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

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.

Bad Habits Die Hard...

Ok, so I'm awful. I use shopping to procrastinate, and today I let myself loose on M&S and Topshop... I was planning a film inspired blog-post, not another testament to my non-stop(ped by recession) consumption, but it wasn't to be...

I have to admit, although I love shopping for scarves and skirts - the easy things - there are some things that scare me shi*less, and I do far less often. Those things would be trousers, all-in-ones and underwear... 

My body just doesn't DO normal sizing. 

I think this may be something to do with the fact that though I LOOK top heavy, it is in fact my thighs that make everything difficult. That and the strange fact I am not an apple or a pear or an hourglass, but a butternut squash... You know... Out (boobs) In (waist) Out (spare tire) In (between hips and thighs) Out (arse and thighs) Down. Oh, and my body is far too long: my waist is far higher than looks natural. Arrrghhhh!!! It may seem silly, but it is rather annoying... 

I suppose we all have hang-ups.

So M&S - necessary and annoyingly unproductive. I needed new all-purpose bras and ended up with none but did get a push-up bra (trust me - don't need one, didn't want one, but it was on sale and I don't actually have one, so maybe it'll be useful?), a nightie that I wish was wearable as a dress as it's such a pretty colour, and a nightie that Is wearable as a dress and will be appearing on here very soon.

So underwear nightmares aside, I did have a mission in Topshop. I've been wanting a playsuit/jumpsuit/romper for AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGES, and I decided today would be the day to try a few on... 

I first fell in love with one with straps (currently on the Topshop website here) which unfortunately had annoying moulded cups that on neither the 10 nor the 12 fitted my curves, despite the rest of the suit fitting fine. The 14 was taking the mick a bit, so I decided it wasn't to be.

Then I found one (currently up on the Topshop website here) that I never would normally look twice at... But it's just too cute! Ok, so the lack of straps = no bra, and the shorts are a bit shorter than I usually like, but I just couldn't leave it! Extravagant, perhaps, but - weather permitting - I foresee days out on the backs reading in this cute little thing. Or nights in hot sweaty clubs hehe. (Please excuse the shameless changing room posing... And the scaaaaary winter legs!)

I reckon one could wear it over a tee and cyan or burgundy tights anyway (with different shoes lol), so I'm very much looking forward to road-testing it over the next few weeks. A welcome distraction from dissertation stress... As much as I love the Venerable Bede and visible traces of Christianisation in the landscape, outfit creation is a much more satisfying way to pass time ;-D 

I also got some darling tights - a pair of floral ones and some in ballerina pink... Both fill holes in my tights collection, so I don't feel too bad about that one ;-) 

Slightly less self-and-shopping-centred tomorrow... Honest!

Xxxc

P.s. I've added myself on bloglover... I use googlereader, but I know some people use this...

Follow my blog with bloglovin´

Lies.

Now, I know I commented somewhere that I wasn't going to blog until I'd got these essay deadlines out of the way...

But I may have told a fib. Not on purpose. I was FORCED by T-B to go out and "play pick-chas!"

So. There you have it. I have no will power. Please excuse the fact that my skirt is unironed! ;-D

I like swinging from trees. Trees make me happy.

In these I'm wearing: 

- Zara cardigan bought in Florence... (I do find it funny that I can never find stuff I like in British Zara, but take me there in Italy, and I come back with a suitcase STUFFED with Zara clothes!)

- Hermes skirt that I found in a charity shop... (From the cherubs / eyepopping primary colours / nautical print, it's got to be 80's) 

- Eley Kishimoto shoes, bought in a sample sale at BStore last year... (Some of my favourite shoes ever, and despite the humungous heel - so so so comfy!)

- Topshop tights, Primark bag, Toy Watch and Macrame flower necklace bought in Florence... again! (I wandered into a tiny little craft shop, where the lady made things on a board in front of you. When I went in, she was giving lessons to another woman and they were chattering away in Italian, made me sit down - by gesturing madly at the chair and patting the seat, and proceeded to carry on with the lesson. I sat there for about half an hour before deciding I needed to carry on with tourist-ing! There were loads of lovely things, but this one caught my eye...)

Please excuse the large numbers of photos... T-B takes too many that I like. :-D He's trying to 'improve' you see, as the camera's relatively new. Any views on the photography will be appreciated from his quarter, as I'm not letting him put any of the me photos up on facebook. Personally, I think he's amazing at taking photos of people. His vistas are ace, but some of these come top on my favourite pictures of me ever; and that's hard since I HATE photos of myself and get really antsy when the camera's out. This is another reason for doing this -someone else taking my blog photos - thing. It'll maybe help me get over my photo hangups... Cross fingers! ;-D 

Hmmmmmm. I should probably go do some work. I have a black tie alumni dinner tonight, that I've spent the last month organising... So no time to work post-6pm. And it's almost 2 now. Sigh.

