I wanted to be supportive but throw up at the same time

I find myself needing to quote "Gilmore Girls" yet again to come up with a fitting title for this post. A similar feeling to today's quotation is what I anticipated being overcome with yesterday. I spent the day with family, which unexpectedly included one relative's boyfriend (whom I had never previously met). Before you all get the idea that I harbour any negative ideas towards any family member or their plus-ones, let me remind you that I only thought I might have the feeling expressed in this post's title. Luckily, everyone behaved themselves and there was no awkward couple-ness going on.

Potential family drama averted, the group of us had a great time at a local festival, followed by dinner and games. We're definitely a big family for games. I also heard some great music performed while we were out, including one band called "Olenka and the Autumn Lovers," who I'm definitely going to look into further.

Here are some quick pictures of what I generally looked like. It was pretty hot out and we were pressed for time with family visiting and getting to and from the festival, so I don't have nice shots like I usually do. My top was worn in a slightly different way here. You can't see it in these pictures, but I've tied the belt in a bow at the back because I find it cuts me strangely to wear it wrapped around the top in the way it was intended to be. I paired it with some simple white shorts and no jewellery other than the earrings you see pictured.

On the film and literature front, I'm still working my way through Byatt and am halfway through two different movies: "Brick" and "Il Generale della Rovere." All three will be reviewed here upon their completion.

What did you get up to this weekend? Have you come across any great music lately? Let me know!

-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

Standing out as though sugared

Today's title is an adapted quotation from A. S. Byatt's The Shadow of the Sun, which I am currently reading. I found the idea of something "sugared" a pleasant one, evoking sweetness and a sort of frozen brilliance; the arrested beauty of the rose from "Beauty and the Beast" comes to mind. I spent this morning dealing in equal parts with something "frozen" and "brilliant." At my mother's behest, I was out picking raspberries at a local farm. Seeing as this has been the first cooler day for a while, it felt quite comfortable to be out in shorts and a t-shirt. However, this sensation quickly evaporated as the weather turned from just pleasantly cool to pouring down rain. I was totally drenched and chilled to the bone, but at least I have a whole container of fresh raspberries to show for it!

I took this early one just to demonstrate how amazing this mascara is! The flash made the colour a bit stark. Face: MAC select SPF 15 foundation in NW15; Sonia Kashuk beautifying blush in "Flamingo"

Eyes: a purpley-taupe from the E.L.F. everyday basic palette; Lancôme hypôse drama mascara in "Black"; E.L.F. liner in "Brown"

Luckily, I wasn't planning on taking any OOTD pictures outdoors today because the weather would definitely have spoiled that idea before it even got off the ground. Instead, I'll leave you with some quick FOTD shots I took to go with the outfit images I posted yesterday.

Lips: EOS lip balm in "Sweet Mint" (because the lipstick is a bit drying); MAC creamsheen lipstick in "Speak Louder"

Hope you're all staying warm and dry! Do you have any plans for getting outdoors this weekend?

-C

The KISS principle

The title of this post is not a quotation. I'll give you a second to get over the shock. Aaand we're back. It's actually a nifty little saying I picked up from my father, who, working in the business of advertising and graphic design, is full of such tips, tricks, and tools of the trade. In this case, "KISS" (very unromantically) stands for Keep It Simple, Stupid! It's funny, catchy, and a great reminder that the simplest thing/plan/idea is often the best. I like to think this same idea is one I apply (no pun intended) when putting on makeup or compiling items for an outfit. I try to find pieces that are interesting, but still an organic part of my style.

Top: Monteau via TJMaxx; Necklace: Forever 21

Skirt: Forever 21; Shoes: Enzo Angiolini via TJMaxx

In today's outfit, I've paired a neutral top with a bright coral (surprise, surprise) skirt. If you'd like to learn more about my love of coral, including the explanation behind my blog's title, please click here! The top is clean and simple with straight lines and little detail, but I absolutely loved it when I saw it. It sort of reminds me of being on safari (not that I've ever been on safari. . . you know what I mean). The skirt is likewise simply cut, but also includes a scalloped hem, which I think is a beautiful feminine touch. The gold of my necklace is picked up in the detail on my sandals, and both include a great piece-y geometric look.

