Your daily dose of pretty: Cap Sleeve Dress from Get Cutie

I love Get Cutie. They make a range of vintage-style skirts, dresses and accessories which you can order in any of the fabrics they have in stock. And the range of fabrics is BIG (123 different fabrics big), so I'm a bundle of indecision right at the moment.

I want this dress:

In this fabric:

Or this fabric:

But, how cute is this:

And oh my goodness this!:

This (as pretty as it is) would probably be a bad idea - too much white for me to spill stuff on:

Or CATS! In kimonos!:

So, that's narrowed it down a bit. While my head explodes from the indecision you can go check out the Short Cap Sleeve Dress (£110.00) on Get Cutie. And you can check out all 123 fabric swatches here.

Your daily dose of pretty: Skirt by B Original

Following on from yesterday's "curtain fabric but in a good way" post, today's pretty looks like it was made from curtain fabric from the 70s. But in a good way.

That's a very bold print and I'm pretty sure my friend's parents had curtain made from this when I was a kid, but again I like it! On sale for NZ$70.40 from New Zealand store B Original.

Your daily dose of pretty: Black Lace Print Pocket Dress from Dorothy Perkins

I have to say there's a bit of a "curtain fabric" feel to this dress. And y'know, I quite like it that way:

It's certainly far sexier than anything Julie Andrews ever whipped up from the curtains, isn't it?

The Black Lace Print Pocket Dress is £26.60 on sale from Dorothy Perkins.

Your daily dose of pretty: Daisy Shirt by Deadly is the Female

Hello all, and apologies for my extended absence. My MS flared up again and prevented me from blogging for a while thanks to bad double vision. However I'm back now, no longer seeing two of everything, and I have a pretty for you from a shop with quite possibly one of the awesomest names ever - Deadly is the Female:

Daisy Shirt (£55.00).

I don't often wear shirts because my big boobs make the buttons gape. So frankly I think they'd look pretty awesome in this one!

The name of the shop makes me think of this song, which I love:

Your daily dose of pretty: Grace dress from Hubba Hubba Vintage

Sometimes I wish I'd lived in an era when a woman's wardrobe contained "occasion" dresses. House dresses and cocktail dresses and formal day dresses. Especially "formal day dresses" - there's something about that I really like the sound of.

Here's a lovely formal day dress from Hubba Hubba vintage - who do some gorgeous repro stuff.

What I love about this dress is that up close you can see the fabric has a tiny spot print.

So pretty. And that belted waist and full skirt is to die for.

The Grace dress is £150 from Hubba Hubba Vintage.

Your daily dose of pretty: ASOS PREMIUM Pleat Shoulder Dress With Full Skirt

I'm couch-bound and slowly disappearing behind a mountain of wadded up tissues today my pretties, because I have a cold. If I had the energy to do anything other than reach pitifully for another tissue I'd be roundly cursing the universe for giving me this cold so soon after the last one. Obviously someone somewhere thinks I enjoy sneezing and sniffing and coughing. Great. Thanks.

Anyway, luckily for you the pretties don't have to stop because the always gorgeous and delightful Amber over at Fashion Police has posted a dress which I am utterly in love with, and I'm sure she won't mind me sharing it with you. The link that is, not the actual dress because that would cost an awful lot in postage.

The colour above is called Deep Peacock, which is gorgeous. I am also in love with the version in black - so much so that I would dearly love to buy both:

I just love the slash neckline and fitted waist. I find myself wondering if I could get away with buying both and claiming some sort of fever-related amnesia.

The ASOS PREMIUM Pleat Shoulder Dress With Full Skirt is £50.00.

Your daily dose of pretty: Brighton Belle Polka Dot Swing Dress from Dollydagger

There is a particular sound I make whenever I see a new pretty, that sounds something like "heep", said in a squeaky voice. It is also the same sound I make when I see cute puppy pictures.

This is not a puppy:

Ok so it's not the first retro-style swing dress I've shown you. It won't be the last either. But it has a bow people, which increases its awesomeness by eleventy-twelve percent*.

The Brighton Belle Polka Dot Swing Dress is £79.00 from Dollydagger, and also comes in blue and black.

* I totally used my calculator to work that out.

Your daily dose of pretty: Connect the Dots dress from Bettie Page

Va-va-voom is a phrase I use a lot to describe the dresses I'm drawn to, and it's possibly never been more apt than with this dress:

Va.

Va.

VOOM!

