Khaki green is another regular colour that crops up in most autumn fashion style editorials in magazines at this time of year – some years more than most. I’ll admit, it doesn’t seem to be one of the major must-be-seen-in colours of fall 2017, but none-the-less I love it! It’s almost a neutral, and seems to go with every other colour in my wardrobe, except perhaps red and grey. And pale blue. Ok, so maybe not every colour, but quite a lot! It goes perfectly with dusky pink (of which I own a fair few items), black, and every shade of brown from dark chocolate to pale cream. On this occasion, I chose cream….
Looking for the perfect base – Review of Boots No 7 day cream; Rimmel mattifying primer & Bare Minerals matt powder foundation
I’m sure I could be psycho-analysed about this; but I cannot run out of something unless I’ve already bought the thing I’m going to use next – even if I know that’s not for some time! During our recent trip to America, I planned on buying a few products that I regularly use so that I have them all set to go when I ‘hit pan’ on my current ones! The first of these is the No7 Protect and Perfect Day Cream. I stood in my local Boots a couple of months ago and couldn’t bring myself to spend £25 on the next one, so I thought I’d wait until I could get it slightly cheaper across the pond. The second item was Maybelline mineral powder foundation, but as they didn’t have that any more, I was tempted into buying the Bare Minerals matte powder foundation instead. The primer was an impulse purchase as I was drawn in by the ‘mattifying’ bit on the label. Yes, there is a theme here. And yes, if a matte moisturising day cream existed, I would buy that too!….
How to make an easy but impressive floral display for the whole year
I have a thing for old bottles. Whenever I see one in a flea market or boot sale, I always pick it up; wonder what it once held and who in its history has owned it; but end up putting it down again because I’ve never had a reason to buy it (aren’t I good?!). However, I’ve finally thought of a reason to buy a whole load of them! And because I was impatient, I bought a job lot of vintage clear glass bottles, but actually it would’ve been fun to build up the collection over time, picking one up here and there. I thought this would be a nice quick and easy blog post just sharing my flower arrangement idea, but I ended up being pulled into the time-draining vortex of the internet discovering all sorts of things about old bottles! Did you know there are collectors’ clubs and events all over the country? If I had time for another hobby, I can see that vintage bottle collecting could become one of them!…..
5 excuses not to do Blogtober this year – Blogging advice
Are you a blogger and feeling the pressure to take part in Blogtober? (ie publishing a blog post every day for the month of October.) Well worry no more; I have five good reasons why you shouldn’t do it!
- You don’t have the time. No seriously, you probably don’t. Unless you’re my friend Kathryn, who, in the space of twenty minutes at our village writers’ group, can write a well written, fully plotted short story of about two thousand words; or you’re that girl who put her hand up for seven extra sheets of paper during her GCSE English exam, really think about how long it takes you to write a blog post. Particularly if this isn’t your full-time gig and you’re also doing a ‘proper’ job and/or looking after a family. Unless you’ve been planning Blogtober for a while and have a stash of posts ready to go in advance; when exactly are you going to do all this extra work?…..
Styling a Next outfit for a blogger event – autumn fashion
I am so nervous about this event, but I equally don’t want to miss out, so I’ve swallowed the £55 train ticket to London (yes, that’s right – £55 to get in and out of London off peak) as I’ve been invited to a Next Blogger Network event in Shoreditch. Social anxiety aside, I am looking forward to it, but as you might expect from me, my outfit had to be planned well in advance…..
How to make a woodland fairy wedding gown – The story behind the dress
If you’re new here, I should begin by saying that I make dresses for my business, Threads of a Fairytale. My husband, Chris and I had the photoshoot in mind before I even started making the dress, so I knew exactly what I wanted to begin with, which is fairly unusual for me! So the dress originated as a vintage pure silk Indian tunic that more-or-less fitted me. It’s a gorgeous mottled moss green pure silk fabric with lovely metallic dots – called Mukesh work – which give a beautiful shimmer in the light. Then I went round my various stashes of fabric round the house, gathering bits and pieces that would blend well with the colour…..
