All the Frills: Workspace

I surprisingly don’t often work at an actual desk. I’d say on average I spend about 3-4 hours a day pursuing research, working on my article or book project, and pursuing other history-based endeavours. But I usually just grab my laptop and set up shop wherever seems coziest and most conducive to work in the moment. Sometimes the couch, sometimes the kitchen counter. But I have set up a little functional work space for myself in our new house – it’s big advantages are lots of natural light and a very large table (which becomes pretty essential because I’m usually dealing with about 20+ books, photo copies of articles, and digital reproduction print outs of primary sources at the same time.

And when I say “digital reproductions”, I mean the image below. Basically photographs I took, page by painstaking page, of books and papers from my last research trip to the archives. Things I wasn’t directly interested in studying at the time but that I thought I might want to have a look at later. And this doesn’t even include the stuff I had professionally copied for me which all now lives in a very overstuffed filing cabinet. Basically I definitely need this larger workspace!

Weekend Reading:

• In honour of Thanksgiving, have you ever read Awkward Family Photos' "Marney Letter"? I highly recommend you check it out. And this year they've posted a video interview with her in which she explains her "beef with tinfoil."
  
  
• So apparently there are a fair number of bags of vomit littering the moon.
  
  
• This lady was awesome. Who doesn’t love a Spanish grandee? And she had some Stuart blood (“pretenders” to the British throne dating from the 1688 Glorious Revolution). That makes me love her all the more.
  
  
• The headline to this story really makes me giggle. And the story itself is pretty good.
  
  
• Ah, the seedy word of academic publishing. I get emails asking me to “publish” with various journals pretty frequently and so I really love this.
  
  
• Disney characters who are terrible, terrible beings. Some of these are pretty humourous.
  
  
• This is a really delightful (and funny) piece about one woman’s letters to celebrities…and those who responded.

Autumnal Yearnings

I've been sitting on these photos for a while (as my Edmonton readers will now, the city is under a blanket of snow currently) but, in my defence, I was just trying to hang onto the last vestiges of autumn for as long as I could.

As much as I love winter, I have to confess that I miss fall.

Fall is my favourite season to be outside in. The crisp air, the gorgeous colours, fall has seriously got it all. And, in case you haven’t heard it from me enough times already, fall jackets are my other favourite part of the season!

jacket: BB Dakota / booties: Target

All the Frills: It's Been a Rough One

So I’ve had a bit of a rough week. I dropped my phone in a sink. It was definitely not one of my finer moments (and it involved a lot of cursing in the kitchen at work). And it precipitated a whole lot of running around one evening and eventually buying out of my existing phone contract and switching to a whole new company and getting a new contract and a new phone. It was exhausting. So now I’m soothing myself with thoughts of winter jackets. I pulled out one my favourites (below) for the season recently but I’ve also got my eye on these numbers (even further below).

ModCloth

ASOS

ASOS

Shopbop

Weekend Reading:

• I’m all for a good prank that (in addition to being for a good cause) tricks neo Nazis.
  
• A new edition of the original (fairly gruesome) Grimm’s fairy tales? Sign me up!
  
• The burning questions about potatoes and millennials, answered in ludicrous calendar form.
  
• This article about recent fiction works with a dystopian future plot is fascinating.
  
• My word! Who knew seals could be so indecent?

Productivity

I was really proud of myself the day I snapped these photos (which was a few weeks ago before we got hit with snow...pre-Halloween actually. I'm terrible at a quick turnaround on photos). It was a weekend but I was super disciplined and got up early, worked on my new article project for a few hours, did some yoga, ran around all over town getting all the pieces of my Halloween costume, drove the car for the very first time all by myself, and then came home and made a delicious vegetarian lasagna which is basically my lunch at work for the next two weeks now. So yeah, I basically accomplished more on this Saturday than I had in the entire last week. Go me!

pants: H&M / jacket: F21 / shirt: Target / necklace: Target / boots: Steve Madden / sunglasses: Aldo

All the Frills: Elizabethan

Over the years I’ve amassed a somewhat embarrassingly large collection of framed reproductions of Elizabeth I (I have a problem). Today on All the Frills I’m featuring three of my favourites (there are about 6 others that I didn’t feature here … see what I mean about having a problem?).

I’ve always loved this portrait of Elizabeth as a teenager, and the rich red tones (and intricate embroidery on her gown) are a highlight for me.

My all time image of Elizabeth is this image of her in full coronation regalia. You’ve got to love an ermine cape.

And, finally, the Ditchley Portrait, perhaps one of the most iconic images of Elizabeth. This one of full to the seams with iconography! 

Weekend Reading:

• Want to see some gorgeous vintage hotel interiors? Sure you do.
  
• Elizabeth Banks stepped out recently in Elie Saab and totally killed it. I can barely express how awesome I find this gown.
  
• Faux beauty queens for hire in Mongolia. This is so weird … and interesting.
  
• This new exhibit sounds totally fascinating … too bad I’m not in Toronto.
  
• I cannot wait for this new documentary on Banksy to come out. And I am totally convinced that Banksy is a lady.

To the Pool!

The department here at the University of Alberta in which I earned my BA and MA, History and Classics, recently invited me to come and speak with current graduate students as a part of a series of workshops on pursuing non-academic careers. Apparently I have a successful career that other history PhD candidates should hear about. Good for me.

This outfit really has nothing to do with any of the above but I wanted to share it nonetheless. This "tunic" I'm sporting is actually a pool cover up that I snagged at Target because I loved the pattern and didn't really give a crap about what it's intended use was. That and my apparently successful career are things worth celebrating.

tunic: Target / leggings: ASOS / boots: Target / cardigan: Pins + Needles / bracelets: Aldo

All the Frills: Halloweenie

Today on the All the Frills I’m featuring a little highlight reel from my Halloween celebrations last Friday. Did you dress up this year?

Weekend Reading:

• Are you familiar with the Villisca ax murders? Well, this news story about one man’s paranormal “experience” is really bizarre and sad.
• Cats!!!!!
• A brilliantly written dissent of a recent ruling to uphold a ban on gay marriage. This is worth a read.
• These photos of Icelandic twin girls are breathtaking.
• I get hungry just watching this.
• Some of these Victorian photographs are just down right creepy.

Thankful for Studs

I wore this for Thanksgiving a few weeks ago (these photos somehow got buried on my computer). As you can see, I’m very thankful for studs.

blazer: Zara / leggings: ASOS / top: Target / necklace: Aldo

Impromptu Flashing

I was so happy that it was windy when I wore this full midi skirt! While it did blow up indecently once or twice (I’m pretty sure the people in the Safeway parking lot enjoyed my impromptu flashing session), it made for awesome photos.

skirt: H&M / top: Simons / necklace: Target / jacket: H&M / booties: Camper