Vintage Inspired Dress

Just recently I purchased an Alannah Hill (Australian Designer) dress for work event. Seeing as I work in the antique industry I thought I might buy a dress that's either black or vintage inspired. As I hoped for, I'd came across this gorgeous vintage inspired dress by Alannah Hill.

The lovely dress itself displayed on a mannequin

The body of the dress itself is made from a lovely creme coloured silk with two layers on skirt section and a nice slit down the middle on the top front layer and has rows of pinch pleats around hem. The dress is contrasted with elegant black lace tiered on the shoulders and nicely accessorised with a black silk belted sash built into dress with bow at front. I just love how they incorporated black vintage glass buttons (replicas?) down the back.

Close up of the elegant black lace

"I love the dress to bits"

Close up of the lace and buttons

"Similar glass buttons can be purchased at The Drill Hall Emporium" 

Just couple weeks before this event, I purchased a nice pair of heels that funnily enough had a creme body, had some black in certain areas and had a bow on it to. Sounds familiar?

So I thought it would had to match the dress. But few days before the event, I managed to have a few issues trying to match shoes with it seeing as it's a hard colour to match. In the end I went with the original choice with help from a few friends. So I matched the dress up with those shoes and seeing as it's freezing down in Tasmania, I've made a choice of wearing stockings with it. That night I wore my hair up in a low side bun so the detailing on the dress was noticeable. With make up I thought I would give myself a smokey eye look and topped it off with neutral nude lips.

Vintage Inspired Alannah Hill dress with colour co-ordinated shoes

"Image taken in front of an amazing Copper collection"

Please visit Alannah Hill and her wonderful range.

An experience of what I j'adore ♥

Not too long ago, I was fortunate enough to experience the lovely Gâteaux and Torte class at the famous The Agrarian Kitchen out in Lachlan. For me it was an exciting new experience as I got to learn from Gordon Ramsay's ex pastry chef and owner of  Hobart's fine patisserie Sweet Envy, Alistair Wise. Alongside working with Alistair, I was also luckily enough to work with owners Séverine and Rodney Dunn - former food editor of Australian Gourmet Traveller magazine.

Image - Courtesy of Luke Burgess and Amanda McLauchlan

"Photo of the kitchen at The Agrarian Kitchen"

At this experience I've learnt many things and really enjoyed it as I have a passion for cooking especially sweets. At the course we got separated into pairs and was given a choice of what to cook. In my pair, we picked to make the Gateaux Opera. In the course I'd completed apart from the Gateaux Opera, it included other gateaux and torte such as the Framboise, the Chunky Monkey, Sacher Torte and the Lexington.

And for my best friend's birthday I was in charge of making her birthday cake, as she knew I'd completed the course. As she's a huge raspberry fan, I'd decided to make her the Framboise. So here's a lil sneak peak of what it looked like...

My version of the Framboise - unfortunately it's winter time down here, I couldn't get hold of some fresh raspberries. So it bled a bit.

After talking to Alistair Wise for a bit and getting to know him more, the reason why he has his shop painted all white it's because he wants the treats in shop to stand out with their vibrant colours. The two things that really stood out to me when I entered the shop apart from their display of wedding cakes, were the macaroons/ macarons and their cupcakes.

Image - Courtesy of little glowing lights @flickr

"So many things to pick from and they all look so yummy"

Another the thing that stood out to me was how this little shop can give someone a vintage feel to it. As you walk into the shop on the walls they have a display of painted retro radios. For some it gives them a 60's feel. Not only that but for me, an inspiration of colour co-ordinations comes from macarons. So basically macarons are coming back in fashion for me.

Image - Courtesy of Sweet Envy

"The lovely painted retro radios"

In the front window of Sweet Envy, they have lovely painted white ladders and the one in the middle reminds me of a similar English Folding Library Ladder that's available at The Drill Hall Emporium but the differences is that the one at The Drill Hall is bigger and not painted.

Image - Courtesy of Sweet Envy

"Shop front - The ladder in the middle"

Image - Courtesy of The Drill Hall Emporium

"English Folding Library Ladder - similar to the middle painted ladder at Sweet Envy's shop front"

So no matter what I love whether it's sweets or antiques, I can always manage to relate them together.

Tasmanian Antique Fair

Just recently I've gotten back from being up in Launceston with The Drill Hall Emporium and Richmond Antiques helping out with their stall at the Tasmanian Antique Fair. The fair was exhibited at the lovely Albert Hall.

Photo: Tammy @The Drill Hall Emporium

It has been an exhausting few days for us all but it has brought us a whole new experience. Personally for me, I've had a great time as I've learnt some new knowledge and met new people such as dealers in this industry. Although these few days has been tiring but it was all worth it with a lovely stand in conclusion.

Photo: Tammy @The Drill Hall Emporium

"A view of The Drill Hall Emporium's stall"

For the opening night, I thought I would go with a nice simple classic look to go with with the antique atmosphere that we were surrounded by. So I went for modern look with a vintage touch (and air hostess - that was accidental) look. That night I wore a black dress that has a military feel to it and matched it with a pair of black heels. Seeing as it was a cold night I wore this nice woolen jacket I'd bought just recently that had faux fur around the neck which I personally thought gave it a classy feel to it. But fortunately to boost the look up, I wore this vintage feather hat (courtesy of The Drill Hall Emporium)which really suited this event.

Unfortunately on the night not many photos were taken especially not of what I was wearing. But there were photos that was taken by The Examiner (local Launceston newspaper).

Here is a photo that was taken on the night