All up in my ears.

After a good few months of listening to the same stuff (I do still love you, Little Boots - and you are totally not fat, by the way, you are cute and tiny and awesome - but there’s only so many times I can listen to Remedy before our relationship suffers), I’ve finally updated the playlist on my iPod with some new stuff! And some old stuff, too. Here’s a list of the current highlights...

Nine Black Alps – Everything Is
This album was out a good few years ago now – I remember Cosmopolitan being one of my anthems when I was in my early 20s. I randomly included it the other day and was reminded what an album of TUNES it is. Yes, I said tunes, but at least I didn’t say choons. And it reminds me of when I was 23/24 and went dancing ALL THE TIME. Sigh.


She & Him – Volume One
I’ve made no disguise of my love for Zooey Deschanel (she’s pretty, deadpan, wears lovely clothes and has great hair) and finally downloaded her band’s album the other day. It’s very different from anything else I’m listening to, but really lovely. Zooey has the prettiest voice, and it’s the perfect album to put on at work to see me through a hardcore spreadsheet session.


Alexandra Burke – Overcome
I loved Alex on X Factor, and was totally championing her to win. Plus, when she sang with Beyonce? I cried. And when she won, and literally couldn’t stand? I cried. I love X Factor (although everyone is rubbish this year! What’s up with that? JEDWARD TO WIN. NO THEY'RE NOT GONE.). Anyway, I borrowed the album from a friend and was actually surprised to find that I really like it. Way more than Cheryl Cole’s album (featuring Will.I.Am and Auto Tune!). Yes, some of the songs are cheesy ballads and not all that, but there are some genuinely great tracks. Bury Me does not sound like something a talent show contestant would come out with (it really reminds me of VV Brown, actually) and god, I really want to go dancing to Broken Heels and Bad Boys.


Placebo – Battle for the Sun
When I was battling through my English degree, the only thing that got me through Essay Hell was all three Placebo albums on shuffle. I can’t study to silence, but only certain music will help me concentrate (when revising for my marketing exams, it was all Snow Patrol, Arcade Fire, Elbow... and Placebo, of course). Something about Placebo worked for me. The unfortunate side effect is that I can’t really listen to their older stuff now without getting really depressed – it just evokes that 3am feeling of panic that you’re never going to get your dissertation finished. Their new album seems more up-tempo, with some fantastic tracks. Love it.


Arctic Monkeys – Humbug
After a cracking – if massively overhyped – first album (seriously, I remember seeing them at the height of Arctic Fever in Brixton on the NME Awards Tour, and being terrified. Good, but not THAT good.), my initial fondness for the Arctics waned. Everything since their debut just wasn’t all that memorable. But their latest album is genuinely great. One of the things that I think you can always say about Alex Turner is that he doesn’t rest on his laurels, and Humbug is a really good example of how he’s moved on as a musician. It’s more grown-up, retaining his great lyrics but with some lovely melodies and some real standouts. Cornerstone is my favourite, which I think is going to be the next single.


Glee – OST (1)
OH MY GOD I LOVE GLEE. I’ve been able to watch s1 so far online and, man, I’m in love.


Go on, now your turn. What's getting your ears in a happy state?

Everything is better in a dress.

In honour of the 20% off at New Look voucher (only valid until Monday!), I shelled out £20 on this lovely little number.



As I was walking back to work and justifying yet another party dress to my already bulging wardrobe, I reasoned that I didn't have a classic Little Black Dress, and it's a sound investment.

Of course, then I remembered that I already have two. No, wait, three. Um.

But! None of them are as pretty and chic as this dress! It has a lovely, flattering shape (full skirts 4eva!) with pretty little details like the (sadly non-removable) belt and the little bow brooches on the shoulder.

And it comes in cream, if you're lucky enough to be able to pull off that colour (me? Not so much). I'll be teaming this with black tights, patent mary janes and silver jewellery... although, really, a dress like this demands pearls.

Decking up all kinds of halls.

I’m so excited that we’re only a month away from Christmas!

