Stuff I've been doing. Wearing tactile clothing, velvet leggings & cashmere. The best thing about winter. Painting christmas trees on my nails, inspiration found here. How cute are these? & so easy to do with some strips of sellotape. Awesome. Now I just have to go to work tomorrow & it'll all be chipped to fuck. Oh well. Watching Reggie Watts videos. At first it was mainly just being captivated by his appearance but the accents, the fucking beats and the songs are astounding. Like this guy can sing. & he's funny as hell.

Last couple of weeks have been strange interspersed with lovely. Just weird friend and work stuff then lovely Christmas things. That sounds cryptic but it's more that there's no point bitching about people none of you have heard of all over the internet now is there? I've been thinking about doing sort of "introduction" posts on what I believe on certain subjects & then hopefully from there start writing more about those kind of things & getting a discussion going. In between all the lovely new clothes I have to show you, because I'm rubbish. Like I didn't even post my halloween clothes! I suck. Anyway. Day off love.

Clockwise from top left: Anne-Claire Petit Crocheted Lemon Cushion, $150/£93.70, The Future Perfect, The Heart Machine by Martin Smith, £245, Laikingland, Harris Tweed Headphones, £80, Urbanears, iPad, £329, Apple, Mirror Hologram Boxy Bag, $78, Pixie Market, Kloset Eye Candy Statement Necklace, $248, Pixie Market, Flyknit Racing Trainer, £150, Nike, Beetlejuice Scale Terrarium, £225.89, Face of the Earth.

Isn't the lemon cushion like the best thing in the world ever? She's made a whole variety of fruit and vegetables as well. Totally need to finally get round to learning to crochet so I can make this amazing shit myself!

So that's it. The end of gift guide week. I hope you found something that at least reminded you of a gift you should get if not a shop where to find it or a gift itself (preferably the iPad, for me yeah?). Or at least enjoyed all the lovely things laid out somewhat thoughtfully! 

Clockwise from top left: Lanvin Knitted Bow Tie, £75, Liberty, Bracing Silverbirch Thermal Muscle Soak, £19, Molton Brown, H is for Homme Tote Bag, £18, Doghouse, Comme des Fuckdown T-shirt, $35/£22, SSUR, Tintin Plastic Thompson Diving Keyring Big, £5.95, The Tintin Shop, Patum Peperium Gentlemans Relish, £2.45, The Cheese and Wine Shop, Torbay Point Harris Tweed Shoes, £49.99, Clarks, Izola Prospector Beard Oil, £30, John Lewis, Farah's Olde English Toffee Assortment, £6, John Lewis. 

Where the man resides that this motely crue of things is for, who knows. But Harris Tweed/Comme/Bow Tie Wearing & bearded sounds alright to me. This was weirdly one of the easier lists to compile, mainly because I have a strange interest in high end male grooming products, all that badger hair brush shit fascinates me. In fact the boy got a little addicted to having a professional razor shave every day a few moons back, so maybe it's catching?

In the early hours of yesterday morning my friend Ella who I told you guys about last week sadly passed away. My thought are with her family & friends & all I can say is at least she's not in pain anymore. All my love. 

Clockwise from top left: Rhys Lee Teatowel Pack, $59/£36.86, Gorman Shop, Audrey Hepburn Cardboard Cut Out, £40, V&A Shop, HHS Heat Cardigan, €50/£40.75, High Heels Suicide, Starry Night Brooch, £9, Sweet Bestiary, Dotted Back Seam Tights, $48/£30, The Olive Shoppe, Black Cat Curved Hem Tank, £47.76, Leah Goren, Me and Zena x Saatchi Gallery Paint Brush Earrings, £18, Me and Zena, Golden Twig Pencils Pack of 10, £9, INKKIT, Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Lip Tar in RX, $16/£10, OCC Makeup, Oversized Deep Red Flower Crown, £25, Kis for Kani, Burgandy Lace Underwired Bra, £19.99, Oysho, Map Coin Purse, £34, Jonathan Adler, Diamond Sculpture, £29.04, Mega Myers.

