Up Up & Away

 

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Dress: Kitten D'Amour cotton (altered by me)

Petticoat: Banned Apparel via That Shop polyblend/nylon

Heels: Kitten D'Amour vegan leather

Bag: Sportsgirl woven straw

Bracelet: Vintage, Ipswich Antique Centre handmade glass beads

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When I was little, my favourite show was a British children's programme called The Sooty Show & was about a mischievous little puppet bear, his puppet friends Sweep (a dog) & Sue (a panda) & how they drove their owner & puppeteer Matthew Corbett absolutely bonkers with their crazy antics... kind of like a purer, sweeter, live-action version of Alvin & the Chipmunks years & years before that actually happened... The reason that I bring this up is because the episode that I loved the most was the one called "Hot Air Balloon" (feel free to look it up if you need a laugh; it's honestly still hilarious to me as an adult) where Sweep packs his little, vintage overnight bags & gets in this tiny, toy-sized woven hot air balloon & takes off in the breeze, quickly getting out of control but continuing to hum that song "Up Up & Away in My Beautiful Balloon" as Matthew & Sooty desperately follow him in their van, rescuing him when he eventually crash lands in a pond...

This gorgeous, vintage hot air balloon printed cotton fit-to-flare dress with green lace-trimmed neckline (added by me) from vintage-inspired label Kitten D'Amour brings back all of those happy memories & even has me humming the song under my breath as I'm twirling around in the flared skirt, particularly when I've styled it up with a lipstick-red polyblend/nylon full-length petticoat from Banned Apparel via That Shop beneath for shape, a pair of mint green vegan leather deco heels (also Kitten D'Amour) for added height, a natural woven straw bucket bag from my local Sportsgirl to carry all the essentials & finally, a handmade, "evil eye" glass beaded bracelet from Ipswich Antique Centre on my wrist to complete look.

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