Goodbye Finchley...you stayed true to form to the very last moment

Although I was worried that I would disgrace myself by weeping all over Bassets on departure from the house, I was saved by the antics of l'enfant. Just as I was gathering together the possessions I had strewn around the kitchen: cape, shawls, laptop, book, and the rest, Finch decided to engage in evil-ness.

With one clever scoop of his long Basset nose he winkled out a wide cylindrical gift pack of chocolate chip cookies from beneath a scarf in my carry on.

Beyond pleased with himself, his little chops jacked open just as far as they could possibly go around the oversize packet, he looked at me out of the corner of his eyes and bolted for the living room, front paws working in tandem, nineteen to the dozen.

As he skidded across the kitchen floor, the cellophane split and large cookies wheeled across the rug. Max was there in seconds and lil’sis’s present started to go snip snap down the gullets of two snack obsessed hounds.

Chuckling away, we managed to rescue most of them. I just hope lil'sis doesn't find any dog hairs on her cookies.

Goodbye New Jersey

Fete Nationale.



L'enfant's first day in Jersey.



Max distinctly unimpressed with the arrival of l'enfant



S'mores: who knew Hershey's could actually be edible?



JK working it. Can you tell she works in fashion?



Eton Mess. My dastardly plan to make everyone fat





L'enfant as puppyfootwarmer





Y's birthday, er, cake

Things I am going to do in London: part one

Most importantly, I HAVE to get my hair cut. (I'm heading for the dreaded stripper hair - way too long.) And possibly coloured too. I’m a natural blonde and usually I rely on the summer sun to perk up my hair. This year I spent way more time in the sun than normal - a few months in California, and then on my return to New York, I promptly left the city for the countryside. That meant I wore a huge sunhat to ward off the evil wrinkle forming rays every day. The annoying side effect of that is rather dull looking hair.

Thing is I haven’t had my hair cut in London in three years, and I have no idea where to go. I’ve also got an inbox full of LLG reader emails all wanting to know where they should get their hair done in London. Anyone got any bright ideas? And, dear readers, if you can hang on, I’ll report back once I’ve taken the plunge.

Eat so much Vietnamese that I end up with a food baby. Hackney here I come. Song Que, Viet Hoa, Huong Viet: I intend to eat in all three as much as possible.

Find the squishiest sofa in Shoreditch House, hunker down and make it my London office. (And mumble occasionally about how great it is that they have a gym there, with absolutely no intention whatsoever of crossing the threshold.)

Go for a very long walk on Hampstead Heath with lil’sis & Posetta Baddog, followed by lunch outside at The Italian at Parliament Hill Fields, with PB tied to our table as she growls at all comers.

Go dancing. I’m thinking the Guilty Pleasures Black & White Ball at Koko for choice. In a black lace mid calf ballgown, black elbow gloves, proper pointy toe stilettos, masses of necklaces & birds nest hair. (Think 80s, think Madonna c. Like A Virgin)

Get my eyebrows threaded at Blink before they take over my face.

Winner: Fifty Dresses That Changed the World

Thank you everyone who left a comment to tell us about their favourite dress. I used random.org to choose three people to receive a copy of the book. And they are:

Kiki said...
It's black lace, found on the floor of a Zara sale years ago for £10. I've worn it to everything, from everyday with flats to evening, for work meetings to a picnic at the park with flip-flops and Xmas dinner with friends. I've worn it so much the wrap detail at the front has loosened up and is now held together with a pin making it uneven (but I like it even more this way!) And wearing it one day this summer, waiting at some London traffic lights I got the best compliment EVER, from a cute old lady, "I love the way it moves at the back and it shows off your pretty legs! You walk well in it!" I walked with her to her house, chatting about her granddaughter, called everyone I know to tell them and had a smile on my face for the rest of the day! x

Claire said...
My favourite dress, is a pink collared vintage piece I found on. It was floor length, until it got it to my house that is! I cut it to a more modern length that suited my shape and height better, and now I wear it all the time. I always get asked where its from and how much. No one believes me when I say £5 from eBay!
I am wearing it here : http://lookbook.nu/look/238270-Pink-Vintage
I love the look of those books! I study fashion promotion with styling and it would come in so handy! Fingers crossed! xox

Mirandola said...
The dusky pink silk dress my italian grandma made for me for my first dressed up party, when I was 18. She'd been a seamstress and volunteered to make me the dress. I was terrified, in the way that only an overwrought teenager can be, that the dress would be wrong, somehow, and that I'd get laughed at. I should point out, here, that I'd never seen my grandma wear anything but southern italian woman black wool...
My mum didn't want to hurt nonna's feelings by saying no, so we agreed that I'd pretend to wear whatever she made, but that if I didn't like it I'd get a proper, shop-bought dress. And it was fabulous. Not let's-be-nice-to-elderly-relative-wearable. It was chic, and flattering, and made me feel grown up and.... She was amazing.

Such fabulous stories from everyone. Girls: please can you email me at libertylondongirl at gmail.com and I will let you know how to claim your books.

Hello Jamie!

This is little Jamie, born yesterday three weeks early to my old university friend Emma & her boyfriend Rob. I just want to say CONGRATULATIONS to Em & Rob!

Clarins Generation 6 Extra-Firming Botanical Intensive Care serum

A lovely reader (hello Cal!) emailed me to say she was a little confused by the whole beauty regime thing and could I please explain when one was supposed to use beauty serums?

I was reminded that I hadn't addressed her question this morning when I was massaging in a layer of gunk after my shower and admiring the plump, smooth texture of my skin.

God, that sounds narcissistic but bear with me.

Sure there's a lot of snake oil on the market and if we were to believe all the claims put forward by various beauty companies for their facial products (& take at face value their photoshopped advertisements), we'd all be walking around with the complexions of twelve year olds.

Although I was sent buckets of serums in my twenties, I never bothered with any of it: I had great skin and it was patently clear to me that adding another level to my skincare regime wasn't necessary.

Now that I've started the long inexorable fall towards old age (I'm over thirty), my skin could do with an extra boost and a good serum really can make a difference, delivering extremely concentrated amounts of supposedly active ingredients to your skin. After a week of using one my skin usually looks dewy, stays moist, and there is no flaking. With the really good ones I get no breakouts either.

This is important to me as I have rosacea, which is easily exacerbated by the wrong products. Unfortunately I have to use trial & error as I have no way of knowing which product will cause me to flare up in advance. The wrong one results in tiny white pustules (mm lovely) all over my cheeks which take a week to go down. Skincare for me is like Russian roulette.

Anyway, my current wonder product is Clarins Generation 6 Extra-Firming Botanical Intensive Care Serum. It's aimed directly at the over 40s (er,not me), with the promise of age-control, anti-wrinkle, extra-firming properties.

I take all those promises with a very large pinch of salt but, having used it religiously every morning straight onto my skin, followed by my SPF day moisturiser, and each evening massaged in for a few minutes before applying night & eye cream, I'm really very, very impressed with the state of my skin. It stays hydrated & even a little glow-y throughout the day and the very fine lines really do seem to be less noticeable, I guess because they are all plumped up. Put me in a Force Ten gale and I suspect they'll be noticeable again in seconds.

This particular serum can be used daily or as an occasional boost. I'm not a big believer in products if they aren't used regularly, so I would suggest an all or nothing approach.

I've never really used Clarins products before, but I have a small mountain to test, courtesy of the US Clarins press office, and, so far, so extremely good. I'm using the serum in conjunction with the Multi-Active Night Prevention Plus Cream (recommended for 30s) and I haven't had a single break out, blackhead or flaky patch in two weeks.

The Serum is UK £50 here, US $94 here

Ann Louise Roswald London sample sale

(I wrote about Ann Louise Roswald here)

Ann Louise Roswald invites you to a one day sale of current & previous season stock including knitwear, party dresses & winter coats, press samples, vintage cashmere, fabric off-cuts, clogs - all at bargain prices.

Monday 23rd November

8am to 8pm

PRICES FROM £5 ◊ FREE ENTRY ◊ CASH & CARDS ACCEPTED
The Toy Factory, 11 / 13 Corsham Street, London N1 6D

Nearest tube Old Street (Exit One/Take the stairs to City Road, 2nd Right then 1st Left)

ANN LOUISE ROSWALD would like to draw your attention to the plight of the Paul D'auria Cancer Support Centre, SW11. The Centre is at risk of being closed, as its funding is not being renewed. For more information on the centre please visit www.pauldauriacentre.org.uk

London here I come...

I’m feeling rather sad at the thought of leaving New Jersey. It’s been wonderful getting to spend proper time with J& Y, and with les Bassets, and I shall miss them very much. And what am I going to do without those silky Basset ears to play with?

After my stressful bolt around Manhattan yesterday, we have had a calm evening, eating Y’s delicious homemade cauliflower au gratin off our laps, and watching the Star Trek movie (a second time for both J & me; we were just geeking out by watching it again), teaching Y how to do the Vulcan hand salute & eating Magnolia’s chocolate devil’s food cake.

J remarked that I seemed quietly excited about my trip back to England and he was right…sort of. It’s always lovely to see family, friends and dogs, but I don’t really want to be in England right now, not one bit. But my mother is feeling mis & I think we both need to regroup.

So I’m sugar coating the pill by arranging lovely things to do instead. The basic plan is that I will spend the weeks writing & clearing attics with my mother at the family home in the countryside near Banbury, and the weekends in London, until I return to NYC at the beginning of January.

Highlights so far include a Tweetup in London this weekend with various of my blog & Twitter acquaintance, seeing New Moon with my best friend Miss P, and the prospect of dinner & a stay at the new Dean Street Townhouse hotel from the Soho House stable, which opens next week. There's also a chance I may get to see the wonderful Tania Kindersley as we serendipitously find ourselves in the same part of the world. (Tania lives in Scotland and I in America, so this is luck indeed.)

Whilst I am on the subject of Tania, her & Sarah Vine's most excellent book Backwards in High Heels
would be the perfect Christmas present for intelligent and loved girlfriends. Read about it here & buy it here(It's out in America in the New Year.)

Running errands in Manhattan

So. New York. I left you as I drank tea with one of my Twitter acquaintance in Soho House. With a train to catch back to the sticks at 1745hrs (me) & a very nice lunch guest awaiting (my friend), our meeting was necessarily short, and I whizzed off to the arse end of Chelsea for a poke around in my basement storage container.

When I gave up my Manhattan apartment in February, I put all my household goods, spare clothes and books into storage. It looked like this for a while, but I've spent a few hours each time I go into the city going through each hastily packed bag and case throwing out junk, making piles for The Salvation Army, trying to consolidate everything.

I had a fine old time yesterday going through it all, ferreting out house keys, Oyster cards and other London essentials. Although I spent most of the time picking out clothes for London. I have a few winter pieces here in New Jersey, but not only has it not dropped beneath 55F here, they are of the comfy variety, as opposed to the trussed up cocktail/smart lunch/dating variety, all of which activities I have every intention of indulging in once I hit London.

I also downgraded to a much smaller container: I've got rid of so much that I don't need the bigger space any more, & I'll save $50 a month. After a while I emerged, blinking, (it's no wonder I have so few wrinkles - I never see daylight), onto the ground floor to sign the papers and casually checked the time. 1620hrs! I had been down there for THREE & A HALF HOURS.

It completely threw me: I don't wear a watch, so hadn't marked the passing of time. It seemed like only an hour had gone by. I had a scant 60mins to run all my errands and get back to Penn at 34th. Ack.

Now completely stressed, and lugging my wheelie case, thigh high boots threatening to become ankle boots, I struggled across 21st street all the way to 8th and hopped an E to Rockefeller Center to buy my mother's 2010 engagement diary from The Met Store on the Plaza. I am such a good daughter. Then, after a quick swing by (overrated) Magnolia Bakery's midtown location for the Red Velvet cupcakes I always bring Y from the city, I sprinted to the subway, taking no prisoners as I & my case cannoned into tourists every few metres. (I have zero spatial awareness at the best of times.)

Of course, even after another stop to fulfill my mother's esoteric magazine requests at Hudson News, I made an earlier train. Manhattan is so tiny, and the subway so fast, efficient and frequent that I had made it from 21st & 11th to 53rd & 5th to 50th & 7th and down to 34th & 8th in just fifty minutes, shopping time included. God I love New York

Sophie Theallet wins CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund

Photo credit: Getty Images (via Harper's Bazaar)

This photograph of Michelle Obama in a Sophie Theallet dress took the designer from fashion insider secret to, if not a household name, then a name that opened fashion doors worldwide.



And, if dressing America's most photographed woman wasn't enough for her this year, tonight she was named winner of the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, which brings with it $200,000 and a year’s worth of mentoring. (To give you an idea of its influence, wunderkind Alexander Wang won last year, & Proenza Schouler picked up the award in its inaugural year, 2006)



Sophie Theallet's atelier may now be based in Brooklyn, but her roots and training are wholly French. Born in the South West of France, the only girl amongst five brothers, she was a tomboy who dreamt of princesses in beautiful gowns. She trained at Le Studio Bercot in Paris, graduating a year early when she won the National Young Designer Award



Although she’s best known for the decade spent at Azzedine Alaïa’s right hand, she worked first for Jean-Paul Gaultier and, after Alaïa, set up a resort line, Motu Tane, with François Nars, and named after his Tahitian resort, which was enormously successful.

In the Spring of 2006 she launched her Sophie Theallet label in NY, which has become known for its exquisite detailing, a direct link to her years with Alaia. But, lest you think this means her collections speak to a body con aesthetic, Theallet describes her signature as ‘bohemian luxe seen through the eyes of a sophisticated couturier’. What that translates to is eminently desirable, grown up clothing, which flatters a woman's body as only a combination of exceptional skill and training can do.


All other photos from Sophie Theallet SS10 via style.com

Lovely day in lovely New York

I spend most days writing & staring out of the window. When I emerge, blinking like a particularly squiffy, cross owl, to actually do something, I am astonished at how much I can achieve in a day if I put my mind to it, especially when serendipity comes into play.

I’m very good at rising to a challenge, so when I got an email at 915am asking if I could pop in to Manhattan for a meeting today, I begged darling Y to drive me to the station, looked in the mirror, shrieked in horror, trowelled on an inch of slap, pulled on my thousand league suede boots and was off to the railway station within twenty minutes.

At Penn Station an hour later I nearly expired, knocked for six by the unlucky combination of mass humanity and unseasonally warm weather. Beetling down to Soho House in Meatpacking to pick up my post, I stripped off my leather gloves and abbreviated Batman cape, untwined five foot of cashmere scarf from around my neck and raised my face to the sky. There really is nothing like Manhattan on a sunny day.

There’s a handy public Mac in the drawing room of SH, so (as my Blackberry is kaput) I popped upstairs to check my email & Twitter. There was a DM waiting for me from an online friend suggesting tea at SH if I was in the city. I looked up and, sitting working with his back to me, was my friend, easily recognisable from his Twitter profile. Kismet.

He did look a bit taken aback when a random woman approached him, smiling like a loon and saying his name. I remembered then that of course not only do I use a nom de plume on Twitter but I’ve posted an unrecognizable portrait of me too.

Once he’d realised I was me,(it’s quite odd introducing myself as Liberty), and not a crazed stalker, we had a lovely pot of tea and talked about ships & sealing wax and cabbages & kings.

Twitter is a funny animal, but one thing has become evident to me over the past year: Twitter requires an ability to distill thoughts into 140 characters. If the contraction still lets personality shine through, then that person is bound to be fascinating in real life.

More of my NY day later.

Netsayi: album release & tour

I first heard of Netsayi in summer 2006 when I was invited to a tiny private acoustic gig in the basement of a restaurant in London to launch her first album. She held the room spellbound with just her voice stripped back and bare, with an emotion ringing through her words which you rarely hear. I could understand why comparisions have been made to Joan Armatrading and Nina Simone.

She’s a Zimbabwean singer-songwriter, who was born a refugee in London during the Zimbabwean chimurenga (war against apartheid). After independence she was raised in Harare, the capital city.

She grew up in a musical household and the soundtrack to her childhood was diverse – traditional songs and local pop competing with reggae, soul and folk. All these genres have influenced Netsayi's own writing, a style she has christened 'Chimurenga Soul'.

Netsayi has opened for some of the most respected stars of Afro-jazz, soul, blues and hip hop (like Hugh Masekela, Omar, Boubacar Traore and K'Naan) and appeared live in session across the BBC radio network (including a prestigious Radio 1 'Peel session').

Her latest album, Monkeys’ Wedding came out in September, and she is at the end of a British tour at the moment.

You can listen to her on Myspace here

Dell XPS M1330: failed motherboard, power adapter & customer service

UPDATE SUNDAY:
After it took forty minutes and five emails between me & Friday's extra special Dell helper, I have called the external contractor three times and they still have no record of my existence. I am currently on the phone to Dell. I have now spoken to SIX people over the course of the last 32 minutes. SWEET MOTHER OF GOD they've just put me through to Latitude support not XPS support. Okay being put through to the SEVENTH person...

Right the seventh person was a beacon of sanity & helpfulness. And would you believe it? Mr Condescension from Friday HAD GIVE ME THE WRONG NUMBER after all. So it's no wonder the external contractor had no record of me - because it was the wrong contractor. F**KWIT.

I have just spent 52 minutes on the phone.

I have just called the external contractor who have told me I cannot arrange a time for the technician. They will page him & see when he is available. When I said when shall I call back?, she replied, "Please call us back after some time." Riiiiggghht. Helpful, that.

Oh & did I mention that somehow Dell have arbitrarily decided to swap my warranty to the UK which is just adding another layer of horror/confusion to the whole ghastly affair? I bought my laptop through Dell America online, had it delivered to New York, have had it fixed three times in NY & have never requested a warranty change.

I really want to cry right now. What upsets me more than anything else is that the problems are all of Dell's making. I am paying in time and in money for their substandard hardware and incompetent technical & customer support. The only ray of light in the darkness is their Social Media department who are like manna from heaven, as they return emails (the guy quoted above never returned my Tuesday email, resulting in my Friday phone call), facilitate repairs, and cut through the nightmares.

Oh and regarding that warranty: it might read Complete Care comprehensive warranty & service contract including Next Day/Weekend/Night On Site Technical support, but it's a Complete Crock . They don't keep parts in stock so they can never come next day as the parts have to be ordered. (Because all that ever goes wrong with an XPSM1330 is that Dell use crappy parts - hello NVIDIA - which breakdown & have to be continually replaced - hello second motherboard & power adapter in three months). And the parts despatching people aren't open over the weekend, so forget about the weekend onsite support.

PS if you've come here through Google, this site is a catalogue of errors with the XPS M1330. It seems I am not alone in having had two failed power adapters, a replacement screen & two replacement motherboards - within a period of four months.

UPDATE (Tuesday):
The Dell tech cldn't come on Monday as the parts didn't arrive in time - quelle surprise, but a very charming man from Unisys arrived an hour early (hurrah!) today, and dismantled my laptop, replacing the motherboard. Unfortunately, Dell hadn't ordered me a new adapter, so he said, so I am STILL awaiting the delivery. They promise via FEDEX tomorrow. We shall see. I fly to London on Thursday and there will be ill humour if it has not arrived by then.

Blog Housekeeping: LLG has a new domain name

Just a quick post to say that you may have noticed that the LLG domain name has changed overnight from libertylondongirl.blogspot.com to www.libertylondongirl.com

What do you need to do?
For the moment, my blog host Blogger will automatically direct everyone to the new domain address.

However, from December (if I can can get it done by then), LLG is moving to a shiny, sparkly new site, just in time for Christmas, and the blogspot address will cease to function.

So, if you could update your links (and any links within posts too if you can be bothered) now to www.libertylondongirl.com you will experience no cessation in LLG activities. (Of course, if you are fed up to the back teeth with my inchoate ramblings, this is a great opportunity to say sayonara LLG!)

Also: some words of advice from a seasoned blogger who wishes she had known better back in 2006 when she started her blog: if you have any intention at all of growing your blog readership beyond your best friend and your mother, buy your domain name and point it towards your blog.

Fortunately no one had speculatively bought libertylondongirl as of last week & I was able to snap up both the .com & .co.uk domains, but it happens so there's another reason to cover your back.

Domain names aren't fearfully expensive, I think I paid around £40 for both for two years and Google doesn't charge you to use a custom domain, as opposed to the .blogspot address. (Wordpress.com will charge you $10.) In any case, it is well worth it if, like me, you have built up lots of lovely links & press, as Blogger won't let you transfer any of that to your new blog.

Just think of all the time (& possibly money) you'll save: I had to spend ages yesterday changing all the links to here on my work portfolio website, and I still have the blogspot address on all my business cards, which I will need to update.

Blogger don't make it transparently simple to set up - they wld much rather you used .blogspot in your address, but it isn't complicated to change to a custom domain and, once you figure it out, it takes five minutes, tops. Hell, if I can do it, you certainly can.

So what are you waiting for?

Designer shoes? Depends how much...

It's always pained me to spend good money on shoes. I'm really hard on my footwear, jamming my shoes into my handbag so I can change depending on my transport options, walking everywhere in New York, often in very high heels, and getting my heel tips caught in grates, drains and pavement cracks more often than I can count. I need shoes I can wear every day without weeping over the repair cost of a torn heel or broken strap.

Not only that, but over the years that I've worked in fashion, I've seen the accessory lines ramp up their prices to such a ludicrous level that they no longer have even a remote connection to cost, but reflect only what the consumer is prepared to pay for a logo, a label or a red sole. And, most of the time, I'm just not willing to jump on that bandwagon. I can admire a beautiful shoe, a wonderful piece of craftsmanship but I am not willing to fork out half a month's Manhattan rent on a pair of shoes that will be worn only a few times each month.

I've already noticed some lines have dropped their accessory prices during this recession, and I suspect that there may be a gradual adjustment back down to the realms of aspirational affordability over the next year.

I do hope so, because at the moment I rely on Zara (about once every three months they produce a shoe I die for, and which gets me stopped in the street; the rest of the time, no), vintage, sample & normal sales and, I admit it, the odd gift from designers to fill up my shoe wardrobe. I do have beautiful, expensive shoes in my possession: I just shopped for them wisely.

And, because I am so hard on my shoes, I spend a fortune on shoe trees, boot supports and cobblers' bills to keep them looking tip top.

Every new pair of shoes gets taken to the shoemender to have a very thin rubber non-slip sole glued to the bottom (bar satin evening shoes obviously). That way the shoe lasts much longer and there's less chance of me going arse over tit (an all too frequent occurrence, given my coordination skills). Because, if you live in the northern hemisphere, chance are that you will be wearing those shoes in the rain more times than you think and nothing ruins a good shoe more than a leather sole being repeatedly plunked down on rainy pavements.

So, even if you abuse your shoes as I do, with a little care they can last and last - just as long, in fact, as a pair of over priced boutique ones.

Odette New York Dachshund necklace

Dachshund necklace Sterling Silver: $105 Yellow Gold Vermeil: $115 Rose Gold Vermeil: $115

I'm wondering how my life was complete before I knew about Odette New York's wonderful dachshund pieces. Alerted by Crystal who pointed out that Posetta Baddog appeared to have been immortalised in silver, I clicked through immediately and was overcome with lust.

Because, although the dachshund pieces rock my world, the rest of her work is pretty damn lovely too.



Odette New York was started in 2006 by artist Jennifer Sarkilahti out of her Brooklyn studio. Each design begins from a pencil sketch that is carefully translated by hand into wax before being cast into metal.

www.odetteny.com

Dell XPS M1330: the faulty laptop saga continues

I have had a long, hard week at the coalface of Dell Customer Un-Resolutions. Finally, at around 4pm on Friday, after a 35 min phone call of horror, I got the offer of a home technical visit, and the Un-Resolutions guy said he would email the tech contractor's call centre details for me to make an appointment:

Dear Ms.LLG
This is a follow up to our conversation today. As discussed please make a note of the dispatch # XXXXXXX. You can contact your service delivery partner on 1-800-247-4618 and quote the dispatch number and schedule a time and date for the technician to visit.

Please do revert in case of any clarifications.
Thanks, KXXXX
____________________________________
Hurrah, thought I, as I rushed to call the number. Hmm. This isn't an external tech contractor, it's Dell on the end of the line. I email back:
_______________________________

I tried that number and it is the extended service line for upgrades & renewals

_________________________________
Reply: Dear Ms.LLG
This is a follow up to our conversation today. As discussed please make a note of the dispatch # XXXXXXX You can contact your service delivery partner on 1-800-247-4618 and choose option 3 and then option 1 and quote the 9 digit dispatch number and schedule a time and date for the technician to visit.
Thanks, KXXXX
_________________________________________
Okay, maybe I am as thick as he is implying. Maybe I didn't listen to the options carefully enough. I'll dial again and follow his instructions. (Thinks to self: why didn't he put the number prompts in first email if he had them all along? And a bit rude just to send the email again. But okay.) So I dial again, follow the prompts and realise that this is indeed NOT the right number.
____________________________________
My reply:
This is an automated order status line. Where are the people to TALK to?
_____________________________________
Dear Ms.LLG
This is a follow up to our conversation today. As discussed please make a note of the dispatch # XXXXX You can contact your service delivery partner on 1-800-970-5206 and choose option 3 and then option 1 and quote the 9 digit dispatch number and schedule a time and date for the technician to visit.
____________________________________

I am finding it hard to comprehend the level of condescension in this series of emails. First the implication that I am stupid by just sending an identical email with the extensions spelled out. Then when he realises he has indeed given me the wrong number for the external contractor, he sends out the exact same email again but with the correct number inserted. No apology - not even drawing my attention to the fact that his almost identical email now contains a different number.

And people wonder why I rant about Dell Customer Un-Resolution.

(oh and the number prompts he gave me do not work)

Friday Giveway: Fifty Dresses that Changed the World

I can't remember a series of books that spoke to my overarching obsessions more clearly. You only have to look at the covers to see what I mean. There in all their glory are four icons of the design world: a Givenchy dress, a Verner Panton chair, a Jaguar E-Type and a Jimmy Choo sandal.

Drool.

Fifty Dresses That Changed the World, Fifty Chairs That Changed the World Fifty Cars That Changed the World,and Fifty Shoes That Changed the World aren't those awful stocking fillers you see every year, each containing a badly edited list that makes anyone with a modicum of knowledge spit their cocoa across the room in horror.

These neat hardbacks are produced by the UK's Design Museum, and have the weight of authoritative research behind them. The books attempt to catalogue the pieces that have made the most substantial impact in their area of design, with each entry giving a short appraisal of the item's iconic status.

Whilst I may not agree with all the entries, the whole is a fascinating window into both design and social history. And at just £12.99, they'd make great presents, even for grumpy know-it-alls like myself.

Now: the exciting bit. Because I loved them so much, I persuaded the lovely people at Octopus to give me a stack of these wonderful books, and I'm going to give them away to LLG readers three copies of one title at a time. Today I'm giving away THREE COPIES OF FIFTY DRESSES THAT CHANGED THE WORLD, so that three people can drool over the 1915 Delphos Pleated dress, Hussein Chalayan's 2007 LED creation and the rest,

Simply leave me a comment telling me about your favourite dress, and I'll randomly pick a winner on Wednesday next week.
(This is a UK-delivery only competition I am afraid. Of course that is not so say you can't enter if you live anywhere else, but the books can only be sent to UK addresses)

Lena Erziak

As you all know, I'd rather stick pins in my eyes than carry a logo'd up, must-have-because-a-celeb-carries-it It Bag. My bag collection is an eclectic mixture of presents & investments, vintage & sample sale finds to which I'm always happy to add something bright, interesting or clever.

At the moment I'm rather liking these ones from new handbag collection Lena Erziak:


Star Bag $300

The label is owned by sisters Leona and Hasna Erziak, who grew up in a Belgian-Moroccan family of artists, their mother a seamstress and father a potter. With their creative background they went on to varied careers, which included styling french celebrities, to decorating Riads in Marrakech.


Dance Floor Bag $450

The bags for their line are manufactured in Italy, using traditional techniques, and the sister have paid close attention to detail, with adjustable straps, tassels and leather zipper pulls all making an appearance on various of the bags. I'm particularly smitten by this pink velvet bag,


And from their Summer 2010 collection, the Elio bag which comes in gold, black & fuchsia.
(No price yet.)

The fall bags are all currently available at Stella Filante on Manhattan's Lower East Side.
Lena Erziak

Flying Wild Turkeys

Bet you never thought you'd see that header on a fashion blog.

We had a flock of wild turkeys land in the garden:



I was about fifty feet away so this is a little blurry (& I only got four - there were a lot more):



But: WILD TURKEYS! In the GARDEN! This does not happen in England. EVER. Turkeys live in sheds getting porky for Christmas back home.

And then, the icing on the cake: they flew off! Seriously, we had flying wild turkeys over our garden.

God I love America.

PS Silly moo commentator who said I was staying in the suburbs: how d'you like dem apples now?

Birdhouse Jewelry New York: affordable AND pretty

Gold earrings with flower clusters &white glass briolettes $26


Silver Flower Ring with Black Pearl $46


Tiny Gold Skull Necklace $20

Birdhouse Jewelry is one of my favourite everyday jewellery makers in New York. I first saw their work at the glorious Brooklyn Flea open air market, and every so often have a little flick through their Etsy pages.

Designed by Amy and Alen Lapierre, from their studio on a very quiet waterfront street in NYC, they specialise in gold and silver jewelry - all with incredibly affordable prices - everything is $10-$50. Their pieces are great for people like me who are a little careless - it's not the end of the world if you misplace them, and they do make perfect presents. Speaking of which, I love that their mail orders come with a free bright red giftbox decorated with a red bow & that they charge a tiny $3 for shipping within the US.

How to get your sticky mitts on Birdhouse Jewelry:
If you are in New York, they have a booth every Saturday and Sunday at Brooklyn Flea, held on Saturdays 10-5 in an outdoor schoolyard in Fort Greene and Sundays 11-6 in Dumbo, Brooklyn, directly under the Brooklyn Bridge. www.brooklynflea.com
Otherwise checkout their website here & their Etsy shop here.

The Inconvenient Bag - winners!

Thank you to everyone who left a comment on my first LLG eco giveaway! The response to the giveaways I've been running each week with the help of a few wonderful sponsors (thank you Ormonde Jayne, Etre Touchy gloves & The Inconvenient Bag) has been so great, that I'll be running a giveaway once a week from now until Christmas. (Basically I'm thoroughly enjoying playing Santa Claus.)

Anyway, on to the people who are receiving an Inconvenient Bag. Chosen using numbers drawn on random.org, they are:

Red Shoes said...

At Mardi Gras this year, one of the parades (Muses) used reusable bags as throws. Best parade throw I've ever gotten. Only problem is, last week my sister got sick in the car and um... defiled it. Unsalvageable. I need a new grocery bag.

enc said...

My shopping goes into one of the bog-standard eco bags the grocery store sells for .99c. It's awful, because it's already torn. Things keep falling out of it. I'm loathe to buy another one to replace it, because it'll just be more of the same (cheap) thing. This would be a great permanent replacement!

an ordinary girl said...
Their bags are cute! Way better than my oft-reused paper Trader Joe's bags. I still have a stash, and each one usually lasts a while, so I have been bringing them with me every time I go grocery shopping. But these bags would be much better since they can be folded and last much longer!

Red Shoes definitely made me laugh the most! Can you three email me at libertylondongirl at gmail.com so that I can tell you how to go about claiming your bag? Thank you.

Jimmy Choo for H&M collection behind the scenes video

The new Jimmy Choo for H&M collection launches on Saturday in 200 stores worldwide, and I have been sent an early release of the behind the scenes video clip of the advertising shoot which took place at The Standard Hotel in New York's Meatpacking District.

The campaign was shot by Terry Richardson, Charlotte Pilcher was styling, with Lisa Butler doing makeup, and hair by Jimmy Paul. The models are Sasha Pivovarova, Edita Vilkeviciute & Anna Maria Jagodzinska.

Not only is it the first time that H&M have collaborated with an accessories brand, it's Jimmy Choo’s first foray into clothing - which looks lovely on Sasha et al on the video above. It remains to be seen what it looks like on us mere mortals.

After all, as all fashion editors know, sometimes it takes a supermodel to make the High Street look good, but at least there's less problem with fit with shoes & bags.

It seems that the public desire to get designer names on inexpensive clothing shows no sign of abating. This must be one of the most buzzed about H&M collaborations since they kicked off with Karl Lagerfeld back in 2004, (Although, as I have pointed out before, some of the collaborations that H&M have produced have been downright tacky - Cavalli, or a little leftfield for mainstream tastes: Comme for H&M springs to mind.)

Let's hope the Jimmy Choo for H&M collection ticks the right boxes this time.

For The Fallen by Laurence Binyon

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.

Matthew Eades London

These arrestingly beautiful images were shot by British fashion photographer Matthew Eades. He's no slouch: his work has appeared in British Vogue, Vogue India, British & US ELLE, Nylon, Wonderland,InStyle, Oyster...and more. Known for his perfectly lit studio work, he's taken it a step further with his latest personal project, www.mattheweadeslondon.com

After a studio session finishes, he shoots the models for a few minutes, in their own time, allowing them to express whatever they like in front of the camera, without worrying about wearing complicated clothes or selling product. The only thing the models are selling is their personality.

The resulting images are stripped back & personal, strong and unexpected. Do take a look.





www.mattheweadeslondon.com
www.mattheweades.com

Doom & Gloom

Oh god. What a week for the creative industries. Hachette's US shelter mag Metropolitan Home is closing, with its resources being funnelled into US Elle Decor, Zac Posen have eliminated their PR Director position, British Label Luella announced its cessation of trading, and then the tin lid: The UK's The Observer national Sunday newspaper has just announced the closure of its popular monthly Music, Sport & Woman supplements.

Anyone who thinks we are crawling back out of recession is sadly mistaken.

Luella ceases trading,

Chirpy London label Luella announced this morning that they will cease trading after their global ready to wear & accessories licensee Club 21 pulled its backing.

Although WWD recently implied that things were tricky at the label, it's hard to believe that a fashion house so closely allied with the British fashion zeitgeist should have come crashing down: after all there is the lovely shop, opened only in 2007, in the heart of the West End, and Luella, under the firm hand of ex-Mui Mui PR dynamo Diane Crook, has forged relationships with some of London's most high profile clothes horses, from Alexa Chung to Lily Allen.

It seems the writing was on the wall when Carla Carini, their ready to wear factory, shut last month, another victim of the economy, leaving Luella unable to fulfill their SS10 order book.

Luella's fashion star has been closely aligned with Mrs Ong's Club 21 fashion powerhouse since she designed her now iconic Gisele for Mulberry bag back in 2002. Club 21 were a significant shareholder in Mulberry and, after sales of the bag singlehandedly revived the ailing leather goods house, Club 21 became the global licensees for Luella, propelling the nascent brand into a place most young British designers take years to reach.

As the baby sister to Mrs Ong's major fashion investments - Club 21 run A/X Armani Exchange in the United States and the Giorgio and Emporio Armani franchises in the UK, as well as holding the international license for DKNY, Luella always had a lot to live up to.

The shuttering of the label comes at a particularly upsetting time: after bringing the label back to show in London after several seasons in New York, Bartley was named British Designer of the Year at the British Fashion Awards last year, and only last night she & her team opened Liberty's Christmas windows which they designed.

In a press release issued this morning, Bartley said, "This is a very disappointing situation for everyone involved with the brand… it is upsetting not to be able to protect jobs in this difficult economic climate. We have a number of options open to us, and are considering these over the coming months".

Remembering to take stock

I've spent the last 36hrs developing a website and writing the copy for it. Not so different from my usual work, but this time the client was myself. As a freelance writer & editor, who works for clients all over the world, I've discovered to my detriment that an emailed resume and a few ropey scans don't really cut it when you are pitching for new work.

After ferreting through boxes of clips, searching my external hard drive for old resumes and even Googling myself to make sure I hadn't forgotten anything important, I can't quite get my head round how much real, honest to goodness proper work I've done, plenty of which had completely escaped my memory. Whilst I've been tucked away in my head, writing my book, I've got too used to the idea that I haven't done much of late in my career and it was remarkably empowering to realise just how much I have achieved.

My mother wrote a lovely piece on her blog today about my childhood and that, combined with my trip down career memory lane reminded me that it's good to sit down and take stock occasionally, to remember that the dips and the bad times can make it far too easy to underestimate and underplay our accomplishments.

British Elle December: Kate Hudson cover

It's rare that a mainstream fashion magazine cover deserves a second glance, but British Elle's December cover made me sigh with pleasure. It ticks all the boxes: fashion forward and arresting without being unduly provocative, and incredibly pleasing to the eye in its layout and colouring.

Most surprising of all, it features a celebrity whose styling is so immaculately unexpected and such a delicious departure from her norm that it makes us immediately consider our perception of her image, and therefore want to buy the magazine to find out more.

It's really no surprise that Elle's Creative Director Marissa Bourke wins so many awards. To me, this is the absolute exemplar of what a 21st century high circulation newsstand magazine cover selling to an increasingly fashion literate audience should look like.

Three cheers to editor Lorraine Candy for running with this.

Sunset in New Jersey

Since I graduated from university, I've lived mostly in two of the world's biggest, most light polluted cities: London and New York. Not only does it become difficult to see the seasons change, beyond adding or subtracting layers from your wardrobe, but you forget what it's like to look at the sky.

I woke up in the middle of the night on Tuesday in the New Jersey countryside confused and alarmed. Outside my window, the trees gleamed silver, as though the garden was bathed by an alien klieg light. It was as bright as day and I could see into every corner.

It took more than a few minutes for me to work out that it was a full moon. Although I grew up in rural Kent in England, from the age of 19 I've lived in cities and I have no memory of seeing a garden lit by the moon.

It was more than disconcerting. I think of myself as a country girl at heart, for all the trappings of big city success, and to realise that I hadn't spent time anywhere in years that experienced darkness complete enough for the light shed by a full moon to register was a body blow.

Today I looked up from my desk, where I was toiling over my manuscript and saw the most beautiful purple sky as the sun set behind the leaf stripped trees. Something else you don't see in the city.

I realised yet again how fortunate I am to have such wonderful friends who have hosted me here in this ravishingly beautiful part of New Jersey whilst I have worked on my book this summer & autumn.

I leave in two weeks for England, the final stage in a year which has seen me spend time in London, the English countryside, Switzerland, San Francisco, Los Angeles - and all of California in between those cities, New York and New Jersey. I have no idea where I will be in January, but I know it will be a good place thanks, in part, to the fabulous people I have met & spent time with this year.

Tabitha Bag

If, like me, your appetite for flashy logo spattered bags was thoroughly sated several years ago and you think It bags are the work of the devil, then you might be interested in buying the well designed, keenly priced and stylish Tabitha bag shown above, which just so happens to have a purpose beyond looking good swinging from your elbow.

Designed by the head accessories designer for Jigsaw, and the brainchild of The Bag Ladies, a group of talented London mothers working pro bono, this stylish handbag is helping to raise funds for BACT (The Bulgarian Abandoned Children's Trust)'s Baba Programme, which finds surrogate grannies to care for disabled Bulgarian children (seen as a disgrace in Bulgarian culture) who have been locked away from society in institutions where they are physically and mentally abandoned.

A total of 500 bags have been produced and 100% of the net profits (£155 a bag) will go towards the hiring of new Babas in one of Bulgaria’s biggest institutions for babies and young children. If all the bags are sold, forty children can be matched with a Baba to care, nurture and love them.

The sale of 1 bag alone will provide 6 weeks of dedicated care for 1 child. What are you waiting for?



They are available in metallic, a lovely faded purple and carmel leather as above.
£155 plus £5 postage
More on The Bag Ladies at www.helpinghandbags.co.uk
Buy a bag here
And find out more about BACT's wonderful Baba Programme here

The Inconvenient Bag - GIVEAWAY!

GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED - Thank you everyone that took the time to leave a comment LLGx

I think we all realise by now that continually accepting new plastic bags at the supermarket checkout is not best practice. I try to remember to carry around a calico or canvas bag so that, whilst I will inevitably have to accept some plastic or cardboard bags, I can at least try to reduce my environmental impact on a daily basis.


Classic design $11

I rather like these shopping bags from The Inconvenient Bag, a small American company, whose motto is, “saving our planet one bag at a time”. The name comes from their belief that though it may be a small inconvenience to remember to use reusable bags when shopping, it's worth the effort.


Beatnik design $11

The bags are much more durable than the usual calico bags: they have a gusset which enables them to hold 45 pounds and they have a flat bottom for better support. But they are still easily fold down-able for carrying in a handbag or purse. I've been carrying one for a week and am impressed.

The Inconvenient Bag have very kindly offered to give three readers an Inconvenient Bag of their choice (there are lots of brilliant designs on their website). Just leave a comment below to tell us in what kind of bag you normally carry your shopping.

This giveaway is open to readers with US & UK postal addresses only

Bloom & Blossom Mother & Baby products

With the announcement yesterday that yet another old girlfriend is happily pregnant, I have barely a friend left in London or New York who isn't in possession of a bump or babies. On the plus side, it also means I have an army of willing volunteers to try out mother & baby products for LLG. That's because I won't run any beauty product on here unless it's been used but, given my resolutely single & child free status, there's not much point in me using stretch mark cream & nipple balm.

So a few weeks ago I arranged for the hero products from the lovely looking new mother & baby range Bloom & Blossom to be dropped off at my friend Ayla's London house. She's due to drop her second infant at the end of the month, so is perfectly placed for massaging unguents into her skin in between stopping her firstborn massaging carrots into her hair.

The background:
The Bloom & Blossom collection's USP is that it uses only the absolute essential number of ingredients in each product - no filling out their jars with cheap mystery ingredients with unpronouncable names - to reassure mothers that the products are completely safe for babies. For complete transparency, each product has a description of what each ingredient is, why it has been selected and what it delivers. The makers claim that with an active ingredient inclusion level of between 5-10%, their products are some of the most effective on the market. For mothers looking to keep both their pregnancy and their baby as clean as possible, there are no parabens, SLS, petrochemicals, synthetic fragrances or colourants in any of the range.

ANTI STRETCH MARK CREAM £18.00 (150ml) Total number of ingredients =12
Omega rich shea butter & cocoa butter help restore skin tone and provide a protective barrier to lock in skin’s moisture.There's a 10% blend of the active ingredients horsetail leaf extract and chasteberry

Ayla's thoughts: This has a strong expensively natural herbal smell. It has a nice texture, although it left my skin feeling a bit sticky whilst the product absorbed for about half an hour. There's a noticeable moisturising effect, and it contains exactly the natural products you would look for in a stretch mark cream.

SOOTHING NIPPLE BALM £11.00 (30ml) Total number of ingredients =5
This will help heal and protect sore nipples. It contains a 5% blend of the active ingredient organic passionflower extract and is safe to use during breast feeding. It can also be used to help treat other sore skin conditions, such as dry and chapped skin and lips

Ayla's thoughts: The packaging is gorgeous and it looks and smells really good. I tested it out as a lip balm too and it was very effective.

REVITALISING LEG & FOOT SPRAY £9.00 (100ml) Total number of ingredients = 11
Formulated to alleviate water retention and to refresh tired and heavy legs, swollen ankles and feet. The collagen boosting properties of aloe vera and tangerine leaf oil also improve skin tone. It contains a 10% blend of the active ingredients horse chestnut seed and yellow sweet clover extracts.

Ayla's thoughts: If you like a strong herbal-y, citrus-y, wood-y smell to revive tired limbs, then the Leg/Foot Revive Spray is perfect. It is very moisturizing so it does leave your legs a little tacky afterwards. I used a spray all through my last pregnancy which was invaluable and I recommend them.

Ayla's summary: The products all do exactly what they promise. They seem very natural and well thought out and I think the packaging and presentation is gorgeous. The whole range ( & I notice they do gift sets) would make wonderful presents for first time mothers who have a bit more time to spend pampering themselves than harrassed second timers! The price point is less than other premium ranges on the market, which makes it very attractive but obviously it is more expensive than the basic products out there. If this had been on the market during my first pregnancy I would have bought it all.

www.bloomandblossom.com

Saving the best for last: why I've stopped stashing for the day that never comes

India wrote in The Sunday Times last week: "How nice it is that the concept of “for best” should since have become extinct". She was referring to dinner parties, but it's a conversation that my sister and I have been having for a few years now.

When I moved to America I had to pack up my London flat. Eight years of living there whilst working in fashion and beauty journalism meant that every cupboard, shelf and cubby hole was crammed with lovely stuff. Not that I ever used any of it. No, I was saving it all for best.

Those lovely Wolfords? Nah, I'll wear the scratchy cheapo ones instead in case I ladder them. That delicious Ormonde Jayne bath oil? Oh no, that's for dates & special parties. Silk lingerie? For boyfriends only. The linen sheets I inherited from my great aunt? I can't even think why I didn't use them. It's not like I was saving them for my trousseau.

Lil'sis really takes the biscuit on this front: her bathroom cupboards and shelves are packed four deep with expensive goodies: largesse handed over by my mother and me but every time I stay with her, I see the Herbal Essence in the shower rack and the supermarket hand lotion by the basin. She got cross when I told her I was writing this piece: "Nooo, please don't. Everyone laughs at me as it is about those shelves."

I pointed out that if this encouraged her to actually use the lovely products daily instead of waiting for a mythical event to make it worthwhile, it could only be A Good Thing.

Our reluctance to use the beautiful things we have stashed away stems from our growing up years when my parents spent every available cent on school fees & on mortgage payments. There wasn't any cash for luxuries and we eeked out anything wonderful that we were given, keeping it as a bulwark against the quotidian grind. That habit has stayed with us both, although it's no longer necessary.

When I packed up the flat I was horrified at the amount of unused loveliness gathering dust whilst I spent money on the cheap stuff, and vowed that I would start using everything I had been given. After all, I could see no prospect of getting through it in this decade.

I quickly realised how much nicer daily life can be when you are using a jasmine scented hand cream rather than Atrixo, that I felt so much better wearing a cashmere sweater or a frock to walk the dog instead of schlumpfing up to the Heath in holey leggings (they'll only get muddy, I used to reason).

After all, what on earth were we waiting for? Why can't today be made just as wonderful as the prospect of tomorrow?

Culturelabel.com

Because I'm flying back to England shortly, I need to get my head around Christmas presents a little earlier than usual, deciding whether to get clever in New York, or just order it all on the interweb, and have it waiting for me in the UK by the time I get back.

I'm quite tempted by the not having to lug shopping home option now that airlines are charging for a second case, and websites like CultureLabel do make the whole process super easy. This new breed of online consolidators take product from all over, present it thematically in one place, and then leave you to follow the direct links to the website that actually sells the product. What makes them different from normal shopping consolidation & affiliate sites is that they curate the products they sell, rather than just mindlessly listing a load of old tat.

Their USP is a collection of products garnered from sixty leading galleries, museums, artists and culture institutions, (everywhere from the Saatchi Gallery to English Heritage), many of which are either artist-designed or limited-edition products. And, if you think this all sounds a bit po-faced, may I direct you to my current favourite pick from the site?



Radio Controlled Tarantula £24.47 from The Natural History Museum
Scuttle, spin and scare from up to 140m away? Yes ,please for my godson who would LOVE driving everyone up the wall with this little horror.

From the sublime to the chic, this bag from the ever fabulous Ally Capellino is a brilliant present for, well, everyone:


Ally Capellino Satchel Bag created especially for the Tate £35.23

And for the always impossible to buy for designer-y friend with impossibly high standards, may I suggest the V&A Pattern Limited Edition Box Set at an extremely reasonable £30?



A repository of ideas for designers of all kinds, this box set contains the first four titles (William Morris, Digital Pioneers, Indian Florals and The Fifties) in a new series of books containing patterns from the V&A archive. Each book includes a CD of all the images which can be redrawn or reworked.

Most of the 60 sites will ship internationally, so usage isn't restricted to the UK.
www.culturelabel.com

Rosie Huntington-Whiteley named as Victoria's Secret Angel

Most models do not lead the life the public envisions for them. Instead of drinking Champagne, shooting in the Caribbean and walking for Prada, the majority spend their time working off their debt to their agencies, shivering in studios and being treated as expendable deaf mutes by casting people on go-sees.

But there are exceptions: good commercial girls, the smiley ones you see in catalogues but never in editorial, can easily pull in six figures each year and, of course, there are those girls fashion followers all know who manage to get great editorial and prestigious ad campaigns.

Hovering above all of these are the chosen few who manage to snag contracts that pay millions for a few week's work a year to ensure exclusivity.

The mother lode is not a Milanese fashion house or a cosmetics giant, but the bordering on tacky lingerie powerhouse that is Victoria's Secret. Every few years they announce the signing of a clutch of new Angels, girls who have been groomed to act as celebrity spokesmodels for the brand.

"We don't subscribe to that nameless, faceless model routine," said Edward Razek, Victoria's Secret Chief Marketing officer in a 2007 Forbes interview. He's not exaggerating: Angels become global household names, most of whom are recognisable by theri first names alone: Gisele, Helena, Karolina, Adriana, Tyra, Laetitia. Heidi Klum is the most long-standing - she's been with the company since 1999, but this year Victoria's Secret have a problem.

Of the seven angels who started the year, the most recent appointment still working as an Angel is Miranda Kerr who was signed in 2005, and three of them have become pregnant, including Karoline Kurkova who has stepped down.

Time for a fresh batch of Angels: Victoria's Secret announced the appointment of five more today: Emanuela de Paula, Lindsay Ellingson, Candice Swanepoel, Chanel Iman & Britain's first Angel,Rosie Huntington-Whiteley (pictured above & below), currently Model of the Year at the 2009 British Elle Style Awards. Looking at the line up, I'd guess that Rosie is being drafted to fill in the 'classy looking girl' slot. (Victoria's Secret being known for having a diverse line up that runs the gamut from sought after editorial girls (Doutzen) to sexy American cheerleader type (Marissa Miller).)



Who cares that you have to wear outfits of gob smacking tackyness when you've just signed what is reasonably assumed to be a multi-million, multi year contract?

(news via The Cut)

Just a load of blather

It’s so long since I’ve been outdoors that I am etiolated and my hair is a birds nest. Low grade ill is just so damn dull. My legs ache and throb, my head hurts and I want to sleep All The Time. I’m on antibiotics (doxycycline) already for a tick bite (thank you Bambi & Bassets) I got a few weeks ago so I’m either fighting off that infection or I have some unspecified autumnal lurgy.

Whatever the cause, I am in a VILE mood. It’s all very well having to stay in bed – but I’m a self-employed writer – I can work from bed any day I choose. Being imprisoned here with a splitting headache is a whole different ball game.

I’ve just slunk downstairs for some puppy love, a cup of Earl Grey and a slice of chocolate cake. I have little appetite, but I am hungry. And goodness, what a restorative combination: I feel quite well again
.
But no doubt I’ll have a Godalmighty sugar crash in half an hour and retire weeping to my bed again.

