A Political Question (Fancy a Little Quaff?) July 31, 2009
Posted by Lauren Cooke in Life, Chatter & Politics.Tags: agression, alcohol, policing, politics, teenagers
5 comments
Had a lovely night with the girls last night – very entertaining and very fun!
On a more serious note, however, I was talking yesterday about under-age and aggressive drinkers. We all know that in Britain their is a “problem” with teenagers binge drinking and boozing in public places. The new and slightly unfair public perception is that the youth of today are all drinking, punching, fighting louts, girls and boys alike.
For me, drinking was great fun for the last year of sixth form, involving house parties, “adventures”, and lot of drunken camping. We binged (undoubtedly), but I honestly believe any instances of us being antisocial and uncouth were rare, and usually confined the the realm of the tent.
Firstly – all teenagers cannot be tagged as drinkers. Secondly, all drinkers cannot be tagged as anti-social and violent. The UK has, interestingly, become a land where the young and the free are (yet again) discriminated againstfor the action of a few. And all whilst plenty of adults are out getting pissed and lairy – and let me tell you, I have seen far more of this than of the teenagers!
So how do we deal with the teenage violence and drunken aggression. Amognst many ideas out there are raising the drinking age to 21 (conveniently ignoring the fact that the majority of drinkers are underage anyway!), and harsher punishments. The problem is that penalising vast swathes of the population for the actions of their peers is not only prejudices, but highly unjust. Someone once killed someone with a hammer – it doesn’t mean that all hammers should be banned. Tarring everyone with the same brush is a dangerous idea.
Yet I agree that this situation, with it’s public empathy and high publicity levels, cannot just be left “as is”. So what can we do?
My idea is a simple one, and focuses on penalising specific offenders. The basic principles are as follows:
- Everyone, regardless of what age they look, should be ID’d. At the very least this will make alcohol harder to get hold of. Oh, and if you don’t have your ID? You don’t get served.
- Those who are caught being aggressive will have a “black mark” (whether electronic or physical) on their ID, meaning that they cannot buy alcohol until over 21. This is a punishment for specific offenders (and specific groups of offenders”.
It is simple – but I think it would work, and stop all the harmless tipsy kids out there from being harshly punished and misrepresented!
A Stitch in Time July 29, 2009
Posted by Lauren Cooke in Crafting.Tags: Crafting, needlework, sew make believe, sewing
add a comment
I am impressed with the variety that has been filling up my life recently. Baking, friendship, crafting… I love the fact I am not just sat in front of my TV every night. Whilst not everything is going right house-wise etc, I am conscious of the fact that life could be one hell of a lot worse. Even my blog has reflected all this variation, featuring fashion posts alongside plenty of other stuff. I love it!
I am also excited because I am planning on setting up a weekly feature called “So what’s new”, where I hope to bring some new and exciting designers to you, with interviews and hopefully offers and the suchlike! It should be very fun!
So this week I decided to make little gifts for the girls at Sew Make Believe, in the from of needle books. Everyone had said they needed them, so I look my frustratingly blunt scissors to some felt and my novice needle to some thread to piece together these little ones. It’s impressive how much I like hand stitching stuff, which is why I sewed the little squares onto the front, It is deliberately wonky and quirky, honest!
I really do need some sharp scissors though, as I simply couldn’t get any clean straight edges!
Whitecurrant Cupcakes with Decadent Icing July 27, 2009
Posted by Lauren Cooke in Foodiness.Tags: baking, cakes, Cookery, cupckes, food writing, hummingbird bakery, recipes
7 comments
As promised, here is a lovely picture of my delicious white-currant cupcakes with swathes of vanilla buttercream. Delicious! I am taking the remainder to Kate’s tonight for us girls to enjoy with pink wine and Hugh Jackman on the TV. I am inordinately excited about the film, which clearly indicates I haven’t seen enough heavenly male torsos in the past few weeks!
