january simplicity

I think every January I come trotting out on the blog in a super-basic outfit going on about how, after sneaking Christmas cookies out of the freezer for a month and drinking liters of wine, plus wearing velvet, sequins and so on, I'm all about a bit of simplicity. This year is no exception, and this is one of my favourite outfits, which I've been wearing in one form or another since November. These days, except to go to work, I barely stir off my sofa or out of my fluffy red dressing gown, so it was nice to get dressed, go for a mid-week lunch and take some pictures for a change.

Happy 2014 all!





Photos by Víctor

on the feast of stephen

I'm so out of the habit of doing outfit posts that I felt positively shy posing for these, although it was Boxing Day and windy and cold and the bars were closed and the streets deserted. The perfect day for donning this dress, which I love but which really can only be worn in the dead of winter, and the Hudson Bay Company toque my mom gave me (and each of my sisters too, making family outings potentially embarrassing). Apart from its extreme wintery-ness, the other thing that has kept me from wearing this dress more since I got it over two years ago is that it's longer than the average coat, which tends to look a bit weird on the street. However, my snuggly cashmere coat has happily solved this problem, allowing me to go out feeling like I'm still wearing my pyjama and housecoat combination that I live in in the flat.

This year Boxing Day wasn't the usual snoozefest, but was a proper Feast of Saint Stephen kind of affair. After two days of gorging with Víctor's family, my sister and her visiting friend came over and we spent five hours cooking, eating and drinking red wine. Followed by a good bout of reading and snoozing in front of the space heater, and drinking water in a desperate attempt to avoid the dehydrated skullface look that tends to come down on me post-festive-season.






Dress and coat by Family Affairs (I think I might be developing a problem with this brand)
Photos by Víctor

winter!

Reading my blog, you'd think we were in permanent summer in Barcelona... and we were for ages and ages, but the winter finally arrived with the snappiest of cold snaps (my sister could see her breath in her room, and I started sleeping with TWO hot water bottles). Still, during the day it meant glorious sunshine and cold breezes, the perfect weather for enormous scarves and autumn colours.

I went with a group of friends on a day trip to see bridges and lakes (one of those trips that starts out as a few people in a car and morphs before long into three cars). The bridges were probably the best, but for now you get me all bundled up, and sunset over Lake Banyoles.

new wave

And just like that, I was back in Barcelona, where it is still summer, my old haunts are the same as ever, and I'm back to my working/writing/vermouth imbibing ways, borrowing hats and coming home much too late on weeknights. Anyway, this was one of those nights, and I'm loving that I have the chance to still wear my summer dresses a while longer (since my summer to winter wardrobe ration must be about 5:1)

The last few months before leaving I was living with some people I shared a flat with a couple of years ago -- some of you may remember Fraggle, who has since transformed into a skeletal puking machine, he's getting old. For that and other reasons I've been flat-hunting, which has been as ridiculously stressful as it always is but, fingers crossed, I may have something to show you in the next couple of posts!



Photos by Víctor

being bohemian

Even when I go into the office, I can more or less wear what I want, but since I've been working from home for much of the summer, I've been applying that rule even more liberally. On this particular day, it meant wearing a vintage slip that my grandmother had had in the 1940s, trying to make my hair curl a bit, some flower clips, bare feet, and a cup of hot tea clutched compulsively throughout the day.

I felt suitably bohemian, although I can't remember if that made me more or less productive. I did put some proper clothes on when I went for my mid-day walk however... there's only so bohemian you can be in Hamilton, and although this slip is probably thicker and better made than some of my dresses, it's still underwear...

the long and the short of it

My last morning in Montreal was spent with Henri, a hairdresser I'd taken a shine to when he cut my bangs the week before, chopping off all my long hair. I'd been kind of wanting to cut my hair for about two years, but I could never commit, it was just getting long finally, my ex was the kind who balked at short hair and bangs and so on and I wasn't that sure I wanted it short again anyway... all terrible reasons not to cut it, but in the end I'm glad I had it long for a while.

But enough was enough was enough. When staying with my parents I looked at pictures from my early twenties and bemoaned "I was more creative then!" "Weren't we all?" replied Henri, chopping a foot off my hair, "but now we have the chance to be more stylish." Touché, Henri.

I can honestly say I've never regretted a haircut less. I love my short red bob. These pictures were taken the day after it was cut, admittedly after taking trains and buses and taxis and sleeping on it, but still I thought it would never look as good. But it does! It's an idiot proof cut and even I can make it look good. I feel much more like myself and lighter and freer and spend about half the amount of time in the shower so all's well with the world. Except that now I have to go to Montreal every time I want my hair cut.

dressed like a botanical garden

One of my last days in Montreal found me wandering amongst giant leafy sculptures at the Mosaïcultures Internationales at the botanical gardens. It. was. crazy. I loved the elaborate, frequently mystical works, and the fast that it was a grey, muggy day just made the experience more fastastical. A stand out for me were the huge replicas of Easter Island's stone heads in vegetation. An Enya-esque soundtrack made the whole experience a bit strangely Lord of the Rings, but I'll let that pass.

