I laughed out loud

It isn't often I cite the Sunday Times Style magazine after all they usually draw upon me, but I forgive them every time because they cheer my Sunday up in the same way The Guardian Weekend magazine fulfils the same role on a Saturday. However today for good measure in the Going Down section were Melissa Shoes and I quote "Crocs for the fashion pack. Stop this plastic madness!"

Poor Anna

It was great fun to read the bloggers comments on this picture of Anna Wintour in the Style section of The Sunday Times this morning and Liberty London Girl kindly put this picture on her blog.

But, Anna can do no wrong in my eyes. I felt I'd already got a peek at her dressed down side in The September Issue and this image doesn't really deserve a critical response (though the bloggers comments were witty). I think it is an easy 'dress down' (hideous terminology I apologise) chic not an uncommon choice for affluent Americans, British and Europeans, Asians etc. It is reminiscent of images of Jackie Onassis on the streets of NYC in the 70/80s although Anna is of course more structured than Jackie was in this phase of her life.



All in all I'm a team Anna person and have always admired her tenacity and work as editor at Vogue and it is the first time I've seen her with a bag other than the Giles Deacon clutch she took out once. I want to know what bag it is.

Bloggers going up and being first...

Well, I'm not so sure there is such a thing as ever being first with views, creatives and so on but certainly one can be part of a forward movement. There is no doubt that bloggers are a van guard of new issues relating to fashion and top tips (in the fashion blogging sphere - I can't comment on other areas of interest).

When I sat down on Sunday to my favourite half hour of the day, the moment when I get to read Style magazine - don't worry I've fed the family, done the dishes and wiped petit garcon's face clean (just in case the Daily Mail lot read this blog) - imagine my joy to find not one but two of my little blog bits in their Going Up/Going Down on page 5 of the magazine. Go on indulge me!

KNOTTED SHIRTS A new lease of life for all your old shirts. It's this season's rolled sleeves - I draw attention to my piece http://makedostyle.blogspot.com/2009/02/performance.html - pictures of my knotted shirt number for self styled photo shoot in February this, plus I mentioned this in a previous post but even I can't reread all my posts to find where (note to self, label better)!

MAC FACE AND BODY FOUNDATION Legs like uncooked turkey drumsticks. This is your genie in the bottle - My piece - http://makedostyle.blogspot.com/2009/06/short-shrift.html where I say get Mac Face and Body Foundation to put on your legs!

Anyway the validation for blogging is hardly something that needs to be justified anymore but at least you know your getting some of it here first!

Kate knows good knotted shirts

In and out

I'm always quite impatient for the paperboy to arrive on Sunday. It is a new phenomena having the paper delivered as for many years I had the luxury of living next door to a shop. At 8:30am I consider him to be late. A routine has developed, I keep one ear out to hear him drop The Sunday Times on the mat outside the front door. I open said door (usually in dressing gown), Gareth (he gave us a Christmas card - ingenious as you leave one out for him with a tip or else how would you enjoy your Christmas lunch) re mounts his bike and mutter some unintelligible comment - it could be morning or p*ss off, who knows. I think (about G.) 'couldn't you have bought yourself an ipod with your Xmas tip money'. He annoyingly cycles round delivering the papers with his mobile phone playing tunes.

Cup of coffee in hand, I sit down to read the paper for the next hour before my run. My routine follows the same pattern, Style magazine, Money and then News Review. Not every single article is digested I do that later and also move onto the Sunday Times magazine and then main news bit - by Tuesday. Now, I realise my habits, reasonable or otherwise are of no earthy consequence to you. The reason for sharing my morning's method of procedure is to take you to the point I almost leaped in the air with delight. I certainly exclaimed 'Oh yes!'. Because - with must gusto and a more forthright manner than I could muster, AA Gill stated exactly the same point as I made in my book Make do & Mend, in this weeks Table Talk article.

Now I love AA Gill - he is as direct as Jeremy Clarkson but with more panache and fortitude. Well, they both have an equal firmness of mind, just Jeremy tends to employ stream of consciousness - unthinkingly!

Mr Gill was pouring forth on the banality of diet and certain peeps relationship with their bodies. Anyway one paragraph says it all:
'So, here is my broken resolution, and a final word on size and food. Pay attention. All diets work. When I taught cooking, people used to say that recipes didn’t work. Well, all recipes work, if you know how to cook. The Kama Sutra works, if you know how to shag. It’s not diets that fail, it’s you, you miserable, spineless, sticky-fingered fridge magnet. All diets come down to the same sentence: more in than out, you get fat; more out than in, you get thin. It’s not rocket science, it’s bicycle science.'

For the full version ...
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/a_a_gill/article3150287.ece

Ah happy days, see page 32 of my book which reads, 'Basically the same principle of income and expenditure is translated to food. What you put in and what your expends equals your weight.'

And for those of you who won't stop badgering me about sales bargains, count to 10 and think about if you'd still love said item in 6 months. If you have to cave into your weak wills, then on-line Matches.com offers plenty of designer handbag bargains. If your lucky enough to live near Esher nipped to Bernards of Esher - yes ignore the name it is a great little emporium, more stockbrokers wives than footballers. That said if you want a great bargain of a Marc Jacobs bag - Bernards is your destination. But please do read Hunter Davies in Sunday Times money first and then think about your credit card bill.