What else can I say? Figure-hugging. Flattering. Want. With renovations on our house now in the Council-Approved-Waiting-For-Quotes stage I have been on a very serious no-buy (which I've by and large managed to stick to), but I've also just come into a wee bit of money and I'm very seriously tempted to treat myself to this baby. What say you, my pretties? Should I do it?

The Connect the Dots dress in grey is US$88.00 from Bettie Page Clothing, and is also available in green.

Your daily dose of pretty: Camel Cowl Neck Belted Dress by Miss Selfridge

I love the soft simplicity of this dress. Although I suspect it's not a colour every skin tone could wear. Certainly I couldn't, without looking like a well dressed sand monster.

The Camel Cowl Neck Belted Dress is £36.00 from Miss Selfridge, who ship internationally.

Your daily dose of pretty: Vintage Allure Wiggle Dress

The problem with having children is that certain word associations become irrevocably changed. For instance, I cannot hear the word 'wiggle' without thinking of, well, The Wiggles. Mention 'wiggle dress' and I'm immediately beset with visions of The Wiggles in dresses. It's all fun and games in my imagination, I tell ya.

Still, if The Wiggles were going to wear dresses they could do worse than this one:

I love the bow detailing at the waist, and that fire engine red. It also comes in black, but not yellow, blue or purple so the other the other three Wiggles are plumb out of luck.

The Wiggle Dress is £69.00 from Vintage Allure.

Your daily dose of pretty: Frida Dress by Hell Bunny

Well, the holiday season has been and gone and it was lovely. We spent Christmas with my family in Dunedin, where 15 Year Old Daughter and 11 Year Old Son ran across Tomahawk Beach:

Those dark clouds over the Pacific Ocean even produced a couple of lightning flashes, but I didn't capture them on film!

Santa* cemented his position as The Best Boyfriend Ever by bringing me these from a business trip to China:

Look at them, being all awesome and pink in their awesome pinkness. What makes them even more awesome is that in the embossed logo on the side "Wear" is spelt as "Weear". Awesome, pink and bad spelling! Do Christmas presents get any better?

Actually, yes they do. When they're this:

Image: Kate's Clothing

Although technically this isn't so much a Christmas present. It's more of a post-Christmas "look darling it's on sale and it's so pretty would you buy it for me pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease" present. Isn't it gorgeous? I love the print on the fabric. And did I mention it's on sale at Kate's Clothing at the moment for only £19.99? Although they only have sizes 8 and 10 left - obviously they have customers with excellent taste!


* By Santa I obviously mean Eccentric English Boyfriend. The real Santa isn't my boyfriend, that would just be weird. Because he doesn't exist.

Your daily dose of pretty: The Sophisticate Skirt from Red Dress Shoppe

Since my recent healthy eating has seen my weight going down (at the doctor's today I was 10kg lighter than when they last weighed me, hooray) I've been on a hunt for really sexy pencil skirts, because I now feel brave enough to wear them. So of course this summer sees all the shops stocking floaty maxi skirts or cute wee a-line skirts. Both of which are lovely, just not on me!

The Sopisticate Skirt from Red Dress Shoppe has me very tempted, and I may just put it on my Christmas Wish List. (If you're reading this, Eccentric English Boyfriend, the following skirt is on my Christmas Wish List - please see me for sizing details!):

I'm such a sucker for the whole "Sexy Secretary" look. I love the pleat and bow detail at the waist, and the 'relaxed pencil silhouette' should be nicely forgiving on the wobbly bits! The Sophisticate Skirt is US$49.00 from Red Dress Shoppe.

In other news, I mentioned a couple of days ago that I thought my MS might have flared up, and sure enough I am now having some vision and cognitive problems. I saw my doctor this morning, and we are just waiting to hear back from the Neurology Department at the hospital. Anyway, my wonky eyesight and slightly scrambled thought processes mean it's becoming quite hard for me to focus on the computer screen at times. I will try my hardest to  keep up regular posting as much as possible, but if I do disappear for any length of time you'll know why.

Your daily dose of pretty: Soda Pop Dress from ModCloth

I love this pretty dress. The deeply pleated full skirt is so girly, and the boning in the bodice means that any wobbly bits would be nicely contained. I do suspect though that I'd have to wear a fairly heavy duty strapless bra to keep the girls in check. And possibly avoid raising my arms above shoulder height in case they decided to pop out!

Doesn't it just scream Spring? And the aqua and grey colour combination is a total winner.

