This, Madame, is Versailles.

Hello! I just wanted to show you my favourite dress ever!

I bought it from ebay in February (well, technically my dad gave me the money for it as a birthday present!), and I've been waiting to post about it for a while because it felt almost too beautiful to wear. Like I should frame it and put it on the wall or something.

But, clothes are for wearing and that is what I shall do. (I think I may have unintentionally bastardised a Nancy Sinatra song there.)

Ahhh. I am just in love with this dress. Too lovely for words. The Marie Antoinette-esque toile de jouy print is so darling! I love the pastoral scenes and the architectural style details and the pretty pink exotic birds. I just love everything about the dress haha!

This dress just makes me want to float around a summer garden making daisy chains and twirling a paper parasol. The full skirted, 1950s shape makes it perfect for swishing about in a feminine manner.

dress - vintage via ebay, headscarf (I know, I know, I wear this too much!) - vintage, petticoat - charity shop, tights - dorothy perkins, necklace - car boot sale.

Back detail of the print.

Sorry for the lack of wordage in this post, but I'd rather let the dress speak for itself this time.

ouija board, ouija board

hello there everyone, i hope you're all having a smashing wednesday! mine has been pretty good, college was kind of cool because i got to know a few people better & we were only in until ten! although truth be told i had been there since quarter past eight because i had to go and hang my project up on the wall for nine, sigh.

this is my final piece for the fine art rotation. our title was "abracadabra", ie it was all about magic etcetera so i decided, creep that i am, i would look at ouija boards & specifically the movement of hands over the board. i took some long exposure photographs of my hands & then tried to draw them over a secondary image of a ouija board. the final piece is in oil pastel washed over with black & brown watercolour - which i used so that the white oil pastel (which i used for the blurring) would show through as ~spirits~ moving the hands!

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anyway, i thought i would also show you a tshirt i bought last week from ebay! it was only 50p (although £2 postage, grrr), and i originally bought it to make a diy band tshirt by printing a picture of the smiths or joy division over it (i had a bit of a vision of the unknown pleasures artwork over a pale floral fabric, and i can't get it out of my head), but i'm not sure now as i quite like the way the shirt looks on its own.

it has quite a cute hibiscus-y floral pattern, and i love the pale turquoise background colour!

it's a size 12/14, so it has quite low arm holes, but i actually think it falls in a really nice way! the only problem is i don't really have anything i can wear with it on the bottom half, i think i need to stop buying shirts for a while & buy some plain skirts/shorts. i don't have to wear a uniform to college so choosing clothes, unfortunately, has become a bit of a hassle at six thirty in the morning!

it also has some lovely blue toucan (i think) illustrations, which i adore!

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i've been taking advantage of my afternoon off from college by putting some more new jewellery up in the shop (after having a good sit down in front of the telly, of course) which is all alice in wonderland themed, so have a look if you'd like! i'm going to put a few more pieces up at the weekend too, which i might post about nearer the time!

we are beautiful, we are doomed

anyone who follows me on twitter may be aware of my ebay bidding war for a cardigan; well thankfully i won & here is that very cardigan!

before.

i think it is lovely. it's very warm & comfortable (something slightly lacking in my wardrobe as i seem to have a major incapacity for buying practical things) and, as it is about a size 14/16 it is a great, slightly oversized fit for me - which is just what i was looking for. the knit pattern is lovely, & it even has pockets. score.

however, the buttons were just a little bit dull for my taste, so after a little bit of deliberation & rooting around in my sewing box, i swiftly changed them.

after.

what do you think? i used two packets of buttons which i bought in spitalfields market last summer & had been looking to use for a while. i think they look pretty good, & also it means that this is a completely unique item of clothing, which is always nice. the only downside is that these buttons are too big to fit through the buttonholes, unless i make them bigger, although i have no idea how i would even begin to go about doing that. however, i never really wear cardigans buttoned up, so this should suffice for now.

a closer look at the buttons, some are gold rimmed, others are not. quirky.

please forgive me for these arms, for i know not what they do.

this is sort of what i wore for red nose day, except i swapped my paddington shorts for this skirt when i got back home because it's much more comfortable. (this outfit is totally comfort over style, that never normally happens for me. how odd. how bizarre.)

cardigan - ebay & diy, red nose day tshirt - vivienne westwood for tk maxx, skirt - topshop, necklace - car boot sale.

i can't really describe how much in love i am with this tshirt. vivienne westwood is one of the few designers that i actually like, so obviously when a comic relief tshirt featuring a red-nosed, framed rowan atkinson as edmund blackadder designed by ms westwood comes along, it pretty much had to be mine immediately.

i have always loved red nose day, for me it is a wonderfully charitable, and uniquely british, tradition. i watched almost all of the show on friday night, & the highlight for me had to be paul & ringo's appearance in the smithy sketch! hilarious, & very well done. yesterday i actually downloaded the sketch & some behind the scenes action from itunes (which you should all do, because it is excellent & all the profits go to charity), & i am very glad i did because there was much more paul mccharmley - including him saying that he felt intimidated in the presence of the harry potter actors, aww.

i also wore my we are beautiful and we are doomed badges from the los campesinos! album i bought from amazon last week. i've actually been a fan for a while, but have been stuck listening to them on spotify as i always find buying albums such a hassle. this may be far too philosophical a point for my humble little blog, but i feel almost as if that phrase sums up the human race; we are all beautiful, but we are all inevitably doomed to die. something which becomes even more acute on nights such as comic relief, & given the recent atrocities in japan & libya.

sorry if that's a tad maudlin for a sunday evening.

a close up of said tshirt - which, much like stella mccartney's beatles shirt from 2009, is probably going to be worn on a lot more occasions than just red nose day.