I also borrowed my friend Anna's gorgeous green vintage Austrian dirndl, and blended right into the scenery.

The Mosaïcultures are still on, and while the tickets were (I thought) a bit expensive at $29 for an adult non-resident, you can get in twice on the same ticket and the exhibition was truly bizarre and beautiful.















Photos of me by my friend Emilie

sunday comfort

I wear this top and skirt (especially the top) from Family Affairs all. the. time. but I usually wear them separately, and when I do wear them together it's usually with the top tucked in so the whole thing resembles a dress. On my Sunday in New York though, I liked the kind of relaxed, I-woke-up-in-my-studio-with-a-paint-fumes-headache-and-went-straight-to-brunch look of not tucking it in.

I think I definitely have a more North American approach to Sundays... I want to look nice but be comfortable and casual as well. In Barcelona, I've noticed that as Sunday is often a day when people go out for lunch with their family, they often dress really nicely (amazing jackets and scarves and such).

Anyway, long story short, casual or dressed up, I love this set (I'm coming to the conclusion that I love matching sets in general) and it was fun to be wearing locally made clothes in New York.





Photos by Kallie

canadian lit

I've been holed up in Canada for a couple of weeks, eating home cooking, taking no pictures, writing (yay!), reading (yay!) and working from home (blech). Also, recovering from a nightmarish scenario in which the first leg of my flight home (the flight was from Lisbon, I had to get a flight from Barcelona to Lisbon first) was overbooked, resulting in my losing my flight, having to buy a new one, and involving myself in a long battle with Vueling for the dismally small compensation they finally gave me (which I expect I only got because it's enshrined in EU law). Thanks for nothing again, Vueling Airlines.



But! The Canadian Literature in English is about to be changed for Canadian Literature in French... I'm off to Montreal for the first time ever and I can't wait to explore this city which has been on my must-visit list for a decade. Endless photos to follow!

(top by Family Affairs, skirt by Q's Daydream, shoes by Naguisa)

a midsummer night's theatre outing...

Many of my last few days in Barcelona this summer were hot, sweaty and hectic... but the evenings were still wonderful. On this particular night I threw on one of my favourite simple summer dresses and headed to the Grec theatre festival. The Grec takes place in a number of venues around Barcelona, but perhaps the most magical on summer nights is the open-air amphitheatre-style space on Montjuic. We saw Puz/zle, a modern dance piece that was creative and stimulating, if about 1/2 an hour too long and a bit spiritual for my taste. Still, another experience checked off my ever-expanding list!





P.S. My new favourite shoes are from a wonderful Spanish brand Naguisa, the necklace is from Red Brick, and the dress is a really cheap one from the Asos sale last year (cheap dresses are the best for not worrying about sweating all over them).

borrowed flowers

Oh yesh... outfit posts! Sometimes I forget about them. :) This is a fairly typical thing that I wear to work and around town, and here I'm looking a bit sweaty and scruffy at the end of a long day. My Catalan office-mates love and laugh in equal parts that I wear these traditional Catalan dancing shoes, but they are ridiculously comfortable for schlepping about in (it's impossible to get anywhere in a hurry though). And here's one of the little floral dresses I seem to live in. I'm always trying to wear less floral, because, although I like it, I think it's nice to not be too repetitive, but somehow this year I seem to have ended up largely floral.
These photos were snapped mainly for the flowers, which we were taking to the inauguration of a new bookshop. I hung out under the air conditioning and drank all the free rosé, as you do, because it was cold.

fez

The two days in Fez were such a great vacation! It didn´t hurt that I went mid-week, so it felt like I barely worked that week at all. But also it just felt so exotic and different. I´ve travelled a fair few places, though in general I go and live somewhere and haven´t done the backpacking routes that a lot of people have, but I hadn´t been anywhere like Morocco before. The crazy tiny labyrintine streets of the old city, the chaotic market stalls, the cats, the donkeys (ok, Mexico had donkeys, but not on the same level, not delivering gas and water). The people who seem to speak any language you could think of, so long as it´s to sell you something. The smells, of leather tanning and mint, the coloured tiles, the exquisite woodwork, the mosques we couldn´t go in, the coffee shops, the street life and the tucked away courtyards where the noise of the street doesn´t penetrate. The Barcelona Football Club paraphernalia. The impossibility of reading street signs. The haggling the taxi down from $10 to $1 and knowing you´re still paying too much. The honey cookies.

I loved it!









This was how narrow the street to get to the hotel/riad