Weekend of Weekends

Evening!

So I'm currently relaxing in bed after a lovely Sunday, waiting for my boyfriend to realise it's bedtime... =D I have to get up at 7am these days, so it's getting ready for bed-time at half ten. Who'd'a'thunk-it?!?!

What have you guys been up to this weekend?

I managed to make a trip back to London on Friday night with Boy, and had a lovely, relaxing time there, 'til we headed back this afternoon. My parents are in Jamaica for two weeks, so I had promised to pop back and visit the cat, and dragged Boy along so he could come with me to have lunch with my Godfather...

So, after a late night on Friday, we got up early on Saturday to head to Blackheath for lunch at Cafe Rouge, which had a excellent "gluten free" menu (yay Celiac), and were happy to also remove any traces of potato and lactose from my food! (My stomach basically hates me...) It was a lovely meal, and two of my favourite people got on very well!

We then spent the rest of the afternoon visiting Blackheath Gallery and at the funfair on the Heath. Boy won me a big cuddly leopard at the shooting range (and got rather a fan club of gun obsessed, small boys). 

Then we headed to the Southbank for dinner and an amazing film at the BFI - It Happened One Night... 1934, Clark Gable falling in love with Claudette Colbert. Amaze!!!

I particularly loved the fact that they fell in love with each others' brains as well as being attracted to each other... Oh, for that quality in a mainstream rom com of this decade! 

Colbert wore some absolutely gorgeous clothes, particularly an awesome white silk pyjama jumpsuit in the first scene... And then she promptly dives into the sea in it to escape her father! =D I can't find an image of it via google though, so I'll have to give you one of her in his pyjamas instead!!! Images from http://www.matttrailer.com/it_happened_one_night_1934

I've never been a particular fan of thirties fashion, but I'm kinda rethinking that view now... I mean, how cute is her hat?!?!

Brilliant film. AND Boy enjoyed it as much as I did!

So after that, we had a lazy Sunday morning, which involved not getting up 'til gone 11, eating a massive brunch, and then driving back to Cambridge - after saying a tearful goodbye to the cat!

The rest of the day has been spent watching Glee, reading Vogue and painting my nails... Ah bliss. Oh, and I cooked dinner and did the laundry. Hmmmm. I'm an adult now. How dull! ;] 

Work tomorrow!!! G'night!

Xxxc

Boater Success...

Morning all!

After a beautifully sunny (if a little chilly at times) day yesterday, it's chucking it down this morning. I'm home for the weekend and desperately trying to get my head together to get dressed and off to lunch at T-B and Becks' in Sarf London. But I thought, before I left, I'd post a photoshoot I got my long-suffering mother to do with me yesterday!!!

The light in the back garden was gorgeous, and I was so hyper about my new boater, that I neeeeeded to get some pictures done! The boater is hilarious, as it's a men's large, but since the price was a steal, I didn't really care... I'm planning a costume-wench bodge (boy-word alert) with a foam ring and some glue!

Wearing: Antique Store Boater find, Gap teeshirt, Jaeger Jacket (courtesy of mother's wardrobe), St Michael (i.e. v.v.v. old M&S) skirt, vintage suede belt, TopShop tights, Kate Kuba boots, 1940's WI badge...

How pretty are those sleeves!!! (And my dad's flowers... :D)

Nattering on at Mother... Standard.

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! I do love our old swing... (And yes, that is a farm, and yes, I live on a London underground line, about 20 minutes drive / 30 minutes tube from most destinations in Central London... Oh Yes. Best of both worlds win ;D)

Crouching Tiger... (With a Boater)

Boater in the Bluebells...

LOVE this badge... Another Cambridge antique store find.

Oh, and meet my cat, Jasmine... She's a completely crazy little critter who I adore beyond all other crazy little critters. She was given to us when her owner went to Africa, and when she came back, Jaz had settled in so well, we were given her to keep! She has a habit of sleeping *under* my bed and sitting on people for hours at a time, and is the most lovely reading companion, until she starts chewing the pages... Attention whore!!! ;D

Right, I really should be off... Half an hour before I should DEFINITELY not be here anymore... Oops!

