I miss hand writing letters as much as I miss receiving them. When I was a kid I used to collection stationery. Cartoons, art, floral, remember the sickeningly perfumed ones? I would collect all kinds, trade them with friends and keep them in a little box beneath my bed. They would stay there until I needed to write a letter to a friend and then I would go through the process of selecting the perfect one.

Now that I’m older, I think personalised stationery is more appropriate to pink perfumed prancing pandas. It still gives me a little shiver of delight.

Those of you who know me well, know that my enjoyment of fashion is equally matched by my enjoyment of organising things. That’s a polite way of saying that I could be am a control freak drugged up on OCPD, who loves to spend a free Sunday surrounded by boxes. And I have recently discovered the genius that is clear shoe boxes.

When you go into the wardrobe, you go to war. Well, you can’t spell one without the other. It is a sophisticated battle, dictating the need for beautiful French wine (yes, I am slowly converting…viva la France!) and a few slices of good Manchego. And we are heralded into battle by the inane voices from a chick flick on the telly. Onwards troops!

Took no captives and spared neither fancy heel or winter boot. No more desperate searches through a disorganised pile of opaque boxes for the perfect pair of feet jewelry for a night out. I hope anyway ;)

I recently received these cute quilted pumps from Blue Inc. I’ve been obsessed with white and black shoes for a while now! And as friends have threatened me with therapy if I bought black and white brogues, I decided this would be a good compromise.

There’s just something timeless about the style. As I know that during the months of winter I delve into my fairytales, I thought these shoes would be very appropriate to accompany my fanciful moods. It’s a touch of elegance that’ll save me from even the most unladylike positions ;)

*ahem* On another note, now that the wedding(s) are over, I finally got my hair cut short! I really like the length, will be debating in the coming month or so if I should be brave and cut it even shorter. Thoughts? Last time I had really short hair, I looked like a boy. 0_o

The Karen Millen Graphic Colour Block Shopper

I’ve been itching for some burst of colour in my wardrobe for a while. So I couldn’t resist.

My Karen Millen obsession continues… I should be careful, else I become a walking advertisement of their products. I’ve never had a store suit my style so well.

I wish their matching shoes weren’t a peep toe. I hate peep toes. The autumn yellow saga continues with the search of the perfect yellow shoes (preferably ankle booties!).

Cute little panda bag I bought from the Octopus shop in Leeds. Precious! Took me all of two seconds to decide to buy it.

This post is brought to you by my Google Android phone. Geekiness for the win!

This is what I call proper customer service. Thank you Bella from BCBGMAXAZRIA at Harvey Nichols Leeds. She’s absolutely lovely, so if you ever need help, you guys know who to look for ;) She’s fab and most importantly honest. Thanks to her I found my cocktail dress for the evening of my wedding.

I was going to leave this as a surprise for my wedding, but I can’t keep it a secret, how much I love this dress. While waiting to watch Coco avant Chanel with friends, I went window shopping at Harvey Nichols. There Max Azria and his clothing brand BCBGMAXAZRIA gave me the solution to what I will be wearing in the evening of my wedding. You didn’t really think I wanted to look like a white marshmallow all day, did you?

Don’t know Max Azria?

Born in Sfax, Tunisia, Azria began his fashion career in Paris, France, where he designed a line for nearly 11 years before moving to Los Angeles, California, in 1981. Azria launched BCBGMAXAZRIA in 1989. BCBGMAXAZRIA is named for the French phrase “bon chic, bon genre,” a Parisian slang meaning “good style, good attitude”. - Max Azria in Wikipedia

The line is very very elegant and feminine. This is definitely not going to be my last Max Azria dress.

Check out Max Azria’s Fall 2009 Collection:

Okay, if you’re not into geeky gushing gadgetry rants, leave this post now. You have been warned!

Ah, so you are interested! Well, meet the new guy in my life, my Hero. HTC Hero to be exact. It runs on Google Android OS. Open Source FTW!

How did I come to meet my new toy? Well, sometime last week, Wednesday I believe, I woke up and looked at my chunky n90 on a pay as you go contract and realised: It was time to grow up. My handbag was a mess, organisers, address books, camera, notes all scattered around. I needed saving, so I turned to my friends. Well, it helped…a little…

“Go for the iPhone! You’ll love it!”

“No, don’t turn into one of those iSheep!”

“What you need is a Blackberry!”

“You’ll turn into a crackberry!”

“That’s why choose the iPhone!”

“Baaaaaa!”

My pupils just dilated and I pretty much zoned out of the convo at this point. I am a self confessed geek, but gadgetry isn’t my forté. At the end:

• I didn’t choose the iPhone, mainly because, well, it was only available with 02 here in the UK. And me and 02 don’t deal well together. I’m a happy Orange customer for ca. 5+ years, plus I love the 2for1 on cinema tickets on Orange Wednesdays :)
• I didn’t choose Blackberry curve or even the Blackberry bold, the latter, which I intended to walk out of the shop with, mainly because the keypad looked fiddly. Plus, they wanted me to pay for the phone unlike…
• HTC Hero, which I just got on contract: unlimited text msgs + unlimited internet = unlimited love <3 I liked the beautiful design, I liked the user friendly interfaces, I liked how I can customise it as much as a I want, define the locations for the app icons to fit my working life and…I love that it has a Sky Map App, which maps the night sky and tells me what constellations are above me. Astronomy happiness! Plus it’s stylish without going too mainstream ;)

Stuff I love most about it:

• I can assign people on my contact list to their facebook accounts, grabbing their profile photos and status, as well as access to their photo albums and profile info, great when I forgot someone’s address :)
• I have access to my flickr account, as well as that of my contacts
• I love Peep!, their twitter application. Plan to use it more often now.
• Google maps!
• Quick click away from my Gmail while I’m on the run (or on the bus as was the case this morning)
• When I take a photo on my phone’s camera I can immediately send it off to facebook, twitter, flickr or email / msg it away with just a quick click of a button
• It’s a so very pretty little gadget <3

Maybe I sound n00bish and this is so blasé to all you iPhone ppl, but the fact that I brought cake to the office to celebrate Swiss National day, took a pic of it with my new phone (with it’s little swiss flag and all) and then sent it off to my various network sites made me giddy with the possibilities. So in conclusion, I’m not an iSheep or a Crackberry. I’m an Android!

Cute little things usually start with a prettily wrapped parcel. And then the fun begins…

Thanks so much to Cream Rose for these adorable fabric buttons ^_^  How sweet is that cartwheeling panda? And everyone knows I love my tea. Usually I don’t buy supplies unless I have a project in mind, but I just could not help myself. Anyone have suggestions? What would you do if you had these cute buttons?

January sales are a great way to grab a bargain, while spending time with wonderful friends, connecting over shoes, bags and dresses. I braved the Yorkshire frost yesterday to venture out into the shops. Who dares wins! I found these beautiful Reiss shoes (which I have been eyeing for over a month now) reduced to £45 from £150!  When I saw them, lil me was squealing inwardly with girlish mental delight ^_^

I think it will go perfectly with my new Karen Millen dress.

I also learned yesterday that mustard yellow / gold is my colour! Didn’t buy the dress though. It had pretty bad scuff marks on the back and I wasn’t going to fork out £150 for a dress that made me look as if I parked my bottom on top of a gravel pit and then wiggled around a bit. Discount or no discount!