After taking photographs for more than a decade I have finally made my first ever prints! I'm starting small as physical product is new to me and I wanted to keep the price point accessible to all, so my first product is a small collection of flower postcards/miniature prints. Postcards are a great way to share my art with you but in a small, approachable way so I'm very excited to start with these. I'll be adding larger prints to my shop. I was also interested in adding flower prints to my shop because who isn't in the mood for spring right now? Today I thought I'd break down the meaning of each flower in the old Victorian language of flowers. First up above you see a scene of woodland bluebells. In some regions bluebells were also called harebells (I've heard a number of locals here call them that) because some local legends said that witches would turn themselves into hares and hide among the flowers! In the language of flowers bluebells most commonly symbolize humility and constancy. This print features the delicate and fleeting apple blossoms as well as few scattered dandelions. Apple blossoms symbolize good fortune or within a mixed bouquet preference for a loved one above others. Dandelions often are considered to be a symbol of joy and faithfulness. In the Victorian language of flowers a shorter sunflower would be seen to symbolize adoration while a tall sunflower within a bouquet could mean haughtiness! So much of the language of flowers depends on what book you read and even the Victorians did not have one ultimate encyclopedia of flower meanings, but it is interesting to try to analyze a bouquet or image like this through the lens of the language of flowers. What would the combination of sunflower heights in this image indicate?! The hawthorn blossom is one of my absolute favorites. These trees grow wild in nearly every hedgerow in my region and bloom with delicate white and pink-tinged flowers. Hawthorns are said to be fairy trees so I find them exceedingly magical. Perhaps because of the fairy tree legends hawthorn flowers symbolize protection. Rhododendrons are not my favorite flower but it's hard not to admire when they bloom so early and long throughout spring and summer here and grow to inconceivable heights! I heard see a rhododendron bush that is not taller than my head by several feet. In the language of flowers rhododendrons mean "danger" or "beware!" Sweet-smelling lilacs symbolize the "joy of youth." You can buy my postcards individually for £2 each or as a set of 6 for £10. All are available in my shop here.

We had a brief dusting of snow in our region this week. Most of the snow by us had melted by the afternoon, but in the distance we could see it lingering in the mountains and when the opportunity presented itself we headed for the hills to experience that white-capped beauty. I always love visiting the Mourne Mountain range with it's winding footpaths, fields of sheep, and old stone walls, but I'd never seen them covered in snow like this before and it made every scene more majestic. Snow is such a small thing, but it can be so lovely and it always makes my heart soar when I see a familiar scene blanketed by white--I think of how Sylvia Plath wrote in her journals, "Well, I know now. I know a little more how much a simple thing like a snowfall can mean to a person." Sometimes we look for meaning in the grand gestures or dramatic moments and sometimes we miss the beauty of small moments or fail to truly appreciate the little things. Sometimes it's something terribly small and delicate that can change everything. Our snow was lovely while it lasted, creating a fairytale-like scene in these ancient hills and filling me with delight.  
I dressed with the old stone walls in mind in an outfit I felt had a clannish-vibe with the classic plaid and my favorite handknit hat from the Aran Isles. The dress is a new favorite from an old favorite, Family Affairs. Family Affairs has been one of my favorite independent brands for so many years now. The designers are a mother-daughter team (hence the name) who make small, thoughtful collections each season, all fair-trade and ethically produced. I've loved Family Affairs since my university days and I love that it's a brand I can continue to grow with and support because they are ethically producing their clothes. I'm by no means a perfect shopper, but when I think of the kind of impact I want to leave in this world shopping ethically comes more and more into focus. Family Affair's latest autumn/winter collection is cozy perfection with a tea time inspired sweater of a quirky kettle and mug, french breakfast shirt featuring Nina's original doodles, and this plaid dress I immediately honed in on. I've really loved longer length dresses this winter because they're perfect for hiding your coziest layers (fleece-lined tights! heattech camisoles! wellie boots!) underneath while still looking elegant. I love the colors of this plaid as well, it reminds me of traditional tartans and woolen blankets and pairs perfectly with vintage-inspired knit wear. It's hard to imagine a more perfect fitting dress for this sort of wintry scene that feels lost to time.
P.S. Use my code "thescotlanddress" for an extra 20% off this dress in addition to its sale price! "We all want quiet. We all want beauty...We all need space. Unless we have it, we cannot reach the sense of quiet, in which, whispers of better things come to us gently." Octavia Hill

