Happy holidays!

I haven't been feeling the holiday season much this year but my mum made my two Midge dolls (I've decided they're twin sisters) Christmas dresses from some scrap fabric we had, so I took this little holiday photo to wish all of my blog readers a happy holiday season! I hope you are safe and well in whatever you are doing and I will most likely be back to my regular blogging in 2012 so happy New Year, too. (And one of my posts will definitely be about my Midge dolls, so everyone who was keen on more Barbie posts should keep their eyes peeled!)

Happy holidays from me and Midge & Midge, the Hadley Twins!

Love,
Andi B. Goode

x

Two Cinema Outfits

As the subject of this post probably suggests, I went to the cinema on two different occasions last week. The first time was to see Rebel Without a Cause at the Mercury Cinema (part of the same season during which I saw Johnny Guitar when I wore this dress) and I opted to try to channel Natalie Wood's wardrobe from that film...which I suppose ended up not looking very different to a lot of what I usually wear, anyway!

I wore the skirt from the stutterinmama order I posted about at the beginning of the month, as it reminded me of the green skirt Natalie Wood wears near the beginning of the film, though hers was a darker more olive green and she had a really cute matching cardigan, too.

Outfit details: 1950s cardigan - etsy; scarf - ?; black top - Target; 1950s pencil skirt - etsy; vintage stockings - ?; shoes - KMart.

I wore the second outfit to (finally) see Midnight in Paris (which I loved and had ambitions to write about after I'd watched it...but still haven't written anything) on a rather warm day. I basically planned this outfit around a new pair of shoes I'd bought the day before...

The belt is from another dress but the tan colour of my shoes matched the belt quite well and I thought it was a nice way to tie the outfit together.

You can see one of the newest additions to my slowly growing collection of ceramic kitties just to the left of my face in this photo - maybe one day I'll do a post on my collection if anyone is interested?

Outfit details: white bow - bought a set of these somewhere ages ago; heart necklace - belonged to my nonna; 1940s dress - etsy; sweetheart pin - etsy; bangles - various; shoes - KMart.

Here's a not particularly good shot of the shoes - they're from K-Mart and I think they have a very 1940s feel to them.

Love,

Andi B. Goode

x 

Polka dots, doilies & buttons

I was so excited about getting my stutterinmama order (which I posted about here), last Wednesday, that I had to wear the dress out the very next night when I went to the Mercury Cinema to see Johnny Guitar as part of the Nicholas Ray season. I'd initially wanted to go in something that channelled Joan Crawford but after this arrived I scrapped that idea. 

 

Outfit details: 1940s dress - etsy; 1960s earrings - church op-shop; belt - gift; bangles - various; shoes - KMart. 

I love the twin collar and pocket flap details on this dress (where the 'doilies' in the subject comes from) - it's a sweet little addition and I think it breaks up the polka dots quite nicely.

I didn't manage to take very many photos of myself but if you want a closer look at my earrings (that I got at an op-shop last week - one of the few pairs of clip-ons I can actually wear without too much pain), I posted a photo from photobooth on Tumblr.

These may still be round buttons but I think the black centre makes them a little different. I also like how they're doubled up.

I'm not sure how much more blogging I will get done in 2011 - I'm feeling both exhausted and overwhelmed, right now (as I'm sure many of us are at this time of year) so, as a consequence, haven't much had the right frame of mind for blogging. I'm hoping to get some ideas down and make 2012 a bigger and better blogging year for me. There will, hopefully, be a post or two before the end of the year but just in case inspiration doesn't strike, I thought I'd say something!

Love,

Andi B. Goode

x

Grey Chairs

A couple of months ago, I wrote a post about the yellow vintage chairs I had found for my future home. Today, I would like to show off the grey vintage chairs I found to go with them. First, though, a little story. When I wrote about the yellow chairs, I mentioned how I fell in love with them immediately...

