Marie Antoinette was guillotined on the 16th October 1793 at the age of thirty seven. Broken and depressed by the terrible ordeal of her imprisonment and separation from her beloved family, the formerly exquisite and carefree Queen of France was old before her time and to some extent her end must have come as a merciful release from the horror that her life had become.
RIP Marie Antoinette.
Someone just emailed me this. How awesome! I don’t know if you can see the detailing but the Sugar Chateau boot is covered with a cute little map showing the locations of, you guessed it, châteaux and cathedrals in France. I’m slightly tempted.
Can you spot Versailles?
I’ve been a bit quiet lately thanks to general busy busy, my husband being ill and my root filling taking forever to settle down. There are few things more ennui inducing than constant tooth ache.
I made it to the last round of casting for Come Dine With Me, which was good but then decided to pull out the morning that they were due to come to the flat and film me. I’m not sure what happened but logistics panicked me a bit and I had a look around my home and realised that I just really am not comfortable with the idea of anyone seeing what it looks like right now, as I fight a losing battle with mess and clutter.
I have let my writing slide too, mainly through toothache induced apathy. I should sort it out really!
An amazing parcel of historical novels arrived today as part of my birthday presents from my husband! I am so excited!
Tomorrow is my third wedding anniversary! I can’t believe that I have been married for so long! We have been together for six years now, which is just incredible really. I met him at Whitby Goth Weekend when I was with someone else and he was half asleep and propped up against a wall thanks to pulling an all nighter working on some university coursework. I had a bit of a crush on him afterwards but never, ever thought we would end up together.
Our wedding was a bit of a shambles really due to my suddenly becoming very wedding phobic and deciding that I couldn’t face all of the usual fuss. One day I will explain precisely why but today is not that day, oh no. I regret this now of course and wish that I had made a bit more of an effort and maybe been a bit more BRIDAL but we had a fab day which is all that should matter really isn’t it?
Dave has begdrudgingly agreed to have a vow renewal at some point so I am going to get it all out of my system then with flowers and cake and more CAKE and booze and a big dress and FUSS and swans and stuff.
It’s been a busy and eventful three years but I like to think that we are pretty happy!
Oh good grief, just look at my friend Mof and I MySpacing at the wedding reception!
Happy anniversary Dave! xx
I had a birthday yesterday, which was pretty good. It began in the traditional way with From Hell at midnight, which was rather good.
In the morning I had a nice lie in, which involved very weird dreams before being woken up by Dave and the boys with presents and tea! My main present was a beautiful swishy bright red swing coat, which I absolutely love. I have another present on its way, which I am very excited about!
After all this jollity, we headed to Bath for the afternoon. I had some birthday money to spend so went straight to the MAC counter in House of Fraser. I used to be really addicted to MAC stuff until I went MAD last year and sold most of my collection on. I have really regretted this ever since and so am going to build it up again. The thing is that I don’t really wear much make up but have this idea that just OWNING it will make me automatically more attractive. Hm.
Anyway, my birthday haul was:
Seriously Hip nail laquer – a greeny glittery black.
Family Silver mineralize eyeshadow duo.
Dazzlelight eyeshadow.
Knight Divine eyeshadow.
Retrospeck eyeshadow.
Ladyblush blush creme.
And an eyeshadow brush, but I can’t remember which one. I am now working on a list of more eyeshadows that will finish my collection. I can’t remember what colours I used to have but that is probably a good thing to be honest as now I can start afresh. Felix loves make up too and plastered himself with black lipstick, which was quite funny.
I had a look in Space NK as well and am considering starting up a bit of a Nars eyeshadow collection as well as they have such great colours. I also need to find a cheaper source of Philosykos as I love it so much but it is SO expensive! I just can’t justify spending almost £60 on a bottle of perfume. Or can I? No, I really can’t.
I still have about £50 birthday money left but don’t know what to spend it on. There are a few things that I would quite like but I can’t make up my mind! I might get the Emma Bridgewater pumpkin mug and the Mikey bracelet that I love. Or maybe some more cookery books or possibly another White Stuff top. I can’t decide! I am going to buy boots on pay day next month as there are a couple of pairs of Fly London boots that I really like but I can’t decide between the ‘Yule’ and ‘Mes’ styles.
After a bit of a potter around the lovely shops of Bath and a nice bagel lunch in a very elegant Georgian square it was time to come home as Dave’s dad and his fiancée were babysitting for us. They brought us a lovely anniversary present (it is next week) and a gorgeous White Stuff top for me!
Had a bit of a catch up then said ‘bye bye’ to Oscar, who shocked and delighted us by waving goodbye, which is a new development then headed out to Bristol where we went to Yo! Sushi initially for some lovely vegetarian sushi. I couldn’t have any, alas as every single bowl of avocado and cucumber sushi had fish eggs all over it, which was a bit nasty so I couldn’t eat any of it.
