Finding

things like old family photographs...

worthless heirlooms you thought you'd lost forever...

and blue skies for the first time this summer...

odd organic vegetables that appear in the fridge...

a new found appreciation for moths and butterflies...

...and rediscovering my pancake-making (and eating) talents too.
life has ways of making bad things bearable.

Miniature Living

my friend lisa bought this necklace from me yesterday.
i think i'll make one from the rocking chair for myself.

p.s. tag from cotton candy:
Link the person who tagged you.
Mention the rules in your blog.
Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours.
Tag 6 following bloggers by linking them .
Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger's blogs letting them know they've been tagged.

1. when eating skittles, it's important that i eat 5 (one of each colour) at a time until they run out, beginning with purple then green then yellow then orange then red.
2. i never read my bank statements.
3. i talk and do things i don't remember in my sleep. recently, i jumped out of bed at a friend's house shouting "oh wait, just a second" and opened her bedroom door like i thought someone was there.
4. i only sing in the shower when i'm sad.
5. i'm an enormous bookworm, and i'm still hung up on fantasy fiction despite being past the age where it is socially acceptable to believe in magic, mythical creatures and other worlds.
6. i'm naughty and never carry on tags.

A-L-one

this came in the post.

i disagree, don't you?

Home Comforts

in france, i saw this beautiful house right by pegasus bridge.

one day, i'll live somewhere just as nice...
i'll keep chickens, like these fluffy little fowls from cedar farm...

and do quaint things like drying my own lavender.

i will also, of course, still have a cat.
they are the ultimate home comforts.

listen to mevansa for some soft, slow talking songs that'll make you wish you were driving through big sky country.

Sing-along, Happy Song

Lady of Leisure...

i have been so very busy since i came home! hard to believe i found time to post on arrival. i was picked up at the airport on friday and taken directly home to dye my hair. i had a little accident in france....
i'd let my roots practically take over my head, we're talking at least five centimeters of brown grow-back. so, as i was flying back a day early specifically for this special ball, i knew i had to sort the bad hair time out. at the tres grande supermarche, i bought a very blonde dye, the closest thing they had to bleach. needless to say, it turned my roots orange and my hair a fetching shade of lavender-mink. i put up for this for a day, then bought another on thursday. it looked dodgy, but it was all honfleur's pharmacie had to offer (such a pretty place, pictures to follow). so off we went and tried again. this time, i came out with the weirdest coloured hair i ever saw. orange, mixed with purple, with an undertone of grey. nice.
anyway, i came home and sorted it out in time for the ball and am now a brunette again! but as i keep telling everyone who seems to like it, don't get used to it. i'm already planning my next hair venture. this is merely transitional.

friday night was lovely. my best friend matthew took me to the Boogaloo Ball - it's to mark the start of our town's jazz festival which apparently is world renound. we went with his family and our other friend matthew's family and girlfriend. after meeting the mayor, a champagne reception, five courses and a slightly off band, we went into town.

the dress i wore belongs to vicky, who was given it by her neighbour. we know it's vintage, we've been told 1950s but we have no means of proof...i've worn it before on my 17th birthday and it fits like a dream. the bag is my mother's.

every picture of me from friday is hilariously unflattering.
it turns out the dress doesn't make me a lady, sadly. but that corsage could! isn't it pretty?

saturday i was in recovery mode from over indulgence. and then on sunday, it was off to the races for my friend emily's 18th - more champagne and more sunshine than i saw in france.

we didn't plan on coordinating. i just pulled out a Topshop handmedown my sister barely ever wore and ran with it.

the flower detail on it is so pretty, it's like an ink sketch with watercolour paints. but it's not as pretty as the birthday girl-to-be.

the past two days, i worked 16hours at a factory. if ever there was an incentive to get a degree and move into a profession, it's that job. i have to package adjustable kitchen cabinet legs and have never felt more like chopping my own off. my cuticles are cut to shreds, my fingers are rougher than tree bark and i feel like my soul is slowly being destroyed. i'm going back next week though. £££!

p.s. tonight, i found a really interesting site to trawl, life less plastic (introduction courtesy of Time Magazine)

18/07: i found these on my camera, they felt excluded.

Back In The Game

sorry for the unexplained leave of absence, i went on holiday with my family in france!
i meant to share some stuff before i went, but i left my packing to the last minute as per usual...

i went to see the new narnia film in the week with two friends, ate myself stupid on popcorn. i love narnia, the books first and foremost but the films and the other adaptations come in at a close second. it's irritating that they've completely skipped "the magician's nephew"...but anyway, it was good. i came home and mum made me into a mythical creature. how nice it would be to have antlers!

a couple of posts ago, i raved on about the rob ryan-tatty devine collaboration and found out about his enterprising offspring barbara frankie. she makes her own magazine, BFR and kindly sent me a copy. i'm going to send her some stamps for future issues this week - yet another thing i failed to do before holiday.

vicky came to see me off as well, in a beautiful skirt her grandma had just finished, made from old curtain fabric and trims. as i have previously mentioned, i am anti-beige. but this skirt could seriously see me switching sides.

