Fails vs Wins #7

Win - We hired a new staff member! Her name is Eloise and she has a super cute blog Jazzlips and Tulips. She wore cat socks and jelly shoes. She's great!

Win - We got so much new stock in the shop this week! Cute stationary galore!

Fail - The website hasn't had products added for a while now sorry guys! We're making some changes to it at the moment and it's taking a bit longer than planned. I promise it's going to be better and have more products on it than ever once we're done.

Win - New Girl started again which means Schmidt is back in my life!

Win - We got a new counter in the shop - it's lavender.

Honestly Why!?

I used to call myself a lover of all things vintage. I've recently had to change this to 'MOST' things vintage. These adds from the 1940s-1950s have really thrown a curve ball at my mid century love affair. What is happening in these images!?

I cant even comprehend why any advertising company would think that demonic looking, slimy, smug faced, creepily happy children shoveling food in their faces would sell products!? Also why are those kids so hideously stoked about what they're being served? Jam on bread and baked beans are definitely not meals to loose your shit over.

Okay okay, calm down you might be thinking. 'It's just how things were back in the day' you might say? Well do me a favour please. Take a good long look at the boy eating out of the baked beans can and imagine you wake up in the night and he's standing next to your bed looking at you just like that. Now imagine the gross spoon he's holding is a knife........





I might also add that on my quest for these little creeps I also came across the most sexist, racist and down right wrong adds from this time! What the hell were our Grandparents up to? Maby I should do a series?

Okay Rant Over :)

Back In The Day

It's kind of hard to believe it was nearly three years ago I opened The Yellow Brick Roads doors for business for the very first time. It's gone so quickly but looking at these photos of our first year makes it feel like so long ago too! I love looking back at these old pics. Things are so different now, but still so the same. xxx

A Few Photos

I just thought I would share a few snaps of the shop I took in between outfit changes at the stores latest website shoot. xxx

Reminiscing

About a year after I opened The Yellow Brick Road - back in Parnell, Greta from Vela Images took these gorgeous pics of the shop. It was so amazing to have such professional whimsical images of my little shop! It was like seeing it in fresh eyes. Greta is such an wonderful photographer! Check out her website and follow her on Facebook. xxx

Time to Learn!

Learning to sew has been on my to do list for a long time - so this year I registered in a beginners sewing and pattern making night class. I'm really enjoying it so far, although I think I'm more of "BEGINNER!" than your average beginner. I'm still trying to reign in the industrial machine that seems to only have one out of control speed, and I'm still trying to put together a very simple gathered skirt that just seems to have a mind of it's own. I know a new skill takes time and practice but I wish the process could speed up and I could be whipping up dress's for myself in a night. I've become obsessed with Vintage Patterns on ETSY. There's hundreds of them! Hopefully I can try tackle one soon!? I'm a little doubtful though. Should probably finish my gathered skirt first huh! Here's some of my favourite pattern finds so far:

Location Scout

A few months ago my cousin-in-law (if that's a thing?)/ Flatmate / BFF -hehe! made THIS for the shop. It's a short clip inspired by The Yellow Brick Road. I'm so incredibly lucky to have it! Harley is the creator of Waihi Media and he's a crazy freaky film genius. We wanted to find the perfect location so we set about exploring forests we could get to easily from Auckland. We weren't after a native NZ forest look so it was little harder to find. We wanted a whimsical bare pine forest feel. This was the first forest we visited out west Auckland. I took the main costume for the film to get a feel of how it would all look. We didn't end up shooting here but it was a great trip! Check out Harley's website and the Vid!

Adventure Time

Recently when we were on holiday in the south island of NZ we stumbled upon a gorgeous old court house in the small town of Hokitika. At one end there was a large room that was being rented out to a lovely old man called John - he was selling all kinds of second hand goodies that I was having a good old rummage through! As we got chatting about us both being Dutch I asked John about the building. I had already peeked through a few windows and noticed it looked abandoned. He gave me a little history on the building and then proceeded to hand over the keys so I could go 'explore'. I could have kissed him! I've always had a serious fetish for abandoned and derelict buildings so this was like Christmas! Here's some pics of what I found. (Sorry about the pics - I only had my phone on me) So it turns out the place isn't actually abandoned, it's own by a lady in Auckland and has been empty for years and it's for sale! (Dreams are free!) It was built in the late 18th century and used as the towns court house. It even had a cell room for prisoners. We had a good look at the walls in the cell and you could see scribbles and names drawn on the wall from prisoners some dated around 1922. Maby this is one of those 'you had to be there' moments but it was one of the highlights of our holiday for me. Meet a great old guy who reminded me so much of my Opa, explored a beautiful empty mansion and scored some sweet records from John! Just Brilliant really! Ruthie xxx