Parisian Costume

Parisian Costume by unresigned featuring ballet shoes

French Connection cotton shirt
£32 - cureuk.com

Dorothy Perkins skinny leg jeans
£15 - dorothyperkins.com

H&M ballet shoes
£15 - hm.com

John Lewis Women black knit beret
£12 - johnlewis.com

H M acrylic scarve
£7.99 - hm.com

Lime Crime Makeup Lipstick in Retrofuturist
$16 - modcloth.com

Remains to be Scene Paper Set in Paris
$25 - modcloth.com

Colorspiration: Teal Beauty

Colorspiration- Teal by unresigned featuring vintage jewelry

Colorspiration: Silver Bells

Colorspiration: Silver Bells by unresigned featuring summer vests

Elegant Vintage brown pearl necklace

I am a very inexperienced photographer, but the pictures I took of this piece are some of my favorite. There is nothing quite as satisfying as FINALLY getting the lighting, focus, and piece placement right after hours of trying! I shoot most of my pictures in a very improvised studio that consists mostly of a super bright desk lamp, a box lid, various sheets of extra large scrapbooking paper in lots of lovely colors. Not exactly high tech.

This is a long faux pearl necklace that I reconstructed from vintage beads. When I graduated from school a very nice old woman that my mom works with gave me a gold mine of vintage pieces that I sorted into the "good-as-is," "good-with-some-reconstruction," and "utterly-hideous" piles customary when I get vintage pieces. The necklace made with these beads fell into the "good-with-some-reconstruction" pile and so an hour or so later, minus a handful of tarnished and chipped beads and spacers, this lovely little beauty was born.

It is probably the longest necklace I have ever made and it is a full 22 inches long. It graduates and the largest bead is squarely in the center. It has great drape and all the beads have a lovely sheen. It is the best of Victorian meeting modern style that any woman can pull off. Hope you like it as much as I do!

Peace.

Bookbag Challenge Day 5

Here was my day last Friday in a nutshell, highlights are in caps:

Wake up.

Leave hostel.

Bus.

Walk.

Wait.

Plane.

Walk.

Bus.

Wait.

Train.

Walk.

Bus.

Wait.

Bus.

Walk.

Villa.

PIZZA.

And btw: this took TWELVE hours. It all really needs no more elaboration than that. Except for the fact that this is what I wore, and I actually took a picture!

The hair is really inexcusable, but I’m just going to say that I was tired of trying. Traveling really can take it out of you. 

And this concludes my foray into style blogging for now. I'm definitely thinking about continuing though. Let me know what you think!

And that was my trip to Scotland! Have you ever been to Scotland? What did you do there? Let me know in the comments section.

Peace.

Bookbag Challenge Day 4

Today we woke up early and braved the morning air to make it in time for the HAIRY COO BUS TOUR!

To me, this initially sounded disgusting, and I was not really interested. But then I saw the words “Highlands tour” and “Free” in their brochure, so I decided to look a bit closer.

True to it’s word, this tour really was a FREE, DAY-LONG bus tour of the Scottish highlands. Umm, yes please. Even if the name is gross sounding.

 Turns out “coo” means cow in Scottish English, and there were plenty of hairy cows to go around. John and Fiona were in love with them, but I was a touch more reserved about the whole thing. They were cute, but really—they’re still cows.

This, my friends, is a hairy coo.

In the end, this was one of the coolest things we did in Edinburgh. We went to the Wallace National Monument (As in William Wallace. As in Braveheart. As in AWESOME.) and there was beautiful fall scenery galore. And just to put the cherry on top, we went to the castle where they filmed scenes for Monty Python and the Holy Grail. And they provided us with coconuts. It was fabulous.

 Unfortunately this probably the best picture of my outfit that I’m going to be able to provide you with. That super adorable hat was my one purchase on this trip and I love it dearly. Prepare to see much more of it, especially at the end of this month in Austria!

I regret immensely that our budget didn’t allow us to tip the Hairy Coo Bus Tour more than we did. Please, if you’re ever in the area, look them up. I think it’s important that small (and free!) tour companies like this keep going. Check out their website here.

So here is a better idea of what I actually wore:

Bookbag Challenge Day 3

Last Wednesday we set out for the Royal Mile to see what we could see. Fiona went to Edinburgh Castle, but John and I passed due to the high entrance fee and our super tight budget.

 Instead we walked the whole Royal Mile down to Holyroodhouse where the Queen stays when she comes to Edinburgh.

We all met up again at the Elephant House, the café where J.K. Rowling wrote the first two Harry Potter books, and had lunch. 

After lunch we went to the Writer’s Museum, which had exhibits on Robert Louis Stevenson, Robert Burns, and Walter Scott. 

