marvellous wine-coloured shoes

Today was a more than usually victorious Goodwill day. I've barely been since I got home from Alaska, but Mum wanted to go today, and clearly it was Fate, for I've a number of new treasures that are sure to be cropping up here by and by. (Also a pair of boots I won't be wearing much for a while as they are fur-lined -- but they are powder-blue and lace up and are perfectly mori-girl; I couldn't help myself.) Even with the cape, the brand new J. Crew sweater, and the boots, the absolutely most delightful find was a pair of wine-coloured Newport News pumps, which I had somehow missed on my first go-round (maybe someone was trying them on?) -- fortunately my mother found them and called me over excitedly. They are EXQUISITE and you know I've the massivest weakness for coloured shoes. Also: ribbons. I am so excited to wear these regularly and only wish I had a proper party or event to which to take them. 

 

dress, skirt, jacket, shoes: thrifted
necklace: pendant from Michael's on an old chain
feather clip: boutique
earrings: Kyra, from 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

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.

cheer in february

My bff sends epic packages, and I got one today, mostly full of socks, books, and geeky trinkets. And this shirt and skirt, which, as I was in my pyjamas when the package arrived, I donned immediately.

 So, not only is it A T-SHIRT WITH AN ADORABLE BESPECTACLED LADYOWL, but I kind of have spectacles exactly like those. And my passion for quirky t-shirts is as fierce as ever. Also the little button-down folds on the skirt are darling.

COFFIN RING. PURPLE COFFIN RING. Yeah, okay, it is possible to know me too well, perhaps.

 

Now these shoes I have been admiring for months now at the local Rue 21, but they were originally $35, which is a) more than I have ever paid for any single item of clothing in my life, b) far too much to pay for shoes that, while pretty, are hardly quality craftmanship, c) ...uh, yeah, LOTS OF MONEY. Shoes don't always stick around long enough to reach the super-clearance levels from which I typically buy things, but these finally went down to seven dollars and I snatched up the last pair and have barely taken them off in the week since. They are flat buckley boots and they are green; I've such a weakness for coloured shoes. 

The gloves are, of course, my beloved Rue 21 gloves from last winter; the hat from Claire's, the stockings from goodness knows where (I tear my black stockings too often to remember when and where I got the most recent pair), and the fetching wool blazer thrifted last summer.

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.

winter brightness

Ah, more bitter cold. How delightful! (The sarcasm keeps me afloat.) Between frigid weather and catching various small maladies my fashion sense of late has been dis-coordinated and usually hidden under a quilt anyway, but I feel better when I dress better -- and anyway it's Sunday; I can't go to church looking like I'm cosplaying a 1930s hobo. In a cartoon. Um. Anyway, this sweater dress (Goodwill, of course) has been something of a lifesaver this winter, as it is unimaginably warm and cosy, though slightly too large -- but a belt fixes that. (This corset-laced one is from Kyra's Christmas package.) It's also knit to be a biiiit see-through for both modesty and cold, so I wear a lacy dress underneath, which gives it an extra touch of whimsy as well. Bitter weather calls for COLOUR, and LOTS OF IT.

 

 

I bought this hat and matching gloves (we ran entirely out of gloves!) on ruthless clearance at Claire's last week. Annnnd it's totally poofing wrong in the first picture; LOOK IN THE MIRROR FIRST, JO. I promise I can wear it while not looking absurd.

 

Miscellany necklace from Claire's, and warm stripey gloves from same, two years ago.

 I've been mostly wearing the same two or three pairs of boots for the last month, on account of the PILES OF SNOW, and have finally had it, so pulled out my long-beloved orange heels for church this morning. I bought them at Goodwill three years ago or so and am still charmed. Stockings also thrifted, worn because they're one of two or three pairs I have that are actually really thick and warm.

and after this, five hundred words

November, being the month I spend all my days hunched over my desk writing frantically (happy NaNoWriMo, everybody; it's my third year), tends to be a year of a) cardigans, and b) story-appropriate clothing. Last year I wore my Vampires Beware t-shirt rather a lot, as well as long elegant dresses; this year it would seem there will be a great deal of boots and cardigans and flat caps, for I am writing about a 1940s English village (and also werewolves, and the Wild Hunt). Alas, we ran out of batteries all throughout the house, so I haven't been able to get very many photographs in between writing frantically, entertaining family company, and attempting to teach myself how to sleep again.

 

 My mother has a rather agreeable habit of snatching up inexpensive items for me when she's trawling Goodwill on her lonesome: I came home from a two-day excursion to Pittsburgh to find this beautiful crimson lambswool J. Crew cardigan folded on my bed, which my mother acquired for thirty cents. If I had all the money, I would buy a lot of basics from J. Crew, especially cardigans, but this is so perfect and cosy and right that it tempers the longing a good deal. Red sweaters are The Thing, you guys; they are in my perfect imagining of autumn and winter, and for whatever reason I can never find any that fit properly, but this is glorious (and so warm). 

I was feeling a bit bleh that day, so I simply layered it with my little white dress, a black skirt for length, and my cosy striped knee socks.

  

Closeup on the lovely cableing, and my beloved skeleton key necklace (by which I mean 'the key that goes to my door on an old chain'; it looks very storybookish, I think). 

 

 

I think brown may well be my favourite colour for shoes. These are wonderfully comfortable.

 

Mum thought me very 1890s in the above outfit, which was a sight better than some of her comparisons (street urchin, her mother, mystic she saw on the streets of Pakistan in the 1980s).I'm wearing a rather floaty grey polka dot dress under the red dress, again mostly for length. All items thrifted, save my fur collar from Hot Topic, which is swiftly becoming one of my favourite purchases ever.

 

I managed, after quite a lot of tries, to get the key tied prettily onto the collar (I tried to wear a necklace with this outfit and could not; either the fur or the buttons got in the way, so I thought I'd try this instead), but look, I did it! Earrings are from Rue 21.

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.