Lots of etsy shops this year. It is nice to buy directly from the makers always, & I just couldn't find enough good stuff in the usual places. But I've trawled through listings just for you!

Clockwise from top left: Burt's Bees Head to Toe Starter Kit, £14.99, John Lewis, Fuck Off Heart Brass Necklace, $20.12/£12.57, Tevin Vincent, Tattoo Hands Glove Mitt, £16, Of Cabbages and Kings, Pacific Coat Fished Bandana, £15, Slow Down Joe, Deco Basil and Lime Soap, £12.95, Twenty Twenty One, Bear Head Wall Mount, £19.36, White Faux Taxidermy, Mighty Asterix Wooden Puzzle, £12.50, Siam Collection, Colour Wheel Wooden Puzzle, £19.36, Puzzled One, Dumb & Ugly T-shirt, £15.49, Burger and Friends, Cycle of Violence Comic Book By Grayson Perry, £16.50, Blackwell's, Owl and Zebra Illustrated Wooden Badges, £14.20, Depeape.

Feeling a bit dodgy about this one considering two of them (T-shirt & necklace) might be offensive if given to the wrong person but I think they're fucking awesome. In fact the boy gave me a "Fuck It" bracelet a month or so back which is so perfect in it's sweary loveliness. Hopefully we all have someone who *gets* the shit we give to them anyway huh. & sorry about the puzzles, the colour wheel was too good not to include & I think they'd both look good as decor sculptures not just puzzles!

"

Clockwise from top left: Nanoblock Giraffe, £8.50, V&A Shop, Swan Egg Cup, £8.50, Culture Label, Gin & Tonic Bathing Gel, £7.95, Hand Picked Collection, Huf Plantlife Socks, $12/£8, Huf Worldwide, Calavera Brand Cinnamon Hot Shot Jelly Beans, £5, Heals, The Gourmet Mulling Syrup, £6.99, Lakeland, Wooden English Rose, £4.25, Of Cabbages and Kings, Ron Swanson Simple Man Key Ring, £7, Peachy Apricot, Jelly Belly Bubble Gum Scented Candle, £5.10, Jelly Belly UK, Dr Harvery Quant's Cure for Uncontrolled Spending Herbs, £3.45, Find Me A Gift, Skyline Sticky Tape, £6.95, None Such Things, Anatomicals Stop Cracking Up Lim Balm, £2.55, ASOS.

It's back! Much more a mixed bag than last year I think but that wooden English Rose is the sweetest & actually I'm pretty stoked to have found some of the online shops these things are from. None Such Things & Of Cabbages and Kings are absolutely lovely. But I have to fess up I have cheated a little as I actually bought this Ron Swanson keyring for myself last week because they are perfect for my "Work Keys". Well I found it funny anyway. & if you don't know who Ron Swanson is, better add that Parks and Recreation Boxset to your Christmas List. Promise you it'll be worth it! (shit just looked & found out it's only available as a US Import, & since we haven't overcome that obstacle yet, have to stick to watching it online instead)

This man is now the Mayor of my city.

I can hardly talk that makes me so fucking angry. He was elected on the back of lies & the white middle classes. THE BIGGEST ISSUE IN BRISTOL IS INEQUALITY & GEORGE FERGUSON IS THE EPITOME OF THAT. In a city that has the highest sexual assault rates of anywhere outside of London we have elected a man who believes prostitution can never be got rid of, into a council that is on the brink of allowing a Spearmint Rhino to open in my city. My city. MY CITY. My city. My city did this.

