Ultimate papercraft

Zippercut found this uber-cool dress made by Jolis Paons - all done with paper taken from the phonebook. Go check out the whole set on her Flickr.

Meanwhile I'm gonna go start a petition to get this made up to go on sale (I'm only half-joking).

Teenage Symphonies to God

Slow down girl
It's a funny old world
We've got everything but we can't have it, it's true
You know we're passing through all alone

It wasn't so long ago
That we were afraid
Afraid that life would keep us waiting
Afraid that we would keep on taking
Back seat rides
Through our home-town lives
Where every trip's a dead end street

And baby, here we are
How did we get this far?
Before we closed our eyes and prayed for faster days

Try to escape
The person you are
Though we change our scene and keep on trying
We can't ever take back the years of love we gave
Of love we made
And all the love that brought us here

And baby, here we are
How did we get this far?
Before we closed our eyes and prayed for faster days

And when everything's given
Forgiven forgotten
Forget it that we lost the trail
If there's love that we've started
Don't leave it half hearted, like unsolicited mail
Have we finished our past?
Did we finish our present?
Don't wash it away like it's dirt
If we hide from the truth we'll get hurt
Don't lock it all away

I know we were young
With so much to learn
We thought we understood the contradictions of love
The innocent generations
Lost in sand, one day we'll understand
Though we may run we cannot hide

'Cause aby, here we are
How did we get this far?
Before we closed our eyes and prayed for faster days

Vintage cookies

Or biscuits, as one would say in England.

If you're feeling particularly retro, you can find the recipe for these cinnamon treats here - originally published in October 1944.

Barbie of the Undead

Now if only I'd been able to find one of these when I was younger...

Gleaming angels of love

Flying out of the sun
The smell of toast is in the air,
When there's a job to be done,
The flying toasters will be there,

And its Flap! Flap! Flap!
Now help is on the way,
This vic'try song they sing,
We pop up to save the day,
On Mighty Toaster Wings!

In Brightest Day or After Dark,
When times of trouble are at hand,
The Flying Toasters set a spark,
And hope is blazing 'cross the land!

And its Flap! Flap! Flap!
Salvation from above,
A precious gift they bring:
Gleaming Angels of Love,
On Migh-ty Toast-er Wings!

Sweet tea

Tea is my favourite drink.

And these plushies are the sweetest!

Sweet, black waves in the moonlight

I want to have things tied up in my hair.

And I might buy a crimper.

I know these shots are old, but I've only just paid attention to them.

Alicia en el Pais de las Maravillas

I met a lady in the meads,
Full beautiful—a faery’s child,
Her hair was long, her foot was light,
And her eyes were wild.

(Photo: Ragazza magazine)
(Poetry: La Belle Dame Sans Merci, John Keats)

Damiani spikes

Always up for some interesting piercing news - these just make piercings you already have look more interesting.

So if you're running out of room to make holes, these are a stupidly expensive way of making your regular piercings look slightly different - a little bit like if your scaffolding bar slipped out. To be honest, for over £2,000 a pair, I'd rather just have a new piercing. There's still room.

Or...what i've now decided would be cool, was if the earring went through your tragus us well. Which if you already have holes there is an ace idea, which I may try when I get home. Excellent.

Awesome (dude)

Photographer: Lachlan Bailey
Model: Sasha Pivovarova
Fashion Editor: Kate Phelan
Vogue UK January 2009

Dreamland

Rest. rest, for evermore
Upon a mossy shore
Rest, rest, at the heart's core
'Til time shall cease:
Sleep that no pain shall wake
Night that no morn shall break
'Til joy shall overtake
Her perfect peace


(Dreamland by Christina Rossetti)
(Photo taken sometime...early this year)

In black and white

Can't think of anything much to say today.

These pictures were all taken about a year ago.

Queen bee

Too cute!

Bees are very sacred and wise creatures. The Romans believed them to be divine creatures: 'little servants of the gods'.

Bumblebee necklace by Alex Monroe

(Source).

Clothes Show 2008/Unicorn Power

Reading my feeds on Tuesday night, I entered a competition to win tickets to the Clothes Show, courtesy of The Telegraph. You just had to email in your name and phone number.

