You might as well live

The thing is, I need a list.

I have a list on my desk every morning. I write it last thing before I go home the day before. My list can include simple tasks like "read papers", "file" or complex tasks like "check appeal - details Dom after 2" or cryptic things like "Day Adv inq - LFM June 16 - pros for AStatF".

I have lists for my my home life too. My grocery list says things like this:

*lemons
*rice
*cranberry cereal
*work milk
*noodles
*tomatoes
*oats
*narnas (aka bananas).
*geggs (aka eggs)

My wardrobe list, which I write about every six weeks and is supposed to guide me effortlessly and stylishly through the upcoming season, says things like this:

*Blue pinny
*Beige pinny
*silk cotton crew neck
*Narna tee (aka Banana Republic tee shirt)
*wool tights
*Bally boots
*other Bally boots

..and so forth. It reminds me what I have and what I like wearing. It enabled me to get up extremely early the other morning to go to the Trash and Treasure market, all kitted out in a frock I had tucked away at the end of last winter:

Here's a close up of the pinny (or pinafore, if you will). It's a corduroy number I bought off a local ebayer for about eighteen bucks:
Here's a list of what I was wearing that day:

Tee shirt: Banana Republic
Dress: Cue, from eBay
Tights: COS
Bag: Mulberry
Boots: Bally , second hand, eBay

My clothing list at the moment is big on tights, boots and dresses. I have a work version and a home version. It was thrown in to chaos today when I was wandering around Sydney's CBD and came across this on sale (in a very big way - $40 reduced from $150) in a local chain store called Witchery:

That's a pretty tragic photo of what is actually a rather lovely blush-coloured rayon dress. Here's a close up of the smocking panel on the front:


It's a very soothing flattering colour and a wonderful shape - straight up and down, loose, suitable for strolling around estates with a parasol, playing croquet with my chums and Charlstoning. I will be wearing it for none of those activities, instead opting to team it with rather rugged plain accessories.

When I finally get my head around this dress it will appear on a list thus:

*peach smocking dress
*peach silk slip
*brown wool tights
*brown Marc Alpert boots
*cream crew neck
*red faille bag.

It might take a month or so though.

As I recovered from the chaos of an unexpected dress I went scouring for a copy of Harpers. US and UK magazines are available in Australia, but the up-to-date ones (that is, available here about a week after they hit the newsstands in Ohio or York) are zipped over the globe by air mail and cost a bomb - up to twenty dollars. I limit myself to Real Simple, Harpers, British Vogue and Lucky. Today, however, my list was challenged again when I found this:

It's a new British magazine with a very different attitude and much more stark copy than the usual run of magazines. It looks distinctly smart and not at all patronising. I am inordinately excited - I rather fancy myself as a bit of a gentlewoman. The proof, though, will be in the printed pudding: I will report back directly.

Oh, and I also got this with Some Blonde on the cover:


I had to. It was on the list.