SOUTHSIDE FRINGE: TOP SIX

I MAY be totally and completely biased, since I've lived south of the Clyde my whole life and bought my first flat there last year, but it seems to me that the leafy Southside is fast becoming the destination of choice for Glasgow's trendy hoards.

The place is packed with parks (Queens Park and Rouken Glen being the nicest, if you ask me), cool buildings, coffee shops, galleries, vintage shops like Glad Rags, bars, restaurants, classic burger joints like Buddy's, Ketchup and TriBeCa, even Whole Foods has its Scottish stronghold not in the west, but in quiet wee Giffnock AKA my hood.

It's undergone something of an understated revolution over the past few years, and despite the last-minute cancellation of the Southside Festival due to lack of funding support (BOO), happily the quirkier Southside Fringe is POWERING ahead, thanks to the dedication and passion of local business and passionate individuals, with a host of cool wee events throughout the month of May to celebrate all that the Bestside...sorry, Southside, has to offer.

Top picks...

1. ART ON THE HILL

A collection of over 100 Scottish artists, held upstairs in the impressive eaves of classic Southside haunt Church on the Hill (it was Arta for a while, remember that?!), Art on the Hill is a truly amazing exhibition and art fair which you really can NOT miss.

"The aim of the exhibition is to act as an artist run platform, where by the artists can show in a professional large group show without the prohibiting costs of traditional art fairs, and also allow the public access to the diverse breadth of artistic talent alive in Glasgow, without the elitist air of traditional art fair."

Indeed. Plus you can get a pint and some fantastic grub downstairs too. 

On till the 31st and one not to miss...

Church on the Hill, Battlefield

Roddy's work proudly displayed, along with some prints available for purchase. And wur mugs.

..Even Marnie from Ladytron's a fan!

2. HAMLET

Strathclyde Theatre Group and the Royal Shakespeare Company Open Stages present this fantastic production of Hamlet with an ALL FEMALE CAST, which is so cool, as part of "Women on the Fringe."

Hamlet is MAYBE Shakespeare's best play, at least for reformed emo kids like myself, and it's certainly a pleasure to watch and experience. It's being performed in the fabulous Govanhill Baths with a badass cast of females - this is SERIOUSLY one to catch if you can.

Awesome Govanhill Baths

Only on now tonight, tomorrow and Saturday but tickets are still available from www.brownpapertickets.com - GO GO GO!

3. WRITE IT! PRESENTS: THE REFERENDUM REVIEW SHOW

Tired of a hundred aggressive Facebook posts a day from friends and acquaintances arguing for/against Scottish independence (let's face it, it's mainly the PRO folk clogging up MY timeline)? Dying for a spot of comic relief on the subject? Looking to sample some delicious coffee/cake in UBER COOL surroundings at the same time? Here's the show for you...

This comedy review show produced by the guys at Write It! looks at the issues and consequences of the big vote on September the 18th. A mix of comedy sketches and music, it's billed as a must-see for every camp, whether you're a yes, a no, a don't know or a can't be bothered. Contributors are Alex Cox, Graham de Banzie, Ewan Park and the Glad Cafe's Write It! team.

Again, be quick! On tonight and tomorrow, tickets from the Glad Cafe and online.

4. THIS IS NOT A FASHION SHOW

A Rags to Riches project, the line up will include a catwalk of intriguing and beguiling UPCYCLED CREATIONS, again set in the historic Govanhill Baths. 

"A number of models from all walks of life will adorn a range of upcycled garments from a range of designers such as Beautiful Brastards' witty upcycled bras, Glasgow Fleamark, graduate talent Sarah Morbey with her Fashioning Waste's collection and Bedlam Boudoir's upcyled festival fancies, among others.

"Glasgow Clyde College's fashion students will also showcase works created for their upcycling project, and the Rags to Riches team will create of collection of boldly upcycled garments bringing tutors, volunteers and participants to further explore the wonders of creative re-use."

The night promises more than just fashion, with live music and art installations too, once again in this truly awesome Southside venue.

24th May, tickets from Southside Fringe HQ,1092 Pollokshaws Rd, Shawlands, or from www.brownpapertickets.com

5. WHO STOLE MY SAUSAGE?

Got a dog? Want to treat him/her to an AWESOME and totally mad-sounding sensory and theatrical experience, exclusively tailored for your canine pal?! Course you do!

