I hope I'm like this when I'm 80...oh yes.

it's been a month since my last post...bad jodie...
love reiss clothes. especially at sale time.

i have been mega busy lately with work, trying to do all the hours under the sun so I have some overtime for our road trip in September. 5 months to go!  so far we've just got our flights booked - london to san fran and then new york to london.  we still haven't booked our internal flight from the west coast to ny, so i'm thinking of biting the bullet and incorporating Portland and Seattle in our trip, even if it's just for a couple of days.  Portland is a must-see for me i think.

off to my mum's today for some sewing...suffering from serious blog envy..

this photo was taken when we went to see some friends in Pennsylvania.  for some reason, G and I have a habit of wearing matching outfits.  don't ask me why - it is not deliberate, I assure you, but for some reason that day we were doing our very best superhero impression.  my sister said that if one of us ever died, that would be the picture that the other would love the most. and i totally get what she means.

loving this

this beautiful little number was on sale for $800 in a gorgeous vintage store on St Marks, NY.  the lady owner had hired it out over the years for all kinds of fashion shoots, and she was finally ready to part with it. if i was getting married again, i think i may have fallen in love.

                currently listening to this ...

As a lover of all Polaroid images, it was with shock and dismay that I read that Polaroid were to cease production of instant film. Of course, this was inevitable.  They stopped producing their instant cameras last year which was a major indication of what would happen.  It seems they want to focus more on their digital cameras and accessories, which is ironic because their digital gear has never been very good.  Still, the times they are a-changin, and so we must roll.

I'm not going to go without a fight though.  I know there are many people out there who still use Polaroid, be they fashion photographers or those who just get that tiny flicker of excitement in their stomach every time they take a pound-a-picture.  I fall into the latter camp.  I bought myself a mint condition Sx-70 from ebay a couple of years ago and take it with me every holiday.  Being a person with quite romantic sensibilities, I imagined myself using Polaroid to capture my future kids in action, sticking them on the front of my fridge and loving them all the more dog-eared they became.  Film will cease production later this year so I don't think I'll get round to procreating in time.  For me, the romanticism is that every Polaroid film has an expiry date.  Sometimes by using a film after it's expired, you can get even more beautiful colours.  It's unpredictable and that's part of its charm.  Sure, the immediacy of it has been matched by digital (and I'm a big fan of digital), but the whole notion of digital - the fact that a raw file is literally just numbers and information - makes it seem very clinical.  You can take a photo, load it on to your mac and make a million identical copies.  Brilliant if you're into publishing.  You can take a polaroid, scan it in and make a copy, but the copy will never be identical.  You will never get back to the original.  And for me, that's the beauty.

I spent four years working at my local cinema when I was younger and spent a bit of time in the projection room.  Of course, I had romantic notions of being a modern-day Alfredo a la Cinema Paradiso, but playing Harry Potter on 7 screens at one hour intervals soon brings you back to reality.  I was constantly fascinated by the vulnerability of the film itself.  Every time a print is played, a little bit of it falls away.  At the end of every night, when cleaning the projector, there would be a fine layer of purple dust laying underneath where the film had passed at great speed.  This was the emulsion wearing away.  I remember the first time I saw The Godfather a few years ago, it was an original print from the Seventies and it looked as though it had been to hell and back.  There were burns throughout, heat splices where it had had the odd frame taken out by the projectionist - if you had watched a new film like that you would have asked for your money back.  But the fact that it was The Godfather I was watching, the fact I was in a tiny cinema on a University campus, made it all the more glorious.  In projection they would talk about the ways of the future.  There would be no need for projectionists; every morning the cinema manager would just  download the digital files from the head office and press play. Literally.  Press play.  Is it just me, or has the whole world becoming a Press Play world?

A line from a favourite film comes to mind: If memories could be canned, would they have expiry dates? If so, I hope they last for centuries. [Chungking Express]

I'm going to post a polaroid or two every day for the coming week or so.  These images here were taken in my sister's Brooklyn apartment last year.  They totally capture the atmosphere. 

If you use polaroid, why don't you do it too and send me a link?  I would love to see what you do.

This week's Film Friday, is not one, but two movies.  I feel that these films are so integral to each other that they belong together as one film.  You cannot have one without the other, and the emotional impact of the finale of part two would not be possible without seeing the story play out in part one.

For those of you who have never had the pleasure of watching Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources, I implore you to seek out these films immediately.  Don't read too much about either film in advance as you'll be sure to read some pretty big plot spoilers.

Jean de Florette tells the story of Papet and his nephew, Ugolin, who, blinded by visions of greed and fortune, covet their neighbour's land for its fine soil and water spring.  When their neighbour dies, they see their opportunity to buy their way in, but are dismayed to find that a hunchback, Jean, has inherited the farm & has decided to leave the city to make way for a life of farming with his wife and young daughter.  Papet and Ugolin block up the spring in an effort to ruin his crops and allow them to buy up the land, but their actions leave them bloodguilty as Jean struggles to save his crops against the odds.   Manon des Sources continues the story a few years later & shows the devastating consequences of greed and selfishness.

That's it.  No more spoilers.  You'll have to discover it for yourself.

Thought it was about time Film Friday was resurrected.  I'm determined to get into the swing of things properly, and find a great film to recommend every Friday.  It's fun for me and maybe you'll discover a new favourite.

I'm a big Woody Allen fan, so this week's selection is one of his best, Annie Hall.  I first saw this when I worked in the projection booth at my local cinema.  We had it in for a one-off Wednesday Special, and as every film has to be "previewed" before the public can see it, [and as none of my co-workers fancied the job], I stepped up.  Clipboard in hand & an extra large cappuccino [it was 1am], I settled back in my comfy multiplex chair and gave the thumbs up to projection.  Cameras roll, cue the following, fantastic opening to one of my top films ever...enjoy:

Wow, a post every day.  This new leaf is turning pret-ty good.  Thanks for all your lovely welcome back comments - much appreciated.

I really love this photo.  I took it of G last week in Bath and I think of it as my "fashion photograph" (I should be so lucky)... slightly Burberry with a twist.  My Photoshop skills don't quite extend to removing the figure to the right.  It's the light that makes it for me; soft, late afternoon, low in the sky.  Photography is all about the light - look for the light and there's your photo.  I've used Lightroom a little to recover some of the highlights, but I like the bleached, flare look - a big trend in fashion photography at the moment, which means it will soon be overdone and killed.

Long live the flare.

In true Jane Austen style, we took a little trip to Bath last weekend.  Bath is such an amazing place - stunning Georgian architecture, fabulous boutique shops & great museums.  We hit this one at the Fashion Museum just before we left for home. 

It was absolutely freezing, so warm clothing was a must.  I picked up these wonderful brown boots on eBay just a couple of days before we travelled down.  I'd been looking for some flat brown boots for ages and these caught my eye.  They're Top Shop, which means they're reliable and well made.  Didn't break the bank either, at £65, although that is the wonder of eBay.   The navy military coat with brass buttons is a find from two years ago.  Again Top Shop (I'm really trying to get away from that place - it's just too darn good).  The buttons keep falling off but I just keep sewing them back on again.  Peeking out from underneath is a fab mustard 60s wool shift I got in New York last Christmas for a bargain $15.  I love it and it's so warm.

And the outfit must be completed with a chunky red scarf, thick woollen tights, and a brand new olive green, leather Orla Kiely bag.  A third off too!  That was the find of the weekend, in a little shop called Prey.  If you every happen to take a trip to Bath (and I recommend you do), check it out as it's a mecca for lovers of Orla, Betty Jackson, you name it.   

I love weekends away.