I HAVE MOVED

It ain't just my home address that's different...my blog URL is too! See you there.

So I might be making a return to the ol'blogosphere soon

...but it won't be here.

Lots has happened since I took flight from this here URL. I got a job with the circus, fell in love with life at the circus, learnt all kinds of crazy circus shit and still managed to do a fair bit of work whilst sitting in my office yelling "HOLY FUCK I WORK FOR THE CIRCUS". Sadly, my time at NoFit is about to come to an end, and my heart is breaking.

It's not all bad news, though. In four weeks Ol and I will be packing our bags and moving...to BERLIN. Quite the exciting development. Oli has made me promise to start blogging again once we get out there, partly because I'll have something more to say than 'yo guys, check out my mad togz!', and partly because I need to start writing about things that don't involve trapezes and unicycles.

So here it is, your one month warning. In the meantime, I'm blogging sporadically about work and journalism-related gubbins here.

Laters and that xxx

To be continued...?

As a few of you may have noticed, I've not been blogging anywhere near as much recently.

When I have been posting, it's been rather lacklustre. Apologies.

The thing is, I'm just not feeling style blogging anymore. Leaving aside the fact that I now work fulltime in a job I love (promoting an internationally touring circus has to be one of the most fun jobs EVER) and have next to no downtime, it feels like I've hit a block as far as this blog goes.

Stepping into a jazzy outfit and snapping contrived outfit photos doesn't feel fun and creative anymore. It feels stale, and uninspired, and self indulgent. Since finishing university my sartorial creativity has extended beyond the boundaries of my old shop-bought wardrobe. I don't want to consume anymore, I want to create. Designing my upcycled gear has afforded me that freedom, but I don't want this blog to turn into a marketing platform for my design endeavours, either.

I think the problem is external as well as internal. The bloggers I love, whose posts I read religiously (Tanya, Kathryn, Elissiam, Miss Tallulah, Bebe Zeva, I'm looking at you) all seem to have ground to a standstill too. While there are still a couple that keep my bloglust sated (Jenny, Kate, Katie, Annika) what's left on my feed is predominately made up of thinly veiled advertorial and endless reviews of the latest 'it' lipstick. Consumer lust. Primark hauls. Aspirational lifestyle posts. Comment crawling and PR baiting. Heavy on the product placement but devoid of any character. It makes me switch off, and wonder why I'm still reading. Are any of you guys feeling the same thing?

So I'm going to give this ol' URL a rest. I'm not saying it's forever, but I can't quite bring myself to schedule a return date. Hell, I find it hard enough to schedule a dinner appointment with my own father.

I'd love to keep in touch with those of you who I chatted with regularly. Drop me a line on bettibaudelaire@gmail.com and I'll send you my Facebook. Otherwise, it's tata for now.

Here's a bunch of my favourite outfit posts I've snapped over the last 24 months, and the last one I'll be doing for a while, but which accurately reflects my life-plan right now.

Betti Baudelaire xxx

Snapped Up and print-clash experiments

Mammy, Dark Mavis and I took the Betti Baudelaire rail on the road today, and boy, what a corker of an afternoon we had!
Snapped Up Market takes place at the Printhaus, which is a whole 4 minute walk from my house. Mammy has been busy whipping up some of the designs - I've been woefully lax on the sewing front since starting my new job - and so we were able to debut four new pinnys, two new skater skirts, a ditsy floral dress and a few vinyl cake stands that Oli and I whipped up in the wee hours of last night. DM also brought down a bunch of beautiful t-shirts and prints by his newest collaborator Pyklops, whom I may be working with in the near future...watch this space!
The market wasn't as busy as we had hoped it would be (I reckon the heat + Sunday = BEACH TIME equasion was a factor there) but we managed to shift a little bit of stock, gorged ourselves on sweets and coffee and still found time to pose for the ridiculously cabaret photo above.

I made a doofy decision on looking out of the window this morning. I spotted a grey cloud - a cloud, would you believe?! - and therefore assumed that our moody British weather had returned to normal. Not so. I was clammy.
I've never been a big one for print clashing. The whole thing renders me slightly bewildered - hell, I have trouble remembering what colours match on the best of days. Whenever I attempt to put together a so-wrong-it's-right combination I end up squinting at my reflection in the mirror, unable to figure out whether I'm rocking the clash with panache or looking like a poor woman's Iris Apfel. I played it semi-safe and opted for an old Chelsea Girl leopard print midi, breezy polka dot jersey and big-ass specs that I hoped screamed 'I DO FASHUN THINGZ, HONEST'. I'm not sure it worked...

