Thursday, January 28, 2010

I’ll Meet You There in the Summertime







Summer means tie-dye, hot chips and sunburn. It means afternoon rain storms and sleepless nights under mosquito nets. Salt-stringy hair and pale denim. And best of all, road trips.

I did a couple down to the coast during this summer, and discovered some amazing little shops on the way. Firstly there was Winch Books in Bungendore – your genuine, old-school, ramshackle book shop. Think Black Books but with charming (rather than terrifying) staff. I found some great old poetry books, and I’m sure there were some fantastic hidden treasures there – hidden being the operative word, because you’d definitely need to look for them!




Up the road was a leather shop, so enticing it managed to draw in even my strictest animal-loving vegetarian friends. There were cute shoulder bags in the shape of elephants and frogs, and then there were keyrings made out of actual frogs – well, cane toads. I kid you not. There were also new and vintage leather bags, fox tails, kangaroo skins, cow skins, tooled leather bags and wallets, and for some reason, a bunch of bowler and top hats – overall the perfect mix of quirky and cute.





Then about 40 minutes away in Braidwood we visited a shop a friend had told me about called Hoola Hoop, which sells vintage and rockabilly-style clothes and accessories. It was looking kinda sparse – possibly because the tourists had bought it all up – but there was still some fun stuff there, with brands like Heartbreaker and Hot Couture. If you don't fancy the drive, you can also do online purchases from their website.




Monday, January 4, 2010

These Are Not My Shoulders

The thrill of playing dress-ups with my dolls has never worn off for me, and nowadays I'm lucky enough to have a life size, moveable doll to dress - more specifically my very obliging friend Diz. This post was originally going to be a celebration of the shoulderpad trend - and it still is - but it took Diz and I so long to find a time to do it that it is somewhat out of context, shot in my backyard on a blazing summer day. Nonetheless, I am a fan of the power shoulder anywhere, any time - even against red brick at midday. I hope you enjoy the pics - and big love and thanks to Diz (I think she bears a striking resemblance to it-girl Georgia Jagger, don't you agree?).