Friday post 21/10/22: a study in blue and purple

Posted on 21/10/2022 by The Librain

Welcome to today’s post! I am really pleased because I actually managed to go out again this week. On  Tuesday, I was actually feeling quite strong and asked Lovely Husband if he could drive us around the countryside (some of you may remember that I am no longer allowed to drive since I had a stroke back in 2019). So we did our usual thing of going to a garden centre, having a drink and then walking around for a while. I felt so pleased by even this little bit of exercise!

Also, it gave me the opportunity to wear something nice! Here is my outfit:

Outfit of the day 18/10/22 with Hermès’ Plumes en Fête scarf

Outfit details:

  • Navy short sleeved cotton top – Lands’ End.
  • Navy cotton cardigan – Lands’ End.
  • Navy stretch cord trousers – Lands’ End.
  • Blue crystal and silver earrings – Sonrisa Boutique.
  • Blue enamel and gold curb chain bangle – Halcyon Days.
  • Purple Africa leather handbag – Massaccesi.
  • Silk scarf, 90 cm, in cobalt blue, turquoise, and green – Plumes en Fête – Hermès. Tied in an asymmetric wrap.

A navy blue “column” (top and bottom) like this is very useful and versatile. You can do this with any of your base colours in your wardrobe. My other base colour is grey. Against the base, you can choose any accent colours that you have. In this case, I used brighter blues with a pop of purple for interest. I might use this set of clothing again next week with a different scarf, just to see how it works.

This Plumes en Fête scarf is so gorgeous that it needs a larger picture:

Plumes en Fête scarf by Hermès

You may remember that I also have the cashmere/silk shawl version of this design:

Plumes en Fête shawl by Hermès

And on that note of feathery loveliness I will sign off, wishing you all a very Happy Weekend!

Love and best wishes,

Anne

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Reading roundup 19/10/22

Posted on 19/10/2022 by The Librain

Welcome to this week’s Reading Roundup post! Today, I am bringing you the final book in The Broken Earth trilogy by N K Jemisin…

The Stone Sky by N K Jemisin

The third book is The Stone Sky. As I was quite seriously ill at the beginning of last week, I was unable to fit in another book. So I only have this one to tell you about. To make up for that, this is a quite brilliant book in an amazing series overall. Anyway, here is the blurb:

“The Moon will soon return. Whether this heralds the destruction of humankind or something worse will depend on two women.

Essun has inherited the phenomenal power of Alabaster Tenring. With it, she hopes to find her daughter Nassun and forge a world in which every outcast child can grow up safe.

For Nassun, her mother’s mastery of the Obelisk Gate comes too late. She has seen the evil of the world, and accepted what her mother will not admit: that sometimes what is corrupt cannot be cleansed, only destroyed.”

And here is my response to the book on the Goodreads website:

The Stone Sky (The Broken Earth, #3)The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a good final part of the trilogy with everything nicely tied up by the end. I can’t quite give five stars because I felt that the early part of the book dragged in places. Also, nothing could quite live up to the amazing first book! The three books were extremely dark with pretty grim characters too, but I am glad that I read them. If I were younger, I would re-read them over and over as I think that there is so much to get out of these extraordinary books. But, I haven’t enough time to do that, so I will look out for other books by this author and read them instead!

View all my reviews

This trilogy comes highly recommended if you enjoy very dark and grim plots, intriguing and complex characters and utterly incredible world building. The author’s imagination is amazing! I am definitely going to try some of her other work, although I will probably wait a while as her writing is quite overwhelming!

Happy Reading to you all!

