an outing to south london

These pictures are getting a bit long in the tooth, so it's high time they were posted. Shortly before I went to New York, I met up again with Raquel from Black Sheep. I met her last fall when she visitied London (documented here and here) and now she's living here! So one gorgeous spring day, I headed down to South London to go charity shopping with her.

I really like South London, which I'd kind of forgotten, as I hadn't been there in a while. It's so much more relaxed than East London, where I live. In Raquel's area there seems to be a kind of community feeling, at least among the large expat Portuguese population. She took me to a little café, where I had a milky coffee (heaven, just like being in Barcelona) and a delicious Portuguese pastry which I forget the name of but which is essentially flaky pastry and a custard-like filling. Then we went to her local charity shop, which was much cheaper than mine in East London (surprise, surprise), and finished off taking pictures in the park as the sun started to dip.

I love having made so many friends through blogging (more real life meetings coming later this week), and I'm looking forward to hitting up some vintage markets with Raquel when I get back!









dress: vintage, red sweater: charity shop, cardigan: vintage, shoes: Fly London.

flower power

I realized, that for a person who claims to be not very fond of floral print clothing, I'm wearing no fewer than four florals in this outfit. I think it's not floral I object to so much (what kind of Scrooge could really object to flowers), but the ubiquitous nature of floral prints. It appears to be either the easiest, cheapest. or most universally appealing print manufacturers can produce, and I guess I just find it annoying that just because I'm female, it's assumed I want to be covered in flowers all the time. I'm reasonably girly, but don't like to be saccharine. So I'm subverting it with an overload of clashing florals. Or something.

Moving on, this was a great day out in Brooklyn. We walked over the Brooklyn bridge and then down to a restaurant called Junior's, which everyone seems to know about, and where I had artery-clogging eggs benedict and even more heart-attack-inducing cheesecake, while trying to eavesdrop on the next table, where two little old men straight out of a Woody Allen film were talking about relationships and their feelings! Then we walked down to one of the Beacon's Closet locations and to a few other vintage shops, wandered down some picturesque streets like these ones, and I imagined myself as a little girl living in a tenement in the early 20th century (I've been rereading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and finally went to Prospect Park and to the Brooklyn Public Library, before staggering home exhausted.





Photos by Albert. And yep, this is the new camera. We're so in love, though we're still figuring a lot of things out...

Pepe jeans blouse, ancient H&M dress and sunglasses, Camper shoes, charity shop scarf

the grass is always greener...

The weather has been incredible in London today, 22 C (or 72F) and sunny--so obviously I've been stuck inside packing all day. It's moving time again. I'm not leaving London for good yet, but I am leaving my flat, which is overpriced, has too many people in it, and is generally getting me down. Looking back at these pictures, I can't help but wish I lived in New York instead (although I'm sure real estate is equally outrageous there as here). I have a real commitment problem with places, which is shared by a lot of my family. I'd always rather be somewhere else: I was longing to come to London before I did, but now it bores me a bit. I know it's because I don't take enough advantage of what's on offer, but again; with rent and transportation so outlandishly expensive, constantly going out is unaffordable. And people are (no offense, Londoners) unfriendly. I remember walking home one day in a blue funk after being ignored by some people from my course thinking, "wtf? I'm friendly, social, intelligent, can speak English and am reasonably good looking, ... isn't that what people supposedly want in friends?" Pfff.

Anyway, grousing aside, here are some pictures from über-friendly new york. I had a nice day about fifty times over, and while I think we barely scratched the surface of that city, I really want to have the chance to scratch it some more.

Meanwhile, I'm off to a place I wouldn't trade for any metropoles on offer... my Dad's hometown in the North of England!





The cartoon is from a Will Eisner exhibit at the museum of comics.

Some Chinese elders were really involved in whatever this was about.

