Wadrobe Watch week 2 AKA "are you really that vain?"

If you are at all interested in clothes I can honestly say that photographing the contents of my spring wardrobe was the best few hours I have ever spent. It sound a tad narcissistic I know, OK a LOT but there were some real shocks in terms of what I thought looked good and what really looked good.
I have a tendency to wear cardies that are too baggy, I clearly look better when they are slightly more fitted. I would probably rock a suit but would feel too claustrophobic. Other sartorial howlers were two GAP t-shirts that actually made me look pear shape. A more inverted triangle you couldn't hope to find so these tops were really badly cut. They have been consigned to my 'only to be worn at the seaside bag'
Two other tops I realised clung with a touch too much enthusiasm to my midriff, they went to Daisy, she makes them look amazing so I don't resent wasting the money too much.
I am starting to think the best way to buy clothes is to try them on, photograph them, have a coffee, evaluate and only then decide, because for some reason I miss things when I look in a mirror which look glaringly obvious in a photograph. Length of skirts, proportions and so on. So week two and the scores are considerably higher.

Monday 8/10
This skirt I love, it was on a sale rack in Miss Selfridge (a shop I would not go in now)

it was originally a bubble skirt which I cut. It is made of many meters of parachute silk and hangs beautifully, worn here with a charcoal grey top from Massimo Dutti and a wool hook & eye cardie from Uniqlo. Also sharp eyes may just catch a glimpse of a new smoky quartz and pearl necklace I made during the day.

Tuesday 9/10

I LOVE this jumper, very flattering and although you can't see it buttoned down the back, a style I love. It was in the sale in Muji I would have paid full price I love it so much.

Worn with a skirt bought a few years ago in Wales, grey pinstripe with a big pocket. I love the style but not the pin stripes so much. Worn with a necklace I made that day. It took 4 attempts but once made is now one of my favourites.

Wednesday 7/10

I was painting most of the day so dressed down with a floppy top from Jigsaw, a Zara cardie and Zara Jodhpurs, you might just see my lovely Cath Kidston necklace.

Thursday 7/10

That lovely COS black dress with a light charcoal grey cardie from Kew which I think is a bit dull with the dress hence low mark. I am strating to wish I had just a bit more colour in my wadrobe.

Friday 7/10

Always more dress down as I teach mainly sixth form. This is one of my COS tunic dresses which I had mistakenly been wearing with longish cardies. I realised it made me look like I was wearing a shroud, so I am trying a much shorter cardie, this one from Toast looks slightly better. Worn with very narrow black trousers again from Zara. All my trousers are Zara they just love me!

It was all about the food...

Well OK the cider was lovely too, but I forgot to photograph that. The beach front is littered with kiosks selling hot chocolate and would you believe latte's?

In fact Southwold is so posh, not for them an End Of The Pier Show, instead a far more amusing and tasteful Under The Pier Show.

Have you ever seen so much crockery? This is in one of the many bric-a-brac markets. I could have bought a lot more than I did, instead I settled for a hand blown Georgian wine glass.

But from here it is all about the food..

Cream teas at the boating lake cafe

Fresh fish from the harbour.

Orford

Richardson's Smoke House

The most amazing locally made baskets, I may have to be cremated in one of these they are so lovely!

Just look at that list, what an amazing place

What a pork fest, there are free range pig farms everywhere and that ham was divine, so you see we ate a lot, drank a lot and had a thoroughly wonderful time.

The view from here

The path to Walberswick

Above the view across the reed beds to Southwold

I would try to get up each morning to walk the circuit around the harbour across the marshes to the dunes, the sound of the Sky larks was amazing, they were so high you could not see them by the afternoon they were low enough to see. Also amazing were the aerial fights between the Seagulls and Lapwings but even they ducked for cover the morning the Marsh Harrier arrived!

Returning back from a meal in Walberswick along the harbour the sun had just set over the reed beds. creating this ethereal glow

The beginning of the holiday was very very cold, 5 layers plus hence the grey skies.

The dunes were very beautiful

even more so when you came across beach huts nestled in them

below my favourite house which was available to rent, I may have to return at some point just to stay and paint there.

I love the flat marsh reed beds of Suffolk, I love that empty landscape especially at sunrise when there is no one around.

Sartorial London

Snapping the style on Bond Street
my stripes from Southwold her stripes...

from Hermes

The above two images are of the Hermes shop front on Bond Street. I am assuming they are by the Sartorialist, but where the scarf or hanky should be is the real thing, from Hermes of course.
So of course I felt I should try to capture some street style love.

Although I would not wear this I loved the zingy colour combo.

as I did with this outfit

I would love to own all that she is wearing, the trousers you can't really tell are in the most beautiful green, grey steel colour, the perfect length too

I wanted to get more of the bag, but you only get a fleeting chance the speed some of these women move at

How wonderful is this? The promise of a picnic on a cold but beautiful sunny day, I caught her emerging from Fortnum's

I love the proportions of this, very Comme de Garcon, I tend to veer towards shorter skirts myself though, but I though she looked amazingly striking when everyone else had slipped into some summer colour

Transatlantic Japanese Maple love

Materfamilias recently posted some photographs documenting her love of the new unfurling Japanese maple leaves in her garden. I also have, two Japanese maples that when opening newly minted leaves look almost claw like against silhouetted on a sunny day.

