October 29, 2004
Cute as a button
Posted by Anna at 02:45 PM | Comments (0)
October 27, 2004
Top Notch
I must say the customer care at Origins was absolutely exemplary.
I bought a tube of their 'cult' product, 'Pinch Your Cheeks', and imagine my dismay when I went to apply some (sitting in traffic on the way home) only to find the tube was half empty. So I phoned the company the following morning and in no time at all, with no fuss, a new, full tube came through my letterbox.
So wonderful. It's amazing how many companies, for all their stated intentions, get customer care so very wrong.
Posted by Anna at 07:53 PM | Comments (0)
October 25, 2004
What do the chic wear
What do the chic wear to exercise in?
Went to yoga yesterday with Mother (yes, very sore today, curse that competitive streak) and realised that the adjective with which to describe my appearance in that type of mirror that appears in public gymnasiums and all manner of studio associated with dance is 'startled'.
Partly it is the pale and sweaty face, but I'm sure it would be possible for me to retain a modicum of poise given the appropriate attire. My jogging trousers are too short. And frankly too cheap. My t-shirt is shapeless. I am falling down here, this should be easy to remedy, a situation that never arose, but I am without inspiration as to what I would like to look like in my exertions.
Posted by Anna at 07:51 PM | Comments (0)
Aunt Maud found herself with
Aunt Maud found herself with a pink cockatoo when her neighbour died. He can only say 'Hello Darling!' but I do find it rather lovely that she spends hours these days trying to coax him out of his cage.
Posted by Anna at 04:34 PM | Comments (0)
October 22, 2004
Lit Ref
"Things were not easy, but there was fortunately a distraction, for as he spoke an enormous limousine of dove-grey and silver stole soundlessly onto the field.'But what could be more opportune? Here is Mrs Beste-Chetwynde.'
Three lights skips brought him to the side of the car, but the footman was there before him. The door opened, and from the cushions within emerged a tall young man in a clinging dove-grey overcoat. After him, like the first breath of spring in the Champs-Élysées, came Mrs Beste-Chetwynde &ndash two lizard-skin feet, silk legs, chinchilla body, a tight little black hat, pinned with platinum and diamonds, and the high invariable voice that may be heard in any Ritz Hotel from New York to Budapest."
Decline and Fall, Evelyn Waugh
Posted by Anna at 06:14 PM | Comments (0)
October 18, 2004
Breeches
Am I overdoing the whole equestrian theme this autumn? These were for sale on ebay and, do you know, I very nearly bid for them. I still half-regret that I didn't, even though they would have been far too big for me.
I've had breeches in mind for a week. When I was a child, and staying at my grandparents house on the coast in Sussex, I used to read a book called My Horses and I by Dawn Palethorpe. I imagine had been given to one of my aunts, or my mother, one Christmas when they were children themselves. Dawn Palethorpe was a champion show jumper in the 1940s and 50s. I wanted to be Dawn Palethorpe. The book had several pages of black and white pictures, in sections, of her and her sister, training horses over jumps, all in gorgeous elephant-ear jodhpurs like these. I might keel over at any moment from nostalgia. I want to wear these with chelsea boots and a blazer and my hair in braids and canter everywhere.
I wonder if I could modify a pair of tan corduroy trousers.
Posted by Anna at 10:29 PM | Comments (0)
October 16, 2004
Crazy legs
http://www.footraffic.com/subcatpage2.html
A lot like the beautiful 'Bloomsbury Set' fashion story in October's Vogue, but cheaper! For some reason the website won't take my payment. I can't quite face telephoning Missouri at the moment, but will probably give them a try tomorrow, to find out if they will ship to England.
Last weekend I bought a couple of yards of printed silk (big red and pink roses on a black ground) and a paper pattern for a long-sleeved, knee-length dress, scoop-necked, ruche-breasted. I will wear it with the purple paisley tights and black, round-toed heels, and nobody will be able to distinguish me from Virginia Woolf.
Posted by Anna at 08:01 PM | Comments (0)
Opaque
The infuriation of making a special trip to Marks & Spenser to stock up on black tights for the winter only to find they have a vast selection: but none, none in a medium size. It also proved nearly impossible to buy a seamless, unpadded black bra in my size. And is it my imagination, or do shoes always sell out in size 39 first too?
Boots came to the rescue for tights. And the nice lingerie shop in Turnham Green, Second Skin, for the bra - I spent more money than I should have on it.
This afternoon I am going to make a chunky vegetable soup with barley, to use up all the veg in my fridge before they go flabby, which is what generally happens. Also because it is a dank grey autumn day, and perfect for such.
Posted by Anna at 03:05 PM | Comments (0)