A Fringed Flirtation

 

 

 

 “The greatest feminists have also been the greatest lovers. I'm thinking not only of Mary Wollstonecraft and her daughter Mary Shelley, but of Anais Nin, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and of course Sappho. You cannot divide creative juices from human juices. And as long as juicy women are equated with bad women, we will err on the side of being bad.”  

 

Erica Jong, via 1

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Outfit:

Black T-shirt: very old from H&M

 Pink Beaded Fringe Skirt: very old from a sale at The Vestry

Pink Strappy High Heeled Sandals: old from a sale at New Look

Pink Flower Fascinator, & Floral Fan: from Accessorize

Vintage Long Silver Earrings: from a charity shop

 

 

 

The Soundtrack

Caro Emerald: That Man   

 

 

All photographs taken by me in the spring, using the self timer of my little digital camera.

p.s. you'll have to excuse my pinker than usual knee, I'd scraped it recently and it was still recovering.

 

 

I'm delighted to be a part of the next Visible Monday, hosted by the lovely Patti from Not Dead Yet Style, click on the website link to see her outfit and those of many others.

 

I'm also excited to be a part of Hat Attack, a new link party held by the wonderful Judith of Style Crone, to take place August 1st, do click on her website link to find out how you can join in!

 

Plus I'm now linking this post to Shoe Shine, a great event hosted by the lovely Bella of The Citizen Rosebud, click on the website to see her cute shoes and those of many others.

 

I Dream Of Easters Past

 

 

 

 

The Layers

 

 

I have walked through many lives,

some of them my own,

and I am not who I was,

though some principle of being

abides, from which I struggle

not to stray.

When I look behind,

as I am compelled to look

before I can gather strength

to proceed on my journey,

I see the milestones dwindling

toward the horizon

and the slow fires trailing

from the abandoned camp-sites,

over which scavenger angels

wheel on heavy wings.

Oh, I have made myself a tribe

out of my true affections,

and my tribe is scattered!

How shall the heart be reconciled

to its feast of losses?

In a rising wind

the manic dust of my friends,

those who fell along the way,

bitterly stings my face,

Yet I turn, I turn,

exulting somewhat,

with my will intact to go

wherever I need to go,

and every stone on the road

precious to me.

In my darkest night,

when the moon was covered

and I roamed through wreckage,

a nimbus-clouded voice

directed me:

“Live in the layers,

not on the litter.”

Though I lack the art

to decipher it,

no doubt the next chapter

in my book of transformations

is already written.

I am not done with my changes.

by Stanley Kunitz, via 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Outfit 1:

Vintage Blue Raw Silk Shift Dress: my Mother's from the 1960s

Pink Strappy High Heels: old from New Look

 

 

Outfit 2:

Blue Floral Shift Dress: a gift from a friend

Grey Ankle Boot Sandals: old from New Look

Sunglasses: very old from Topshop

 

The Soundtrack

Nina Simone: Feeling Good

 

 

Photographs taken by myself and Mr Eve, over the last two years of sunny Easter weekends, using my previous digital camera.

Some day soon the wintry weather will end and the sun will shine like that again.

 

 

The Easter eggs were painted by me.

 

 

Wishing you all a very Happy Easter, you lovely people!

 

I'm delighted to be a part of Visible Monday, hosted by the lovely Patti from www.notdeadyetstyle.blogspot.co.uk, click on the website link to see her outfit and those of many others.

 

 

The Witching Hour

 

 

 

 

  

Her Kind

 

by Anne Sexton

via 1

 

 

I have gone out, a possessed witch,

haunting the black air, braver at night;

dreaming evil, I have done my hitch

 

over the plain houses, light by light:

 lonely thing, twelve-fingered, out of mind.

 A woman like that is not a woman, quite.

 I have been her kind.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have found the warm caves in the woods,  

 

filled them with skillets, carvings, shelves,  

 

closets, silks, innumerable goods;

 

fixed the suppers for the worms and the elves:

 

whining, rearranging the disaligned.

