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.
Category: Stuff
More Muji, and a dress I don’t need
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.
Muji
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:
Cassette lamp
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:
- Find lots of cassettes the same colour
- Soak all the labels, and any accumulated grime, off them
- Rewind each one to exactly the same spot
Which is probably more effort than I’m willing to make. More here.
Cool t-shirts
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.
More maps
Strange Maps has a “news map” of the US today, with the size of the states adjusted according to how many news wire stories, from various sources, originated in each of them over a four-year period. Unstartlingly, Washington, New York and California are the three biggest news generators, and all three are vastly oversized in the map, although of course California is just really big, so it doesn’t increase as dramatically as the other two. I’ve never been to California, but I’d like to think that everything about it is just really big.
They link to an article in Science News which talks more generally about the art (or science, or both) of representing more than simple geographical facts using maps. It’s interesting, if you have time to read it.
All of which reminded me of that picture of the earth at night which is still one of the best things I’ve ever found on the internet. Apart from being – well, pretty, it gets more interesting the more you look at it. My favourite things about it are:
- How bright all the big cities are, but especially Paris and Tokyo
- How defined the Nile is – it looks like it’s been drawn on in a single brush stroke
- How empty Australia is
- The fact that North Korea is so dark that South Korea looks like an island. That one’s a bit terrifying, for various reasons, but it’s still interesting.
Adventures in shopping
After my confident assertion that expensive bags are no better than cheap ones, my bright blue bag broke as soon as I tried to use it. I took it back and swapped it for the only remaining one, which is the same but bright yellow. It’s kind of…really…horrible. I’m going to use it every day and hope that I come to love it as you might the ugliest kitten in the litter, who may not be cute but whose ugliness is somehow adorable.
Edit: Horrifically, I’ve just realised that my purse is dark green, and the two together remind me ineradicably of my old school uniform. Bleuch. I mean, I quite liked it at the time, but it’s not a look I’ve ever yearned to recreate.
A profitable lunchtime
…by which, obviously, I mean one in which I spent money, rather than earned it. Last year, when my income went up from “I can pay the rent and go out to eat” to “I can buy an iPod on a whim” (it’s since gone back to the first one), I decided that rather than spend £10 on boots that last three months, I would invest wisely in expensive but high-quality items that would last forever and end up costing me less money than the cheap version.
Well, it turns out that expensive boots (and bags, and clothes) don’t last any longer; they just cost more. So it’s back to spending £10, or in this case £5, on a new bag, which is bright blue and doesn’t go with anything, but that’s ok, because it only cost £5!
I thought I had done more shopping than that, but it turns out the rest of what I bought was my lunch. Well, that’s ok too.
Also, and not unrelatedly (the sun makes me spend money): it’s spring! I know I’ve said it before, but this time it’s properly true. I even had to take off my incredibly warm and deeply impractical fake fur coat while I was outside. You know, for a bit.
Glad All Over 