A few of my favourite things…Jan 2017

I did a blog recently about things that I was wanting and of course this changes and updates constantly so I thought I would make this a usual thang. Today I’m keeping the list to the clothing items I’ve been drooling over and maybe next week I’ll do makeup and switch it up when I can.

I’m going to start with Hello Universe. Right now Hello Universe has a few Unique Vintage skirts on pre-order. These skirts are not on the Unique Vintage site yet and I think right now they are only available for pre-order on Hello Universe. There are two specific ones that I am drooling over. The first one is the Candy Shop Be-Bop skirt.

This skirt is too cute and I would totally wear it with this shirt as well. The second skirt is the Fantastical Fathoms Skirt.

And I would totally wear this shirt with it as well lol. I have really been getting into wanting more separates lately and these skirts are just so perfect for the upcoming warmer weather.

Up next is Unique Vintage, since I’ve already mentioned them above. And sticking with their amazing skirts, here is another one I’m obsessed with even more than the two above. The Pastel Beauty Salon Skirt is so amazing!

It was created in collaboration with my favourite brooch company, Erstwilder. Unique Vintage created this skirt and another dress to go along with this Rollin’ With Katie brooch (sold out on their site but can be found through other stockists).

I recently sold a necklace on ebay, so I used half of the money from that sale to buy the brooch…this means I need to have the matching skirt!!! Right?!

Next are three basic black tops. I really need to invest in basic well made shirts if I’m going to invest in skirts. These three are definitely in my top 10 to get:

http://www.unique-vintage.com/retro-black-halter-cross-neck-stretch-top.html

http://www.unique-vintage.com/vixen-by-micheline-pitt-black-cotton-stretch-powder-puff-top.html

http://www.unique-vintage.com/voodoo-vixen-black-dita-teese-keyhole-stretch-top.html

Click on each picture if you want to link to the shirts on the website.

Next up is this adorable navy blue Retro Cat Print dress

This dress is just freakin’ adorable and so me, since I adore cats. I would also want the pink and white shoes to match!

There are so many more items but I’ll keep it short by showcasing this one last dress: Vixen by Micheline Pitt White & Lipstick Print dress

This dress is just the most perfect cute but still sexy novelty print dress. It’s a little pricey but so pretty.

Next is the Pretty Dress Company from the UK. I was unable to save the dress pictures from the actual site but luckily Unique Vintage sells these dresses too so I will post their pictures but link to the actual site page. I really love the classic styles and fabrics that this company puts out. My favourite of their dresses are the Hepburn dresses. They have both A-line and pencil skirt versions of these dresses. My most favourites are the Hepburn Seville in Forest Green:

The Hepburn Pencil Seville in Black:

And the Hepburn in Red and Navy Tartan:

They also recently released a Lemon Print Pencil dress that is gorgeous. Again, I couldn’t save the pictures on the site but Southern (California) Belle recently showcased this dress on her blog.

Isn’t it just so lovely?!

Up next are these fabulously amazing Valentines Day inspired dresses from Pin Up Girl Clothing. Both these dresses are currently in the “coming soon” section of the site but they should be released next week, from what I’ve heard (they are for valentines day so they shouldn’t be released too late). Firstly there’s this freakin’ amazing piece of awesomeness: the Pinup Couture Gena Dress in Pink Harlequin Print

I have been wanting a harlequin print item from PUG for a long time but none of them really screamed out to me until this one came up. It would make such a cute Valentines day dress. Another amazing V-day dress is this Pinup Couture Natasha Dress in Pinstripe Heart Print. The pin stripes are HEARTS!!!

Ugh it’s so damn cute. Of course, wiggle/pencil dresses do not really work for me anymore since I had my son. But I can only hope that I will eventually lose the baby weight so I can feel comfortable in them again.

And now on to one of my most favourite and adored brands, Emily and Fin. They are killing it so far with their SS17 collection and it’s only January!!! They have a bunch on pre-order right now for February on affiliate webstores. There are so many lovelies but there are 2 that are on my radar. Firstly there is this darling coral Lulu dress that is currently available for pre-order through the Aspire Style website.

I’m actually super excited because I just sold a sweater on ebay for $100 a few minutes ago so I will be able to place a pre-order on this dress by the end of next week!!! I just adore the collar because I don’t have anything else like it in my wardrobe. The other dress I’m drooling over is the pin stripe Pippa dress that is currently available for pre-order through the Lilac Rose website.

It’s very simple but also perfect and adorable. I love that it has an easy breezy nautical feel to it.