Afterwards Fiona and I went to the National Gallery while John went to read some greatly missed American comic books in the bookstore down the road. 

Not much else to say, here's what I wore:

Nice quiet day abroad, just like I like.


Peace.

Bookbag Challenge Day 2

This was our first full day of Scotland and it surprised us by being mostly dry, but ungodly cold. Taking advantage of the lack of rain we decided to try for the free three hour walking (I know, I was a bit worried myself) tour that left the Royal Mile at 11am. The tour turned out to be really interesting and worthwhile, and it was a great introduction to the history of Scotland, although I was a touch underdressed, and therefore froze for most of it.

They do tours like this at many destinations all over Europe, so please, look and see if you’re next destination is on the list. It was really worth it. Visit their website here.

And then, Tuesday night, we partook in one of the highlights of our trip: dinner in a home.

Yes, yes dear friends, we ate a real meal out of a real oven with a real family, WITH TORTILLA CHIPS NO LESS. It was a little slice of heaven. Family friends of mine are living in Edinburgh right now and they just so happen to be alumni of the same school I go to now. They were kind enough to invite us over for dinner, and made our week.

And during all this awesomeness, here’s what I wore:

 

I added the skirt over my dress when I started getting cold in the afternoon and that helped a lot. Made a good cold day walking outfit overall.


Peace.

Bookbag Challenge Day 1

A week ago today we took off from the Villa at 6am to make it to the train station in time for our train to Bologna, because oddly enough Florence doesn't really have an airport to speak of. I’m telling you, they could make a mint if they put one in. Anyway, we made it to Bolonga, took a FIVE euro bus to the airport (which was not FIVE euros away—such a racket), checked in and waited for our flight with our backpacks. You’re not actually assigned a seat on Ryanair flights so people started lining up about twenty minutes before boarding to get a good seat. And then boarding was delayed about twenty minutes, so we were standing in our winter coats for about forty minutes shoulder to shoulder. It was a wee bit warm.

The flight itself was good and we managed to be close enough to the front that I snagged us an emergency exit row, because in addition to being wonderful, my boyfriend John is 6’6” and a lot of that is legs. The exit row was actually very roomy and he could cross one leg over the other, which I think is a flying first for him.

We landed in Edinburgh and took a bus to our hostel, which was cleverly called ‘The Hostel.” Considering that we only paid $5 a night to stay there, it was like heaven. I stayed several places in France that were not near as a nice but cost a lot more. So if you’re going to Edinburgh, hit them up. Sure we were sharing a room with 13 other people, but they were mostly quiet and very courteous, so it was good.

We decided to get something hot to eat (Hello fish and chips!), walk around and get our bearings, and do some grocery shopping that night. We also made a trip to Edinburgh’s Catholic cathedral for All Saints Day mass, but when we got there we found out that the priest who was supposed to say 7:30 Holy Day Mass was sick/gone and so there had been a Polish mass at 6pm to replace it, which we missed. We got a good 40 minutes in prayer in though as we waited for it to start!

So, I failed at getting my picture taken on Monday, so here’s a summary of what I wore:

Bookbag Challenge Day 1 by unresigned featuring a green handbag

It was a good airport outfit because everything was loose and the boots were easy to take on and off for security. Also, that's not really the scarf I wore, so here's what it really looked like, wrapped around my head.

It is a beautiful scarf I got here in Italy and I love it dearly. You can also see that I had a black bomber jacket that I found for 10 euros in a side street on the way to the Duomo two weeks ago. 


It was a good first day!


Peace.

The Scottish Bookbag Challenge

You’ve probably heard of Ryanair, but if you haven’t, it’s the legendary super low cost European airline that students hang their hopes of cheap intercontinental travel on. And it’s true, Ryanair is cheap, but it has one of the most awful baggage allowances known to man.

One carry on. That’s all you get.

So, being the inventive, resourceful girl that I am I decided to challenge myself. One backpack, everything I need for the trip AND five cute outfits. That’s right. I wanted to have everything I needed for the hostel and look decent in photograph every day, for five days, out of a backpack.

Faced with this challenge, I immediately realized that I could cheat. I got to wear an outfit there and one back, so actually I only had to fit four looks in the bag. That was so much more doable.

So here’s how I did it. No pants, just lots of leggings and dresses. They're smaller to pack, and it offers the ultimate versatility.

The Scottish Bookbag Challenge by unresigned 

This week I’m going to go through my week last week day by day (it will make sense, I promise) and tell you about what I did in Scotland and what I wore while I was taking it all in! Stay tuned.

UPDATE:

Day One
Day Two
Day Three
Day Four
Day Five


Peace.