I have mixed feelings about this time of year. For instance, I hate being cold... and yet I love hats (Twenty berets at last count... this is a problem.). And black tights are so much more flattering than bare legs. And while I adore the build up to Christmas, I always find the actual day a bit of a let down. It’s my inner seven year old – sadly, when you’re twenty seven, it’s just never going to be as good. My sister and I are doing our best to rectify that, though (the key seems to be LOTS of booze. And having a little person around.).

So, as the build-up to Christmas is my favourite part, I’m going to be celebrating it over the next month by bringing you a Christmas post every week! (Plus other posts, just in case you're not a fan of the festivities) First up, I present a list of my favourite things about the run up to Christmas...

Seasonal food and drink
I’m not talking mince pies or Christmas cake – I’m actually surprisingly unenthused about both these things (and, also, crème eggs. So sickly!). Oh no, I mean the seasonal specials that the big chains come out with.

Starbucks and their gingerbread lattes! (Okay, I don’t drink coffee, but if I did...) Marks and Spencer and their Christmas sandwiches line! Which, this year, has been expanded into seasonal salads, drinks, soup and cakes... WOW. And finally, my local sandwich shop, Palmers, and their Christmas Panini. Bacon, sausage, stuffing, cranberry, turkey... and hey, why not add some brie? OM NOM NOM.

Decorating!
It’s always been the practise in my house that the kids decorate the tree. Then, as we grew up, my dad took over. The tree was always bright and colourful, but... well, not much thought had gone into it. A couple of years ago, everyone in my house was busy and it was put to me to do the tree. Being the image obsessed, slightly OCD person that I am, I put my all into it, using only red and gold decorations, and the result was amazing. Really, everyone said so. I’ve perfected this over the last two years and have cemented my place as Head of Christmas Tree Design, and have even managed to talk my mother into spending far too much money on stunning decorations. I can’t wait to show off our tree this year.

Snow Fairy
I no longer suffer from the Lush addiction I had at uni, but I still get a thrill of excitement when they send out their Christmas brochure, just to see the exclusive seasonal products they’ve brought out. The one I go back to time and time again is this gorgeous shower gel. Yes, it’s the colour of that weird medicine you used to have as a kid (possibly amoxicillin?) and on first sniff, smells like sickening bubble gum, but give it a chance! Because when used, it smells like sweeties! And who doesn’t want to smell like sweeties all day?

I am so obsessed with Snow Fairy that I buy about five of the large bottles every December so I have enough to last me all year. I’m still using the last of my 2008 bottles.

Shopping!
Despite being someone who loves to shop for herself – and why the hell not? – I actually really love buying Christmas presents. That excitement of knowing you’ve got something that the recipient is going to absolutely adore, the satisfied feeling when you get in and dump it all on your bed and then gradually sort through it all... it’s just an excuse to share my favourite hobby with the people I love. These days, I do most of it online, which is fine... but it’s never quite the same as the exhausting yet triumphant trawl through the shops. Not on Christmas Eve, though. I’m not CRAZY.

Wrapping!
I do not understand why more people do not love wrapping presents. I love wrapping presents so much that I get called in as assistance for my sister and my friends. It’s so much fun! And, being a competitive person, there’s nothing I like more than doing something WELL, and my presents are always the prettiest under the tree.

Although, as I blogged about last year, I don’t actually wrap presents all that well. My corners are always shabby and there are inevitably rips and creases. But because I spend that extra pound or so on ribbon and rosettes, everyone is distracted by the SHINY and fails to notice how crappy my wrapping skills really are. So, top tip #1 – spend that little extra (and it really is an extra couple of pounds, total) on ribbons and rosettes and top tip #2 – buy shiny, plain, metallic paper. It looks way more luxe than something with Santa all over it and you can use it all year because it’s not season-specific!

Culinary exploits
On Sunday, my sister and I completed our second practise run of the Christmas dinner. We’ve decided to totally take over this year, to ensure that we get the dinner we’re dreaming of... and we’ve found that what we like, everyone else does too. Loads of meat and potatoes* and oodles of gravy? No one’s turning that down. Thanks to our practise runs, we’ve now introduced honey roasted sweet potatoes to the table (amaaazing... and low fat! Although if you cook them in the meat tin they’re even better, and that kind of cancels out the low fat thing...) and perfected our roasties. The other thing is, that at Christmas it’s totally fine to make loads of cakes, so I’m going to be trying out a few things. I’ve been dreaming about Baileys Brownies for ages, and had my first stab at them this weekend. Although they tasted epic, there were some consistency issues... so another try will have to be had. But don’t worry, I’ll post the recipe on here once they’re perfect.

