colouring, watching, gushing

Went and checked my postbox earlier to find three packages were waiting for me, all things I'd completely forgotten I'd ordered over the holidays. This semester I'm going to make a bit of an effort to curb my spending on silly little things that add up. Mainly bus fare and the take away coffees I usually buy to perk me up just before a lecture. So, ta-da, a insulated travel mug! Along with a tin of Caran D'ache pens I ordered from Amazon the other day when suddenly overcome by the urge to...colour in? My Granny used to buy me sets of Caran D'ache when I was little-I remember spending so long labouring over a picture of an underwater scene of spotted octopus and stripey fish and bright coral each day after school for a Blue Peter competition and then missing the deadline when I liked it too much to want to send it in. Maybe it's just fond memories like this but in a sad way I'm kind of feeling just 'drawing' at the moment.  Maybe something to do with catching up with the genius Isabel's Animal Talk and missing having a pen between my fingers to draw rather than write with. On the subject of Isabel, she never fails to amaze me, she creates such cool little sculptures. Supersized Geodes or tongue-in-cheek 'cake landscapes' that are painted in colours so knee-weakeningly pretty that you're torn between wanting to pop them in your mouth and chew them like bubblegum or crawl into them and never come out.

And something I was very excited about is this copy of US Vogue from 1961. With mini reviews for Breakfast at Tiffanys and West Side Story and an awful lot of adverts for mink coats and stockings and lipstick and ford cars having a leaf through it felt very Betty Draper. It was sent to me by Leanne who is working for Sky Atlantic, which I've been really excited about launching after reading about it in various 'What to look out for in 2011' magazine features over Christmas. There is always something about January and fantastic television schedules that makes me feel all excited and compelled to confine myself indoors every night with a hot water bottle and strict viewing plans. As an American Studies student and general US cultcha nerd I'm especially excited for the launch of a channel with so many stateside exports. Treme (I couchsurfed with a guy whose Dad was working on it when I was in Venice Beach), Boardwalk Empire, new Mad Men (don't get me started..) yadda yadda.

All in all a bit of a gushy post. And here is a nice chilled song to remedy the overexcited tone..