Call me male-ish

Today's title is a mixed up, me-trying-to-be-clever quotation derived from the first (and oh so famous) line of my current read: Herman Melville's Moby Dick. The real line of course runs "Call me Ishmael." This sentence, and novel as a whole, are well suited to today's OOTD post as my outfit is quite nautical themed. If this isn't really your thing, fair enough, but I happened to love this shirt as soon as I laid eyes on it. These coraly-red canvas boat shoes also happen to be my favourite shoes ever. I tend to dress fairly casually, while still trying to look nice, and these shoes have always suited my needs while being extremely comfortable at the same time.

Skirt & Shoes: Tommy Hilfiger

Relating to the shoes, and my being casual in general, you might have noticed that, unlike the majority of fashion bloggers I've seen, I've never had an OOTD with heels. It's just personal preference really; I've always found the shoes I gravitated towards are fairly flat, but interesting. Luckily, this less typically feminine preference also allowed me to play around with my quotation today, so I'm happy all around!

Top: Joe Fresh; Earrings: Le Chateau

Also, you might be wondering what's going on with my hair in these pictures. It is in fact tied back in a very small pony tail. I'm debating whether or not I want to cut it all off, which is how I used to have it before starting this blog. I've been letting it grow out for many months now (since March or April), but super short hair still holds such an appeal for me. It means using less shampoo, not having to straighten it almost every day, more time for doing makeup in the morning. . . but we'll see how it goes.

I know that while I like wearing oddly patterned cotton shirts, I'm going to be thrilled the day I can wake up and put on a nice big sweater. Are you as excited for autumn as I am?

-C

I have a sock that I refer to as my "good sock"

I don't actually have a sock like that; today's quotation comes from the show "2 Broke Girls." It's funny if you're feeling tolerant of fairly constant sexual humour, but mostly I've quoted it because I've spent the day thinking about money. Not in a greedy Ebenezer Scrooge kind of way. School is coming up on me rapidly now and it's time to start thinking about paying tuition and dealing with student loans. This process elicits from me a "yay" heavily laden with sarcasm.

I've been picking up my required texts for this year AND my copy of Moby Dick came in the mail the other day! I love getting things in the mail, even though I'm still sitting in wait for the piano book I ordered (mentioned here). The push is now on for me to finish what has become my final elective read for the summer before embarking on my school reading list. Right now I'm working my way through Stieg Larsson's The Girl Who Played With Fire. One thing that certainly stands out about this series, whether you've read the novels or watched the films, is the extreme amount of violence; a popular theme running throughout the novels is society's treatment of women. When I mentioned to a friend of mine recently that I was reading this novel, their reaction was surprisingly negative. I thought the reason was perhaps what I have just suggested, the mistreatment of women. I was wrong. My friend's issue with the trilogy was rather the way in which it deals with men's issues; read: sexism against men. This is an area unfortunately often overlooked by scholars and laymen alike, but bringing this point of view into consideration has really helped me have a new perspective as I continue on with the novel.

Besides my literary endeavours, I've also been picking up the odd clothing item here and there. My intention was, of course, to get some new things for fall, but I ended up buying a couple of summer pieces anyway. Hopefully you'll see some of these in OOTDs sooner rather than later. I was planning on taking pictures today as the weather looked promising, but things have clouded over here so I'll save that for another day. If you're living in Canada and looking to do some back-to-school shopping, I'd recommend checking out corduroy pants at Joe Fresh. I pretty much never buy anything from them, but was pleasantly surprised to come across these pants for $19 in a plethora of amazing autumn colours. I bought mind in a dark burgundy, but there's also mustard, dark green, cobalt blue, burnt orange, brown, and black from what I can remember.

Happy back-to-school shopping!

-C

The poet in the grip of the divine madness

Today's bizarre quotation is taken from my current read: A. S. Byatt's The Shadow of the Sun. I'm feeling a bit in the grip of "the divine madness" myself as so many crazy and wonderful things have been happening lately! I've been getting through this novel at a slow, but steady rate, so hopefully I can present all of you with a fresh book review sometime next week! Speaking of books, I put in an order on Amazon today. If you've been reading my posts for a while, it should be fairly transparent to you that I am an equal lover of fashion and literature. Although I major in English at university, I don't set books aside come summer holidays. I've been plowing through my reading list this year and have already managed to complete 10 novels (Byatt's will be numero undici [#11]). However, school is not nearly so far away as it was two months ago (funny how that works) and I'm starting to turn my attention back to mandatory readings and textbook lists.

From Amazon I ordered one novel I know I'll be reading in my fall American lit course: Herman Melville's Moby Dick. This thrills me on so many levels. First of all, you know how I love a good classic; Faulkner, Hemingway, and James have all made appearances on my reading list so far this season. Second of all, I love the television show "Gilmore Girls" (more on my obsession here) and ordering Moby Dick takes me back to the very first episode of the series. Rory is in the middle of her first awkward conversation with Dean (how many times does she end up saying "cake"?!) and as the topic swings over to books she tells him "[she knows] it's kind of cliché to pick Moby Dick as your first Melville. . ." Besides the fact that I needed to buy this novel for school, I felt instinctively better knowing that it had the Rory Gilmore stamp of approval; even if it is a cliché.

The other book I bought is actually not for reading. "A book not for reading?!" I hear you exclaim, "How can it be so?" Well, I'm also an avid piano player (saying "an avid pianist" will just never sound quite right to me) and I was in need of some new material. What I'm about to tell you may make some of you cringe, but bear with me and I'll explain. I bought the piano book for the "Breaking Dawn: Part 1" soundtrack. I know this is not exactly a best-loved series of books or films, but to clarify, the soundtracks compiled for these movies are typically AMAZING. I kid you not. As in, the musical selections from these films introduced me to both Florence + the Machine and Muse. According to Amazon, I shouldn't be getting either of my books for a good three weeks, but at the risk of calling them dirty liars, I find my orders typically arrive much sooner than that.

I'm planning on hitting up a great little festival in my city tomorrow, so I should have a fresh post complete with OOTD sometime this weekend. I would put it up straight away, but I have family coming to visit as well, so my blog may have to take the backburner for a day or two.

What are your plans this weekend? Do you get overly excited buying books, or purchasing anything online for that matter?

-C