Doppelganger take 2!

More love bundles have arrived from across the Nullarbor Plain. Kylie has sent me another parcel (what would I do without you Kylie?) and look what it was! 

She saw this in an op shop and thought of me a) because it looked a bit like me (thanks Kylie - if only I had smooth transculecnt face that doubled as a useful container rather than a receptical for this rather frenetic brain of mine!) and 

b) because she though I could make some for our environment stall at the school fete!

And she's on the money there - It ticks all the boxes. Recycled and fun and lovely! I have lots of scraps of fabric perfect for the head scarf and oodles of ric rac to make more of these dolly faced containers. 

I just love her! And I know she is supposed to be a container for hair rollers and pins but I couldn't resist accessorising with her and carrying her as my better smoother doppleleganger hand bag! It's fun to walk along swinging my own head from my wrist. Too much hilarity! I could wear my doppelganger earrings at the same time and become so self referential I almost cease to exist!

Can't thank you enough Kylie. Blogger friends are the best (should I put that on a t-shirt? Actually I always wanted a t -shirt that said: I blog therefore I am....not that I really wear t-shirts...ever...but still... if I did....)

Parcel Love

Kylie sent me a parcel to warm the cockles of my heart! It arrived when my spirits were at a lowish ebb - winter blues + birthday blues + several job rejections + writing rejection = a dispirited sister outlaw with more than a whiff of a mid-life crisis about her indeed.


But I went from this*.....

to this...

with the arrival of a parcel.

Sure -what a bundle of goodies!

A vintage luscious slip with lace and bows - still new with the tag on it! There were even matching knickers! Oh in the nineties I would have worn it as a dress ala Collette Dinnigan! Still might.

Gorgeous girdle pants with love heart details and even suspenders! For that perfect vintage silhouette .

This warm luminous pure wool mohair Scottish highland cape - Makes me want to wander the hills!

And tennis fabric and tennis dress pattern! I love that smash action that fabric girl has! Inspirational!

But wonderful as all that is - the overwhelming thing was that I felt loved and appreciated and understood.

Thanks so much Kylie for the thoughtfulness, your perfect taste and the effort in posting some love across the Nullabor to your shivering blog-friend in Melbourne. If I could parcel up my heart and tie it with a piece of string and send it off to Perth I would.

But there will be reciprocal bit of stuff winging it your way soon Ms Lucy Violet Vintage!

*is that a cowboy in drag????

Frocktober Day 25 Summer Holiday

There once was a frockster who was feeling frock fatigued. She dreamed of a Summer holiday to Spain. She had the bag,* the frock,** the dream and a hat with her name on it.*** Spain was too far. She had to pick up the kids. The best she could do was the Spanish-like hacienda across the road. 

But one thing was missing. A travel friend. She looked right...she looked left.

 And then she spied the perfect companion.....

Who better than her daughter Hazel frocked up in beach carnival style. They left "Spain" and went and got the kids.

 

*The bag has island holiday images all over it (Though not sure about the Great Britain!) I bought it at the trash and treasure.

**The frock made a guest appearance last frocktober. It's French and the label is Jeanne D'Arc - yeah don't stand too close to the fire! Note the ironing instructions!

***The hat really does have my name on it! Had to buy it when I saw that - a few years ago from Vinnies.

Frocktober has a story too.
'In 2007, a group friends in Geelong discovered that there was no early detection test for ovarian cancer, and decided to do something about it. Quite a feat! So, we donned our favourite dresses, went out to the pub, passed around a hat and raised $200. Frocktober was born! Then we thought, "This is way too much fun to keep to ourselves... Let's challenge the rest of Australia to get involved too!"
Seven years later, the initiative has captured the hearts and imaginations of frock-minded people Australia-wide, and raised over $800,000 for ovarian cancer research.'

How ace is that??

Let's keep telling our stories, talking, raising money and raising awareness about ovarian cancer and the need for early detection. Donate here
Shout out thanks to Jen and Leanne who have donated!!! 

Frocktober Day 20!!! The Higher the Hair......

The closer to Jesus.

Have you ever noticed the correlation between country singers hair in the 70's and their christianity? The higher the hair, the closer to Jesus? Yes I know - I should do a phd on it. Check out Wanda Jackson here!

So I'm doing my best to match HIGH HAIR with my 'Loretta Lynne Dress'. That's what my partner has always called this dress. And it's true. Loretta was a fan of the long sleeve dress with spangles.

 But I call it my "Gayle dress" because Gayle gave it to me. She was the vice principal where my kids went to primary school. They used to call her "Skeletor" - yeah kids! So mean! She was very thin and never smiled and we were all a bit scared of her. One day she called me over for a chat and I thought the kids were in trouble. But in fact, she wanted to give me 3 amazing bridesmaid frocks from 1971! The hot pink one I wore on day 8 was one, there was a white one with 3d flower sleeves that has since been given away in an over generous moment to a young friend who looked so amazing in it and this one. The BRIGHT LUMINOUS RED BEADED AMAZINGLY MADE LONG SLEEVED BUTTON BACK Loretta Lynne dress. And you know - poor Gayle was thin and unhappy because she was going through a really tough time. She came out the other side and blossomed again - got rosier cheeks and we all got to see her generous soul.

I know there are many a generous soul out there too so donate to the ovarian cancer research foundation if you can. As my friend Kylie said - it's a no brainer! Donate here. Ovarian cancer kills a woman in Australia every 10 hours and developing an early detection test is the key to beating it.

Don't forget the Mexican stuff you can buy and the proceeds will go to frocktober. Make an offer - no offer too small so don'e be shy! I will cover the postage.

Now here's Loretta Lynne singing "Fist City". What song and what singer!

