neon good time

Angora jumper, H+M. Neoprene skirt, Topshop Boutique. Floral hologram iPhone case, Amazon. Nail Varnish in Neon Green, American Apparel. Cat Eye sunglasses, Topshop.

This is my 'GOOD MORNING WORLD, I have a new neon lime angora jumper and the sun is shining, and I'm at peace with life' stance. Yes. I'm back in Bristol again after spending a couple of days in Manchester where I went with some friends to see Africa Express (absolutely fantastic) and did my best Cher Horowitz impression by hitting the Manchester Arndale centre, ducking the ever-present clouds of perfume, and buying myself some nice new things to fill the gaps in my wardrobe after being paid. Traipsing around big shopping centres really isn't my bag but this trip was fruitful so it was very satisfying and it's always more of a pleasure to roam the shops in Manchester (far superior to those in Bristol with better layouts and canny merchandising for optimum perusing). 

H+M is absolutely on form at the moment, as it generally is in the autumn and was very 'poor man's Cos', which beautiful rows of colour-blocked angora jumpers and metallic straight legged trousers in pink and gold. There was also a large section dedicated entirely to dalmatian spots; top marks. I left with not one but two angora-mix jumpers; the one pictured above as well as one in hot pink to add some colour as my wardrobe. It's my 'thinking ahead to Winter' strategy when the persistent bleak North Western climates turn life into a pretty monochrome-mundane existence and wearing a bit of fuck-off neon lime is the best coping strategy I can think of. 

I also enjoyed a good poke around Topshop and left with a pair of their leather trousers which I've been after for a good couple of years now. My inability to fit into them before is what had stopped me but this time I bit the bullet and had to buy two sizes too big just to get them past my thighs. Ah Topshop sizing-what do you do to us? But this pair fits nicely and looks rather fantastic with some bright angora, my Nikes and a flash of American Apparel nail varnish just for some extra 'safety wear' channelling. The cherry on the cake of this haul has to be the neoprene Topshop Boutique skirt which ticks all the boxes where my gaping skirt void was concerned. It's completely lightweight as opposed being scuba-thick and has a nice skating skirt hang to it without being too jutty and feminine (like the American Apparel circle skirts which are too..circular..for me) But this is super-flattering and comes proudly with a 'Made in Britain' label which fulfils some semi-idealistic manufacturing fantasies. 

Lessons learned from Possum Living

Though the production of the 'Teenage' film itself seems to continue to pootle along slowly (it was originally expected to be finished by this Summer) the accompanying blog provides endless gems where old documentaries and various nostalgia-laden 'teen memorabilia' is concerned. So in my book the website surpasses my own expectations of the yet-to-be completed film and continues to be one of my must-reads when it comes to finding 'totally awesome' stuff I might not otherwise know about. 

Possum Living falls under this category of cool stuff unbeknownst to me (although I'm sure that plenty of you are already in the loop) and since watching the three-part documentary on youtube which follows Dolly Freed, a teenager living off the fat of (suburban) Pennsylvania in the late 70s with her Dad, I've been thinking about what exactly Turtle Soup must taste like and I've added 'Possum Living: How to Live Well Without a Job and With (Almost) No Money', Dolly's guide to self-sufficiency to my reading list.

In my search for more things Dolly, I found this brilliant interview with her over at Vice Magazine. It turns out that in addition to dropping out of school at the age of 12 and writing Possum Living at 18, she went on to become a NASA aerospace engineer. Awesome! I recommend you watch Nancy Schreiber's documentary in full (the second and third parts can be found here and here) I'm always interested in hearing about how people live frugally, and though after two years of studying at University without a job I've rather reached my 'poor threshold' (of course my use of the word 'poor' is relative-I always have enough money to actually eat, just left to treat myself to nice things that might cost a little bit more money) and I'm now enjoying earning once more, it's still nice to think about the little ways that we can maintain some frugality even whilst earning. Buying second hand clothes is something that is pretty much second hand nature to a lot of us, but it would be nice to also apply this creativity to what we eat too. Yesterday I was in the park next to my house picking blackberries for the cafe I work at (to be used in our fruit compote) and realised how ridiculous it is that I rarely buy fresh summer fruits like strawberries or raspberries (or in Autumn, blackberries) from the supermarket because of how much they cost when all along there are hoards growing in abundance in the park right beside me. And instead of moaning when I can't find kale in the supermarket, why don't I just grow some in a window box instead? Despite the whole 'buy local, grow your own' ethos having been the food manta a la mode for a pretty long time now, it's still easy to miss the glaringly obvious solutions and still fall in the trap of buying overpriced vegetable boxes when you could grow some of your own greens and spend those saved pennies on..well, a delightfully overpriced jumper. Those are my priorities for now, at least. To continue to embrace frugality but to stop being such a martyr about it. Less 'all or nothing' and more 'I like Lidl and I also like pricey mojitos and the two needn't be mutually exclusive.'

