What I've Been Loving Recently #4

It's been six weeks since my last WIBLR post and in that time I've consumed quite a lot of popular (and not so popular) culture. I've continued to watch Archer and Twin Peaks. Twin Peaks is continually blowing me away, I'm loving it more and more with every episode. I'm almost caught up with My Favorite Murder (mentioned in the second WIBLR post ) which is crazy because I've been listening to it since the middle of May, so that's over 100 episodes in the past almost 3 months. I don't know what I'm gonna do once I've caught up and have to wait every week for an episode. Binge consuming of culture has ruined me! 

First up is a film I had really been looking forward to, Spider-Man: Homecoming. I was mostly looking forward to it because I've never been crazy about the other Spider-Man incarnations. Honestly I just wasn't a fan of Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man and I don't think I even saw the Andrew Garfield one. My favourite Spider-Man was probably the nineties animated series which I loved as a kid. After Tom Holland's cameo in Captain America: Civil War I was excited to see him in his own Spider-Man film. The reunion of one of my favourite on screen couples Marisa Tomei and Robert Downey Jr. may have also had something to do with my excitement. 

I really loved this film. It was fun and entertaining and hilarious and the casting was spot on. I've been loving Michael Keaton's return the big screen too. A lot of it was filmed it Queens which was an added bonus because we recognised some of the locations. Since having been in New York I get so excited every time I watch something that's been filmed there. I like the light-heartedness that this film has in comparison with the other Spider-Man films, it doesn't take itself too seriously which is exactly what I want from a superhero movie. My only gripe is that Marisa Tomei wasn't in it enough for me.

I saw one of the early trailers for Baby Driver without knowing it was an Edgar Wright film and my initial thought was "what the hell is this?". I didn't think the trailer did it any favours and I definitely wouldn't have been convinced to go see it by watching the trailer if I didn't know who directed it. I'm a huge fan of Edgar Wright so when I saw this was one of his films I was a lot more excited to see it than I had been initially (also, two words: Jon Hamm). I was really surprised by how much I liked this. Ansel Elgort is amazing in it. I found the performances by the supporting cast to be a bit tongue in cheek which I'm sure was intentional. The soundtrack was particularly incredible as it is with the other Edgar Wright films. There's also some romance and a lot of humour. I'd highly recommend seeing this if you get a chance.

I was very excited to see The Beguiled, mostly because it was directed by Sofia Coppola who directed one of my favourite films, Lost in Translation. I loved The Virgin Suicides, Marie Antoinette and Somewhere too, The Bling Ring left me disappointed but I'm always interested in seeing her work. The Beguiled is a (sort of) remake of the 1971 Clint Eastwood film of the same name based on the book A Painted Devil by Thomas Cullinan. I'm not going to go to much into the plot for anyone who doesn't know what it's about, but in short it's set in a girl's boarding school in Virginia during the Civil War. One of the girls finds a wounded solider and brings him back to the school to recover and his presence stirs up the relationships between the teachers and students. 

I still don't really know how I felt about this film. It's beautifully shot, as is the case with all Coppola's films. The performances were excellent, although as much as I love Colin Farrell as an actor I always laugh when he has his own Irish accent in his films. I feel like it lacked something for me, I read some reviews of it that said it cut out some of the back story to the characters and one significant character from the book and 1971 film and I'm not sure if that was a bad choice. It's definitely an interesting plot as it is, seeing how the introduction of a man into the home of a group of women instantly affects them all in different ways, but I did feel there wasn't the character development there that happens with adaptations sometimes. 

If you're a Sofia fan, you'll definitely enjoy this, but I didn't love it the way I did her other films. 

If you get the chance, try to see Dunkirk in IMAX. The sound design of the film is such an important part of it and the IMAX really immerses you in it, as much as a film can because thankfully most of us will never know what it feels like to be apart of such horrifying circumstances. Again, Christopher Nolan is a director who I have loved for years. The first film I saw of his was Memento and then Insomnia and ever since I've looked forward to seeing each film he has directed. Dunkirk was no exception and I was very interested to see what way he was going to handle a film about World War II. 

