Sleeping snuggly....Loungewear to keep you warm

The nights are drawing in quickly and there's nothing I like more than a good excuse to get home after work, have a bath and climb straight into some comfies, so I've picked five of my favourites for this autumn.

I'll start with the posh pick! These gorgeous Cath Kiston floral pjs are £50 . 

Lovely for those who like pretty prints and pastel colours. 

This red paisley pair from River Island will set you back £15 each for both the tops and bottoms. 

There is something so homely about these, I think my Granda had a similar pair when I was a kid, it's enough nostalgia to send me running to the shops with my cash in hand. 

This Topshop number is an all in one. It has a hood. It has dinosaurs on it. Need I say more? £34

These purple check print pjs are Marks and Spencer finest and are pure cotton for those who like a breathable material and are a snip at £25

Last and in no way least this £30 all in one from Next will set you back £30. It's 100% polyester which means it'll keep you very warm, probably not best to sleep in but if you want to feel like a fluffy sheep (it has ears on the hood) and be toasty warm this may be the one for you. Don't go near a naked flame though, it'll go up in seconds, so probably best not to cook in it! 

Cheap Day....In? Baking!

So, in case you hadn't noticed, the bank holiday was miserable. As usual we had the boys on the saturday when, in the North East, it was raining and grotty all day.  We had planned to maybe walk down the river with them if it had been nice, but we quickly needed to find indoor activity.

Swimming was first order of the day (they LOVE swimming. I HATE swimming. Well no, I like actual swimming, I do NOT like being half blind in a pool surrounded by boistrous screaming splashing children...) which they adore and which was quite funny in a terrifying way.

We then popped to town to get the ingredients for a chinese banquet the husband was planning, and while we were there grabbed the bits and pieces required to make cake pops.

Not any cake pops, these were the ludicrously easy ones that Lorraine Pascal made by crushing up oreos on her programme the other day.  I love Lorraine, but she sometimes takes the "simple" thing a little too far - who can forget her dessert of swiss roll and ice cream...

You will need:
about two packs of oreos
enough nutella to glue them together
white chocolate
sprinkles and nuts
lollipop sticks

add your oreos to a blender (we have such a pathetic blender it took several goes...)

Mix it up with nutella and then roll into 8 - 10 balls, place on a baking sheet and put in the fridge for fifteen minutes

break up and melt some white chocolate. Lorraine says cheaper is better. My stomach and tastebuds made me annoyed I'd believed her

Using some of the melted white chocolate as glue, stick lollipop stick (chopsticks in our house...) into the balls

put them back in the fridge for about 10 minutes for the white chocolate to set

prepare your decorations! (I love these ramikins, they came free with some ultra posh sticky toffee puddings and bread and butter puddings I got in waitrose)

decorate and then leave to set. Again! So much leaving to set, can't believe how patient the boys were!

CHOW DOWN

They were nice, in a "oh god I may vomit if I try and eat any more of this" kind of way. But they were fun, and easy, and we don't have an oven at the moment so it meant we could still do some baking without staring at the Halogen until our eyes bled...



Style Spotlight: Love for Louche

I am, as I'm sure a lot of folk are, in love with Louche. I have been for some time.

I have an ebay alert set up and I hungrily scour the net looking for all the new Louche goodness I can find. 

Their designs, from pretty prints to bold colours, are fabulous and I am currently drooling over many of their items stocked by Joy.

With summer almost over (we had a summer?!) and Autumn on it's way I've picked out a few lovely Louche  items to put a spring in your step.

Hudson Boyfriend Blazer £69

Aretta Two Pocket Bowling Bag £39

Paloma Dot Dress £50

Brogan Checked Pinafore Dress £55

Corday Striped Jumper £35

The AP experiment!

Agent Provocateur has a reputation for being the ultimate luxury lingerie brand. Their iconic gift boxes are instantly recognisable, the assistant uniforms are highly sought after, and their window displays are the stuff of legend. 

Over the years, celebrity endorsements, as well as name checks in films, books, and songs, have cemented Agent Provocateur's status as a brand to be desired. 

Of course, part of the romanticism is the sheer expense of the stuff. The unattainable element only serves to make the brand all the more attractive. 

Their Autumn/Winter 2012 collection contains a lovely few 'bondage' inspired pieces in the Whitney range. Gorgeous!

However, with it coming to a total of £305 for the set, I decided to see if I could make a version of this myself. I don't own a mannequin or sewing machine so this is measured on myself, and handsewn.

I bought several metres of black elastic, along with suspender clips and adjusters. You can get these from Ebay or a good haberdashery.

Elastic is great as the stretchiness gives you lots of leeway for sizing (it's always best to err on the small side), and it doesn't fray in the way ribbon does, so you can cut it down the middle for smaller strips.