 

A woman like that is misunderstood.

 

I have been her kind.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have ridden in your cart, driver,

 

waved my nude arms at villages going by,

 

learning the last bright routes, survivor

 

where your flames still bite my thigh

 

and my ribs crack where your wheels wind.

 

A woman like that is not ashamed to die.

 

I have been her kind.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Outfit:

Black dress: Nicole Farhi warehouse sale

 

Black spanish lace: passed down from late granny Kiki

 Black suede court shoes: bought many years ago from Hobbs

 Isis pendant: from a car boot sale

 

 

The Soundtrack

Dead Will Dance: Into The Labyrinth

All photographs taken of myself and my beautiful Mum by Mr Eve, using my little digital camera.

 

 

 

As I've been too busy to take outfit photos or blog this week, I thought I'd share some photographs, for those of you who haven't seen them before, from a post first published last year at my other blog Idle Bakes in celebration of Halloween. I've always wondered, why only show a witchy post in the autumn? After all, "witches" lived all year long. No doubt if I had been born in the 1500s I could've been called a witch, as so many unconventional women such as ourselves were in those days, and burned at the stake for no good reason. Witches were nothing like the modern stereotype of cruel carbuncled hags, they were ordinary people, young and old, who were scapegoated for not "fitting in" or for being poor, and blamed for everything from the bad crops to a death in the village.

I'd like to think that those days have passed, but the present conservative government's victimisation of the disabled and the most vulnerable in our society shows a remarkable similarity to the witch hunts of the burning times: nowadays people are left to die through extreme poverty and neglect instead of being burned alive.

 

I'm delighted to be a part of Visible Monday, hosted by the lovely Patti from www.notdeadyetstyle.blogspot.co.uk, click on the website link to see her outfit and those of many others.

 

Country House Hotel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Of all the great things that the English have invented and made part of the credit of the national character, the most perfect, the most characteristic, the only one they have mastered completely in all its details, so that it becomes a compendious illustration of their social genius and their manners, is the well-appointed, well-administered, well-filled country house."

 

Henry James, via 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Outfit

 

Vintage Black Velvet Off The Shoulder Dress: from Ebay

Silk Skirt: inherited from Granny Penny

Silver & Black Lace Peep Toe Heels: from New Look


Handmade Gold & Amethyst Earrings & Bracelet: a Christmas present from Mr Eve 4 years ago

 

The Soundtrack

Gotan Project: La Revancha Del Tango

 

 

Photographs taken during a special Christmas lunch out at the restaurant of the magical Combe House Hotel, Gittisham, Devon.

For more information about the place click here for their website.

 

Wishing you all a very happy New Year!
With warm wishes and high hopes for a wonderful 2013!



I'm delighted to be a part of Visible Monday, hosted by the lovely Patti from www.notdeadyetstyle.blogspot.co.uk, click on the website link to see her outfit and those of many others.

 

Flirting 30s

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"At first she beckoned and lured one into her world; then she blurred the passageways, confused all the images, as if to elude detection."

 Anais Nin, A Spy In The House Of Love

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Outfit

 

Grey Backless Dress: from Topshop, in the years I still shopped there

 

Blue Indian Quilted Jacket: vintage from the 70s, from my granny Penny

 

Silver & Black Lace Peep Toe High Heels: 6 years old, from New Look

 

Turquoise headband: vintage necklace, from my granny Penny

 

Turquoise necklace: a present from my friend Caroline

 

Assorted bracelets: presents from my mother and keepsakes from granny Penny

 

 

The Soundtrack

George Gershwin, Los Angeles Philarmonic directed by Leonard Bernstein: Rhapsody In Blue

 

 

I'm delighted to be a part of Visible Monday, hosted by the lovely Patti from www.notdeadyetstyle.blogspot.co.uk, click on the website link to see her outfit and those of many others.