I’m immensely excited about today’s blog post because it has been over six months in the making. In fact, it was last year that Faith (whose name in a past life must have been Patience) and I first began speaking about a collaboration where I would share some of her gorgeous creations. Faith works specifically with feathers, hence the name of her business Feathers by Faith. I initially got her to make me a feather piece to decorate one of my many straw boaters. I gave her autumn colours of mustards, browns, teals and maroons to inspire her. She came back with two gorgeous pieces, one specifically that I was to wear for the Tweed Ride.
Remember that post in which I had a photo shoot with just one photo of me and that was out of focus? Well, that was my post especially for the feather piece by Faith and I was so bummed that it didn’t come off. Then I planned to do one during winter, which has been dogged by a range of things. To the point that I have decided that this particular shoot is cursed. It’s the one blog post that has caused endless grief. We’ve had everything go wrong: we’ve shown up without the camera, without the headpiece, without a key piece of the outfit, without a SIM card in the camera. Then when the planets seemed to align and I got the shoot items together, my main photographer had a baby. Then when I got myself together enough to take a picture without her, I had to move house. And then on top of all of this, I’ve been mighty unwell for a very simple reason.
It seems for some time that I’ve been soldiering through life with a Vitamin D deficiency. I’ve only just come to know this because my brilliant best friend Mel encouraged me to consult my local GP and ask for an iron test. At the time of promising to do this, I had come home from work every evening that week, unable to do anything more than lay on the couch. I had been eating take away if I’d had the energy to eat at all. I had been having trouble sleeping because I would lay awake at night with my muscles and joints aching. The final day I got home, plonked down on the couch and promptly fell asleep. I woke up hours later and lamented to my bestie that I didn’t even have the energy to move the five meters from the couch to my bed to sleep. My whole life was like I was trying to swim in over-thickened custard. So, off I went to the GP as a high priority.
The GP also wanted to check my levels on a range of other things with similar symptoms to low iron, which was great because when the results came back they showed I was very low on Vitamin D. He immediately put me on to Vitamin D supplements and I gradually began noticing little changes. At first, I woke up more clear headed and rested. My muscles and joints also stopped aching. My energy didn’t all come back in a big rush though. I would feel sprightly in the morning and it was unlike any energy levels I’d had for months so I’d have a whole productive day planned and would bomb out by the end of the work day. Little by little though, like the lengthening of winter days, my energy levels would last longer and longer. I now feel mostly great all the time, but in the last day, I forgot to take my supplements and was exhausted and aching within 24 hours. So while I’m mostly improved in my day to day life, the result of that is still quite reliant on me taking on those supplements.
Hat: Portmans
Dress: Piper at Myer
Feathers: Feathers by Faith
Tights: Review
Shoes: Mimco
Pics: Mum
Location: Newlyn
My Vitamin D deficiency has been caused by a lack of exposure to direct sunlight. I work in an office, in a city with a decently sunless winter and I love wearing sunscreen. So even when there is a chance for sun, I’m rarely in direct sunlight. As the days begin to get longer and the sun more frequent, I’ll be capitalising on the sun much more.
So this winter has been a long one. It has been a beautiful battle. Moving house has been brutal when I can barely muster the strength to carry boxes, hold heavy things or disassemble furniture. The demand on my mind and body has been above average and I’ve had many days where I have hit a wall and without the energy to continue and I’ve still pushed on past my capacity. Some of the most brutal parts of this whole thing are the people who may not be able to see the reason for my unusual tardiness with getting things done or the physical or mental cost that has had on me as I’ve pushed through anyway. However, people, in general, are beautifully understanding creatures so I have done my best to not let that trouble me. I say ‘my best’ as the content of this post obviously indicates that it has troubled me somewhat.
So as a goodbye to winter, here is my final winter outfit post. I felt it was a great metaphor to feature this beautiful feather piece by Feathers by Faith as it’s been a fight to get the pictures done. Even though I couldn’t find my hair extensions and the horses I brought apples for were nowhere to be found, we did it anyway. Just like the winter I’ve had, this isn’t the photo shoot I wanted, but it’s done, and I think it’s beautiful anyway.
On a side note, just to prove how cursed this shoot is, as I was trying to write this blog post, I accidentally pulled the computer plug from the back of the computer. Luckily, I was writing it online so it saved in the cloud.
– L
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