easily distracted by shiny things…
Posted in inspiration on Jan 5th, 2012
Happy New Year! Very much a work in progress at the moment, but there are a few things that I want to resolve for the New Year: 1) Stop Messing With My Hair As you can see, at the beginning of last month I shaved off all my hair down to a grade 8, [...]
Posted in culture, inspiration on Dec 30th, 2011
Somewhat unexpectedly, this was one of my Christmas presents this year. A box set of all eleven Doctor Who figures. They were held into their TARDIS-shaped box (it had doors! with velcro!) with forty-four little twisty ties, which gave me plenty of time to contemplate the little Doctors as I was wrestling them out of [...]
Posted in inspiration, writing on Dec 19th, 2011
Talent is what they say you have after the novel is published and favorably reviewed. Beforehand what you have is a tedious delusion, a hobby like knitting. Work is what you have done after the play is produced and the audience claps. Before that friends keep asking when you are planning to go out and [...]
Posted in inspiration, museums, nature, photos, volunteering on Oct 13th, 2011
Four corvid skulls, waiting to be put away in a little box. The skulls had been part of a temporary exhibition to illustrate the functionality of differing beak shapes in various species of bird. It was an absolute joy to get out the boxes of bird skulls again, and to have another little look through [...]
Posted in costume, culture, exhibitions, inspiration, museums on Oct 1st, 2011
So, at long last, here is the completed stripy/steampunk outfit! Paul and I went to the Wild Boy’s Ball at Kensington Palace, and had an absolutely magical evening. You can see all the photos that Paul took, over on Flickr. We started off by going inside the palace itself, which was actually quite different from [...]
Posted in inspiration, shoes, shopping on Sep 15th, 2011
Happy Birthday to me! And what a perfect chilly-but-sunny day for frolicking in the grass wearing my new shoes. Aren’t they gorgeous? These are Queenie shoes from Fairysteps, in pink dragon leather to match my beloved handbag. I may have put them on before I got out of bed this morning, to the accompaniment of [...]
Posted in exhibitions, fabric, inspiration on Aug 12th, 2011
I managed to miss the Horrockses exhibition at the Fashion & Textile Museum, so I was delighted to pick up a leaflet for Basildon Park and find out that I could see them a little closer to home. The dresses were beautifully displayed throughout the house, but the highlight for me was this lobster-print skirt [...]
Posted in inspiration, shopping on May 22nd, 2011
Photo © Fairysteps Look what the postman very kindly delivered to me this week! It’s a lovely new handbag, courtesy of Fairysteps. In living proof that social media can really work for small businesses, I spotted this on Ren’s Facebook page, saw that this pink “dragon” leather was limited stock, and snapped it up immediately! It’s going [...]
Posted in inspiration, sewing, tops on May 19th, 2011
I’ve been looking for “interesting” shirt patterns, thinking that I could make lots of plain white shirts with fancy details, and then dress them up with jewellery or waistcoats or (cool) bow ties. The pictures above are about half-and-half patterns that I own already, and ones I’d like to buy. Except that I’ve bought dozens [...]
Posted in inspiration, shopping on May 15th, 2011
This, I believe, has to be the best bike helmet I have ever seen. It’s from Cycle Chic. Coolest. Thing. Ever. So, I’m currently applying for a job. It’s a brilliant job, but one that will require a commute that’s a little longer than I’d normally prefer. In order to make the commute a little less [...]