Bizarrely, I won! I've never won anything so I was massively excited about it. I've been before a few times and it was always good fun (and most importantly, good shopping).

And so, this morning I got up at the crack of dawn to get the train up to Birmingham.

We got a goody bag free (apparently, other people had to pay £8 for this!) which had lots of little samples in (as you can see above).

I bought this cool wrist strap (below) for £4 - that's a lot cheaper than Camden, or even Ebay.
I like white leather.


The fashion show was fun and we had really good seats - even if it was a little loud. Oh, and the Saturdays performed a song at the start - I know who they are because they were on late night Hollyoaks last week...seriously, it was good fun though.

The best part was, of course, the shops. There were fewer high street retailers than the previous years we've gone (2001-2003) but I'd rather see stores I can't get to normally, or ones that usually trade online.

They had a vintage section this year, which was my favourite. They had retro, vintage and genuine antique pieces for sale, all at very reasonable prices. There were some super cool pill box hats, huge 80's earrings, evening dresses to die for and more vintage bags than you could shake a stick at. It was all like a very posh, very odd and mish mash jumble sale, that smelt much nicer.

I got this ring for a paltry £4:

Mum bought the sweetest silver bow brooch for about £3 - I saw something very similar in a jewellery store in Reading for more like £30, so we were happy with that! I also got a tiara for a fiver:

Tiaras have been on my mind a lot lately and this one was just right.

I've also been looking for a little faux fur bolero for a while now and the vintage stalls had a few, but some were either not right, or suspiciously dead looking... however, with a little perseverance, we came across one at another stall later on. I can't be bothered to take pictures of the clothes right now (it's been a long day after all) but I also got an amazing ruffled frock coat that I am exceedingly pleased with.

To top my unexpectedly fabulous Friday off: when I got home, Jon had bought me the best present ever:

The t-shirt from this cartoon! I'm wearing it now. It feels ace to have unicorn power.

So all in all, I had a wicked time and I'm so glad I entered that competition! Thanks goes out to The Telegraph, Jon and unicorns everywhere.

André 3000

André 3000The rapper and actor, 33, is also the designer behind label Benjamin Bixby.

"Anna Wintour, editor of US Vogue, was the first person to see the clothes I designed. I thought it was fitting - she said she thought I had something. At high school, clothes were about standing out. In Atlanta, we had preppy crews but we didn't go to prep schools - this was how a black kid from the ghetto would do preppy. The interpretation was different - a bit more rebellious, there was a hardness to it. People would wear riding boots to school. Tennis bags from Benetton were a big thing too. They were stylish but they were also used for carrying weapons. No one really played tennis. At one school they were banned.

"There will always be people who hate the way I dress. Some people in hip hop just reach for what they know - T-shirts and jeans. But I would never put a man's personal style down. If you don't like it, don't look. Hats, shoes and belts are good things for me. Socks, too. A good orange pair can make an outfit.

"The Twenties and Thirties are my favourite era for style. I love tweed but I'm worried about it - climate change is making the planet warmer. We have to make a super-breathable version because I can't think of a future without tweed.

"My biggest inspiration is old people. Their style is not pretentious. Their cord jacket might be a little worn, have elbow patches, but they're like 'I've been on the planet this long, this is my style'. If you have confidence you can wear anything. I think Obama looks really good right now. His suit fits perfectly, but in a good way. The Duke of Wellington would have been my homeboy too - he knew how to wear jodhpurs. I'm a big fan of English style. And Japan is outrageous. They do the preppy thing so well, it reminds me of when I was at school. Putting Japanese or black kids in preppy clothes is how you get something new. It's like a conversation between cultures - one culture makes something and another teaches it back to you. It's the same with music. The blues guy was heard by the rock kids and that's how we got rock'n'roll. Music, clothes and movies are all part of the same thing for me. I'm still an amateur with fashion but I've been picking up the terminology. Now I know the part where the button goes at the top of a shirt is called a placket. I can speak the language. I look at old pictures of me and I look like such a novice. In one, I have an orange tie and orange socks. It's too matchy. You have to look like you don't care even if it's taken you hours. Imperfection is the most beautiful thing, I think."

(Source).

Oh and by the way

Happy December everyone :D

Parisian babies

Never mind wanting a Parisian baby - I want this outfit!

Me-sized, of course.