I heart my new dress

Hurray for ASOS! It looks like that cha-cha dress from Strictly! YAY for tassels! This little number is going to accompany me on quite a few xmas parties this year... 

borough market sausages

truly yummy. I ate these last night with roasted onion gravy, buttered leeks, peas and mash. The pheasant and venison ones were my faves, these are the purple looking ones on the left.

strictly

Oh my god. Watched this last night, and Tom Chambers blew me away (not that i'm a holby city fan or anything...) He dances like a professional, even spotting his head when he turns.  Bloody amazing. And really quite hot! Love Camilla's outfit too, damn she's a lucky girl. Check this out!!

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this is awesome

FOUND Magazine | Equals Life

If it was me writing this it would be CSI = life

FMBE awards

Yay! iblink won silver at the Field Marketing Brand Experience awards for the best integrated campaign. Lynx 3 was the first campaign I worked on at iblink and Lynx being Lynx it was a lot of fun. You can see a case study of the campaign here


Needless to say the awards evening was a messy affair. After the awards we ended up in Lucky Voice Karaoke bar along with clients. Hope they weren't put off by my terrible renditions of Duran Duran...

awesome chicken picture

bingoheads

i want to have a bingo head!

really love this advert! yay!

introducing the twiller

I read about this ages ago, but haven't had a chance (due to workload / getting drunk etc.) to write about it. My initial blog was going to be about how writing a novel on twitter was quite an interesting idea, and how it reminded me of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations etc as this was published chapter at a time in a newspaper or something. However, although it might be an interesting medium in which to produce a work of fiction, after subscribing to Matthew Richtel's twitter feed I started to find his writing really really irritating.

I'm one of those people who will always use full words to text on my phone even if it means going into the second message. I won't even use commonly accepted abbreviations such as '2' rather than 'to'. Therefore this 'twiller' wound me up a tad as it is written using indecipherable text speak or should I say 'txt spk'.

So, prior to my subscription to this feed I had imagined that it would be like reading a series of poems which would build upon each other like a tapestry of sub plots, little bubbles of language all joined up with common purpose. But instead you get things like this: "i nevr went 2 colege. went 2 iraq. yep! wasin desert&..elsewher? memry formin as horizn b4 me. yet unclear. motorin" Now although this may be part of the point, it really gets my goat.

If you feel like taking a look, this chap's twitter feed is here: http://twitter.com/mrichtel

Or if you prefer to read full sentences you can subscribe to my feed where I shall tell you about what sort of lunch I'm eating, or what sort of powerpoint pres I'm working on among other things.

camera on bench project

read about this and thought it was a pretty fun idea.
It reminded me of a friend of mines project he did in the second year of art school. He gave 20 disposable cameras to friends and colleagues and told them to take a picture of themselves first thing in the morning, literally when you have first woken up. The end result was pretty impressive when all 600 pics were displayed on a wall in our gallery. Unfortunately my naked left boob got into one which was rather embarrassing, but all in the name of art etc.

Samsung marching band viral

i like this, very fun.

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Engage - Afterlife experiential campaign

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guyliner

For some reason this product really tickled me. Not because it's a makeup product specifically for men who aren't clowns or mimes, but I do love a product with a fun name. There is also 'manscara', but i think 'Guyliner' as a word sounds better.

At school for some project or other we had to invent a new product. I came up with 'The Moisturazor' - a normal razor with a moisturizing sponge thing attached to the neck. I made a prototype and everything using a bic and a kitchen sponge. Gillette or whoever have many razors with various moisturizing qualities, but they don't have the portmanteau product name! Woohoo! Anyway, back to Guyliner - it's 'Tested on guys – not on animals!' There was an amusing reference to this on last weeks Now show on Radio 4; They suggested that because this product is so very manly it should be tested on bears. Grrrrr...

Anyway, aside from the brilliance of Guyliner, I think men who wear eye makeup are really quite yummy. That comment excludes clowns and mimes.

love this animation

this animation by CHI & Partners (who i've never actually heard of) is really awesome, even though it's an ad for the carphone warehouse

Know your goat

Sure Girl

This is what iBlink are doing at the moment. It's fun, very pink and aimed at 13 year old girls so probably not anyone who might read this, but anyhoo check out the campaign here or become our bebo friend here.

