If only I was older and wiser...

I'd maybe be able to act on some of my fantasy wishlists!

Today, I've been yearning for Jonathon Saunders' acid brights, up now on Net-A-Porter.

Quite bright, I must admit... But I feel that it would be suitable for the spring days ahead!

(Jonathon Saunders dress, Crumpet cardigan, Proenza Schouler bag, Aurelie Biderman bracelet, Marc by Marc Jacobs bracelet, Lanvin brooch, Lanvin ballet pumps)

Ah to be able to afford even just one of these cute things!

Xxxc

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

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

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

Sleepy... But PHOTOSHOOT!!!

Hey all,

Exams creep ever closer - they start with one on Monday, then two on Tuesday, then I have a week before my final final on Tuesday 9th - and I'm so unprepared. But never mind... Sleepiness pervades, but I'm just popping in to post up a photoshoot we did a few days ago. 

This is one of my favourite outfits - because it is made up of my favourite charity shop find ever, some of my longest serving shoes, and the cutest cardie in my wardrobe! Sorry for the generic-streets venue. Exam term doesn't leave much time for photoshoots in the nice places - only in the bits in between! ;-)

So...

I love yellow... Really??? Never... (Captioned)

- "Alex, there are *People* around!"

- "Alex, stop taking photos like a paparazzi!"

- "Alex, I'm ignoring you!"

- "Alex, you still there?"

- "Alex, seriously, what are you doing?"

- "Alex, can I twirl with shopping bags? No? Why not?"

- "Alex, you're a meanie..."

- "Alex, whassat???"

- "Alex, there's a cute boy over there... Stop taking photos so he doesn't think I'm a tourist!"

*Please excuse the shopping bags.* We didn't quite think the order of the afternoon's activities through. I lugged these (and dragged TB) to a book launch and then for photos, for no real reason, since the supermarket is actually, technically, on the way back to college from all these places. Hmmmm.

Anyway, I'm wearing: vintage, handmade floral dress bought at Sally Ann's Salvation Army store in Cam; Pringle cardigan (the seams are stitched in pink and green, which you can't see here, but is just the cutest detail ever!); Kate Kuba suede heels; vintage, purple sunglasses; vintage, tooled leather belt; Maptote Cambridge (Mass.) bag and Lady Luck Rules OK brooch. 

On that note, I really must get back to the library. Life's very dull at the moment. But got to keep going... for another two weeks. Sigh.

Then, I'll be back properly, with a vengeance ;-D

Hugs to all,

Xxxc

Images, as ever, taken by Alex Tatton-Brown. Thanks to Pamela Jane Smith.

Playing the leopard

Ok, so I have a confession to make... I know I said there were no more photoshoots for a while, as T-B has gone home, but we maaaaay have done one the day before he went home that I haven't put up yet... What can I say? I'm sneaky like that ;-D

It was a  lovely warm day last weekend, and I had just got a leopard print top from ebay that I wanted to play with ASAP... I love the playfulness of it! The fact it has leopard faces hidden in the print and the material is so heavy and nubby, it seems lightyears away from anything remotely tacky or difficult to wear. Leopard and other animal prints have really got a resurgence going on at the moment, and while I'm quite far away from the femme fatale / rock chick that usually rocks it, I don't think I did tooooooooo badly ;-D

Prowling leopard, leaping cat

skipping along the riverside into the more 'townie' part of Cam.

See the print?

I am most likely Actually falling over in these pics... No balance.

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! Spin spin spin spin spin...

How cute is that cat!?!? He looked a bit like our college cat, but when he didn't decide to hang off my arm in a fit of schizophrenic action, we were disabused of any notion of similarity between this lovely and Captain Haddock!

Only in Cambridge... It's a please don't chain bikes to railings sign... Except not in English, but in Latin and Greek. This is the street where several of the college houses for fourth years are (we live in college for 3 years and if we stay for a 4th or more, then we get put in accomodation like these cute little houses... Or in the divinity schools across the (cobbled) street from college, which they're currently renovating for Grad accomodation. It's so pretty, but tumbledown inside...

So... What was I wearing? Vintage leopard print top off ebay, vintage skirt, Jocasi leather belt, vintage tooled leather bag, Jaeger brown court shoes, Vintage porcelain pendant, Toy Watch, very very old tiger eye bracelet...

I should really be in the library now... But I'm rather happy, sitting in my "work room" (i.e. my room mate's bedroom that I've converted into a study pour moi over the holidays while she's away... My own desk is too untidy ;-D) and still in my nightie and big comfy cardie, not quite bothered to do anything. Possibly something to do with having just finished watching the last episode of Swingtown (so so so sad it was cancelled) and now my brain is too lethargic to be productive ;-D Ooops! Holidays are baaaaaaaaaaaad for work ethics!

Right. Off to find food.

Xxxc

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

divine intervention?

I almost bought those Westwood shoes last night... But what seems to be an act of the accounting god forced Browns to sell out. Oops. 

But in more fun news, the Rokit scarf and bangle arrived today. I love them. The bangle's just the right amount of heavy / chunky, and the scarf's neat, fun and colourful...

The scarf print kinda reminds me of this from Marc Jacobs: 

After the wait... Do you like?

Woop!

Xxxc

I'm really awful.

I just ordered something from Rokit...

There's something about essays that makes me do something else... Like buying pretty accessories online.

It's a scarf that reminds me a great deal of the print from Marc Jacobs' Fall 09 stuff, and a studded bangle. Woop! I'll post when they arrive, but I suppose this gives me an excuse for some shameless MJ love. 

For me, this collection really was all about the colours... The shapes scream ladies of leisure, but the colours say otherwise... The use of velvets and silks is masterful, and I just love those pinstripe trousers (grey, blue and mustard - SIK!) and the 80s makeup!

Can I have some of those gold shoes please? Thank you very much. Oh and the grey cardie wouldn't go amiss either...

Teeheehee. Hopefully my scarf won't take forever! Cross fingers for me... Already got plans...

Xxxc

Feeling Black

I always used to be a NO BLACK CLOTHING zone...

But lately, black has been jumping out at me all over the place... (sorry about the tiny-ness - click on it to see a bigger version.)

In recent weeks I've also acquired a few more black things to try out anyway...

First up, black Topshop hareem trousers. Just so f-ing comfy!

- with h&m top and tibetan stole plus footless tights from a play and m&s flats

- with black tights probably from sainsbury's lol, primark tee, charity shop necklace and urban outfitters horsey scarf. Worn with black m&s flats again. 

I also found THE heeled oxfords today... Ok, so a few months ago I would have said No Way to black, but now it feels good. And they were only £25 in a sale here in Cam. (I also got a longer pair of brown boots which are yummy and I will post soon!) I am SO SO SO loving the sheer ribbon laces! 

And, here's a pair of silk 3/4 lengths from 3.1 Philip Lim, in the Luisa Via Roma sale that Bryanboy alerted me to! You can't really see the silky shininess, but trust, they work for the pjs trend lol. I'm using them as surrogates for a pair of ice blue long silk pants I almost got from h&m a while back. Still regret leaving them. But these will do... Even if my room mate thinks they're ridiculous!!! ;-D
- just with h&m top...
- with h&m top, the oxfords, vintage belt from the mother and vintage porcelain pendant.

- I've had this black (Jack Wills - eeeuuuurrrch!) cashmere (so so so so so soft) jumper a while... worn with Kat Kuba shoes, Acne jeans, h&m tee underneath, vintage silk scarf and Paul Smith mustard blazer. I wore this to my Classics class on Wednesday and TOWERED above everyone. Hehehe.

What do you lot think of black at the mo?

Xxxc