Resurrection Mark Ten Zillion

It's once again been a while since I touched this blog, and every time I get pulled back to it I wonder why I left it, whether I'll really be able to get going again, whether I really want to... But this blog has kept me going through some rough patches, and I just can't seem to let go of it.

So today, I'm turning over a new leaf. As I said, it's been a while, and quite a bit has changed. I'm no longer a student, no longer struggling to get through a depressive fog day to day, and I'm happily settled in a relationship, house, job etc.

My wardrobe has, I must admit, changed focus...

My weekend clothes are mostly the old favourites: a couple of Etsy and charity shop dress finds, an old pair of far too big jeans, some moth-bitten jumpers. All things I find comfort in. Because now weekends are about running around, doing errands, and spending time relaxing. Mainly as I'm still living in Cambridge, but a little further out than I used to be. Thus, I wander around the house with a book, while one of the boys builds something in the back garden, and the other programmes some "useful" thing on their laptop. Ah life.

My sartorial comfort zone now lies in my work wear. Having never before been chic and pared down, I have moved a little more into my mother's style of dressing. Simple jumpers with smart trousers, plus a few silky, smart dresses which share a teensy whisper of my previous life with my new one...

I have been converted to a well cut pair of trousers, and have three pairs from Jaeger on endless cycle. I definitely need more. Jaeger trousers always fit me, and are always the right length... Yum.

And I have become obsessed by knitwear. Particularly, John Smedley Geranium scoop neck sweaters and N Peal cashmere V necks which I have been scooping up at Cocosa's rather excellent sale prices. (John Smedley stuff is currently on sale on Brand Alley, but I hate their delivery policies - it takes far, far too long, so I'm passing on the "vibrant pink" jumper... Sob!)

Oh, and then there's my irrational, crazy, head-over-heels crush in the rather lovely oversized Stine Goya oversized grey jumper that I know, unfortunately, that I'll never own, no matter how long I yearn... Sad times. Seriously though... HOW HOT IS THIS ENSEMBLE?!?!?!

And then, there is my winter coat... It is my belief that an awesome winter coat is the foundation of a good day at work. Walking along in the morning, striding out against the biting wind, my coat protects me, it shelters me, and, catching a glimpse of myself in the window of the shops I pass, it surrounds me in a slightly princessy, slightly businesslike, slightly mysterious cocoon of mink softness... Paul Costelloe is the make, bought a few years ago in a sale in Peter Jones, the King's Road branch of John Lewis. And I adore it. It's got cute details like the double rows of stitching and the bracelet cuffs. The lining is secure and silky, and it still looks beautiful despite a few winters' hard wear.

Last year, I flirted with a gorgeous furry thing, that still makes my heart beat just a little bit faster when I wear it out, but it's always this one I come back to for warmth and great lines when it's really getting chilly. So now, I'm thinking about the next one. Paul Costelloe has made a couple of my mother's winter coats, so I now they last and keep their fit as she's had both of hers for years. So now I'm coveting one of their long riding coats like this one... (Though I have to say, on both John Lewis and House of Fraser's websites, they look really scruffy and crumpled! Ick.)

I guess I'll have to wait for the sales again though... Sigh.

Suuuuuuuuunshine on a rainy day!!!

So last weekend was a London one, as I mentioned in my last post. (Gosh, almost a week ago. Oops!)

Of course, I had to see T-B and his lovely missus. They had just got back from Mexico, and apparently had a craving for burgers. So we headed from Sarf Laahndan to Soho for lunch! (I would like to point out that, due to gluten / dairy / potato issues I had a squash and goats cheese salad... Nomnomnom. They had biiiiiiig burgers though...) And of course, we did photoshoot-ness. YAY!!!

- Moi in the burger joint...

- Sheltering from the London-rain under a rather dysfunctional umbrella...

- Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiindy!!!

- Giggle. Standard.

- Ooooh, and look at this lovely necklace that Becks has... It's from Mixco on Etsy. IWANTONE!!! :

And how awesome are the elephants appearing around London at the moment?! Street art for a charitable cause? WIN! I love this one in Covent Garden...

It was a lovely day, despite the rain... Home is such a sanctuary for me. London makes my heart beat faster and calms me down all at once. Yay for graduating and moving back! (Well, ish... More to come on that conundrum.)

Anyhooooo... In this photoshoot, I was wearing a vintage floral dress from Etsy (putonthatdress), vintage yellow slouchy cardigan also from Etsy (joyelizabethG), a vintage white leather bag (from Topshop's Peekaboo vintage concession), Jonathon Aston white lace tights, black Converse and a fabric and button brooch I made myself... Oh, and the watch is a Lego Star Wars one with Luke Skywalker and Han Solo lego men on (- now sold out but they have some cool new ones in... I quite like the C 3PO one). Hehe! Funsies.