-C

Pain like this seems inseparable from perfection

Allow me first off to clarify that today's titular quotation does not refer to any sort of physical injury I've sustained or personal trauma I've encountered since last I wrote. The line comes from L. M. Montgomery's Anne's House of Dreams and the feeling of pain is meant to be connected to an intense sensation experienced upon seeing something very beautiful; also referred to by Anne as "the queer ache." This juxtaposition in feelings is something extremely enjoyable for me in literature and film. It lends a satisfying tension to the work and often composes that illusive feeling of being moved by what you read or watch.

Something similar to this feeling exists in the film I watched last night: Carlos Saura's "Don Giovanni." You may already be familiar with this title as the famous opera. The film gives a sort of fictionalized background as to said opera's creation by composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and lyricist Lorenzo Da Ponte. If you've read my review of "Il Deserto Rosso" (here), you can easily imagine how a colourful, vibrant, period film like this would stand in stark contrast. For the overarching effect of a large, brilliant spectacle, you could likely find similarities in films such as "The Phantom of the Opera" (I'm thinking of the 2004 Gerard Butler version). However, I was impressed by a few unique production choices made in "Don Giovanni" that did an excellent job of echoing the feeling of watching a live onstage performance.

Blocking (placement of characters within the space) was done to a tee and a couple of times further accentuated through the use of tableau. If you're up on your classic films, I think you could compare this tableau and posed crowd effect to the race scene in "My Fair Lady." The other effect that I found very interesting was the use of screens. Occasionally, a printed screen would be used as the backdrop, both in rooms and outdoor settings. They were clearly artificial, but gave a strong feeling of watching a play within a play (or, to be more accurate, an opera within a film). Once, the audience's attention was even specifically drawn to the artificiality of the backgrounds as a character remarked that he was looking after the books in an illustrious library; all of the walls in the library, including the shelves as well as the books upon them, were nothing but hanging backdrops. Screens were used again to achieve extremely smooth transitions between scenes. The scene you were watching would seem to take place in a solid building, then the lights would dim, while other lights on the opposite side of the wall would raise revealing the wall to have been only a screen the whole time. The camera would film the newly illuminated figures on the other side of the screen through the transparent backdrop until switching camera angles to bring the back room into the forefront.

Now for a little of something else I promised you in my last post. I've really been trying hard to take good care of my skin lately. My blog deals a lot with many different areas, but beauty products are definitely one of my interests. In that vein, we most often come across blogs focusing on skincare for the face alone. I can tell you what sort of products I do use on my face if you're interested, but today's review will actually be dealing with body products instead. The Body Shop has had a summer sale on (it still is on online, I'm not sure about in-store) so I swung by and picked up a couple of items. One of these is their body scrub in "Mango," which did not disappoint in terms of providing a scent true to its name. This scrub smells so fantastic you'll have to stop yourself from grabbing a spoon and just shovelling the contents into your mouth. Honestly, it does smell THAT good. Besides the scent, this product has been working really well for me so far. It's quite a thick texture, but I find that you can work it in decently well, even on dry skin. It claims to be for very dry skin, which is great because it doesn't leave your skin feeling super worn out, but rather soft and moisturized instead.

I wish you guys could smell this stuff! UH-mazing.

To seal in the feeling of goodness the scrub leaves on my skin, I then lather on Lubriderm's Advanced Therapy Lotion. I've only been using these products for a little while, but my skin feels amazing, and it smells pretty good too!!

Oops! I didn't realize how blurry this was!

-C

I'm going to be surprisingly better

As promised, here are the outfit pictures to go along with the FOTD I posted yesterday. I'm a big fan of keeping it simple, especially with clothing. I don't usually go in for anything with a big brand name splashed across the front or an excess of anything like beads or lace. I've also been buying many more solid pieces than I used to. This may seem boring to some, but it's fantastic for me! It's so much easier to put things together and have them look nice when each item has less going on. However, I also choose articles with interesting details because dressing simply and dressing boring do NOT have to be the same thing. 

For example, the white t-shirt I'm wearing here has a low scoop in both the front and the back, so it's a little variation on a classic staple (I also wore it in my first OOTD here). The shorts are definitely a bolder choice. I'm pretty much in love with the coloured jeans/pants trend (check out my coral capris!), but it's not really feasible to wear full-length bottoms when it's this hot outside. For me, these purple shorts are a great alternative; they're bright, but have a classic look, great fit, and really adorable button detailing to keep them from looking too casual.

