|| Autumn Colour Flash ||

Autumn in finally here (yes, the post is a little belated I know…)

Autumn has always been my most favoured season, sprouting obviously from my birthday being in autumn making it my most favoured season as a child. However, as I’ve got older I’ve begun to appreciate in a much different way (obviously still loving the birthday bit.) There’s something ever so special about autumn and there’s so much that creates this ever so special time of the year, something so warming and nostalgic.

Here’s a list of my personal favourites of autumn:

• The colours
• The weather
• The food
• Halloween
• My birthday (of course)
• Bonfire night
• Fireworks
• The fashion

The autumnal colours are my favourite colours, and my wardrobe is best suited to the colder weather that autumn brings and I tend to either wear dark colours or the complete polar opposite with bright rainbow-coloured clothing. The dark warm colours of red, brown, orange, purple, black and deep shades of green and blue are truly a personal favourite in my wardrobe.

The colours I have really been in favour of recently are purple and orange. Together. 

Together? I hear to question in utter confusion. Yes, together. There's something so magically about this seemingly wrong combination. The clash of the two colours somehow works, and rather  effectively I feel. I happen to own a lot of both these colours in various formats meaning that the combination of the two is quite easy for me personally. All the clothes in the pictures are relatively old, and none have been bought recently.

 The dress underneath I bought maaaany years ago for a fancy dinner at my school. I don't think I ever wore it in the end, but kept it because it was Ted Baker. I couldn't throw away my first ever designer dress? I've kept it in my wardrobe all these years knowing one day I would wear it again and it would once again be a treasured item. And I was right. I wore it a few times throughout this year, and wore it at a wedding this summer. But I re-found my love for it when I was deciding on an outfit to wear to college. I decided to team it with this jumper (which belonged to my sister, and the original purchase is unknown) and to my surprise it looked good. I really liked the contrast between the two colours and the small amount of purple in the jumper helped settle my nerves about the outfit.

This top I bought in a charity shop a while ago, and I automatically fell in love with it. I love the stripes running through it of the two tones of orange: the deep warm orange and the lighter cooler orange. It's rather large on me but I like that (I'm a fan of baggy oversized clothing) and it's also one of the comfiest things I own and I wear it with almost everything.

This was again bought in a charity shop and I've had for well over a year. I have loved it ever since I bought it, it's incredibly soft and the colour is gorgeous and goes with everything! I normally wear it buttoned-up over leggings, or unbuttoned over almost anything else. It's really light-weight but oddly warming when need be - fabulous.

This jacket. Well where to start? This jacket is probably my most treasured item of clothing and is definitely one of my favourite things I own. I bought it in one of my local shops; Willow (which is not only my favourite shop in the entire world, but also where I currently work.) It's originally from India, and is completely covered in patches of various colours, patterns and pictures and is dotted around with little silver circles. It is unbelievably soft and I just love it so so much. I can't really express my love for this jacket in all honestly.

These Topshop jeans actually belong to my sister but I frequently wear them. They're a really soft shade of purple which I just think is so pretty. The jeans themselves are actually really soft and incredibly comfortable.

I got this bag in Paris last summer and I've loved it ever since. The size and shape is incredibly handy meaning that I can use it not only as a handbag, but also as weekend-bag if needed. It's a deep plum purple with faded sections and a pretty embroidered pattern in yellow.

As you can see, my love for the purple-orange combination is not only found in my clothing but also on my bed-sheet...

|| Prom 2013 ||

Prom dress from the 50's
Wikipedia

I have just realised I never got round to doing a post about my prom! You're probably thinking: "Prom? But you're English? England don't do prom?" And if you are thinking that, you're very much right. Prom is something that started off in America and was very much a BIG deal over there. I remember seeing picture of some of my friends over in America at their proms and thinking "wow, I'd love a prom etc etc" and I never actually thought I would get to have one - but I did!

The Wikipedia definition of prom is  "a semi-formal (black tie) dance or gathering of high-school students. It is typically held near the end of the senior year." However over the years many countries have started to adopt this idea of "prom"and over in the UK it is becoming a much more common term and event that happens, I think probably due to the influence of America films and TV shows that portray it to be a major event in High School and teenage life.

Unfortunately for me my school didn't make as much of an effort as I thought they would with the prom. (weird considering it's a private boarding school in the Cotswolds?) Anyway, it was held in my school dining room, like every other event that occurs at my school (like socials and sports dinners etc), and they did make it look lovely. They put fairy lights everywhere and dressed the tables with table cloths and napkins, so in all honestly even though it was out canteen it didn't really look like our canteen.

|| Summer Reading List ||

With exams finished for this year, I have now commenced into summer. I have three months off. Yes, three. I've been thinking, what on earth am I going to do to help prevent myself falling into a fit of boredom in which I end up watching repeats of Teen Mom and Game of Thrones. Well, for starters I will give myself a kick to get back into blogging, because I really do love it but I find it hard to find the time to plan, sit down and write a post, but now I have three months to spam you all with blog posts (lucky you.)

newyorker.com

Another thing I will be doing (or at least try) is to continue teaching myself the guitar so I reach a point where I don't sound like a 5 year old who doesn't even know what a guitar is. Fingers crossed with that one then!

But, obviously due to the title of this post; Summer Reading List, I hope to submerge myself into a world of literature. I love reading, I always have. I love how you can really lose yourself in a book, and feel almost a part of it. What with the English weather being what it is, curling up on the sofa on a rainy day with a good book and a cup of tea is like heaven to ones ears and I expect this summer isn't going I be too warm and sunny and this is how most of us will be spending our summers (unless of course you're lucky enough to bomberst off to a hot, exotic country.)