deck the halls

by electric light

d-day

or DIY day.

The hoop experiment isn't my first dabble in reinventing old jewelry. One of my staple necklaces is a real chameleon.

The simplest things are always the best. So cliche, yet so bang on the money sometimes.

shooting hoops

a DIY project.

I've been wanting some hoop earrings for a while now. My earring collection isn't huge and I've been feeling underwhelmed by the volumes offered by them when they're hanging off my lobes. Unwilling to spend money on some cheapass yet still overpriced highstreet offerings (and which unless they're silver kill my ears) I took to the box under my bed containing old and past-it jewelry, and stuff that just isn't currently in rotation around my self.

Voila: my bangle collection. Much loved but in practice rarely worn.


I picked out a pair. Then after dismantling an old pair of earrings and a little plier-work I have myself some hoops without a penny spent.


And a whole lot of life breathed back into something old. Although I would've tried the coloured bangles too, had they matched (I'm not sure I'm ready to take on mismatched earrings).

You read my mind

"A mini cinema inside my umbrella."

- One answer to the question "If I were a designer I would design...", spotted on the Sackler Centre wall during Designerama on 26.10.08

i chuck mondays

There's no accounting for taste, but somehow I'm still watching Gossip Girl. You know you are too.

In honour of the fact that today we are without our guiltiest pleasure I've trawled my recycle bin and bring to you a tribute to my no.1 reason for watching this mess:


Chuck's sartorial choices. Obviously.

If teen's behaving badly in flash clothes isn't your thing. And if even cats in flash clothes (thanks Illustrator! because there's nothing worse that real cats in clothes) doesn't cause a flicker of a smile then I'll riposte with possibly the happiest youtube video in history:



You know you love it.

window shopping the etsy: November

I love browsing Etsy. Most of the good stuff is on the wrong side of the Atlantic though, so after considering delivery and customs charges I unfortunately remain on the outside looking in. Not that it doesn't bring it's own pleasure. Here's to the etsy-ers out there!
Meetalls; lamixx; maryandjane; AmpersandE; Meetalls; lirola; lamixx; BethMillner; hoakonhelga; sharmadesigns; yorktownroad; Nikology

i like your look...

China National Film Museum
Slapped down in something of a wasteland NE of Beijing, the CNFM takes some effort to get to. Hidden down a long road behind a small row of shops, it is peculiarly idiosyncratic and on a quiet day (perhaps every day) it's a lonely place to be. However, it's impressive facade encloses a fantastic repository of Chinese cinema history. Add to that a rather psychedelic (and superfluous) lobby with winding staircase, the walls of which change through a neon spectrum of colours as a screen plays film clips and a Hollywood-epic worthy score echoes around.

The lack of English (or any other foreign language) in the exhibitions may make many a waiguoren*'s head spin, but any cinema buff could do worse than make a stop here. The much-touted Dashanzi art district is a short hop-skip away if it all gets too much.

I'll sign off now, before this excuse to put up a colourful montage begins to read like a page from the Lonely Planet. And you'll find far superior images on the architect RTKL's site.

*foreigner

and now for a little time travel

I am a most definitely a documentary person. Pretty much 90% of what i watch on television falls in the realms of documentary (not to be confused with reality TV!). So it should be no surprise that one of my favourite channels is BBCFour. With programmes old and new, and subjects ranging from political history to children's book illustration, I'm loving this addition to our airwaves.

Lately I've been enjoying the British Transport films of driver-eye views of train journeys from the 1950s. Condensing 100+ mile journeys into a few minutes is strangely hypnotic.

So I was pleased to find the BFI has put a host of archive documentary footage on Youtube. The B&W and grainy colour extracts offer glimpses into a past that can seem both familiar and other-worldly. Below is just a taster, from simply watching commuters cross Blackfriars bridge in 1896:



to the chaotic fun of Piccadilly in 1957:

natural graffiti

When the urban environment and nature collide they can be a pretty creative team.

the reality of...

watching Gossip Girl

i chuck mondays

At the railway bridge

Summer is over, and winter is setting in. But you can't say it isn't pretty. Even ugly railway fencing in the midst of city terraces can be beautified, and I'm certainly not complaining. A little camouflage goes a long way.

the nights are lengthening...

but what a perfect time to be here

a public service anouncement

i like your style...

animated shorts
Anyone down at the V&A this past weekend may have found themselves at an animated shorts screening called "Sparks", part of a celebration of the opening of the new Sackler Centre for arts education. A wonderful 2 hour trip through recent works including the excellent "Paradise" from Canada (pictured above), a Pleasantville type piece enacted in a nostalgic, and sometimes sinister, mechanical wonderland. Check out the trailer and more here.

Another work of particular note was the poignant "Skhizein" by Jeremy Clapin, about a lonely young man who, after being struck by an asteroid, finds himself living exactly 91cm from himself. Even shown without subtitles this French piece was hauntingly beautiful. You can see an earlier work by Clapin, "Une Histoire Vertebrale", here.

Want to check out some other standouts?

"Astronauts" by Matthew Walker (UK) - very British, very funny.
"No Room For Gerold" by Daniel Nocke (Germany) - wild animals... house-sharing?
"She Who Measures" by Veljko Popovic (Croatia) - a thought provoking parable on modern life.

And for some absolute hilarity: "Roof Sex" by Sarah Phelps (UK), which I cannot describe better than the programme's 'XXX chair-on-chair action!!!' Actually, I'm tempted to make a Sex and the City allusion, but nevermind... just enjoy!

this season's colour

Or, how to look like everyone else.

so...

a colour-coded interlude

then and now

word processing

Now I love my laptop, and I'm sure I'm not alone. They have become extensions of ourselves and we mourn them when they inevitably die and take a little piece of our history with them, cursing ourselves for not backing up. These days we move on quickly though: new models, more memory, faster processing... a delicious new fling. But sometimes it's great just to indulge in a time before we "needed" these boxes that can do a million things a minute - when simply putting words on a page was enough.

Think of the tapping of keys as Hoffman and Redford seal Nixon's fate in the pressroom, as Itzak Stern compiles the list of names, or as Briony Tallis creates her unfortunate play. Perhaps I don't cause any such monumental ripples when I take out my Lettera 22 (a boot sale bargain, the poor thing), but at least I don't have to worry about my wifi crashing, or unwanted messaging, or my carbon footprint. I just tap away and hope the neighbours don't mind the clacking!

I like your sound...

Goodbye Lenin

the lookouts

orpheus' descent

making a statement (aka. going out in style)

breezy at the temple

the new great wall

a palacial dusk