On A May Day Morning

Dress - Primark

Jumper - Topshop

Shoes - Topshop

Necklace (Short) - Miss Selfridge

Necklace (Long) - Unknown

Anybody who knows me at all would be able to tell you that organisation is not something that comes naturally to me and when I do attempt it, it has been known to backfire on me slightly.  For instance, I have been known to think I've lost clothes that are in fact hung up in the wardrobe, it's such a rare occurrence.  Just yesterday, I phoned the bank in a panic after checking my online statement and seeing a £700 cash withdrawal I absolutely had not made.  It turned out I'd opened a savings account and forgotten all about it.

Equally, when I tried to take outfit pictures at some ungodly hour last week before meeting my cousin from her early morning flight, I learnt that the sunshine which is usually so welcome makes indoor outfit photos all but impossible.  I really enjoyed this outfit though for some reason, so here we are.  I'm sorry.  I'll sleep in next time.

As some of you may know, I'm coming to the end of a slightly extreme spending ban at the moment, which came about as a result of one of my new year's resolutions which was to not buy any clothes (or shoes or accessories) between January 1st and June 1st.  I found it surprisingly easy at the beginning, as most of the shops were still stocking the dregs of their A/W collections which weren't very tempting and it was too cold to even contemplate new outfits.  However, now the S/S ranges are fully launched and the sun has finally come out, I am having to employ a little more willpower.  In a bid to make it through the last month of the challenge, I've been raiding last year's summer wardrobe and, as always, trying to mix and match items in new ways.

The result, one day, was this outfit.  It has been beautiful weather here in Gothenburg but not quite time for bare arms yet, so I pulled this old Topshop jumper over a favourite Primark dress.  I really enjoyed both the bright coral paired with the colours in the dress pattern and the feel of the heavy cotton knit against the thin summer dress.  I know that the old story goes that you should wouldn't wear tights after April 4th but, hey, we're living in an era of global warming and I'm pretty sure there was still snow on the ground in the UK at the beginning of April, so I think I'll let myself off.

I haven't blogged for nearly two months which is pretty bloody atrocious.  I apologise.  I think you might be seeing a bit of a shift towards more lifestyle blogging in the future though, which I'm excited for.  As much as I love shoes and lipstick - and I do love shoes and lipstick - I find myself lacking inspiration quite often because I'm just not sure that I can convince myself that it matters enough.  Anyway, onwards and upwards!  

I hope 2013's May Day marks the beginning of a beautiful season for you all.  

Until next time,

Elise.

The £1 Leather Jacket

Leather jacket  - Vintage Yessica

Shirt - Pop Boutique

Jumper - Primark

Jeans - Miss Selfridge

Boots - Office

Whenever I come home for a fleeting visit, one of my favourite activities is rooting through various cupboards, drawers and wardrobes in my room to see if there are any forgotten gems to be rediscovered.  Last evening, in a typical fit of procrastination, I embarked upon this ritual and stumbled upon perhaps my most impressive find yet. This (real!) leather jacket was bought on £1 leather jacket day at Trashy Flowers a few years ago.  At the time, I was quite excited, purely because of the incredible bargain, but my purchase got pushed to the back of a cupboard because I didn't really like the colour or the fit or, well, anything really.

All I can think is - what on earth was I thinking?!  I put it on last night and just sat grinning for hours.  It's a lovely soft chocolate brown leather, and roomy enough to fit a jumper underneath, yet cropped enough to not be swamping.  Basically, I'm a little in love, and all for £1?!  Crikey.  Of course, this jacket still doesn't fulfil my desperate need for a staple black biker style leather jacket, but I'm pretty chuffed nonethless.

This jumper was also quite a bargain.  I found it in the men's section of Primark whilst killing time in Birmingham on Tuesday.  There were various colours but I wasn't overwhelmed by the choice of elbow patch shades for the others.  I did really like the brown tweed patch on this mustard one though and for just £10, I couldn't resist.  I've always liked mustard but it used to clash horrible with my skin tone and hair colour.  Since going blonde and drastically improving my ability to apply makeup, I think I can kind of pull it off a bit more now though, which is quite exciting.

Talking of exciting, I've had quite a lovely week back in rainy ol' England.  On Tuesday, I went to see a showing of White Christmas at The Electric Cinema in Birmingham.  If you live anywhere around the West Midlands, I urge you to visit.  It is the oldest working cinema in the UK and, for the same price as a ticket at Vue, you get to sit in spacious velvet seats and indulge with slices of cake and cocktails that cost less than a popcorn and coke deal.  They show a variety of new and old films - I've seen Casablanca, The Marigold Hotel and White Christmas there - so check it out and put a visit in your diary.

Following that gloriously festive outing, I hopped on a train to Birmingham International to meet my dad for an evening of Andre Rieu.  My Grandma was unfortunately not well enough to go so I filled in and used her ticket.  I have to admit, I'm really not a musical person and I wondered how much I'd enjoy it, but it was actually very lively.  It turns out Andre is quite the comedian!  