We are almost done, but not before I mention one of the most wanted prints I have seen in a long time. Trashy Diva recently re-released their Lovebirds print, which was picked by their fans to make a return. They released several styles in this print but two of them really drew me in. The one that pretty much every Trashy Diva fan wanted is the Lovebirds Hopscotch dress.

This dress sold out so fast!!! Only sizes 22 and 24 are left on the Trashy Diva site and I can’t find this style anywhere else because it’s all sold. If this dress wasn’t $250 Canadian I might have been able to get it but I just can’t afford a dress that expensive. The other dress in this print that I love is their 40’s dress

This one is still available in my size on the site as well as on the Retroglam site but again, it’s a $250 dress. The colours and style are just so beautiful though and I was very jealous looking at all the pictures of girls in these dresses on the Trashy Diva BST facebook page lol.

And of course, last but not least, we have the Modcloth items! The two dresses that I have been drooling over are the amazing Take Up Space dress and the adorable Oh My Gosh in Tropics dress.

Like seriously though, the first dress has space cats!!!! It screams Sheila. And the second dress is just the perfect light summer dress with yummy fruits!

I’m also so in love with this Friends Over Pho Midi Skirt but it’s been sold out now for weeks and I have no idea if it will ever be back. It’s just so pretty and colourful. And speaking of sold out, this Face the Fox sweater is sold out in my size too. Look at it. The fox wants me to buy him lol.

And finally, I have two super cute bathing suits on this list of wants! Esther Williams makes the best bathing suits. I have 3 of them so I know! The The Bathing Beauty in Aquarium and Bathing Beauty in Umbrellas are the next 2 on my radar.

Not only do they make everyone’s torso look amazing, they are also super comfortable and super cute.

Wow that was super long but I expected it would be since it’s been ages since the last things that I want was done. I would assume that subsequent posts about the things I want wont be as long.

The Birth of a Modern Pin Up Girl Wannabe

This is a post that is probably going to take me a few days to get through but I think it’s an important one to write about because it shines a light on how I got to where I am now when it comes to fashion/makeup/hair. (This actually took me a few weeks to write lol)

The earliest time I can remember learning about the Pin Up world was around 2004 when I discovered Burlesque model/dancer, Dita Von Teese.

I became obsessed with her. I thought she was so gorgeous. I loved how in her down time she always looked perfect. Her hair was always perfectly curled, her makeup was always on point and she always had on red lipstick, her nails were a signature dark red colour and they were never chipped, and she was ALWAYS dressed up beautifully. She mostly wore dresses and never wore jeans. Even when grocery shopping!

#7011821 Exclusive…Cointreau spokeswoman and artistic director of Cointreau Prive and iconic burlesque performer Dita Von Teese gets her grocery shopping done in Los Angeles, CA on March 20, 2011. Despite it being pouring rain outside Dita managed to look her best in her signature “Wheels & Dolls Baby Dita Rose” cardigan that she designed herself. Fame Pictures, Inc – Santa Monica, CA, USA – +1 (310) 395-0500

At the time, I was 23 years old and in College for Journalism Media. My clothing style was nothing like Dita’s even though I loved what she wore. At the time, online shopping wasn’t really a huge thing like it is now and I had no idea where I would even find clothes like hers. I mostly wore jeans and band T-shirts and I probably only had a few dresses in my wardrobe.

I don’t really remember having any other interest in pin-up girls or clothing in the few years to follow. I worked at Bluenotes and Le Chateau so my clothing choices were based on those stores. When I started working at Le Chateau, my love of fashion really started. I started looking at more expensive and better quality items and really started caring about looking nice. I started adding a lot more skirts and dresses to my wardrobe at that time because I was surrounded by them. I also started wearing more heels and I was building a really nice professional/dressy collection of clothing.

Then 2009 hit and I discovered Modcloth. I remember how small and new the site was and how limited the clothing was but I loved so many of the clothes. I remember thinking how awesome and different the clothes were and how no one else I knew dressed in the clothes on the site. On May 13th 2009, I made my first Modcloth purchase:

With having never purchased clothing online before, I was very unsure of sizing and how things looked on my body so I was bound to have some things not work. The second dress was returned immediately because it was super short. The first dress made me so sad because I loved it so much but it ran super small. I kept it in my closet hoping it would fit until about 3 years ago when I finally gave it away. The last 3 items I purchased were perfect and I still have a wear all three. Shipping wasn’t cheap though so I didn’t make another Modcloth purchase until Oct. 26 of that year and I bought 3 items:

The first dress I eventually gave away because it just didn’t work with my body and the second dress ended up being turned into a skirt because the top looked horrible on me. I still have and love the winter coat though. After this purchase, the shipping became cheaper so I started buying more consistently. I still had a few misses for a while but I started understanding what clothes worked best with my body and then Modcloth started getting a lot better with sizing their products and people started being able to leave reviews, which greatly helped with picking the correct sizes. Between 2009 and the end of 2013 I made 21 orders through Modcloth. I also really loved clothing from Pinup Girl Clothing and Unique Vintage but I couldn’t stomach paying the huge shipping fees. I was still mostly purchasing my clothing from stores like Le Chateau, H&M, and Suzy Shier. My Final order of 2013 really started to show where my style was heading and really started my true obsession with online shopping and retro style:

This is probably one of my favourite articles of clothing I have in my wardrobe. (I got it for 50% off too!)