Since I was spending the afternoon outdoors and new it would be about one million degrees (maybe a slight exaggeration. . .), I wanted to look nice, but be comfortable and not over-dress. To achieve this, I picked one bright colour and paired it with neutrals like white and brown.

Sunglasses: Nine West via TJMaxx; Top: Old Navy

Bag: Fossil; Shoes: Enzo Angiolini via TJMaxx

Shorts: Banana Republic; Bracelet: Kohl's

I know I usually talk about my title right at the beginning of each post, but I wanted to jump right in to the outfit today since I'd promised it yesterday. Anyway, this titular quotation comes from the short story I recently finished: Henry James' The Lesson of the Master. I don't have too much to say about it other than that it was a very good read and I enjoyed it. It's a simple quotation that I've picked out, but it just struck me as quite a nice line. I like the idea of improving yourself for your own benefit, not to mention doing it so well that you end up surprising even yourself. I'm definitely looking forward to getting into the next short story on my roster: The Turn of the Screw.

In the future, would you prefer to see literature and fashion/beauty mixed in together in one post, or a separate entry for each? Also, I just realized that I've been blogging for just over a month now. I've really enjoyed the change and am so grateful for the people who have chosen to follow me and the wonderful comments I've received. Thank you all so much!

-C

Only my eyes, for your eyes only

Today's title is a combination of a description of this post and the title of a James Bond film/short story (the second, by Ian Fleming). It's another stifling day here and I spent the afternoon at an outdoor cultural festival. My skin is not always a big fan of the hot weather; I have combination skin and the top of my nose gets quite dry thanks to the recent oppressiveness of the sun. Because of this, on days when it's so sticky and hot outside, I typically use a fairly limited amount of makeup, and hardly ever any face products. 

To provide a fresh FOTD (I realize I haven't done one in a while), I thought I'd do my eyes anyway, just keep in mind there are no products on the rest of my face. Also, I have a lot of freckles, which is something I never try to hide. I accrue them copiously during the summer months and absolutely love them!

Eyes: a very pale purple from the E.L.F. everyday basics palette; Lancôme hypôse drama mascara in "Black"; MAC eyeshadows in "Amber Lights" and "Creme de Violet"

I don't wear as much eye makeup as often as I used to. I usually try to during school, but I find that my attempts peter out around second term. I really like wearing it though, so I thought today I might as well! The above picture doesn't quite do justice to the vibrance of the two MAC shades I've used. From what I've seen, "Amber Lights" is a fairly popular colour, so for those of you who use it, you know how goldy-orange metallic it really is. "Creme de Violet" is a very beautiful purple, but I've built it up because I find it fairly sheer otherwise. This might look like a crazy amount of colour to some, but I happen to have what I've seen described as "hooded eyes"; basically, when I open my eyes, I have a small space of eyelid below my crease so it's difficult to see eye makeup there unless I pull the colour up higher. . .

. . . so when I open my eyes, most of the colour vanishes!

I'll be putting up the accompanying OOTD tomorrow, so stay tuned for that!

-C

The lesson of the twilight wind: the screw strikes back

Today I've woken up feeling surprisingly motivated. It's still morning, but it already seems like it's going to be a hot one; my face feels all stuffed up, so that's a positive harbinger for humidity. Hopefully I'll get through the rest of the short novel I'm reading: Henry James' The Lesson of the Master. I know I said The Turn of the Screw was meant to be next on my reading list, but both of these stories are bound together in one book and by the time I got started on it the other day, it was fairly late at night. I'm expecting The Turn of the Screw to creep me out enough without the added bonus of being immersed in it alone at night, so I flipped to the other novel instead.

I'm also hoping to get some drawing done today; a skill I've yet to mention I possess on this blog. I literally have generations of artists behind me on my father's side, including my father himself. I do not profess to be on the same level as them at all, but I do enjoy drawing; it's extremely relaxing. Like a coward, I prefer not to test the extent of my abilities (you can laugh here), so I stick to drawing things that aren't real and can't move. Pretty thrilling! Mostly I draw things from posters I have in the house. I worked on Bella and Edward from a "Twilight" film poster a few years ago and have lately been drawing Han and Leia's "Gone With the Wind" pose in the "Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back" poster. I'm not making it up by the way, their pose is recognized as mimicking the same one on the "Gone With the Wind" poster and is titled as such.

