You can call me the Pumpkin-Queen! I've been waiting for quite awhile to wear this sweet pumpkin skirt (and perfect collared top which is actually a dress!) and there's no better day for it than Halloween itself.
It's been one year since I married Michael and became Mrs. Myers. It's been a growing year--they say you don't really know the person you marry, but I've been with Michael for more than twelve months and I still don't feel as if I know him at all! He's always full of surprises and it will forever be a mystery to me how he stains his clothes! Dirty laundry practically every day and he keeps taking my kitchen knives to work too. His job always keeps him busy at the oddest hours, to the point where I never know when to expect him but this year I surprised him with a special vacation to Florida. He was resistant at first, but agreed to the holiday eventually saying he could do his work from anywhere.
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If you've never heard of conkers before, you're in good company. Until recently I had no idea what a "conker" was and had certainly never played it! Conkers are another term for chestnuts, or rather a local, traditional children's game played with chestnuts. It's a pretty simple game between two people. Each person has a conker threaded on a string (or more commonly an old shoelace, my shoelaces were sacrificed this year) and they take turns whacking one another's conker. The first conker to break loses. But the real strategy in conkers comes earlier, in the collection of the best chestnuts and then the special preparation you take to make your chosen conker the hardest and toughest to beat. Some trees will produce bigger nuts and you collect a lot before you make your final selection of which looks the biggest and best. Then, there are different techniques to toughen your conker--Thomas told me when he was younger he would hoard some for a whole year in a hot press waiting until the next autumn to make their fighting debut, while other people would soak their conkers in vinegar in attempt to make them harder. It's an old game that dates back to the 1800s and still played today, although some schools have banned it (and you can imagine why it might not be wise to have children swinging hardened conkers on strings in each other's faces!).
This is how "conkers" or chestnuts look on the branch; they have an outer protective prickly shell you break off to get to the nut in the center. An old wives tale says having fresh chestnuts in your house will keep spiders away.
I had a lot of fun collecting conkers and learning to play the game a bit this autumn. I'm quite a newbie so it's hard for me to even swing my conker correctly to hit my opponent's! But it's fun to learn a little bit about Thomas's childhood and highly entertaining to watch him play against his father (they're tied with equal wins and losses right now)! I might have to bring this game back to America and teach my family to play on our next visit.
Emily & Fin is one of my favorite local, UK brands to work with. Their pieces are usually retro-meets-classic in unique prints and now they're adding knitwear to the mix. The aethestic and quality is consistent with their staple pieces, with added coziness factor. I received the Lois jumper and immediately thought of so many outfits it can be styled with. A medium weight, sparkly navy sweater it works both dressed up or down; layered over skirts and dresses, or styled with jeans. I love versatility in my clothes and couldn't resist shooting a little remix around this lovely knit. The first look is probably the most cliche "me" of the three styles. I do enjoy a little skater skirt (I've probably worn this one a dozen times on the blog) and always feel an outfit isn't complete without a few quirky accessories, this time in the form of crocheted tights, a floral headband, and tiny vintage mouse brooch that might be easily overlooked, but is probably my favorite detail!
The sparkles in the metallic yarn of the jumper make it a perfect piece to dress up for those autumn evenings when you want to feel fancy, but could do without bare shoulders and goosebumps. Whenever I remix a piece I always try to think about how you can make it look different from the last outfit--there's the big obvious changes in statement jewelry and day skirt to in-your-face-tulle, but there's also subtle changes you can make like I did with this look by rolling the sleeves. P.S. Although this top is sweetly sparkly, I should add that it isn't itchy at all! I've tried some metallic knits in the past and usually they're a bit itchy or uncomfortable, but that is definitely not the case with this jumper.
This casual style is the least stereotypically "me" of the three, but the most sensible for someone like myself recovering from the flu! It was warm enough when we took these pictures, but I was most comfortable bundled up in my giant scarf and cheery coat. The jumper disappears under the layers of this look, but it's a great little piece to dress up a basic pair of jeans for when you do head indoors after a blustery day and start shedding your cocoon in favor of a hot mug!
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