All the Frills: Antlers, Antlers, and More Antlers

Turns out I have a bit of a thing for antlers. I think, aside from all the history books, antlers are probably the unifying decorating theme of my house. I’m amassing a pretty good collection.

Weekend Reading:

• Oh Lucille Bluth, how I love you.
  
• So this house is objectively insane.
  
• I know ISIS’s involvement in sexual slavery is not new news, but this story puts a very human face to it all. And it is awful.
  
• This story is just all kinds of bizarre.
  
• This German commercial is the most amazing thing I’ve seen in a long time.
  
• You guessed it: more cats!

Surprise!

So I have an awesomely fun collection of pals that I go to dinner with once a month. We are a supper club. We try a new restaurant most ever time (the exception being this one pub that has the best veggie burgers I’ve ever had in my life and where we always return to periodically). One time we went to the Olive Garden as a joke and got buzzed. It was amazingly hilarious. Anyways, we convened our little club recently for our monthly gathering and I busted out this maxi dress. This is basically my “surprise!” outfit. I mean it’s not black, it’s not grey, it’s not really “me,” in a sense. But I love it for that.

dress: H&M / cardigan: Silence and Noise / shoes: ModCloth / sunglasses: Aldo

Skants and a Staycation

These bottoms have a great story. I took a week of staycation from work a couple of months ago, got a good Chardonnay day drunk going one day, went shopping at a boutique near my house, and fell in love with this skirt that is really a pair of wide leg pants. I christened it a skant!

skant: Bailey / shirt: French Connection / shoes: Zigi / blazer: H&M

All the Frills: Vegas

Well, I went to Vegas with two of my very best friends and my helpmeet.

And it was every bit as ridiculous as you might expect (especially once I was reunited with my favourite slot machine in the world, Kitty Glitter!). Although we pretty classily decided to upgrade our hotel to a fancy suite, which was amazing.

It was also plus 40 degrees ever day so that was a touch miserable. I compensated by playing KISS mini golf…poorly.

Weekend Reading

• A measure of my formal education focused on palaeography (you know, so I could actually the primary source documents I was encountering in the archives) – this is a pretty neat piece on a facet of that.
  
• This is amazing! I actually did a small bit of research on these Westminster Abbey funeral effigies in the course of a project on Queen Anna of Denmark and now I want to hop on a plane so I can visit this new exhibit when it opens.
  
• This new discovery in Holocaust history is really something.
  
• You need to read this list of facts about the movie Labyrinth (quite possibly the greatest movie ever made and one of my personal favourites).
  
• Miss Havisham is one of my favourite literary characters, so I found this article fascinating.
  
• These sonogram images of a pregnant shark are deeply creepy and pretty cool.

Another Round of Revisions

Worn to go hang out in the library after work to labour away on another, albeit minor, set of book revisions. I did get treated to a delicious sushi lunch though, so the day wasn’t a total wash!

dress: French Connection / jacket: H&M / shoes: Zigi / ring: ModCloth / leggings: Target / necklace: Monserat de Lucca / bracelet: Stella and Dot

All the Frills: Bracelets!!!!

The bracelet I loved so much I bought it twice (from Stella and Dot)! It’s sort of my take on the whole idea of an heir and a spare.

Weekend Reading

• Apparently gout is making a comeback. The early modernist in me finds that fascinating.
  
• Anyone else a huge She-Ra fan? I went as Catra for Halloween one year … still one of my favourite costumes.
  
• This Buzzfeed list about Subway made me laugh.
  
• This may be the best thing I’ve seen on the internet lately.
  
• I love how calm this lady is in the face of this giant snake. I would freak out. Freak out!
  
• This article about the “death” of the humanities is pretty insightful.

On the Fence

I’m sort of on the fence with this dress. It was an impulse buy. I thought the print was really pretty but I’m just not sure it’s “me.” I wore it recently to go have cocktails in a very fancy hotel bar at Edmonton’s Hotel MacDonald and felt a bit off. I’ll give it another try before I make a final decision. I think the look on my face sort of sums it all up though....I think it's doing very strange and not good things to my chest (always a challenge for me).

dress: Sears / shoes: Arturo Chiang / necklace: Jenners

Anchors Away

This shirt has an adorable anchor print on it. That was basically enough for me to run to the till with it. I'm easily pleased.

leggings: ASOS / shoes: Spring / shirt: thrifted via Value Village / tank: Target / sunglasses: Aldo

All the Frills: Shoes Addition Edition

I’m obsessed with these shoes and had to feature them here. They’re now my go-to pumps for work. And they’re actually surprisingly comfortable to wear for 8 hours at the office.

Weekend Reading

• Any Hills fans out there? This article about Spencer and Heidi is wonderful.
• As you can imagine, I’ve been pretty riveted by the disastrous situation unfolding in the UK over the last while. Particularly the parts of it where people decide to wax historical and make links to the political and social landscape of the sixteenth century (usually ones that are ridiculous). On that note, I give you this wonderful piece.
• Yeah, this is basically my life.
• As if the lessons of Marie Antoinette, Henrietta Maria, Mary Stuart, Elizabeth Tudor, Anne Boleyn, and a ton of other women in the modern age have taught us nothing about what happens to women who put themselves out there in the public sphere (side note: can we abolish the bullshit Victorian era construct of the public/private dichotomy yet?), here’s a fun example from nineteenth-century America.
• I love IKEA. It is both maddening and magical. It is life.

Power Outfit

Worn on a windy and not terribly summery day a couple of weeks ago. One of my all time favourite outfits – I feel so powerful in these pieces. It’s a weird way to describe an outfit but it’s true. I basically feel like I could rough up just about anybody in an alleyway. It’s a good feeling…

leggings: ASOS / boots: Aldo / tank: Target / jacket: H&M / necklace: Jenners

Pocketed

I think I may have found what is, for me, the perfect summer dress. It’s loose fitting and flowy and has pockets. Pockets!

dress: Rachel Roy / leggings: ASOS / jacket: Wilfred / sunglasses: Aldo / necklace: Wedgwood / sandals: Aldo