2011: A Summer in Retro Shades

Snap Dragons and Cabbages

Arran Cardigan

When I visited Inishmore last year I really wanted to buy a real, heavy duty Arran knit jumper but I just couldn't afford it. The really beautiful hand knitted items can fetch up to two hundred pounds and clearly a lot of work and skill goes into making them. I settled for socks. This is so warm and snuggly looking and I love the collar.

Rust Chinos

In Cornwall pink chinos mean you are an affluent, septuagenarian male. These aren't pink, they're r.u.s.t. Rust. And what's more they are cool, very cool.

Sunny Spot

Honey Sweet Dress- Mod Cloth

I'm drawn to yellow at the moment. It was my favourite colour when I was little but I haven't thought about it for a while.

 I took my boyfriend to Exeter for the weekend for his birthday. It was lovely, we stayed in a nice hotel and had good food. Whilst there I got a little of my fill of city life e.g. book shops, coffee, good food and of course clothes. A vintage shop in an arcade got my heart racing. I found two beautiful pairs of shoes that I silently weeped over and two beautiful straw hats that were both two small for me. I could have spent hours in there but was conscious of it not being much fun for anyone else but me.
Anyway, I made up my mind that I had to have a new straw hat and it would most definitely have to come from this shop or similar. There's a sweet little vintage clothes shop in Totnes which is not such a hike where I've bought many hats, hair accessories and gloves. The last time I was there I was under the compelling impression that I should buy a fez.

Campanile Music

I found The Pains of Being Pure at Heart today whilst on the prowl for new music.



Dispossessed youth. What else can we own?

Wish List

Chambray Dress-Shop Ruche

Mallard Brooch- Luxxor (vintage and antique) on Etsy

Ophelia Sandals- Shop Ruche

Applique Dress- Shop Ruche

The Shop Ruche lookbook is beautiful. Especially "Burlington"...

It reminds me of cycling up the Cam with my friend when she was at university. 

Blueberry and Coconut Muffins

A misspent afternoon of baking. I baked these lovely heart-shaped blueberry and coconut muffins. 

I will share with you the recipe. I adapted the standard blueberry recipe which is from Sheherazade Goldsmith's, A Slice of Organic Life. 

2 Eggs (lightly beaten)

140g Wholemeal Flour

140g Plain Flour

2 teaspoons Baking Powder 

1 teaspoon Baking Soda 

50g Butter 

50g Honey or Sugar

85g and then some of Blueberries

275g Rachel's coconut natural yoghurt (yum)

• Mix the flour, the baking powder and baking soda.
• Melt the butter and sugar/honey together 
• Make a well in the centre (blah blah blah) the melted sugary butter, the blueberries, eggs, and yoghurt. 
• This is the important muffiny bit; mix gently and not too much. This, I have discovered, makes it light and fluffy because of... science! 
• Bake them till the tops are golden brown at 180 degrees. 

AGFA Silette 1

I have bought a camera. It is beautiful. It has a lovely leather case that it came with. I think it's a 1968 Silette 1 but I'm guessing the date. I haven't worked out all the settings yet and I'd like to say that this means I can start posting outfits but I think it'll take me a couple of rolls of film to get it right.

However, it's beautiful. I will get a digital camera as it will make recording things easier but I'm not willing to make the switch to digital permanently. Something I love about photography is the different grains that different decades and manufacturing can make to an image. I love the eighties dark grain of my childhood photos, the thicker paper and rounded corners and the  further back you reach the thicker the nostalgia.

I'm wearing my new dress in the picture. Thank you H&M; cheap, pretty and durable.

Praise to German enterprise.

Sun glasses

It will probably spell the end of summer but I've finally bought new sun glasses. I sat on my last pair and lost the pin to the pair before so I've made it a rule not to spend too much on them. THe first pair were beautiful and belonged to my Mum in the seventies and I was devastated. I walked back along a dusty Finnish road looking forlornly for a needle in a hay stack.

Anyway, here they are,

ASOS

Dreaming of Spring

I'm getting restless. January is drawing to a close and its almost time to start sowing the earliest seeds for the garden. My boyfriend and I planted sweet peas last weekend and dreaming of new summer dresses. I'm waiting for the thermometer to reach a steady ten degrees before I brave the upstream shallows and plunges of the river, my river.
I'm excited. I'm shedding layers and looking longingly at tea dresses. My new red coat is looser because I'm no longer wearing three thick jumpers underneath.

But give the weather a month or two more and the frost will be back.

(please email me if this is your picture and I will credit you)

Tea Dress- ASOS

ASOS