Love and best wishes,

Anne

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Monday post 17/10/22: with some ancient art

Posted on 17/10/2022 by The Librain

Hello all and welcome to a new week on my blog! Today, I have some random thoughts about some of my favourite things. I have written about my love of Ancient Greek and Roman art and architecture many times before on here. Some of you may also remember that I have managed to collect some of the Hermès and Fetolia scarves inspired by the same. Here they are:

Olympian Gods scarf by Fetolia
Mare Nostrum by Annie Faivre for Hermès
Mare Nostrum by Annie Faivre for Hermès
Escales Mediterranéenes - Hermès
Escales Mediterranéenes – Hermès
Musique des Dieux by Claudia Stuhlhofer-Mayr for Hermès
Les Secrets de Minos by Hermès
Les Secrets de Minos by Hermès
Olympian Gods scarf by Fetolia
Scarves inspired by Ancient Greek and Roman art

Oops, a random Ancient Cretan inspired scarf slipped in there, but you get the general idea! And we should not forget my most recent purchase: Sous Le Charme d’Orphée by Hermès…

Sous le Charme d’Orphée by Hermès

My first Master’s degree involved the study of Ancient Greek vase painting and I still love the wonderful images created, such as these:

Ancient Greek black and red figure vases (not all in the British Museum)
Ancient Greek black and red figure vases (not all in the British Museum)

Anyway, as I was wandering around the web, as you do, I came across these items that made me smile. I don’t suppose that I will purchase any of them – after all, they don’t fit into the colour scheme for my wardrobe – but I found them interesting. Apologies for the lack of links. I found them on eBay and, probably, Etsy or Not On The High St. I can’t remember which.

Ancient Greek inspired fashion items

Here is a Twitter post about the t-shirt image:

Screenshot from Archaeology & Art on Twitter

I think I will dream about beautiful blue Greek skies above the glittering sea tonight!

Love and best wishes,

Anne

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Friday post 14/10/22: with two outfits!

Posted on 14/10/2022 by The Librain

Hi, and welcome to Friday’s post! It’s been a very strange week. On Monday, I felt well enough to go out with Lovely Husband, then fell really ill on Tuesday, started recovering on Thursday and today I feel almost “normal” again.

I actually have two photos to show you. As I am still a bit wobbly, I don’t have enough energy to make collages, but I will describe the outfits as well as I can…

Outfits of the week 14/10/22

The image on the left shows the outfit I wore on Monday. LH asked it I was strong enough to go out for a drive, which I have not been able to do for a while. So we drove around our neighbourhood and then, because I was feeling able to, we went to a garden centre and had some drinks and a short walk. I felt so happy when we arrived back home!

The outfit was a study in purple and navy. With my Hermès scarf, L’Arbre du Vent, tied using a purple scarf ring from MaiTai, I wore a purple Lands’ End twinset, navy cord trousers also from Lands’ End, navy Hotter shoes, bangles from Halcyon Days and amethyst earrings from Blue Nile. To add even more purple, I carried my gorgeous purple Africa leather handbag from Massaccesi. Here it is below, as a reminder, with the same scarf:

Handbag by Massaccesi, scarf by Hermès

This is a larger image of the gorgeous L’Arbre du Vent scarf by Hermès:

L’Arbre du Vent scarf by Hermès

The other outfit in the top image was just a quick “throw on a scarf and go downstairs” outfit. With some navy lounge clothes, I put on my Liberty of London varuna wool shawl in the iconic Ianthe pattern. Although the fabric is quite thin, it is still warm and cosy. Here is an old collage from when I bought the shawl on eBay (and before I stopped dyeing my hair!)…

Ianthe shawl in veruna wool - Liberty of London
Ianthe shawl in veruna wool – Liberty of London

I am hoping that I can shake off this present condition quickly and go out again soon. Those scarves and shawls need to be worn!

Happy weekend to you all!

Love and best wishes,

Anne

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P.S. If you want more information about that lovely Hermès scarf, L’Arbre du Vent, you can read my Scarf of the Moment post. It was one of my early attempts at this kind of post, so is not as detailed as the more recent ones.

P.P.S. Also, I have written a detailed post about Liberty of London’s Ianthe design.

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Reading roundup 12/10/22

Posted on 12/10/2022 by The Librain

Hello and welcome to this week’s Reading Roundup post! Last week, I wrote about the first book in this amazing trilogy: The Broken Earth. The series is by N K Jemisin and the first book is called The Fifth Season. Well, I was so taken with this book that I simply had to move straight on to the next one…

The Obelisk Gate by N K Jemisin

The second book is called The Obelisk Gate. Here is the blurb:

“THIS IS THE WAY THE WORLD ENDS… FOR THE LAST TIME.

