The Comtesse's 2nd birthday. With a special hello to Aine, Noirin, Susie, Padraic and Kathy.

Today the blog is two! Thanks a lot for all the support and loveliness, fellow bloggers! I dedicate this post to five stylish and rather delightful (and, sadly, currently non-blogging) friends who happily identify themselves to me as avid readers of this blog and often wonder - and sometimes even ask me straight up (damn right!) - when exactly it's going to be updated: Aine, Noirin, Susie, Padraic and Kathy. Thanks guys!

Now that I've had my Oscar moment, I thought I'd look back on some recent purchases and summer staples. First off though, a blast from the past. When I was a teenager, I got a lot of lovely vintage things from my aunt (I remember rifling through bags of discarded clothes from her cruise trips with delight, matching up the amazing pieces to the styles and trends I had etched in my mind from old copies of Vogue), and so never thought to shop for the stuff, nor had I ever been inside a charity shop. It's only in my twenties that I've really come to love and frequent vintage and charity stores, and though Paris is not great for the latter, it definitely excels in the former - if only I'd known that years earlier! Anyway, all that to say that I used to frequent a shop called 'Sympa' (and a particular branch of it) which sold high street deadstock for next to nothing. Here it is; unfortunately it burnt down in recent years. That's particularly poignant of course, but it's also funny how it instantly brought back memories of a teenage me thinking 'this frilly t-shirt is the best thing ever', 'do they have pedal pushers in that bin over there I wonder' and 'I must buy this shrunken jade green top instantly' (one of my least favourite colours to wear nowadays, along with teal, as it happens).

Anyway, here's what I've been wearing (and wearing out) in Summer 2012.

My mint-coloured chiffon shirt from Primark and leopard print slippers from Dunnes. This slipper shape is so flattering on the foot and so comfy that I am quite mourning the demise of these pumps.

I bought a vintage go-with-anything Pierre Cardin clutch for a fiver in Paris.

Pastel nails. I eventually cracked.

I have been using this vintage satchel the whole time, as it carries all the essentials plus suncream and a Paris street guide. And tan leather is so much nicer in the summer.

I appreciated these Primark lace-up espadrilles when my little feet suffered from prickly heat - and while the soles still lasted.

This vintage dress from Free'p'star just about got me through a 38 degree heatwave.

These spike earrings from H & M made my ears feel fierce yet elegant.

I found a vintage scarf ring and a vintage brooch filled with real dried flowers in the charity shops of Norwich.

I did some extremely simple customising on a bag I got as part of an Ebay auction lot. See the black strap? It was doing a terrible impression of When Synthetics Die, and had to be hacked off without delay. 

I replaced it, as you can see, with a chain handle. This came with a neon H & M clutch, and I'd already whipped it off and saved it, thinking it looked cheap on that particular piece.

But the gaudy chain came into its own on a sombre vintage bag, and a new wardrobe star was born.

I also bought this H & M clutch for good measure, and wore it to 2 weddings, and on many's an evening out.

So...... What are the pieces and staples that have defined your wardrobe this summer? Were you taken in by any of the gimmicky trends like me?