Ta daa!

Lads, I am so good to ye. Not content with getting three posts up in the space of just two days [surely a record for this blog] I have now made it easier than ever to comment!

Ok, so it wasn't very actually difficult or masterful, but I've switched off the Word Verification yokembob that required you to copy down a sequence of random numbers or letters or both to confirm that you were a person and not an out-of-control spambot when leaving a comment on a post. So it should be a much quicker and user-friendly experience than was previously the case.

I think I'll treat myself to a celebratory sip of water [had toast for brekkie and Ryvita for lunch, back in work coz it's month-end and I'm a total martyr but still feeling majorly queasy] after all that effort.

Himself was spot on in what he said below: no sooner had I turned off Word Verification than I was hit with FOUR spammy comments. Bah. So what'll happen now is I'll moderate comments and pull out any spam before they get posted; this means it might take a minute for your comment to be approved but seriously, I'm saving you from some pretty nasty schizz!

No US citizenship? Get yer vote on anyway!

If you're not actually an American and the run-up to the deciding of who'll be the next US Prez has you all worked up but with no way to vote, why not exercise your democratic right in Apartment Therapy's Fall Colours 2008 competition?

Zee from Homebug is flying the flag for our own fair isle and contesting the International portion of the race with her always-inspiring pad. She's through to Round 4 [ding ding] which looks like the final - so if she wins this bout, she'll be the overall International champion of the WORLD!!! Awesome, no? And just incase Trap's Army won't be able to do the deed in 2010, we could really do with a resounding Irish victory to carry us through the potentially dark days ahead, so get voting, people - your country needs you!

Now, you will need to register here to be able to cast your vote, but it's free and it's dead easy and Apartment Therapy [or "AT" as I will be knowingly calling them from now on] require the bare minimum of information to register. They also do right by their members, giving you opt in rather than schneaky opt out clauses for mailing lists and updates and the like. Proper order. Then just clickey here to vote.

As best I can figure out from the mad backwards-y way Americans write dates, the competition closes on Monday November 03rd @ 12 noon PST... which I make to be 8pm our time.

Good luck Zee!

Cough cough: Sick day musings

For lots of diverse personal and professional reasons which I won't bore you with here, I have had no time whatsoever to Get My Blog On in the last little while. Today I am at home sick, so in between wishing that we owned one of those massive chest freezers so I could climb into it for a bit to cool down, trying to keep the dog off the bed, and undertaking sporadic epic treks to the bathroom to throw up/re-wet a facecloth to drape across my boilio mug, I thought I'd try and stick a post together.

Now, on account of being majorly feverish and borderline delirious, I reckon that the safest course of action would be to pop up a few pictures. Let's kick off with an Orla Kiely yoga bag:

I don't actually do yoga, but this is a good example of how I am extraordinarily prone to obsessing about things - especially if I can't get them. I *love* this Orla Kiely print in this colourway [it also came in a sort of khaki/mustardy version and just thinking about that is making me slightly queasy] and desperately wanted the shoulder bag, but was a brokety broke broke broke student when it was current stock. By the time I was earning a few quid, not even eBay could come up with the goods and to this day I haven't a scrap of an Orla Kiely print to my name because [in best Andy from 'Little Britain' voice] I want that one.

I am also very fond of obsessing about interior design and home accessories. This is why, more than two years after we moved into our house, it looks like we just got the keys. The sitting room is the only room that's close to being finished, but we only got curtains for it in the last month [and have yet to get little hooks to hang the tiebacks on] and I am only just coming around to commiting to wall decor in the shape of pictures, photos or mirrors. Also, I have historically been Very Much Agin the idea of a mirror over the fireplace, even though it would be nice to bounce a bit of light around the room as the sun goes off it around noon, mostly because I don't want to cover up the gorgeous birdie wallpaper adorning the chimney breast. In the November issue of Livingetc, though, I spotted a bird-shaped mirror. Perfect!

Unfortunately, it also costs a perfect feckin' fortune: £538. Won't be buying a flock of those lads, so...

Heal's do a considerably cheaper [£25] bird mirror but, alas, it's a bit kid-y looking:

[Thinks to self: hmmmm... could I somehow *make* one..?]

