Good Stuff: Links & Likes

Image from The Guardian, copyright Jenny Jimenez/www.photojj.com

This Lindy West piece from The Guardian is just about the most perfect thing I've ever read, interrogating the intersections between feminism, fat and capitalist exploitation in the wedding industrial complex. Searingly honest, West argues that the very act of a fat woman being happy and loved is a political statement. I want this piece tattooed all over my body so I can read it at any time.

I loved Laura's chair makeover; I'll definitely be stealing this idea in future!

And while we're on the subject of crafts, how amazing is this statement necklace made from recycled buttons?

I had ALL the feels while reading this piece about being bisexual at Pride. Just... so much yes.

The New York Times feature on two pairs of identical twins, in which one of each pair was swapped at birth, meaning they were raised as fraternal twins, was simply amazing.

Finally, Elise started The Buyer's Archive a while ago, I borrowed her idea, and now Donna of Polkadot Pink and Steffany of Deep Greens & Blues have joined in too.

What I Wore: A Date Night Outfit

I've always been a dress girl but last summer and this I've also started collecting skirts (not such a great departure, I know, but still...!). I found this one last week in a charity shop for the princely sum of £2; it's originally from mum-store Bon Marche but I really like it. Paired with a grey marl t-shirt, my beloved new clogs (seriously, these shoes are so comfortable and fun to wear, I adore them) and a statement necklace, it was the perfect outfit for date night.

We spent the evening in the The Orange Tree in Leicester, sampling their delicious vegan mac & cheese and a few ciders, before cycling home in the twilight. An outfit I love, great food, cold cider, a bike ride and my boy? Makes for a perfect date night.

* Skirt: Bon Marche via charity shop * T-shirt: H&M (old) * Belt: Peacocks (old) *

* Necklace: New Look (old) * 'J' tote bag: Alphabet Bags * Clog sandals: TK Maxx *

Photo An Hour: Saturday 18th July

Yesterday was Jane and Louisa's monthly Photo An Hour, and despite having a pretty quiet Saturday planned I took part as usual. Here's how my day panned out.

8.30am
I'd been awake for about 30 seconds when I took this photograph: the view from my comfy bed, with the sun streaming through the windows.

9.30am
Still lazing in bed chatting with Thomas. He's working six days a week plus evenings at the moment, trying to finish the second draft of his thesis before we go on holiday, so today was a rare chance for us to hang out. At the time this photograph was taken, we were chatting about the two cats who've adopted us.

10.30am
Breakfast time, and as a treat I made vegan American-style pancakes with banana and maple syrup (Thomas) or golden syrup (me).

11.30am
Catching up on the news. Every Photo An Hour involves me reading the Guardian, because it's such an intrinsic part of my Saturday routine, so I tried to take a slightly different shot this time.

12.30pm
Taking outfit photographs in the back garden (which is actually pretty nice, although this photo makes it look a right mess). Thomas is endlessly patient with me while taking the pictures, and today we managed to get five outfits shot in less than an hour: result!

1.30pm
Time to get out and about in the sunshine, we rode our bikes through a nearby nature reserve and along the Great Central Way cycle path. We're so lucky that, despite living right next to the city centre, we have open green spaces just a few moments away.

2.30pm
We stopped for a picnic lunch next to the canal and then popped into a cute tearoom in an old lock-keepers cottage. Poor Thomas was desperate for his lunch and I was being a total blogger and stealing his food to style photographs.

3.30pm
Home again, and I'm spending some time setting up a belated birthday present from my mum and step-mum: a new record player.

4.30pm
Time for a cup of tea. On Photo An Hour day, Instagram becomes awash with tea between the hours of 4 and 5. This mug always gets a lot of love, but as it was a gift I've no idea where it came from.

5.30pm
Putting together a post from some of the outfit photographs from earlier today. My laptop is painfully slow at uploading photos (or maybe it's my internet at fault: either way, it drives me potty).

