Saturday

101 in 1001 XIII


Well it's been a busy month for my 101 in 1001

#13 Meet a blogger in real life
I met too many to count this month! (Ok, it's not too many to count, it was 15)

#14 Go to a blogger meet up
Well, I organised a blogger meet up. (Technically this was October but, as it was the very last day of the month, I couldn't fit it into last month's post).

#15 Attend a blogging event
I went to the press event for the opening of Boux Avenue in Southampton and chilled out with Theo Pathitis. 
I also made shoes at the Rainbow Club Alter Ego to Die For event

#68 Buy a granny blanket

I actually bought this pink and green granny blanket in October but I completely forgot that it was one of my goals. 

#72 Collect my perfume wishlist
My Marc Jacobs Daisy collection is increasing!

#76 Buy a new camera
I bought my new Colin and I love him! 

#96 Read 75 books
Only three books this month. Not my best but The Grapes of Wrath is so hard-going. It's so slow! 

#101 Watch the backlog of films I've downloaded
I finally got around to watching The King's Speech. It's absolutely beautiful! 
Well, I thought The King's Speech was beautiful, and then I watched The Great Gatsby. Oh my goodness, I've never seen a more beautiful, heartbreaking film. I read the book as part of my A levels when I was 17 and absolutely hated it. This film has changed everything. 

By the way, you know how I always take a photo of the opening titles to use in these posts? I waited for 13 minutes at the beginning of The Great Gatsby to get the shot and it never came. Turns out, it appears as the very last scene. The ending is the beginning. My mind is blown! 
Rich has finally convinced me to watch Ghost. I wish he hadn't bothered. My word, that film is not worth the hype! 

November in Review


Favourite outfit

My Meadham Kirchhoff x Topshop dress is my favourite thing right now! 


Favourite shoes

My ankle wellies are the greatest thing I've ever bought! 

Favourite book

I loved A Tale for the Time Being.  

Favourite day out

The Rainbow Club event was the most fun ever!

Other favourites

I went to see the fireworks

Hanging out at Boux Avenue with Theo Pathitis

It turns out I'm not the only one who trawls Google Street View
I love playing with sparklers

My views on feminism

I started vlogging! You can see all of my videos on my channel right here

Word of the month
I'm just going to come right out and say it: I failed miserably. Never mind. There's always next year! 

Friday

FF LXVIII


This is perfect! By the way, as a child, I would read the back of food packaging. I would memorise the back of shampoo bottles when I was in the bath. 
This is very true! 
This is absolute genius!
Kate Gabrielle's pastel menorah is so beautiful! 

Other stuff
Harvey Nichols' tongue-in-cheek Christmas gifts collection is awesome! 

This is exactly what it's like to be the eldest sibling.

How well do you remember the 90s? I scored 30. 

Book review: A Tale for the Time Being

A Tale for the Time Being- Ruth Ozeki

I'm going to admit it: My love of Murakami encouraged me to buy this book. I actually picked it up in WH Smith's and then put it back on the shelf. I couldn't stop thinking about it though, so I bought it a couple of days later. I'm so glad I did! 
A Tale for the Time Being Ruth Ozeki Review
A Tale for the Time Being tells the story of Ruth, a woman living on a sleepy Canadian island, who discovers the diary of a Japanese girl that has washed up on the island's shore. As Ruth reads Nao's diary, discovering the traumatic life of a teenager dealing with displacement, bullying and a suicidal father, she begins to see parallels in their lives and becomes fully entwined in Nao's life, losing all understanding of time as a linear concept. 
A Tale for the Time Being Ruth Ozeki Extract
At first, I found Ruth's story an unwelcome interruption inbetween extracts of Nao's colloquial writing. Nao is a very likeable narrator- She is smart and personable throughout, and you grow to care for her the way that Ruth does. However, as Ruth begins to delve deeper into Nao's life, I began to will her on. I wanted to know everything about Nao's past and present, and I couldn't read the book fast enough to find out what happens to her. 
A Tale for the Time Being Book Blogger Review
The book held my attention throughout and, if anything, actually became more engaging as it went on. At over 400 pages, it's not a short book, but there was never any sense of filler or unnecessary narrative. Every page was significant and drew me in entirely. 

It's one of the best books I've read in a long time. I highly recommend it. 



