Frills 'n' Spills

Hi, My name is Chloe. I like to talk and hence you can usually find me over at Chloe Likes To Talk. I'm a 22 year old coffee freak, food loving, sweetie muching, matryoshka obsessed, fashion junkie languages graduate with a tendency to over use Spanish terms of endearment. I like to think and dream big, even if I can't always work the little things out and my aspirations change at least weekly. Words to live by: One swallow does not a summer make.




A lot of things in this life provoke extremes. Me, personally I love liquorice, and Marmite, and Diet Coke instead of standard. I’m probably a bit of an extreme person- people either like me or they really don’t, I have to do something properly and in the right order or not at all… and Blogging, it seems is a world of extremes too.

When Maria was looking for a Guest Post for her holiday (not that I’m jealous of her, much!) it struck me just how good blogging can be, as well as a few other things I’d noticed that show a slightly darker side to the minefield that is the internet and social networking and blogging.

Just like everything else, I have really noticed the extremes of the amazingly lovely and wonderful people out there (Maria included) and sheer nastiness of the dreaded Anon Comment. Anonymous comments, more often than not, tend to be really very vicious with criticisms of your appearance, your body shape and appearance in general, of your work both on and offline, your blog content, layout and size, your opinions and beliefs and in some cases even your family, friends and partner. They are often needlessly harsh and far from the constructive criticism most people would happily receive and act upon. Many a person venturing into a space upon the web has been driven away by this hatred and bullying, but in my mind anybody who cannot put their name to their opinions and evident rage against something, has no validity and their comments are null and void.

But what really strikes me with blogging is the flip side. The people who reach out in times of trouble and of celebration. The letters and the meet-ups. The e-mails that come through from someone who really enjoyed reading what you wrote and/or identified with it in a big way. I’ve been on the receiving end of some of the nice bits. There’s a certain lady in the Blogosphere who sends me a text or a BBM when she knows I’m having a rough day and she always cheers me up. There’s another lovely lady who e-mailed me to tell that she felt good having found somebody who shared opinions about life and wanted to tell me how much she’d enjoyed reading. And there’s yet another lady with whom I exchange the notes, cards and sometimes food with on a regular basis.

And it’s not all one way. Blogging has inspired a side of me that many of my “real life” friends and colleagues would probably find quite amusing. In the last year, I’ve reached out to people who are having a tough time, because however trivial the issue might seem, I’d hate for someone to feel alone or unsupported when things are going wrong- however badly, on whatever scale. Whether it be breaking up with the person you thought you’d be spending the rest of your life with or a bad day in the office, having someone say “Hi. I’m here. If you want to chat, you know where to find me.” can make all the difference in the world. And it seems not to matter whether you live 10 miles apart or 100, whether you’re a fashion or a food blogger, whether you’re in Kent or Kazakhstan. One of the real beauties of a virtual world is that you can bring all of these people together. 

And so it is, that I find myself wondering about such a strange community, where the majority of people are really quite pleasant souls and yet there are some who can’t quite bring themselves to either keep it clean or not be seen. It’s a world of extremes, but I don’t think I could leave it if I wanted to.

Big thank you to Maria for providing me with a most opportune platform for this little ramble, hope she’s having a lovely time whilst we’re all slaving away here.

Hello! I'm Claire from Jazzpad and whilst Maria is sunning herself on holiday (all those feeling remotely jealous say 'aye') I thought I'd give her a hand keeping her blog ticking over and offer something a little different to Frills 'n' Spills. I'm in no way trying to compete with Maria (she's far too style savvy and well-loved for that) so here's something away from styling and fashion debates which, though very different, I hope is still really relevant in the blog world.

Photography is equally, if not even more important than the written entries in blogging. It's the visuals of a blog which make the first impression, and regardless of how well-written and engaging a blogger is, chances are you won't give it a read unless there is something punchy and exciting to feast your eyes on. Be it outfit shots, photo diaries or images of haul purchases (you lucky things you), a camera is a blogger's best friend.

Your digital camera is definitely an invaluable aide to your cause, but have you ever thought about going back to basics with a manual? If you're reading this and think "psssh, I'm a 35mm pro, she's preaching to the converted," then apologies, but if you're the sort who has wanted to dabble in manual for a while but just never really had the courage to do so, I implore you.

These are all taken with what must be the best starter manual Lomo camera, the Colorsplash. It was my first toy camera which I've had for about 3 years now, and apart from a couple of winding/learning/teething problems at the very beginning, it has never let me down. The same cannot be said for my Holga Mini, which is still sitting on my naughty shelf. With long-exposure settings, multi-coloured flash options, relatively cheap price, and the tendency to prompt conversation from any onlooker ("Is that a gun? A microscope?"), I would not trade it for the world.

There is something quite romantic about manual film. It's the excitement of forgetting what you've snapped, and months later stumbling across a slightly over-exposed shot of a building you'd walked past on a holiday and can't remember the name of it. It's something you really can't mimic with digital images, and with the magic of developing film it's possible to put your manual snaps on a CD, so you can still share them with the world.

It really is a cup of tea...

♥ Do you have a favourite photographer? (Celebrity or otherwise)

I absolutely love Patrick Demarchelier’s work, and also Andreas Sjödin who has done a lot of the photography for H&M in the past. I actually applied for work experience with Patrick Demarchelier’s studio in the wild off-chance that maybe they would want an

♥ What are your views on sites such as Tumblr, WeHeartIt etc? Is it difficult to retain authorship of your work?   

♥  I always feel nervous in front of the camera, how do you get your subjects to relax?

I’ve had my fair share of nervous models and subjects and I find the easiest way is to make them laugh, however ridiculous the means! Once all that nervous energy’s out, everybody can relax and just have fun with it. That’s what photo shoots really should be about.

Only Forward by Michael Marshall Smith (amazing sci-fi book, which is only bettered by Spares, but personally I think this one is the best). 

Film would have to be Serenity as it’s a fantastic sum-up to the original series Firefly, even though you don’t get to find anything out about Shepherd!! 

Album would be Adele 19, at the moment, because I’m completely in love with her voice. 

Finally, blog would be Tartelette – beautiful photography and delicious recipes.

A HUGE thank you to Neha for letting me interview her :) If anyone wants to be featured or has any ideas about who you would like to see next then let me know in the comments :) 

... and diving into the big wide world. One of the reasons we have neglected the blog (and you lovely people!) recently is that since moving into our uni house we have been having a few problems with our accommodation. Leaks in our house mean that we are restricted on the number of bathrooms we can use, which is a bit of a pain with 5 of us here at the moment... you gotta love student housing! 

My mood wasn't helped after Mark managed to shrink my favourite jumper that I featured on the last post. I was so upset when I pulled it out of the washing machine- it was literally the size of a child's jumper :'( I was going to put a picture up but it is just too upsetting! The icing on the cake was when I had to rush to A&E on Wednesday evening. My left arm swelled up and went all numb with sharp, shooting pains which was terrifying and confusing in equal part- fun huh?! Thank you to everyone on Twitter who sent such lovely messages of support, they really helped to keep me occupied whilst I was stuck waiting to see a doctor. I arrived home at about 10pm to find my house mates waiting up to see if I was OK and a really cute note on my door...