SparkyFizz

Anthropologie... part two...

My daughter, Rosa, loves these owls...

Oh, the view...

Explanation of the amazing 'living wall' of plants...

'teetering' display... this bear is huge!

 

Anthropologie, Oxford Circus... (more typography photos...)

I couldn't possibly wander around Oxford Circus without visiting Anthropologie on Regent St.  I love the design process that goes on here, the flair, imagination and wonderful creativity.  I spoke to David on the design team who told me there are five people involved in the overall look of the store.  He said the company gives them a design theme, this season it is 'leaves', but thereafter it's up to them how they portray everything.  I also love that they allow me to take pictures to put up here... many of these images are for my 'typography' project also.

Imagine having a bedroom like this...

Lovely modern quilts...

Imagine this view from your sitting room - looking out onto Regent St!

I love their handmade price tags...

Wall hooks hanging upside down...

More wall hooks...

 

Oxford Circus, Soho and Typography Photos...

Continuing with my photography course, this week I concentrated on typography...

 

UK Election...

Phew...!

...I'm exhausted after this election!  After days of uncertainty it all came together within hours yesterday.  It's 70 years since Britain had a coalition government like this one.  

I'm still puzzled about how it's all going to work, and whether pragmatism over conviction can ever be successful.  It's a bizarre sight, Nick and David, best of pals!  If it does succeed, who do we vote for in 4 or 5 years time?  Will they always stay together now?  What happens if they fall out?  Or will our voting system have changed beyond all recognition by then? 

I thought Gordon Brown's leaving speech was very touching and straight from the heart.  I even found myself thinking that I'm going to quite miss Peter Mandelson and Alastair Campbell... both unelected, but heavily involved with the Labour party and the media.

Anyway, this is what we've got, so I hope it works.  Time to move on...   

Seeing the Light...

The country is still in disarray...  we have no government to speak of...  the £ is falling...  Monday stock market trading will be interesting...  Then there is Europe and Greece and the Euro....  Confusion everywhere!!  I'm sure there will be another election within a year, so my soon to be 18 year old son might get a chance to vote in the near future after all! 

Alas!  In my own small and insignificant world, I am dizzy with excitement.  Today, I saw the light -  I mastered some aspects of HTML!  I was so delighted to achieve this -  but my poor family found it all intolerably boring.

HTML, for those who don't know, is, I suppose, the computer programming associated with web design and blogging.  So what I'm so happy about is the background on this blog...  I know, I know, not a bit deal you're thinking.  Yet it took me a great deal of the weekend to design this simple image from scratch using Photoshop.  Now I can do it, so I can change this background any time I care to.  I have to confess I never really wanted a background in the first place, but I did want to know how other people achieved fabulous backgrounds on their blogs.

I followed an online course put together by the Little Light Studio founded by Kayla Aimee and Wilna Furstenberg.  I've learnt a huge amount, so have a look if you're interested in blog design.  Kayla and Wilna have very different design styles and ideas, which is refreshing -  more than one way of doing things!  They use Typepad (which I use) and Blogger platforms to teach this course.  Their personal blogs are also on my May Blog list. 

UK Election - Polls Closed...

It's just after 10 pm and the polls have closed...  I voted earlier and was surprised how full the station was. Hope you all remembered to vote?  The Exit Polls suggest that the Conservatives are 19 seats short of an overall majority....  They need to get 326 seats, and the exit poll suggests they have 307.  So, if this is accurate, the Tories have  the biggest number of votes, but not enough to form a government.  So it will probably be a hung parliament....   Now settling down with beers and cokes for a long night of TV, we should have a clearer view by 2 am...

Election Fever... (the ramblings of a mother... on education in particular... and the Asteroid...)

 Okay, we're nearly there...

The Guardian has ditched Labour in favour of the Liberal Democrats - unheard of...

The Times has defected to the Tories for the first time since 1997!

The Cleggster, with his dashing looks, is now receding in the polls...

What to make of it all?  The quirkiness of the British Electoral System.

Labour has been in power since 1997.  This is the most interesting election I can remember - well, since 1974 anyway.  I may have to stay up most of the night to follow the TV coverage.  I'm dreading the increasing possibility of a 'hung parliament' and its subsequent ineffectiveness - so no 'tactical' voting from me.  I'm hoping people will be strong and decisive come the time - but the malaise of apathy is everywhere.

I think the general feeling is that there is little difference between the parties.  Labour have become increasingly 'middle of the road' and the Conservatives have completely shed their Thatcher armour in order to appeal to the masses.  The result is a flabby mediocrity.

With New Labour in 1997, we saw the rise of the 'spin doctors' and all their machinations.  Whilst considering all this manipulative at the time - on reflection it was nothing compared to the 'X Factor' elections on display now.  We're even told how Simon Cowell is intending to vote...  does anyone care?

The TV coverage of the three main leaders at their podium and the suggestion that the 'best looking' Clegg would be the rightful heir, has been completely unpalatable.

The wheeling out of celebrities to align themselves with the parties has been ridiculous.  Eddie Izzard for Labour and Michael Caine for the Conservatives.  As for Sam Cam and Sarah Brown - well... what can I say?

