Navy is the New Black

This is sort of a weird outfit for me in that it doesn’t involve a lot of black. I mean, some black and a fair amount of navy but still, I’ve been mostly wearing black almost daily for the past few weeks (something about the final waning of winter and the true onset of spring makes me want to reach for darker and somber colours, I guess) so this is pushing things outside of my most recently defined comfort zone. It also constitutes my most recent attempt to get more wear out of this lacy cardigan that my eye is always drawn to when I open my closet but that I never seem to wear all that frequently.

Yeah, I’ve got a lot of things going on with this.

dress: Simons / necklace: c/o OASAP / cardigan: thrifted, Value Village / boots: Dr Martens / tights: Winners

Seasonally Inappropriate

The onset of spring and summer always puts me in sort of a goth mood. Weird, I know.

dress: H&M / shoes: Aldo / tights: Target / watch: Kenneth Cole / necklace: Monserat de Lucca via Shopbop

All the Frills: The Cartography Corner

Just like the slightly weird pillows featuring historical personalities that I seem to be unwittingly collecting, I seem to also have amassed a large number of reproductions of historical maps – of which this is just one. They’re the kind of thing that a lot of historical sites in Connecticut sell (as one of the first thirteen colonies, etc) and I know I’ve also picked up a few in Edinburgh the last time I was there. It’s a good thing we’re moving into a house of our own soon – I’ll finally be able to display these things properly. Maybe I can even have a nook of the house that I christen Cartography Corner? Yes, that’s definitely the answer.

• Have you guys heard of the Peeps Show before? The one where people set up Peeps (the little chicken puff candy things) in elaborate tableaux? If not, enjoy
  
• This is beyond cute!
  
• This wildlife photography is absolutely amazing!
  
• Wow. Just wow. McDonald’s, you’ve outdone yourself yet again
  
• This story makes me deliriously happy! My favourite bit, after the description of someone wielding a giant Toblerone bar as a weapon, is this: "He said he was trying to entertain the other passengers and was making 'fun and jokes' "
  
• This is an abhorrent example of homophobia in action
  
• This woman is my new hero
  
• Spiderman versus a villain with a poor understanding of human reproduction – also as known as a super weird comic book

Timing...and Why I Lack It

The upside to warmer temperatures is a return to semi-regular outdoor photos.

In other, unrelated news, I got offered a one year contract as an assistant professor of early modern European history at an institution where I really wanted to work. And I had to turn it down. Because, while I would have jumped at this chance a year or two ago, having a permanent, steady, reasonably fulfilling job that pays well and allows me to buy a house and be planning a trip to Scotland is just too good to walk away from for a one year gig, no matter how good the opportunity seems. But that doesn't mean I'm not still cursing the horrible timing of all this and consuming a healthy amount of wine and cheese (okay, it's probably not a healthy amount, but give a girl a break).

tights: Winners / dress: H&M / cardigan: can’t recall / boots: Steve Madden

Rubber Boot Weather

Edmonton get a lot of snow over the winter. So when the temperature starts to rise there’s a lot of muck and water in the street. Like a lot. Enter my old rubber boots!

boots: Kamik / pants: RW Winter and Co / blazer: F21 / top: Aritzia / necklace: Aldo

All the Frills: I'm a Giant!

On my last excursion to Edmonton’s own Antique Mall (also known as the place I would live at if I could) I came across this absolutely adorable tiny Italian-English dictionary. How could I resist? I mean who doesn’t love feeling like a giant?

• Slate is right, this Buzzfeed quiz is pretty magical…and gross
  
• These are so amazing beautiful – I want to run away to some of these places right now!
  
• I have a mild obsession with raccoons. Seriously, they’re soooo cute!
  
• Sometimes I kick myself that I don’t live close to NYC anymore – I’m dying to see this exhibit
  
• These are some amazingly beautiful photos of snails. That’s right, snails
  
• Looking for a good real estate opportunity? The world’s most haunted island is now for sale
  
• Intrigue surrounding Paris’s high-end prostitution business in the eighteenth century – this is fascinating for the historian!
  
