Toasty nap post

If I had a little money I think I would start gearing up for the coming months by investing in some decent bedding for snuggling into and some new pyjamas. Everything I own that falls under these categories is ancient and kind of horrible. These versions from Toast would be lovely.

I have a cold. All I want to do is burrow. Yesterday I went to work wearing jeggings and a big grey jumper with no makeup and then my boss unexpectedly sent me to an album launch where I had to take a picture to put up on Twitter where my tired, scrunchy face is now on show to all work friends. This is a lesson along the lines of “you never know when you might suddenly be called upon to be introduced to the queen”. And a reminder of the pitfalls of doing a “cool” job when you are not an especially “cool” person.

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Nap-o-matic

I am a home person and I like it. The latest physical manifestation of my love of being at home fiddling with things is my new BREADMAKER! It’s a Panasonic, which according to my grandma is the best make. Presumably she had a bad experience with a Yamaha breadmaker or something and will never stray again.

Here I am with my shiny new machine and a closeup of my exciting programming of my first load. I shunned the ready-made mixture as I don’t understand how it makes it easier and it costs way more than just flour, butter and a teaspoon of sugar. Due to my reckless taking up of an internship at cool web magazine Amelia’s for the next three months, me and my co-habitee are going to be eating a lot of beans on toast. My argument that a breadmaker will save us money in the long run fell on slightly deaf ears I must say.

In the East End of London born and raised, at home is where I spend most of my days, chilling out, maxing, looking like a fool and baking loads of bread instead of doing anything cool.

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Where I like to blog

When I had a job I used to blog on the sly from inside a a little cubicle with my desk inside it, which had loads of my stuff pinned to the felt and put in nooks and crannies. I am not into clean desk policies; I think it’s nice to be able to carve out a little space for yourself wherever you are. Also, I need distractions and stashes of food on hand or I go a bit crazy. Maybe office life isn’t for me.

Anyway, now that I don’t have a job, I am back in my preferred location, which is by the window in my flat, keeping an eye on potential wrongdoing outside and checking my Google Reader every five minutes. Here is where I sit:

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Come Dine With Me

Food lighting.

 For your Sunday Nap, I’d like to introduce you to the fad taking over mine and A’s respective lives. When I fall asleep at night and when I wake up in the morning I am thinking about what on earth is going to be on the menu when I host amateur Come Dine With Me

If you aren’t familiar with the apex of human civilisation, CDWM is a tv program where 5 people take it in turns to host dinner parties each night and at the end of the week there is a winner, voted for by the other hosts/guests. This week the festivities kicked off with fellow blogger Sparkling Whine’s effort (if you visit the link, please note that he co-writes the blog with yet another friend of ours, and in fact only wears dresses on special occasions). Here is the menu:

STARTER

Mezze of

Homemade hummus with black olive pitta bread

Sweet chilli meatballs with taziki

MAIN COURSE

Spiced rack of lamb with sweet potato puree

Grub.

Served with roasted Mediterranean vegetables

DESSERT

Elderflower and cardamom poached pears

Served with vanilla ice cream

*****

It was delicious, so delicious in fact that I failed to take any photos of the starter and dessert because they got munched too quickly. Here are the other illustrious hosts and guests, R and F, whose dinners will be up next.

Pretty ladyfaces.

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I’ve looked at clouds

I was fairly amazed when I heard that Stella McCartney was doing a William-Blake inspired collection for Net a Porter. How would she intrepret his dark and impassioned images and socially conscious poetry? Of course it turned out I had misread and it was in fact a collab with the pop artist Peter Blake.

It might as well have been William Blake for all the evidence of his work in the end result (compare the work above to the items below), but the end result is nevertheless beautiful. If I had somehow been saving  up for the perfect thing that I would know when I saw it and had bails of cash under the mattress, I would leap on this cloud-print dress. It has print. It has clouds. It has some sort of tesellated draping.

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If money were no object…

I am already bored of hearing about how I could buy some stuff super-cheap and want to indulge in some old-fashioned fantasy shopping. This collection is what I would buy if I had, say, a £3000 Net-a-Porter gift voucher and wanted to buy things that were supremely comfortable to get as much joy from my purchases as possible, as opposed to an Alexander McQueen corset dress.

I am a convert to the harem pants cause – several bloggers have shown how they can be worn in a directional rather than sloppy, way. This jumper from Adam (which I’d never heard of before) is absolutely beautiful. It’s a sort of cloudy blue lace layered thing which I can see myself wearing for infinity. I chose a peachy-coloured linen top to go underneath for colour layering, a severe-looking Chloe handbag for putting books and papers in (I wouldn’t dare put Look magazine in there, it would spit it out) and low-heeled cloudy blue sandals to make it look less like my pyjamas.

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A NaP day for a white wedding

I am not getting married but do like wedding dresses – spending ludicrous amounts of money on a really special dress pushes my buttons. Net a Porter now has a “wedding boutique” that gathers together appropriate dresses and accessories for the bride, bridesmaids, mother of the bride etc. I think the bridesmaids get the best loot but there are some beautiful dresses that someone might appreciate on there for their own wedding. I am keen to be invited to weddings as, after many years of being critical of people’s attitudes to  marriage I have realised I have been jeopardising my access to free cake. NOT ACCEPTABLE.

This lovely lace-necked gown is from the wedding boutique but I had a peek around for white dresses and found this lovely white cotton dress that would work for someone’s lowkey summer wedding, and then this fierce Balmain £6000+ embroidered cap sleeved uber-frock.

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More Outnet details

I’m fairly excited about the imminent arrival of the Net-a-Porter sale website Outnet.com. Now it’s been revealed that designers like

• Christian Louboutin
• DvF
• Herve Leger
• Chloe
• Temperley

will be stocked on the website with discounts of around 40-60%. As it often takes me a while to really get used to a new trend and of course to save up the money for beloved pieces, shopping for past seasons actually really suits me, and at these kinds of reductions I would really consider investing in some class Louboutins for example.

The website opens in April when I will have been paid so I will try and get on to do some shopping and report back!

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