Xxxc

Going round on the windmills in my mind...

Mishmash of street syle (The Sart, Style Slicker and Copenhagen Street Style), the makeup and colourway from the Kinder Aggugini show and the Richard Nicoll for Topshop stuff from Dazed Digital...

Feast:

I regularly think I prefer street style photos to runway... There's just so much more personality.

Though I did have several mini heart attacks at the TopShop unique show... Lots of my favourite 'colour' - grey grey grey - yum yum yum - aren't I wierd? Cyberspace meets 80s meets circus. Yum. I'm feeling more black and shiny these days. plus I've always loved metallic. ;-D

sequin wings? off the shoulder? me likey!

FIT purple sequinned pants... Probably akin to my ASHISH rarely worn sequinned rugby top, but so so so perfect for Planet Angel...

OMG!!! HAVE TO HAVE THAT TUNIC!!! SERIOUSLY!!!

Jewellery-crush...

I so have this as a DIY project... Neon fabric paint, black body con dress... Numnumnum.

Grey layers... All slouchy... Yay.

Xxxc

Night at the Museum

So last night I spent the evening shepherding kids around the archaeology museum in the dark... It was really truly surreal. Cambridge does a 'twilight in the museums' event where all the uni ones shut off the lights and do fun games. Ours involved picture cards and torches, finding which objects details on said cards came from. 

I have to admit I had quite a lot of fun, though by the end of the 3 hours, I was fecking freezing, as I'd left my coat upstairs. Oops!

Having been in my Eley Kishimoto heels all day, I stashed a pair of black flats in my bag to aid not-falling-down-holes-in-the-dark. Turns out I could have kept the heels on - I'm more agile in them anyways. See the scarf-necklace red-layering fun below...

The bit of the outfit seen here consists of Hobbs blazer (nicked from the mothership), Topshop Batgirl tee, Tibetan stole from Nomads in Cam, a charity shop silk scarf and red metallic beads bought in Florence for a euro. The unseen details were my grey Acne jeans and Eley Kishimoto shoes. (Though I wore M&S crease toe flat pumps in the gallery...)

 
Xxxc

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!

Ok, so it's been uber-uber-long since I posted properly, and there's probably noone left reading my inane ramblings, but hey... I am going try to start posting a bit more regularly as a) I need procrastination as 3rd years builds up the pressure and b) I need to get in the habit so I'm raring to go for my summer job, which is... 

*miniature fanfare*

WORKING AS A PRESS INTERN AT BROWNS!!! Yeek! The stores on S.Molton Street are AMAZING, and I love everything they stock, so here's to 10 weeks of excitement, working in Fashion PR! No idea yet what I'll wear, what I'll get to do etc. It's at the height of summer, so it'll probably be slow compared to fashion week season, but I think that might be good... Take it slow, be really enthusiastic and build up contacts! 

I don't really know if I want to work in fashion or arts when I graduate (2010 cross fingers) or if I want to go back to the archaeology post-management studies to do a masters and PhD... The latter is definitely what my DoS (Director of Studies) wants me to do, and I'm tempted, but this summer is definitely going to get me used to the idea of work, so I suppose we'll just have to wait and see!

My numero uno concern at the mo is having clothes suitable for my uber-stylish environment. I have no idea if I'll get any kind of store discount or what kind of price-point is going to be expected of me, but I'm thinking about slowly but surely building up my wardrobe which has gotten a little stale of late. Recession may be hanging over us all but I'm in a relatively good savings-position at the mo, and maybe I'll be able to do a bit of work over the coming months to prop my intern-expenses-only-salary up a bit... I've got a couple of shifts lined up at the theatre over the Easter break, and am stage managing a MAJOR May Ball in June for a hundred quid, so that's a start anyway. However, I'm also going on a chapel retreat in March and to Ghana for a couple of weeks in September, so I have to prepare for that too. Oh the joys of recession gloominess and no summer holiday payment prospects... I gave up my summer camp job for this internship, so bye bye easy money!

