Hellooooo Spring!

I was entirely over the moon to have Modcloth contact me a few weeks ago asking about a collaboration with my blog! Of course, I said yes. I have only been obsessively following Modcloth for.. oh I don't know... some number of years. They were the first online store that I ever discovered, and I remember falling in love with it immediately as there was just nowhere in Australia that stocked the same kind of clothes as they did, and it opened up a whole new world of clothing possibilities to me. I knew that I had to get both this cardigan and this dress once I saw them, because they would go together perfectly - and I wasn't at all disappointed! This is my bright yellow first-day-of-spring outfit. (Not that it is very warm yet. It snowed last night - winter wanted to go out with a bang, apparently. However, I am dressing optimistically.) wearing Electric Sun Dress - c/o Modcloth Fine and Dandelion Cardigan - c/o Modcloth tights - Romwe necklace - c/o Oasap bag - Vintage shoes - Vintage belt - Vintage  hat - c/o Wholesale SO, you've all been eagerly anticipating the winner the of my kind-of-giveaway from the other day. Well, you sure made it hard because you all have really, really good style (or you really know my style down to a tee. Both are probably true and both make me super happy) BUT I had to choose Rachel from Floral Prints and Common Sense who designed me some amazing blouses. (You should probably also go check out her blog. It's full of really awesome style and designs and DIYs.) Here is her entry: I love them all, and they would all go so perfectly with this skirt, but I particularly want the green stripey shirt. It is so pretty. If I had the time, I would totally go and make it now, because I even have some fabric which is close to that and would work so well!! Ahh, why can't there be just a few more days in the week??? Rachel, please contact me whenever you get the chance! Anyway, I hope you're all having a lovely beginning of season in whichever hemisphere of the globe you happen to reside in! Much love,

A Break from Pastels

wearing dress - Wholesale blouse - Vintage ribbon - DIY tights - c/o Oasap bag - c/o Wholesale hat - c/o Wholesale shoes - Rubi Shoes This is the most lolita-ish outfit I have put together in a long time. It was a little bit accidental but I didn't mind how it turned out at all. Definitely a break from my usual pastel palette though. I have been restyling a whole lot of old (and collarless) dresses lately by throwing on a vintage blouse underneath, and adding collar accessories like this ribbon. You should try it out if you're getting sick of your wardrobe - it's a really awesome way to change the look of a dress! Also, enter my competition if you haven't seen it already - one day left! xxx Annika

Dead Weather & A Giveaway ;) (CLOSED)

wearing skirt - c/o Sugarlips blouse - Vintage tights - Romwe bag - Vintage shoes - Rubi Shoes ring - Vintage hat - c/o Wholesale Just a quick outfit post from me today. This skirt from Sugarlips apparel is so pretty, and I just love it's cascading shape and colour-blocked pattern, but I've been having such a hard time trying to figure out a blouse to pair it with! Sometimes stand-out statement pieces can be so difficult to find the perfect pair for. I've been wearing it with a plain t-shirt but that just seemed too odd to put on this blog (as I don't think I've EVER worn any kind of plain shirt without some kind of embellishment on this blog ever, and I'm sure as heck not starting now). So here's my kind-of giveaway (I've been full of kind-ofs this week, like my kind-of-DIY from Monday. I blame it on the strange ambivalent weather that we've been having - sunny? stormy? summer? winter? it can't make up its mind) - SO anyone who can find the best blouse/shirt/top to go with this skirt (from anywhere on the internet, pricey or cheap, just as long as it's inspiring!) wins a small ad space for 2 months (that's worth $10). You have 3 days to enter! xxx Annika

A (kind of) DIY - make some pretty short/jean pockets

(shorts c/o Oasap) I was inspired to make these shorts after I saw a similar thing from this etsy store owned by Meanz from Koi Story (although the cat themed ones she makes are most definitely better - and she sells them if you're interested ;) ). what you do 1. Make a stencil (I just used baking paper) by tracing around your pocket. Leave half an inch around all the edges. 2. Cut out your fabric using this stencil. Fold the edges in half an inch or so and sew them down onto the fabric... 3. Making sure you make it the same size of the pockets that already exist on the shorts. 4. Sew this onto your shorts (hand sew or sewing machine both work fine!), and make sure you're only sewing onto the back of the shorts, not all the way through! When you get the the top of the pocket, hand sew this on so that you still have a functional pocket :) There you have it! A super easy way to update a pair of shorts. xxx Annika

Little Ghost, Little Ghost

wearing dress - Forever 21 blouse - Vintage tights - c/o Oasap necklace - c/o Oasap ribbon - DIY bag - c/o Mochi Beaucoup hat - c/o Wholesale shoes - Dr Martens Aw man. You guys are real lucky today that the internet doesn't have smell-o-vision. Life tip: don't wear a wig to a party. Someone managed to pour cask wine all over it. Now it doesn't smell too nice. I really wanted to wear it for this outfit though, so I put it on anyway. Now I've pretty much ruined the outfit for anyone reading this with that disgusting story... Sorry about that haha. So, uh, can someone tell me how to wash synthetic wigs??? Shampooing it seems wrong, and I don't want to wreck the curls... xxx Annika

