In which I have a birthday wishlist

It's my birthday in a couple of weeks so I thought this would be a good excuse to indulge in some online window shopping. I thought I would go ahead and share some of the things I have been eying up of late.

1. Galaxy tights.
I know this trend has been around for a while, but it looks so much fun to pair with a black dress. It is also one of those things where they cost so much that I always find myself thinking of how much more stuff I could get for the same amount, but perfect indulgence for a birthday. Right? 

2. More Lego.
 I can't deny that Lego have some freaking awesome sets out right now. My favourites are the Lego Gandalf + Cart set or Wethertop from the Lord of the Rings series. Or Wolverine, Deadpool and the Helicoper set, or the massive Harley, Joker, Batman circus set from the Lego Heroes series. There is also a really cool looking lighthouse in the Creator series. I drool over all of these in the toy shop. 

3. My ears pierced 
I used to wear earrings every single day for years. I had them pierced at 16 and then about 2 years ago one day they started bleeding. After wearing earrings for 6 years they slowly healed up. One is completely gone and with some effort I can still get an earring in the left ear. Seems an odd birthday wish because it's a lack of a thing, a hole that I am wanting rather than a thing itself. :)

4. New shoes.
I would like a new pair of every day comfy shoes for just being out and about + a new pair of comfortable heels for going out out. When searching for shoes I found the pervading presence of creepers fascinating. There were so many that there were a few lace up brogue-like ones that I paused over and considered. It shows how effective trends can be. Creepers are not my style. Or they are the style I wore as a teenager. I like to wear brogues as my every day shoes or other cute lace-ups and yet for a moment I was nearly convinced that I like something I don't!

This is the one I was tempted by, but it doesn't beat the blue sude shoes below a bit.

Night Out shoe contenders:
From Irregular Choice

 

Every day shoes:

Blue Suede shoes from Clarks.
 Actually looked and touched these in the shop yesterday. They are so soft! However as I live in Britain I am a bit afraid of getting suede shoes as they can get ruined in the rain. I know people say avoid wearing them in the rain, but again -Britain- it can look like a sunny day and then chuck it down. Any advice on this as I do really like these shoes?

Churnky brogues 'Luigi Shark Tooth' from Office They look really comfy and long-lasting. 

 Kickers red ankle boots from Asos. Again, comfy but possibly won't go with quite as much stuff.

And that is enough shoes!

5. Peter pan collar.
qtpiworkshop on etsy has loads of beautiful collars that are seriously tempting. Like this one:

6. Something cute like this!
Heartless Amigurimi from AnaZoe.

After all that though I am honestly a massive fan of surprises so if you are someone who actually knows me don't think of these as demands. They are mere wishes. I am not going to pretend to be one of those people who claim not to like presents. Presents are fun, as materialistic as that may sound, but I do especially love the anticipation. I love getting a parcel and feeling all the bumps and trying to guess what it is. How can that not be fun?
What do you think?

In which Origami Girl talks about more than Lego and fashion

I have been thinking about what to post for the last few days. Although I have some outfit photos in waiting, there has been so much crazy stuff going on in politics that I kind of want to comment. Alongside my fashion blogs I read a lot of feminist blogs (The Vagenda, Bad Reputation) and so I am well versed now on Todd Akin and 'legitimate rape' and George Galloway and rape as 'bad sexual etiquette', and the series of apalling laws being passed in Arizona over the last year. Plus I am also into games and gaming and read about a wonderful press conference in which a game company said they went for a male proganist because then they wouldnt have to deal with panty shots. Because apparantly girls wearing freaking trousers didn't occur to them, doesn't even exist in their world! I have spent days following all the Twitter conversations about Assange and come home every day with more developments on the situation to report. And just to make my opinion on that clear -he should follow due process and stand trial for rape like anyone else.

So there is all that going on. I wrote out a long more eloquent post about my current feelings about religion and the represenation of religion as well. Then I decided it just wasn't what this blog is currently about. By which I mean responding instantly to a source of frustration and ranting about it. I have tucked away my typed up rant because spending the effort writing it and then correcting my own grammar calmed me enough that it didn't need sharing with the internet. This is not filled with the same personal rage as that one (it was very much referring to a specific incident which I am trying to move on from).

I sometimes feel overwhelmed by how messed up things are at the moment. I blog about sexism in toys, in particular Lego, because I feel that that is my clear area of expertise. Assange is not and I would direct anyone interested to the excellent David Allen Green.