Man and machine. Girl and pretzel.

up on high

This is the view from the place where we stayed in New York. Albert's friend is working in the city at the moment and found an amazing flat to live in the Lower East Side, on the 19th floor, with a 20 foot balcony and panoramic views of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Of course, everywhere has its drawbacks, and this place came with an obsessive compulsive live-in landlord (I had no idea it could take ten whole minutes to wipe down a stove after use, or that repotting about 200 plants was a legitimate Saturday morning activity). All in all though, this place was definitely worth it, and to be fair, the landlord was really sweet to us.

My Snoozer Loser skirt has been slumbering for most of the winter, but I thought I'd bring it along on a ride to its hometown. I also spent way too long looking for supposed boutiques that stock their collections so I could splurge on a spring piece, but they simply didn't exist (update your website already, guys). I loved this outfit on the day but I have to say all I can see at the moment are the wrinkles in that shirt... I always recommend people pack stuff that doesn't need to be ironed but I'm awful at taking my own advice...





Pictures by Albert

Snoozer Loser skirt, Alfred Sung shirt, Fly London shoes, self made necklace, and awesome Clarins red lipstick from the Duty Free at Heathrow!

jumping for joy in central park

This was the first day in New York, when everything was bright and freezing, and I walked around in a "am I really here?" sort of a daze. A lot of people told me that it's their dream to go to New York, but I have to say, it was never my dream. I always kind of wanted to go, but not the way I wanted to go to London, or Berlin, or Buenos Aires (two of those three I still haven't been to). But New York really surpassed my expectations. I walked around, clutching my coat around me and cursing that bitter wind, but feeling all the time that this place was really cool. I would 100% spend a summer there (my brain is in overtime trying to figure out how), but in the meantime I'm going to live it all again through these pictures.

More to come, especially since the next day was the debut of our (Albert's) new toy...


Sorry vegetarians... but this pastrami sandwich is one of the reasons I can't join your ranks. It was so melt-in-your-mouth good. Mind you, for $16, it should be.







vintage coat, charity shop scarf, Warehouse jeans, Pepe jeans blouse, old black cardigan, H&M sunglasses, Camper shoes

easter bonnet

Ok, so it's not Easter, this is hardly an Easter Bonnet, and I don't even have a basket, but something about a field full of crocuses makes me expect a pastel procession of bunnies and chicks at any point. Or maybe that ad that's on all the bus stops has just gone to my head.

I'm amassing a nice collection of New York pics which should start trickling onto the blog soon, but I thought I'd share these shots of springtime in London first. I didn't even realize London got spring, since during the year I spent in Glasgow spring more or less passed us by. But it was gorgeous the last couple of weeks, which made me extra sad to face the biting winds that are racketing New York at the moment.

I'm having an excellent time but am completely incoherent tonight after a packed day of wandering the city. More to follow in days to come!







photos by Albert

dress: River Island
shoes: KG Kurt Geiger
hat: The Bay

A lightning-quick hello

I'm jet-lagged, I've got an itinerary a mile long, I love this city so far, but I wish I'd brought about twenty extra scarves (I had no idea there was such a freezing wind here). I've had an amazing pastrami sandwich, a cool peanut butter doughnut, and some frankly horrible $8 tiramisu, a lot of coffee. I'm revelling in the accents, both English and Spanish. I'm loving how friendly everyone is... I can't remember the last time a stranger offered me help on the street (that would never happen in London, or Barcelona).

Hope you're all well!

Oh, and check out the lovely Miss Molly's feature of me in her Muse Project! I just wish that that pretend vacation she had me pack for was a real one!

meet the cameras

It seems there may be a DSLR in the ruby future of the blog (one of the reasons for going to New York, hehe). I created a monster when I first asked my boyfriend to take an outfit shot... or rather, I think the interest in photography was always there, but my having a specific request gave him some structure to practice with. I used a similar method when I wanted to write a book, incidentally. I'd always wanted to write but could never finish anything, until my mom said "You know, Harlequin are always actively soliciting new writers." So my first book (unpublished, like the second) was a cheesy romance. I've never been a romance reader or fan, but knowing what the plot was and how the characters had to be more or less allowed me to focus my energy into putting words on paper. Wow, that was a complete tangent. Anyway, Albert's really into photography now, and I'm excited about the camera-to-be and the upcoming potential to blur backgrounds so much you won't even know we're in New York. ; D

However, I've also been a big proclaimer of the idea that you don't need a fancy camera to take fancy pictures, so before the fancy camera arrives on the scene, I thought I'd celebrate the unsung heroes of the blog.