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

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

Dumdumdeeedum... Skipping Along to Another LFW Show!!!

Short post this evening... Might be something to do with the huge lack of sleep I've been living on lately ( - I'm a massive insomniac - ) and also work being really quite hectic at the mo. Oh, and the lovely, and slightly expensive, very merry evening out I've had. Sigh.

Anyhoo... As you may have noticed if you read the lovely Claire's blog, The View From Here, we went to another fashion show on Monday evening.

Claire - Glam as ever...

Moi straight from work... I look like a small child hehe. (Take note of the velvet hair scrunchie... I am newly obsessed!!!) Wearing: vintage Escada wine silk shirt, Luella bag, Cheap Monday self-studded jeans, M&S sandals, Boots bordeaux velvet hair scrunchy.

It was the Maaike Mekking show at CAMP near Old Street - very East London, very too-cool-fash-un... Claire and I had a great time commenting incessantly on everyone's ensembles, and yumyumyumming at the red velvet cakes that were on offer. (Not so much at the wine though...)

The show, which annoyingly started almost an hour late, did present some rather cool clothes, the stand-out ones of which I attempted to get good photos of in poorly lit conditions on a poor camera. Like Claire, I felt that a lot of the clothes were let down by some rather shoddy modelling. If you're going to have non-professional models, then at least brief them on how to walk, the speed at which they should go, and that they should STOP at the end of the runway. I missed some photo ops on my favourite pieces because a couple of the girls moved far too fast and didn't even pause for breath at the end of the white carpet... Sigh.

However, I did appreciate several elements of this collection. Aside from the cupcakes, I rather liked the oriental details, the cut outs and the subtle definition of the girls' silhouettes behind both structured and loose clothes. The show was simple, but by having them walk against a wall, the shadows emphasised the free-flowing movement which made several of the pieces rather interesting. Saying that, one of my favourite pieces was a rather stiff white dress, so maybe I should just shush! ;-D

This floaty pleated trouser and white top with bra-as-outerwear thing going on was rather special and I was sad not to get a better shot... I think the collection, with it's muted but striking pallette and hints of lovely pattern-creativity was overall good. I'm not sure I enjoyed it as much as Saturday as the crowd was a bit too hip for little ol' me, and the lighting and models - annoying, niggling details - really put me off.

Adore this dress... Great brocade-esque details.

Scary China Doll look... Love the shirt though!

But maybe the cupcakes and the white dress, cute white shirt and pleated trousers may have been worth the adventure into East-London-Land for me...

Night All!

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

Green Light at the end of the dock...

Now I'm the first to admit that I've been crap at this blogging malarkey of late... It's been bloody ages since my last post, and I haven't even been checking in on other people! Naughty huh.

I've been working at my internship since the end of June and I think that I just needed to separate work and play a bit. Inspiration has been oddly lacking, and I've been madly dashing from one "London thing" to the next, so updating online hasn't exactly been a priority!

My life of late has been hectic to say the least, filled with lots of time with friends, theatre, film, art and yummy food. Claire from The View From Here is teaching me how to bake, and life's really rather satisfactory.

Work's fun as I work with lovely people, but I have come to realise that as much as I love fashion and clothes and making visual statements through my wardrobe; creating a character, I don't want to make it my career... Which I guess is why I haven't been online. I need a bit of separation between work and play.

However, with fashion week coming up, and work being frenetic, I thought now would be an *ideal* time to start blogging again (see the slight sarcasm?)!!! ;-D I won't be around commenting too much, but I'm going to try to post content more often.

So. Where to start?

