pickly subject...

This Christmas, I was deprived of my Gerkhins. I was quite upset by this. I thought i should drop the good folk of Marks & Sparks a line to let them know my dissatisfaction. I do hope I get a reply...


Dear M&S,


This may sound like rather an odd complaint; however, I would like to voice my disappointment at the lack of gherkins available over the festive period. Yes. Gherkins. I realise that this pickled good is probably of little importance to you, however, for the past 28 years there has been one staple of my boxing day left over lunch, and this is the Marks & Spencer gherkin. True to your tagline, these are not just Gherkins. They are Marks & Spencer Gherkins. They are tiny pickily cucumbers floating in a sea of dill and mustard seeds on top of a thatching of sliced onion. I daresay Harrods food court couldn't do a better gherkin. Oh, how I look forward to these every year. Alas, this year they were nowhere to be found. Nowhere, not in my local store in Canterbury, not in your brand spanking new Simply Food store just outside Canterbury, not in St Albans, Watford, Winchester or Southampton. Has there been a national cucumber shortage this year? For when one walked down the ailse of Sainsbury's, Tesco's etc there were jars and jars of the things in their resplendent glory. Sadly, they are not M&S and simply would not do.


Despite my huge disappointment, and the fact that for the first time in my life my boxing day sandwich was sorely lacking on the pickle front, I am sure you will be glad to hear that this incident alone did not ruin my Christmas, however, it was a close call.


Please tell me that I will not have to suffer the Mrs. Elwood soggy, sour gerkhins again that that by some cruel twist of fate that the above stores had simply sold out and I was just unlucky, not that they have been discontinued as one of your lovely employees dared suggest. For this, I could not take.


As an end note, please, despite the hilarity of the subject matter, this is a serious complaint. I really do love your gherkins and I was very much distressed that I couldn't find any in the run up to Christmas.


Yours sincerely,


Caroline 

the best laid plans of mice and er..women...

Well, I have been rather rubbish haven't I? After all that talk about blogging I seem to have gone 6 weeks without a peep. So sorry. 

I would claim to be wonderfully busy, with no time at all to document my fast paced social life, but, in fact, as is often the way, these weeks have passed me by in a haze of "meh", "squeee", "bah!" and back to "meh" (I do prefer onomatopoeic verbs, even if i do make them up myself) 

anyway, with Christmas rapidly approaching, i have found myself feeling the need to document a few things. what does christmas mean, to you, rather.. not in a biblical sense?

when i was little, it was sitting the the school hall making christingles, trying to sneakily steal jelly tots from under the teachers noses. it was making mince pies with my mum. it was undernocircumstancesmustyouenterthelivingroomonyourown and spending hours sitting in my room peeking at my stocking waiting until i could wake up my parents (5am right? right.) 

when i was a bit older it was going christmas shopping with my friend Alicia. Every year. The 23rd. (we liked to cut it fine... infact, that was the day we got our pocket money). it was the precision and care i took to wrap all my presents. it was the youth club christmas disco. it was spending hours sitting in my room with my sister peeking at our stockings waiting until we could wake up my parents (6am right? right.) 

fast forward a bit. it was getting dressed up in fairy wings and christmas hats and working christmas eve before heading out with all your friends to do the obligatory ohmygoditschristmasiloveyouohmygodimsodrunk (...yeah that bit is still the same 10 years on), getting woken up with a hangover by my sister who was peeking at her stocking and waiting until she can wake up mum (7.30 right? right.)

So thats the three stages of a child's Christmas for me. small child, older child, teenager. 

then what? what happens when you're no longer a kid, by any stretch of the imagination. 

you move away, you're not there to make mince pies with your mum (at least i'm not, when i fled the nest i flew a good 100 miles south-east which makes popping round to bake pies a bit difficult), you're not there to put the christmas decorations up while listening to Bing et al. and most importantly, you're not waking up spending hours in your room, with or without sister/hangover wondering when you can open your presents (hang on, no matter what i will most likely always have a hang over on christmas morning, so we can scrap that). In fact, you're not waking up in your room at all. You're making new traditions. and BOOM, you're an adult. 

just like that. smacked in the face with a great big wet smoked salmon (and quails eggs).

personally, every christmas that i haven't spent at home i have found oddly miserable. i haven't been forced to stay away at all. i've made the decision myself. yet, i wake up on christmas morning with respective OH and my mum calls to wish merry christmas and the familiar satsuma in the back of the throat thing happens and "how could i do this? what am i doing? i want to go hooooooooooome. this isn't CHRISTMAS!?" 

so this year, I am going home. it was a tough decision. a big part of me wanted to stay here with my friends, but then living alone this year, and the prospect of waking up on christmas morning on my own. (NB: if this every happens, it is likely i will hang myself from a christmas tree with a length of tinsel) AND the fact that my grandparents are very unwell, thought it was time to make the pilgrimage homeward.

the hard thing is, i find at christmas, is trying to decide to be an adult or a child. i think a lot of us turn into kids at christmas time, but trying to balance that with the responsibilities of being an adult is a bit of a bore sometimes. So this year, I surrender. I am going to get drunk with my sister on christmas eve (that is an adult trait that is allowed to stay in the childhood christmas wonderland in my head), and wake up and open my stocking with my sister and mum in her room (8.30am right? right.), eat quails eggs and smoked salmon (which i haven't prepared) and wear my goddamn santa hat in the car to visit the relatives. 