Not a Japanese maple I know but a lovely image of some fragile flowers at the end of the garden.

Above all just feel that macro lens love!

Seriously it is really difficult to take these photographs when even the tiniest breeze sends auto focus into battery meltdown, and you can't breath either , but when you get the shot, what shots they are. That lens is surely worth the price of a pair of Blahnik's no?

Wadrobe Watch

This could go horribly wrong, but as I miss what I wore today (drawings) I thought i would make a concerted effort to see what I wear over the next 6 weeks. Last week in a moment of peace I photographed every outfit so I could try and evaluate the shapes and proportions. I will give each outfit marks out of 10 and maybe the odd story as to origins, we will see...

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

Monday 6/10

INSET so very dress down, yet I love this and you will see over the next few weeks it is my default comfort setting,

Tuesday 3/10

I again went for comfort since it was the first day back at school. however I don't think this works at all now I see the photograph, really drab plus I hate it when the cardie is the same length as the top underneath, I should have gone longer or shorter.

Wednesday 7/10

I love this dress, not that flattering but fun. I think I would change the footless tights next time though.

Thursday 6/10

Again not flattering but I like the huge pockets. The cardie worked well with the necklace, but the trousers are too bulky.

Friday 8/10

Love this one, one of my favourite COS tunic dresses with a really well cut pair of black trousers

Tie a yellow ribbon...

Leyla has true to her roots led a nomadic existence bedroom wise. I nursed her for 4 months in this bed and for a short while she had her own nursery. Later Emin took her room over and when we finally decided to make one last go of our fractional, fractious & fractured relationship the au pairs arrived and so she has over the years slept with us, or in our room with us.
When finally the loft was converted she moved into Daisy and Kitty's old room with just the bits they left behind. She has none of her mothers homemaking skills and the room stagnated.
The bed you see had gone to her aunts but I was a bit mean and asked for it back, it meant we could dump the hideous but very useful bunk beds.
So last Thursday I hired a van and collected the bed and the desk which I had previously rescued from a skip at work
We went to Ikea and bought the book shelves and a new duvet cover. Kitty worked her arse off clearing, sorting and organising the room. She did it solely as an act of altruistic love because she felt Leyla had a raw deal, Daisy was less generously spirited as she has always wanted a room of her own. Emin felt guilty, but as I pointed out they have their own room at their nans house where they have until recently spent all their spare time. The chair too I rescued, it is THE most comfortable chair ever, contoured to fit a generous arse. The map I stole from the old staff room.

The self portrait is by Leyla.

The room is awesome and she was rightly speechless when she finally came home at 2.30am last night. Then when finally she had taken it all in do you know what she said? Where is the mirror? How bloody vain is that?

I collected them tired from Heathrow last night, Leyla gave me the gift of nits brought all the way from back Cyprus, I have left explicit instructions that someone is to comb her hair through with conditioner before sending her back to school. I have not stopped bloody scratching since she came home....

The view from here

Southwold Harbour

I got into the habit of waking early and going for a long walk, I actually found it easier to capture the spirit of the place though drawing rather than photography. I definitely began to find my mojo here, all be it towards the end of the week. Oh, not to have to work.....

Margaret Green

You can just see my favourite house which overlooks the mouth of the estuary, this whole area was very beautiful.

Another view of the harbour near where the 'ferry' takes you to Walberswick, my favourite village, the 'ferry' is a rowing boat

We found the harbour by accident, I have visited Southwold many times and never been there. Whilst we were walking around the town Kitty began to notice small painted eggs in the shop windows with numbers on. We realised it was a competition and collected and entry form. We found all 84 eggs, let me tell you they were flung far and wide and one of the places to find one was a fish shop in the harbour.

It is a good mile outside the town and was very much part of a thriving working harbour. So a big kiss for Kitty because without the search for eggs we would probably not found it or Walberswick.

The hunt also led us to a parade of shops where we found a lovely clothes shop. Every Easter this happens, we find these lovely shops selling a really esoteric mix. I bought a lovely black Jersey top with silk rosettes around the neck and a pair of really soft leather ankle boots reduced to £20 in a deep bronze perfect for next year.

These two views are of the dunes at Southwold very beautiful and I too was inspired to draw. It took a while to get a feel for the place but once started I was very reluctant to return home.

Little has changed since these views were painted, despite the hustle and bustle of the town the beaches towards the harbour were very quite. I love this landscape.

So where are the photographs? Well I can't find the card reader and a member of staff has borrowed my camera, plus we are busy choosing a place for next year. Oh and there is this bloody teaching malarky too. So photographs later this week

Dorset is now high on our list and I have narrowed it down to 3 brilliant places. I am bravely going to take the dog. The whole world and his wife took their dogs to Southwold and Kitty and I really missed having him around.

Oh, it now looks like Emin and Leyla might be home tonight...

All images from here