Blue Bell

These photos sat on my SD card for a couple of weeks before I actually got around to editing them. Sometimes, I find editing photos right after shooting can destroy any chance of a satisfying end product. Like most creatives, I can be harsh on my own work and decide pretty early in the process that I'm not pleased with what I've created. So, often it's necessary to leave images for a few days or even weeks to sit and marinade. Then, when I finally upload them and sort them into Lightroom to eventually edit, my mindset is fresh and it's almost as if I'm seeing the images for the first time.

I love the colours in this post, the combination of blues, greens and pale pinks work so well together. Fran and I went on a mission to take some photos for her uni course (see Fran's photos of me here). We found a super cool and unusual building made up of blues and greens. There didn't seem to be anyone living there, so we decided to take some photos. I love the art deco features in the building and the bright greenery in the curved planter bed. For such a dilapidated building, the entrance was pretty grand too, with a dramatic set of stairs.

Fran wears a fully thrifted outfit, aside from her Doc Martens. I love the funky paisley vest that she wears underneath her fluffy green coat. The colours are so dreamy and very 70s. She also styles her favourite orange headband with this look, which goes so well with her new short hair!

Check out Fran's Instagram here

Bella 🌼

Planet Caravan

Photos and editing by Fran (here), layout by me.

I had so much fun with Fran taking these photos! It was a spontaneous shoot that involved lots of walking and exploring around the city. I love the way these images turned out and I'll have a separate post coming soon with images I took of Fran on this day too.

This outfit is one of my current favourites, although sadly my beautiful MindFlowers earrings broke last weekend, so I'll need to do some serious saving before I invest in a new pair. Of course, I'm wearing my favourite pair of thrifted flares, which literally go with everything. A pair of trusty denim flares is essential in any closet, I will wear this pair until they completely fall apart. I love the look of a big flared bell sleeve, too. It gives any outfit that fun 70s touch that I simply adore. The mesh collared bell sleeve that I'm wearing is a recent Depop purchase that I'm obsessed with. Then overtop I'm wearing my favourite crochet bell sleeve sweater (thrifted). This piece is perfect for layering with a funky collared shirt underneath.

I'm constantly on the lookout for funky new pieces to add to my wardrobe and recently I've been scoring some super cool items from Depop sellers in NZ. I love supporting fellow Kiwi sellers and picking up unique pieces from across the country. I'm currently working on my Summer wardrobe, with an amazing pair of vintage bathers on my wishlist! Keep your eyes peeled for more shoots with the lovely Fran, coming to my blog soon.

Follow Fran here

Bella 🌼

August Op Shops Colour Study

August has been a month full of thrifting, photographing and re-selling clothes. I feel like I've somewhat neglected this blog, as I've been spending so much of my time focused on growing my Depop store. It's been a great month for the store, with lots of sales and happy customers, plus so many super good thrifting finds. As I've been picking up lots of new pieces, we've been doing more photoshoots and basically just churning out pieces twice as fast as I usually would. But I'm loving it.

I've been completely immersing myself in my love for 60s/70s style and have picked up so many amazing retro pieces this month. I've been loving finding scraps of funky fabric at thrift stores and re-modelling them into headbands or headscarves. It's becoming more obvious to me, as I continue with my Depop store, that I really want to start sewing. I have some basic knowledge of a sewing machine and can manage some wobbly hand stitching if need be. But, I'd love to remodel and even create my own pieces in the future. I picked up some amazing retro green flares from Savemart in Masterton, a couple of months back. They're basically my dream pants aside from the fact that they're several sizes too small for me and the zip was broken. So, with a lot of help from Ben's lovely Mum, we unpicked the broken zip, found a new one and sewed that in. The process was actually fairly simple and it made me realize how useful some basic sewing skills could be to me and my business.

