Tee wishlist 2016

“Tees me, tees me, tees me baby…….“ - ah yes, the crappy tunes of the early 1990s, it can mean only one thing. Yes, that’s right, there has been sunshine for more than two hours so to us Brits (well, us Northerners) its basically summer. Oh look, I managed to get a reference to awful music and the purpose of my post into the opening words! 

While true that summer is allegedly here I have found myself for months now pouring over the fashion boards on Pinterest looking for clothes to help me cope with the stifling temperatures on London Underground. I honestly do lose hours of my life on Pinterest whether it’s looking for new aftershaves to try, clothes I really think would suit me, art that takes my fancy or just quirky stuff I would like should I ever to be in a position to have my own little room in a house. At the moment though I’m stuck in casual wear and tees in preparation for some glorious sunshine for me to worship. With that in mind today I’ve pulled together a tees wishlist I could really see myself in over the summer months and want to buy.

If you want to see my main boards over on Pinterest you can here - there is loads of cool stuff, promise. My board dedicated to tees can be found here. So this is what I have picked out. I have tried to pick a cross selection of tees to suit a range of budgets, after all, this would be very dull if I just said “everything from the Hugo Boss shop or anything by Paul Smith”.

With that in mind I have actually started with Hugo Boss and the most expensive of my choices - the tee below (left) is £85 and available here. It’s a regular fit cotton tee but I really like the all over pattern that looks as though someone has thrown ink or black paint all over it. It would go really well with a pair of tapered jeans and boots. 

Second up is a grey tee design from one of my favourite online stores, Buy Me Brunch. They have lots of off the wall humour tees and some frankly offensive ones. For $28 a pop though they are really affordable and last for years.  I ordered a number of tees from here over a year ago and they have kept their shape, colour and comfort. The tee (above right), with the 'Handsy as Hell' print makes me laugh.

Third is this blue Captain America tee (below left) from Next at £18. At that price it makes an excellent knocking around top that would go with a pair of cargo shorts or jeans. It also isn’t that dark so it would be great in the hot weather and won’t attract too much heat.

Fourth up is a faded floral print from River Island (above right) and again only £18. I have found myself drawn to this style of print for ages and I’ve finally found one that I think would go brilliantly with a pair of charcoal or black skinny or tapered jeans.

Last up is another from River Island but this time just £15. The splatter print below again looks as though someone has gone to town with some paint on a plain tee, but unlike the Hugo Boss tee, this one won’t break the bank!

What do you think to my choices? Could you see yourself or someone you know wearing these?

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My Perfect Man Cave

Move over Batman, there is a new cave in town that rocks (well, there is in my world of positive thinking). The word Man Cave is one phrase I utter a lot to BeautyqueenUK when we talk about moving to a house or larger flat (we live in London, larger flat is more probable - I'm not rich by any stretch of the imagination). In my mind I've buried a shipping container under the back lawn (of my imaginary house with 50 foot garden) to create a little den of my own. At a push though I'd settle for a spare room to convert into my own haven where I can go to seek out my creative flair (read play Call of Duty) or just have a space where I can sit and write this here blog. In my head (not a place you ever want to be or understand) I have my dream man cave planned out with the help of this Pinterest board.

The official description of a Man Cave is: "A man cave or manspace is a male retreat or sanctuary in a home, such as a specially equipped garage, spare bedroom, media room, den, or basement" 

So, in this place of retreat or sanctuary would be everything I need to do 'stuff' - loose term. Stuff that allows me space and time to sit back, relax, watch the Soprano's or Band of Brothers on repeat (I watch box sets like this over and over until I can quote the script) on a massive television (we have a small 50 inch TV in the lounge, I have my eye on that after moving) or I could hook up my PS4 and play Call of Duty online without being reminded Pretty Little Liars, Nashville or Devious Maids is on and is in need of watching (no not for me thanks).

As you can see in this Man Cave of mine, I would have all the gadgets I need. I have an image in my head of lazing back in an easy boy chair, a bit of Metallica on the surround sound and Panzer General on my laptop while England are winning a tournament on the TV in the background. I lost years of my youth to Panzer General, nearly as much as I lost (and continue to lose) playing Football Manager.

How cool is some of this stuff?

So, apart from making my space look something like this, with my interest in modern history I would also want a few genuine (but deactivated) weapons from past hung on the wall to really make the Call of Duty experience come to life.

What would you put in your own personal space?

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Buy Me Brunch T-Shirts

Pinterest has a lot to answer for, but over the last couple of months I have been searching out new and interesting t-shirts that would go well with not just my other clothes and boots, but also my tattoo. A pin for the online store for Buy Me Brunch appeared and I was hooked on their clothes.

Before I go any further I would like to point out that the images contained in this post will contain expletive ridden language - if you are likely to be offended please click on the back button now.