also, is it just me, or was series two when blackadder really started to get attractive? no? just me with the strange old man crushes then. and on that bombshell, i wish you good morrow (or something more appropriately elizabethan which edmund would say).

hang the blessed dj

my cameraaa is fixed! yay! (:

now normal posting can resume! & i can get on with that giveaway i haven't mentioned for a while (which i have had a few ideas for).

a couple of weeks ago, i bought some shorts from ebay that i may be utterly in love with. they're white lacey shorts for wearing under clothes that may be slightly indecent otherwise, or just as another layer. basically, it's a different take on wearing a petticoat or a slip underneath a skirt, which i think is really quite awesome! i only saw them in black on the highstreet, so i'm quite pleased i turned to ebay to find the white ones, as black just would not go with anything in my wardrobe.

um, yeah. so i couldn't decide which pictures to put up here as i really wasn't loving the upper half of the outfit today, so here are my two favourite(ish) ways to wear the shorts.

flowery shorts - liberty at topshop, tights - river island

skirt - gift from friends

hooray for almost identical poses! i'm very sorry that you can see how messy my room is, but i quite like having the wardrobe pictures behind me.

i shall be updating a bit more regularly now that i have the camera back, eeeep!

the thoughts of mary jane

- scheduled post -

i will be away until 4th of september

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i've been on a bit of an ebay bender recently, most of my new clothes in the last month appear to have come from there! anyway, i think i have found the most lovely blouse ever, & it only cost me £3 including postage.

*happy face*

it's soo lovely! it has gorgeous frills, & is very floaty but still has a nipped in waist. it has a really pretty paisley pattern too which has lots of colours that i can match with other items. the only thing that's a little bit wrong with it is that it's a bit see through at the back, which might be a bit of a problem if i want to wear it to school.

blouse - primark via ebay, skirt - topshop, flower hairclip - h&m, badge - beatles store.

i wasn't too sure what to wear the blouse with, as it's very (in the words of my mother) sweet, & i don't have that many things in my wardrobe that would match without making the look a bit too twee. i like the skirt with it though, as i think the overall shape looks slightly like a tea dress. but then that's just my silly imagination!

this look also makes me feel very girly, with all the fabric floating around. in fact, it makes me feel like someone from a nick drake song (:

i had to add a badge as i felt it was a bit of a bare outfit otherwise, especially as a necklace would have been overkill with all the frills.

hope you're all having a lovely end-of-summer!

it's only rock & roll

i went to the beach yesterday which was grrrrreat. i'll post a few pictures later maybe, i didn't take my camera so i'll have to steal everybody else's photos!

we did a bit of shopping in town as well, & i bought a little bit more than i meant to.

i am finally the owner of abbey road on vinyl, this makes me very very happy.

i just love this record so much, i listened to it today & it honestly just sounds better on a record player. the sound is deeper somehow, i don't know how to describe it.

i think the artwork is beautiful too. so simple, but just lovely. i love the sense of humour in it too, the girl walking past covering the oh-so-secret postcode.

continuing the music-y theme of my purchases, i also bought the laura marling NME. i don't normally buy it, but i had to seeing as laura was on the front. i actually found it really interesting reading about different musicians' takes on the music industry (apart from rihanna, seriously, just stop talking).

another spur of the moment purchase was this quite lovely straw boater from primark (yes, primark. i know, i know). i don't really like the black band it has, i think i may replace it with a more colourful ribbon because, well, i like colour. and also because it'll make it look less primark-y.

i got this rolling stones tshirt in the post yesterday, it was 99p from drink tea be content's ebay.

i really love it, it has such cute sleeves!

love the sewn on rolling stones logo!

i love the worn-ness of the tshirt, you can only really get that genuine vintage look (even if it's not vintage!) from ebay, or by thrifting. i also adorrre the obscure design.

i apologise for the image heavy post today, but i had much news to share (:

oh, and thank you to amber of error for my award, it is very very appreciated dear!

bubble toes

la la laaaaa.

today was a bit nothingy, i went to a spanish oral revision thing at school which was really helpful (& made me less bloody terrified). there was only three of us there which was a bit awkward as me & one of the guys are really good friends, but we both seriously don't get on with the other dude. it actually wasn't too bad though, as he wasn't as insufferable as he normally is.

after that me & my friend went for a bit of a walk around which was great because he is HILARIOUS & it was lovely & sunny.

then i went & bought some minstrels to get change for the photo booth, so that i could get the photo taken i need for my driver's license - which i am FINALLY sending off for tomorrow, yaaaay!

also, i was going to buy the new NME with laura marling on the cover (they're having a new look re-launch kinda thing, & there are 10 different covers) but they didn't have it, bummer.

sorry for this rather lengthy depiction of my day, i promise i didn't intend to ramble as much! now to the crux of today's post; ebaaay!

i've become obsessed with buying music on ebay recently, i think because often it's so much cheaper than buying from HMV & it is a better alternative to free downloading because it doesn't make me feel bad (:

anyway, i bought brushfire fairytales by jack johnson & i walk the line (remastered) by johnny cash, which are both excellent albums.

i've been looking for a genuine vintage pocket watch on ebay for some time now so i can make my own version of the necklaces you see everywhere these days, but they're all either stupidly expensive or there are too many bidders. i found this cute sewing machine clock which i'm going to make a necklace out of, along with some pearly beads, when i get the time.

this was my outfit for today, with the skirt i got for my birthday.

the weather was being really weird today, so i decided to stick with tights. although i think for my beach excursion on saturday i will be braving the bare legs, eek!

skirt - gift, tights - dorothy perkins, vv brown tshirt - concert, cardigan - h&m, necklace - car boot sale.

adieu dears, i am off to watch the lovely russell howard, have a lovely weekedn everyone! (: