an english country gentleman

 It's uncharacteristically chilly today, so I'm taking advantage of the weather with layers and trousers to suit the brogues I cannot stop wearing. (I went back and bought a black pair, too, which I am sure to wear all the time.) And I've been unable to stop wearing my flat cap lately, under no circumstances related to my recent habit of watching too many things with Michael Fassbender in them. (He does wear one so charmingly. WE WON'T DISCUSS THIS; IT WILL ONLY LEAD TO ME COMMITTING ACTS OF SEVERE INDIGNITY.) Anyway my dad wore flat caps a lot when I was growing up so I've always had an immense amount of nostalgic fondness for them.

This blouse is pretty great. It always makes me feel I ought to be heading to a 1920s garden party populated by sprawling bright young things.

blouse: thrifted
trousers: Ross Dress For Less
waistcoat: Maurice's
shoes: Rue 21

hat: Claire's (I actually paid full price for it as it was so marvellous and there was only one left)
jewellery: Claire's

brogues!

Today's a beautiful, windy summer day -- after two days of oppressive humidity, the gently warm sun and wild breezes are a boon. I pulled on an old favourite white dress and -- oh yes -- my shiny new brogues. :D I've been hunting for an inexpensive and pretty pair of brogues for a year or two now and stumbled on a pair purely by chance at Rue 21 yesterday -- on clearance for seven dollars. They must have got them in while I was away, because I hadn't seen them at all, much less had time to lust after them before they went on clearance. They aren't the best quality, but they're pretty and comfortable, and I am never taking them off.

dress: thrifted
lace scarf: Hot Topic
necklace: Claire's; an early birthday gift from Kyra (I'd just missed snatching it up at my own Claire's and was delighted she fetched one for me)
earrings: Forever 21, also from Kyra
shoes: Rue 21

you can't take the sky from me

Hello, internet! I have been busy being Away: Merlefest Bluegrass Festival with my father the last week of April, after which I came home long enough to collect my suitcase and an hour of sleep before taking a bus to Philadelphia to hang out with my friend Anna for several days -- and from Philadelphia I flew to Anchorage, Alaska to visit my best friend for two and a half weeks. She'd just graduated from grad school at UAA, so we celebrated by... drinking a lot of tea, watching a lot of films and television, playing video games, destroying the lives of fictional people, and exploring abandoned buildings, among other things. My last week there we went to see geekfolk artist Marian Call, and ended up getting free tickets by volunteering. I took tickets and Official Photographs! And had lovely conversations with a lot of geeky people who spoke the same language of references and multisyllabic words as I. All in all it was rather a fab evening. 

And this is almost exactly what I wore! Kyra snagged me TeeFury's shirt of the day several weeks ago because clearly my life would not be complete without it (she has one too, naturally), and as Marian Call is a huge Firefly fan and references it in several songs it seemed like the thing to don.

I've been wearing the marvellous hat Charis made for me rather a lot the last few months, but it has a tendency to slide off -- so I clipped it in place with this feather clip, and the effect was quite charming. (I've wanted one of these clips for some time, and accidentally stumbled on one while in Philadelphia. Hooray!)

 

My friend Sarah had a welcome-to-summer party on Saturday, and did this henna design on my hand (after I kept forgetting the ones I did and squashing them before they'd had time to set).

shirt: TeeFury
skirt and vest: Rue 21
necklace: skeleton key from my house on an old chain
earrings: handmade, from a Russian shop in an Anchorage mall
boots: thrifted
hat: made by Charis
feather clip: an odd little boutique in Philadelphia

rainy saturday adventures

 I spent today -- a rainy, windy Saturday -- with my four-year-old sister reading all of the books at the library and then dashing through the downpour across the street to the library for muffins (she: wildberry; me: chocolate). So: cosy, quirky, and bookish was the order of the day!

 

blouse, skirt, (probably) stockings: thrifted
belt, boots: Rue 21
necklace, earrings, gloves: Claire's
hat: my marvellous friend Charis made it for me!

 I do own other shoes! I'm just madly in love with these, especially after having watched them patiently for three months till they went down to seven dollars. Plus they're green and buckley and pull on easily and add a nice bit of quirk to any outfit. (They look lovely tucked under my jeans, too.)

  

I managed to snag both necklace and earrings (on different occasions) for a dollar apiece -- Claire's has the best clearance racks, especially if you're super vigilant. I've got earrings that are a miniature version of the necklace (also a dollar!), but felt like wearing these great trinkety ones today.

 

My friend Charis makes a lot of wonderful hats, and as she is making crafts for people every month this year, she sent me this amazing hat for February (also a drawing of a tentacle lady with pull-away skirts, because she is the coolest). It's a skeleton key pattern, which is perfectly me, and I adore it.

carry on!

 It may be difficult to tell from the pictures, but it's blessedly warm again today, after several days of damp chilly greyness; I am therefore obligated to blind everyone with colour. At least a little!

