what I wore: florals, stags and leather bags, oh my

Just as I was starting to think Spring might never appear, the sun came out the other day and things seemed to warm up. I started rummaging through my (now emptier) cupboard for things that haven’t left the bedroom since last Summer (remember – those two weeks we had last May?) and rediscovered some of my thinner t-shirts and cardigans. I tend not to wear these much in the Winter, because you end up having to introduce layers and thermals, and everything tends to get a bit bulky and uncomfortable.

Cardigan – Paul Smith // T-shirt – Paul Smith // Trousers – eBay // Brogues – Dorothy Perkins (five years ago – I bought these pre-children!) Accessorised with sleep deprived eyes. Ugh.

I’m such a fan of being comfortable, and these trousers are my favourite thing to wear in Spring and Summer. They’ve got an elasticated waist and belt loops, which means you can either wear them dressed up, with a blouse or t-shirt tucked in, or worn low with a loose t-shirt, sandals and a geometric bag, hippy-traveller style. The cardigan is one of my favourites, but it’s a really fine knit, and has to be hand-washed, which means it doesn’t make an appearance as often as other things – I’m basically ridiculously lazy when it comes to actually caring for clothes. If you can’t chuck it in the washing machine and peg it out to dry, it’s not coming home with me.

This week has been a bit crap with sleep – Daisy has woken up LOADS, and I’ve had quite a lot of writing work on, which has meant a few late nights, and sore, scratchy eyes. I’m actually supposed to wear glasses, but usually don’t, because they look like this:

What a jazzy cardi, Deirdre. Where’s Ken?

Glasses – Specsavers // Brooch – Vintage (belonged to my Grandmother) // Camera pendant – eBay

They literally are Deirdre Barlow glasses, and not even in a retro-hipster-cool kind of way. Glasses irritate the bejeezus out of me, and I knew there wasn’t much of a chance that I’d end up wearing them very often (despite being lectured by my optician), so I wasn’t prepared to spend loads on nice frames. I actually suspect this is where I’m going wrong – perhaps if I invested in a pair that I actually liked, I might hang on to my clear vision for a bit longer!
I finished off my very first Spring outfit with a bag from Scaramanga – if you’ve never heard of them, I strongly urge you check out their website. I discovered them when I was searching for a new bag last year, and blogged about them then, and have been a fan ever since. They do an amazing range of ethically produced, handmade, fairly traded leather bags for guys and girls, in a gazillion different styles and sizes. They also stock vintage suitcases, retro furniture and other lovely homewares, which are also all fairly traded – it’s pretty rare to find a company that sell such lovely things that are all guilt-free, so they’ve stayed firmly on my favourites list.

Handmade, fairly traded leather bag – Scaramanga

This particular bag is the vintage leather flight bag, and is deceptively roomy and spacious. It’s actually the perfect size to fit my DSLR into, which is handy because until now I’ve been carrying it around in its case, while trying to juggle my tote bag and two children as well. I can fit in the camera, a lens, my notebook, purse, phone, keys and kiddo snacks all into the main compartment, which leaves the front and side pockets free for any extras. What’s even better is that the strap is extendible, which means I can either use it across my body or over my shoulder. Ace!

You’ll probably notice the pictures in this post are a bit larger than usual – it wasn’t intentional, for some reason Blogger kept making them all different sizes (really not helping with my temptation to self-host on WordPress…). But actually, I’m thinking I quite like them bigger – any thoughts?

This isn’t a sponsored post – I write copy for Scaramanga, and they occasionally send me products which need photographing. Sometimes I get to keep them, and sometimes I have to send them back – I was lucky enough to be able to keep this one.