At work today I wore a scoop neck black t-shirt, a black cardigan and grey tweed trousers. I accessorised with a pair of black converse, my new glasses and a double strand of oversized pink pearls.
If I'd worked at Sterling Cooper, I'd probably have worn the same outfit - just swapping out the trousers and chucks for a skirt and heels.
The only constants in my work outfit are my rings, watch, silver bangle and, first thing in the morning, a cup of coffee in a travel cup.
I have been most remiss in sharing my new specs with you - Mainly because I haven't worn any make-up in the past couple of weeks, and these do look particularly good with a nice bit of eyeliner. Today I decided to just snap a photo and then edit the hell out of it in Picnik; which is why the frames are pin-sharp and the rest of the image is super soft-focus! Pores? My skin doesn't have pores!
As you can see the new glasses are slightly cat's eye, which Doc C thinks brings out my cheekbones (love that man), and they have a tiger grey exterior with a clear pink interior. That sounds like a car, but you see what I mean right? The outside of the frame is one colour (well, it's sort of marbled really) whilst the inside is another; so there are hints of that inside colour as I move my head and the angle changes.
As you can see here:
Again with the Picnik soft-focus, which I am especially grateful for here. It took me forever to get the angle right on this one, so you could see more of the edge of the glasses and less of the bags under my eyes - I didn't sleep very well last night.
Please feel free to reassure me that these are stylishly fun, without being wacky. I'm still a touch self-conscious about them.
For Christmas the Assistant Chair of my department gave me a spa set, which is bubble bath, body cream, an eye mask and DUCKY SLIPPERS - I hadn't previously thought of Ducky Slippers as being a staple of a good spa, but now I shall demand them!
I'll give you two guesses which of the cats is a bit freaked out by these, and is very much on her guard whenevr I'm wearing them.
I spent a good chunk of my Sunday afternoon applying Doc Marten's Wonder Balsam to every pair of DMs in the house. I also added some Doc Marten's Dubbin (which should help to weather proof the leather) to my lace up brown boots and I'm debating whether or not the new fleece lined boots need some too.
The tin didn't have very specific instructions on how to apply the balsam, but I gather from the internet that you rub on a good amount and leave it to really soak into the leather overnight, the next day you wipe off any excess with a soft cloth. I'm really quite looking forward to doing that when I get home tonight, the boots look so nice when they are all shiny and properly cared for.
I had my eyes tested this weekend, because I noticed that my right eye felt quite scratchy after work sometimes. It turns out that my eyes are a bit dry, so I have to put warm compresses on them and use eye-drops especially if I've been staring at a computer screen a lot (So... That's pretty much every week day then). Well, if it's optician's orders, I think I can handle lying on the sofa with a warm flannel across my eyes, sipping a martini and listening to a vintage radio drama for half an hour or so in the evening.
I also tried on some new frames, I want to keep my current frames but I'd like some variety in my face furniture. I'm thinking about a subtle cat's eye, something a bit more sixties mod that would look good with lashings of eyeliner (my new favourite make-up technique). Basically, I asked if the assistant helping me watched "Criminal Minds" and requested Garcia glasses, and after a quick google image search she was off to the races with that idea! I tried on loads, but as it was just after I'd had the drops put in to dilate my pupils, it got increasingly difficult to actually see them. Doc C came over to help, but it's not really the same. Anyway, I have to wait until next month before I get new glasses so the shortlist was noted down and I can try them on again when I'm in full control of my ability to focus.
After the eyeware fashion show, my irises were fully dilated, so the optician could see into my eyeballs. Which is SO weird, but I was expecting it this time, so, the minute I sat in the chair, I asked the optician if I could have the images of the backs of my eyes, because how cool is that? They look like alien planets, don't they?
Also - I SEE YOU!
I read recently (on Wikipedia) that the reason Sanrio don't usually give Hello Kitty a mouth is because "without the mouth, it is easier for the person looking at Hello Kitty to project their feelings onto the character" and that "the person can be happy or sad together with Hello Kitty." I've just never pictured Hello Kitty as being a great solace during times of difficulty myself, but maybe she is to somebody.
I think the addition of the glasses make Hello Kitty look more scholarly, but also as if she will not take any nonsense. A fine role-model for any professional woman I'm sure you'll agree.
Today I am wearing jeans and a t-shirt (that both fit!) topped off by a waistcoat with a Nerd Hello Kitty badge on it. I happened to be wearing almost exactly the same thing when I was in a slightly awkward situation a week or two ago and I must say that I felt equal to the challenge because I had Nerd Hello Kitty in my corner (not to mention I was better dressed - Which I hesitate to note because it sounds a bit self-congratulatory, possibly outright bitchy, but, none the less, that was my honest opinion).