On at Southside groomers Dash n Dogs, Who Stole My Sausage promises to tickle your dog's senses... 

"Who Stole my Sausage is brought to you by FizzGig productions and is back by popular demand after it was a huge hit last year.

"Square! Link! Quorn! No sausage is safe! Shawlands and the surrounding areas are full of very sad doggies. Inspector Jack Russell of The Yard said “let’s make no bones about it, this thief will be caught!” Free doggy bag for every pooch that lasts the show!"

This sounds hilarious, and if I had a dog we'd 100% be heading along...

lol

Tickets for “Who Stole my Sausage” (15th, 21st, 22nd May, 7pm or 8pm) are now for sale over the counter @ Dash n Dogs or at the Fringe HQ.  £6 per Dog (2 humans free with each dog)

6. TREEMENDUS GLASGOW: UPCYCLING CRASH COURSE

This wee Glasgow Upcycling label is set for big things! I bought my crazy cat table from them last year, and follow their furniture upcycling exploits on Facebook with glee. 

However, if LIKE ME just the word "re-upholstering" fills you with panic, head along to this Upcycling Crash Course on Saturday the 17th to get SKILLED UP.

"bring along a piece of old furniture and walk out with something that looks shiny and new. We will show you the basic skills to upcycle and re-finish your furniture whilst providing cake and tea as refreshments. Come along and join us for a day of cake and crafting!"

On at Fringe HQ - 1092 Pollokshaws Rd, Shawlands

Tickets from the venue are £20/£25 if you bring your own piece to refinish or £25 for Treemendus to provide a piece for you to finish.

So those are my top picks, but there are, of course, a million other things on for the Fringe around the Southside in venues like Queens Park Cafe, The Bungo, The Burrell, The SHED (lol), Waverley Tea Rooms, Brooklyn Cafe and loads more. Info on all the events at http://southsidefringe.org.uk/

SPINELESS CLASSICS

Every time I denounce Facebook for good, it'll throw up a wee gem onto my news-feed that convinces me all over again to stick with it. Today's random nugget of goodness was a wee link to Spineless Classics, a site that makes and sells large canvases of the ENTIRE texts of your favourite books in tiny 4pt font... With pleasing stylistic elements thrown in for good measure..

Check out my favourites:

Mark Haddon: The Curious Incident of the Boy in the Nighttime

My favourite LOOKING of all, just check out those wee symbols that pepper the book - and the large pitchfork motif... Perfect! Sidenote, this is an amazing book about how a young boy with Aspergers manages to track down the killer of a neighbour's dog. It's written from his unique POV and is well worth a read. Very quick too, you'll be done in a few days.

JK Rowling's Harry Potter and the Philospher's Stone

Do I even need to say anything? Nahhh!

Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre and Jane Austen's Mansefield Park

Oh how I wish Jane Eyre was portrait and not landscape. Not a fan of landscape prints or canvases, is that just me? If it had been, it would have been 1000% bought. It's my favourite book, don't ya know. I think. Maybe. Today...

Aldous Huxley: Brave New World 

Louisa May Alcott's Little Women

So long it's split over two A0 canvases. But so beautiful!

Charles Darwin's Origin of Species

Again over two posters. Bloody brilliant! SC also does the King James Bible, if you're that way inclined, but for me it'd have to be this...

Macbeth

Printed in prose verse, with the titled, of course, omitted so as not to curse any of us! Favourite (again, today!) of Shakespeare's plays, and this would nicely mirror another piece by Roddy made from an old map of Scotland... I can picture it in my living room now! Hmmm *places order*

William Shakespeare: The Complete Works

This is just the middle A0-sized canvas of 5 which make up this monstrous Complete Works. If you somehow had a HUGE wall to display them all on, or wanted to dot them around your house (as easily as someone COULD dot something sized A0!) they would certainly make a statement!

I'm totally obsessed by these, and will have at LEAST one for my living room shortly, mark my words!

BRIDAL GOWN INSPIRATION

Let me put this out there... I've never been one of these girls who fall over themselves at the concept of weddings. Perhaps it's because I come from a small family, but I've only been to a handful in my life (maybe four, max?) and although I've enjoyed the party atmosphere of every one, weddings weren't something that ever preoccupied my mind.

