It must be the start of Spring time, the change of weather and the gorgeous sunshine; but all I want to do at the moment is skive off and go shopping.  I get this insatiable urge to hit the streets and just wander on days like this, but it always seems to happen just after I’ve paid off all the bills and don’t have much in the way of ‘walking around money’.

Picking up a new magazine is an exercise in anxiety more than inspiration these days, as they spend so much time telling you whether you’re ‘In’ or “Out’, what new jeans you need, or even if your eyeshadow is too last season. It’s enough to make you want to live in a cave. While I was out today, wandering aimlessly in a large shoe store, I saw two ladies (in their mid 50′s) wandering around with little black dresses in hand, picking up every pair of silver glitter platform shoes they could find.  One says, “Why don’t you just get those pretty black one?” to which the other replied, “They are so beautiful, but black is out so I have to get these glitter ones.” Oh man…. really?!

One of the greatest things about being a vintage style aficionado, is that whatever I love is already so far dated, that its ‘classic’. But that doesn’t stop me falling prey to that feeling of intense shopping lust that can take over when the sun is shining. But instead of just being a consumer today, I decided to channel that energy into something more creative and start planning out some DIY rescue and Make It Yourself projects.

I have a cupboard full of clothes that I can pull apart and put back together, boxes of fabric, flowers and hot glue gun. All I need now is an evening on Polyvore, a list of my favourite craft and DIY blogs like Violet Le Beaux and about two weeks to produce something really amazing. So given that today is the beginning of school holidays, I’ve decided to enlist the assistance of Miss 7 in my office here and turn our shopping bug into a great school holidays project – Be Your Own Fashion House – and let Miss 7 work with me on creating our very own, one off fashion collection to kick off spring!

So with the collage above that I’ve put together, I’m getting started on making my own version of this outfit with some taffeta plaid I have on hand, a pair of wedges dying to a DIY and some old handbags that have been relegated to the back of the wardrobe. Stay tuned to see if we can breathe new life into these outfits and find some new tutorials along the way!