A little over a week ago I visited my lovely sister in law Annelise in Melbourne. We had been planning this trip for a while, and I was super excited to visit her and see the city, and honestly it did not disappoint. It was a pretty jam packed weekend, and I managed to squeeze in a lot. Admittedly I was pretty exhausted when i got back to Perth, but it was worth it for what a great trip it was. Beyond the fun activities and spending quality time with Annelise, I also really enjoyed a little bit of a break and some time to myself. This is actually only the second time I’ve been away from my kids, ever. Can you believe that? I ate a lot of room service, stayed up late, slept in, watched movies and never tired of the novelty of exiting an airplane clean and not covered in someones apple juice, biscuit crumbs and some suspicious looking stain LOL.
I’m really happy that I was able to visit Melbourne on the last weekend of the Dior exhibit. It was honesty an amazing experience, and I think i’m going to do a separate post about it, because I’d love to share some photos etc with you.
After the exhibit I was lucky enough to catch up with lovely friends Jane & Nicki and meet some new ones (i’m looking at you Libby, Helen and Belinda!). I also did a lot of fabric shopping at Tessuti and The Fabric Store, both of which were about as awesome as I had imagined. I really wish we had these stores in Perth!
I tried to walk everywhere for most of the weekend, and I found that to be a really great way to see the city. Melbourne really is beautiful and I can see why so many people love to live there!
I tried to pack really light (so I could devote most of my suitcase to fabric purchases hahaha), but I did make sure to pack my favourite blouse of the moment. I have wanted to make a crisp white Dove blouse since before we released the pattern LAST YEAR but as is always the case, other projects took priority and I never did. Isn’t that ridiculous? This stupidity happens to me so often it isn’t even funny. Is there a word for getting easily distracted by new shiny projects?!
Anyway, the fabric is a gorgeous white shirting from Potter Textiles in Perth. It is such beautiful quality and I love how it pairs with the Dove blouse. My only complaint is that it wrinkles so much. I am a bit of a nut about wrinkles, and it frustrates me that no matter how much I iron this blouse, it still looks wrinkled. But I’m trying to just embrace it and tell myself that it adds character to the blouse (or something to that effect).
I made Version 3, which is the blouse with the dramatic bell sleeves. These sleeves make me so happy! Look I will contrive many sleeve centric poses to show you! I will spill all the food on myself and my super white shirt! But as much as I joke, I’m just really happy to find that I like wearing this blouse as much as I thought I would, even if I do need to scrub it every time I wear it hahaha.
I’m going to gather together my photos and my thoughts to share with you about the Dior exhibit and maybe a bit more about what fabric I bought and what I have planned for it if anyone is interested?
I feel really refreshed and inspired after such a lovely weekend away, and am very grateful to my lovely sister in law for the invitation and my husband Chris for being super Dad with the kids whilst i was away (but seriously no matter what he says, my lullabies are better OK?).
The greatest challenge now will be prewashing all that fabric I bought… I shudder at the thought.
photography by Annelise Nielsen
