Lost my style

Hallo lovelies!!

Yes, I'm sorry, I am a loser when it comes to blogging... but I am here and ready to share some thoughts with you today. It's my favourite time of year, nearly.... Autumn is my favourite season. From those years getting ready for school to start (sharpening pencils and dusting off satchels!) to my amazing days at the University of Leeds (picture above), I've always liked the beginning of the academic year. It has such hope and promise. The weather changes really subtly; a chill in the air begins, you reach for your scarf for the first time and wonder whether it's time to light the fire. The leaves start to turn and then it's just wonderful colour and crisp cold days with blue skies. Love it!

The only problem this year is I have a new companion that I'm not very fond of. She is residing around my middle and is rather tyre-like! When I was breastfeeding, I could eat like a horse and lost far too much weight, having trouble even fitting into a size eight. As soon as I stopped it all piled on, right around my middle. I'm now the heaviest I've ever been, but because I have such a small frame, carrying it round my middle looks very peculiar. I'm like a barrel!! Plus, I have no clothes that fit and most of what I have is scruffy or not suitable for autumn/winter. So, today's task is to go and buy some new clothes. With the help of my lovely friend Amy, who is ten years younger than me and always looks impeccably turned out, hopefully I can find some stylish and attractive clothes to help disguise this belly until such a time when I can lose it. I fear I am descending into a middle-aged mum frump phase and I need to halt this decline post haste.
I can then waft about campus looking all glamorous whilst discussing Derrida and coming home to watch art house movies and read Freud. Hahaha! Yeah right, coming home to read Thomas the Tank Engine books more like...

PJ Harvey

So, so thrilled that PJ Harvey won the Mercury Prize for the second time. She is such an inspiration on so many levels; very glad to be writing my thesis on her work

Dreaming

I've just joined Pinterest and have become a bit obsessed with it, which has meant I haven't blogged so much - sorry lovelies! But one thing I've noticed about Pinterest is that it shows you trends and themes in the things you like. It seems that I like beautiful places to write and sit and think; somewhere where there is a connection to nature. I think at heart I'm just a dreamer....

Picture via Marvelous Kiddo

Me and my Arrow

Such a happy song from my childhood - Harry Nilsson's The Point is a classic tale of being different, acceptance and friendship. Thanks to my sis for reminding me of this today.

Also, we're thinking of getting a puppy soon *squeals*. Maybe we could call it Arrow?

Goodness, I'm a gardener!!!

So, with our new house came our very first garden... it's huge! We're already quite overwhelmed with it and the amount to do, but I've managed to create one piece of lovely garden which is my very first. And it appears that *whispers*... I'm a gardener!

Most of these flowers and plants were grown from seed, which is amazing to me. I did get a lot of help from my mum - the gardening oracle - but I'm very very pleased with my efforts. Huzzah!

The Idler

My first article for The Idler is now available! I'm waiting for my copy to plop through the letterbox - v exciting to be in such an illustrious line-up. The Idler has often been accused as being very male-centric, so this article is about women and idling, and aims to redress that balance somewhat

The Idler website says:

The issue explores the idea of small enterprise as an alternative to the nine-to-five, and contains a wealth of practical advice and inspiration for those who yearn to escape the rat race.

Idler 44 also offers an inspiring interview with Bill Drummond, who argues for the importance of taking responsibility for your own life, and just getting out there and doing it, which is, paradoxically enough, fully compatible with the idle ethic. This issue could have been called ‘the industrious idler’.

Other contributors include Toby Young, Robert Wringham, Sarah Boak and Penny Rimbaud. We also reproduce all twelve plates from William Hogarth’s Industry and Idleness series. There are fine illustrations by Clifford Harper, Alice Smith, Bronwen Jones and many more.

Just 1,000 copies are being printed of this first edition, which is bound in blue cloth, printed on heavy paper and typeset by Mr Brett.

Notelet

Oh this notelet made me laugh too much this morning, thanks Vicky!

From Sapling Press via Coffees and Milkies