Shoe-wop-a-doo-wop

All shoes via Office

Cute little shoes that look as though they could be found on the feet of Alexa Chung and therefore belong on mine. 

Pretty bows, buckles and toe caps.

Marion & Guillaume

Images via Roseaux Joues & Florete

'You know that place between sleeping and awake, that place where you can still remember dreaming? That's where i'll always think of you'

-J.M. Barrie

Beauty of decay.

Images via Brother Sun - Sister Moon, Holden and Caulfield & Wow Loverly
Mint Lady's Bag, Pink Shirtdress, Blue Cotton Pyjamas - all J. Crew, Boucle Jacket - Zara,  It's Complicated: The American Teenager - Amazon, Boucle Clutch & Red Check Scarf - Aubin & Wills

Time Capsule

Navy Buttoned Dress - Hobbs, Snakeskin Bow Heels - Kurt Geiger, Black Dress - Topshop, Black Bow Heels - Kurt Geiger, White Fur Collared Dress - ASOS, Patent Nude Mary-Janes - Office

It's always so disappointing to when on the look out for clothes yet can't find anything fulfilling your needs. I have been feeling very let down as of late, with some favourable shops of mine letting themselves down. I am still trying to work out whether my tastes have changed or these shops have actually lost their way. This despondency has led me back to admiring classic shapes and styles present between 1920-1960. Styles that would compliment ladies bodies whilst remaining elegant, stylish and chic. I have pieced together a few pieces I have managed to uncover; hidden like diamonds in the dirt, that are reminiscent of the Fifties/Sixties to go alongside these charming pairs of shoes. 

Don't be mistaken, I wouldn't be anywhere without a simple tee, slim jeans and boots but to truly feel glamorous and as if I've made the effort, this is where I look for inspiration when it comes to dressing up for an evening out. 

Joie de vivre

Images via Heart In A Cage, The Kids A Looker, My Grandpa's Closet & 77p7zy

Wardrobe Checklist

Polyvore's site tells me that I've had an account for about two years now but I've never really utilised it properly. I came across an outfit post via tumblr during the week which ended up directing me, eventually, over to a girl's Polyvore to find an endless array of beautifully pieced together ensembles. I was like a dog on the hunt, tracking down other members who created similar 'sets' which left me full to the brim with inspiration. I've now collated a list of staples that are missing from wardrobe with thanks to those guys over at Polyvore who have taken the time to create these simple masterpieces. 

Below you will find a hand picked variety of 'sets' I have liked on the site:

via Dead Fleurette

via Aubrey Page

via Heart In A Cage

via Sixties Remake

via Heart In A Cage

via Heart In A Cage

Monday's Enchantments.

Images via Elkin's S/S '12 lookbook, Girl In London, Roseaux Joues

Wearing ribbon as jewellery, mirrors on an easel and simple bed lining. 

Au revoir Autumn.

View these photos individually visit my flickr set here or add me on Instagram: @pickletreat

Autumn is about being able to get excited and prepared for December festivities, seeing all the Christmas delights in the shop and tasty home-made baking with the warm scent of cinnamon permeating the air.  The yellows, coppers and golden colours on the trees, leaves gently floating to the ground leaving the trees bare and skeletal, reaching out into the foggy sky. A blanket of frond concealing the earth, pretty evening skies and damp, misty mornings. 

This weekend was spent rather lazily, with my boyfriend and the xbox, Hitchcock films, takeaway pizza and then stargazing from his bedroom window for me, Sunday evening whilst he was at work.

When Christmas approaches I think up lots of crafts I wish to create for the festive season and really never get round to making any but this year will be different. I know this, as just this morning I created this wreath with my own bare hands.

Besides from everything else I chat about and love via my blog, I am indeed quite the crafty person, something I haven't really shown or discussed on here before. 

(If anybody is interested in knowing how I created my wreath, just let me know and I will post a step by step guide on here)

Lap it up

Images via Dress Design Decor, Sweet Home Style & somewhere unknown in the Tumblr cosmos

Wouldn't we all want a guidebook on how to be impossibly French? Firstly, if it was impossible, surely no amount of information given in a book would make it happen? Secondly, I was born in England so yeah, it pretty much is impossible and finally, French style is so effortless, a guide would equal you trying too hard and therefore putting too much effort into being effortless. Confusing, huh? 

Just face it, you don't need a book to tell you, it is impossible, unless you are in fact French but for those us who aren't, we can always dream.

In other news, I have pieced together a collage. Surprising, I know, coming from me, of items that have inspired me. Inspiration is a delight because you can draw out from under every rock, admittedly this blog is very fashion focused but with me in charge of the reins I can delve where ever I please. In this case, I have chosen to delve into the realms of interior design, it is a huge source of inspiration for me and endlessly fills me with an eagerness to own my own chateau one day and fix it up just how I please.

A little girl pretending to be a cat, lapping up milk from a saucer (an activity I partook in many times as a child alongside my feline friends; nostalgia), a charming and ever so ladylike Ashley Olsen and natural blossom and verdure fill other corners of my cranium cavern.

Feminine fancies.

