Dear Internet

So I am doing a continuation of my previous love letter to the internet. Today I am thanking it for some of the beautiful things that it has brought to my attention. Now I recently discovered, after watching How I Met Your Mother, that Marshall Eriksen and I have something in common. I give my stamp of approval too easily. This has inspired me to be more selective in my editing process of amazing things that I find on the internet.
Here goes...

Epic Rap Battles of History
These are amazing. I could just post some but instead I will let you explore them for yourself. I will however recommend the battle between Hitler and Darth Vader.

The shower thing. 

So wrong yet so very very funny. 

The Duchess of Cambridge Hanging Out With Thor

Okay so this of course is just Natalie Portman but these pictures from the set of Thor in London last week really make it look like Kate Middleton and Thor are new BFF's. Just imagine the future queen of England chilling with hammer-wielding god of thunder. They'd probably talk about hair products (they both have good hair), the importance of a good belt (seriously she always wears a belt, maybe she gets half her strength from it too) and how to deal with their rogue brothers (in-law in Kate's case). Oh what a beautiful friendship that would be.

This summation of my life

This little depiction came courtesy of the aptly named HelloGiggles series Illustrated Tweet of the Day. When I liked it on Facebook, my sister comment underneath "You started at 12... which means for your 30th you'll probably look like Dumbledore". Case and point. 

Crappy Ringtone Tumblr

Making me feel like I'm 13 again and polyphonic ringtones are all the rage. Ah, memories. 

Cheers for reading,

Jane

images via here, here and here.

Too Cool For School: Game of Thrones edition

Brace yourselves lads.

Shit's about to get seriously cool.

Oh yeah. 

How. Amazing. Is. That??

I ordered this beauty on RedBubble.com which is where I will be sourcing all of my Christmas presents this year so dear family members if you're reading this, prepare yourself for some serious awesomeness. 

Also I bought stickers (because I literally am that cool), they however are coming in a separate shipping apparently so alas I have more waiting to do. Happy waiting though. Like waiting for Santa Claus.

God I need to get out more. 

Cheers for reading,

Jane

Dear Internet

Thank you for bringing the following to my attention...

The new Rebecca Black. Because apparently the original wasn't enough. Weekdays? Pfff. Holidays are the real money makers. That's why Patrice Wilson - a co-writer on the infamous "what day comes after Thursday and before Saturday" track - has penned a new tune, the ambiguously named (not) It's Thanksgiving sung by the young Nicole Westbrook.

Warning: your brain will never forgive you if you play this.

This fantastic gif courtesy of this Tumblr.

Talk about a cool cat. 

And finally, these two online stores that have recently come to my attention. The first is the amazing Redbubble which I made a little order with and have since been sitting by the door awaiting the postman (not really but I am super duper excited). I will be doing a very cool post all about the website and my order as soon as it arrives. 

The next store is the devastatingly cool McPhee which I came across while seeking out an inflatable unicorn horn for a cat (I kid you not). However McPhee doesn't deliver outside the States. Wait, do you hear that? That's the sound of my heart breaking because I cannot purchase zombie finger puppets,  bacon toothpaste, the crazy cat lady board game or the dashboard hula girl. Oh woe is me! I had done pretty much all of my christmas shopping and got to the checkout only to be told that no matter how much post and packaging I was willing to pay, I would never get my very own collection of 3 inch tall horrified B-movie victims or rubber chicken in a Santa suit. The injustice!

Well that is all for now.

Cheers for reading,

Jane

Too Cool For School: Halloween Edition

Hello November!

Would you like to see some pictures of me in my Halloween costumes?

Yip I basically dressed up as a sex offender for the family Halloween dinner on Saturday night. It wasn't the most flattering of costumes since it's all white but I did my best. Unfortunately I couldn't locate braces or the strange jock strap thing that Alex and the gang so famously wear in A Clockwork Orange. And as you can see, my eyeliner application skills are not the best. I bought actual false eyelashes but I ended up with completely matted lashes and an extremely watery left eye.

For Halloween night proper, I went for something a little more gory. 