6.30pm
Cocktail time! My current tipple is vodka, mango juice and soda water.

7.30pm
This is a very sleepy Theodore, one of the two cats who've pretty much moved in. When this was taken Matilda, the second one, was sleeping upstairs on the landing. They spend hours at our house and we very rarely feed them, so it feels like we're getting all the benefits of cat ownership with none of the expense or hassle.

8.30pm
Just finished eating dinner (vegan chicken in pitta with sweet potato fries) and watching some old episodes of Happy Endings. Still gutted that this was cancelled a couple of years ago.

9.30pm
And, like clockwork, just as at around 4pm Instagram becomes all pictures of tea, the final image of most people's Photo An Hour is our bedtime reading. It amuses me that we're all so alike in our habits. I'm early to bed as I'm feeling exhausted for some reason, which gives me more time to read Mindy Kaling's book. I'd downloaded it to my Kindle for our holiday but couldn't resist starting it early.

At Home: Our Travel-Themed Spare Room

I grew up in Yorkshire, to South African parents, and have family & friends on every continent bar Asia. Thomas is Scottish but has also lived in the Czech Republic and the Netherlands. It's no surprise, then, that we enjoy collecting things to remind us of our global heritage. When decorating the spare room it was an easy choice to make it loosely travel-themed, with a mixture of maps, vintage railway posters, and tchotchkes from our travels. 

Some homemade map-themed art is on display: a gift I made for Thomas after our first year together featuring heart-shaped map cut-outs and a cardboard B covered in a vintage New York transit map, which together flank a gorgeous soapstone carving from my second visit to South Africa in 2002.

Something new I've put together, after an increase in visits from overseas guests, is a small basket full of useful bits and pieces: pen and paper, tissues, a mini first aid kit, basic toiletries (nicked from a hotel room, obviously), a UK charger plug. I'd also like to add a small local travel guide. Anything else that you think might be useful to a visitor?

The bed frame in here is identical to the one in our room - a bargain eBay find. A string of Cable & Cotton lights entwine the frame and the cushions are a mixture of high street finds, a beautiful African map one from Etsy, and one made from scraps of sari fabric. The rather forbidding wooden mask on the wall was brought back from Malaysia by my mum and step-mum.

Finally, my new homemade poster hanger continues the map theme with a vintage map of the USA, together with a sign that Thomas salvaged from his old home in Nijmegen, and my bridesmaids dress, which hangs from a flower hook on the back of the door. It's too beautiful to keep shut up in a wardrobe!

With this room being so light and bright, it's also the only room in the house to be painted a colour other than white: I think the bold teal feature wall looks great and I love how it ties together with the blue shades from the maps and railway posters. Like every other room in the house, though, it's been done on a mega-budget. The bed frame and mattress were a steal on eBay, the chest of drawers cost a whole £5 from a junk shop years ago, and pretty much everything else was picked up in sales or while travelling. I haven't done the maths, but I'd be very surprised if everything in the room, furniture and decorative items, came to much more than £250.

Details:

* All frames: Ribba by Ikea * Chest of drawers: Junk shop find * Drawer knobs: eBay *

* Bed frame: Ikea via eBay * Lamp: Tesco (old) * * Bed linen: Matalan *

* Cushions L-R: homemade, Tesco (old), My Bearded Pigeon on Etsy, Matalan (old) * 

  Lights: Cable & Cotton * Snake plant: Wilko * Plant pot: Ikea *

* Vintage map paper: Baileys Home & Garden *

July Reads: Part One

1. Girl In A Band has been the summer's must-read music memoir, and I enjoyed it. Gordon does have a tendency to name-drop, which can be irritating but is of course what we all read rock memoirs for. If you're after gossip about the implosion of her and Thurston's marriage or anecdotes about Kathleen Hanna and Courtney Love, you've come to the right place, but this is nicely balanced with insights into Sonic Youth's work and her background in visual art.

