I've been out of action all week with horrible sinusitis. I've missed out on lots of fun stuff I had planned; however, at least being at home, under my trusty blanket, has given me plenty of time for reading (so far, The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters, The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt and Home by Julie Myerson, all excellent) and aimless web browsing.

I'm currently being cheered by the What I Wore Today flickr group started by the illustrator Gemma Correll as an alternative for camera-shy artists and illustrators to all those fashion-themed groups where people take photos of themselves posing around in fancy outfits.Emilie Boudet


Little Doodles
yarnandtea
Gemma Correll

[All images via What I Wore Today]

I am ill again. I think I have the flu, or something flu-ish anyway. I can't believe I am ill, yet again. Once again I'm missing all kinds of things I wanted to do, like going to this, or the opening of this new exhibition, not to mention lots of important university and work related stuff. Instead I am lying low with a gallon of lemsip, more tissues than you could possibly imagine and all my blankets. To cheer myself up I have been experimenting with tumblr (most addictive - check me out here) writing postcards to friends, and knitting. I'm just crossing my fingers and hoping the evil disease won't hang around for too much longer.

Anyway, to get onto more positive things... one of my favourite bloggers, andrea of hulaseventy has a little tradition of writing a list of exciting things she hopes to do in the coming year each birthday. You can see her list of the 38 things she plans to do before she turns 39 here.

I really like the idea of a list like this. It's not about sensible, worthy things you feel you 'ought' to do, or even a traditional 'to do' list as such, but a list of things you genuinely want to do - the places you want to go, the projects you want to start, the adventures you want to have.

I was inspired to make my own list of the things I'd like to do this year, which I thought I would share here. Some of the things on this list are totally new, but others are things I have done before but would like to do again, or things I do already but would like to do more of. It was surprising how quick it was to write - I had a lot of ideas, but thought maybe I'd better save at least some of them for next year!

1. knit a jumper
2. go on an adventure by train
3. sit around a midsummer bonfire
4. go to a really good sushi restaurant
5. find the perfect vintage dress
6. pass my driving test
7. practice the piano
8. start a new novel
9. get a bicycle with a basket (in an ideal world, it would be this one)
10. go wild swimming
11. finally finish reading ‘a la recherche du temps perdu’
12. plant something
13. go to new york
14. make a charm necklace
    
15. order moo cards
    
16. go dancing
17. find a lovely place to live (no green taps please!)
    
18. learn to crotchet
19. write a dissertation!
20. have a handmade christmas
21. eat a lobster
22. investigate d-i-y publishing
    
23. go to rye in east sussex
24. take more photographs
25. drink champagne (this one is in much the same vein as ‘eat more cake’ I feel)
26. take a break

(The picture is a sample of just one of many images on my new tumblr thingy - this one comes via яuғina♫)

I’m feeling a little bit jaded today. A little bit monosyllabic. Still, I think half the point of posting something every day is to write even on the jaded, monosyllabic days. I’m probably just feeling grumpy because the 8 inches of snow somehow turned into 8 inches (or more) of rain overnight.

Anyway, time for something lovely. Here we go.


















Yep, it's a picture of a particularly pleasing shoe. Yes, it is red. Yes, it is glittery. Yes, it has peep toes. Yes, it looks like a dancing shoe, possibly a shoe that might be worn on Strictly Come Dancing by someone dancing the samba or the cha-cha in a sequinned 'number'. These are all good things. This shoe is from Topshop. You can see more pictures of it here. I also like it in grey. That's about all there is to say about it, really.

I wish I had had enough energy to have gone along to the launch of the Diary of a Bluestocking retrospective/end-of-residency exhibition at Apartment tonight. In actual fact, I'm on my sofa under two blankets (my house is freezing) but I’m there sipping sherry in spirit.

I am lying low at the moment. I am under a blanket. I feel distinctly blanket-ish.

I am doing a lot of reading. I have recently been reading William Morris’s very strange utopian novel News from Nowhere and H.G. Wells’ possibly even stranger Tono-Bungay. I am currently reading The Suburban Swindle a new book of short stories by an emerging US writer, Jackie Corley, which I am reviewing for Bookmunch. Next I will be reading The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist by Robert Tressell.

What I am not doing much of is writing. My blog has had a lot of extra traffic since being shortlisted for the Manchester Blog Awards, and whilst it’s great to have so many people stopping in for a visit it’s also strangely unnerving. It makes it harder to write things. I think I may be suffering from a case of “blogger’s remorse”. After all, it’s one thing to write a blog when you know that not many people (and certainly not many people you know in real life) are going to be reading it, but it’s quite another when lots of people (many of whom you know) are reading it, and having opinions about it, and you will also have to go out in public and acknowledge it as your own. My superego is going slightly crazy about all this (and ever since watching Slavoj Zizek’s “The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema” recently, I can’t help envisioning my superego as looking like Groucho Marx, which makes it extra weird). It is barking a lot of words at me in a very loud voice. Some of the words are things like “ridiculous” and “stupid” and “inane” and “twee” and “annoying”. It’s basically telling me that everyone is going to point and laugh at me, and then I’ll do something hugely embarrassing, and probably that all my clothes will also somehow fall off as well, in a general nightmare-type way.

However, I am not going to be defeated by my superego, even if it does closely resemble Groucho Marx. In fact I am going to dare its disapproval, so just watch this space...