I'm combing through my jpeg files to delete anything I don't need, and I found a picture I took on our trip home from Boston.
We picked up some snacks when we stopped to refuel and I could not resist this artwork. Isn't that great? Mama Zuma looks like a fifties pin-up Zapatista, which may be anachronistic but is fabulous none the less.
The crisps were deceptively sweet at first, but there was definitely a kick to them.
OK, FINE.
I'll decorate the Christmas tree.
This year I'm keeping things very simple - Lights, gold beads and a Union Jack paper-chain. The paper-chain was a birthday present from my Mum, and it makes me very happy!
With Christmas trees and decorations everywhere by now, it's hard not to be effected by the Christmas spirit. Doc and I needed to buy a few cleaning supplies from the hardware store, and whilst we were there I thoroughly enjoyed looking at all of the decorations on offer.
I found a great set of shatterproof baubles, in great shades of silver, hot pink, petrol blue and lime green; I have no clue how I'm going to be using them yet, but they are too fun not to get.
Shiny!
Making stuff is one of my favourite things, so naturally I love this version of the "Keep Calm and Carry On" poster.
Even better, the designer Matt Jones is happy for this image to be used for non-commercial purposes under a creative commons licence. He's put several different downloadable formats up on his blog, and also has links to sites that are selling t-shirts and prints to raise money for some great causes.
Doc brought me home at lunchtime, and on the way we stopped off at the post office where there were very exciting parcels from my lovely Mum. They weren't there yesterday, so her timing was pin-point accurate and all the more impressive for it!
One of my Mother's many many talents is her ability to find the perfect card for any occasion, so it's always a pleasure to open an envelope with her writing on. Look at these beauties:
I think I may need to get these framed.
Just so stunning, and almost guaranteed to make any Londoner and/or Brightonian get a lump in their throat. Mum got these from the Obiko website, and they are from the Seagull sites range. Also, Mum tells me the artist was very nice too!
We went to feed friends' cats whilst they are away, and stopped at the chemist (American Translation: Drug Store) to get some vitamin A and Zinc, because I read they can be helpful with Mono.
They have a great range of Halloween stuff there, so we browsed that as well. I had noticed last time they had some cheesy looking CDs and DVDs on offer at $3-for-2, but I hadn't really looked at them because how good could they be? Um, AMAZING!
I am now the proud owner of the following classic B movie horror double-bills;
So that is 8 fabulously tacky creature features for $6, and all of the DVDs also have a cartoon too.
Look! Jason sent Doc & I these cool Paperchase skull badges! Aren't they fantastic?
Squee!
He also sent me a special wedding edition of Heat magazine.
Most enjoyable.
My office was recently given several boxes of second-hand books for the lobby library, and inside one of them was a vintage Get Well Soon card. The printed sympathy verse is sentimental and seems very dated, but I do love the hand tinted graphic from the top of the card.
Isn't that gorgeous? Those colours would make anyone feel better.
I am so definitely my Mother's daughter. I look like her, I sound like her, I loathed "Bridget Jones' Diary" like her and I shop for accessories like her.
I saw this belt in Asheville, and there was no way I was leaving without it, I immediately made a mental note to use it to belt in a black dress for a faux fifties look. Fortunately Doc was totally on board with that, in fact he checked that it fitted him too before we bought it. He's planning on wearing it with jeans and t-shirts though.
Whilst we were in Asheville Doc was hoping to find high top navy blue Converse All Stars. Sort of like the pair pictured to the left, but without the super cool Sailor Jerry tattoo on the side.
Doc found these in Provincetown back in May, and, as we wear the same size shoes, Doc very sweetly offered to share them with me. His plan was to buy a plain pair, and then we could have one tattooed All Star with one plain, which I think would be super cool. We didn't happen to find a plain pair.
Doc only noticed when we got back home that actually the left Sailor Jerry is a size nine and whilst the right is a size seven. So, should you happen to have the other pair (Right: Size nine. Left: Size seven.), we would be happy to do a swap or something.
One of the really fun things about staying in a house rather than a hotel is that you get to live with other people's taste for a while, and that can be fascinating. Our house in Province Town was very comfortable and had some lovely things in it.
I was particularly fond of the lamp on my bedside table. The base is a sculpture depicting a cat, a hare and a pig holding a platter which the lamp sits in the middle of. The animals are all dressed in formal suits, and it's quite an odd piece of furniture but it really grew on me. It's got a sort of Wicker Man oddness to it, but it's also quite sweet.
As it happens I spotted a makers name on one of the photos I took of this lamp, so I know it's a Frederick Cooper lamp. However I can't find it on their website, so I have no clue if it's still available; and the site has no prices anyway, so I can't even work out if it's vaguely affordable.
