Pale Days| Take 2



I feel like an university student in this outfit, the crop tee is just a full length tee seen here, rolled under itself and pinned at the back. and I love this shirt with rolled sleeves and unbuttoned (less hipstery than a check shirt)....

Apple blossom is just the prettiest right?



XO, Miriam

P.s. What do you think of my outfit compared to the last one (here) I know which one I prefer...

Pale Days | Take 1


Pale days are the ones that fall out of the sky after rainy and sunny days, they are neither extreme the sky is a pale grey:

"Not grey, exactly. Right before the sun rises there's a moment when the whole sky goes this pale nothing colour - not realy grey but sort of, or sort of white, and I've always really liked it because it reminds me of waiting for something good happen" - Delirium by Lauren Oliver

On days like this all I wish to do it match the colour of the sky, and just be (kinda) invisible for the day. I couldn't decide how to wear what I was on this day so for this post at least I went for something a little put together, I even put a pair of earrings in, and tied my messy hair back out of my face. I am going through a blue phase at the moment, I do this from time to time I only seem to wear blue, which for most people would probably mean repeating outfits twice or more a week. However I have several items of blue clothing and jeans to pair with black, white and grey. Perfect for days like this where the sky matches my shirt and my converse in the kind of way that makes it seem like it is just about to rain.


Ripped jeans, which were bought in pristine condition not a tear to be seen now cover my legs in jeans that look like they were bought that way.  I feel like a proper teenager wearing these, especially with band tees and open shirts (flannel shirts). And the only thing that reminds me that it is April on these days in the Apple Blossom on the wall.

 
XO, Miriam

The Mad Hatters Hat.


 In a flurry of inspiration I went from scrawling venomous words in deep inky black, the kind that worries people, the kind you are scared of, not because of what is in it but because you have been blinded. The kind of darkness that makes you fear the future and the unknown and retreat back under the covers. To drawing the Mad Hatters Hat. Sometimes I wonder, Am I Alice before she looked through the looking glass? The answer is yes as to me the world is still enchanting and the Mad Hatter is still real enough to touch in my mind, cracked tea pots and sunken eyes. But so much more than that the sort of person you would miss in a future life. 

"I am Alice before she looked through the looking glass"

So I took to my supplies of which I don't have many and tied them up in knots around a bowler hat seen here. Drew 10/6 on some folded paper, attached it to the spotty material with mismatched stud earrings and for a while I was the Mad Hatter complete with a fresh cup of tea (even if it was Green Tea, not English Breakfast Tea..).


I can see myself wearing this out at some stage, with some backcombed hair and pale eye make-up, and lest I forget the old school blazer, worn with ripped jeans and Doc Martens would be so perfect. But for now it will sit with pride upon my split end ridden messy hair. Not that, that matters at all I am only doing English revision today.



XO, Miriam

P.s. Follow me on instagram: @englishmademoiselle to see journal updates/clues to my next posts  ;)

A "Proper" Date.


 So instead of a tripod or my darling sister taking photos it was S. He has taking photos of me before but I still find it quite difficult to relax in front of the camera if he is behind it... Nevertheless he kindly took a few photos on what he called our first "proper" date (Dinner out followed by a cinema trip) and much to my dislike he paid for it. Naturally I chose a spot in front of the cathedral surrounded by alarmingly large trees.


//Jumper - Primark//Dress - H! by Henry Holland// 





 We went to see Noah, which I am now going to recommend to the rest of the planet, but with the warning that crying and a slight sick feeling are normal for the film. I have read the original story in the Bible as well as the version by Julian Barnes which I personally prefer because it is more realistic. The film plays to something halfway between the two, and left me questioning the way we live and if we need to use everything that we have.


XO, Miriam

Les fleurs et les mots.



"I didn't know who I was supposed to be at fifteen" - Fifteen by Taylor Swift

I still don't know who I am meant to be in this life, I have so many ideas that run at full speed through my head in the hope that some day I will catch one and run with it. But until then I shall wander through the gardens of old houses and write scruffy words and weird meaningless drawing on lined paper. 



Maybe it was the way I was brought up or the number of times I read the Narnia collection that influenced my love of old houses and their formal gardens. There is something magical about them, that makes me feel like I am living in a fairytale or I should be swanning around in Downton Abbey style dresses...



An open door to the not so secret garden...



Pages from the last couple of days in my journal, some days it is 4 or 5 pages of solid writing and then other days I draw and write. I get the majority of my inspiration for this blog from my journal so I guess my blog is the best bits of my ideas that I scrawl in black ink and watercolours.

XO, Miriam

The Book Club| The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Edit by me. (Images from Google Images)
I read this book a year or so ago, but I have only just got around to watching the film and it spurred me to re-read this gorgeous book. There is nothing I don't love about this book, and for me at least the film did it justice, which I very rarely think. I never thought I would cry a second time over the book, but I did, not full on sobbing but there were tears and a tissue involved. 


"I sit, I watch, I understand, I am a Wallflower."

I found myself thinking about Stephen Chbosky's characters long after I finished the book, both the first and the second time through. For me that is not only a sign of a good book but that the ideas that the author represents through their words still ring true for both society and for me on a personal level. I connected with it in that in so many ways I am just like Charlie, socially nervous/anxious I tend to take a back seat, I sit, I watch, I understand, I am a Wallflower. I blend in because it is easier that way, it is something I am hoping to change, I am not like that for the same reason Charlie is though. The sign of a good author for me is can you relate to character traits in all of the characters that they weave into existence, and the answer is yes for this book.