In addition to having an obsessive personality, I am an absolute terror for panic-buying clothes and footwear either because there's an Evint on and I've nothing to wear or there are meetings tomorrow and I've nothing to wear or I'm going out out at the weekend and I've nothing to wear. This means that I end up spending more time bringing things back that I do actually purchasing them in the first bloody place, because returning unworn garments, even if it's within an hour of them being bought when you have a flash of "What in the name of all that's good and holy was I thinking?!", is usually a long drawn-out process. One of Himself's long-running jokes is that I've been shopping with the same tenner since I made my Communion, which is just rubbish. I mean, it's not the same tenner, and sure it's been €12.70 since the Euro came in...

Anyway, I have a pair of boots, a tunic dress and a cardigan to return over the weekend - all of which I'm very sad about, because they looked bloody lovely in the shop but then totally ridiculous In Real Life when I got them home. Sigh. I might have a nose at some of the new bits in River Island to cheer myself up afterwards, like this knitted dress and these black patent/white quilted flats:

I find it difficult to wear preppy or ladylike clothes without just looking nerdy, but I was thinking that a pair of black tights with a seam up the back of them would sort this outfit out right and proper. Although they wouldn't be as warm as opaques. And it is brass monkeys at the minute. Gah, stupid shagging weather...

Another day, another outfit!

So if yesterday's said "Corporate but not boring, awright?", what does today's outfit say?

"Wants to make it big in childrenz TV" or "Should not get dressed in the dark" or "If wants to be taken seriously in work, should not wear short bubble dresses and Uggly boots."

Well sod it - the leopard print shoes I wore yesterday cut lumps out of my heels which was a bit mad because though they don't usually hurt. However, towards the end of last week I wore shoes that are inclined to be as razor blades to my feet, so I guess they just hadn't recovered from that ordeal. I was still hobbling in pain this morning, even my trusty River Island knee high brown boots which don't rub anywhere were catching the afflicted areas, so I said screw it and decided to wear the most comfy, if fugliest, footwear that I own.

Thing is, they're bloody hard to dress up - this was the best I could do!

* LBD with bubble skirt, Topshop (as before, like!)
* Grey cardi, Penneys
* Light blue vest top, thanks Mammy x
* Black tights, Topshop
* Pretend-y Ugg-type boots, New Look
* Long turquoise necklace, Oasis (really like this as it's sort of put together like rosary beads)
* Other necklaces, Accessorize

Damn, should really have stood over a bit to cunningly disguise that unpainted bit of door ...

Attempting to break away from the jeans: Day... Oh, whatever day it is now!

Maybe a lifetime in jeans has addled my brain somewhat, but to my mind, today's outfit was a reasonably corporate look.

Ok, it involved leopard print shoes and a big ol' corsage, but it also involved non-denim trousers!

The shoes are actually decidedly less greyish In Real Life, they're just quite wet in this pic!

* Cardigan, Penneys
* Trousers, Marks & Spencers Limited Collection
* Leopard print shoes, New Look
* Khaki vest, yep, the Ma again!
* Corsage, A|Wear
* Ring, Accessorize

Soz peeps!

Umm, yeh, so bit of a lack of outfit pictorials there for the last week! A number (four, in fact) of unfortunate coinkidinks conspired against me:

1. I wasn't well (blub!) on Monday so was home sick and, frankly, I did not wish for my attire that day to be documented.
2. My family arrived down to us on Tuesday. Between desperately trying to tidy the house (the Sis was bringing the new boyfriend down for his first visit, and Mam is a terror for housework so she'd be trying to do it for me while I'm trying to get her to sit down and have a coffee and feckin' relax) and entertaining, the evening was a write-off from a time-for-photo-taking perspective;
3. I was late home on Wednesday and then the battery in the camera died and I was so fed up that I just wanted to hop in the shower and leave the day behind me so wasn't arsed rooting around for the charger and waiting for it to come back to life to take a pic.
4. Himself was cruelly struck down with man flu yesterday so I was playing nurse all evening. (Also, I still wasn't arsed to go looking for the charger for the camera battery.)

Lots and lots of comments in spite of my shameful lack of posting which is really nice of you all, thanks a mill!

Hopefully, "normal" service will resume on Monday, although I think this will be a short-lived enterprise (I am running out of clothes that you haven't already seen at a rate of knots) but in the meantime, can anyone explain to myself and Kitty Cat what the feck one can wear other than jeans in the winter?!