So why do I call him a liar? The media is calling him an independent. He quit the Lib Dems practically seconds before announcing running for Mayor. He says he way key to the redevelopment of Bedminster. He bought a piece of prime property at the right time as the middle classes moved into Southville & instead of turning it into affordable housing or a place for the community is became a hub for theatre, organic food markets & middle class white people. Awesome. At one end of North street and the other the polarities of the city have never been clearer. He says he's "actually done stuff" in Bristol. What he does is campaign against any form of development until it's not approved & then presents his own architecture firms plans and wins the new contract. 

This man is completely self interested. He has been elected by sections of society in Bristol that have too much say already (40% odd turn out in Henleaze, Westbury & Redland) whom I shall forever deem as "The Unthinking Posh". He has no policies on inequality. He has no policies full stop. This is not about one in the eye for party politics as he is at his core a Lib Dem, this is about the fact that people can be bought.

He has admitted to spending at least £60,000 but what about the PR people around him? Every member of the Labour party staff have to declare their time as a deduction from the campaign fund. But I guess they were just volunteers right George? Not that they're getting paid fuckloads from their firms to campaign for you. He needs to be investigated.

I will fight every fucking thing he tries to introduce. If he has any power it will be detrimental to Bristol and will only line his pockets further. This man is poisonous. & we have just put him at the head of our city. Are you fucking happy Bristol? This might be a deal breaker for me to get off my ass & actually leave this ridiculous city.

Oh but PS. The Independent woman won for our PCC, which would be great, if all the above didn't apply.

FUCK.

So sheepishly, I'm back guys! I know I suck. I half heartedly did posts & didn't get back to reading other blogs & commenting & actually engaging with anything. But I swear new leaf & all that. I always hated people who fled blogspot for tumblr because I thought it was lazy. But man, tumblr is so easy. & unoriginal. The people on blogspot are better but the content on tumblr is so broad. The above illustration for example is by Sam Taylor for Vice, who I found via tumblr. But for now I'll try & split myself a lot better. Promise. I've put my gift guide together (remember from last year?) for next week so the posts will definitely be more frequent & I will resolutely march my laptop into work to keep up with other peoples blogs on my lunch break. Sound like a decent deal? Sweet.

Now onto some way more important stuff.

My friend Ella from way back was diagnosed with cancer last April. It came completely out of the blue & was obviously more of a shock being that she's only 20. After all the horrible chemo finally came to an end unfortunately a couple of weeks ago she was told it was too agressive to treat. Her story isn't unique but she does have a unique way of telling it & she wants to get her message out that she's facing death & she's not going to be scared to talk about it. So if any of this resonates with you even a tiny bit I massively encourage you to read her blog Day to Day Living and Then Some. She wants to answer questions anyone might have about her situation so if you have anything you want to know, ask away! I know I can trust you guys to leave awesomely lovely comments right?

Right.

Needing something to look forward to in the midst of the awful student season at work I took off to Paris for two days. In a studio flat in my favourite, the 11th Arrondisement, just down the road from Belleville. Jean Seberg, Simone de Beauvoir, Jean Paul Satre and Serge Ginsbourg at Cimetiere Montparnasse, which was stunning. Not the best thing to do in suede creepers on a rainy grey day, but it was amazing. And the Chloe exhibition at the Palais de Tokyo, which was stunning. I spent about two hours there. The windows that each selection was in worked beautifully and actually getting to see the clothes up close with the embroidery and detail and everything was amazing. This exhibition really let you do that unlike other fashion ones I've been too where the clothes are mostly behind glass or whatever.

Anyway, I don't seem to have that many photos, like the first day was spent mainly shopping - lots of underwear & a jumper from COS - which isn't that interesting. Apart from getting lost in the Galleria les Halles, twice! & having people continuously try to have conversations with me in French which I got through by nodding & saying "Qui" until a point where they needed a reply & I had to default to English. Not much vintage on this trip, I didn't make it to my favorites & the low end Kiliwatch & Episode didn't have the perfect leather skirt I was hunting for. But I guess, I'll always go back to Paris.

