JUST A GIRL

I don't even know where to start with the perfection of this shoot.

Those eyebrows; that skin; the asymmetric eyeliner (hello new weekend go-to); the wet-look hair; the gorgeous single earring; that bustier jumpsuit.

Beautiful. Simple. Perfection.

I want in.

Photography: Jeremy Choh

Stylist: Freddie Fredericks

H&M: Ania Milczarczyk

Model: Daphne Velghe

More gorgeousness after the jump.

THE VIEW FROM ABOVE

Sometimes a different perspective on reality offers nothing but despair at every turn.

Last weeks terrifyingly shocking US election result feels like one of those moments, where every which way you look, it seems as though the world has gone mad.

Like, actually mad this time.

But sometimes, just sometimes, a different perspective can reveal a beauty that you couldn't originally make out.

I haven't found this perspective yet on this election; I'm struggling to see it. I'm struggling to get my head around this decision, as are millions of people around the world.

But it's happened, and so we have to be pragmatic and maybe take a look at it from a alternative perspective.

For now I'm just enjoying the beautiful birds eye photos taken by Loes Heerink of street vendors in Hanoi. 

They are amazing and made even more so by the fact that you'd never appreciate the daily work of these vendors unless you were looking at them from above, from a fresh, new persepctive.

So thank you for this beautiful little series Loes.

And here's to looking at things from a different perspective. 

Or at least trying to.

Vendors from Above

by Loes Heerink

More mesmerising shots after the jump.

THE TALE OF THOMAS BURBERRY

This video is poetry in motion.

Beautifully shot, with beautiful people and beautiful clothes, I felt like it was just the trailer to an even greater epic shimmering on the horizon. (*Spoiler* not confirmed, just wishful thinking).

The tale of Thomas Burberry is one that I wasn't familiar with, but then again I wasn't that familiar with the story of the house itself.

I didn't know that it was Thomas who started his own brand at the age of 21; who pioneered the mac material gabardine; and that it was Thomas who dressed British explorer Ernest Shackleton? 

In fact it's Burberry who have dressed more incredible people than arguably any other brand. From a Royal Warrant as Tailors, to the soldiers of both the First and Second World Wars, to Betty Kirby Green (played by the gorgeous Lily James in the above video), Burberry has kitted out the best of them.

Basically Thomas Burberry was really quite amazing. And this video is too.

The Tale of Thomas Burberry

Directed by Asif Kapadia

Starring Domhnall Gleeson, Sienna Miller, Dominic West and Lily James

STOP BEING BASIC

In the daily stress of getting myself dressed when my eyes are still too tired to be fully open, I long for a matching trouser suit.

Gone are my longings for 501s and Stan Smiths. Gone are those feelings of angst every time I remember that white tee I didn't buy.

For now I'm done with being basic.

Kind of.

But a trouser suit is so chic, so easy and so darn cool, especially with a punchy red lip. And it covers all manner of working uniform requirements. 

Go for a muted shade if your boss is a little on the strict side.

Or choose an incredible print like this gorgeous gal above and rock that suit jacket with nothing but your skimpiest lace underneath.

For today however, I'll pull on jeans and a tee because, well, you know, I'm still a basic bitch at heart.

Oh and I haven't had time to go shopping.

Pic WeThePeopleStyle (who by the way has the most incredible site)

SMALL BUT PERFECTLY FORMED

Why hello there and I'm terribly sorry for my absence of late. I've started a 9-5 job, been on a holiday, been busy exploring London and now, recently, started looking for a new house...

WHICH IS COMPLETELY IMPOSSIBLE!!

Why, fellow residents of London, do you all have to be moving just when I want to, as well?

I mean really, that's so selfish of you.

Anyway I've been getting some serious house inspo from the likes of Pinterest, Refinery29 and Dezeen...and all I can think of is how I might just buy a van, pack up my shit, leave it at my parents house and run away with my toothbrush and a clean pair of pants.

Or, living in this pretty perfect tiny house could be another possibility...

See more of this idyllic place after the jump.

FANCY FREE

Today, the sun is out. And I'm going to Brighton for the day.

How could it not be a good day?!

Except for the minor detail that I just remembered it's currently the school holidays...and the sun is out...and I'm going to Brighton...

Bon chance as they say across the continent.

Enjoy your Tuesdays.

Pic of Phoebe Collings-James from IntoTheGloss (because that light and that hair though)

SHERBERT

So I started this blog way back when I had a terrible habit of saving every image and noticed too many amazing projects to store them all on my slowly dying laptop.

I'd read about this thing called blogging and some people were getting pretty famous by doing it and so I thought, well why not?

Now five years down the line, I can inform you all that I am not (yet) famous, sadly.

But I'm still posting up stuff that catches my eye.

And this sherbert coloured unsalvageable aquatics building is just incredible.

The artist Katharina Grosse and MoMA PS1 director Klaus Biesenbach devised this beautiful design as a unique send off to the building, using its bare brick walls as a blank canvas on which to project their sherbert coloured sunset.

Projects like this are even more special, I think, because the artist takes something that people walk past everyday and changes it into a piece of art, suddenly making it memorable.

Absolutely beaut. 

See more of the sugar-coated building after the jump.

AU NATUREL

So with a summer looming that is looking decidedly un-summery, and my first as a fully fledged working woman (cue sassy emojis all round) I've taken to doing some serious internet wanderlust-ing.

Dreaming of travel, browsing through photos, reading every fictional story about travelling that I can get my hands on, these are the little things getting me through the smelly trips on the tube and my desire, yes genuinely, to be sunburnt.

Just because then it would mean I've seen the sun.

