Middle Class Problems

A couple of years ago I was flicking through one of the Sunday newspaper magazine supplements when I came across the problem pages and read something along the lines of "While cooking the Christmas dinner, I splashed goose fat onto my new cashmere sweater. What can I do to remove the stain?" which sparked an hilarious on going joke between me and my sis about 'Middle Class Problems' ie 'ohno I just spilt risotto on my laptop' [Joe] or 'it was awful...i was so hungover and hungry and Waitrose had sold out of sea-bass' [D], I could go on and on and I'm sure I'll keep coming back and adding more but you get the idea.

Anyway, I'm currently facing a Middle Class Problem of my very own and I'm spending much too much of my time thinking about it so I thought writing it down might make me reach a decision about it or at least free up my mind to think about more important things.

So there's a new(ish) fragrance out by Cartier called Le Treizieme Heure (say it in your sexiest French accent) which sounds amazing. Beautiful bottles too.



I read about it a month or two ago in Wonderland which describes it as offering 'a sensation of transformation with vanilla, birch and leather notes to dissolve into the night.'
This intrigued me as I love any dark, leathery, smoky, seductive, unusual scents; the ones that in order to smell you have to literally press your nose against your skin (or someone elses ooh-la-la) and breathe in.
So I've been researching it further on the Cartier website (not much info there) and my new favourite website www.basenotes.net and lots of other cosmetics websites for info and descriptions and reviews and the more I read about it the more I want it desperately. Desperately.

My dilemma is this...it's $250 (plus p&p plus finding someone in US to get it for me since it only seems to be available in Saks 5th Avenue) for 75ml which is sort of quite a bit of money for a fragrance, especially one that I haven't even tested with my own nose. But while expensive and unnecessary it's also actually affordable which puts me in that tedious position of having to balance my material desires with my common sense/conscience/catholic guilt........you see, Middle Class Problems!!!!

I tested the waters with my nan at the weekend...she shops in Waitrose but other than that is pretty thrifty! She was talking about how she loves the smell of Chanel No5 because she wore it on her honeymoon, and if there was ever a time when she would understand and condone my frivolity of lusting after a perfume this would have been it, but at the mention of it she quickly snapped back to reality and brought up how that money could better help the Poor and the Homeless. Yeah she's from a different and much more frugal generation blahblah but the fact I'm even hesitating from calling my NY friend must mean I've inherited a bit of that sense or whatever it is.
Then again, it's not like if I don't buy it I'm gonna give that $250 to the poor so maybe we should leave them out of it! Furthermore, caring about the poor isn't really in keeping with the spirit of this blog (I'm going to hell). uhhhhh.

Someone needs to just buy this for me and put me out of my middle class misery.

If I was a Rich Girl........and had to get a gift for the Man who has Everything....

Introducing the Livescribe Pulse.


Last week I met up with an old friend. We were having a very important conversation so he was taking notes. With this.
I'm not usually one to notice something so every-day as a pen but this one caught my eye and when a few days later it was still on my mind, I decided to ask him about it.
Knowing my friend and his (ahem) penchant for nice things I'd already presumed there was gonna be something special about it, but when he said "That pen is cleverer than me" he was not overstating things (sorry Jon but you said it!).

The Livescribe Pulse not only looks good and writes well; it remembers! It remembers what it wrote, why it wrote it, where you were and who you were with when you wrote whatever it was you wrote, it remembers what was being said when you were writing, Damn, it probably remembers the name of that person you call mate/darling cos you forgot what they were called one minute after being introduced to them and now it's too late to ask. It's very clever!
But in awe as I am of its abilities, I can't help thinking it's kind of the most ridiculous pen ever invented and I'm not sure I really get the point of it.

At around £150, it's far from expensive, at least compared to these

Mont Blanc £595...not really feeling it.

Graf von Faber-Castell Pen of the year 2009 from £1750. Made of woven horsehair? Did I read that right? Yep, I like this.

or if you must

the Aurora Diamante which at over £1mil, holds the title for the worlds most expensive pen (but they only make one a year so get your name on that waiting list asap).

However even with all these diamonds around, I'd still give the Livescribe Pulse number1 prize for being completely over the top. And for the man who has everything I believe it makes the perfect gift...looks cool; titanium-y and Manly, and the gadget element is more than enough to satisfy his inner James Bond/secret agent leanings.

Done with pens.