I really enjoyed the film, like I said the sound design is incredible as is the cinematography and the performances. I like the way it was split into land, sea and air and you got a glimpse of each perspective. Some characters were more well developed than others. The men from the sea portion of the film had the most development, the pilots were pretty straight forward and group of young guys who were trying to get off the beach were somewhere in between. I don't know whether it's just me expecting a more human element to the story rather than straightforward almost documentary like storytelling of the events. But there was something lacking for me. I appreciate that Nolan wanted show the events of Dunkirk from several different perspectives in such a short space of time and therefore its difficult to go into much depth with any one character. But then it is a film about the war and if you're not going to choose to depict a specific story, then you have to just let it be about the events in order to honour the people who went through it.

Shamefully, I didn't know much about what happened at Dunkirk so it's great that a film like this can remind us all that what happened wasn't all that long ago, especially with what's going on in the world at the moment, we can never remind ourselves too often of the lessons history has taught us and that sadly that fight is still going on for so many people around the world today. We all have our part to play in making sure nothing like World War II ever happens again. 

I was looking forward to seeing The Big Sick since I first heard about it. I've been a big fan of Kumail Nanjiani for years, he's been in lots of my favourite comedy shows and most recently Silicon Valley which I wrote about here. I knew the story of how he and his wife Emily got together and the very unusual situation that came about when they were first dating. I won't spoil what happens because if you don't know the story yet I don't want to ruin it for anyone but basically himself and Emily wrote the film based on their relationship and the difficulties of coming from two different cultures. I really really loved this film, the cast is so good, Holly Hunter and Ray Romano play Emily's parents and they really stole the show for me. The adorable Zoe Kazan plays Emily and Kumail plays himself. It's hilarious and heartbreaking and a very unromantic, romantic comedy. 

Glow is a Netflix original series about female wrestling in 1980s Los Angeles. It was created by the women who made Weeds and Orange is the New Black so it has the same dark humour as both of those shows. I was a huge fan of Weeds, but I never actually finished it because I thought it was starting to go downhill however the first few seasons are excellent. 

Glow is probably my least favourite of the three shows. I really like the cast, Kate Nash, the British singer is in it which I found very strange but she's actually really good. I loved Debbie and some of the other characters more than the main character Ruth, played by Alison Brie and Marc Maron who is a great comedian that I've loved for years now. 

It's fairly light-hearted and easy viewing that doesn't demand much from the audience which is just what you need sometimes. If you're a fan of OITNB you'll enjoy this, but I don't think it's as good. 

Orange is the New Black is now in its fifth season and it's still going strong. I put off starting this most recent season for a while because there were a few other things I wanted to finish watching first. I wasn't overly excited to watch it if I'm honest, but once we watched the first episode I think we finished it in a week. I was really impressed with this season, I loved that they did something a bit different and we got to see the characters in different situations to their normal everyday prison life. I also like how they addressed social issues that mirror what's going on in the world at the moment. There is a lot of humour too, some of my favourite parts were the prison guard talent show and Flaca and Maritza's YouTube channel (I'd definitely subscribe to that). But like I said above, there is a lot of darkness in this show too. I think this was my favourite season yet and it's one of those shows where the writing and cast are so good that there is still so much they can do with it without it going stale. I really hope next season is just as good and if you haven't watched it yet, you've got five seasons to binge watch!

Friends From College is something I came across one night when I was doing my usual browsing through Netflix for an hour before actually choosing something to watch. I watched the trailer and I was intrigued because I hadn't heard anything about it but it was new to Netflix and has some of my favourite comedians in it- Billy Eichner and Keegan-Michael Key as well as Cobie Smulders from How I Met Your Mother and Fred Savage (yes, from The Wonder Years). It was created by Nicholas Stoller who made Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Get Him to the Greek, The Five Year Engagement and Bad Neighbours and it's the same kind of humour as those films.

The premise is pretty simple, a group of friends from college get back in touch with each other and chaos ensues. It's a very straight forward comedy/drama that's very easy to watch. I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would, it's a great one for rainy days like today when you want to watch something easy and entertaining.

So those are my favourites from the past month. I'm currently watching Ozark and Wet Hot American Summer TenYears Later on Netflix so I'll give you my thoughts on those in the next post. I saw Fleet Foxes live which was amazing and I'm still loving their new album. I also saw Michael Ian Black do a set at the Vodafone Comedy Festival which was so cool. I've listened to the new Arcade Fire album a few times too and I'm not crazy about it so far which is disappointing because we got tickets to see them next year.

Have you seen any of these? What have you been watching/listening to recently?

Emma x

What I've Been Loving Recently #2

I'm back with my second instalment of What I've Been Loving Recently. After writing the first one last month I was really excited to put together a second one and hopefully next month I'll have even more to write about.

