The English Mademoiselle Diaries: fall

Showing posts with label fall. Show all posts

Dear October,

You have gone now, you left quickly but not without giving me experiences I will remember (or not in some cases) for quite some time now. You gave us the end of Autumn, because your neighbour November will come and make the days shorter, leaving me in the dark more than the light. I will miss being able to leave the house without a scarf or only wearing two layers of clothing, but I will begin to don only knitwear and clutch at portable coffee cups to stay warm. October you are the last strands of summer before the frosty mornings cling to my lips and eyelashes.
Thank you October for your highs and your lows.

XO, Miriam

// Jumper - H&M//Skort - Zara//Socks - ASOS//Boots - Timberland//

I dread the colder months and as winter begins to draw in I am taking every opportunity to keep wearing my summer staples, like this white skort. I was tempted to wear it with black and grey but resisted and went for an almost all white ensemble, breaking it up with the navy stripes on this cosy knit jumper. I chose to wear these cream knee high socks so they matched the tone of the jumper so the look wasn't too harsh. Too keep with the muted tones I slipped (read yanked) on these amazing Timberland boots that are going to rapidly become an autumn winter staple this year.

As luck would have it I found a spot in the park near my campus where there was an equal amount of fallen leaves to the evergreen ivy where I could catch up on some reading before my English tutorial, especially considering this is the last of the autumn sun.

XO, Miriam

Dear October,

The past week has been both incredibly busy and it also feels like I have done nothing with it. You greeted me with a severe cold and rainy days, but as the week has passed by I have listened to more Glee covers than I care to admit and smiled when you let the rain pause for a moment while I walked to the bus in the morning. I have attended events in other cities and finally found some motivation from your gloomy weather.

XO, Miriam

Dear October,

You are not the worst month of the year with the kind of cold that sinks into my bones, but you aren't my favourite month either with the warmth that touches my skin as soon as I leave the comfort of my house. I can still see the sun but you don't quite let me feel the warmth that I love so dearly. So on go the coats, the knitwear and my refusal to believe that I might need to bring an umbrella and a mug of tea with me every morning when I catch the bus to my lectures. But it was as I made my way back from yesterdays set of morning lectures and seminars through the scattered fallen leaves and cracks in the pavement; I realised that is spring is hope then autumn is promise.

XO, Miriam

I have reached that stage at in my first semester at university where my flat in halls has started to feel like home rather than a youth hostel, and I have made some great friends. But lets be honest we all have days where nothing seems to go your way and all you want to do is binge watch Gossip Girl and eat an entire pot of Ben and Jerry's ice cream. I didn't do that actually, I went to my lectures and ate lunch before then collapsing in my room, and doodling in my journal.The jumper I am wearing was an impulse buy from the other day from H&M, and I am so glad I bought it, there is nothing better than a comfy jumper on cold autumn afternoons, am I right?

XO, Miriam

Yesterday evening I was writing down a list of things I want to do during A/W14. And some of the things I came up with I felt needed to be shared, so here is my bucket list for this Autumn and Winter Season:

Smile: It isn't that I don't smile at all but I think that I need to smile more. Some days I find I get to caught up in the stresses of life. Also someone once told me that just by smiling your mood improves.

Drink more tea: As much as like the majority of the fashion blogging community I am partial to a Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte, I do favour tea. Not because I am British (that probably plays a part) but because I freaking love tea. Not the general purpose tea though, I really enjoy trying new kinds of herbal teas along with several cups of green tea.

Interact with new people: this is my first semester of university and I feel like this one is unavoidable. Having said that I do get very nervous about talking to new people and have a tendency to retreat to my room to avoid social interaction. I am setting myself the challenge to make friends at university in and out of my classes.

Finish the A Song Of Ice And Fire book series: I am two books into the series so I have a fair way to go, but last year during the second year of IB I realised I stopped reading for pleasure because of my studies so while I am at university I want to prevent this from occurring again by finishing all of the books by the 1st of December.

XO, Miriam

As all you Britons know it was Remembrance Sunday yesterday, and despite not actuary attending church due to previous commitments of my family, but I still wore my Sunday best, and donned my poppy with pride and added more poppies to my finger nails:

- Hoodie and Tights - New Look -

- Shirt - Morgan -

- Dress - H! by Henry Holland -

- Shoes - Ma soeur -

This small oak tree is one I planted as a child, which I forgot about until my dad found it last year in a pot that was far to small.

I wish these bows were butterflies sometimes, or maybe I have an overactive imagination..

Glittery *_*

And the poppy appeal.

