Outfit: The Princess of Drum Castle

I don't want to be a princess.
When someone calls me a princess, even when I know it's meant as a compliment, it makes me cringe a little inside. Still I am a sucker for the big, poufy princess dress which makes the comparison inevitable. As we were taking these pictures a family with young girls walked by and when the girls asked who I was their mother replied, "why that's the princess of the castle. Every castle has a princess." In this situation the comparison made me smile and I just had to embrace the title as gracefully as royalty must. Of course, just as I'm not a princess, Drum Manor is not a castle but rather the ruined remains of old manor house, but in the right light things can be transformed into something more magical than they usually are. And at the end of the day isn't that the theme of nearly every fairytale? A chambermaid hidden in shadows and ashes is more noble than the ladies she serves dressed in silk and light. A beast lurking in a ruined castle isn't merely a monster, but a tortured prince. And the old woman you meet hobbling down the street is actually a powerful magician in disguise and your fate will be decided by how you chose to treat her. Fairytales always play with our perspectives and make us see things not as what they seem, but what they are underneath. 
And while I might not live in a fairytale (although sometimes, it honestly does feel like I do), there's no reason a humble woman can't occasionally slip into that princess dress and be the mysterious belle of the ball for a single evening. If there's anything else fairytales have taught us then it is to take action; Cinderella didn't meet the prince sitting in ashes by her fireplace, she put on a fancy dress and went to the party. Sometimes we don't get invited to the party, or we're too shy and skip the party and that's a real shame because really we need to put on that dress (if it's a dress we want, maybe it's motorcycle boots and a leather jacket that you want) and throw the darn ball ourselves. If you can't find an excuse to dress up the way you want, make one up. So this is very much my "why not" dress. A dress I wish I had worn to my prom (if I had been a bit more courageous), but I get to wear now because "why not now?" My favorite detail is the shape of the back; such a perfect frame for your shoulders or hair style...