XO, Miriam 

P.s. I am in love with the soundtrack, especially The Smiths.


Bowler Hats and Diary Entries.

The photo card says: "You're my cup of tea" and it reminded me of Alice in Wonderland so it has been added to my wall.

Lately I have be wondering about my blog, and what it is for now I have completed the CAS programme section of the IB. I considered whether it could go in new directions, or if it should be removed entirely. I came to the conclusion that it shall go in new directions, ones that suit me not the few people who read my blog. That doesn't mean I don't appreciate them reading, but I believe that for me at least having a blog should be for me. 

Now I have decided to get back into blogging for me more than I have over the past few months, and for that I need to be more comfortable with myself both internally and externally, which I hope I will be able to achieve more easily when I have finished my exams. I also want it to be a place to recorded my thoughts and internal monologues that I keep in a neat on the outside but scruffy on the inside journal. There is no time like the present to begin a new way of thinking and therefore typing. 

So here goes nothing important to everyone but me:



I guess this is something I have always wanted to do, cover up "that" school logo, with it's obnoxious motto. But I also know that "that" school and it's logo shaped me to be who I am today, whether that be good or bad.

 

"This world is all so real and fake. Only what you experience is real, what you see with your eyes and believe in your heart, everything else fades into nothingness compared to those memories of what you have done." - mon journal intime



Blurred images and unrealistic ideas of what I should be to "fit in" hide under this bowler hat. All of those stupid, crazy, fansical (is that even a word?) dreams that spill out on to pages of paper filled with in and ideas of my own personal wonderland fill my head when I take myself away from people where I sit nervously, never knowing how to act or what to say.


//Tee - Zara//Blazer - School//Trousers - Fat Face// Hat - Topshop//


XO, Miriam

How To Style| A Skort

Hooray for the Tales of Beedle the Bard, I was re-reading this, earlier and I was actually reading it during the picture talking process...
I find that it is easier to style skorts if they are in neutral tones and colours, so when I bought mine I went for the white, to hopefully show of a tan this summer! I have styled this skort before but I find it quite difficult so this is for my own benefit really to try and find outfits that work with a skort. So today I paired it with a shirt that has the cutest collar I have ever seen, and this amazing fluffy jumper that I bought at a market stall in Bath. Basically I find it easiest to throw on a shirt and jumper, I really must step out of my comfort zone....

I just wish that is was warmer so I could wear it without tights, and some cute sandals but I will wait until summer for that!

XO, Miriam



The Book Club| Paper Towns

 It has been such a long time since I last picked up a book to read for pleasure and not for studying purposes, so to ease my self back into my previous reading habits over the next month or so of exams I am sticking to relatively easy reads. Basically not Lolita or anything by Kahled Hosseini. Naturally I went for a John Green book, having read both the Fault in Our Stars and Looking for Alaska, Paper Towns seemed like a great place to start.
 Despite loving John Green as both an author and as a human being, I was not anticipating this book to be as good as either of the ones I had read previously. But by the end of nearly 6 hours of reading that had all changed, this rivals Looking for Alaska for the top spot of my favourite John Green books. This is a gorgeous story about obsessions, society and hope. It made me dream of all the things I want to do, where I want to go and how I want to live my life. Are all the barriers that we perceive to be real actually there or can we just walk straight on through just like Quentin and Margo Roth Spiegelman?

For the test of a whether a book is good or not is if I keep thinking about the characters after I finish reading, or inbetween reading stints like they are real people that I know and have known for year. I am aware that I don't live in Florida but Quentin does and so did I for a week or so, all I could think about was what happened to them after the end of the book, so just like a good post-modernist play I left with more questions than I had answers. I like that in a book, something that makes you think and reconsider your own life choices. Paper Towns did that for me, along with taking me away from the daily grind of revision and work to somewhere else to explore someone else's life and mind.
So thank you John Green for this book, I am sure I will read it again this summer when I am sat inside on a rainy day with nothing else to do. Like Harry Potter this is book I will come back to again and again. Have a gold star, a virtual hug and a cup of tea or coffee depending on your preference.

XO, Miriam

Walk and Explore.

 So yesterday I spent the day with my boyfriend who from now on will be known as S. Near by his family has some fields so naturally we went exploring, and the perks of living in almost the middle of nowhere means that you very rarely bump into other people.

You tend to forget just how big your local town is, well I do. I live in a village with no public transport and I forget that the town that I work in is so large and well connected to the city in which I study. I guess my perceptions with change when I hopefully head of to university in the autumn.

 I hate climbing trees, I did make it up today even if I only stayed there for all of 2 minutes...



 So S and I have been together for just over a year now, and as we couldn't see each other until yesterday I had no clue that he had bought me this Doctor Who t-shirt. So now I know I don't need to go to university because I am a fully qualified intellectual Time Lord I guess I don't have to continue doing far too many past papers and hours of revision, right?!
//Jacket - Peter Storm//Hoody - Saltrock(S lent it to me)//Tee - From S//Jeans - Topshop//Wellies and wellie socks - Hunter//
I hope you had a great weekend.
XO, Miriam