Starting with a plain black bra, I added wider strips in a cross shape across the bra straps, and three half-size strips from the centre between the cups out. 

For the suspender belt I measured the 'belt' part around myself and sewed into place. I then added four long straps an equal distance apart for the suspender straps. This gives the basic shape of a suspender belt. I then added four strips half the length of the suspender straps in an equal distance between the suspender straps.

The detail was added in sewing an 'X' across the two front suspender straps, and again at the back. I then threaded the straps through the suspender clips and sewed a loop to keep them in place.

Here's the finished result:

It's not perfect but considering it's my first attempt I'm really rather happy with it!

Black bra: £6

Garter clips: £1.40

Garter adjusters: £1.50

5 Metres elastic: £1.94

Total cost: £10.84

Bank Holiday Blues? Etsy will make it better

The last Bank Holiday until winter has been and gone, feeling a little blue?

I've found a few lovely things on Etsy that might just cheer you up and banish those blues.

Vintage Salt Cellar £8.50

Staffordshire Potteries Storage Jar £19.98

Monkey Crochet Hook Case £7.45

Glitter POW Necklace £22

Fingerless Mittens £12.92

60s Floral Teapot £15.51

Vintage Brooch £20

Vanity Case £15.19

Bird Print £18

Peacock & Roses Print Cushion £23.50

Vintage 80s sunglasses £10

70s Tin Drinks Tray £14.99

And if you have a spare £400 or so......but mainly just to drool and dream over:

Velvet Cocktail Coat £371

This Week's Afternoon CDs

I'm constantly surrounded by CDs at work.  They're sent to us for a variety of reasons, and it's wonderful to be able to just grab something totally new to listen to on an afternoon when I need to focus on the end of a task... Mind you, I'm distracted so often it takes me a whole afternoon to do one CD!

So this week, the afternoon CDs I've listened to are:

MONDAY
Stabat Mater Dolorosa
Sara Mingardo - contralto
Silvia Frigato - soprano
Accademia deglia Astrusi
Federico Ferri - conductor
(Kaleidos KAL/007)

Sara Mingardo is the big star of this CD, having grammy award winning recordings under her belt, and  the kind of awkwardly attractive look that early musicians REALLY go for.  The recording is live, and Sara totally nails it throughout with a crazily creamy but light voice that you don't get very often in a woman (countertenors make this noise all the time, it's kind of less impressive when they do). I'm not as fussed by Silvia, she sounds kind of weak, like she'd much rather be singing incredibly loudly, and is instead having to do this pretty, silvery, early sound to match Sara.

The orchestra isn't that exciting (strings not quite together, and not quite in tune), but this work isn't really about them, it's about the intertwining of the singers - particularly in the well known and TOTALLY gorgeous first movement of the Pergolesi Stabat Mater which opens the CD.

(caveat: this link is Andreas Scholl and Barbara Bonney singing it. Andreas is my number one favourite countertenor and demigod)

The rest of the CD is Vivaldi, none of which I'd come across before.  The Nisi Dominus is just a tremendous bit of music. So so so exciting, and invigorating. I'd recommend hunting it down and having a listen to anyone. You'll be blown away by what the human voice is actually capable of.

TUESDAY
Unknown Britten
Sandrine Piau - soprano
Michael Collins - clarinet
Rolf Hind - piano
Northern Sinfonia
Thomas Zehetmair - conductor

This CD records for the first time several Benjamin Britten works that spent years undiscovered.  I LOVE IT and listen to it fairly regularly at work. My main addiction are the two piano works that Rolf Hind play. This is mainly because I adore Rolf Hind. He is and amazing musician and so so nice and charming. He is also brilliant on twitter (@rolfhind) where he talks about being vegan and yoga a lot :)

Amazingly, as a soprano, I had never actually listen to the first 30 minutes of the CD - the "complete" Les Illuminations for soprano and orchestra (only about 10 minutes of which is actually new, the rest is standard repertoire). This week I listened for the first time to this monster of a work. Sandrine Piau is totally wonderful, working her way round the incredibly tricky repertoire and making me fall totally in love.  I must never judge a work by the first 30 seconds ever again!

If you've ever heard the tiniest bit of Britten and liked it (or been interested in it, you don't have to LIKE it...) then I'd strongly recommend this CD, it's just fab.

Rondo Concertante played by Rolf Hind

WEDNESDAY
Schubert Winterreise
Henk Neven - baritone
Hans Eijsackers - piano

Confession - I'm a little bit in love with Henk Neven.  I first heard him in recital about a year ago and was hooked. He has a huge powerful voice, that never feels overwhelming and shouty and "oh look how boomy I can be" like so many baritones.  So when I spotted this CD on my boss' desk I lurched to listen to it first!

