Friday, November 28, 2014

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:


Monday, November 24, 2014

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

Friday, November 21, 2014

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).









Weekend Reading:


Monday, November 17, 2014

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

Friday, November 14, 2014

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:


Monday, November 10, 2014

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

Friday, November 7, 2014

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:


Thursday, November 6, 2014

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

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

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