As the tide begins to turn

Last week I tried my very hardest to spent as much time outside as possible. I spent days by the coast; cliff walking and lunching, and nights walking with a friend and her dogs. While this was my ideal week activity and weather wise, it was also not the most productive of times. The sun does not inspire much sitting inside and studying/reading, which is what I really should be doing. I have now finished Jane Eyre (review to follow, needless to say i loved it) and I am trying my very hardest to get into Charles Dickens' Dombey and Son, not easy to say the least. I know I will enjoy it, Great Expectations was completely not what I was expecting (see what I did there?), and I ended up fully engrossed, but Dombey ans Son just looks so depressing, and long.  I will do at least an hour a day. I will.

Here are some Instagrams from September, I now have fully developed obsessions with nail art, neck ties, floral tea dresses, and my heeled brogues, which I finally caved in and bought. Best purchase EVER. Anyway if you are on Instagram and fancy following me I'm @elrowe17. 

Dots and Duffle

Dress (with diy ribbon tie): Topshop

Coat: Topshop

Boots: Garden Centre

Socks: Topshop

Tote: Bought at an Idlewild gig. 

This is what I wore for a walk back home in my village. It was so good to get back to the sea, and the quiet, and the trees. I do love my new home, but that doesn't mean I don't miss the old. Twenty Five years of living with a sea view has clearly made quite an impact. The sense of freedom and calm the oceans presence gives is something I will cherish forever, and something that isn't easily replaced. 

I wore my new-ish duffle coat I got when we were on holiday. I already have a green one, but the navy blue, shorter length (this is a petite) was just perfect when I put it on. It actually makes me yearn for colder weather so I have an excuse to wear it more often. The dress is something I actually bought in January, but the colour didn't seem right for the summer months, now that it has cooled down somewhat I'm wearing it all the time. Originally I was popping a little belt around the middle but I much prefer the ribbon necktie, maybe one day I'll get round to dressing as an adult. 

Tiny Telegram ♥: Orla Kiely SS12

Orla Kiely SS12 from WishWishWish on Vimeo.

I couldn't not post this Orla Kiely SS12 video that was first featured by the wonderful wishwishwish, as if the photographs from the presentation weren't exciting enough! The collared dresses and swimsuits are just so beautiful and wearable. I want it all. Now. Please?

The Skies.

 

Blue base: Topshop Stolen Sapphire
White Nebula and stars: Barry M Matte White
Peach and Pink highlights: Models Own Fuzzy Peach, Topshop nice'n'neutral
Glitter topcoat: Models Own Juicy Jules

Using this video, found on one of my daily blog reads, I decided to have a go at doing some galaxy nails. I've fancied doing some nail art for a while now but to be honest I think a lot of it looks pretty naff, I don't really want pictures of food, or love hearts on my nails, but galaxy nails seems like a good middle ground, quite abstract and interesting. It was actually much easier than I expected. It was a little time consuming, but also pretty fun.
I'm one of those disgusting people that bite their nails, so when I do have nails I try to make the most of it. I was obsessed with nail polish as a teenager (Glitz and Glam blue was my favourite) and I've kind of carried through that obsession through into adult hood. I've just invested in a Models Own nail art pen so might spend this week doing some experimenting with that...I'm currently sporting Aztec patterns.

A tiny review by tiny telegram: 'Northanger Abbey'

 I have never really spoken about my degree before, I'm not entirely sure why, maybe I thought it wasn't interesting blog fodder, or maybe I didn't really feel confident enough to talk about something I'm still in the process of learning about. But, for nine months of the year I study English Literature through the Open University. Going away to uni wasn't really for me, which is why I chose to do distance learning, and I've pretty much loved every year (especially Shakespeare). However, last year, I did Children's Literature, which I thought I would love, but actually I found studying tough, I had no concentration, nothing driving me forward.
So this year going to change that with these little reviews. I'm aiming to post one or two a month (depending on book length/study time) to keep me motivated, and to tell everyone how much I loved/hated my most recent read.

This years module is The Nineteenth-century novel, and the first book on my reading list was Jane Austen's:

 Now, I've read Pride and Prejudice before, and thought it was pretty blimin' spectacular, and I understand that Northanger Abbey was her first novel, but I just didn't find as engaging as its more famous friend. It seemed to take a long time for it to go anywhere, especially to Northanger Abbey itself. And while the main character Catherine Morland is intelligent, active (for a woman of her time), and even in some ways quite similar to Elizabeth Bennett, the other characters that surrounded her, such as Isabella Thorpe, undermine that intelligence as Catherine becomes so easily taken in by them.

This was the same for many of the male characters, who almost felt like parodies. Now whether this was intentional or not I couldn't really tell, there seemed to be some moments in which Austen was self referentially mocking her novel as a whole, and other moments of complete seriousness involving the same characters.

I was also disappointed that the gothic undertones never really came to anything, we got exciting hints of murder, or mystery that just turned out to be some laundry bills, or Catherine's over excited imagination. It sort of felt like a novel of ideas, different inspirations married together to make a whole, that she later developed into her other novels.

 Having said all of this however, I did find the drawn out romance between Catherine and Henry so subtle that it came across realistically, and refreshingly normal for a novel of it's time. There were no bouts of near fatal illness, or mis-engagements. It felt both old fashioned and contemporary, with mis-understandings and idle gossip becoming both the making and breaking of their relationship.

 So overall I thought it was..alright. I liked Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility much better, the characters are more rounded, and the omniscient narration gives deeper insight, which I think, heightens the emotional experience of the book, an emotion that I felt Northanger Abbey lacked.

Now time to move on to my next book, which I'm pretty excited about because of this:

 

Party Paella

This is one of those recipe's that I made up one afternoon when I was stuck for something easy to cook for dinner, I'm a bit of a sucker for one pot meals, as I'm not very good with timings.
 We are having a family get together tonight so I thought this would be the perfect thing to cook for that.. I've omitted the the seafood and am instead serving it with chicken on the side.

You can pretty much put anything you like in, but I usually stick to vegetables and/or fish.

You Will Need:


(about) 250g of Arborio rice
a good handful of frozen peas
the same amount of Soya beans
one chopped red pepper
one chopped red onion
one chopped courgette
250g of Crayfish
250g of Prawns
1 garlic clove, crushed
a few chopped sun dried tomato's
1 (good) teaspoon of red pesto
500-700ml of vegetable stock

lemon slices and Spinach leaves to serve.

*Heat some olive oil in a large saucepan or wok.
*Put the all the vegetables (except the peas and soya beans), and garlic into a sauce pan and lightly brown for a couple of minutes until they soften.
*Then add the rice, keep it moving around the pan until it becomes transparent.
*Pour in about two thirds of the stock and turn the heat down so the contents of the pan slightly simmer, keep moving the rice around the pan, adding more stock as it cooks off, and the rice absorbs the liquid.
*When the last of the stock is added put in the peas and soya beans, cook for about 5 more minutes.
*Lastly as the Paella begins to thicken add the pesto, sun dried tomato's, and seafood, cook for about three more minutes.
*Serve from the pan, or put to one side and heat up again later on... Nom.

As the leaves begin to fall...

So as the nights get colder, and the days get shorter, I'm thinking a lot about how I should of bought this dress and those shoes in London, in fact I'm not going to be able to write anymore as I know I will talk myself into it. Dammit.