The Soda Pop dress is US$74.99 from ModCloth.

Your daily dose of pretty: Hey, Mr Blue Sky tee by Threadless

I just love the whimsical illustration on this tee:

Here's a close-up look:

Of course if I was that little girl I would be revealing not a fluffy cloud laden blue sky but shoes. Lots and lots of pretty shoes. If anybody wants to make me a tshirt of that I'll be one very happy girl!

The "Hey! Mr Blue Sky" tshirt is US$18.00 from Threadless.

Your daily dose of pretty: Rockabilly Western "Stompin" Dress from Babygirl Boutique

So, my pretties, we've been together for a while now and I feel that we're at the stage of our relationship where I can share a deep dark secret with you and you won't judge me for it. You won't judge me, will you?

Ok. You see, when it comes to music my taste tends towards the heavier stuff: some metal, some rock, a bit of goth. But I also love me a bit of country music. Not the jangling guitar "my dog done died, my girlfriend left me, my crops ain't growing and I can't get the ketchup stain out of my favourite jeans" type of country music. Think more along the lines of Sweet Home Alabama and Copperhead Road. That sort of country/rock music.

And Achey Breaky Heart.

Yep, when Billy Ray starts singing about that ole achey breaky heart of his I want to leap up, don some cowboy boots, hook my thumbs into my belt and linedance my wee socks off.

And this dress would be perfect:

So cute, my total ineptitude at anything requiring rhythm might not even be noticed!

The Rockabilly Western "Stompin" dress by Lucky 13 is US$68.00 from Babygirl Boutique.

Your daily dose of pretty: Topshop 60s Sequin A-Line Skirt

The beading and sequin detail on this skirt is so pretty. I love that the large disc sequins are all different.

I could never own a cream skirt though. I can guarantee that within minutes of me putting it on it would be covered in dog hair, muddy paw prints, sauces of various indeterminate origin (and startlingly bright colour), chocolate (even though I don't eat it any more), zombie blood and ectoplasm. And let me tell you, ectoplasm is the very devil to get out!

If you're not as disaster-prone as me, the 60s Sequin A-Line Skirt is available from the Topshop website for £35.00, or of course if you're in Auckland you could always check out Topshop at The Department Store to see if they're stocking it.

Your daily dose of pretty: Cream Ruffle Sleeve Top from Dorothy Perkins

I love the delicate, floaty ruffle sleeve on this top:

Plus, Dorothy Perkins have 20% off online at the moment, so instead of its normal price of £22.00 it is currently £17.60. 

I actually had to add it to my cart to work out the discount for you. Purely to work out the discount, you understand - not to buy it. And to prove that I'm now going to remove it from my cart ...


While I'm doing that you can buy it here.


Still trying to remove it from my cart, seem to be having some difficulty getting my mouse clickey finger to work. Must. Click. Mouse. Must. Not. Buy.

Your daily dose of pretty: Closet pink cowl neck dress from Dorothy Perkins

I'm a bit wary of peplums on dresses. Partly because I wore them to death in the 80's and partly because putting a peplum on my figure is a bit like wearing a big sign saying "Check out my Child Bearing Hips, y'all".

The peplum on this dress, however, is nicely understated and possibly even curve friendly and I love the cowl neckline.

It's funny that I love this shade of pink in a dress, but would never wear it as a nail polish.

The Closet Pink Cowl Neck Dress is £30.00 from Dorothy Perkins.

Your daily dose of pretty: Dream dress in purple by Bettie Page Clothing

I may be carrying a few more kilos than I'm happy with, and parts of me may wobble more than I'd like, but one thing I do like about myself is that I have curves. Womanly, albeit wobbly, curves. And I'd quite like to squeeze my curves into this dress:

Such a gorgeous, classic shape, and the fan detail at the neckline and waist takes this into Killer Curves territory. Do want!

The Dream dress in Purple is US$114.00 from Bettie Page Clothing.

Your daily dose of pretty: Paris dress from Dolly Dagger

Look what just arrived at Dolly Dagger:

Isn't it gorgeous? I love the sweetheart neckline and red button detail. Its retro vibe makes me want to start singing about Boogie-Woogie Bugle Boys From Company B; so it's probably a good thing that I can't afford it, because singing is not one of my strengths. Shopping and sleeping yes, singing - a most emphatic NO!

The Paris dress in Black is £130.00 from Dolly Dagger. It's a Stop Staring dress so is also available on the Stop Staring website, but only in navy as far as I can tell.