April's Anissa Victoria Vintage Market at the Pallet Pavilion

Yesterday we headed along to our second dose of the Anissa Victoria Vintage Market held at the Pallet Pavilion here in Christchurch. Yesterday's market held an even bigger selection of stalls at the Pallet Pavilion, making for good treasure hunting for all sorts of vintage and retro inspired goodies!

My favorite, most hilarious find of the day (which I couldn't bring myself to buy in the end because it was so cringe worthy/ I'm not brave enough to turn myself into a walking comedy show), was the Sonny-&-Cher-in-a-love-heart handbag! How fantastic is that?! I did however buy an adorable sushi replica ring from the lovely ladies at Out of Sanity, which is still quirky, but not in a Sonny & Cher kind of way.

It was lovely to see some familiar faces of the beautiful ladies who had stalls that I met at the last vintage market I went to, and unfortunately some others who I wanted to meet but couldn't quite navigate my way around finding them! (Next time I promise!!!). All in all it is rather lovely to see fellow Christchurch vintage lovers congregated all in the one space!

A 1940's Tailored Dress and a Vintage Ricoh 500 Camera

Dress-Tailor made | Hat-Topshop | Collar-Etsy (similar) | Camera-Vintage | Shoes-Wildpair

Autumn is well upon us here in Christchurch, so a late afternoon stroll through falling leaves and mulberry coloured hydrangeas was in order! It was fun playing around with the camera in the low, bright, autumn light; we were met with bright spotlight sunshine, and dark shadows. This made for some striking contrast in the photos...you can really tell that it was warm in the light and very cold in the caverns of the shadows!

When Andrew went to Vietnam at the end of last year, I sent him away with my measurements and photographs of vintage dresses, to the best tailor he could find in Vietnam...and this is wat he came back with! A mulberry 1940's pattern dress in the most exquisitely feeling fabric. Unfortunately (or fortunately!) I have lost a lot of weight since then and the dress doesn't quite hug my figure as it did, but it's just too pretty not to wear! I really wanted the dress to have a lot of heaviness in the fabric , to make the pleats drape like curtains from my waist. 

I have inherited quite a collection of old vintage film camera's from my dad, this one in particular is a 1957 Ricoh 500, which was one of the first affordable rangefinder camera's on the market. I'm yet to play around a little more with the camera, as it's just so easy to pick up my DSLR and go. However, I'm pushing myself to pick the old camera's up off the shelf and take them out into the world that they probably haven't seen for many years!

Do you have any old film camera's that you've been brave enough to snap away with? What advice can you give to a film camera beginner like me?

Rich Roasted Tomato Soup

With the crisp mornings, grey skies, and orange leaves falling it is definitely now autumn! One of the first things that comes to mind when I think of autumn is curling up with a big bowl of soup! This soup has a deeper flavour twist than your average tomato soup with the slow roasting intensifying those rich flavours. The perfect remedy to warming you up on those increasingly cold days!

Roasted Tomato Soup 

(Makes 3 large servings or 4 entree sized servings. About 1 litre of soup) 

Ingredients: 

1 kg tomatoes 

1 large onion 

4 cloves of garlic 

500 ml vegetarian "beef" broth (Oxo is a a vegetarian beef flavoured broth) 

4 large sprigs fresh thyme 

1 large bay leaf 

Salt and pepper 

Vegetable oil

Preparation:

1) Preheat oven to 200 ºC 

2) Chop your tomatoes into quarters if they are medium-large, or halves if they are small, peel and chop onion into large wedges and Peel and halve garlic cloves. 

3) Drizzle a roasting tray with vegetable and evenly distribute the tomatoes skin side down, onion and garlic on the tray. 

4) Remove the leaves from 2 thyme sprigs and sprinkle over vegetables. Sprinkle salt and peper to taste 5) Place roasting dish in the oven for 30-40 minutes.

5) Remove vegetables form the oven and place into a large saucepan with the vegetarian beef broth, 2 sprigs of thyme and bay leaf. Bring to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes.

6) Remove the thyme sprigs and bay leaf from the soup. Pure the soup adding more salt and pepper to taste. Transfer to bowls and serve!

A Very French Day Trip To Akaroa

Dress-Missy's Room | Hat-Max

This Easter weekend, We've been blessed with lots of sunshine! We made the most of it by heading out of the city to Akaroa for the day, a little French colonial village tucked away in the Banks Peninsular. The traces of French settlement are everywhere, particularly in the original French architecture, which I snapped a few pictures of! 

Every time we've been there, the quaint little library in the first picture has always stood out to me. I particularly love that photo because I look like a little doll outside a dolls house! (Which I could quite happily live in I must say!) 

As we took a nice afternoon stroll we stumbled upon a gorgeous shop we hadn't seen before; The French Shop, Filled with the most luxurious home wares imported from France (and one day when I'm not on a student budget, I will buy the whole shop! haha). No French themed day can be complete without French onion soup! Bully Hayes make the best French onion soup, and it is an absolute must on my list whenever we go to Akaroa.

Have any of you headed anywhere for  a weekend away, or a little day trip over Easter?