*Um, four kinds?

Advent calendars

Um, hello, it's an excuse to eat chocolate every day for a month. This is the dream, people.

The Capital City!

I had rather a pleasant day on Saturday, pottering around London. I’m only about a 20 minute train ride from London, which is a pretty sweet deal, especially considering that where I live is super pretty and full of trees. My house is a three minute walk from sheep. Sheep! They’re not even MY sheep!

So, while London is not a novelty, I rarely get a chance to go in for a wander. I’m normally going in for nights out or parties or interviews or various things like that. And, although this was for a night out yet again, we decided to go in at lunchtime.



The main reason for going in early was to visit the Polaroid exhibition at the Atlas Gallery, which I’ve posted about before. If you’re desperate to go... prepare to be disappointed. It’s small. It’s also the kind of gallery where you feel more than a little self-conscious about going in dressed in head-to-toe Primark. There are two rooms of photos – about 50 in total, but it seemed like less. And they were all very nice, but I’d already seen the best ones in the press, and it all felt very targeted at people who had come to buy. And I wasn’t about to spend £6-10k on a Polaroid... even if it was taken by Andy Warhol.


So, after the five minutes we spent in there before the awkwardness became too overwhelming, we had about three hours to kill... which we hadn’t anticipated. So, potter! Of course we went to Topshop first, which wasn’t as scary on a Saturday afternoon in November as I expected. We were actually hunting for this necklace for Sha, but no luck. Then we had lunch at Leon, which was taaaasty.


Then we headed off down Carnaby Street, which was all pretty and Christmassy and 60s and amazing. I remember a couple of years ago, leaving a work meeting in Soho and accidentally ending up on Carnaby Street. I was confused. Unexpected cobbles will do that to you.

We also popped into Liberty’s (I love Liberty’s) to check out their Christmas shop, but we didn’t go up to Luella’s Grotto in the end. Shame, I bet it was incredible. Next time! (Sidenote: How sad is it that Luella is closing? Especially since even at the knockdown Closing Sale prices, I still can’t afford any of the dresses?)


After a suitably Christmassy drink in Starbucks (red cups yayyy) it was time to head off to Twickenham to meet our buddies and be scared by rugby people. Why is it singing in pubs always seems more terrifying than welcoming?

PS - Apologies for lower-quality photos than usual, I had mini-camera with me instead of big impressive one.

Boom! Psshhhh! Ahhhh...

I went to an awesome fireworks display last week. Yes, I know, we’ve all moved on from Bonfire Night and are thinking about Christmas now, but what’s wrong with living in the past every now and then? Nothing, that’s what. Also, I had a really busy week.

Anyway. Fireworks are awesome. I took my camera with me and snapped away, meaning I watched most of the display through a lens which probably meant I missed loads, but it was still pretty.

I love all the random trippy effects my camera came out with.

It was perfect fireworks weather – cold and clear – and so we wrapped up warm and headed off to the local display (which is renowned for being pretty much amazing). My resourceful friend Sarah even brought along a flask of mulled wine, so we got pleasantly pickled whilst warming up nicely.

What did you get up to?

PS - I'm now on Deviant Art. Add me!

Spinning my own world wide web.

I've been busy all week trying to give my website a much needed revamp. I haven't updated any of the content in over a year (other than adding a link to this blog and my Etsy) and I'm terribly sick of it. When I wasn't working in the Spring, I intended to give it a total overhaul, but exams sort of got in the way.

But now I have no more exams EVER AGAIN (never getting sick of that), I've had the time to seriously work on it. The design is now done, and once the content is all written and collated, I'll be sending it over to my saintly web-genius friend Russ, who is going to make it pretty and fast and amazing.

But for now, I'm going to tantalise you all with this sneak preview.



I'm so excited to see it all finished!