Hailing from San Francisco, Buy Me Brunch do one thing and one thing only, they make t-shirts and vest tops for men and women. With a slight twist, every month the company upload their new designs onto their Facebook page and allow us, the buying public to decide which designs they go ahead and print. This is something I have never seen before.

The t-shirts were ordered online about two weeks before Christmas and arrived within three when the holidays were taken into account. 

To say that I was chuffed would be a massive understatement. Unwrapping the two that arrived in time for Christmas Day brought a massive smile to my face, and when the last arrived again it was a brilliant surprise that had me itching (not literally) to try them on.

So, here are the t-shirts I have from Buy Me Brunch - I’m really pleased with the quality of the t-shirt, they are super-soft on the skin and look pretty hardwearing to me. Add into the mix the edgy slogans and images used then you have a perfect t-shirt company.

Buy Me Brunch sell designs and style of t-shirts, vests and pullovers for both men and women. Each of these t-shirts cost just US$28, so in or around £20.

I am so glad I pinned these and that they were spotted and bought for me. I’m a regular over at the Facebook page of Buy Me Brunch, so much so I have a wish list of their t-shirts I’m going to get my hands on.

FORGET THE REST, TRY THE BEST

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365 days of blogging

Well, this counts as my anniversary post, after one whole year I’m still here (what where the odds on that happening?). 

First of all thank you to everyone who has encouraged me over the last twelve months and thank you for taking the time to read my little corner of the web. I honestly never thought I would still be writing or that people would actually come and take a look. 

Taken after one or two drinks in Amsterdam

Stranger still was the reaction of the people who knew me. I made a few subtle hints about the blog before just coming out and telling both my friends and people I worked closely with - there was a little ribbing but that stopped almost immediately. Bizarrely the worst reaction came from my family who teased about being doing something constructive with my time (me being constructive is completely and utterly out of character).

So, what changes have I experienced after blogging for a year?

STEP AWAY FROM THE PHONE
This is something that I used to find irritating as hell before I started blogging. Rachel (BeautyqueenUK) would sit on her phone for hours, would take random photographs and would never touch a plate of food in a restaurant without taking pictures from three angles (using three different filters).

This is what awaited me when I attended my first bloggers event - gorgeous ilumi food

Dirty Burger in Kentish Town, Camden - the best burger ever

Honest Burger in Camden Market

I confess I now do this, I take random photographs of aftershaves when out and about, take pictures of my food (usually burgers that are making me drool - you‘re welcome for that lovely mental image) and have now even started taking pictures of my hair after styling it in the morning so that I can do a #HOTD hashtag! 

PETS WIN PRIZES
Your pets suddenly become a marketing opportunity and a way of attracting people to your social media feeds. I’m guilty of this, mainly because I have three of the best cats ever, Dude, ASBO and Dexter. 

Cats rule #thatisall

Dude shows off his climbing skills

What? More aftershave?

Dexter stands guard over the aftershave

They frequently pop up in my posts (usually when trying to take pictures they photobomb me or the product) or on my Instagram.

Weirdly, whenever they appear in posts they tend to overshadow everything else. Cute cats, they are the future.

In the words of Mr Tinkles from the film Cats and Dogs….'Cats Rule'.

DON’T TOUCH THAT YET

I was never allowed to open or use anything until it had been photographed more times than a dead body at a crime scene. 

While I find myself doing this more and more I still get shouted at for throwing the wrong bath bomb into the bath, taking the packaging off the wrong product or eating the wrong thing. Ooops!

This Clarins Eye Revive sat in it's box for months until pictures could be taken!

While I struggle to take a photograph (I work on the basis that if I take a hundred a few might be usable!) I find that more and more, I can be walking in the park and thinking ’this would make a great spot to take some photographs of x or y product‘. 

Domain and Hosting Site

Before blogging you might as well have spoken to be in riddles about hastags, alt-tagging, domain names, web hosting, SEO, labels and keywords.  Now, while I am not as up to scratch as I possible should be, I know what each of these things mean and do my best, but definitely an area upon which I can improve!

CAN I BLOG ABOUT THIS?
Yes, that’s right, you start to make purchasing decisions based upon whether you think something would be of interest to your readers, you search out products you haven’t tried before so that you can write about them and in my case buy, buy, buy.

I have found myself doing this more and more, particularly when looking at aftershaves or beauty products. Where once I had two or three of a product, now I have nine or ten.

So, one year down - what next? It looks like my addiction to aftershave is going to continue, as will my love of trying new hair styling products but it is more likely that I’ll post more about fashion (my fashion sense so expect dark), places to eat out and maybe a regular spot for my friend to write about cocktail and dive bars.

Thank you for reading, the support and encouragement.


Stephen


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