I love keeping a diary. I write it every night and although it sometimes seems like a bit of a chore when I'm desperate to go to sleep, it's really interesting to look back through it every now and then. I was doing that very thing last night to try and pull out a list of which films I'd seen at the cinema this year (26 so far...) and came across an entry from last April raving about the vintage coat I'd found in an antiques shop in Hay on Wye. Said coat has been lurking in the understairs cupboard for months and I'd genuinely forgotten about it. This may sound odd but if you have a coat cupboard, you will know what I mean. They are dark and mysterious places.
I went in for a rummage for it this morning, got my foot stuck through the handle of a jute bag and managed to temporarily blind myself by hooking a waterproof coat over my own face. Actually, make that dark, mysterious and dangerous places. But I came out safely in the end, triumphantly bearing my beautiful coat.
On such a chilly day it has been the perfect thing to sling over my clothes. I always forget quite how much I enjoy a good coat. Sounds a bit mad that, doesn't it? I own enough of them: I must like them! They just don't have that immediate, obvious joy that comes with snuggling into a big cosy jumper or catching sight of your feet when you have a sparkly pair of shoes on. But they do have their own special magic though. Some make you feel cool, some inject a bit of colour into winter days. This particular one possesses the ability to make me feel very pulled together and smart and that's something usually very much lacking in my life.
Even if I do then ruin the effect by boinging around waiting for the camera to click into action...
Coat - vintage Aquascutum
Blouse - vintage St Michaels
Skirt - bought at a vintage fair. It's West German
Ring - charity shop
Shoes - Primark
It didn't occur to me until I wrote this that everything bar the shoes was vintage. Didn't plan it that way...
