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

Grey Day So We Invade Trinity

Ok guys, it's a photoshoot day!!! I was going to save this 'til tomorrow, but I think the next couple of days are going to be spent in la library removing myself from the internet... No shopping. No procrastinating. Just attempting not to fail exams... At least 'til Tuesday! ;-D

But, since you're all so lovely, I thought I'd leave you with this *attempt to make the world at least pretend to be sunny and warm...*

I'm Blue! Dabadee Dabadi Dabadee Dabadi...

I just love twirling TOO much... But the skirt does FUN THINGS!!!

Gratuitous accessories love...

Pose... And TWIRL!!!

Stumbles...

Fights with tree... And giggles.

Oops! Sorry Tree!

Lost.

Hop, skip and a jump... But not quite home!

As you can see, the sun has decided to desert Cambridge for the time being... I'm trying to keep in the sunny feeling, by wearing bright colour, but I have a feeling all this spring chicken energy may sap away the longer this grey dreary spell continues. Let's keep our fingers crossed tomorrow brightens up!!! 

The location for this shoot was Trinity, which is the college next door to mine... We're supposed to be mortal enemies. 

Trinity has canons pointed at John's!!! 

No Kidding!

In this shoot, I'm wearing a GAP tee and GAP men's cardigan, vintage skirt, Accessorize and confirmation present bracelets, vintage tooled leather belt, Melissa for Vivienne Westwood T-Bar Mary Janes, ToyWatch and Anya Hindmarch woven clutch. 

                                           

So, that's today... I'm well behind on an essay, and rather sleepy, but never mind! 

I've mostly spent the day admin-ing and searching for the perfect Stepford Wife half-apron with Angie (@Norwegian_Wood) via Twitter and Etsy. I got a new haul from Love Miss Daisy Vintage today, including a raspberry pink  cocktail dress that just *screams* silly themed dinner party... WOOP! for post-exam planning! My current favourites for the job of *my apron* are these:

from Serendipity Treasures and phase three

from Boojiboo

from Spice Rak Designs

Also from Spice Rak Designs, and currently very much the favourite... Hmmmmm.

I was thinking I could attempt to make my own, but THE LEMONS ONE IS SO DAMN BLAST PRETTY!!!

Thoughts, comments and suggestions are welcome. I'm also looking for a hair tutorial (youtube?) for 50s Stepford Wife hair:

Definitely thinking about this waaaaaaaaaaaaay too much... Hehe.

Oh, and one final thing:

Can we all express the LOVE for T-B's teeshirt...??? (From teetonic.com - they have a girl's version in lilac too!)

Hehe. The boy done good.

Night all!

Xxxc

New Day, New Sun, New Photoshoot!!!

Hello all,

I'm still terribly behind and about to get more so as "exam fear" hits... Please bear with me while I try to balance huge amounts of work for finals with retaining a presence in the blogosphere. Will try to post 3 or 4 times a week still, but might remain behind on my Google Reader and replying to comments for a while. It's not that I don't love you and really appreciate you all commenting, but I just can't find the time to do everything! :-(

Anyway, apologetic rambling (it's getting to be a habit now...) over, it's time for A NEW PHOTOSHOOT!!!

Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer, do. I'm half crazy, oh for the love of yoooooou!

The outfit today was far simpler than usual. Or at least not as crazily coloured/patterned! It was sunny so out came the legs, and I've been on a bit of an emotional rollercoaster since Friday, so I needed some sartorially-induced-equilibrium...

I'm wearing a Zara top - bought in Florence, GAP men's cardigan, very old TopShop denim skirt, 2-tone Converse, vintage purple sunglasses, one of my myriad, anonymous tote bags containing revision for post-shoot, belly dancer's bell belt from Nomads in Cam and the interlinked, silver and gold, cast-hearts bangle I was given by my godparents for my confirmation... And my new favourite nail polish, which, in case anyone was wondering, is Manga from Miss Sporty!

In case anyone was wondering where I'd got to since the last post, I was in Oxford. I got to spend a bit of Saturday with the Lovely Lovely Claire from The View From Here, who has been my longest running commenter and blog friend, and we finally - after about 2 years - got around to meeting up when I was conference-ing in her uni town! 