I don't really have any more to say on this topic, or anything wittier or more to the point than any good feminism magazine. Yet after hearing all this going on I remember that feminism is important. It is important to be educated. Read books. Learn about the world. Defend your opinions. Some people think feminism is over, has achieved its goals, but this is either arrogance or wishful thinking. These might not be wrongs like not voting, but controlling reporoductive rights and dismissing rape charges as 'bad sexual etiquette' are real problems and I can't just 'calm down' and ignore them. I will mention them on this blog if just for a moment because my interest in Lego and fashion doesn't exist in a vacuum. These things are really happening too and I really care.

Also Andy is really affecting my mood. He's practising the viola for an audition piece and, to play to his strengths, is doing emotional sad pieces. It's hard not to feel reflective and as though everything is poignant when there is live sombre music next to me.

Practising this piece amongst others if you want to hear something truly beautiful and sad:

In which I have a batwing dress and lots of enthusiasm

I did my nails with two glitter purple and three grey on each hand to match the purples and greys in the top. 

Hat: Charity shop; Dress: Polly's, Aberystwyth; Jewellery: Charity shops

 So in my last post I mentioned that I had a new dress. I am seriously utterly in love with it. I tried to get a lot of photographs of it to try and capture how good it is but to be honest they don't really go justice to how good I feel in it. It is incredibly soft. You may have noticed on this blog that I am always wearing sleeveless clothes. In fact even in winter I will wear a sleeveless top with a jumper and coat over it. I really really hate to be too warm or to feel trapped in clothing (I despise polo-necks too), and am always paranoid about sweating. However this is actually two items. Underneath is a greyish brown cotton tank top (super soft) and then the top item only has sleeves at the end, but is also loose over the rest. I think that being loose works to make me look thinner than a lot of other clothes do. Tight clothes show my belly bump, but here I can just imagine that I have a good stomach because no one knows! The batwing style is also very different from my usual colourful wear and thus makes me feel sophisticated and I guess 'fresh'.  Unbelievably comfy and feeling that good makes me happy.  I don't know that I have ever raved about one item of clothing so much (which should make the giver happy -thanks Nay!).

I am also clearly wearing it as a top not a dress and that is probably what it is for taller people, but when I pull down it covers my short shorts so that makes it a dress to me. This is what I wore to go to a big family gathering of my fiances side, but I intend to wear it to go clubbing too. I would then wear it with black tights and my gold heels.

Silly posing photo. I always start giggling when I try to do proper poses.

There were loads of these beautiful flowers in the park near my fiance's parents house. There were lots of bees around but they wouldn't stay still long enough for photographing.

In which there are small moments of happiness and Lego bagpipes

I thought I would do one of those 'snapshots of life' things I have seen other bloggers do to make me cheerful. Today has been One of Those Days. You know, I accidently over-worked and, because I lost track of time,  had to wait fifty minutes for the next train home. It would have been forty except the train was delayed. And then it was chucking it down when I got off. Andy and I have been too busy to tidy so the whole house is a tip, which just isn't fun to come home to. Oh and I didn't get the job I interviewed for recently. My current job is most excellent and interesting, but it is also unpaid. I am therefore skint which is like a nagging level of panic at the back of my mind that crops up in the middle of something unrelated and can cause my heart a little grinding judder. I am sure we have all had that worry though.

However, I have had a recent re-awakening of love for this blog. The last two months I feel like I am having fun with posts and making new outfits. Plus I have a new dress I got as an early birthday present which I cannot wait to photograph. I am saving it for a bbq for this weekend (which might be a terrible idea if I get ketchup down chiffon) but I have tried it on in the house in front of the mirror about three times. Just to prepare the outfit you know? It is really different from anything I already own -batwing sleeves! But I shall save the rest of the squeeing for later.

Also, you may have noticed that I made some minute changes to the blog. The most obvious should be the new header. It has a picture of me rather than my superhero alter-ego on it. I am tipping my hat to say hello and, as a nod to the name, I used origami pattern scans from Deviant Art as part of the background. I feel that making it counts towards my weekly 'creative activity'.  Please let me know what you think. I appreciate all your thoughts and comments.

Anyway, here are some other good things in my life:

Home-made curry paste. Feels wonderfully creative + tasty

New glasses with turqoise on the inside, bronze outside. Gives little hidden flashes of colour

Library books. The library is a wonderful spot for the sad, even with noisy kids you can always escape inside

Two new musical Lego people from my sister. Look at his concetrating face! The grey eyebrows! The little hat!

Pink-style punk Lego girl!