Hopefully normal transmission will be restored tomorrow.

Apology

Apologies for the break in blogging. I'm really not feeling well at the moment; permanent headache and sleepiness. Eurgh.

Backyard Bill

I spent the first few years of my career as a junior editor sitting on a photo desk at a magazine renowned for its photography. I saw the good, the bad and the ugly pass across our lightbox, and under my loup: the latest batch of reportage from Magnum's greatest, travel stories by Raymond Meier & Ellen von Unwerth, Robin Broadbent's still lives, fashion from the likes of Corrine Day, Mario Testino, & Robert Erdmann (ten years on, I'm still in recovery from dealing with him), Lorenzo Agius & Bailey portraits, David Loftus' food work. You name it, our photo director commissioned it.

I wish fashion & portrait photographer William Gentle had been shooting back then, as opposed to appearing on one of the composite cards that scattered my desk-he was modelling then & I booked models, too. Although he says that his blog Backyard Bill “ features stylish folks in their own clothes", the photographs are beautifully composed portraits in quite a different vein from the great modern street snappers such as The Sartorialist or Tommy Ton.

Using natural light, and a clever juxtaposition of the subjects with their surroundings, the images he captures, as in all good portraiture, show you a way into those subjects' inner lives and are about far, far more than the clothes from their wardrobes.

Here follows a small selection of images but I highly recommend a browse through his site.

Everyone's a winner! Etre Touchy Gloves giveaway

Here are the five winners for the Etre Touchy sort of fingerless gloves. As usual, I used Random.org to generate five numbers, and chose the comments that corresponded. A big thank you to everyone who left a comment: there were a wonderful assortment of uses for the gloves, and amongst the winners are a priest, a cyclist and a photographer which I think demonstrates perfectly the glorious variety of LLG readers. (Even Dave Yello, my favourite dinosaur, entered. Although as he wanted them for rampaging, I'm quite relieved his number didn't come up this time.)

No 2: Llefenni said...
ooh, oooh! I'm a techy AND a cyclist! These mega-gloves would allow me to change gear without falling off the bike and THEN answer a call on my Hero, with NO FUSS! Amazing! Thanks for the post LLG, found you through @KirstieMallsopp :-D

No, 7: Alastair said...
Those gloves would be very good for taking a Communion service in a cold country church :-)

No. 18: deililly said...
I live on a windy hill in Scotland. I would be glued into them at this time of year. Both inside the house and out! That would be so great, could use phone/substitute brain without getting cold hands! Black with charcoal sounds lovely.

No.34: Becky Colley said...
It's about time somebody made something like this - usually beauty comes before practicality but it'd be nice to have both! I'm a student photographer frequently suffering from frozen fingers so I'd use mine with my camera. Thanks for the opportunity! x (Grey with rose trim)

No. 83 pretty face said...
ooh I'd love grey with rose trim! I'd be able to turn the pages of my book whilst nibbling on a biscuit in the park :) x

Could you all email me at libertylondongirl at gmail.com for details on how to claim your gloves? Alistair & Llefenni: don't forget to say which colourway you'd like. Thank you.

Divorce

My parents' divorce gets nastier by the second, and this extract from a letter Phil Spector once sent his friend, celebrity lawyer Marvin Mitchelson, listing his romantic version of how a pre-nup should read, resonated rather strongly. Those of you who know me can guess to which parent I am referring.

1. If I like it, it's mine.
2. If it's in my hands, it's mine.
3. If I can take it from you, it's mine.
4. If I had it a week ago, it's mine.
5. If it's mine, it must never appear to be yours in any way.
6. If I'm doing or building something, all the pieces are mine.
7. If it looks just like mine, it's mine.
8. If I think it's fine, it's mine.
9. If it is near me, it's mine.
10. If it's broccoli, it's yours.

Page Six via Gawker

Areaware vinyl decals

I bet that header was the single most exciting thing you've read all morning wasn't it? I used to take the time to craft clever, witty headlines in the manner of a sub on speed until a techy person told me that they were useless for SEO, meaning that my lovely, long laboured over posts would never show on Google because there were no headline keywords for the autobots to pick up on. So it's boring, straight headers for me.

Fortunately the lovely vinyl decals from, yes you guessed it, Areaware, are neither boring or straight. They have the most enormous selection from full wall size images around the $800 mark to smaller $50-150 pieces from some wonderful designers including my beloved Rob Ryan and Glasgow's finest, Timourous Beasties. (Although Areaware is based in America they have distinctly international tastes.) I can think of nothing nicer than having a wall decorated with these slap on, peel off designs.


Bird branch (vinyl) by Timorous Beasties $56

They are genius for someone like me who has the decorating skills of a chimp with a pot of paint and has moved to a country where she is destined to live with someone else's decor choices for the near future. There's very little skill required to attach these to the wall and when you change your mind, move or the landlord gets stroppy, the decals simply peel off for reattachment elsewhere.

There is a plethora of designs for almost any aesthetic from robots to florals, trees to abstracts, but the moment I find somewhere to live in Manhattan in the New Year, I'm ordering the bird branch above. (Much as I love Mr Ryan's design below, I fear it might be a little off putting to any prospective boyfriends I lure back to my bedchamber.)


I love you more than sleep (vinyl) Robert Ryan $120

There are lots of cheerful colourful designs like this:


Crocodile kurbits kiss (vinyl) By Hanna Werning $120

But my absolute favourite is this ceiling vinyl. I work from my bed and love the idea of staring up above me at these frolicking animals. And how wonderful for children too.


Pantheon circle in mist grey (vinyl) By Studio Job $180

Speaking of children there are lots of wonderful animal decals too, from meerkats with angel wings (really) to full size ponies. If this is all a bit too good taste for your liking, how about a single sauscisse for above your radiator?


Dog en kit 1 (vinyl) By Ich & Kar $56

Do bear in mind that most of them custom made, so you are asked to allow a rather staggering three months for your order to arrive. Hmm. Maybe I'll just order that bird branch NOW.

Decals here

The Sunday Times shows some blogger love

The Sunday Times is all over us bloggers this week. There's a properly excellent piece by India Knight (herself blogging here) on women bloggers, which mentions many of my blog faves including the incomparable MTFF, a piece by Belgian Waffling on her blogging addiction with a beautiful picture of a waffle BW herself, and last and very much least, a couple of acerbic comments in the Style section on Anna Wintour's mufti from Show Me Your Wardrobe & myself.

The Times online didn't run the photo we are commenting on, so I reproduce part of the piece below (I think we can all agree I am probably off La Wintou's Christmas card list now):

Blog off! What our bloggers think of Anna Wintour in dress-down shocker

Libertylondongirl.blogspot.com
Staring at Anna Wintour across the Fashion Week catwalks, I’ve always wondered what she might wear if she did normal. And now I know: she looks just like my mother. But with shinier hair.



( I would like to make it clear that my mother is the chic-est mother I know.)

Another thing I love about America

The drive thru ice cream store

The way of the blogroll

Inspired by a mea culpa blogroll post on my friend MTFF's most excellent blog, I thought that this may be a good point at which to lay out the LLG policy on blogrolls.

I have more or less stopped regularly maintaining the LLG reciprocal blog roll which lurks at the bottom of this page. It's just a bit out of control now. I do get the odd request for inclusion which I file in a dedicated folder and every two or three months I go through it and add and subtract as necessary.

Instead of using blogrolls to keep track of other blogs as I did in the days when LLG was a tiny blog, I now use an RSS reader – Google Reader in my case, Bloglines, previously, where feeds to hundreds of blogs to which I have subscribed are aggregated so that I can read all the latest blog entries in one convenient place. I have a folder for everyone that leaves comments regularly on my blog so that I can repay the favour when I can, one for other fashion blogs, one for everyday reads, one for everyday miscellany and so on. If I were to use blogrolls on LLG to do this, the lists would run pages long.

I choose not to use Blogger Following for the same reason, although I make it available for my readers who do choose to do so: the list would be too long to manage. (I will also be leaving Blogger in the near future, so it makes sense to have my blog lists held externally.)

So don’t assume that because you aren’t on a blogroll on LLG or that I haven’t ‘Followed’ you, that I don’t read you – ten to one, I’ll be voraciously reading your latest posts through my RSS reader.

I do have two blogrolls which are relatively up to date: the list of my personal friends who blog, because otherwise they’d be lost in the endless blogroll at the bottom of LLG; and the Thank you for Mentioning LLG list, which acts as a personal recommendation & thank you to those blogs or websites and an aide memoire for me of the things that have been said about LLG out there in the ether.

But there are often omissions – if you don’t use Blogger Following, adding blogs to a blogroll is a bit more complicated than a one click action and, most importantly, don’t forget that LLG is not a paid project, so money work has to take precedence over blog admin, much as I wish that wasn’t the case.

So, if you are someone with whom I have a proper two way relationship, ether or real world, and I haven’t included you, prod me – as MTFF did recently and tell me, rather than glowering away in the ether. I’ll be grateful, mortified, and do my best to rectify it immediately.

Ex-pat friendships

One of the best things about moving to America has been the friendships I have made here. Some are with people I knew already from England, but not well, others are with people I have met since I arrived.

As an ex-pat you never know where or if you will find your niche. Although I knew no one when I first landed, (the girl I moved here with went back to England after six weeks), I was adamant early on that I would not be a puppy dog making friends with everyone in sight just for the sake of avoiding loneliness and now, over 2.5yrs, that plan has paid off admirably: I have a core of a few great friends that I love dearly in both New York & in LA, rather than scores of people I barely know.

And, without trying, they are all enmeshed together, which I rather like, whether through LLG, Twitter or real life. Take last night for example: I know my wonderful hosts here in Joisey, GG & Y, through my close friend H who introduced us four or five years ago in London, well before we all made the move to America. When H started dating M in London, she was just about to move to New York from Baghdad, so we were introduced on one of my trips back to London, & she & I became firm friends ex-Henry in Manhattan. I met fabulous J through another friend, Brig, in New York and introduced her to M, H & the boys some time ago.

All of us came together for supper here in Colts Neck last night to celebrate Halloween, H&M's recent marriage, impending baby and new house purchase (in London - gd for them, bad for me), and Y's new American work visa.

