If I had a house...

These would be the things that I would buy to decorate it with.


WARNING: Post might get ridiculously retro.

LIVING ROOM

Relax scrabble cushions - £100

The price may be a tad excessive, but with a twelve point score, can you really blame them? I mean, let's be honest, you can't buy victory.

Laser Cosmos light - £129.99

For stargazers who hate the cold outdoors. Enjoy the beauty of the stars from your very own living-room! This would be on more than the TV would be, I swear.

R2-D2 projector - $3160

In a galaxy far, far away... you will be able to find a search engine that is able to locate this amazingly cool product.

Until then, nerds can just drool over this amazingly cool gadget.

KITCHEN

Yumbots - £12.99

This is so cute, I can't even...

If I ever own this, you better believe that I'll be baking cupcakes every. Single. Day.

Vinyl bowls - £17.95

Vinyl is cooler than a penguin in a freezer. I know record players (as well as the vinyl themselves) are on the way out, but it would see as though it was immortal if I possessed these bowls.

Long live LP's.

Chocolate cupcakes with Vanilla frosting and sprinkles canvas - £102

This would look great (and yummy) in someone's kitchen... it would also give you inspiration to make your own using the yumbot ;)

Salt and pepper bots - £12.99

They might look slightly possessed, but these are harmless little guys who just want to season your food... and possibly progress to take over the world.

Rocket Napster napkin rings - £25  £15

Six musical treats in assorted colours, these are a necessary investment for any music lovers. You might not use napkins now, but if you buy these, believe me, you soon will.

BEDROOM

Decorative deer head  - £79.99

I saw this on a interior design program two years ago and have been lusting after it ever since. I've never been one for hunting, but the effortless class of the aluminium is what makes this piece look so appealing. 

Contemporary swallow wall stickers - £24.99

Loving how chill these little swallow silhouettes look. I'd definitely paint "No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings" beside them, you know me and quotes.

"Horror" wall clock - £32.99

You can probably tell by now that I have a bit of a thing for vinyl. This company makes a whole heap of vinyl artwork clocks, mainly cutting out cities skylines such as New York and London into the vinyl itself, resulting in these funky clocks.

Rock on coat hook from handjob - £90

The makers may have given these particular brand of coat hooks a risque name, but the quality and kitsch-ness of the product speaks for itself. An essential item for any rockstars luxury pad.

Falling books bookend - £15.95

Oh no! The poor man is going to be crushed by... knowledge? This little bookend is reminiscent to just about every one of your favourite, pathetic horror movies which involves a monster of some-sort. 

BATHROOM

Give a hoot rug - $32.95

Rugs are awesome. Owls are also awesome. Therefore, this rug is roughly twice as awesome as you could ever hope to be. My only complaint? This little owl is looking a bitty bare up top, someone give him an afro.

Puddle mirror - £4.99 onwards

Splodges. This would definitely be in my bathroom... I'm so clumsy. There would probably be marks resembling this all over the walls.

A Quick Wasabi Lunch (^_^)v

Right, so it was lunch time on a weekday afternoon, both my colleague and I were craving for sushi the day before and we were both talking about the Japanese sushi chain  わさび Wasabi Sushi & Bento. Unfortunately, Wasabi stores can only be found in Central London, but there are 2 stores in the East and 1 store in the West of London. There are none further South or North, hence this trip from work was a trek and was well worth it! ^_^

Travelling from South London to Victoria Station via train took around 10 minutes, and the next train back to work was 10 minutes later. So we only had less than 10 minutes to decide what to eat and then get back on the train again! What a trek for sushi!

Wasabi's takeaway bag  

Wasabi Logo

The Wasabi branch in Victoria Station is a fairly small store compared to some of the other ones, like the Embankment branch. As you can see I'm a Wasabi fan, and I will find any opportunity to go into any of their stores to buy food - my first experience was in a branch in Oxford Street (the one near Tottenham Court Road). Inside this store on the left hand side there is the refrigerated sushi and drinks, and on the right hand side there's the till area and hot foods. It's very busy at lunchtime! I was deciding whether to have sushi or to have chicken katsu curry (breaded fried chicken with rice and curry sauce). In the end I chose sushi. I chose the box set (easy option) with salmon onigiri, chicken katsu with sweet chilli sauce on top, small versions of futomaki with one side covered in avocado and the other with orange masoko. Also included in the box set were some edamame and runner beans, a slice of pickled ginger, a pack of soy sauce and a pack of wasabi. Chopsticks and tissue were included during purchase. This cost £7.95. Each box set has a different price. At Wasabi, I wanted to get a bottled flavoured green tea, which they sell in some of the Wasabi branches, but unfortunately Victoria Station branch didn't have any :( no fair... So I got a Diet Coke instead.

My boxed set full of sushi and chicken katsu ^_^ 

My colleague had the harder option, he chose a selection of individual sushi which were wrapped in plastic, so if you do select your own prepare to unwrap a lot of sushi! (2 pieces of sushi cost £1.50). My colleague also chose a box of edamame beans and a triangular onigiri (can't remember the filling but I think it was Tuna and Mustard). My colleague's set ended up costing £5.80. 

My colleague's set: Salmon onigiri, Tuna onigiri, Tuna & Mustard onigiri and Edamame beans 

So back on the train we go. Stomachs rumbling like thunder. We sat back in our office and our faces glowed with the sushi in front of us.

My geeky mind said "We are definitely going to do this trek again!".

Here's a close up of my box set...

