This is the cleverest thing I’ve seen since the toilet you wash your hands in. I never know what to do with my used teabag in cafés. Designed by Jonas Trampedach, who wins a gladallover hall of fame entry.
(There isn’t a gladallover hall of fame, but there might be one day, and he’ll be in it.)
I bought a winter coat from Zara today. It’s very pretty, but Zara’s website is just about the worst I’ve ever seen and in any case the coat isn’t on it and I can’t find a picture anywhere else, although googling “Zara coat” I did come across this picture of Zara Phillips, coincidentally wearing a coat which is quite similar, though also quite different.
So instead here are the boots I also bought, which are just as useful but less pretty:
Technically, I suppose, it’s only one boot. But you can infer the other.
Well, it was a good thing really, because it saved me spending £75. After deciding I definitely couldn’t justify the expense, I went and had another look at the dress I fell a little bit in love with yesterday. I tried on the size 12 and it looked like a muu-muu. So I tried on the size 10, and that looked like a slightly less baggy muu-muu. I think it is designed for someone taller, leggier and skinnier than me. Either that, or it is actually a muu-muu. If it’s still available when I’m eighty and living in Florida I’ll be first in the queue.
I have discovered a problem with Muji, which is that their designs are so utilitarian that it’s madly easy to convince yourself that you really need whatever it is you’re tempted by. Although I think I might find it hard to make a case for the utility Christmas stocking, which is what I came away with today.
On a less utilitarian note, I fell a tiny bit in love with this dress, but at £75 I need a better excuse even than Christmas to justify it:
I would not wear it with those horrible unflattering beads. Nor would I allow my face to be chopped off halfway down when being photographed wearing it.
Why has nobody told me about Muji? I went into House of Fraser at lunchtime looking for a tiny mirror to affix to my monitor at work so I can tell when somebody’s sneaking up behind me, and was directed to the Muji concession on the second floor. I’d never been into a Muji before so was unprepared for finding myself coveting every single item in there. It’s not that the things they sell are particularly remarkable (apart from one, which I can’t mention because I bought it for my sister and she might read this), but that all of them – cotton buds, bottle openers, oven gloves – are designed with a stunning eye for style and simplicity. I wanted one of everything, but I restricted myself to the mirror, the present and a glass which looked nearly the same as the one I broke washing up last week. But when I win the lottery I am going straight back to Muji and furnishing my house from it. Or even before I win the lottery, since it’s not very expensive at all. The mirror was £1.75. But I am taking account of the current financial situation and forcing myself not to make unnecessary purchases. Although I might have to go back there the next time I need a toothbrush: their toothbrushes are so beautiful they make me want to cry:
Look at this!
(Image via apartmenttherapy)
It’s a lampshade made out of old audio cassettes. I want one. At first I thought perhaps I could make my own, but to get one that looked this good you’d need to:
Which is probably more effort than I’m willing to make. More here.
I never really loved chrysanthemums, but they were all that Sainsbury’s had left when I went in there for some flowers the other day. So I bought a bunch of white chrysanthemums and brought them home, where they look great. It seems that the flowers I like for themselves are not the same flowers that look good in my egg.
Hmm.
I have some gerberas in a vase in front of my window. I don’t ever buy gerberas, but I was buying flowers for a boy who was staying in my house and they seemed appropriately manly. And you know what? I really, really like them. I might only ever buy gerberas from now on.
Are flower names capitalised? And why do I want the plural of gerbera to be “gerbera”?
I’m not a t-shirt person, really – not a besloganned t-shirt person, anyway – but some of these are great. I think I like “I’m in the mood for yogurt” the best.
Glad All Over 