 

Frocktober day 3! Flashback Frock Friday

Can  you believe this dress? It's such a favourite. It's cotton, fifties, empire line with such lovely details - ties at the sleeves,  delicately beaded scoop collar AND pockets! Can a frock get much better? I bought it last year as part of Kylie's frocktober fundraising. As part of her fundraising she sold dresses and I snapped this one up. Kylie is the bees knees (No. Really. She is!) and lives in Perth and has a wonderfully warm and entertaining blog called Lucy Violet Vintage. She has the best collection of mid century Australian tea towels you will EVER see (including  a Kojak tea towel!) and a discerning finely tuned eye for mid century interior design and architecture for which she has a huge knowledge. Yeah okay - I know I'm gushing but this lass Kylie is the real deal - gorgeous, clever, knowledgeable, interesting, stylish AND fun. I know! Makes you want to move to Perth! (Well - makes me want to move to Perth!)Her Frocktober last year is part of the inspiration behind my adventures in frock fundraising land. She did an excellent, enormously fun and profitable campaign!

SO! Here are the photos of me wearing Kylie's dress last year. Makes me miss my high maintenance Mrs Slocombe pastel hair...almost!

You can sponsor my frock adventures to raise money for ovarian cancer research here

tears, tunes and tartan taffeta.

Do you remember your high school dance?

When Kylie, over at Lucy Violet Vintage, wrote about her year 12 social with a photo of her resplendent in a tartan taffeta dress, well I couldn't believe my eyes! Because Kylie was "that girl" - you know, the sort of girl you wished you could be. I wished I could be that girl with that frock and those friends at my year 12 school social.

Instead, I attended my high school dance as a quietly belligerent 80's punk. I wore a wedding dress which I had cut up and sprayed with splashes of black fabric paint, accesorised with leopard print leggings and lace up boots and hair standing 6 inches up off my head. Yes! I was that girl. 

But wait! That's not all! The afternoon before the dance, I also dyed my hair electric blue. No big deal these days - but back then in the dim dark 80's, I had to get my sister in the city to buy the hair dye and post it to me - the parcel arriving on the day. Okay so I know I was looking a bit different but thought there was a level (a low level but a level more or less!) of acceptance of me and my funny clothes and sticking up hair within the school community. (Yes I know the girls told me I couldn't do my deb because I would ruin the phots but they were joking right?)

Have you ever had one of those moments when you fall into a ravine? When you're like Wylie coyote in "Road Runner" and you've stepped off a cliff but haven't realised it yet? And you're running in the air, just before you plummet? Well that was me, arriving at the dance. I thought everyone would go, "Oh look! There's Julianne looking freaky as usual". I didn't expect the gasp followed by the silence. Me running desperately in the air before I started the rapid descent! 

I hid in the toilets for some time but I could hear other people at the sinks talking about me in there too. So I was dragged out of there by a friend and managed to have a good time....up until my high-school-drop-out-ex-boyfriend gate crashed the dance, drunk, and caused a kerfuffle. (And yes, dear reader, I married him! Needless to say he is now a very successful professional and I am no longer married to him).

But thanks to dear Kylie at Lucy Violet Vintage - I was able to re-live my high school dreams, cast away the nightmare past and feel like the bell of the ball in this, a pure silk tartan taffeta designer dress from the 80's that arrived as a sweet soft parcel in my letter box last week. Kylie found it at the op shop and remembered my comment about always wanting such a dress! What a gem, right?

Has anyone seen the episode of Bob's Burgers where Bob's wife encourages him to re-live his disastrous school dance experience  - where he was dumped by his date and didn't even go - by being chaperones at their daughters dance? And then to complete the experience his wife gets drunk on peach schnaps and pukes on him? Well, fortunately, my night out on the town in my high-school-dance-dream-dress was nothing like that.

In fact, I wore it to see Dolly Parton in concert! She was a shining super star that night who warmed the crowd with her generous  angelic voice and stories of her hillbilly youth as one of 12 kids. And yes, I shed more than a few tears because she still manages to crack open my heart.

Guest frocking!

Just a reminder that there are still five days of Frocktober left - a frock-filled month of fundraising for research into ovarian cancer. Kylie , over at Lucy Violet Vintage is taking it all on board with gusto and managing to get into a frock and be photographed almost everyday - even when her ceiling has collapsed! I've guest frocked over there in one of my favourite lemon fifties dresses....

My friend Melita has also joined in - because she is all sorts of incredible.  She has recently been diagnosed with ovarian cancer and is recovering from surgery and fundraising and frocking up each day (and accessorising with compression hose!) I pop up there too in a forties wool crepe number - another oldie but a favourite.

And if you don't believe me that Melita is all sorts of  incredible then I urge you to view this video she made of herself dancing on the eve of her surgery, with no knowledge of the prognosis (which is fortunately looking good.) The bravery and sense of joy in this dance, knowing what was in store for her, is so moving and so admirable. 

So donate what you can! It's a frockin' good cause!

Fundraising for Ovarian Cancer Research - Kylie you (f)rock!

Our blogging buddy Kylie over at lucy violet vintage has been frocking up each day to raise money for ovarian cancer research. Yeah yeah, you sigh, more fundraising, eyes glaze over....But wait! Listen!

Every 10 hours in Australia a woman will die from ovarian cancer. It is an indiscriminate and insidious cancer that could affect any one of us. It could be your sister, your friend, a mum at school, a blogger you follow or you. There are very few ways to detect the cancer - which is why it is such a dangerous disease. Help raise money for research into how to detect this cancer early and save lives. THERE IS NO GOVERNMENT FUNDED RESEARCH INTO THIS CANCER. This is a women's cancer, a women's issue and it's up to us to get the research happening.  You can donate to Kylie's Frocktober campaign here....But be sure to check out her blog too - some days she sells the frock off her back!