Sneaky Collars & New Hair

Look what I did to my hair! It's so normal! Dark brown. Dark, normal looking brown. What the what. I am glad I didn't go to the hairdresser for this, even after they were all "It'll go green if you try and dye it brown over your pink!" HA! No it won't. It'll just go a nice dark brown. I am already worried that it's too boring, however I am soon to be the owner of three coloured wigs so that should hopefully satiate my need for crazy hair for at least a little while. So this outfit features a very sneaky collar trick. I got this blouse and this dress and put them together with a little bow clip that I made and I think they go together really nicely. What do you think? wearing blouse - Paper Scissors dress - c/o Glamorous UK cardigan - Vintage ring - Vintage bow - DIY tights - Romwe shoes - Vintage bag - Vintage I hope you're all very well today! xxx Annika

Cupcakes and Cream

wearing blouse - Vintage tie - c/o Flapper Girl shorts - c/o Oasap bag - c/o Wholesale tights - Vintage hat - c/o Wholesale shoes - Raben Footwear It was such lovely weather today that I went for a super long walk all the way to the next town, in this outfit (sans wig). An old lady (probably about 70 or so) dressed in a beanie and a raincoat (it was hot and there weren't any clouds in the sky, but hey) stopped me on my walk and said "I just needed to tell you, you look really chic. Your whole ensemble is really chic." and then walked off. Which was just super cute and nice. I love it when random people who would wouldn't think would have any interest in fashion go out of there way to tell you that you look nice, it never fails to make my day. So I decided that I am going to go out of my way to compliment random people on their outfits in the future (and hopefully won't seem like a massive creeper whilst doing so). Okay, so now I have to do 314018752 assignments for uni. If I'm not around here much in the next week, that's where I'm at. Hope you're all having a nice Wednesday :) xxx Annika

Dress design competition - please vote for me!

Hello all! I decided to try out designing some dresses to enter them in a dress designing competition held by Ra Ra Superstar. The winner will have their dress made and sold in stores! Which would be so, so, so super dooper exciting. If one of my designs won, you could even buy the dress and then say "hey! I know the girl who designed this dress, how cool am I?" Awesome, right? (Although I'm sure this won't happen because a lot of the other drawings are much better than mine, but hey, I may as well try.) Please vote for me (find the links below the photos)! The design that gets the most "Likes" on facebook will win! Here's the three designs I entered (and please excuse my terrible illustrations): Vote for it here! Vote for it here! Vote for it here! If enough people vote my dresses as their favourite, then one of these dresses will exist in real life. Please go and vote for me (and don't vote for anyone else ;) ), because it would be so incredible to win. I'm sure I'll be spamming you all about this until the competition closes. I love you guys ;) xxx Annika

Picture Perfect Print

wearing dress - c/o Romwe collar - c/o Romwe sweater clips - DIY hat - c/o Wholesale socks - Tutuanna shoes - Vintage I don't know why it's taken me so long to acquire an item of clothing with a printed photograph on it. If you follow my Make Believe Wardrobe, you will know that I've been pretty obsessed with printed clothes for quite some time. This dress is no exception - I am so obsessed. As well as this one, Romwe has a whole bunch of body-con dresses with photographic prints and artworks that I'm pretty sure will be in my wardrobe soon - particularly these two amazing things: (dresses here and here) It is actually my dream to be rich and own a factory that can print out photos onto fabric and clothes, and own a fashion label/design clothes... ahh... one day... xxx Annika

Mod Dolly in a Sailor Dress

This dress kindly sent to me by Mod Dolly is beyond adorable. Not only is it the perfect red, it features little bows all over and has the best sailor-esque collar (and you all know how much of a sucker I am for an adorable collar). It’s the perfect picnic dress - especially if your picnic was held right beside some sailing docks. wearing dress - c/o Moddolly sweater clips - DIY hat - c/o Wholesale bag - vintage socks - Tutuanna I should also explain why I've been a while without posting (I don't know why I feel guilty for not blogging sooner, but, I do. Which is probably ridiculous, but I feel like I need to justify my lack of posts this week haha). Anyway, I just bought myself a Kindle and it's FREAKING AMAZING. I had read about one book all year, and in the week since I've had the kindle I've read six. Six books. In one week. So that's where I've been, being a nerdy nerd and reading a whole bunch of amazing science fiction books. If anyone is interested, Ready Player One by Ernest Cline is just about the best book ever. And this is totally boring because you're all here for fashion and sewing, not literature or books, but it just needed to be said. I freaking love my kindle. Much love, everyone! xxx Annika