All the Frills: Ankle Boots

I’m dusting off all my ankle boots in preparation for wearing them non-stop this fall. I love me a good ankle boot!

Weekend Reading: 

• I am a lover of all things Housewives. So I recently started listening to the brilliant Real Housewives breakdown podcast, Bitch Fest (I am also a big lover of Happy Endings, so this was a natural fit for me on so many levels). It’s seriously so much broader than just Real Housewives though and I highly recommend it to everyone – it consistently makes me laugh out loud. Anyways, one of the hosts wrote this piece and I seriously love it. I have anger you guys. And I embrace and honor that.
  
• A humourous look at all the things that feminism has supposedly ruined.
  
• This men’s rights thing about how feminism indoctrinates people and is basically ruining society is just plain ridiculous.
  
• This endorsement of Hillary, from a storied conservative newspaper, is wonderful.
  
  
• Of course a bunch of men commented on Hillary smiling or not at the debate. Of course.
  
• This is a disgusting piece of news related to a sexual assault case.
  
  
• I love Halloween, with a blind passion. And costumes like this make me so sad. I hate what has happened to Lydia and Maleficent. HATE.

New Projects

Hot on the heels of the good news related to my book, I’m now working on revisiting some material from the British Library that I made a bunch of digital image scans of the last time I was in London. I originally thought I’d use them for my dissertation but they never made it in there and so now I’m going back through them all and making transcriptions (they’re from a series of letter books belonging to the Jacobean gentleman, John Holles, who was also sort of an old-timey jerk) and trying to assess if maybe they’ll lend themselves to a new, small scale project. It’s taking longer than anticipated though because, as an independent scholar, I have another actual job that pays the bills and has to take priority, but I’m sure I’ll finish it up eventually!

pants: RW and Co / shirt: French Connection / shoes: Aldo / sunglasses: Aldo / necklace: Jenners

All My Dreams Just Came True!!!

I am soooo excited that it’s fall and I can start busting out all my favourite seasonal fashions. Which now include this jacket I recently picked – and by “picked up” I mean that my amazing mother treated me to it after an afternoon of shopping! Thanks mom!

In other HUGE news, I got word a few days ago from the academic press that I submitted my monograph and the editor informed me that it was recommended for publication with no further revisions!!!!!!!!

I am beyond excited (seriously, I screamed when I saw the email and my hands started to shake). I started this project in 2008 as my doctoral dissertation. I graduated with my PhD in 2012 and have spent the last four years heavily rewriting it to turn it into a monograph. This involved doing a ton of additional research, rewriting all ~350 pages several times, and dealing with multiple readers' reports that sometimes offered criticism that was harsh and hard to read, but which always led to more rewriting. I've presented the ideas in this book at some 15 conferences all over Canada, the US, and the UK. I've published one of the chapters as an article. I have laboured over this project (and because I have a full time job, I have largely done all this in the evenings and on the weekends - and believe me, 4 years of not really having a work free weekend takes a toll) and I am just beyond thrilled that all that work has paid off!

pants: RW and Co / shoes: Aldo / sunglasses: Aldo / jacket: Joseph Ribkoff

All the Frills: Cuff Collection

I love a good cuff (I’m also amassing a pretty good collection of them at this point).

Weekend Reading:

• This scavenger hunt sounds like my kind of game!
  
• Some interesting news on the 1665 plague in London.
  
• I embarrassingly aced this Real Housewives quiz.
  
• Want to waste some time reading interesting Wikipedia entries? This list has you covered.
  
• This article on dressing stupid to get the attention of fashion bloggers is pretty amusing.

Glitter!!!!

I very nearly became noticeably giddy when I laid eyes on this dress. I was screaming “glitter collar, glitter collar” in my head. And pardon the boots, it was a rainy, muddy day and the helpmeet and I were doing a bit of outdoor exploring so they were the smart choice for the day.

dress: Zara / boots: Kamik / cuff: Jenners

We Had a Good Run

I’m really sad because my trusty leopard loafers are on their last leg. These are my go to work shoes – they’re comfy, stylish, and add the perfect pop to my monochromatic, and often black outfits. The best part is that I got them from Target like 6 years ago and they have held up shockingly well. The hunt is now officially on for a replacement!

shoes: Target / pants: RW and Co / shirt: BB Dakota / jacket: Simons / sunglasses: BCBG / necklace: Aldo

All the Frills: Double the Sandals, Double the Fun

Just as I recently did with respect to a bracelet I loved from Stella and Dot, when I came across these BCBG sandals that were stylish, comfortable, and on sale, I opted to buy two pairs so I have an heir and a spare, so to speak.