2014 definitely saw my style changing a lot more. I started to buy more dresses and they became a huge staple in my wardrobe. I spent almost every day of my honeymoon in Vancouver in a dress! Speaking of my honeymoon, I can’t do this post without mentioning my gangster themed wedding! My ideas of what I wanted to look like on my wedding day changed greatly over the last 20 years. I went from wanting to look like a princess in a poofy dress to wanting to look like a vintage Hollywood actress/pin up. I definitely knew I wanted pin up makeup and I wanted a birdcage instead of a veil. I think I mixed my love of modern style with my love of vintage style perfectly.

And of course we definitely had to have the guys wear fedoras and have guns if they were going to be gangsters! lol

After our wedding, I quickly got pregnant which put a damper on my style. I gained 70 pounds during my pregnancy so I wore a lot of leggings and long sweaters. Pretty dresses went out the window during my pregnancy but not my love of mod/vintage/pinup clothing. After I had my son, I spent 6 months in pjs and yoga pants and no makeup. During that time, I daydreamed about the days where I would be able to fit into my old clothes again. I started playing more with makeup and started building my wardrobe again with “goal” dresses…dresses that would push me to lose the weight. At the time I was still getting a lot of basic pieces and not really getting too many clothes with fun prints or full skirts because that’s more of what I was used to and liked.

My transformation into pinup girl wannabe didn’t actually start until a few months later in December 2015, just a year ago. I remember being on the Modcloth facebook pages looking at the visitor posts section and I saw a post about another Modcloth board called Modcloth BST (buy/sell/trade). I decided to join it to see if I could get some great deals. From there I eventually started joining other BST groups: Emily and Fin, Bernie Dexter, Trashy Diva, and Pin Up Girl Clothing, as well as a few other Modcloth sales pages. These pages were a huge influence on me because, not only was I able to buy cute clothes for less, each community also is open to members showcasing their outfits. This definitely started opening up my eyes to the fact that other girls were dressing the way that I’ve always wanted to dress. This also opened me up other clothing brands and different styles that I may had not considered before. I started finding myself getting really interested in novelty prints and large circle skirts the more I watched these facebook pages. I also started to feel like these new shapes and styles work much so much better with my post baby body. I do miss pencil skirts, wiggle dresses, and pants, but I’ll be able to wear them again soon enough!

And as if I didn’t need any more fashion inspiration, in the last few months I started following blogs by lovely ladies, whose wardrobes really spoke to me because they embodied the vision I had for how I wanted to look. To get an idea of what I’m talking about, my two main blog inspirations are Southern (California) Belle

and June Bugs and Georgia Peaches

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I watch these two blogs on the daily and I’m always so in love with most of the outfits they wear! I love it when they wear items I already own and swoon with envy when they wear items I want but can’t afford.

I think for anyone who doesn’t know me very well or doesn’t see me often, the best way to show how much my style has changed in the last year is to go through my Instagram feed @magicpie33. I think it’s very obvious how the styles, shapes, and colours of my clothes have changed. Not just my clothes but my makeup style and even my glasses have changed to help me achieve the pin up look I’ve yearned to have for so long. I knew I kind of “made it” into the pin up catagory when a girl at work came up to me and said “You’re like a pin up girl. Is that the look you’re going for?” I was like YUP!

Throughout the last year, I went through mostly just getting clothes from Modcloth to also being obsessed with Bernie Dexter, Emily and Fin, Unique Vintage, Pin Up Girl Clothing, and Trashy Diva among so many others. (Though I still don’t buy from these stores directly just because their shipping to Canada is horrendous, except Emily and Fin, which isn’t the worst). I’ve been able to expand my wardrobe with pieces that I love and make me happy. And they make me feel young and beautiful!

So that’s basically how I have reached the point that I’m at now with fashion. It was like this little hope and dream I had long ago but didn’t know how to achieve, but now that the styles I love are easier to find thanks to the internet, I can play the wanna-be pin up every day!

And of course, I can’t end this blog post without outfits. I haven’t posted in months but I have still been taking outfit photos. So here are a few from the last few months.