And it's the same with wedding dresses. I mean, sure I'm into them when I'm AROUND them, gasping and oohing and ahhing along with everyone else (I even teared up at the site of my friend Natalie in her stunning embellished number last summer) but never did I ever seek out designs or anything off my own back - I mean, as a singleton and slightly cagey about marriage in general, what cause did I have?!

Then my best pal announced she was engaged.

And I swear, it's like a FRICKIN drug! One minute we're looking at a couple of her tentative dress ideas (she's not getting married for a while, so I'm aware all this is very premature) and the next I'm SCOURING Pinterest bridal inspiration boards at midnight, salivating, completely lost to a world of cream lace, silk and taffeta.

I don't even know who or what I'm looking for any more. My friend's told me her general ideas, and the sorts of style she MIGHT be into, but I'm finding the stuff I'm looking at is less and less her and more.... ME. I've fallen down some rabbit hole I never knew existed!

BACK. THE TRUCK. UP. 

Do not buy a hat. Are you CRAZY?!

...But nonetheless, I'm getting caught up in giddy wedding dress chat, and, well... I can't help but seek out bridal inspiration from recent AW collections...

Derek Lam AW14

Simple, edgy, effortless. Perfect.

Honor AW14 

This iridescent number is the stuff of dreams, surely?!

Jenny Packham AW14

JP is surely the bridal scene's best known and best-respected designer, after Vera Wang, right? The latest collection at NYFW showcased several bridal styles, all of which made me feel FEELS deep inside. I mean, look at it. JUST LOOK AT IT.

Jenny Packham AW14 again. 

Absolutely love the masculine blazer slung over the satin slip style gown. So Carrie Bradshaw, no?

Jenny Packham AW14 again! 

She can just do NO wrong. This is to DIE.

Marchesa AW14

One of only a handful of "pouffy" meringue-style gowns I actually liked. The bun, black belting detail and black ballet flats make this a cut above. 

Marchesa AW14

Slightly more glam this time - I imagine this for a outdoor wedding in beautiful gardens somewhere, with cherry blossom all around and fresh flowers everywhere... GET ME, OMG!!

Monique Llhuillier AW14 - The Audrey

With a gorgeous scraped back up do and some truly fabulous shoes, this might be my favorite of the lot. There's a lot going on, sure - it's embellished all over, in a gorgeous off-white blush colour, and the A-line skirt is cut shorter at the front - but somehow it's still understated, demure and classy. Just pure class.

Naeem Kahn AW14 - Sexy as hell. 

Like, actual sex. Maybe one for an elopement somewhere sensual and exotic. A fantasy dress.

Philosophy SS14 

The perfect one for a beach wedding, with white sandals and a relaxed up-do with some sort of exotic flower your hair? Yes? Yes!!

Tibi AW14 - The coolest one out. 

The one to wear with relaxed, loose hair, minimal makeup and no-fuss flats. This is ideal for a registry office and party-into-the-night affair. A cool indie band plays at your reception, obviously, cos you're probably marrying the singer...

Valentino AW14

And finally, the fairy tale gown of dreams. A showstopper, truly. Nothing could top this, I think. 

It deserves nothing less than a Cathedral aisle flanked by swathes of choirboys and candles. To see this gown in the flesh would just be too much... I JUST CANNOT.

I guess I'm a little surprised by my own taste here. I suppose you never really know what you're into until you start looking... But make no mistake folks, none of these dresses are actually FOR me - being five foot nothing with considerable junk in my trunk, the majority of these would look horrendous on me anyway, but I admire and swoon over them in a similar way I do iconic Hollywood costumes or red carpet gowns - perfect for an occasion, some kind of dreamlike, magical, half-real ceremony, and stunningly breathtaking in their own right.

Help me, I'm addicted!

LITTLE THINGS: HOME

Sometimes, coming home to a flat filled with little things that make me smile is just what I need after a crappy day:

I spotted this wee cat table on Ruth's Instagram ages ago, before I had even moved in to my flat, and raced over to The Magpie's Eye in Govan to pick it up. I totally love it, even though it's a bit rickety and mental. Ruth is the QUEEN of bargainous charity shop finds, go follow her immediately.

My N64 controller sits out, reminding me to get my dad round to help hook it up to my telly! It's all plugged in and ready to go, but I can't seem to get it to work... Literally DESPERATE to play Mario Kart again! Or Banjo and Kazooie, anyone?

