Outfit tales from the basement

Winter outfit photo taking comes with its own set of challenges therefore these basement photos totally made the cut. I love these jeans, they are op-shopped men's jeans from Vinnies and I cannot describe how much love I have for them.

There are DIY sand-blasting plans in the works for these babies and right now I am on the look out for similar ones for my sister. This made in Vietnam pretend Hmong top is another Vinnies find that I LOVE.

Hope everyone's having a great week.

If you find something you love, wear it over and over again

The weather has been super cold and rainy lately so taking any sort of outfit photo is impossible, all I want to do is curl up in bed read, watch movies and draw. Therefore these random photos of things I find fun will have to do in lieu of an actual post about anything.

These vintage leather shorts are my most loved pair in leather, my most comfortable pair of suede wedge heels, the Ikat bag and the cowrie shell bracelets made the whole outfit more me. The woven bag in the last two pictures and the crochet dress are in regular use summer or winter.

It makes me really glad that I re-use and love my clothing and accessories till they literally fall apart and the quality of most vintage things are better than the cheap fast-fashion a lot of people seem to favour. I really don't get the idea that one should wear clothes or accessories just once, if you found something you really treasure wouldn't you want to wear it over and over again?

I hope everyone's having a great weekend, Monday is going to be hard with the freezing temperatures here...

Still obsessed with my DIY army bag

Dress: Anokhi, Bag: DIY, Boots: Vintage, Jacket+Jewellery: India+Sydney markets+All over

Another surprisingly sunny day, with a different block print dress from Anokhi as well as heaps of shells added to other assorted jewels and my latest favourite DIY bag plus the icing on the cake; a pretty kitty who followed us to a park and played with us all afternoon. If there is a better way to spend a day I don't know it!

Shapeless flowy cotton dresses are my favourite all year round, just add a pair of tights, thermals, a couple of jackets when its really cold and a bright beanie and its PERFECT to me. I constantly wish there were more of them in my wardrobe and then open it to see I have a tonne of them already and am still left wanting more. What can I say once I like something I decide to be loyal to it for the rest of my life. And now onto the bag, it goes with everything, there is not one thing in my closet that it looks bad with. How awesome is that? I almost hug it to sleep every night. Hope everyone's having a wonderful week. Happy Friday world!

More mirror work madness

A choli is a blouse that one wears with a traditional Indian skirt; the gaghra and this particular choli has been worn year after year for Navaratri, a nine-day festival celebrating a demon killing avatar, Goddess Durga. Now my love for ass kicking Goddesses is well known as is my obsession with mirror work, I mean just look at the banner for this blog but I have recently decided that I am going to make mirror work tops and bottoms a part of my every day attire. I already wear loads of it in small doses, like a patch here a handbag there but now I am going to up the ante.

Its just that I am just so bored looking at the usual blue jeans/ white tee-shirt combination that I have decided to brave any funny looks that might come my way. You know the best part? We just went to get a cup of chocolate milk wearing this and no one, not one person gave me any funny looks, it was awesome. Just goes to show that there is nothing wrong in wearing what one feels like, most people are too busy to pay any negative attention. By the way, I don't have anything against the blue jeans/ white tee-shirt combination, I just don't like wearing too much of it but if that's someone else's thing, I am sure they rock it.

The little red kantha pouch that I am wearing is from Aarong, a fair trade organisation that sources its goods from impoverished local artisans in Bangladesh. Reaching out to weavers, potters, brass workers, jewellers, jute workers, basket weavers, wood carvers, leather workers and more, Aarong represents about 65,000 artisans, 85% of whom are women. I have over the years bought a lot of stuff from them and if you're interested you should definitely check them out. I am only speaking from my personal experience because I love to support businesses that benefit women especially from disadvantaged backgrounds. I have not been asked to write this nor have I been paid for it. Hope everyone's having a great week so far and looking forward to the weekend, its the Sydney GLBTQ Mardi Gras and I can't wait for the parade on Saturday. Rainbow sparkles, sequinned hot pants and wigs, here I come.













Mirror work choli: Gujarat, India, Shorts: Vintage Levi's 501s, Wedges: Wittner, Kantha pouch: Aarong

Backpacks, bushwalks and cotton-tops

Billowy top +back-pack: Vintage, Shorts: Ksubi, Jewellery: India+Sydney markets

Spend another warm, sunny day by the bushlands in Sydney's north shore, walking by the water, skipping about in my billowy cotton top, visiting an organic garden and chook farm then finally fell asleep on a massive, warm rock by the water. The best kinda lazy day. What did you do over the weekend?

Maxi skirts and cats

We woke up today to a glorious, sunny, beautiful day and ofcourse promptly decided to go to the beach. Although normally I like isolated coasts and avoid Australia's most famous beach, Sunday is market day at Bondi and off we went towards non-shopping-mall goodies. But by the time we got to the water it was getting darker with the clouds threatening to erupt as well as the wind being nasty, so off we went exploring the little lanes, peeking at gardens and ofcourse petting furry cuties who decided to say hello. Here's a few pictures of what I was wearing as well the Bondi just before it started to rain. I know most people like to post pictures of sunny beaches but I really find the seashore exceedingly beautiful even in the rain plus hardly any people and lots of seagulls, win win.

Since I wanted to wear something I could take off easily and I am trying to not always reach for my cut-offs, I went for my second favourite thing, a flouncy skirt in a print that makes me miss the sights and sounds of India. Gauzy cotton skirts have been my favourite since I was little and the paisley and flowers on this one make me feel like a wood nymph (I have been waiting FOREVER to discover I have some magic in me). Funny thing is, I have the exact same skirt, in the same colours (which you've seen here) that I justified buying because it had elephants at the bottom not flowers! I am starting to think there might be a problem but as they make me feel pretty I am going to ignore the existence of an obsession and simply say I LOVE printed maxi skirts.

And since I had already resisted the temptations of my denim shorts, I wasn't strong enough to resist a plaid shirt (another one of my wardrobe staples) and also I am not one of those people who think repeating outfits is a crime. I want to hold on to my goodies for a lonng lonng time, that means I will definitely wear them heaps and anyway I am not one of those bloggers who will apologise for repeating items of clothing. I am trying to reduce my consumption and not be part of the use once and throw mentality. While walking about we found this garage door covered with a divine tie-dye bedsheet and I couldn't resist taking a picture in front of it and look how cute is the Ganesh on it. I can't wait to make a tie-dye shirt and draw or embroider Ganapati to make it even more awesome. And on top of all the Ganesh goodness meeting not one but two feline beauties today was the highlight of my day and yes, I am one of those people who spam instagram feeds with pictures of cats.

So basically I rambled on and on just to say, I went to the beach, wore a pretty skirt, saw an amazing bed-sheet and met cutie kitties. Hope you'll had a wonderful weekend whatever you did!

Printed maxi+some jewellery: India, Swimmers: Tiger lily, Plaid shirt: Op-shopped Levis, Suede boots: Witchery, Leather bucket bag: Vintage