Thursday, March 25, 2010

Demon Days


OK, so here's a new tag for male friends of mine that are bored of me going on about my blog and being forced to look at girlie fashion and make up stuff! First post up, this wonderful lamp inspired by Gorillaz and Tank Girl illustrator Jamie Hewlett. No self-respecting lair should be without one. Now don't say I'm not good to you boys! http://www.demonlamp.com/


Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Cath Kidston rules OK!

To all those struggling to make a crust on Etsy and Folksy, you can take heart in the knowledge that UK designer Cath Kidston has just recently had her company valued at over $100 million dollars by a US Private Equity company! Not bad for someone who started out making bright vintage style ironing board covers to brighten up her flat. Anyways, I still love her designs, particularly her bold stars and the gorgeous new cherry print. I personally prefer this to the floral stuff she does.


The online store has entire ranges of household and clothing items now and I quite like the mass produced ethos that she has. Kidston is rumoured to be keeping a high stake in the company post-sale, so hopefully the brand won't lose it's identity in the way that Laura Ashley did in the 80's. In the meantime, if you want to carry on lining her pockets, her range has never looked so good, and there are some great non-chocolate ideas for Easter. Or alternatively there's Etsy (post soon to come). http://www.cathkidston.co.uk/

Monday, March 22, 2010

Rococo Egg

Here is it is then, the post you have all been waiting for, the obligatory yummy luxury chocolate egg post. The below is a children's one from Rococo's for £14.95. It's only small so it will save you on costs to the dentists, and you could give your little darlings the easter eggs with a cuddly toy, and keep the nice box all for yourself (they would probably break it anyway and that would be such a waste). They don't give you tips like this on Blue Peter now do they! http://rococochocolates.com/


Sunday, March 21, 2010

Pretty Baby

After what seems like seasons full of fierce shapes, studs and shoulder pads, I'm somewhat relieved that this spring is all about flowers, pastels, teapots, cupcakes and all things floaty! This is a backlash against the impracticality of attempting to be a red nailed, pvc, stiletto-wearing Amazonian; whilst wistfully yeaning to be Alice in Wonderland.What a relief it is then for lovely girly things to be in the shops again. Liberty's always do "pretty" best, and have stepped up to the mark with their online shop. Some of it is very affordable too! The below is from their current quilt-art window display called "Lucky Lips Genie Lady licks her lips", which coincides with the V&As new quilt exhibition. Now what could possibly be girlier than that?!

Fornasetti

I'm having a real Fornasetti moment at present. I've loved his stuff for a long time, but couldn't really afford any of the original furniture, which quite frankly, you would probably need to take a mortgage out for these days! Liberty also stocks some of  the furniture, but again this is a bit on the high side. Luckily some more affordable pieces are coming onto the market. I recently came across the official Fornasetti website, and it appears that his son has being keeping the legacy alive.


Fornasetti does have a lot of reoccurring themes and motifs in his work, but is probably most well known for his constant re-workings of the beautifully angelic face of opera singer Lina Cavelieri. I especially love the above sexy boudoir cushion!

Do check the website out, it is exquisite. http://www.fornasetti.com/


Original Fornasetti desk


The Fornasetti shop in Milan

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Nigella Bites

Ask anyone I know; I have loads of cookery books. But like most people, I usually end up just looking at the pictures when I'm hungry and can't be a***d to cook anything. I've never tried the signature dishes of Ramsay or MPW and wouldn't dare attempt the infamously difficult (and aptly named) Chocolate Nemesis Cake, from the River Cafe Cookbook (well, not unless it was the "easy" version anyway).

The only cookbook on my shelf that's evidently been used lots of times (and has ultimately become my cooking Bible) is the wonderful "Nigella Bites". I lost the dust jacket for it yonks ago, but I simply love the plain silver cover!


Nigella is exasperating at times. Even I myself can get a bit annoyed in the way that her programmes are marketed in a food-porn kind of way. She's forever gazing into the camera and eating sausages provocatively, whilst trying to sound like the Cadbury's Caramel Bunny (and stop flippin-well using the word "unctuous" every five minutes will you!) but you have to admit, her recipes rock!

oh, and her Chocolate Lime Cheesecake is pure kitsch genius. It's made from cheap ingredients, such as Maryland Cookies and Philadelphia Cheese that you might find at your local corner shop, and kind of based on the lime-chocolate boiled sweets that you could get when you were a kid.
Here's the linky: If I can do it, anyone can. Go on, have a go!

http://www.nigella.com/recipe/recipe_detail.aspx?rid=20008

Olivetti Valentine

Think the new Ipad is pretty cool, do ya? Well then check this baby out - the 1969 Olivetti "Valentine"by Ettore Sottsass. This is probably one of the most sought after typewriters ever made (even MoMA have one in their collection). Apart form being one of the most beautiful objects ever, it is also meant to be one of the best typewriters to use ever.