I hope everyone has a lovely weekend - I'm off to see fireworks tonight, but firstly I'm going out for a potter with my camera. It's such a lovely Autumnal day, even if it is freezing! What are you up to?

PS - I've noticed that I've gained a few new followers lately - hi there! Don't be shy, say hello! :)

Happy Halloween!

So, in honour of Halloween, I have a confession to make. I'm a total scaredycat. I blame the combination of having an overactive imagination and being the youngest of three. Evil, evil older siblings. (Well, my sister was actually far and away the worst, but she maintains that's because our brother wound her up and she had to pass it on to someone. If this is true, I should really be meaner to babies than I am.)

The top 5 things that scare me are:

Sharks

If I was reading this feature on some other blog, I'd be squinting in panic at the impending shark picture. But this is MY blog, therefore there will be no pictures of real sharks (cartoon sharks are allowed), because even pictures of sharks scare the crap out of me. Mostly it's because they look scary, and they can actually kill you (this: why I am not scared of UK-dwelling spiders), but I think the phobia lingers from the vague fear of something huge and unseen lurking beneath the surface and creeping towards you, slowly but surely. Scared now?*

The Dark

I hate the dark. I close my eyes as soon as the lights go out, and the main reason for this is so that I don't see... things. The thing is that I never have seen anything in the dark, which doesn't stop me being scared, it just convinces me that one day there really will be a face appearing out of the dark at the window, or behind me in the mirror, or some thing lurking around my bed in the middle of the night.

Zombies

Such a ridiculous thing to fear, and yet... there's something about zombies that is way scarier than their horror cohorts. Vampires are sexy (I may not be a TwiFan, but I can appreciate Edward Cullen as much as the next girl) and werewolves are basically huge dogs, but zombies... not only are they walking representations of most people's biggest fear - death, that is - and hellbent on eating the brains of everyone... no, that's not the source of the fear. The fear is due to the fact that in every zombie movie ever, it starts with one, and it spreads. And spreads. Slowly but definitely surely, they're gonna get ya. And eventually you'll just have to give in.

Clowns

Hey, parents everywhere - no child thinks that clowns are funny. They might act like they do when they're four, but in ten years time, that fun little trip to the circus will be a full blown phobia. You can't see what clowns are thinking under their masks (I'll tell you - murder) and they're probably hiding a full arsenal of weaponry in their big clownsuits and... they're just scary, okay? Once, my friend turned up to a fancy dress party in a clown outfit and no one talked to her all night, they were too scared. True story. I was there, and I stayed away.

Japanese horror**

I've only seen one Japanese horror film - the Grudge - but it was enough to convince me that I never need to see another one again, ever, ever, ever. And, actually, that was the American remake. But it scared the hell out of me. The scene with the... in the bed... god. And from what I hear about other Japanese horror films (and their remakes) - The Ring, A Tale of Two Sisters, etc... yeah, they're messed up. Stay away.

Sooo. What scares you?


* This gives me serious issues when alone in swimming pools.

** Sorry for the generalisation with the Japanese flag, but this seriously scared me way too much to google any more relevant images...

Ghosts, churches and squirrels.

I recently visited Chester, therefore inadvertently completing my stops on the 5 most haunted places in the UK. Actually, I only have Belfast and Gloucester to do before I get to ten. What can I say, ghosts follow me.

Anyway, I figured it was fitting for Halloween to post my photos of Chester - it's a Roman town, and is all old churches and pretty buildings. Oooh, and loads of shops.


We heard a story about a nun who was so devout that she wanted to be buried as close to heaven as possible. No, not on the moon, but near the top of her church, embedded in the wall. Although apparently the coffin was disturbed a few years ago, and now her spirit wanders the church grounds. Woooo. We didn't see her.


I love cobwebs. The other day there was an awesome big cobweb outside the house next to mine with a creepy little spider right in the middle, and it had been raining so the cobweb was all covered in droplets and looked pretty. So I got my camera and tried to take a photo, but it just looked like I was trying to take a photo through their door, and we're not very close with our neighbours, so needless to say, I didn't get the shot.


Also, in Chester, the squirrels are really, really tame.


Must be the ghosts.

Edible fairies!