The season of endings grows darker as civilization fades into the long cold night. Alabaster Tenring — madman, world-crusher, savior — has returned with a mission: to train his successor, Essun, and thus seal the fate of the Stillness forever.

It continues with a lost daughter, found by the enemy.

It continues with the obelisks, and an ancient mystery converging on answers at last.

The Stillness is the wall which stands against the flow of tradition, the spark of hope long buried under the thickening ashfall. And it will not be broken.”

I am finding this series so absorbing that I find the books difficult to put down! They are definitely not easy or simple reads, indeed the plot and the concepts involved are very complicated and inventive. I do find them incredible, though!

Anyway, this was my short review on Goodreads:

The Obelisk Gate (The Broken Earth, #2)The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I am knocking off one star because of the almost unrelenting grimness of this book! Apart from that (although it is a big part), the book is an amazing feat of imagination, just like its predecessor. The story moves forward with new discoveries and revelations about the world around the protagonists and more becomes clear to the reader.

Unusually for me, I am moving straight on to the final book of the trilogy because I cannot wait to find out how the author resolves all of the different strands with her inventiveness!

View all my reviews

As you can see above, I have now moved to the final book in the series and I hope that I am able to write about it in next week’s post. This is very unusual for me as I tend to like to break my reading up a bit. These three books demand a level of concentration from me that is quite difficult for me these days. I am finding that I have to read this series in shorter chunks. That’s why I am only managing one book per week at the moment. These books need to be savoured and fully understood, in my very humble opinion! Of course, now that I have found this author, I am going to have to explore her work in more detail…

Happy Reading to you all!

Love and best wishes,

Anne

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Monday post 10/10/22: Hermès’ Spring/Summer 2023 scarf season

Posted on 10/10/2022 by The Librain

Hello everyone and welcome to a new week! You may have noticed that I am changing the titles of my posts. It’s just to make things a bit clearer and also to open up the subjects I want to post. As my health issues are increasing, I can’t really stick to the Friday “Outfits of the Week” posts, for example.

So, I will try this pattern moving forwards:

  • Mondays will be “Monday post (date): (subject)”. Anything I think is interesting enough to write about!
  • Wednesdays will continue being “Reading roundup” posts.
  • Fridays will be “Friday post (date): (subject)”. I will try to stick to posts about clothing and accessories where possible. If it isn’t, then I will choose another topic!

Right, now I am going to break that whole plan by writing about Hermès scarves and shawls!

Sorry! Well, I’m not really because I wanted to get this information to you as quickly as possible…

OK, here we go…

Hermès, like other fashion houses, has two “seasons” in a year: Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter. At this time of year, the early photos from fashion events start to appear online for the next year’s Spring/Summer season and all of the speculation about colours and designs begins! On the Purse Forum a new thread has been opened to discuss the scarves, shawls and twillies for Spring/Summer 2023. At first, we will only see hints from mostly blurry photos but, eventually, the designs will become clearer as more and more images appear on websites around the world. The actual scarves will start to make their way into Hermès’ online shop and actual boutiques in around January, but a few may become available before Christmas.

Here is the link to the Purse Forum thread about the new season:

……Hermès Spring/Summer 2024 Scarves……

And this is my post covering the Purse Forum’s Hermès scarf threads. Please note that it was last updated in 2020 so I probably need to tweak some links again. I will try to do this as soon as possible:

Wardrobe planning #15: Hermès scarves – The Purse Forum

Here are a couple of early images from the thread just to whet your appetite…

Credit: ragsxruby via Instagram
Credit: mariarpartida via Instagram
Hermès Spring/Summer 2023 scarves

It will be so interesting to see the designs and colourways as they emerge!

Love and best wishes,

Anne

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Friday post 07/10/22: sorting out Autumn scarves

Posted on 07/10/2022 by The Librain

Hello and welcome to Friday’s post. Yes, I have renamed this post from “Outfits of the Week” because I am finding it so difficult to actually get dressed properly at the moment. I seem to spend my days in “leisure” clothing or my smarter nightwear and don’t have the energy to do very much. I hope that I can return to regular “outfits” very soon.