And if anyone is out and about in the centre this Saturday come to High St Ken or Marble Arch Superdrug (as that's where I'll be armed with a film crew and collecting vox pops from a bunch of excited teenagers) and we can go for a pint after my work is done.

Yay!

Another blog about farmyard animals

My boyfriends old boss has set up this amazing thing! Chicken lovers everywhere (well, in North London) can save battery hens from being slaughtered and give them a new happy life full of space and love and cuddles! How wonderful is that? Isn't it the most awesome thing ever? I think you'll find that it is.

Just look at this one all fat and lovely!

I really wish I had a garden. I asked Mike and he won't let me keep house chickens, even though they did it on Friends. He said that just because they did it on Friends didn't make it plausible or relevant. There may be a grain of truth in that I suppose.

Oh well, I guess we'll just have to move house then.

look at my beautiful bag

i am in love...

Do you find that your banana often gets damaged?

Well if so, here is the perfect thing for you! The Banana Guard!


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Thank God someone has come up with an amazing invention like this one. I honestly don't think I could have carried on living this shameful banana bruised existance without it...


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And all for the bargain price of £5.45


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It's a shame my birthday has been and gone, maybe I should just buy it for myself through sheer greed. Sod it, I get paid at the end of the week so maybe i'll just spash out on this genius item. I mean look at it, who wouldn't want one?

It reminds me of that Dragons Den episode where a chap tried to market this plastic phallis thing which goes on the end of a cucumber to stop the end going wrinkley. Needless to say he didn't get any money for that project. Maybe it's the same guy and his unseen talents have suddenly struck gold with this pointless waste of yellow plastic. Well done!

cute wonderbra viral

this made me chuckle. especially the soundtrack.

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spider cow loves Cravendale

I love Cravendale. I was just going through about 400 unread emails in my gmail and then came across my first Cravendale newsletter! YAY! And the lovely Cravendale people have put something brilliantly fun on their site, go here to get creative on a digital fridge door! Here is my proud piece of Cravendale related art:

may the force be with you...

may the force be with you...
Originally uploaded by backtobax

My attempts at fancy dress have mostly ended in disaster. I'm usually the person who turns up dressed in some ludicrous outfit, when most people's fancy dress costume is nothing more than a hat / fake mustache. Last weeks party was no different. Once again (even after moaning on about fancy dress being 'shit' and 'too much effort' and saying to my boyfriend 'oh I might just go in jeans'...) I decided at about 4pm to dash out of the house and run frantically around charity shops looking for bedsheets and white boots. Then I spent the rest of the afternoon sewing and sticking until I finally made my bargain bin £2.50 Leia costume.

However, as is usually the case I turn up dressed like a right plonka having gone way over the top, when most people at the '80's film character' party have either chosen a fairly respectable / subtle character or not dressed up at all.

I felt a little awkward for the first 20 minutes, especially after a few Star Wars enthusiasts pointed out that Leia actually wore that costume in 1977, and therefore doesn't count, but after a few little wines I was running around going "szzzzaaawww, szzzaaaawww" or however you spell the noise a light saber makes.

So after all my sewing efforts I thought a little photoshop (bad photoshop) wouldn't go amiss, so here we have my lightsaber action.

yay!

sex and politics

This is a bit of a delayed reaction really, as this actually happened last Friday, but what with hangovers and new jobs to deal with I hadn't thought to write this down until now.
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Anyhoo, Friday I had the drunken pleasure of seeing a burlesque nudey lady shaking her bits and eating fire in this bar (rather unsuited for this type of thing) but it was fun none the less, and all rather silly and tongue in cheek. I always thought of burlesque as being the arty, acceptable side of titillation, rather like a live version of 'bizarre' magazine rather than 'hustler', or 'readers wives'.
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I also had the additional pleasure (or so I thought at the time) of giving this nipple-tasseled lady a cigarette outside the bar. 'Brilliant!' I thought. I finally get the chance to talk to a woman like this and find out what makes her tick. A woman who gets her bits out for a living (albeit in an artyfarty genre) therefore she must surely be confident, inspiring, in control of her destiny, a modern feminist even...
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I was wrong. Sadly, our conversation went like this:
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nipple lady: "thanks for the fag"
me: "not a problem, so that was pretty great what you did out there, I couldn't do something like that"
nipple lady: "oh really? yeah. er... I hadn't really thought about it, thanks though"
me: "really? but I mean, how did you get into this sort of thing? Are you a dancer? An artist?"
nipple lady: "erm, well I used to work behind the bar"
me: "oh what here?"
nipple lady: "yeah, and like, they were like, doin this night and stuff"
me: "what the burlesque...?"
nipple lady: "yeah, and so I thought, ah well they're gonna pay me more, and so, well I got nice tits ain't I, so I just thought yeah"
me: "oh"
nipple lady: "can I borrow your light? mine's gone out"
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I think the fact I refer to her as 'nipple lady' sums it up really. And the moral? (not that there should be one) - some things are for viewing pleasure only, the rest is better left to the imagination.

