What's (Really) In My Bag

I'm a bit bored of those "what's in my bag" blog posts where everything is brand new and it's all cutesy-pie notebooks with matching pens and keyrings and there's nary a manky tissue or old receipt to be seen. If you're actually that tidy then more power to you. I'm not.

Here's what's really in the bag of a messy, disorganised person. Short answer: a lot of crap.

Long answer (and this doesn't even include my makeup bag):

The essentials - purse, keys, book. Where the hell is my phone though? It's part of the holy trinity. No matter how tiny the bag, it must fit purse, phone & keys in it.

All the spares - spare shoes, tights, socks, belt and brolly

The stuff I can never ever find. I swear my diary has one of those Harry Potter enchantments on it so it shrinks and hides at the bottom of the bag.

Yeah, hmm.

A whole load of paper-based crap. This picture doesn't do justice to the amount of stuff there is.

If further proof were needed...

What I Did In November

It's been a busy old month, and December is set to be even more hectic.  Fun though!  Here's what I've been up to recently:


- Tried Dining in the Dark

I was invited along to The Living Room in Liverpool earlier in the month for an evening with a difference. We were sampling mini versions of the food and drink from their new menu and playing guess the ingredient, but with our eyes closed. Well, with blindfolds on, to be precise. I learned that my taste buds are Not Very Good - I think I got 14.5/40 or something shocking like that, although weirdly I did guess all the cheeses correctly and I don't even eat cheese.  Anyway, the main discovery to come out of the evening was not my hitherto-unknown cheese-guessing powers, but the fact that The Living Room is really lovely.  I'd always associated the Liverpool one with footballers and gorgeous girls on nights out rather than delicious food, and I was super-impressed with how good everything on the menu was, as well as how nice and chilled out a venue it was.  Shall be heading back there soon!

- Watched American Idiot The Musical

Which was fab!  I had a slight fear that it would be clunky but it all fitted together rather well and the cast were great.  That album is very tied up with memories for me but I blocked that out and enjoyed it anyway.

- Got excited about Christmas at work
 

We've busted out the Christmas cd collection already.  In our defence, pretty much everyone is finishing on 14th Dec cos we've got so much leave left to take, so we're allowed to start the festivities in November.  That's our excuse and we're sticking to it.  Plus we have a house and a flipping big tree to decorate!  I was teetering on a ledge about 6 inches wide (if I tipped forwards I went into the tree, if I tipped backwards I crashed into a historic painting) and dancing to Jingle Bell Rock whilst making the tree looks fancy.  It looks ace, even if I do say so myself.

- Visited the cinema quite a bit

Seriously, how much good stuff was on this month?  I didn't even get round to seeing Argo, The Master or Rust and Bone.  Sad face.  The four films I did see were all wildly different but very good.  And who knew Bradley Cooper could actually act?

- Went to see Ben Folds Five

What a pair of fitfaces we are.

I'm not very musical. I don't spend a lot on music, or going to gigs, but I am a total Ben Folds fangirl. I went to see him on the (solo) Lonely Avenue tour a couple of years ago and as soon as the announcement went out that the band were reforming and touring in the UK, I pounced on the tickets.  Ffion and I had a bloody marvellous time last night in Manchesterville.

- Got quite a lot of shopping done.

Nothing in there but moths and a Tesco clubcard now.

I know, I know, it's only November. But I have to be super organised with presents for the people from work - I don't see most of them after 9th December - and then various friends are moving mid-month or generally just away, so I have to get started early. And I have two Secret Santa parcels to put together, plus a load of giveaway packages to organise! December is officially the month where I have no spare time. I'm totally calling on Parcelforce to send all my packages safely around the country. They pick them up from you! I can't face Post Office queues at the best of times and the thought of standing in line in December makes me shudder to the core.

- Tried opera. Cosi fan tutte to be precise.

Hark at me!  I think my pal Lee is just trying to convert me into a complete culture vulture.  He's already got me watching ballet (although not modern dance which tends to bore me to sleep) and he persuaded me to try a £5 ticket to the opera.  I rather surprised myself by absolutely loving it.  More please!

- Sorted out a great big pre-Christmas giveaway

Watch this space tomorrow!

Shopping

I am poorly.  So as not to inflict my general deathlike pallor and bright red nose on you (sound like a clown, don't I?), I am holding off on outfit photos for a few days.  Instead, I shall share with you some of the aforementioned stuff that I've picked up recently.

Pretty new bedding from Ikea.  I do love a good bit of toile print fabric, so I was v. pleased to discover this.  It's not green but then we can't have everything, can we?

Knee high socks from Primark.  I muchly enjoy knee high socks but decent ones are not that easy to find.  Either they fall down, or they're secretly over-the-knee socks with misleading packaging, or they make my legs look super stumpy.  These are cute and vaguely sporty, and at £2 a pair, I'm definitely going back for the black ones.

