Thursday, April 28, 2011

THE WEEK...


From my Instagram pictures we can deduce that there is something of a red, white and blue theme going on in London this week. Also, many Union Jack flags, big and small, fluttering in the breeze and not a major football tournament in sight (or maybe there is, I wouldn't know).

I have inadvertently been very clever regarding THE WEDDING. For months I've been avoiding the news, newspapers (it's not as if they were reporting any news) or anything to do with it, because I just could not be ARSED with it all. Nothing could be of less interest. I've even got a royal wedding sickbag (it was a gift). Then, today I suddenly decided it might be quite exciting and now I'm going to host a brunch to celebrate it / watch it on TV. As someone pointed out today, it's the first positive, happy national event people of our generation have lived through. And everyone gets a day off.
I bought purple sweet peas from Moyses Stevens (royal florist - and only a fiver a bunch guvnor) and I plan to pay attention to the nuptials from precisely 10am - @ 3pm/whenever I get bored - and then go back to ignoring it and all the attendant every single person in the world commentating on and/or trying to cash in on it argy bargy thanks very much.

{My Instagram pics - you can view/follow/comment/like etc even if you haven't got an iphone here.}

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

DINNER DREAMING...

The heatwave has faded and I with it. A cosy dinner at Spuntino would be nice tonight - it's exactly like a restaurant in New York except it's not, because they don't deliver (that I'm aware of). A nice pan of their mac n' cheese would be splendid; delivered by a bearded, tattooed chap on a vintage bicycle I'm sure. If they threw in a bottle of Bourbon, I could make use of it.


{My photos from when we went there about a month ago.}

Thursday, April 21, 2011

BLOGGERS + CATS...

Oh, I know, we're a bit late, sorry - Lola's been typing furiously while I lay prostrate on the sofa nursing a glass of red wine with a cold damp flannel clamped to my forehead. It's been one of those weeks, but it's Thursday, which means Friday in the context of this week so hooray etc - I can lie down even more tomorrow.

This week's kitties are tiny Pippin and Bobo: the sweet darlings of Hannah and Landon, of the eponymous dreamy and wonderful blog. Thank you Hannah for answering all my cat related questions!


The basics: What breed are they, how old, how did you come to live with them, why did you call them Pippin and Bobo?

They are long haired tuxedo kitties, 7 months old and they were a gift from Landon for my birthday! He found them online at a local no-kill animal shelter (http://www.bobbiandthestrays.org/) and they are perfect! Bobo was named after a "pet" name I've long used for friends and loved ones (or rather, her full name Bobokins which I use only when she's being naughty and stealing my jewels and hats) and Pippin, as I'm sure you know, is a character in one of Landon's favourite book series, Lord of the Rings.

How would you describe their personalities? Are they friends?


They are best of friends! It's rare to see them apart really! Often they are snuggled up in a little bundle of fur and paws. Pippin is super sweet and a little more shy (except with me, he's an absolute mama's boy) and Bobo is outgoing, she talks more, she eats more, she's nearly two times his size and she gets into more trouble!




What are their respective favourite foods?

Their nighttime "treat" which is Wellness (http://www.wellnesspetfood.com/) canned chicken! Bobo announces every day on the clock at 7:30 that she's ready for her snack and if you don't get it started right away she'll jump on your shoulder until you get the can out.

Do Pippin and Bobo have preferred lounging locations? Any signature poses?


On my back, on our kitchen chairs and in the window. Signature poses? Tied up together like a little ying yang.


What is a day in the lives of Pippin and Bobo like?

Wake me up in the morning for cuddles and feeding, then sleep, then cuddle, then run around and lose toys under the refrigerator, then sleep, then snack then do it all over again forever!

Do you have any amusing/weird/cute Pippin/Bobo moments or stories you'd like to share?

Gosh, I'm a total doting mother cos I think everything they do is amusing/weird/cute! One amusing event involved Landon doing naked push-ups and a curious kitten interruption!


Quickfire round:


Birds or mice?
Mice (though they've yet to experience either in their natural forms)

Sunlight or radiator?

Sunlight

Tap or bowl?
Tap

Lap or laptop?

Both (at the same time)

Snuggling or stretching?

Snuggling

Cats or humans?
Both!

{Picture 1 © Anna Li, the rest © Hannah Metz.}
{Thank you Laetitia for suggesting Pippin & Bobo as adorable kitten subjects.}

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

HIER, TOUS MES ENNUIS SEMBLAIENT SI LOIN*...