 Ok. Just looking at pictures of my new Lego figures has made me happy again. I mean, have you seen the little Lego bagpipes? That's enough to make anyone's day. Even in the rain.

In which Edinburgh is a land of books and magic

I have recently returned from a delightful holiday to Edinburgh. If you have been following this blog for some time you may have observed that every year I go to the Edinburgh Fringe on holiday. For some time I have written short reviews of everything that I have seen and mused delightedly on the whole experience. Every Fringe is different and this one did feel a little at odds with some of the others. Not that we didn’t have a great time, it was just a slightly different experience. For a start we spent just a little less time at shows and a little more exploring Edinburgh. There was more sunshine in the three days we were there this year than all the other times combined. It was hot. And gloriously so. On the last morning we sat on the roof of the National Museum of Scotland and, side by side, with a view of all the city in front of us, snuggled into our new books.

Edinburgh hosts numerous festivals throughout the summer, one of which is the Book Festival. Despite never having been (and really considering it for next year) our trip this time felt a bit more like that was our focus. I spent about an hour in the children’s bookshop with the appropriate amount of innocent happiness. I collect Bunty annuals which are a rare enough find that I couldn’t resist buying one, or  a Folio edition of the Just So stories in a mint condition box. I was wandering round the shop with an ever growing stack of books, constantly dragging Andy to a new section with ‘Look at this! Girls Gone By books!’ And you can replace that with shelves of folio books/first edition Chalet School/Noel Streatfield books I’ve never seen before/Doctor Dolittle books… It was my kind of special place. We similarly devoured a fantasy bookshop with an unusual toy section. Once more it held hoards of undiscovered books –and one little section of stuffed tapirs and armadillos. I browsed the shop with a soft and squishy sloth tucked under my arm, but couldn’t actually justify the cost in the end. We also visited the Children’s Museum and saw bits of Edinburgh after all this time that we had never explored. It was wonderful to have that time with the two of us, just going slowly. Whilst we still saw about thirteen shows for three days  it was all at a beautiful leisurely pace and with a lot of time sitting on steps with our books or the hour I spent reading Just So stories aloud to Andy sitting on golf course.

So like any good blogger I have photos to share. Other than the stack of books, my favourite purchase for the trip was this new skirt from a little boutique shown in the photos below. I am wearing it over the tops of a dress which is something I never would have thought of before reading fashion blogs, but I think this really worked.

I got Andy a pack of curly straws for his birthday (amongst other things) and this is one such straw.

Edinburgh Castle

Swan sculptures by a canal we didn't even know existed

Canal at sunset

This is very unusual for me, but I have my hair tied in a plait

Close up of the pattern on my new skirt

I think this is my favourite photo of me for a long time

Giving it the spin test

In which I am obsessed with Bones for all the right reasons

I have been watching a lot of Bones lately. 

It is a tv show about a forensic anthropologist called Dr Temperance Brennan. The basic premise is that she uses her knowledge of bones to team up with the FBI, who know about people, to catch murderers -with the help of her team of talented scientists at the Jerffersonian Institute. There is often a clash played out between the anthropologist Dr Brennan (aka Bones) and her FBI partner Agent Seeley Booth. Although they care about each other, Brennan is all about the empirical evidence and Booth about the instinctive emotions, but between the pair of them and the 'squint squad' they always lock the bad guy up. As crime plots go it is neat, character drivenand we don't have gory shots of the crimes being committed like Criminal Mind, but it is just as, if not more, fascinating. 

I am a bit late to the party with this one I know as it has been out since 2005.

However with NCIS over for now and House over forever, I needed something new to watch. So when I said 'a lot of Bones' what I mean is we've been getting whole seasons out of Blockbuster and watching about four episodes a night for the last few weeks so I am in a good position to really comment on character and show development because I have seen it all in that intense space of time. 

When I watch a new show I have lots of criteria for judging it: originality, acting, good characters etc. the usual ones. But one thing that matters to me is the presentation and representation of women. I am an un-abashed feminist and I get so tired of bechdel-test failing shows or ones that play upon tired Hollywood stereotypes or are merely an overtly male story (Prison Break, for example). The real reason I feel the need to write this review is because Bones kicks ass on the feminism point and I want to celebrate that.

To begin with there is a wealth of female characters:

(as of Season 3)

Dr Temperance Brennan aka Bones -The lead of the show

Angela -Brennan's best friend and the artist who puts a face to the skulls

Camille -Brennan’s boss who provides a bit of lateral thinking to the team

Additional female characters:

Caroline Julian: the kick-ass lawyer who often acts as the prosecutor, using Brennan's team's evidence.

