A Return to Paris

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We are in Paris once again. I’m here this time to attend a “Makeup through the Decades” class put on through The Paris Institute for Critical Thinking. The first evening featured makeup looks from the 1920s and 1930s and the last evening was 1940s and 1950s. Of course I wanted to dress up for this class, the first evening I did a more 1930s look (I didn’t get photos sorry) and the last evening I tried for a more 1940s style.

I knew I wanted to wear this dress but I didn’t really have a hat that worked perfectly with it. So I contacted Karen at The Heritage Milliner and we came up with this style and color scheme for the dress. I think it turned out perfectly. Earlier in the day we went shopping at Chez PouPoule and I picked up these gorgeous earrings which ended up looking amazing with this outfit.

Hat ~ Custom made by The Heritage Milliner
Dress ~ Vivien of Holloway
Earrings ~ Chez PouPoule in Paris 

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Casual Charm

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I sometimes struggle with casual styles. I do try to dress in a fairly casual way when just running errands or doing simple daily tasks. Most of time, I still feel overdressed compared to the general population, but I’m trying to change my mindset a bit on what I feel could be considered casual. I’m not a jeans a t-shirt kind of gal and I do try and dress appropriately for whatever activity I’m performing. I’m always most comfortable in dresses and skirts and they do not inhibit me in my daily life.

So moving forward, I’d like to share more of my casual styles here on my blog and hopefully get feedback from you, my followers on your own favorite casual styles.

Today I was simply running errands…picking up my mail, running to IKEA and bit of grocery shopping. The style of this dress is maybe on the high end of the casual scale (with the tux pleating and key hole front), but since it’s a comfortable cotton material, I feel like that makes it more appropriate as a day dress. And with adding a tan belt and tan low oxfords, it really creates a comfortable casual style. I’m also always trying new hairstyles out and this is one I love. As we are heading into Fall now, I can wear my hair down more without sweating down my back.

What are some of your “go-to” casual pieces?

Dress ~ eShakti
Belt ~ Amazon
Shoes ~ Rocket Dogs (sadly no longer available)

My new favorite hairstyle ~ Tutorial

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So about month ago, I started playing around with my hair and trying different ways to achieve a specific silhouette I was wanting. I love finding old photographs and puzzling out how to imitate the style. Here are a few photos of the silhouette I was striving for. I wasn’t really looking for the height so much, but the most important thing was that lovely wave in the fringe. 

So this is what I’ve come up with

TUTORIAL

To create the wave in my fringe I set my hair like I normally do, aside from my fringe – (see my set here) – and then I put a hair net on and slightly push it back along with the rollers. This was a total accident by the way, I always put a hair net on to make sure my rollers stay put while I sleep, but for some reason one night the net got pushed back and also pushed the rollers back and it created the most beautiful wave. So now I make sure that this “accident” happens each time.

For this set I rolled my fringe all down, away from my part, and I move the plastic bar around and secure it with a pin curl clip. This helps to stop that dreaded bend you can get with sponge rollers.

I usually do this style on day two or three of my set, so I’ve already brushed it out for a few days. So you just need to section off your hair in three sections. From your part down behind the ear (small side), From your part across the crown and down behind the ear (big side), I usually pull the rest of my hair back into a ponytail just to keep it out of the way.

Take the small side and start to twist it backwards (towards the back of your head). Nudge it forward to create a little bit of height and then pin it down with 2 bobby pins X’d to secure. Leave the tail end out for now.

Now take the big side and basically do the same twist, but make sure you are setting the twist behind that front wave, again pin it down with two bobby pins X’d. You should have a curl at the tail end of both sides.

Now at this point you can just secure the tails with bobby pins making them into a curl right at the part. Or you can tuck them back into the twist if you don’t want the curl.

I hope this was helpful, please feel free to ask me any questions about this style or tutorial. 

Strolling in a Baroque Garden

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Just an hour and fifteen minutes from our house, is this beautiful 17th century Baroque Palace, Schwetzingen Palace. We took a tour of the palace and stunning formal gardens this weekend. Unfortunately photos inside of the palace were not allowed, however outside in the colorful formal gardens, it was all fair game.

