I often get asked what my staple items are in my wardrobe, or what pieces I would recommend for building a wardrobe and those types of questions always leave me stumped! I'm not actually too sure what my staple items are and wouldn't know where to begin for recommendations! But I'm making an effort lately to identify exactly what my current staples are--and I hope to make a post about my autumn essentials sometime soon by featuring the items I repeat every year. One of the first things that I thought of as a staple for me is hair accessories. I'm a big sucker for berets and boater hats, but even aside from hats I really enjoy adding a final detail to my "look" in the form of a hair accessory. And from minimal and petite pieces to oversized and ornate ones, I'm a sucker for gold. I go for silver ones every once in awhile to "mix things up" but inevitably the silver hair pins barely get worn and the gold ones end up in heavy rotation. Still, if you're more of a silver (or brass or rose gold) lady, then many of the ones I'm featuring here do come in those versions as well (and I actually own all of the ones I've linked to above except the knot clip which I covet...). To me, there's just something about adding some hair accessory to an outfit that makes everything feel complete and a bit more "me." It's small, interesting accessories (like a crescent moon hair fork) that take a basic top and jean combination and make it feel like an expression of personal style.

I feel that what we surround ourselves with is what we eventually start to become. There's a similar quote out there that focuses on the "who" we surround ourselves with and how we become more like those we are around--and it makes sense. If you are around positive, kind people all day you will be a more positive and kind person, but if you are around bitter and angry people that will also affect your mood and general disposition. However, I also think we become like our literal surroundings; the things that influence us aren't just other people but also the books we consume, the places we choose to live, etc. I felt a style shift when I moved from the States to Ireland, I feel more drawn to natural materials and muted colors, things that blend in better with the countryside where I live. But also I feel the immediate effect of inspiration when I read a new book or watch a stylish movie--it changes my styling from something minimal to something more character driven. Today I felt a bit like a scholar setting out to make a discovery or study some new landscape; all of the accessories are staples for me but combined they gave a mood that felt inspired by my novel. This is also how I first started experimenting with style. I remember watching a Brigitte Bardot movie and the next day assembling pieces from my closet to try to emulate her look; I even stitched up a thick headband and winged my eyeliner for the first time to try to get her "look." It felt more comfortable trying to be a character for a day than just trying one element of that style out with my more usual, mundane style. I highly recommend that if you're similarly self-conscious or not sure where to start with experimenting with your personal style--try to dress like a character you like for a day. Maybe choose a weekend when you won't bump into a lot of your friends or a day you have planned to go somewhere fun and new--take a new version of yourself there and see what parts you want to bring back home. For me the Bardot pencil skirts never stuck around, but the winged eyeliner never went away...

I talk a lot about rural life. It's personal for me because it's something I never really saw in magazines or anywhere growing up; like people living somewhere quiet and rural but still having a creative job. Living alongside farms but not being a farmer and originally for me it blew my mind that I could live somewhere rural and still dress how I found interesting. Like, nice clothes are just for people in cities with executive jobs?! These days I focus less on how I gained confidence dressing how I wanted to in my bucolic college landscape and more just on how I enjoy being "settled" somewhere so pastoral. I enjoy living alongside farms, picking fresh fruit off the branch in harvest season, cooing over baby lambs in spring, and sighting the occasional fox in the fields near our house. But make no mistake, I'm still so far from a farmer or anyone actually adept at living in this rustic scene. I mean, I have been forced to help shoo the occasional cow out of the road, but it's not a process I enjoy or am particularly skilled at (I usually feel like the cow takes one look at me and knows I will back down). Point being: when we came to this really darling farmyard I was looking forward to feeding some chickens, but also a bit nervous that I was going to get pecked. Those chickens knew you had feed on you the second you stepped forward; my strategy was to throw the feed rather far away from myself in hopes of creating a few feet of safe space between me and the chickens, but those guys had no fear and wanted to be as close to the food source as possible regardless of where the seed was falling! I did get a lot more comfortable being surrounded by a hoard of hungry chickens after one ate some seeds straight from my hand and I realized it wasn't going to hurt at all. They were quite the posers too; one even hopped up on the bench next to me (after I ran out of seed) and started modeling with my handbag--look at how well they matched.  

