Memory of a goldfish (and some crazy art in lights)

Duh. I was supposed to blog about the crazy art in lights that I went to see at the York Museum Gardens! Bit late but here it is.

So, it's like an interactive light show, projected onto different York buildings each year... this year, as I've said, the show took place at the Museum Gardens. By the way, York is beautiful, and if you've never been, you really should (tip: don't queue for Betty's... go to Little Betty's on the Shambles and order the bacon and egg muffin. Seriously). Anyway, my sister has recently taken up photography, so one of the main reasons we went was for her to get some good snaps... however she hasn't quite mastered her shutter speed in the dark.... her daytime photos are wicked, but at night? Not so much... (kidding Emma, you're ace). Tee hee. Basically it wasn't her fault, she just needed a tripod. 

The public can take turns at drawing in lights, and then they have a professional artist for an hour or so. There's also a fab graphics show projected onto another building around the corner (see pics with owl/moon etc)... it's one of those things that is just almost impossible to describe, or even show in pictures, you kind of have to see it for yourself. It was pretty cool, and a great evening out for the kids. Although when the "survey guy" came round to us and asked us how they could improve it, I told him some grub and chairs wouldn't go amiss. Had those been provided I honestly could have sat and watched it for quite a long time. Go and see it next year if you're in the area.

And if that doesn't tickle your pickle, here's a picture we took of a tree that looked remarkably like broccoli. Good times all round. 

My Chocolate Infidelity

Now, having practically been injected with Cadbury’s since birth due to a Manager-of-Cadbury World-Uncle, it takes an awful lot of persuasion for me to champion any other chocolate brand. I stand firm on my devotion to the glass and a half of joy. The closest I have ever come to loving another is the brand I’m about to introduce to you. I should tell you that the reason I opted for this chocolate bar in the first place, was for the slight comedy value of the packaging as a silly present to cheer up my mum. Then we ate some. It is flippin’ LOVELY. May I present, Bloomsberry & Co. Seriously, you should try it.

When I bought this in Sainsbury’s, it was the only design they had in, so I just presumed it was a novelty one off. Ohhhh no no no. There was much more where that came from, I was just yet to discover it in all its glory. Deciding to investigate the brand, I found their website, and a pun-tastic chocolate universe. Go see for yourself.

Special Beans

Weird post, but who cares, you'll thank me for this one day. 

My housemate of 4 years got me eating many things I didn't eat before she forced them down my neck age 22... (I was still in student food mode when I met her)... silly things like courgettes, peppers etc... basically anything that was remotely good for me. But the best thing she ever came up with, was immediately named "Special Beans". 

Don't laugh. Because you're about to wonder where this has been your whole life. It's the most simple trick ever but it will change your bean world. You thought Heinz baked beans were good? Special Beans are better, and all you need is some butter and pepper. Go on, try it. But use proper pepper, not that powdery crap. Then wack a blob of butter in the middle and stir it up. Butter... not marge. At the very least, use 'I Can't Believe It's Not Butter' (sometimes I actually can't), but that's as far away as you can go. 

I don't think I need to say anything else... you can judge for yourself. But I bet you'll never have regular beans again. That's it really. 

Do You Want The Truth Or Something Beautiful?

So we went to see Paloma Faith on Saturday night... and I can safely say it was well worth missing X Factor for ;-) I already knew she was amazing but she was even better than I expected. Her live performance on Later with Jools Holland last week didn't do her justice at all. 

The stage was gorgeous and glitzy, decorated with an array of balloon and glitter ball clusters. Her live band share her style, as do her backing singers. She is seriously a little power house. Having been slightly obsessed with her debut album for the past few weeks, I knew all the songs to sing along to... my favourites being New York, Smoke & Mirrors, Stone Cold Sober, Upside Down and Do You Want The Truth or Something Beautiful? Ok so that's half the album... and there are others I love just as much. I knew that 'Upside Down' would induce some serious bum wiggling... if only you could have seen the shapes being thrown by the guy in front of us! Hilarious. 

She is the tiniest little thing! But her vintage style is fantastic... her glittery sequined cocktail gown was fabulous, and as for her shoes... wow.... mega wow. I stupidly forgot my camera charger so iphone photos are all I could manage!

I remember hearing her first single, Stone Cold Sober, on my friend John's radio show (City Beat) and just fell in love within seconds. So I wasn't surprised when her album was more than I'd hoped for! If you haven't heard her yet... may I introduce you....

                                           

The (body con)tinuing fashion rip-off

So my sis and I ended up watching a couple of films last night, the first of which being "I Love You, Man", a film I'd wanted to see for ages but never got round to. Paul Rudd plays an awkward geeky character looking for a friend, which is weird, seeing as he's usually the quick witted cool guy. VERY funny, and worth watching if only for one scene. All I'll say is... "Am slappin da bass!"... go watch it and I double dare you not to cry laughing.

Anyway, the second film was a 1988 Roman Polanski flick starring Harrison Ford, 'Frantic'. Which was an ever so slightly ironic title... to be honest the only reasons we kept watching were a) we secretly wanted to know what happened and b) we can't *not* finish a film. Otherwise, we had matchsticks in our eyes. We were also jolted awake by an involuntary giggle now and again at the comedy of how Harrison Ford's character is almost the anti-Indiana Jones in his clumsiness. Particularly the scene on the roof. Funny.