2. When Dave Gorman put out a plea on Twitter to people willing to play a game with him, Dave Gorman Vs. The Rest Of The World was born. He travels around the UK playing everything from poker and darts to Settlers of Catan, finding out about his opponents and, in many cases, learning the rules of strange and arcane games.

3. I really enjoy Sloan Crosley's first collection of essays, so was thrilled to happen upon the follow-up, How Did You Get This Number, in Bristol at the weekend. From the story of a visit to Alaska to an insightful essay about being alone abroad, it's perfect for dipping in and out of.

4. Gang Leader For A Day was utterly fascinating. A sociology PhD candidate at the end of the 80s, Venkatesh wanted to research urban - and specifically black - poverty in the USA. So he did what no other sociologist had ever bothered to do: he went into the projects and spent almost a decade hanging out with the people there, growing especially close to gang leader T.J.

5. Pretty Girls* is superbly written, with taut plotting that had my stomach in knots and characters that I rooted for and believed in, even when (or perhaps because) they were not always sympathetic. However, it's bleak as fuck and stomach-churningly graphic on the topic of violence against women, so approach with caution.

6. Commuting to and from London, Rachel wiles away the time by sneaking drinks and fantasising about the lives of a couple whose house her train passes. But when someone goes missing, Rachel first finds herself drawn into the mystery and then actively trying to insert herself into the case. I think my reading of The Girl On The Train was spoiled by all the hype surrounding it, declaring it the read of the summer and the new Gone Girl. Needless to say, it was neither. Whilst well written, it lacked tension until the very end and the twist was identical to a number of other thrillers I've read recently, so was easily guessed. Also, writers, can you all just stop writing all your fat characters as pathetic, lonely, chaotic and alcoholic? Between The Seed Collectors last month (which I otherwise loved) and this, I felt like I wanted to give these authors a lesson in fat positive activism.

7. After The Girl On The Train, it was a relief to pick up In A Dark, Dark Wood*, a genuinely chilling example of the grip-lit genre. Nora cut all ties with her past life after having her heart broken at 16. Now 26 and living in London, she is surprised to receive an invitation to the hen do of her former best friend. The action cuts between Nora lying injured and with amnesia in hospital, and the hen do itself a few days earlier, at an isolated house in the Kielder Forest. The oppressive atmosphere of the forest adds to the creeping sense of danger and the characters are all utterly believable. Heartily recommended.

* These books were kindly provided by the publishers via Net Galley in return for an honest review.

Lately

Lately, I've been...

Feeling pretty bad, in all honestly. My anxiety levels are sky-high at the moment, so I'm stressing out about everything from work to our trip to Canada to what to cook for dinner each night. I feel sad a lot, and demotivated, and totally uninclined to blog (hence my silence here). I'm really hoping that, now the summer holidays are here, I start to feel more like myself again.

Eating al fresco a lot of evenings, with a picnic lunch or two thrown in. We've really taken advantage of the nice weather to eat in our back garden or, on Saturdays, to take our bikes and a picnic to nearby parks for lunch. The shot on the top left is of a delicious vegan creamy spinach pasta that Thomas made a couple of weekends ago.

Making this awesome poster hanger. I love the old schoolroom look of wooden hangers but they're sooooooo expensive to buy. So instead, I used a tutorial on Wrapped Up In Rainbows (although instead of £££ balsa wood I used cheap wooden trim from B&Q) to make my own from which to hang this repro vintage map poster from Paperchase.

Wearing all my favourite summer outfits, of which I have tons compared to winter clothes (when I basically wear the same three things over and over again). When you live in England, that's totally the wrong way round to do it but hey. I'm particularly into the skirt/t-shirt combo at the moment, and was extremely chuffed to find that my vintage madras skirt coincidentally matches our picnic rug perfectly.

Getting awesome post courtesy of Rebs, who sent me an ace snail mail/crafty kit, and also from my #PostCircle buddies, Debbie and Gill, who both sent me some ace birthday goodies. I love getting post: if anyone wants to swap addresses for a snail mail exchange, let me know.

