Pink, red and purple

I have been in a bright mood lately. As the weeks race past and spring has begun, life seems unusually full of possibilities. Even if I haven't slept very much, energy levels feel higher than normal.

And, in reflection, I seem to be becoming more and more attracted to my favourite bright, cheerful, girly colours: pink and purple and (with today being Red Nose Day) the obligatory splash of red.

I actually first noticed this colour scheme a couple of weeks ago when the new series of BBC drama Mistresses, a highly unrealistic and indulgent look at the ridiculously dramatic love lifes of four friends. One of the characters, Jessica ('Style File' here), who is the most fashion-conscious, has been wearing some lovely pink and purple ensembles which reminded me that for once, I actually have the items which could complete a similar look. So out came the deep pink naiks, gorgeous new bag, bright pink t-shirt over purple vest, and purple skirt. I could have added some purple tights, pink shoes and my cardigan which would have perfectly matched my nails. But that may have just been going slightly overboard.

Then there's the card I was making from 9PM to 12AM, when in my sleep-deprived state I was drawn to the pinkest possible shades. Out came pink file paper, floral light pink fabric, shiny red card, rose tissue paper, magenta beads, purple sequins, lilac paper, pink thread, red stars, glitter. In my mind, pinks and reds and purples are not weak, silly or effeminate. They are strong, passionate and beautiful.

On this blog you can find proof of the power of these colours. Shopping experience has even provided me with evidence of the therapeutic qualities of pink. Red lipstick is proven to beautify the palest, driest lips. Purple... with a beautiful bag in this royal shade, what's not to like?

The lovely birthday girl for whom I made this card and took out in this outfit isn't even that into pink, but it seems that I am.

For now...

I have all these fabulous post ideas, and absolutely no time! I have a total of five fully formulated post ideas just waiting to be written, and never enough time to do so. It's exasperating! OK, I admit, maybe it has a little something to do with Desperate Housewives taking priority over blogging, but you know, same difference...

However it would simply be plain rude not to pass on yesterday's lovely award given to me by blogger Zmaga. So, here it is, a token of fabulousness to all the wonderful bloggers who are much less lazy than I:


The stunning Sally at Already Pretty
The super Sarah at Or False Glitter
The lovely LLG at LibertyLondonGirl
The wonderful Winona at Daddy Likey
The creative Clothes Horse at The Clothes Horse
(I did try to think of a better adjective for the stunning, super, lovely, wonderful writer of The Clothes Horse and even considered using her first name but alas it is the same initial anyway so it doesn't really solve any problems. But all the fabulous bloggers are equally fabulous so...)

a delight

I was just about to resign today to skipping out a day's post. I've been doing that a lot lately, and it makes me feel sort of sad not to see any regularity or neatness in my blog archive. But then I've never been a particularly neat person, and I can never get things quite in line.

Luckily, the absolutely lovely Zmaga at zmagasupergirl.blogspot.com has awarded me with a beautiful blog award. It has delighted me every time I receive one of these, and so I am looking forward to passing this award on to 5 more delightful bloggers. Maybe the reason these awards are such a delight is because one of the best things about this blog is the insightful and fun comments I get from readers. Every time I get a new reader, who comments and contributes, it's even better. For them to present me with such a fabulous award as this... well, what a delight!


Thanks, Zmaga!

So would you please excuse me if I delay the passing on of this pleasure for a couple more days. It's really late now, because I've been so busy trying to correct the millions of small and imperfect mistakes I have made on my little sister's birthday card. I told you I could never get things quite right.

encore

With yet another Vogue Paris gift, I am well aware that I am being spoiled!

It seems that in France they're more into the themes than here in England, with a whole issue dedicated to Chanel and a supplement entirely dedicated to enfants - children!

From front to back page, the supplement is filled only with pictures of adorable childen (they left the ugly ones out...); even the ads are all baby designer fashion ads. Of course they are incredibly cute, and some of the mini-shoots are refreshingly unique and did I mention, they are sooo cute??

But once I got over the initial awwwws and oooohs and aaahs I wondered if maybe this whole thing was a little bit disturbing. One thing which struck me was the actual presence of designer clothes for kids; children grow so fast, the clothes are so expensive, plus there's the whole angle of dressing them up like dolls or using them as status symbols. Even if that last point is going a little OTT, the concept of it to me seems completely effete.

