Three Wednesday Things

Some favourite fashiony sites today - these are ones that make me smile because clothes should, above all, make you smile, and sometimes I think I forget that.

1. Starting with the anti-fashion The Brown Dress blog - Alex Martin decided to wear the same dress EVERY DAY for a year. This is the diary. (Her recycling project is equally fascinating - I'm tempted to join her 'slow fashion movement'.

2. A Dress a Day is almost the opposite, in that it is a different dress every day. But these are dresses with a difference - I have to say this blog has become an obsession for me, and my sewing machine is slowly inching out from the pile of dust it's forgotten under.

3) And now for something completely different, The Budget Fashionista is all about shopping. But who can resist a headline like: 'Can you wear a cocktail ring?'....

Three Wednesday Things

A fidgety and angsty start to the day, but on my walk with Tally, three good things happened to cheer me up:

1. There was a peony out in full bloom in the park. A pink one with white tentacles inside, searching for the sun as if it was under water. Leaves were already falling, reminding me just what short lives these flowers have. I wanted to rush back home and see if the tight buds I bought yesterday had started to open.

2. A man was lying flat out on a bench. His head and body were covered but he'd taken off his socks and trainers, placing them neatly, side by side, under the bench. I thought he was asleep, but as I walked past, his bare toes wiggled.

3. Some teenagers were sitting under a tree, having pulled the branches down so low they'd made a tent for themselves. One of them - a friend of my daughter's - shouted out hello as I passed, and I made them laugh by pretending not to have known they were there. Teenagers are the very best - I just wish we didn't seem to be so frightened of them.

Three Wednesday Things

So, enough of me (surely not, I hear you cry!). My Three Things for today are novelists I admire who spend their time away from the keyboard doing very different things ...

1. Amy Tan lives the Rock Goddess dream. And also more recently here. You have no idea how much I'd like to be in a band like this - anyone out there want to put one together because I know just the right backing singer for you, lots of enthusiasm but absolutely no experience apart from in front of mirror?

2. Margaret Atwood is an inventor of distinction AND draws pretty funny comics. (Go to the desk and click on the comic drawer. My favourite is the Radio Tour.)

3. Barbara Kingsolver is currently inspiring me with her eat local food campaign. I'm half-way through her latest book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, and I've already made changes to our diet at home.

Three Nervous Wednesday Things!

For some reason, my cup is over-brimming with nerves for my reading tonight. Half of me wants no-one to turn up so they don't see me fail miserably, the other half is panicked IN CASE no-one turns up. And I was really looking forward to this yesterday. Anyway, you're not too late to see this writer's knees shake - just come along tonight, 30th May, 7pm at Waterstones, 32-40 Calverley Road, Tunbridge Wells. Ah well, so my three things today might seem random but they are all places that make me feel strangely calm...

1. This site all about the London underground

2.The Astronomy Photograph of the Day website.

3. Knowing I am not alone.

Wednesday Three Things

Three good interviews with writers today:

1. Narrative Magazine's profile of Ann Beattie. You have to sign up to get the full thing but the whole magazine is really worth it (even if it wasn't free!)

2.The Paris Review interview of Isak Dinesen. I love how the whole concept of what an interview is gets turned on its head before it begins.

3. This interview with Margaret Atwood. There are lots of interviews with Margaret Atwood out there, but this pleased me so much with its very particular specialised focus.

Three Wednesday Things

I know, I know, it's Thursday, but I was ill yesterday so my new bootcamp schedule went to pot, although I did manage to read some of the stories in Neil Gaiman's Fragile Things which cheered me up with thoughts of arm gnawing and dead men's parties. So... every Wednesday I'm going to put up three things that give me pleasure.

It's Claire's idea, but she's gone off running with a different idea of mine, so I reckon we just work well together. AND we both live in Tunbridge Wells, so my first three things are going to be local blogs, just so everybody can fall in love with Tunbridge Wells, come and live here and we can have the UK's first writer's town.

1. Three Beautiful Things, this is updated daily and is so simple that it's strange how you find yourself smiling by at least the second point.

2. Here's someone who really really loves Tunbridge Wells...

3. ... and here's someone who would prefer it if we all stood up a bit straighter and certainly never let our dogs off their leashes.

(and just because I'm late with my Three Wednesday things, here's another photography blog of Tunbridge Wells. I'm cross because I was watching those fireman at the world famous Paul Elvis Chan's Gracelands Palace, but can't find myself in any of the pics. Probably a good thing really.)