There has been lot of stuff that has baffled and bemused me this year. I kind of wish that I’d kept a list of all these things, it would have made writing this list easier and have resulted in a far superior piece of work. Well, there’s always next year…   1)    Downton Abbey: Not seen it, don’t want to see it. Bring back The House of Eliott, now that’s what I call a period drama.   2)    How Facebook is ever going to make any money: You don’t want to know how much of my time and energy has been wasted pondering this issue. Best solution? Fine users for the following infractions:   i.     Status updates that hint at political allegiances with the EDL ii.    Status updates whilst in labour iii.   Spelling “with” as “wiv” iv.    Stupid chain messages/statuses suggesting that I can help cure breast cancer by sharing my bra size and colour with all and sundry. It isn’t funny, it is just plain creepy.   There are more but I’ll stop there.     3)    That Fenton video on YouTube: It is an old dude chasing a dog through a park. I can watch my Dad doing something very similar on a daily basis.     4)    Thatcher “nostalgia”: Yes, she’s a powerful woman. This doesn’t mean that I should respect or give a shit about the heinous old cow.     5)    Why everyone suddenly became a current affairs pundit/satirist: I blame Twitter for this one. From Hackgate to Higgs Boson, everyone has suddenly decided that their opinions and gags are so important and hilarious that the WHOLE WORLD needs to read them. I really hope 2012 is a slow news year.     6)    The Kate Middleton look: Hurrah! Sloane for the 21st Century! That’s just what[.....]

    How’s your Monday evening going? Done anything of note? Anything that made your loved ones look at you as if you’d lost the plot?   I ask because I’ve spent the last half-an-hour emptying my jewellery box and placing its contents on a cuddly squirrel going by the name of Gary (bracelets expertly modelled by his buddy, Small Sheep).   I carried out this perfectly reasonable act because the lovely Lynsey Luu is running a competition. You can win any piece from her new collection by simply piling on all of your jewellery at once and taking a picture.   Once you have the picture, email it to lynsey@lynseyluu.com. The best pics will be placed on the Lysney Luu Facebook page for a public vote. The closing date for entries is Wednesday 19th October.   I look like hell tonight so I’ve drafted in some professional models to showcase my understated and subtle jewellery collection. I really do own some absolute treasure/tat.     You can find full instructions over on the Lynsey Luu blog. Whilst there, make sure to check out the online shop. I really love the “Pants” necklace and the “Oi!” bracelet.   Good luck with your blinged-out picture taking adventures! I’m off to remove 30 necklaces from a squirrel.   BBxx  

  Stuff that I have been up to lately, in pictures.   1) Laying some cool stuff out on my bed and taking a picture.   2) Sitting in old man pub   3) Playing spot the ladybird  

    I am well aware that in writing this post I am contributing to the very thing that I am criticising. I’m talking about opinions, more specifically why I dislike how the internet has made having one all important.   I have my opinions. Some I have grown up with, others I have developed as an adult and others shift and shape with experience and events. I’m not hugely strident with my opinions. I hate other people ramming their opinions down my throat so why should I do the same? Each to their own. I don’t know that my opinions are right, they are simply my best attempt to make sense of the world around me.   To borrow a phrase from some smooth Channel Four mee-dee-ahh type, my opinions aren’t “crunchy”.  A less flattering way to put it would be “on the fence”.   Let me explain why: in 2001, a college lecturer gave me some words that may be the best (or worst) gift I have ever received:   “Nothing is so black and white that there aren’t shades of grey.”   Ever since, I have decided to try and see everything from all sides. It isn’t easy, in fact it is bloody hard work. It requires thinking; sometimes out loud to my bemused husband or sometimes to myself as I gaze out of a window.   Whilst on holiday, I read a quote that made me think back to my old teacher’s phrase:   “Nothing is so firmly believed as that which least is known”   The quote came from the Renaissance philosopher Michel de Montaigne and I found it in the Cadogan Guide to Dordogne and the Lot, in between a thrilling chapter on foie gras production and a list of fine Bordeaux vintages.  [.....]