It's been a month since my last post of TV, Film, Music and Podcast suggestions and I wasn't expecting to have as many to write about so soon because we were away in New York for a good chunk of the month but here we are with lots more things I've been loving and I've even had to cut my list down so as not to make this post too long which I'm sure it will be anyway. I've tried to not give away too much about anything, so you can read without getting any spoilers.  

Let's begin with the TV shows I've been loving. First up is The Last Man on Earth which has just finished its fourth season on FOX. It's a comedy created by and starring Will Forte (who I've adored since watching him on Saturday Night Live). **SPOILER ALERT** (she types after just saying she won't spoil anything) he's not exactly the last man on earth, but you learn that pretty quickly so it's not really a spoiler is it? I won't go too much into it just in case anyone reading wants to start watching it, which you should because it's hilarious. This will be a love or hate show, because it does have a specific type of humour and if you love what Will Forte has done in the past, you'll definitely love this. It's so friggin good!

You might be looking at the picture above wondering why a grown woman is watching a cartoon. Well I'll have you know I love cartoons (Adventure Time, Rick and Morty, Bob's Burgers are all amazing!) These are obviously "grown up" cartoons and Archer is one of the funniest shows on Tv at the moment, animated or not. Archer was created by Adam Reed who also created Sealab 2021 and Frisky Dingo (neither of which I've watched yet). It centres around the employees of an international spy agency in New York with Sterling Archer as the show's egotistical but highly skilled protagonist. 

I started watching it when it first began in 2009 and stopped watching somewhere during the fourth season, not because I disliked it but I think I had missed a few and then never caught up so I just waited to rewatch it from the beginning again which is what we did recently. We're now on season six and it's just as good as when it first started. Obviously you can do so much more with the story of an animated television show and the last season Archer Vice was probably my favourite yet because of how hilariously crazy it was. There's another two seasons and I'm looking forward to getting completely caught up. The writing and the voice actors make this show. It stars Jon Benjamin (Bob from Bob's Burgers among many other amazing roles), Chris Parnell (from 30 Rock and Saturday Night Live), Judy Greer and Jessica Walter (both from Arrested Development) and Aisha Tyler (from Criminal Minds and Friends). This is another show you'll either love or hate, it's currently on Netflix so you can binge watch 8 seasons, so why not give it a go if you're looking for something funny and light-hearted to watch that's a bit different from your normal comedy.

This is one of the shows I'm most excited to talk about. Ive been looking forward to the second season of the Netflix series Master of None for what feels like years now, in a way it has been because the first season aired in 2015. At the moment there's no news as to whether there will be a third season or not so if there is, I'll be waiting a long time again. This second season was so good that I almost wouldn't mind if there wasn't another season because I'd be worried that nothing could live up to how good this one was.

For anyone who hasn't heard anything about it, Master of None was created by Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang, both of whom are probably best known for working on Parks and Recreation. I adore Parks and Rec, but Master of None is a completely different show, even though they're both very funny. 

The show centres around Dev Shah, played by Aziz Ansari who is an actor living in New York. It deals with the struggles of being a minority working, dating and living in a big city. I love everything about this show. The soundtrack really stands out, the cinematography is so beautiful for a television show and in general really (bravo Mark Schwartzbard), I especially loved the many cinematic references in the second season. The supporting cast are all excellent including Aziz Ansari's own parents (his father is particularly hilarious). 

I loved the first season, but the second really blew me away. The first episode is set in the Italian town of Modena where Dev has spent some time learning to make pasta (he's a tiny bit obsessed with food) and is filmed in black and white in homage to the Vittorio de Sica film Ladri di Biciclette (Bicycle Thieves). It's in Modena, that Dev meets Francesca (I double dare you not to fall in love with her!) who's grandmother is teaching him how to make pasta. Their friendship is one of the main storylines of the season, as is the development of Dev's career and his continued efforts to date in modern society. One episode is solely Dev going on numerous first dates that he has arranged as a result of using a Tinder style app. 

There is a few central storylines throughout the season with the addition of stand alone episodes centering on some of the other characters, such as the Thanksgiving episode that tells the story of Dev's friend Denise coming out to her mother. It was based on the real life story of how Lena Waithe, who plays Denise, actually came out to her mother which makes it feel like such an authentic piece of storytelling. 