Hmmmmm. Quite sleepy now, and I haven't finished my dinner yet, so I should probably get to that before boy grumps because I haven't eaten all the yummy food he made me... Night all!

Xxxc

Exams over... At last

Well, the last exams I'm going to take in this place are over... Management Studies has the awesome feature of seriously early exams that means that we lost our Easter vac, but can enjoy all of what the approaching summer has to offer! I do have a project to do, but it's nowhere near as stressful and much more structured than the impending doom of exams encroaching upon one's happiness and health!

So... I am going to try and return to the blogosphere. Slowly, softly, perhaps, but freedom awaits in a few months with graduation, and as I'm still unsure what the future holds, I might manage to reinject some life into this little side project of mine. I do miss it when I drop off the face of the earth for months at a time, and since I will be rejoining T-B in London-town in July, we might even get the occassional photoshoot done!

Anyway, what brings me to the computer today? It's another installment of the fab Aussie Angel initiative. I am, as ever, slow on the uptake. Claire posted about it a while back, and I'm proud to have my little "Luscious Long Tribe" pack which arrived at college today.

The wonderful people at Aussie have sent me a Welcome Pack for "surviving until your Tribe party" - in July, and when I'm supposed to be in France, but that may not happen, so I'm keeping an open mind!

They have been so generous and sent some of their lovely, yummy Luscious Long shampoo and conditioner, a mini brush, a compact mirror, some badges to display my allegiance and some chocolate... I have to admit that the chocolate will be going to The Boy, as my body hates me and does not allow the consumption of dairy. The Boy will likely be very pleased...

Awesome huh!

In other news, I went shopping for the first time in yonks today. After almost giving into a tapestry bag covered in cats in Ark Vintage in Cambridge city centre, and trying to decide whether I should buy oversized stripy shorts from Joules (- my new shop crush... All those pretty candy colours! All that outdoorsy blowsiness! YUM!), I wandered into Karen Millen. Now, I don't have much occassion to wear what they do best - gorgeous luxe night-out wear - but I have to admit, they have upped the ante from what I remember from the last time I seriously browsed in there, as a teenager... Searching for hot house party outfits, out for the afternoon with my mum, shopping on the King's Road. I seem to remember coming out of there with an outfit involving an orange crochet shell encrusted halter top... Strange memories. Sigh. Nostalgia.

Anyway. Browsing in there today was rather fun. And I have to admit to falling for a dress... A £165 dress. GULP! As a girl who shops either vintage or designer sample sales, I get a bit cranky shelling out almost two hundred quid for glorified high street. But that's the snob in me. (Please don't hate me! I just have an issue with our hardcore, wear-it-once, who gives a shit about quality, consumer culture...) But here I must admit I can see where the money is going. Ish.

The embroidery is awesome and it has the most darling bow at the back... Sigh. If only I had the money, or the event to wear it to!

Right. That's all for now folks... Xxxc

All Dressed Up With Nowhere To Go?

So today, I have managed a two hour bar shift at the theatre, and an epic queue in Borders, and not much else... Post-term lethargic FUG-time. Joys.

But to cheer me up was a dress I'd been sent by the lovely people at Covert Candy, a great site dedicated to both vintage shopping and swapping! It revolves around a "credit-based system" where if someone wants an item of clothing you no longer need, you can send it to them in return for credits you can then spend on someone else's lovely stuff! They also have a section of the site dedicated to a small, but well selected Vintage Emporium run by the site owners, and there, sitting in the Clearance section, was this adorable dress. It has such a cute print and perfect colours... It's definitely about to enter my day dress collection!

Ok, so it's not remotely wintery, but WHO CARES?!

My room is lacking in any accoutrements with which to dress up this little number, as I'm halfway through moving out, and have no high heels due to a bottom-of-the-foot injury a few weeks ago. Thus the outfit photos with bare feet or Converse!

This was my attempt to play with the length... Thoughts?

So, I should really be packing... Instead I was just distracted by boy, then started watching Angel, then started organising holiday theatre... Might leave Cam by 1am. Maybe. Oops!

Night guys! London tomorrow! Woop!

Xxxc

Look-see-smile...

As some of you may have noted, I do love a sample sale, and browsing Fashion Confidential for them has always been a favourite part of my London-based weeks. Remember the Eley Kishimoto shoes???