I may even stay up to see if i can see father christmas. 

return to sender...

mostly when i sit down to do something a bit arty, i tend to stick to what i know, which tends to be big bold acrylic or water colour pieces, mostly in a tattoo style. 

however, some time ago i experimented with something a bit more 'conceptual' (perhaps). the piece its self involved no 'actual' artwork as such, but it was the idea behind it that meant something more than pretty colours on a page. 

it was indicative to how i was feeling at the time. i felt it said a lot about the fragility of the heart and such like and how easily things come and go. i decided initially that it was a bit 'emo' (it is) and would never see the light of day, as i felt it made me vulnerable, however, that time has now passed and i thought i'd share it. 

comprised of nothing more than an envelope, some scribbles and a heavily processed photograph, the 'artistic ability' involved is minimal, however, i quite liked how it turned out. 

xo

i'm as free as a bird as now...(or am i?)

hmm, i've been thinking. about life and that. mostly relationships. with boys. (or girls, whatever is your preference). relationships of the emotional/sexual variety. in fact, just that emotional vs. sexual. is it truly possible, ladies to have a sexual relationship without getting emotions involved? i've thought a few times in my life that this was possible (and before this post makes me out to be some kind of floozy - i mean literally a couple of times, i'm a bit rubbish [gladly] with my notches on my bedpost and can assure you wouldn't win any kind of contest with my peers), i mean, i didn't want the constraints and hassle that goes with having a boyfriend, and after all, from my experience, boyfriends tend to generally be a bad idea on the whole. but i quite liked the idea of having someone to text, perhaps have a bit of a kiss 'n' a cuddle and little youknowwhat occasionally. that should satiate me right, i don't want a boyfriend. and then it happens and its cool for a while. in fact you feel (by you, i mean me) a bit smug and liberated - i am a modern woman! i am being selfish. i don't care! yeah, i don't need to be a soppy girl, i don't need any of that. ah-ha! i am a man. and then, one day, out of the blue. oh, he didn't text me? why didn't text me? (why should he, its not like he's YOUR BOYFRIEND - you know, the thing you don't want) ok, so, uh, he still hasn't texted. oh he texted, that was a bit vague. i wonder what that meant? i wonder if he wants to see me again? i hope so, i mean i hope 'that' isn't all he's after... oh wait. shit. bugger. penny drops.so that was all you (me) was after and then something happens and DING you like the guy. do you like the guy? he's nice and that right? yeah, sure. do you really think 'A Relationship' would work? no, probably not. BUTHEHASN'TTEXTEDME. and there you have it. girls, we're wired up funny. i know this is no shocking revelation. but men/boys can just 'do the deed' and carry on and somewhere along the line, us girls get caught up and then wham, you're in a bit of a pickle. 

don't get me wrong. i'm not referring to being heartbroken, i just mean, there's a twinge. a niggling feeling. that boys just don't get. we can't seperate the two, sex and emotions. when you're a girl at least. they're they are skipping down the road joined forever in blissful (notalotof) harmony.

bastards. 

xo

just sayin...

i would be quite happy if last night just didn't happen. but on the upside, it has made me realise just how much of a better person i am than some other people. 

to think that some people think they have the right to speak to you like you are scum for absolutely no reason at all. once upon a time i would have been upset, but no. not this time. it's just made me realise just how much better am without certain persons in my life. 

yeah. i win. 

xo

sugar & vice

i thought i'd take a little time to talk about sugar & vice designs. 

sugar & vice started in 2006 by my dear friend sarah law and her other half. they offer original designs all lovingly crafted by hand, at a very reasonable price! since the recent addition of bespoke acrylic laser cut jewellery things seem to be going from strength to strength. given the economic climate, small companies are going under left right and centre, but sugar & vice have managed to keep their heads way above the water. 

so often when looking at alt jewellery websites, sellers are asking an arm and a leg, way more than what the trinket itself is worth, sugar & vice is honestly priced and you get a free wee gift with your order!

having seen just how hard these guys work to make their business successful, all the hours, the thought behind the products and designs, it is clear that it is their first love. 

i thought i'd pick out a few of my favourite pieces. 

please take a few minutes to have a look at the website and their facebook

oh, and that is me up top, with miss sarah law herself and our partner in crime, ruth.

last nights outfit...

This was last night's outfit to jive class. not particularly awe inspiring. most people tend to just go in jeans, but if i'm dancing i simply can't. it's not the same, i like to feel uh.. 'swishy'. 

i quite liked the outfit, although there were a few outfit malfunctions throughout the night. the dress is 2 sizes too big for me, and needed a quick repair when i got in from work (which turned into major alterations).  i wore an elasticated waist belt to hold it all in, as it is too big, i didn't like the silhouette of the top half  so i paired it with a cute cropped red cardigan. as i was dancing, i wore simple black patent flats. underneath i wore a 1 layer pink petticoat (this was where the wardrobe malfunction would occur - the skirt of the dress is more of a dirndl style and although full, doesn't swing out so much when dancing, the petticoat gave it oomph for walking around in, but when doing turns, the petticoat swing out from under the dress, thus causing the dress to ride up. ooh err)

i don't think i'd wear it for dancing again, but it's a pretty cute day outfit. 

as you can see, i didn't bother with my hair or any accessories. 

to my delight, when looking at the pictures i realised that this really is a budget outfit. 

dress: primark (3 years? ago) £16

cardigan: matalan  £6

belt: H&M £3

shoes: Shoezone £7.99

news from last night is that i will be going to hemsby, which is quite exciting, only for the saturday, but still, i am rather excited. expect more outfit posts (better ones) in regards to that one! 

so it's friday, and this week has gone pretty darn fast (thankfully) and i am looking forward to the weekend although i don't have any discernible plans and with needing to save money for hemsby i can't be extravagant, but i believe a 'girlie' night tonight, and a gig tomorrow and possibly a trip over to the beach on sunday.