(p.s. The book is "The Clue in the Jewel Box - A Nancy Drew mystery". This edition was published in 1943 and this has to be one of the most breathlessly event packed books I have ever read. So far our heroine hasWe went to see a drag cabaret last night, and, OHMIGOD, it was fabulous! Loved it! It was a mixture of amazing professional performers and gifted amateurs competing for a cash prize, although we weren't told ahead of time which was which and some of the amateurs were extremely good.
Personally I was very fond of Katya, who did THE routine from "Flashdance", complete with back flip and splits, but she was narrowly beaten by Susan Boil. It was eerily similar to the "Britain's Got Talent" YouTube sensation in that when the queen made her entrance to the stage she looked such a mess we assumed it would be off-key screeching at worst, or lip synching at best. Instead we got a pitch perfect performance that brought the house down, and won the $500.
Of the professionals the standard was uniformly excellent, the Mistress of Ceremonies had absolutely nothing to hide by the end of the first number, and was a charming hostess for the whole show. The co-hostess, Shady, was very sweet and had just the most gorgeous face; in fact I can honestly say that she was making me reconsider black lipstick as a style choice and that thought hasn't occured to me in a good 15 years.
Penny Champagne was stunning and I also loved Thirsty Burlington's homage to Little Edie. I can quite honestly say I haven't seen drag acts this good since I left London, and that's a long time to go without a good wig and the judicious use of diamante. I feel most refreshed.
Unusually I went out today and took photos to accompany a post I'd already written, so now you can see posters!
The main poster for Showgirls is a take on the logo for a popular brand of salt, but the face has been altered so that it's Ryan Landry. I put in a picture of him from the poster for "Willy Wanker and the Hershey Highway", so you can see how great that portrait really is.
The poster on the left is for Illusions, but it features three of the Showgirls we saw. Shady Pines is being very dramatic at the back, whilst Billie Jean is front right and we also saw the gorgeous chanteuse on the left who I believe is Tisch DeWilliams. Fabulous creatures all of them!
My new Doctor Marten peep-toe shoes arrived today!
Aren't they lovely? Such a great shade of red, and I really like the pattern on the innersole. It actually snowed a little tiny bit today, but I still wore these all day around the office.
These shoes make me very happy, because they prove it is possible to have all the comfort and support of a nice chunky DM sole, with a lovely girly upper. Win-Win! These will look great with my blue wrap dress, and my white linen trousers too. They would probably look good with my pyjamas too, don't you think?
On our way to get our breakfast Dunkin' Donuts on the last morning in Philadelphia, we noticed a historical marker which marked the Gay Rights demonstrations that took place in Philadelphia in the 1960s.
Naturally I had to take several photos, and this shot with the blue sky and the lens flare from the sun is my favourite.
This may well be the best historical marker I've ever seen.
On my way to the Fabric Workshop and Museum I walked along Arch Street; at least I'm pretty sure that's where I was when I took this photo of Philadelphia Eddie's Tattoo Headquarters (Est. 1952), which is apparently world famous, but I'd never heard of it before.
I just loved the window display, which the glare made virtually impossible to get a good photo of. I did what I could with Picnik to make the Tattooed Lady pop, but I'm afraid you don't really get the full impact.
Today I wore my two latest accessories, the button badge I bought in the yarn shop at the weekend, and the bracelet my friends Laura and Jasmine gave me.
They are both a) pink and b) decorated with skulls.
Not only that, but the bracelet skulls have hot pink bandannas and the badge skull has crossed knitting needles instead of skulls.
The only thing that could improve these fabulous objects would be... Actually I can't think of anything to improve upon them.
Instead of a photograph today, I have made an Alien Spouse Wordle! It was fun!
This morning being Saturday, after I had fed the cats, I went back to bed, and, once Nancy had finished her breakfast, she came to join us. She loves crawling under the covers and when she did that this morning she looked really sweet, so I reached for my camera and the moment I did the little madam ran off. No photos! Why won't the paparazzi just leave her alone? Is it too much to ask that she have a little privacy?
Well, yes it is, frankly.
I was determined to get a good shot of Nancy, so this afternoon I had a mini photo shoot with her. It was exactly like an episode of "America's Next Top Model" (I watched several back-to-back marathons of "ANTM" when I had the flu; it's entertaining enough to occupy your mind, but doesn't really require any intellectual exertion. Perfect when your feeling under the weather and lethargic.) It wasn't easy, Nancy doesn't know her angles at all, and she has no clue how to smile with her eyes. I can almost hear Miss J Alexander and Nigel Barker criticising her poses, but I think Twiggy would have been quite supportive.
