What I Wore | Feeling Grecian June 28, 2011
Posted by Lauren Cooke in Fashion, Vintage, What I Wore.Tags: Fashion, fashion blog, grecian dress, outfit, outfit photo, outft shot, vintage, Vintage Dress, What I wore
1 comment so far
Feeling all Grecian today!
I thought today’s outfit deserved an outfit shot. Last time I wore this dress it was by Christmas do at work, but I decided this morning that through sheer determination I was going to make it work as daywear. The result was actually quite day appropriate thanks to my trusty platforms, and the addition of a casual tapestry belt. It worked with the tan too, the product of a weekend well spent!
Dress: Vintage
Leopard print slip: Vintage
Platforms: Topshop
Belt: Vintage
Oh Why Oh Why… June 27, 2011
Posted by Lauren Cooke in Music.Tags: Festivals, Hop Farm, Music
add a comment
… Am I not going to Hop Farm festival this weekend?!
I do wish I was there!
Eagles. Death Cab. Ocean Colour Scene. Lou Reed. Newton Faulkner. Young Knives. Hot Chip.
It would have been GOOOOOOOOOD!
The absolutely right place to be June 27, 2011
Posted by Lauren Cooke in Dreams, Inspiration, Life, Chatter & Politics.Tags: Dreams, fate, Life, serendipity
add a comment
Life is a complex thing. There are so many wandering paths and winding routes to be taken.
I am no believer in fate. The world is too deep, too chaotic. There are bridges spun from gossamer, tunnels and short-cuts that require you to wade through swamps and traverse cliff-edges that hang you over sharp rocks hundreds of metres below. Sometimes it all gets hard to navigate, and great swathes of time can be lost as you stumble through the briar patch. Lethargy, and fear, and sadness are all present and powerful forces, forces that exist alongside the happiness, dreams and aspirations. For fate to exist in a world so mad and unpredictable seems nothing short of ridiculous - we can choose our own paths, plural, and walk our own ways.
Still, I do tend to feel that each path, each route, has pit stops along the way. And sometimes things fall into place so neatly that it is impossible to question their rightness. Last night, watching the stars twinkle into existence in the wake of the setting sun I felt that feeling. A sense of utter calm, all the thoughts in my head startled into silence. A feeling of, by simple serendipity, ending up exactly where I was meant to be at that exact moment in time. A feeling that, right there and then, everything was utterly “right”. Everything was utterly OK.
And things will change, and I will no doubt drift in my dreams way from the exact path, and miss some of the markers on the way – but yesterday evening, in the warmth and the dark, I was absolutely in the right place.
It was wonderful.
Childhood Toys June 24, 2011
Posted by Lauren Cooke in Life, Chatter & Politics.Tags: childhood, childhood toys, Lego, my little pony, nostaliga, Polly pocket, puppy in my pocket, toys
add a comment
The ever-lovely Domestic Sluts got me thinking the other day about what toys I played with as a kid. I’ve had a bit of a reminiscing week or two, thinking about favourite books and thumbing through well-loved family photos, so the moment I read this article I starting rolling on that nostalgia train right back into my childhood play.
In the Sluts’ article, the common players are rife. The same toys pop up in so many people’s childhoods. The same lumps of plastic or hunks of fur had the ability to generate endless universes, so many imaginary plateaus and worlds that were unique to each and every child who laid their sticky and enthusiastic hands on them. No two imaginings were ever the same, and again it reminds me of the brilliance of young minds, and of just how much shining creativity we have as youngsters, unaffected by the daily rigours of the adult world.
So, what did I play with? The short answer is anything that allowed me to use my imagination, but the long answer is.
It all started with cardboard boxes. They were houses, spaceships, they were the stuff that dreams were made of. In a big enough box I could transport myself anywhere in the world. As I got bigger, so my imaginary world expanded, as it got harder to squeeze myself (both physically and mentally) into a box, and so developed the pirate ships and the dens, built from planks and bits of old furniture and cushions. Endless cushions.
As for the real toys. Well, I never was one for the dolls – I preferred animals. I loved my shorn-headed punk My Little Ponys, with their wings and their magical powers. The animal obsession continued through to Puppy in my Pocket, especially the hospital versions with their tiny injuries that could be rubbed away if your hands were warm enough. The folds and mounds of my duvet served as mountains for forward thinking puppies who wanted to explore the world, shoe boxes became the domain of many an exiled puppy community with little else to do but plot their revenge on the poodles and the King Charles’ that have banished them so furiously.
I owned the "hotel". It was awesome.
