Beaches, Fields and Sunlight

 Dress: Vintage, Thrifted

Bag: Vintage, Thrifted (Gift from Caleb)

Bow: Vintage, Thrifted

Boots: Vintage, Trade Me

 I'm so very sorry for my absence lately. My cherished laptop was not only falling to bits, but having trouble connecting to the Internet, full of cracks including both hinges snapped off and cellotape held the screen on. I finally have a shiny new desktop with a big ol' monitor and I'm pretty sure this is the end of laptops for me all together. The colours on the screen alone are just incredible!

Yesterday, after a lazy day of ice cream eating and movie watching, Caleb and I took advantage of the sunset and drove up to Sumner (about 5 minutes away) to take some photos at the beach. We had taken a midnight stroll along it the night before and I thought it was such a pretty place! I especially wanted to come back for the sunset. I adore taking pictures as the sun is going down. It casts the most perfect light over everything and it seems for a brief time that everything is just a little bit magical. 

We had to go to a nearby field after the beach to get a picture of the outfit without my hair in my face or me awkwardly trying to hold my skirt down. I swear I have never been in a place that has been so windy in my life. With the unfortunate exception of a few years ago in my hometown when I was wearing a below the knee 1950s day dress. I stepped out of a store only to find myself with my whole skirt above my head revealing my undergarments for all the world to see for a good 10 seconds. Needless to say I wanted to crawl in a hole and die.

The dress I'm wearing in the photos is one of my favourite finds ever. I sold it on Trade Me only to discover a horrible stain on the back. I almost threw it out until I took it to the dry cleaners and now it is perfect! It reminds me so much of the lovely dresses in the Twelve by twentysevennames summer collection. My mind is always far to guilty to shell out so much money for one dress, so I was amazed when I found it. The boots were another random find, but on bought on trade me and at first I didn't like them. I intended to resell them, but something about the creepy Edward Scissorhands vibe means they go with all of my dresses and I can't argue with that!

Beneath The Secret Trees

Vintage Dress, Belt, Bag: Thrifted, Christchurch, New Zealand

Vintage Bow: Thrifted, Rangiora, New Zealand

Vintage Boots: Minx, Athens, GA

I'm so excited that I have finished telling you all about the wonderful road trip I had in America.  Now I can start blogging in real time back here in New Zealand. I have been hard at work getting back into the business and relearning all the things I had forgot. I can't wait to tell you about the changes I am going to make after I get settled in again. It is nice having my own space back with all my clothes hanging up, my own bed and not living out of a suitcase!

Lately the sky has been filled with delicious smells of freshly mown grass, barbeques and left over fireworks. All signs that summer is on its way for me again! Today was the loveliest day it was just the right temperature to get ice creams and go for adventures to find pretty places. I have always wanted to take pictures here. I was a little late for the blossoming trees, but the daises and dandylions were scattered elegantly through the grass and the sunlight was filtering through the trees perfectly! 

I adore this dress I picked up at a thrift store a few weeks ago. Caleb thinks it looks like a sack. If so I think it is the prettiest sack I have ever laid eyes on. It reminds me of the depression era where ladies would make clothing out of any sort of fabric they could get there hands on! The bow I dug up again in my box of no return and it has been some what permanently attached to my head ever since.

Thank you to everyone for all the comments and for following my blog! It has been such a surprise to get to 50 so fast and it is all so very kind of you to care about my little blog enough to that! You are all so supportive and amazing and it keeps me updating even when I don't think I have the time!

Southern Road Trip: Video Of Our Journey

This is the final post on our trip. Caleb made this video of tiny clips we made on my digital camera. He did a really good job considering we kept forgetting to take video. Sorry about my constant face pulling in this. It's a bad habit and I swear I was actually very happy! It was such a lovely trip I have watched this too many times when I have missed being back in the south!

On a random note, on our flight back home we went through security just before Ted from 'How I Met Your Mother' and meet Jemaine Clement from 'Flight Of The Conchords' (one of my all time favourite shows) just as he was getting on the same plane as us. He asked me what face I wanted and we both did our best angry faces for the photo!

Southern Road Trip: Nashville, Tennessee

This was our final stop before our all night drive back to Virginia. Nashville was incredible. From its amazing country music to its lovely vintage stores. Nashville is one of those cities that really does have a style and feel that is so unique. We decided to go explore the city instead of the attractions as we had limited time! That being said the city is really an attraction in itself! I loved how music is such an important part of this city and every corner you turned all different types were floating out of all the bars and eateries.

Nashville is also the place where my second accidental blogger meet up happened! Caleb and I were perusing the shops of downtown Nashville and I stepped into an American Apparel (only the second one I had come across on the whole trip) So I could go drool over the tights. The girl at the counter greeted us and I looked over and got a bit flustered and ended up blurting out 'I love your blog!'.
It was Lauren from Blooming Leopold. How much of a strange coincidence is it that only days before I had also bumped into Rhiannon, her sister totally by accident too. What is even more weird is that just before I stepped into the store I was looking at the window display and remarked to Caleb how the equestrian pants in the widow looked just like the pair that I had seen in one of Lauren's posts earlier that week!