This big map artwork is part of a collection of pieces surrounding the idea of Maps and Journeys which is, coincidentally, by my boyfriend, Roddy MacNeill. I'm massively biased, OBVIOUSLY, but he's pretty great at this art shenanigans, and it was the Maps project he was working on when we first met in 2012. This is a really old, vintage map of Scotland, painstakingly cut out and laid over a more contemporary map of downtown LA, which we discovered together on a trip to the Oxfam bookshop on Byres Road last year. 

I've loved this piece ever since, and I knew I wanted it to take pride of place in my living room. It's very big and heavy though, so it's still waiting to be hung...although part of me likes it propped up against the wall like this. 

You can find out about Roddy and his work HERE, and more info and details about buying prints HERE.

You can't really tell from the (admittedly awful) photo, but my bathroom door is comically narrow. Like, squeeze-in-sideways narrow! The idiosyncrasies in this flat are hilarious! Some doors are news, others, like this one, are so old they're practically hanging off - and NONE close all the way properly. But I love this tiny, higglety-pigglety door, complete with "Bathroom" sign left by the last owners, which I think is super-cute.

Just a wee print of Audrey from Urban Outfitters, in an Ikea frame, but this is in the alcove in the hall and greets me when I first walk through the door. I love her expression here and I find it quite calming, for some reason. 

Meerkat cushion from TK Maxx. Talk about a random purchase! Everyone hates this, and the colours are all wrong for the living room, but, MEERKATS. Come on.

When I first started unpacking all my books I was convinced I wouldn't have enough to fill the built-in bookcase, but man was I wrong. Turns out I have a good few too many, and they're currently stuffed under my bed and in random nooks and crannies all over the place. I tried to organise them into shelves like coffee table/fashion/art (not shown), pleasure, uni, misc/unread, but by now they're in a bit of a mess as I take them out, flip thorough them and shove them back in a new place. Again though, I love it. 

I've seen so many other flats where the bookcases are filled with photo frames and candles and nick-nacks, which I totally love too, but if I didn't display my books like this I don't honestly know where else I'd store them.

THE JOHN LEWIS MIRROR. It's huge, it's gorgeous, it was expensive, but every time I gaze up at it I smile because I know it's my favourite piece in the whole room, and maybe the whole flat. With the exception of the art, obviously! I had it hung before I had anything else in the living room and, without wanting to sound wanky, it sets the tone for the space, I think.

Another selection of awesome art by Roddy. I really honestly think I have the best pieces out of everything he's done. But then I am 1000% biased!

Old photies of my and my absent bestie never fail to make me smile.

Hummingbird welcome mat, again by TK Maxx, brightening up the drab close, and pink Ikea hall mat to wipe your dirty feet on. 

Sylvia Plath print by LucyLovesThis on Etsy. It's a beautiful print on really thick, great quality paper which looks fab in this dark grey frame from Ikea. This one's in my bedroom and I catch glimpses of it in the mirror every morning before I leave. Love Plath, love this.

"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye."

This clock was a housewarming gift from my friend Marie, who knows I love Le Petit Prince (if you haven't googled the name of this blog, do!) and it was so touching and thoughtful of her. I love this quote so much, and have a very similar one, also from the book, tattooed on my upper back, just at my neck. It's really special and it's up in my hall, usually telling me to get a wiggle on when I leave for work in the AM.



Large heart mason jar by TK Maxx. I use this to keep little happy memories in. Like train ticket stubs to place I've been, or little cards and nick-nacks, just small reminders of good things. I scoffed at the idea of this at first, but now I wouldn't be without it. I got it just before Christmas, and over next New Year I think I'll empty it out and have a wee happy greet to myself.

A little seahorse ornament which was a gift from a nice day spent at the Sea Life centre in Loch Lomond, my best guy Harry the Hippo from the long-gone Glasgow Zoo, and a hilarious Instgram snap of my friend Laura and I in Glencoe this time last year. Again with the cute wee mementos, this time on my bedside table. What's HAPPENED to me?!

"I just wanted to tell you I missed you, but not tell you, so I went into a wee shop and saw this and thought of you, because I think you rock like a rocky thing."

From the bestie back when she was living in Edinburgh a few years ago. Edinburgh doesn't feel so bad when shes literally on the other side of the world.

Just a wee snapshot of the things around my flat that make me happy. 

It's the little things.