As you can see I have lots of thoughts but I don't want to go into it too much for anyone who is reading this and hasn't seen the show yet. All I can say is that it won't be to everyone's taste, if you're in your twenties/thirties I fell like so much of the show will be relatable. It's on Netflix and is only twenty episodes over two seasons so it's worth giving it a go. 

I had heard about Margaret Atwood's book The Handmaid's Tale for years and even though I have never actually read it (which I am definitely going to now), I vaguely knew the plot, so when I heard that it was being made into a television series starring Elisabeth Moss I was incredibly excited to see it. There were advertisements for it all over New York when we were there. There was even an installation in the High Line that had free copies of the book for passers by, but all the books were gone when we were there. 

When we returned from New York, the post holiday blues inevitably set in but then I remembered there were a few episodes of The Handmaid's Tale to watch. I didn't know the full plot, just a few details, which I think is the best way to watch this if you haven't already read the book. All I really knew was that it was set in a near future dystopian society where most women have become infertile. I don't want to tell you anything else just in case you don't know anything about it yet. I was completely hooked after the first episode which blew me away. Elisabeth Moss is one of my favourite actors and I was so excited to see her in this role because her performances are always phenomenal and this is no exception. 

I don't even know where to begin with it. I have so many thoughts about it, the performances, the cinematography, the art direction, the soundtrack which is so perfect (how good was Don't You Forget About Me in the second episode), the storylines, everything! I'm completely in awe of this incredible, disturbing story that feels almost too real. It's difficult to watch some scenes, especially because of the amazing performances. The flashbacks and the inner monologue of the main character Offred are the most upsetting because of how realistic they are. Theres a quote from one of the first episodes (and also from the book) that really stuck with me, "Nothing changes instantaneously: in a gradually heating bathtub, you'd be boiled to death before you knew it". The idea is that governments don't get overthrown overnight. Big changes take time and can happen slowly before our very eyes without us realising it and that's the scary part.

If you were to take any of my suggestions from this post, I'd urge it to be The Handmaid's Tale. If anyone else has seen it or read it let me know what you think, I'm dying to talk more about it. Don't let the bastards grind you down!

Something a little bit lighter now (although I did actually cry during this so not entirely light-hearted).  Anyone who saw and loved Guardians of the Galaxy knew a sequel was inevitable and although I'm not usually the biggest fan of sequels, in the Marvel universe, sequels are fine by me. I was quite excited to see Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 because I adored the first one. First of all, I'd watch anything with Chris Pratt because he is the cutest! I've loved him since I first saw him in Everwood (anyone else remember that show) and then my ultimate favourite Andy Dwyer in Parks and Recreation where he was incredibly funny and charming. The entire cast is excellent (you can't not love baby Groot) it's entertaining and hilarious and there's Kurt Russell and Kirk from Gilmore Girls and there's a heart there too, which I can't help but love even though in films like these it's not 100% necessary. The soundtrack is also amazingly curated. 

This month I have another podcast suggestion, My Favorite Murder, which was recommended to me on Instagram by Sinead who you should definitely follow if you enjoy lovely photos and food and skincare/makeup. I was looking for something to fill the S Town void and I can't think of anything better than a podcast by two hilarious women about their favourite true murder cases. As it stands there are 69 episodes (I've listened to the first 16 in the past week!) and I'm so excited that I have this huge backlog of episodes to catch up on. You probably don't know this about me but I'm big into true murder, especially film and documentaries. It kind of runs in my family because my granny and aunt are the exact same. They even used to buy all of those true crime magazines. Making a Murderer, The Jinx, The Staircase, you name it, I'll watch it. The Zodiac is probably one of my favourites and I actually have the book based on that case which I have yet to read.

The thing I love about My Favorite Murder is the two hosts Georgia and Karen and how they deal with the subject of horrific murders and yet somehow manage to keep it from getting too intense (most of the time). I also love how passionate they both are about this topic (yay, I don't feel like a total weirdo for being obsessed with true murder) and how excited they get when one of them mentions a case the other hasn't heard of yet. Be warned though, sometimes it can get gory and horrifying so if you're scared easily this probably isn't going to be for you but I absolutely love it and can't stop listening to episode after episode. They also recommend some great tv shows and movies too. I have a feeling this will keep me going for a while but if you have any podcast suggestions please let me know because it's such a vast world that I don't even know where to start.

