Happy Playlisting!

Ola looks gorgeous in her dad's white-and-blue striped shirt and knitted grey skirt against the backdrop of floral ironing board, table cloths and curtains. A vintage Japanese shodana adds some oriental flavour to this simple look, and I feel I'm allowed to make this comment since writing about fashion is like dancing about architecture and since I am essentialy talking to myself. Sadly, there seems to be a weekly allowance of how much I can actually say about anything, and as far as I'm concerned, it's Sunday and I have used up my bundle for this week. So, erm, let me fill the blank space with some Jane Eyre, she didn't seem to have problems like that.

CHAPTER XXXVIII--CONCLUSION

Reader, I married him.  A quiet wedding we had:  he and I, the
parson and clerk, were alone present.  When we got back from church,
I went into the kitchen of the manor-house, where Mary was cooking
the dinner and John cleaning the knives, and I said -

"Mary, I have been married to Mr. Rochester this morning."  The
housekeeper and her husband were both of that decent phlegmatic
order of people, to whom one may at any time safely communicate a
remarkable piece of news without incurring the danger of having
one's ears pierced by some shrill ejaculation, and subsequently
stunned by a torrent of wordy wonderment.  Mary did look up, and she
did stare at me:  the ladle with which she was basting a pair of
chickens roasting at the fire, did for some three minutes hang
suspended in air; and for the same space of time John's knives also
had rest from the polishing process:  but Mary, bending again over
the roast, said only -

"Have you, Miss?  Well, for sure!"

As vintage as the library

Doing the final countdown in style is losing count of the number of effervescent caffeine tablets you ingest in the library. I think I may have left my coherence there somewhere, or is it a side-effect of blood-caffeine reaching saturation levels? Mark that the library is vintage. Always make sure your library matches your bag, or something...

Possessed

I kinda always knew you remind me of someone...

Library chic

Top: Ania – the sweet sixteen look

Almost ten years on, Ania's still looking peachy. Not everyone can sport the 'sweet sixteen - a decade later' look though. Ania pulls it off with an autoironic frown. Whatever you do – don't forget the frown, it often saves the effort. Tip number two: no matter how short your skirt or how body-clutching your top, a lace hem and a plait will cater for the demure look oh-of-course you want to achieve.

Middle: Amelia – the mad hatter look

'Ryanair Baggage Restrictions Travel Advisory' made Amelia tap into her mum's three decades' worth of hoarding, and you can see the effects in today's shot. The extra-psychodelic sparkle on the black dress caters for more deadline-triggered panic attacks when you're already 10 hours into your library trip and still counting. Remember, always wear a skirt and leggins when off to the library, no matter how ambitious you are, after 10 hours of sitting cross-legged on the floor your skinny jeans will dig indelible scars into your legs the best plastic surgeon will not fix. The jumper needs to be snug. Leave extra space for the spare tire you will inevitably incur on the staple library diet of malteasers and rich-tea biscuits. Thou shalt not wear heels – have some respect for the seasoned floors and think about your future varicose veins. Add jacket, I don't know why, maybe to look smart when you're not. Top it off with a black felt chaplinesque hat to leave the outside world with no doubt that that you're out for a kill. Have a good supply of marbles in your pockets so that you can lose some of these and save your own.

Bottom: some artifacts you may need to look smart when you're definitely feeling not.  

Tastier than Brussels sprouts

The best wardrobe investment I have recently made was a second-hand cardigan from Next, pictured centre, bought in Oxfam for a fiver. I didn't really like the hairshirt-look of it, but heck, it did seduce me with its cosiness the moment I tried it on. And it's versatility surpassed my expectations. Think something light and yet heavy-duty warm, a cardigan-turned-tent-turned-pyjamas-turned-dress-turned-dressing gown-turned-invisibility-cape in one. Exactly what my living-out-of-the-suitcase self has been looking for – a multi-purpose item fit for a real weather-warrior. Now, do real warriors wear cardigans?

Spring in the box

I rarely buy jewellery for my(oh-so-prudent)self, as I am the kind of person who rolls out of bed desperate to get dressed & get over it (especially in the Irish climate, which is an ordeal of sorts in its own right). I actually sometimes roll out of bed fully-dressed, having decided there's so little left of the night I may actually take a shower and get dressed before going to bed. But I think, even for my standards, it would be quite extravagant to accessorize in these circumstances. Silver chains work fantastic when it comes to showering and sleeping in them, but there's a small crack of the issue: they can get really hot when you're drying your hair. So rather than going to work with a circular burn around my neck, and having everyone cast these questioning looks (did she try to strangle herself? Likes SM?) I store them safely in a box (the box was originally designed to contain washing powder, and it was really the only thing it could do justice to, so I opted out of showing its full-on unsightliness here). After letting it collect dust for a while, I was amused to find what I found there: butterflies, flowers, birds, heart of the ocean...I know, I know, but heeey, didn't I include a disclaimer in the opening line? Abstracting from the fancy collection, there's a practical lesson number one you can take away from here: if you decide to go crazy this spring and someone questions the tastefullness of your butterfly-adorned attire, remind him that 'entomology is a rapidly growing field'. You can't argue that.