Haphazard Interiors

While I constantly claim that my student lifestyle relegates my interior design aesthetic to nil, I recently realized that it is more laziness than lifestyle. I don't have a design-point-of-view, rather my apartment is made up of furniture that was already there and Ikea necessities. I didn't think I was much of a nester, but when looking around my flat the other day, I realized I do have an aesthetic: haphazard. Books piled every which way on the bookshelf, a mantle overflowing with candles, pictures, and more books, a desk overrun with jewelry boxes that are over run with jewelry. Haphazard...or maybe just messy, but I kind of like it, which is why I was drawn to the various interiors in these editorials shot by Hugh Stewart . They are all a little scruffy round the edges, the eye darts around at all the visual stimuli, a bit like a Victorian haberdashery, disorganized but lovely just the same.







Photographs by Hugh Stewart found at kris atomic

Handsome? Indubitably.

Every since learning about Australian brand We Are Handsome way back in November, I've been hoping their amazing suits would pop up in a store on this side of the hemisphere. And lo and behold, a few select pieces are currently being sold at Opening Ceremony. I knew that since they were designer, limited edition and made out of Italian Lyrca (apparently. Is that like, as good as Italian wool?) along with having the best retro pop culture prints, they wouldn't come cheap. Oh predictive ability, how I wish you were wrong. At $240 a pop, these puppies will have to remain on the wish list. Which is alright by me, since who knows when I'll make it to a beach this summer anyhow.

Seems I've been complaining a lot lately about the things that I cannot afford but I don't mean to and I'm not actually that bummed about it. In truth, it's fun to fill my imaginary wardrobe with imaginary things, but at the end of the day, even if I had all the money in the world I wouldn't buy everything I covet because there are other things that keep you fulfilled. Like waking up at 6 am to a sun-drenched room, making a cup of French Vanilla coffee that your mother shipped 3,000 miles just for you and reading for pleasure before a long day studying. The moral of the story being, while I'm happy to pine over We Are Handsome bathing suits, and wish that I could have a wild stallion run across my torso, I am perfectly content with what I've got. It's important to remember that when you've got a blog filled with wishes.

This ended up being more of a note to self. Sorry about that.

there are no words

My god, refinery29 has just led me to a website that may be the death of me, Ming Makes Cupcakes. It is a website with, yep, a wild variety of cupcake recipes. 31 to be exact. Good thing I lack the time, the baking skill and a cupcake tin ... otherwise, things could get very messy. A few of the ones I would bake if I could...






Oh, and there's also the beginnings of a cookie list. My oh my, this is a dangerous site.

Print Perfect

(All via Steven Alan)

Steven Alan has a remarkable ability to make the most covetable spring dresses. They are the right shape, cut and most importantly in the most pitch-perfect prints. These are the dresses that define effortless. They exist to be worn on a perfect sunny day (which this lovely city has been having a fair few of recently), to frolic barefoot through the park or to wander through one of London's food markets, carrying home a sac of fresh ingredients to end the day on the balcony with a big glass of lemonade and a barbecue. Yep, the perfect spring day in a perfect printed spring dress. Mr. Alan, you make me dream the impossible dream. Now if you could only lower your prices a tad, the impossible would be much more possible...

Birthday Wishes and Ramblings

Hello there.

It's been quite a while, hasn't it? The longest I've ever gone without posting on this thing. Life has gone back to before this whole shabang got started - spending my days waking up early, sitting at the computer, but instead of working through my Google Reader, thinking up posts or wandering around various fashion sites, I've been devastatingly single-minded. Study study study. Write write write. But the end is semi-nigh, another month until exams are over but then they are over forever, and that will be amazing.

Anyway, this shall be a somewhat indulgent post (as all are, really) that is serving more as a list for a few interested parties (hi mom!). Hmm, so yes, my birthday is somewhat around the corner. Last year it was spent eating cake and studying and this year will be much of the same - but the cake is so good, I don't mind. I've been nagged as to what I want, and while normally I am pretty good at producing lists for those who want them, this year, I find I don't really want anything. But apparently that isn't very helpful, so I had to think up afew things I wouldn't mind receiving and here they be:

Marais Espadrille Wedge
I've been in love with these bad boys for a while now. I struggle when it comes to summer because I feel I have less shoe options. My hallway overflows with boots and all sort of winter shoes, but summer? Not so much. I fancy these, but perhaps in red...

Aurel Schmidt for Opening Ceremony Donut Tee
This is mostly because I love donuts and have been craving an American Donut for a while now. I didn't realize there was such a thing, until I tasted donuts in this fair country and realized that no, they are not the same. And while that may be good for my waistline, it saddens me a little bit when I am dying for a Boston Cream.

Ray-Ban Aviators
These were the first sunglasses I ever spent more than $10 on. I had them, loved them, cared for them for about 5 years and now they have mysteriously vanish. Another precious thing that somehow disappeared from life and is probably lying in a London gutter. Tear.

American Apparel Nail Polish in Peacock (l) and Coney Island (r)
Dusty blue and almost-saccharine-pink. Yum. It really bums me out that they don't sell these in the stores in London. They do ship them though, but the shipping is the same cost as the polish, and my little brain just cannot justify it.

Books: The Selby by Todd Selby or Appetite by Nigel Slater
Books! I love receiving books, adding to the precarious piles in my room. Interior eye candy from Mr Selby and a cookbook by Nigel Slater. I love to cook, but haven't been doing any new experimenting recently for lack of time. With my degree ending, I'd like to get back to the things I love...which leads me to my last possible prezzie request:

Mom, you know your old Canon? I still want it. I'd like to get myself back on the photographing wagon this summer as well.

And that's that.

Sorry guys, that's all I could muster after a month of absence, a me-me-me list! I still doubt there will be much regularity in posting until the end of May, but who knows...I can't study all the time, right?