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Thursday

Mary Jane Fashion


Guess what? Guess what? Guess what? Less than one month until Christmas! Eek! I do have a little issue though- I still haven't bought my Christmas dress. Christmas parties are fast approaching and I have nothing to wear. Uh-oh! Lukcily, I've been looking at these cute skater dresses and affordable body con dresses from MaryJane Fashion

There are hundreds of gorgeous dresses and they are absolute bargains too! A velvet bodycon dress for less than £10? Yes please! To make it easier for you, I've narrowed down my three favourite dresses, but it's well worth checking out the site for yourself. 


Nude cut out dress// Black velvet skater dress// Wine velvet body con dress

Of course, a gorgeous party outfit needs some gorgeous high heel party shoes! MaryJane Fashion has got shoes covered too, including some lovely spiked platform boots. Sorted!

This was a sponsored post but I really do love MaryJane Fashion. For more information on sponsoring Becky Bedbug, check out my sponsorship page

Wednesday

Alter Ego To Dye For with Rainbow Club


You all know I love shoes. You all know I love arty stuff. So can you imagine my excitement when I was invited to Rainbow Club's "Alter Ego To Dye For" event? (Side not: I actually bought my wedding shoes from Rainbow Club. They're the only thing I've actually bought for the wedding at the moment but at least I have my priorities straight!).


The event was held in a lovely bar called Dirty Martini, just off Oxford Street. Of course, this meant I got a lovely view of all the Christmas decorations along Oxford and Regent Street, so let me show those to you first. 



London architecture is so beautiful!



The concept of the event was to create an alter ego, then design and customise a shoe for your alter ego to wear. We were each given a plain ivory shoe, then some of the lovely Rainbow Club/The Colour Studio girls mixed up dye in any colour we liked, and we were free to dye the shoes ourselves. Once it was dyed, we headed over to the embellishment table to pick up any trimmings that we wanted to add, from rhinestones to neon feathers.



At first, I figured I'd go for some sort of Slytherin-inspired shoe. I was mixed up a perfect emerald green dye, dyed my shoe using the big cotton bud-esque applicator, then headed to the embellishment table, all ready to pick up some silver rhinestones.

...Then I spotted the red pom-pom trim. I couldn't resist! I knew there and then that my shoes were going to be elf shoes! Seriously, the pom-poms looked so cute against the emerald green. My alter ego ended up being Pom-Pom Jingle Toes, the most glamorous elf in the North Pole. In fact, I love my design so much that I'm going to buy some green heels and pom-pom trim to make up my own real pair to wear.

It was the most fun event I have ever attended! I loved unleashing my creative side and I met some lovely bloggers too: Kirsty from Fashion for Lunch, Josie from Fashion Mumblr and Penny from Lillies and Love

Kirsty (shoe above) and Josie won 2nd and 3rd place for their amazingly creative designs and now have some Selfridges vouchers. Very well deserved (I'm only a little bit jealous!) 


To my delight, we were allowed to take our design home with us, and we were also gifted a pair of shoes of our choice. I chose these beautiful red Christy shoes. They're so glamorous and I love the silver glitter detailing so much. Perfect for Christmas!
 Thank you so much for a wonderful evening, Rainbow Club! 

Tuesday

Win a Tatty Devine name necklace!


I have to admit, I don't actually own a name necklace although I've wanted one forever! (Christmas hint for Rich!) Instead of buying one for myself, I've decided to buy one as a giveaway prize. I know, I'm too kind!

The prize is one name necklace of standard size, in the standard colours (no glitters or mirrors, I'm afraid) with a charm and chain of your choice. The giveaway is open internationally to all readers of Becky Bedbug. Woohoo! 


Of course, you don't need to choose your name. It could say whatever you want so long as it's less than 9 letters. Whether that's "Charlotte" or "Loser", the choice is up to you!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Small print: Prize is a name necklace of your choice. Giveaway is open to all readers of Becky Bedbug, including international readers. Accounts used to enter the giveaway must be genuine accounts and not competition-only accounts. Prize is bought with my own money and is in no way sponsored by any other third party. To keep these giveaways going, consider sponsoring Becky Bedbug

Monday

Sponsor Becky Bedbug in December


IT'S CHRIIIIIISTMAAAAAS! Ooh yeah! This is the best time of the year and I'm not even slightly ashamed to admit how much I love the festive period. Christmas music and films and decorations everywhere and stollen and gingerbread and... Oh, I just love everything! 

I have to admit: I buy myself presents every year! If you want to buy yourself a present, why not sponsor my blog this month! (See what I did there? Pretty smooth link, right?) 

All sponsors get an advert in my sidebar for 30 days, reaching out to my 2300+ followers across the GFC and Bloglovin'. You also get a shoutout on Twitter, viewed by 2200+ followers, and some options include a shoutout in a feature post on Becky Bedbug.