Buying a full length mirror, which means lots of outfit shots on Instagram at the moment. Also lots of books and ebooks, in preparation for a summer off work and lots of reading time. I'm looking forward to rereading How To Build A Girl and was also excited to download Mindy Kaling's book for not very many pennies.

Planning my summer! We go to Bristol tomorrow (yes, again - we're obsessed), and I also I have a little jaunt to London planned, together with a visit to Indietracks festival courtesy of Laura. And then we fly to Reykjavik at the end of July for a couple of days before travelling on to Canada - visiting Ottawa, a family reunion in rural Ontario, Montreal and Toronto in a whistle-stop ten day trip. Work has been so tough recently, so my six and a half weeks off are very much needed and well earned.

The Buyer's Archive: June

Earlier this year Elise started a series called The Buyer's Archive, as a way to track her purchases from year to year and figure out which items had been worth it... and which had already found their way to the charity bag. As reducing my spending is always a goal, I decided to give it a go too.

June has been a quiet month, spending-wise. Although I had a couple of online splurges, all the items ended up being sent back. So, by the 30th, all I'd added to my wardrobe was the following:

Chunky 'wooden' clog sandals, TK Maxx £29.99

I love the look of Swedish Hasbeens and Lotta from Stockholm clogs but after a disastrous encounter last summer with Hasbeens, which left my feet bleeding and missing chunks of skin, I'd decided they weren't for me (I subsequently sold the shoes for a profit: win!). So when I tried on these sandals in TK Maxx I wasn't expecting much. However, the leather is SO soft and because the soles aren't solid wood they're much lighter than proper clogs too. I wore them at the weekend and, considering I don't wear heels, found them super comfortable. They're still available online and I'd 100% recommend them.

Polka dot shorts, charity shop £2
These are a nice light viscose, in a high-waisted 1940s style, and will be perfect for riding my bike. And compared to the navy blue pair from H! by Henry Holland at Debenhams that I've been eyeing up, they were a bargain.

EDITED TO ADD:
Aviator sunglasses, Tesco £7
I just remembered that I also bought a pair of sunglasses last week! I love aviator-style sunglasses but my pair from last summer was looking a little worse for wear, so when I spied these while doing my weekly shop I pounced. I particularly like the fact that the lenses on these are darker than my current ones: much better for all this sunshine we're having!

My total spend for June (not counting the socks and pants I also bought this month: they seem like too much of an essential to keep a record of) was... £39.98. I was feeling pretty proud of this until I saw that Elise had only spent £10! 

June Reads: Part Two

Welcome to my second round-up for June (you can read the first here), which brings my total books read this month to eighteen.

1. The Gardener cousins have a number of things in common, the mysterious disappearance of their parents - the seed collectors of the title - while on a botany trip years earlier being just one of them. Now adults, their great aunt Oleander, guru to the stars, has died and left them each a valuable seed pod. Will it prove a deadly poison or route to enlightenment? The Seed Collectors* was a very modern comedy of manners, touching on themes as diverse as family, desire, academia, and the cult of celebrity, among others. Scarlett Thomas has always been a smart writer, scattering philosophical bon mots and jokes amongst her narratives, and for this reason I really enjoyed the novel. However, my enjoyment was marred by the fat-phobia on display, with one of the main characters, Bryony, being a frankly offensive caricature of a fat person; a glutton who cannot control her appetites, be they food, alcohol or shopping. The ending also had a rushed feeling about it which left me feeling unsatisfied, but overall I'd still recommend this beautifully written, if casually brutal, novel.

2. Station Eleven has been much garlanded with praise since its publication last year, and deservedly so. Moving between multiple points of view and times - both before, during and after a global pandemic wipes out civilization as we know it - the world Mandel creates is enchanting and believable. Largely focusing on a band of players known as Travelling Symphony, who tour Ontario on foot to perform Shakespeare to the few remaining post-pandemic survivors. Each strand of the story is skilfully woven together, with my only complaint being that I felt the book could have been longer.