We had an absolutely lovely few hours, sipping fancy fizzy drinks and munching chocolate coated coffee beans in "The Vaults" and then went shopping around town. She got some lovely things, including a gorgeous blue zipped top that I covet TREMENDOUSLY. I managed to be hugely indecisive and not quite fit perfectly into the couple of things I almost got. But we had a FANTASTICALLY lovely time. I managed to be out of it enough to leave the photography up to her - I really was Completely sleep-deprived, (see earlier rollercoaster comment and below photo - zombie!) and wish I could have been more on top form, but it was an excellent few hours spent in each others company, gossiping and getting excited about clothes together. Both of us will admit we're definitely solitary shoppers usually, but rather enjoyed the bloggers-together experience... At Last! Someone who understands! Someone who gets the need to be adventurous and who sees all the possibilities inherent in clothes! She's also covered the day on her blog, with pics of her purchases and an even less awake, touristy photo of me! (In case anyone was wondering, I was wearing a C&C California tee I bought in NY about 5 years ago which has held up SO well, a GAP men's cardie, an ICB silk pleated skirt, the fabled lace tights and Kate Kuba white leather boots mentioned in Claire's blog post...)

*Thanks Claire... Here's to our next jaunt! ;-D*

So a good weekend... My confirmation also went swimmingly, and I had a blast with all my family down. I was wearing my New Favourite Dress which I will endeavour to post if any of the photos came out well, and if they ever make it to me - they're on the parental camera...

Wish I had more energy, but I think that's all for tonight! I've become someone who goes to bed before midnight... Scary times!!! ;-)

Hugs,

Xxxc

Since you were all so patient...

It's a PHOTOSHOOT DAY!!!

Yay!!! Also, it's T-B's 22nd birthday today... So everybody think good birthday vibes for him! He has hardcore revision supervisions this afternoon, so is not having the best birthday this time. HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOVELY!!!

Red, White and Blue...

Lots of images... Sorry ;-D 

This is probably my favourite photoshoot so far, which is saying something! 

So, I'm wearing a Topshop skirt, anonymous cream seamed lace tights, Kate Kuba blue suede heels, falling apart and well loved Venice tee I bought there aged about 12  - the first visit of many - I've tried to find the same shirt since but no luck, vintage navy suede belt, gold rose necklace from Clares Accessories, GAP men's cardigan and my vintage tooled leather bag.

We went for a wander across town to the Granta meadows, Darwin Island and the bit of the river past the sluice. It was excellent fun. And we saw ducks and cows too! The latter roam free on the meadows... That got me childishly excited! You'd think I didn't grow up with a farm behind my house! (Remind me to post a pic of me in green overalls with a pitchfork some time! ;-D)

I also just wanted to say thank you tonnes to everyone who's been so supportive these past couple of weeks... I've really, truly appreciated it. This place, in exam term, can get horrific. I've now got 3.5 weeks til finals, so stress is going to set in again in a week or so I guess. Joy of Joys. But I'll try to post at least a few times a week as I hated being away SO much!

Oooooh, and I *think* I'm also going to be the fashion editor for our uni newspaper in Michaelmas term of next year (that's October to December). How cool!!! I get pieces every week and a twice termly glossy magazine to produce!!! Woop! Now I just have to hope I get on my 4th year course ;-D - which involves revising... Hmmmmm. Maybe I should do that now...

Right. I'm off. Going to the theatre tonight, and off to a conference in Oxford (and seeing the lovely Claire while I'm there) for Friday and Saturday, and I'm getting confirmed on Sunday! (I have the BEST outfit...) So, family's descending. Actually, rather yay! Thus posting might be sporadic, but I'll do my best. Twitter-ing is likely, especially as I may need an outlet for yeeeeep-ness, as staying with the *I-shouldn't-have-this-crush*-crush - Oops! (Before you say anything... It's totally platonic, blah blah blah. Seriously. There are many reasons as to why it's a DEFINITE should-not-would-not-could-not situation... Some of which some of you may have picked up on, but I won't go into detail lol.) Got to love my dramas! ;-D

Also, one final thing... I'm featured on Layers of Meaning as part of the Through Her Eyes series, throughout May. The first post came out on Wednesday, and there'll be three more. If you click on the button in the sidebar, it'll take you to just the series' posts, so check it out if you like! :-D

Hugs!!! 

