Florrie, Pearl and a Pug

Here's a face that has appeared on my blog a few times before: the lovely Pearl Westwood of Fashion Pearls of Wisdom. I'm really happy to have met her through blogging, and in person when she offered to show me Manchester's best shops.
We met to have a catch up, shop for and plan our Fashion Week wardrobes and generally had a good giggle! Pearl is completely and utterly devoted to Vivienne Westwood and the only non Vivienne Westwood thing I can find in this outfit is her tights! Even the gloves she later put on were from her faithful VW.
My outfit likewise was very 'me' with pink and florals. Here's my outfit rundown: Scope charity shop vintage dress, George at ASDA 300 denier tights, New Look boots, Marc by Marc Jacobs bag, Dorothy Perkins brooch on a H&M scarf, floral H&M snood and animal print purple cardigan, floral Forever 21 scarf (under snood) and Wallis coat.
You may have spotted an extra snazzy accessory in the form of the Pentax camera. I've borrowed it from college and am having fun playing with black and white film. I hope I've created some lovely images, you just never quite know how they're going to turn out! But I'll be sharing them with you as soon as they're printed.
For now I shall leave you with my favourite DSLR shot of Pearl, which oddly reminds me of one of those strange fish you find at the bottom of the ocean...

Bath Snapshots and Snacks

I've already posted the movie costume exhibition I saw, but there is so much more to show you of the beautiful city of Bath. I went with my wonderful friend, Emma. One of the best, or worst if you're trying to avoid temptation, things about Bath is the number of delicious little shops, tea rooms, patisseries and cafes. Here's where Emma and I munched:




We discovered Fudge Factory near Bath Abbey last year and the fudge is truly scrumptious. My favourite is vanilla with a caramel centre, but I also spied a pretty new flavour called Strawberry Swirl. They stock the cutest candies that would make perfect gifts too, chocolate cat anyone?








On our wonderings we also discovered a little place called The Canary Tea Rooms on Queen Street which apparently only opened on 24th August. Though the tea rooms closed in 1998 they have quite a history, which is being built upon with the reopening. I thought it was lovely in cheerful shades of blue and yellow, with delightful mismatched crockery. I love the fact that my tea pot matches my outfit!
I ordered a cream tea, but requested peppermint tea, for a very reasonable £6. Emma meanwhile ordered a scrummy looking meringue desert and sparkling water.




What trip to Bath would be complete without a stroll on the Royal Cresent? I must say I've never seen a chap in historic costume there before though! We spotted another by the Jane Austen Centre, I guess it must be quite a pleasant job. One year Emma and I would love to go to one of the events where everyone gets dressed up and dances Jane Austen style!

Coppélia- a trip to the ballet

My lovely friend Emma and I trotted off to the Birmingham Hippodrome to see one of my favourite ballets: Coppélia with music by Delibes. We had the pleasure of watching the Birmingham Royal Ballet cast with Nao Sakuma as Swanhilda, Joseph Caley as Franz and Michael O'Hare as Dr Coppélius, and they were all brilliant. I grew up watching the Royal Ballet's 2000 production performed at the Royal Opera House on tape with Leanne Benjamin, Carlos Acosta and Luke Heydon in the same leading roles. You can find it on a DVD which is now top of my shopping list! Though the two productions share many similarities I was also surprised a few times at Birmingham with some interesting twists and choreography- especially in Act III, and especially in the closing minutes! Seeing the ballet live was really wonderful.

We also stopped at the Debenhams cafe where they have the most gorgeous new strawberry and cream frappe drinks! Perfect for summer shopping days.

Layers of winter

I love a little layering but this weather is just not practical for dressing!
Still, it's a good chance to buy a fabulous coat, and even better many are in the sales now. Walking through town is much more interesting when people have pretty coats. :)

I haven't always found winter dressing very inspiring, but the ladies of Gossip Girl make the once humble winter warm excessively appealing.

Some ideas for ladylike winter dressing:

Make sure you dress up warm dears!

My outfit: Wallis coat, Marc by Marc Jacobs bag, Topshop 'jeggings', Joules wellies, grey H&M scarf, purple scarf from market.

Marc Jacobs loveage

I went to London knowing I ought to spend the day on college things that would be useful for my current projects, but also determined to get to Marc Jacobs if I could and see the new Marc by Marc Jacobs store. The window displays were pretty hard to miss:
I mean, there's a huge neon cow- in paisley.

Marc has been in the press lately for kindly reducing the prices of his lines and also introducing a new one with much lower prices. I'd been twice to the shop before and got on the first time a dip-dye bag (totally relavent to my fashion project) and the second the above mirror, which is also in the new M by MJ store. The above bangle was a bargain this time round. There's a lot of different stock too- however small your budget, you have an amazing choice.

Is it a lipstick? No it's my very own Marc Jacobs pen. =D I do love the paisley prints of this AW's main line, and was stopped in my tracks by a row of brightly coloured umbrellas. Of course, being me, I got the pink. A ring: if you want one check out for the phrases mean in english. Some seemed a tad affectionate to buy for oneself.
The dip-dye bag; I use it for carrying fabrics etc in for fashion and textiles.
Continuing with a generak Marc-Jacobs-fest: From the Marc by Marc Jacobs line, bought at Selfridges. It goes with so much. :) And also fits lots in for it's size.
I love the colours- bought at Manchester's Harvey Nicholls.