For Our Information

Always gotta keep busy or the voices start telling me to do wild things

It's been almost two months since I've written a post here. My past few days have been spent considering how on earth I can get Happy Cup Day running again after all this time. The weeks before that, however, were spent running around like a headless chicken.

Here are the major events that have sculpted the last eight weeks:

PROM

END OF STAY IN BAIE COMEAU

END OF YEAR IN QUEBEC

START OF LIFE

"SURPRISE" PARTY

HOLIDAY TO DEVON

So this morning I scribbled down a post to let you know I'm still here. I've been getting such positive HCD feedback recently, and it only seemed right that I should let you know that I've not gone anywhere.

On top of that, HCD is going to be overhauled (a bit). Since I started Happy Cup Day, my lifestyle dynamic has changed. So over the next month or so, the dynamic here at HCD will be changing too, and what I'd like most is feedback!

Therefore, if there's anything you liked about HCD, or didn't like, or would like to see in the future, please let me know. You can reach me at happycupday@gmail.com and constructive (and even non-constructive) criticism is occasionally always gratefully received.

Finally I'd just like to say a massive THANK YOU to all the anonymous Spoons (you know who you are) who, for some reason or other, couldn't work the google account and sign up publicly for Happy Cup Day. I'm so thrilled that you've been following anyway, and I apologise for seemingly neglecting you in the past.

There you have it....Emily Jane is back.

Babelcute: Paintbox

The world today doesn't make sense, so why should I paint pictures that do?

You never realised primary school art class would come in handy? Search deep into the caverns of your memory and try to bring back your Colour Wheel knowledge. Because what better way is there to compliment the impending Summer than with a palette of bright colours?! (Also works to brighten up a cloudy sky...)

This look is firstly about simple, block colours - think primary, secondary and tertiary at a push. Secondly, look to chose colours from across the wheel. We know neighbours typically look good together, now go for a bit of contrast. Be warned - red and green will always be Christmas, so consider fuscia pinks instead. Thirdly, don't over do it. Two colours are sufficient (three maaaaax).

How I do it: Nothing like a bit of sun, sea and sand.

Dress: 725 Walmart

Belt: Matalan

Headband: gift!

Bright idea: Tie in your make-up with your outfit. Go for eyes or lips, and match away. Make sure the colour is identical - turquoise eyes and royal blue dresses don't cut the mustard. This is strictly for the brave at heart.

A better way of doing it:

A look that works just as well from the runway as in real life...and about time too!

Wedding season anyone? We weren't even thinking about breaking the only-the-bride-wears-white rule.

I love LOVE the rule obliterating red and pink combo shoes. If you're going to go for it, make sure it's obvious you know that your pinks and reds aren't the same colour, rather than looking like you've made some sort of classic error...

Black and feature colour? That's where I start sulking because you've missed the point. Remember the paintboxes with little squares of bright colours? Remember what happened when you mixed black with another colour? It went all murky and mucky. Black doesn't belong here. If you're seriously craving, make black your accessory colour and go for a super bright as your base (beware of Halloween pairings...).

The proof: I originally wrote this article by hand in the local cafe whilst wearing the blue and yellow outift featured above. A lady came in and sat at the table next to me.

¨You look like something out of a film.¨

¨Excuse me?¨

¨Taking tea, writing, all beautiful.¨

¨Haha, thank you.¨

¨Yes. I love what you are wearing. Very bright. Yes, beautiful, beautiful. You know who has the best style? How old are you?¨

¨I'm eighteen.¨

¨Exactly. The young women of today, that's who has the best style. If I was young, you're how I would look, how I would dress.¨

Of course, if you want to go all out, there's only one way to do it...

Bright colours = happy mood.

Don't argue with maths.

Or art.

Or me.

Babelcute: Kimono

Akinasu wa yome ni kuwasuna

I am what is known as a Changed Lady. Since January I've been going through a development

that started with Lolita, briefly near Hime Gyaru, through Dolly Kei, onto Mori, and then spread out into God Knows What. I love so many different fashions from Japan, but I'm also branching into more high fashion, and I'm becoming interested in Paris fashions right now...(but that's not the point).

