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!

OUT THERE

Just what you want after a cryptic extended leave of absence... A post that fires y'all straight back into the thick of it that makes no reference to or offers no explanation for the aforementioned absence, RIIIIIGHT???!!

So, I'd originally put this post on ice as, when I was very kindly sent THIS beautiful faux fur throw from UBER COOL interiors website Out There Interiors (http://www.outthereinteriors.com/bedroom-furniture/mirrored-bedroom-furniture), I was in the middle of buying my new flat and had hoped to be in much sooner than this, and I figured, no one wants to see this pure cool, cosy wee throw on my jakey single bed in my kids bedroom...Not when they could wait and see it on my not-yet-purchased-but-no-doubt pure cool new bed!

HOWEVER, given that I've now finally been handed an entry date after what feels like YEARS of farting around, turns out it's going to be another six full weeks and that's just too blooming long to wait.

So without further ado, here's the awesome, snuggly, fabulous throw:

 

Not the best image from the site, so I DID attempt to take my own... At night. With my phone.

Yeah. A photographer, I am not.

Wow, is all I have to say about the quality of those.

Once I DO have a bed and a flat to put it in, I promise I'll drape this aesthetically over my bedspread and update these photos. In the meantime though, just believe me when I say this throw is awesome. Who knew I'd be into this stuff.

But it turns out I AM. Like in a big way. Mainly because soft furnishings seem easy at this stage. Sure, I like this fabric, I like those curtains, that throw is pretty, that duvet cover is cute, this rug is cool... You get the gist. Making virtual wishlists of fabrics and soft furnishings is as far as I've got with this whole interior design planning thing.

I mean, for example, I bought a cushion last week:

No, your eyes do not deceive you. This IS the best cushion in the universe!

But this is as far as I've managed to get. Everything else SOLID freaks me out! I feel as though people expect me to already know exactly how I want my flat to look, what kind of STYLE or VIBE I want to go with, when actually I have no idea. Like NONE. One minute I imagine trawling vintage warehouses and auctioneers for one of a kind one-off wardrobes n stuff, the next I'm turning down the pages in the Ikea catalogue, hooked on all things minimal and modern.

Help!

I had a look through that Out There Interiors website for inspiration but it proved useless as I liked EVERYTHING I saw, which is no help at all! Some of my favourites were this fretworked range of drawers and dressing table:

Pure pretty, right? But then I also liked the slightly more ornate, French bedside tables that have a lovely vintage feel:

And then there were the mad wardrobes!!

Because who doesn't love a mad wardrobe?! Sorry, armoire! Tell me these don't look like the hilarious wardrobe from Beauty and the Beast and I'd call you a LIAR!

Roffle!

But yeah, no help at all as I just want one of everything, and it's a WEE flat. So soft furnishings is as far as I'm able to plan for at the moment.

With the exception of this guy:

I DIE.

Hope that wasn't too painful for y'all. Normal service slowly but surely returning!



HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS

Today my wee Grandma did something amazing for me, something that's about to change my life completely... Not just change it, KICK START IT. She's helping me to buy my very own flat.

So about 4 or 5 years ago I started saving money for a mortgage. I was working part time for a debt collection company and living off that and my student loan so it was pretty difficult, and on too many occasions I'd deposit a few hundred into my ISA on Monday only to withdraw it again on Friday... A familiar story for everyone, right?

Despite being overly concerned with buying new clothes and having mad nights out, I did always TRY to keep my ultimate goal at the forefront of my mind - to buy my own home and finally move out, and gradually over the years my meagre savings began to add up. Then about six months ago I made an appointment to meet with a mortgage advisor at my bank who told me what I'd need for a deposit... And it was grim. I'd figured I'd been doing pretty well, but here he was telling me I was only two thirds of the way there. The thought of continuing to save well into my mid/late twenties bummed me out HARD.

Here's where my wee Gran steps in...

My Gran was born in Cumnock, a small ex-mining town near Kilmarnock, and still lives in the same council house where she lived with my Grandpa before he died for over 55 years. She's never been anything close to what you'd call wealthy, living on a single miners wage for years and then latterly a state pension, scrimping and saving here and there. But by some miracle she's in a position to help me finally realise my dream. Sadly, she now has Alzheimers and will probably never properly know much her gesture will change my whole life, and what it means to me.

But the fact remains. As I'm preoccupying myself with mortgage brokers, saving properties into lists on Right Move and scouring the IKEA magazine, I know that I have my Gran to thank for helping to make this dream a reality. So thank you, Grandma. From the bottom of my heart.

Now for some pretty pictures of interiors! I know NOTHING about interior design, so PLEASE let me know of any awesome blogs out there! I know there's about fifteen million steps inbetween finding a flat you love, getting the mortgage, putting the offer in, finalising everything, moving in and THEN decorating, but I can't help getting totally carried away!

Pretty pictures I like:

Random swoonage from Google.


Sometimes I think I'm a bit bi-polar when it comes to interiors. I love stark white sheets and minimal clutter, but I also know I'd be just as happy somewhere with lots of rich colours and cosy fabrics and mess everywhere. I don't really know what I'm doing but that's part of the fun, and I'm so excited to see how it all turns out... Wish me luck.

MAC X IRIS APFEL

In the latest in a series of quirky collaborations, MAC has announced it's newest muse as New York style legend, 90-year-old Iris Apfel, which IS AMAZING!

Talk about an icon. A former employee of Women's Wear Daily and interior design guru (responsible for revamping the White House under a succession of  9 US presidents), Apfel was featured in an exhibition at the MoMA in 2005 entitled Rara Avis, which explored her unique sense of personal style and interior design tastes. She comes across in interviews as a right GAME AULD BIRD with the most delicious New York accent in the world:

See?

I remember reading an interview with her AGES AGO where she talked about celebrity fashion these days and how young female celebrities look bland, dried out and generally awful. And I can kind of see what she means. When was the last time you saw Jennifer Aniston rocking something unique or extravagant? Does she even HAVE her own personal style? I don't think so, the woman is BLAH to the max. 

Stuff that, man. When I'm 90 I wanna be like Iris, decked head to toe in garish accessories and mis-matching knits, loving life and not giving a HOOT. She reminds me of that poem Warning by Jenny Joseph...  

Anyway, I digress.

The collection will be released in January and will feature all the usual stuff - lipsticks, nail lacquers, eye shadows... Just don't expect any peaches, beiges or taupes. It's all about COLOUR, dahhling.

Here's some more awesome snaps of Iris to whet your appetite until then...

I'd pretty much die to have a rake around her apartment.

Chillin.

COATS!!!

I. LOVE. HER.