No recipe to post today – I used the unusual (more milk than butter) recipe from Hummingbird Bakery. I’m not totally happy with writing this up on my blog, but someone else has written it up here. I would definitely recommend the book though, as the pictures are beautiful and the recipes legendary. I look forward to trying out more in the coming weeks.
Whilst the cake method was revolutionary, the buttercream icing was just buttercream icing – butter, icing sugar, milk and vanilla. So simple but so effective! I realised I have definitely been a bit tight on the mixing time for the icing – I wouldn’t do it for any less than 4 minutes now!
As a complete aside, I much prefer the American “frosting” to the British “icing”. Whilst both cold and wintry in feel, I just get this huge burst of “Mmmmm… yummy” as soon as frosting is mentioned! This is much the same, I suppose, to my preference for “thrifting” over “being a tight bugger and shopping for bargains”!
The Whole Package July 26, 2009
Posted by Lauren Cooke in Foodiness, Graphic Design.Tags: Food, Graphic Design, packaging, typography
add a comment
I have great respect for brands that bother to put effort and thought into their packaging. Leading the crowd used to be brands such as Innocent, with their cute doodles and personal, conversational tone. Nowadays, however, good packaging and stunning typography is a little more common. Anywhere I go I spot lovely examples, and the great range of luxury cooking goods at Waitrose had me staring at them for ages yesterday!
Isn’t the range of colours and phrases beautiful!?
A little bit camp July 26, 2009
Posted by Lauren Cooke in Family, Life, Chatter & Politics, Photos.Tags: antiques, boot fair, camping, car boot sale, sunset, Thrifting
1 comment so far
Sorry, but you all know how much I love terrible and completely unrelated puns!
This weekend has been absolutely lovely. I saw the flat of my dreams, all high ceilings, stunning windows, wonky floors and lots of work. Now we just have to work out if a) we can afford it and b) can afford it with the no doubt sky high ground rent thrown in. Scary times! I think shoe money shall have to be curbed completely for a number of months to allow for bigger spending on much more important things. The time has come for me to spend little, live lots!
All in all the weekend was fabulous, one f those generally lovely periods of time flooded with hot sunshine, beautiful views and fabulous people. My parents came to visit, and we explored all the local charity shops, ate dinner by the campsite, and came away with a bounty at the car boot sale. I couldn’t ask for more!
I have also discovered the advantage of getting up early, as our 8.30am start for the boot fair has resulted in a homemaking and productive Lauren. I have sewn little projects for Sew Make Believe (pictures to be posted once actually finished!), baked beautiful vanilla cakes form the Hummingbird Bakery book, with the extra addition of exotic white currents (pictures to be posted once actually cooked). I have played with the rats, done all the washing, and learnt how to iron.
Yes, OK, I have never known how to iron until now. I have never used one before – we are great believers in the pull flat whilst drying technique in my family! For my sewing projects, however, I needed to iron the fabric flat to avoid them looking idiotic! How a girl gets to my age without knowing how do do this (if not all the time at least in ironing emergencies!) I do not know!
So one thoroughly productive and enjoyable weekend out of the way, I though I would share with you some of the images from all my little trips!
It was so lovely at the campsite – and I am really proud of the second photo and the whole poncy perspectivething I did! We sat around, ate and drank, and finished of with some Krispy Kreme doughnuts that really finished it off beautifully!
We even got a fabulous sunset to finish it off with!
Finally, I was so chuffed with the boot fair loot. Even better, everyone was chatty, friendly, and happy to sell things on the cheap – and barter. I had intelligent book natter with many a stall holder,a nd came away feeling buoyant and chuffed. My personal finds were a few books, the lovely pottery above (£1 for the lot!), and a couple of presents for Cie! Not bad! The car boot sales around Leamington are some of the best I have ever been to, I never fail to find brilliant stuff!