Do they take us for idiots??

I want strong leadership and determined policies to confront the undoubted horror of economic cuts which will be difficult and unpopular for whoever takes the helm.  Ireland has faced its demons - now they're in a terrible state.  Greece didn't face the grim reality, so Germany and the Euro to the rescue there, at the expense of the German government, I suspect.  My husband keeps talking about the 'Asteroid' which is still coming for us (no, he hasn't lost the plot yet...) and wondering why people keep on 'talking up' the economy as though the worst is over...  convincing themselves that house prices are increasing etc.  We haven't seen anything yet - the next five years are going to be terrible, in my opinion... 

I want to see clear and definite policies on health, education, immigration and crime in particular.  No 'wishy washy' compromises and 'cop outs'.  Who's going to deliver?  Nobody, it seems.

I'm a mother to four teenagers.  I want them to leave university with a good and safe future ahead of them.  I am appalled by the education my girls receive in their Comprehensive school - reputedly the best in the area!  The 'dumbing down' the 'celebrity culture'  - many lessons include Sheryl Cole one way or another, because the girls 'identify' with her...  or maybe Lady Gaga as an alternative... God help us!   Why don't schools foster the idea of intelligent women being 'cool and chic'?   The endless 'poster making' or 'colouring', the lack of any homework, the dreary teachers, totally lacking in expectation and ability...  aarghh!

What to do??

I try to foster a more intelligent ethos at home, but I know I'm a harridan as I bang on and on...  

My girls, at a language status school, have just had the option of continuing with a third language withdrawn for GCSE!  Why?  Education cuts, but more importantly, lack of interest from the girls...  Yet we still have 'silly' subjects like 'media', or 'hospitality management' on the agenda.  The National Curriculum states that they have to do Product Design (textiles, graphics or resistant materials) as a compulsory subject instead.  My girls are doing textiles, which, as you may know, is something dear to my heart - but I'd rather they did Italian in school and textiles at home for leisure.  As for Religious Education being compulsory, there is no place for this in modern education.  I'm not religious, yet I think RE could be very interesting, but it should be optional.

Neither do I buy the idea that reading Stephanie Meyers' books is better than not reading at all.  I want to see my children read more widely - whether it's classics, 20th century or modern hardly matters - but there must surely be some variety?

So, I want to see a government that  upgrades the status of teaching  which I think is in the gutter.  They need to be highly qualified, energetic, passionate and hard working in their delivery.  For this they should receive better remuneration and fewer holidays!  They need to be able to instill discipline, which is laughably absent at the moment.  A child who is suspended from one school, moves to another, and another...  I feel particularly sorry for children who want to learn, but who aren't naturally academic.  They are 'lost' in our current system - surrounded by kids who don't want to be at school, who behave badly and are not punished for it.

I know education cuts are necessary, but I would like to see a re-assessment of what is cut.  I would like to see more money spent on books for children to take home, thereby decreasing their dependancy on Wikipedia and the internet.  I would like to see cuts in the 'silly' subjects and more emphasis on traditional education - I told you I was a harridan!

I could go on... I have similar views on health and the NHS, immigration, crime...

My eldest son feels almost disenfranchised, he will be unable to vote in this election, he  won't be 18 for another two months - what a shame!  I wonder how he would vote if he could?  At his age I was very left wing, but he claims most young people aren't interested really.  I would have thought the surge in young people registering to vote might be good for Labour, but I'm not so sure now.

One thing I'm absolutely sure about though, and that is that it is everyone's duty to vote - it should be compulsory.  I think we should be mindful that, whatever happens tomorrow, we live in a democracy where we have the freedom to participate in the powers that govern us.  So many people are neglected this basic human right.  

In this country, women in particular should remember that the campaign for female suffrage began only in the mid 19th century.  Women were only fully enfranchised in 1928, just over 80 years ago.  So if women are feeling any apathy about this election, please remember the struggles of our sisters such as Emmeline Pankhurst and Emily Davison who suffered hunger strikes and death to give us the right to vote...  

Someone - get a grip... the Asteroid is coming...!!    

May Day...

 International Workers' Day... 

Pagan festivities...

For me, May is about blossom galore and (from my Catholic upbringing) the praising of 

Mary, Queen of the May...

'Bring flowers of the rarest

bring blossoms the fairest,

from garden and woodland and hillside and dale;

our full hearts are swelling,

our glad voices telling

the praise of the loveliest flower of the vale!

O Mary we crown thee with blossoms today!

Queen of the Angels and Queen of the May.

O Mary we crown thee with blossoms today,

Queen of the Angels and Queen of the May.'

This was, by far, my favourite hymn, and was associated with dressing in pretty white dresses, and lovely veils if making your First Holy Communion.  There would be a short walk to the church where the statue of the Virgin Mary would be crowned  by the lucky little girl to be chosen!  We practised genuflecting for weeks beforehand, as this had to be performed without the aid of a bench to hold onto for balance, and was quite tricky...

I also remember the wonderful festivities in the streets of Oxford during our student days....  the choristers from Magdalen College singing from the tower at  5 am overlooking the River Cherwell, and the streets alive with people and celebrations until 9 am.