In which giants have invaded and brought toys

I have something new to show you. I literally whipped the below thing up in half an hour. I probably could have made it a lot better, but I am being urged to go play Fluxx with my parents (I am visiting), which I love. Hence, quick bit of fun. :)

Seriously best purchase ever. Andy got an award from work of £200 John Lewis vouchers and we bought so many things. We actually were in John Lewis for 4 hours. We did have tea and cake part way through, but 4 hours to decide what to buy. We got a blender, wok, printer, pillows, a headband and these awesome storage boxes. Although I also have a Lego lunch box in a similar style it can't stack with others like these can. We can now go back and buy more and actually build with them. :)

Also, tomorrow I will be in Edinburgh arranging my wedding dress. So I shall do a photo montage of all the wedding-y bits put together. I thought people would groan with the self-indulgence of wedding posts and the sickening happiness of it all. But people seem to like it, so I shall indulge a little more next week!

In which I am not afraid of the 'Fraud Police'

 

(These photos were taken last week, the morning before I dyed my hair. However, after dying it I was too impatient to celebrate the new hair, so the snowy pictures got put up first. This is why it may appear as though my hair can travel through time.)

 

Sometimes I feel like an impostor in the world of fashion. I love clothes and dressing-up, but the little things make me feel small, like I'm not really a grown-up, like I don't belong:

• I don't really know how to wear make-up. I sort of guessed at putting on lipstick and am only slowly improving with it. 

• I only own three pots of eyeshadow. I only wear them to go clubbing.

• I hardly ever pluck my eyebrows and when I do it hurts and I whine and they never ever look even. I actually have a scar under one eyebrow from an operation I had when I was a kid so I don't think they ever will be even. I don't have the pain-stamina to pluck them into a thin neat line so I just do an approximation of how I think they should look. 

• I can't walk in heels very well. I wear little heels, never more than 3". I had a friend who always said I was a 'wuss' about heels. In total there are only own 2 pairs of going-out heels in our shoe rack. They are both oxford heels, nothing strappy at all.

When I go clubbing I go in the kind of clothes you see me in on these pages. I wear patterned dresses with my gold brogues and a mini satchel bag and my level 1 of make-up. There are these other girls there who I look at as though they are from another world. They have sexy white dresses and 6" heels and I know that they are probably the same age as me, yet miles apart. They are so tall (and I am so short) that I feel myself wither away into insecurity.

I make myself a little clubbing box where I dance like mad, check out the hot girls and pretend like I am a nearly a normal adult.

There are a lot of new year's resolutions about losing weight or getting fitter. These are great goals for the right person. However, I am victim of a fear of the Fraud Police.

Amanda Palmer has this great commencement speech on the fear that the Fraud Police are going to show up in the night and knock on your day and say,
"We've been watching you. We have evidence that you have absolutely no idea what you are doing and have been accused of making-shit-up-as-you-go-along."
She says that everyone has that: brain surgeons, teachers, psychologists.. They all fear that they have no idea what they are doing, but the Fraud Police don't exist and they won't get you.

All of these insecurities are not really about fashion at all. It's just about me being afraid of failure and not believing in myself.

But I'm really getting better.

So part of my new year's re-set is to like fashion without worrying about not fitting in, or on the flipside worrying whether trying to fit in makes me fail as a feminist; not to worry whether I can put lipstick competently on or whether I look too young without it.
I am going to be confident about myself wearing and doing things exactly the way I want to, exactly the way I am.

Outfit details

This is an outfit I actually wore to work, fulfilling one of my new year's goals. I'm determined to ''glam" up a little this year and to wear more of my wardrobe. I have a casual dress workplace which allows for a lot of creativity that I don't make enough of.

I've worn this dress twice before on this blog. It is one of my 'go-to' pieces as they say. It tends to go with pretty much everything in my wardrobe and I have dressed it up enough to be interview wear and worn it with sandals on the beach before. 

Dress: Camden market, Shoes: Blowfish, Belt: New Look, Jacket: H&M, Beret: present, Necklace: present

In which there is snow and sorrow but all is well

Before I say anything else in this post, I must begin by saying I have just returned from seeing the current film of Les Miserables and I am still in a state of recovery. I have never seen anything that made me cry so much. Some films, like Avatar or Titanic even, have significant moments that make you cry, pinnacles of sadness as it were, but this film: wow; Andy and I were genuinely sobbing for about half the film. It is utterly heart-wrenching. Also, Hugh Jackman is a god among men. I can't deny that he is my longest running celebrity-crush. I used to have a poster of him on my wall as a teenager because I was, and am, really into X-men and he is damn sexy as Wolverine. Since then he has continuously impressed me as a person. He really can sing and he is charming and funny in real life. In this, he was so impressive that I feel proud of my 14-year old self's lasting taste.

Andy and I took the day off work to go see the film and it did work out as a wonderful day, despite the sorrow. It snowed all morning so we decided to get breakfast out. We went to this extraordinary greasy spoon that does food that the two of us crave over, by which I mean American food - pancakes, milkshakes and floats. Andy lived in America for most of his childhood and I visited him there when his parents were living in Texas. I love these things - and Britain has no IHOP (International House of Pancakes that isn't actually international).

So these are our breakfasts:

Andy's hot chocolate

American-style blueberry pancakes, with bacon. It's blurry I know, but he was in a hurry to start eating it when it arrived so I didn't get time to take lots.

I got blueberry pancakes, English muffin, bacon, sausage, egg and maple syrup.

Then we went to the park, covered in snow just for us. Having the day off felt so beautiful in the endless snow. No kids to run around, no people on bikes. We were walking through it all, still completely fresh in the middle of the day.

Outfit: Skirt: Mango, Velvet shirt: charity shop find, Coat: charity shop, Bag: New Look, Ear muffs: present, Wellies: there's long story involved with how I got those wellies, Socks: Matalan, Tights: H&M.

Butterfly wellies with lacy knee socks over knitter yellow tights.

Wearing a velvet shirt for the first time ever. The thing keeping me warm-ish. And I loved the contrast of fabrics with the thick velvet against the soft light skirts and the black on pink.

The outfit looked a lot more glamorous indoors. The gloves possibly ruin it's photogenic qualities, but it was still snowing at this point. I hope they are allowed.

Andy got me spinning round to show off the skirt. And his hands were shaking so much from all the snow that this way blurry photos were ok!

You may have noticed my hair has changed since the last blog post. I wanted to have something new and bright, hope you like it! 

And if you don't care for pictures of pancakes or people then, please look at the snowflakes. I have never seen this before, never stopped long enough in the snow to notice, but today I saw the flakes fall like Christmas sprinkles. As we caught them on Andy's gloves we notices those paper-cut out shapes, the special snowflakes of metaphor actually falling and visible with a naked eye. Without a microscope, or a fancy camera zoom, this is what we actually saw when we stopped for a moment:

In particular look at a third of the way down on the far right. Perfectly formed and incredible.

In which Hamleys gets the tour

Lego Queen and Lego guards

Lego Kate and William, plus a Lego telephone box. (There was also a Lego Harry and Duke of Edinburgh, but that's enough Lego royalty for me)

In front of a stuffed polar bear. Not a real-stuffed bear, one made by people who make cuddly bears. Seemed a bit of a leap in production to me. The photos have now moved to being in Harrods.

Teen fiction section in Harrods. I love their layouts. Look at the random giant chess piece!

Minifigure made from other figures. I've called her Belinda and she is awesome! Andy and I spent Saturday night making new Lego people after breaking up all the ones I own. The new ones have names and character backgrounds now.

Opening up my tax return's wealth

Wolverine thinks he is sneaking, but Magneto can already sense he is there!

The completed chopper. Took a little time that one.

On Saturday Andy and I took a trip to the toy shops. We got an unexpected little windfall in the form of tax returns for both of us which is very nice. And being mature tax-paying grown ups we took our government money and spent it all on booze Lego and Magic cards. Yup.

I was actually planning to go to Hamleys and Harrods toy shops all along in order to do a review of them for Bad Reputation. Bad Rep is an excellent online feminist magazine that I have written for once before. I wrote a piece suggesting that the Lego Friends series isn't as sexist as it may have first seemed. I am really pleased with having it out there because Friends has continued the trend I predicted of bringing out more empowering sets. Anyway, the next planned article is one looking at which of the major brands is the best at arranging their shop in a non-gendered way. I went to Toys R Us for it ages ago, so now I have lots of notes and want to form them into something interesting. I'll talk know more on that and link to the article when it is done.

As research trips go, it wasn't bad! I ended up having a great chat with the Lego rep in Hamleys who showed me pictures on his phone of all his sets and I like to think we bonded a little. I bought the Marvel set with the chopper, Deadpool, Magneto and Wolverine in Hamley's. It is honestly the most I have spent on any set in a very long time. I might buy a lot of toys, but I generally keep it to small amounts at a time. But we had free money! So what the heck eh?

I took a bajillion photos of the Lego display models (which were amazing), but with all the kids around and weird lighting, they aren't very good I'm sorry. (I'm always afraid taking photos in toy shops cause it's illegal to take photos of other people's kids and all that). There was also a Lego dragon and a Lego porter in Harrods which I haven't shown here. I always wonder whether they are imported or the staff devote whole days to the structures.

And, as for the outfit time... I really love this look, but it was a horrible day outside so didn't get many photos of it. I am wearing an asymmetrical skirt that goes 'swoooosh' behind me when I walk and makes me feel so sexy. I confess to being utterly vain when wearing this and looking in shop windows to see it floating out behind me. It's also green chiffon with an underskirt so the lightness makes the swooshing even easier. Doesn't show in still photos though unfortunately. I felt like a proper Londoner on Saturday though with my hat and fancy skirt and wearing lipstick and, of course, being inside Harrods. It's also interesting to see my style developing post-uni.

Outfit Elements: Hat: Camden market, T-shirt: Meat Loaf gig, Skirt: New Look, Waistcoat: Matalan, Key Necklace: gift

How was your weekend? 

I hope Deadpool has plastic katana and gun there.

In which it is about time there was some origami

Despite this blog being entitled 'Origami Girl's Heroics' you don't get to see much folding in action. Historically this blog was something quite different, a project that I didn't have the dedication for, and in which ultimately I discovered a love of fashion that I never expected to find. However, don't be fooled into thinking I no longer care for the Japanese crafts. It's true, I don't do as much origami as I used to, but I still find it a very relaxing occupation for my fingers.

Our wedding is the perfect chance to put my ability to fold origami cranes with my eyes closed into action. :)
I am making bouquets of origami tulips. Tulips are my favourite flower, but I knew from the start that I wanted to make my own bouquet in some crafty way because Pinterest is over-flowing with options like button bouquet, fabric flowers, brooches and kudasama flowers. I was so inspired! Strangely the latter seemed to be the only origami flower for which there were boundless tutorials. I considered doing a whole bouquet of cranes, but then I came up with this idea of having the single crane flying over the top of the flowers. 

I am delightfully proud of it. In fact I think it is one of the best things I've ever created - and I did art at GCSE and A Level and ran a jewellery business. I have crap-tons of art work. These bouquets though, they make me squee with delight. 

So I thought I'd have a go at a quick tutorial on how to make them, because there isn't one on the internet yet. I've never done a 'how to' on this blog before so do let me know if this is interesting or not. 

Step 1. Materials

-Glue

-Stem tape (I got it in wilkinsons, a general store type place)

-Origami paper

-Pipe cleaners

-Scissors

 Step 2. Making Tulips

I made a lot of tulips, each on from a single square of paper. If you are used to origami this should be relatively simple to follow. If not, here is a tutorial on how to make just the flowers. It is much simpler probably than my instructions. I've never actually attempted to do one of these so sorry if it doesnt make sense.

Begin with a waterbomb base

Fold the  points of the triangle on the left and right upwards to meet the centre crease. Turning the triangle into a square. Do the same thing on both sides.

Then do a 'book fold', folding each flap over from the left side to the right side like a book Keeping it the same way up always it should now look like a diamond, or a square on its side. You do the book fold twice.

Then you pick up the opposite points of the diamond, the left and the right and bring the together in the middle. Tucking one into the other. You repeat this on both sides. It should look like this.

Then fold each section in half and open again. Put your fingers and thumb between the petal sections and pull out just a little to reveal the hole at the bottom of the flower.

Blow into the whole in the previous picture to inflate the flower. You can then peel back the petals and little or as much as you like.

 Step 3. Stems

Wind two pipe cleaners together for strength and push them into the hole at the bottom of the flower. Glue it in place. Then LEAVE OVERNIGHT. I am so impatient. I always ruin things by rushing to do the next stage. But honestly, let the glue dry.

Then wind the stem tape round the whole of the pipe cleaner. Go up and down twice. Stem tape is naturally sticky so keep it taught so it releases the stickiness and press firmly when you reach the end. It shouldn't need any glue.

 Stem 4. Repeat

Then make lots of flowers like this! I like to make them different sizes and with different amount of petals pulled back. So that they are somehow 'natural' whilst being obviously fake.

 Stem 4. Bouquet it!

Get all those flowers, wrap them together and add a big bow with ribbon!

 I also made a single origami crane and glued it onto some gold wire with a bead at top and base of the bird to hold it in place. I then wrapped the wire round one of the flowers and covered it in more stem tape. When I put that flower into the bouquet, there was my bird, flying over the top!

Beautiful!

I hope this was interesting/ useful to you! I also want to say, I am possibly saving money on buying flowers doing it this way, but not oodles and oodles. I am really fussy about my paper and in Britain it is ridiculously hard to find good quality and NOT RED origami paper. All the packs tend to be in different reds and golds. They do have other colours in Japan. We are having purple, turquoise and green as our wedding colours so I ended up ordering the paper direct from Japan. I've spent about £40 on paper and have made 2 bouquets and a half. So if you are planning a wedding buying bouquets straight from a market might still be cheaper. Or you could just use plain colours and ordinary paper. Or have them as red flowers! But my origami tulips make me very happy.

 

In which there is high tea and a space suit of sorts

You know those clothes where you just feel gorgeous in them? You walk around and feel better about yourself as a person just because you are wearing them? That's how I felt today; perfectly myself in this outfit.

I have a brand new dress that is unashamedly inspired by all the fashion blogs I read and the trend for galaxy prints. Now I have one I think it is absolutely perfect. It goes with every colour! I can wear any accessory, scarf or jacket and they look just right because they bring out that particular spash of pink/yellow/electric blue in the print. So because I love it so much I am going to swamp you in photos.

I am actually wearing make-up in this which is something that I don't do too often. I go through phases and at the bottom wearing this dark red lipstick (which barely shows here) is my favourite thing.

Dress: New Look; Coat: charity shop; bag: New Look; Scarf: present; shoes: Blowfish

Hah! Messy-wind hair. And a bin in the background. I kept this photo in here despite the obviously terrible photograph elements, cause I like my face in it.

The top of these two bracelets is made up of mini Mah Jong tiles which is one of my favourite games. It's a nice thing to wear for an evening of gaming as well. If you've only played Mah Jong as a solitaire game you should totally try it as a four player proper game. It's so beautiful and elegant and also fun.

After my last post I thought it would be nice to share with you some of my Christmas gifts in action. I mentioned the deluge of fine dining items we received (tea set, cake stand etc.) and I felt it was only appropriate to invite some close friends round and have a foundue afternoon to welcome in the new year. I'm so glad we got to use it all and not have it be something left lying around in the back of a kitchen cupboard!

Luke lighting the candle for the fondue (which was being heated up in the kitchen)

Setting up the tea. Sorry for the phone in the photo!

All for one and one for all! With strawberries.