Silver Cat Tea Party

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Outfit of the Day: Hello October

I love October

Not only does October mean corn mazes, pumpkin patches, pumpkin spice everything, Halloween, and the all around spookiness that Halloween and the month of October brings, there's also a crispness to the air even on the warmest days we may have in Northern California. I love the start of sweater season and yet love that there's a lingering to the last days of warm weather for the year. There's also something so cozy about the longer nights as the sun goes down sooner and rises later.

Well, I kick started the first weekend of October with a bang! This past weekend my friends and I got to go to the corn maze and pumpkin patch, pumpkin spice lattes in hand. I even treated myself to a pumpkin and cream cheese muffin while I was it. Such a wonderful month and so many fun things to be done! I'm looking forward to seeing what the rest of this month will bring <3

Outfit of the Day (Saturday):

For our outing to the corn maze and pumpkin patch I decided to wear one of my favorite fall dresses, my Trashy Diva Doris dress in Warm Watercolors. I wore this with a pair of brown herringbone flats which I got from the Gap Outlet several years ago since I knew there was going to be a lot of walking on dirt. Also, because I wasn't quite sure what to expect from the weather I brought along a burgundy beaded cardigan by Free People which I got from ebay earlier this year. For a finishing touch I wore this with a pair of brass colored cat stud earrings which I got from Hot Topic last year and coordinated it all with a vintage brown purse I got from Etsy a couple years ago.

I noticed I've been speaking a lot about fall dresses vs summer dresses and dresses that work well for both fall and summer... Well really there's nothing wrong with wearing any of these dresses during any season with the right warm weather styling or weatherization to go along. For me I just really love dressing in theme whether it be a themed event or theme for the season. And so I don't mean to put a label and pigeon hole my dresses. I just really love themes! :D Just wanted to add that little tidbit ;)

Trashy Diva Doris dress in Warm Watercolors- Front View

Trashy Diva Doris dress in Warm Watercolors- Side View

Trashy Diva Doris dress in Warm Watercolors- Front View

Trashy Diva Doris dress in Warm Watercolors- Side View

Cat earrings- Close Up

Trashy Diva Doris dress in Warm Watercolors with vintage purse- Close Up

Vintage purse and cat eye sunglasses

Outfit of the Day (Sunday):

In comparison to Saturday, Sunday was a much more relaxed and lazy day. My husband and I went out for lunch and then retired for the rest of the day with our Netflix at home. But seeing as I got out one of my favorite fall dresses the day before, I wanted to follow it with another of my favorite dresses (for fall and summer) my Trashy Diva Country Club dress in Butterflies! Oh Trashy Diva Butterflies how I love you! I paired this dress with a vintage brown with gold beaded cardigan which I got from Etsy last year and because earlier this year I did say I wanted to try and wear some of my fancier shoes out, I wore a pair of brown Mary Jane Naya pumps which I got from Nordstrom Rack a few years ago. For a finshing touch, I kept things simple and wore a pair of gold colored ball stud earrings which I got from Forever 21 last year.

Trashy Diva Country Club dress in Butterflies- Front View

Trashy Diva Country Club dress in Butterflies- Side View

Trashy Diva Country Club dress in Butterflies- Front View

Trashy Diva Country Club dress in Butterflies- Side View

Gold colored ball stud earrings- Close Up

Thursday, September 29, 2016

Dress Review: Dress of the Rising Sun, Trashy Diva's Cranes

“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” ― Albert Camus

Trashy Diva's Cranes print is a beautiful Asian inspired collage of cranes in flight against a rising or setting sun in the midst of a wetlands setting. Like the last dress I reviewed, Trashy Diva's Virginia Shirtwaist dress in Red Fans, Trashy Diva's Cranes print works fantastically well as a Fall print even though this collection was actually released in the summer. The multitude of colors in this print include red-orange, citron green, cornflower blue, yellow, black and white. It is the red-orange and citron green in this print that really legitimizes this print as a Fall print to me.

