hits of the summer

Yesterday it rained all morning (and much of the night) and was even chilly enough that I wore a sweater until noon, at which point I peeled it off and temporarily collapsed from heatstroke again. I suppose fall really must be here. Unlike a lot of you however, I'm still clinging on to the last bits of summer. And so I thought I'd share a few of my favourite blog-looks from this past season. I'm not much of a trend-follower, so I have a feeling I'll be consulting these pictures again next summer!


From Le Blog de Betty
I think this was my favourite look of the summer which is pretty strange, because I don't like maxi dresses, I don't like strapless dresses, and while I enjoy Betty's blog, it's usually way more about trends than I am. However, I love the sheer madness of this look. The perfect summery white of the dress should be paired with strappy sandals, and it is, but they're crazy, disco-world sandals. Then there's the blingy bracelet, the simple appropriateness of her summer hat, and a pair of insane sunglasses that don't go with anything else but tie the whole look together. I don't know how you'd ever go around recreating this, but next summer I intend to try!


From The Cherry Blossom Girl and Fancy Fine
Regular readers will know how much I love yellow dresses, and while I enjoy wearing my sister's great yellow dress, Alix basically owns the ultimate example. I think it's a bit sad when other bloggers imitate her too much and try and buy all her clothes (and there are certainly some that do this) but I admit that ebay and I had a long conversation on the subject of this particular See by Chloe dress. Result: nothing in my size and anyway $150 for a dress is slightly over-budget, but should I find it some time when I have a job...

Ashley's "Young Edwardian" dress isn't exactly summery, but it was absolutely one of the best dresses I saw this summer. I love it to bits. Enough said.


From Wish Wish Wish
This was the summer I rediscovered shorts and I love Carrie's pink ones, paired with a great vintage blouse and brown accessories (my favourite). I almost bought pink shorts a couple of years ago, and now I remember why...


From Tilly and the Buttons and Calivintage
Tilly's look is simple, cute and not-unattainable, but what really sold me on it is the fact that she made the skirt herself. If you don't know Tilly's blog you should definitely check it out. She decided not to go shopping for six months and set about making her own clothes, with no previous sewing knowledge. I'm more than inspired to follow her example, as soon as I stop moving all the time (sewing machine's are too heavy to travel with and too expensive to buy in every place).

As for Erin's "Pablo Picasso" outfit, I think it just got me nostalgic for Barcelona. I love the stripes with the floral, I love the scarf on her head and I lovvve the espadrilles. Next summer.


The Cherry Blossom Girl again.
When I travel, I don't buy much in the way of souvenirs. But sometimes I like to pick up things that I can wear, that will always remind me of my time in that country (my favourite to date is a great poncho I bought last year in the mountains in Mexico). Well, Alix went to China and had this amazing qipao made for her. It fits her like a glove and is absolutely beautiful in every way, as was the photo shoot of course. It makes me want to go to China and get one myself! The perfect souvenir!

And now I'm off to enjoy a bit more sunshine, before I move to England and never see the sun again! How about you guys, did you have any favourite looks from the past season?

Flashback! Madrid 2008; or, Messing Around in Boats

In the summer of 2008 I was living in Barcelona, but my boyfriend was working in Madrid. Normally he came back for the weekend, since we both had more friends in Barcelona and there were more things (for us) to do. Plus, sorry Madrileños, but Barcelona is just cooler... ; )

However, Madrid is certainly very cool too, and riding a paddle boat a few weeks back in Mexico City reminded me of a wonderful day we spent rowing boats around the artificial boats in el Parque de Buen Retiro, one of my favourite parks anywhere!

It was so much fun, though it did expose me a tiny bit to some of the unbelievable chauvinism that still exists in Spain. When we were getting into our boat, the man in charge indicated the passenger seat and snapped at me, "La mujer aquí"-- the woman goes here! I spluttered something that didn't make any sense but made sure I was the one who rowed the boat back in! And if you're thinking that perhaps it was a one off and that guy was just old... well, that night we went out for dinner, and were given a menu each... except that my menu didn't have any prices on it!









Outfit:
top: Smoking Lily
grey top: H&M
shorts: from Barcelona
sunglasses: from the street (literally, I found them on the street, I know that's a bit manky but they were kind of cool in 2008)!

heat stroke and roses

The last few weeks, with the exception of today (cloudy and cool) have been absolutely scorching around here, and I've been stupidly spending mornings on the computer and venturing out in the afternoon, thus guaranteeing myself a shorter lifespan than necessary.

