The contents of my handbag

It strikes me that my little Osprey Bug is like an urban survival kit. For a standard day in London I may at some point require the following:

• Purse (containing mostly receipts)
• Oyster card in nifty tube map wallet
• T-Mobile G1 plus USB cable, for emergency at-work charging
• Keys (complete with Bettina Liano keyring from Star)
  
• Work ID pass (complete with dodgy photo)
• iPod nano (containing a lot of Muse and Depeche Mode)
• Plain Moleskine cahier notebook and Trutap pen
• Collins London pocket atlas (it pre-dates the smartphone, OK?)
  
• Tiny umbrella, for rain emergencies
  
• Mini hairspray and comb, for fringe emergencies
• One recycled John Lewis foldaway bag
• Glass nail file, kirby grips, and Palmers cocoa butter lip balm
  
• Boots 17 pressed powder compact (including mirror)
  
• Tissues, Olbas inhaler, Airwaves chewing gum
  
• Rimmel concealer and Urban Decay Lip Envy for unplanned nights out
• Eyelure body tape, for wardrobe malfunctions
  
• Pro Plus, for lack-of-caffiene emergencies
• Plasters and tampons for, er, other emergencies

There's also room for gloves or sunglasses, depending on the season. I suspect most people travel lighter than me. Is there anything you can't do without?

Not a terrorist

On Saturday, the I'm a Photographer, Not a Terrorist campaign organised a mass photo gathering in Trafalgar Square, in defence of street photography. Quite a few people showed up too! As the campaign's website states,

Photography is under attack. Across the country it that seems anyone with a camera is being targeted as a potential terrorist, whether amateur or professional, whether landscape, architectural or street photographer.

Not only is it corrosive of press freedom but creation of the collective visual history of our country is extinguished by anti-terrorist legislation designed to protect the heritage it prevents us recording.

Until the message filters down to the police on the street that we are not criminals for attempting to take photos of buildings we see everyday or while on holiday, perhaps it's a good idea to print out their stop and search bust card and keep a copy on you? Especially if, like me, you are partial to taking assorted shots of nothing much.

Hate's a strong word, Tanya

Tanya Gold is a very angry woman. "Why I hate fashion" she screams in The Guardian, but it sounds to me like what she actually hates is high-heeled shoes and the people who make young models miserable. It's the fashion industry that is sometimes questionable (like a great many industries these days), but not fashion itself. You don't have to buy magazines, adopt trends that don't suit you, or wear heels in the snow to be fashionable. The girl she mentions (Megan Moore, who died while running in heels), was simply unfortunate rather than 'killed by fashion', which was what Gold is insinuating. Anyway, most of the 'fashionable' types I've seen out and about during January's worst snow and ice were wearing stupidly absorbent but rather more practical Uggs or, better still, wellies.

It's a shame that, even though Tanya is now happy enough with herself to not feel the need to follow fashion without question, she still feels the need to write about it in such a hateful manner. There are a great many bad things about an industry which perpetuates the idea that we all need to be young and slender in order to be successful and popular, but surely we need to be positive about the alternatives rather than simply sitting back and being bitchy? There are many brands and trends which are suited to 'real' people, so I don't understand why she'd spend years buying things that don't fit or suit her and then wonder why it didn't make her happy. Sounds like fashion wasn't the root of that particular problem.

Recycling old clothes

A while ago I found a few plain, scoop neck t-shirts that I thought I'd thrown out. I no longer wear them and they came to mind when I was considering that a handful of pretty tees and blouses I'd seen online could be easily re-created with a little bit of sewing. Once I found where I'd hidden the old M&S tops and assessed their suitability, I made a trip to the John Lewis haberdashery department to buy some red and some white ric rac... and then promptly forgot about the whole project! This week, however, I decided to finish what I'd (almost) started.

As I was unsure how to get the ends of the ric rac to look tidy, and I also wanted to add a little extra something to the neckline, I rummaged around in my craft box for some buttons that would also co-ordinate. In doing this, I found some pretty white rose trim that was left over from a previous project and decided that this would look lovely on the cornflower blue t-shirt. That was easily pinned on and then stitched by hand in front of the telly. The ric rac, however, was going to need the sewing machine.

