In which I celebrate spirograph

Spirograph. It's a classic kids toy from the 90s. It works something like the below:

You take a little cog with holes in it, place a pen in one of the holes, and spin it round a toothed wheel, making perfect geometric shapes. This little travel spirograph set belonged to my sister and after being jealous of it for years when I was a kid, I finally got it from her in my 20s. (Thanks Hannah!)

Every so often I do sit down and play with it for a little while. It is a perfect little box, and just like origami - something that is both creative and ordered. 

My spirograph Desigual dress was one of those perfect items that I saved and saved for. I saw it the shop  at uni, and fell in love with. Spirograph patterns in bright colours, just perfect for my love of the childish.
It was obviously well out of my normal buying price, but I went back and checked it was still there for several months, probably trying it on about 5 times... before finally buying it at the end of second year as a post-exam reward. It's been with me for many summers, but in the last year has become neglected at the back of the wardrobe. It's a fairly snug fitting dress and for a while I was overly conscious of how much weight I have gained since uni, but here I am even sitting down in it despite my awkward feelings.

This is all part of my current project which is taking the time in my outfit pictures to find a way of wearing clothes that have become unloved. If I can't find anything that makes me feel fabulous in them, then to the charity shop they must go. So far, my donation pile is staying very short, and my clothes are getting a lot of love.

The travel spirograph box slides open to reveal a little box for all the different size and shape cogs, and the level to put the paper in. Then it all neatly slots back together again.

Finished!

Did you play with spirograph as a kid? Have you seen it before, or is this a new toy to you?

In which I am in London

I’m sorry I have delayed again in writing another blog post. I was having a pretty bad week and I felt sure that whatever I did write would end up being tainted by misery and one sad blog post is enough for a while.

I will mention that during the week my computer crashed and was out of internet for five whole days. It was very stressful. Mostly because I thought it would never be fixed, but here I am! On the internet. I also have an interview… I know I said I had had nothing and here I am. In London with an interview in a few days.

So I thought I would ignore the bad things in the last week and do a little mention of some of the highlights.

My sister came to visit (which is in itself great) and brought a whole load of books. I mentioned previously that I have a lot, but I would say that she has nearly double mine. So I read some wonderfully predictable teen stories about a spy with excellent puns for titles.

And then a less predictable interesting teen fantasy about a poison taster. I recommend them both for some fun reading.

I painted my nails green and then orange

I gained a travel spirograph, which is totally awesome. I mentioned it ages ago on the post about my spirograph dress so I got my sister to hunt through her stuff and find me it.

I carefully bought my camera to London with me to take photos and blog whilst I am here. However I am an idiot because I left the cable which allows me to upload photos behind. Therefore the spirograph set above is not mine but from a site called samstoybox.com with pictures of lots of spirograph. However it looks pretty much like this in different colours with a few more wheels. I think the guy on the site would be jealous because I have all the pieces and paper! :P

And today? I saw my boyfriend for the first time in weeks. So happy things do happen.

In which I love Elmer and Spirograph

I have so many childish things that I love, many of which I have mentioned here before (oh so many times). I love playmobil and lego and comics and children's books. I often think that I want kids one day just so I can read out loud to them. In fact I read aloud to my boyfriend on occassion. I have read most of Howl's Moving Castle out loud as a bedtime story for both of us and before we were even 'dating' I read him a story I had written out loud.

So anyway I recently bought this amazing thing. A bag of Elmer books! Lots of books and an adorably cute bag that I can use to carry books around in! It came with 10 Elmer books, which I have kept to give away whenever there is an opportunity to give a child I know a book. I bought the whole set of books though just for this bag.

I decided to theme my outfit today around my love of the childish by also wearing my 'spirograph' dress. I don't know if you had spirograph when you were little, but it is a very inventive toy. You get little cogs with holes in them the right size for a pencil point and a toothed circle with paper underneath. Depending on which hole you have placed the pencil in, as you move the cog around the teeth it draws interesting patterns. My sister had a little travel set and I would actually go buy another one just for fun, to keep in my handbag and play with on trains.

(Dress: Desigual, Shoes: Next, Jacket: XXI, Earrings: EccentricAccessories, Bag: Book company)

I don't know if my love of childish things is just too immature but I like to think of it as being partly a good sense of nostalgia and partly a good sense of fun.

p.s. I dyed my hair! It's now mahogany rather than drab brown.