Teaching a Downward Dog New Tricks – bye bye 2012

As our son told us frequently and fervently when he was a toddler: It’s always good to try new things. It was a mantra that we used to encourage him to eat stuff other than Heinz Little Kids Ravioli and …

A flag, a shield, a bit of armour

We all hide behind something don’t we? Personally I love hiding behind hats – hats get a huge amount of attention and by wearing a hat one is but an accessory to an accessory. This can be a nice anonymous …

Dinosaurs, a White Dress and the Inevitability of Spaghetti

  We are eating. The Minx who let it slip this week that she has taught herself to read, has one of her collection of dinosaurs out on the table. “That’s a pteranadon” she says to her brother. “No it’s …

The bosom can ache beneath diamond brooches

Darecember/Dressember Day 5

A long time ago, long before I had too many pairs of shoes and equally too many grey hairs I collected costume jewellery.

The Victorian Village in Glasgow was a slightly shabby Mecca for students like me seeking style for a steal. I wore resin hat pins as lapel pins, threaded them through my snarly backcombed Eighties hair. Grabbed tailcoats and wore them with leggings and boot and motheaten lacy camisoles. I was a downmarket Helena Bonham Carter sartorially speaking for most of my uni years.

Things haven’t changed much except that nowadays I sporadically and somewhat unenthusiastically thrift, eBay and Etsy for eclectic pieces of metal that will sparkle and occasionally start a conversation for me when I am too shy to do so myself.

There are only three people in this world I trust to buy me jewellery sight unseen – my husband, my mother and my dad.

My mum and dad bought me a curly dragon brooch one Christmas about twenty years ago. He’s a chunky wee soul and missing part of his clasp.

He is looking good despite his injuries although I did have to hook the clasp through the fabric of my dress and the inner boob part of my bra.

There he nestled. He’s as shy as I am despite his visual brashness.

Appearances can be deceiving.

——————————————-
Day 5 Dressember/Darecember

Dress by Lulu and Red last worn here. It is painful for me to look back at that post now given what has transpired since then until now. On the balance though I believe that, like a snake, I had to struggle out of my skin and the folk who caused so much hurt last year were a necessary part of that struggling transformation.

Shoes – Fluevog Hepburn D’Orsay Pumps – last worn here.

Dragon Brooch and Necklace gifts from my parents.

Tomorrow’s Darecember Dare: Boots…in summer

How to Tie A Scarf (and other First World Problems)

Day 2 of Darecember brought with it the challenge of scarf wearing.

Once upon a time, a long time ago when I was (speaks into collarbone) a mwfffmwahhmffmmmm I had a lot of scarves and I wore them. Not so much now.

The scarf that I chose is one that my aunt and uncle in NY a wee while ago. It was made in India, of maroon silk with various silk ribbons threaded through it. It is long enough to wrap around as a skirt.

I tried wearing it as a sort of bolero.

I tried tossing it round my neck insouciantly.

I swore A LOT.

Finally I decided that the best thing to do was to wear it as a sort of fabric necklace and tried not to think too long and hard about the role that a long scarf played in the death of Isadora Duncan.

————————
The List of Things Worn

Scarf gifted by Robert Aaronson & Nancy Gropper

Velvet Dress by Onyx via Ozsale

Peep toe pumps by Roberto Vianni last blogged about here…

Stockings – Pretty Polly via my beloved stockingshq.com

A Tale of Dark Denim, a Lycra Leopard and the Crane

From 38 degrees on the first day of December down to 24 degrees on the second – Sydney summers roundhouse kick my butt every single frigging year…

The weather yesterday…

Yesterday the sweat coursed down the back of my legs – today my legs are encased in leopard print tights to thwart the wind that is whistling around them (tights gifted to me by my friend Miss Nomes Messenger) and I am wearing a dark denim dress for Day 2 Darecember (Denim Dare)/Dressember 2012.

The kids are very excited by the dress wearing.

‘Mum when are you putting the dress on?‘ they clamour as soon as I stagger in the house wearing my pilates teacher uniform of black Lorna Jane compression leggings and a black Metallicus singlet.

I get changed.

‘Dear God‘ my husband says on first sighting of the leopard print tights. ‘Erm, interesting look‘ he follows on. Then ‘you look like a character from the Chronicles of Narnia. Would you like me to take some photos?’

And he did.

Denim Dare – Dark Denim Esprit Dress

As I type this post, he takes a further look at my leopard clad legs. ‘Those are growing on me‘ he says.

Tomorrow the Dare is scarves…

Meantime, I received an email from the lovely people at Yoga Pose Weekly. The asana of the week this week is Bakasana (Crane Pose). They happened across my Anatomy of A Sea Change post from last year and invited me to submit this photograph:

I like Yoga Pose Weekly for heaps of reasons not least their manifesto of fun…

there are way too many yogis out there with poles up their arses.

If you like my photo I would be absolutely over the moon if you could HEART and LIKE it on their site.

To show me some love click here

Also, if you are looking for some real yogis enjoying life and bendiness take some time to trawl through their gallery here or through their excellent Facebook profile page.

___________________________________________________________________

The Gory Details:

Dress: Dark Denim Dress by Esprit via eBay

Coin Belt: Circa the 80s via eBay

Shoes: Tony Bianco Gold Peeptoe Stilettos via eBay

Leopard Print Tights: Gifted by Nomes.