Just a general wounded zombie kind of thing. Unfortunately this makeup doesn't react well with large quantities of alcohol and it kind of fell off throughout the night ultimately leaving my pillow cases looking like a crime scene. Not attractive. 

Also for the record I do have all five digits on my left hand despite what the photo might suggest.

I did a trial run earlier on in the day and that actually looked pretty good. I did it with some wax, face paints and a ton of fake blood. 

Also I do not recommend putting wax and fake blood in one's hair. Just trust me on this one.

Hope you all had a good Halloween!! 

Cheers for reading,

Jane

Right Now I'm loving... (the internet in general really)

1. Hayden Williams: Fashion Illustrator

This chap is one of my Instagram discoveries and I am so delighted to have found him. His illustrations are very cool. 

Guess who??

He also has pretty cool pictures of Jennifer Lopez and the Olsens twins. 

All his stuff is up on Tumblr and it's well worth looking through because he does some pretty cool things with Disney Princesses and villains too.

2. New Girl Season 2

I love you Schmidt.

3. Pixiwoo

I did a little post a while ago about beauty blogs that I love but I have also been getting really into makeup tutorials too. Particularly those of sisters Nic and Sam Chapman of Pixiwoo.

Here are a small collection of my favourites...

This one is for Eva Green and she actually ends up properly looking like her!

They are coincidentally all from the Bond Girl series they did. 

I only started watching the videos after buying the Real Techniques brushes (go buy them now, they're available in Boots for the Galwegians!) and I have already learned so much! Also, now that Halloween is fast approaching they are going some Halloween inspired makeup. Well worth a watch. 

Cheers for reading,

Jane

Images via HERE and HERE, Videos via Youtube

Currently obsessed with...

THE TRAILER FOR ARGO

Here are five reasons why the trailer for Argo looks fantastic.

1. The trailer indicated that the movie will contain Ben Affleck. Swoon. Not only in a leading role but in his first directorial role since The Town (which is very good if you haven't seen it). Swoon again.

2. The trailer contains Aerosmith's Dream On which I think is one of the greatest songs. Of. All. Time. I really do. I don't even like Aerosmith (do not get me started on I Don't Want to Miss a Tha-ang) but I think this song is the ultimate motivational song and it should be in way more movies and trailers and just general life situations. If anyone ever makes a movie of my life, I want Dream On to be the song played in the trailer. Or at my funeral. Whichever comes first.

3. It's based on a true story. Read more about The Canadian Caper.

4. Alongside Ben Affleck, the trailer contains the following actors: Bryan Cranston, Chris Messina, Alan Arkin, Victor Garber, John Goldman and a man who according to IMDB is called Scoot McNairy. I don't actually know this actor Scoot McNairy but I just like the fact that his name is Scoot McNairy. Scoot McNairy.

5. The general plot of the movie. It just looks like something I will really love. I don't even care if it gets bad reviews and turns out to be really crap (which I really do not think will be the case). It's two hours watching Ben Affleck with a beard. Happy camper I am.

Cheers for reading,

Jane

The Coat's The Thing

Every so often, I set my eyes on an item of clothing and suddenly I cannot get enough of it. This summer it was the woolly jumpers (bizarre it may seem for a summer obsession, not so in Ireland) and I spent a great deal of the summer in woolly jumpers (again not so bizarre considering the weather we had) but now I find that my growing obsession for coats is taking over. And it's taking over badly. 

I haven't actually bought any coats so far since my sights shifted from woolly jumpers to coats but that's just because this time my sights appear to have set themselves pretty high unfortunately.

Céline high.

Source: see the full collection at Style.com

And Balenciaga high...

Source: see the full collection at Style.com

And Simone Rocha high...

Matching brogues? Yes please!

Source: see the full collection at Style.com

And Chloé high...

Source: see the full collection at Style.com

And Jil Sander high...

If you look really closely, you can see the pink lining in the sleeve, which brings me to...

The dusty pinks

Love love love love love!

Source: see the full collection at Style.com

Chloé also showed a few pink jackets which were also gorgeous but did not quite excite me as much as the coats (the coats, the glorious coats!) but the pink coats are something that really caught my eye. I really want a pink coat. Really really want a pink coat. So much so that I actually considered how long it might take me to save for the somewhere in the reign of €1800 price tag. 

