Shameless plug for the embroidery sets & pieces I've finally photographed & added to my etsy shop here. They're all based on Sailor Jerry tattoos & I made the cross-stitch patterns my very own self. Also, with each set or framed piece comes a little explanation of the meaning behind each tattoo.

Like the phrase, "Pig on the knee, safety at sea. A cock on the right, never lose a fight." being one of the reasons for a getting a pig and a rooster tattooed. Mostly they're emblems of good luck, returning home safely like the swallow, or keeping grounded whilst away from home, remembering loved one's & pretty girls they hope to return to. I love all that kind of stuff so I find it pretty astonishing & wonderful. I always wish I planned to cover myself in traditional tattoos... but oh well, I still love my equation.

This post is called "things I would buy from the new Monki online shop if they weren't made out of polyester". I guess I always knew, deep down, that just like everyone else, there seems to be a rule where out of good fabric, cheapness & fashionable, you can only have two. But after years of wishing, considering sending some Scandanavian underwear shopping on my behalf & simply just going there myself, Monki finally opened an online shop that does indeed ship to the UK. & yet along with this they've started listing what they're clothes are made out of. & blog readers I'm scared to reveal that it is all horrific. & until I can feel just how flammable I might be in a lovely Monki dress I cannot buy anything online from them. Damn it!

Look how lovely it all is!

This is what I wore yesterday, a vintage shift from Berlin with these cute little eyelets that J spent like a half hour staring at trying to figure out if you could see anything through them. Plus a hat. How novel. Well, it's been really fucking hot & sunny the past week or so. So hot that yesterday a group of us went down to the lake at Farley Hungerford, along with a whole load of other people. You can swim in it but my dress was short enough to paddle quite deep, so I was happy, & a little cooler. It's nice to actually be able to cool down unlike at work where the lack of air-con, windows & fans is faint making.

Talking of work, hello to everyone that drove down Park Row on Saturday & saw me in the window getting frustrated at removing vinyl, singing along to Apsci & building a pyramid out of books. There were lots of excited kids when I waved back at them & one guy who took my photo... A little weird. Oh well. Spent the rest of the weekend putting t-shirts & tights up on etsy, listening to "the-new-Kreayshawn-who's-nothing-like-her" Iggy Azalea & celebrating my sisters birthday with pancakes for breakfast, yay!

How was your weekend?

Picture heavy post because frankly Paris has been killing it. Hussein Chalayan, god of all things fashionably thoughtful put on a killer show that heightened by already epically high love of him. From the exhibition I went to this summer in Paris, to the book I allowed myself to pay lots of money for & have poured over ever since. Honestly, his words & his though process are equally as captivating as his mind bending clothes. Basically I fucking love him, & this Spring 2012 collection was just the icing on the cake.

Perhaps naivly I've never really thought of Rochas as deserving much attention but their 50s inspired show in unexpected materials really had me. & when I saw the backstage close up photos of those shoes... Mirror balls on your feet? Well of course. I like the idea of the sun hitting them & you leaving a sort of trail of light shards in your wake wherever you go. A DIY may be in order...

Anyway sorry for no gifs, gifmake.com who I usually use have some issue with their uploading (very sad). But you can view more non animated runway picks on my tumblr. & I got all the backstage photos from here, here & here.

What's been your highlight?

It was the ever lovely Hannah Dostine who introduced me to Sticky Institute, via her blog, zine swapping, pen palling & her contribution to SWEAT. & I sent off a few issue 5's a while back & pretty much forgot about it, only these wonderful long e-mails started arriving every month or so from Sticky telling me about what awesome things Zinester's all over the world were getting up to & making me feel bad for not putting more effort into that sort of thing. Until a couple of months back when a lovely package arrived as the payment for the zines of mine that they'd sold. 

I'd opted for payment in the strange underground art form of Australian zines because... it's never really been about making money & I really love seeing other people's work, because all zines are so different. So 6 months after I waved goodbye to mine, 16 zines came back in return. From the informative Macarons are not Macaroons & Mutiny to the very personal Watch Him Bleed & Ladybeard (3rd photo). Ladybeard was a particular favorite of mine because it was a story I'd never heard before, written extremely eloquently & opened my eyes to a whole new section of society. For just $2 I would recommend it to anyone & everyone, I have made most of my friends & my mother read my copy & they have all been suitably impressed. 

Tales of a 34-year-old Man Whore (4th photo) was another highlight, sketched messages sent to the publishers friend from a jerkface cheating ex. I found myself laughing more than a few times. There were also 3 issues of Y.O.U zine (photo 2) with one on CD that I haven't got round to listening to get... but am very intrigued to. I also loved the zine in picture 5 too (not sure of the title) about two deers who squat & have cardboard antlers.

Anyway what I'm really saying is there are some properly amazing people out there making lovely paper things. I could get lost on Sticky's website for days...

Zine Love.

Yay! Projector fun! Probably would've all worked better if I had a partner in crime, but having a free night for once I just had to get on with it. Trying to line up the light before it got inappropriate etc etc. There are actually some cool ones I did that are less appropriate but I kind of don't want to put those on the internet. I'm sorry I didn't really think that through. But anyway, I hope you like them. & Mat's already suggested old photographs might look cool so I'll try & get on that. For more images head over to my flickr. Plus my Berlin films are up on there too... the ones I still haven't posted.

Good day today, even though *he* went home, but Blink 182's new album came out. & even though what I'd previously heard just sounded like +44 or Angels and Airwaves, rather than Blink, the album is a lot better than I expected. It also hits on the little nostalgic feeling that started brewing when I saw them at Reading last year, so good! Oh to be 14 again. 

Spent the weekend watching Disney films. I really love Beauty & the Beast. I forget how amazing it is & then something reminds me why it's my favorite film. So want to get "For who could ever learn to love a beast?" tattooed somewhere...

What did you do?