Well, first up, I have a couple of reviews and an update on my current addictions:

1) my name necklace

Okay, so Sex and the City is a looooong way gone, but I got sent a Cassiopeia name necklace by the lovely people at mynamenecklace.co.uk! Exciting times. I shall put up a photo as soon as I can, but my camera is currently not exactly working. It's silver and I wear it several times a week. It makes me smile! It's good quality and came in a lovely purple gift box too. I'm a sucker for pretty presentation... The only reason I don't wear it every day is that as far as jewellery goes I usually prefer gold, and I wish I'd asked for an 18" not a 16" chain, but overall I'd really recommend this website if you are going to get one! I certainly love mine, and if I weren't completely broke I'd get myself another one!!! I rather like the acrylic necklaces like this one. So thanks to Steve for getting me involved!

2) borders and frontiers teeshirts

Again, everyone's got one of the Tavi tees by now, and the Igor and Andre blog ones are doing the rounds too - and you all look GORGEOUS! But since I haven't been online much lately, I thought I'd just spare a moment to wax lyrical about these tees. These are my favourite basic wear-with-anything-anytime tops. I wear them to work with skirts and belts and on the weekends in city or country with jeans or dresses. The cotton is so thick and yummy and though they blatantly don't exactly make me look stick thin, I love them anyway... The adorable Drew even sent me this lovely specimen new one that, bad me, I'm not sure which blog it belongs to, but I adore, which again I will have to wait to put pictures of up as camera = dimwitted. I am also *loving* Rumi's one and have had a long term crush on the one by Bonjour Girl... Wish (as usual) I wasn't so darn broke!!!

3) lots and lots and lots of theatre

My life of late has revolved around shows... I love that the calibre of things being put on in and around London this summer has been so high. As I had saved up to enjoy my time at home, I've done a tonne, and loved every minute of it.

A few highlights:

Dominic Cooper in Phedre. Love Racine. Love his arms. Sigh.

Ian McKellen in Waiting For Godot. Perfect. Bumbling through Beckett. A Class Act.

Arcadia... Just a lovely play.

The Mariinsky Ballet at the Royal Opera House - not technically theatre... The Homage to Balanchine was amazingness personified, and their Sleeping Beauty was breathtaking.

Jerusalem at the Royal Court. I've loved Mark Rylance since he was artistic director at the Globe, and he's just AMAZING. Such stage presence. Such a beautiful voice. Such a great play.

I've also been to a lot of Proms - managed 5 concerts in one day on the bank holiday!!! And a lot of film... Anyone who gets a chance to see Mid-August Lunch SHOULD!!!

Okay, enough rambling now. I should sleep. I'm off to the Tate in the morning bright and early to see the Futurism exhibition with one of my closest friends who has been away in Edinburgh for a month... Woop!

Night. I promise there'll be more pictures next time!

Xxxc

Yo.

Short, low maintenance post today, for a number of reasons, none of which are really bloggable. I Have had an absolutely lovely day on the whole, as I had two little social occasions that were uber nice.

Skipping out of the office at about 2.15 ( - we have late lunches due to starting late and finishing late - ), I went to meet the beautiful Claire from The View From Here, fresh off the train from Paris, for a lovely sushi lunch, sitting in one of London's myriad grassy, tree filled squares/parks... She had even brought me Jalouse Magazine and MACAROONS!!! Love the girl :-D

- How sophisticated does she LOOK! Despite the heat, poised and elegant ;-D

- Then we have me... A little bit of perspiration, a little bit of crumpling in the clothes department, a little bit scattier than my So-Parisian-Chic-It-Hurts friend ;-D (Wearing a TopShop playsuit, TopShop oversized tee and M&S sandals... The sandals are one of my best summer buys. I have them in black too. So comfy and so so useful! Who'd'a thunk it?!)

It was great to have a gossip and hear all about the Parisian sales and her Immense purchases... One in particular I was particularly excited to hear about, but I'm sure she'll be blogging about that herself soon enough and don't want to spoil the surprise! ;-)

But all too soon, it was time to return to work... (Whoever invented one hour lunch breaks was a mean old sod who obviously had no social life!) The office was boiling, but we have developed a Starbucks habit for Frappes - make mine a berry one - late afternoon... Delish and uber-cooling. Yum. This heat certainly makes you a little lazy... Though today it wasn't too much our fault as, having had most of the day sans computer or printer/photocopier (don't ask), we had a massive rush in the last hour to get all our sendouts and emails done before home-time!