• In honour of Easter, get ready to be creeped out
  
• I literally want all of these – all of them, including the Frans-Tromer

Fancy Shoes

These are my wedding shoes. They are very impractical and very lovely and were the only costly thing about my wedding (hello discount wedding dress!) and most of the time they live tucked away in a box in my closet. But I do enjoy pulling them out every so often and wearing them out for drinks. But I am very, very careful when I wear them. Very.

pants: Banana Republic / shoes: vintage / sweater: Zara / necklace: Monserat de Lucca via Shopbop / bracelets: Aldo

Italian Masterworks

I wore this a few Saturdays ago to go to the Alberta Art Gallery to view an exhibit of Italian Renaissance and Baroque pieces on loan from a Glasgow collection. It was amazing and made me really happy that my local gallery is able to mount such beautiful exhibitions but also a bit nostalgic for the museums of NYC and London which I really feel I should have tried to see one last time before I stopped living in those places (or close to them). That said, I have visited the Met about thirty times so maybe I’m just a museum junkie?

blouse: ModCloth / dress: Zara / coat: ASOS / boots: Steve Madden / purse: Urban Outfitters

All the Frills: Pillowy

I’m not exactly sure how I managed to amass all these specialty pillows but somehow it’s happened (I think they were all gifts). I especially enjoy my English history set of Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth I. Although I still think it’s weird you can get that on a pillow.

Weekend Reading:

• Baby elephants learning to use their trunks = adorable!
  
• Anyone who’s ever been to grad school will know it’s soul crushing sometimes, especially when it comes to pay inequity. Some students at Duke did something about that
  
• Please, please, please read this in its entirety. It’s perfect
  
• Have you ever tossed a message in a bottle into the sea? A fisherman just pulled one from 1913 out of the Baltic Sea
  
• An interesting opinion piece on why the Canadian fashion industry isn’t thriving. Discuss (I could talk your ear off about this issue)
  
• Edmonton’s got some new stores opening…welcome back into my life Loft!

Wackily Sized Leggings

This is vaguely ridiculous but I ordered a pair of leggings from ASOS and grossly miscalculated the conversion of British to American sizes (which is weird because I lived in London for a bit and got pretty damn good at making that conversion on the fly as I shopped) and wound up with a pair of leggings that are like 4 sizes too big. They are, however, perfect for the waning of this particular Alberta winter in which I have, several times, needed to layer wool tights and an additional pair of leggings underneath because it’s been -40 out with the windchill. Advantage me!

 

leggings: ASOS / tunic: Target / boots: Target / necklace: Aldo / bracelets: Aldo / watch: Swatch

Purgatory

I have a section of my closet that I call “purgatory.” Essentially, it’s where I move things that I’m contemplating passing on to someone else and, based on a rule that I’ve arbitrarily created and imposed, things live for about six months and then, if they’re not worn in that time period, off they go.

This blouse lived there for a while but I decided to pull it out and wear it. And, having done that, I think I’ll put it back into the regular rotation section of my closet. I sort of forgot how much I like it…

blazer: BB Dakota / blouse: ModCloth / heels: Marshalls / pants: Dynamite

All the Frills: The Necklace Tree

Several years ago in Connecticut I got this awesome Halloween decoration. And after Halloween that year I decided that it was simply too awesome to pack away in my holiday decoration storage box and that it would, in fact, make a perfect jewelry tree. And I was right.

Weekend Reads:

• Transitioning from academia into a non-academic position is something that I’ve had a lot of experience with – this article from the Atlantic offers an interesting take
  
• Anne of Green Gables, dirtbag
  
• WTF???!!! This is an outrage.
  
• I love that new discoveries about the Black Death are still being made!
  
• Surreal photos of abandoned malls 
  
• Metal cats!
  
• This is awesome and would really make my summertime commute to work a lot easier

My Favourite Form of Charitable Giving

I wore this to a fundraiser recently – the University of Alberta’s Mac n’ Cheese Affair.

Basically you buy a ticket and get to eat a lot of mac n’ cheese with the proceeds going to the Campus Food Bank.

I’m not going to lie, it was pretty awesome. And I picked up a few great things in the silent auction portion of the evening…so, bonus!

dress: Simons / blazer: H&M / boots: ASOS

Not a Real Doctor

I may have a PhD in history and Renaissance studies from Yale but the shirt says it all, I’m not a real doctor…in the life-saving sense at least. But if you ever need anyone to take about gender and identity in the early modern world, or maybe the social history of early modern England, then I’m your gal!

shirt: Buy Me Brunch / jeans: Zara / necklace: c/o OASAP / boots: Target