There was also an article about celebrity kids, with a whole page dedicated to Suri Cruise and then another to other 'cool' celeb kids. I haven't actually got round to tackling the article yet, so my point may be exactly theirs and completely pointless. But again, something about this really disturbed me. Famous toddlers? Isn't that a step too far?

Worst of all, however, was this incredibly creepy advertisement for Almax.

Note: please excuse temporary awful phone camera quality, must remember to charge camera...

a hot-water bottle novel

Today, despite the gloomy weather, I felt an urge for a nice solitary walk; not in the mood for a run, not in the mood for company. I had a bit of money to spend, a receipt from a book I bought a couple of weeks ago but hadn't redeemed on my Waterstones card and a World Book Day voucher stolen from my little sister. I wanted some pale pink nail polish. I really fancied one of those delicious stuffed peppers a nearby cafe sells.

So I passed the morning in the nearest Waterstones branch, where I found a 10 feet tall pile of books I wanted to buy. Of course I soon remember that I have a 20 feet tall reading list at home, so I was restrained enough to only make one purchase: John Steinbeck's East of Eden. It was the only copy and a little damaged, so on top of my WBD voucher and card, I got another £1 off. Doesn't book shopping sometimes seem more fun than the actual act of reading?

Anyway, after perusing several shops and concluding that I don't actually want pale pink nail polish at all, I braved the cold for a walk back home. After a lovely stuffed pepper lunch on the way, I hadn't expected the weather to have got any worse, but now it was pouring with rain. I spent the rest of the journey back half-running, trying to keep my hood up, my fingers covered my bags from getting wet on the inside.

When I got home I decided to search online for the other book I had almost bought, by the great grand-daughter of Charles Dickens. Without remembering the book title or her first name, it was almost impossible to search for a novel by a person called Dickens who isn't Charles. In addition, this book has been out of print for around 80 years and only recently re-published so it was even harder to find. Eventually I found the novel: Mariana by Monica Dickens. It was published by a company called Persephone Books which ' reprints forgotten classics by twentieth-century (mostly women) writers'. In the bookshop, I was intrigued by this premise and the charming description of Mariana's life, but East of Eden worked out a little cheaper so I decided that this could wait.

Now I have read the description written by Persephone Books (you can buy it from them too, here) I am all the more fascinated. It sounds just right after the heavy string of writing I have recently been reading, and what's more, it is described as 'a 'hot-water bottle' novel, one to curl up with on the sofa on a wet Sunday afternoon'.

This is definitely now on my 'to-buy' list, and i'm not too worried about missing out on it today, since I'm sure London has plenty more wet Sunday afternoons in store.

Lucky Charm

I don't come from a particularly spiritual background, and I'm not at all superstitious in the broken mirrors sense. However my mother has always been superstitious and I like not to ignore my spiritual side.

When I was much younger and sitting various exams, I would always wear the same white shirt, which had metal buckles and made me feel very snazzy. It served me well although now I'm older and it doesn't really fit anymore, nor do I find it particularly snazzy.

But now, with the new onslaught of tests, I decided I wanted a new lucky charm. My lovely mother came forward with a beautiful necklace of hers. I asked where it came from, and she couldn't remember the name, but she told me it was a company run by two women. One of them is the business manager, whilst the other designs. Apparently, the designer is very much into the spiritual aspect of life; horoscopes, astrology, that type of thing. In fact, she is so entirely separate from the material world that without her partner she would never be able to run any sort of business.

I found this story quite sweet, and it seemed to add a lucky element to my charm. Of course, there's no telling yet if it actually worked or not... but how could something so pretty not work?

Your scent

Do you have a signature scent? Or do you like to have a selection? Do you mix different perfumes or stick to one? Fruity or floral?

My current perfume is this Chanel, although at times it feels a little too grown-up. So I'm going to buy a new one, but have no idea where to start...

Over to you

This is part II to my recent ode to my wardrobe.

Every person with style, by the very nature of it, has a different style. This marked difference is delightful for me, and I'm sure for plenty of other people like me who enjoy looking at nice outfits. Take just a few of my favourite dressers on my blogroll (a good example would be Lady Melbourne, Susie Bubble and Odi et Amo) and you will see how good style can manifest itself in such different forms. But we all knew that already; variety is the spice of life, isn't it? After all, Oscar Wilde coined it when he said that 'fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months'. Trends are boring, only style is enduring.

