Whenever life get’s you down, 

Oh darling, wear a crown!

^ I just composed that poem and am perhaps a bit too proud of it.

But actually. Put stuff on your head. It is such a boost, whether you’re going for positively silly or fantastically fashionable. Wear a floppy hat to feel like Elphaba or a backwards baseball cap for an instant rush of 90′s cool.

If your hair, like mine, surprises you daily, ranging from “actually that’s quite nice” to “um…what?”, The Crown is an excellent way to enhance and distract.

I own three crowns, the two above by my ethereal fellow Blogcadet Sophie King from  Crown & Glory  and a star band by Janine Basil. If you’re looking for a crown, I recommend both fabulous designers (and am kind of tempted by this and this…)!

Do you have a signature crown [or three]?

P.S. My Instagram followers will recognise today’s picture. Are you one of them? :)

One of my favourite mantras is that limitation fosters creativity, so I find the restrictions of dress codes a fun challenge. “Academic dress” requires a button-down shirt, black skirt, and black shoes so why not pair a quirky BCBG blouse with Betsey Johnson peplum [and hot pink watch] for exams? The Dr Martens were necessity rather than statement, as I don’t own any other black shoes, but if I did, I never would have made the unintentional fashion statement.

Post-exam adjustments allow for such frivolities as a balloon on a bracelet and a homemade hat (by budding milliner Emma Glaser. Uh, no pun intended. Seriously).

How do you feel about dress codes? Fashion challenge accepted? (Gossip Girl thinks so).

P.S. Little things that make exams better.

As my friend Ania said – quite seriously – over lunch, “I would be so much more effective at this revision thing if I had something to pet”. ["Revision", non-Brits, means studying for exams]

It’s true. Animals – or, as I prefer, aminals – make us sooo happy! Even if you don’t have one to cuddle, since it’s springtime you’re likely to find some families with ducklings for which you can make way, or just go to a park on the weekend and live vicariously through people walking their dogs. One Sunday in London turned into a spontaneous puppy-in-the-park-counting morning. There were over forty. Bliss.

P.S. Photo from my Instagram. Want to follow?

2. Lunches. All of my exams end at lunchtime, so I’ve pencilled in a Fun Lunch each day. Yay!

3. Exercise. Instinct tells me to collapse in bed, but knowing myself, I would rather earn my rest both mentally and physically. Just a little time at the climbing wall or a short loop around Christ Church Meadow is a good way to shake all the stiffness out of my body.

4. Finger strength. An unintended benefit of climbing is that it makes holding a pen for long periods of time that much more bearable.

5. Facebook. I posted what I thought was just a funny self-depricating status (“And to continue my role as Lifelong Nerd, I am SUPER EXCITED for finals to start tomorrow! #haha #butactually”) and was surprised by how many likes and comments it received. Thank you virtual support!

6. Music. I’ve rediscovered Green Day as my hustle music during the day, adopting Basket Case in particular as my personal exam anthem because I feel like one. But the morning of I sing some soothing Scottish tunes from Brave in my head. And it was nice to have this in my inbox from Emma when I came home yesterday!

7. Dinners. The Monkey is in charge of feeding me dinner this week, for which I am super grateful. His exams are in a few weeks so there is plenty of time to return the favour, I reason. I’m sure he’ll come to like vegan food…

8. Surprise pidge presents. Including psychedelic gummy bears, on both a card and in an unrelated snack package from home. It must be a sign.

9. Minimal shoe options. We’re supposed to wear “black shoes” and the day before exams began, I realised my only options were Docs or Converses. I wasn’t planning to be a Rebel Chick. But my minimalist wardrobe made me…

10. Awesome pens. Muji and Stabilo are totally the way to go.

11. Having an excellent excuse to look at puppies.

12. Making no exception. I realised that I feel better when I treat life as if finals aren’t happening. When I continue to exercise, spend time with people, blog, walk without rushing. All those lovely slow-paced, enjoy-the-world habits shouldn’t go on pause. Let’s be honest, when I make The Finals Exception to my daily routine I end up lying in bed all day watching Survivor and get nothing done. It just doesn’t work for me.

12. Star Trek 2. Um, hello, it was awesome. And fictional characters saving the world kind of puts my life into perspective. (Because if I’m going to do a degree in fictional characters I should at least treat it with the kind of seriousness they would, riiight?).

13. Finding it fun. In case you still don’t believe me from point 5, I will here confirm that it is indeed true. I enjoy finals. Because I enjoy my work, and letting myself see exams as fun is such a more tolerable way of getting through.

After a good three years with my Little White Dress, I found a replacement at last. The new version functions similarly as a wrinkle-free transformable-with-a-belt wear-with-whatever frock. The main difference is that it has pockets!

And it’s green. But why should one wear non-psychedelic colours when one can wear psychedelic colours?

A few friends have asked if the little white blobs seen in the pattern are sheep. Close inspection proves this theory wrong, but I can still pretend. And revel in others’ association between sheep and me because sheep are awesome.

Little Green Dress is from a little Korean boutique called Melanie in Hong Kong.

Add adorable icons to your Gmail folder labels to make them stand out and look more fun.

Heart symbols:

 ♥ ❤

Star symbols:

★ ☆ ✰

Triangle symbols:

△▽▻ ◅

Smiley symbols:

☺  ☻ ☹

School supply symbols:

✏ ✂✍

Hands symbols:

☜ ☞☝☟

See more here and here!

My original site design was a bit too light and not enough fashion. Because I love Before-and-Afters, I’ll be brave and show it to you.

Before:

Remember those days, longtime readers?

A weekend of Blogcademy schooling convinced me that the blog needed a new look, and a fellow Blogcadet-slash-designer looked like the way to go.

Enter Veronica Dearly ~ I first saw work when she entered for the Blogcademy scholarship, and while we were both London Blogcadets, we went to separate sessions of the course, and have still, alas, never met in person! Nevertheless, I had a feeling that she was the lady for the job, and as you can see, I was right.

We exchanged some (a lot of) brainstorming emails, first pinning down a theme. She did all the research for me, and all I had to do was discuss and choose – hoorah! Next step was the header, and I was determined to get stars in the design somehow. I love how it turned out!

After:

Veronica is super friendly and keen to take on new projects (contact info!), and the hard work and design talent speaks for itself.

Once the header was finished, I turned to the details: I imported some custom fonts, pared down my tags and categories, chose a style for editing my photos uniformly, updated my Archive and About pages, and added my signature to the end of posts. I’ve added the Fashionably Light newsletter, which simply links to the week’s posts (subscribe here!), joined Instagram (follow), and revamped my Facebook and Twitter pages.

Aesthetics aside, you may have noticed some other post-Blogcademy changes around here. I added the weekly series Minspiration Monday and Simple Fix Friday. While I always posted daily, now you can usually expect a new post every morning at 9am UK time (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, with the occasional Wednesday). I’ve been taking more outfit photos, and you’ll see a new post on my wardrobe at least once per week!

I’ve known it all along, but needed someone to articulate it for me – I’m here to help! The point of this blog is to bridge the gap between minimalism and fashion, and it is my quest to show you how. I’m still learning of course, and I’d like to share the journey with you, including both found solutions to current frustrations.

So what do you think? :)

Reading is fun. Step inside a new world and let your imagination paint the scenes.

Happy Friday!

P.S. Looking for recommendations? My favourite self-help books.

In Oxford on 1 May, the town wakes up early [or stays up late] to gather by Magdalen Tower to be welcomed into spring by the choir boys.

Flowers are worn.

Cows are present.

Happy spring!

]]> http://fashionablylight.com/may-morning/feed/ 2