Schubert mastered song writing like noone else, he took it from a parlour activity for nice young ladies and gents, to being a truly dramatic artform, where the piano and the singer held equal status and worked together to create incredibly full sounds.  Winterreise is the greatest of all his song cycles, with 24 songs sung by a man forsaken by his beloved, wandering through a winter landscape, saying farewell to not only his love, but also to the cold bitter world he has come to inhabit, and sinking into further depression and madness.

It is NOT cheery.

But it is OH SO BEAUTIFUL, and Henk Neven sings with such touching sweetness and sadness that I could listen to this over and over and still be warmed and depressed by the music at the same time. It's bloody brilliant.

Henk singing Schubert

THURSDAY

En La Imaginación
Silvia Pérez Cruz & Javier Colina Trio

What can I say about the ludicrously beautiful Spanist songstress Silvia?  I first heard her when I programmed her last year when she was touring with Ravid Goldschmidt - a hang player.  They blew me away with their earthy, honest, stripped back flamenco music. 

This album is a pure jazz album with the wonderful Javier Colina Trio, a spanish jazz trio who play like a single player with wonderful inflections and touches that exist to support their star, Silvia.

Her voice is pure flamenco, with a throaty vibrato that slips between softness and raw passion which lends itself impeccably to singing jazz repertoire.  I'd not listened to this album before (she gave me half a dozen different ones when she came), and I absolutely adored it. I hate the term "easy listening" because it sounds patronizing, but my word this is easy listening. Spanish smooth from start to finish. Gorgeous.

Silvia singing Ella y yo

FRIDAY
Evita
Julie Covington
Paul Jones
C.T. Wilkinson

I LOVE THIS ALBUM. Today I am a bit hungover, and there's noone in the office, so it's a morning CD, where I resort to my staple "this will make it all good" CD.

This is the original recording, before they got the funding to put it on the stage, and so the orchestrations and some of the lyrics are different (Che has a whole subplot about inventing an insecticide...) and I adore it. I have never got on with any of the later recordings.  My parents had this on vinyl, and I taped it to put it in the car. I know EVERY SINGLE LYRIC to the full 2 hour show and can find not a single fault. I also never fail to get goosebumps at the beginning, when a film is playing and it slows to a stop so that they can announce Eva's death. I GOT GOOSEBUMPS TYPING IT.

I love Julie's not actually very good voice as Evita, and the totally wonderful (ultimate Valjean) Colm Wilkinson back when he was an Irish pop star called C.T Wilkinson and did Eurovision and the like and hadn't developed terrifyingly distorted vowels. He is just brilliant as Che.

If you must listen to the Elaine Paige or Patti LuPone versione then I will forgive you, but if you EVER pick Madonna's soundtrack over this then you should be punished. Or at least shunned by society.

Oh, and I am renowned for my frighteningly accurate impression of Tony Christie as Magaldi. It's excellent.

Ignore the dreadful video, this is ALL about Colm

Etsy Spotlight: Mr. Shilly Shally Cards & Gifts

I absolutely adore these cards from Mr Shilly Shally's Etsy shop.

Origami cards, cardogami? (I tried!)

The shop has only been open a few months but with such cuteness you can tell they're onto a winner.

Alongside those below there are cards for new jobs and new additional to the family.

Prices range from £3 - £4.

I Flippin Love You Card

How cute? A spotted dolphin to express your feelings of love!

Green Dinosaur Birthday Card 

With detachable dinosaur so you can move him about the place.

(= bother husband to death pretending he's eating his dinner/drinking his beer/reading his book) 

Hoppy Birthday Card 

Features a frog you can remove from the card and if you press on his back he will jump across the table! 

Fabulous Fabrics at FarbricYard.co.uk

If, like me, you like a bit of kawaii goodness in your life, or if you look constantly for retro fabrics for sewing and crafting purposes www.fabricyard.co.uk could be your one stop shop to happiness.

Fabric Yard stock fabric designs from Alexander Henry, Anne Kelle, Kokka, Melody Miller, Robert Kauffman and more besides. 

The prices reflect the quality and although on first glance may look high (£12 - £19 per metre) the fabrics are imported from America and Japan.

Fabric Yard also offer a £1 flat rate postage within the UK which is excellent if you consider the weight of the fabric you're purchasing.

I feel a Christmas project coming on.... £13/m

I Love this Viewfeinder fabric £16.50/m

This Tweet Tweet fabric is adorable £13/m

These Japanese dolls are too kawaii for their own good!  £13/m

Loving these hula girls on Hawaiian print £12.00/m

If you're after a few fat quarters for crafting purposes, their ebay shop offer them raging in price from £2.50 - £4.95.