Prices start from $10/ £6.60 so there is an option to suit all budgets! Full details can be found on my sponsorship page. I'm also happy to host giveaways and review products, so get in touch if this is something you're interested in.  

Ho ho ho! 

Sunday

Meadham Kirchhoff x Topshop and Clothes Show Live


I first discovered Meadham Kirchhoff in 2011, when they showcased their SS12 collection. They quickly became my favourite designers ever- I love quirky, playful aesthetics and pastel shades. My favourite artist (as it mentions in my left sidebar) is Grayson Perry and I was bowled over by how much this collection seemed inspired by his alter-ego Claire

This very early, absolutely excrutiating post of mine, laments the fact that Meadham Kirchhoff is "just too crazy for the high street". Oh, little blogger Becky, how wrong you were! Topshop has finally released their collaboration with Meadham Kirchhoff. (Ok, so they actually released one a few years ago but this was before I discovered them, so not much good for me). 

The thing I really love about the collection is how they've created four different aesthetics, relating to the different moods of their past collections. Cherry Blossom, with the pastel, frilly, girly looks, is right up my street! I managed to buy three items from the collaboration, thanks to the very kind people at Echo Falls who sponsored an outfit to wear to Clothes Show Live. As soon as I saw the collection, I knew it was perfect to wear to the Clothes Show Live- A little quirky but still wearable, comfortable (very important for a day out!) and, of course, super stylish.
Of course, the best parts of the collection sold out ridiculously quickly. I managed to grab this eyes and lip dress, but it was only available in a 14. I was a little worried about how it would fit but, when it arrived, it fit me absolutely perfectly. I love it so much! I love the puff sleeves, I love the ruched waist, I love the lilac frills, I love the dandy sleeves that make me feel like Laurence Llewellyn-Bowen (True fact: He was my idol when I was 8). 

I cannot wait to grace the Birmingham NEC with my Meadham Kirchhoff x Topshop clad presence. If you see a girl running around looking like an eccentric late 90s TV personality-slash-interior designer, that will be me! And don't forget, you could also be attending with my Clothes Show Live ticket giveaway! Woohoo! 

Saturday

On feminism


Deep breath. Ok, I've been sitting on this post for a long time, and I never had the courage to come out and write it. I know feminism is a controversial subject and there are a whole slew of different- strong- opinions on it. This is part of the reason I want to discuss it. 

The reason I finally decided to go ahead and post this is because of an article I read in last month's Elle magazine (I put it down and forgot about it until earlier this week). The article featured a number of different views on feminism, together with graphics and illustrations to support the discussion. Unfortunately, there were two graphics that I had a real problem with. 

Here's the first:
This is the problem: None of these apply to me. Not a single one (well, except the hairy legs bit but I always shave them if I'm getting them out!). Now I feel like I'm letting the side down. I'm girly- I like make up and fashion. I hate being active. I want to get married and have children. I'm a freaking primary school teacher. Could you get a more stereotypically female job? My lifestyle choices are being stigmatised by a group of people who feel that women should not be overtly feminine. 

Can we also take a moment to look at the comment that says "I'm in prison"? I'm sorry, but is this now something to strive towards? Are there not enough women in prison? Do we need to increase the number of female criminal convictions to ensure equality in the prison population?

I was already fuming over this- The implication that I'm letting womankind down by pandering to female stereotypes, when I turn the page and see this: A list of stereotypes that I'm not supposed to be. Erm, what now? What if I want to be a housewife, or even a mistress? I'll do whatever the hell I like, thank you very much!

This is the problem I have with the blanket term "feminism": It's often used as a way of telling women what they should do with their lives. Don't wear make up. Don't wear skirts. And for goodness sake, whatever you do, do not try to impress a man! Well, I want to look good. I want to please Rich. I want to get married and have children. So what?

Of course, some women don't want this. Some women are assexual. Some women never want children. Some women are masculine. Some women like to cover up. There's nothing wrong with that either. 

What I'm trying to say is: Why are we judging other women in the name of "feminism"? Nobody can decide what it means anyway. Take page 3 as an example. Some feminists vehemently defend a woman's right to make money in whichever way she chooses. Other feminists vehemently campaign to get page 3 banned. Why can't we just let the woman decide?

I know there are different waves and factions of feminism but I've decided to make up my own. It's called the "Let Every Woman Do Whatever The Hell She Wants" School of Feminism Thought. Now what exactly is wrong with that? 

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