go home, i'd like to

Dirty Cartoons - Menomena

Of course by now you know or have at least heard that the snow arrived in London this week. Love it. I am crossing my fingers for more. It was way heavier than in this photo but I didn't take any more shots during the week for some reason. I got my hair trimmed again to be the way I originally wanted it but I think I actually liked it better when it was wrong! Go figure, maybe I'll just need a little while to get used to it. Also, Wes and I went to see Menomena on Tuesday night at brand spanking new venue XOYO in Shoreditch. It still had concrete dust on the stairs and the bars have funny sumo-wrestler suit soundproofing but it was quite intimate - the stage is under the stairs. The band were very interactive with the audience, telling jokes when the sax pick-up wouldn't work (yes, there was a sax) and the drummer doing a little 'boom-tish' after the punch lines. They are really great musically as well, you should check them out if you get a chance.

all the clouds have silver linings

Cut Copy-Feel The Love

Some fun autumn pics. It's getting chilly but I love it. I know, I feel a bit crazy when I admit that, I think I am the only person in London who doesn't whinge about the weather. Fingers crossed for more snow this year!

The Peanut Vendor

Highbury Fields

and this is my kinda love, it's the kind that moves on

Mother Love Bone-Chloe Dancer/Crown of Thorns

So after lunch at Byron the other day we headed across Millennium bridge to Tate Modern to see Ai Weiwei's sunflower seeds. The Turbine Hall installations are my absolute favourite, I am just so bummed out that I didn't get to go when it first opened and you could walk on them and touch them. Now they have little fences around them with staff to scold you if you get too close. Boo. Major disappointment.

Finally we made it to the actual target destination, the Design Museum, which has two great exhibitions on at the moment: Drawing Fashion and John Pawson Plain Space. Both our favourite things in the one building with just a flight of stairs separating them. The drawings were so beautiful and captivating, it was actually sad to see them all and think that this skilled artform has been largely replaced by boring old photography. The Vogue covers were so much more interesting than a photo of some stoopid airbrushed celebrity. Sigh. Would love so much to have all those prints hanging on my walls.

and when i can feel with my sun hands

A ballooning anvil and some really big underpants. Exactly what you expect to find leftover after a street festival in central London.

I was lucky enough to score an invite to one of the Jacques Townhouse 'soirees' last week (thanks to Viv and Fleur. And yes, it has taken me a whole week to get round to posting it). When I arrived I was spirited away just like Alice down the rabbit hole into a world that had been created by someone who got carried away with plaster of Paris via fruity alcoholic beverages. I say 'I', the singular, because I have one key piece of advice if you are going along to one of these things - get there on time and with your friends. I was five minutes late and spent most of the night by my big old self. You kind of move through the rooms together and there are activities that you have to line up for. Still it was pretty and the drinks were free!

something good can work

What a glorious weekend!! The sunshine was welcomed with open arms in a way only Londoners can - the parks filled with pasty-skinned soon-to-be-lobsters, kids on scooters, and squealing teenagers. While Wes still has a lot of work to be done, it was absolutely too good to pass up a bit of time in the sun. Lunch on the Green on Saturday, and Sunday lunch in Hyde Park and a quick visit to the new Topshop in Knightsbridge.

Shirt: vintage from Holloway Rd; Capris: Topshop; Loafers: Topshop; Earrings: Portobello market; Sunnies: Karen Walker. 

bright lights of broadway

If you have ever spent any time in London you will find it hard to believe it has ever been this sunny! Those who haven't been here, you have to imagine that this is possibly the sunniest day we may see all year, so everyone rushes outside to the markets and green spaces to soak up every last ray of sunshine, just in case. Last Saturday we headed to Broadway market for lunch in London Fields before my friend Jodie's birthday party at a pub just down the market, then in Hoxton, then in Dalston, Hoxton again, then Camden...

Yummy yummy chicken wrap

I was wearing a new vintage dress from Camden Passage markets, denim jacket from Topshop, platform shoes from Australia, Karen Walker sunnies, vintage bag from Portobello Road market.

The hula hoop, as may see from the bow, is the birthday present Wes and I took along for Jodie. It was a big hit, especially on the dancefloor later in the night. Funny how some people have maintained their good hula-hoopyness from childhood, while most of us look like someone having a hoopy fit :-(

This guy was the best busker ever!! That is a full sound system and he makes amazing spacey music that he raps along to.

you're my high school lover

I forgot to post this last week when we saw Phoenix again! Not as good a set as last time but they are still a great great band. I wore my new vintage denim dress that I bought the other week, and I took all these photos with my iPhone. I actually think they turned out really well, considering you can't zoom or anything (that I know of!).

