Italian evening: I'm dressed as a Gondolier and my brother is Pavarotti!
What a terribly long absence there seems to have been. I can't apologise enough. December turned into one of those months that seemed to gobble it's self up until there was nothing left and suddenly it was January. I had grand plans for Christmas posts, New Year posts but sadly they were not to be this season - next year I promise! Instead I have for you a curated selection of my favourite moments from Christmas, New Year and the days in-between. For Christmas we travelled all the way to the far clutches of the North York Moors to my Aunt and Uncles home and then back to Cornwall for New Year. It was a blur of food, laughter and rain (SO much rain!). I had so much fun indulging in giggling with my brother and cousins, eating too much chocolate and generally forgetting reality. It was the perfect festive season. I didn't even take that many photographs, I suppose I was too wrapped up (ged it!) in all the fun of the moment! So here they are my favourite Christmas moments (that sounds like a naff chocolate selection box):
Beautifully decorated cake (by my ma)
A bottle Absinth found in the cupboard and sampled with much glee
Homemade Sloe gin and present unwrapping
Lovely new cotton neckerchief and red polo neck (I get one every year because I love them so much!)
Gifts: 3 costume dollies and a 1950s biscuit tin
A very rainy walk in my new fluffy coat
Sopping wet by the usually trickling stream (it was quite terrifying hence my nervy expression)
My brother in the first bit of sun in days
Apples for homemade cider production
Coleslaw of red cabbage, Savoy cabbage, carrots, beetroot, smoked garlic, onion, dill and mayonaise.
Post dinner chaos
My cousin and brother doing a good job of lounging in tweeds
Kir Royale (Prosecco and Chambord), so tasty!
I hope you all had a very happy festive time! What did you all get up to?
It's little strange but I've always had amazing luck when it comes to winning competitions. My winning streak began age 6 when I won a Crayola colouring competition for my drawing of Oranmore Castle. Then came Goldfish at the fair (though for some reason I opted for the plastic crown and necklace set instead...!), magazines, days out etc etc. This year has been particularly lucky I've won tickets to the Liberty exhibition at The Fashion and Textile Museum, a beautiful handmade ring from Miranda Hope and finally I've just won an amazing selection of items from Eat.Me.Do. They are a fab Australian company specialising in all things sweet and tasty - think jelly baby earrings, sweet packet purses and cheez-it rings! I've followed them on instagram for a while so I was delighted to win. The package included this very sweet Afternoon Delight dress, it's emblazoned with teddy bears, cakes, jam mallows (my favourite and a staple in every Irish child's diet, although I wasn't really allowed them) and, to stop it being completely cutesy, ants! It's completely different to anything I'd usually wear as I tend to opt for long flowing dresses in 70s shapes but I love this dress so much I've worn it twice! It's cut really well and I love the illustration style, I hadn't realised but my friend Isa worked on the illustration for this collection. I love her work so I was very happy when she told me, it reminded me a lot of her things and I was glad it was hers and not just someone ripping her off!
Teddy bear's picnic's are close to my heart, my granny was a bear lover and started a picnic for the children of Worcester when my granddad was mayor. Yesterday would have been her 83rd birthday. My granny was one of my favourite people so I always like to spend a little time thinking about her on the 10th December as I think birthdays are better to remember than other anniversaries. I'm sure she would of liked this dress enormously - anything with bears on was good in her book.
The package also contained a cropped t-shirt and some socks. Here's the t-shirt (just to prove that I do actually go out and about dressed like this), I wore it with some sparkly hot pants I got in the Topshop sale a million years ago. They were very heavily reduced and I leapt on them. They've formed the basis for many outfits over the years but I feel this t-shirt is their perfect match.
Christmas is coming and I'm jolly excited! I love making mince pies, decorating the tree and wearing glitter, I'll be back next week with a VERY festive post.
In other news a Christmas cocktail recipe I put together will be featured in The Guardian's Cook magazine tomorrow (Saturday), hooray!