My lovely friend Fran has recently started a new photography course at uni, so we've been doing plenty of fun shoots (coming to the blog soon)! It's been amazing having a friend so share creative ideas with again and creating images that we're both super pleased with. I love how different our photography styles are and how much we're learning from each other too. We have some super fun ideas about a project that we'd love to get started on this year too. More about that sometime in the future...

The month of August has been a good one. I've allowed myself to prioritize aspects of my life that need improvement or change and not feel guilty if others become a little neglected in the process. With every month that goes by and the end of 2019 creeps closer, I think I'm starting to figure out how I want next year to look for me. I'm starting to realize how important happiness is to me and finding those things that bring me joy, and if I can make some money from doing them, that's a great bonus!

Bella 🌼

Moving Out - part one

All images of furniture/homewares belong to sellers and are linked below

In November I'll be 18 years old. It's crazy to think about that, especially because I met Ben when I was 15 and now we're talking about moving out of the house, buying furniture and paying bills. I've always looked forward to the day I finally move out, not because I don't like being at home but because I'm just so excited to have my own space. Don't get me wrong, I'll miss my family, my bedroom and Jock the dog, but I think I'm ready for the challenge of living without my parents.

We haven't fully sorted out our plans yet, in fact, we're a long way from being sorted. But, that won't stop me from planning, mood boarding and fantasising about my new home. I know that we won't be moving into anything fancy or special, but I plan to put my own spin on whatever space we end up in and make it a place I want to spend time in. I spend a good half hour on TradeMe most nights searching through furniture and homewares, mostly for fun, but now I can actually justify this habit as I'll need to buy some things to fill my future home with. So, I thought I'd start a new series here on this blog, mostly for me to look back on and keep all my ideas in one place. But maybe this will help inspire you too if you're entering a similar stage of growing up.

Green 1970s Sofa Set
This is basically my dream sofa and it also comes with matching armchairs, what more could you want?! I love this funky 1970s style and my absolute favourite shade of green. The dark timber details are also super nice and give the sofa that authentic retro look. This piece actually folds out to be a sofa bed too, which would be super helpful when having people over to stay (or until we can afford an actual bed)!

Colourful Vinyl Dining Chairs
These chairs are like something straight out of an American diner, which is very much the vibe I want to go for in my kitchen space. I like the idea of having lots of mismatched chairs at my dining table, all different colours but sticking to a general theme. I love the random nature of these chairs and these colours compliment each other so well.

Retro Gold & Orange Tablecloth
Could this be the best tablecloth you've ever seen? The answer is yes. I don't actually like the idea of having a tablecloth, I feel like it's just another thing to wash and I'm a messy eater so it would probably never look pristine. But, I think I could try and be tidy if I owned this tablecloth. I mean, could you get any more That 70s Show than this?

Yellow Floral Cane Tray
Another item that doesn't serve the most important purpose, but would look amazing in my kitchen. This tray is crazy retro and looks like it's had a lot of love already. I would use this as a tray to keep my toaster on or maybe a pot plant on the kitchen bench. Very cool.

Mid Century Vinyl Wing Chair
I can actually conjure up an image in my head of this chairs previous owner. Probably sitting with their slippered feet up, knitting needles in their hand or maybe a newspaper. Regardless, I absolutely love it. The floral seat cushion is especially garish, which I'm always a big fan of. The cream vinyl and overall shape of this chair is just an absolute dream.

Retro Orange Enamel Pot
I think I could find a practical use for this, I mean, every house needs a pot. This pot is everything I love about crazy bright 1970s design, completely kitch. Design like this makes an ordinary pot, which is generally a pretty boring thing, into a piece of art that you want to display on open shelving, not hide away in a dusty cupboard.

Retro Pontesa Coffee Set
This coffee set is so very 70s, it just speaks for itself. I can't wait to collect pieces like this from the op shops and TradeMe when the time comes. I think that with pieces like these I could make even the drabbest of kitchens very cool.

