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(Paul took this on my birthday about 6 years ago, it's one of the only photographs of myself that I like. and then I read the footnote on one of Garance Dore's posts and laughed in grim recognition.)So, yeah it's my birthday on Saturday. Ergo, I am a Scorpio. And I will be 35 years old. Eep! 35 seems quite a milestone, it sounds terribly grown-up.
Anyway, I have been promised chocolate biscuits, ice cream and balloons by my sweet Iris.
But of course I want far more than that, I've had a birthday list on the go since about September...
Any Dr Hauschka goes down well.
Some new books, in particular, Nick Cave's new novel and also Sarah Water's latest. And any tome from this lovely series, but of course the one on Scandinavian Style would be most welcome.
A Diana.
Um, ooh, I'd love a new bag, either a Fjallraven or one of these beautiful satchels (via here).
Some wool tights.
This print
These long woolen socks are rather fancy.
Some skinny cords - always a good winter staple.
I could go on...
I will go on - stay with me..
Some delicious fun stationery from Lazy Oaf! The Happy Friends tape!
Some of my favourite notebooks, in an assortment of sizes. Oh Rhodia! I used to be able to buy then from a local-ish post office quite randomly, but now I can't.
So, that's about it. Well, of course, it's not at all, but this is all extremely self-indulgent and frivolous anyway. Thanks for indulging me.
No carboot sales for me this weekend due to inclement weather forecasts, so I, very wisely, managed to steal away for an hour on Friday to go to my favourite junk shop and it proved very fruitful indeed.
Okay, so some of the things I bought are a bit odd, but no worse off for that. Shall we have a look? Then you can decide for yourselves..
First up is this groovy jig-saw-ish game, called Car Capers, you have to make such classics as an Austin Maestro. Fun!
Some squeaky toys - maybe from the 1950s? - they remind me of Jeff Koons' work, I can just imagine one three metres high and perhaps made of stainless steel. Super kitsch and super super annoying when squeaked incessantly.
And also some flocked animals, such as this squirrel with a real fur tail. He only has one eye and his nut has long disappeared. 
A tiger and a proud lion, both pretty unravaged by the passing of time. 
A shifty looking polar bear.
Some story-telling gloves. The prints on these are so sweet! I love all their dear little faces!
A teeny tiny little doll, I rather like her.
A jolly Brio figure. 
A tube of 'Figure Craft' for making all kinds of creations. 
I just loved the look of all the different shapes and groovy colours. 
A pair of tiny white leather shoes. 
Some little pieces of embroidered fabric that I'm going to stitch onto a blouse or cardigan. 
And that was that.
Well, actually there was lots more oddness. More animals missing various limbs (they were all in one big bag) and a really nice old till for Iris. She keeps pretending it's a bepooter (computer), and that she's working (this involves hitting all the buttons very quickly in the manner of typing). Tsk! These modern children! In other non-junk related news, I carved another pumpkin. Pretty, no? 
And today, we went to the seaside, but the reason I'm showing you this photograph is because of some re-purposing that I am particularly pleased with.
Do you see Iris's leg warmers? They're a pair of Paul's old socks, (the pair he wore on our wedding day no less), they were sadly beyond repair but now live on in an equally stylish way (I just cut the feet off)!
I'm planning to make some more as they're so simple, although I will probably add some elastic and hem the ones I do next, you know, do it properly. I am also part way through teaching myself how to crochet so expect some wonky evidence of that this week..
Okay, so I have some pretty amazing, generous and kind readers. Thank you all for your sweet get well soon wishes, and what do you know? They worked.
Well, they did in conjunction with some very delicious veggie chilli (so good we're had it again tonight), some Sambucol, some Floradix, some Echinacea, some ibuprofen, some vitamin C and some Vitamin B12. All topped off with an early night. I feel so much better.
Not well enough to leave the house exactly, but well enough to sew a ribbon back onto a fur collar, make a feather garland and carve my first pumpkin. Remarkable, eh?
My pumpkin carving was quite hard going. Pumpkins are tough. But I avoided serious injury (several times)and tried to make peace with my constant search for unattainable perfection (yes, I'm no Martha Stewart). I'm going to have another go tomorrow (at unattainable perfection, I never learn).
A progress shot..
And Iris did declare it beautiful (several times), and really, that's cool with me.
Now, I also have some recommendations for you.
Firstly for the best and spookiest look at Halloween in the olden days, check out this AMAZING flickr set and also this set from last year. Gives you the chills, eh?
There's a good interview with the collector, Steven Martin, here.
