Silver Midi Skirt and Pastel Sweater

Hi lovely people,

Scotland has taken a turn for better and decided to after all resemble something close to Spring. The afternoons May has brought us are bright and warm until very late, in the air there is a scent of freshly cut grass (my favourite) and flower blossoms, and almost every morning I am woken up by birdsong before my alarm, as obviously there is a nest filled with baby birds right outside my window. It's almost as if the Winter needed to be so harsh, for the Spring here to be so lovely.

The past couple of months coming up to May have felt like an obstacle course during a sprint. Without ending up sounding negative, it hasn't been an easy time. But somehow, while this time has been taxing, it has also brought joyful, unforgettable and lovely moments.

Leather Peplum Skirt and Check Top

Hi beautiful people,

And so we have entered May, which has always been a special month for Elegance Lies as it was 8 years ago in May I wrote my first blog post. With that in mind, and with birthdays in general, it is good to look back on decisions that were made and where they have taken us. I don't know about you, but for me intuition always comes in strongly with any decision I make in life - whether that be deciding on a location to live, outfit to wear or people to allow close to me. So, even though I consider myself a logical thinker and most of my decisions in life will be made from hours of considering all of my options, in the end mostly my gut will swerve me the way I need to go, or it will keep me from making a decision my "logic" would have made beforehand.

Pyjama Jacket and Mini Corset Dress

Hi lovely people,

If you are anything like me you would have also tried to gather limitless amounts of joy from these rare rays of sunshine that have graced us in the UK (and hopefully wherever you are) over the past couple of days. Not always are we so lucky to get such impeccably nice weather to make us gleeful, therefore it is good to know substitutes for such occasions. There are some short term solutions that almost always work for me - my online orders arriving on time, a dog on the street running up to me with their tail wagging, a good hair day (or a good skin day), playing my ukulele or the smell of fresh cup of coffee in the morning.

Nevertheless, as nice as they are, these moments are fleeting and like the sunshine in the UK, they are quickly over and gone. You get your rainy days, and with the way life is, the ratio of grey days will more often be greater than the ones filled with sunshine. This week, due to the unexpected Spring sunshine, I have come back to my favourite Latvian poet and writer Imants Ziedonis and specifically one of my favourite tales of his - Pelēkā Pasaka (The Grey Tale).

Red Linen Blazer and Black Jeans with Lacing

Hi guys,

I don't know about you, but I certainly feel like these past 2 weeks have not been the easiest. Whether it's the Mercury Retrograde to blame or seemingly never ending grey here in the UK, everything feels like more of a struggle and things that usually would be easy and take a short time to complete, have taken me ages. During this time I have been thinking a lot about confidence and how a tiny shift in your regular routine can often turn your mindset upside down. A friend of mine said to me something that stuck and I have mulled it over in my brain during those days where nothing ever seems to be going my way. She said - "You can't always be perfect, but you can, however, always try to do your best."

It's such a simple thought, but for those of us who are never fully happy and are perfectionists to the point of emotional and physical exhaust, it is necessary to sometimes hear this. I have to say, I have always viewed confidence as a fake feeling. I have heard people often question how I can be so confident in certain situations in my life, to which I can only answer with - I'm not.