Happiness begins at home...

... especially on the weekend. And even more so when accompanied by cute dresses and record players. If you add small kittens we might just be near to perfection.

British beauty

They are a thing of beauty

Spending all day everyday looking at mesmerisingly beautiful images of the Chloé archive at the moment... life isn't so bad.

Oops it's been a while

Where has the time gone? God only knows...

Cloudy day

But no rain for at least six hours which is a result. I want a pet cloud.

I wish I was sitting under this tree right now

Instead of sitting in a very clammy, sticky office that's making me sleepy. A girl can dream...

Mick Jagger was actually pretty cool

As a Beatles fan who somehow never made the effort to fully appreciate Mick and co, I've finally made the effort and I'm going past the usual hits and realising they're really pretty special too. Apologies for my ignorance all these years.

Still don't fancy seeing Mick and his leathery face prancing around in his satin slacks anytime soon though.

The genius of Nilsson

Definitely the most underrated art director/video maker ever. Check out some of his record sleeves, other videos and The Point animation... such a brilliantly talented and unique mind. LEGEND.

Ooh my eyes hurt

This is a rather magnificent creation by master street artist (and shoe fetishist apparently) known as Gif-itti. Get it?

Apparently he painstakingly paints layer after layer of the design to create this glorious picture of animated gif beauty.

I LIKE. And I wish I could have ideas as clever as this.

Magical

Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. And it takes a lot for me to say that.

Sweltering in the sunlight

It is HOT HOT HOT today. So hot that I fear many ice-creams may melt and die in the sunshine.

Sad times

I was pretty sad to see this Facebook postfrom the exceptionally talented British musician Whitey. I suppose it's the same situation as many exceptionally creative yet perhaps not chart-topping artists face these days. Lots of people love them, fellow musicians respect them and they generally have credibility streaming out of their ears but it doesn't transfer into big fat dollar signs for big fat record label bosses (or even quite skinny ones on microbiotic diets i would imagine). I'm not going to try and dissect a situation I don't know much about beyond this meagre blog post but all I know is Whitey can really write what to my ears, is a wonderful beautiful pop song and so for him not to get a record deal of any worth sucks balls big time. Onwards and upwards as I so very often say. Oh yeah, and the spirit of his punk rock attitude and true creativity he's stuck his fingers up at the record labels and will instead have his album available for your listening pleasure as of Saturday the 19th May here. Happy Birthday to me (well a day late but who's counting?)

News flash

One of the very fun projects I've been lucky enough to complete in Q1 of 2012 (that's bizness speak for the first quarter of the year by the way) was the creation of the Vedett Gazett.

This was a concept created by the lovely team at Vedett and Duvel over in my second favourite European country Belgium. The idea was to move along the existing opportunity for people to upload their images onto Vedett bottle labels to something a little richer and more relevant to today's popular trends of blogging, tweeting and so on. Through Vedett Gazett people are able to upload stories, pictures, illustrations, you name it to the digital version of the newspaper and then the best bits make it through to the analogue version (our favourite of course) where they see their stories hit the Vedett headlines in real life glorious newsprint. Simple yet fun and full to the brim with wonderfully talented and genuinely interesting individual's work. The paper was designed by cool cat number one Mr Damien Poulain.

and the accompanying flyposters were designed by Cool Cat number two and and hip Dad Marc Kremers.

The posters and newspapers were distributed UK wide and as I type these words I believe we're pretty much all out of issue number one so that can only be a good sign. Issue two will be with us in the very near future and when my brain can compute exact dates I'll be sure to let you know. Thank you and good evening.

King of Kindness

This is the truly marvellous Adam Bainbridge - otherwise known as Kindness. Oh and a cute little boy called Ramon (good name). This video is like Gonzales meets the best bits of Sesame Street sprinkled with a little bit of Dad-humour, cool and magic. If you haven't already seen Kindness live please do so as it's one of the most exciting and refreshing things to come out of the UK music scene in a very long time. Whether or not he will sell millions of records remains to be seen (good taste is not high on the musical agenda these days it seems) but who cares.. if he stays as a hidden musical gem I will be happy. Provided he gets paid handsomely and lives a happy life of course.

Facial Fascination

A cool dude who likes what he sees in the mirror in my boudoir. He's welcome back anytime.

Obsession can be healthy and good.

Think I've listened to this song approximately 120 times in the past three days. It's the least I can do in celebration of Miracle Man Robin Gibb.

Bunny rabbits, fluffy pink cushions and cake

My lovely Canadian friend Claire Edmondson made this film to celebrate the fact she shares her birthday with two remarkable men who are both stylish and kitsch in equal yet very different measures as is this video.

I LOVE IT.

xx

Love on a rainy day

Coolest girl of 2012...

...and best video of 2012 so far

New day, new website

Today is the ever so exciting unveiling of my brand spanking new website - hurray.
You can see a few new examples of my work as well as marvelling at the similarity between the real me and this cartoon version of me courtesy of Mr Jango Jim.