Outside of the animals, Lego was by far my favourite toy. It helps that this was (and no doubt still is) my dad’s favourite too. We’d all buckle down with a vast spread of coloured blocks, and we’d make anything our imagination could conjure. We had the sets, of course, but really the best was building huge multi-room mansions for little toupee-haired Lego men to march around it, where the walls changed colour halfway up as the blue bricks ran out. Secret headquarters with garages for Lego ambulances, my much treasured toy cars or the occasional stray Thunderbirds rocket.
You know what? I’m not really broody (well, I biologically am, but I don’t want kids yet thank you very much!), but if there is one thing that can encourage me to make little Lauren shaped offspring it would have to be the temptation of endless Lego building days!
My life in books June 17, 2011
Posted by Lauren Cooke in Books, Inspiration.Tags: Books, my life in books, Reading
3 comments
I read Elle. In fact, I have a subscription. Aside from occasional gripes, I find it to be one of the only “fashion” mags that features intelligent and thought provoking writing, and so I keep on reading it month after month. There is one feature in particular that never fails to get me thinking, which is called (you guessed it!) “My Life In Books”.. and this is my version, about the books that changed my life.
The Lorax, Dr. Seuss.
If you had to take one book as an indicator of the person I would grow to be, it would be this. This is a conscientious moral tale in the format of a children’s story, a reminder to be careful – what we have needs care to continue.
Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks.
I read this book as an angsty deep and dark teenager. It has haunted me ever since, both as the simplest sweetest love story and as a representation of humanity at its most brutal.
His Dark Materials, Phillip Pullman.
A little part of me will always hold onto the world this trilogy created in the depths of my mind. I dream of worlds within worlds, of ghosts and love so strong it changes the fabric of your being. I dream of daemons. This book is, above all else, utterly formative and loved beyond compare.
Norwegian Wood, Haruki Murakami.
I like not talking. I like just sitting, touching, feeling the world go by and marvelling all the way. This book is just like this.. it is bitter and dark and twisted, but above all it is beautiful. All the misery and trouble are worth it in the end, and Murakami’s spectacular off-kilter style makes this a read it is difficult to forget.
Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov.
I have gone back to this dark and disturbing book again and again. The depth of the writing inspires me, the storyline is simply one of the best I have had the honour to read. Never judge, assume or claim to understand – books like this show us all the angles of humanity and the depravity and love it is capable of.
A Quick Note June 15, 2011
Posted by Lauren Cooke in Uncategorized.2 comments
Just a quick note about yesterday’s blog post. I wasn’t trying to stir up controversy or wind people up, I was just expressing a level of happiness at the change of language, and the fact that really its use/misuse just doesn’t really bother me!
It is pretty much the only blog post I’ve written in a long time that has gotten any comments, but pretty much everyone seems really angry about what I put!
I’m sorry!
The Flexibility of Language June 14, 2011
Posted by Lauren Cooke in Wordy Business.Tags: evolution of language, flexibility, language, words
13 comments
I am, by definition, a liberal person. I am relatively hard to phase, generally hard to stress (especially if things REALLY aren’t worth stressing over), difficult to really disgust. I have my passions, and my foibles, but I am up to a point happy to take life as it comes without getting worked up or upset with little insignificant things along the way.
One of the things that doesn’t really bother me is language. I’m not a grammar nazi, or a written word traditionalist. I can get annoyed if a word is used incorrectly (your and you’re, for example, has to remain different as it totally changes the meaning), but much of the time I am happy to see language grow and evolve over time. The lovely Roisin wrote this week about her issues with people who write noone rather than no one or nobody (which is just what got me thinking about all this) - but I see this as an obvious next step. Is there any point in forcing these words to remain separate when their usage and frequency of use suggests that perhaps compounding them works? For me, I would be (and am!) happy to see this happen, as it suggests the continuing refinement and development of English as life moves on and language changes.
You see, the evolution and flexibility of the written and spoken word are what seem to me one of the greatest wonders of literature. The fact that an entire nation can move from Shakespearean turn of phrase to tlking in txt spk in what is evolutionarily the blink of an eye excites and inspires me. Nothing is static, nothing is boring – the stuffy is always overcome, the impractical tramped down in preference of the best phrase, the best word.
People worry that the huge steps taken in technology over the past decade have accelerated this process. Phonetic spelling was thought of as a threat to spelling and accuracy, symbols have taken over from intonation and subtlely. However I argue that in actual fact this hasn’t happened. Instead, English has found a way to balance the needs of an internet and immediate-information fed generation with the feelings and meaning of a beautifully crafted language. In actual fact, the super-shortening of words has faded out a little, becoming replaced with a happy kind of middle ground that means I don’t feel guilty for using lol or tho, but I don’t have to decipher a complex mix of words and letters either, or bcum a mmbr of d txt spk gnr8n.
When the needs must, we can convey a complex message in 140 characters or less. We can abbreviate, respell, play around the with building blocks of our foremost means of communication with gay abandon. Yet, at the same time, writing has not become less passionate. In fact, people are still creating beautiful works of literature, breathtaking sonnets, heartbreaking stanzas. It is this flexibility in the way language is used that makes me so happy, so chuffed to see that communication has adapted so neatly to the needs of a new world.
Golly, I do love words. Don’t you?
Why hello there June 13, 2011
Posted by Lauren Cooke in Life, Chatter & Politics, Photos.Tags: dunes, Holidays, Life, stress, Work
2 comments
Well, it has been a while hasn’t it?! Funny how time bunches together and stretches out sometimes – one day time is creeping by, and the next you are a week down the line seemingly without blinking.
So, what have I been up to since I last popped up to post macabre but fascinating quotes?
Well, I suppose first off I have been working. I have been dragging my sorry arse out of the bed each and every morning, and struggling bleary eyed into work with a sickly feeling deep down in the pit of my stomach. It is nothing as bad as many people have been going through in the stresses of the past few turbulent years, but work for the past couple of weeks has been increasingly stressful, full of unhappy people who’s faces fall further and further as the stress builds. Fingers crossed we are past the worst of it, becasue I wouldn’t wish more days like these on any of my friends and workmates!
Things have picked up through the stresses of last week though. I have been off exploring Wales, with the luck of the weather on my side to make it all the more fun. I enjoyed BBQs on the beach, lazing in the (surprisingly strong) Welsh sunshine, and watching the sun set towards the horizon. I have been winding through the mountains on narrow gauge steam trains, watching newborn calves and lambs in the fields, and admiring vistas that make everything all right. It has been a weekend of utter relaxation, just what the doctor ordered!
Some photos…
Fighting of the clouds
Caernarfon Castle
Watching the sun set
Hiding in the dunes
Dramatic clouds
The little steam train!
Putting it all in perspective… June 8, 2011
Posted by Lauren Cooke in Wordy Business.add a comment
Goodbye, cruel world!
There is a 1 in 455 chance of humanity failing to see out the next century… “it’s telling you that you’re about ten times as likely to get killed in a civilisation-ending event than you are of getting killed on a commercial airline flight”.
Moondust, Andrew Smith
Of castle bars and Jaguars June 6, 2011
Posted by Lauren Cooke in Life, Chatter & Politics, Photos.Tags: castles, driving, jaguar, views, vintage
1 comment so far
Wow, what a weekend.
Friday night I got to trawl around the wonders of IKEA, a destination that always has a hint of magic to me. Growing up IKEA was such a rarity (you can’t really have an antique dealer dad and admit to a love of flat pack furniture and dodgy quality Swedish design…), and that now I am an adult the occasional trips to the huge multi-story blue boxes full of artfully decorated rooms and endless cushions hold a mystique usually saved in adult life for the religious or the arcane. Instead, there I am, wandering around stroking things and pretending that the rooms are mine.
What a view!
Drinking in a castle!
After enjoying my meatballs on the Friday (not a word, dodgy minded friends!), Saturday started off on a slightly crapper footing, mainly because the vintage fair I was at was so desperately dull. The stall numbers were really limited, and for whatever reason the footfall wasn’t great. I made one sale all day, and spent the rest of it chatting with other stall holders and starting drinking early. Y’know, as ya do. Still, that meant it could easily get better, and get better it did. Skip to the evening, and I was being driven around gorgeous rural Warwickshire in a rather delicious looking Jag, and even better I was wearing an outfit that worked perfectly with it! Couldn’t have planned it better myself!
So beautifully coordinating!
Sunday was pretty awesome too as it happens, mainly because the day was full of amazing quantities of gorgeous cars, and more Mustangs than I could shake a stick at. I don’t half desperately love those beautiful muscular cars, there is just something rugged and sublimely beautiful about them. One small car-starting-issue later and we were back on the highway heading to see the X Men: First Class, a wonderful (and veyr enjoyable) end to a fabulous weekend.
Of course, I am now on a bit of a predicable downer. I’m feeling very headachey, tired, and work is stressful at the moment, so the memories of happy weekends are disappearing fast. I just need to keep telling myself that tonight I am seeing the Darkness play in Leamington, and I also get to go for a long overdue Swim & Sauna, so it really isn’t all bad. The stresses will all melt away in no time at all.