Anybody that knows me knows my love for Peanuts. Snoopy and Charlie Brown have been a main stay for me for a long time, the sharp mix of cynicism and humour is hard to beat. I was very excited when I heard there would be a new Peanuts film this Christmas. I love the tv series, the clunky animation is so great and I love the one liners: "I love mankind – it’s people I can’t stand!" I was pretty excited to see the trailer for the new film however, to my disappointment it's all been digitised to the extreme and is so incredibly slick. I'll still definitely be trekking to see it but I can't help but feel that something of the charm has been lost in it's reimagining.
Today marks 50 years since A Charlie Brown Christmas was first shown on tv so I of course had to celebrate this event with a Charlie Brown inspired ensemble. Charlie Brown is a pretty hard guy to mimic style wise so you'll have to settle for a loose interruption.
The hat is of course integral to his Christmas outfit.
A Charlie Brown Christmas, 1965
Which of course riffs on Holden Caulfield's hat in Catcher in the Rye:
"I put on this hat that I’d bought in New York that morning. It was this red hunting hat, with one of those very, very long peaks. I saw it in the window of this sports store when we got out of the subway, just after I noticed I'd lost all the goddam foils. It only cost me a buck. The way I wore it, I swung the old peak way around to the back—very corny, I'll admit, but I liked it that way. I looked good in it that way."
and both Charlie and Holden's style in turn influenced the character of Max Fischer in Wes Anderson's Rushmore. If you haven't seen it definitely make time to watch it, it's one of my favourites to watch during the festive season.
On a small side note I recently put together a Max Fischer inspired ensemble:
All three characters have always been a big influence on my style, it's a combination of the humorous cynicism, intellectual but chic vibe and great hats. Anyway I tried to a pile a little of all this into my own interpretation. The t-shirt I'm wearing is from the Peanuts collection that Uniqlo did a couple of years ago it says 'Love is getting someone a glass of water in the middle of the night' - I think that's mostly true as it takes a lot to make me want to hop out of my toasty warm bed!
My little velvet Woodstock belonged to my auntie when she was little. It was bought from the big Biba on Kensington High Street in around 1972. If I could travel back in time I'd want to visit big Biba so I always like to think about his life there. He's lived in all my various homes and remains with me to this day - a faithful companion. I have another Woodstock which is a tiny little knitted one from 1965 and my brother also won me a Charlie Brown from one of those grabby machines at a service station. I'm starting to sound like a super fan...!
The cape is one of my favourite wintery items of clothing. I bought it in a Worcester charity shop about 6 or 7 years ago. I've nearly given it away twice (what was I thinking?!) but it's recently become a bit of a staple. It's very handy during the cold months as I can wear it over lots of other layers. It's also completely reversible. I generally only wear the red side as it's waterproof but I might start swopping it over and wearing the tartan when it's cold but not raining (a rare event).
I hope you are all well. I'll leave you with a clip from A Charlie Brown Christmas because whats a post on Charlie Brown without a little wisdom from the man himself.
It's tinsel season again so in celebration I have dressed up as the much maligned and misunderstood vegetable; the sprout! I have to say I'm a big fan of sprouts, although I haven't always been. I have, over recent years, found a number of recipes that cheer them up royally. I adore them sauteed in butter with cumin and nigella seeds (SO delicious). For the more adventurous sprout eaters among you try some of these Yotam Ottolengi recipes, I can wholeheartedly recommend the sprout risotto.
This very silly outfit was found in Lidl of all places, I think it's intended for a large child but I loved the luscious green and took a gamble that it might fit! The hat was a Christmas present last year and has come to be known in our house as The Sprout Hat. It's incredibly warm and always makes passersby giggle. The funny little red boots I found at a charity shop in the summer for the grand sum of £3! They are Hungarian folk dancing boots, I'd been after a pair for years but not wanted to pay the usually enormous price tag attached. They are 1960s ones, with very plastic soles, not all that comfortable but they are great for prancing around in at home.
The photographs were heavily inspired by everyone's favourite Christmas grump; The Grinch. I love his mad expression!
All that is left to say is Merry Christmas! I hope you all have extremely Jolly ones filled with love and hopefully a baileys or two! I'll be back with some more seasonally inspired photographs after Christmas. Joining in with the Christmas Share in Style.
