Oh, something amazing happened yesterday. My dear S. in partnership with Santa C. got me a wonderful, wonderful book I wanted so much. I saw it some time ago while we were window shopping... It was there, in a window of an old book shop, so tempting, so beautiful. I stood there, sighed and said that this would be a nice book to own. We walked away, the dream vanished and I never really thought about the book then... But S. did. He remembered my words and he knew exactly how much it would mean to me to have it - a book about history of one of my favourite magazines.Vogue has been a part of my life ever since I moved countries. I adored it. It was more than love, it was my obsession. Every month I'd buy Vogue UK and often Vogue US and also, whenever I had a chance I'd add Italian and Russian issues to my ever-growing collection of fashion history. Seven years later I suddenly realised that I am tired and the collection feels more like a burden rather than a treasure and actually, all I want from Vogue is beautiful photographs... And I got rid of everything. Every single magazine. I kept my favourite photos, so I could frame them one day, but the rest was gone. And my dear husband bought me a pair of Chloe shoes as a part of the deal. Nice, isn't it?
The only thing is that I still needed my beauty fix accompanied by some brain food, too. And this book filled the void. It chronicles Vogues 114-year history and is full of beautiful images, including those by Annie Leibovitz, Irving Penn and Richard Avedon and of my favourite models like Cindy, Linda and Natalia... Oh, I am just so happy...
In Vogue: The Illustrated History of the World's Most Famous Fashion Magazine By Norberto Angeletti and Alberto Oliva
It's not that Beck leaves everything up to the last minute (ha ha sure she does) but these calico oat bags have been hanging around for the last couple of months begging to be made into something, and now in the heat of the last two days before Christmas, she finally came up with something... bollywood flavoured lavender bags for the indiaphiles in her life! So simple she wondered how on earth she hadn't thought of them sooner, she managed to whip up four in an afternoon, despite a housebound sick and grumpy architect, attention seeking max missile and parental entertaining duties.
All you need to make your own fabbo set is a couple of hours free time, recycled or new calico, lavender filler, a metre or so of rockin' ribbon or ric-rac, a sheet of iron on transfer stuff and some filmi images of your choice - you don't even really need a sewing machine, although it might be the difference between an unhappy, cramped beer drinkin' hand and a loose and happy beer drinkin' hand come Christmas day.
Voila! the finished product, and none too shabby neither. Go on make one yourself, you've still got time and they're the perfect kris kringle or last minute stocking stuffer!
I don't know how much true crafting there actually is in whacking a t-shirt transfer onto a t-shirt, and while the t-shirt for Beck's nephew Charlie may feature an original illo, the two below are complete web-hacks but at least were made in the indie D.I.Y spirit of the times they reference. And what could be a better Chrissie present for the littlest interns than their first ever band t-shirts. Sonic Youth for Major Thom and Bad Brains for Mad Max... somehow fitting really, just don't tell them what they're getting.
Having a stack of family and friends overseas and interstate makes for excellent postal presents come late December. Of course now we're in the final week before the big day all manner of Christmas gifts have started arriving from the far flung corners of the globe. Today's however was too good not too share, being this totally wigged out crochet poncho from Master Maxwell's Great Grandmother complete with effusive use of HML fave (yep people that's heavy on the sarcasm here) 'feathers' fancy yarn.
We love other peoples craft, especially inter-family craft but even Max thinks this one's as nutty as a fruitcake.
We do so love a Christmas tree here at HML, but we always feel a little guilty chopping down a perfectly good pine for a couple of weeks each year. Given this you can imagine how much we've been loving watching the progress of High Street fave In The Woods take on the Christmas window. Going for a vegetable garden of purple runner beans, sweet corn, tomatoes and chillies that started as seedlings in late November was truly inspired and shows just what you can do with a bucket of dirt and watering can.
Speaking of non-felling, we were also directed to this excellent wall mural tree idea courtesy of HML fave 
Anyways this is a really great spot to pick up a silly season bargain for that difficult to buy for teenager, super groovy friend, even your hip nanna or maybe just a little something for yourself . We encourage people to work on the gift buying credo "one for you, one for me" wherever possible -at least it means there's something under the tree you'll like come Christmas morning. 