Lara Robby/Studio D via Country Living

In addition to the marvellous fabrics on offer, they also sell bamboo bag handles, something I have been on the lookout for since seeing this wonderful online tutorial for a book bag from Country Living (obviously made with car boot books in disrepair, I'm not one for cutting up a good book!)

Their bag handles start at £5.25 per pair.

They also offer self cover buttons and the tool to match so if you'd like the use the scraps of fabric to make matching buttons you can (prices starts at £1.50 for the tools and £3.60 for the buttons)


You can find Fabric Yard on facebook here
They sell fat quarters in their ebay shop here
Their twitter feed can be found here

Cheap Day Out: The Urban Games

Here's the deal - when you meet the man of your dreams you do NOT intend to have to share him. Stepmum is never a role anyone plans for themself and, when faced with 2 year old twin boys at the tender age of 23 I somewhat panicked... But HOORAY. It turns out that with actually fairly minimal effort, children are the most entertaining things EVER. 

I'd heard a lot about how the weekend 18/19 August was the main focus of Join In UK (an initiative to keep us all vaguely interested in sport and on a goodwill high while we wait for the Paralymic Games to start) and so had a gander on the website to see what we could do with the boys this Saturday. There seemed to be an AWFUL lot of Netball (far    too many traumatic memories) but my eye was caught by an Urban Games event at the big outdoor "Times Square" at The Centre for Life in Newcastle.

We'd been a to a death defying BMX event there before, and I had spent most of the time with my hands over my eyes, but the kids loved it, so we did a packed lunch (ah Home Bargains, where you can still get the food they stopped making when you were 12 - RICE THINS!!) and headed over to make the most of it.

The Centre for Life was a little disappointingly sparse on arrival, but it soon started to fill up with small people in skinny jeans with rucksacks and scooters and bikes and boards... The bottom arena had a skatepark set up where nothing seemed to be happening other than a load of incredibly mouthy children (seriously, I'm not a prude, but that sort of language out of a 12 year old irks me...) queueing up to get a go.  After asking about 5 different people Josh worked out that he was not going to get a go, even though they had scooters for hire sitting unused, so we moved to the upper arena where the 3sixty stunt bike team were riding bikes along impossible narrow railings and leaping from platform to platform.  My boys were totally absorbed, and there was a great MC letting you know what everyone was doing.  The "bunny hop" competition (jumping over a railing from a stand still) was fantastic, and the boys were incredibly excited when the rider from the North East matched the world record!

There wasn't a lot for the boys to actually DO at Times Square, so we headed over to the Discovery Museum where there were street dance and free running events going on.  The sun was shining hard by now, and we were greeted by the site of around 20 teenage lads with tops off, tracksuit bottoms dangerously low, flipping and leaping in all manner of incredible ways.  These are the sort of proper geordie lads that would never have got involved in traditional gymnastics, but what they were doing was really spectacular.  We signed the boys up for the next participation course, and found a spot to watch the lads do their A-B competition around the car park.  It was pretty awesome viewing, and the boys got really involved in cheering them on.

While waiting for their workshop, we popped inside for the street dance.  I wish I had photos, but everyone moved WAY too fast for my phone camera!  Despite my early 20s being completely soundtracked by CDs from B-Boy competitions, I'd never actually seen a battle, and had no idea they went on in Newcastle.  I work at an arts centre, and there's a whole series of classes that are put on to help kids without an awful lot of hope (the sort that get shoved in B&Bs aged 15 without an adult) to do really amazing urban art, and learn to DJ, and basically get a positive focus using things they care about.  I spotted several of those kids in these competitions, and there was such a great attitude of mutual respect and wanting to be the best.  The moves were incredible, there was a lass who was doing the most ridiculous holds in such complicated positions, and it was interesting to see who the judges picked each time.  

Then the boys had their go at free running, taking it in turns to jump over a vault box in varying and interesting ways.  They loved it, and the lad that was running it was fantastic with them.

I'm not sure it would have been such a great day out in inclement weather, but we had a really fantastic and full afternoon at the Urban Games. And, as it hadn't cost us a penny, we could treat ourselves to hot chocolate and cake at the best cafe in Newcastle (The Settle Down, if you haven't been then get ON IT).

A good bit of cheap entertainment which gave you faith in young people! 7.5/10

LINKS
https://www.joininuk.org/ - events continue until Friday
http://www.theurbangames.org.uk - touring the North East throughout August and September
http://www.3sixty.me.uk/3SIXTY_Bicycle_Stunt_Team/Home/Home.html - the stunt bike team
http://www.thesettledown.com/ - for the best cheap eats and INCREDIBLE cakes