The (Interwebs) Week In Review.

A bit like Playback or, y'know, The Week In Review on RTÉ Radio 1, my idea is that this will be be a series of on-a-Friday-or-maybe-Saturday posts, bringing you a round-up of random things that caught my eye around the web during the preceding week.

Let's kick things off with these lovelies...

» Wondering what the best-dressed desks are wearing this season? Well, wonder no more and just think tulle! (Above, via ish & chi.)

» Following their recent Rodarte/Juarez gaffe (or stroke of sheer morketing genius, depending on who you talk to), MAC are to donate the profits from the Rodarte collaboration to a newly formed organisation which will support the girls and women of Juarez, Mexico. (via Temptalia.) 

» Why do so many design, decorating, or DIY bloggers spend all day showing pictures of their immaculate, finished homes? Sure, we could say the images are inspirational, but mostly they make me feel like a slob. So cheers to Anna at D16 for her honest progress post!

» I might be a little bit in love with the adorable Keiko Lynn. My ardour is tempered by the fact that I am extremely jealous of her wardrobe, especially these heeled brogues.

» Take a peek at what is possibly the best table ever (Marimekko fans, prepare to swoon) ...

» ... and what is surely the funkiest wedding ever. Did you *see* the bride's shoes?! The individuality there is so fantastic. I love it. (Via Jen at Laughing Lion Design on Twitter.)

» Himself's dad spotted the reference to his fine pelt in my Herald column this week. His nonchalant response? "Well, I nearly made the sports pages." Ha ha!

» If you like Unhappy Hipsters, you'll love Catalog Living, where overstyled photos from catalogue shoots are simultaneously given imaginary lives and slagged off. Here's just a taste:

Have a great weekend!

Talontastic Thursday: Marimekko Unikko-inspired Nails

Today's Talontastic Thursday was originally inspired by, um, a tea towel.

This one:

It's a Marimekko Unikko tea towel that I bought in Selfridges earlier this year. I've always loved the print and had toyed with the idea of trying to recreate it on my nails for a long time, but it was only when I saw this post on Sophy Robson's blog the other day that I decided it would be do-able and got stuck in...

Please excuse the crappy iPhone photo (must find camera charger) and the bizzarely gnarly state of my fingers!

It's actually fairly easy to do, since the Marimekko flowers aren't too perfect or symmetrical - I just used the corner of the nail varnish brush to daub on irregularly sized and shaped petals.

I used two coats of Clarins French White as a base, Make-Up Store Elin for the red flowers, Sally Hansen Fuschia Bling Bling for the pink flowers, OPI In My Back Pocket for their orange centers, and China Glaze Liquid Leather applied with a small tapered brush for the black center spots and stems, before topping the whole lot off with Essie Super Duper Top Coat.

If you fancy giving it a whirl yourself, I'd recommend making the flowers larger and leaving less white space than I've done here to better capture the look of the Marimekko print.

What do you think?

My Preciousss (Raincoat.)

Oh.

My.

God.

The perfect festival raincoat has reappeared, as if by magic, in my life.

I first spotted it on a girl at Oxegen last year while Lily Allen was on stage and I was drowning in my dad's green and navy hardcore rain jacket. (Dad's jacket is the Gandalf of the rainwear world, only shy of roaring "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!" at offending raindrops.) 

Anyway, this vision appeared before me - a white (stay with me) mid-thigh length belted rain mac complete with hood and Orla Kiely-esque retro red printed graphic flowers.

It was lust at first sight.

Its wearer was having a great time with her mates, and I was reluctant to wander over into the fray to interrupt things and wonder where she had procured her lovely jacket (they were really, really, seriously into it.) It feels like I took my eye off her for a moment and she disappeared, taking with her my that beautiful rain coat that seemed to me to embody the perfect mix of kitsch and cool and grown-up.

(I use Hello Kitty vinyl wallets. My idea of grown-up may be different to yours.)

I spent a good portion of last summer trawling the interwebs trying to track it down, to no avail. This was massively frustrating - I am not used to items eluding me online, no matter how little detail I have when I begin hunting for them - and I had to borrow Dad's Gandalf gear again for Electric Picnic, since no other printed raincoat could hold a candle to the beauty that had captured my heart at Oxegen.

Today, I happened upon Jane Foster's blog, and these images.

IT'S MY THE RAINCOAT!!!

I have fired off an email to Jane to wonder if there's a tag or a label on the coat to indicate its origin, so please cross your fingers that there is.

Oh, and then cross the fingers on the other hand to hope that fleaBay and its ilk can come up with the goods!

UPDATE: The lovely Jane has been in touch to let me know that there are unfortunately no identifying markers on her coat. So I'll throw it open to the floor - does anyone have any idea where it might be from?!

Doggie draught excluders on sale! (Yes, of course you need one.)

Always fancied a doggie? Have a mean other half/hectic social life that leaves you unable to really commit to minding a puppy/severe fur allergy? Have a thing for olde stylee draught excluders and prints? Live within striking distance of Kildare Village?

If you answered "why yes, yes I do!" a couple of times there, allow me to share some happy news with you.

The Cath Kidston outlet in Kildare Village have a number of her doggie draught excluders in stock at the minute, reduced from a "Jesus, would you really hand that over for a glorified stuffed sausage dog?" €28 to a more "well, there does be* a bit of a sneaky draft under the front door in the winter" €18. 

When I called in, there were a number of colour and print choices available, from red with white polka dots to a very bright green with cartoonish florals to this more trad-looking but still very cute number: 

Source

Feel free to rush into Cath Kidston in your droves to snap one up since eh I have already taken my pick (red floral) home.


* This is Kildare, after all.

Ah sure there y'are now.

Just a very quick post to say hello to me regular oul' segoshas, and welcome to my new readers!

It's back to normality with a bang after our holiday of Californication. The trip was brilliant; I'll bore you to tears about it another time. I can't believe it's over, and I had the usual post-holiday comedown over the weekend, and now I don't know whether it's tomorrow or yesterday or what time zone I'm in.

I thought jet lag was supposed to be *less* severe on the return journey from the States?!

Anyway, normal sporadic service will resume shortly, but in the meantime if you're in the mood for a nose around someone else's gaff and would like a modern shabby chic fix, take a look at Emily's house tour over on Apartment Therapy. Here's her living room as a little taster:

I couldn't be dealing with that many cushions on a regular basis, but the look is lovely, no?