Lavender & Twill : June 2017

Today I am so happy to be showing you some amazing dresses from Sisjuly, a new retro and vintage inspired brand.

For the first dress, we were out at Royal Old Town on the East Coast of Koh Lanta. We had a lovely time exploring ~ I’ve been there a few times now, but every time I love it!

This particular day we got to take a closer look at at the Chinese Shrine that has been standing in the heart of Old Town for well over a hundred years. Koh Lanta’s Royal Old Town is such an interesting place ~ once a major port for boats running the China and Arabia to Malay routes, Old Town became a busy place of trade.

Many of the original structures and Chinese long houses can still be found in the area. When the trade increased, further settlers came too and this is the reason for why Koh Lanta has such an eclectic mix of cultures on such a relatively small island. With Chinese, Arabic, Muslim, Thai and Sea Gypsy influence, it is a melting pot of rich traditions.

The Western side of the island wasn’t developed until much later, and the middle of the island is mostly untamed jungle!

You can get a lovely taste of wild life down further south on the island, with monkeys and more! Which brings us to the next location ~ the lighthouse at Koh Lanta’s National Park.

Fairly old and crumbly, I honestly couldn’t tell if the lighthouse was working at all except that there still seemed to be some sort of generator outside with cables running into the top of the lighthouse.

And yep, that’s a giant hole in the concrete platform! Also, there was no real way to get up to the lighthouse without scrambling up a rather steep and rough cliff hill!

So imagine me in my white dress, climbing up that hill super carefully so I didn’t slip or get dirty… Haha! ( •̀ᄇ• ́)ﻭ✧

But I must say, the dress handled the hike very well, I was so happy to get up there without any incidents!

Between the two dresses, I can’t really decide which one I like best ~ the cherry print is super fun, but I’m also such a fan of the white and navy nautical print… And both styles are really nice, I love the 50’s feeling of the cherry dress and the 40’s impression from the second frock, so??

I have been really impressed with the quality of the Sisjuly pieces, as I hadn’t heard of the brand until they reached out to me last month. When I went to have a look at their shop I was so excited to see a huge range of retro and vintage inspired pieces!

The dresses come in all kinds of prints and styles, and I was keen to try them out and see how they looked.

The fit has been good for the pieces I ordered ~ I think that it is as it has been as described in the sizing charts, which is always important when purchasing online. It’s probably exact, so if you were to fall in between a size I would definitely suggest sizing up to allow for wearing ease, or if you like a looser fit.

The fabric also comes in a variety of finishes. Some of the dresses have very thick fabric, which is perfect for cooler months, and others have been lighter. As we are traveling through tropical countries at the moment, obviously I am a huge fan of the light weight fabrics! But even while the two dresses I am wearing in these pictures are on the thicker side, they still where quite comfortable to wear on cooler, cloudy days.

The quality of the make is great ~ I absolutely love the longer, vintage appropriate lengths of the skirts, and when they are designed as a full style, they come as a full style which is very important to me!

I get so excited when a new clothing brand comes onto the scene that has a wide range of vintage inspired pieces, and it’s great when they are super affordable!

I have found their customer service to be really friendly and helpful, as Sisjuly are passionate about their vintage and retro style, and their service reflects that. I was also very pleased to hear that they really care about how the dresses are made ~ from dedicated in-house designers to fair pay for all their workers.

If you want to find out more ~ Sisjuly have a Facebook page where you can follow along for more updates on their latest releases and vintage inspiration. In the mean time, I hope to share more from this brand in the future, so keep look out for further vintage inspired styles!

Also, can you help me decide which dress I like best? Haha, such a problem to have ~ I think it’s a good one… ♡ ~(○゜ε＾○)

xox,

bonita

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Outfit 1:

Vintage Polka Dot Scarf | Thrifted
50’s Cherry Dress | c/o of Sisjuly
Tan Virginia Leather Sandal | Miss L Fire

We made it.

It’s been a bit of a wild ride to get here, and it certainly has taken us a few weeks to settle in, but I am very happy to say that we have finally begun our epic new adventure as a nomadic family in Thailand!

Of course, I hardly know where to begin ~ there has been so much happening and so many stories to tell…

I’ll try to keep it concise as I’m sure this post will get too long as it is!