I mentioned yesterday how getting dressed in the morning felt much harder when my wardrobe was in a state. I couldn't find the clothes I was looking for. Rumpled and ugly, nothing appealed. I would tend to wear whichever clothes were still out, strewn across a chair. A special occasion calling for something a bit fancier would invite panic as I, quite literally, had to empty my entire wardrobe to find something and then go through the tiresome process of piling everything back in.

Now, the hanging part of my wardrobe has clothes organised in matching combinations. This is not only pleasing to the eye, but invites new outfit ideas. The rest is so much more organised and generally tidy so that I can see everything in there. Folding and stacking all my stuff, there were things which I was beginning to forget I still had.

My shoes are still in an awful disorganised mess, which means it can take forever to find the pair I had originally wanted to wear. I often simply don't have that time, which is why outfits can often be much more thrown-together than if I had a Carrie Bradshaw-esque walk-in wardrobe. I was led to wondering, if the state of my clothing storage has such an impact on my style, if something similar happens to other people.

I began to wonder if the different styles of people I admire translate to different clothes storage. Having read the blog and stylediary of two of the examples I mentioned above, I have seen that both bloggers have (in the past, I don't know about now) pretty much as different methods of storage as styles. Susie has occasionally provided a peek into her absolutely packed wardrobes, which contrasts heavily with Kokopuff's closet. So we can see that different storage methods don't impede personal style, but perhaps they do impact it.

But what about a changing state of storage? I know that the tidy current state of my wardrobe won't be lasting long. In the meantime, I'll dream about organising my accessories drawer and my shoes.

Armoir Organisation

This weekend, whilst on a self-imposed ban from Facebook and staring blankly at the walls wasting my time, I finally got round to tidying up the out-of-control mess that is my wardrobe. Other than boredom, this process was born mainly out of necessity, as getting dressed in the morning was beginning to be a little difficult and even to impede on my dress sense (but more on that tomorrow, in the slightly more text-based follow-up to this post).

However whilst tidying up, I began to marvel at the beauty of my wardrobe, the piece of furniture itself, not the clothes inside it. Of course, it's not hard to beat my previous clothes storage system, which comprised of four plastic baskets which weren't even located in my bedroom. But there's a vintage charm to my current armoir which makes any problems with not enough space, or not being able to close unimportant.

I love the unfinished white paint of the wardrobe, which was bought off eBay and had to be smashed apart, reassembled and re-painted in order to transport it.

I love the quirky little labels which are completely inappropriate to my modern day usage of the storage space. I love the hanging room it provides for clothes I want to show off.


Would it be wrong to love one's wardrobe more than they loved the clothes inside?

Next I will be thinking about the possible effects a person's clothing storage system might have on their style, or vice versa. For now, I'd love to see the wardrobes of all you gorgeous bloggers! Call it the nosy side in me, but consider yourself tagged (yes, ALL of you).

Value for money.

The high street often seems to find it perfectly acceptable to charge high prices for not very much at all. Add a few beads or a strip of lace to a simple t-shirt and it can cost anything upwards of £40. Take some cheap metal and plastic, call it a necklace and charge £30. I have been looking for a new leather day bag since the strap on my old one broke. Everywhere I look, it appears to be perfectly acceptable to charge £50 for a fake leather bag, which seems to me to be insanely overpriced. I want real leather, which looks better, is better for the environment and feels better but I do not have a limitless budget.

So I was delighted to find that the sale is still going at Ollie&Nic, where I picked up this beautiful new tote:
I love the bright colour, which works perfectly with my dark wardrobe of greys, blacks and navy. The lining is a lovely chandelier print which matches the cover of the book I am currently reading perfectly - yes I know, inconsequential, but I'll take a photo tomorrow to prove to you how charming a selling point it really is. It comes with a free purse, and extra strap so that it can also be worn across the body. It's real leather, and only £50 down from £165. And, essentially, it's big. I needed a new bag because all my nice ones were too small, apart from the broken one, a couple of cotton totes and a rucksack.

I didn't quite realise how big this bag was when I bought it. Not only is it big, it's also pretty heavy. Toting it around today, my shoulder did ache a little - although of course I could always switch carrying methods thanks to the different options. Still, I know I just need to get used to it, or maybe just carry around lighter crap. Either way, I definitely feel like I got value for money with this weight purchase.