Xxxc

Red Legged Exhibition Exhibitionist

So today was the last day of *this* exhibition of Sarah Wilson's work...

I'd been meaning to go all holiday - there are many examples like this where I wait and wait and wait 'til the last minute and almost (or do) miss great stuff.

Basically, this is going to be a two-part post... This is about my clothes today... Because I am impatient and can't wait to put them up... And part 2 - next week - will be about the artist, collection and exhibition itself! 

So. Here goes.

Shocked. Bright legs. Art. Light.

Wearing - Red M&S tights, ubiquitous ToyWatch, ASOS.com horse print shorts, Motel lace back dress (wrong way around) over Tavi / Borders and Frontiers teeshirt and Hush Puppy black sheer-lace-up heeled Oxfords. Oh, and in the first two pics, I'm also covering up with the ever-useful Tibetan shawl and carrying the UBER-CHIC (not) laptop bag!

The exhibition was at New Hall (now Murray Edwards, but we still call it the old name...) College, which is what's called a 'hill college' - i.e. out of town by about 15 minutes or so - FAR in Cambridge terms, AND it's all girls... Eek. I like my 70:30 boys to girls ratio thank you very much! ;-D (More about New Hall's art collection in Part 2!)

It was the first properly sunny day we've had (in Cambridge - I'm excepting my sunny Hampshire Easter Monday here...) in ages. Bliss. Not quite warm enough for uncovered legs, but certainly teeshirt weather!

Sorry for the short-ish post. I've got several hundred more dissertation words to do before bed. Sigh.

Xxxc

Photos, as ever, by Alex Tatton-Brown

Sorry for being away!!!

Hello everybody!

It's been far too many days since I last posted, and I've been missing the blogosphere like mad! The dissertation draft is on its way to completion - not quite there yet, but hopefully by the end of the weekend! *Crosses fingers*

Anyway, I'm back (ish) - posting's going to be less frequent than usual for a while, but I have a few posts up my sleeve and some PHOTOSHOOTS!!! Woop! T-B is back in Cam-land, and we're raring to go!

So... The first of much Easter-term procrastination-shoots:

Wonderland: circa.1628

Wearing - French Connection long grey jersey skirt, TopShop realitees concession twist back t-shirt, Paul Smith mustard blazer, Jocasi belt, ToyWatch, Jaeger brown leather court shoes, brown macrame flower necklace bought from a tiny craft shop in Florence...

- Here I'm looking at one of the indexes... Each large book case has a hand written index inside a little fold out wooden window... Mostly in Latin, but occassionally understandable, they're almost as fascinating as the books themselves!

It was lovely to get out of the main library today for a wander around the "Old Library" in college... Built in 1628 from a donation of £1400 (haha), it houses some of the most precious books in the world - books, manuscripts, journals, paintings, medals, field notes etc - ranging from the 15th century to the present day... 

Some of my favourite things (aside from endless keyword searches of the medieval manuscripts collection) are the works of Ovid that belonged to Lorenzo de Medici (1474 - arms of the Medici - illuminated - and Marsuppini - sketched marginalia - here) , the first complete translation of the Bible into English (photos of pages from 1535 and 1537 here) and the 1808 book on the abolition of the slave trade by Thomas Clarkson, one of our alumni who was instrumental in the abolition along with other almuni including William Wilberforce (photos of illustrations of conditions on slave ships here). 

In the more modern section of the library (- by more modern I mean it holds more recent books), there are vast archives of the works of fellows and alumni including the field notebooks of Jack Goody (anthropologist) and the conference journals, mystery novel manuscripts and neanderthal cartoons of Glyn Daniel - ex Disney-prof of archaeology (- Janus entry for the papers here). 

I love each and every one of those things with a passion, and every time the adorable college special collections librarian (J) lets me into the old library, sometimes for hours at a time, I breathe in the air of musty old books and really think about how lucky I am that they're here... And I'm trusted with their safety! It's quite scary to think about sometimes! You can't really take them out of the bookcases, unless J is with you - well, practically, one could, but morally... If you actually want to study any of it, one should get it out with J and look at it in the reading room. Some of the medieval manuscripts (like this one) are breathtaking to study in person...