Just living that moodboard life right now (down to the sunflowers!). As much as I love my little gatehouse this summer I've been finding a lot of really enviable thatch houses that would tempt me away from my current home. This yellow-walled thatch beauty is my new dream home, although luckily for my bank account it's not available to live in. But how perfect are these walls?! I think it's be hard not to have a sunny disposition if you were living in a house as bright and cheerful as this one. Maybe it's the walls, or my little gingham dress, but I've been feeling fairly sunny myself lately. I've been talking a lot about my need for balance and to not stress so much about pointless things and in the past couple of weeks I've actually found some balance. The other afternoon I put away my computer, stopped checking my emails, and just did some doodling and painting. I also found time to finish my first book from my August reading list yesterday and am starting the next tonight. I haven't miraculously added more hours to my day, but I have been wiser at allocating my time and it's making me feel more...er, balanced to overuse the word! Less stressed, more creative. I'm always going to a worrier, but I don't feel that it is controlling my life as much at the moment. Which is good because worrying is quite ineffective; it doesn't make me more productive and it stifles creativity--an essential ingredient to this job.

These days I do most of my reading online. Blogs, random articles, yes, but also novels enjoyed through various free online libraries. I’ve always been a reader, excited to get home after a day at school to curl up with a book, but lately I don’t turn many physical, literal book pages. I’m making an effort to change that though, to spend more time away from my computer enjoying a good book in my actual hands. For August my book reading goals are simple; two novels with a possible third once I finish the first two. It’s funny in high school I used to read whole novels in a single day, barely stepping away from the pages to eat or breathe! Now I’m more easily distracted and not as willing to make time for fictional world when the demands of the real one seem all too pertinent. But I know it's all about prioritizing, making time for the things that matter and I'd like to be a little less glued to my screens! So here's my start of a new tradition; I'll try to share a few books every month I'm planning on reading and you can join in if you like.
The Hound of Baskervilles: I picked this book somewhat randomly; I mean I'm familiar with the stories through movies and television, but I haven't read any of the Sherlock Holmes books before and I wanted to read something more classic than the scifi kick I've been on lately. I'm about halfway through and it's funny how perfect this one was to get me hooked on the series--I mean mystery in the countryside? Local lore and legend? Perfect fit for me. I'm tempted to read another in the series next month, or at least sometime this autumn. Autumn seems a perfect fit for a moody British crime novel.
Anne of Green Gables: This is a re-read for me since I really enjoyed this series when I was younger. I decided to go back to this book this summer as a sort of knee-jerk reaction to the Netflix series Anne with an E…I have so many feelings about that series and none of them are positive! I think it would be great to do an updated Anne of Green Gables; either one that closely follows the books but more cinematic than the 80s version, or an actually updated twist the way Clueless retold Jane Austen’s Emma in the form of valley girls—I think Anne would be perfect for a playful adaptation like that. But Anne with an E is neither of those, it’s a story that drifts far from the original destroying so much of the beauty of the story in the process (in my view at least). One of the beauty of Anne’s story is how it depicts small town life, the reboot makes everything in Avonlea seem dark and despairing. And (spoilers!) key characters are changed; kindred spirits (like Reverend Allen) become enemies in the new version so that Anne can battle misogyny, non-orphans in the books become orphans, and don't even get me started on what they did to poor Matthew. The thing is Anne doesn't have to be reimagined to be a feminist character, nor do her relationships--in the books she's already surrounded by smart, educated women and Gilbert is attracted to her intellect, she transforms and challenges him. The new version is ham-fisted in its attempt to update a story that is considered classic for many reasons...Rant over; I'm looking forward to enjoying the original story soon.