Lilly Pulitzer in Scotland: When the Weather Takes You By Surprise

I seem to be starting out all my posts of late in the same manner, which is to offer some type of an apology for my sparse postings. I can assure you it's not because I have lost interest in fashion, thrifting, or anything else - in fact, quite the opposite. I've been undertaking a training course and simultaneously trying to do orders and dream-up new things for my Living Earth Etsy Shop. In the pursuit of the latter I have sort of inadvertently become the natural insect repellent distributor amongst my coworkers and their families - something that here in the west of Scotland, is pretty much the same as being knighted, or even marrying into royalty, such is the weight of importance given to the promise of a potentially bug bite-free summer. So from now on, you may refer to me as The Lady Highland Fashionista, Duchess of Herbal Midge Repellent, or if that's too wordy, simply Her Ladyship will suffice.  For those of you reading this outside of Scotland, a "midge" is essentially the same as a "noseeum" in the US. Those little, bitey bastards that can fit through screens.

Of course the upside to becoming insect repellent royalty is the underlying indication that the weather is indeed good enough to be getting bothered by bugs at all, and such has been the case this summer. In over a decade of living in the West Highlands, this is far and away the best summer I have seen. It was nearly (nearly) to the point where I found myself wishing that I had left some of my Florida clothes here to add to my rotation. While what is appropriate in SW Florida is never going to look completely right in the Scottish West Highlands, that usually doesn't stop me from trying, so today I shook out one of my Lilly pima cotton Marlow shift dresses, a "just in case" holdover that I decided to leave in Scotland, and proudly pranced around in it. I'm royalty now, so I can totally do that - although don't expect me to be caught dead any time soon in sensible royal hemlines or shoes. That's going just a step too far.

Lilly Pulitzer Marlowe dress / Jack Rogers Marbella sandals / handmade beaded parrot earrings from a tourist shop in Sarasota, similar