Remember that fancy tea party the other week?  Well here are the outfit photos of what I wore.

It is super, super girly and was particularly appropriate for that kind of event; but it was also almost all vintage! Well at least half.

The dress itself I picked up at the last Way We Wear vintage fair here in Melbourne.  I was told at the time that it is an early 1960′s square dancing dress and it was one of a set of three all in different colours.  The seller even had the matching men’s waist coats and ties that would have been worn to dance with their beau. Awww.

It is made of some sort of metallic threaded, synthetic eyelet lace type material with no give at all so I don’t know what it would have been like for dancing!  Underneath is a baby blue tulle petticoat that has its origins in the early 1980′s and is a bit of a rough homemade job. Not to worry though, cause it did the trick and I love the colour – it was also free!

The stockings I found at Myer on sale and are from the Pins collection by Leona Edmiston There are a little too cheer for my liking but the spot pattern was irresistible.

Shoes – well what can I say? These are incredibly awesome “Japan” shoes from Wittner.  They are incredibly comfortable and you can even run in them with no difficulty should the occassion call for it.

*Please note – I am not attempting to do a pidgeon-toed, ingenue blogger stance here; I was just sliding down the hill!!*

Given that the scarf is all scrunched up tied to my bag, I thought I’d spread her out for a proper appreciation shot.

When I saw this hanging on the rack at Circa Vintage, I leapt for it like a rabid scarf hound! I’ve never seen anything like the print before and new it would be the perfect foil to a collection of many plain coloured scarves.  The bag was a bit of a sneaky sale rack find ($10!) at Equip, that cheap little accessory shop, and while I don’t tend towards small bags there are times that they are really the only chic option. That and it was ROSE print!

The right accessories really make or break this dress as I found out a few times when I just couldn’t make it work. Here’s a round up of the rest-

Headband – pinched from Miss Two

Earrings – pearl bows from Equip

Necklace – ‘Love’ on faux pearls from Equip also

Bow Bangle – Friends of Couture

.. and I think that’s everything!

*P.S: You’ll notice a few changes happening around here.  Please bare with me as I get everything finished and the kinks sorted out. *

My version of sight seeing in the last few weeks has constitued going to some of my favorite hidden gem stores around Melbourne. While I will list them for you a little down the track, today I thought I’d show you where all that pocket money has disappeard to!

No one item was very expensive, (this is how they trick you into draining the wallet, stealth style) but each one has a brilliant style factor for making something everyday that bit more extradordinary. Beautiful and useful? Of course!

Small bird clip that can be worn anywhere – $6.00

Faux pearl and felt snowflake earrings – FREE with purchase! ( Um yes, I bought a jacket on sale for $65 but it still counts as a bargain!)

I spotted this purple plaid beauty case from the far end of the store and immediately fell in love. I figured it would be around $90 but went in for closer inspection anyway.  It is the perfect size for carrying shampoo bottles and hair brushes when travelling, something that I don’t yet have a purpose built bag for, so when I saw it was actually $19.95 I had to have it!

This is actually a blush pot from Missha. I have been looking for a new cool and bright base eye colour but most I liked have been around the $40 mark.

This one however, is twice the size as well as being the perfect shade and was only $8!

I’ve been using it to great effect the last couple of days, so there is a tutorial in the works on how best to use it too.

This was a random find in one of those Chinese bargain stores and at $2 I couldn’t leave it behind.

You may have seen these around before, in fact I’ve been eyeing them off for a while before I finally gave it to the red, shiney, hypnotic surface. Ohhh…

Yes, it is APPLE hand cream from The Face Shop! It is only about $12, but there isn’t a whole lot in there. However this is one package I will use and use when it is empty so I still consider it a good buy. Besides which my hands smell and feel divine!

All that booty and it all came to $48.00 or about a week’s worth of take out coffee.  I know which pick me up I prefer!

Every week I get another email from someone wondering how I get the blonde streak in my hair. How is it achieved and which sections are dyed to create the rolls that I do.

So last time I went in to have a touch up, I asked my kindly hairdresser to take a few shots so I never have to try and describe this again!

