Aloha! Like Sands through the
Hourglass, the Summer Holidays are sadly slipping away.
This time next week I'll be packing up my
Play
Clothes & dragging out my
Work
Clothes which sounds awful but it's not really.
To be honest, I'm quite looking forward to getting slightly zchoosched up in
all the freshly thrifted designer clothes & shoes that I've been
obsessively buying from my favourite charity shoppe,
Bednobs &
Broomsticks.
But for now, I'd like to take a wistful look back at the wonderful array of
both Fab & Dubious Play Clothes that Maeflower & I have worn over the
summer.
First up is Maeflower wearing a brand new
white
cheesecloth top she purchased, along with a whole load of other beach
gear in a lightning raid of one of those ubiquitous Surf shoppes that are
everywhere with names like
Surfaction or is it
Surfiction?
Or maybe
Surfriction? This particular shoppe was located in the
Central Coast town of
Woy Woy which
wins the award of being the town that most resembles the sound of its
name.
In the first photo, in a desperate bid to avoid harsh UV rays, she has
half-buried herself in the sands of Macmaster's Beach. I do approve of the
slightly rock'n roll cowboy hat which I would love to wear myself but won't for
fear of looking like I'm stuck in a Rolling Stones Concert Time Warp 1973. Or
maybe Billy Ray Cyrus 1990. Who could ever forget
'Eacky Beaky Heart'?
Quelle Horreur.
The white cheesecloth shows its versatility as a
Shopping Outfit in the second photo. Mae is off to cruise the
aisles at
Aldi, the Supermarket of Supermarkets which always has
a massive array of what appears to be German Sweet Treats with Unprounceable
Names that look like Dog Biscuits with icing. She's teamed the top with an
on-trend see-through pleated skirt from The Salvos Store in
Umina, pronounced You-Mine-Na, another town
that closely resembles the sound of its name. The
Aldi eco-friendly
shopping bag nicely sets off the whole look.
As Guiliana from Fashion Police always says,
"Per-Fection-Dot-Com".
And now
Back to Me.
In the photo above, I'm sitting outside a retro roadside bric a brac shop
in
East Gosford, a town that
is as no nonsense as its name, wearing a many layered beach outfit - swimsuit,
slightly slutty dress, tee shirt & top. Not to mention the armful of Toy
Louis Louis bangles that I nearly lost later in the day when I was
unceremoniously dumped by a wave. About the only thing that was easy to remove
was the
Toy Chanel plastic flip flops which I totally adore even
though one of the double c logos is missing from one flip flop. But life is a
daily procession of loss.
I was thrilled at the confident way that Maeflower managed to turn
her Chanel 2.55 into a Beach Accessory. Who
knew that this iconic bag can move from the boudoir to the boardroom to
the shopping mall & finally to the Beach so seamlessly?
Back to me again.
In the photo below, I'm not showing off the gigantic bruise I got when I
fell over trotting through the Bouddi National Park on my way to Macmaster's
Beach. Nor am I showing off the effect that boxing has had on my upper arms.
(Sadly, not that much)
NO, I'm showing off what happens to hair when you spray it rigid with
hairspray & then get dumped in the surf & then you don't bother washing
it.
Rip Van Winkle Bed Hair.
Meanwhile, back at the
East Gosford Strip
Mall, Maeflower has gone all Flower Child in a pair of tie-dyed
poo-catching-pantaloons thrifted from
'Bednobsetc' that she has
teamed with a pink boob tube. The parasol was another innovative attempt to
avoid harmful UV rays as it was yet another heatwave. Thanks Global Warming.
I couldn't resist calling her top a
'boob
tube', even though I'm almost entirely certain that it's not technically
one. But, what the hell, I'm still on holidays. I can say slutty & poo
& boob & maybe even Vomit or Bile if I feel the urge. Next week I'll go
back to being Stitched Up Again.
BTW, if you look closely at the photo, you may notice that the name of the
shoppe on the left is called
'Whoops'.
I'll leave it up to you to imagine what it might sell.
Next to 'Whoops' was
The Salvos Store
which proved to be an Alladin's Cave of treasures. As Maeflower said, it was
like no hipsters had been near the joint for about a year, so we had free reign
to clean the place out. We bought:
1. a globe of the world that appeared to have some of the countries in
the wrong place but you could hardly tell;
2. fabulously painted decorative Chinese plates that looked perfect for my
Sunday Nite Dinners until I read a sticker on the back that said
'food
should Not be consumed on this plate'. Pourquoi, I wondered? Toxic
fumes? Lead poisoning?
3. An ancient tray that said "Gosford - the Jewel of the Central
Coast" & many many other items including this fab long skirt that Mae
is wearing below, still with the tags on.
Note that in the photo that Tacitus is closely attending to the Weber
Barbeque that Santa gave him for Xmas.
On Boxing Day , heatwave conditions forced us to go to
Erina Fair Shopping Mall. It was the only way we
could get cool. I managed to purchase some actual New Clothes from
'Cotton On', a shoppe that I'm weirdly keen on even though it's for a
much younger demographic & there are no second hand items for
sale.
I'm wearing a strange concoction - a dress that looks more like a nighty
which I've teamed with a loose top that probably has no business being near the
dress.
I was so thrilled that George Kotsiopoulos from
Fashion Police pronounced that Animal
Prints were now Officially Neutrals. Thank God.
The necklace, from
'Diva', still one of my favourite Mall
Shoppes, is an ornate sea horse.
Talking of jewelry, right now I'm totally gagging for those
'Celine'
cuffs that were popular ages ago but that I've only now got up to speed on. I
spent hours last nite scouring the net for some convincing replicas, or even
the Real Things, but to no avail.
Occasionally, a thrifted item can be an
Epic
Fail. Here is an example, below.
Whilst trawling through the racks of clothes at The Salvos, I was captivated
by the ornate beading featuring a snake as a centrepiece on this rather skimpy
little dress that I purchased for Maeflower.
Sadly, once we got it home, we realised that there would be no possible
occasion outside of Halloween, which we don't really celebrate in Australia,
where this dress would be appropriate. Maybe cleaning out the garage.
Lastly, on the last day of our Beach Holiday, I'm wearing a thrifted
Lisa Ho handkerchief hem see through dress in Neutral Animal
Print. I wore the purple nighty underneath because I think the best thing
a woman of sixty can do is cover up unless of course you're
Christie Brinkley, who was photographed
recently at some Swimsuit Model Do, above.
I hate to be picky, but that dress is a bit too long in the sleeves, &
the shoulder pads make her look like she's got really pointy shoulders. And her
hair has about every colour of blonde imaginable in it.
But maybe I've been watching
Fashion Police for too long.
Lastly, lastly, I'm waiting for a latte to arrive at the
Macmaster's
Beach Surf Life Saving Club cafe, below, wearing a whole mess of jewelry
from the
Fruits de Mer section of my jewelry collection. I must
say that I look a little too Cocktail Partyish for the beach, particularly if I
was just about to hop on a paddle board which I wasn't but I would have loved
to if I had the necessary skills & equipment.
For all my beach outings, in lieu of wearing an unflattering hat, I wore a
blue sarong that doubled as a protective scarf & head wrapping.