It wasn't just the colour but the use of two different fabrics in such an interesting (to me, anyway) way and the combination of plain and pattern, too. So, when I was out for a drive, one day, and saw some grey chairs that I thought might go with these I had to go straight over to the shop selling them. When I got up close and saw they were practically the same, I got very excited. It was short-lived, however, when I noticed they were selling the chairs as a set with a 1970s-ish table (very boring and completely useless to me) - I asked if they'd break up the 'set' but they wouldn't. So, I went away feeling a bit sad but hopeful that I'd at least find some nice grey chairs in the future.

But each time I drove past the same shop I had to look to see if the chairs were still there, sitting outside...one day I finally gave in and went back and, to my delighted surprise, noticed they were no longer being sold with the table and that I would actually be able to have my dream grey chairs after all! Hurrah. I put them on hold and picked them up last week and now I can show them to all of you.

As you can see, unlike the yellow chairs, the grey sections are patterned, too, which I think makes a nice little difference between them (aside from the colours, of course.)

I honestly still can't believe my luck! To find the exact same style in the very colour I was hoping to find. I'm sure it helps that they were made by a South Australian company but it doesn't make me any less excited about them.

Has anyone else had such a fortuitous find? I know I've read about this sort of thing on other blogs and it really makes me think about all of the matching sets or even just similar items that are out there  waiting to come together one day.

Love,

Andi B. Goode

x

Etsy got me again...

Being a bit Barbie crazy, lately, I've found that I haven't done much, if any, shopping of the human-sized clothes variety. However, the other night I made the fortuitous mistake of browsing etsy (after promising myself I wouldn't - oops) and seeing that one of my favourite stores was happily one of the many having a holiday sale.

I was on the verge of getting the dress pictured below but, as beautiful as it is, and despite the fact that it's not so easy to find something like this in my size, it just wasn't practical. That's always a terrible thing to realise and sometimes I will admit it doesn't stop me but this time, alas, it did. I rarely get to wear some of the other fancier dresses I have and, whilst I could wear this to do the shopping if that's what I truly wanted, I still have my own set of thoughts about what sort of thing I like to wear and feel comfortable wearing (not what I think one should wear) on different occasions. And I can't envision myself having the occasion to wear this in the near future, so I decided to get three other pieces that had been in my favourites from this shop, instead.

{1950s emerald green party dress}

(...I'm still swooning over this dress, though. That colour! The bows on the back! Sigh.)

In all of my etsy browsing, I rarely see skirts that will fit me and that I actually like, so I thought getting this was a very good idea. Plus, it's such an interesting colour, don't you think? Of course the problem (for me, anyway) with getting separates is that I've such a small but eclectic collection and it gets tricky finding two pieces that actually suit each other! Then again, it also means I get to play dress-ups when this arrives to see what will go with it. Hurrah.

I have a lot of cardigans but very few pullover jumpers, so I felt this was a good purchase, especially as it's in my favourite 'neutral' colour: red.

And last, but not least, I got this beauty. It's so sweet and I love the colour and detailing, like the doubled buttons and doily-esque additions to the pockets and collar. I think this dress could be easily dressed up as well as worn in a more casual setting. To be honest, I've started looking for this in dresses more often, lately. 

If anyone hasn't checked out stutterinmama on etsy, I highly suggest taking a look, even if it's just to ogle. I've never been anything but impressed by the selection on offer and I just wish I could buy everything in my size! Did anyone else take advantage of the various sales (I actually had to google 'black Friday' so all of my American twitterers tweets make a lot more sense now) across etsy?

Love,
Andi B. Goode
x

Sheer blouse and hair flowers

After many years of admiring sheer blouses on others, I finally bought one of my own...and then spent a lot of time at home, on the couch, writing essays and generally not feeling in the 'getting dressed up' mood. Luckily, the end of uni not only brought relief from having to write so much but it also brought the opportunity to wear aforementioned blouse. Last Tuesday I went to the end of year drinks for my course at the art gallery and, whilst I was dragging my feet a bit about going, ended up being very excited after I had realised it was a great time to wear my new blouse out.