Yesterday, three friends and I went out for lunch in France and I Instagrammed our day for your pleasure (and mine). We drove to Wimereaux, fifteen minutes on the motorway from Calais, (if you're in a rush to make it for lunch as we were) to a hotel that had a (camera shy) resident cat manning the reception. At the restaurant there we ordered (from a human) a carafe of rosé, fish soup, beef tartare and the biggest bowl of the best frites I've ever tasted. Then we walked round the corner to the beach, paddled a bit and lay in the sun for an hour or so until we got too hot; then stocked up on French pharmacie essentials, brebis yoghurt and paté. The only downside was having to get back on the train to England. 

{*I just Google Translated the title - please correct me if you have a better translation}

Sunday, April 17, 2011

WEEKEND SCRAPS: THINGS I LIKE...

Blogs/tumblrs about women wearing mens/androgynous clothing. I approve.

Tomboy Style
Wearing the Pants
And I'm forgetting one I really like.

Two pieces of knitwear that need to be mine:



Colenimo Amelia jumper (AW11/12)

Hetterson Crenelle + patches striped jumper.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

MISS L. CERAND...



You see, this is the kind of thing that happens when Miss L. Cerand is in town. Jewels laid out on a chair, climbing out of the window to drink champagne, a room liberally scattered with big vases of hyacinths and a copy of Vile Bodies on the bedside table, a Ladurée Saint Honoré Rose-Framboise split in half with a hairpin. Not pictured: a bar in Claridges I never knew existed despite frequent visits, another bar in another hotel I'd never heard of in my own home town, where the white uniformed waiters make your martini on a silver trolley in front of you and announce gravely that this. is. an. organic. Sicilian. lemon. before peeling off a strip of zest. Oh, and there was the concert in the Royal chapel that hasn't been open to the public for 500 years, running up St. James's in evening dresses, a trip to the countryside, considering bringing back a Shetland pony that was for sale, but how? Dinners at the club, an auction, a painting won and Queen Henrietta's dwarf, Jeffrey who kept popping up. That's just a recap of when I was there: to read more on these adventures and more of Lauren's London tour (and if I may say, notes on how to live a life well) you must read her London Dispatches.

FROM THE DESK OF LOLA...

I'm so happy people have been enjoying the Bloggers + Cats series. Thank you so much for all the love, links, tweets etc. I've decided to make it every other week from now on though, so that this blog doesn't evolve completely into an online version of Cat Fancy magazine. This will mean I have more time to post about other important regular Lola Is Beauty issues like shoes, gallivanting, Paris yearnings, teapots, cherry blossoms and the occasional Shetland pony in-between cat posts. So this week is cat free, but please let me know in the comments if there are any amazing blogger felines I haven't interviewed yet who you're dying to know more about.

{Isabelle Huppert - dream cat interviewee. It's impossible to find a credit for this most tumblrized image - does anyone know?}

Sunday, April 10, 2011

ANNOUNCEMENT...

I'm on that Instagram thing all the youngsters with itelephones are talking about. It is strangely addictive and thrilling actually - come, join me - I'm on there as lolaisbeauty. Or tell me if you're on there and I'll follow you, then we'll follow each other and have really long Twitter conversations about our favourite filters and how easy it is to set up, use and cross-post seamlessly on multiple platforms; then we will realise that our brains are now made of 87% internet and this percentage is still rapidly increasing. And we will be perfectly happy about that.


{A picture of a picture at the Susan Hiller exhibition at Tate Britain today, which I found oddly annoying. I'm still not sure why.}

Thursday, April 07, 2011

BLOGGERS + CATS...

My iphoto now holds more folders of photos of other people's cats than would be easy to explain away to someone who happened to be browsing through it. I don't know how long I can keep up this intense cat freakery! Maybe I need to do a series on shoes to switch things up a bit. Anyway, Steevy has been waiting in the wings in his fur tuxedo for a while; I hope his nerves haven't got the better of him. Steevy belongs to sweet Nancy from Nearness of Distance - she is a filmmaker, he is a film star, evidently. Merci Nancy et Steevy!


The basics: What breed is Steevy, how old is he, how did you come to live with him, why did you call him Steevy?

