wearing Leannan Sidhe dress from my capsule collection with Nour & the Merchant and old flats & belt

My capsule collection is limited with Nour and the Merchant--most of the pieces are designed for summer and so they might not be available to purchase come autumn and the other concern is fabric limitations. Already a few shades of linen have started to sell out for the Hollyhock skirt and the stock of custom fabric for this dress and the Hawthorn dress is running low. If pieces are very popular we'll try to order more of the fabric to produce more dresses, but some colors or style might be completely sold out and unable to reproduce. I'm so glad that so many other people have fallen in love with the Leannan Sidhe dress too and I'm so excited to start seeing people wearing it. Please do tag me if you wear the dress in the future!

wearing Leannan Sidhe dress from my capsule collection with Nour & the Merchant and old flats & belt *pictures edited with presets from my Cottagecore Preset pack*

This lesson is illustrated in all of the characters. We see Meg in her youth saying “let me have my fun this one night and then I promise to give up frivolous things” only to continue to struggle with her desire for pretty dresses and a more comfortable life as a young wife and mother. Meg’s not a failure because she couldn’t fulfill the ambitious promise to never be frivolous again she impetuously made in her youth, she’s human because temptation never leaves. And ultimately it is the fact that this struggle didn’t disappear for her that makes her sacrifice of a nice dress so her husband can have a new coat all the more significant. If she hadn’t struggled with her desire for nice things, then her sacrifice would be of no value. It is through her continued struggle we can learn to have patience for our own inevitable weaknesses and failures, but also be reminded to do better and try, try again. Failure is not the end, but merely a bump in the road. Perseverance is often associated with lofty goals. We always hear stories of the aspiring author who is rejected by dozens of publishers before finally being accepted (they then go on to be a huge success). We’re told “nothing ventured, nothing gained.” But what about perseverance in the humdrum and everyday parts of life? What of our attempts to be better people; less prone to outbursts of anger, quicker to forgive, more patient, etc? The easiest analogy for me as a fashion blogger and self-described clothes horse is my desire to be a better consumer. I hate the thought that cheap clothes I’m buying are contributing to poor wages and unsafe working conditions, but I also have a desire to acquire all of the pretty dresses. Choosing to shop more ethically is not a decision I get to make once and never face again. Instead I’m constantly surrounded by temptation and frequently have to give myself a mental kick.
The repetition of struggle and remorse to struggle and remorse and occasional triumph in Little Women is such a necessary arc too often missing in our modern lives and stories. Most books or movies will present a central conflict which the protagonist(s) will face and despite setbacks, will eventually overcome. If another conflict presents itself later in the book or series, it will be a new conflict; a new villain, a new challenge. Rarely, if ever, can I recall a modern story that revolves around a character with a weakness that is not completely vanquished and often the weakness is something they need to overcome in order to become our hero/heroine. But in Little Women we are presented with several protagonists who remain our protagonists without being completely purged of their flaws. Meg will still covet, Jo and Marmee’s tempers don’t disappear, but rather are managed by their perseverance and determination to be better people, Amy’s vanity doesn’t wash away. And to me, that is the most priceless lesson of them all. Not that hard work will remove us of our vices, but rather that with hard work our burdens will become more bearable.

When in doubt: go to the library. When in a style quandary: wear foxes. At least that is one of my mottos as I do love all of the fox clothing. I'm not sure when I first started loving foxes, but I started collecting fox clothing in 2011, although at the time I didn't know it would become a "collection." I feel like the best collections are accidental ones, things you pick up instinctively again and again only noticing the pattern later in time. Fox clothing has definitely been that for me, it started rather small and innocuously enough with a fox print tee and knit hat, but now it's to the point where I design jewelry centered around little fox charms and hunt down every fox-related piece that I can. It doesn't help that my obsession has become rather common knowledge and now people will email me tips on fox clothes they've found in shops recently or brands will tempt me with foxy items. One temptation I'm happy to cave for: Magnus Clothing's removable fox collar. It's the perfect accessory for me, now I can instantly turn any outfit into a fox outfit by just adding this collar. I'd normally pair it with a cozy knit, but this time I thought I'd wear it with a classic plaid dress instead and I love how this outfit came together! The collar looks like it was always meant to be a part of this dress and now I'm imagining a dozen other dresses in my closet I could pair this collar with.
P.S. If foxes aren't your thing, Magnus also makes removable peter pan collars with mushrooms, pumpkins, cats, bunnies, sunflowers--the list goes on!