Outfit details: hair flowers - various; cherry earrings - made by me; sheer 1940s/50s blouse - etsy; brooch - Fisherman's Wharf Markets; bracelets - various; belt - gift; 1930s skirt - Red Ruby Vintage; 1950s wedge sandals - etsy.

As you can see I have the annoying 'bra strap falling off the shoulder' problem. Why does that only ever happen with shirts or dresses you can't get your hand into properly to pull it back up again? I wish everything had those neat little loops at the shoulder to keep your bra straps in place - I don't think this is something I could sew them into, either. Ah well. I still love this blouse!

I had really wanted to wear one of my many vintage hats (which, unfortunately, don't see the light of day nearly enough) but none of them sat right with my hair like this. So, I just stuck a whole lot of flowers in, instead! Oh, and I love the buttons up the back of the blouse - I know it's not a necessarily uncommon detail but it's one that I love.

The best part of the night was when they announced the essay prizes for each subject because one of them was awarded to me! The essay that I wrote for Modern Art (about three female photographers from the 1930s and how they explored representation of women through self-portraiture) won me a whole heap of art books, which will make up for the texts I had to buy in first semester. Also, I really love light green & some kind of pink together, right now. I'd be wearing it more but I don't have much in the way of either light green or any kind of pink. Time to get some more, maybe?

As a last aside, I'll be selling off some clothes (ranging from the '40s-now) at the North Adelaide Vintage & Fashion Fair today, so if you're in Adelaide, do pop along! 

Love,

Andi B. Goode

x

Pedal pushers and a record bag

When I saw Tuppence Ha'penny's post on how to make a bag from old vinyl records, quite some time ago, now, I was very excited. I remember having instructions for something similar many moons ago but never got around to making one. This time, I was determined to do it! And, so I did. (Just realised the bag looks tiny in the picture below because my hand is so close to the camera. Ha.)

I used two records: one by James Last which I don't think shall be missed as they are everywhere and one by Liberace which are also to be found in nearly every op-shop I've been to. (I've kept the Liberace cover to frame or use somehow in the future). I also cut up an old (as in, I bought it some years ago, not vintage) dress that has a very cute print and bought some handles from Spotlight. I only cut myself once (when I was trying to change the blade in my stanley knife) and had a lot of fun. I'm not sure it's the best bag for an Australian summer so I'll use it on cooler days or at night when there's no sun to buckle it.

I took it out for a test run on the same day I took my new-to-me 1960s top for a first outing, too. I'm thinking I would like to attach a pom-pom trim to the bottom of the top.

Outfit details: record bag - handmade by me; 1960s cropped top - etsy; pedal pushers - Miss Hussy; shoes - K-Mart.

 

As an aside, I stupidly deleted two comments, instead of publishing them, from my last post. And I didn't even see who left them first! Argh. So, if you don't see your comment on that post, that's because it was deleted. So sorry! It was definitely a mistake.

Love,

Andi B. Goode

x

Friday at Regattas

After finishing all of my uni work, I felt at a bit of a loss as to what to do so I was very happy to have a super fun night out at Regattas, last night, with some great company and very good music as a soundtrack, as it were. I even took some photos of things that aren't me for a change!

I wore pretty much the same outfit that I wore in this post so I didn't bother to take a full length shot - well, there was that and the fact that it was the hottest day of the week and I didn't feel much like posing.

One of my goals is to start taking more photos of my friends, so I made sure to snap a few photos of the very lovely, Miss Kitty Boo.

Miss Kitty Boo's sparkly handbag and strawberry daiquiri.

My two (non-alcoholic) strawberry drinks. They were both very yummy.

Betty Jane hiding behind her gorgeous Jane Russell handbag...

but I managed to snap a shot of her, anyway!

Lots of people were dancing but it was still too warm, even after the sun went down, for me to do anything but sit back and soak up the atmosphere.