 

Keep Calm And Carry On t-shirt and coffin ring: Kyra, from Walmart (mine didn't get either!)

trousers: Ross Dress For Less (several months ago I finally acquired my yearly Jeans That Actually Fit! whoo!)

shoes, blazer, beret: thrifted

apple necklace: Christmas present from Anna

I've had these fetching green pumps for a long time, but have barely worn them because they were slightly damaged -- they turned up at Goodwill brand new, but with some slices and irregularities in the decorative fringe (like a machine slipped or something). Finally about a month ago I found them in my closet, chopped off the fringe and bows, cut the bows to the same size, and hot-glued them back onto the shoes. You can hardly tell they were meant to be otherwise! I call that a win. 

I am overly fond of my purple coffin ring and enjoy wearing it with otherwise non-gothy outfits. And the necklace! It's very similar to the one Amy Pond wears with her wedding dress in the Doctor Who Season Five finale, which is exactly what Anna had in mind, cos she's awesome like that.

this is my winter song to you

Lost pictures taken just before Christmas (!!!), or Jo wears mori-girl to fetch Christmas trees.

 Note ALL OF THE LAYERS. Winter is cold!

These were my grandfather's combat boots when he was in the Korean War. Apparently he kept them as snow boots for decades. A few years ago my grandparents were moving out of the house they'd lived in since my father was a kid and we spent a few days helping them clean things out of attics and closets that had barely been visited for a very long time. The boots were going to get thrown out until I, to everyone's puzzlement, claimed them. My grandfather has very small feet, so they're actually a lot less huge on me than one might expect.

I fell in love with this coat (real leather, originally from Maurice's; found at Goodwill, of course), but wasn't going to get it, because... I do have a coat. I have more than one coat. But my mother fell in love with it, too, and insisted on buying it. Guilt abated!

 Honestly I don't remember what I was wearing under the coat that day. But look, delightfully silly furry hat! (Curse you, mori-girl fashion; I never would have been drawn to a furry hat were it not for you!)

 

Fantastic military vest I found on clearance at Rue 21 -- I have a lot of black and dark brown vests, but I really wanted something lighter. Ta-da! 

 

The hat: also a December Rue 21 purchase, and since then a wardrobe staple. It has a cheery striped bow!

 Best Walmart shoes ever!

I BET YOU CANNOT DISCERN HOW COLD I AM IN THIS PICTURE. I BET YOU CAN'T.

why yes, i am dressing for my eyeliner

I HAVE GOT MY CONTACTS BACK. This is a source of great and unending joy, as much as I heart my crimson geekspecs -- not only do I prefer my face without glasses, but I also no longer twitch my nose constantly to keep glasses from sliding off my face, and I can wash my face, shower, put on makeup, open hot ovens, and don turtlenecks without undue discomfort. And wear dramatic eye makeup. 

Anyway, I've been wearing favourite dresses of late -- it is definitely the weather for long dresses that will flow nicely in the wind. I've had this one for three years or so and I love how I don't even have to wear much with it to look very impressive. The pattern on this dress, guys. My oh my.

 

All items thrifted, save the cameo necklace, which is from a pendant I bought at Michael's and the cord to another necklace.

 

 This next dress has been my favourite item of clothing this autumn. For whatever reason I tend to latch onto a particular outfit every autumn, and this seems to be this year's -- I'd passed it up at Goodwill several times, thinking it was too large and not very fitted, but I love vintage floral housedresses, so I finally tried it on and it fit like a dream. Also, by then it was twenty-nine cents. \o/

I've probably worn it about ten to fifteen times since I bought it about two months ago. It is cosy and pretty and suits multiple aesthetics! Somehow, it has always resisted being blogged, however. No more!

I've been wearing it in a sort of rural, New England-gothic way mostly, although with my heavy brown boots and a cardigan it passes for something cosy and gentle as well. 

Dramatic eyeliner (how I've missed you!!) + Forever 21 Celtic-esque headwrap, hooray!

You've seen this necklace before, but I do, in fact, love it incredibly. Bonus close-up on dress pattern.

 And yes, I'm still highly enamoured of my wee Hot Topic bat necklace. And my lovely owl ring, which is beginning to be a bit tarnished. Perhaps absurdly, I tend to like my jewellery more when it no longer looks new.

It was actually quite chilly outside when I took the last set of pictures, but it's been cosy in the house all day, really! I didn't want to hunt for a jacket that I hadn't even been wearing! It would be disingenuous.

pretty things from last week

 Backlog tiiiime! A slightly grainy photograph -- taken on the way home from a shopping trip as the sun was going down -- of an outfit which greatly pleased me. So many autumn favourites coming back to play! That brown sweater with its very distinguished buttons was a mainstay of my wardrobe-of-ultimate-cosy last winter. The stockings I must have bought at some point, but I found them in my drawer last week with no memory of how or when they arrived there, and have been wearing them almost incessantly since. Skirt thrifted by way of Rue 21 two autumns ago -- I have the same skirt in a different, softer-and-darker-coloured pattern which I bought on clearance, but I missed this one and was pleased to see it turn up later. It has pockets! And large buttons showing you wear the pockets are, although both of them are off at the moment, as one fell off and I can't find it, so I cut the other one off so I can actually wear this very lovely skirt.