Read any good books lately? Honestly since getting Solomon and preparing for a test I have to take I haven't been reading as much as I'd like to. I have been catching the occasional podcast and listening to a few books on tape, but I'm really looking forward to putting this test behind me and cozying up with a blanket and good book in my favorite window seat while the wind stirs the leaves outside. We're certainly getting into the season of "mists and mellow fruitfulness;" the other morning there was a fog blanketing the village and a whisper of frost is starting to make our garden wilt. The ground is littered with yellow and brown leaves and you can feel the days beginning to shrink. My summer clothes are officially packed away and my favorite thing to grab each morning when I roll out of bed into a room a few degrees colder than it was a month ago, is a cozy sweater. Princess Highway recently sent me a little package with this striped sweater inside and it's sweetly retro; perfect for pairing with a corduroy skirt and ballet flats or simple jeans and wellie boots when I'm out chasing Solomon through the apple orchards. I try to avoid wearing the wellies when I head into town or the library though, all these lovely old tomes call for a bit of sprucing one's self up. It's always a delight to wander through this old research library and admire the gilt-edged books, marbled pages, and wrought iron spiral staircase leading to yet another floor of leather-bound books. Can you imagine a more cozy corner to curl up with a good novel and watch the gloom set in outside?

I love talking about books and I also hate talking about books. I love to read, am often reading, and so books and reading become a natural topic for me to talk and write about. Far from wanting to hide my nerdy tendencies, I don't mind sharing them and enjoy finding like-minded individuals. So, I haunt libraries, devour novels, and scribble notes--and yet every time I am asked to talk about what I'm reading I feel a twinge of unease. Maybe it's because reading has always been a solitary activity for me. Growing up I would spend many hours locked in my room reading quietly and rarely had a friend to discuss or trade novels with. Aside from school essays and reports, it has not been natural or normal for me to talk easily about what I'm reading or share books. More and more I'm realizing though that I also feel protective of my favorite novels and authors. When someone criticizes a book I enjoy I take it far more personally than if they had criticized me. In fact, being online there is a certain amount of understanding that what you say or do is open for feedback (positive and negative). I've taken a fair share of criticism over the years ranging from attacks on my figure to those on my character or choice in fashion, etc. Some words definitely hurt, but I weathered things well enough and honestly with time even the most hurtful comments have faded from my memory. Yet, I can still recall the specific words a teacher used to lambast one of my favorite authors. Recently when I shared a book I was reading and receive a couple of comments from people who hadn't enjoyed said book. It dimmed my enjoyment of the book and made me look for flaws I had missed when initially reading it. I'm not trying to argue that these feelings are valid or reasonable, but rather just coming to terms with the fact that they are. It might not be logical, but I feel protective towards my favorite authors as if they were dear friends who might be injured by a caustic word (even if most of them are in fact deceased). Criticism towards a book I'm enjoying feels like an attack, as if by saying I enjoyed that book that was obviously terrible I have shown poor personal judgement. I remember checking out a thick stack of fantasy novels at a library once and the librarian very sweetly saying, "you know people look down on fantasy novels and they really shouldn't. These books are wonderful." As a ridiculously shy teenager my only response was to nod vigorously and turn red to my toes. But I still remember it because, one: I loved that librarian, and two: it reminded me that yes, people do look down on certain types of novels. The genre seems irrelevant; some with mock young adult fiction, defenders of YA lit will mock romance novel, and so on and so on. Sometimes it feels like nerd v nerd as we each strive to feel a little better about our own bookish habits by critiquing someone else's. However, I stray from my original point which is: I struggle with book opinions. I have on rare occasions been pressed into sharing my favorites and am working on opening up about some of the books I'm currently reading, but it's still a topic that makes me uncomfortable. I've developed a fairly thick skin over the years about other details of myself and interests, so I suppose I will just have to work on cultivating a thicker skin in this arena as well. But I hope as well that people can recognize and empathize with a bookworm's joy at discussing books hand-in-hand with their shyness at discussing books. I think for many of us it has long been a solitary activity and perhaps even a source of teasing over the years, so it is understandable as we find our feet in more bookish communities we still feel a reluctance to be (ho hum) an open book.