Finally is this month's music suggestion which is the new album from Mac DeMarco called This Old Dog. I started listening to him when his last album Salad Days came out in 2014 and became obsessed. This is his third album and at just 27 years old, it feels like he is so much older than his years. He's admitted that some of the lyrics are about his father with whom he has a fairly estranged relationship but there's also a lot more in it. I'm going to be seeing him play live for the first time in November and I'm so excited, especially after recently watching his set at Coachella. He's such a unique person with an incredible voice and musical talent, but he's definitely got a love or hate style. You either get him and love him or you don't. That being said, I'd definitely give this new album a listen. It's a bit more relaxed than the last album but the lyrics are beautiful and so relatable at times. I listened to this a lot on the subway when we were in New York so I think it'll always have a special place in my heart.

So that's a selection of what I've been loving recently, apologies that it was such a long post, but it's sometimes difficult to know how much to write because I want to encourage people to check out my suggestions without giving too much away but I also have so much to say about each one that it's hard to just give a quick synopsis. I hope you enjoyed this post and please do leave a comment if you have suggestions of films and tv shows you think I'd like or books, podcasts or music. I mostly find new things I love through other peoples suggestions so hopefully some of you will find something new to love after reading this.

Hope you're all having a lovely weekend!

Emma x

Five Tv Comedys

I've been watching recently...

 

 New Girl

I watched the first couple of episodes of New Girl when it first aired last year and I thought it was a bit lame. However after numerous people telling me it got better and was actually really good, I decided to give it another go. The second time around I fell in love. I know some people think Zooey can only play the kooky cutesy girl, but if it ain't broke, right? I personally love her and I liked her character Jess more and more with every episode I watched. Another big attraction to the show for me is my love Jake Johnson (who is excellent in Safety Not Guaranteed too). He is adorable. My brother in law and Donnacha are sick of Kate and I swooning every time he is on screen. I still don't get Winston though, people seem to love him but I don't think the writer's have given him much to work with. If you hate Zooey, you will not like this, but I'd recommend it for Nick's "I gave you cookie" speech alone. 

Workaholics

Workaholics was all over tumblr and I kept wondering what it was and then Donnacha asked if I wanted to watch it and we did and we never looked back. It really reminds me of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia in that the guys in the show are all friends and write it together. Like New Girl, it's another grower and gets better and better. For those of you who haven't heard of it, the show revolves around three house-mates in their mid twenties who work in the same cubicle in a company where they do as little work as possible and drink all the time and act like they are 15. It's hysterical.

Nathan For You

Nathan For You is a show wherein Nathan Fielder tries to help businesses to become more successful by providing them with the most ridiculous ideas to improve the way they do things. All the businesses and people are completely real and Nathan is unbelievable at playing the straight man in the most unbelievable scenarios. I cannot stress how amazing Nathan Fielder is. You have to watch this show.

Kroll Show

Nick Kroll has been in so many amazing shows such as Reno 911, Parks and Recreation, The League, Community and The Life and Times of Tim and now has his own sketch show in which he plays lots of ridiculous and obnoxious characters. The scary thing is that some of the characters aren't that far from reality. It has some great guest stars too like Jenny Slate, John Mulaney and Jon Daly, three of the funniest people ever.

Bob's Burgers

Bob's Burger's is from Loren Bouchard, creator of another one of my favourite animated shows, Home Movies. Once again a show where I watched the first episode and wasn't crazy about it and so Donnacha watched it by himself but had it on a few times while I was in the room but not really watching it. Slowly I started laughing at bits and pieces I would hear in the background and then I started watching it too. It' so cute and funny and the characters are great and it has Jon Benjamin. Please be warned though, it will make you want a burger. 

What are your favourite comedy shows?

Emma x

*I could have included Arrested Development but I just finished watching it and need to digest it some more. Plus it kind of deserves it's own post, right?


Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Five TV Shows...

...I've been watching recently.

The Walking Dead

I liked the first season, I didn't love it but I thought there was a lot of potential. I was completely let down by the second season, it was just boring. The third season however has been amazing! It is filling the tension gap until Breaking Bad returns later in the year. It has had me gasping and watching through my fingers on many occasions this season. I also love watching Talking Dead afterwards and seeing interviews with celebrity fans of the show and cast and crew members. Daryl has to be my favourite character, isn't he every girls favourite?

