Don’t want to get to a place I don’t recognise, where we’ve all bought the world but left with second prize.

 Necklace: www.mockinghorse.co.uk. Dress: Fever via eBay. Shoes: Next via eBay

“You just need a bit of white and you’d look patriotic!” was the comment about today’s dress. I have to say, that one had completely passed me by – something about the inclusion of the black had made me completely fail to register the red and white in any sort of patriotic or even nautical sense. Strange how habits stick, isn’t it?

I am, of course, suddenly interested in dresses in red, white and blue. Even though I’m not really one of life’s flag-waving sorts  The politics and governance and monarchy? Those are just constructs. The country, the nation isn’t about slogans or figureheads, to me.

I love my country, but it’s the bones and the veins of it that I adore. The green rolling hills and the wide flats of the fens and the pink-dotted meadows of Avebury and the hedgerow critters and the birds of prey and the quirks of its people.

And with that, time to put the kettle on!

You wanna know why all these rivers run dry, and when I see you again I see it there in your eyes.

 Shrug: thrifted. Dress: Fever via eBay. Shoes: Dorothy Perkins via eBay. Necklace: www.mockinghorse.co.uk

As you’ll have a hint of from yesterday’s post, I’ve been doing a lot of pattern recognising and response-poking lately. Mostly in myself, but also in others. Patterns in behaviour, and in responses to things. I’ve learnt amazingly fundamental yet strangely not-quite-admitted things about myself just from stopping and asking myself why I did a particular thing or reacted in a particular way to a particular stimulus. The answer isn’t always immediately forthcoming, but rummaging for it is a useful process in itself.

There’s something decidedly satisfying about it, both in terms of personal growth and from the perspective of someone who likes to understand how things and people work. It’s fascinating how understanding a thing helps to either deal with it or just let it go if for whatever reason it’s not mine to deal with.

The sun is shining. We should be making hay.

 Cardi: Gap. Dress: Fever via eBay. Shoes: Next via eBay. Belt: thrifted. Necklace: www.mockinghorse.co.uk

Currently feeling kind of grateful for the strangely wide and varied interest community that is Ravelry. It always amuses me when people file it as ‘that knitting forum’. I hardly ever actually talk knitting on there! Its structure of allowing you to create a forum for any interest means there are literally tens of thousands of interest groups on there, and those are where I spend my time. I talk feminism with folk of all nationalities, have general chat about the news of the day with other Brits, catch up with other gamers, and goodness knows what else besides.

There’s something that tickles me slightly about having more gaming and film/TV conversation with a bunch of mostly female knitters (not to mention the most-definitely-female Facebookers), half of whom I’ve never met and probably never will meet, than is ever likely with my mostly-geeky-guys colleagues. I spose it shouldn’t, really.

You were like the sun, a hazy day

 Shrug: thrifted. Dress: Fever via eBay. Shoes: Dorothy Perkins via eBay. Necklace: Finestimaginary on Etsy

For some sobering reading, go check out the #ididnotreport hashtag on Twitter. If it’s still around. And if you feel confident that you won’t be triggered by discussion of sexual violence, assault and harassment.

Nothing on there is even slightly surprising. A proportion of it I’ve experienced myself. It’s all so. fucking. common.

Depressing, isn’t it?

For their blindness she sees much further, like on a widescreen viewing

Shrug: thrifted. Dress: Fever via eBay. Shoes: Dorothy Perkins via eBay. Necklace: www.mockinghorse.co.uk

I managed to surprise two of my colleagues today by having coffee instead of my customary tea. I drink coffee – proper filter coffee, anyway – at home of a weekend, but tend to prefer a cuppa during the day, especially as I’m not a particular fan of instant and folk don’t seem to make it quite as strong as I like it (rocket fuel if I’m having it at all, please!). But still. Needs must.

This says much for my workload at present.

Is all good, but… sheesh!

Another shot of whiskey, can’t stop looking at the door

 Shrug: thrifted. Dress: Fever via eBay. Boots: Duo via eBay. Necklace: www.mockinghorse.co.uk

Slightly stealing a leaf from Roisin‘s book with this outfit, though she has a much better shoe and dress collection than I do! It was she who introduced me to Fever, though, so I always think of her when I manage to snag an eBay bargain (tenner? don’t mind if I do!) or find myself mentally bookmarking half of their website.

You should go check out her blog – she’s pretty awesome. And that dress and shoe collection really is enviable!

I must become a lion hearted girl ready for a fight before I make the final sacrifice

 Cardi: Wallis. Dress: Fever via eBay. Boots: Duo via eBay. Necklace: www.mockinghorse.co.uk  

Well, that’s it – it’s November, and the festive season preparations are well underway. Shenanegans have now been planned with my lot and my other half’s lot, and I’ve bought my first present, though mostly for the sake of spreading the financial load across more than one pay packet!

This is the start of expensive season for me – January, February and March all involve the birthdays of those to whom I’m very close, and this coming January my mum and brother will both be celebrating reaching Significant Age so there are further shenanegans planned for January.

I expect my bank balance and waistline will have more or less recovered come next Summer!

There’s no surefire set solutions

 Cardi: Wallis. Dress: Fever via eBay. Boots: Duo via eBay. Necklace: Next

Oh dear. Friday’s shopping mission, squeezed in because I happened to be in town for a haircut anyway and I cannot stand weekend crowds, wasn’t wildly successful.

It seems the search and filter facilities offered by online shopping have spoiled me somewhat, and I found the whole thing rather overwhelming. It’s not that I don’t enjoy seeing what’s out there, it’s the ‘needing specific sorts of things’ – and then struggling to find them amidst the sensory overload – that’s the problem.

I’ve shrunk out of enough things that at the moment for maximum flexibility I mostly need work and casual variants of dresses and skirts, plus a few tops and cardis, that will work from Autumn to Winter and will combine well with each other and what I’ve got already. What I ended up with was a few basic long sleeved tops, a casual cardi, and a pencil skirt which I like but think will require further purchases to really come into its own. All useful, but not quite the capsule collection in rich Autumn tones that I was after!

It was interesting to see just how far my colour consultation had affected the way I shopped, though – although I’ve always been drawn to blues, browns, reds and berry colours, with the odd olivey green thrown in, I found myself making a beeline for the mustards and rusts and some of the darker greens and thinking of ways to combine them that I hadn’t previously considered. I’m looking forward to this wardrobe of wonderfully rich tones, when I finally build it!

To eBay!