It's All About You

Hello Hello Hello!

Not only am I back from California, but I'm back from Christmas all Shiny like Tinsel.

In memory of Christmas, I've just consumed a sizable portion of v. moist Christmas Pudding that has been sitting in the fridge since I served it on Christmas Eve. I sensibly ate it with Low fat yoghurt which was a slightly jarring experience even though I did my best to pretend that it was Brandy Custard.

Don't think for a moment that I cooked the pudding myself. Absolutely Not. All that fuss & bother making it months in advance & wrapping it up in some dirty rag & then boiling the Living Daylights out of it for hours & hours. It's Sooo Dickensian.

I'm Far More Moderne. I bought it at The Supermarket & popped it in the microwave. Honestly, if you were blindfolded you wouldn't have known. Trust me.

Scroll back to the First Photo. I took it whilst I was being driven along Hollywood Blvd by my friend Marge. When I go to LA I like to take pictures of billboards from the car. It's a Huge Challenge, rather like scoring a parking space in 'Westfield' on the first day of the After-Christmas Sales.

Perhaps you may think I'm being a trifle fanciful, but I do think that the billboards in LA speak to me personally. And 'It's All About You' is one of my all time favourite sayings. Except that I say, 'It's ALWAYS All About Me'.

And talking About Me, here's all the stuff that I had to pack into my suitcase to take home.

Let me walk you through it. At the front are wrapped gifts for Marge's friends & family that I Slightly Resentfully took home. Never mind that some of them were for me & Maeflower.

I must now resort to a Numbered Point:

2. Four round Xmas Decoration Globes from 'Cost Plus';

3. A Xmas Card featuring a fifties Mum & kids around the Tree opening their gifts with the caption, 'Now wasn't the best time to tell the kids that they were Jewish'.

4. A book by Maira Kalman, 'The Pursuit of Happiness' which I'm slightly sour I didn't write.

5. A 'Pottery Barn' bag

6. A H&M Bag.

7. A 'Barnes & Noble' Bag.

8. A lighter in the shape of a lobster.

9. I'd better stop now. It's getting a Little Tedious.

Here's Marge wearing her vintage Diane Von Furstenberg wrap dress with a vintage bracelet I gave her some years ago & a bird necklace she purchased with me at 'Forever 21' which I like to call 'Eternal 21'. I, of course bought one too. We don't mind having the same stuff. It never looks the same on us anyway. I look like a Smurf next to her.

And talking of Smurfs, here I am in the Salvation Army Depot in Thousand Oaks sitting on a v. interesting & lush looking velvet chair that Marge actually bought & has now safely installed in her front parlour.

I am excitedly wearing a genuine 'Dorothee Bis' pure wool dress that I had purchased the previous day at the Thousand Oaks Hospice Thrift Shop, a shop that I had been told that there was never anything worth buying in it. So, imagine my Utter Glee when I found this item at an astonishing 60% off ,which made it $1.60.

You may notice that I'm smugly dangling a 'Coach' handbag in my fingers. Never a particular fan of 'Coach', I casually picked it up & began a thorough inspection to see if it could possibly Be Real. My hopes were raised when I discovered a little pouch inside containing a set of rosary beads. Surely a practitioner of the Rosary wouldn't use a Fake, I mused?

Anyway, I've convinced myself that the bag is Real. While standing in line at the checkout, an enthusiastic shopper loudly asked me how much it was. I said 50% off $15. She said that she saw one in Ventura that day for $70. I suppressed the urge to clap my hands together in glee.

Later, I rushed off to the 'Coach' shop in the Thousand Oaks Mall & purchased a little 'Coach' dangly thingy. I'm not sure what their Technical Name is. A Handbag Charm? Anyway, whatever it is, it's Adorable.

Not Technically in Paris.

Marge is showing off some more of our purchases from 'Forever 21'. This one is a pendant with the Eiffel Tower on it. Everywhere I go, I see Eiffel Towers even though I'm Not Technically in Paris. Is it a sign?

I'm now toying with the idea of taking French lessons at the Alliance Francaise.

Note how I'm not wearing any make up. And I'm wearing a daggy grey top. Talk about Fearless.

I loved this window display at a shop in Malibu. I do soo love polar bears although I do believe that they will eat you if they're hungry enough.

Fluro Pink Like a Highlighter Pen.

Finally, I'm shopping at Olvera Street in downtown LA. I go there every year. Always to the same shop. And basically buy the same stuff. We're done in half an hour.

But that's not why I'm showing you the picture. Look look at the sweater. I bought it the previous day. It was $10. Because of the price, I convinced myself that it was Shocking Pink, like you know, Shaparelli Pink. Sadly, when I got it home I realised that it was more 'Fluro Pink', you know, like a Highlighter Pen. I wore it anyway.

Thankyou, ReaderRita for making those fab suggestions for places to go to in LA. Sadly, I was leaving that day. But manyana.