But this selection of beautiful natural pools are completely breathtaking. 

From a tear shaped number supposedly built by Zeus for Aphrodite to a sunken pool that has to be reached by swimming through a 40ft tunnel, these wonders are the kinds of things that a photo just can't do justice.

Like Yosemite, or my mum's Sunday roast.

You have to see it to believe it, am I right?

But for those of us chained to desks or simply not managing to escape this year, there's always Instagram.

Oh Instagram, what would I do without you?

(Now there's a love letter for another day...stay tuned)

More gorgeous examples of Mother Nature after the jump.

INTOXICATING EXPLORATION

The internet is like a black hole of never-ending crap, if we're being honest.

Many an hour has slipped by whilst trawling websites that tell me what I should be eating/drinking/sleeping in.

And god are they boring old articles. Really, they tell you nothing.

But every now and again I stumble across something or someone truly amazing. Someone that makes me want to stop wasting my life on the internet and get out there.

And Rebecca Rütten is one of those amazing people.

Her travels, her journals and her photographs are pretty much the definition of wanderlust (although that word is massively over-used, it's appropriate in this case).

From road-tripping her way through California, to exploring Eastern Europe to hanging out in Brooklyn, Rütten manages to capture the essence of the people and the place so perfectly that it makes you just want to climb into your screen to go hang out with them.

Oh and she also wrote a beautiful book "Never - Never Land" about the romance and reality of backpacking.

So I'm now thinking, fuck it. If I can't get a job any time soon, I may just pack up my shit in a rucksack and head off into the unknown.

'Cos that would be pretty darn incredible.

So thanks Rebecca for giving me a bit of motivation on this grey Thursday morning.

Rebecca is currently in Melbourne so if there are any cool cats out there who fancy a collaboration, hit her up. 

More of the amazing-ness after the jump.

A FINE LINE

Playing with darkness and light.

A trick of the light is never an accident of the darkness. 

Weird that. 

Darkness is just an absence of light.

But then surely light is simply an absence of the dark.

Why is the light always given a power over the dark?

Who said the dark was less powerful than light?

Darkness conceals the secrets and the light reveals them.

Who's to say which has the greater power?

Pic from *SUMMER MOODS* on Pinterest

BATHIN

Nothing quite beats a good soak. It can cure even the worst of moods/hair days/spots.

You name it, for me a bath fixes it.

Now, I thought that sadly I was going to be moving out of bath season but no, the English weather system seems to have gone mad. 

Snow...in April?!

Guess I'll cherish my baths for a little longer.

More inspo after the jump

GREEN FINGERS

I'm not sure why but at the moment I am craving a bit of greenery in my life.

No no, not the obligatory green juice Instagram shot but real living things.

Plants, trees, grass, anything that isn't grey in colour, I'm up for.

Maybe it has something to do with living in a city. Probably more something to do with the freezing weather we're having sucking any sign of life out of the ground.

Don't get me wrong. I'm a fan of those days where the air hurts your chest but the sky is a piercing blue and the sun is low in the sky.

But green plants?! You just can't beat 'em. And nothing lifts a room like a plant.

More plant porn after the jump.

HI FROM PARIS

This is just something I spotted on Instagram a while back.

Garance just gets it so darn right.

Now her blog is, well I think at least, the best in the business.

Her easy breezy chatty snippets are interwoven with more serious writing and of course beautiful pictures of beautiful people.

And so much of what she says resonates with what I'm thinking at that precise moment.

How does she do it?!

ESCAPE

Such a gorgeous shoot...of course what the rest of my Greece photos look like...behind the scenes and all that.

And with England pulling out all the stops on the weather front this shoot seemed like the perfect inspiration on a beaut Sunday evening.

Porter Magazine Summer Escape 2015

Model: Andreea Diaconu

Photographer: Cass Bird

Stylist: Kate Young

Via StuddedHearts

OFF DUTY

Now that the dissertation is in, I've escaped from uni and am officially off the radar.

Well, kind of. Instagram doesn't count ok?

Secluded country house, beautiful gardens, sporadic sun, heated massage beds. 

Living in a bath robe & those flappy hotel slippers. You know the ones that are always too big. Sometimes with underwear, sometimes without. 

Total & utter bliss.

Back to reality tomorrow but for now, I'm out.

Pic via FashionMeNow

SUN, STRIPES & A SMILE

This snap just sums up what I want this summer to be about.

Sun, stripes & a smile.

Thanks to the internet for the endless supply of summer inspiration whilst it's freezing cold in England. And not spring-like at all.

Pic StuddedHearts

BATHTIME

This. Please. Right now.

If only teleporting was a real thing.

Pic OracleFox

HEADING BACK

So it's the end of term.

Can't quite believe it's Christmas already! The term has gone so fast it's crazy.

But my essay is in, my bag is not (yet) packed but I'm so excited because on Sunday I'm heading back to Sri Lanka for two weeks!

Heading back to sun, sea, friends, palm trees and lots of rice and curry.

Safe to say two weeks in the sun are exactly what I'm ready for right now.

I'm sorry in advance for the photos of beaches and sunsets that are about to clog up this blog...especially for those who are hiding under layers of wool and blankets in the Northern Hemisphere. I'll be back before you know it doing exactly the same thing.

Pics Pinterest, Tumblr, OurReligionIsYou

BLURRING THE BOUNDARIES

Slowly starting to blur the boundaries between fashion and photography again as I run out of Sri Lankan photos and make my way through the pile of magazines that have sat unread all summer.

Seeking some inspiration from the depths of the Internet never hurt either.

Pics OracleFox, FashionMeNow, DependsWhatDayItIs, Tumblr