Silver Cat Tea Party: Trashy Diva Venice Nights

Thursday, November 24, 2016

Vacation Slideshow: Fun in Florida, Part 1

Hello Friends!

Happy (American) Thanksgiving!

Sorry for the long silence on the blog. As you might have guessed from this blog post though it was due to a wonderful fun filled vacation!

Earlier this month Tim and I got to take a vacation to Florida for my cousin's wedding and as we do when we are in Florida, we went around a lot and had a lot of fun!

Day 1 (Wednesday):

Outfit of the Day:

The first day of the trip was just flying so I was sure to wear a comfy dress. I opted to wear my Trashy Diva Circle Day dress in Venice Nights. I paired this with a navy cropped cardigan by MAK which I bought a couple years ago from Modcloth and a pair of comfy black ankle strap flats by Blowfish which I bought a couple years ago from Zappos.

Trashy Diva Circle Day dress in Venice Nights- Front View

Trashy Diva Circle Day dress in Venice Nights- Side View

Trashy Diva Circle Day dress in Venice Nights- Front View

Trashy Diva Circle Day dress in Venice Nights- Side View

Day 2 (Thursday):

Thursday was a slow and relaxing day. We spent most of the day at my grandfather's house, then went and picked up our rental car, and went to the mall for a bit with my grandmother.

Outfit of the day:

For this day, our first day in Florida, I wanted to wear my Pinup Girl Clothing Jenny skirt in Orange Branch border print. I paired this with a black top I bought several years from Target and a pair of black ankle strap flats from Zappos.

Pinup Girl Clothing Jenny skirt in Orange Branch border print

Day 3 (Friday):

The Friday we were in Florida happened to be Veteran's day. We completely forgot this and didn't realize until we got to the beach and saw that absolutely every parking spot in our usual parking structure was taken! And here I was thinking that it was going to be a slow day at the beach! In any case we had a wonderful day at Hollywood beach-- one of my all time favorite beaches ever. We got to do something I've been really wanting to do, parasailing, and we got to try out the new flowrider, the simulated surfing machine, that just opened at this beach about a year ago.

Hollywood Beach, Hollywood, FL

Playing on the Flowrider

Tim always finding cats

Outfit of the Day:

I had a completely different outfit picked out for the day but since we were at the beach all day I ended up just wearing a lightweight jersey dress I like to wear as a beach cover up. I bought this one a couple of years ago from Nordstrom Rack.

Jersey dress as beach coverup

Even though this happened later this same day, I'm going to put these photos right here.

Before the day was through Tim and I went to Santa's Enchanted Forest, a south Florida Christmas tradition. Tim said it was one of the most bizarre things he's ever seen, like if he somehow went into the future and saw a crazy version of what someone thought Christmas should be like. I used to go to this every year when I was little growing up in Florida. I mostly remember going and getting my picture taken with Santa. Even though I thought I remember loving this place when I was little, my mom says this place scared me.

Creepy Santa at Santa's Enchanted Forest

Another Creepy Santa

Thursday, October 13, 2016

Dress Review: Visions of Venice

At long last the return of Trashy Diva's Circle Day dress is here!!!

There are many Trashy Diva dresses that are regulars and semi-regulars on Trashy Diva's dress cut rotation (with good cause)-- the 40's, l'amour, Lena Sarong, Annette (including the variations of Annette-- Annette mini and Anne), the Honey (including the Honey Sun variation), for example. However, there are also dress cuts that seemed to have only popped up for a handful of prints back in the day which haven't seen the light of day for years (I'm looking at you Dixie, just recently re-released Hopscotch, and Circle Day dress)! The Circle Day dress is perhaps my most #1 wished for comeback dress. Looking at pictures of this fabled cut I imagined it to the most perfect, most wonderful cut ever known to 50's style reproduction. Seriously! The Trashy Diva Circle Day dress features a full circle skirt and a bust friendly modest friendly bodice. The bodice features a large collar and charming decorative black front buttons with rhinestone centers. Because the buttons are only decorative you get the visual appeal without having to deal with button gaping! This dress also has the appearance of cap sleeves from its long shoulder seam providing not only a cute look but also fuller coverage at the shoulders. The bodice is darted to keep things fitted while a hidden side zip allows one to get in and out of this dress without breaking up the single panel of fabric and thus an uninterrupted view of the print in the back. Well ladies, it's finally happened! Trashy Diva's Circle Day dress is finally back! As is the previously re-released Hopscotch (you can see my review of the Hopscotch in Hourglass here).

While I would have really liked the Circle Day dress to come out in a cotton voile or stretch cotton (as it mostly did in the past), I am so super ecstatic that this cut has made a long awaited return in any fabric. The last time this dress cut was released by Trashy Diva was, I believe, in 2008 with the Butterflies and Cool and Warm Watercolors prints. That's almost 10 years ago! When I saw that this dress was back I had it added to my cart and paid for that morning! And when I finally got my hands on it, it did not disappoint!

To be completely honest, this dress could have come out in almost any print or solid, and in any fabric choice and I would have been one of the first in line to get it. It's just an added bonus to me then that this dress came out in a wonderful new print, Venice Nights.

Venice Nights is the first print in Trashy Diva's new annual Tourist Print Collection. It's a 1940's inspired novelty print depicting scenes of gondolas going down the canals of Venice with bridges, buildings, and lights all playing off in the background. The dominate color of this dress is true blue while the Venice scenes display an abundance of red, mustard yellow, black and white. The fabric on this dress is a super soft stretch rayon. It has the feeling of wearing the most luxurious comfortable pajama yet has a very polished look with great drape to the skirt. This dress, while has all the features expected of the Circle Day dress listed above, also features one pocket to store items.

I got this dress in my usual size 10. It is probably possible that I could have sized down but I was worried that sizing down would cause pull at the bust. Also, I don't really like my dresses to be super tight. Because this dress came out in the stretch rayon fabric, the skirt has got great drape but it does lose a little of the 50's fullness that other Trashy Diva Circle Day dresses had. I will probably opt to wear this with a petticoat to help emphasize the fullness of the skirt in future wears but to show how the dress is as is, here it is without a petticoat.