Suspension bridge fun and my very favourite 1950s sundress in Castlegar, BC

Outfit details

C. 1930s/40s burgundy felt hat with netting: Garb-Oh Vintage
Gold tone metal round shaped stud earrings: Claire's
1950s forest foliage and berry print sundress: Garb-Oh Vintage
Green faux leather skinny belt: eBay
Coral hued cardigan: Joe Fresh
Vintage style gold tone metal and clear rhinestone flower brooch: eBay
Oxblood hued vintage style faux leather cross body bag: eBay
"Love" gold tone metal and clear rhinestone charm bracelet: Payless
C. 1950s burgundy gloves with buttons at the wrists: An Etsy shop that is no longer in business
Nude seamed nude stockings: eBay
Brown 1940s style round toe faux leather heels: Walmart
Lip colour: MAC Partyline

Photography by Tony Cangiano  

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If some of these photos look as though they were shot from a bit of a distance, that's because they were. :)
 
As discussed in this recent Heyday Twizzle Dress outfit post, Tony and I have found ourselves taking snaps on bridges a fair bit lately - the most exciting of which was this lovely suspension bridge located in the beautiful little town of Castlegar, BC.

Castlegar was one of the many places that we were able to spend some time in while on our brief, wonderfully fun weekend getaway to the Kootenays in mid-April and while there, we discovered Zuckerberg Island Park (no relation to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg; instead it's named after a famous Russian humanitarian and pacifist, Alexander Zuckerberg, who immigrated to Canada and went on to teach school to some of the local Doukhobor children there) which included this seriously cool bridge.

We'd never shot on a suspension one before, so when this location presented itself, the camera was promptly called into action!

Given the rather wobbly nature of even the sturdiest suspension bridges, as Tony was handholding his DSLR for this shoot, he had to stand a fair ways back (on solid ground) to get these shots, but I think that they still came out really nicely and I just love having a series of snaps taken on such a unique location overlooking the beautiful confluence of both the Kootenay and the Columbia Rivers.

It was a medium warm day that partially sunny Saturday afternoon, so I couldn't resist the urge to sport my absolute favourite 1950s sundress - and yes, that is saying a lot, as I usually have a very hard time singling out faves in any category of my clothing.

It's easy as pie with this beautiful dress though (that, coincidentally, just like the great burgundy hat that I'm sporting here, came from Garb-Oh Vintage on Etsy), which I purchased in early 2015.

I'd been hunting for a dress with raspberries - my absolute all-time favourite fruit - for longer than I can recall and continually came up empty-handed, at least in terms of ones that would fit both my measurements and wallet.

In general, raspberries are a rather under represented fruit in the fashion world (past or present) and hitting upon a novelty print garment that includes them is almost like striking gold (at least for me it is! :)).

Now, objectively, I can't say with complete certainty that the berries in this print are raspberries, but they very much look the part and I'm more than willing to call them such. They're woodland berries of some sort at the very least and are partnered with other forest foliage here, such as springs of evergreen branches and various green leaves, to up their straight-from-nature factor all the more.

This vintage dress is sleeveless and includes a very pretty ruched neckline with a fun little tie detail in the center of it. It's a light, but sturdy, cotton that suits the warmer months sublimely and when you factor in the colour palette - that stars so many of my most beloved hues - it's easy to see why this dress gets top billing in my books.

There are hints of salmony orange-pink in its palette, so for an added burst of colour, I teamed this fifties frock with a coral cardigan. I pulled from the colours in the print for my hat, glove, bag and shoe choices as well, and then opted for relatively understated gold tone metal jewelry, to keep the emphasis on the garments themselves.

This hat is another truly beloved favourite of mine, which is now making it's fourth, I believe, appearance here in under a year - and I'm sure you'll continue to see it many more times as the months and years roll on. I adore, and wear a lot of, burgundy, so this wonderful c. 1930s/1940s felt hat couldn't be a more ideal fit for my wardrobe.

It's hard to believe that a month and half have already whizzed past since the lovely spring day on which these photos were captured (on what definitely stands as one of the most exciting spots we've ever shoot in before). Summer weather is barreling down on us now and as such this dress will no doubt continue to see much outfit action as the hottest days of the season envelope us.

This is the second and last of the two shoots that we took in the Kootenays, though we did grab some snaps later in the day once we'd returned to Penticton of what I wore on the drive home and those will be appearing here in the near future.

We adored our brief getaway to this rugged, mountain and river bedecked corner of the province, and as touched on in my first post about visiting the Kootenays, definitely hope to get back there together many more times throughout our life.

At the moment though, we're home in the Okanagan and continuing to contemplate where our proposed summertime road trip may lead us to.

No plans are set in stone quite yet, but we're getting closer and I can hardly wait to see where we, and our trusty camera, will land next in this gorgeous province of ours!