Ah the good old days! It seems hard now to picture in your mind, a time when a writer's best friend was the waste paper basket and Spam was just rubbery, gelatinous tinned meat!

Now lets see if the Ipad lasts the test of time like the Valentine. Hmmmm.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Print & Pattern

I've always had a love for stationery, cards, wrapping paper & nice material. No wonder then that Print & pattern is one of my favourite blogs. It's a UK based blog which showcases the best printed design here and Stateside. As well as more well known designers, such as Cath Kidston and Orla Kiely, they have featured other of my faves such as Angie Lewin and the below, Ella Kirk. P&P now have a very nice book out, which you can get from Amazon. I've stuck one in the bookshop, but do also check out the link, http://printpattern.blogspot.com/

Pargy loves a Bargain...

...oh yes indeedy!

And, whilst there's a few places to go online for a bit of a bargain, my own personal favourite discounted shopping haven is The Outnet. This site is particularly good, if like me, you have somewhat outrĂ© taste; a lot of the designer clobber that they sell off (with huge discounts all year round), is often stuff that people with fairly conservative taste would probably leave well alone. Outnet today are having a huge Pop-up-sale of up to 85%. For those of you on planet earth that haven't heard of the Outnet already (no, I can't believe that this could be true either), they are the sister store to Net-a-Porter.com, and are the most fabby designer discount priced outlet store in the universe. Check out the below 100% pure silk Narciso Rodriguez Striped silk-charmeuse dress. Was £1045, now £313 (70% off)! Gasp.


http://www.theoutnet.com

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Going Dutch

"OK, so what tenuous Dutch connection is Pargy about to conjure up; merely to utilise a pithy blog-post title with the word Dutch in it", I hear you ask?

"Could it be windmills, over-processed cheese, or perhaps ginger, single-lobed depressed artists"? - Don't be so silly, as if I would stoop that low.

"Well, hows about Tulips, free love, or very smoky cafes?". - As if.

Actually, the, not very tenuous link is, of course CLOGs!


It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single girl in possession of a few quid, must be in want of good fashionable spring footwear that makes a change from wedges, which have been the spring choice of shoe, like forever.

Enter the clog.

Hello Kitty! The above pair are Miu Miu.

Friday, March 12, 2010

A Cautionary Tale for You.

Perfume. Beware of buy before you try.

I know this seems really obvious. I mean, seriously, what kind of loser would actually spend good money on a bottle of perfume without sniffing it first to make sure it suits their own unique body scent, ha ha suckers...


..er, well, me actually.
 
A couple of years ago I bought a bottle of Creed's new "Love in Black" for just over £100. I was totally seduced by the gorgeous opulent black bottle and bought it thinking "..with packaging that good it MUST smell great." (incidentally, I only eat prawn cocktail crisps because I like the pink packets)

Sigh! How wrong can a person be?

When I got the perfume home and splashed a bit about my wrists, I was appalled to discover that it made me smell like a walking Parma Violet! Infuriatingly though, the perfume smelled fantastically musky on my friend, the lovely Su. The lovely Su, became the eventual happy recipient of said perfume. I should have stuck with my usual, Spring Flower! (which apparently Audrey Hepburn also used to wear from time to time).

Oh, how I wish I'd gone to Les Scenteurs. You can order samples of Creed (and other delectables perfumes) for £3.00 a pop; just to make sure they suit. They also have a store in Elizabeth Street, London, and if you hurry you might just get something nice in time for Mother's day. http://shop.lessenteurs.com/

Monday, March 8, 2010

What Took you so Long?

So, finally, Kathryn Bigelow walks away with the first ever female Best Director award! And the delay for this was what exactly? One of the many reasons why the Oscars are so farcical. As I'm feeling a bit hurumfy, I will add a post of Audrey Hepburn at the 26th Academy Award, after winning Best Actress Award for Roman Holiday, rather than a recent pic ( I think the dresses were a bit meh this year; although I thought Meryl Streep looked like a queen!)


Audrey Hepburn  masterclass in elegance.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

In the Gutter, Looking at the Stars

It's nearly here already: The year's biggest catwalk show of celebrity meat. And, as per usual I will just watch long enough to witness what frocks folks are wearing and check out the audacity of z-listers that have somehow managed to wangle the film calendar's hottest ticket (yes, we all know the casting couch still exists!)

After the initial flurry of fashion activity, if you do manage to be bothered to watch any of the "content" of the Oscars, the speeches are often worthwhile; if for purely comedic value. "Oh wow, gee thanks, I'd like to thank my Manager, my husband, my parents, my kids, my stylist, my hairdresser, the person that does my eyebrows, the nice young girl that removes my stubborn bikini line, my sister-in-law's tennis coach, all the local bin men in Beverly Hills that do such a great job every day of the year, Bob Geldolf, my cat and, God".