Dawson's Creek

Where do I start? My love affair with the Creek started many years ago. I watched DC when it was first on Irish tv and it's remained one of my all time favourite TV shows since. I think this is my first time properly re-watching it from the beginning and I'm about to start the third season which is my favourite (fans of Pacey Witter will know why). If you preferred Dawson to Pacey (like my friend Simon) I don't want to hear about it! ;)

Girls

I started watching Girls before all the hype/controversy on a whim. Donnacha and I have found it very hit and miss and it's hard to pinpoint why. One thing I noticed and Donnacha agreed was that all of the female characters on the show are stereotyped to a certain degree whereas the male characters aren't and that bugs me. I like Adam and Ray best and I don't have any major issues with the other characters except I cannot get over why Zosia Mamet's character talks like something out of an Amy Poehler sketch on SNL. I don't love it or find it as amazing as people are making it out to be but there is something that keeps drawing me back every week.

 

Enlightened

Enlightened. I cannot recommend this show highly enough. It's on HBO as well as Girls and if you had to pick one to watch, this is the winner by far. Although it's just finished it's second and possibly final season it just blew me away. I am a huge Laura Dern fan so when I saw she was in this I immediately wanted to see it. It's written/created by and stars both Laura Dern and Mike White (who also wrote some Dawson's Creek, some Freaks and Geeks, Dead Man on Campus, School of Rock and The Good Girl etc.). Luke Wilson, Diane ladd (Laura Dern's real life mother), Timm Sharp (Marshall from Undeclared), and Dermot Mulroney are all in it too as well as lots of other familiar faces. That's all I'm going to say because I would love you all to watch it. Two stand out episodes are the ones centred on Diane Ladd's character and Luke Wilson's character. It's the most unique and original television I have seen in a very long time. 

Home Movies

Donnacha and I have been re-watching this in the evenings. It is the cutest/weirdest show about Brendon Small and his friends Melissa and Jason and the movies they make together. Jon Benjamin of Archer and Bob's Burger's fame (one of it's creators Loren Bouchard also created Bob's Burgers) does a few of the voices. It's seriously hilarious. Jason and Coach McGuirk are my favourite main characters but I also love the weirdos Walter and Perry. This won't be for everyone but the subtle humour is amazing. 

Have you seen any of these shows? What do you think of them? What are you watching at the moment? Do you have any recommendations?

Check out my last Five post here.

Emma x

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Being Sick Is The Worst

Hi friends!

You may or may not have wondered where I was this past week and a half. I certainly have! I've been cultivating a rather nasty throat infection since the beginning of last week and I've spent the past 48 hours in bed/on the couch wallowing and feeling very sorry for myself. I should have gone to the doctor on Friday but it wasn't bad enough and of course it got worse and now I have to wait until tomorrow morning to make and appointment and got those sweet antibiotics! 

Donnacha has been the best and has been making me yoghurt and ice cream and lemsip and mushed up fruit anything cooling or with painkillers or that a baby would eat. I've also been watching a lot of Friends and my new favourite cartoon!

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Seriously if you haven't already seen Adventure Time, give it a try. It's the cutest/weirdest/funniest cartoon ever. It's the perfect show for parents to watch with their kids, or just 20 somethings to watch with their friends! It's cheered me up a lot. 

We also watched the 1972 film What's Up Doc? with Barbra Steisand and Ryan O'Neal. I used to watch it with my mam when I was a kid and it's still such a funny film. 

So I thought I would give away a Boots 17 Wild Curls mascara as reviewed here because it seemed a lot of you really liked the look of it and I don't think it's available outside of Ireland and the UK and knowing how frustrating it can be to order something from a different country (I'll explain soon) I wanted to send one to one of you lovely ladies as a nice little treat.

Because I'm feeling sorry for myself all you have to do to enter if you want to is leave a comment telling me what you do to cheer yourself up when your sick or a suggestion of something for me to do or a film to watch or whatever you can think of. Also leave me a way of contacting you if you don't have an email address on your profile. I'll leave it open until July 15th midnight GMT and I'll notify the winner by email and in a post. Anyone, anywhere can enter! Oh and if you don't want to enter but just want to leave a comment you can do that too! 

I look forward to reading your suggestions and hope you are all feeling much better than I am!

Emma x

A Little Chat

I wanted to do a special post just catching up and telling you what's going on in my life at the moment because there are a few things I wanted to share and I didn't want to just tag it onto the end of a post about something else. Don't worry it's nothing bad!