My hair is naturally very dark so this has to be achieved with bleaching, but we are careful to take it easy as it does make the hair quite brittle and fragile.  This is another reason that I favour hairstyles that don’t require heat treating because if I did that all that time I’d have a bald patch in no time!

When I first started having my hair coloured this way a few years back, it took several sessions to get the blonde really light.  Initally it was more of a caramel colour, but I favour a really white tone – although in this shot I had a different rinse put in for the week which has since gone back to white.

It does take some maintenance to keep it healthy and the correct colour.  I use treatments both in the salon and at home on a regular basis.   I also use a ‘bluing’ conditioner every other week to stop it yellowing.

Here is how the hair is sectioned out before colouring:

It is two sections about an inch and a half wide that runs from my part down to my ear.

The bleach is applied in individual foils to the roots and eventaully worked through at the end.

They have to be very careful with the bleach application and making sure to clip it right up and out of the way, otherwise the bleach attacks the dark hair around it.

Yep, it’s sexy!

When it is all done and dry it looks like this! As I said, in this shot I had a pink / purple rinse in, (PVO9 for you hairdressers out there) but it washed back out to white for me a week later.

It really is a fairly simple process if somewhat time consuming ( I bring my laptop to work while it comes up), but it is very effective when styled in different ways.  A word of warning though – Unless you are VERY good with using bleach, DON’T try this at home or you could end up with a very big bald patch! I have even had in salon disasters with previous hairdressers who have melted most of this section off!  It requires commitment for the upkeep, but much less than some of the fully coloured hair I have had in the past.

I hope this answers all the questions on the mystery of the blonde streak!

Okay, so clearly I have no idea what kind of vibe I was aiming for with this outfit, but I still love the end result!

I found this skirt in a recycle boutique over a year ago and have never found anything that worked with it, that is until I found this great new top in this months sponsors store!

This is one of those ‘organic’ outfits that just kind of happens as you get dressed. Well that happens to me anyway.  It was about trying to find a balance for the volume of the skirt, find a way to keep it up (it is a little big) andground it with the right shoes.  I did have the best pair of black and red Melissa style flats on to begin with, but they just weren’t comfortable enough for a whole days walking around, so the Le Pommier shoes filled the gap instead.

I had stayed up with a friend the night before, crafting and hot gluing new hair thingys until 1am and the result was this hair bow.  A little red velvet ribbon, some faux pearls and  a golden anchor. It turned out to be the perfect thing the outft needed.

Outfit Details from head to toe:

Hair bow – made by me  Earrings – a few seasons ago from Diva

Top - Matelot top A/W’10 Friends of Couture

Skirt – unlabeled and found at a recycle store. Made of cotton scarves and broderie anglise.

Belt – elastic with enamel bow from Angel Sissi in Bourke Street Melbourne (they don’t have a website yet)

Flesh tone fishnets – Leg Avenue

Shoes – Le Pommier (these guys don’t have a site either!)

I guess you could say this is a classic SKM look – pulled together from a variety of inspirations, breaking lots of rules and inherantly me.

P.S: For those of you in Melbourne looking for some great recycled, new and vintage bargains, Episode is having their Once A Year Garage Sale this weekend!  There will be stuff from $5 – $50 but mostly $5- $20.  They have samples, last seasons stock, vintage and recycled.  It runs from Friday till Sunday and the first 20 people to arrive on Friday will be able to fill an entire bag for only $20!

I didn’t go out for dinner on Valentines Day. Instead I decided to share the holiday’s theme with one of my furry best friends.  Little Lola was due for a bit of a wash and a set so we decided to give her a Valentine’s hair do courtesy of a little food dye!  Rest assured, she was completely complient in the act (as much as a dog can be at bath time) as we took all measure of appropriate safety precautions.  Using a little Queens Rose Pink food colouring mixed with dog conditioner, I was able to apply it strategically without too much mess.  I left it on to soak in for about 8 minutes, then rinsed well and dried off.

A few dog treats and a bow later it was all cuddles from my Pink Doggy Valentine!

Love!