Style Crush: Keira Knightley

I was going to do another British male for this week's Style Crush.  Then I thought I'd save him for next week and throw in a woman.  Keira Knightley has been a style inspiration for me for several years.  Though I don't exactly dress in quite her taste, I still appreciate it and enjoy seeing what she has on.  She was also my first girl crush.

I love how since Keira has a more boyish frame, that she often goes the androgynous route.  She pulls it off so well.  But at the same time, she makes sundresses look so sweet and effortless just by throwing on a pair of shades or a hat.

Keira, of course, has red carpet style nailed down.  She looks gorgeous in all sorts of styles and is never afraid to take a risk when it comes to a cut or silhouette of a dress.  Her lithe frame makes it easy for her to pull off dresses that my curvy frame could only dream of.

This green lace dress is so gorgeous.  Green is one of my favourite colours, so I'm automatically drawn to it.  And I love the sheerness to the top half.

This cutout dress is another winner for me.  It's just so demure with the colour and cut.  But then wham!  The cutouts make it a little saucy.

Finally, I can't mention Keira Knightley without sharing the amazingly stunning slinky silk green dress from Atonement.  I would kill for a dress like this.  And the body to be able to pull it off.  But for now, I will just drool over the beauty of it in photos and on film.

My Past (Two) Week(s) According to Instagram

Another busy two weeks have passed by in a blur!

Last Saturday I went to Blue Marsh Lake and did a vintage swimsuit shoot with Jacob Mast, whom I met at Reading's air show.  He was sweet enough to drive up from DC to meet me and take some fabulous shots.  I haven't seen all of them yet, but I've seen a few shots here and there that make me quite excited.  I wore my two 1940s swimsuits that belonged to my grandmother as well as a 1950s and a 1960s thrifted suits.

Then on Sunday my friend took me to see his cousins perform in Legally Blonde the Musical.  It was a lot of fun and really well done.  His cousins were fantastic.  Gotta love theatre geeks.  I even wore a pink 1960s dress in honour of the event, which of course I forgot to take a photograph in.

1. The last Instagram post.

2. Trying to get inspiration for my vintage swimsuit shoot.

3. My grandma's vintage brooch- one of my favourites.

4. Made the latest issue of Dames, Planes, and Automobiles! Available here.

5. My four beautiful vintage swimsuits spanning from 1940s-1960s.

6. Hair, check. Makeup, check. Off to the shoot!

7. Striped fun in my grandma's 40s suit.

8. Some of the props I brought to the shoot.

9. 60s glam in Jackie O inspired sunnies.

10-11. Playing in the water in my other 40s suit that belonged to my grandma.

12. A teaser from the photographer in my 50s suit.

13. Tom Hardy was this week's Style Crush.
14. A lovely lace blue number.
15. Phoenix shirt. Gotta love X-Men.
16. Bilbo and Iron Man pens make doing work a bit nicer.

17. Today's outfit for church. I've since taken the hat off due to the rain.
18. Friday's outfit post.

This weekend I wasn't feel super great so I spent it being lazy with some mates.  So that will be how I'm spending the rest of my day today.

Hope you all had a good weekend.

Mint and Lace

Lookie!  I'm a good girl and have my Friday post out on time!  This is thanks in part to having a free evening the other night after work where I could put the photos up awhile and then just throw in some words at another time.  Lately I've been either doing something every evening after work or I'm too exhausted to want to do much besides lounge on the couch watching some telly.  Also, my weekends have been pretty booked between friends and reenactments.

So not as much time for blogging.  Which I find rather ironic.  Now that I actually have a semblance of a life and am doing things, I don't have the time and/or energy to post about them.  I mean, jeepers, I haven't even posted photos from Reading's WWII Weekend and that was in June!

These photos were taken by the local creek that runs through my town.  I was running errands this day and didn't want to have to drive out of the way to go to my usual spot.  It's a pretty location but the shading from the trees combined with the time of day made for some dim photos.

Outfit Details:

vintage top, vintage collar {Grandma Ruth}

vintage Ferragamo shoes, belt, skirt, handbag {thrifted}

hair comb {eBay}

You can tell by my hair that these photos were taken shortly before The Great Gatsby came out.  I was still experimenting with different methods to achieve nice looking finger waves.  This was not the best of attempts, by far.  But I eventually got better at it and they turned out rather well for the actual day of my Gatsby photoshoot I did before seeing the film.

I've already started editing photos for Sunday's Instagram post, so hopefully it will actually come out this week and on time!  The horror!

Wishing you a wonderful weekend.