"Applause, Applause, Applause!"

After catching Ghostbusters 2 on tv the other day, I have been daydreaming about Annie Potts every waking moment. Or should I say her character, Janine Melnitz, the wisecracking secretary. She's sharp, sarcastic, sassy...all the best s-words.

Red hair has been playing on my mind recently - I've been seriously contemplating a different dye job, and her cropped pixie cut from the first Ghostbusters and the beautiful overexaggerated bob from Ghostbusters 2, not to mention her cutting edge rockabilly quiff from the animated series...they're all only persuading me further.

As if the hair wasn't good enough reason to style-dolise her, she also sports a wide wardrobe of delights. Miniskirts, mismatched earrings, a huge leopard fur coat and lime green gloves. Personally, I'd lose the Harry Potter glasses in favour of the cute cats eye ones she wears in the cartoon, but somehow she makes them work. If I changed my mind, I could always bring out my own inner secretary chic at Lady Luck Rules Ok.

She's my favourite as Iona in Pretty in Pink, another 1980s hit. She's so much more magnetic than Blane, possibly one of the most disappointing romantic heroes of the 20th century. If I was Molly Ringwald, I would have ditched the trustfund boy and just hung out with staple-shooting Iona and her ever-changing hairstyles instead.
This, by the way, is what hair accessorizing genius looks like. A mini pillbox hat teamed with a bright hair net? Oh my, it's the stuff of daydreams...

However much I might love Iona, the real star of Pretty in Pink is clearly Duckie.
But I won't start about him, or I'll be typing until my fingertips fall off.

Great Clothes Amongst The Groceries

On my errand run yesterday, I wanted something cool enough to deal with the warm weather but nothing requiring copious amounts of naked flesh. Lucky for me, I got this dress in the sale when mum and I did the big shop at Tesco last week.
However much I might like something I buy, I always feel like I have to justify it by making the most of it, wearing it in the best/numerous ways possible. Despite my aversion to beige and khaki, there's something about safari shorts in the summer; maybe years of pretending to be an intrepid explorer in the woods across the road is taking its toll on my style subconscious. Either way, I nicked my mum's pair to look and see.

The pictures were taken in the wreckage that used to be my parents' bedroom. The decorators are coming tomorrow, so I thought I'd make the most of the carnage as a background.

Isn't the print pretty? We're growing pansies in our garden, but the rabbits keep eating them.

The sandals are also from Tesco, also in the sale. I'm usually not one for snakeskin, even if it's faux, but these were too nice to pass up. They're not restrictive like all the gladiator-style shoes I've seen (good when you've got big feet) but they're still reminiscient of the sandals you'd wear in a sunsoaked ancient land. Just maybe with a toga rather than a Tesco dress and handmedown tights.

As well as exploring the possible look of "Afternoon tea on an African safari", I deconstructed a donated necklace, and made the ring and the bracelet out of some of its remains. I test-wore them, and as much as I like them, I think they're meant to be presents for two of my favourite people.

The moral of this post would be shop at Tesco - however, as I am on my "nothing new" quest, I cannot advocate it. However, perhaps it wouldn't do you any harm to have a quick browse the next time you go to stock up on bread and beans and Ben & Jerry's...

Floury Fingers

Yesterday I baked scones with my friend Sophie, using my mum's recipe.
Here it is, in case you want to try it.

you will need:
8 ounces self raising flour
2 ounces margarine
1 1/2 ounces sugar
2 ounces glace cherries
1 large egg
2 tablespoons water
(makes 6 - 8)
to make:
1. preheat oven (160 degrees)
2. rub margarine into flour (until it's the consistency of breadcrumbs)
3. add the sugar and the cherries, and mix in (make sure the cherries don't stick to each other)
4. whisk the egg and the water, and mix in (until you have a soft, pliable dough)
5. line a baking tray with greaseproof paper
6. split the mixture into round balls and flatten gently
7. put the scones on the tray and glaze with the leftovers of the eggwash
8. cook for 15-20 minutes, or until golden and then leave on a wire rack to cool

dress - H&M
leggings - secondhand
shoes - cheap shoe outlet
scarf - charity shop
I felt like a land girl or a housewife, baking with my hair up like this. Next time, I'll take in some evacuees and build a bomb shelter.

Today, I have to run errands like posting birthday presents and university forms, and taking my cat to the vets. I can't stop listening to "plastic romantic", a remix of the Laura Marling song New Romantic, by some boys under the name of Microphyst. Listen to it here.

P.S. The Sartorialist spotted a fellow 1940s-esque lass a few posts ago, how nice.