So we were two Americans, one Frenchman, one New Zealander and two English people. And, if we count the dogs, which I certainly think we should, then we can add one Estonian & one American Basset Hound. Which just about sums up America for me: one big melting pot of fantastic people.

NMSF Christmas Cards

Four years ago Rachel & Andrew Canter lost their baby Jake, my dear friend Emma's nephew, in wholly avoidable circumstances. In his memory, they set up a registered charity, the National Maternity Support Foundation, which works to improve maternity care, stop the closure of maternity units and, given that it is Jake's charity, improve bereavement counselling following the death of a baby.

I know charity support is a very personal thing and, as I have so many wonderful mothers who read LLG, I thought I would let you know that NMSF are selling Christmas Cards to raise money, which you can view and purchase here.

FRIDAY GIVEAWAY!: Five pairs of Etre Touchy gloves

I have a special Friday giveaway today: the makers of the Etre Touchy lambswool fingerless gloves which I featured yesterday were so happy with the response from y'all that they have offered five FREE pairs of gloves for LLG readers.

All you have to do is leave a comment below telling me what gadget you'd use (maybe a camera or iPod) or job you'd do whilst wearing your gloves (photographer or make-up artist perhaps), and I'll uses a random number generator to pick five winners on Monday afternoon. This giveway is open to readers worldwide.

Please state which colourway you'd like:
Charcoal with turquoise trim, Grey with rose trim, Black with charcoal trim or Chocolate with mint stripes.

Object of Desire: Monique Péan Holgate Ring

Holgate ring by CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund finalist Monique Péan.
18 carat recycled yellow gold with a 4 carat aquamarine $2850

www.moniquepean.com

Previous Objects of Desire here

Now, where was I?

Well, it’s all go here in the East Coast’s version of Stepford (my fellow blogger MTFF lives in the West Coast’s). I did dusting today in preparation for our pre-Halloween supper party tomorrow, and managed to finish the ironing which has been on top of the washing machine for two weeks. (All of you who came here for tales of fashion-related New York glamour may leave now.)

Our Halloween pumpkins are carved and they would have been in position on the front door step, looking suitably scary, but for the ravening local wildlife which took a large chunk out of the bat pumpkin overnight.

We brought them indoors for safety this evening, only to discover a few hours later that the puppy had chewed out the bat’s eyes. There’s obviously some Sophoclean metaphor to be drawn from this but frankly I can’t be arsed to work it out.

I’m still ploughing through the Gmail inbox of hell. I managed to clear out the LLG one last week, which was relatively simple as I only had 452 unread emails and most of them were press releases pushing soap powder, erotic chocolate, and designer collaborations thought up by FMCG marketing gurus with giant cheque books and dumbass clients. I have created a folder called ‘Lunatic Story Pitches’, the contents of which I shall no doubt regale you all with one day.

Unfortunately I have 958 unread emails in my work Gmail account which is more daunting, as not only do they have to be read but most of them require some kind of action to be taken. I’m quite surprised that I have any friends left, given that the chances of my replying to their email, let alone writing one off my own bat, before I have dealt with the work backlog, is less than zero right now.

I’m also planning England: The Return. It’s not a permanent one, thank Christ, but I am flying back for six weeks or so before/over Christmas to finish The Great Attic Clearance™, remove my mother from the iron grip of divorce-related neurosis, drive my sister to the point of insanity by spreading my possessions over all surfaces of her one bedroom flat, acquire some more parking tickets for my father's car, and prod the faithful hound.

Blog Awards & Memes

I have been very remiss over the past six months in acknowledging blog awards and memes. I'm about to do a big catch-up post on LLG, so if you are one of the lovely bloggers who has been kind enough to give LLG an award that I haven't acknowledged on here, I'd be very grateful if you could leave a comment here to remind me, or drop me an email at libertylondongirl at gmail.com

Thank you! LLGxx

Etre Touchy sort of Fingerless Gloves

When I first received the press release about Etre Touchy fingerless gloves I thought what the Dickens? Another ho ho ho one time buy stocking filler.

But I dutifully hopped over to their website and had a look around. And by the time I'd thought about it some more, I thought they were kind of genius.

Their raison d'etre is to allow you to manipulate iPods, crackberrys, etc without removing your gloves in cold weather. At first, I had thought God how addicted do you need to be to wear a silly looking glove just to be able to play with tech toys? Then I remembered how many times I've tried to text or use my Nano with gloves on - epic fail. So I guess if you are in an outdoor situation where access to a communication device is vital then these would be a winner.

But what really sold me was this picture:



Because if you *have* to work outdoors - as a photographer, stylist or makeup artist on a shoot, for example, then these could be absolute lifesavers. They work too for reading braille.

And they come in a suitably James Bond colourway too for macho men:



Unlike other ones I've been shown, they are 100% lambswool, and are available in Charcoal with turquoise trim, Grey with rose trim, Black with charcoal trim or Chocolate with mint stripes. Large orders can be custom coloured which would be great for teams etc.

£19.99 or $32.63 at www.etretouchy.com

Nicolas de Stael

Tempete


Ciel de Dieppe ou Les Toits (1952)


Cap Gris Nez

I first saw Nicolas de Stael's paintings in the Musee Picasso in Antibes in 2000. I just stood there staring, transfixed/ A few years later he was the subject of a major retrspective at the Centre Pompidou in Paris and I wandered through completely lost in his world. He isn't so widely known outside of France, as he enjoyed success as a painter for just ten brief years before committing suicide in 1955. If you'd like to know more, his wiki entry is here

Groundhog Day

I was complaining only yesterday that, whilst we have herds of Bambis frolicking over the lawns here, groundhogs are in particularly short supply now that hibernation time approaches.

I am very taken with these furry native American creatures: I had my first sighting ever from a car in July and was beside myself at the cuteness. But today is the first time I have actually seen one up close, pottering around the back yard. It mooched around for five or so minutes, before shuffling back into the undergrowth. Made my day.



ps Just discovered that they are also known as whistle pigs. Love.

Starbucks Via Instant Coffee

I work from home and loathe milky coffee, so grabbing a Starbucks isn’t a priority in my life. Occasionally I pick up a black venti red eye between external meetings if I am flagging or sleep deprived, but that’s it. I'm more interested in the coffee I drink at home.

Because I drink my coffee black, without any artificial sugars or syrups or any of that weird shit, how it tastes straight is of paramount importance to me. I want a strong, bitter taste with a round finish that doesn't taste burnt or caramel-y.

As you may have gathered I’m English, so instant, as we call it, is ubiquitous back home. I’m not going to pretend it’s better than freshly brewed coffee, but Nescafé's Black Gold, Cap Colombie & Alta Rica, or Carte Noire are more than adequate as backup everyday drinks when you can't be bothered to brew a pot for one person, certainly better than most filter/drip coffees you buy from stands or corner stores – and they are strong, with absolutely no relation to the insipid instant coffee you can buy in American supermarkets.

The only reason why I don't bother with instant here in the US is because of the dearth of good instant on the American market, & I am presuming that that is why Starbucks are pushing their new instant coffee, Via, right now.

But Christ it’s expensive: $2.95 for three servings!

The most expensive UK instant coffee I could find on Ocado.com was Nescafé Black Gold at £3.55 per 100g grams. A serving is considered to be 1.8gms. That makes a serving cost of 6p or 9c give or take.

How HOW can Starbucks justify $1 a serving?! It's not as though Starbucks coffee is *that* delicious in the first place.

And, here’s the kicker: Via is absolutely disgusting. I was given a sample at a Starbucks store yesterday: it tastes acrid & charred with no roundness. Possibly the most disgusting coffee, instant, or fresh brewed, I have ever tasted: I couldn’t even bring myself to finish the little sampler cup. Yuck.

Good luck with that Starbucks.

Soothing morning viewing

This was shot three years ago but I never tire of watching it.



And, in case, you were wondering how 250,000 rubber balls were poured down one of the steepest streets in San Francisco, here is the making of film:



(via Inspire Me Please)

Minnetonka Moccasins

I am obsessed with Minnetonka moccasins. Obsessed, I tell you. This burning love crept up slowly over a few years, and has developed into a long lasting relationship.

It all started back in 2006, when a very nice man, who worked next door to the idiot boy I was then dating, invited me to his office to have a squint at the shoes he imported from the US to the UK.

Being a fashion editor an’all, I was intrigued. In the small room were multiple shelves of moccasins. So far, so whatever.

Then I tried on the Moosehide Driving Mocs. Instant convert. The super thick cushioned inner sole is marshmallow soft; they were definitively the most comfortable shoe I had ever worn. (One of the reasons that they are so comfy is that traditional moccasins, unlike normal shoes, have their sides and sole constructed from one piece of leather which is then sewn to the upper, and which allows the shoe to flex and shape itself to your foot.)

The very nice man generously gifted me two pairs, the marshmallow-y driving shoes and a pair of classic beaded Thunderbirds, but I was busy being a high heel wearing fashion editor and, when I moved to New York a few months later, there just wasn't much call for flat shoes in my life.

Fast forward to the beginning of this year just after I left my US magazine. Running around on assignment in New York and driving nearly 5000 miles around California, I needed comfortable everyday shoes. I dug out both pairs and I've pretty much worn them to the exclusion of anything else. It doesn't hurt that they suddenly look right with everything from bare legs & shorts to skirts & opaque tights.


(My feet in Santa Barbara back in April)

They also make those suede moccasin boots that are always being photographed on Kate Moss et al. (Minnetonkas are the ur-moccasins in the American commercial market: they've been making them since 1946.)

UK: www.minnetonka.co.uk (official website, every style available)
US: Net a Porter (ankle & knee boots only)
Zappos (Neither style pictured above but a pretty wide selection nonetheless)
Minnetonkasales.com (very wide selection including the ones above)

They are substantially cheaper in the US, but I don't advise UK purchasers to order them from US websites: by the time customs, taxes & postage are paid, the difference often evaporates.

How to carve a Halloween pumpkin

Head out in pouring rain to farm stand:



Give self muscle spasm pushing autumnal accoutrements to car:



On arrival back home take two pumpkins:



Place on steps for carving inspiration:



Take high class carving tools:



For the terminally stupid:



Make a lid:



Ignore wonkiness caused by using pixie sized 2" mini saw (because no one trusts you with the carving knife).

Wrench lid off:





Spend twenty minutes removing fibrous insides, obsessing over every last seed:



Abort plan for complicated stencil & go for simplest possible design in line with personal creative abilities. Carve out shapes with doll size instruments:



Ta da:



Am pumpkin carving genius.