I can see it also working equally well as a summer print though... I can imagine the murky swamps of Louisiana as being an inspiration for the color choices in this print from this New Orleans based company. In fact, when this print was first released Trashy Diva vowed to donate 10% of the profits of this collection from its release date of 7/28 through 8/26 to the Gulf Restoration Network, an organization dedicated to helping protect and restore the natural resources in the Gulf Region. You can read more on this partnership on Trashy Diva's blog here. Perhaps it was this partnership that helped secure this print as being Trashy Diva's fastest selling print in Trashy Diva history (of full run releases that is). But perhaps, also, it's the gorgeousness of this print that caused it.

While the beautiful Cranes print came out in several different styles including five dresses (TD's Sarong, 40's, Sweetie, Connie, and l'amour dresses) as well as several different separates to mix and match (sarong skirt, high waisted shorts, lounge pants, Dottie blouse, Trixie top, and Mai Tai top), I opted to order this print in the l'amour cut. What I loved about the l'amour in this print is that it's a more simpler cut compared to other cuts in this collection, which I felt worked to balance out the busyness of this print. The l'amour dress features an adjustable skinny strapped top which gathers around a drawstring keyhole at the bust (also adjustable to your preference of exposure). It has ruching at the sides to ensure a great fit and has a back zip for easy wear. The skirt is a lovely full circle skirt which has great drape in the rayon fabric. While it took me a while to warm up to the l'amour in general, I have found it to be one of Trashy Diva's easier to throw on and go dresses. It is extremely comfortable and extremely flattering with very little effort.

I got this dress in my usual size 10 and while it fit in that size, I did notice that it seemed the bodice was longer in this print than in my other dresses of the same cut. This was confirmed by other ladies in the TD facebook group I'm in who also noticed the same thing. Good news for longer torsoed ladies, though just a little sad for us shorter torsoed ladies.

Trashy Diva l'amour dress in Cranes- Front View

Trashy Diva l'amour dress in Cranes- Side View

Trashy Diva l'amour dress in Cranes- Back View

Trashy Diva Cranes print- Close Up

Hope you enjoyed my review and that you have found it useful!

Check back again next week. Next up for Dress Review: Trashy Diva Does 80's!

Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Outfit of the Day: Firsts of Fall

Hello Kittens!

I've been surprising myself lately by having a semblance of an actual blog schedule! And so somewhat as usual these days, here is my most recent offerings for an Outfit of the Day post featuring outfits from this past week/weekend. :)

Outfit of the Day (Wednesday):

This past week my husband and I took my mother-in-law out for a belated birthday dinner. It just so happens it was officially the last day of summer that day and so I got to sneak in just one final summer outfit of the season. For this occasion I decided to wear my Trashy Diva Bonita dress in Cactus Rouge which is perhaps my all time favorite Summer to Fall transition dress. It's such a great print that works (in my opinion) equally well as a summer or fall dress because of the fun all over cactus print and the vivid blood red and muted cream colors. I paired this with a red cardigan which I got from Nordstrom Rack a few years ago, and a pair of Easy Spirit nude flats which I also got from Nordstrom Rack last year.

Trashy Diva Bonita dress in Cactus Rouge- Front View

Trashy Diva Bonita dress in Cactus Rouge- Side View

Trashy Diva Bonita dress in Cactus Rouge- Front View

Trashy Diva Bonita dress in Cactus Rouge- Side View

Outfit of the Day (Saturday):

On Saturday my husband and I went out to lunch and then ran errands and looked at Halloween decorations at the shops. I've been dreaming of starting the Fall with this 60's inspired dress, the Doll About You dress by Blessed Buttons Clothing, which I got from Modcloth a few years ago. While this dress could work equally well as a summer dress, because of its solid black color with accents of white, to me it really screams Fall. I wore this with a pair of basic black flats which I believe I got from Nordstrom Rack several years ago. For a finishing touch I paired this with fun 60's inspired earrings which I got from Luxulite on Etsy a few months ago.

Modcloth Doll About You dress- Front View

Modcloth Doll About You dress- Side View

Modcloth Doll About You dress- Close Up

Also, as you can see, this past weekend we got out our Halloween decorations! I'm looking forward to all the fun Fall activities and more Fall outfits!

Do you have a particular thing you like to do or wear for Fall?

