You know how some clothing items are simply practical? You buy them for specific purposes – like gardening clothes or what you wear to the gym. Trainers for running or a business suit for work. Utilitarian and an important part of any wardrobe. And then there are other kinds of clothes. The ones of whimsy and sass. Of color and exuberance. And those dresses are pure fairy tale…
On more than one occasion, I have committed flowercide. Okay, it’s been more than 12 occasions. I don’t know what it is, but gardening just doesn’t reside in my veins. And I always start out with the best of intentions. A few weeks ago, Mr. Dressed and I went out and selected some lovely flowering plants to speckle our garden and front patio. Pinks and purples and creams. It was a flowering paradise. For about 2 weeks. I’m sad to say that this week our porch looks like a horticulture crime scene.
Oh, hello there June! Now that we are officially in the throws of summer, I can’t think of a better way to officially kick off the season than with a summer Lust List. There’s just something about this weather that inspires all shops to unearth the most amazing vintage. My wishlist and I almost can’t keep up!
Recently in my Neurobiology class I’ve been teaching the students about the neural mechanisms underlying learning and memory. The ways we can learn names, faces, and dates and evoke things long forgotten from our childhood. The ways that we form neocortical assemblies behind the things we remember, where a whisper of a perfume or a few notes of a song can trigger recall of the entire memory.
I’ve been realizing that my blog represents a convenient dichotomy – though inherently personal, I often don’t show too much of my life here with the exception of my daily outfits and sewing adventures. So, while you have a glimpse into my day to day, some of the most important things in my life rarely get to meet these cyber pages.
I come from a long line of lead-footed women. What I mean to say is that speedy driving runs in my blood. I learned to drive on the streets of Boston, where people don’t mess around. Where speed limits are merely suggestions and using your blinker is a sign of fear. So, after moving to Perth 5 years ago I really had to acclimate to an entirely different driving culture. One of politeness, of obeying traffic laws. Where people merrily let you merge and if you edge so much as 5km over the speed limit, you can be just as sure…
Another month has come and gone, and this one was a serious whip-lash inducing frenzy of work, work and more work! I have to say, for being a shortened month, I felt as though I crammed in more than usual. It was certainly productive – from the successful course (which was done and dusted as of Friday), progress on a few new projects, and I somehow managed to not twitch myself into an oblivion despite the over abundance of caffeine.
There’s a certain time of day referred to as “The Children’s Hour”, which is that moment just between the end of day and the start of night. It’s origin’s were in a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, published in 1860, where just before sunset was described as “A pause in the day’s occupations.” Though the poem is essentially about a father and his children, there was always something so melancholy to me about it. As if we can stop time before darkness falls. As if we can spot our long gone innocence in that moment, before we have to go and…
One of my favorite things and simultaneously most frustrating things about my wardrobe is how things can hide. Garments tuck themselves into corners and no matter how much I wear them, they still manage to slip from my memory. But, on the plus, flipping through the racks means I get to rediscover them and fall in love all over again. This Trashy Diva dress and I shared exactly that moment this morning. Gone but not forgotten, with her French Quarter print and sounds of jazz swirling from her skirts. Our eyes met across a crowded wardrobe and with a slow smile, we…
As we’ve burst forth into a new year, I can’t help but cast a glance back now and then on the year we just bid farewell too. It’s interesting what evokes memories – a smell, a song, a glance at a person’s profile that spins you into a déjà vu moment. I spent a lovely afternoon on Sunday at one of my Perth favorites – Oh Henry Vintage. When I got home, delighting in my spoils (coming soon to a blog post near you), I caught a glimpse of another dress from Oh Henry that I hadn’t worn in awhile. I…