Almost exactly two years ago, give or take a fortnight, I posted this picture:
This is a photograph of may wearing three pairs of jeans at once, because I had gone down so many sizes that it was now possible for me to layer denim over my hips and still get all of the buttons done up - Oh, and breath still!
I felt it was time to attempt a new personal best record, and can now truthfully say that I can wear four pairs of jeans at once. Should I ever be asked that.
The second pair of jeans in the more recent picture is the foundation pair of jeans glimpsed in the earlier photo. I don't remember if any of the other jeans were involved in both experiments.
There is no photo manipulation techniques employed, and I wasn't wearing any type of corset. I will admit to being very careful with my posture though, because my tummy still does have some fat on it and that fat will try to spill over the top of jeans if I slouch. The easiest fix for this is not to slouch.
And, of course, this is my new Facebook profile picture, I enjoy peer approval as much as the next girl.
I don't generally post pictures of works in progress on-line, but I offered to make a pair of "Harold and Maude" (1971) amigurumis for Megg back in freaking NOVEMBER, so, you know, I thought I'd make an exception.
This is Maude, I actually made her head when I was in England, so she's been percolating for a while now, and, after seriously months of internal debate, I finally decided to dress her in the outfit she wears to the second (I think?) funeral; so a classic trench coat with a pink silk scarf (not made yet) and a big yellow umbrella.
I still haven't quite decided how to dress Harold, should he wear the clothes he is in for the second funeral, or should I go for one of his more colourful and therefore fun outfits? He has a particularly great pinkish tweed suit that keeps jumping up and down in my mind, but I have no earthly clue how I would do that. Maybe baker's twine? I don't know. Fortunately I do know for definite that Harold will have very long legs, and they will definitely be clad in flares.
I love this! It's another gem from the retiring professor's office, and it's a plastic letter opener with a molded decoration on both sides of the handle. One side is a travelling saleswoman and the other is a travelling salesman, and just underneath both is the logo for Fuller's Brush Co. I adore the "Mad Men" vibe on this, but I especially love the travelling saleswoman and her fabulous outfit. I want that dress, and those gloves. Gorgeous.
Naturally I did a little google research, and I discovered that these letter openers were promotional freebies from Fuller's, which is just delightful. These letter openers aren't terribly collectible and they are easy to buy cheaply on ebay, so I'm thinking I might turn it into a piece of jewellery somehow. I think it's too big for a necklace, but maybe a brooch or a bracelet.
I love this Threadless t-shirt design, and I am seriously thinking about buying one, but how much more would I love it as actual wallpaper. I wouldn't do a whole room, that would be a bit much, but an accent wall in Tardis flock (or foiled!) wallpaper? That would be epic!
Maybe I'll get the t-shirt, but, if it doesn't suit me, I could then stretch it over that spare canvas I have knocking around.
This is the print on the shirt I'm wearing today, I've had it for years and one of my favourite things about it is how subtle the design is.
I noticed the black roses, and the green roses straight away but it took a while for the lady to emerge. I do remember that I spotted her shoes first.
This window display in Asheville makes me happy.
That is all.
Today was super exciting because I had been waiting all weekend for the post office to open and release the delivery of make-up that I'd ordered from Sephora. Doc C went to get the post mid-morning and brought it to my office, where I tore open the box in a frenzy and many exclamations of glee. It is no exaggeration to say I immediately ran to the ladies' loos to put on my new red lipstick.
This might not have been the best of moves, after all I have worn neutral or rosy pink lip-stick for several years now, so it has been quite sometime since I put on a really red lippy. Plus I'd ordered this particular lipstick on-line, without seeing the colour in the real world before hand. Plus it is actually more of a lip stain, that promises to stay put for a long time, and I was going to be at work for another 6 hours, and I don't care how understanding your boss is, having a lipstick emergency is never going to be a good enough reason to leave work early. Even if you do look like an unfortunate clown lady. These things can happen.
So, all things considered, it was very fortunate that this particular lipstick turned out to be exactly the shade of red that I wanted. I took a photo and posted it as my Facebook profile picture, where it garnered several encouraging and complimentary comments from kind friends and family.
What was really funny was that no-body mentioned the tiara that I was also wearing, because, OF COURSE, I'm wearing a tiara around the office on a Tuesday morning. What is more normal than that?
(Oh, they also didn't mention the black bar because that wasn't there. My super secret blogging identity must be maintained, blah, blah, blah, you know the drill.
An added bonus to the black bar is being able to quote "The Princess Bride" in my post title:
Fezzik: Why do you wear a mask? Were you burned by acid, or something like that?