Thursday, September 22, 2016

Dress Review: I'm a Fan of Trashy Diva's Red Fans

Today marks the first day of Fall in the Northern Hemisphere

While the Trashy Diva Red Fans print came out during the summer, I cannot but feel that with the beginning of Fall, this is the perfect time to review the the Red Fans Virginia Shirtwaist dress. This is the perfect Fall ready dress. Like my previously reviewed Trashy Diva Shirtwaist dress, the Virginia Shirtwaist dress features a classic 1950's shirtwaist silhouette. It has functional front buttons that extend all the way down the length of the dress, a full pleated pocketed skirt, and longer length sleeves that you can wear either cuffed or uncuffed. I wore it here cuffed to the elbows. Uncuffed, it is just about an inch longer, touching my elbows.

What's the difference between this dress and the previously released Shirtwaist dress you may ask? The biggest difference to me is the front. Whereas the Shirtwaist dress features a horizontal break at the top of the buttons creating a space or gap at the top front of the dress, the Virginia Shirtwaist dress has more of a traditional front button style that doesn't have this horizontal break at the buttons. Another design change is that the Virginia Shirtwaist dress has a smooth, fitted, darted back, whereas the Shirtwaist dress has a box pleat at the back which provides a looser fitting style. Which of the two shirtwaist styles do I prefer? I'm just so happy that Trashy Diva has decided to release not only one but two shirtwaist style dresses! It's kind of been a while since we have seen a bust friendly full skirted style from this company.

While not a style change per se, another thing that Trashy Diva has changed with this new Virginia Shirtwaist dress from their previously released Shirtwaist dress is that this dress now has extra snap buttons between the buttons at the bust, something which they previously did with other front button styles they've released and a feature I was sorely missing in the Shirtwaist style. I hope they keep including these snap buttons on front button styles and will extend this to the Shirtwaist dress styles in the future.

Now on to the print. This lightweight stretch cotton dress features an all over print of large fans. The fans themselves are colorfully and vividly illustrated with an intricate scene of geishas crossing a bridge. In the foreground the geishas are surrounded by trees and blue flower bushes while in the background boats at sea meander by. Way off in the distance a mountain peak, perhaps part of an island, can be seen. It is a really gorgeous print in which one can stare and make up stores about. While the dominate color of this dress is a vivid red, there are a multitude of other colors which subtly grace this print: blue, green, yellow, white, black and gray. Which means this dress will be fun to mix and match coordinating colors with!

One sad issue I had with this dress is that it didn't come with a matching belt. Ordinarily, that would have made me sad to see but it really made me said that when I originally pre-ordered this dress, the description said it was supposed to come with a matching skinny belt. Right before it got shipped out to me, after weeks of waiting, I was notified by email that due to miscommunication or some other kinds of problems from the factory, this dress was in fact not going to be coming with a belt. This was not an isolated incident. A very similar thing happened with Trashy Diva's Irish Polka Streetcar dresses when they were released last Fall. For this Red Fans dress I was given the option to take the dress as it was or to cancel my order. I cannot get over the idea that since I preordered and paid for this dress which was supposed to come with a belt, the company should have offered to include a different belt, perhaps a solid black or solid red one, or offered to refund me the price of what a belt should cost, maybe $10-$12 to make up for the missing self matching belt. Instead, they did neither and just offered that I could take it or leave it. An option that kind of left a sour taste in my mouth. I wish I would have fought harder and asked for a different belt or a refund for what the cost of a belt should be. In any case, it is a wonderfully gorgeous dress so I try not to let my feelings one this incident cloud my feelings about the dress itself.

I ordered this dress in my usual size and it fit to a T though if I wanted it to be more roomy I could have sized up one. It is a bit tight at the bust.

Trashy Diva Virginia Shirtwaist dress in Red Fans- Front View

Trashy Diva Virginia Shirtwaist dress in Red Fans- Side View

Trashy Diva Virginia Shirtwaist dress in Red Fans- Back View

Trashy Diva Virginia Shirtwaist dress in Red Fans- Close Up

Snap button detail plus hook and eye at waist, Trashy Diva Virginia Shirtwaist dress- Close Up

Trashy Diva Red Fans- Front View

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Outfit of the Day: Last Weekend of the Summer

Happy final days of Summer Kittens

With September 22nd officially marking the start of Fall we say good bye to Summer for the rest of year. A tout à l'heure. Until we see you again Summer!

For this final weekend of summer last weekend it really went out with a bang! The sun was shining all weekend and temperatures were up! Some might say it was a little too hot on Sunday but I'll take the heat any day!