And then I bought Grazia. 

So if you ever buy Grazia - which I don't actually do that regularly but I am so glad I did on this occasion - you'll know that in the first few pages of actual content they have like a list of twenty clothing items or jewellery pieces to look out for, a watchlist or something like that. I think it was The Big Fashion Issue from about two weeks ago but I'm not entirely sure but anyway whichever issue it was inside their watchlist thing was a dusty pink coat. From Marks & Spencer's for a far more affordable price of something like £89. As far as I can remember reading, it won't be in store until sometime this month but I do feel like maybe I will want to make a purchase. Eeeee! It was pretty hard to find a picture online but this (below) seems to be the one.

Look at those lovely slouchy sleeves!

Source: The Guardian

Now I'm sure you're reading this and thinking "Coats. For Autumn? Groundbreaking" but all the magazines are obviously featuring (alongside all the Fashion Weeks stuff) the winter collections so I just cannot get away from all of these beautiful coats. There's no escape!

Cheers for reading,

Jane

You gots Musik

So I have not done a post about music in absolutely ages but I have come across some music that I think is definitely worth writing about. Just listen to it.

Cognac and Kinda Slow Aaron Lipsett and Fion

These two videos below are by Aaron Lipsett, the second being a collaboration with Fion.

Now I will admit I do not have any particularly outstanding knowledge or opinion of music but I know what I like and I know what I don't like, and this most definitely falls into the former category.

Cognac is the kind of song that is as smooth as its namesake and packs an equal punch. It knows what it's going to say and it says it. There is no muddling, no pretensions and no gimmicks. 

Kinda Slow on the other hand is a different kind of cool altogether. In fact I don't think I could do it justice. READ HERE instead as it definitely gives a better summation of it than my feeble knowledge of music ever could. I do however challenge you to find anything like it, anything that attempts to pull off what it attempts - and succeeds in so elegantly - in terms of sound and theme. 

On top of all of this I am seriously proud to say that I know these guys. Well I haven't seen them in ages but hey if they get famous I can be like oh ya those guys used to come to parties in my house. Future claim to fame. 

God, I'm a loser. 

212 Azealia Banks

Now for more music. I am not quite sure what I make of this song. I features the C word a lot (hey I'm actually a seventy year old woman) but there is so much more to it than that. Y'know some songs make you tap your feet or bob your head, well this one makes my shoulders and neck do weird things. Seriously it's really strange. I haven't been out in ages but I know that the next time I'm out in a nightclub or something and this comes on, everyone will probably think I am having some kind of weird repetitive stroke.

A lot of people I hear are likening her to Nicki Minja of whom I am not a fan - I think death would be the only possible way to be more indifferent to her - but to be honest I'm not really into comparing people who I don't even really think sound very similar but just like to curse and stuff in their music. What I will say though is that this song - I haven't actually listened to any others song by Azealia Banks - gets into your head and you probably won't even be able to think of the whole tune later so you'll just have to listen to it again. I don't really know what the message here is but it sure as hell make me do funny things with my shoulders.

White Nights Oh Land

Next up is something a little more girly girly and pretty pretty and generally a whole lot sweeter.

HBO's Girls lead me to this (that is a comment that you will definitely see on Youtube - not written by me but it seems like it led a lot of people there). There is something kind of Florence Welch-y about the video and almost (but not quite because FW is a lyrical genius) about the lyrics too. Also yer wan is a ringer for January Jones (oh yes this is me judging musicans on their vocal talents not looks). It is a sweet song and there is a Lykke Li quality to the rest of her music but with a bit of glitter and sparkle to them too. She is nice for sunny days. Well worth a listen.

Weekend Class Actress

Now for something altogether more 80s.

Now I cannot remember where I first heard Weekend by Class Actress - which is a great name I think - but I know it was definitely recently as I haven't even downloaded it yet. I still have it on my little Song List in Notes on my phone. For the record, it's not actually from the 1980s but last year. It does however sound very eighties-ish which I do like. A lot.

Guantanamera Joan Baez

Next is a female that might make a few brows furrow in confusion but Joan Baez and I are having a bit of a love-in at the moment since my dad pulled this song up on Youtube a few months ago. 

This song make me wish that four years of studying Spanish had actually made me good at it. Cue an overwhelming need to mumble along words in pseudo-Spanish just like I do with singing in most foreign languages! Her cover of No Woman No Cry is also strangely enchanting. 

Look Sébastien Tellier

Now for the pièce de résistance...

This is currently my favourite walking-down-the-street song (yeah 'cause I'm cool like that) and this video (which I was going to post but didn't because it is strangle hypnotic) is kind of the reason behind that. 

Now Sébastien Tellier has been on the scene for over ten years and the first time I heard him was back in 2009 on Ugly Betty and I downloaded some of his stuff (the fact that I had it labelled Ugly Betty Soundtrack and the Date Added thing on iTunes helped jog my memory) but I guess I must have forgotten about it because when Look shuffled it's way onto my iTunes the other day I could have sworn I'd never heard anything so entrancing. Look is definitely my favourite song out of all of his stuff (thanks to Grooveshark I had a good listen to a lot of it) as it reminds me a little of Kavinsky's Nightcall which is one of my top five absolute favourite songs (okay so I only heard it a year ago but it takes a very special song to get into my top five). When you listen to the two of them, you won't be like wow that's the same song or anything like that but you might get where I'm coming from.  

So that's all for today folks.

Cheers for reading,

Jane

All videos via YouTube.com (click for Playlist)

Damn, Girl: Mia Wasikowska

So I am doing a seriously lazy Damn Girl piece today that basically just includes Mia Wasikowska's interview in this month's Vogue UK (Sept '12). I wouldn't declare myself to be a massive fan of her or anything but I do think she is an immensely talented young woman and the interview is a very good one. 

Also she photographs beautifully and Bruce Weber does capture her quiet eccentricity so that's why I think this feature warrants a place in my Damn Girl series. 

Two of my favourite Youtube series are Lynn Hirschberg's screentests for W Magazine (there are 59 videos - do not start watching this if you have something important to do, before you know it two hours will have passed!) and The New York Times' Touch of Evil, both of which feature Wasikowska so I figured I'd include them too. 

So that was a fairly lazy post but I am working on some pretty special ones that will hopefully be up soon enough. 

Cheers for reading,

Jane

images from HERE, videos from HERE

Asos Browsing

Because I spent a bit of time on Asos today, I thought I'd put together a little list of the things that caught my eye.

Now this is a great jumper.

While I was in Belfast last week, Fresh Prince of Bel-Air was always on in the evenings when I got back to the hotel. I hadn't seen it in ages and I had forgotten how damn funny it was!
This jumper is pretty cool and is currently in my Saved Items, at €89.96 though I think it is a little pricey...

Next on my list is this absolutely gorgeous gold French Connection necklace. Me likey very much.

The second necklace on this list is this spikey like number which is ASOS's own brand of jewellery. 

It's also on sale for just a tenner which is pretty good. So good in fact that I might just purchase it. 

Finally, as I am going travelling soon I keep meaning to buy a rucksack and this one has been in my Saved Items for ages because I just re-saving and re-saving it. It's not very exciting but it has to be done!

So there you go. If you have seen anything you like, all the pictures have click-through links. 

Cheers for reading,

Jane

all images via HERE

The Instagram Diaries: July Special

July has been quite a busy little month for me so far. Between the Volvo Ocean Race and my incredible trip to Belfast to work on the Game Of Thrones set, it has been pretty good. Obviously while working on set and in the studios, I was under strict instructions not to take any photographs. Still though, it was an absolutely unreal experience and one that I won't soon forget. While there I also got to visit the Titanic museum that was opened in March and that was actually very cool too. If you are ever up in Belfast,  it is definitely worth a good look. 

So without further adieu, here - in full Instagram glory - is my July. 

Festivities in Eyre Square during the VOR

The boats

The newest additions to the Quigley household - Carrot (right) and Parsnip (left)

In preparation for my trip to Belfast, I bought some new stuff

The view from my hotel room

On my way to the studios

The Titanic Museum

In the Titanic museum

Cheers for reading, 

Jane