The Purple Way of Delight

Some places get lilac and wisteria, but in these parts we get big glorious jacaranda trees. If you’re not familiar with these trees, I suppose they must look quite strange – a huge tree covered in little blue bells! Underneath them you will find a purple carpet, and when they’re all in bloom the city looks magical, especially if you’re lucky enough to see them from somewhere high up. While jacarandas do indeed grow near my house, these photos were taken during a trip to Grafton. Every year Grafton holds a Jacaranda Festival to celebrate the stunning trees that grow throughout much of the city where entire avenues turn purple for a good part of the month. I decided I wanted to see this spectacle for myself, and I was especially lured by the prospect of the purple themed food served at the festival in honour of its namesake. Out of all the different purple things I ate, my favourite was the jacaranda ice cream – which tasted like a mix of boysenberry and blueberry. Hmm, I suppose it makes sense!

As beautiful as the flowers are, they don’t actually have a scent, or maybe if they do I’ve never noticed. The weekend we drove to Grafton was extremely hot. I packed my new Heyday dress because it’s made of a nice soft cotton and since we were visiting a small country town I didn’t want to be too extra. Well, that plan was foiled by the fact that I decided to wear a big hat. I am a big fan of dresses that have that 30s feedsack look to them, and you probably already know that I already own this dress in another print! I know that’s not particularly exciting, but with a lot of Heyday’s dresses I like the cut so much that I end up getting the same dress in a few different prints. That’s just the type of person I am I guess! The type of person that asks a dress maker to make a dress I already own in the same print but in different colours. Remember the green gingham Pinafleur dress I’ve worn to death on the blog? Don’t worry I don’t plan on blogging it again…for a while…but it is currently being made in a few different shades of gingham…

As I already mentioned, it was a really hot weekend. And when we were taking these photos all I could think about was the state of my makeup. I’m so grateful that ‘highlighter’ seems to be really on trend at the moment. I was having this discussion with a friend the other day, and I asked her what on earth it is that is so appealing about having a dewy face…It’s something I can’t seem to escape at all because of our climate, my number one priority is blotting and keeping my makeup looking matte! But I do appreciate that it’s a look that’s apparently very in, so I’m going to just go with it this summer and pretend that I’m totally just wearing a lot of highlighter…

Since we were only visiting for the weekend, I packed very light and took my new carry case. Ever since I got into vintage fashion I’ve searched for a case like this, and every time I found a true vintage one it had horrible mildew inside or a completely rusted latch. I gave up the hope of finding one long ago, until I came across this repro one! It’s just the right size to fit enough things for a night away, and I plan on using it as carry on in the future since it passes for a handbag but is actually more like an extra suitcase…

Wearing:

Heyday Fleur dress

vintage reproduction hat

Zola heels

Lola Ramona Bettie Page bag

Erstwilder Boronia brooch