He says he's a obsessive compulsive collector, so you can see why I like him.
Now your nerves are a-jangling, you may be searching for something unsettling to watch (that pretty much defines my viewing habits all year round) so you could do worse than seeing if your local video store has this film. It's eerie and compelling.
So, happy Halloween! Hope it's super-spooky!
p.s. One of my plates in this Etsy Treasury.I don't really know what that means, but I like it. (Is it like a favourites list?)
Oh dear, I am feeling enfeebled again, my sore throat from two weeks ago has slowly mutated into a cough and now I seem to have a new cold developing. Blee. And ergh. So I am feeling extremely sorry for myself, which, as you can imagine, makes me a lot of fun to be around.
Iris and I went to town this morning (in more ways than one) ostensibly to buy a pumpkin for me to carve into a super-fancy lantern like these ones, or these ones (found via Fieldguided) - aren't they incredible? We actually came home with four, all different kinds and shapes, so hopefully, I will feel more like doing it tomorrow.
Today, I did manage to make a couple of Autumn garlands, a fancy name for tying pretty leaves, acorns and suchlike (which we had gathered on our morning walk) to a length of thread. But they look sweet and give the impression of falling leaves.
I also got some great blue and white stripy braces with leather ends, you know proper braces that you button onto things, I'll be sewing buttons onto everything I can tell you.
And a great 1980s book on Blondie so I'll leave you with a few of my favourite photographs, she's a real beauty in my eyes, a wonderful mix of vixen, Marilyn Monroe and punk. As ever there are a few more on my flickr.
Right, I'm off to make a big vat of restorative vegetarian chilli..
p.s. I am beside myself with excitement - I have almost 100 followers! Eep! Cough! Whoo! One more to go! So if you're a lurker, a first time reader or an occasional visitor, what are you waiting for?
Make my day!
So, this weekend saw the official end of British Summer time. Pfff. It always creeps up on me, I don't like it when it gets dark at 5pm. *stamps foot* It's really maddening and I wish we'd stop it and just leave the clocks alone, dammit. Sorry - I have been waiting to get it off my chest all weekend. Give us back our rightful daylight! *shakes fist*
Sorry - I am a peaceable sort really. This weekend has been really quite busy, we escaped the rain and drear on Saturday and took ourselves off for a bit of ill-advised shopping. Ill-advised as we're fairly broke at the moment. But Iris needed new shoes and trousers and although I try to borrow things from friends and seek out second hand treasure wherever possible, sometimes, you just have to go to the big shops. So we did. And it was fairly hellish, busy, Iris uncontained and excitable. She saw Reiss and said, can we go in there'. I was obviously impressed and said, 'yes!, of course' and then ALL she wanted to do was go upstairs and look at the menswear and sit next to the plastic mannequin. Not quite what I had hoped for.
Then we went to Topshop, H&M, and Zara. It was fun in Zara, there was the endless riding on the escalators (Iris), the trying on of expensive boots (Iris). Again she sort of impressed me, she fixed her gaze firmly on Paul as he helped her into a pair of soft back fancy boots and said' I need these'. I like the courage in her own convictions. When it comes to fashion anyhow.
Anyway, the point of this rather rambling account is coming. It is.
I was waiting to pay for a grey cardigan (v-neck, very on-trend) for Iris, when I caught a tiny fragment of conversation.
A woman, talking to a small boy. I didn't hear what she said, not all of it, just one word really. 'Hector'. As I lifted my gaze, I saw the woman has very long thick blonde hair. Was it? I left the queue and went over. They were engrossed in their world, she was holding his hand. I said, 'Laura?' and then a little louder, 'Laura?' She looked puzzled, quizzical, all the while Hector was hiding and peeking from behind her legs. She may even have blushed a little. 'It's Natalie', I said encouragingly. Then realisation (hers). She said Nath! Then in a rush, we laughed, embraced and talked excitedly. Paul and Iris came over, I said 'Look, it's Laura from Cloud-Fishing!' and then I think I even pinched her gently. It was and she was. Read her take on it here. Maybe it seems silly, but it was such a perfect fateful sweet encounter. And makes me think that Anais Nin quote is even more pertinent.
Oh and I found a lovely vintage dress this weekend. I love it (even though it needs taking in before I can properly, officially, wear it. It looks really nice on, and the bottom part of the dress is that really nice swishy light wool gabardine. The bodice is lined with a pinkish silky sort of fabric and the sleeves are lacy so your skin sort of matches the bodice lining and the effect, is, um, quite alluring.
That's it for now - we're off to an Island today. On a boat. More later.
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