A couple of friends have asked me how I made the fondant fairies for my niece's birthday so I present a guide. I wish it could have step by step pictures, but when I made them, I wasn't convinced it would work, so didn't take them at the time... but I have attempted illustrations, instead.
Anyway! You will need:

• Fondant
• Food colouring (I went with pink, yellow and red)
• Icing sugar
• Chopping board/big old plate
• Little sharp knife
• Rolling pin

1 - Skin
I took a largeish handful of fondant and moulded it into a ball, and then added a drip of yellow and a drip of pink food colouring. A drip = about half a cap. Then I kneaded it for ages until it stopped being streaky and went peach! It will, I promise.

Oh - and make sure you have lots of icing sugar to hand, as it will stop it being sticky. Especially when you get the rolling pin out, otherwise it will stick to the pin and the chopping board. Use as much as necessary.

Then, take a bit and roll it into a ball. Take another bit and roll into a squat cylinder, then make two more smaller ones. Finally, arms - just roll out some long squishy tubes. It should all look like this, size-wise.

The two small cylinders are the legs - they go together, then the larger one goes on top, as the body. You can always assemble these after you've made the clothes, which is what I did, so it stuck out.

2 - Dress
Take another plain bit and add your chosen colour - I chose pink. Knead and massage until the colour is to your liking - you might want it streaky. It is pretty like that. I found the more I fiddled with it, though, the less streaky it went, anyway.

Roll it flat (remember the icing sugar) and cut out a circle with your knife. You honestly don't need to be crazy-neat with this - I really don't think you need a cutter, unless you desperately want to. I suppose you could always use a big star or something and make something with a jagged edge.

Drape it over the body, like it's a ghost and arrange the folds as you want.

3 - Hair
My niece is a brunette, and I would have liked to have made brown hair, but I didn't really have the necessary colours. So I went with yellow instead and made blonde, which actually worked really well. Knead, knead, knead.

Roll it out flat and cut out a long, squishy semicircle, sort of like this.

Hang it over the head carefully until it looks sort of bob-like and press it down gently over the 'forehead'. Create a parting with your knife - super, super gently. You should have made enough space to have hair at the back, too, but if not, cut out a small circle and press that into the back of the head, and into the hair.

Because this is so thin, you have to be mad careful not to make it all fall apart. I do recommend doing the head separately before attaching to the body.

4 - Arms
Attach to the 'shoulders' - this will be covered up by the hair. Press down. I opted to keep them 3D, but they would probably look good flat. Hold them however you want - I went for next to the body as I knew they'd stay secure.

5 - Assemble!
Stick head onto the shoulders.

Stick body onto legs if you haven't already.

Draw on face! I just did eyes with a matchstick as it was all I had, but a cute little smile would work too. If it's not staying put, just wet both sides slightly, and they should stick.

Add any details like a bow (two tiny dots stuck next to each other) or a hat, or anything else you choose. I made wings by sellotaping them to a cocktail stick and then sticking it into the back at an angle, but I want to try doing them out of fondant next.

Et voila!

That's the last thing I need...

...a new shop to get obsessed with. Online, no less, which is even more dangerous, as you end up buying way more than you need just to see it. Oh, ASOS, you take so much of my money.

But this post is not about ASOS. It's about ModCloth, the fashion website that everyone else in the world is in love with and I have only just discovered. It's like they've reached into my head and pulled out all the things I love and turned it into a shop! There's even the octopus necklace I nearly bought last year (um, on ebay. Really cheaply. From Hong Kong. I bought this one instead though! And as it happens, wore it today.).

It's gorgeous. Full of quirky, vintage-style jewellery and stunning dresses, two of my favourite things. It even has a vintage section! Granted, everything in it is sold out, but some of the stuff is amaaazing. Look! Look! Look! And look! And... okay, I don't get this so much. But keep looking! Wow!

Here are my 'If someone could just dump a few extra grand in my bank account please' picks... wonder what the shipping would be on these babies from the US?

*swoon* Gorgeous retro dresses. Couldn't you just imagine sipping iced tea on the veranda in any number of these?

I'm trying not to stare too hard at these because I want them all way too much. Especially the first one. And the second one. Oh, and the third one is green.