Retro Pyrex Casserole Dish
I can see myself and Ben roasting vegetables in this amazing olive green casserole dish, or maybe even a very thick lasagne. I found tons of dishes and crockery of this style at Add+Vintage and I have my eye on them! Read more about that here.

Green Floral Tea Towel
As lame as it sounds, I am going to accumulate an epic tea towel collection once I move out and I can just imagine this one in my nonexistent kitchen. Tea towels are another mundane kitchen item that the 60s and 70s made into true kitch art.

Bella 🌼

Audrey's Dance

Last week I had the opportunity to look through and take photos of this amazing retro 60s house in Breaker Bay. It's vacant but full of old furniture, bedding and light fixtures straight from the 60s and 70s. So I was in heaven, snapping away until my memory card was entirely full.

If you haven't seen my style shoot from the house check that out here. I talked briefly about the crazy cool vibes that this house has, but I think you get more of a feel for that in these photos. It reminded me so much of my great grandmothers' house in Wanganui, in fact, we were pretty sure it had the exact same carpet in the bedrooms, just a little less faded. The colourful curtains, that when pulled shut fill the room with bright, vibrant shades of pink and green. I'm also a big fan of the pink sofa and matching velvet chairs, very cool.

If you've seen Twin Peaks then you might understand the reference in the title of this post. I got such strong Twin Peaks vibes from this house and the furniture in it. Especially the fireplace in the front room. Unlike most 60s houses that I've seen, this one is fully kitted out in retro furnishings and decorations too. My personal favourite and something I really want for my own house is the bright green crochet light fitting in the back bedroom, it's so fricken funky. The owner obviously had great taste in light fittings, as the whole house is decked out with some of the coolest retro lights I've ever seen. I also loved the mustard velvet curtain in the entranceway, concealing the linen cupboard. It's such a strange detail that you just wouldn't see in modern houses nowadays.

When I move out and hopefully have my own home one day I want some crazy bright carpet, I love the mustard yellow carpet in the front room or the faded green floral carpet in the hallway. It's so cool being in a house that's essentially a perfectly preserved time capsule. Nothing is modern or out of place, it all fits one style and makes you feel like you've stepped inside an old photograph. I'm super pleased with these photos and the shoot we did of my new plaid pants in the house (see that here). The colours and styles are so unmistakably retro and so very me!

Bella 🌼

The Pink Room

Welcome to the coolest house in the world, to some it may seem old, ugly and kind of creepy but that's why I love it! This was such a cool location to take photos in and I'll be uploaded another post with some behind the scenes images of the house soon. It felt weird posing in somebody else's home, especially as it was a deceased estate so I felt like people (ghosts) were watching over me disapprovingly. Or maybe they were just appreciating how much I loved the kitch colours of their house.

These pants are so wild and some of my all-time favourites. I bought them specifically for my exhibition opening at the start of the month (read about that here). They're from Thrift and were a lot more pricey than my usual budget for pants, but how cool are they!? I love the different shades of green in the plaid material with hints of yellow and orange too, so basically all of my favourite colours. They're super high-waisted too, which is great.

My turtleneck is from Depop, a recent purchase that I absolutely love. It's super soft and comfy and such a unique and vibrant shade of green. I love the way it looks tucked into my plaid flares, giving me that 70s look I'm always going for. My orange flower earrings are MindFlowers (read about them here). Boots are vintage Doc Martens, also from Thrift, my coat is thrifted and my headband is a homemade fabric scrap (don't look at it too closely)!

This shoot and the house itself reminded me so much of Twin Peaks, one of my favourite TV Shows, if you haven't seen it then you are majorly missing out. Maybe it's that airy feeling of a once lived in house or the old faded yellow flooring in the kitchen. But I really felt like Dale Cooper was going to appear from behind the mustard curtain in the hallway at any minute. I'm super lucky to get the opportunity to see some crazy cool houses because of my Mum's job and it's even better when I'm allowed to take photos inside them. I love the overall vibe of this shoot and this outfit is one of my favourites!

Bella 🌼