WTFF: Pastoral Pretty

Today I felt very smug about the fact that I bought local, whole produce and I actually made some sort of effort beyond picking up a product with a "locally grown" sticker at the supermarket.  Terry (of Meet the Foodies fame) and I took our kiddies and went for a drive out to a little dairy out by Port Chalmers (we even car pooled so I we can feel smug about being environmentally conscious).  I'll take some photos the next time I go as it's really very cute and worth a story of its own.  Plus Phil plans to make cheese with the milk I bought so hopefully that's story-worthy too.

But what has all this to do with What the Frock Friday?  Not much actually but I'm stretching it so it does.  The dress I'm wearing today is another Voon number, appropriately called the Meadow dress.  Get it?  Meadow, cows, milk, pasture... I'm really clever ay?  Ahem.  I actually think this dress is a perfect Spring dress - floral, short-sleeved, mid-length, wool.  All excellent things in Spring.  But it's not Spring, it's the middle of Winter.  The Winter Solstice actually.  So today I paired it with some tights (not my ideal tights/dress combo but they were what I had in the draw.  I mentioned the tights shortage in last week's WTFF), and a cute wool blazer just to make a little more Winter-friendly.

The Meadow dress.  This dress is a work horse (did you like that one Harriet & Sam??).  By this odd turn of phrase, I mean to tell you that I bring it out over and over again and I still love it, it's still in great nick, and it keeps looking good.  It's the dress that keeps on giving.  As mentioned, it's woolen so is perfect for Dunedin's chilly climes.  I like the innocence of it - the high scoop neck, the short sleeves, the mid-length skirt, and of course the demure satin bow at the neck.  I think it all suits the beautiful floral perfectly.  The colours in this dress have always appealed to me.  The coral red of the roses with the golden yellow flowers and deep blue background.  Classic colouring that works well on me (not that you can tell it by the time we took the photos at 6pm in our crap lighting).  As the wool has stretch, the dress is obviously fitted, but the texture and pattern of the material mean it's forgiving.

A much better representation of the material

The coat is also a Voon number (can you tell I loved that store??) and I'm pretty sure was called the Cotton Candy Jacket.  It also came in a fuschia pink and black too I think.  I always loved the classic cut of this blazer and the cute collar (it looks great done up).  And true to Sophie's impeccable styling it is adorned with gorgeous buttons.  Should this jacket ever give up the ghost (no sign of that yet) I will definitely be salvaging those buttons.  Sadly, this little jacket doesn't fit me as well as it once did and it's a bit big in places (it hasn't stretched, I have).  If I was to be picky, I would say that as a result, the shape of the jacket doesn't allow the shape of the dress to work it's magic.  Compare the pics with and without and decide for yourself.  However, I've always liked picking out the red in this dress and the jacket obviously does a great job.  Since that mustard colour has come back into fashion I've had a few more options with warm layers but I'm sticking with the demure jacket today - I think it fits my pastoral/fairy tale idea better.  It's like a Little Red Riding Hood outfit.  For an adult.  With no hood.  You know what I'm getting at...

Tights.  Don't want to bang on about it, but if I were to style this ideally, I would probably go for no tights (the Spring thing comes back again) as I feel it suits the simplicity of the dress more.  And failing that, I think block colour tights would be best so as not to detract from the pattern of the dress and also compliment the block colour of the other accessories.  But these tights will do today.

The shoes are an old I Love Billy pair that I have trashed but I love the colour and the pattern of the material.  With a skirt of this length, I would generally opt for heels of some sort to balance my proportions better but something in this dress often makes me head to my flats.  I think it's something to do with themes previously mentioned - youth, innocence, fairy tales...  Am I sounding a bit mental?  I sound like I've tried to pretend I'm 12 by putting on a flowery frock.  I hope you're following my thinking here.

My shoes and Edie's shoes (in case you thought I have a bound right foot)

Aaaand just to compound the issue, we'll move onto the hair ribbon. I put it in because, well, it's young, fresh, innocent... I'm not having a mid-life crisis I swear.  I went through a phase in my early 20s of wearing hair ribbons often.  I don't do it as much any more as my hair is short and I don't think my hair cut always works with a ribbon in (it's longer than it's been for ages).  Plus I can't be bothered.  I also harbour a fear that I will turn around and find out that I'm a 65 year old woman with loooong greying hair who wears hair ribbons.  It's just not right.  But I'm not there yet so today I went with a ribbon.

This dress is not the one to wear a necklace with (neckline and ribbon - don't need a necklace in there over-crowding things do we?) so today I added some earrings.  A good option also as the ribbon means they are seen a bit more.  These gorgeous specimens were given to me by my sister.  I have a feeling she bought them in Scotland.  And yes, they have real daisies in them.  Cute, huh?  And very in theme.

And there we have my Pastoral fantasy.  I just needed to be carrying some of the milk I bought today in pails, or taking a basket of baked goods to Grandma's house.  But that's all a little much when also carrying your child.

Today Edie was also wearing a dress meant for another season: Summer.  I'm not a totally neglectful parent, I did "Winter" it up for her.  The dress came from Pumpkin Patch and she wore it to Bianca's wedding and not again.  It was really a little too big for her at the wedding and there hasn't been another occasion since that I could bring it out for.  So if she was ever to wear it, I needed to do some serious layering.  I put her in a white long-sleeved onesie from Frugi and some white tights.  She has some cute little slipper mary janes from Pumpkin Patch also, so I put those on them picked up the red by giving her a red hair-clip and little flower brooch I made using red ribbon and some broderie anglaise (super easy - just used a gathering stitch around a long edge, pulled the cotton tight and voila - flower).
Of course she also had her ultimate accessory, her glasses.  I need to get some more purple things to match them.  Just bought her a cute pair of purple boots today so that's a start.

Edie and Charlotte - straight out of a fairy tale and onto your computer.