Cultural Appropriation in Fashion. Should it really matter?
If you know me, then you’ll know I am a person who happily trundles on in life, getting on with things as pleasantly as I can, doing as much as possible to avoid drama or confrontation. However, I think someone linked to a blog post I wrote over year ago, as I’ve come back from holiday to a flurry of angry comments on the post called OSHUN – THE STORY OF MY CLOTHING BRAND, AND THE YELLOW DRESS INSPIRED BY BEYONCE’S IN LEMONADE. I thought I would respond to those comments in a blog post, rather than reply to them individually, as hopefully I will explain myself and my opinions in a more complete and thought-through way. So to understand what I’m about to talk about, you might want to have a look at that post first and have a read of the recent comments below it. In summary though, it was written at a time when Beyonce appeared to be channeling the ancient African deity, Oshun, so I wrote a bit about her for those who hadn’t heard of her before, and explained how I came to choose her to name my clothing business and a dress after. I wrote a brief message a couple of days ago addressing this on my Threads of a Fairytale website, and if you don’t mind, I’ll quote it now as an introduction:
“Hello! I’m back from holiday and had a wonderful time exploring the Acropolis and other ancient remains and ruins around Greece and Albania and have come home full of inspiration. Three new goddess dresses influenced in design by ancient Greek attire will be appearing in the Threads of a Fairytale shop very soon – one in pink, one gold, and one in a mottled green and grey – all pure silk chiffon. I will continue to be inspired by religions and cultures from all around the world; ancient and modern, because that’s the way art grows, develops and nourishes one’s soul and interest. The term “cultural appropriation” seems to be more in fashion than fashion itself at the moment….If you’re a regular visitor to this page, you’ll know that I changed my clothing business name from Oshun to Threads of a Fairytale a couple of months ago and explained my reasons here. And no, the change had nothing to do with cultural appropriation because I’m sorry, I simply don’t agree that it’s a problem here. We have been influenced by our neighbours of all colours and heritage since time began and I think that’s a wonderful thing. Segregating oneself and not allowing this to happen comes from a place of ego, not from a place of good”.
If you are going to comment here or on facebook (or anywhere), I would appreciate it if you take the time to read this whole piece to fully understand where I’m coming from, and hopefully even take a minute to think about some of my points. I haven’t written this to try to get anyone to change their opinions – of course we’re not all going to agree, but I want to say at the beginning that I have listened to your comments; looked into them further, and really given it some thought from all points of view before writing this……
Styling a simple blue dress – summer fashion.
As you can tell, these photos were taken on a warm day in spring, back when the bluebells were out in full force; but this is still an outfit I’m wearing four months later, so I thought I’d do some catching up as I haven’t written so many fashion blog posts recently. This was actually an impromptu photo-shoot as we were out hunting for bright yellow rape-seed oil flower fields. We always see them next to the road when we’re not looking for them, but when we were it took us hours! We saw the dappled light shining through the trees and thought we’d hop out the car and take some photos there just in case we never found what we were looking for….
Twin Peaks The Return. Televisual genius or a load of sh*te? A review at the half way point.
I was looking forward to this new series of Twin Peaks so much. Maybe too much. Maybe it just brought back happy memories of teenage-hood that I wanted to recapture – or something like that. At the very least I wanted a decent television series that I would enjoy watching. Instead; we got this…..
Glastonbury Festival 2017 – Review & photos
Yes, I know it’s a bit late in the day, but I think I’ve written a review of every Glastonbury Festival since this blog began, so I can’t break with tradition can I? This was the first year I vlogged the whole event, so I’ve been intensely editing all the hours of footage I came home with, so please click the link if you’d like to watch the video. Anyway, Glastonbury 2017 will definitely go down as one of my favourites and I have to be honest, that’s mainly due to the perfect weather! I don’t go for the bands – if you’ve been to Glastonbury Festival, you’ll know it’s about so much more than the music, and it’s almost impossible to explain why……