Saying that, especially downstairs, you do tend to just rummage... I love all the pastel sketches of fellows done for their portraits, and there is one particular archive that I have been allowed huge free reign with, that I won't tell you about just yet, as it's going to form the basis of a project that I'll be publishing on the blog in a couple of months time! Let's just say, it's awesome... Well worth the suspense... Honest! :-D 

Sigh... So much for today's work ethic! I should probably go and get on with my case studies now. Must stop thinking about old books with no relavence to dissertation and start thinking about the ones in front of me!!! ;-D

Xxxc

P.s. Please bear with me while I catch up on my several hundred googlereader posts and everyone's lovely comments! And, as ever, photos by Alex Tatton-Brown, and thanks to JH.

Studstudstudstudstudstudstudstud... etc.

So today, I got a bit of a DIY-bug... The brainstorm was mainly as I received (and ordered more) studs to play with today. These are just silver stars and pyramid studs, which I’m using on denim...

First 'play' was with a Top Shop layered frill denim skirt that I studded with a smattering of stars... Mainly for clubbing wear as I’m not this skirt’s biggest fan, but it was on its way out, so thought – in the interests of reduce, reuse, recycle – to do this instead:

Outfit is TopShop denim skirt, H&M white vest, M&S grey lace vest, M&S silver pumps and GAP baby blue men's cardigan...

The pyramid studs are currently being used to convert my 5 year old, rather shabby, black Cheap Monday skinny jeans into something along the lines of this:

 from Jak and Jil blog

Not exactly original, but looking okay so far... Another piece of denim I'd consigned to the 'rarely-wear' part of my wardrobe. They remind me far too much of my 17 year old self, head over heels in love with a blonde, blue-eyed, Harrow(School)-boy-metal-head lol. He liked them as they were the only thing in my wardrobe that was black! Hehe. Not much has changed eh. Except maybe my taste in men... So hopefully this'll give them a new lease of life other than being worn when there's no other option ;-D - I'll post pics when they're done.

I also ordered some skull-shaped studs and coloured (purple and baby blue) pyramids that I'm going to try to persuade myself to use on my beloved AA purple tri-blend tee... I might have to buy a double of it tho. Or get a blue one and play with That! Oh the possibilities!!!

Don't know if my heart can take the risk otherwise! ;-D  Yeeeek! I'm getting all these from the AMAZING ebay seller denk_universe who I cannot recommend enough... They're really quick for shipping, cheap compared to other retailers, and just generally really sweet! Plus the Mexican stamps on my package are just Too Kwl!

Sigh. They're even 'Tajin, Mexico, ARQUEOLOGIA' stamps... How fitting!?!?!? 

:-D

I think the skull studs are going to be used for a project along these lines:

- I'm currently waiting for this tee-shirt from voltage.vox on ebay... and I reckon, if I use the studs to attach (along with some sturdy invisible stitching) some velvet ribbon to the sides to pull it in at the waist it could be really fit! I ordered a medium to get some length and loose-ness around the shoulders and neck (which I'll probably cut out anyway ;-D). Thoughts on colour for the ribbon? I haven't been in VV Rouleaux for aaaaages and I can't quite bring myself to buy online as their shops are Such Fun... So this one might have to wait til after I've been home.

In other news... 

I was supposed to be 'smart' and on box office today, so in the ultimate boring outfit, I'm workin' my amazingly amazing grey Acne jeans - I buy a new pair every year in their brilliant online sales lol and they're the only jeans I wear... Slightly different washes, but always Hep style and grey! Unoriginal much. But I suppose I don't wear jeans much, so these do the job and go from casual to smart rather well. Plus a vintage Jaeger silk shirt (missing a couple of buttons - *note to self: replace them before Mother, whose shirt it was originally, cottons on!*), black M&S pumps and necklace from Etsy, yeeeeeeears ago... I got to their shop after a tip from SusieBubble (and I think, from Queen Michelle too, but can't find that post...) - Paraphenalia was the name, but they don't seem to be on there anymore, which is a Crying Shame!

Right... That was supposed to be a short post. Ha ha ha.

Back to the dissertation-grind!!!

Xxxc

P.s. Thank you so so so so so much for all the amazing comments on yesterday's blog post. I was having a really really really bad day (yesterday and today), and they got me through... Hugs. You're all immense!

*Edit* Paraphenalia can now be found at http://shop.paraphernalia.nu/ - thanks to Rebecca of The Clothes Horse for that!!!