Will be working on some posts tomorrow. I promise. I just had to put these up because I spent an embarrassing amount of time trying to make tumblr suitable gifs of Malcolm's last speech in the last ever episode of The Thick of It. Which you can still see here. I literally had goosebumps. & my gif making skills have been pushed to their limits so before I drive myself crazy trying to get them tiny enough to work as a set I just thought fuck it I'll put up the big versions on my long neglected blog.

What have I been up to? Um... went to Paris, welcomed by best friend home from Russia, decided on a harlequin clown for halloween (because clowns are the scariest of all things), became scarily emotionless about dickhead students at work... That's all I can think of right now. I'm sure you aren't that interested. Oh & I saw that new Elle Fanning film Ginger & Rosa last night, it was extremely bizarre, in that is was so glossy that she made a totally unrealistic & wrong decision at the end of the film that sort of ruined the almost beauty of everything before it. I would recommend not going after a morning of watching Honey Boo Boo reality TV as well, so you're not unnecessarily cynical about staged filmic beauty.

What have you been up to?

Oh god I know, I'm so predictable. But it's American Apparel Halloween outfit time again! If I could find three female friends & all of this AA stuff on eBay then I would SO be changing by costume to being a highlighter (lime green or blue please). At the moment though it remains as a sort of half formed skeleton as I used "that can be my halloween costume" as an excuse to buy those Henry Holland bone tights a few months back. I've also bought some white tape to stick on a top & some shorts in the shape of bones. Although I think I'm going to a rocky horror themed night on the 27th so might have to add some underwear into the mix, does boning count?

The elements are pretty awesome too, although I think I'd have to swap the bottoms for some leggings and the top for a t-shirt because dammit halloween happens in October! The dead/zombie milkman is interesting because I do now own a pair of white jeans but... well, this is a conversation I had with my boss the other week:

Him: I wish the world was taken over my zombies to get rid of all the weak people

Me: That's so unfair

Him: Why

Me: Because there's no way I'd survive a zombie attack

Him: It's alright I'll look after you

So... no. Not a zombie. What are you guys being? My imagination has completely escaped me this year. Oh & you can find the full range on American Apparel halloween loveliness here.

Just a quick before work post to say, have you seen Solange's (baby Bayonce Knowles) new video? The clothes are perfect, the settings perfect, the songs pretty perfect & man can she dance. A nice picker upper for your Friday morning. Here's what she said about filming the video:

"When Melina and I decided to film 'Losing You' in South Africa, we really didn't have a real film concept in place. It was sort of a grab a camera and let's go moment. I knew I wanted to capture a couple things: the vibe of our friendship and all of the crazy escapades we've gotten ourselves into all over the world, and the abstract and elegant Le Sape Society (Society for the Advancement of People of Elegance) formed in the Congo which was documented by Caniele Tamagni in his Gentleman of Bacongo book. We called Daniele to guide us, and some of my friends from New York came down to Cape Town and we all had a very damn good time."

Can't wait for the album!

So I spent about 2 years (maybe more?) searching for the perfect leather jacket. I wondered about vintage, I wondered about just stealing one from a boy, but in the end I just saved up & thought fuck it I'll spend like £200 on one piece of clothing that I want to wear forever. I set out on a mission & found a couple of front runners in Oasis & Whistles. The Oasis one was fake leather though although a good shape & the Whistles one had all these belts & metal shit all over it. It was also hella expensive. It's hard to strike the balance between like *motorcycle* with all the bells & whistles, but with something with an edge & something classic that's not going to age when I do.

Guess where I found it? GAP! I was as surprised as the shop assistants were. It was the first one they'd sold & I got £10 off because the price was marked wrong. Brilliant. It's got the edgier detail on the shoulders, with a couple of zipped pockets, but not a massively defined collar which makes it simpler & more classic. This sounds like I'm totally over thinking it, but I swear every female (& some guys) I spoke to about it felt exactly the same way. Maybe it's the amount of money? So people need to know it's absolutely perfect. I don't know what it is but I'm so happy to have found my one!