Links à la Mode: Style Cravings & Indulgences July 24, 2009
Posted by Lauren Cooke in Fashion, Links á la Mode.Tags: fall/winter fashion, Fashion, fashion blogging, fashion designers, link love, Links á la Mode
add a comment
Edited by Jordana
This week’s edition of Links à la Mode provides a variety of sweet treats. We’ve got hair how-to’s from Fasshonaburu and Bonne-Vie, sorbet inspirations from Idiosyncratic Style, Paris Couture collection picks from Fashion Pulse Daily and interviews galore, among other juicy additions.
I also want to give a special shout-out to IFB editor Ashe Mischief of Dramatis Personae, who is celebrating her two year blog-aversary with a special giveaway.
Links à la Mode : July 23rd
- A Typical Atypical: A look at the unexpected fashion gems on offer at this year’s new designers exhibition in London – cut-out dresses, paper-like jewelry and more!
- Bonne-Vie: Pincurl project – experimenting with glamorous retro style techniques to create a saucy updo!
- Confessions of a Fashion Editor: Polling for the next Vogue Cover Girl – Bonnie Wright’s first fashion shoot.
- Denimaniac: Camo’s SS 2010 “Horses” collection and thoughts of Meryl Streep…
- Dramatis Personae: Celebrating a two year anniversary with a great giveaway – $50 gift card to BeautyTicket.com!
- Duper: Interview with Raoul Keil, founder of NINETEEN74 and Schon! Magazine.
- Fashion Cents: How to get glam for a movie date so that there is real life lights, camera, action!
- Fashion is My Crush: It’s a mosh pit: A studded DIY belt, some jellies from the kids section at Payless and some concrete comfort.
- Fashion Pulse Daily: Hand-picked favorite looks from 10 of the Paris Couture collections.
- Fasshonaburu:Finding a new hair dresser and how to break up with your old one.
- Idiosyncratic Style: A design board of inspiring comparisons of cool sorbet treats and summer fashion choices.
- Retro Chick: Sunglasses to flatter your face.
- Shop Diary: Cozy up with a snood for fall and how to improvise in these recessionary times.
- Style Symmetry: Interview with Cammila of Dressed Up Like a Lady.
- The Coveted: Turning Red, How to go monochromatic…
- The Musings of Ondo Lady: A look at Style Sample Magazine – featuring articles about a wide variety of bloggers across the world.
- Unfunded: Drooling over the sexy styles of Brandon Boyd and Robert Pattinson.
- V is for Olive: Inspired by a road trip through the American West - taking color palette ideas from nature and applying them to your own summer wardrobe.
- WorkChic: Teamed with Polyvore to show examples of a blouse makeover by style and your office type.
Minchy Munchy July 23, 2009
Posted by Lauren Cooke in Media, TV & Film.Tags: comedy, live, television, tim minchin
2 comments
Sat watching Tim Minchin at the moment. It is always such great fun a) enjoying the music, and b) enjoying the waxing lyrical (no pun intended) about every absurd and obscene topic under the sun. We are going to see him live this September for Cie’s birthday, and I can’t wait!
If you haven’t heard of Tim Minchin before, you are in for a treat. Just don’t dive in naively – watching a couple on Youtube first so that you know the level of swearing, blasphemy and brilliant jokes you can expect! Plenty of political statements, atheist conclusions and witty one-liners.
He reminds me somewhat (particularly between songs) of the hilarious Eddie Izzard. And what better compliment could there be than that?!
(Image from here)
Inspirations July 22, 2009
Posted by Lauren Cooke in Blogs, Fashion, Inspiration.Tags: Blogs, Dreams, Fashion, Inspiration, link love, Reading
1 comment so far
I sometimes (read: often) lack inspiration. I will wake up one morning and feel blue, feel like I can’t remember my reasons for all the wonderful things I wanted to do. I will forget how to sing and skip. The rain won’t fascinate me, the sun won’t enchant me. I will come home from work and plonk myself down on the sofa, too knackered to complete any of the little tasks I hope and plan to do.