Back in the Groove

Hello, hello. It's been quite a while, hasn't it? Apologies for the unexplained absence but I'm back. I've been having a bit of time out and doing a bit of thinking but writing again feels good. 

Some things that have happened recently: I celebrated my 21st birthday at the end of last month in a beautiful field in the Cotswolds with some friends. There was quite a lot of Cava and dancing to Disco and I wore a baby pink feather boa which has since lead me to the conclusion that baby pink feather boas should be worn more often. (Whether this sentiment was intact cava-induced remains to be seen..)

I've been kicking around a lot in my new Nike Air Safaris which were a birthday present from my Stepdad. I've been sticking to my usual 'it's new and I like it and I'll wear it all day and everyday if I want to..' formula. This is along with some simple gold hoop earrings I bought at the start of the month from (ahem) Claire's accessories.

The Olympics.. who wasn't glued to the screen? Bit of shame it's all over now, really.

I've signed up to do a 160 mile bike ride from London to Paris with some friends. It was floated as an idea and I booked a one-way Eurostar ticket back from Paris before I could change my mind. It's only a month away and the reality of what I've signed myself up for has started to sink in, but in order to remedy these nerves I bought a fairly ridiculous bike top from one of my favourite second-hand shops in Manchester today. (Does it even have a name? The one in the United Buildings on Oldham Street.) Hof hof hof..I may be in head over (sweaty) heels but at least I'll look tropically Wiggo. I also bought this mustard yellow cardigan from Ryan Vintage which is fairly more conservative in a Land Girls kind of a way. 

More updates soon. Until then, what have you all been up to? I'm always interested to know what you've been listening to/watching/doing with your summer. I've been listening to the Beegees, and working at the cafe a fair amount. I also cooked a rather fantastic 'Bristol' Slow Roasted Jerk Pork last week (Jamie Oliver's recipe from when he visited Bristol as part of the Great Britain series) Absolutely perfect on a summers evening enjoyed with plenty of Coronas and lime and chat with one of my girlfriends. 

I Almost Forgot: Lesley Arfin is Awesome

Man, I forgot how much I love Lesley Arfin. I used to read her now-defunct blog Cafe Con Lesley religiously and it took me watching this new Style Like U video to be reminded of her wit and brilliance. I love the honesty of this video. How many times have you read an interview about people who 'struggled and struggled until they found their late-blooming success'? These interviews always skip out the parts about the reality of self-doubt and the complete disorientation of that 'oh god, what am I doing?' feeling, so what I really love about this video is that Lesley doesn't. She is completely honest about how things went tits-up every now and then but without resolving to a 'but now, I've made it'-style happy ending. Things are good for her now, she is a main writer on HBO's Girls (which if I'm honest I wasn't massively won over by, but maybe I'll give it another go) but life continues to be great in parts, and when it's not great, that's okay too. There is so much emphasis today on things going right all the time, and on individuals always being happy, so I like Lesley's approach which feels more realistic and trial and error based. It says 'don't sweat the small stuff.'

One thing that often stands out to me in interviews with women in their 30s is that they often seem pretty sorted when it comes to their own self-confidence and competence when it comes to knowing 'how to get stuff done', in a way that starkly contrasts myself, my friends, and women in general of my own age. Lesley reflects this when she talks about how much more hung-up she was about her body in her 20s. This interview reminds me to be less hung-up, in all aspects of my life because it's so easy to get into a funk when you forget that shrugging your shoulders and pulling a 'whatever' sign with your fingers is a pretty okay way of powering on sometimes.

Outfit

Top, Goodwill. Skirt, Marks and Spencer. Trainers, Nike. 