 

Also from Primark, some fab little boots.  These are a nightmare to photograph - does anyone else find that with red stuff?  They're a gorgeous deep, dark berry colour in real life but it isn't quite showing up here, no matter how much I faff around in PicMonkey.  It's not a colour I wear much of, but in the world of footwear, anything goes.

A swanky bra and pants set from the Rosie for Autograph collection from M&S.  I don't normally do fancy underwear, or even matching underwear.  But it was payday and this was pretty (and green), so I bought it.  And it wasn't that expensive - more than I usually spend but not exactly Agent Provocateur prices or anything.

Also Bananagrams, which is indeed awesome.  If you haven't played it, you really need to.  It's like Scrabble on crack.  Or a crossword race.  Either way, it's brilliant and I love it and I will happily have a game with anyone that asks.

 

 

Definitely NOT being included in the list above are the Primark tights that I bought at the same time as the boots and socks.  The fleecy lined pair felt amazing and cosy at first but seeing as they spent most of the day descending down to knee level, I didn't exactly get much benefit from them.  The nice green non-fleecy lined pair were even worse, despite being a size L/XL.  I am 5'2.  I am not that fat.  There's no way in hell that a size L/XL should be that small/badly made that they need to be clutched at the waist all day to keep them from falling down. 

 

If you ever see me even vaguely tempted to buy tights from there ever again, slap my hand and point me in the other direction.  Preferably to M&S or Dotty P because their tights might be pricier but at least they fit and last well. 

 

And on that deeply grannyish note, I am off to buy a new box of tissues.

This Summer Redux

I challenged myself back at the start of the summer to undertake some fun things. No dull to-do lists for me! As autumn is drawing in, it seems time to look back at the list and see how I got on.

Watch some outdoor theatre

DONE - Macbeth and The Importance of Being Earnest.  Very different performances and theatre companies but they were both absolutely brilliant.

Book an autumn break with the girls from work

DONE - I am very excited.  Only a month or so to go!

Go to the Edinburgh Festival

DONE - Oh it was fantastic. We squeezed in 12 shows in two and a bit days so it was somewhat hectic but there was time for cider drinking in the sunshine and we even found time to go and see Chris Hoy's gold postbox.

Make a complicated cake - possibly Dobos Torte. See here for a mega review of someone else trying it!

NOT DONE - unfortunately the only real opportunity I had for this was the mid August for family birthdays but I ran out of time and the moment passed.  I still want to make it but it seems a bit pointless to make such a big cake just to take into work.  Hmmmm.  Someone have a birthday please.

Complete Project Bunny

DONE - and I am fricking pleased with myself.  I am still a wibbly knitter: I panic and then get hysterically giggly when casting on (seriously, why do I do this?) and my tension is terrible (probably cos I'm tense) but I made them and they look awesome, even if I do say so myself.

Have a smashing time at the Olympics

DONE - see this post for more thoughts and pictures.  What a truly amazing day it was.

Take my lovely new tent camping again

I took no photos of the tent: it was too wet. This was in a cafe in Church Stretton.

DONE - it was ridiculously rainy. We got drenched.  We then had bits of tent draped over the bannisters and dining room table for a week.  Still had a cracking time though!

Go to the football - either a pre-season Liverpool game or keep it local and go and watch Marine

DONE - I took the menfolk to see Liverpool vs Bayern Leverkusen as their birthday present.  Then someone crashed into the back of the car on the way home.  Fun eh?

Try a Zumba class

HA! You think you're getting a photo of me in exercise gear.  Think again.

DONE - I went by myself and everything.  This may not seem much but I get a bit panicky about doing things like that for the first time so I'm impressed I actually went.  It wasn't too bad either! I managed the whole thing and didn't ache afterwards so perhaps I'm fitter than I thought. 

Have a picnic with Shell and Baby Jack because I just don't see the two of them enough

NOT DONE - bad Alex.  I have basically had no free weekends since about June and besides, have you seen the weather? The one nice period of weather we've had and Shell is on holiday in Turkey - lucky thing!

Go on a Ferry 'cross the Mersey! Would you believe I've never been on it?

NOT DONE - Yeah, I've still never been on it.  Stupid busy weekends.  I am hopefully I can go at some point this month.

Do or buy something a bit frivolous and not feel guilty about it

DONE - Wheeeeeeee!  I bought this fine gentleman.  I did not need a new bag, I just wanted one.  Plus I used a voucher so it's frivolous, yet moneysaving at the same time.

Chill out.  I am becoming increasingly incapable of not checking my phone for texts/emails/tweets/Instagram updates/blog comments every 5 minutes.  I know it's a terrible habit.  I'll have to lock it in a box or something

SORT OF DONE - I'm trying.  Not entirely sure how I measure success on this point but I'm better at ignoring the phone and concentrating on tv/a book instead.

Write 15,000 more words of The Second Novel 

REALLY NOT DONE - Oh god, total and utter failure on this one.  I've done about 850 words.  I've been plotting out bits of The Third Novel but it would probably help if I finished this one first.  Autumn task!

Finally, if I can fit it in (cos my weekends are quite packed!), go to the zoo.  I've never been to the zoo.

NOT DONE - have still never been to the zoo.  Waaaah.  Someone take me to the zoo please.

Hmmm, nine successes, one maybe, five failures. Not too bad. Here's to an equally fun filled autumn!

New Things

I hate the run up to payday.  Now I should point out that I am not the sort of person who massively overspends on a post-payday binge and then has to live off beans for half the month, but I do set pretty strict savings targets for myself and, well, it's the same overall result isn't it?  Not very much disposable cash to live off.  April is always an evil month - holidays and birthdays and lots of fun things eat all my money before I even know where it's gone.  It's a good job I take pleasure in the small things because there's no way I can afford the big ones right now.  So here are some that have found their way to me recently.  Small things, but definitely happiness inducing things.

Hostess teacup and plate (birthday present).  More room for biscuits on this than on a saucer!

Ah, Dorothy Perkins jewellery section in the sales.  I love it so.  £3 for the three.  Something else may have fallen into my hands as I went to the tills but that is reserved for a separate blog post if it ever stops chuffing raining.  Seriously weather, you are hampered my blogging efforts!

An antique collar box - a present from one of the volunteers at work who didn't want it any more.  I think it might be snakeskin?  Anyway, it's both useful and beautiful.

And a good glass of wine after a day volunteering at Kelsall Hill horse trials.  They supplied the wine as a thank you, which I thought was a rather lovely touch. 

That Year...This Year

On the whole, 2011 was not a bad year. As recorded on this here blog, holidays to Kent and Portugal were taken, trips to London, Edinburgh, Newcastle and sunny Shrewsbury were made, cultural things got done, many things got bought. I took a ridiculous amount of photos, blogged a lot, got very bad at commenting (sorry, must improve!)



Did a saucy photoshoot. Embraced the topknot and red lipstick. Increased my Irregular Choice collection. Joined Twitter. Became mildly obsessed with Twitter. Even met people off Twitter (brave eh?). I even became honorary Auntie Alex to young Jack. A lot of the year was very good fun. Not all of it was good though, in fact a certain part of it was very sad and painful, but that's not for me to talk about.

Let us move on to listy type things:


Films seen at the cinema in 2011: 27

Best? Can't pick a favourite. Senna was truly wonderful (and I am outraged it wasn't nominated for best documentary at the Oscars). I went to see The Adjustment Bureau twice so I clearly enjoyed that. Source Code was fantastic. Love and Other Drugs stayed with me for a lot longer than I thought it would. Weekend was brilliant.
Worst? Sorry to my beloved Henry Cavill but even he couldn't rescue Immortals from being rubbish. I blame the 3D.

Books read in 2011: 371.

Not bad eh? There were a fair few novellas in that list but if it's longer than a short story, it counts as a book in my eyes. The list is mostly notable for:

• a massive glom of Suzanne Brockmann's back catalogue at the start of the year
• Beta reading a book for a Real Life Published Author. That was FUN. I shall talk more of it when it's ready to be released.
  
• Barely reading anything at all in October (see below)

Don't even ask me to pick a favourite book because I'm even less capable of that than I am of picking a favourite film, plus there are a LOT to choose from. I will just say that Delirium by Lauren Oliver made me sob with how good it was, Maritime Men and Anchors Aweigh by Janey Chapel have been read and reread and keep improving, A History of the World in 100 Objects is unbelievably interesting and Lady Rose and Mrs Memmary by Ruby Ferguson was simply beautiful.

Books written in 2011:

One, in October. Hurrah for me! I started number two this week.

Comedians seen:

7. All very funny but I must strongly recommend Chris Ramsey.

Theatre trips:

13. I still can't get over how good Michael Sheen was in Hamlet. Unbelievable. Lovesong was chuffing amazing too though and Flare Path was excellent. If only we hadn't been sitting so high up we were practically on the Moon.

Also:

I'm not really a music person but I went to see Ben Folds in February and sweet jesus, he was astonishingly good. I'll take quality over quantity any day.


So, what does 2012 have in store?

I'm not talking resolutions here, for they are dull. I'm talking things that I will definitely be doing.

An Easter holiday to Hay-on-Wye (my version of bookshop heaven), a jaunt to the Edinburgh Festival and possibly an autumn holiday to France. Haven't quite decided on that last one yet.

