orange maxi

dress - Valley girl, shoes - Target, belt - thrifted

Lately I've been loving the returning trend of long and maxi skirts and dresses. Now if only I hadn't donated all my maxi skirts when I cleaned my closet years ago! Meh, should've known I'd miss it once it's gone. So when I found this orange dress on sale last summer, it was a must have. It was the perfect floaty long summer dress, and now I need to figure out how to layer it so I can keep wearing it during the cold months.

lazy hazy summer day

dress - vintage, hat - Myer, ring - Diva, scarf as belt - thrifted, shoes - thrifted

The winner of the Revolving Styles giveaway is #42: Asty. Congratulations!

Don't forget that Revolving Styles Vintage is still offering a nice 15% discount with the code "muchlove" before the end of this month.

dot dot dot

polka dot skirt - vintage via etsy, t-shirt - Tokuya, belt - vintage,  cardigan - vintage, hat - Myer, bag - thrifted, socks - Target, shoes - Rubi

The high socks weren't so much a preppy fashion choice, but more of a practical one. Tights would be the usual choice and these socks are mostly reserved for chilly indoor days instead, but I have a  scraped knee (took a nasty tumble at the train station. Yes, I am a major klutz), and it made sense to not have thick tights itching the wound. Ah well, band aids on the knee completes the school girl look, no?

these happy days are yours and mine

dress - Duchess; hat - thrifted; bolero - so old I can't remember, but the felt heart I stitched on myself; bubbles - $2 disount shop; chocolate and cheese (cup) cakes from friends - delicious!!

A few more photos from that picnic.

peek a blue

dress - vintage from RetroStar sale; umbrella - Daiso

Photos from last weekend when a friend and I stopped by the Japanese garden at Melbourne Zoo. Unfortunately the heavy rain and wind stopped by with us, but un-unfortunately we were already sheltered in the gazebo when it started to pour, so we managed to stay mostly dry. It actually felt quite peaceful to be in the middle of a beautifully tranquil garden, sitting inside a spacious Japanese gazebo, and in comparison hearing and watching the mad pouring rain all around us. I meant to take better photos of said rain and gazebo (not just the pillars!), but my camera batteries died by then. Ah, well at least I got these shots just before the rain started to get heavy, although it did get tricky once the wind picked up (excuse my screwed up face)!

Also, I had to show off this photo of our cool turtle friend from the garden! This cutie kept swimming towards us and looked up at us, and was definitely not camera shy.

perfectly oversized

Vintage dress - Golden Palomino, at the Suzuki night market throughout this summer.
'70s bag - Beta Boutique.

Remember when I used to do outfit posts? It's been a while, no? Not gonna lie, I have missed it. I put the blame on not finding the time, a photo-worthy outfit, and most importantly someone to patiently help me take my self indulgent photos. Luckily this past weekend, I had all three. Many thanks to Penny for being my kind photographer!

I got this peachy yellow vintage dress last week at the night market at Queen Victoria Market. It's a couple of sizes larger than what I usually wear, but once I tie the sash tightly around the waist, it fits as the perfect swishy summer dress. I'm loving how the flowy fabric moves and falls. Not sure when it was made, but it reminds me of the 70s - a decade I seem to be mildly attracted to right now.

P.S. blog readers, would you like to see more outfit posts? Or not so much? Or don't really care?

hungry designs giveaway winner

Thank you to everyone who entered the Hungry Designs giveaway! I can now announce that the lucky winner, as chosen by random.org, is... #78: Andi Lia. Congratulations! I'll be in touch with you shortly.

Amanda from Hungry Designs has also been so wonderful and sent me one of her exquisite teal typewriter brooches for myself! It's even more beautiful in person, and it was so nicely packaged too (don't you just love it when things in the mail come in pretty packages?!). I'm absolutely in love with it. Thank you so much Amanda!

If you haven't already, you really need to check out Amanda's amazing designs in her Etsy shop.

light reading

dress - Duchess, cardi - Sportsgirl, belt - thrifted, tights - a clearance outlet
fabric hair clip - made by me (so proud, I had to take a close up shot... haha!), but with much guidance and help from my friend Jennifer.
book - The Best of David Hamilton

Sorry for my sudden absence for the past few days, but didn't the guest bloggers do an AMAZING job? So much so that I hope you're not too disappointed to have me back already! ;)

If you're wondering what book I'm holding, it's the David Hamilton book I blogged about before. SO gorgeous, I still can't get enough of it. Speaking of books, if you're a member of the Slow Readers book club like me, you may have noticed that the new book has just been announced (yay!). This time, it's Richard Brautigan's "The Abortion", and I've been able to get it from my library already (which only seems right after finding out that the story is set in a public library). I'm still half way through, but so far it's been quirky, funny, and pleasantly easy to read, so I imagine it won't take me much longer to finish. That's saying something for me, someone who has started reading way too many books that she never actually finished *sigh* the shame..

P.S. I'm sponsoring a giveaway over at Yes and Yes! Go there to win my Dahliaville buttons and pocket mirror!

green and dangly

tights - We Love Colors; shoes - Rubi; bag - a market; top - Kinki Gerlinki sale; skirt - AA

It's no secret to you blog readers that I love colourful tights, so when We Love Colors offered to send me a pair in the colour of my choice, of course I said yes! It was really hard deciding which one colour I wanted because they have such a HUGE selection to choose from. Eventually I chose a pair of the Microfiber tights in "hunter green", seeing that I've been wanting a pair of green tights for a while now, and it's one of the basic colours still missing from my tights collection. The thickness was just right and I was really pleased to find how comfy they were too. Thanks We Love Colors!

P.S. I love dangling my feet ^_^

flashback

dress - vintage; cardigan - Sportsgirl; headband - an Indonesian dept store

A set of outfit photos from over a month ago. A little different from how I look nowadays. For one thing, I've had a haircut. Secondly, I've been feeling so sick lately that dressing up isn't something I've been bothering with. Ugh. What I have been trying to do, apart from drinking loads of tea and sleeping a lot, is prepare for an upcoming market I'm doing this weekend (what a time to get sick, huh?).

So, Melbourne readers, are you doing anything this Saturday? If not, perhaps you'd like to check out the Fitzroy Market - where I'll be selling all sorts of Much Love and Dahliaville goodies. If you do, please please please do come and say hi! That would really make my day :) I'll be the one that sorts of looks like the photos above, but with much shorter hair and not looking at my feet! Tell me you're a blog reader and I'll give you a nice discount or freebie :)
WHEN: This Saturday 4th September, 10am - 2pm
WHERE: Fitzroy Primary School, corner Napier & Chapel Streets Fitzroy

I'll be sharing a table with our tea party. Also, Prettypeonies and me.u will be there too!

a day at the zoo

Outfit deets: blouse - thrifted ; sweater - Supre (pretty old) ; skirt - AA ; bird brooch - gift

Went to the Melbourne Zoo with big brother last week. Fun! My favourites? The giraffes and the butterflies - although the butterflies were really tricky to take photos of. Oh, and the baby elephant was adorable of course. What are your favourite zoo animals? :)