Poundland Haul

Sorry I've been away. I've been quite poorly recently unfortunately.

Never mind. Local Poundlands had a chance to re-stock. Here's a V-log about my latest Poundland and 99p Stores haul...

 Enjoy! And if you do YouTube, subscribe to my channel as I am planning to do more video stuff in future. Just don't expect expert camera action, it's gonna be more You've Been Framed than BAFTA material.

Electric Dreams At The Towner, Eastbourne

Time to get in some culture, innit. A couple of weeks ago I visited the gallery my sister works at - the Towner Gallery in Eastbourne - for a club-style evening event. Themed around 'Electric Dreams' and neon electronica, it was a party inspired by the Kelly Richardson: Legion exhibition. The exhibition is still on and FREE - it is well worth a visit if you are in the area. Richardson layers photographs she has manipulated into eerie, almost mystical worlds of enhanced colour and odd perspective. These are projected onto huge screens, with natural soundtracks ... the effect is very ghostly and atmospheric, it immediately triggers a mood change even if you are not into very conceptual modern art. All of the works in Legion are about the environment - in one, a 'ghost' stag walks into a strange, misty forest. Sometimes he is there, sometimes he isn't... he leaves a trail of smoke behind him, like a memory of an extinct animal that used to walk in the woods.

Trip To The V&A

Alas I am limpy once again. My sciatica struck during the snow and it's still here... unfortunately I got no sympathy on the tube because, it seems, most tourists think that injured or disabled people look like Tiny Tim. Obviously I have no right to walk slowly looking relatively normal, or try to do normal things. Grr. I wouldn't mind so much but bar stairs, I'm actually quicker than the average tourist is, so their request to the person hanging on to the handrail and wincing as she walks to speed up were a bit rich to say the least.

Anyway, my sister and I made it to the V&A to catch the end of the 'Kitty & The Bulldog' mini-exhibition and the new fashion galleries. I like fashion history and my sister likes Japanese sub cultures, so between us we made up one cultured visitor. We also like anything a bit OTT and wearable. You can't beat it whether it's a hooped velvet skirt from a Victorian wedding or a lace and pearl cuff from Japan. When we were looking at the 1850s section of the fashion galleries, my sister quipped that I would be normal sized then. Heheheh indeed. I would be mighty and tall! On reflection, the crinolines would also have hidden my gigantic feet too. But there wouldn't have been any central heating so I would probably have burned myself to a crisp as I rashly edged nearer and nearer to the fireplace in my purple velvet monstrosity.

Women Who Read

Yesterday was World Book Day - a day beloved by kids and geeks of all ages. Lovely, lovely books, to be celebrated, shared and enjoyed. T'interweb was awash with it! I expected to write quite a light hearted account of my adventures in a blue wig touting a battered copy of The Tempest to teenagers, however (and feel free to skip off now if it's not your thing) instead I've landed myself with an opinion piece. Oops.

You see, This post has been flying around Facebook and Twitter. I'm a woman who reads, and writes. A lot. A woman who reads and writes for a living, for a hobby, and to relax. A woman who has worked damned hard for qualifications, for performance, for publication. Who feels to the very marrow of my bones that words, and access to words, are a basic human right.

The thing is, I just couldn't relate to this post at all - as a reader or a (married- so presumably OK at the whole boy-girl malarky) woman. I won't go into endless depths here, but I guess at it's crux is the idea that a (quiet, slightly dowdy) bright woman is a boon to a less-than-great partner because she can forgive, support and sort said partner out. No need for self-reflection or tough love. Indeed, if she reads, she'll internalise your faults as part of some romantic narrative. A kind of non-threatening intelligence of the ilk that stereotypes women but also perhaps patronises men. At the end, fair enough, there's a whiff of 'and don't you treat her badly' thinking- but that conclusion doesn't marry up with the indie-girl-sighing-into-her-coffee stuff throughout the main body of the piece.

Instead of dissecting it, I vented in the form of a response...