After stitching the remaining two shirts, I have one handy hint to impart should you decide to do this for yourself. Go slowly! The cream shirt with the red trim in these photos was stitched carefully and it looks fine. The khaki shirt with the white trim was done in a bit of a rush before dinner and it looks a little crooked, so it would seem that patience is indeed a virtue. They do look quite nice though, so it has been suggested that I might be able to sell embellished tops on Etsy - what do you think? If I came up with some good ideas and found a source for decent plain t-shirts, is it worth a try? I'd need to perfect my skills (and ensure I don't take the before photos while still on the macro setting!), but there could be a market for it. In the meantime, I think I'll simply list a few other bits of clothing I no longer wear on eBay. Now... where did I put that camera?

UPDATE: I now have a few things listed on eBay.

Vintage overload

My interest in vintage fashion and styling now has a raison d'être. My wonderful sister Fiona got engaged to her lovely boyfriend Pete on Christmas day, and much email discussion is now going on between my younger sibling and our mother with regard to wedding dresses. It turns out that all the gorgeous vintage and vintage-inspired dresses that I found in web searches are exactly the same as those Fi has found (I always knew she had good taste!) so, when she said she'd love a vintage-style wedding but didn't know where to start, I knew exactly where to head. 40s, you say? Looks like I'd better point her in the direction of Fleur de Guerre's blog then.

I hopped on over to Diary of a Vintage Girl to look for a post on her wonderful Tart events, as I think we need to attend one as a mini planning session, and I was stopped in my tracks by Fleur's latest post. Yes ladies, she is giving away Kiss Me Deadly underwear! Get your entries in now.

The troubles of youth

I hear on the radio this morning that schools may remain closed today due to bad weather, forcing some to postpone GCSE and A-level exams. Radio 1 interviewed a girl who said that, if this happened, she would be forced to sit eight exams in the summer and wasn't sure how she would cope. Erm, excuse me? How will you cope? By getting stressed and panicking like the rest of us did, darling.

On my 18th birthday I had the joys of a mock A-level maths exam which I had to take knowing that it didn't actually count towards my final result as it was just 'practice'. There were at least two exam papers for every non-practical subject taken (art was different, obviously) so many of my friends who were sitting 4 A-levels did indeed have at least 8 exams in the summer of 1993. Mock exams in January were part of my GCSEs too and, even though some of the coursework counted towards my final grade, I knew that I had to sit exams in all 9 subjects in the summer and all would count. I was quite rare doing only 9 GCSEs too - many people I knew at other schools did at least ten. I hate to say it, but kids really do appear to have gone soft.

I also saw some students on the way into work today who clearly hadn't seen each other since December and were squealing with delight at their reunion. One girl literally jumped on her friend while another shrieked with glee. Enjoy it now while you can, ladies. Once you graduate and enter the oh-so-delightful world of work, you'll calm down just like the rest of us.

Cancer awareness vs cure

Last Thursday I received a Facebook message from an old friend and was hugely disappointed to discover that it was the forwarding of a pointless viral campaign - essentially a chain letter. The message requested that:

Some fun is going on....just write the colour of your bra in your status..just the colour, nothing else, and send this on to ONLY girls no men... it will be neat to see if this will spread the wings of cancer awareness. It will be fun to see how long it takes before the men will wonder why all the girls have a color in their status...thanks ladies!

So, there are people out there who don't know what cancer is? And changing my Facebook status to 'black' is going to help how exactly? Instead of following these pretty pointless instructions, I decided to change my status to say that I can't believe women think that putting the colour of their bra into their status will 'promote breast cancer awareness' as surely mentioning a cancer charity would make more sense? I mentioned Breast Cancer Care and then also posted a link to one of my own chosen charities - Cancer Research UK. Every two minutes someone is diagnosed with cancer in the UK. More than 1 in 3 people will develop some form of cancer during their lifetime. Every four minutes another person dies of cancer in the UK. Giving £2 a month doesn't sound so bad now, does it?

Today I saw that girlonetrack had tweeted a link to a fantastic Jezebel article on the same subject. Can't we just cut the crap and just give money to the people who are working to cure this terrible disease? Buying something pink that gives a mere 1% of its sale price to a breast cancer charity is a small step, but everyone would be better off sponsoring a friend taking part in Race for Life, doing something themselves to raise money for a cancer charity or, even better, donating a small amount every month. Telling your Facebook friends that your underwear is red or wearing your old Fashion Targets Breast Cancer t-shirt doesn't really help anyone. Giving money to researchers or nurses will.