Emmy Design Sweden is another brand I love usually for their excellent knitwear but in 2018 I received their tweed suspender skirt and it's been one of my favorite pieces ever since. It's beautifully made with the loveliest embroidered details on the pockets and tweed is another fabric like linen that I just adore for it's timeless feeling. I always feel classic in tweed clothing, although it's hard to find tweed clothes for women these days! I wore this skirt a few times in 2018 and then loads more this past autumn as well. The green version I have is sold out, but Emmy Design still has this size available in their store in coffee and grey. This is a big difference between fast fashion brands and ethical slow fashion brands; fast fashion brands will literally trash and burn clothes that don't sell rather than keep them listed, because if they remain listed in their shop for months or years there's less urgency on the customer to buy more and buy newer pieces. Slow fashion brands want to create clothes you'll love for years, so they don't remove them from their shop if there's still pieces available. They can still sell out of pieces, but they don't create false urgency and they don't trash clothes!

While I like shooting pictures with a fairytale-feeling, you might notice I don’t usually go full fantasy shoot. There’s something about more elaborate shoots with stylized hair and settings that makes me feel a bit nervous and frankly inadequate. I’ve always admired the more whimsical shoots of Tim Walker, but whereas he has models for subjects to pose in his photographs, I only have myself and of all the aspirations I have held at one point in time being a model has never been one of them. I smile in my photographs rather than try for a more editorial pout and most of my favorite pictures of myself are of the back of my head! But when I saw this vintage dress appear in Klara’s shop, Apple Thief Vintage, dreams of a gothic fairytale shoot began to dance in my head. I wasn't sure I could capture the vision in my head in a handful of photographs, but I knew I wanted to try.
I’ve followed Klara online for years now from her early days of blogging about personal style and sewing projects (I even interviewed her back in the day) to watching her launch her own vintage store. She had a really great eye for unique pieces and I love admiring her vintage finds, even if it means fighting constant temptation to spend spend spend (she has an apple print dress coming to her shop soon that I am dying over). She was kind enough to loan this dress to me for this shoot and then patient enough to wait while I took ages to photograph it—I mean ages, I think I’ve had it for over a year now! It will be working its way back to her soon, so if you love it you’ll be able to purchase it from her. It’s from the 1960s and I love the detailed sleeves and the gold foil patterning. Although different in style from Valentino F/W 2015 (my favorite collection) it has a similar feeling—romantic, gold-tinged, and dramatic. That collection has always reminded me of fairytales; of swan maidens and trapped princesses and twisted curses. As soon as I saw this dress I could see it in a castle shoot, all mist and mystery and gothic architecture. In addition, to not seeing myself as a model, a more thematic shoot such as this one calls for more specific conditions. I can go wander with my dog through misty marshland in a linen dress any old day; there’s no specific vision other than to capture what’s there and try to highlight the beauty in a region most people would overlook. The goal of most of my photographs is to capture what is there: to find the beauty in an ordinary scene or moment. But the goal of this sort of shoot is to create the scene and make a mood and that makes me infinitely more nervous! A ruined castle (or in this case manor house) is easy enough to find, but to give it an eerie, gothic mood, to get the fickle smoke bombs to comply with your vision, and then to bring it all together in a dark fairytale…much more difficult! Which is probably why I kept pushing this photoshoot back again and again, choosing easier and more natural things to shoot, but being nervous you might fail at your vision is no reason not to pursue something. So armed with a small pack of smoke bombs, a couple of messy braids, and my gold-spangled dress I finally went forth to make my dark fairytale vision a reality...