These pictures were taken mostly as Hospicio Cabañas, a famous museum in the centre of Guadalajara. I'm completely mystified as to why it's famous, since on the day we went there was only one exhibit--a mural. Luckily it was free day, so I didn't have to pay to see it, but still. After spending five minutes with the mural we wandered out into the interlocking courtyards that make up the building, and afterwards braved the terrible heat of downtown (by walking through a variety of fountains) and collapsed in the theatre cafe to have a glass of wine!



















Here I moodily comtemplate the error that led to my getting Chardonnay instead of Riesling. Blechhh.

Outfit:
t-shirt: my sister's
lace cover-up: Pull and Bear
skirt: oysho
shoes: Camper

mansion envy

The area of Guadalajara that I live in is so nice it hurts! My apartment is a classic eyesore, begging the usual question: is it better to live in the ugly building and look out the window at a nice one, or better to live in the nice one and look at the ugly one? Well, there wasn't much choice this time around, since all the nice buildings are great mansions like this one or last week's that were slightly out of my price range! Accordingly I live in a glorified prison, but I love going for walks and pretending otherwise!








I think I decided at this point that it was good to incorporate "movement" into my photos....










Follow the yellow brick road?



Outfit:
blouse: stolen from my mother
shorts: Oysho
belt: my sister's
earrings: some cafe/gallery in Mexico City
shoes: blowfish
sunglasses: Sanborn's

all yellow

So... you'll have seen this dress a few times on my sister while she was here, but I wanted to wear it too. My sister and I are lucky in that we're the same size in everything (except shoes, rings and gloves) and often buy things with the idea that the other person will also get some wear out of it. And when we're not together, well... ownership reverts to the person who bought it, unless they decide they don't want it anymore!

Yesterday I got a few questions in the comments about my lifestyle. Someone mentioned that they too wanted to up and move to London, and wondered if I had any advice/regrets after several years of this sort of behaviour. I don't consider myself the best person to give advice, but I thought this question might be of interest to a few people, so here is my "wisdom," interspersed with some mellow yellow pictures...



I don't regret any of my moves, although not all of them were very well-planned or considered. Here are some things I'd keep in mind:

If it's your first time doing this sort of thing, maybe start with baby steps. I first moved from Canada to Scotland. It's different, but not too different, and you don't have to go around trying to open bank accounts in a foreign language. I then moved up to a foreign language but a European culture (Barcelona) and then to the madness of the developing world (Mexico).



This one's important: don't just go somewhere, give yourself something to do when you get there. Do an internship, take a course, whatever, but have something lined up to get you out and into society. Otherwise you'll have too much time to yourself to mope, feel homesick and be neurotic. For example, I arrived in Barcelona not knowing a soul, but started a course the next day where I met ten people. I didn't have time to feel homesick for months!



You won't be happy all the time but if you stick with it you'll have a great time! I went to a seminar once that described the stages of homesickness and it was very true. At first, everything is great, then you go through a little slump after about a month. Then things pick up and you find the new culture interesting and entertaining again. Then, after about four months, it ceases to be fun at all. Your spirits crash big time and the things that used to entertain you now drive you nuts and you think everything and everyone is stupid... If you can pull through this without going home in despair, you should start to have the time of your life.



And in general... try and go with the flow. And make friends with other foreign people, it's way easier than trying to get locals of any country to pay attention to you! Be open-minded, and polish your small talk, at least for the first little while.



So... if any of you decide spontaneously to move to London... look me up!

Outfit:
Dress: Lady Dutch (my sister's)
Citrine necklace: self-made
Shoes: Fly London

under the arches

First things first: a big thank you to everyone excited for me about my move to London! I'm excited too, although somewhat stressed and already making weekly budget lists. The last time I lived in the UK was a bit of a financial disaster for me. Not because I went shopping or anything, simply because my rent took up 3/4 of my (admittedly dismal) salary. I was very poor, and not in a pituresque, darning-your-underwear way, but in a living-for-the-month-of-December-on-chocolate-and-wine-my-flatmate-and-I-were-given-for-Christmas-way. However, I'm hoping that since this time I have better savings and the exchange rate is significantly better, that it won't come to that!

Apologies, meanwhile, for being a poor commenter the last few days. My internet is fiendishly bad... I plan to burn down the Telmex building when I leave! Starbucks has been coming to the rescue!