When I’m in Cambridge, I tend to avoid it and all mentions of shiny shiny designer clothes I can't afford, for fear my heart may be broken by the news of a Kane or Kirkwood extravaganza happening just near enough to be possible yet just far away to be prohibited by the next impending deadline.

So of course I was delighted when they got in touch with me to see if I liked their new magazine-like format and revamped other-than-sample-sales content, which I'd never really paid much attention to before... So after I had finished my last supervision essay yesterday afternoon, and after today’s actual supervision (during which I had a very satisfactory argument about Foucault – woo panopticon!!! ;-D) I have spent a good hour or so compiling a couple of fantasy wish-lists and reading their articles (like this quick interview with a very chic Parisienne). Oh gawd, something else to keep an eye on. Not sure how I’m going to cope!

Also, normally, I also ignore any shopping emails that arrive in my inbox. Net-a-porter, Browns, Cocosa... GO AWAY I HAVE NO MONEY!!! (Possibly my own fault due to impending theatrical extravaganza and a trip to Stockholm in January...) Yet I have to admit to having loved the cute, purple-themed "stocking fillers" feature that popped up this afternoon. It's not really the products themselves - though I quite fancy a copy of the Camilla Morton book and that Aubin and Wills purple top... It's the adorable way it's all been put together. I'm really one for a slick piece of graphic design, and FC have, of late, been producing some rather good layout-porn!

Fashion Confidential has always, for me, been part of the pleasure of physical shopping, as it has pointed me towards some of my best sample-sale scrummages. Yet now it tempts me with yet another avenue of internet shopping: the best of the sales online. Arrrrrrrrrgh! Who could resist a page filled with those crossed through ridiculous prices, followed by red massively reduced ones...

Shame I'm "economising"... But doesn't mean I can't look!!!

Aren't these pretty... (Can you tell I'm procrastinating from academic work again? ;-D)

(Philip Lim and Roland Mouret from TheOutnet)

(Marc by Marc Jacobs from Matches)
(Aubin and Wills and Elle McPherson Intimates at Net-A-Porter)

If only I had money... Sigh. Silly recession.

Xxxc

Artistic Leanings

Yes, I'm still a very peripatetic blogger... Dropping in now and then, scattering whimsical thoughts in my wake! ;-)

Lots has happened lately; lots of ups, a few downs, but at the end of the day, I appear to be Very Happy. Right Now. Which is what matters!

I have just waved goodbye to the wonderful Claire of The View From Here, who was up visiting for the weekend post-her law exams!

Awesome times.

We baked.

We went to jazz.

We wandered.

We had coffee.

We talked boys.

We talked clothes.

We watched Star Wars.

We dressed up as Bears.

It was excellent!

In other news, I also have a dress to (very belatedly) review... The lovely Ceri from Blue Inc sent me this hot little number:

(Wearing: Blue Inc. dress, Eley Kishimoto shoes, M&S cardigan, ToyWatch.)

I absolutely ADORE the painterly pattern, and considering it's only £19.99, it's really well made and a good length for going out - though I will be wearing it with thick black tights!!!! (I just didn't have any to hand at the time, and thus we get my awesomely large and white thighs on show... SORRY!!! ;0D)

I would say that the top bit has a tendency to fall down, but that may be because my boobs are a little large so fall out at every opportunity. A bit of tit tape or the sewing in of straps or a strapless bra will easily solve the problem!

Hopefully I'll be going out a few times in the upcoming weeks, and this dress is a perfect addition to my party outfits!

Right... I must be off. Tonnes of admin to do and parentals turning up in about half an hour. Woop!

More soon. Xxxc

We're Angels. Obviously.

Ok, so this is very very very tardy, even by my standards, but today's post is about being an Aussie Angel!!! Along with Claire, Winnie, Nicola et al, I was contacted as one of 50 bloggers to get the Undercover Aussie treatment...

It all kicked off with a treasure hunt to Chelsea Farmer's Market, where I also popped into the food bit to find some sheepsmilk yoghurt and rice flour! We were sent a key and a clue to find the "silo", and when we turned up, we got a lovely box of goodies including Aussie products, a Topshop voucher and a spa voucher!!! Uber uber exciting.

I haven't used them yet, mainly as I'm saving them for uni supplies. Living at home in the summer = use parental posh shampoo time!!!

I do use Aussie's 3 minute miracle on a very very regular basis, as long hair gets a bit damaged, and it JUST SMELLS SO DARN NICE!!! Thus, I have to admit I'm rather excited about trying their normal shampoo and conditioner! I will also post about Topshop and spa choices when I stop working all hours and get back to Cambridge where one has time to take a breath and treat oneself!