The Cultural Bit

I just about managed to get myself organised enough to see the Pop Art exhibition at Tate Modern before it finished last weekend and i loved it rather a lot. I could happily have whiled away more than the two hours that I actually spent there, but I had a table reservation at Vertigo that I was a bit eager to get to (check out those views!!!!).
Anyway, I loved it so much that one day I hope to own a couple of the exhibited pieces, after all, who needs a soul when you have incredible works of art. (Turns out I may not even have to sell my soul....my friend who works for Tate just told me that now the exhibtion is over they don't need the pieces anymore so they probably won't mind if he takes them home for me. Cool.).

Most of all I'd like Memories Of/Moments With You 2008 Damien Hirst, a gold cabinet displaying row upon row of manufactured diamonds.



Completely ostentatious but utterly beautiful. Take a closer look.....



I'm not sure this is exactly what Mr Hirst had in mind, but seeing it in person made me think of childhood dreams, and more so that gorgeous scene from Disney's The Rescuers where against a score of harps and chimes, the huge diamond that little kidnapped orphan Penny has been forced into a cold dark cave to search for, suddenly catches the light of her lamp, throwing the cave into a dazzling array of light and rainbows. [ooh gonna have to steal that video back from my sister's kids.] Everytime I turned around and looked at it, I almost expected to hear the same chimes.


Right now I'm picturing it hanging in a dark wood dining room where it can glow moodily under low light. Or maybe in a big open industrial/minimalist style room where it can dazzle to full effect.


The other piece I want for my own is Hotel International 2003 Tracey Emin.



A completely un-glamourous apliqued blanket, it's aesthetically about as far from Memories Of... as you can get. None the less, I found it compelling and beautiful and actually spent longer looking at this than at any other piece in the whole exhibition including the adults only room ;-)
There's something very sweet and tender and honest about it which comes across much better if you see it in person and can actually read the notes and messages and memories sewn in and written all over it. It soothed me to look at. Or something.


Memories of/Moments with You 2008 Damien Hirst (last sold for) £2.6mil
Hotel International 1993 Tracey Emin (can't find price anywhere. I guess if you have to ask then you can't afford it)
Suddenly the Alaia dress aint looking so pricey!

"An a what-a????"

The day I discovered Katie Hillier's paperclip bunny necklace was also the day I happened across The Dress to eclipse All Dresses: The Alaia Body-Con. Yes yawn, another body-con. But this image doesn't even begin to do it justice and this dress has to be seen to believed (second floor DSM).
I'm not exaggerating when I say that this dress, from it's place on one lucky mannequin, actually stopped me dead in my tracks.
The version I saw was in a nudey, peachy, almost metallic colour that I can't quite put a name to. If it was a Dulux paint colour it'd be called 'Desert Shimmer' (or something else cheesy, Roasted Pumpkin or Nigerian Sands anyone?). I prefer this colour to the white, but it's so close to my skin tone that if I were to wear it, I'd look naked from a distance. I suppose it depends what kind of attention you're after, but if I was to spend over £1300 on a dress then I'd want people to be able to see it! Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on how I look at it), its not a dilemma I have to deal with right now.
But if anyone's asking, buy it for me in Desert Shimmer and if needs must, I'll get a spray tan.

PS All day long that scene in Clueless where Cher is mugged at gunpoint has been playing over and over in my head.
Robber: [brandishing gun] Get down
Cher: Oh no..... you don't understand....... this is an Alaia.
Robber: An a what-a???
Cher: [sighing] It's like a totally important designer.

I'm beginning to think that in her position I would like, totally say the same thing.

Azzedine Alaia Body-con Dress £1388 Dover Street Market

This is where it begins......

I was out shopping and browsing at the weekend when I stumbled across this: the coolest necklace I've seen so far this year. It's playful and lovely and such a simple idea (so simple in fact that my housemate attempted to make me one). It also happens to embody two of my Favourite Things; gold and bunny.
I had a feeling when I saw it that it wouldn't be coming home with me that day and at £595, i was right. But it's been on my mind quite a lot so i decided to start a blog about all these gorgeous wonderful things that I seem to come across quite often that make me yearn (or make me feel nostalgic or make my jaw drop or my heart race etc).
It also means I can keep a record of all that I covet in one ordered place instead of scraps here there and everywhere, and when I'm rich I can look back and buy it all!
Until this day comes I will point potential suitors in this direction and see what they bring me :-D
Necklace by Katie Hillier £595 Dover Street Market.