wanderlust wednesday

Lacock Abbey. The village of Lacock, Wiltshire, England. March 2013. 


One of my first Wanderlust Wednesday posts featured photos from this magical place.

The village of Lacock, other than having a name that makes me giggle no matter how many years I mature to, is a charming 13th century village in England. We had the pleasure of visiting it in the middle of a multiple-stop tour from London. We were only stopping in the village for a quick lunch break, but Dustin and I broke from our tour group and guide (with her permission) to go tour Lacock Abbey instead. It had special importance to us, being one of the main filming locations for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. 

The abbey is country chic. While we were visiting, there was an art show of some kind going on, featuring various statues and sculptures around the property. It was quite providential that the one in the middle of the intricate courtyard happened to be a unicorn. We weren't mad about it.

The abbey was fairly quiet and had very few other visitors while we were there, which made it particularly easy to imagine we were touring a section of Hogwarts. The abbey was used to film several classrooms in the first movie, including Snape's, Quirrell's, and the room that held the Mirror of Erised. It was also used for a few hallway scenes, including the moment when Harry first hears the basilisk outside of Lockhart's office in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. 

It was an exhilarating visit. It was very difficult to tear ourselves away from our imaginations when we knew it was time to meet the group again. I am personally thankful that my husband is an extrovert and was able to request this time alone for us, and that our tour guide was so kind and susceptible to adventurous spirits.

(You can read the original travel post over on my first blog here).

Read all Harry Potter posts.

wanderlust wednesday

The Hill of Slane. Slane, Ireland. March 2011.

Traveling to Ireland was the first trip my husband and I ever took together just the two of us. We were 22 years old and had been married a grand total of 2 months and 2 weeks. I've posted before about Ireland, but this entry is perhaps the most exhilarating to remember. 

Part of the excitement of our Ireland adventures was renting a car and making day trips. Driving on the other side of the road was endlessly terrifying and fun, and we felt incredibly accomplished as we followed our (sometimes faulty) GPS named Julie across the windy countryside. One of these day trips was to see the Hill of Tara, which was fairly high on Dusty's to-see list. Unfortunately, we weren't that travel savvy, and ended up getting there too late. All of the tours were booked! We had completely botched our chance. Feeling a bit lost and bummed, we walked around the Hill of Tara gift shop a bit, grabbed a snack from the cafe, and then just decided to just explore. Off-roading with the sheep is the best way to see Ireland anyway.

The scenery is gorgeous around there. In preparation for our trip, Dusty had read about several hills in the area, one of them being Tara and another was in Slane. Our GPS was hopeless at this point, so once we found Slane we just explored. We even happened upon a castle. The village was tiny and charming, and eventually we discovered the criss-crossed wooden signs, one of which pointed up the road and read "The Hill of Slane". We finally found ourselves driving up a steep little roadway that was completely deserted. As we reached the top, the hill was splayed out before us like a bright green game board, the only pieces being intricate grey ruins at its crest. It was cold and overcast, and we were the only ones there. We just gaped for a good ten minutes, and once we realized there were no "KEEP OUT OR ST. PATRICK WILL CURSE YOU" signs anywhere, we ran helter skelter up the hill. We already knew this was the greatest off-roading of our entire lives. 

The legend goes that the daring St. Patrick lit a fire on the Hill of Slane in 433 CE in honor of Easter. It was a strong Christian symbol in direct defiance of the High King Laoire, who forbade any other fires to burn while a festival fire was burning on the Hill of Tara. Although Laoire could see the fire from his palace, he was impressed by St. Patrick's devotion. The king remained a pagan, but allowed St. Patrick to convert many of his subjects to Christianity. 

The Slane ruins are that of a friary church and college, which was abandoned in 1723. The traditional Christian hymn Be Thou My Vision is set to an early medieval Irish folk song named Slane, inspired by this location. 

Wikipedia served us well in learning more about the Hill of Slane once we returned to the states, but at the time, we were simply in awe of St. Patrick's statue and the insanely gorgeous day. It began to sprinkle a bit, and as the sun set the sky was a myriad of golden colors and the horizon was crowned with the most fortuitous Irish rainbow. It was stunning, all of it. We climbed the ruins for hours, just the two of us, losing track of time and reality as our cheeks grew rosy and our souls were filled to the brim. 

reign: style profiles

Are you watching this yet?

One of my favorite things about Reign is that you can tell a lot about a person by the way they dress. The creators have attributed distinct personality traits into their wardrobe choices, and it makes for an interesting commentary on the development of each character. (Listen to my Reign soundtrack to get in the right frame of mind).

Because it's a Thursday and on Thursdays we watch Reign, I thought I would do a little breakdown of the things I've noticed via beautiful clothing, sparkling jewelry, and fetching crystal belts.

Let's start with...

Queen Mary Stuart:

She is fierce. Of course, she wasn't always that way. She arrived fresh from the convent, nervous and excited and very naive. At the beginning she wore a lot of white and pastels, a brand new baby at court. But now she is bold, I-am-woman-hear-me-roar, strong and golden.

She often wears stunning metallics and striking patterns. Her go-to colors tend to be darker like black, navy, and red, or incredibly posh like head-to-toe gold.