But there was one (pretty random) scene, where Ford and his co-star Emannuelle Seigner go to a nightclub to make an arrangement with the bad guy. I immediately noticed her body-con dress. Probably because celebs have been prancing around in the same design all year. Designers have basically just taken dresses right out the 80's and put literally identical pieces in "new collections", which kind of pisses me off, in that I feel slightly cheated. 

Don't get me wrong, the odd designer piece is an investment. Kept in mint condition, it will be worth an awful lot in 40 years time. But my point is, for designers to say "the 80's are back" when all they've done is literally copy a simple 80's dress, charge thousands of pounds and call it part of an original collection just narks me off. There's no originality to them apart from a puffy sleeve or a bit of embellishment here and there. Nothing to justify the £3k price tag apart from the name, and whether *that* is justifiable is a debate in itself. Do me a favour, just wear the original 80's designs... wear vintage. 

Anyway, that aside, Emannuelle Seigler's "worm dance" to the Grace Jones track they're playing is always good for a giggle ;-) 

                                

So what if it's nearly winter...

Yeah yeah so it's getting cold and wet and miserable and coral was the colour of SS09 but surely that's all the more reason for me to wear this and brighten the darn place up a bit! I seriously could NOT believe my eyes not only when I found this on ebay in my size, but when I went to check the winning bid and it was me.... for £46!!!!!! *jumps up and down* 

It was £75 in Topshop and even now I've seen people listing it at a starting price of £90! Oh coral sequin blazer... I love you so much. 

Although I bet the girl who sold it was a bit naffed off! Oh well, unlucky... you should have known better than to list it so it ended at 2.30pm on a Friday afternoon. DUH! *goes to stare at and hug blazer for rest of day*

Bright ideas and Indian head massage...

It's gettin pretty lonely round these parts... have started a new Twitter account tonight, decided to separate my personal inane ramblings from the business account as I will most likely end up giving it a bad name, and seeing as in the last month our web hosting company have pretty much done a good enough job of that already, I really shouldn't make it worse... (I run an online vintage clothing site with my mum... did I mention that?!) Anyway, hopefully a few of my ace followers will clock on and start reading this ;-)

So I was sat at my desk this afternoon, mind-a-wandering, and I had an AWESOME idea for a project. You know one of those moments where you're just immensely pleased with yourself but there's no-one around to pat you on the back so you just sit bolt upright and look around the room with a stupid grin on your face half expecting the fridge to come to life and congratulate you? It was a bit like that. I can't say too much at this stage and it's a pretty big workload if it gets going, but it should eventually take the form of a book. An original idea for one, I hope. You can be the judge of that if it ever gets off the ground.... *raises one eyebrow*

Am also making a move on my plans to train in holistic massage (plans of at least 3 years now), but it's bloody expensive to train! So I've found something to fill the void between being completely unqualified, and being an awesome freelance massage therapist in my spare time. That's right, I plan to become a 5 Minute Angel. I shall be training up and hopefully they'll take me on! Can't wait.

Due to sitting at my desk all day dealing with website issues, tonight's post is reasonably dull... not great considering it's only attempt number 2. Tomorrow's will be better!!! I shall be sure to encounter something interesting at some point in the day. And if I don't, I'll make something up and you'll never know the difference ;-)

Here goes...

So, first post! Mind you, would be slightly more satisfying if I had any followers... oh well, got to start somewhere I suppose! I've written blog posts before, but never had my own, so here goes nothin'. 

I don't really have a plan... I just want to use this as an outlet for all the random thoughts I have, all the things I like and want to share, and anything else that will hopefully prove useful/entertaining/interesting/reasonably pointless. So, pretty much the usual reasons people start blogging. How unoriginal of me. 

Anyway, naming things is something that takes me literally an age. I'm not so good with the decisiveness.... I swear my kids are likely to remain nameless for the best part of 2 years whilst I do "ip dip doo's" through baby name books. So filling the "name your blog" box made me want to scream and run away. But I didn't, I faced that bad boy head on, and after brainstorming words I like, words that describe me, and generally crap and obvious blog names, I decided to just wack together two of the things I just plain flippin' well love in life. 

I didn't even like coffee until about a year ago... I've always loved the smell, and even loved Cadbury's Roses coffee creams to the point of feeling genuinely broken inside when they scrapped them. But I can't get enough of the damn stuff now. It rocks and I love it. As for shift dresses... I think my obsession with them came when I started working with vintage clothing. The 1960's is my decade of choice... the shape of the dress suits my figure and being underweight myself, through no other apparent reason than my gene pool (I fit my mum's wedding dress perfectly, and I'm 26. She was 23 when she got married. Yikes.) the likes of Twiggy, Alexa and other shift dress wearers inspire me to make the best of my wee frame.

I wouldn't say no to a few more curves mind you... given the chance I'd snap your freakin' hand off for Brigitte Bardot's body. And face. And hair. (note: hair and face THEN, not now. That would just be silly...)

So now I've demonstrated the utter nonsense I can talk, and made out like I only ever wear shift dresses (I don't, it may surprise you to learn I have other clothes) I hope you'll enjoy my future posts, because I think I'm going to enjoy this blogging lark ;-)