Highlights from our first getaway of the year + my unending passion for muted coloured vintage fashions

Outfit details

C. 1930s/1940s black felt and cream faux pearl hat: Unknown, had for many years
C. 1930s plastic plastic tipped short hatpin: Unknown, had for many years
Black plastic hair barrette: Goody
1950s style gold leaf and black plastic dangle earrings: Claire's
Red thin knit cropped shrug: Fairweather
Vintage black plastic and gold tone metal flower brooch: Probably eBay (had for years)
1950s/1960s floral print shirtwaist dress: Linda Down Black faux leather skinny belt: eBay
C. 1940s mustard yellow ruched gloves: eBay
Black plastic flower stretch bracelet: Thrifted (Value Village)
Caramel brown hued faux leather vintage style cross body bag: eBay
Black seamed nude stockings: eBay
Black faux leather pumps: Payless
Lip colour: MAC Russian Red  

Photos of me by Tony Cangiano, all others taken by me and shared here from my Instagram  


































{Photo bombing by random adorable dogs is always welcome! :)}

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Last month, smack, dab in the middle of April, Tony and I decided that the time had come for our first road trip of 2016. The decision to zip out of town was made very much on the fly, as some flare-ups that I'd been battling for six weeks solid prior to then started to finally calm down and I was in a position to be able to leave the house again. We knew that we'd have four days to work with and thus weren't exactly going to be aiming for the furthest corners of our vast nation.

We wanted someplace that was fresh and exciting, could be reached in just a few hours time, and that offered elements we'd both really enjoy. Brain storming began and after weeding out some other possible candidates, we hit upon the Kootenay region of British Columbia.

Located a in the Southeast corner of the province, the Kootenays are especially well known for their long standing mining industry, abundance of evergreen trees, beautiful snow capped mountains (and, fittingly, ski hills), relaxing hot springs, intricate Doukhobor history, laid back lifestyle, and stunning natural landscapes (peppered with rivers and lakes aplenty) in every direction.

Of course, these are but the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what this good sized portion of the province has to offer and many people will find that one short trip alone doesn't even begin to afford them enough time to see and do and all that they may wish to (which is, naturally, a perfect excuse to return).

Despite having strong paternal family ties (albeit much more so historically speaking then nowadays), I hadn't been back to the Kootenays in about twenty years and Tony and had never visited before, so while I did have memories of past trips there, in many ways it was like we were both seeing this verdant part of BC for the very first time.

We left home on Thursday the 14th, after Tony's workday had wrapped up and proceeded to drive through about 4.5 hours of rain, snow and/or fog to reach our first destination (and home base for the duration of this lovely little getaway): the beautiful town of Nelson, BC.




Though we navigated through rough weather to get there, thankfully the sun appeared the very next morning and stayed out for much of our time in the Kootenays. For our home away from home, we selected this immensely cute Alpine Inn and Suites, pictured above, which we were thoroughly pleased with and would definitely return to again.

Nelson is located on the west arm of Kootenay Lake and is the the biggest town in the heart of the Central Kootenay area (the largest town in the Kootenays as a whole is Cranbrook, which we didn't visit, as it's nearly another two hours further from Penticton than Nelson is).

Anyone with a passion for the past is bound to fall in love with Nelson instantly, as it chock-a-block full of beautiful heritage buildings and homes alike. In fact, I don't believe I've been anywhere else in BC to date with a richer concentration of such (I'd say that Victoria would have the second most, IMO).




We had two full days (Friday and Saturday) to spend in the Kootenays and, boy, did we make every moment count!

During the course of that time, we explored not only Nelson itself (including the beautiful historic train station turned tourism center pictured here), but many of the surrounding areas, including Castlegar (where we found a great health food store called Mother Natures that had a really impressive selection of gluten-free offerings, especially for a town with a population of just under 8,000 residents), Salmo, Ainsworth, and Trail, amongst others.

Two photo shoots were able to transpire while we were in this gorgeous part of the province, one of which you're seeing the snaps of here today (these photos were taken on the grounds of our motel) – the other shall follow in the very near future.

This outfit typifies the sort I often wear while traveling (and, really, in my usual day-to-day life as well) and stars a beautiful floral print c. 1950s shirtwaist dress that was partnered with plenty of fun accessories, a cute cropped shrug, sensible shoes, and a lightweight purse (a must for long hours of walking and sightseeing).

I've always been drawn to printed vintage garments in muted hues. Be they florals, stripes, plaids, polka dots, novelty prints, stripes, abstracts or anything else, I genuinely love them to bits and have been working to grow my collection of such over the past couple of years in particular.

This fun mid-century dress joined the team in early 2015 and is making its blog debut here today. It's immensely comfortable and a joy to style, thanks to the numerous colours that one can pull from in the subdued hued (say that five times fast! :)) pattern.

Not only do muted coloured vintage garments often work really well for fall and spring (though then can, naturally, be sported the whole year round), I find that they're often quite flattering to my skin, hair and eye tones – which is all the more reason for me to try and stockpile them! :)




During our brief, thoroughly wonderful, time in the Kootenays, Tony and I visited all of the places listed above, spent a good chunk of time leisurely strolling up and down Nelson's main street, called Baker street, savoured the incredibly crisp, clean mountain air, and watched the sun set over the lake from a cozy bench at Rotary Lakeside Park.

Though we were both floored by how much we were able to see, experience and enjoy while in the Kootenays, there was plenty we didn't get to and as we're both head-over-heels in love with this majestic area of BC, we agreed that many a future trip there will definitely be aimed for!

This was our first road trip with our new car (a Buick Enclave), which we purchased last December, and we were beyond thrilled with how it performed - as well as that we finally had ample space for everything that we needed to bring with us (something that our previous vehicle, a sedan with a matchbox sized truck, sorely lacked!).

We're hoping to take at least one similar road trip this coming summer, though will most likely be headed to a different (as of yet to be determined) destination. Naturally, you can bank on at least a blog post or two (and plenty of Instagram snaps!) from such when we do hit the open road again.

Even though we don't know when or where that will be, I'm already giddy with excitement and can't wait to share more of our stunning, history filled province with all of you.