For those who are not particularly interested in fashion any further East than New York, any mention of 'Japanese fashion' often conjures up a mental image of a Geisha, which is not quite what we're about.

But maybe we should be taking the hint...

Kimonos graced the pages of the W*C summer catalogue (thanks to Moments Like Diamonds for the information, check out the post here), and have similarly been on the radar of high fashion...

Alexander McQueen: Royal Kimono from the fall 2010 collection

Again from McQueen, a new approach on the traditional Geisha shoe (ok, so it's not a Kimono, but they're freaking awesome)

Wafrica: Japan + Africa = Ultimate multiculturalism (yay!)

Curly Collection: Pop art colours make for an adorable Kimono look

How to get your fix...

subtly: The Furies - Black Cropped Kimono Shirt

unashamedly: Bodyline - Yukata L053

Want to know what the quote for this post means?

Don't let your daughter-in-law eat your autumn eggplants....

Fashion Show

Bravery never goes out of fashion.

Wednesday 19th and Thursday 20th of May saw the students of the Polyvalente des Baies, sec 5, parading around, doing ridiculous poses and generally having a hilarious night. Yes, we had a fashion show, and a jolly good one at that. I modeled for two shops, 33/45 and a local costumière.

Of course, all us models were upstaged by Québec's answer to the Backstreet Boys.

33/45 kit with HCD's ninja resident

Carmen Miranda meets Captain Hook from Lili LaBelle, with HCD's Alexe
(Kindly photobombed by Catherine)

Which Backstreet Boy is gay...?

Babelcute: Nom Nom Nom Necklaces

Everything is a miracle. It is a miracle that one does not dissolve in one's bath like a lump of sugar.

Every seven year old girl throughout the nineties knew that the very height of practical fashion lay with the Candy Necklace. Both adorable and delicious (it goes with everything daaahling) no party dress was complete without one. However, the nineties passed us, as have the noughties, and with that elapse of time we’ve come to notice some flaws. For example, we now know that we cannot resist from have a nibble within the first ten minutes of donning the necklace. Of course, it looks odd when your accessories are half eaten, so you absolutely have to finish. So what are you left with? Mangled elastic jewelery, a train of sticky spit on your dress (dry clean only? Don't even think about it) and a rather serious sugar high. How bubble bursting.

Luckily, us grown up ladies (for that is what we are now) have been provided with another option.

Betsey Johnson: You cannot go wrong here. Sweet or savory, necklace or bracelet, I assure you you'll find something to love. My personal favourites are the Swiss cheese necklace and picnic charm bracelet.

Aldo: A healthy option!

Forever 21: Strawberries, apples and pears...oh my!

Fredflare: This adorable ring is genuinely finger lickin' good.

And finally from Fredflare, my absolute favourite of the bunch!

Is it weird that my lunch choice for the day was inspired by earrings?...I think not.

Thirteenth Fan!

Whereupon, at the tender age of thirteen, I set upon the path of playing nothing but hookers.

It's so good to see a new face on the block...well. Not quite a face. A shoe. And an entirely adorable shoe at that.

So a warm Happy Cup Day welcome to the fairly anonymous L-Ro!

If anyone (I'm mainly talking to L-Ro now..) can give me any more information, I'd be grateful (:

Babelcute: Sick Chic

A family is a unit composed not only of children but of men, women, an occasional animal, and the common cold.

And you thought your cold had gone with the winter?

The sniffles are back with a vengeance. The constant flicking between wet-an'-windy Spring, and almost Summer sunny days means most of us have caught a cold (me included...sniff, cough, curl up and die). Of course, only the most fashionable of the elite can pull of this trend with panache.

So here's how to work Sick Chic.

Please note: if you aren't fashion forward enough to have caught a cold, drinking too much tequila or eating questionable shellfish will also do the trick.

How I do It:

A better way of doing it:

Work your inner Marilyn, and look gorgeous without your make up.

Make like a catwalk queen and venture out in public in your fabulous pyjamas (Ashish AW10)

Time for a cat nap! (Find it here)

You need sleep! I don't think you'd need telling twice with these adorable Tokidoki pillow cases...

If all else fails and you're still feeling miserable, deny all knowledge of attempting to be chic, assume the foetal position under the covers and hibernate until you feel better.