It's hot! It's that time of year when offices are actually pleasant places to be - the air conditioning is so cool and dry.
A small portion of my brain melted today and sadly it was the portion I use to remember my blog photographing obligations. Thus I have no photo of me in a plain black dress that is only marginally different from the other plain black dresses I wear so frequently on a Monday.
I can, however, tell you what I wore with the plain black dress:
A Burberry hair clip and English Wedgwood earrings. I bough the hair clip (and in fact another in a rounder, fatter shape) at a sale in David Jones about five years ago. I'm not usually one for this kind of extravagance, but it was my birthday, I had the requisite cash and besides, I'd never had a new really posh hair clip. Also, I had recently acquired a pink silk Burberry scarf; I thought it might be witty to wear the two together. I never have.
The earrings are part of a range Wedgwood used to release annually. They are Jasper ware, set in sterling silver and stamped with the year they were made (1974). I have lots of Wedgwood jewellery, all from flea markets and eBay. These earrings are my favourite. Vintage earrings for pierced ears are always a find. As you'd know, earrings are the item of jewellery most likely to go missing so it's unusual to find a pair. If you do, and you really like them, they're worth the investment.
This was my scent for today. It's a very thin, pale scent, quite powdery and flowery like the scent you might catch from an old lady's dressing table. It's perfect for the summer and still smells fresh at the end of the day.
My melted brain portion is slowly reconstituting so I can let you in on a sneak preview of what I'll be wearing tomorrow:
Isn't she the prettiest piece of blue glass you've seen a long time? I bought her on Etsy and she arrived today. She's not marked but is polishing like silver, so I'm thinking she's Russian silver (that's 800 as opposed to 925 sterling silver). She makes her debut tomorrow, possibly with a blue jersey dress, a lot of sunblock and sunglasses as the temperature inches up to around 36 degrees Celsius.
I might also strap some ice packs to my head.
Blue is not really my colour. I can get away with teal occasionally and sometimes look refreshed in pale blue, but for the most part shades of blue do nothing for me. I mean that literally - grey marle makes me look corpse like, red makes me look as if I'm about to combust and take several suburbs with me, black makes me look cranky - but when I wear blue, nothing happens. I just disappear.
Having said that, I love this dress.
It's a piece of silk-cotton polka dot loveliness by local designer Anna Thomas. I found it reduced and reduced and reduced at a sale, and bought it despite the fact it was two (count 'em) sizes too big and navy blue. The size problem is evident at my waist where the best intentions of a belt are thwarted. I don't care. It's soft and light and very comfortable for a day in the office.
In fact, I liked it so much that when I found a matching blouse from the same range at the same sale (also too big) I bought it too.
What surprises me is how the colour doesn't ignore or despise me. I've had this relationship with blue lately. We seem to be getting on a little better and subsequently it is worming its way into my wardrobe and affections.
That's the trapeze dress I hauled back from the seventies last week. She made her 21st century debut with a Petit Bateau tank, a Liberty bag and a pair of preposterous Birkenstocks in - you guess it -
blue. Though to be fair there is a goodly amount of silver mesh in there too. May I also add that I love having lavender toenails.
Oh, and before I forget, wearing blue does allow some exciting shoe leeway. I wore the Ferragamos with the Anna Thomas dress:
Both parties were very happy with the arrangement.
Sydney sagged in the heat today, about 36 degrees Celsius' worth of melting. (For those of you tuning in from the Fahrenheit regions, that's about 98). Amidst oppressive heat and humidity, I packed my bag for the US. It's difficult to guess exactly what I'll be needing in San Francisco in February. All the books say layers, all the people who've been there say a coat. I'd be grateful for any clues.
But look: six dresses, four pairs of leggings, eight pairs of opaque tights, three long sleeve t-shirts and some light silk knit vests ...
...all in one standard carry-on case. Moral of the story: The more you travel, the better you pack and the more shopping you can put in your big check-in luggage.
Seriously though - San Francisco, Nevada, Los Angeles, February: not as cold as New York, no? A scarf and a trench coat should keep me warm - or not?
We've had our fair share of rain this week, now it's hot and humid. Everything was green today.
