The girl from the butcher shop is here to see you

The morning light in my house is soft and doesn't lend itself to good pictures. 


The Summer light outside is bright and sharp though, so I wondered how I might go photographing today's very laid back, casual Friday-it's still Summer-I've got no meetings outfit. 

Well, not bad. Except it is my reflection in a shop front window and the muted tones fail to give you the true spirit of the Seed dress I am wearing. And you'd never guess that the leggings are made from bamboo from this shot. 


So I kept walking, and saw a woman in a Seed dress and bamboo leggings walking towards me. 

It's a mirror fitting in a butcher's shop that recently closed down. But no one will know it's a butcher's shop, I reasoned, it'll just look like a shot on the main street, albeit taken by a person who neglected to lift her gaze away from the viewfinder. 

And then I saw the word bacon reversed just above my head and laughed. No matter - you get a better idea of the leggings here. And I can even take close up of the bag and sh - 

Oh - my walking-to-the-bus stop shoes. Not my adorable plain black flats I bought in Paris. But the leggings! They're bamboo! And the bag! My new one that carries my laptop and breakfast! 

And the brooch, 800 silver that I bought from one of the sourest men in Sydney at the Bondi markets. and my silver floral pendant from Etsy that I rarely take off. And the fabric of the dress, a linen cotton bend that is comfortable and doesn't end up looking like a discarded lunch wrapper after a few minutes. It's all visible, in the stark light of day. 

Including the tiles, which are similar in colour to the dress I wore yesterday. I wondered who chose them - the butcher? It crossed my mind to sneak down late at night with a bucket of hot water and mop for future photographs. Or perhaps try the backyard tomorrow morning. 

It's tantamount to assault

Okay, so I've managed to climb the awkward barbed fence of posting pictures of myself here; the next hurdle is to find a good time and location to actually take the photos. The absence of a style photo here is evidence that I haven't found that perfect time and place yet. The bedroom where I dress is too bright, the dining room has no point high enough for a camera on the self timer .... anyway, while a solution is underway,  I can tell you that I wore a plain oat-coloured shift today with a shot of green: 

The bangles are glass for Pete's sake. I was attracted to them in an op shop for their weight and pleasant clinking, but a suggestion that they might break on my wrist and cause all kinds of bloody damage made me reticent to wear them. I'm happy to report they've not wounded me yet and are the prettiest colour when they catch the light. The silk scarf came in the same haul and spent most of it's time on this syrupy, humid day tied around the handle of my bag. 


I also tried to wear a lipstick Nat brought back for me from her recent trip but I just can't bring myself to smear it on. 

 It's from Paul and Joe. It is a perfect pink-brown shade - I just wish it wasn't looking at me with such trust.

It's there in black and white

 All the lady blogs are currently celebrating the bloggingsphere's love of coloured clothes. The best I can celebrate at the moment is  that I'm awake, able to answer simple questions and managing to feed myself at regular intervals. Coloured clothes are, as yet, still outside my skill set: this week I've worn a plain black dress every day. Today, muggy and blurred by clouds, was no exception.

That's a Veronika Maine dress from the sales two years ago. The brooches are both flea market finds ...

..the shoes are Ferragamos I snaffled for an excellent price on eBay...

..and the cuff is Louis Vuitton. It was a gift when the Vuitton store opened in Sydney a decade ago. It serves as a reminder that I once worked in television and used to get invited to some interesting gigs with nice freebies. 

 

Tomorrow - possibly black dress number four. I haven't quite got to the planning-twelve-hours-ahead stage yet. 

A flannel flower for good luck

A raft of dreary health complications, most of which centre around blood thinners, have ruled out my getting a tattoo. I'm only ever reminded of my lack of tattoo when I see one I particularly admire, like the small garland of roses on the tender inside of a forearm that I saw on a young British backpacker on my way home this evening. Obviously I refrain from photographing the forearms of strangers so you'll have to trust when I say it was very pretty.

If I were able to get a tattoo it would be of these, a flannel flower.

They're Australian natives and really do feel like brushed cotton flannel. I love the colour and believe it to be the most perfect shade of cream available on the colour spectrum. I would have my flannel flowers tattooed on my left shoulder.

These pretty blooms remind me too that some parts of our big wide country are currently struggling in very dangerous conditions, and that not having a tattoo is a very, very small thing between heaven and earth compared to what many of my country men and women face at the moment.

If you have time today, please spare some positive thoughts and hope for the people of Queensland.  If you're in Australia, don't forget that there are lots of places where you can make a donation.

Ten things I thought about today

1. There are worse things than sitting at a desk. What did Mark Twain say? Men will climb a mountain and call it recreation, yet sit at a desk and call it hard work. 


2. Is vegemite on toast an irresponsible lunch? 

3. I rather miss Christmas now. Sigh. Such a great day. Funny how you give a kid a great present and without fail they'll prefer the box. 

4. Curly hair runs in our family but not one of us have ever been nicknamed curly. 


5. I don't need any more skirts no matter how cheap that Dries Van Noten one is going on eBay. 


6. 394 emails. That can't be right. 


7. It's lunch time, right? 


8. Mark Twain was wrong. This is HARD. 


9. I wonder what Ellie and Kate are doing? I wish someone would invent an app that made it possible to call your pets.

10. It's Monday, isn't it? No, hang on ...oh, right. It is Monday. 


11. Must make a note to pack the camera tomorrow. 

The train stopping in the buttercup fields

While I don't relish the thought of going back to work, I do enjoy organising to go back to work. The last few weeks has been a happy unstructured affair of late rising, jeans and Birkenstocks; today I ironed frocks, sorted neat blouses and packed my new bag. I also decided, no matter what I choose to wear, that these shoes have waited long enough to make their debut. 

Where one fern was always green

We've had our fair share of rain this week, now it's hot and humid. Everything was green today.