I am relatively happy, however, to just go slowly slowly. Ish. I have my Toy Watch that was bought last summer (though it needs a teeny repair if I can find the warranty...) and the Sonia Rykiel cardie I bought in the Browns sale shop on my way to interview. Those two items, I reckon, got me the job hehe. I got asked why I wanted to do the job and I explained about doing theatre costume, and the importance of clothing in building up any character that you want to present yourself as... The interview was quick, but I enjoyed it far more than my one other - politico - interview for summer stuff. Sigh. I suppose only time will tell where I end up, but hopefully this summer will be Fantabulous.

Today's naughtiness involved the buying of shoes from net-a-porter, which was BAD but OH SO GOOD... I couldn't bring myself to get them delivered in the black boxes. I'd be too embarrassed! I will post a pic when they arrive. I never know what size to go for, but I went for 39.5 which is my best guess. Knowing my luck, they'll be too small and when I try to exchange they won't have any 40s left. I will say that these shoes are flat, and therefore EXTREMELY naughty for me, little miss physio-tells-me-off-for-wearing-flats-as-my-ankles-are-wierd... Oh well. Time will tell if they're keepers!

Xxxc

P.s. I have some new topshop items - sale purchases of a ruffly light denim skirt and a "DANCE" Rainbow Brite blue tshirt... Love! Here I'm wearing them with my shell pink gap cardigan, generic gray tights and two tone converse. Don't I look happy!

Oh, and AA came up trumps for the first time ever with an orchid purple tri-blend tee. So wanting more tri-blend, and almost gave in today after seeing the black jumper on the stylish wanderer ... 

Woah. Uber-long post. Oops!

About Face

In another turnaround from one of my earlier posts about my hatred of Topshop, I have, I must admit, ventured into the murky (to my mind) waters internet clothes shopping at Topshop.com - very late to the game! I had tried on a shaped black skirt with a red rose print on a few weeks ago at Selfridges, but refrained from buying due to being unsure and at the same time, making a purchase of too expensive office-wear trousers from the Isabelle Marant diffusion range (high waisted, navy wool, nautically inspired button up bib front, to die for!!!).

Since then, I've not really been near a Topshop store, but had been mooning over it online... A few days ago, my lust for the skirt, along with a grey jersey 'origami' skirt and two items used in the latest ad campaigns - a batgirl tee and a black and coloured metallic stripes structured puffy skirt, had caught me, hook, line and sinker. And since my four items of joy added up to the scary total that Topshop.com require for shipping it all free, I thought it must be fate! That and the fact that I can return things to the nearest Topshop store, rather than faffing about with postage, if they don't quite work!

They all arrived today... I excitedly ripped open the pleasantly polka-dotted package, and tried them all on. First was the 'origami sweat skirt' (not exactly the most pleasing of titles!). I have a bit of a love affair with grey going on in my wardrobe, but I must admit that this will not be added to the collection. In part, probably due to it being rather big, and on arrival was creased and not particularly good quality. I quite liked the front, but what made it interesting there made the back hang badly and though it wasn't expensive, I have too many clothes, and additions really have to work...

Then I tried on the rose print black skirt that had been the reason for my purchasing in the first place. I love the print as I did before, but I realised that my misgivings in the store were not misplaced. I just felt quite apathetic about it. It's nice an' all, but I don't know if it will fit perfectly into my wardrobe. However, I'm going to mull until I venture out to my local Topshop tomorrow, as I did think over the purchase, and I'm going to have to get a second opinion from the mothership...



In part, my willingness to return the rose print skirt is because while I'm not poor at this particular point in time, I had wanted to save up a bit post-summer jobs... I decided that the Batgirl tee would fit nicely into my wardrobe and fits my too long, kinda lumpy body well (also, my big boobs don't obscure the print - bonus!!!).



And I am growing to love the striped skirt... While on the surface, I am going to have to work hard to get it to fit my wardrobe, it really ticks my boxes for a going out skirt... Short, shiny, interesting shape (not puffed out as it seems on the ad pics, but slightly lantern shaped), sits high.



It was sold out on the website in all but my size and one bigger (it's now sold out completely), and I'm really glad I got it. It's in a slightly crumpled state, which shows a bit due to the stiff fabric, but I really like it! I'm planning on wearing it for my next dinner and cocktails out with the girlies with a forest green strappy top, black tights, black (and gold detail) suede ankle boots and a vintage red cropped suit jacket I rescued from a covering of dust in my mother's wardrobe... What do you think?

So... All in all, I have added to my Topshop stash! A skirt and a tee for definite, and poooooossibly, a second skirt. Though that will depend on mother's eye and how ruthless and thrifty I'm feeling pre-shops tomorrow!

Xxxc