All the Frills: ColourPop

So I may have gone a bit crazy with my most recent ColourPop order….I can’t help it, I love all their stuff sooo much. Has anyone else used these products?

Weekend Reading:

• So this is basically the most perfect thing I’ve seen all week. Please read/digest this one…
  
• Some of these, from a Buzzfeed list of people who should probably never, ever have sex, are pretty damn funny.
  
• A lot of these, which may have provided some inspiration for Games of Thrones, are from the period I study.
  
• Meh, Edmonton (where I live) isn’t so terrible.
  
• This article about Roman sanitation systems (specifically the reminder that we can’t assume the reasons underpinning their creation of such systems are the same as ours would be…which is basically the cardinal rule (trust me) of being a “good” historian) is great.

Revisions Done!

Worn out for a celebratory drink right after I resubmitted my revised book manuscript to press – as you all probably know, those revisions, which I was contractually obliged to finished by April 15, were a real slog. I cannot tell how you relieved and happy I feel to have it finished. Now, let’s see if the press likes them, hates them and drops me, or still wants more. Yup, it’s a bit of a never ending nightmare.

boots: Geox / leggings: ASOS / dress: ASOS / jacket: H&M / necklace: F21

eShakti Review

I’ve featured eShakti here on the blog before and am super thrilled to be doing so again.

eShakti offered me the opportunity to select a dress from their extensive collection and then customize it both to my unique measurements and also with respect to neckline, skirt length, and sleeve length.

I picked this little navy patterned number and I am most definitely not disappointed (I never am with eShakti though). The material is a lightweight cotton that will be perfect for summer (it was super windy here the day that I wore it for the first time, as well as being sort of mucky out, so I opted to pair if with boots) and it has pockets. I love me a dress with pockets. It’s also just the right amount of feminine for me, with a flared skirt yet in a darker color and with a more understated floral pattern. And the chance to customize things for my body and style preferences can’t be beat.

So, if you haven’t checked out eShakti yet, I definitely recommend it. You can visit their website here, find them on Facebook here, and hit them up on Twitter here.

All the Frills: Damn, I Own a Giant Crocodile Skull...

So I recently turned 36 (someone please tell me I tell me I don’t look it!!!). And because I am a crazy person with incredibly strange taste, my helpmeet purchased me with insane giant gold and black crocodile skull.

And it’s really huge.

When I first saw it in a shop, I thought to myself, “that looks like something Marie Antoinette would own” and I stick by that. It’s the sort of thing that I’ve coveted for a while but would never, ever actually buy for myself (I mean, it’s something Marie Antoinette would buy…there’s a life lesson in there somewhere).

That makes it the perfect gift. It was made even then impossibly more perfect because my helpmeet also got me a few books I’d been asking for and set up all the presents in a scavenger hunt around our house, complete with adorable rhyming hints and everything. So, yeah, my 36th birthday was a pretty memorable one!

Weekend Reading:

• Having picked through some of this documentation myself on a lark one year when I was actually meant to be researching something else, I quite enjoyed this.
  
• This is such a lovely approach to dealing with dementia.
  
• The discovery of a very well preserved dress likely belonging to an elite woman. I love this!
  
• The state of paid maternity leave in the US makes me incredibly sad.
  
• I can’t stomach another flower crown and lace crop top. And don't even get me started on high waisted cut off shorts. I just can’t with ‘festival style’ anymore.

The Courtney Love Collection (Bet You Never Thought You'd See Those Words Together)

I am a huge Courtney Love fan. Yes, I know she’s little nuts. I don’t care. I love her. So when she partnered with Nasty Gal for a capsule collection, I was on it like white on rice. And that’s how this slip dress came into my possession.

dress: Courtney Love for Nasty Gal / blazer: ASOS / leggings: Target / sunglasses: Aldo / boots: Aldo

Thrifting Score!

