So long 2008

First of all I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!!

My December has been taken up by working, drinking and family gatherings taking me from London to Glasgow to Edinburgh to Nairn, back to Glasgow then back to Edinburgh and a lot of the last two trips repeated. I have been either too exhausted to think of anything to blog about or, more often, without Internet at all. However the new year brings resolutions and picking up my regular blogging habit is definitely one of them.

So here is my 2009 to-do list. A personal blog I know, but one I feel I must do. If I put it out there one the world wide web I am more likely to stick to it.

1. Blog every day

2. Only sleep 3 hours a night once a week as opposed to 3 weeks solid. This will be achieved by going to bed early when I need to get up in the morning.

3. Eat a home cooked meal at least 3 times a week.

4. To save on money invite people round for a meal and wine instead of splashing it all out on 3 overly expensive wheat beers.

5. Question why I appear to have an obsession with the number 3.

6. GET A PROPER JOB. By any means possible I will work at what I am good at and make a living out of it.

7. Start writing my novel.

8. Do regular exercise by using the dance class gift certificate so kindly given to me by my health conscious Mum for Christmas.

9. Call up the people who keep sending me notifications about my student loan repayments and tell them why they need to leave me alone as opposed to hoping that somehow they magically will.

10. (because 10 seems like a good number to end on) Go on holiday somewhere hot and sunny.

All of these seem plausible so I will be checking these off as I enter 2009.

My Christmas was very successful. The best present I got were hand made spatz which I will most certainly be getting a picture up of soon and find out the designers name from my Mum who so ingeniously got them for me. They are amazing.

On my London family Christmas (the 23rd) I wore this Karen Millen antique sequin dress which I was given for Christmas the year before.

On actual Christmas I wore a chiffon corsage babydoll dress from ASOS with thick black tights and over the knee knitted socks from Jonathan Aston. Christmas has been all about over the knee socks for me with pretty black detailed dresses a thick knitted jumper and a cape.

Or over the knee socks teamed with these amazing bottle green sling back platform heels from Office, a black buttoned up high waisted skirt and a quirky t-shirt.

And tonight is going to be a low key party, but I still want to dress up so I am wearing my Reiss outfit which I have previously posted photos of. The orange skirt and ruffle stripey top.

Then I am going to try and find some bargains in the January sales, yet not spend too much money!

Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!!

Christmas Freak

It's the last Big Freak of the 2008 and although I am still recovering from a 14 hour shift and pre Christmas exhaustion I intend to give it my all in the dressing up stakes. For the first two club nights I was inspired by a 1950's theme; wearing a yellow 50's sundress and carrying around a parasol on the first one. The second one was the Halloween special, so I continued with the 1950's theme and went for a dead housewife affair. But, after having all of my hair lopped off I am not feeling the retro theme so much and it is about time for a change. I am also in desperate need for colour as I am required to wear black at work so my thoughts turned to a dress I bought 3 years ago which has a bright graphic print of green frogs and pink hearts and could not be more colourful if it tried.

The New York based designer, Dirty Addiction, added me on MySpace when I was about 18 and her clothes are aimed at just the alterna teen demographic that I was a part of then. Her designs were Hello Kitty meets Goth meets Emo meets Dolly and I found a couple of fantastic cute one off handmade dresses; the green froggy dress being one of them. Although I am not an alterna teen any longer I am certainly not one particular type and today I felt like tutus and colour and this dress perfectly fits the bill.

I'll post up photos of the night tomorrow and inject some colour into this grey and wintry weather.

A Weary Christmas

I have finally decided to do some online Christmas shopping, as the weather does not greatly appeal to me despite my wonderful John Lewis Fulton lace parasol umbrella. So I have sat down on the sofa, turned on Howard Hawks' fabulous Gentlemen Prefer Blondes with Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell and whizzed through a variety of sites to find the appropriate presents for the family.

I am not going to disclose the details of presents in case a source close to or, in fact, the person itself spots what I bought them. However, I do recommend ASOS for female friends, especially if you are having to do presents on the cheap this year as they have sectioned off their goods into budget as well as item types etc. I managed to find a couple of gems which I would be sitting back and congratulating myself for with a cup of tea if the site did not decide to stop loading just as the final step of the purchase was being made. I believe an Internet shopping site should inform us of their "maintenance work" before we spend a lengthy amount of time perusing their products only to be left frustrated when only a moment before the end was in view!

Fortunately, I remained level headed and returned later to a fully working site. I believe this means that all of my Christmas shopping is done!

Congratulatory cup of tea here I come...I shall leave you with a clip of 'Bye Bye Baby' for your enjoyment.

Furry Winter

I decided to throw on my fake leopard print coat, which I got from Thread Bare on Broughton Street Edinburgh, the other day in homage to the icy frost weather in Glasgow. The usually wet and grey Scottish winters have currently been abandoned by Mr. Weather and instead we have been granted with blue skies, icy pavements and frost covered leaves which makes that satisfying crunching noise underfoot. This is the sort of Winter weather which makes me want to go outside and dance in the snow whilst avoiding slipping on the ice and falling on my arse like a nameless friend of mine did last Wednesday night. Much to everyone's amusement of course. But, going back to the original image of Winter glamour as opposed to humiliation; this weather is the sort in which dressing for winter becomes a pleasure instead of piling on grey jumpers and trudging around in wellies and a black umbrella.

So fake fur it is then. It always makes me feel incredibly glamorous and I think that works for a few people, for example Mary-Kate Olsen when she made a maxi-dress work as a quirky evening ensemble.

I also have a wee white fake fur bolero which I think I am going to use to glam up a party dress and feel like the most eccentric lady in the room.

But, it's not just coats and jackets; hats are definitely also the thing. I must be honest, real fur is warmer, but I am determined to find myself a trendy fur hat which is made from fake fur but also incredibly toasty. I'm leaning towards a Russian inspired fur hat. Perhaps something in the style of Lightspeed Champion?

How well I could pull something like that off, I can't be sure. But, if I can find one which is warm and decently priced it will go on my head! It will also go on my "weekly fancies" blog which I admit has had a dry patch of more than a week, but it has not been forgotten! As Christmas approaches the bargain hunting will truly begin!

The Skinny

Check out my two articles in this month's issue of The Skinny. I wrote up Glasgow Craft Mafia's Va Va Vintage fair and I also previewed The Big Freak which should be a fantastic event!!! You'll have to pick up your own free copy if you want to read about The Big Freak on page 51 and the full article on page 10 about the Glasgow Craft Mafia, although a lot of it is on The Skinny website.

So get reading!!