So first of all my blog is officially 2 years old! I can't believe I forgot about it again this year, I guess I was just busy gearing up for the Forbidden Fruit and enjoying my week off work to remember. Oops! Maybe next year, if I'm still around! 

In other exciting news, I'm going to Paris in November! Donnacha and I are going with Kate and Eric for a week including a trip to EuroDisney! I can't wait to recreate this with Kate...

Has anyone been watching Mad Men this Season? ( kinda spoiler alert so if you haven't seen it you may not want to read the next sentence). We just finished it and for me it was the best yet. Episode 12 made me fall to pieces, I think I cried for a half hour. But I'm very much looking forward to Breaking Bad starting next month! We've also been watching Homeland, we're only 4 episodes in and I'm hooked already.

I've seen some really great films recently too. Young Adult was incredible, Charlize Theron was so damn good in it and made me hide behind a cushion with cringeyness!  Womb which was the creepiest film I've ever seen. True Adolescents with Mark Duplass which I really liked. Some Days Are Better Than Others with James Mercer from the Shins was a cute indie film.  Also Everything Must Go with Will Ferrell which is such a a change from what he usually does, I love him anyway but especially in Stranger Than Fiction so I love seeing this acting side of him. 

Out of all the films I've seen recently Take This Waltz was my favourite. It's directed and written by Sarah Polley (who I love). I really can't recommend this highly enough. It's got the adorable and lovely Michelle Williams and Seth Rogen like you've never seen him before. I was seriously shocked by how amazing this film is, it really gets into you.

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I've also seen some great films in the cinema including Beauty and the Beast in 3D, Jeff Who Lives at Home (the latest Duplass brothers film) was really good and it has Jason Segel so you can't really go wrong with a bit of Nick Andopolis, Prometheus and the gorgeous Moonrise Kingdom which was the most darling film. As you probably already know I'm a huge Wes Anderson fan, what blogger isn't really? The kids in the film, all of them were such good actors and I just loved the set design as usual! 

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Another viewing recommendation I have just in case there wasn't enough there is The Staircase. This is an 8 part documentary about the death of a woman in North Carolina. That is all I'm saying because the less you know about this the better. If you can get your hands on it it's a great documentary if you're anything like me and are interested in true crime. 

My internet recommendation is for this tumblr. I hadn't heard of the 'Nancy' comics until I saw some scans from it on tumblr and I'm now obsessed! It's unbelievable how much I can relate to a cartoon drawing of a little girl. If you like Calvin and Hobbes you should definitely check out Nancy!

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As for music, I've been loving Real Estate recently, I can't stop listening to this song...

I've also been filming a bit for Cock and Bull TV, here's one of the videos I helped out on recently, it's a great song too! 

Lastly I just wanted to talk quickly about how my blog content has changed a bit recently. Well not really recently but more like the past 6 months maybe. I was a bit worried some of my readers may not be interested in posts about make up or beauty products but then I realised that it matters more that I write about what interests me otherwise I'll get bored and won't want to do it anymore. The way I see it any style blog is the exact same as a beauty one, it's all about the look that we create for ourselves and about our personalities and how we feel on a given day. 

For me looking after my skin is one of the most important things because of my family's history with skin cancer and I get excited trying out new products and using old faithful ones again and again and I want to share my tips with people and not just keep them to myself. I enjoy deciding what lipstick I'll wear when I'm getting ready each morning or what way I'll do my eyes. For me make up and and clothes go hand in hand, every morning I think about what I'll wear that day and then decide on my make up or vice versa. I'm excited to have this passion because it makes me want to write.

It also struck me when I was at the Museum of Style Icons last week how important make up and beauty products were to icons such as Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe and how without they're signature "looks" they wouldn't be remembered like they are today. 

Every reader won't be interested in every single post a blogger writes but as long as you're true to yourself and your interests and you don't compromise then you can't go wrong! 

So after that monstrosity of a post please tell me how all you guys are, have you any film/music/tv anything to recommend to me? I'd love to know!

Emma x

All I've Got's This Sunny Afternoon

These are some photos I took in Dublin Castle Park this week. We've been having such beautiful weather this week, hopefully this isn't the best it's going to get all Summer!

You might be wondering what's going on with the post-it notes ( they're Kate's from the hospital which is why they have a drug name on them) stuck to our foreheads. We were playing the game from Inglourious Basterds (which Kate and I watched this week). As you can see our fictional characters were a bit ridiculous. If you get what Star Burns is from then I love you! Heehee!