The Lumix:

This is Albert's camera, and it's a good one. It looks a lot like a very posh and expensive Leica, and in fact it has a Leica lens, so it's essentially the same. However, it's made by Panasonic. At about $400, it isn't exactly bargain basement, but significantly less than a DSLR and it takes excellent photos (my parents also have an earlier model). Most of the pictures on the blog are taken with this camera. An example:

It does some nice blur, and you can set it to Aperture or Shutter and adjust the ISO. Drawbacks include some distortion depending on the settings (but since this usually gives me longer legs I don't complain) ; ) and a really lame zoom.

The Sony:

One year, when exceptionally broke, I needed a new camera (that has always been a necessity in my books). So I went to Zellers with my mom, the negotiator extraordinaire. This camera was originally almost $200, but it was on sale for something. Then we discovered that the only one remaining was the display model, so my mom wrangled a discount. Then I signed up for a Zellers card and got an additional $10 off. Result: $89 of great investment.
I love my camera. It's cheap, it's cheerful (it was $89 for chrissake) and it's great! Colours come out strong and clear. The low light capacity is excellent. It has an ISO setting which you can't really adjust but which does improve the light, and adjusting the white balance allows me to go from ghostly white to pleasantly yellow, which I'm in favour of. It's obviously not as good as Albert's camera, but for the price, it's ace.

(The first picture is also an example of adjusting the white balance to give myself some colour... it makes things look warmer in general).

The Pentax:


The Pentax is kind of our impractical baby. It was Albert's dad's, in the 70s/80s. It takes the best pictures of the bunch, but it's tempermental. Usually only a few pictures can be developed from each role, for mysterious reasons. It has been sent to the repair shop. Poor baby.


So there you have it. What's your relationship with your camera? Do you feel it adds to or takes away from your blog?

spring fever

Now that my "Hits of the Winter" are out of the way (who really wants to dwell on winter anyway), let's get on with the real star... spring! The weather has been so unbelievably great the last week or so... so obviously I've been stuck inside with school/a boring data entry job. I'm not complaining though, money is always a good thing!

I've been saving photos of girls in pastel yellow skirts and floaty dresses and cropped sweaters, but Spring is actually jeans season for me. I get to this time of year and I'm soooo sick of tights, which have all lost their elastic generally, but it's too late to start buying new ones. I'm generally more of a dresses person, but I actually love jeans--on other people. I've been avoiding skinny jeans like the plague for the past 6 years, but after seeing the lovely Zoë working them like no other, I headed straight to the shops (and broke my shopping ban, but I am unrepentent since I've worn them about 12 days out of 14 so far). So, this is transitional dressing at Ruby Slipper Journeys.

Albert thinks blog posts should have the minimum amount of pictures to get the point across, and I also have the "less is more" attitude, but bear with me here please! I love these photos, I loved this day, my hair is actually doing something that is recognizable as a hairstyle and there are daffodils! Oh, and some of the backdrops aren't so scenic, but that's because I'm trying to get away from the myth on this blog that I live in a park surrounded by wilderness. I love the canal, but it's still a very urban setting.




Spring forward! I must not forget to change my clock this weekend as my flight is on Sunday...


Nailed the landing. ; )

Photos by Albert

jeans: Warehouse, blouse: Zara, shoes: Aldo, hat: The Bay
(ha, I realize that two of my favourite items are from the twin evil empires of Zara and Aldo... just shows that it's always worth a look)