I drew this pose. . . minus the title!

Only Han and Leia from this one. The poster as a whole is so overwhelming!

My horribly chipped nails inform me that another thing I need to do today is remove my old red nail polish. If I paint them again today (or maybe tomorrow, we'll see), I'll post a new NOTD for you. Right now, I'm contemplating using a certain bluish-turquoise from China Glaze, but we'll have to wait for the finished result to see for sure!

The title of this post is also terribly unclever. . . three guesses where it came from!

-C

145 candles

Move over Molly Ringwald, your 16 candles just won't cut it today. In my part of the country, there are just a few hours left of our national holiday. Today Canada turns 145 years old. Unfortunately, I didn't remember to buy a gift, so will likely have to sheepishly skulk out and grab one of those sad belated birthday cards in a day or two. Ho-hum. On the bright side, I spent my dad with family, swimming, and hamburgers. I didn't go full-out patriotic with a funny hat or red and white striped knee-high socks (both of these items were actually worn by family members), but inside I feel no less thankful for the beautiful, majestic, and inexpressibly vast expanse of the country in which I am lucky enough to reside.

For now, the white is the glow of my laptop screen in the dark as I type this post and listen to fireworks explode outside my window (well done neighbours!), and the red is the half-chipped polish on my nails and the shade my back will be tomorrow due to too much sun day.

From the depths of my "glowing heart" (that's straight out of our anthem, look it up), Happy Birthday Canada!

-C

We band of boaters

My title has been appropriated from one of the most famous speeches penned by William Shakespeare: dear Harry's "band of brothers" oration from Henry V. However, this post is not about royalty, nor war, nor even men. I went to an event today which I never could have predicted myself going to. For several years, I've had a vague idea that my city held dragon boat races every year, but had really no need to think any further about them than that brief recognition of their existence. Well, this year my mother decided to get involved and join a team and so my family experienced our first dragon boat event (my mom was the only one actually racing though). Only one person in my mom's boat had ever done this sort of thing before, apart from the two practice sessions the boat club sets up for each team prior to race day. Even though they weren't the top team in the water, they still managed to beat six other groups, making them champions of their division. This "band of boaters," as I'm calling them, stuck it out in a fantastic display of teamwork and motivation. I'm honestly so proud of my mom for finding something new to try and really giving it her all.

To further adapt the quotation I've chosen, I'd like to back-track further up the line to "We few, we happy few." In terms of today's event, it was something more along the lines of "We many, we sweaty, sunburnt many." I feel like I do perhaps say too much about the heat, but I've already told you in my last post that I managed to acquire a lovely red burn yesterday, so being out by the lake today was not so pleasant on my skin. As for the many, I am so not kidding when I said that. I had no idea how many teams entered into a competition like this, or how many others came to watch it! There were easily a thousand people present. All this means is that, in terms of this blog, I didn't take any pictures of myself there. I'm still new to this being in front of the camera thing and I was sure I'd attract more stares than I'd have been comfortable with if I started snapping pictures of myself at the event, so I took them at home afterwards instead.

I'm completely in love with the shirt I wore (that sounds quite self-indulgent, but if I hadn't loved it, I wouldn't have bought it, right?). This outfit ended up pleasing me so much for looking a sort of mix of retro/classy/comfortable, that by the end of the afternoon I had myself pretty nearly talked into believing I was a modern Vivian Ward, only watching boats race rather than horses. If only I had a sweet little pair of white gloves to go with it. . . those are going straight on the top of my list!


Also, seeing as tomorrow is Father's Day, I likely won't have a post for you. I'll be away at a big family BBQ, but I hope you all enjoy your day!

Hat: Forever 21; Top: Monteau via TJMaxx; Shorts: Jacob; Sunglasses: Ralph Lauren via TJMaxx; Watch&Bag: Fossil; Shoes: Enzo Angiolini also via TJMaxx

Julia Roberts as Vivian Ward in "Pretty Woman"

Maybe a little similarity? I wish I'd realized it before and done a cute hat-holding pose like Julia. Darn!

