Shabby Seaside

Skirt-Glassons | Blouse-Glassons autumn 2012| Boots-Rubi Shoes

Happy Easter weekend everyone! Easter for me usually signals the arrival of Autumn, but this year summer seems to be dragging its self out as long as it can, which is great for us because we can enjoy more sunsets on the beach! We snapped some of these pictures while we spent a relaxing evening over a couple of drinks with family at a quirky little oyster farm. 

Surprisingly for once, this outfit doen't include any vintage! Now that I've lost some extra weight, it is quite hard finding vintage in my size, so sometimes, vintage inspired is just as good! And also surprisingly, for once my hair isn't dead straight! After lots of swimming that day, the sea salt actually did add a little bit of wave to my hair! 

I recently replaced my little A line black skirt. I love how this one's heavier fabric drapes down in pleats, and it clinches in at the waist. As you can see, I am a fan of quiet colour co-ordination so I chose cream boots that matched the colour of my blouse.
 Our plans for the long weekend are are a mix bag of work and leisure. I have uni work to catch up on and an office to set up. On the upside, we had a wonderful day trip to Akaroa today (more on that to come soon!) and some more weekend adventuring on the cards! What are your plans for the weekend? Easter egg hunts I hope!

Bay of Islands Wedding: Part Two

Hello Lovelies! As promised, some photo's from the wonderful wedding we attended last weekend. I was very excited to be responsible for decorating the wedding cars! We had to wait until the day of the wedding to go around all of the relatives gardens and pick flowers, berries and foliage which had managed to somehow survive the severe drought Northland is going through...And as luck would have it, the day of the wedding was the first day it had rained for a long time!...great for gardens, but not so great for gathering flora in! (As you can see, we were soaked decorating the cars!)

Amazingly, the clouds actually parted for the wedding ceremony! We were also very pleased to see when we arrived that our blind decorating of the wedding cars matched the wedding decor perfectly! The vibrant colours and tropical trappings completely fitted the bride and groom! The ceremony was held in the flourishing gardens of Pompallier Mission, One of the Pacifics few surviving buildings from the early Catholic Missionaries who visited the Pacific in the 1800's.


The reception was held at The Duke of Marlborough, one of New Zealand's oldest establishments, with a very rich history you can read more about on their website.
We had such a lovely day surrounded by our family, views over the ever so familiar Russell waterfront and dined on delicious food and wine the whole night!
Back in Christchurch, in the land of reality, it has been a busy week with placement, chipping away at my research, and bringing a new foster cat into our house! It's nice being able to take a weekend out of a busy life for a breather, and when its all over, having the beautiful photographs to look back at and reminisce when things are hectic!

All Dressed up for a Bay of Islands Wedding

 

 Over the weekend Andrew and I were lucky enough to escape to what I call my "paradise" in Russell, Bay of Islands for a very special family wedding. Much of my family live in Russell, and I spent almost every summer of my childhood in its sunshine and warm waters. Getting back there for just a few days was so special! I have many more photo's of our time there to come, but checking in for now, Here is "what we wore" for the wedding. Even though I'm short, I love wearing maxi dresses, and I was always told by people that because of my height, they just wouldn't work on my body...but I think I've proved that theory wrong! Moral of the story... Even if you think your body type or shape won't suit a particular style that you'd love to wear, branch out and give it a go! You will probably surprise yourself and look stunning! The bride of the wedding loves her big earrings and tropical flower in the hair, So it was the perfect excuse for me to don my biggest chandelier earrings and pop a flower behind my ear (Which eventually blew away in the sea breeze!). While Andrew was in Vietnam he had a suit and shirt tailor made which he wore, and doesn't he look dashing?! There's nothing better than a boyfriend in a well fitted suit. I have to admit, I'm quite the lover of fancy decorations, fine food and wine...which the wedding was full of! I snapped some wonderful photo's of the amazing setting, so keep an eye out in the next few days for more to come!

The Wind in the Willows Summer Theatre

Earlier in the week, Andrew and I ordered some fish and chips (or "fush 'n' chups" as we so call them in New Zealand), packed the picnic basket full of woolly blankets and headed along to the last twilight performance of The Wind in the Willows Summer Theatre. We snuggled up together on the banks of the Avon river along with hundreds of other theatre goers, where there was a stage jutting out from the opposite side of the river and over the water. We knew we were in for a night of high quality entertainment with Mark Hadlow (Dori from Peter Jackson's The Hobbit) cast as Toad...One of my favorite book characters to date! 

The performance was like no other I'd seen before. There was splashing and arguments in the water, boat scenes on the river, and Ratty & Mole wandering through the audience with their picnic! The play really came to life when Toad came roaring through the middle of the crowd in multiple vintage hot rods, followed by policemen on bicycles!...Half of the play wasn't even performed on the stage, making for the most interactive play i've ever been to!

The Wind in the Willows has always been a favorite book and movie of mine growing up, I love it so much that I annoy the heck out of Andrew and read it out aloud when he's trying to go to bed!... There's just something about stories with personified animals that really appeals to me! The nonsense and innocence of it all will never grow old. 

Have any of you seen live performances of a favorite book brought to life that have made your heart aflutter?

Fostering for Cat Rescue Christchurch

As some of you may know, I foster kittens for Cat Rescue Christchurch. They are an amazing organisation who run solely on donations and volunteers, doing so much good for felines all around Canterbury! My role (among many other fosterers) is to look after the wee fellas or lassies, socialise them, vet appointments, look after any health issues they have, and get them ready to go to their forever home! This is Donnie, who we fostered for about 2 months, In which time we grew very attached to him! He is such a quirky little guy who races around, plays fetch and gives the best kitty cat cuddles! As you can see, he is quite the lounger, and loved snuggling up with George in my bicycle basket! Today I was so excited to hand him over to his new family who had lots of kids to play with, and countryside to roam around in when he's big enough to go outside. I must say it was hard saying goodbye to him because he became such a part of our house! But he's going to have a wonderful life in his new forever home :)

If you've ever considered fostering animals, I absolutely recommend it! I'm a real believer in volunteer work, I think if we all helped out just a little bit in our world, it would be a batter place (Ok I will stop getting all Miss World on you now!). Even if its for an hour so a week if that's all you can spare, in whatever you can do, it all adds up! I've found fostering so rewarding, it's such a great feeling knowing you've helped to save a little life each time you wave goodbye to a kitten going home with their new family!

So if you are Christchurch folk after a new feline friend in your life, someone looking to donate to a charity (Every little bit counts!), or wanting to volunteer (In all sorts of roles), head over to Cat Rescue's trademe, facebook or twitter and have a look around....And sweet kitty dreams to you all!