Feisty party dresses! I love the hemline on no.3.

Gorgeous skirts! How pretty is no.2?

They even sell quirky random things, like mittens in the shape of sharks. I'm terrified of sharks, but even I wouldn't mind these little guys keeping my hands warm.

I have a small robot obsession, ever since I missed out on New Look's adorable robot necklace last year. And this robot has a watch in it! And wow, this penguin key-topper would be such a great present for my best friend. Or anyone, really. Who doesn't love penguins?

I want the middle umbrella so much.

And finally, beautiful jewellery! Sigh.

Excessive? Yes. But this only a fraction of the stuff on Modcloth I'm coveting. And if you're lucky enough to live on the other side of the Atlantic, what are you waiting for? CLOTHES, people. And accessories! Go, shop!

Give me an S...

I'm in love with this necklace that I got from Topshop a couple of weeks ago.

How beautiful? It doesn't look very 'Topshop' at all, yet there it was for the fairly reasonable price of £7. And I had a giftcard! So it was like a late birthday present!

For some reason it's not on the website, but it's still in my store, although I think that C is the only letter that's left. I have barely taken it off. It's a lot like the one ASOS sold earlier this year, but nicer, in my opinion.

Hooray for initial necklaces coming back in fashion! As has been well documented here, I have a bit of a thing for them. Hopefully they won't prove to be stiff competition for my own initial necklaces, because that would make me sad.

SBV at the movies.

I've had a bit of a movie buff weekend. Firstly, I went to see Up, which is amazing. Beautiful to look at, moving (I cried, like, a LOT) and hilarious... I might even love it more than Wall-E. I certainly cried a lot more. Also, 3D! (Benefit of 3D glasses: no one can tell you're sobbing.)

I also saw Zombieland, which is about as far removed from Up as you can get. I'm kind of terrified of zombies anyway (stupid thing, there are Reasons which I'm sure I'll go into at a later date) but it looked funny, and not that scary, so I risked it. And it was brilliant, and really funny, but some bits were also still scary and uncomfortable to watch. And now I have a new phobia of public bathrooms. THANKS, Zombieland.

Plus, zombie clown? WHY. The only thing worse would be a zombie shark.

I'm dying to see The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus, partly because I was always a huge Heath Ledger fan, but mostly because it looks really stunning. I've actually heard a few quite negative reviews from it, but visually, doesn't it look amazing?

This is mostly due to Lily Cole, who is one of those incredibly cool-looking individuals who really just should be art, or something. Good thing she's a model, really.

As does Where The Wild Things Are, which was one of my favourite books growing up. I will be running to the cinema to see it when it comes out, and I will beat my chest and roar like Max, the wildest Wild Thing of them all.

Finally, isn't this a beautiful movie poster? And so sad, when you know what happens. I may wait for DVD for this one, because I don't think even 3D glasses will be able to disguise what a blubbering mess I'm going to be.

How about you? Seen any good films lately? Or, if that subject is too boring for you - who would play you in a movie of your life? I'd like to think it would be Zooey Deschanel, but she is way hotter than I am. We have similar hair now, though! (Oh yes, I did that.)

PS - Still no laptop... :(

The Others.

So I can't post photos, or blog much at all really for a while because my computer is officially dead. I would bury it in the back garden, except I've left it at the computer shop so they can use it for parts. My laptop is an organ donor, guys. That's impressive.

Anyway, they're toiling to build me a new computer with a hard drive that's not full of dust and likely to explode at any minute. Okay, so it didn't explode, it just went, 'No. Sorry. I am not loading any more. No Glasto tickets for you. Ha.' You know what, computer, I'm glad you're dead. That's right, I went there.

So whilst I am photoshop-less, I am going to embrace the keyboard instead and write a little list of my favourite other-bloggers.

Other-bloggers are not scary like the Other Mother (oh hai, Coraline, you would be an awesome Halloween costume), they are more like Other-Sarahs, which is what I call all Sarahs who are not me, apart from my favourite Other-Sarah, who is Sarah N, even though she's married now and her surname doesn't begin with N. But anyway.

Other! Bloggers!

