. Overall it's not a fun place to be.

Next stop City Chic, the grand dame of curvy fashion. Walking in is fun, the shop is alive with colour. The sales racks heavy with pretty bargains. I try on quite a lot. Great service. Lovely big change rooms. I try to set up the iPad to take some pics but it doesn't work. I need to bring my tripod.

First try-on is this...

The colors are so so pretty. I just love it. But Even on the sale its $90.

Next stop a yellow meringue confection. It fits like a dream, lovely boning in the bodice. If it had straps I'd probably had bought it, the colour, the shape of the shirt is so, so pretty.

I'm also tempted by a black broderie anglaise dress. Lovely boning in the bodice, a perfect, pocketed skirt just over the knee. Tempting...

The sailor dress has a lovely shape. At $40 very tempting, but it would need to be layered and I'm just a little over layering.

I put my own dress back on. A black wrap eshakti dress. It has sleeves. It looks elegant. It's so easy to wear. It's made of cotton. The dresses today are pretty but not wearable enough.

I buy... A black 40s style bolero with puffed sleeves. Cute and will work with the many other strapless City Chic frocks already in my wardrobe.

As I leave I chat with the city chic shoppie. Things aren't going well. I'd feel sad if City Chic closed. But sleeves city chic, sleeves. Put those pretty fabrics to better use!

Last stop Laurent. A French couple are ordering lots of cakes in exquisite accents. The service is lovely. I sink into a comfy couch and enjoy a coffee and delicious cake. This is the pleasure of a trip to the shops people watching and pleasure!

My verdict... For the time poor the traditional shopping experience is a little vexing. The shops that get it right focus on service and atmosphere, making shopping an experience. With online shopping, for the first time in my life I feel I can buy exactly what I want - dresses with sleeves par example - and like other shoppers that's what I will do. So retailers listen to your customers, treat them like guests in your store, and no more media whining.