On a normal day plenty of things will inspire me. People around me will have ideas and hopes, plans and suggestions, and I will draw inspiration from them to my hearts content. I will write sparkling blog posts, I will search avidly for freelance, I will plan my projects.
On days like this one, however, I find myself wishing that I had a single guaranteed source of inspiration. A font of endless knowledge and justa little touch of wit! Usually I retreat to reading my favourite blogs and slouching in from of the TV – but I know that there are plenty better ways to explore my world and seek out inspiration. Such as leaving the house and walking, which I like doing in theory but rarely in practise!
Some of my favourite sources of inspiration are these blogs (alongside books, and cakes, and pets, and rain, and smells etc…) - have a read yourself and you will probably understand why!
- The lovely Tania Kindersley. I own this eloquent and wonderful girls book, and currently am nursing a gentle but healthy dose of ”I want to be like you”. She is forthright and opinionated and isn’t afraid to admit to getting things wrong.
- Sally at Already Pretty, a lovely blog that sets out to remind its loyal followers that they are pretty and smart and fabulous. And, very often, it succeeds!
- How often does the Freelancer’s Fashionblog get added to a list like this? It is most likely because she is talented and stunning, leading a life many of us would love (but probably couldn’t handle!).
- Small Notebook is my current favourite for snippets of inspiration. Money saving projects, interiors – just a beautiful blog full of beautiful things. It isn’t specifically craft, or anything like that, it inhabits a neat little sector of “something” you can’t quite put your finger on.
- Finally, I am currently loving Nubby Twiglet more thank I have before. Partly because she has somehow made me want to be a typographer, party because she always inspires me to wish for another pair of shoes, and partly because I want her hair! And plenty of other reasons in between!
Tomorrow I will tidy in preparation for the parents visit, I will bake cakes, and I will plan my trip to the haberdashery this weekend! Woop!
Investment piece July 21, 2009
Posted by Lauren Cooke in Fashion.Tags: black tie dresses, coast dress, evening dresses, graduation dresses, house of fraser, Prom dresses
5 comments
After my crisis with black tie dresses last week, I have been thinking about my extensive wardrobe. It is jam-packed with dresses and skirts, trousers and shorts. It’s even more jam-packed with shoes, much to Ben’s annoyance! But amongst all these clothes, I do not have one dress suitable for a black tie do.
I have a sequined dress that hangs oddly on my calfs – an eBay buy that would be spectacular if only I was shorter! I have an eighties party dress that would be great on the right kind of night, but not for a posh classy do. I have my flapper dress, gorgeous but unfortunately above the knee! I have plenty of beauties perfect for parties, weddings, posh dinners out…. yet no black tie dresses.
Somewhere in my clothes buying frenzy, I managed not to buy an investment piece!
So this got me thinking… that in my next paycheck (and I am skint, so it has to be then!), I ought to invest in a timeless classic, just for those emergency situations where one is required! And in my usual fashion, a quick online search has revealed the very best long black dresses on the market!
Coast is always the first port of call for stunning dresses – this beautiful fish tail dress perfect for graduation or black-tie alike. My local Coast has a similar version in the sale, with cream around the top… lovely!
The second option isn’t strictly black… but at dark grey I feel it should be allowed. I can’t fully make up my mind about this grecian waterfall dress… at first it made me wow, but now I feel it is almost (dare I say it) a little outdated!
The third is a little less mature, and at first I almost thought is wasn’t as nice. A second glance, however, this hand-measured dress came into it’s own. I love the detailing on the top, and the really long black skirt. Beautiful!
My fourth option is from that most dangerous of shops, House of Fraser. It is unusual with the asymmetric one-shoulder look, combined with that sexy chiffon flowing bit! Sophisticated and classic, I can’t see this simple look ever going out of fashion!
So – which should I get?!
Spellcheck July 20, 2009
Posted by Lauren Cooke in Rants, Wordy Business.1 comment so far
Why Oh Why does the WordPress spellchecker not have blog, blogger or blogging in its dictionary?!