I am, however, thinking about the change from Summer clothing and accessories to those more suitable for Autumn days. My handbags are in the process of being reorganised and I am ready to look at my scarf collection. Unfortunately, that is in a real muddle with various piles of scarf boxes around my bedroom as I don’t really have enough wardrobe or other storage space for them. So, I will have a look through the boxes and decide on a selection that I will try to wear over the next couple of months.

Now, that is easier said than done! I could go by Hermès’ own seasonal categories: Autumn/Winter and Spring/Summer, but sometimes the actual colourway of the scarf doesn’t quite fit the category.

These fit beautifully with their Spring/Summer season:

Dans un Jardin Anglais by Alice Shirley for Hermès
Dans un Jardin Anglais by Alice Shirley for Hermès
Au Pays des Oiseaux Fleurs by Christine Henry for Hermès
Au Pays des Oiseaux Fleurs by Christine Henry for Hermès
Hermès Spring/Summer scarves

But perhaps these don’t and would look great with Autumn clothing:

Jardin de la Maharani - Hermès
Jardin de la Maharani by Annie Faivre for Hermès
Hermès Story by Jonathan Burton for Hermès
Hermès Spring/Summer scarves

So, perhaps I need to think about this another way? Thankfully, I have an easy solution. As I catalogue all of my scarves (Hermès and other makes) on Evernote, I can easily look through the images on there and select the scarves which will look best with my Autumn wardrobe. That sounds like a good idea!

But… there is another problem! I still haven’t got around to labelling all of my scarf boxes. So I will have to go through all of them to find the ones I want.

Aargh!

OK, I will now calm myself down with a lovely slideshow of suitable Autumn/Winter scarves. These are a mixture of Hermès, Fetolia, Liberty of London, and Ferragamo.

  • Ianthe Star scarf by Liberty of London
  • Tyger, Tyger by Alice Shirley for Hermès
    Tyger, Tyger scarf by Hermès
  • Plumes en Fête shawl (H243433S 04)
  • Olympian Gods scarf by Fetolia
  • Jungle scarf by Ferragamo
  • L’Arbre du Vent scarf by Hermès
  • Daimyo Princes du Soleil Levant scarf by Hermès
  • La Femme aux Semelles de Vent scarf by Hermès
  • Lazy Leopardesses scarf by Hermès
  • Persepolis scarf by Hermès
  • Sweet Dreams shawl by Hermès
  • Hera shawl by Liberty of London
  • Ianthe scarf by Liberty of London
  • Plumes en Fête scarf by Hermès
  • De la Mer au Ciel scarf by Hermès
  • A L’Ombre des Pivoines scarf by Hermès
  • Appaloosa des Steppes gavroche by Hermès
  • Cosmographia Universalis scarf by Hermès

Such a gorgeous selection, but I will now have to find them all and put them in a good place in my bedroom. Please contact me if you want to know more about any of the scarves, or have a look at the Scarf of the Moment posts for the Hermès designs.

Right, I had better save some energy so that I can begin the Great Autumn Scarf Hunt 2022 this afternoon!

Happy Weekend to you all.

Love and best wishes,

Anne

💕💗💖💗💕

Posted in Scarves, Wardrobe | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Reading roundup 05/10/22

Posted on 05/10/2022 by The Librain

Welcome to this week’s Reading Roundup post. I have read only one book this week, but what a book! I found it amazing!

The Fifth Season by N K Jemisin

My chosen book this week was N K Jemisin’s The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth #01). It was one of those random serendipitous picks that, for once, turned out to be a brilliant find. Well done Amazon targeted adverts! Anyway, here is the blurb:

“This is the way the world ends. Again.

Three terrible things happen in a single day. Essun, a woman living an ordinary life in a small town, comes home to find that her husband has brutally murdered their son and kidnapped their daughter. Meanwhile, mighty Sanze — the world-spanning empire whose innovations have been civilization’s bedrock for a thousand years — collapses as most of its citizens are murdered to serve a madman’s vengeance. And worst of all, across the heart of the vast continent known as the Stillness, a great red rift has been been torn into the heart of the earth, spewing ash enough to darken the sky for years. Or centuries.