Making Luurve

I don't get people who dislike Valentine's day because they say (usually condenscendingly) 'anyone who treats their loved one especially nicely once a year must therefore be neglecting them the rest of the time'. Not only is that deliberately mean spirited (assuming that everyone apart from their holiness of holier-than-thou is neglectful every other day and merely OK on Valentine's) it patently ignores the one thing that modern psychologists, historical sages and wise nannas all agree on; that it's impossible, and unhealthy, to be in a full-on emotional state 24/7 - so ritual and celebratory dates are valuable. A moment of excess and expression. Everyday love is vital; it's listening, cooking dinner, remembering to take the bins out on a cold night so they don't have to. It isn't - unless you're rich and unhealthy- champagne, chocolates a-plenty and nights on the town. That's why we have festivals.

Charleston House

Some more wanderings with my camera!

Charleston House And Garden is a wonderful farmhouse in Sussex. Decorated and renovated over the 20th Century by the artists Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell, it became a centre of creativity for the Bloomsbury Group. It's well worth a visit for anyone who enjoys literature or art; inside, the eclectic designs vary from Medieval to Picasso with all sorts (Laura Ashley's original designs, for example) in between. Every wall has been decorated, too. Many of the century's most influential thinkers spent time there and sketches of them at work are hidden in every nook and cranny. Unlike many of my favourite places, this one isn't cheap at £9 for a tour, however as a one-off it's well worth it- both to ensure the house is preserved for future generations and to marvel and how creativity, academia, politics and economic theory interleaved within the walls.

If you do take the tour, (available Weds-Sat - check website for further details) bear in mind you may not get on the next available tour! Wednesdays are particularly busy, so pre-booking or being flexible about when you lunch or shop is useful. The reward for being patient is a small, intimate tour with a very knowledgeable guide, who has the time to answer all questions personally.

Photography is forbidden within the building, however the gardens (which can be wandered free of charge- you may get a ticketed tour but most do not bother) are an amazing place to take a camera. Here are some snaps to give you a feel of the place...just right for a pick-nick on a sunny afternoon...

This one amuses me. If you are childish and rich, the
half-statue (with mooning feature) may be purchased from
the shop for £250.

Have you any favourite houses or gardens?

Day Out: V&A Theatre Galleries

Right, finally managing to blog. I've been feeling a bit peaky today and just couldn't seem to settle into writing or anything focused - that's my excuse if today's post is rather rambling. I'm not sure what my excuse usually is.

This weekend we are back, thanks to weather and the Easter break, to cheap/free days out. Next week, I'll be reviewing The Cult of Beauty at the V&A, which is ticketed, but I thought I would wander down and see one of their free exhibitions this weekend.

'Hamlet' Headdress

Improving a dress...

First off, a big thank you to Tea & Crumpets - I won a fabulous necklace in her giveaway! Whoop!

Now on to my toil this afternoon... I love a bit of craft and re-conning. I get my inspiration from various sites ( my current favourites are Cut Out And Keep and Violet Le Beaux's blog) - this improvement, however, was more out of psychological necessity than inspiration. I'd just got sick of looking at this sorry article in my wardrobe:

Ladylike and Feminine: what’s the difference?

Ladylike and Feminine: what’s the difference?

Something thrown up by feminist fashion 'trending' (as it were) on blogs is the language we use to describe fashion. Much of what we wear celebrates the female form and many bloggers wear traditionally 'dainty' clothes such as dresses etc'. Sometimes I come across really interesting articles about being  feminine feminist - less often, posts bemoaning the lack of 'ladylike' behaviour/dress nowadays. So why do I lap up the feminine musings with relish and click off the ladylike stuff within moments? Surely a contradiction? Not, I feel, if you are a geek like me...

Conversation point: why thrift/vintage?

Just a quickie, but I hope it will be provocative (oo-err). Some of you lovely peeps that validate my fumble thumbed typing by following and commenting are proper fashion bloggers, some are fabulous vintage divas, some are superb thrifters.

To The Manor Born

I've been being all posh n' artistic again, innit. Yesterday Lilac Lady and I stayed out of the pub for ooh, must've been at least half an hour to visit Pitzhanger Manor and Gallery. It's got a fantastic exhibition on right now, The Witching Hour.

Billingham: untitled from Black Country

Poet's Corner

Ha ha. That's a little West London pun for y'all. Just a quick little post on a cause very close to my heart, promoting poetry in performance. I do write a little myself (sadly, due to work, I have little time to perform now; so unfair- why can't I just blog, write and perform in silks whilst eating magical calorie-free chips and drinking the finest wines?) but today it's all about the very talented James Priestman, of Pitshanger Poets fame: