Friday, July 13, 2012

Arts and Crafts

I don't think my City friends give much thought to what I get up to in the West, but I'm having a blast as of late! Last week was the annual Cairde festival in Sligo. It's an annual week long arts festival that "celebrates diversity". It is comprised of cultural events for families, and grown ups, there were art exhibitions, plays performed in the woods, a cabaret show, too many gigs to mention, a vintage fair and the frolics concluded with a party in the park on Sunday just gone.


Barra Cassidy's exhibition was held in the Yeats Society building

My desk can't be seen for the amount of event guides covering it at the moment. I have to be selective or I'd be burnt out. I managed to go to "Burlesque Fantastique"; a cabaret show hosted by Lady Veda, an art exhibition (see above) and The Frivolous Fare, where I left my heart behind with a set of mint 1970s Babycham glasses. Retro Rummage, based in Dublin, is a specialist in vintage & retro home wares. If I ever have an apartment, (or a job!) of my own (a pipe dream these days) I will certainly be looking this guy up. My Dad, who accompanied me, looked over the retro goods, unmoved by my cooing and exclamations of joy. He'd seen it all before, having been a student in the 1960s and lived in Dublin during the 1970s, this was the stuff of his student flat days.

I wanted to wear my new wedges that I'd acquired a couple of weeks previously. I wore them with my favourite casual vintage dress. I was drawn to this as it reminded me of the Arts and Crafts style of dress, it fits like a pinafore, it buttons up at the back and ties at the waist, and it incorporates all my favourite autumnal colours. The trench has been well loved, but I've yet to find a summer jacket that will replace it yet - its the perfect colour, style and length. The search is ongoing.





1970s cotton empire waist dress (label David Silverman) / trench: h&m (circa 2009) / shoes: fly london / bag: ollie & nic (circa 2010)

7 comments:

  1. oooh i love all the colours in this so much!

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  2. You look fab, Zoe! Are you heading to the Galway Arts Festival next weekend? I'd love to go but unfortunately do not have the finances. A friend of mine from QUB is heading down though, apparently there are a lot of excellent and "out there" performance art exhibitions going on. Might be worth a look!

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    1. Thanks Maeve! I'm not, I'm busy all week. I'm going to EVA (the international contemporary arts fair) in Limerick on Thursday so looking forward to that. Money's tight here too :(

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  3. You have SUCH perfect Pre-Raphaelite hair. I am so glad you are having fun! xx

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    1. Aww thank you! Sometimes I'm tempted to hack it all off, but I'd need a bad break up as an excuse to be that radical, its been long for pretty much most of my life!

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  4. Oh I love that outfit, the colours are perfect! Can't wait for Autumn to start wearing all those tones every day. Where'd you get your shoes? They're fab :@ Mad to think there's so much happening in Sligo, I never realised it was a little arts hub, must get up for a visit sometime :)

    LittleRubyRobin

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    1. Thank you! They're the Fly London brand and I just got them in a local shoe shop - support local business and all that lark! Now that I've moved home in lieu of unemployment I've had to open my eyes to all that's going on around me, there's a different festival here every week! You should! I'm hoping to get down to Cork in the autumn!

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