Kitsch clutter: Flamingo Fun!

I've mentioned before that I have a mild obsession with H&M. And you may or may not know that I've been obsessed with flamingos since, well, forever I think.

It think it's all part of my over-arching addiction to kitsch and retro-Americana in general and I think it stems from my adoration of the Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass books as a child, and also my love of the colour pink.

My dad got some life-life (ish) flamingo models for our post-wedding garden party as a surprise for me (everyone must think they have such bad taste in garden ornaments) and I longed to stay for one night in that themed Pink Flamingo motel in California (but it looked a bit icky) and I can't resist a one-legged pose outside the Flamingo casino in Vegas.

In fact, I just can't resist Vegas. It's the Kitsch Mecca!

  

With that in mind, but bearing in mind that I have a very conservative/kitsch-averse husband, I've been wanting to decorate one of our spare rooms with a subtle nod to Alice in Wonderland. I wanted some black and white stripes in there, some flouncy pale blue, some flamingo wall paper, some tea cup lamps and some wall art from Etsy.  Sounds , erm, hideous? In my head it looks awesome. 

Promise!



Alice artwork from here, here and here

  

Next tea cup lamp

Mr G said a maaaaaaybe to the flamingo wallpaper, and then saw the samples and said no. So that kind of threw the rest out as well.

So that was a NO to the Alice room and a NO to the flamingo invasion?

Whatever.

It's happening.  What about a faux white leather bar and an army of bubble dogs whilst we're at it? Hmmm. Since then I've slowly been introducing flamingos/Alice/general kitsch gaudiness to our home, little bits at a time, and hopefully under the anti-kitsch radar. Amongst other things... 

 

 

• I recently bought a sparkly silver flamingo from Paperchase - I think I'll pop him on my dressing table (the room is white, silver and soft grey – works perfectly, perfectly I tell you);
• I managed to get some black and white stripes up in the bathroom (pics coming as soon as it's finished!) and some Malibu Cheesecake almost-naked ladies (and the not naked parts are covered in pink feathers - possibly flamingo ones. Who knows?) up on the wall;
• I snuck in a friend for my original bubble dog and a weird glass-but-looks-like-a-plastic-bottle vase to the dining room;
• I bought a gross-but-cute "Love" ornament because we saw the life size version in NYC when we got engaged; and
• I have been sneakily purchasing flamingo pictures (from here and here) to put on the wall wherever possible.

New flamingo pictures for the bathroom

So, anyway, back to H&M, (there was a point to this post, I promise!) I was going at this Kitsch Clutter implementation plan softly, softly  with one item at a time until I saw this new flamingo stuff on their website.

Oh good lord!

Sorry Mr G – we're having pink and turquoise flamingo guest towels and pink flamingo duvet covers and if I can manage it, a plastic flamingo shower curtain, there's NOTHING you can do about it. NOTHING.

Prepare for a flamingo invasion.

INCOMIIIING!

P.S. how cool that I have a whole new category of posts "Kitsch Clutter" just to showcase all the kitsch and tacky crap I buy on a weekly basis, that Mr G works tirelessly to break/hide/remove.

Spiffing.