 

Autumnal gothic streak activate! I found this lovely blouse with corset lacing up both sides at Goodwill (of course) and can finally bring myself to throw out my former little black blouse which has holes in the lace at the neck. (I... get very sentimentally attached to my clothing.) All things thrifted, save accessories (Hot Topic, Rue 21, Claire's).

 

And once more, with my lovely long red jacket! I wore this to my weekly open mic session at the local coffee shop, although I hadn't remembered it was That Day when I was dressing. When I show up tonight in a slightly oversized cable-knit sweater, dark jeans, brogues, and a flat cap, the other denizens may be confused.

 

GLOVES OF MY DREAMS. From Claire's, ring from Rue 21. 

 

 The true root of the outfit was, of course, this exquisite little fur collar from Hot Topic -- my best friend alerted me to an online clearance sale by linking me to things I might like. Usually I say "ooooh" and then hide my wallet from myself, but. But! I have wanted a detachable fur collar for an age! And had no idea where to get one, though I keep seeing them on blogs. It ties with a little ribbon! Also it was less than three dollars. It kept slipping, so I fastened it with a cameo brooch my mother bought for me on eBay two Christmasses ago.

There are no Hot Topic stores near me at all. This is a source of great sadness.

 The root of this next outfit? I HAVE BROGUES. I HAVE BROGUES AT LAST. Real proper cosy leather ones, which I will never, ever take off. I was so close to spending irrational amounts of money to snatch some very similar ones up on eBay, but a pair finally turned up at Goodwill -- you can find anything at Goodwill eventually, but rarely when you actually specifically want it -- and I am over the moon.

 

 

They have a very slight heel, but not so much that a day of walking in them bothers me overmuch. I also ordered a lace scarf from Hot Topic with my fur collar (it made the shipping charge count for more, okay -- and it was approximately two dollars), and it was very entertaining digging around for the right sort of girl!Englishman pieces to suit everything. 

 Cosy button-down sweater, a staple of two winters ago; stripey shirt (I have a weakness for stripes), beloved peacoat, lovely lovely brogues: thrifted. Scarf: Hot Topic. Gloves and hat: Claire's. (The hat I just bought at full price omg because I have been eyeing it for months and there was ONLY ONE LEFT, HORRORS. I adore flat caps, but for whatever reason a lot of them do not fit me properly, and this one did. My father used to wear these all the time, and I've been rather cross that I could never find girl ones in the nifty patterns his came in -- no more!) Trousers: Ross Dress For Less.

Cameo bracelet, below: Walmart, from back when I occasionally found wearable jewellery there -- three years ago? Four? One of the bits fell out and it's sat in my jewellery box for several years until I suddenly remembered a) it and b) the existence of super glue and fixed it.

 

hello, october

Ah, month of all months! Scarves and stockings and sweaters, huzzah! On Friday I wore my favourite weird thrift-store dress to properly celebrate the onset of my favourite month, and traipsed about in the graveyard for an hour or two looking for a ghoul gate.

 

Perhaps a little awkwardly this meant that I was dressed like, well, a fantasy novel escapee, when I went to the local coffeehouse's Friday night open-house. Next week I will try to just dress like an indie kid; I feel as though I am alienating people sometimes. 

I do adore this dress with all of my being. It's handmade, so I have no idea where it came from or how it ended up at our Goodwill.

Saturday saw me dressed rather more approachably in my Good Housekeeping t-shirt and cosy elephant thermal. I wish I'd gotten better photographs, but I was so held up by various shenanigans that I couldn't get a photograph till the sun was setting. (All thrifted: except I think Anna sent me the stockings.)

 On Saturday I bought a seriously delightful necklace, and hence spent the entire fifteen minutes between waking and having to leave for church attempting to put together an outfit to go with it. Somehow I managed: and made my bed and applied makeup and sustained no injuries in the process. A new record! Anyway I'm incredibly thrilled with the finished product: it is perfectly autumnal. And I do love to use my Little White Dress as a pallate. (All thrifted save bow and jewellery and gloves.

 

THE NECKLACE. I paid full price for this, which I rarely do, but I knew it wasn't going to last till clearance, and there were only a few left. I was lost when I saw the little button-eyed owl, to be honest. But I love clustered, multi-textured necklaces a lot anyway, and this is just so fantastic I want to cuddle it. (I also have profound weaknesses for buttons and locks.)

Both gloves and ring are from Rue 21; the gloves from last winter and the ring from a clearance bin on Saturday.

And finally: new hair! I basically dyed it the same shade my more vibrant red had faded to, which is nice and pumpkiny, but now free of awkward grown-out roots! And my marvellous friend Anna sent me a package full of hair dye products she couldn't use, including the exact shade of midnight blue I have wanted to try. The effect is definitely one of my favourite hair dye results.

  

 Goodnight, lovely readers.