A DIY project for autumn?

Getting on for 3 years ago when I bought and renovated my apartment, I started off with big ideas for the decor but eventually ran out of cash, meaning certain things never got finished - like installing a glass shower partition and replacing my Ikea paper globe lamps with something more exotic. Nothing wrong with Ikea paper globe lamps, it's just that my ceilings are 3.30 metres high and I feel they could carry of something a little more dramatic. The trouble is I'm loathe to spend a fortune on a fancy lamp when I have far more important things to spend my money on these days - so I thought about this fantastic DIY project from Nichole at Parlour.  Can you believe it's made from over 1000 coffee filters glue-gunned to a paper lamp?! I think the effect is quite stunning and I certainly wouln't mind investing a couple of lazy Sundays in creating this lamp for my living room (I already have the paper lamp hanging, so all I need is a squillion coffee filters).

New favourite fashion blog - Love Meagan

Apart from the Sartorialist, which I love (oh, and cupcakes and cashmere), I'm pretty fickle about fashion blogs. I love to have an occasional nose at other people's style, but tend to find that fashion bloggers either have 'girl next door' style which is lovely but which I could do myself at home so tend to tire of after a while, or, they are a lot more fashion-forward and nice for a browse but perhaps not wearable for me on a regular basis. So I've been on the lookout for a fashion blog with a real woman wearing wearable stuff that above all fits in with my own ethos of keeping things a bit glam and sexy without going over the top (ok, maybe just a little bit over the top). Enter Love Meagan. I love this LA blogger's clothes, big hair and slightly in-your-face style. If you screw your eyes up small she's kind of got a touch of Kim Basinger. Refreshingly she sometimes gets it wrong, but don't we all? Compared to style Europe-side she could be accused of over matching her accessories (I'm guilty on that charge too) but these minor mishaps are forgiven as she actually manages to look good in fit flops which she assures us she's wearing due to a foot injury but completely gets away with nevertheless. In addition to wearing fab clothes she also does great hair and cute craft project tutorials.

P.s. she has also confirmed the validity of my desparate need for a Louis Vuitton Speedy bag ;P

Meagan's DIY pearl and ribbon concertina necklace

Rocking fit flops

Art on post-it notes

Mark Johns is the illustrator of the 'things to focus on; happy' drawing I used in a previous post. I love the apparent simplicity of is penwork and his cute scrawl, and wish I had the audacity to try and sell something I had drawn on a post-it note.

I can totally relate to this sentiment:

With this one I can tell myself that all those do-gooder greenies are really no better than me (really they are though :-)

Even earwax can be cute:

This weekend I had som of my Ex-OUP friends over for dinner. I did the usual psuedo-Arabic repertoire(Sp?) and everyone seemed to enjoy it. Was really nice to catch up with them and we ended up drinking mojitos (expertly made by Amaya) until about three in the morning... We must do it more often! I don't think I've mentioned - I've been embroidering - I would have been the perfect Victorian lady (apart from my Sudanese background :-)). I have taken to carefully stitching kitschly coloured cupcakes onto napkins, so relaxing, and they say embroidery is the new knitting - so I'm sure groups of cool people (not me) will be sitting round in cafes in Chueca eating brunch and dropping their applique into their eggs benedict (nooooo!). Will post a photo of said napkins (for whose benefit I don't know) as soon as I find my media card.

Saturday craft

Made some pretty corsages for my friends. You all know what you're getting for Christmas :-)