Now Essun must pursue the wreckage of her family through a deadly, dying land. Without sunlight, clean water, or arable land, and with limited stockpiles of supplies, there will be war all across the Stillness: a battle royale of nations not for power or territory, but simply for the basic resources necessary to get through the long dark night. Essun does not care if the world falls apart around her. She’ll break it herself, if she must, to save her daughter.”

Let me just say to anyone considering this book, it is a very dark fantasy/science fiction crossover. There are most probably better ways of categorising it, but be aware that the story is not uplifting and cheerful. Brilliant for me as it cheered me up immensely! My life may be hard in many ways, but it is not that hard!

This is my review on Goodreads. I awarded the book the full five stars…

The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth, #1)The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wow! This was an amazing read and full of incredibly imaginative world building. It is difficult to review without giving too much away. The plot is split into three timelines where the reader follows the stories of three female characters. Most of it takes place on a continent suffering from epoch ending natural disasters, where the people struggle to survive. It takes quite a while for all of the various threads in the story to become clearer to the reader, but it is worth persevering.

Now, I am going to stop before I do give anything away! All I can say is “well worth reading”. Now, I am going on to the second book in the trilogy!

View all my reviews

Yes, I am now going to read the second book in the series: The Obelisk Gate! I hope I can finish it in time for next week’s post.

Happy Reading to you all.

Love and best wishes,

Anne

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Update 03/10/22

Posted on 03/10/2022 by The Librain

Welcome to a new month and a new week on my blog!

For the last few weeks, I have been feeling even more weak and ill than usual. I don’t know whether I caught some kind of bug, or if my feelings were caused by something psychological but, whatever the cause, I felt really dreadful. Yesterday I started to experience something more positive and I hope that my physical and mental health improve over the next few days…

I want to feel strong enough to wear some of my lovely outfits!

Anyway, I won’t dwell on the negative stuff. Instead, I will show you some gorgeous and colourful images:

Art Nouveau lamps by Tiffany – ArtNouveauDeco on Twitter

I adore these lamps and also just about anything Art Nouveau – aren’t these absolutely wonderful?

This is another amazing photo that I found on Twitter recently. Once again, the colours are incredible. OK, there are probably all kinds of filters and manipulations involved in the final image, but it is still lovely:

Kingfisher perched on a lotus leaf by Johnson Chua – Beautiful World on Twitter

Today, I am going to get all of my Massaccesi handbags out of the wardrobe and reorganise them so that the Autumn/Winter ones are at the front. OK, it is just an excuse so that I can enjoy their colours and that lovely leather smell!

Then, I will probably have to go back to bed.

Love and best wishes,

Anne

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Update 30/09/22 with gorgeous Massaccesi offer!

Posted on 30/09/2022 by The Librain

I am changing the usual Friday “Outfits of the Week” post today to let you know about the superb Massaccesi offer that arrived in my inbox. You may know that I am a huge fan of Marco Massaccesi’s wonderful bespoke handbags and I have written about them before. I had decided to stop buying any more, but could not resist this offer. Anyway, if you are interested, you will have to get your order in quickly as today is the last day – the reason why I am posting in the morning!

Marco Massaccesi Croco Flash Sale

The sale offers 30% off the normal prices with these gorgeous Croco leathers. They are stamped calf skin, by the way!

The Massaccesi website with links to his shop with all of the handbag designs can be found below. This offer is not mentioned on the site as it was sent out by email. If you are interested in the offer, then you can email Marco directly for the discount price plus shipping. He is very friendly and responsive by email.

  • The Marco Massaccesi website.
  • The Purse Forum Massaccesi thread.
  • Marco himself can be contacted on this email: orders@marcomassaccesi.it
  • The Facebook Massaccesi group is also available, but is set to private at the moment.

You may be interested to see my own Massaccesi handbag collection… so far:

Finally, I would like to add that I am not being paid or rewarded for this post in any way! I just like to support a lovely artisan business during these hard times.

Love and best wishes,

Anne

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