Cardigan Love

Katy Perry in a pale blue mohair cardigan and vintage dress.

Cardigan Love

Wardrobe staple.

C x



P.S.

Colour Analysis

I can't remember if I've said on here before, but I think having one's colours analysed is one of the best things you can do for your wardrobe. As a present, I had mine done back in 2009 by Anne at House of Colour and now I drive people nuts whenever we go shopping "Oooooh, that's definitely one of your colours" "Ew, I can't wear it, it's not the right grey...". However, there are some very good reasons for having it done:

1. It makes shopping much, much easier and efficient. Once analysed into one of the four seasons, you get a little swatch booklet for your handbag, to check what is and isn't right (if you've ever shopped with me you'll know the feeling of dread when I whip that thing out). A few years later, I can walk into a shop and immediately spot the colours that suit me, thus ruling out 75% of the shop stock that I don't even need to bother looking at. 
2. It stops wasting money. The colours of each of the seasons are organised so that every colour goes with every colour in that season. After sorting your clothes out, your entire wardrobe becomes colour co-ordinated and everything goes. The price of having your colours done, roughly £90, was certainly, for me, far less than the amount I used to spend annually on clothes which would only get worn once because they only worked with one or two things in my wardrobe.
3. It takes two minutes to get dressed in the morning. Like I said, everything goes. (#EDIT: My boyfriend questions the validity of this.)
4. You look great. The season you get put into is decided mostly by your skin tone, as well as eye colour, [natural] hair/eyebrow/eyelash colour and shading around your eyes. Good colours make you look healthy, take away sleepy shadows under the eyes and make your teeth and eyes brighter. I find my colours make me feel confident and composed
5. Men can get it done too. The same rules apply, imagine getting out of the black suit/jeans and white t-shirt rut??

Basic rules of the seasons:

• Autumns wear warm, rich, earthy colours. Think of a peacock or pheasant feather.
• Springs also wear warm colours, but brighter, lighter and fresher than those of Autumns. 
• Winters (like me!) need cool, clear colours with lots of bold contrast. I think of big sparkly jewels for my basic colours. 
• Summers are also cool, but wear much softer, delicate colours that blend into each other (think of watercolour paintings).

One skirt, thirty outfits based on the four seasons. Note that Autumn and Winter share an ability to wear heavy colours, and the opposite for Spring and Summer, Autumn/Spring and Winter/Summer being warm and cool respectively.

What Are You Reading?

Trying to keep reading in the final moments of uni is incredibly difficult, I have a dissertation due in a month, and an exam in two weeks. These combined equal 25% of my overall degree. Hugechunkofpanic.

However, reading has proved to provide a small comfort, it's one of the few things left that doesn't have a connotation of work (goodbye playing violin and piano, goodbye attempting difficult recipes), so when I spotted this monthly linky link circulating the blogs I figured it would be a good chance to write about something other than the 30 bloody Day Song Challenge [exasperated sigh at youtube having none of the original videos I want].

See the original and lots of other contributions at Curtains for the Window.

I haven't actually started this yet (Mum's recommendation) but it's only the 2nd of the month, so there's still time :)

This one has been on the go for months. I've heard it gets really tragic, so I keep putting it down and leaving it for weeks because I don't want to get there!

After my Dad and I got into a lengthy 'discussion' about the MMR vaccine, I decided I wanted to read up a little more on the opposing argument (as a Med Science student, I am pro-MMR) and Andrew Wakefield's original research. At university, we're consistently exposed to the backlash of that 1998 paper, but the jargon we're used to using in discussion about vaccination is useless in managing the fears and resistance of parents (or the general public) who have taken on the belief in a link between the MMR and autism. I hope that this book, written by the editor of the Lancet journal, which published the original Wakefield paper, will enable more effective lay-friendly informative discussion. 

...For a break in between all those heavy hitters.

C x