goodbye holler

Friday was the last day I will ever do the following:

1. Answer the phone "hello, Holler" (although I have been known to answer my house phone/mobile "hello holler" out of habit)
2. Set up a meeting room with tea/coffee/artistically presented plate of biscuits
3. smell a courier from close range
4. re-arrange a stationery cupboard
5. go somewhere like Sway bar (although dancing with Em and Rich 'flash dance' style was amazing!)
6. Ask Squiz to fix my computer
7. Ask Ben to fix my computer
8. order toilet roll from viking direct (and get free chocolate!)
9. buy flowers from lovely Tim the flower man on leather lane
10. answer the Holler entry phone to a man who's only known vocabulary is the word 'milk'

Only ten things on the list here, but it could go on and on to reach hundreds. And aside from my gradual slide down a slope of despise for all the various annoyances an office manager has to deal with, I know I will miss it. I have met some amazing people at Holler, and these people have all contributed to my happiness and belief in who I am and what I can achieve.


On Monday I shall start a new job, a new chapter in my career. Quite a scary thought when coming from an agency where I've been so comfortable and know it so well to then plunge into the deep end somewhere new and unfamiliar. This is exciting stuff! And in the words of one of my old colleagues "eh, lets hope"

look what i found

I was looking through my diary the other day, and found something from years back which my dear friend Johnhead drew for me. We were working at this corporate hell hole where the only benefit was free coffee, and far too frequent ciggy breaks. This I believe is the inspiration for this marvelous cartoon series. There are others which are equally brilliant, but this one is my fave.


Thanks Johnhead, you made data entry much more bearable.

Baby Cue

whilst wandering around the internet in search of entertainment I stumbled upon this amazing short film 'Baby Cue' by Hazel Grian. It's probably one of the weirdest animated shorts I have seen. But I love it. If you go here you can see part 2.

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milk matters

I'm sure all cows will agree with me here. Milk is indeed fun and yummy. Aside from this obvious point, there is one brand of milk I adore more than any other: Cravendale. I LOVE their adverts, and the website is fantastically fun. I spent an entire lunch break playing around on it and now I have the theme tune set as my ringtone. You can download fun things like this, desktop backgrounds and facemasks on the site - YES! facemasks of the characters! Probably the sort of thing you would wear to an event like this: milk drinking contest I found it whilst searching for Cravendale related things on facebook. I love it that there is no specified prize for drinking a 6pt bottle of milk.
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Anyway, whatever you do with your day, make sure that when you have a little meander around the internet you check out this link, and watch the video 'turn into channel C' it nearly made me cry with glee.
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mooooo x

brian blessed

I was thinking to myself last night 'wouldn't it be amazing if I woke up one day and suddenly had the voice of Brian Blessed?'

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how great would that be? 

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here is a fun thing

pet rock

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found this adorable cartoon on the interweb, it reminded me of my rocks, and inspired me to pimp my rock (i have a rock stuck to my desk drawers, which until about 2 minutes ago was just a plain rock, but now it's a happy rock). yay! rocks are cool. 

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this is a picture of my rock [above]

rocks ROCK! 

xx

celery is boring

My lunch today consisted of the following:

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1 pasta salad with chicken

2 a bread thing with cheese on it

3 celery sticks with a watery sour cream dip

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cow socks make me happy

Today I am wearing my favorite pair of socks. As you can see, they are quite brilliant. that's my foot there too. in the sock. 

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I especially like the udder toes. The toes definitely make the sock i think. 

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It amuses me to think that while i sit at my desk avoiding my filing and eating kfc that my feet are like little mini cows, only just a sort of blob with udders. The GM cows of the future? 

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Do you have a lonely sock in need of a friend?

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sock-tastic x