My lovely new site is design by King Geek and all round great dude Matt Waites.

I'm lucky to have such lovely helpful lovely people in my life aren't i?

Sofa of my lethargy

My favourite relaxation location - cosy, comfortable and home.

Apologies for my tardy blog posts of late - it's all been a bit busy busy busy hence me taking a bit of time out with my feet up, watching a movie.

Tomorrow I shall update fully on what I've been up to and later this week I hope to have my website fully updated too.

Back to the movie now. It's a tear jerker.

Lonely

But don't mention love... I'd hate the pain and the strain all over again.

The Church of Fun

This is a thing of wonder and beauty:
The Abondantus Gigantus was a temporary chapel constructed last year as part of the Grenswerk Festival in Enschede, Netherlands. The church could be mistaken for a children’s playhouse as it’s built using colorful construction bricks that resemble toy LEGO blocks. The concrete building material is Legioblock, which is often used to build walls and industrial buildings. These concrete blocks can be interconnected and stacked on top of each other just like the toy building blocks.

Designers Michiel de Wit and Filip Jonker commented that, “The odd scale of the church invites the viewer to become aware of the things we take for granted and to observe them once again, more closely, and to either let go or accept. The church appeals to sentiments for renewed sense of community.”

via PSFK: http://www.psfk.com/2012/02/lego-church.html#ixzz1nPCnigvF

Witching hour

New hobby for 2012 with my good pal and fellow doom lover Aoife Mcardle.

I'm flying without wings

Whoever said that dogs are stupid clearly hadn't met this chap.

Sheriff Fatman

Just needed to move that ugly denim clad youtube image down the page a bit so here's a rather brilliant drawing.
Lovely.

Nice song, shame about the video

Sorry - this is an exceptionally ugly piece of youtube footage to look at but hopefully the brilliance of the accompanying song makes up for it.
I'm getting into a lot of 70s Dad rock and I don't mean the noodly prog-rock stuff (I was already well into that many moons ago).

This song is pretty special isn't it? How it hasn't made it onto the soundtrack of an epic blockbusting film is really quite surprising. Or maybe it has and Wikipedia is an unreliable source.

Either way, it's my new fave.

Sesame Treat

Probably the most consistently good and cool thing on TV. I wish I remembered more of it from my childhood.

Don't have nightmares

There's an array of great old, weird, semi-funny and ever so creepy films playing at my new favourite place the BFI.
In particular hot dates I'm looking forward to are Day of Wrath, Vampyr and Ordet all by Carl Dreyer who, from what I'm told, is something of a legend when it comes to making great films.

As someone who previously turned my nose up at films where english wasn't the first language I'm something of a changed woman (my favourite films used to be Clueless and Wayne's World - still great movies but you get the picture)

Oh and to top it off there are no annoying adverts but on the downside they don't sell cheap sugary popcorn.

Oh well, such is life.

Friends in high places

This is my incredible friend Thorunn's video for her pure pop magic 'Too late'.
I love everything about this and am so proud of her.
I hope she becomes the mega popstar she deserves to be - if she does I'm jacking all this in and becoming her real life wife and life partner.
Lots of love to you hubby x

Happy day of love

or words to that effect.

True Love

Paul, you are the best.

Song of 2012

What did I say

An incentive

Sunday night

If you get the chance, watch this wonderful old film by Ken Loach.
It's heartbreaking and shocking - even more so that it's based on a real life situation.
Not the best Sunday night viewing to keep me feeling positive for the week ahead but still a thing of beauty all the same.

This makes me very happy

Even cooler than the pooch from The Beginners and better than Eddie from Frasier.
Only just though.

All I want for Christmas...

Ever had a secret inkling you're going to be bombarded with all manner of lavish gifts on Christmas day but instead you're presented with something really quite disappointing?
If the answer is yes then I'm sure you can empathise with me and my pals who have compiled a list of the weirdest and least 'gift-like' gifts we received this year.
That's not to say we're not grateful of course.

What lies ahead

Lot's of exciting new projects are on the horizon for 2012.
Just like this kitty cat, I'm subtly dipping my toe into the water in week one of the working life in 2012 to see what lies ahead.

Next week onwards is when the magic happens.

Happy new year everyone.

New year. New reunion.

So the original Sugababes are back together but can't actually BE the Sugababes because a bunch of stage school Barbi dolls have the name even though they wrote none of the songs and none of them are original members.
Seems a bit rubbish doesn't it?

On the upside though, the original dream team are allowed to produce stationery with the name Sugababes on it so not all is lost.

Either way, I don't care all that much but I do think this song is pretty awesome and if the 'real' Sugababes can pull some more hits out of the bag that are anything like this then they are back in serious bizness.

And anyway, these are women nearing 30 years of age. I think Sugababes is a little bit inappropriate.