Rose petal sarnie anyone?

There are few things more exciting than collecting brown paper packages from the Post Office. Yesterday I opened one to discover The Vintage Tea Party Book! Thank you Taryn and Steve for this amazing Christmas gift. I am so in looooooove with this book. These pics don't begin to do it justice. Every page is positively dripping with rose petal cakes, Union Jack flags and chiffon lemon squares. There are chapters on sourcing props, playing parlour games, making a hat and picking the perfect vintage dress - aka: heaven! Nadia, I know you're coming for tea today but don't get too excited. I just have Spar chocolate rolls for you but give me time friend, give me time. x

New Year. New Hair Colour.

It was time to lighten up! After more than a year of being a brunette, I felt like venturing back to blonde. But I'm going to do it in stages and try out a couple of shades along the way.
As always, lols at the posing - I've lost my nerve with these things!

Tinsel and puppy paws

Merry merry everyone! Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas? Ours was utterly chilled. We bunged the chickens on the Weber, roasted the veggies, lazed on lilos, napped under palm trees and watched our fave Fawlty Towers episodes. Or everyone else did. I sort of passed out after the meal. Can't handle my food! My mom wrapped my prezzies in Ralph Lauren ads - how totally epic! x

Happy holidays you lovely lot

Guys! I just wanted to pop in and wish you all a wonderful Christmas and happy New Year. I hope you all get some time to relax with your nearest and dearest. Some of my girl friends have flown in and will be flying in from abroad which is awesome. Tonight, I'll be lounging round the pool with 'em, sipping wine and talking nonsense. Can't flippen wait. In a way, this no-net enforced blog break has been quite nice! I've been listening to loads of music, watching doccos, playing guitar, visiting friends and getting inspired in other spheres of life. So I hope to return to blogville feeling refreshed and rejuvenated! I have, however, thoroughly missed reading your news but I am following many of you on Twitter and poking my head in to your blogs when I can. Thanks so much to all of you have supported me this year. Thank you for your kind comments, emails and tweets. Thank you for the encouragement and lols along the way! Alot went down in my life behind the blog this year. Some good, some sad and some downright crazy. I still haven't figured out what to share and what to keep personal but I want you to know I really appreciate you guys. Sometimes life gets in the way and I battle to reply to emails and tweets promptly but I read and value every one. Here are some of my fave pics from the year. They're floating around in the Gloss archives. Here's wishing us all a safe and happy festive season. Big love, Me x

Louis

Owing to being ill and not having any internet, I've been grabbing any spare time to just chill in a bid to rest up. Bit hard when there are final club nights and weddings to attend! Anyway, a mate of mine lent me a ton of doccos to watch and among the batch were some of Louis Theroux’s. Oh my goodness. How amazing is Louis?! I’ve heard so much about him and now I get the hype! For those of you that don’t know, Louis is a British journalist that makes doccos about sub-cultures like swingers and thai brides and crazy religious types. He interviews all sorts of oddballs and the stories are just fascinating. Plus he looks a bit like a British Jim Halpert – dreamy! He cracks me up because he’ll be talking to some white supremist or something and he’ll say ‘Don’t you think that’s just a little bit weird?’ Haha! So British. He’s dead intelligent though and brilliant at extracting these shocking, honest nuggets out of people!

Oh, and this is what I ended up reading at Tracy's wedding – it’s from When Harry Met Sally. I also said a bit about our friendship through mascara tears – what a wreck.

I love that you get cold when it's 71 degrees out. I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich. I love that you get a little crinkle above your nose when you're looking at me like I'm nuts. I love that after I spend the day with you, I can still smell your perfume on my clothes. And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night. And it's not because I'm lonely, and it's not because it's New Year's Eve. I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.

PS: Promise to upload some pics during the holidays. Only three and half more days to go!

Giselle's 30th Birthday Tea Party - continued!

A few more pics from Giselle's 30th Birthday Party. As you can see, there were plenty of pretties to peruse! I've spent a glorious evening in bed watching the final season of SATC - can you believe I'd never seen the ending? It was epic! Hitting the hay now to hopefully sleep away this cold. x

Saturday November 30th

       "What did I ever see in Pandora Braithwaite? She is an opinionated, arrogant ball-breaker. An all-round nasty piece of work. Compared to Bianca, she is nothing, nothing. And as for Leonora De Witt, I can hardly remember her face.
      I never want to leave this room. I want to live the whole of my life within these four walls (with occasional trips to the bathroom, which we have to share with a fire-eater called Norman).
      The walls are painted lavender blue and Bianca has stuck stars and moons on the ceiling which glow in the dark. There is a poster of Sydney Harbour Bridge on the wall between the windows. There is a double bed with an Indian bedspread covered in cushions; a chest of drawers that Bianca has painted white; an old armchair covered in a large tablecloth. A wonky table, half painted in gold, and two pine chairs. Instead of a bedhead, we have got a blown-up photograph on the wall of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Bianca’s hero.
      Every morning when I wake up, I can’t believe that the slim girl with the long legs who is lying next to me is mine! I always get out of bed first and put the kettle on the Baby Belling cooker. I then put two slices of toast under the grill and serve my love with her breakfast in bed. I won’t allow her to get out of bed until the gas fire has warmed the room. She catches cold easily.
      I want to please her more than I want to please myself.
      This morning, ‘Stand By Me’, sung by Ben E. King, was playing on Capital Radio.
      I said, ‘I love this song. My father used to play it?
      Bianca said, ‘So do I.’
      We danced to it, me in my boxer shorts and Bianca in her pink knickers with the flowers on.
      ‘Stand By Me’ is now our song."

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I have to do a reading at a wedding on Saturday and I came close to reading this scene from Adrian Mole: The Wilderness Years. It's my absolute favourite scene from a novel and the ultimate picture of love in my books! Adrian in his boxers and Bianca in her knickers. Thought I might get a few squiff looks if I rattled this off so am going with something a touch more traditional. Been down with a dreaded cold so taking a blogging break till I'm feeling a bit better. Hope you're all well. x

"You can always come 'round and listen to it at my spot"

I just love this scene when Sydney surprises Alison with the soundtrack of her favourite movie and they dance around his poky little flat. Reminds me of my fave scene in one of the Adrian Mole books. Just loved this movie – How to lose friends and alienate people.

Screencaps by me