Steevy is part American Shorthair, part Burmese. Steevy and I met at the pet store three years ago. I chose him because he winked at me. Ah Oui! I named him Steevy after Steve McQueen and proudly claimed, "Because like Steve McQueen, he does his own stunts." Little did I know... Oh and regarding the spelling of his name — originally it was spelt "Stevie", but a French friend of mine changed it to "Steevy" and I think that spelling rather suits him. He is also, like many Montréalers, bilingual. French is his first language and English his second.

How would you describe Steevy's personality?

Steevy is what I call a contemporary cat: he recognises and accepts that he has been domesticated but he retains a bit of his wild/primitive feline side. He also openly supports any faux biography of his life I create. I believe he also has a little Steve McQueen and Jack Nicholson in him. (He absolutely resembles Jack when he wakes up or is tired. Trust me.) Weekends are spent lounging around in turtle necks or jean shirts whilst riding around in his Mustang or motorcycle. He is full of life and like any other successful cat in the film world he is dedicated to perfecting his craft. When he is not sleeping he is practicing a new stunt for his next film...I assume he has been shooting Westerns back to back, as he seems to be galloping a lot lately!


Sunday, April 03, 2011

MAGAZINES...



From the age of 13, when I bought US Elle on holiday in Greece, I was obsessed with fashion magazines. I subscribed to British Elle from its inception with Sally Brampton as editor, and I still have my collection of Vogues British, Italian and French from 1991 - 2006 and Harper's Bazaar during the reign of Liz Tilberis (RIP). I would only buy The Face, ID or Dazed & Confused if I particularly liked an issue, but I collected every other random title in-between: anyone remember Frank magazine (late 90s)? It was excellent - I loved that magazine. Dutch, Blow, early issues of Purple when Eileen Fleiss was still on board, The Fashion which Sarah Mower edited, Ten, Big, the re-launched Nova, then Pop, Danish Costume Magazine when it first launched with Malene Malling at the helm. AnOther, A Magazine and of course onto Lula, Encens and now The Gentlewoman...

As for interiors magazines, let's not go there now - this post is going to be long winded enough.

Gradually I've had to weed out the magazine collection, as it's essentially now a static installation: a full to bursting seven foot high bookcase that is never, or rarely added to. My new pile of magazines that I usually buy and keep includes Russh, Dossier, Acne Paper and the only Vogue I ever buy is Vogue Paris.

I've gone from buying perhaps twenty or thirty magazines a month to three or less. This is partly due to the wealth of inspiration to be found on the internet (and I don't just mean people scanning magazine editorials so I don't have to buy them!) and the fact that £12 for a magazine is becoming standard. Someone said to me a while ago that the only way print magazines will survive is if they become more like coffee table books - something worth collecting and treasuring.

The Gentlewoman is currently the magazine I absolutely make sure I buy the day it comes out. After the joy of the first issue, the second issue didn't quite do it for me somehow (maybe it was Inez's beard on the cover, or the article about the newsreader?), but the third issue strikes exactly the right balance. It has quietly revolutionised the fashion magazine in ways that please me very, very much. I read The Gentlewoman, I don't flip through it. In the third issue I don't think there are any models at all, just beautiful, smart women (some of whom may have happened to do some modelling) wearing my favourite kind of clothes. In any case, the focus is on the person. I can see how it might not appeal to everybody, but I have a strong minimal/puritan streak so it suits me just fine. In the current issue there's a feature called 'At Home, At Work' which features Berlin based creative women photographed by Benjamin Alexander Huseby in exactly the type of Berlin apartments I dream of and at work. The women are styled by Hannes Hetta in clothes from Celine, Uniqlo, Vanessa Bruno, Dries van Noten, Isabel Marant and APC. Just kill me now please.




I was also eagerly awaiting the April issue of Vogue Paris - the first to be edited by Emmanuelle Alt. It sounds a bit silly to say you're a fan of Alt because, who isn't? I had always liked her editorials the best, and in interviews she always seems so...nice? Normal? The April issue is very white, very fresh and pretty, not aggressively sexy... but I think it will take a few issues to see what stamp she'll put on it.

Finally, I randomly picked up a copy of Art Review because Laurie Anderson was on the cover and I've always loved her for her Fully Automated Nikon series. As I was reading it I noticed a strange sensation: I was excited about what I was reading; I found out things I didn't already know. I could almost hear the cogs of my brain turning. Novelty!