Weekend Reading:

• Well, this is a disturbing consequence of food insecurity.
• Is anyone really surprised that Trump’s plans for parental leave (well, maternity leave, really) would leave much to be desired?
• Some thoughts on uncertainty.
• So global warming has resulted in the melting of a glacier in the northern Italian Alps to reveal the corpses of World War I soldiers killed in a battle there.

Feelin' Good

Worn to the office recently – and I will definitely be wearing this whole outfit again very, very soon. Head to toe I love everything about it. Seeing and processing these photos reminded me how good I felt in this!

In other news, I'm starting work on a little project about women's domestic labour in early modern Europe for a collection that's to be published in 2019 (it's sort of an offshoot of the paper I did for last year's North American Conference on British Studies) - so I'm excited to get started on that!

leggings: ASOS / shoes: Target / jacket: H&M / necklace: Target / tunic: French Connection

Golden Girl

I bought this gold pleated skirt on a total lark many years ago (it helped that it was heavily discounted). While I do really love it, it’s a wholly impractical piece, for me at least. It’s much shinier in real life and also made of a material that makes a constant rustling sound when it moves. It’s actually weirdly loud. But, for all that, I’ve hung onto it all these years and always make an effort to don it at least once a year, even just for a quick cocktail outing. Despite wearing it very infrequently, I think I’ve definitely gotten my money’s worth out of it!

skirt: Urban Outfitters / shirt: F21 / jacket: Simons / sandals: Arturo Chiang / necklace: French Connection / ring: ModCloth

All the Frills: Putting My Sandals Away

Summer’s more or less over. And while that truly does thrill me to no end (hello fall!), I will admit to being a bit sad that it’s almost time to put away my sandals for the year, especially this red pair that I purchased to wear to a wedding and then promptly proceeded to integrate into a ton of other outfits.

Weekend Reading:

• This piece about the heat in the US killing prisoners in correctional institutions is just depressing as hell.
  
• Okay, this piece, in some rag called The Modern Man, is disturbing and basically utter bullshittery.
  
• Hey, remember the Stanford rapist (and, on this note, I sincerely hope that the coverage devoted to this case sheds light on the broader epidemic of campus rape and just rape culture in general…although I doubt it will (well, maybe in the longue durée) given the horrific stories of others that we all know so well, like that Columbia student carrying her dorm mattress everywhere with her to protest the handling of her rape complaint or those recounted by Jon Krakauer in his brilliant Missoula)? Yeah, he’s leaving jail.
  
• Take a tour of historic London!
  
• Please Satan, let this be true! 

Anchors Away

I’m glad I was able to slip in one more wear of this anchor print shirt (which I really see as more of a summer piece) this month. It was just such a good thrifting find!

pants: RW and Co / shirt: thrifted via Value Village / anchor print shirt: thrifted via Goodwill / shoes: Aldo / sunglasses: Aldo

Errands

I don’t usually take photos of my super casual errand running outfits (because, really, what is there worthwhile documenting in that?) but I did this time because I had just purchased these new jeans and am pretty smitten with them. Also, my face in this photo just looks all kinds of bonkers and that's worth sharing.

jeans: Simons / shirt: Old Navy / shoes: Toms / sunglasses: Aldo

All the Frills: Diamonds!

I fully acknowledge that this is sort of goofy and dumb, in the sense that I honestly think stuff like this can be a waste of money, the whole idea of slavery to the marketing campaigns of diamond cartels is a very real thing, and I genuinely just believe that there are more important things in life.

Having said all that, here’s the thing. I never actually had an engagement ring. I got accepted to Yale, immigration for unmarried couples was difficult to say the least, and my helpmeet and I (we were totally committed and in it for the long haul but we’d never really put much stock in “marriage” itself and didn’t think we’d ever do it) just decided one night to get married because it made the most sense and simplified the whole grad school things. As you can imagine, it was the height of romantic displays. Anyways, after celebrating our 10-year wedding anniversary this February, I guess my helpmeet figured I was due a proper ring. Enter this gorgeous, 1926, platinum number. I basically just like staring at it all day.

Weekend Reading:

• I always thought all the Disney female villains were stunning, so I appreciate this.
  
  
• As much as I applaud this sign of progress in the world of professional hockey, WAY more is still needed.
  
  
• Well, this piece on the rape of aid workers in the Sudan is easily the most horrific thing I’ve read all week.
  
  
• This review on the problematic treatment of women in movies like Bad Moms is worth a read.
  
  
• This piece on misogynistic laws around the world is just awful and depressing.