There is nothing more important than self-care. After the kind of semester I’ve just had (and let’s face it, the kind of 2 years we’ve all just had), I’m looking for it more than ever. And self care can take a variety of forms: either spending some time to yourself getting lost in a good book, heading to the beach for a girl’s weekend, or a splurge on the cutest new handbag range from Vendula London.
I’m not quite sure how, but these last few months have managed to feel harder than any other through this whole pandemic. Is it just me, here? I was trying to explain it to a friend the other day…and the best analogy I could come up with was that it’s as if I experienced that surge of adrenaline that instinctually happens in a crisis for the last 2 years. The one that enables you to outrun a bear or lift a car off the baby. And collectively, we’ve been holding the car off the baby for 2+ years. And once you…
In this day and age, I think it’s pretty important to make the most out of our wardrobes. If the pandemic has taught me anything, it’s how quickly our “normal” can switch on a dime…and how much less I truly need. Over the last year, I’ve been making a concerted effort to resist the temptation to acquire. Of course, buying vintage doesn’t come with quite the same footprint as buying new, but I still have noticed a small voice that got a lot louder this year telling me to slow down and appreciate the things that I have.
It must be said, I absolutely love separates. I love the flexibility in knowing they can be styled a million different ways, just waiting for inspiration to strike. So there’s a special kind of joy reserved for finding a matching vintage set that can be worn together, or divided up to simply increase your wardrobe arsenal…
There are some dresses that are befitting a love story. Those who you spot across a crowded internet and fall in breathless, immediate love with. This dress, appropriately named the “Embroidery Dress: Summer Love 1951” captured my heart the moment I clapped eyes on her and is likely to be a love story for the ages…
Sometimes, I swear I see the world around me like a kind of Rorschach test. You know – the psychological ink blot tests that ask you to describe what you see in a series of swirls and smudges? We do this all the time – people seeing faces in a piece of burnt toast, getting frightened by a pile of clothes out of the corner of your eye that looks like an intruder, or laying on your back in the middle of a field, staring up at the clouds and suddenly seeing creatures created from cumulous before your eyes.
Most days, a bit of dichotomy is what keeps things interesting. A warm breeze on a cool day. A splash of salty and sweet. Stripes mixed with polka dots. As we’re in that glorious transition between cool and warm weather, I’m reaching for contrasts more than ever. I can’t help but crave mixed prints, cardigans and sundresses, and a bit of yin to my yang.
Some days are about practicality (if we’re being honest here, most days). Although it’s pretty obvious my day-to-day style veers towards most people’s fancy, my version of “practical” is a cotton sundress, some sort of sparkly belt, and 40’s inspired heels (which tend to be a bit easier to race around in). But every now and then, I’m in the mood to dress up like a frothy, floral cupcake fantasy. And I’m not sorry….
One thing that will always be a part of my life is travel – I love to see parts of the world I’ve never been to and will always have the itch to explore. This past week I set foot on South American soil for the first time, and got to hobnob with other nerdy shark scientists in Joao Pessoa, Brazil for our twice-a-decade shark meeting. I loved every bit of the trip: the science, the Brazilian cuisine, the lovely locals who we got to meet during our discovery of the city, and being vaguely out of my comfort zone…
Back in 2011, Mr. Dressed and I made our rather momentous move to Australia. When we landed, there were 8 million details to sort out, from where to live, to driving on the other side of the road, to how to work out where on earth to buy a hammer (Bunnings, it turns out). And in the middle of all of this chaos, my tendency was to naturally seek out a place of comfort. Wondering how I would fit into this new world, with odd slang I hadn’t worked out yet and clothing shops full of things that didn’t speak…