Man in Black: Oh no, it's just that they're terribly comfortable. I think everyone will be wearing them in the future.)
On Sunday we got up reasonably early to finish cleaning the house, and then went for brunch with Randy and Laura before heading to a local park for the Power of the Pumps walk. This was a fund-raising walk for a local charity specifically focused on helping women, so all of the men were supposed to walk the mile long course in women's shoes.
Doc was on a team with three other professors from his department and one guset walker; hence the name - Team Philosophy and Religion. I was particularly impressed to note that theirs was the only team to fulfill the shoe requirement according to the spirit of the thing, and they all actually wore women's shoes; they didn't wimp out by stringing a pair of heels on a ribbon and wearing them around their necks or by spray-painting a pair of old trainers hot pink. Doc C had the advantage of being married to a woman with the same size feet as him, so I was able to lend him my lovely blue-and-white striped wedges (I love this photo, but the grass means you can't really appreciate the height of the wedges. They're about 2 inches high). And I painted his toenails red to add just a touch more glamour.
The other team's all covered the course much faster, but it wasn't supposed to be a race, so I was very glad when the event organisers gave Team Philosophy and Religion an honourable mention. To top that Team P&R won the bronze for fund raising, and had both the winner of the highest heel (Jack) and prettiest shoes (Kern). Doc came in a close second on both of those categories, and also got a bronze for individual fund-raising. Doc was beaten on the technicality of his wearing a wedge, whereas Jack was wearing an actual heel, so Doc's were higher but were deemed easier to walk in; as for the prettiest shoes, well, I think that was because Kern had done his own nail varnish and so his salmon pink open-toe shoes had camoflaged toenails peeping out. The nail-varnish on both of them went down particularly well with some of the smaller spectators who ran ahead of them yelling "All Hail!" for the nail-varnish men!
The whole event was in the afternoon, and so Doc was probably wearing and walking in the wedges for two hours at the most. His legs were still aching when we went to bed, and when we got up this morning he was asking what he could do the make his Achilles tendon feel better. This did cause me to laugh and laugh and laugh, but I haven't teased him too much, because, to be fair, I barely ever wear heels myself.
I'd been careful to lend him the shoes least likely to also give him blisters or take all the skin off his heels, but I agree with him that heels do indeed suck to walk in, make your calves burn and throw you off your natural centre of balance. That's why I am so very proud of him (and his team mates) for actually doing the thing properly.
A mile in HER shoes indeed.
I bought the Queenie t-shirt that Vivienne Westwood designed for Red Nose Day with the specific intention of stretching it over a canvas to hang on the wall. Today I bought a canvas and a staple gun, and it took about 10 minutes to attach the t-shirt to the canvas. It worked out really well I think, and now we have Miranda Richardson over the fireplace.
I am delighted to be able to report that Ruby is fine. The first thing the vet did was check her teeth, and she has gingivitis; so she's probably been avoiding eating because her gums are sore and that has run her down. Poor cat! I thought her breath was terrible, but I didn't realise that was the main thing that was wrong with her. I held Ruby whilst the vet took her temperature, so she wouldn't associate Mum with that indignity. The vet gave her two injections (which she hated), and prescribed some pills for her to be given. I'm already playing the bad guy, what with the trimming of claws yesterday and the holding down at the vets today, so I shall probably give her the pills as well. May was well be hung for a sheep as for a lamb, I s'pose.
We dropped Ruby off back at home, and went into Norwich so I could take a skirt back to M&S that I bought in the haze of the fifty percent sale. This time I tried on a white skirt with blue and indigo bird silouhettes on it, and two pairs of lovely shoes embellished with gorgeously shiny beads; they were very tempting but I decided that they weren't really the best use of my limited suitcase space - so I resisted. sigh. Being a grown up is very tedious.
Marks and Spencer's food hall is the stuff of dreams, my actual dreams when I'm back in NC and just a pleasantly euphoric bubble of browsing now I can really truly visit one. For starters they have supplied the Battenberg Cake I've been craving, and that will be sliced up tomorrow to star in a very special photo shoot with a cup of tea. As if that were not enough they have all of the Easter and Mother's Day chocolate and cakes out now, and they are adorable. For example it is simply ridiculous how cute this white chocolate Hello Kitty is -
Her dress is made from SPRINKLES. Look at that! I'm smitten.
After getting sandwiches from M&S (Prawn for me), we went to John Lewis and I spent a good deal of time stroking all of the yarn. It is a magnificent selection of colours and textures at very very reasonable prices. I was most tempted by a gorgeous merino wool in what can only be described as a Bagpuss colourway, maybe that would be fun to make into a fake fox stole? Or would that be weird? Hmmm...
