The Land of Summer-And-Autumn

There is a magical land where summer and autumn are mixed together for a while – like twilight – before autumn takes over completely. Melbourne produces this season beautifully. The calendar may say summer has ended, but my hometown does not know it.

These are the days when it’s still hot, hot, hot, but you know the weather could turn in a trice … that’s when a parasol-umbrella comes very handy. In the morning it could screen you from the burning sun, and in the afternoon it could provide shelter from the rain.

These are the days that are still gloriously golden at the same time the leaves are turning gold and orange and red. Slowly the heat will fade and we’ll feel a nip in the air, and that’s when fashion starts to get more fun as we begin to layer up, add an accessory or two. But for this week’s heatwave at least we’ll enjoy autumn in the skimpiest layers possible.

Fashion Notes

This photo is so old (my hair!) the silk blouse, tiered skirt – made from vintage kimonos and bought in Sintra, Portugal – and blue sandals have long since been retired from my closet. Now I rather wish I had kept the skirt, for it was rather fun. The daisy fabric layer was rather shattered though, and I had spent quite a long time mending a huge tear; but that wasn’t why I got rid of it: I had ruthlessly culled anything that was too girly or frilly! There are some things, though, that one should never throw away, and I think this was one of them.

Photo: March 2014

Whoops!

Oh no! I made a big boo-boo! I changed my blog titles, as you may have noticed, from Journal to Style, and Sketchbook to Scrapbook and changed the page urls… But I forgot that lots of you subscribers out there will no longer be able to automatically connect and will be receiving ‘page not found’ errors. I am so sorry!

I’m in the process of fixing this with some technical help from my host provider (it’s not so easy, because I’ve updated all the internal links over the whole blogs), so hopefully this will be sorted in the next day or two.

In the meantime, you could re-subscribe with the new url (just hit the subscribe button over on the right there under the first menu) which will fix the issue immediately, or just keep going back to the home page and clicking to the journal from there.

Booo! Sorry! Grovel, grovel.

New Do

This week I went and got my hair cut! I finally had enough of long hair – or at least what I call long hair, around shoulder-length.

While I have had a pixie cut before, it was a long, long time ago, when I was still at art school. Back then I got a new style and/or colour every time I had my hair cut so it was no big deal; but this time I was so peeved with my long hair, which makes me so hot in summer, I decided it would ALL come off. That would teach it to grow so fast! As my hairstylist Alex (the Director at Lady Marmalade) likes seeing pictures, I did some Pinteresting and found pictures of Winona Ryder and Audrey Tatou that I liked.

It's a pretty dramatic change, and while I have no regrets about cutting it off (hair grows after all), I did have a few qualms whether it would make me look old, as long hair is after all softening. Happily everyone who has seen it has been bowled over, so that’s reassuring. I don’t know how long I’ll keep it this short, but my hair grows extra fast so it won’t be long until I have to make a decision!

Photo: Two days ago

A New Look

There are changes coming to So Not a Princess! The website will see a few minor changes – notably the masthead and icons – to better reflect the direction SNAP’s artwork has taken over the last few years. All the existing content will stay the same. However, the site will be down for a short while (unless I make horrible errors in the html code) tomorrow evening AEST, so I ask for your patience during this time.

Thank you!

New Year’s Shoe Lessons

Oh my, look at this! It’s a brand-spanking new year, and a bright sparkling new day. It’s all shiny and lustrous, no spots or scuffs upon it, just like these silver Christian Louboutins I’m flying high in. I found these beauties in a thrift store for the princessly sum of $4 a couple of months ago. (That is at least one lovely thing that came out of 2016 for me.)

I have made some New Year’s resolutions. Some of them are serious, but there’s no need to make everything hard for oneself, so I threw in some that’ll be a shoe-in. One of these fun ones is Wear More Cool Shoes. Also, Never Resist the Opportunity to Make a Pun.

Another resolution is to Read More Poetry, and with this in mind, this line above is from one of my most favourite quotations of all time, by George Gordon Byron, from Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage:

On with the dance! let joy be unconfin’d;
No sleep til morn, when Youth and Pleasure meet
to chase the Glowing Hours with Flying Feet.

Isn’t it beautiful? And no more apt quotation for New Year’s Eve could be found surely.

I hope you had a fantastic evening of celebration and you’re ready to launch yourself into the new year!

Photo: Today