seventies flowers

 Dress - Self-made

Shoes - Vagabond

Socks - Topshop

Sunglasses - Citymarket

Rucksack - Amazon

The Botanical Garden of the University of Coimbra is one of my favourite places in the city - and probably one of the places I've visited the most. These pictures are from two separate times and I went there yet again today and have even more photos I want to share now. It's been lovely seeing the progress of everything coming into bloom, seeing spring and summer arrive. Going at least once a month seems like a must just to see what's different every time. I just really love gardens. There's also been lots of plants I've either not seen before or don't know what they are, so my visits are clearly almost educational (if only I remembered all of the Latin names once I get back home).

A botanical garden seemed like the perfect place to take photos of this floral dress. I made it almost a year ago and never got around to either taking photos of or even wearing it that much. I used a 70s pattern (that I bought years ago in a charity shop!) and the fabric's from around the 70s as well. It's so comfortable, roomy, pretty and - most importantly - has pockets! I like wearing it without the belt too, but have been told it looks like a maternity dress when I do so (rude). As Portugal's gotten quite warm already, I feel too warm in this dress to wear it most days and am therefore kind of looking forward to the end of summer and cooler days. Only a little, though, and only because I want to wear this more often. Another new thing (relatively, since I bought these last summer and never featured them on the blog before) is the shoes. They're favourites too - I always love Vagabond shoes. I wish I had photos of them when they were brand new and without a scratch, but they do still look good. I feel like I don't wear any of my vintage or retro dresses as much as I used to these days, but I should definitely return to them!