An outfit I wore last week when we were being blessed with hot hot heat instead of thunderstorms. This was a 'ventilation' outfit that kept me cool while working at the cafe and simultaneously made me look like a netball player. I also came home that day to discover that I matched the paint samples my Mum had spread across my bedroom walls. Cool! 

5 Summer Reads

Five Books I'd like to get my hands on this Summer: 

A familial incest classic still unread, Patrick Trefz's surfing portraits and action shots, an ode to musical nostalgia from Mancunian photographer Kevin Cummins, Dennis Morris's book 'Growing Up Black' which is financially unattainable but mega-appealing nonetheless, and Nile Rodger's autobiographical journey through Family, Disco and Destiny to coincide with me seeing Chic this weekend. 

1. Surfers' Blood by Patrick Trefz

2. Flowers in the Attic by Virginia Andrews

3. Le Freak: An Upside Down Story of Family, Disco and Destiny by Nile Rodgers

4. Manchester: Looking for the Light through the Pouring Rain by Kevin Cummins

5. Growing Up Black by Dennis Morris 

Alone In The Wilderness

I found this brilliant video while reading the Oi Polloi blog archives. It follows Dick Proenneke, who in line with that tradition of American men- from Walden to Christopher McCandless, schleps off into the wild to tune out of modern life. We watch him in the Summer of 1968 (while the rest of America reels from multiple high-profile assassinations and social turbulence) build a cabin from scratch in Alaska, in a series of footage shot by himself. Luckily there is no Timothy Treadwell-style Bear gore, just instead the vaguely entrancing process of chopping and laying logs to make his home and canoeing in lakes. The soundtrack sounds like one of those free relaxation CDs that I sometimes find in my bedroom, with no memory of how it got there. No panpipes..but it comes close! I especially like Dick's blue Dickies trousers. They remind me of the clean blue Dickies overalls that Ken wore on the avocado farm, with a white shirt, a vaguely feminine straw hat and a serious expression. 

Home Soil

Well, well, well. The American adventure is all wrapped up, completed and I'm now back on British soil, quickly back into the pace of 'normal life' (whatever that is) and learning that life does in fact continue, you don't come home, walk into Terminal 5 of Heathrow Airport and have some life narrator announce 'Chapter 12, Back in England' as I think on some level I had been expecting as a sort of acknowledgement of my time in America coming to end. After all, how could I slip so easily back into the way things were before? Well, quite simply that's exactly what happened and it feels nice. Same, but different. 

These are some of the photographs of my final two weeks in America which was spent in California working on an avocado farm and then camping in Big Sur with Jim and Charlie. We drove down the Highway 1, just as we'd done a month before and sitting in Jim's car with Kool and The Gang and Black Moon playing and the stunning coastal views beside us felt like the perfect bookend to my time in America, with two of my closest friends, a pack of Hoegaarden, squished fresh strawberries, a bit of melancholy about the idea of returning home, but ultimately a lot of laughs and affection and a good sprinkling of Massachusetts memories. 

Now I'm back and I'm excited to crack on with blogging again, make up for the month long absence and catch up with some of my favourite reads while I spent the Summer back in Bristol at my parents house, working and anticipating my final year studying in Manchester. I hope you lot have all been swell!

Rave New World

Super 'Brave New World' editorial from the May issue of Vogue UK. The pairing of Alasdair McLellan as photographer and Jane How as stylist usually leads to pretty good things and this spread is no exception, an ode to The Face-era Kate Moss beach chilling and 90s ibiza sunrises.

Heads Up!

Blogging will be pretty sparse over the next week or so as my time studying at the University of Massachusetts is over and tomorrow I'm packing up and leaving to spend a week working on an avocado farm in Santa Cruz county. It's only 2 weeks until I return home to England and 'normal' life again, it's all gone so quickly! 

In the mean time here are some cool things for reading/listening to/watching and crushing on: 

 This short piece over at Another Magazine with snippets from the column Juergen Teller wrote for Die Zeit back in 2009. 

The cutesy heart-pocketted 'Bethany' skirt by Meadham Kirchoff is up on Net-a-Porter, and man, I'm crushing hard.

What Teachers Make by Taylor Mali. I very behind indeed on finding out about Taylor Mali but I've been devouring his live videos over the last week and this is my favourite by far. Mega inspiring. 

The clear plastic tops in buttercup yellow and rosy pink in this editorial from Vice Portugal.

For Real by Tricky:

Mambo No. 5 by Perez Prado: