Projects

Friday, June 23, 2017

Mexican Flowers

My Mexican shell flowers are blooming! I'm so excited, as this is the first year I've grown them, and didn't know what to expect. I've tried to stagger the blooms in my garden planting things that flower throughout the season-but that doesn't always go to plan with our unpredictable weather. These will be a welcome burst of colour as we wait for the gladiolas to bloom.
The wasps and bees are enjoying the garden as well. Danny tells me this is in fact not a wasp, but a robber fly. I learn all sorts of interesting things from that kid.
Speaking of beautiful florals from Mexico...here's the vintage hand-tooled leather bag I bought last week. The inside is lovely too...
In person it looks like pale, watercolour flowers. My camera isn't doing it justice. Sadly, the Armadillo bag arrived broken in pieces from poor packaging, but the seller issued a full refund so at least I wasn't stuck with a, "Busted Armadilla". On the positive side, I get to shout, "Busted Armadilla"  to amuse my son. Sure, other people look at us strange, but when don't they? Busted Armadilla! I'll get my bag, someday. 
Keeping with the floral theme, I gave this embroidered dress another wear. 
I can't decide how I feel about it. This will never be the first dress I reach for, but on beastly hot days when the thought of sleeves makes me break out in hives, I'm glad I own it. The top needs to be closed with a brooch unless I feel like letting it all hang out (which is fine, but not on a weekday morning when I'm headed out to do mundane chores) but that's clearly not a problem as anyone that's seen my brooch collection will know. I went with this replica of a Pre-Columbian nose-ring. I do like a good museum reproduction piece.

Outfit Particulars:
Embroidered dress-Goodwill
Brooch-Salvation Army store, Lincoln
Earrings-K Mart
Vintage Handbag-New Life Thrift
Flip-Flops-Hand- Me-Ups
Square bangles-K Mart
Other gold bangles-various thrift stores
Fragrance-Eau de Gaga (Nice! It has a dominant lime note that sticks around for hours. A little leathery, a little woody, this was five bucks well spent).




 I have a few more flowers to share. This skirt *almost* matched the bag. So close-gah. I wore it anyway, but I must admit, I wasn't happy once I got outside in the light. Still, I had people stopping me to compliment the skirt, so it couldn't have been as distracting as I thought. It is harder to match poppy prints than you'd suspect!
 At least the necklace and earrings were a good match. They look like raspberries, but are tiny beads. It is heavier than it looks.
Outfit Particulars:
Talbott's cotton skirt-Hand-Me-Ups
Top-K Mart
Ted Baker handbag-Goodwill
Necklace and earring set-Hand-Me-Ups
Cinnabar bangle-Hand-Me-Ups
Gucci shoes-Goodwill
Fragrance-Sophia Vergara Tempting

Also blooming in the garden at the moment-nasturtiums, violas, geraniums, salvia, calibrachoa, dianthus, and borage. The columbines are about ready to bloom, and my mums from spring are starting to bud again. I wasn't kidding when I said the weather was strange. The poppies died (boo) but everything else seems to be doing well. We've had plenty of honey bees, but not a single bumble bee this year. That's odd too.

I hope wherever you are, something is blooming, if only in a fab print or a tooled handbag. Oh, and one last thing...
                                                        BUSTED ARMADILLA!














9 comments:

  1. Busted Armadilla indeed! Goodness you look lovely in florals! I can't decide which I like more, the poppy flower ensemble or the red dress (Colombian Nose Ring!!!!).

    Whew! That green tooled leather purse is real pretty! I have never seen a pigmented tooled leather item before. Golly! That's three things I've never seen before 1. Colombian Nose Ring 2. Green tooled bag 3. Robber fly.

    Thanks for your post! Hope you get (consistent) nice weather!!

    Happy thrifting ;)

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  2. Dear lord that green bag is absolutely GORGEOUS, no wonder you snapped it up.

    RIP to the poor armadillo.

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  3. I wanna go home with the armadillo, back to Amarillo & Abilene!!!! I wonder if Jerry Jeff Walker is still around & kicking? Oh well, nobody on here probably knows what I'm blathering on about anyway.
    Robber Flys are cooler but flowers are cooler!
    Love that red dress & nose ring brooch!
    My morning glories all died/were eaten. Weird!

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  4. I need a shopping list for all the things I want to say! The Mexican shell flowers are stunning. The robber fly is rather terrifying. I seriously covet the floral tooled green leather bag. I'm so disappointed by the armadillo! Your embroidered dress is rather superb, and the lovely brooch reminded me of the Sutton Hoo hoard (Anglo -Saxon, c. 600AD), so now I want to look up Pre-Columban gold and compare. Your seed bead raspberry jewellery is absolutely lovely, and I actually particularly appreciate near-matches such as the one between your poppy prints; that bag is splendid, too. Ok, think I've remembered it all...

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  5. Oh how beautiful is that flower? And the bag is wonderful, truly wonderful. I love the embroidered dress and the poppy skirt - you look very cool and summery! Love the 'nose ring' brooch -it looks real!

    It's wonderful when the garden is in bloom. I'm glad to hear the weather has settled down at last...

    Have a great weekend.

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  6. @Thrifty Parka
    I was just thinking abut you, and wondering how the building repairs are coming along. Did you get summer up there yet?

    @Miss Magpie
    There's not much sadder than a busted armadillo. I hope no one goes picking through the rubbish this week or they're going to get quite a scare!

    @Bibi
    I'm gonna plead ignorance there!
    Do insects get wasted from eating morning glories? Imagine all the poor moths flying sideways.

    @Radostin
    Thank you-that's quite a lot of compliments.
    My first thought when I bought the brooch was it looked Greek, but I've subsequently run across similar replicas on Etsy. Imagine wearing something like that through your nose...puts these kids with their piercings to shame.

    @Veronica
    I'm in complete envy of your container garden. All this heat is rough on humans but our gardens sure love it. Hope you have a great weekend too. Stay cool.

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  7. I've never heard of those flowers before, least of all have I seen them, they're lovely! As is that bag, the interior is absolutely beautiful! Oddly it reminds me of the horror of a bridesmaid dress I unearthed yesterday when going through some boxes. The dress itself is a very in your face peach, not nice at all and the fabric is pretty horrible, but it has an over layer of really pretty pale peach flowered chiffon and it reminds me of the inside of your bag.

    And your dress is a beauty! Your floral skirt reminds me very much of some of the skirts Lindy Bop have had, it's awfully pretty. I can well imagine how heavy the raspberry esque jewellery is, I have made up similar beads and they can certainly get weighty.

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  8. @Melanie
    You say "Horror of a bridesmaid's dress" like that's a bad thing! I do love a seriously ugly bridesmaid dress.

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  9. Those flowers are stunning, and so is that hand tooled bag! But I'd guard that poppy print skirt carefully, if I were you. It's fabulous! xxx

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