She rocks a plethora of crowns and headpieces, and tends to wear more form-fitting pieces because if you've got it, flaunt it. She also favors incredible earrings. Her hair stays pretty basic, down and side-braided. Not a lot going on there lately. I'd love to see some giant, va-va-voom curls on her.
She still occasionally veers into that bohemian territory, with flowing blouses and sheer fabrics (most likely influenced by fairy princess Kenna, who I'll get to later). Her bohemian nature tends to come out more when her and Francis are in blissful happiness, which unfortunately is quite seldom.

All of her clothes make a statement.

And that statement is I am queen, bro, lookit. 

Lady Lola:

She loses major lady-in-waiting points for having an illegitimate child with Mary's husband (pre-marriage, mind you), but I have to say she's growing on me. She stumbled around for a bit, but I think she's trying her best to be a good friend. And I'm not going to pretend like I don't secretly love the idea of her and Narcisse hanging out. I have a feeling on tonight's episode they will be having that tea date.

Her style is actually one of my favorites on the show, which probably endears me more to her than anything else.

She is a romantic, through and through.
Red, peach, purple, cream, lots of beads and embroidery and flowers. Always flowers. If Lola isn't wearing a flower of some kind in her outfit, something is horribly wrong.

She is very faithful to the empire waist, and tends to have some of the most intricate details of anyone on the show. I always pay close attention to her clothes. She has been quite unlucky in love (does anyone remember her first love, who was forced on Mary by Catherine and then unceremoniously murdered in the woods? Yikes), as evidenced by her brief fling with Francis that produced a son and her brief marriage to an impostor who had to leave her to save them both.

Let's hope her romantic clothing will nurture some actual romance in her life.

Lady Greer:

Oh, Greer. She is our resident blonde bombshell, and she has always been my favorite of Mary's ladies.

She is the only one of the ladies who is untitled, so her sole purpose is to find a suitable husband to give her wealth and title to save her family and yadda yadda.

From the very beginning she has been lavish. Most likely to make up for a lack of title, she has always adorned herself with decadent jewelry and accessories. She's nervous and stressed about finding a rich husband, so naturally she falls in love with a kitchen boy.

Her daily elegance works well to counter-balance her insecurity, though. She dresses in rich, earthy, cool tones. A lot of grey, blue, and green. Since she's also a sexy beast, she employs sweeping gowns of black and navy and occasionally white to illustrate her dedication to virtue. She wears strapless dresses more than anyone else on the show. The richer, the better.

Also, her wedding dress? Amazing. 

Lady Kenna:

The hippy child!
(Also, RIP Aylee and her exquisite head of braids).

Kenna is 100% bohemian. All of the time. One time her dress was just one giant butterfly on her chest.
She wears flowing, sheer garments. She utilizes layers, lace and tassels. She rarely wears anything truly form-fitting, but since she's so slender her clothes are always flattering on her.

She pretty much functions exclusively in headpieces and flower crowns. They're dainty and sometimes crystal, probably to hold all of her wishes and dreams. She also loves to sporadically braid tiny strands of her hair, sometimes stringing them with beads.
Despite her flower-child appearances, she's actually quite feisty. She's strong-willed and very stubborn. She is also unlucky in love, but unlike Lola, it has been entirely her own fault. She tried to be the king's mistress for a while, and that backfired horribly. She's definitely my least favorite, but I am enjoying her and Bash together.

Her clothing style is the result of her very free spirit and her forward thinking. She's a physical being (that's my way of not saying anything truly insulting about her). She's a bit ditsy and selfish, but she completes the ladies-in-waiting and brings her own flare to their interactions.

Queen Catherine de Medici:

Possibly my favorite character ever. She is so evil but deliciously so. The fact that she's played by the one-and-only Megan Follows of Anne of Green Gables makes it even better.

Her style strength most definitely resides in her absurdly opulent jewelry and her crazy collection of crowns. So many crowns.
She bathes herself in fantastically monstrous necklaces and giant rings topped with super-sized pearls and gems. I want them, just once, to show us her accessories closet. It has to be absolutely magnificent.

She is matronly, which is fitting for her station and her level of sophistication. She is dangerously smart and wickedly talented with poison. She wears rich, shimmering fabrics and is always rocking the up-dos. She never lets her hair down, both physically and metaphorically. She did once, but that was only to seduce the king so she wouldn't be beheaded. She's a sneaky gal.

My favorite dress of hers so far was at the end of season 1, and it was this glorious, shimmering black and cream gown. She normally utilizes thick, flattering layers with capelets and the castle-era version of a business blazer.

And lastly, the men of the show.
Francis, Bash, Condé, Leith, Castleroy, and every single other man.

Black, brown, leather, the end.

Unless you're freaky like Narcisse and employ the many talents of a rather stunning blue peacock coat.

Ugh. I wish I could say I hated it. But I did not.

Reign airs TONIGHT at 9/8c!

(p.s. see all reign posts)

Major credit to Fashima's Fashion of Reign Tumblr, which is one of my favorite sources for Reign details! I borrowed many photos from her site. Check out her page for exact outfit and accessories info, as well as countless Reign-inspired conversations and inspirations. She's fantastic!