We then decamped to Giraffe, where the very lovely waitress sympathised with my problematic teeth which struggled with extreme temperatures thanks to root canal work and brought me a glass of warmer than room temperature water. We shared a starter of mezze, which was nice but somewhat confusing as it was supposed to be shared but they only had one falafel and one skewered halloumi. Shouldn’t there have been two?! Never mind, my burrito was delicious, as was my mug of hot chocolate afterwards.
Went to the cinema after this (we were really making the most of being out and child free for an evening!) and saw (500) Days of Summer, which I had been wanting to see for AGES. I really, really enjoyed it as I loved its quirkiness and overall styling. I also loved its bitter sweetness, which is an all too rare quality in modern cinema. I really loved Tom’s character and could really relate to him. Dave was very quiet throughout and I thought that he must be hating it but then he really shocked me by announcing that actually he really enjoyed it and would happily watch it again! Blimey!
Came home afterwards to be greeted by a just waking up Oscar, who was thrilled to see us both again. I had SUCH a lovely birthday!
I hesitated quite a bit before posting this picture as it seems to go against the fairly light hearted nature of my blog but I was so impressed by it that I decided to put it here anyway.
It depicts Russian soldiers waving the Soviet flag over the ruins of the Reichstag in Berlin after its fall in May 1945. A truly powerful, amazing image.
First of all, look at my ace new phone! It’s a Google Android Magic and is very, very swish indeed! I think that I actually prefer it to Dave’s iPhone as it seems more fun some how. I didn’t want to give up my iPod Touch so this works well for me.
I have almost recovered from yesterday’s dental ordeal. The sedation has worn off now but my gums and teeth are still aching and sensitive so I am still being a bit hesitant about eating and drinking. Have been assured that it will simmer down soon though!
Today we went to Cribb’s Causeway, which is a big shopping mall just outside Bristol so that Dave could take Felix to see Toy Story 3D and I could do a little bit of shopping. I bought Oscar a couple of cool toys and a Doidy cup, which is a weird slanted baby cup that bizarrely seems to work even though it looks like it will probably go horribly wrong.
I bought myself the Primrose Bakery cupcake book, which looks AMAZING:
And the very swishy, flouncy Victorian styled dress that I have been hankering after for ages:
I was seriously tempted by the Too Faced ‘Fabulously French’ make up palette but would it be wrong to buy something just because it has the Princesse de Lamballe on the front?
I also fell a bit in love with a Mikey bracelet, which was so beautiful and glittery and wonderful but I couldn’t quite justify buying it. I might spend some of my birthday money on it on Saturday though, as well as perhaps a pair of these from Topshop:
Or maybe these, from Rocket Dog:
What do you all think?
First of all, I am beyond thrilled that Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall won the Booker Prize tonight. Mantel wrote my favourite book ever, A Place of Greater Safety and I am so pleased that her foray into sixteenth century fiction has received so much critical acclaim. I probably should get round to reading it really!
I don’t think I have been this pleased by a Booker Prize winner since A.S Byatt won with Possession many, many years ago.
Today has been ever so slightly grim as I had to be sedated again due to one of the fillings that I had a fornight not behaving as it ought. I had assumed that the whole tooth would have to come out but in the end I (only?) had a root filling, which wasn’t too bad although I feel like I have been punched repeatedly in the face as a result. It was funny though as this time the sedation was pretty light, or so I thought, and I kept telling them that it wasn’t working only to come out afterwards and find out that what I thought was a five minute procedure had taken the best part of forty minutes. I’m such a fan of sedation.
Anyway, tomorrow we are going to take Felix to see Toy Story 3D. He is VERY excited about this. Oscar and I are going to do some shopping instead as I have some birthday money to spend. I’m going to hunt for Emma Bridgewater pumpkin mugs in John Lewis and maybe get the new Jamie Oliver and River Cottage cookery books.
"You'd find it easier to be bad than good if you had red hair," said Anne reproachfully. "People who haven't red hair don't know what trouble is." - Anne of Green Gables.
I am a middle class housewife, History geek, Versailles obsessive, Paris lover, historical fiction writer, Victorian Prostitute re-enactor, Art History graduate, committed vegetarian, GIN taster, curry lover and Pimms addict living in the deepest darkest West Country with my family.
I'm a member of the Romantic Novelists' Association, Whitechapel Society and London Historians and also a reviewer for the Historical Novel Society.
I shouldn't really need to say this but all the written content on this site is my own work and copyrighted to me so please ask before using elsewhere. I've come across a couple of sites now that have lifted my work without any acknowledgement and it leaves a nasty taste to be honest and makes me YOUR ENEMY FOR LIFE.
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