SING THE GREYS.

These photos have been sitting on my desktop for several weeks now, making me feel guilty about not posting at all. Sorry, photographs! This outfit was comprised almost exclusively of new clothes, and it's almost totally from H+M, one of my favourite shops! I can always find an armful of clothes I love in there, and despite it's good value, visiting it can be unhealthy for my purse and bank balance!

Hat - UO

Jumper - H+M

Skirt - H+M

Tights - H+M

Faun Necklace - H+M

Pumps - Topshop

This jumper is the ultimate in cosy comfort! It's soft and perfectly oversized and can be thrown on over dresses, skirts, shorts and jeans - I know, I've tried it - to keep you toasty warm. I'm a big fan of layering, so it's a perfect addition to my wardrobe this autumn. My skirt was a mega bargain at £3.99, another basic that, thanks to it's neutral tones sits well with pretty much anything!

Gubbins stalked me around the garden while I was taking out my photo kit, so I thought it would only be fair to take his portrait too!

I'm planning on spending quite a while tomorrow writing up notes from uni, but hopefully I'll get the chance to write up another little wish-list to satiate my retail desires!

love, Jessica

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN.

HI!!! So glad to be sitting here writing this blog right now! I've been M.I.A. for quite a few weeks while I've been trying to move back up to Belfast into our new house, and settle into the whole balance of classes, studying, and socialising! I've missed talking nonsense on here. I've thought up a few little ideas for posts that I'll be sharing across the coming fortnight, including the usual style posts alongside inspiration and maybe another wishlist (it gets longer every day), but for today, I thought I'd make your tuesday tuneful with a magical music recommendation! Boy, the alliteration's really flowing here!

If you haven't heard of The Civil Wars already, I feel sorry for you, because you've been missing out! I even feel bad for myself because I've only listened to them properly for the past month. They've been hiding out in my iTunes library, just waiting to be discovered! The female counterpart of the duo, Joy Williams, has also been chilling around there, her solo work having been featured a number of times on Grey's Anatomy (yeah, I'm in love with it too!). Her familiar vocal was a welcome introduction to their music.

As you've gathered, I'm a pretty big fan of folk music, and harmonies go a long way towards charming my heart. I just love (trying) to sing along with them. The Civil Wars have both folk stylings and harmony in abundance, and the simplicity of the accompanying music makes their songs all the more addictive to listen to. Both William's and John Paul White's vocals are stunning - every single note seems to come right from the heart, and together, they fill your ears with their haunting, romantic lyrics. Since their music really speaks for itself, I'll leave it here, finishing with my favourite track from their debut album, Barton Hollow, which you can (and should) purchase on iTunes or Amazon.

love, Jessica

ORANGE BLOSSOM.

These photos were taken before a night's quizzing a few weeks ago (what is this blog coming to! I promise I'll be back on schedule soon!)

Floral Dress - Dorothy Perkins
Blazer - Topshop
Polkadot Tights - Tesco
Pumps - Topshop
Necklace - Accessorize

I really like this outfit a lot more than I thought I would! I bought the dress because it was o-kay and was down to £7 and in my size, so I wasn't really expecting to think much of it on. However, when paired with these bargain tights, a blazer and a dab of red lipstick it really played it's part! I felt like I was channeling some retro vibes!

love, Jessica

IT COULD BE SO ROMANTIC.

I'm really excited about this week's musical recommendation. I first came across Ski Lift through the lovely Elsie Larson's A Beautiful Mess. Their music was featured on the promotional video for her first dress collection earlier this year (Gorgeous stuff! Check out her A/W collection over here!), and straight after watching it, I was dying to get my hands on the song. Unfortunately, it hadn't been released yet, but a few weeks ago, A Beautiful Mess featured the band again, with the exciting news that their first EP was being released (on the 30th of August)!

Naturally I headed straight over and got my hands on these gems:





I think you'll agree that their music is pretty special! I love the ethereal, blurry tones. It makes me think of hot, sunshin-y summer days -something we've been a little short on this year - so it's the perfect soundtrack to an imagined summer for me! I'd say their sound is something kind of similar to the likes of Cults, but it's got a certain something special and sweet that makes it really unique.

Ski Lift are a musically minded duo hailing from Springfield, Missouri - Abby Webster, a Philosophy undergrad, singer-songwriter and gardener-extrordinaire, and Trey George, a guy who works in a marketing agency by day, but writes and composes beautiful music (see above!!!) by night.

