All the Frills: House Upgrades

So I’ve been doing some work on my house. The next big planned project is painting but, in the interim, I installed some new light fixtures and also painted our fireplace. I always really disliked the tile that was around it and am super happy with how the job turned out!

Before...

In progress

In progress

The finished product

Old chandelier

New chandelier

New chandelier

New pendant lighting in the kitchen

Weekend Reading: 

• A little shot of cuteness for your weekend.
• I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the academic job market is a depressing, depressing place and I am so happy to be in a non-academic position that allows me to keep up with my research and do the odd bit of teaching.
• Researching in the archives is one of my favourite parts about being a historian. This story is why (and, bonus, I spent 4 months living in LA and working at this particular library).
• The Valentino Pre-Fall collection has totally blown me away.
• I, for one, will dearly miss Leonard Nimoy.

Casual Wear

With no meetings on my calendar at work a few days and a ton of new furniture that we ordered from IKEA to spruce up the office to be put together, I went casual.

sweatshirt: ASOS, similar / jeans: Zara

Terrifying White

This is big for me. As reader’s of the blog know I never, ever wear white. But I figured it would be practical to have one white item in my closet, especially to wear to work, so I added this top to my wardrobe. And then I wore it to work and I didn’t even spill anything on myself (although there were a few dicey moments when I ate lentil soup for lunch).

top: Simons, similar / skirt: Banana Republic / necklace: Simons, similar / bracelets: Aldo, similar

All the Frills: The Kale Sweater

This sweater was seriously made for me. I got my MA, MPhil, and PhD from Yale. And I love kale. Seriously, this is kismet!

Weekend Reading:

• This is a fun little quiz to waste time with. I got George III. And I’m okay with that.
  
• Anyone else a huge Anne Boleyn fan? Well, this will interest you if you are.
  
• I am beyond excited that the Magna Carta is coming to my city for a viewing engagement!
  
• Okay, people want to pretend to be mermaids and get a swim workout in to boot. Fine. But the thing that I always loved about mermaids was that, in folklore, they’re often vicious man killers and rather sinister beings.
  
• I am amazed that one person managed to amass this incredible collection of rare books.

Expanding My Closet

Sometimes I forget that I can toss on some tights and wear my maxi skirts in the winter. Look at that, I just added like 2 or 3 outfits to my winter wardrobe. Go me.

skirt: Target / shirt: BB Dakota, similar / shoes: Aldo / necklace: Aldo, similar

Blushing

This pale shade of blush is quickly becoming one of my favourite colours (sshhh, don’t tell black, grey, and navy that I’m cheating on them). I never thought I would really appreciate a shade like this all that much but I’ve owned a shirt in this colour for years and it’s an old stand by. So when I saw this dress I was pretty smitten and I’ve been wearing it a lot since I purchased it.

dress: F21 / necklace: Aldo, similar / wrist bands: Target, similar

All the Frills: Lives of the Queens of England

This book, a volume from Agnes Strickland’s Lives of the Queens of England series, is one of my most prized possession and probably the book I own that’s worth the most as a rare book. I treated myself to it when I was working on my MA thesis (which was on Queen Anna of Denmark, the subject of this volume). And I am forever glad I did!

Weekend Reading:

• I am so ridiculously excited to see Wolf Hall when PBS finally starts airing it here.
  
• Well this a bit embarrassing for the Romanian embassy.
  
• I posted a story about this medieval Italian warlord (and patron of Dante) a little while back, and this is a follow up. You guys, history is awesome!
  
• Here’s a story about an amazing ancient mosaic that was found recently.
  
• Want to look at some photos of gorgeous rings? Sure you do.
  
• Law and Order, Law and Order!!!!! Sorry, I’ll try to contain myself.