Snow!

It's snowing!

Proper snow. Snow flying horizontally in the wind. It's a pain the ass if you have somewhere to be, but first snow always makes me feel like a little kid. If I had wellies and a pompom hat I would put them on and waddle around the park.

Another Piece of My Puzzle

When I was a little kid I loved to draw people. I designed clothes often enough, but as I discovered the last time I went through my mother's attic and found my old sketchbooks, it seems my favourite thing to draw was women in kinky lingerie.

I suspect this trend began because I used to steal my mother's Victoria's Secret and Fredericks of Hollywood catalogs to use as pose reference. At first I had no idea what lingerie was for- to my naive eyes it was just another sort of dress up costume. But judging from later sketchbooks, I figured out its purpose pretty quickly. Soon my women were brandishing whips and wearing corsets. I don't think I understood exactly what I was drawing, but on some level I figured out that this stuff was supposed to be sexy.

Flash forward sixteen years and I have begun to develop a sudden obsession with high-end lingerie and innovative, strappy contraptions that serve no purpose other than looking fucking sexy.

So a new dimension to my design future has begun developing in the back of my head. I think it's time to start up my youthful habit of drawing half naked women again. Only this time I want to add it to my developing design line. I was to design and produce shoes, latex clothing, and innovative/naughty lingerie. I know there are companies that dabble in similar spheres, but I have a rather unique design aesthetic and I think I could put together the most amazing boutique full of fabulous-ness!

This plan of mine has been growing and developing in the last few days. It makes me so happy to consider making this plan a reality. I really want to make this happen....

Gary Numan, Eigenharps, Boyfriend and Bad Weather

The Boy was here for ten days- ten very full days.

We saw Gary Numan in Manchester, wandered around Liverpool, played Eigenharps in Birmingham, had dinner with my new friends, met up with old friends from San Francisco, drank absinthe, mulled wine, mulled cider, ate too much food, spent too much money, and generally had a good time for ten days.

A few impressions and highlights:

*Gary Numan put on an EPIC show
*Drag Queens in Manchester aren't very friendly
*Girls in Manchester have fantastic shoes, but cannot walk in them. I should offer lessons.
*Afflecks in Manchester makes me feel old
*Liverpool has the coolest cathedral ever. And the creepiest graveyard. And my friends and I are all horror movie stereotypes- "hey everyone's gone, let's go back into the graveyard!" "what could possibly go wrong?" "Um, I'll stay here while you go." "Why isn't my camera working?" *while not looking at the monster coming at her...
*The unbelievable amount of hilarious FAIL during our trip. Bars, restaurants, tours, events.
*Liverpool had the shittiest weather ever. No wonder so much music comes out of there. "If we get famous, we can buy tickets out of here!"
*Coco de Mer is the best lingerie store ever
*I have lived here long enough to actually have a "favourite bar" and know which places have the spiciest indian food
*being one of the first couple people in the world to play an Eigenharp. I haven't been so inspired by an instrument in a very very very long time.
*being offered a fantastic situation where I might be able to learn more about shoes, teach, and gain access to the facilities needed to prototype some of my shoe designs!

These ten days have made me want to travel more while I am still here in Europe. I am inspired to start making music again. I can't wait to start working on making more shoes. I'm ready to start exercising and getting my health back. And these ten days have also made me incredibly thankful for all my friends in London.

It was a very full ten days. And now I need to relax and catch up on sleep. So I'm just going to hug this heater and settle in with Slaughterhouse 5 in my local cafe.