Meeting with Sejin

Yesterday I have managed to spend a sunny afternoon (a treat in itself!) in a great company of my friend Sejin. It is good to catch up with her, exchange oppinions on girly things like handbags and make up but also on serious things as well (business and photography), it gives a good balance of well spent couple of hours: we have some enterntainment and coffee but also we exchanged some useful information and supported each other in this uber difficult task which is becoming an art photographer. It is really though out there, I am telling you (have you seen BBC documentary on Eddie Izzard's rise to fame? More than a decade of struggling, shaping ideas, loosing money and finally succeeding against all odds. I think that there is at least several years in front of me before I hit Wembley Arena, ups, I mean Gagosian Gallery haha!) so the more I appreciate this cute gift that Sejin got for me from her native Korea. It will be a pleasure to jot down the ideas for new projects in these notebooks! Thank you!

BTW, I have enlarged a bit of one of the covers, that shows an ideal office set up for a graphic designer/photographer/illustrator/image creative person!

Illustrations by Korean artist Seo Na-Rae:

Partner in Crime

You know me, I love a wee shopping and I was extremely happy that my friend Sejin asked me to go with her to a mega-discounts-on-all-merchandise event that exclusive shopping sanctuary (aka Harvey Nichols in Edinburgh) prepared for some desperate women before the summer sales start.

I decided to go with an open mind (do I really NEED 15th Mac eyeshadow?) but Sejin's list was long as an arm so I just offered to give my honest oppinion and advice if she would need any or just hold her handbag if she would need both hands to test stuff. To our disappointment the whole event turned out to be a perfectly orchestrated marketing miracle and anything that Sejin and I had on our lists (mine was a mental one only) was not on sale. In the end we were so dissapointed that we had to have a laughing fit in the handbag department (£1000 Miu Miu bag, anyone?) which you can see in the images. Well, there were women grabbing three Marc Jacobs bags in one go hoping that they will get a  -15% discount on them but frankly I think I prefer to add that £50 that HN offer would have saved me and shop without all that fuss, crowd and spilled cheap champagne everywhere.

In the end we went for a coffee at Valvona and Crolla nearby and passing by Mulberry shop we have managed to obtain two balloon Bayswater bags. As Sejin put it in her FB comment to that afternoon events, now all we need is a fairy to turn the balloon into a real thing. Well, the fairy should better hurry up, my balloon is already deflating!

All images courtesy of Sejin. Have a great time on your Italian holidays! See you back in couple of weeks, hopefully with that dreamed Prada bag on your shoulder!

Reading list

I just would like to mention that I am still alive, just up to my ears in work! On top of the deadlines I have a huge backlog of other projects so pleasant but unecessary things like blogging are not on agenda at the moment. (To see what I have been up to have a look at the Illustrious Illustrator blog! If you have time for such frivolities...).

One other thing that is an unnecessary pleasure because I should have been asleep really and not read about Mod's parkas, but in fact I am often too tired to fall asleep so I have to read, and what I am reading this week is a beautifully printed collection of essays by Luella Bartley about English style that Simon very kindly got for me.

I have never been a big Luella's clothes fan, they were charming and with a slightly vintage feel (I do not do vintage, it just does not work for my body shape and style) but I have always considered her to be one of these girls who are friends with all the stylists and fashion editors (therefore their work is on display in ELLE all the time) but their designs will not stand the test of time. Luella as a brand became a victim of their own success imho when it went bust couple of years ago, because if you are doing something that looks like the vintage find (that costs £3) why one would pay £ 300 for something that from a distance does not look much better than the original vintage design anyway? I was eyeing her skirts at some point at Harvey Nichs or Liberty's (or maybe at the sale at Urban Outfitters it was?) and dissmissed them all - designs were too short and way too girly for me. I am a Paul Smith's girl at heart (and a proud owner of one of his coats which unfortunately turned out to be extremely badly made if you want to know, but oh well, nobody sees how the underlining rips apart when you stretch your arms, all you can see is a beautiful, caschmere coat).