I forgot to tell you about our Screamathon last week! It was so much fun, we borrowed a projector and watched the films in our friend Simon's house and had popcorn and drinks and I fell asleep towards the end of Scream 2 :(

We went to see Scream 4 on Friday and we all loved it. It was completely ridiculous and made fun of Horror movies including the previous three Scream films but I really enjoyed it for that.

We also went to see Your Highness yesterday. It was so funny! I started watching Eastbound and Down this week and I just love Danny McBride so much! We've also started re-watching Arrested Development. I don't know how many times I've seen it but every single time I watch an episode I find there's something hysterical that I don't remember from the last time I watched it. I'm pretty sure it's the perfect Tv show!

Anyway that's enough nerd talk, I hope you're having a lovely week and that you're getting lovely weather too!

Here's a little something to get you in the mood for Summer;

Emma x

You'd Better Not Mess With Major Tom

It's been a week since my last post! I've wanted to post all week but I just haven't had the opportunity which was very frustrating because I really wanted to! This past week I've gone out with my work friends, attended a short film screening and caught up with friends I haven't seen in a while, had coffee and lunch with my mam, window shopped, bought birthday presents, bought a new wardrobe, watched 4 episodes of Arrested Development, 2 episodes of Weeds, 4 episodes of Medium, 3 episodes of Breaking Bad, 6 episodes of Everwood and the last ever UK Big Brother, saw Jonah Hex, The Switch and Cyrus in the cinema, rewatched The Puffy Chair, I was told something that made my jaw drop for 5 minutes and which I am still trying to get my head around, I drank 3 glasses of wine and 3 cocktails and listened to Warpaint, David Bowie, Beach House, Arcade Fire, The National and Roxy Music.

I also had a long conversation about friendship with Donnacha steming from a viewing of I Love You, Man of all things. I had been thinking about how the idea behind the film is so strange because no one really ever actively seeks out a friend as they would a partner. Men and women don't get dressed up and go to clubs and drink in the hopes of scoring a friend. I've had so many friendship issues during my reasonably short life that I now find it so difficult to let people into my life. I'm a firm believer from experience that certain friendships are meant for certain periods in your life and they tend to run their course and fizzle out or sometimes end abruptly, just like with a romantic relationship.

I've had friends in primary school, secondary school, church, college and work most of whom for whatever reason I am no longer in contact with (facebook doesn't really count). There are two people who I have been friends with for as long as I can remember and I'm lucky because they are the kind of people who will always be in my life and I will always be in contact with them one way or another. I am very reserved when in the company of people I don't know well or have just met and I'm hopeless at initiating a conversation with someone unless we immediately have something big in common to talk about. I am painfully shy in social situations unless I have had a glass of wine or something and only then am I able to talk a bit more openly to people I don't know well. I so wish I could be as outgoing as my mother who could literally have a conversation with a complete stranger about anything. In my experience, to find someone who you can sit and talk with for hours on end over coffee is so rare and I'm very lucky to have several people in my life who I'm that comfortable and at ease with. I have issues with trust and therefore I find it so hard to open up to someone and let them be a part of my life and when I do I put a lot of myself into the relationship and I expect the same in return.

The hard part of friendships for me is when I am so willing to be there for someone and make an effort to keep the friendship going especially when the circumstances in which you first met and got to know that person change and it becomes increasingly difficult to find time together and life just always seems to get in the way and for some reason the other person doesn't want to make the effort any more. In the past I've found it hard to let go and I've tried and tried but after several failed attempts I've learned that in situations like that you just have to accept things and move on and realise that it obviously wasn't meant to be, that that person was only meant to be in your life for that particular period of time. It makes things easier to deal with.

Have you had any similar experiences?

I finally got around to taking some outfit photographs the other day, here they are;

It was very windy so there was a lot of upskirting!
























I love the gold buttons on the dress

My shoes are from Vintage Urban Renewal, my dress is from Cardigan Girl, the necklace is from Jewel Me Pretty, my bag is from the Irish Cancer Society shop in Capel Street, the hat is from Dorset Country Lane and the lipstick is Revlon Matte- Wine Not.

What do you think? Do you like my new hat? I really love it, but I can't wear it when it's windy or it blows off my head!

How has your week been? I hope to not leave it as long between posts next time!

Doesn't David Bowie have the best accent?

Em xxx