Style Crush: Tom Hardy

I'm finally back with a Style Crush post, though I've still been a bit behind in getting back to my regular posting.  This week's Style Crush is the charming Tom Hardy.  I must admit, he's a general crush for me overall.  But I also love his fashion sense.

Tom is one of those blokes who can look like sex on legs just wearing jeans and a tee.  But watch out when he gets all dapper and puts on a well fitted suit.  Especially a three piece suit.  Or one with braces...  There is just something about a well dressed man that is so extremely attractive.

I especially loved his clothing in Inception (plus there's the stylish Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and This Means War.

I'm keeping this brief.  But hey, at least it's a post, right?  And doesn't looking at Tom make up for it's short amount of text?  I hope you are all having a good week thus far.  Thankfully it's already halfway through.

My (Past Three) Week(s) According to Instagram

I know, I know...  I was doing so good for a week there with blogging and then I let it all go to pot again.

My weeks and weekends have been much busier of late.  I ended up getting a temp job so now my weekdays are filled with work.  Since my back still hurts and I'm not used to waking up so early yet, it's taken awhile for me to adjust.  I haven't been posting as many Instagram daily outfits either because it's rather dirty where I'm working and I don't want my pretty vintage items to get grease stains and the like on them.

My weekends have been filled with either reenactments, hanging out with friends, or both.  The past two weekends I went to two different reenactments.  One at Joanna Furnace and one at Eckley's Miners' Village.  They both had dances in the evening which were great fun.  I still have no idea what I'm doing, but if I have a strong lead, I can go with the flow rather well.

1. My outfit two Sundays ago.

2. First time wearing this vintage dress and hat.

3. No outfit photoshoots lately due to the heat, but mum took a quick snap.

4. Beat the heat with a Mike's hard lemonade at a baseball game.

5. TARDIS pyjamas! Need I say more?

6. Two Mondays ago's outfit. Another new (to me) vintage dress.

7. First time wearing this hat as well.

8. Out to the cinema to see This Is the End. I love this 50s frock.

9. Too hot to care; thus entered the mint sailor shorts.

10. My new favourite cocktail at Applebees: frozen strawberry lemonade with rum.

11. Beautiful Benedict celebrated his 37th birthday on 19 July.

12. No holiday for me this year. But hopefully a beach trip to do a vintage swimsuit shoot at least...

13. Randomly dreamed of Jonathan Scott from Property Brothers.

14. I certainly feel like a fool a lot of the time.

15-16. Outfit for WWII reenactment at Joanna Furnace.

17. A dreamy soldier.

18. I ended up buying a new (to me) vintage dress and changing into it.

19. And then I ended up ripping it whilst swing dancing later on.

20. A girl and her gun.

21. Two vintage baby dresses I couldn't pass up from Joanna Furnace.

22. Last Sunday's easy breezy outfit.

23. A woman from the Joanna Furnace event gave me these custom made 1940s crocodile shoes!

24. Picked some Queen Anne's lace that I love.

25. On the bridge in Mt. Gretna.

26. Joanna Furnace, Mike's, Willow, and Reading WWII Weekend.

27. Smudger loves to play with soda bottles.

28. Johnny Galecki- I can't get enough of The Big Bang Theory.

29. Saturday's outfit for another WWII reenactment at Eckley's Miners' Village.

30. Gorgeous wrought iron bench outside the Sharpe House.

31-32. At the Sharpe House.

33-34. Inside the Sharpe House.

35. A tank outside of where the USO dance was held.

36. Swinging the night away.

37-38. One does not simply come across Captain America and Wolverine masks without putting them on.
39. Smudger from two weeks old to three years old.
40. Took Smudger to get ice cream on his birthday.

41. One of my favourite photos from Reading's WWII Weekend.
42. I can't wait to swing dance again. I miss it.
43-44. Friday's outfit to see Swing Fever play.

45. Behind on responding to my penpals.
46. Saturday's 50s outfit to hear Flamin' Dick and the Hot Rods play.

This weekend I had more events going on.  Friday evening the band Swing Fever played a concert in the park which I attended.  I am addicted to hunting down all the local swing dance events.  I was a bit disappointed that no one was dancing, so I left after the first set.  It was mostly older people sitting around in their lawn chairs.  Not what I wanted.

Then come Saturday, I went to the Lebanon Fair.  My friend's cousin's band Flamin' Dick and the Hot Rods were performing 50s/60s rock and roll there.  Today has been a day of rest for me.  I'm not used to being this active plus working a job on top of it, all with stupid back pain/headaches to throw a wrench in the situation.

I'll try once again to be more proactive with this.  Hopefully once my body becomes more accustomed to the new hours and all I can get on a better schedule.  I hope you've all been doing well!