The pair have been crafting Ski Lift songs since last year, and, with a little help from some other musical minds (Jeremy Larson, the husband of the previously mentioned Elsie (of A Beautiful Mess), who produced the tracks, and Jonathan James of the band Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, who mastered the EP), they have crafted the Romantic EP, an almost 26 minute long debut which has captured my heart!

Get yourselves over ASAP to their bandcamp and get your hands on the two tracks above, and if you love it (which you will), get on over to iTunes and buy that EP! It's delicious!

love, Jessica

PS. Lucky me, I suggested a Ski Lift song (Romantic) to the Open House Festival for a chance to win tickets to see the Felice Brothers, and I won, along with three others! You can listen to the top 35 suggestions via spotify here!

All lovely images of Ski Lift were taken by Elsie of A Beautiful Mess!

BREAK IT UP.

Well, hello there! I haven't forgot about you, dear blog! I just took an unexpected 'little' break for a fortnight or so. I was going to write about four posts and put them all up on saturday but realised the less annoying and more sensible thing to do would be to save them up and dish them out throughout the week. So here I am!

Since I've been away I've been somewhat busy, sorting out my new house in Belfast, going out for birthday party, getting my hair chopped, cinema tripping (times two), dj-ed, adventuring in a cave system and, in between times, working! No busier than usual, I suppose!

As I mentioned, I helped a friend celebrate their twenty first birthday party just over a week ago. It was a moderately crazy night. I made him a little card and a mix CD and brought him a little bottle of bubbly as a token gift (he's not really into my type of music, and I still haven't heard his opinions on the CD - he probably threw it in the fire in disgust, haha!). His card was tailor made for him. He's been told, many a time, that he looks like a young Tom Cruise, and I think, if he had to pick any film character to be his alter-ego, it would definitely be Maverick from Top Gun.

I sourced the image on google and used some papers out of a scrapbooking book that was a lucky find by my mama. I think he liked this one!

Another arty project I got stuck into was painting. I bought a little round canvas for about £3 a few weeks back and really couldn't think of anything to put on it. This piece is inspired by a) Jejune Stars by my all time favourites, Bright Eyes (see the video below - cracking song!!), b) Victorian silhouette portraits and c) my strong desire to flick paint onto a canvas and make a mess.

The text reads 'Sure, I had my doubts but I know it now, we are jejune stars. So it starts again at our childhood's end, I'll die young at heart.' (lyrics from the song).

Really happy with how it turned out, and I'm looking forward to giving it a home in my new room! I'll also be doing another painting or two soon, probably on a larger scale, to sit in our new living room or hall. We like to nest!

Check back tomorrow for a music recommendation that I'm really excited to share with you!

love, Jessica

BROOKLYN BLACKOUT.

Yesterday I baked a triple layer, double chocolate cake with help from my lovely assistant, Mr Sally! We used the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook, and somehow managed to make it through the whole thing without any major disasters.

The cake really went down a treat, there's only two slices left in the fridge! Next week I'm going to try a recipe out from my new mystery cookbook, and I'm really excited to see how it turns out.

I was hoping to do something creative this week, like painting something on that canvas I bought, or filling a few pages of my moleskine, but as soon as I sit down to do anything I'm completely uninspired! How do you deal with creative block? I'm thinking I'm just not in the right mood for it, but the problem is, when I am, I'm usually too busy to do anything. It's a vicious circle!

love, Jessica

SIMPLE GRACES.

Oh hey, look, it's me again! Can you tell that I'm proud of myself? I've been working all week but I'm still working on this when I've got a chance, so go me! On Tuesday evening Mr Sally and I went for a short walk in Peatlands Park and I got him to snap some photos for me.








It was a really nice evening and great to spend some time out of my house and out of work. Peatlands is a lovely park to walk around because it's so different from the forest parks or manor parks which are a lot more common here. It's a super place to take photos too, the landscapes are widely varied and all stunning, and one of the best things about it is when you go out on some of the really long walks, you feel a lot further away from civilisation than you ought to. It's refreshing!





Daisy-print dress - Topshop
Belt - Topshop
Tights - Primark
Brogues - Office






I have a day off tomorrow and I'm hoping to bake another recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook - a dark and delicious Brooklyn Blackout Cake - triple layer, double chocolate! Yikes! I'll be enlisting the help of Mr Sally to keep me right and avoid the sticking to the tin, discolouration or collapsing issues I've had before... here's hoping I don't run into any more difficulties!

I mentioned I got a new cookbook (it's so awesome!), which I hope to christen in the form of some baking or cooking within the next fortnight or so, so more on that then.

Happy weekend!

love, Jessica