3. Six days after graduating from Yale, Marina Keegan was killed in a car accident. Her creative writing professor, Anne Fadiman (whose book about books and reading, Ex Libris, is absolutely fantastic) helped to collate and edit The Opposite Of Loneliness, a collection of Keegan's writing, both fiction and non-fiction. Unfortunately, it read as what it was: a collection of fairly accomplished but not outstanding university undergraduate work.

5. Rock She Wrote is an impressively inclusive and wide-in-scope collection of writings by women about music - often (but not exclusively) music made by women too. From Pamela Des Barres on Live Through This-era Courtney Love to a fascinating look at the role of black women musicians in jazz's history, this was the perfect collection to dip in and out of. Published in 1995, it obviously therefore omits anything from the past 20 years but for fans of older music (or older music fans) it makes a great read.

6. I loved Smoke Gets In Your Eyes: And Other Lessons From The Crematorium, the tale of how the author started working in a crematorium at the tender age of 22 after a lifetime of being fascinated by death. Ranging from addressing the funeral industry's exploitation of grieving relatives, to looking at the ways in which the American and British ways of death have changed over the years, to anecdotes about the grizzly tasks expected of her at work, it's definitely not one to read over dinner but fascinating nevertheless.

7. If you follow My Sad Cat on Twitter then you'll already be familiar with the feline stars of The Good, The Bad & The Furry. Only one to read it you're truly cat-mad, I found there wasn't a great deal of new material here for someone who (like me) has read a lot of Cox's articles and follows him on Twitter, but it's still amusing. Just as in those mediums, this book really comes alive when his loud and eccentric dad comes onto the scene.

Re-reads
8. I needed something quick and easy to read on a school trip to Cambridge - something that would keep my attention whilst I sat at the meeting point, but not so engrossing that I couldn't keep an eye on things. Naomi & Ely's No-Kiss List follows Naomi, who's been saving herself for childhood friend and neighbour, Ely (who's gay and definitely hasn't been saving himself for Naomi), plus a cast of other characters linked to their building. It's not a patch on Cohn & Levitathan's two other collaborations, but to wile away the time in the sunshine, it did nicely.

9. The Good, The Bad & The Undead is the second in The Hollows series about a bounty-hunting witch who lives with a vampire and a pixie. High art this is not, but it's a page-turner that's perfect when I'm not in the mood for anything too serious.

* This book was kindly supplied by the publisher via Net Galley, but all 

opinions are entirely my own.

Note: I do not use affiliate links in these posts, but just like to provide a non-Amazon source.

What I Wore: Polka Dots (Again)

This is the dress that I just had to buy when I was on holiday, despite having bought an almost-identical one from New Look a few days before. I mean, €14 - I'd have been mad not to, right?

The cut of this is really flattering: short sleeves, a very fitted bodice going in at my narrowest point before flaring out into a full, 50s-style skirt. I love the deep back, too, which kept me nice and cool on a warm night in the pub.

Because the dress itself - both the 50s shape and the twee print - is edging towards cute, I decided to add some tough-talking accessories. My 'Bitch' necklace is one of Sugar & Vice's custom name necklaces, the colour deliberately matched with the 'Riots Not Diets' tote I picked up from Etsy this winter.

The only element in the outfit I'm not convinced by is the shoes, which is also the one thing that, fashion-wise, I tend to be fairly clueless about. Because I do a lot of urban walking, my main concern is that my shoes are comfortable, rather than stylish, which tends to mean chunky Mary Janes and brogues in winter, ballet pumps and comfortable but slightly dull sandals in summer. This pair are perfect for pounding the pavements but I don't think they quite 'go' with the rest of the look. Any suggestions on what other shoes might work gratefully received.

* Dress - C&A (the Netherlands) * 'Riots Not Diets' tote bag -  Miss Harry via Etsy * 

* Sandals - Dune (old) * 'Bitch' necklace - Sugar & Vice Designs *