Wishwishwish
www.wishwishwish.net
Carrie's blog is lovely to read and often a little inspiring. She takes lovely pictures, has a gorgeously quirky fashion sense and posts really good links to shops, websites and places to visit. She also has a life that I'm somewhat jealous of, partly because she's 9 years younger than me and is way cooler than I was at that age. Plus, she gets photography passes to places like Glastonbury and London Fashion Week, and has just started fashion college. Oh, and she's really cute. Her blog is always a pleasant read, a nice insight into her life whilst sharing things she thinks you might find interesting - I love it all her recommendations, as they tend to be tiny shops and vintage clothing places that I would never find otherwise.

Forever Young Adult
www.foreveryoungadult.com
I remember lurking in the teenage department of the library when I was about 15, waiting for my dad to get his arse out of the maritime section and reading some Point Romance book or other. And some random guy who did not work there asked how old I was, thinking I was too old to be there, apparently. Whatevs, random dude who I recall as being somewhat creepy, because Young Adult books are freaking awesome. Remember Forever by Judy Blume? Okay, so I was about 8 when I read that and didn't understand any of it, but it's still amazing. This blog is by a group of contributors from Texas (at least mostly) who review Young Adult books. It's not all crappy uber cheese, either. Erin, the best blogger of all in all the world* recently reviewed The Book Thief, which if you haven't read, you must. It's such a good book, if a tiny bit sad. Okay, very sad. Okay, gut wrenchingly upsetting. But incredible! Anyway, FYA is well-written, amusing and regularly updated, which are three things that blogs should aim to be.

*This comment might be slightly biased as I might know Erin and she might be one of my favourite people. Might. She also has a regular blog!

Afeitar
afeitar.blogspot.com
I first came across Helen on one of my favourite LJ communities, thehighstreet. I'm pretty sure she's single-handedly responsible for my current obsession with red accessories. She puts outfits together really well, takes beautiful photos and makes cakes that I really, really want to eat. Her blog is, well, not dissimilar to this one in terms of content - sort of fashiony, sort of photo-y, sort of general-nice-things-y. But all those things are good things! Especially when you do them well. And she does. Her blog is cute and fun, and well worth a visit.

Danny isn't here, Mrs Torrance
www.dannyisnthere.com
Mere's blog is mostly about horror movies. I have this love/hate relationship with horror films. I love the structure of them, and critiquing them, but I'm also a huge wuss, and hate being scared. I've come to realise that I can do gore, but creepiness... well, it creeps me out! Luckily for me, a lot of the focus of Danny isn't here (a quote from The Shining, btw) is on the more schlocky side of horror, like the human centipede. Yep, someone thought that up. Plus upcoming things in the world of horror and movies, and occasionally TV, too. She mentions Supernatural quite a bit, and as she tends to post photos when she mentions it, I thoroughly approve. Those boys are pretty. Also, Mere just got married. Congratulations, Mere!


Right, I have to surrender the computer back to my father, so I guess I'll go read a book or play with sticks or something. I miss my laptop!

Pretty in Polaroid.

One of my biggest regrets is never owning a Polaroid. And of course I never will, now that they've stopped making both the cameras and the film. Sigh.

Still, I can placate myself with the beautiful Polaroids other people post to the internets... and this exhibition at the Atlas Gallery, which I am so totally going to.

Polaroid: Exp 09.10.09 is on October 9th until November 28th, and is a celebration of... well, guess. The last batch of Polaroid film expires next month, and this exhibition brings together renowned artists including Andy Warhol and Helmut Newton with contemporary artists commissioned especially for the show. All the images are for sale.

Incidentally, Poladroid is a free programme you can download to give your existing digital photos Polaroid colouring and borders. It's awesome.

Talking of exhibitions, if I could afford a flight to New York before April, I would be at MOMA so fast. I love Tim Burton.

Last days of summer

With October - and therefore Autumn - starting tomorrow, it's the end of summer for another year. However, the unpredictable qualities of British weather means that occasionally you get the joy of glorious sunshine and running about on the Bournemouth beach on the last weekend of September.






I may be back to tights and jumpers now, but, wow, it was lush to get the chance to write my name in the sand and dabble my toes in the sea for one last time this year, before the rain and the frost creeps in.