OLYMPICS! I have tickets for the cross-country day of the eventing and I am most excited. People who are bah humbuggy about it all: I am not listening to you. Wheeeeee!!! I love the Olympics and I'M GOING!

Whilst I'm on the subject of eventing, I've signed up as a volunteer with British Eventing. I want this to be the year I do some fence judging. For the uninitiated, that involves eating a giant picnic and blowing a whistle a lot, possibly a bit of flag waving too. I can totally do that. Or I shall volunteer in some other capacity. I've bought some wellies and a gilet now; there's no going back.


Wearing more hats. It needs to be done. Is anyone with me?

Doing a writing course this month. Should be fun!

Finally working my way through the to-read pile. It just got bigger and bigger last year and I fear the bottom books will turn to mulch if I don't read them soon.

It's grown since that photo was taken...

In Brief

Just a very quick weekend post to update you all on a few things:

• I've succumbed to the lure of Twitter. I set up a work account a little while ago and it surprised me by how fun it was, so I've created a personal one too. Still don't entirely know what I'm doing on there but please come and talk to me! It's @OddSocksAlex


• I've guest posted over at Chloe Likes To Talk. Lucky Chloe is off on her hols so I've talked about (surprise, surprise)...holiday reading.


• Am very honoured to have been featured again in the Penny Dreadful Vintage Vintage Tips, Tutorials & Links Roundup post. This is one of my favourite weekly posts and always gives me lots of great reading material for the weekend.


• The photoshoot photos arrived this morning! Squeee!! I'll post about it in a few days.

Right, I must dash. I have banana muffins to bake and a mini festival in the park to attend this afternoon. I know I'm behind on comments (AGAIN!) so shall try and catch up over the weekend.

Wednesday Wafflings

Thank you for all your wonderful comments on my last post. Unfortunately it's not good news - Beth's condition has deteriorated and they weren't able to operate, so she's been transferred closer to home for palliative care. It's unbearably sad.

Please don't think I'm being a hard-hearted bitch for trying to carry on pretty much as normal. I know it might seem excessively hypocritical of me to start off with a paragraph like that and then talk about utterly frivolous stuff but I function best when I keep myself busy and don't let myself dwell on things and something this awful, I just can't think about for too long. Falling apart won't do anyone any good. I need the distraction and yes, the frivolity, of blogging.

I've been tagged with a couple of awards recently: the Stylish Blogger award from Gem at Treasures From The Cherry Tree and the Versatile Blogger award from Hazel at World Of Joy. Thanks ever so much ladies! Both of them seem to be of the "5 things about yourself" type and I'm sure you're all bored of me revealing facts about myself by now, so I thought I'd bend the rules and show you 5 recent charity shop purchases instead. I've barely shopped in May, so these were little treats to myself at the weekend.

1) Jolly nice H&M top, BNWT. H&M sizing being what it is, it's a little snug, although not in a bad way. It doesn't show off rolls of flab or anything. I think I'm just not very used to form-fitting clothes yet.

2) Primark dress. It's rather more boobalicious than I foresaw as the bodice part is essentially just two triangles but I'm sure I can do something with it. Even if it's not wearable in current form, £1.99 is not bad for the fabric at least.

3) Knitting bag. Oh the cuteness of the chunky wooden handles. I love my local YMCA shop. This and the fabric below weren't priced up so I asked the woman on the till and she went "oh, just £1.49 for both." Result!

4) Vintage fabric. Mental but rather tremendous, yes? I'm not sure there's enough to make a dress with but hopefully enough for a totally in-your-face skirt.

5) And this glorious book. I adore the Anne books and even though I've already got a paperback edition of this one, who could resist a 1913 hardback edition with beautiful colour plates inside? Not me. Especially not when it was on the half price shelf.

In very important shopping related news, I have got my Olympics tickets! On Monday 30th July 2012 I'll be in Greenwich Park watching the cross-country stage of the three-day eventing. I am more excited than I can possibly describe.

Spring Cleaning

Spring is in the air and unusually for me, it's making me want to clean and tidy and generally act all domesticated. We moved house about 2 years ago and the storage unit has been heaving with stuff ever since. We're finally getting round to tackling it properly. The house is now full of boxes and my enormous collection of Sylvanian Families but we'll get it all sorted eventually, I'm sure. I keep getting distracted by random discoveries though:

This rather funky coffee pot. I can't find anything about this specific design online but it's by Ridgway and an identical shaped but differently patterned design (Homemaker) is dated to 1955-68. An example is held in the V&A - ain't that swanky?

One of my brother's old pieces of schoolwork. Apparently I was ferocious even at age 4.

A bunch of dresses that need altering. I really must get cracking with the sewing machine.

Oh, and a hilarious assortment of family photos. Some of my mum's old outfits really do deserve a post of their own. Need to find the scanner first though...I know it's in a box somewhere...