Anyhoo... Next stop, a week later, was Adee Phelan's salon in Covent Garden for hair styling and lots of champagne! We were allowed to take up to two friends along, so I brought two uni college girlies, Sarah and the lovely Becks, T-B's gf. IT WAS SUCH FUN!!! Claire was also there with some of her pals, and we all ate lots and lots of jelly beans and got a bit merry on the champers and cocktails provided when we went down the road to The Hospital bar!

Claire and her amazingly glam hair...

Me and my crazeeeeeeee but lovely stylist!

Becks and her shampoo... Loving the Lana Turner-esque eye hiding!

Sarah really loved her goody bag!!!

Angelically Posing...

Not so angelic...

COCKTAILS!!! Yum.

Pretty! Sparkly! :-D

We three have better hair here than Charlie's Angels!!! Fit.

Shocker - I ended up with curly hair for several days! Woop woop!

Night night!

Xxxc

Secretary Chic

Gosh I'm bad at this lately... But I'm crossing fingers that I'm going to get my mojo back as I'm starting to get excited about styling again. I've had a good week and have made a select few purchases and started thinking dreamily about the return to the gilded spires of Cam.

Don't get me wrong; I adore London and my people in it, but working where I do has in some ways stifled my love of fashion even as I've been immersed in it. Odd eh!

Something about the worthless feeling that comes of interning. Not for me really.

The rest of the office have spent today organising an event, while I *miraculously* was not called upon to work said a-list extravaganza, and had an extremely fun and fashion-filled day despite non-work-involvement. Woop! More to come on today's adventures in a later post...

Firstly, however, I want to do some catching up!!!

Here is a photo shoot that T-B, his lovely assistant / girlfriend Becks and I did in his set pretty much the night before before I set off home for the summer... So mid-June time. Yikes! Haven't I been a bad blogger this summer!!!

Peeping, Laughing, Not Yet Sleeping...

Wearing: Face a Face glasses, vintage mustard blouse (bought from The Stylish Wanderer), ICB silk skirt, Kate Kuba navy suede shoes, ToyWatch, Vintage silk scarf (bought at Ark Vintage in Cambridge) and vintage navy suede belt.

I went to T-B and Becks' for (yummy scrummy) dinner tonight... Their new flat is AMAZING but it's wierd to think when I return to Cam in a fortnight's time, they'll still be in London. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek! They're both grown-ups now!!! Or maybe not... Hehe.

Right. Off to sleep with me... Early rising tomorrow!!!

Xxxc

I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house down...

So I come home for the summer, and have to move out again in the space of two weeks...

Hmmmmm. Not ideal. Basically, our entire house is being rebuilt around us over the course of 5 months for reasons far too dull to go into, and all furniture / books / clothes etc that we don't use on a regular basis has to either be chucked or put into storage! Of course this was the plan, until my roof sprung a second leak, waking me up at 4am during the other morning's thunder storm... So now I am moving out, and into my old maths tutor's house ( - she's also one of my mum's best mates - ) for a while... Of course, this would be fine if my room wasn't Stuffed With Stuff, and we had more than 24 hours to do it.

Thus, all of this is why I might be a little lax on my posting every day rule for a while, but I'll do my best!

Anyway, life chat over with...

And onto some of the promised (for weeks) photos...

This post is dedicated to the finalists garden party, given by the Master of College in his gardens... Think Pimms and reminiscences and commiserations about how screwed we all are with the current economic climate haha. It was great fun actually, and I'm afraid it's a dress you've seen before ;-D - This wasn't a photoshoot in athe usual style, as obviously, T-B was taking photos of the event, not just me and my crazy outfits, but there were quite a few nice photos anyway!

- Oh yes, I'm just so serious... (And the old dude in the background is "The Master". Lovely guy.)

- Me sticking my tongue out in photos may be replacing the ubiquitous twirling ;-D

- How kwl is her dress?!?!

- The amazingly comfy, if slightly out of focus shoes, which cost me £15 quid in M&S and I wear ALL THE TIME! (Either those or the same ones in black which I also have :-D) - Oh, and evidence, that I don't iron my clothes hehe!

- The only full length shot... How serious do I look? ;-D


The outfit, elements of which have all been used before, was: Vintage handmade dress, M&S sandals, GAP shell pink cardigan and Vintage tooled leather bag, with my ToyWatch and BarryM purple nail polish.


So there you have it... Garden partay numero uno. Sorry it's taken me so long to post... I really do love this dress...


