THE RANDOM ROUND-UP

All the things occupying my brain

Apr 09, 2024

Last year the Easter holidays felt neverending, so this time we have really tried to make it feel less monotonous: we saw ‘Matilda: The Musical’ with Peggy (her birthday present we pushed to the holidays so we could enjoy a weekday matinee) which was incredible and the grandparents have just picked the kids up to go swimming and caravanning for a few days. I am sat here with a hot coffee (!). It felt like the perfect time to put together this round-up:

Browsing…

For those who loved my Stella Nova dress (via The Outnet), here is a very similar one but only in size 38 (the size I wear). But do check regularly as they do restock. I know they’re not cheap but I have worn mine so often and they’re really the perfect fancy to unfancy dress (look great with sandals, heels, trainers, high tops). I have my eye on this short dress which has much more size availability:

I’ve also been thinking a lot about the see-through shoe. I bought these (left) in January from Free People, they got lost for 3 months and suddenly arrived and by that time I had persuaded myself against them. I like the idea of them, and on other people I still feel it’s a yes but I do not think I want to see this much of my foot squished inside a shoe. I wore a pair of Sophia Webster clear polka dot flats for my wedding, cute but one word: condensation. They might look good on first wear but those mesh shoes are a foot fungus delight and I just don’t see myself wearing them (or cleaning them) in 5 years time. Could be wrong though.

Shoes from Free People. Wedding photo by Ed Peers

Watching…

Chris got me Paramount+ for Christmas (they had a £35 a year offer) and I really wanted to see how ‘Yellowstone’ panned out after watching the first 2 episodes on a plane. Turns out it just goes around in circles in a neverending tale of power, which is interesting but I find it a bit relentless (I weirdly got a bit bored of ‘Succession’ in the same way). I shamelessly watched the new series of ‘Frasier’, and surprisingly found that Nicholas Lyndhurst wasn’t the worst bit about it. I did enjoy ‘George & Tammy’ with Jessica Chastain and Michael Shannon (based on the relationship between George Jones and Tammy Wynette, which I believe is also on Apple+). I discovered that Paramount+ does have MTV music docs so we watched the ‘Milli Vanilli’ documentary which was fascinating yet heartbreaking. I remember this scandal, my older sister was a Milli Vanilli fan, but I also remember Rob and Fab being the butt of so many jokes for lip syncing (in an openly lip sync era). This documentary really sheds light on their manipulation by the music industry, the people at the top profiteering off black music, style and talent - at any cost. It adds a whole other level to ‘manufactured’ pop but the pain it brought the duo was painful (yet necessary) to rewatch.

Listening…

I never suggested I’d be offering current recommendations here, did I? Good. I just finished ‘The Kidnapping of Stephanie Slater’ on BBC Sounds which was quite grueling at parts to be honest and really opened my eyes (even more so) to how vulnerable women are in so many careers (it had never occured to me why so many estate agents are disproportionately men) and how not much has changed tbh. Depressing but Stephanie’s bravery not only in the event but in post interviews was jaw dropping.

And lastly…

Affordable garden furniture, here are four places to look:

Aldi have bistro sets in store for £49.99 (I only saw black but they have blue and cream, apparently).

Gumtree, eBay, Facebook Marketplace. I have found two of our garden benches secondhand (this metal one was an eBay find which I sprayed using Rustoleum ‘sage green’ gloss paint) and have really enjoyed bringing them back to life.

I’ve been so impressed by Habitat’s garden furniture over the last few years and I really like how much colour there is. We bought a blue version similar to this green table and chairs last year (from Wilko: RIP) and it’s so handy because it folds away for easy storage.

I had never thought to look at Asda for garden furniture but now I am browsing almost daily (thanks to Alex Beard and Kate Spiers). This Hay lookalike bench set has already sold out (you can still check local stores) but these chairs are still in stock for £39.