My Simple Geeky Summary:

Website	http://www.wasabi.uk.com/
Prices for individual selection	2 pieces for £1.50
Box sets (depending on branch)	£4.95 - £10.95 (approx.)
Hot foods (check menu)	Vary
Drinks	Vary (I wish they had the flavoured green tea in Victoria Station)

Cupcake Decoration and Chocolate Making Class - Part 2

Here is part 2 of my experience. This posting is about the Cupcake Decoration class at The Peacock Bar in Clapham Junction.

Well, it's fair to say that decorating cupcakes using butter icing is not an easy job, especially if the icing is a bit too soft. I can't even remember what ingredients were used to create the icing (I think it was butter and icing only)! In this part of the class we stood around a different table which they had already laid out everything (the cupcakes, icing and cake making equipment). First off was to create an icing bag using a plastic icing bag and a metal tip. There were four different colours used (green, blue, pink and purple). 

The instructor showed us briefly how to create flowers and then we were off to try it on our own! Unfortunately some of the tips were too big to create the mini flowers that he showed us, so as you can see below, they aren't that great! :-(

In the end I started copying other people's designs. I think the people in the class were already experts in cupcake decoration and I didn't have a clue in what I was doing. All of us were to decorate eight cupcakes, but I ended up creating nine! Nevermind...

As we were decorating away, the instructor showed us how to a different type of icing to make designs... But none of us got to try in making our own designs unfortunately...

In the end, we were given a box each to add only six of our designed cupcakes and eat the other two (I thought the staff would bring our cupcakes over for us to eat, but I can't remember if they did so or not) - I didn't get to eat mine! Unfortunately, the holes were too big, and so the cupcakes kept sliding in and out the hole... and the icing kept coming coming off! How disappointing. Please note: If you plan to go to this class, make sure you bring a bag, because they didn't give us any!

At the end of the two classes, majority of the classmates were disappointed and felt they could have easily found videos to show how to do all of this. In my opinion, it was an okay experience. 

My Geeky Verdict:

I think if you are looking for something to do on the weekend, and you happen to stumble across a Groupon voucher for free, then it is definitely worth going to. 
By the way, I forgot to mention they have a "professional" photographer who will come and go to take snaps of you! So if you're camera shy don't go (or I think you can ask not to be photographed)!!

Cupcake Decoration Class rating: 2.5/5
My Geeky Summary:

Cupcake Decoration and Chocolate Making class with Champagne	Originally price = £79 (make sure you get a Groupon Voucher, cost is cheaper)
Length of class:	1 and a 1/2 hours (approx.)
Website:	http://www.the-peacock-bar.co.uk/
Address:	148 Falcon Road Clapham, London SW11 2LW
Nearest Railway Station:	Clapham Junction
Notes:	1. Bring your own apron and a bag for the cupcakes 2. Not a professional decorating class (so don't expect too much) 3. Various classes take place at the same time

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Odds and Ends

I've actually finished a fer of the various season box sets I had partly watched over the last few months:


Supernatural season 5 which I found to be disappointing.

Being Human ( UK version ) series 1 which I thought was excellent.

The Batman which is a fun anime inspired take on Batman.

True Blood Season 3 which is just forgettable as the first two seasons.

Torchwood: Miracle Day which was a bitter disappointment after the excellent Torchwood: Children of Earth mini series.


I'm hoping to finish Eureka season 3 sometime soon but I'm really enjoying it so far.

Old and New...

I thought I would throw up a diorama that I made a few years ago and entered in the Privateer Press painting contest at Gencon. I was lucky enough to take second place in my category at the time. It was tons of fun seeing the other miniatures in real life. You see pictures but it does not compare to seeing something in real life. They were amazing. I hope to do it again someday. It was tons of fun.



This is a board I am creating for Infinity the Game. This going to be an urban board and what you see here is the sidewalk with a panel removed for maintenance. I just want to add character to the board itself without anything else on it. I am hoping to get some time here in the near future to start working on it again. I have these visions but I am going in so many different directions right now. Well if you have any questions please ask. Always a pleasure.

Cheers,

John...

I'm a barbie girl...

• If Barbie was an actual woman, she would be 5’9” tall, have a 39” bust, an 18” waist, 33” hips and a size 3 shoe. 

• Barbie calls this a “full figure” and likes her weight at 110 lbs. 

• At 5’9” tall and weighing 110 lbs, Barbie would have a BMI of 16.24 and fit the weight criteria for anorexia. She likely would not menstruate. 

• If Barbie was a real woman, she’d have to walk on all fours due to her proportions. 

• Slumber Party Barbie was introduced in 1965 and came with a bathroom scale permanently set at 110 lbs with a book entitled “How to Lose Weight” with directions inside stating simply “Don’t eat.”

[source: bemyforeverx3]


I find things like this sickening. Barbie is a symbol of nearly every girl's childhood, and for them to essentially promote eating disorders such as anorexia is unacceptable...


Sure, mattel have became a lot more careful since 1965, but the fact that someone, somewhere thought that it was a suitable gimmick to be promoting to young children were, quite simply, insane.

Snow Patrol review

This week, I reviewed Snow Patrol's gig at the AECC for the lovely folk over at Flares 'n' seagulls.


Thought I'd upload a few of my shots from the night, despite their obvious inferiority in comparison to Still Burning's.

No gigs planned for February... next one if Florence + the machine in March, expect a lot of excited tweets in the mean time!

Going to leave you with my favourite performance of the night, which is Snow Patrol playing their new song 'In The End'. Enjoy!

Lauren xxx