Polkadot top and headscarf - hand-me-downs from Mama H, skirt - Chelsea Girl, belt - chaz shop, cigarette - definitely not in my hand

Pissholes in the snow eyes are a result of my hate-hate relationship with make-up in these face-melting conditions, by the way. Over and out!

Betti Baudelaire xxx

Paisley - not just for shit hippies

I have never been the type to bulk buy the same item in multiple colours. It feels like such a sartorially narrow-minded exercise in sensibility to plump for a failsafe style and stoically stick to it. To me, it's always felt like a lack of vision, a safe option.
I was forced to eat my words on Tuesday when I found these sandals - aka; the low-key-chunky-buckle-friendly-wedge footwear OF MY DREAMS - in New Look. I'd had them pegged on my Bookmark list as work-appropriate yet fashion-forward footwear for three days about a decade, but couldn't find either the black or tan version in my size.
However, on an impromtu trip into town with Mother Dearest, I was ecstatic to find not just one but both pairs in stock. In my size. On the cheap. And the only ones left. Readers, I'm sorry to disappoint any of you who thought that my buying high-street days were behind me, but I bought them both.

Rest assured that this won't become a regular occurence. Mind you, the rest of my ensemble was uncharacteristically high street (though the majority wasn't bought by me at all - my two very lovely friends Emma and Jenny gifted me the necklace and the dress respectively.)
The dress is H&M, and my, what a gorgeous creation it is. I've only recently come to appreciate paisley and still find it a rather awkward trend to swallow, speaking to me as it does of tacky early noughties window dispays and the worst kind of privileged middle-class hippy who considers dressing like a Summer of Love throwback to be the ultimate fuck you to the 'establishment, maaan'. This sparse miniature oxblood print, however, is the perfect level of wearable. The knife pleat detail on the bodice and subtle lace on the shoulders are refreshing reminders of just how right H&M can get it sometimes.

Dress - H&M, shoes - New Look, bag - Tea and Cake, specs - H&M
I really enjoyed the contrast of professional attire and my scraggy purple hair/tattoo combo. I wore this dress for the first day of my new job with the circus. Yes, really. No, I haven't decided to become a trapeze artist.

Betti Baudelaire xxx

Congraduations

My great friend Efa, our esteemed coursemates and I graduated last Thursday in the scorching summer sun.
Efa and I celebrated our First Class degrees (no, I still can't believe I managed it either) in our usual idiotic way - by guffawing like loons and downing a bottle of premium bubbly on the streets of Cardiff. Our dresses are, of course, handmade by my Mam and I from hand-me-down silk and a curtain respectively.

After gorging ourselves senseless on joy, champers and a three course meal, we finally, just about accepted that real life has come a'knocking at last. Happy, happy days!

 Dresses handmade by me, pics courtesy of Papa H, Efa's mum and Julia Leib :)

Betti Baudelaire xxx

Summer tweed

Arriba! This is my island in the sun etc etc.

I have just one question for UK readers...how bloody hot has it been this week?! Excuse me brieflt for indulging my stereotypical Brit conversational side, but these record temperatures deserve at least a mention (alongside a hefty dose of incredulity - what have we done so right to deserve this heatwave?) My Aussie buddies might not understand the excitement felt over a 27 degree celcius day, but for most of us here in Blighty this unprecedented warmth more than makes up for the holidays that the recession has so cruelly snatched from us.

I had a couple of internship interviews on one of these searingly hot days, and ran into a bit of a conundrum over what to wear. I opted for tweed, which may seem like a bit of a duffers choice considering what a hefty material it is, until you factor in the flippy, uber-summery skater skirt and mind-blowingly awesome cream, lime green and hot pink colour palette weaved into this Primark dress, which almost creates an optical illusion of shifting colour when the skirt moves with you.

Dress  -Primark via Jenny, shoes - Dorothy Perkins, satchel - Topshop, shades - discovered in my bedroom.

I was planning on wearing it with the accompanying jacket (see here) but the heat proved too much, so all that was needed to accessorise was a faux-suede pair of nude flats, a chunky satchel and a winning smile.

I got the job.

Betti Baudelaire xxx