    I’ve just been admiring Tavi Gevinson’s inspirations for her bedroom. She references lots of stuff that I was into as a teenager: Hole, The Virgin Suicides, dabblings with the occult (yep, I totally tried being a witch after watching The Craft and deciding Fairuza Balk was a GODDESS). You know, just your standard teenage stuff…   Anyways, the post got me thinking about how I expressed myself through my teenage bedroom. It was brilliant; doors covered in glittery collages, nail polish stains all over the carpet, childhood toys still appearing on shelves – partly because they looked “cool” and partly because I secretly still wanted to be a little girl. The bookshelves were arranged so self-consciously, with Sylvia Plath and Poppy .Z. Brite’s biography of Courtney Love being used to hide countless volumes of Babysitters’ Club and Saddle Club books*.   In terms of decor, my Mom was in charge. I hated the chintz curtains and matching frilled bedlinen. The floral border and yellow speckled paper made me gag. I loathed the fluffy carpet (laminate was so where it was at back in 1997). On reflection, it was more me feeling like I had to hate it than a genuine sort of hate, what with grown-up’s taste being so lame and all. Either way, I decided that I didn’t like it. That’s why I stuck crap everywhere and was so reckless with my black Spectacular nail varnish. It was an act of rebellion. The confused aesthetic of surburban innocence and reluctant womanhood was acheived through my attempts to trash something that had been thrust upon me.   I reckon if Tavi let my Mom decorate her room she’d be on to something. Though now she’d get the laminate flooring and minimalist painted walls that I so badly craved. She’d[.....]

This is turning into an obsession. A worrying and expensive obsession.   Two weeks in France was an ideal opportunity to eat two of my favourite things: cheese and macarons.   Thankfully, I didn’t feel any urge to take loads of photos of cheese, instead I channelled all of my photographic energy into documenting macarons in their numerous guises.   From the rustic “Macaron de St-Emilion” through to the exquisite sparkling macaroons from the trendy “M le Macaron” on a Bordeaux back street, I’ve eaten and snapped them all. I even had my first ever savoury macaron, flavoured with dark chocolate and foie gras; it was interesting.   I spent the journey home daydreaming about future macaron related career options: 1) A luxury coffee table book all about macarons, exploring their history and the craft of making them (publishers, please get in touch, seriously). 2) Opening a macaron shop with my sister (investors in such a venture, please get in touch, seriously).     [/caption] 

07.59: Good morning fellow commoners! Hope you’re ready for this, I’m not. Bring on the Huw Edwards! 08.00 Lose the soft focus vignettes already. 08.02 How this will work: I’m watching the BBC’s live coverage online, I’ll comment on it as it goes along. Oh, hang on, time to watch some freaky royalists…how weird is that? Like, what makes people camp outside in the freezing cold and wear weird hats? 08.04 Dude get three titles. Good for him. Fearne time: polka dots and pussy bows, interesting choice. Like her bracelet and at least she hasn’t started shouting about HOW EXCITING everything is. 08.06. YET. It will happen. In other news, that poor Matthew kid.  If he was at my old primary school everyone would make jokes about him fancying the Queen and shiz. 08.08. Woah, Beeb gone all out on the jimmy-jib shots. Not convinced with Fiona Bruce’s cropped red combo, also husband has just declared “she sounds half pissed”. 08.11 Anita is cool, I like Anita. Her remark about the coaches for the Middleton’s reminding her of an Indian wedding was cool too. Want Will to marry Anita instead. 08.14 Rayworth looking almost as orange as her dress. Centrepoint is an awesome charity (as I’m sure Starlight is too). Feel bad for the blokes though, picking a tie is about as interesting as it gets for them. Though I’ve heard rumours that David Beckham is wearing purple shoes. 08.16 This weather fixation bugs me. It rained on my wedding day and it was still a blast. This is England people! It rains. Fearne and Carole Kirkwood together on screen, surely the end of days is near? 08.17: Bowman is silent. If only they could make that happen for Cotton. She looked adorable, kind of Doris Day. Want her skirt[.....]