As well as these two events, I've filled my time with baking, essays and grandparents, so I apologise for the lack of posts this week.  I hope you've had a lovely pre-Christmas week too.

Elise.

Come Fly With Me - My Journey Essentials

Shirt - Vintage

Jumper - Mango

Jeans - Miss Selfridge

Boots - Bianco

After a dull week of essays and end of term poverty, I've finally set down on English soil which means one thing: it's Christmas!  I think that one of my favourite things about going away from home for such long stretches as I tend to is that coming home again becomes genuinely exciting, rather than being a chore.  I also enjoy the actual journey home quite a lot too.  I like curling up in a seat - be it on a plane, train, car, bus, boat - with some snacks and letting the hours fly past in a whirl of naps and books and day dreams.  

However, I know from extensive field research that an underprepared journey is a miserable one.  And by that I am, of course, referring to the outfit.  It must be comfortable but - and I know this from experience - not so socially unacceptable that disembarking the vehicle becomes a moment of dread.  This is important because I at least like to pretend to have an air of the accomplished traveller about myself and pyjama trousers just can't achieve this.  It needs to have the potential for warmth because trains and coaches never seem to turn the heating on at appropriate times.  Equally though, these layers must be able to be shed when, inevitably, the drivers opt of air con on the hottest day of summer.  There should be no clunky jewellery and a minimum amount of bobby pins.  Hooded items are an added bonus, as is a small pillow.

My pièce de résistance of the formulaic journey outfit is a scarf though, which can often compensate for deviating from every single of the above guidelines.  In spring, summer and autumn a large pashmina is perfect, ticking the boxes of duvet, pillow and seat spooning partner all at once.  However, for winter journeys (especially those starting in Sweden's double figure minus temperatures) something a little more heavy duty is called for.  In came my Monki scarf, essentially a giant fleecy blanket.  It was the most comfortable journey I've ever had and you can buy one of you own for a mere £18 here (it assure you it is a lot larger/generally more spectacular in the flesh).

Now, you may be thinking, why is she waffling on about this when there quite clearly isn't a scarf in sight?  And, yes, you'd be right.  This is what I wore under the scarf though: my stretchiest jeans, loosest shirt and softest jumper, with a cami underneath for extra layers and stripping options.  I would usually automatically tuck the shirt in but I liked the way it looked loose yesterday; I think it added some interesting texture to that outfit, making it a little more off duty.  I picked this lemon beauty up for £3 on a vintage adventure a few months ago, despite feeling a little like Dolly Parton in it at the time.  It has really grown on me though and I love the stitching detail on the collar which continues vertically down the opening.  Together, these items were versatile, comfortable and - hopefully - acceptable for public wear too.  Wham bam thank you mam.

There we have it - my journey essentials.  Just don't forget your socks.

Subzero Shorts

Shorts - River Island

Shirt - H&M

Cardigan - Warehouse

Brogues - Sweden, Unknown

Necklace (shorter) - Miss Selfridge

Necklace (longer) - Gift

Is it too arrogant to tell you that I'm really enjoying my outfit today?  Because, well, I am.  I feel I've been a bit uninspired on the outfit front of late which is pretty unfortunate given that I'm in the early days of blogging.  I'm not promising to throw on something Vogue-worthy every day (or ever, in fact) but I can assure you that the unaccessorised jeans and jumper days are over.  Hallelujah.

I feel like I'm channeling a bit of a 70s school teacher look today.  You know, the one who's just settled down after their heady Woodstock youth.  I think it's the beads, the exposed cuffs, the printed corduroy.  Whatever it is though, I'm certainly not complaining.  I've also just realised that as I type this, I'm listening to Bread very loudly which fits the whole vibe very well indeed.

I bought these shorts in River Island last September so they're in their second winter now and I still love them.  You can't quite see here, but they're quite flared which I really like.  It counteracts the pretty short length somewhat making them more daytime appropriate.  (It also means that there's plenty of room underneath for the two pairs of tights I'm wearing but shh, let's keep that between you and me.)  I added my current go-to blouse and a warm cardigan because I thought I should at least pretend to acknowledge today's -14º thermometer reading.  I quite liked today's colour combination too because, to me, it feels suitably seasonal without being overly dark.

It's Friday which marks the beginning of the penultimate weekend of the semester.  This is quite sad because I'm the only one out of my friends in Sweden who's staying the entire academic year so I have a few goodbyes to come in the next week or so.  We're beginning the farewell celebrations this evening with a Christmas gathering for one of my classes which should be nice.  I plan to cook up some mince pies to inject a little British festivity into the occasion.

Have a lovely weekend,

Elise.

