Friday 13th

no black cats or broken mirrors... so far. just a nice trip to cedar farm with oliver. my only bad luck today was to be put to shame by this fine fellow's beautiful plummage. i bought some nice presents there, i'll let you see once they've been delivered. can't go ruining any surprises!

jumper - secondhand
belt - Ryan Vintage
skirt - thrifted, altered
tights - Marks and Spencer
bag - Oxfam
shoes - Docs

xx.

P.S. Vogue!

that's my beautiful sister, far left.

Bitter Knitter

after a recent introduction to qin, i went to check out her blog and when backtracking, found this post. it reminded me of an item i knitted last december to sell at my sister's fashion event, WTF. it's more than a collar, not quite a scarf, and so cosy!

i miss knitting! my mother taught me how, and she still knits herself (currently, she's making me some really cute socks). my sister and i looked through some skeins of wool at the market in london, talking to a woman knitting a scarf, and thinking of mum and all the nice things she would make with them.

keeping myself occupied at the back of the bus home from college with my music on full blast and knitting needles at the ready earned me the nickname "bitter knitter". but it's just not a summertime sport for me. until winter hits again (which could be sooner than i bargained for, seeing as this is england and last summer was a precipatory disaster), i'll just keep the knitter within occupied with Prick Your Finger and put my woolly weapons away somewhere safe.

Birthday Bingeing

my friend sarah turned 18, a week after becky turned 19 and two weeks after cara turned 18 as well! so many birthdays...
we went to a nice place called haigh hall for a couple of hours and ate our weight in old school party food, including my homemade cakes, to say au revoir to her childhood.

Sunny Days

my oldest sister and i went for a picnic in the park on sunday. my parents went to a gala day whilst we were picnicking, and bought me a jar of lavender and lemon marmalade.

and today i made cauliflower cheese for tea after my friend oliver came round. we sat in the garden and ate the first strawberries that my mum and i planted a few months ago.

top - H&M
dress - Topshop
belt - thrifted

London Calling

last weekend, on a whim, i went to london to see the queen.
well, not quite the queen...someone even better; my big sister.
whilst i was there, we found out through a friend that she's in the style pages of this edition of British Vogue! and in the same flower coat that she drew in the picture, featured a few posts ago.
check out page 90, in the bottom lefthand corner (Vogue Spy, trend - florals) - i'm so proud, i could burst!

after driving down south on saturday with the parents, we stopped off at the Verulamium Museum in St.Albans. there were the most amazing preserved mosaics and a man's skeleton, found in 1989 in a beautiful lead coffin decorated with scallop shells. he was christened Posthumus and using his skull, they had made a reconstruction of his face.

M+D carried on to their friends' home in Chelmsford and i got the train to Kings Cross St.Pancras. and then got the underground to Liverpool Street. and then got a train to London Fields. phew!


i didn't go on a full bank blowout like i usually do when i go to visit, but i did buy some very pretty things.
at spitalfields market, i bought some cheap scraps of leather (and used one to make cara's birthday present) and a cute little knitted ladybird finger puppet for my best friend (another birthday present - i'm giving her things bit by bit)

at brick lane market, i finally found a straw fedora that's big enough for my head! the nice man selling them had the same predicament, and he cheered when i tried one on that fit.

we headed down to Beyond Retro, where i found the perfect pair of men's brogues...but at £28 secondhand, i couldn't really justify running around for a cash machine. instead, i got a pair of earrings and two bags of vintage buttons.
on the way home, we visited Superette, home of my long-time obsession Lady Luck Rules Ok and bought two really sweet sample necklaces on the cheap.



and for £1, i couldn't resist this. maybe i'll wear it into town sometime soon...

i would have gotten this t-shirt had i not have run clean out of cash.

whilst i was there, we also took a walk down the canal, played with two little black cats who live at a friend's house, went to the flower market, made mexican food and watched The Hours. i borrowed a Karen Walker dress that made me feel like Laura Ingalls Does The Big City, and went home on monday, in time to revise for history.

Schoolgirl Error

my friends are so much fun. as soon as i arrived at the school disco (fashionably late as per), i was greeted with the cutest homemade cupcakes and vodka jelly.

vest - handmedown

cardigan - Primark

(bought three years ago - i feel like i have to justify that i was young and naive at the time of purchase, nothing but a real silly schoolgirl who didn't appreciate the pure evil that is Primark, even with it's recent beginnings of an ethical makeover)

tie - my sister's old school one

tights - Marks and Spencer, attacked with scissors

socks - ???

and you can't see it, but i'm wearing my Docs as well

just like a real schoolgirl, i had too much cider to drink, ran around being silly with my girlfriends and punched a couple of boys. the only thing missing was smoking behind the bike shed.