Believe this is so until Y presents finished pumpkin forty minutes later:



Curses.

Halloween build up

Goodness I AM excited about Halloween. This year I say no darlinks to glitzy Manhattan socializing (Heidi Klum's annual Halloween party et al) & too many ambitious plans, and yes siree to the joys of pumpkin carving, trick or treating, and eating as much candy as I can possibly manage in the rural environs of Colts Neck, New Jersey.

My great friend H works with my host GG, and is flying in from London to NJ for business. Completely brilliantly his wife (and my lovely friend too), M is coming along, so we have decided to have a pre-Halloween Raclette supper party here on Friday, before we ramp up for the continuous doorbell ringing on Saturday.



Tomorrow we start the pumpkin carving. There will be photographs taken, as long as I don’t slice open an artery. (GG has banned Y & me from using any large knives – we are both uninsured and I have dyspraxia - so we should be okay.)



Photographs: New Jersey pumpkins & gourds last weekend in Colts Neck

Ann Louise Roswald clogs

Revolting: Chanel SS10

If you really feel it is imperative to buy into the clog trend, now that Karl & Marc (kitten heel clogs? Kill me now), have given it a stamp of approval for next season, may I suggest eschewing their eye watering markups, and buying a traditional pair of clogs from talented fashion designer Ann Louise Roswald instead?

She's known primarily for her beautiful prints and lovely pieces, but Roswald’s Swedish father was originally a clogmaker, and in her early collections Ann Louise used her own customised clogs. She has since opened The Clog Studio as an extension of the Ann Louise Roswald brand and sells traditionally made Swedish clogs with orthapeodic wooden soles for women and children. They come in a dazzling array of colours, but just three simple styles.

The Sophia clog pictured is £56 for children & £95 for women.

The Clog Studio

Fall colors in Cheesequake State Park, New Jersey

The fall colours are extraordinary in New Jersey this weekend,



so the five of us (me, Y, GG & les chiens x2) drove out to Cheesequake State Park, Matawan (up near the shore), for a stroll which turned into an epic 2.5hrs walk as we took a slightly longer trail than planned.

Fortunately we were well prepared: GG had ample cookie, apple & water supplies to keep us going in his knapsack. Although maybe next time I might swap denim short shorts, cashmere, Wolfords & wellies for fleece, jeans and hiking boots. (I do possess these things!)

We started off walking through the woods around the lake:





After circumnavigating the entire lake, we ended up at this vista point, where it's hard to believe that we were a scant hour from Manhattan:



We then headed over the boardwalks which cross the coastal salt marshes to the pine forest:





Finch was game:



But was exhausted by the time we were three quarters done:



As were we.

God knows why I thought it a Good Idea to do commando style speed trotting up and down the steep wooden forest steps half away around the trail. Lunacy.

There are more images on my Flickr page.

Single women & the plague of married men

Why is it that I frequently seem to act like catnip on other women's partners and husbands? It certainly isn’t because I dress provocatively, (my cleavage never comes out to play), and it isn’t because I am a flirty kind of person. Frankly, if I was good at unconscious flirting, I wouldn't be single.

Perhaps I present some kind of challenge? Whatever, it upsets me that I am somehow filed in the 'try it on' category by men already in committed relationships. For the record, my father is a notorious philanderer & I have seen the effect that his actions have had on not just my mother but on his string of long term mistresses. I will never be one of those women.

So how is it that yet another man - married, oh quelle effing surprise, - told me recently that I was trouble. I am NOT flippin’ trouble. Don't try to make me responsible for your lack of self control: I'm not the married one making a pass at a single girl who has not even vaguely intimated any sexual interest in you. I have never, ever chased, come on to, or got involved with a married man knowing that he was married. If a man in a relationship thinks I am initiating something then their ego is on fire.

My sister has a theory: that she & I are self conscious & uptight when we are around men we find attractive, but when we are with men who are off limits we relax and consequently are much better company. The kicker is that the stupid vain fuckers mistake our platonic enjoyment of their company for attraction. That in itself wouldn't be a problem if they were able to control themselves. But they can't.

I also think that some men in relationships like to feel that they are still players by flirting with other women. There are also the men who married early, who have become more attractive, confident & successful with age and finally realise that intelligent, challenging women can actually be a good thing but by then it's too late.

Who knows? One could theorise for ever. Whatever the case I am just thoroughly, thoroughly fed up with the inane behaviour of so many married men. I have lost count of the amount of men who have spent an evening flirting with me, buying me drinks, and then revealing their sad punchline at the end of the evening: "I've got a girlfriend/wife". (That's the bit where I then disappear in a puff of smoke.)

Birthday raclette

Two weeks ago today Y managed a double whammy birthday present for GG: a Raclette machine was bought, wrapped and given to GG. Once unwrapped, it was promptly plugged in and we revealed the bowls and plates of Raclette cheese, peppers, prosciutto, boiled potatoes, onions & gherkins.

Along with a rather good bottle of white Burgundy (to follow the bottle of Taittinger we had already consumed). Fortunately, the drinking of water with Raclette cheese is much frowned upon as it is said to interfere with the digestion of the cheese. The Swiss really are very clever.





So I start with one abstemious potato:



Then the melted dish of Raclette is removed from under the hotplate and the cheese is slid over the poor, lonely potato:



But wait! There's one final step:



Paprika sprinkled, one can start shoving melted cheese & potato down one's gullet as quickly as possible. Just in time for the next dish of melted cheese to appear to accompany the next potato. And so on.

I wish I could say that I had stopped eating after I'd finished smearing umpteen little dishes of melted Raclette cheese all over my face. But no. There was more:



Y made a ganache & caramel layer cake of such richness and badness and 65% chocolate that I could only manage a slice. But goodness what a slice it was:



I need to take up running. Or something.

Maison Michel PVC Hat with Mouse Ears

I. WANT. THIS. STAT.

Maison Michel PVC Hat with Mouse Ears - £70.00 from Browns

Clothkits Liberty Print Tana Lawn Bias Binding

This is somewhat of a special interest post, but for those of us with a crafty bent, who like sewing things, the news that wonderful Clothkits are now producing Liberty Print Bias Bindings in Tana Lawn is fabulous news. (Bias binding is normally very hard to find in anything other than basic colours and crispy cotton.)

It would make a wonderful trim for jackets and, of course, is perfect for cushion making or, as Clothkits suggest, for decorations or bunting too.

It's available by the metre and in seven colourways, listed in order that they are stacked from top to bottom: Dunclare, Dunclare, Caesar, Jenny's, Theberton, Janet's Rose, Miles Evans.

To find out more about Clothkits, read my post from earlier this year.

www.clothkits.co.uk

Bobbi Brown Nude lipstick

Whilst in my daydreams I wear scarlet lipstick in the manner of a film star of the 50s, in reality the unholy combination of rosacea and my blonde colouring means that I can wear only neutral lip shades.

In summer, when my morgue-like pallor fleetingly morphs into a bronzed tone through the wonders of the spray tan booth, I occasionally break out Revlon's shocking pink Love That Pink but my 365 lipstick is Bobbi Brown's Lip Color in Nude, which I've been wearing since maybe 2000.

For me the best thing about it is that it doesn't look too obvious: a swipe of it completes my look but doesn't scream, plus the creamy, semi-matte formulation stays nicely put. It also seems to suit most skin tones from my skimmed milk hue at the bottom of the scale through to that of my African-American friends.

UK £15 here & US $22 here

The Empire Fulton Ferry State Park in DUMBO, Brooklyn

This little stretch of sand isn't on a deserted beach. It's right here:



The Empire Fulton Ferry State Park in DUMBO* is wedged between the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge:



It's the perfect place to take a delicious home made ice cream from the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory (look for the converted firehouse) at the Fulton Ferry Landing round the corner, and just gaze at the Manhattan panorama laid out in front of you.

*DUMBO stands for Down under the Manhattan Bridge. The area is full of old warehouses, converted into lofts and galleries

More pics on my Flickr feed

Karma is a bitch, or why I won't be buying Billy's Bakery cupcakes again

I visited seven, yup, seven cupcake bakeries in Manhattan on Tuesday afternoon for a story I am researching. The taste results will appear elsewhere, but I wanted to have a little rant about service.

First: the good. Buttercup Bake Shop gave me a warm welcome and, when my two cupcakes arrived at the cashier in a paper bag, I asked for them to be boxed, explaining that I was going to be travelling on a train with them. Not only did the really lovely guy box them without a second's hesitation, but he scrunched up protective tissue paper around them. (See above.) My cupcakes were in perfect condition on arrival five hours later. Ten out of ten.

Now: the execrable. There was quite a line at Billy's Bakery in Chelsea, so I made sure I knew exactly what I wanted by the time my turn came around. Unfortunately dude behind the counter found "one Red Velvet & one Vanilla" too complicated to comprehend" & gave me the, "What are you RETARDED?" sneer when he asked me to repeat myself. Lovely.

Flustered by the attitude I forgot to ask for a box. When I did so at the cashier, explaining that I was travelling, he refused and with zero, well less than zero charm. His charming co-worker manning the till tried to make up for it by proffering a plastic bag. I figured that a review should be based on what the store was willing to give so I took the paper bag of cupcakes and left, thankfully. This is what they looked like five hours later:



Seriously, one box wasn't going to kill them - the other five NYC bakeries I visited all boxed my cupcakes WITHOUT BEING ASKED. Because, hey, they have icing: they're gonna get squashed.

Here's a tip, dude with the 'tude: karma is a bitch. You were unpleasant & unhelpful and now, instead of a lovely picture of a perfect cupcake, you've got a splatted mess with your bakery's name on for all of Google to see.

Why I never lose hope in America

Never let your hopes die

When I was twenty-nine, I dated a guy in his mid-forties. We were together for two years or so before we went our separate ways but it's something he said on one of our very first dates that has stayed with me.

"Now I'm forty-four", he said, "I've come to accept that there are things I will never achieve, ambitions I will never fulfill. I've learned to accept my place on the ladder."

I've always found that thought profoundly depressing and, as I have got older, I have started to wonder where one stops showing promise and simply becomes just the exact sum of one's parts and no more.

So, when I caught sight of this sign as I wandered through Brooklyn Heights for a story yesterday, I felt immensely reassured.