Booth's ex and other assorted love interests, Russ' girlfriend and then various victims, killers, suspects and everything else in between.

Keeping the Bechdel test in mind these women -they talk to each other, about things other than their relationships to men all the time! Usually about science and corpses. Men do come up, but the women's conversations are not there to highlight the character development of the men or merely reveal interesting plot points about the men. And talking of character development, the story does not play on tropes of women dying/suffering in order to progress the development of the men. The main male character Agent Seeley Booth has far less character development than the women. He is very likeable, but as the male lead he is almost too dependable.

In contrast Dr Brennan, although not an FBI agent herself, is often put in dangerous situations as she hunts down psycho killers. In these situations she demands a gun and, although Booth is not keen on this idea or her joining him in the field at times, this protectiveness is presented as the wish of a friend not rooted in an assumption of feminine weakness. Instead Dr Brennan saves Booth's life though shooting and, through skill at martial arts, beats up a cartel-leader as well as various other occasions of escaping from capture through either violence or ingenuity. She has brains and courage and surprising skills (she is also an author, a good cook and a diver). At this gushing point I became aware that this might put her at risk of Dan Brown-esque Mary Sueism of a hyperbolic level of talent. You know how Dan Brown writes these un-realistic women as though he's saying 'How can I be sexist? All my female characters are amazing' (Just take another look at them, trust me)

But when I thought through this fear I realised that Brennan is given character development and flaws -awkward family relationships, she is incredibly tactless, bad at boyfriends, sometimes selfish. etc.

I really could go on and talk in depth about the minutia of the show, the guest appearances and more, but overall this show has totally won my feminist heart. I hope I have said enough to convince you and if you have already been watching this show for seven years I apologise, but please let me know what you think! But no spoilers! I'm only onto season three!

p.s. This is my 100th blog post! 

In which there are product reviews and sunset

Cliche as it may be the soft evening light of sunset has to be the best part of the day. Everything looks a touch more beautiful in that light, and even the shadows seem brighter. It is not often that we get a moment like this, where is is warm and I am out in the evening, with a camera and wearing something pretty so I am really pleased with thse photos. Last week, when we had our flirtation with an American-style summer, me and my boy took these photos by the cathedral after sitting in the park drinking frapaccinos. I have had this dress for ages but I hardly ever wear it because it is very short which means no bending down to pick anything up or walking in front of people on stairs. It is also really weirdly fitted around the boobs with these odd bits of fabric that have to be tucked in to stop me from looking like I have triangle-boobs. It's from inlovewithfashion and I wouldn't really advocate buying it for anyone else, because it is also a bit tight and this is their sizing guide:

LOVE SIZE GUIDE: SMALL/MEDIUM FITS 8/10, MEDIUM/LARGE FITS 10/12.

Their dresses only come in S/M or M/L and apparantly a large extends only as far as 12. And as I am 12 and their dresses in M/L are a little uncomfortable their sizing is Ridiculous. How small do they want people to be? It's like I'm shopping at Abercrombie & Fitch or something. 

Now that my little rant is over I want to balance it with some product praise. Unlike a lot of fashion bloggers I don't have a vast repertoire of new clothes. This is partly because I don't have lots of 'disposable income' as it were, but in fairness it is to do with priorities. I also spend a lot of my money on Playmobil and Lego, and second hand books, and cakes and smoothies. So sometimes I feel a bit bad for wearing the same things in all my photos. In particular, if you look back on years of photos on this blog, in summer I am always wearing the same shoes.

 

These sandals. I bought them from Next four years ago for a trip to Texas. I have worn them all summer ever summer since. I don't even own another pair of sandals, that's how much I don't fit the fashion blogger stereotype. They have a cushioned bottom that has molded to my foot and has never worn out and so they are all I need. I have worn them in the sea and left them outside in 30 degrees heat and climbed mountains in them; they have never broken or got holes in or torn or become mildly uncomfortable. Sadly I just checked out their site and I don't see anything like them available. Sorry guys. But there we go. In my opinion Love = not so comfy, Next = sofa soft.

I will leave you with more shots of me in the sun. Oh and remember how I said I had found The Hat? Well I really wasn't exagerating. :) 

I know, I wear my engagement ring every day so there is a limit to how many outfit photos I can have of it, but it looked lovely and shiny in the sun.

I tried to get a romantic photo with the heart handbag between us. It didn't exactly work, but I hope you get the gist.