As I have a tendency to lose my poppy (I didn't this year, I am a little bit proud of this), I painted litte half poppies on to my finger tips.

xoxo Miriam

This has been sitting in my drafts folder since September when I took the photos, I thought now when it is getting cold and dark I would bring back a little bit of the summer to autumn transition. My grandparents have an apple tree in their back garden and my dad, my sister, my dog and me were charged with picking all of the apples, unfortunately they are cooking apples, so NO SNACKING on the job!

Now I will admit I wasn't very trusting of the ladder, one because I have terrible balance and two because my sister was holding it... Sisterly love 'ey?

The oh so many apples that we collected.

* Derp face *

We had a lot of fun swinging from the branches, I think the dog was a little jealous, I think or wanted attention...

Hoodie - New Look

Cropped top - Miso

Dress - A hand me down from ma mere

Scarf - Warner Brother Studios

I always want to take home this table and chair set when we leave

And welcome the always cute but rarely helpful when picking apples springer spaniel AKA. my dog Tarka

xoxo Miriam

For me autumn is the last taste of summer, before the cold wet grey months roll in, so I thought I should make the most of what autumn has to offer both in terms of fashion and food. I mean what is better than freshly baked pumpkin pie in the middle of autumn and with all the extra Halloween pumpkins I could resist making one for me and my family.

Ingredients:

500g pumpkin puree
250g shortcrust pastry
300ml cream
3 eggs
150g caster sugar
1tsp ground ginger, cinnamon and cloves

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180°C (Gas Mark 4)
To make the pumpkin puree cut up enough pumpkin and just put it in a blender.
Grease and line a pie tin with greaseproof paper and blind bake the pastry shell until brown (No soggy bottoms here, no sir!)
Beat together the cream, eggs, sugar and spices lightly.
Stir in the Pumpkin puree.
Then once the pastry has baked pour the mixture in to the pastry case and place it back into the oven until the mixture has set and is golden on top.

Eat with copious amounts of cream and lit carved pumpkins!

xoxo Miriam

I find that cinnamon is by far the most seasonal spice, especially at Christmas (I appologise for mentioning this word so early on in the colder months) but I wanted something to eat with my chai tea lattes. So as this is the day of the Great British Bake Off I needed a baked snack for watching, and these seemed like the perfect autumn bake, and they went down well with ma famille so I hope you enjoy trying these out!

Ingredients:

Plain flour, for dusting

1 quantity home-made puff pastry (find one that works for you, I use a mixture of 2 recipes)

75g unsalted butter, softened

75g golden caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling

2 tsp ground cinnamon

60g sultanas

1 medium free-range egg, beaten with 2 tbsp milk

Method:

Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan180°C/gas 6. On a floured surface, roll out the pastry to a rectangle measuring about 30cm x 40cm.

Beat together the butter, sugar and cinnamon in a bowl, then spread over the pastry. Scatter with the sultanas, then roll the rectangle from the short side to make a sausage. Chill for 10 minutes until completely firm. Then, with a serrated knife, cut into 16 x 1.5cm slices. Lay flat-side down on a baking sheet and press them slightly so they spread out a little. Chill for 20 minutes.

Brush with the egg mixture. Sprinkle with sugar and bake for 18-20 minutes until golden. Serve warm, sprinkled with sugar.

Now eat with copious amounts of chai tea lattes or just general purpose tea.

Recipe from Delicious Magazine

xoxo Miriam

So yesterday morning I was lounging in my pyjamas as we weren't going anywhere, and then my sister appears out of her room looking like this, personally I thought it was the perfect transition outfit, and a great way to dress down a lacy dress:

Isn't she just so photogenic!

I made the above hair bow, and shall be posting a DIY for it later this week!

What she wore:
Shirt - Ralph Lauren Denim
Dress - From a random boutique that we went into over the summer

xoxo Miriam

Autumn has finally hit the UK, and quite quickly too, but like the rest of you I don't want to stop wearing my summer clothes. So I have come up with an idea for how to wear your favourite summer dress in the autumn.

Take one summer dress (H! by Henry Holland):

(Please excuse the mess on my floor, I am avoiding tidying it)

Now add a chunky knit cardigan (New Look), a thin belt (New Look) to re-create your waist, and some tights (Iwi Creations):

Another option is to add a plaid shirt in a contrasting colour, in may case a pink 3/4 length one from Crew:

And for footwear, I will be wearing my converse and some frilly socks over the tights, or maybe some knee high tights with brogues?

The key to taking your summer wardrobe and wearing it in the colder months is to layer, and then layer some more, and shirts cardigans, coats, scarfs etc.

xoxo Miriam