Eventually we had 9 frames I was happy with, although the first one I just find amusing because she'd been washing her ear and turned it inside out. I love when cats do that!
I took on the Tyra Banks role and told Nancy that she was still in the running to be America's Next Top Kitty, but frankly I think we all know that Edith has this one in the bag. The minute she saw me taking photos Edith came running, and fawned all over me; then she sat in a shaft of sunlight and worked it for the camera.
I'm honestly not sure that Nancy really wants this enough.
I don't remember where I got this brooch from, it might have been from that period where I went insane on e-bay and had massive bidding wars over pieces of vintage costume jewelry. I haven't done that in a while, and now I think of it I do need some earrings... Hmm...
But back to the brooch, I realised today that one of the things I like about it is that it looks like a Steampunk Star Trek Communicator.
It would be even better if it really did connect me with the crew of a steam dirigible that is exploring the final frontier. That would rock.
Today we went into town to have some breakfast and wander around the shops. I bought polka dot knee length socks, some great books (including a signed copy of "Torch Song Trilogy" for $6! OhMyGod!), several different colours of cotton yarn for crocheting amigurumi and a great vintage brooch, with blue diamante stones, in the shape of a "J". We also had a late lunch of delicious noodle soup and I had a cupcake too.
Tonight we are going to go out for a curry, and then tomorrow I think we are planning to have a late brunch and see "Milk" before we leave.
Right now we are back in the hotel to recover from all the excitement of spending a whole day in a proper city. I am lying lengthwise across the bed, whilst Doc C is resting his eyes in the arm chair.
These are my new PJs. They are made from a lovely comfy jersey, with a blue satin bow.
The blue satin bow is clearly what tips them over from "practical" to "What Gidget would pack if invited by Moon-Doggy to stay at this parent's ski lodge for the weekend".
Where upon sixties teen hijinks would ensue. Wouldn't you love to see that?
As I was walking back from lunch today I heard a call from the window of a building I was passing, my friend Kristin came rushing out carrying a pot-plant sized pre-decorated Norfolk pine tree. We were all given one of them at a recent meeting, but I had to leave early and missed that announcement.
For those of you keeping score at home this now means that I have three Christmas trees of my own, and two at the office. So I have five trees now!
On the left here we have tree number 4 which is the miniature black vinyl Paperchase tree, with a pink glass bauble; whilst on the left we have a Norfolk pine with a red plastic bauble with raised white snowflake.
We went to Winston-Salem on Saturday, and we didn't leave our house until around two so we got there at about four. Mainly we just wanted to wander around somewhere quiet and pretty, so Old Salem was exactly what we were after. It's just lovely.
I particularly like that many of the houses have electric candles in all of their windows. That may sound tacky but the effect is really quite lovely. It made me think of my Mum!
Fortunately there was some sort of special Christmassy event going on in ye olde Salem, so all the shops were open late. Doc C found some quaint but not religious Christmas cards which he has sent to his family and we both enjoyed gawking a the shop full of kind of cool, but super expensive and very faux antique things.
We then went to Borders and went a bit crazy with the freedom of browsing books, CDs, games and cool stuff. They had a reasonable range of Paperchase merchandise, which whilst it could not compare with the flag ship branch of Paperchase on Tottenhamcourt Road, was still very welcome. I may have got a little bit misty. I somehow resisted the black flock reindeer (which also wore feather boas and had a heavy sprinkling of glitter), but I did buy a black foot high fake Christmas tree and a box of the red and pink mini baubles. It doesn't go with any of our house decorations, so I might have it on my desk for the rest of the semester.
I also bought three boxes of Paperchase Christmas cards, which I have spent so long deliberating over who gets which that I am pretty sure none of them will arrive on time. But they are still super cute! Damn it!
How cool is my new UV light?
That is a gin and tonic! Isn't that amazing?
One of Martha's Halloween suggestions was serving G&Ts under ultra violet light because the quinine reacts in this way. Someone on Martha's creative team certainly knows their stuff.
Doc C's project this year was to put up lights on our balcony. He choose multi-coloured lights which were slightly larger then normal.
They look so pretty at night with fresh snow on the ground.
You see? It's a Gold Glitter Hummingbird, but it's tasteful!
This is our tree for this year! It's tiny, so we've put it on the mantelpiece away from our curious felines. They really wanted to play with the baubles, and could not understand why I was insisting on hanging them out of their reach.
The tree is alive, so we will re-pot it and use it again next year. The only difficulty was that my fabulous diamante tree topper was too heavy for it and it bent over most pathetically. All of the tree toppers in the local shops are for the really enormous trees so they are all huge. In the end I took a glittery star off a gift tag and used that.
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