Lets be honest, there are only two types of speeches that us Brits want to see. There's the humble, self-depricating ones that the Britpack produce that makes us think wow they seem like really nice normal and unaffected people (even though we don't see the state of them later on in the evening when they're drunk and getting into fights over goody-bags). OR, the eye-wateringly embarrassing ones from young starlets that probably make the Academy officials wish they'd never given them that damn Best Actress gong in the first place (Halle Berry I'm talkin to you. Yes, you really rocked that Elie Saab dress, and yes, you became the first black woman to get a Best Actress award ever, but people will only remember that speech!!!)

But seriously, we all know the primary aim of the The Academy Awards is to recognise and reward industry professionals for artistic contribution to film... blah, blah, blah...

B******s. We all know that the stupid film about blue people will win everything.


GO TEAM FIRTH!

Friday, March 5, 2010

Smile

Ok, so I've been a bit ranty in the last few posts haven't I? Well, just to redress the balance; here's a sunny photo of an album cover that made me smile when I spotted it on someone's Facebook profile earlier. Rock-a-hula baby!

Being Musical

My two favourite TV programmes of all time are "Father Ted" and "Black Books", but not necessarily in that order... am I sounding a bit Nick Horby Here? Anyways, there is one esp inspired episode of BBs, whereby the perpetually inebriated and self-obsessed Fran, sits stroppily at her new piano and declares: "but I MUST be musical...I have hundreds of CDs!"  Ha ha, the words of just about every young, spotty, male muso/journalist, ever! Bless em. I do know how they feel. I've never been gifted with a high level of musical intelligence, but that hasn't stopped me from having a go in the past.

Alongside many other five year-olds that have an attention defficiency, I started out with the humble recorder. After about a year or so of merely spitting into said musical receptacle, I'd managed to get "London's Burning" down to a tee. Unfortunately, my father was less enthusiastic. Even then I was a perfectionist and wanted to get the " fire, fire" bit down just right! That perfectionism probably cost me my musical career. It grated on my father's nerves and he snapped the recorder in half. Much later I moved into the teenage guitar-murdering phase (I think the Teenage Guitar-Murderers would be a great name for a band b.t.w).

Learning to play guitar as a teenager is not about the love of music; it is more to do with trying to cop off with a member of the opposite sex. Unfortunately, learning Burt Weedon's "Play in a Day" is one of the least sexiest activities that a teenager could participate in. It's also one of the most impossible (unless you're John Lennon, Jimmy Page or some other guitar-playing Godlike genius). At the time, I only really wanted to play Smiths and Doors songs, and was rather appalled at being lumbered with "Kumbaya" and "Michael rowed the boat ashore", but, the most annoying thing about the damn book was that these irritating songs could not be learnt "in a day". Weedon should have been done for infringing Trading-Standard laws. Basically, it did not do what it said on the tin!!!!

Now, thankfully I'm done with all of that. If I want to show the world how musical I am, I can spend days putting together obscure and self-indulgent playlists that only I would probably listen to; or I could take up Facebook djing, a condition which compels human beings to tirelessly post endless (and pointless) YouTube clips to all of their totally uninterested and unimpressed friends.

Down with Bert Weedon I say, and Hooray for not being musical in the 21st century!

A guitar-playing Godlike genius.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Times They Are A Changin?

It is a bit of a dilemma this election, but I personally have no allusions about what it would mean for me if the Tories got in, so there's no point voting for them on a whimsy. What some dissatisfied Labourites forget is that the Tories represent privileges to a small minority. It is highly possible that they would get rid of the NHS and the Welfare State (two British things that I am rather proud of, despite their obvious shortcomings). When Boris Johnson was elected as Major of London, I felt it was because people "fancied a change". But we are not talking about whether to have a different colour wallpaper or not. Voting is not about "fancying a change", it is a serious thing and sometimes it is unglamorous and about voting to keep another party out; even if those that you traditionally vote for have not been doing the best job ever. It's a free country, so you can vote for who you like. Vote Tory if you really want to, but please if you just fancy a change, stay away from the polling booths and go to B&Q instead!



A really lame and unnecessary ploy to get in a picture of some highly desirable Fornasetti wallpaper for some people who might fancy a change.

Steiff Bear Auction at The V & A

I often do some volunteering for a great charity called Living Paintings. They create tactile books for blind and visually impaired people. Tradionionally LP have concentrated on popular/ classic children's books and visually informative packs for adults, based on art history and other such things. Now the charity is putting together their first collection for teenagers. The "Fash Pack", as it has now become known, looks at fashion from the 50's to the present date. The main aim of this pack is to help blind teenagers engage with fashion and possibly make it something more accessible. To help fund this, Living Paintings last week held a charity auction of stunning, limited edition teddy bears, donated by Steiff, and dressed by such luminaries as Vivienne Westwood, Peter Blake and Joan Collins. I personally fell in love with the Peter Blake bear (as a lot of us did!) It was a really fantastic evening, held in the beautiful Raphael rooms. Now, the fashion pack is truly on it's way! Please click on the link to find out more about the charity's wonderful work: http://www.livingpaintings.org/home.php

Peter Blake bear