(Click image to view larger)
Both handbags Zara, Underwear Anthropologie, Boucle Capri Pants J. Crew,  Virginia Woolf collection Amazon,
Green Velvet Slipper ASOS, Fox Jumper Auben & Wills, Feathered skirt Mango

Winter time for me, is the time to embrace luxury and all finer things in life. With both a birthday and Christmas scheduled for December it is necessary for me to embody all things sumptuous and magnificent. Even if it falls upon me to purchase said things with my own pocket change. In the aftermath of my enlightenment, where I've been left with an urge to subsume my long forgotten girlish, ladylike and genteel ways I have been carefully collating a few luxe items to dote on in the meantime. 

Pretty, floaty lingerie, the perfect origin to becoming more feminine. Childlike pictured knitwear which always reminds me of my Nan and jumpers she would knit for my brother and I, handbags ideal for a lady, deep green velvet slippers and feathered skirts, boucle capri pants, Penguin's new Virginia Woolf hardback collection and lastly a silk night shirt. Having sat and watched the first two episodes of 'Pan Am' last night on BBC Two, I, along with everybody else who has probably watched it, fell in love the show's styling. I especially fell in love with Colette's pyjamas and proceeded to search across the internet for something similar. 

Star spangled

Images via Au Revoir Mandiy

Christmas make-up inspiration

...and the rest is rust and stardust

Images via Roseaux Joues, Dress via Topshop, Lingerie via Cos

I've rediscovered the girlish tendencies hidden beneath my bones.

Inspired by a gentle Parisian elegance of delicate lace, lustrous silken fabrics, faded subtle pastels & romantic verse.

I began watching Melancholia the other night, it is such a winsome film. Even more beautiful for the fact it is a science fiction film about an apocalypse yet it's so different to ways the subject has been dealt with through cinema before. 

Curtain confidential

Dogtooth slim trousers that make me feel like Audrey Hepburn, sequinned t-shirts make for festive casual, cosy jumpers and new jeans.

Charming

Pretty outfit posts via Girl in London

Holographic Alexa nails.

I am sure everybody must have noticed Alexa Chung's nails recently, they have been all over the internet. I'm not normally into painting my nails, primarily due to the fact I am quite lazy and it's the waiting to dry part which turns me off doing them. I've seen a DIY online but the glitter is much smaller to Alexa's so I had a quick go at trying it for myself. I was able to get the effect with larger glitter pieces using Barry M's nail varnish 'Hologram Hexograms' which you can also get it in a purple. 

This is how the nail turned out, I am very pleased with the result it is just a shame I don't have a good enough camera to get a better photograph. I created the effect by dabbing the brush on to my nail, concentrating on the tip to get the ombre effect. 

Protocol

Late night shopping on a Thursday evening is a ritual for my mum and I.

Zara November Lookbook

The new Zara lookbook for November has me all excited with the onslaught of patterned items they are yet to bring out in their stores. The tailored pieces that look as though they have been attacked with seed bombs to create beautifully hectic floral pieces remind me of Celine's 2012 Resort collection. Subconsciously through such items as well as images online I am drawn to embracing nature and replacing it's loss of colour and vibrancy during the winter months through my wardrobe.

It never sleeps.

I've spent my lunch looking at the New York photos I took last December when I was there with my mum & dad to celebrate our birthdays. My mum and I share the same birthday and last year it was extra special as I turned 21. There is less than a month now until my birthday so I have been wallowing about my trip last year and how I wish I was going again this year. 

It is also making me feel I need a DSLR having borrowed my brother's for these photos when we went to NYC.

Current Inspiration.

(Click to enlarge)
Images via Studded Hearts, Fashion Canvas, Lavelaundry & Roseaux Joues

Subtle sparkles, boyish boucle, thick knitted hats, 2012's film adaptation of Kerouac's On the Road, chunky black boots against pretty florals, pretty vs tough, long wispy hair, influence of nature on fashion, organic materials, bohemian Christmas.

-

This week has been a bit up and down and nothing was better for me and put everything in perspective whilst remaining so poetic, enchanting and romantic was this quote by American astronomer Carl Sagan. It is slightly sad but I looked upon it as being something more positive; to rid yourself of any sadness or worries surrounding you live for yourself and for today.

"After the earth dies, some 5 billion years from now, after it’s burned to a crisp, or even swallowed by the Sun, there will be other worlds and stars and galaxies coming into being — and they will know nothing of a place once called Earth."

Carl Sagan (via HoldenandCaulfield)

Youth is wasted on the young.

The other day I noticed Emma Watson (here) in this McQ dress and it reminded me of quite an old ASOS dress I had hidden away and hadn't worn for years. Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever worn it and I believe this is down in part to it making me look like a 10 year old girl attempting to be Avril Lavigne attempting to be a punk. Having seen Emma Watson though I went and dug the dress out thinking maybe my views on how it looked may have changed. I was wrong, I still didn't like it on so threw a black t-shirt over the top half of the strapless dress and for the first time had faith in the little tartan number. I'm unsure on the mesh & lace edging, I don't know whether to get rid of it and go at it with a sewing machine or whether I secretly think it adds a girlish touch to the grunge ensemble: the tough leather, harsh black & chunky boots.