We got a whole bunch of things ticked off my "To-Do whilst in England" list today! This included some of the more important items, such as a visit to a Norfolk beach, have fish and chips on said beach, go for a walk and then have a cream tea in a proper tea-room.
The picturesque seaside town of Aldeburgh provided all this and more, and it was a lovely place to go for a stroll with my parents. The tea-room was even having a tea-cosy beauty contest, but fortunately they were a bit too busy to press us for our votes because it would have been a very difficult decision.
I also managed to track down a Vivian Westwood t-shirt printed with a picture of Blackadder's "absolutely divine and regal, and yet and at the same time very pretty and rather accessible" Queenie, and a Liberty print silk scarf; both of these delightful items are on sale to raise money for Comic Relief's Red Nose Day next week. I'll definitely wear the scarf, but the Queenie t-shirt is going to be stretched on a canvas frame and hung on the wall when I get home.
Speaking of Elizabethan beauty, here is Aldeburgh's cinema and gallery which happens to be housed in a gorgeous Tudor house. I've always liked the incongruity of that.
On my way to the office this morning I saw my friend Julie and said hi, we were chatting when she suddenly started to laugh. I thought I had some breakfast on my face, but it turned out that she was laughing at my gloves.
I don't see what is so funny myself, I wanted a pair of hand bone gloves for yonks before I found these ones in Boston and look how well they co-ordinate with my Chucks!
I came home on Friday and found evidence that one of our cats is a jewel thief. Fortunately she's also not very good at fencing her haul, or even just hiding it. Under the biscuits might have worked, but just in the egg carton on top of them? That's just so amateur.
This is a brooch that is one of a pair, I'd taken them off a jacket and left them on the bookshelf in the living room before going to work. So someone had jumped up there to get it, and Nancy can't jump that high which leaves...
Oh Edith!
As you may have gathered from the photo illustration for today, I've been doing some knitting over the holidays. To be precise, I think I've added 4 diamonds in length to the scarf which I've been working on for... Oh... Three months now... To be fair to both the scarf itself and my own knitting ability, this hasn't been my primary project at any point over those months and it is the first intarsia pattern I've tried and, let's not forget it's double-sided, so really it's twice as long. Sort of.
Anyway, the most exciting knitting development whilst in Boston was that I bought another knitting book, and was persuaded by it's glowing accounts of the high speeds that were achievable by knitting according to the Continental method. The main difference is you hold the yarn in your left hand instead of your right, so both hands do an equal amount of work and there are fewer steps involved in each stitch.
According to this entry on Wikipedia the Continental style fell out of popularity in the UK and America around World War II because of it's associations with Germany, which I find very odd. I understand not wanting to look unpatriotic during a war, but why switch to a less efficient method of knitting just when it seems likely you'll have less time to waste when producing very necessary items of warm clothing? It's most peculiar to think that a change in the way people knit was a lasting effect of the Second World War, but then this could easily be an urban knitting legend don't you think? How on earth would one go about researching such a thing anyway? Fascinating!
This is the second leg of Yoda's trousers. Please keep your fingers crossed that I have enough yarn to finish a whole pair of breeches, or Yoda may be wearing leg warmers.
Also I'm pretty sure that Kerplunk had to have been invented by someone who knitted on Double Point Needles.
Now this Old Navy T-shirt is adult sized and I love the cat illustration, but it is still not perfect.
My complaints this time are:
Not to worry though, this is precisely why I took a photo; so I could play with the image in Picnic and put it on a nice dark red without any text at all. Lovely.
The graphic on this Old Navy Halloween t-shirt is so very sweet, but I wish it didn't have that annoying text.
Of course, then I'd wish it wasn't only available in children's sizes and only on white.
Plus do I really need any more t-shirts? No, no I really don't.
One thing I have never really understood is what Minnie even sees in Mickey. He's sort of squeaky and annoying to my mind, but at least he makes an effort to put on an actual skeleton suit.
Just adding a headband with feelers to it does not make your polka dot dress into a proper costume Minnie, that is very weak sauce.
This post is brought to you today by the letter M, and by Cultural Hegemony!
This spider is beaded onto a cardigan that I have had for... um... 17 years? It was a birthday present from my lovely Mum, and I still find it delightfully shiny.
I'm still mostly looking for things around the house I can take photos of whilst wrapped up in a chunky woolly sweater and drinking a huge cup of green tea.
Today's subject is my box of badges (American Translation: Buttons or Pins). As you can see a large number of my badges feature skulls, with or without crossbones.
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