I'd had such a rushed morning before this, having overslept into a breakfast meeting, so I had to rush out in jeans and t-shirt and no make-up, knowing full well I had two garden parties later. Of course, I was late to both... And looked rather the ghost having just shoved on the first make up I could find, i.e. my going-out-foundation, and no blusher... (as I'd left it in T-B's kitchen cupboard. Don't ask!)

It seems weird to think that I've been gone from Cam for 2 weeks... It's also amazing how much one changes on starting work and settling back into big-city life. I'm much more routine-ised, and my style's subtly shifted; probably partly due to the environment I'm working in, but also because of how I'm feeling I guess... Up until yesterday, I had no idea what was going to happen when I've finished my internship in October. I was basically still waiting on an official decision from Cambridge's Business School as to whether I had been accepted onto their Management programme for 4th year. If not, I would have to get on applying for more internships and jobs in fashion PR and Marketing which is probably the career direction I'm going in...


And yesterday, the crisp white letter headed Judge Business School, University of Cambridge came in the post... And I've been accepted! So back to the 'Bridge in October. I am really excited, though I was quite ready to get on with "real" life... Scary eh!


Right. As usual this was supposed to be a short post, so I must be off!


Xxxc

Break Over.

Wow. It's been far too long since that last post...

And such a lot's happened!

I've had balls, garden parties, birthday celebrations, homecomings, reunions, and I've started work! The 3 week (ish) break was unintended, but probably needed. Last term was a bit of a rollercoaster, and I needed to take a bit of a breather, get time to myself, and readjust to being a) a Londoner again and b) free of exam fear!

I suppose I should also tell those of you who've been so supportive these past couple of months, I got through it... And I got a high 2.1 including the highest mark in the year on one of my papers. (Same one I came top in last year... Woop! CV heaven! ;-D) My dissertation, as I knew it would be, was my lowest mark, but it was still respectable. Thank gawd. Panic over!

I still don't know for sure if I'm going to be in Cambridge or London next year as the business school are extreeeeeeemely disorganised, and I'm amidst plans to turn my house into a building site for 5 months, so our home is being cleared of 20 years of hoarding. Clothes are amongst the victims of the mass-clearout, as are board games, books, and bin bag after bin bag of paper... (All sent to charity or recycled of course! ;-D)

So all in all, it's a little stressy around here, but the clear-out's actually really cathartic, and it's all nothing compared to Cam in exam term haha.

The job, as a press assistant with an extremely lovely bunch of people is going really well 1.5 weeks into a long haul. I'm slowly but surely learning the ropes (I think) and am loving every minute of it. I've fallen in love with quite a lot of our pre-Fall stock (including a darling little mint Acne jumper), and am absolutely knackered at the end of every very full day. I'll try to talk a bit about it in future posts, but I'm not sure at the mo how much I want to keep the blog and the job separate, so will be treading quite lightly for a while.

Woah, that's a hell of a lot of writing, so I'll sign off now... I'm also going to zero my Google Reader so I can just start again commenting on people's blogs as at the mo, the thousands of unread posts are just a tad daunting!

Photos to come tomorrow.

Love Xxxc

It's been aaaaaaaaaaaaaages!!!

Hello all :-D

I'm finally free, and rested, and I'm going to try to get back into the swing of things blogging-wise... Woop!

For starters, we have the extreeeeeeeeeemely unflattering photos of me sans-makeup, sans-sleep, sans-sanity post-last exam... (See my pink keyboard that I typed all my exams on! ;-D)

I was actually the last person to finish, which kinda sucked, but now I'm done, and am leaving, and it's slightly scary but reeeeeeeeally exciting! :-D I've got a summer intern-ing to look forward to, and going home to one of the most exciting, confusing, large cities in the world, and I'm so so so happy about it. No idea what results, or the end of the summer has in store, but for the first time ever, life's plan is uncertain, and that's kinda insanely amazing.

Do I sound mad? Probably... ;-)

So anyway, since the champagne (which I'm actually allergic to, but I took piriton allergy tablets so I could celebrate traditional-style ;-D), I've basically just been sleeping... A few bits of admin here and there, but mostly snoring away!

However, last night was technically the beginning of May Week, and the fun of balls and garden parties, so I started it off with a bang at Robinson May Ball... It's one of the less formal ones, but was great fun as I went with some of my closest friends and we ate SO MUCH FOOD! Hehe.

*There had to be a twirling picture... ;-D*

Great start to the week ahead... I was wearing Jigsaw dress (shock), Wolford stockings, Kate Kuba heels, Zara clutch bag, borrowed scarf.

SO much fun. Right. I need to get changed and run to a garden party. Yay!!!

Xxxc