Gaah... heatstroke!



Now, these pictures were taken recently when my sister and I made a day trip to Tlaquepaque, a village contained within Guadalajara that's famous for their ceramic work. We went to a lovely and free ceramic museum. Many of the pieces are enormous and exquisitely detailed and really have to be seen to be believed. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures, so you'll have to take my word for it! In general, we didn't take too many touristy pictures that day; I think we were a little overloaded in the last several weeks. However, on the way home we did grab a few. The light and shadows are a bit harsh in these, but then, you're not really supposed to take pictures at 4 pm...









Oh, and of course I can't resist sharing...

It wasn't really the best neighbourhood to be flashing a camera around, as you can tell by the state of the vochos, but I simply couldn't resist! The second one was so gutted as to not be a car anymore, I think it was that neighbourhood's idea of a bench!

Oufit:
Dress: from Barcelona
Tank: H&M
Shoes: Victoria (Spanish children's brand)
Sunglasses: Sanborn's
Bag: Stolen from my mother
Earrings: Self-made

On Shona:
Dress: Oysho
T-shirt: Smart Set
Shoes: Converse
Earrings: Native Store on Granville Island
Sunglasses: Alfred Sung

As you'll note from our aggressive layering, it's best not to show too much skin around here. We get enough attention as it is for being white and (compared with Mexicans) tall.

And after such a scorchingly hot day, there was really only one thing to do: go to the Teteria (teashop) near my house...

seven things you may have always wanted to know...

So, I was tagged by Rio of Showers of Sunflowers with the Versatile Blogger Award! While I'm not sure what's versatile, per se about it, I certainly enjoyed learning more about Rio... go check out her blog... and I thought it might be fun. To keep things visual, I'll include a few pictures from a not-quite-photoshoot recently!



The rules are: to tell your readers 7 things about yourself, and then tag seven other bloggers (and inform them, I guess).

So, in no particular order, here goes:

1. I'm dual-citizenship British-Canadian, courtesy of my dad. While this ethnic mix isn't very surprising, it's been awesome for me! The British passport allows me to work all over the European Union. (Americans: you can work anyway... I had loads of illegal American friends in Barcelona and some of them made more money than me; life was just a tad more stressful).
2. I'm writing a children's novel, with the plan to become the next J.K. Rowling (joke). It's about two children in Vancouver, one local and one a foreigner, who stumble into a parallel forest-Vancouver world where the people all have tree-features and where there are strange and valuable hybrid animals (such a spirit bear-Chinese lion mix) that represent are mixed-up culture and imaginations). I'm currently proofreading the first draft, so obviously I'd much rather be doing my blog!
3. I have two younger sisters, one is on the waitlist for a nursing program and the other studies human rights.



4. I'm completely commitment-phobic with regards to life decisions. My transient lifestyle would stress a lot of people out, including me, but I simply can't stand the thought of living anywhere too long.
5. Erm, I really hate it when people leave comments like, "Cute!!!! Come follow my blog!!!!" You are of course allowed to mention your blog in comments sections, but if you're on my blog let's at least pretend the conversation is about that! ; )
6. I'm a terrible and nervous driver. I had to learn standard recently in South Africa and I did, but I was terrified 100% of the time, managed to scratch the rental car before I left, and am sooooo glad to be back to walking/biking again.
7. If you're still with me, this is an official announcement! I'm moving to London to start a Masters degree in three weeks. This was kind of decided over the weekend (commitment-phobia) when the Admissions department finally decided I was European enough to pay local fees. I'm excited, and really nervous!


On an entirely unrelated note, don't you love how these earrings look silhouetted against the sky. Very skeletal I think! I always think of them as leaves (and they are) but a friend of mine once pointed out that they could also be hearts... the anatomical kind.

Ok, I'm going to pass this on to:
1. Anthea of Embracing Style
2. Emily of Resplendent Tranquility
3. SMASH of Milk Teeths
4. Diana of Dressed Up Alligators
5. Kiran of Fitnesolution
6. Abi of Style Bouquet
7. and last but not least, the mysterious, nameless lady behind A Closet Fashionista!

You ladies are of course under no duress to do this yourselves, but I'd be delighted to know seven things about each of you!



By the way, for anyone more interested in the travel, rather than the style, aspect of this blog, feel free to hop over to my other blog, Emily in Europe. It's woefully behind the times, but I'm planning on giving it some TLC this week!