Lauren was wearing the most lovely outfit! Both of the girls are just as stylish and pretty in person as they are on their blogs. She was so very nice, talking to me about Nashville and our trip and writing down for me the best vintage places in Nashville to visit. I have only realised now how I never look as excited in photos as I really was! I again was talking a mile a minute and probably not making much sense!

We wandered downtown some more, grabbed lunch at a great country themed bar with a bluegrass band playing. I had my first pulled pork sandwich (delicious). After we raided the gift stores for Caleb to find a Johnny Cash T-shirt where he is pulling the finger. As we were heading back to the car the sky opened up and we ended up sprinting back to the car, Caleb getting drenched and me looking ridiculous with a plastic bag over my head.

Before we left I said we must visit Venus and Mars and the places Lauren had so kindly written down for us!
Venus and Mars was everything I had dreamed and surprisingly cheap! I tried on a few things on the sale rack, but they didn't quite fit so I left empty handed. Next we went to a Vintage store where they had the most amazing array of vintage summer dresses on sale. It overwhelmed me so much I only left with one 60's dress!

 Bustier: Thrifted, Christchurch, New Zealand

Culottes and Oxfords: Thrifted, Little Rock, AR

Bag: Thrifted, Rangiora, New Zealand

After trekking to a few thrift stores we were quite tired so we ended up at the most amazing movie theatre I have ever seen and saw Scott Pilgrim Vs The World. Then prepared for driving through the night back to Virginia. It was sad heading back, knowing that this magical trip would soon be over and we would be back on a plane to New Zealand before we knew it. I hope I have not rambled too much about the trip on here! I just had so much to say about how magical it all was. The people are so friendly, the food is amazing and the scenery is ever changing and insanely beautiful! It is something I will never forget and I can't wait to visit again!

Southern Road Trip: Memphis, Tennessee

We stayed in Little Rock, Arkansas for a day and half. For some reason we got zero photos from there. I think we were to busy shooting video to notice! It was wonderful and we thrifted my favourite dress of the trip. I deperately want to go back there again so I can experience it properly. From there we drove to Memphis, TN.

This had to be one of my favourite stops through the whole trip. Back when I was 11 or 12 years old I had a paper route and a discman (they were the greatest). I remember turning on my T.V one day and one of this mans movies was showing and I instantly fell in love with him and his bevy of perfectly dressed ladies. I wanted to be just like them. I played this one mixed CD of Elvis songs on my discman non stop for a year at least and I credit him not only for creating my love of the 1950's, but for the beginnings of my love vintage clothing. I am of course referring to Elvis Presley (as if you didn't all guess when you saw the title)

I had never dreamed I would ever get the chance to step inside Graceland, I know it is seen as cheesy to some people, but it was just was incredible! I didn't expect Graceland to be in such a run down part of town, or so close to the street. It doesn't take away from it too much thankfully! It is a magnificent building, with its columns and winding driveway. The brick fence in front of the property is tagged with messages and names of people that have visited and right across the road are buildings filled with memorabilia.

We chose one of the cheaper options, with an audio tour on a little headset that you can control. It was a bit crowded as we stepped in so we took our time and dropped behind the group so I wasn't right up against a wall. It was like I had stepped back in time. Everything was decorated in a magnificent 1970's way with shag pile rugs and different tones of brown. Each room was perfectly left the way it was when he last lived there. Covered in retro art, furniture and random odds and ends that exist in my dreams.

I loved the TV room, boasting 3 full colour T.Vs and a lightening bolt on the wall. Apparently Elvis had wanted to be just like the president and have three going at the same time! The 'jungle room' as it was nicknamed is equally incredible. The fur and carved wooden furniture was a short lived 70's fad that Elvis had taken favour too and tropical plants were covering the room.

I don't usually like cars, but I'm so glad we didn't miss his car museum! The famous pink Cadillac was there and all of his purchases were my dream  cars, It would help if I could drive though, Just a little. We also saw all oh his famous costumes, like the extravagant jumpsuits and the more refined 50s and 60s suits, which is my favourite era of Elvis.

As we finished the tour of the house you end with visiting Elvis's grave site. It's an unexpected end to the tour and incredibly sad as he was so young when he passed and in such a tragic way. It was covered in letters and gifts from fans. It was touching to see that s many years after his death he was still so loved! As we left we took pictures outside of the house two of the security ladies told me how much they loved what I was wearing and then asked me if it was 'one of those Kim Kardashian outfits'.Darn.

 Top-Thrifted, Kiapoi, New Zealand

Bag-Thrifted, Rangiora, New Zealand

Culottes- Thrifted, Little Rock, AR

Sandals- Thrifted, Denton, TX

We filled up our entire day with Graceland, so we had to head off straight after for the next day of adventures! My next post includes my second of the two accidental blogger meet ups during my trip!