Spring Flowers

Spring showers = spring flowers?

Don't get me started talking about the weather (brr, says the girl who kept popping up to Iceland this year!)

The roses are magnificent at the moment.

I've also been seeing my favourite blooms everywhere:

Alstroemerias. Not sure just why they're so appealing to me.

Are things looking pretty your way? Or are all the flowers going into hibernation?

Daily Outfit: What to wear for a summer weekend in Iceland

I mentioned that this was a bit of a cray cray year, travel wise right?!

Aside from a fortnight in Japan, backpacking round Europe and a six week trip to North America, I also headed up to Iceland five times this year.
(and found myself a Viking too!)


So, what to wear for a long weekend up in Iceland in the middle of summer? Your winter gear, of course!

Thingvellir National Park

The site of Iceland's first government, and the groaning apart of the European and North American tectonic plates!

I can't BELIEVE we made it up this glacier. In June!

Geothermally active Haukadalur, with Geysir and the more active Strokkur

Volcanic caldera (wish I could remember its name!)

Looks like he caught me but actually I found him.

Styling while caving through a lava tube at Thingvellir.

Reykjavik city planning at open-air folk museum Arbaejarsafn

This house was from the 1970s or something crazy, no joke.

There'll be more Iceland photos so I hope you're not tired of them yet! Who could get tired of that strange light and surreal alien landscapes....

Daily Outfit: Hotel Life

I can remember just how delighted I was to stay in a luxury hotel with my parents in Glasgow after much backpacking.

And one more for good luck:

Was kind of stunned that I could cobble together a "suit" from my backpack!

Vintage Loving

Some beautiful dresses have been popping up on my Pinterest lately, so I thought I'd share them with you!

Interestingly, a lot of these robes are Lanvin. Not a brand I feel a particular affinity with in 2013, however.

The beautiful collection reminds me of browsing through the fantastic fashion archives at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

Sequin Cat for Louis Vuitton?

While flicking through Interview magazine the other day (don't worry, I get all of my reading material from the library) I noticed an ad campaign that looked oddly familiar...

Louis Vuitton's recent line of bags, and its "Chic on the bridge" (chic sur le pont) advertisements are visually appealing with the latest crop of modelling stars, but I was more interested in the candy-coloured bags themselves.

I know I was a fan of the Parisian way of holding your bag whilst I lived there in 2009 (and still hold my bag this way, admittedly). But let's look a little bit more at the shape of the bag, even the texture, and zipper.

The bag itself? Found in an op shop before I moved abroad, and thrashed to death while in France. Marc, have you been trawling my archives???

Ribbed texture, complete zip, square buckles and bag supports on the bottom. Hmm.

Thank you French red bucket bag for so much loyal service!

New to the blog? Like what you see here? Click through on any of the images above to read about my crazy adventures living in Paris in 2009 (or the 2012/13 archives are also travel-tacular!)

Daily Outfit: Spare from Japan

It seems this snap from Osaka Castle managed to miss my Japanese Outfit round-up!

Variations on the same theme, I guess...

Daily Outfit: Backpacking in Europe

I thought I'd clear the backpacking backlog (I'll get there... maybe) and start sharing just a few of my adventures abroad. There were many.

I've tried to keep these in chronological order (it also gives you a bit of an idea about how crazily zig-zagged my travels were).

Picking wildflowers in Montpellier

Soaking up sun in Copenhagen

Flowers in Denmark

Mirrored art in Copenhagen

Touring Copenhagen with friends

Arriving in Budapest on "Hard Rubbish" weekend!

Jumping for joy while clubbing in Pest

A rainy day on the Buda side of the river, Hungary

Getting ready for some epic caving, Budapest

Mirrors in the fun house, Stockholm

Knee not looking too swollen!

One day tour of Dortmund, Germany

Pre nude sauna experience, Cologne, Germany

Bremen Botanical Garden, Germany

Giving Bach some respect, Leipzig, Germany

About to see the orchestra play Pictures at an Exhibition (one of my faves!)

Alarmed (in a stainless steel bathtub, DesignPanoptikum, Berlin)

Usual travel attire. Judging from the wet public transport surface, I'm going to bet this is Bordeaux

I can't really give any advice on packing a travel wardrobe (for all the climates!) as I wasn't only travelling for a few months, I had my whole life on my back. When leaving Bordeaux (and heading to Japan, hooray!) I sorted through all my possessions. What couldn't fit in my pack was either sent home, or, sent to a good home. I think things would have been different if I had a home base.