{P.S. ~ I am sorry if you follow me on Instagram and have seen a lot of these photos already. I tend to take most, if not all, of my pictures on my phone and then share them so others can see too! But because they are the only photos I’m taking really at the moment, a lot of them are really raw, and the ones that aren’t where already shared. But I am using them here too. :P }

- This was taken before we descended in luggage madness… There was no smiling trying to haul our ten bags and three little children forever away to the opposite side of the airport let me tell you!

- We tried a “Carry On Only” luggage experiment, but the determined very quickly {in about ten minutes flat!} that that would really only work for adults/kids that are big and old enough to take responsibility for their own bags. We shall be rejigging our luggage set up before we move again, that’s for sure!! And we will probably be going with two large suitcases to check in, and the rest is sort of up in air until we start repacking. We swapped the children’s backpacks out for Trunkis [small wheeled suitcases that the children can pull themselves or sit on and be pulled by an adult } at the airport { !! I finished repacking right as we got called to board!! (○ _ ○) } and found they worked much better. So we will keep the Trunkis, as they were very handy for carting around tired children through giant airports in the wee hours of the morning!

- Landing in Krabi, and wowwww…… The humidity sweeps over you like a stifling, wet hot blanket of sauna steam…. You instantly sweat out of every pore in your body, and in one minute, your clothing is sopping.

It’s one of those things you have to experience to really understand how it is ~ I mean, I had read about it, heard about it, and knew it was a thing, but I really didn’t get it until I stepped out of that air conditioned airport!

- By the roadside on Koh Lanta Island; these little Gas “Stations” are everywhere! Often in front of shops, restaurants and even in front of family homes! The locals use these to help boost their incomes.

- In a ‘taxi’ for our first adventure on Koh Lanta Island, Isabelle and Mama. A taxi in Koh Lanta is most often a ute {or pick up truck for my American friends} with seats along both sides of the tray and a short pipe frame covered with plastic for the roof, and clear plastic “windows” that can be pulled down if it is raining. It’s nicer to have the open sides for most of the time as there is no AC in the back and you need the cooler air to keep you from melting. And I must say, this is where being a tall Westerner, or “Farang” is a bit of a pain as there isn’t quite enough room to sit up straight and I get a bit of a backache at times! Or bump my head on the roof…

- Street views in Royal Old Town, on the East side of Koh Lanta. This was once a major shipping port of Thailand, established by the Chinese over a hundred years ago. There is a lot of different cultural influences on Koh Lanta thanks to all the trading!

- Different styles of Thai architecture: a beach-side Sala or small sitting hut, a woven palm leaf and bamboo huts, that are sometimes multiple stories, a simple hut that acts like a private sitting area for eating at one of our favourite restaurants.

- Always colourful – everything in Thailand is vivid, bright and so colourful! ❤

- The food is fresh and delicious, with lovely flavours – but be warned – they sure can pack a punch! That last dish on the end looks all innocent but I call it my “That time I accidentally ate a whole chilli and almost died” experience!

- So many things to see and explore ~ beaches, jungle, roads, huts, piers, and alleys, oh my! I have loved every minute of all the new discoveries…

- Spectacular sunsets that are different every time, but always breathtaking.

- Still playing around with vintage style, just working on the best ways to adapt it to extreme heat and humidity… In love with the light here, and the Birds of Paradise flowers, and even better, the awesome Thai patio furniture!

- Common sights around Thailand, homes made out of concrete, rows and rows of scooters, and shoes off before you enter a nice, clean, tiled establishment.

- Oh, but that sea is soooo beautiful! What a colour!

- First family ride in a Tuk-Tuk… Fun and definitely a little crazy too!

It’s a new chapter and the beginning of some really exciting stuff that I am looking forwards to {Working on my businesses!! And some fun stories! Haha!}, so I hope you will continue to join me as Lavender & Twill goes traveling throughout the tropics of South East Asia! (❛▿❛✿)

xox,

bonita

P.S. ~ If you don’t follow my Instagram, @lavenderandtwill, you might like to as I have a lot more of the day to day adventures we are having there, and more snaps that don’t make it into my feed on Instastories.

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Monday, June 12, 2017

༺ Vintage Girl Around the World ༻

Friday, June 9, 2017

༺ The Adventure Begins ༻