On Saturday my husband and I spend a nice day out and about. We started the day making a stop into our local vintage reproduction shop, Vintage Alley. I was really hoping they'd have some Halloween themed stuff on offer as they sometimes do around this time of year but not a Halloween item was in view. Maybe it was just a little too early. Next we went out for lunch at our local brewery, Buffalo Bills, and shared a black pumpkin beer with our lunch. After that, we stopped in at the 80's arcade, High Scores, for a bit to play some games and beat some high scores... and all this was on the same block! I love our town! After all this we went to Joann's to see what they have for offer for Halloween houseware then tried to go to a shop I know of that was selling vintage Halloween themed items last year. We must have gotten there just a little too late though because they were closed :( Looking through the window I could see all the glorious vintage Halloween things were back in stock so I will have to come back again! We ended the day with a stop at the mall.

We usually just go to the mall for a place to hang out and window shop at Hot Topic, Spencer's, and the Lego store and I usually make a stop at Forever 21 just to see what they have for accessories. But while we were at the mall this time around I noticed that with the new season, there's a new (old) style that's back, late 70's early 80's! I rubbed my hands together and looked just a little more closely at what was on offer and even picked up a super cute outfit at Forever 21 for about $35! There was also a corduroy jumper at Nordstrom that I liked but that one got left behind since it was a bit more and there are a ton of stuff currently on my online wishlist that I'd rather get instead. Maybe if it's still around later I will go back for it though.

Anyhow, on to the outfit for this Outfit of the Day! ;)

Outfit of the Day (Saturday):

For this day I picked out an oldie but goodie, my Bettie Page (now Tatyana) Cruiser dress which my husband got for me several years ago at the Bettie Page store in Las Vegas while we were there on vacation one year. I paired this with yellow peep toe flats which I got from Target also several years ago. For fun finishing touches I paired this with a straw banana purse I got from ebay earlier this summer (also worn here), a straw fruit fascinator I made last year (see the tutorial here), and a pair of blue flower earrings I got from Forever 21 several years ago. Just in case it should get cold I grabbed my Collectif Annette knitted cape which I got several years ago but it ended up staying in the car the whole time since it was such a nice warm day that day.

Bettie Page (Tatyana) Cruiser dress- Front View

Bettie Page (Tatyana) Cruiser dress- Side View

Bettie Page (Tatyana) Cruiser dress- Front View

Bettie Page (Tatyana) Cruiser dress- Side View

Straw banana purse- Close Up

Straw fruit fascinator and blue flower earrings- Close Up

On Sunday my friend and I went out to San Francisco to go to the Urban Air Market where some friends had a booth selling their hand crafted goods! I was so impressed by the tables my friend's sister, Alexandra Green makes! She does everything herself including the welding on her tables and chairs! Check out her absolutely gorgeous work here: Scrappy Metal Design.

Innovation and creativity must run strong in this family! I was equally impressed with the 100% natural skin care products my friend and Alexandra's sister, Adriana Green had on offer through her product line Esteli Body. I was addicted to her rose and hibiscus coconut water toner mist which had such a wonderful smell and was so refreshing on a hot day like Sunday. I left the market though with her clay and flowers face mask and rosehips adzuki and rice exfloiating grains excited to try them at home.

Two sisters, Scrappy Metal Design and Esteli Body, Urban Air Market, San Francisco (picture taken by my friend)

Outfit of the day (Sunday):

For this day's activities I decided to wear my Trashy Diva Lucy dress in red gingham. I love red gingham dresses and Trashy Diva does them so well! I got this dress earlier this summer (I had to have it after seeing the lovely Sammi from the Soubrette Brunette looking so spectacular in hers!). Because I knew there was going to be a lot walking this day I paired this dress with red Vans, a gift from my husband from earlier this year. Also, because we were going out to the city where it's usually cold, I also paired this with a red cardigan I got from Nordstrom Rack several years ago. For a finishing touch I wore this with a red strawberry purse which I got from ebay earlier this summer (another inspiration piece first seen on another lovely blogger's blog, CiCi Marie). A red gingham hair tie from Trashy Diva which I wore tied in my ponytail also helped finish off this up. To continue with the fruit theme I also wore red apple earrings which I got from Modcloth a couple years ago.