It was quite hot and there were about 20 weddings/photo shoots going on in the gardens, so we were a bit limited to where we could shoot. But since its so close, we will be going back for more.

Hat ~ Vintage from The Vintage Hat Shop
Dress ~ eShakti
Brooch ~ Vintage Jade Butterfly, gifted from my Mom
Necklace ~ Jade and silver from Morocco, gift from my Gentleman 
Umbrella ~ Vintage 
Purse ~ Vintage
Shoes ~ Rocket Originals 

 

Alsatian Vacation

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Back in April we spent a weekend in the Alsace region of France, visiting a few little villages along the wine route, on our way to the Colmar Spring Festival.

First we stopped in Riquewihr, a darling little village of only 1228 inhabitants. It looks more or less as it did in the 16th century with cobbled stone streets and half-timbered houses and shops.


 We spent the weekend in Colmar for their annual Fête le Primtemps (Spring Festival). Our bed and breakfast was housed in a 14th century building (updated and modernized of course), right near the Saint Martin Cathedral.

On our last day we visited the village of Ribeauvillé which dates from around the 8th century. I really loved this village, it sits at the foot of three castle ruins and the forest of Ribeauvillé is home to the largest giant sequoia outside of the U.S.

After we left Ribeauvillé, we drove up the mountain to visit The Château du Haute Königsbourg. The first records of a castle built on this site by the Hohenstaufens date back to 1147. It has been destroyed and re-built several times throughout history. But in 1900 a Berlin-based architect and historian was commissioned by Kaiser Willhelm II to rebuild the fortress completely, just as it would have been in the 15th century. The project took 8 years to finish and it really is an amazing feat of construction and technology of the time.

I absolutely love this castle. We did a self guided tour and learned a lot about the history and construction of the castle. Here in Germany, we have a lot of castle ruins, which are awesome in their own right, but it is really something amazing to see an “intact” castle with furnishings and everything so you can really imagine what life might have been like living there.

And the topper to the weekend was that we saw two storks in a nest onto of a building in Ribeauvillé. The stork is the symbol of Alsace and are seen everywhere on signs, souvenirs, storefronts, etc. But this was our first sighting of an actual stork.

Out of winter…into Spring

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This winter was especially rough for me. I found it hard to find the motivation to get out and do things. Hence, the lack of posts here on my blog. Once the Christmas Markets are over, there really isn’t much happening here. And with it being so cold, wet and dark, I just really wanted to stay indoors and keep warm.

But today…today was absolutely glorious!!! It was sunny and warm and the birds are singing their beautiful songs. The trees are still bare, but you can really feel the pulse of life coming back after a long winter. Spring is finally here!!!

So, we spent the morning at the Homburg Flea Market with our friends and then ran some errands. On the way home we decided to drive a different way and ended up at the top of a small mountain where there is a nature park and a lovely hotel. We’ll have to come back and visit the nature park as they have goats, donkeys, horses and other animals roaming around. There are also beautiful raptors and other birds that you can view in a natural setting.

This dress has such a lovely 1930s silhouette. The elegant style of the 1930s is what I strive for, but my figure doesn’t always lend itself to it. So anytime I can find a dress that has that 1930s feel, and looks this good on me, I get so excited. And of course these shoes from Remix and my vintage 1930s hat are the perfect accompaniment.

Dress ~ eShakti
Hat ~ Vintage from My Vintage Hat Shop on Etsy
Shoes ~ “Boardwalk” from Remix Vintage Shoes
Purse ~ Vintage from a flea market
Umbrella ~ Vintage from a flea market 

Shop My Closet

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It’s that time of year that I start my Spring Cleaning…and that includes clearing out my closet. If you’ve seen the blog post on my dressing room (here’s the link if you haven’t), then you know that I have A LOT of clothes. I like to go through my closest regularly and re-home the items that either no longer fit, or that I just don’t reach for any longer.

So feel free to visit the Chronically Overdressed facebook page (link below) and peruse the available items for sale.

SHOP MY CLOSET