 -C

My little. . . unwalled section of the world?

I think I must have been suffering lately from onlyblogatnight-itis. From my own experience I can report that said condition is quite hampering, but can be combatted with a remedy of perseverance mixed in equal parts with force-yourself-to-do-it. Seriously though, I feel as though I'm slacking off a bit with this blog, and I don't have a really solid explanation as to why. I'm just getting lazy perhaps; hopefully you can excuse this as I do believe it happens to the best of us.

So today has been another veritable scorcher here in my little corner of the world. I always find that a bit of a strange phrase. Why on earth (no pun intended) would someone select "corner" as a likely place to position oneself whilst living on a sphere? It only makes me think of living inside a giant box, which is not really the pleasantest of feelings. I'll leave someone else to puzzle over that for now and digress back into more present matters. As I've said, it was very hot today, and being quite a fair-skinned individual, I did manage to burn myself. In a weak attempt to defend my skincare negligence, I have to say I was sitting outside so much because I was trying to finish the novel Vanity Fair. I read all the way up to the final chapter, but I stopped there. As much as I've been wont to complain about the length and frequent wordiness of this novel, I have honestly really really enjoyed it. This book has made me laugh out loud in some places, and cry my eyes out in others. I'm going to finish reading it tonight and have the extremely satisfying experience of a final page turn.

What have you all been reading lately? Anything you find yourself coming back to again and again? I've told you that my favourite novel is The Time Traveler's Wife and I'm beginning to get the itch to pick it up off the ol' bookshelf again. There's really nothing quite as nice as finishing one great novel with an old favourite on the horizon.

-C

Embarking on a passage to India

Before anyone gets excited, no, I'm not actually going to India. At least, not right now. My title today refers to the latest novel I've picked up: E.M. Forster's A Passage to India. I've only just started reading it, so I can't comment yet, except that I know it's meant to be quite a good film as well. I've never watched it myself, but I probably will once I've finished reading the book.

The most suitable post to accompany such a title would probably involve something interesting or exotic. Unfortunately, I haven't done anything befitting said descriptions lately, so today we're going to have to settle for "hot" as the unifying adjective between my OOTD and a novel about India. And by hot, I mean that the temperature is extremely warm so I've been keeping my clothing pretty cas (as in casual. . . I'm so lazy I even neglect to spell out a full word). Another notable aspect of my outfit is the prevalence of coral. As I mentioned in my first post, I called my blog "C of Corals" because coral has been my absolute favourite colour for several years now. I figured I ought to start living up to my name, wouldn't you say? I own so many things in this colour. . . it's actually ridiculous. Expect to see this shade again in the not so distant future!

Top: Hollister; Capris: Aeropostale; Flip-flops: Old Navy

Watch: Fossil; Bracelet: present from a friend; Bag: Fossil

What have you all been doing to keep cool? Do you have a go-to colour this season?
-C

Sunny days and sepia suits

Today I was a bit lax with my reading schedule as I spent the day shopping instead. The "sepia suits" I speak of in my title are a reference to the most recent novel I've finished, the completion of which happened a few days ago now, but hey, I'm doing my best! This wardrobe allusion is connected to The Man in the Brown Suit, by Agatha Christie. Honestly, what person doesn't like to spend an impossibly hot summer day sitting outdoors, reading a Christie novel?! Well, potentially a lot of people, but not me. I've read so many of her stories over the years that I've actually lost track of which I've read and which ones I haven't. The Man in the Brown Suit wasn't ringing any bells, so I picked it up from the library and ended up finishing it in two days. It definitely wasn't my favourite of her novels; I found it a bit too easy to predict. When it comes to mystery novels, this can either be incredibly satisfying or a let down. I prefer to make my own guesses as I go along with one of her books, but I still look forward to being surprised at the end when I turn out to be about 99% wrong in my predictions.

Either way, Agatha Christie is always great reading material on toasty days like today. However, as I've already alluded to, I was inside shopping today instead. I'm thinking I may post some photos from my little haul, or just use the pieces in future OOTD. I'm going to leave off writing this post here, and give you the shots of my first ever blogged OOTD. Like I said, it was pretty warm today, so I went for a more casual look, almost no makeup, but still a little bit girly!

-C