Upon leaving the office, us three press gals and our photographer friend rambled for a London-Heatwave-Post-Work-Thirst-Quenching-Pub-Drink (£4.05 for a G&T?!?! Feck!), round the corner from the office... Was supposed to be going to see Transformers II, but had decided this morning that as much as I love my home mates, I wasn't shelling out £8 for a crappy film lol.

So all in all, a nice day, but a sleepifying one...

Will try to get around to a more interesting post tomorrow; but until then; a couple of Look Book images:

- This girl reminds me a bit of Louise Brooks crossed with Daisy from The Great Gatsby... Loving the autumn leaves too. Crunchy looking!








- Want her hair!!! And that back drop...



(Really Loving the Black and White aesthetics at the mo...)

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

Escaping the madhouse

Having spent yesterday morning wishing I could be out in the sunshine, despairing about work, and watching two of my great mates do the "£10 buttery challenge" - buy £10 worth of cooked breakfast at our canteen and eat it all... involving about 8 sausages, 8 pieces of bacon, mounds of eggs, etc etc... Ick. I could barely eat my 1x baked beans, 1x sausage, 1x bacon, 1x fried egg, 1x orange juice, let alone the two trays full of food the boys forced down lol! 

...I cracked.

Yesterday evening, I decided I needed to get away and have some me time, so I went back to London for the evening. Not to do much, just to mooch...

So, in (what was supposed to be) a short post, here are the collages of the two outfits I wore yesterday, and the one I'm wearing today:

*you should be able to click on them to see the collages bigger...*

- Worn to brunch. (So so so so so scared about getting baked beans down myself!) I love this dress but it is TEENY-TINY! Normally I belt up loose dresses but I think that'd make this one truly indecent lol. 

- Wearing a See by Chloe grey t-shirt dress from Net-a-Porter, Rokit black studded cuff, Hush Puppy sheer ribbon lace up oxfords and my ToyWatch.

- Poseeeeeeeeeeeeer! Got to love strange self timer photos... L + R are both somewhere on Park Lane... The middle two were taken in Curzon Square which is just off it. I love that square for its bright flowers and dark architecture. That bit of London is so wierd and a bit of a wasteland people-wise, unless you're in the park or hanging around the Clubs (home-from-home type - like the Carlton, RAF, University Women's (mine) etc, not the dancing type hehe) and the sillily-swanky hotels...

- Wearing Gap dress, Jaeger Blazer - bought for £3 in Canterbury charity shop and has one of the very old labels that are older than me! plus Kate Kuba shoes, Reiss blue belt, vintage scarf and two brooches - one - a leaf, studded with pearls - was my grandma's, the other - a colourful bird in flight - was bought in Canterbury in a weird, cash only hippy shop! 

- This, as well as the above GAP dress, is one of my fail-safes. I love it for its simplicity, and for the lovely neckline. It's getting a little well worn now, as both myself and my best friend, who I share a flat with in college, wear it all the time! *Note to self - check rhubarb I chucked on myself earlier hasn't stained!*

- Wearing TopShop dress, Jaeger blazer, Kate Kuba shoes, brooches.

... Oh, and when I was wondering around Brompton Cross at 8.30 this morning (don't ask... Sunday morning wandering is a habit of mine ;-D), I came upon this darling window display:

Not sure what the shop was, but it's somewhere between Brompton Cross and Knightsbridge, and their display seemed to be about making paper wearable! I love those neckpieces... I especially loved the little touches like the fact that the fashion-drawing tracings were attached to the backing paper by little tiny red stiches, and the paper-skirt has little pieces of origami on it! Such a nice thing to see on a Palm Sunday morning! (Have to admit to have skipped out on the service I was supposed to be going to at St Lukes, because they were processing to Christ Church and my shoes were rubbing haha. Great Lenten atoner I am! ;-D)

Right. Back to work. Or maybe I'll stew some more rhubarb first... Yummy!

Xxxc