The Daily Bread #12 - Friday Feeling, on a Thursday

Shirt - Glamorous 

Jeans - Cubus

Cardigan - Warehouse

Belt - River Island

Wedges - River Island

Socks - Topshop

Necklace - Miss Selfridge

Do you have any of those items that sit in your wardrobe for months, you wonder why they don't get worn, then you put them on and you remember exactly why they don't come out to play very often?  That is exactly the case with these jeans.  My only other leg denim is navy and black, and sometimes it's just a blue jeans kinda day, so on come these Cubus jeans.  Usually, when I first put them on, they've been newly tumble dried (they seem to get washed more frequently than they get worn) so they cling and fit like a perfectly skinny glove.  As the day goes on, however, they begin to go a strange and baggy.  Looking at these pictures, I see why they don't get worn.  The denim just isn't thick enough to suit having any room for manoeuvre, yet that's exactly what there is.

The rest of my outfit consists, once again, of some favourites that have stood the test of time.  The belt, necklace and socks all date back to 2008.  The shirt, cardigan and wedges are slightly newer additions but have still been knocking around for over a year now.  I quite like combining older clothes in new ways though to update them slightly.  Whilst there's admittedly nothing groundbreaking about this outfit, I know for a fact that these items wouldn't have been put together like this last year and then I feel a little less recycled.  I also get a smug kind of 'I told you so' satisfaction in reaction to my mother's endless "but you won't wear it enough, will you?" complaints.  Yes, yes, I know that's not really very nice, but that's where we're at.

I think I may have mentioned that I placed a naughty ASOS order a few weeks ago.  Well, after much anticipation, it finally arrived yesterday and I was over the moon because it meant I finally had some flat brogue-style shoes back in my life, which I was desperate for.  I eagerly tore open the parcel, took the lid off the box and pulled a shoe from inside... and kept pulling, and kept pulling.  It just didn't stop coming.  Eventually, when the whole length of this monster was before me, I couldn't help but laugh: it was simply enormous.  I've checked I didn't accidentally order men's shoes, but nope, these are all woman, and supposedly a UK7.  They are not.  I will treat you to a size comparison picture before I send them back.  By jove.

Big-footed tales aside, tomorrow, my mum and cousin are visiting for a festive weekend of perusing the Christmas markets and other seasonal offerings of Gothenburg.  You can expect a lot of pictures from this adventure as I really love Christmas, if you hadn't gathered that already. I'm not sure I'll get much chance to post but I'm going to try and have an organised Thursday evening and set some posts up for over the weekend (oo-er, I feel like a proper blogger now!).  Have a lovely weekend last weekend of November; this time next week it's officially time to be excited for the big 2-5.

With pre-mature Friday feeling,

Elise.

P.S. Do you like my wine bottle candle creations?

The Daily Bread #1

Shirt - Glamorous

Jumper - Lindex 

Jeans - Miss Selfridge

Boots - Bianco

Belt - Topman

Necklace - Miss Selfridge

Ring (top) - The Amber Shop, Southwold

Ring (bottom) - Past Times

Nail Varnish  - Topshop in 'Sketch' 

A quick apology for a) how horrendously awkward I am in front of the camera and b) the fact that I've not yet quite got used to said camera, hence the slightly dodgy photography in general.

I plan - with the very best of intentions - to do an outfit post every single day, come rain or shine.  Given that I wasn't doing anything very exciting today, I opted for a fairly simply outfit.  The shirt was bought last summer (by which I mean 2011) and has had a lot of wear for something I was never particularly in love with, as always seems to be the way.  I stole the jeans from my mum when I was at home last week, as mine developed a hole and it was a period of serious poverty.  The boots and belt will probably feature almost daily, so you can say hello to these as new friends.  I was excited to wear the jumper though, which I picked up in my favourite Swedish high street shop, Lindex.  I'd been looking for a loose yet not oversized, medium thickness, super soft jumper for weeks when I finally found this.  I'd originally hoped for bottle green or navy, simply because they better compliment the outfits I originally had in mind for it.  However, I couldn't leave this behind as it ticked every other box and I can imagine it'll be worn a lot this winter. 

As I said, I've not had a very exciting day.  I popped back to the Rohsska (a fashion, design and decorative arts museum in Gothenburg) to take some pictures as I was camera-less when I first visited a few weeks ago.  You can be expecting quite a few Rohsska posts coming up as it's probably my favourite space in Gothenburg so far.  Afterwards, I went to finally buy some new skincare products as I've been a terrible excuse for a girl lately and have absolutely abused my skin with cheap face wipes.  I've just properly cleansed, toned and moisturised for the first time in weeks and I can't stop stroking my face which feels baby soft again at long last.  Buying cosmetics - well, buying anything really - is a matter of pot luck nowadays, given my complete lack of  knowledge of any Swedish language, but I bought the Nivea Purifying Wash Gel and Mattifying Toner and some Olay Eye Make-Up Remover.  So far, so good but I shall review these further in due course.  

Now, for some reason given what a lazy day I've had, I'm absolutely exhausted, so I'm going to have to bid you a good night.

Sweet Dreams,

Elise.