It's Wes' birthday today! We are having a quiet Sunday though, he will need so much sleep to get over his party last night. All he wanted was to have a burger and beers with his friends, so mission accomplished, and then some :-)

nineteen-oh!-one

Oh, I love love love my new skirt! It was actually handmade and somehow smells just like an old sewing room. And it fits me like a glove! I also got a dress that I couldn't wait to wear so I'm sure you'll see it soon. All our friends went away this Easter, but I took these photos last weekend when we met up for Sunday roast lunch and I decided to dress up a bit. I even did my hair and make-up like a proper London girl. Yup, eyeliner and everything. I'm currently wearing training wheels with this stuff, and think I did a pretty good job, but it smudged so quick I hate to think what would happen if I wore it anywhere hot or for any length of time. It would be running down my cheeks! It may work for Alice Cooper, but not when you're going for vintage-hipster-stylee ;-(

Wes and I went to check out the Marc by Marc Jacobs store in Mayfair, which is where I got this bone bracelet and cuff. Quite a cool store, really, and clever on their part as they stock everything from a £1 ring (or condom) to the £500 handbags via a £30 evening clutch or a £50 pair of jeans. Apparently everyone can have their own piece of the MJ brand, no matter what their budget!

Jacket: H&M; Cardigan: ASOS; Skirt: Absolute Vintage; Boots: Myer; Cuff and bracelet: Marc by Marc Jacobs; Earrings: Uncommonly Beautiful.

wham cam

I saw this billboard on my way to Spitalfields the other day and heaps of people were taking photos, people were even stopping in their cars in the middle of the street to look at this. I wasn't even sure if I got it. I really feel like I should learn more about British politics, but then I figure most British people probably know less than me anyway, so should I really bother? I am not sure if I am allowed to vote in the up-coming election, but as someone who would usually get fined for not voting I am automatically tuned in to all the election stuff going on and starting to wonder/stress about who I should vote for and who might get in. 

So I did a little research (on the poster) and apparently dr.d is a London-based artist who 'doctors' mostly existing advertising to make them into something just a little bit wittier and bit fun. You can check out his work here.

she was a sour girl the day that she met me

What is it with pop-up shops now?! Remember when they were sooo cool? Remember when they were this brilliantly elusive and exclusive enigma that the trendiest brands used and only the chosen few knew about or stumbled upon, only for it to disappear before they could even tell their friends? Well, several years down the track the pop-up shop has gone viral. It's in the mainstream, and it seems to be a bit pointless to bother with a pop-up when you advertise it everywhere, and you've got plenty of stores anyway, where people know they can go whenever they want to, not just when you say. This week is particularly crammed with pop-ups. Last Sunday I went to Spitalfields and took in not less than three pop-up shops within a city block of one another. And this weekend Whiteley's, a random shopping centre around the corner from my friends' place in Bayswater that I've never bothered to visit because it seems to have only a H&M, is having a whole floor dedicated to pop-ups (isn't that a department store?). Okay, I may go along to check out the Wild Fox boutique, but I will participate in frequent eye-rolling and make sure to think I am better than everyone there because I knew about pop-ups when they were still cool.

Does it make a difference if you call it a pop-in instead of -up? (Cath Kidston)

And the Most Disappointing award goes to...

Other than fake tattoos and a photo booth there was just nothing in there!

Hmm, I wonder if the location of this shop directly across the road from All Saints had anything to do with Bolongaro Trevor's decision to open up here? (They started the All Saints label and Spitalfields is the flagship location).

I have a week of annual leave starting from...now! So I don't have to work until Tuesday 6th April. I have so much planned for the days off, from haircuts to fixing sewing machines to shopping (surprise surprise). I have tickets to Phoenix and the Cuban National Ballet and I plan to do some special gym training sessions as well. Maybe I will even have some time to blog in there somewhere. I just hope I can cope with all the fun-ness.

verandah out the front, and an old rocking chair

Feeling like our culture levels were dropping dangerously low, a group of us choofed off to the Design Museum near Tower Bridge last weekend, via Borough Market. We then did a little pub crawl heading in the direction of Brick Lane for a curry, then on to the Commercial Tavern which is a tarted-up pub near Spitalfields full of hip young things. In a good way, I didn't even get a whiff of pretention.

The Design Awards nominees were on display with projects ranging from cars to fashion to, well, artwork I guess. Is that what you would call a huge glass case full of panda moneyboxes with motion-sensors?

This car is made entirely out of fabric and it can stretch to change shape for aerodynamics and open doors and stuff.

A few more projects.

Onto the pub...

I thought the boys looked like they were having a romantic interlude. Guess it's the lighting in this place. Whenever we go out now, we always end up divided into boys and girls, it's so funny. Weirdest of all is that I actually enjoy the girl-time. I used to hate hanging out with girls and only had guy friends for years! Somehow I am becoming more girly the older I get. Huh, didn't see that coming. 

Pretty!