This is, from what I can tell, an almost brand new jacket from Forever 21 that I found recently at Value Village. It was too Tim Burtonesque to pass up.

jacket: F21 via Value Village / dress: Simons

All the Frills: My Drunken Vacation Ring

Today I'm featuring what is probably my most favoured ring. It’s not a real diamond or anything but it was a pretty pricey and good quality fake nonetheless. And I got in Scotland. I’d seen it in a shop a few times and coveted it but was put off by the cost. Then I spent an afternoon on a patio on the Royal Mile getting my day drunk on and had an alcohol-fuelled, carefree vacation revelation to the effect of “bitch, you’re on vacation … treat yo’ self!” And I did.

Weekend Reading:

• These book covers are hilarious! Seriously, read this one!
• Finally, products just for ladies.
• My question is why this gym has a cut out of Bon Jovi in the first place.
• This is a moving piece about the effects of human trafficking.
• I love it when cats get jobs (dogs too, of course).
• How many of these female journalists have you read?  

Jacket Weather No Longer

The jacket was not really actually a part of this outfit in that I just tossed it on before we raced out for dinner with friends because it was freezing outside and I actually left it in the car when we got to the restaurant (like I say, it was not intended to be part of the outfit). Trust me, the whole thing is much cuter without the jacket…sorry!

pants: Mustard Seed via Simons / shirt: Fervour via ModCloth / shoes: Toms / jacket: Hamnett via Winners

It's an Homage

I recently acquired this chevron print top (it’s sort of a match with an eerily similar purple top I have…I featured it on my All the Frills section recently). It’s quickly become a closet favourite. I feel like it’s my personal ode to Tim Burton.

top: Everly / pants: ASOS / jacket: H&M / boots: Steve Madden / sunglasses: Aldo

All the Frills: Accessories

So Forever 21 is not typically a place I get accessories, mostly because the quality’s obviously not that great and I can’t usually find things I like. On a recent, and unrelated, foray to the mall however, I found myself in F21 browsing around to kill time and came across this necklace and bracelet. Even though I’m sure they’ll be short-lived and break easily, they were pretty cute…

Weekend Reading:

• A short video of one of my all time favourite museums (I really miss my regular visits here when I lived close to NYC).
  
• This article, about animal trafficking in ancient Rome, is really interesting.
  
• Sharks scare the bejesus out of me.
  
• The photos this woman commissioned are super creepy…and she’s a monster.
  
• I had never read this essay by Nora Ephron before, and it’s pretty fantastic.

Thane of Cawdor

Worn for running errands – I’m not usually a big print fan, but this shirt is totally working for me.

pants: Target / shirt: Joe Fresh / boots: Steve Madden / cardigan: thrifted via Value Village / sunglasses: Aldo 

In other news, I finally got around to watching the recent film version of Macbeth (by the way, it’s my favourite Shakespeare play and I read it at least once a year and have done for the past 15 years so it’s sort of shocking that it took me so long to get around to seeing it). I LOVED IT!!!!!! Has anyone else seen it?

Grunge is Dead

Sometimes I evidently leave the house looking like I’m on my way to the funeral of a grunge rocker in the late 90s. Meh, I’ll take it.

boots: Dr Martens / tunic: Simons / jacket: H&M / leggings: Target / purse: H&M / necklace: Monserat de Lucca / sunglasses: Aldo

All the Frills: Doubling Up

The top I loved so much I bought it twice! Well, not really as the pattern is actually a titch different and they’re made by two different companies…but close enough!

Weekend Reading:

• So there was an online poll to name a research boat. And the entries were predictably hilarious.
  
• Maybe I need to start following Tom Hanks on Twitter?
  
• This crackpot scheme to get positive reviews of the Book of Mormon onto Amazon has generated some pretty humorous, although not necessarily positive, reviews.
  
• Bonkers lady lives in the Plaza for years at $500 a month (someday I hope a similar headline is written about me).
  
• This tree house is just about the most amazing thing I’ve seen all week.
  
• The invention of tradition, Scottish style.