Also, be sure to check out my guest post at Casey's Elegant Musings - I only had time to write up an outfit post, but I was super chuffed that Casey asked me as she's been one of my favourite bloggers since before I started blogging myself.

Hope you're all having fabulous weekends! I've got some blog reading to catch up on and comments to reply to, so I think that's how I'll be spending my Sunday.

Love,

Andi B. Goode

x

My newest obsession...

One of the things that kept me going through my blog's disappearance, as well as the last few weeks of uni, was my latest obsession (or, perhaps, 're-obsession' is more accurate!): Barbie. I'm not going to say every little girl loved Barbie growing up because I hate generalisations like that but I can tell you this little girl did! I realised I must have had nearly 30 dolls (including 4 Kens and various friends & siblings) plus cars and caravans and a disco and a horse...plus lots of clothes for them as well as a couple of books and comics. It's kind of embarrassing to realise I was actually more than a bit spoilt.

A few weeks ago something spurred me to get out my old dolls and the pangs of regret over culling my collection by nearly half a few years ago were so strong that I set out to find all the dolls I used to have but got rid of. One thing led to another and I've found myself collecting Barbie dolls in earnest again, though I've mainly been buying vintage/vintage reproduction ones (I do have one that I had as a child on the way, though, and a few more on my watch-list!)

Anyway, I thought I'd share a few photos of what I have so far and hopefully it interests at least a few of you! (If you want a little more info about the dolls, you can click on the links below each photo.)

{The Original Teenage Fashion Model Barbie Doll, 2009}

I actually bought this doll when it was first released in 2009 - I was so excited as I'd admired the original Barbie doll ever since I was a little girl but had never thought about collecting vintage dolls. I remember when I bought this how happy I was - she has pride of place on one of my bookshelves and is still in her display box.

{Campus Spirit Giftset, 2008}

I remember seeing this giftset in the shops when it first came out but couldn't bring myself to spend the $120 it cost on it. So, when I was browsing eBay and saw that a local store (as in, there is a physical location near me) had it for only $70 I had to go grab it! A lot of serious collectors wouldn't have taken the set out of the box at all but I'm not fussed about that sort of thing at this point. Plus, it was easier to photograph! They do still live in the box, though, just because it's one less thing for me to dust. Oh, and Ken's speech/thought bubble says 'My favorite part of the game? The huddle with Barbie!' Corny, huh?

{Vintage Straight Leg Skipper Doll}

My first actual vintage Barbie purchase was this vintage Skipper doll, dated between '64 and '66. She's Barbie's little sister and I think she's rather sweet. She's now dressed in her original swimsuit & red flats, which my mum bought for me, but I don't have any other photos of her, yet.

{Vintage Dramatic New Living Barbie Doll}

My second vintage purchase was this mod-era Barbie. I love her rooted lashes and 'groovy threads'. That gold and silver swimsuit is something else, no?

 

{Solo in the Spotlight reproduction Barbie Doll wearing Fancy Free}

This is the latest eBay arrival - I bought her to model some of the vintage Barbie clothes I've bought (only this dress has arrived so far) while they're not on my other dolls. I'm a bit in love with this dress - I wish I had Barbie's early wardrobe all in my size! I probably could have done a whole 'outfit' post just of this dress on this doll. You can see more photos on my Flickr stream.

One thing that's rather tickled me is learning that Barbie and all of her friends have last names and everything - Barbie's full name is apparently Barbara Millicent Roberts.

I hope that was fun to look at. Would anyone be interested to see semi-regular Barbie updates from me? As I get new dolls/clothes and as I learn a little more along the way. Or should I just keep the photos to Flickr and the occasional Tumblr crossover? (And I know this is my blog, but I like to post things others are interested in as well!)

I have photos of all of the Barbie dolls I currently have up on my Flickr, too, for anyone interested. Oh, and I tried to think of some kind of snappy, clever title but this is the best I could come up with. Ha.

Love,

Andi B. Goode

x