However Luella as a writer it is a completely different thing - she is witty, well sarcastic even, has her idea behind that book spot on and is very to the point. When she is nasty about English teenager's fashion choices it is all done with a good heart and in fact, all really very true. I have never been a fan of British dressing (and Luella quotes one of the French fashion editors asking 'vay do Bhritish womenz wear such ugly clouz?' < I have to find this exact quote but is sound something like that) but as a social fenomenon it really fascinates me. And the author nails it precisely. It is a brilliant read, I just wish they commissioned somebody else to illustrate that book - I understand that the book is supposed to be very original, underground and hip but I am still not getting bad drawings done after photographs. I simply do not get them. Just include the photographs for heavens sake! Perhaps it is just as like with the fact I was never able to get Luella's clothes either. But her way of writing about them, I absolutely love.

Celebrating

Hmmm, I think I was actually laughing at a previous photo that Marta took on her iPhone during our bdays celebration at Nobles pub. Thanks to everybody who managed to make it on Saturday night! We wish it was a bit less loud (dj was playing some 1950s hits way too loudly!) so that we could talk properly but let's hope we all be able to meet more often!

Picture courtesy of Marta's iPhone, L-R: me, Dave and Paulina. We are sitting all around a big table, so it is just a small fraction of our bday party which is continuing on my right and Paulina's left as I still have to download my images from the camera. Which should happen...I do not know when.

Thank you for all the lovely gifts, guys!

A Substitute

Both for a real dog and for an Alex Monroe's pendant which Simon and I we both dismissed today for what it really was in relation to the price. I bought a baby hippo one as well.

Smell this

I was looking for a perfume that would suit my mood in this gloomy, bittery cold, grey January. All the mass produced spritzes smelled flat and uninnovative. I needed something original, feminine, warm and very me. Nothing suited noses of mine nor Simon's (well, he has to live as well with me as with my perfume). Until one afternoon while passing by running some errands in the area, I decided to visit Penhaglion's shop in George Street.

I was not venturing there before delibetarely. It is a small boutique and I like to shop alone, not being confronted with a bored shop assistant who will be watching my every move while attempting a hard sell. But this afternoon I decided to go in and see for myself as I knew that my wallet was left safely at home (after all I nipped out only to send a 2nd class letter from the Post Office a block away.).

As I have expected a shop assistant immediately latched on to me but this time I was prepared (see the bit about the wallet not being there). And she started to chat in such a friendly way that I lowered my guard and continued our conversation instead of making a u-turn. I thought that oh well, it is an early afternoon, I may as well help this poor girl in killing some of her time at work and we soon were sitting down at the round Penhagilion's table and going from one family of scents to the other actually having a nice conversation.

I am not very good in describing what I smell so we adopted a method that I was to choose between two options - one that I liked was leading us further and further into the selection of smells. I was asked various questions like what is my favourite drink (well, I do not drink but one evening I got hooked on a mix of rum and ginger beer so I thought I would mention that) and what perfumes I like in real life (Earl Grey tea, sandalwood, wet dog and wet forrest). My fragrance profiling went on smoothly and I was guided with a firm hand until we reached two fragrances between which I was not able to decide. Well, in the end I did and in the height of cheekines I have also asked for two olfactory samples. I think this was what tilted the scales for this purchase - being actually able to live with the smell for several days before the purchase - so well done here Penhaglion's.

Their perfumes cost a bob or two and I was not prepared to depart with my monthly beauty allowance money to leave my wallet too soon. I have also wanted to make sure that Simon is not going to dismiss this fragrance as another 'toilet cleaner like' one like he did before (with all of Dior's ones btw). So ta-daaaa! Here I am smelling like a warm ginger beer mixed with Earl Grey tea and a drop of lemon juice! And I absolutely love it and I have not loved a smell on me for a long time.

In case you would be ready for some in depth fragrance profiling I do recommend this friendly girl with tons of knowledge who  directed my nose towards the Malabah - Zillah. Thank you so much for such a productive afternoon. I will be back for this second fragrance when I collect some more of my pennies.

Autumn warmers

This post is inspired by a converstion with my friend Kasia on Skype last night: how to warm up for coming Autumn? Recipe - a wooly jumper and waterproof boots would do. Boots I already have, my new jumper accompanies them since day before yesterday. I hope Kasia has a good time with her shopping in London today! I will check out that All Saint's jumper you have recommended!