Obsessions: Flamingo vs Pineapple

Remember Pineapple Club (shhh, don't speak about Pineapple Club)?

Remember my potential breakaway faction, Flamingo Club?

The battle for a preference between the two continues to keep me awake at night.

Art. Clothing. Accessories. Decor. Homewares.

Pink or yellow?

Pineapples or flamingos?

Piningos? Flamapples? Pinegos? Flapples?

Help.

Anyway, back to reality... one of my stylish besties, Laura, sent me a pineapple-obsession collage from MadeByGirl blog which included a picture of  THESE. AMAZING. PINEAPPLE. SHOES.



Pineapple shoes by Aquazzura (check out his logo too!!)

Of course I initiated Emergency Google Search procedures and commenced ShopStyle interrogation.

What appeared?

Well, certainly no immediate, appropriate pineapple footwear leads, at least not within my budget.

An FT Style article from February 2013, however, popped up which not only included the delicious Aquazzura pineapple strappies, but also THESE. EVEN. MORE. AMAZING. FLAMINGO. BOOTIES by my all-time-fave bonkers shoe designer Sophia Webster!

Flamingo shoes by Sophia Webster (my all time fave shoe designer, ever!)

The (mind) battle continues....

Check out these links, seems I'm not alone

• I Love Pineapples and Flamingos pinterest board
• Pineapple and Flamingo tumblr
• George Home going all Ikea with their Pineapple and Flamingo glass set (I have the originals!)
• Hi Sweetheart stamp set
• This super-classy, not-at-all-tacky, hanging ornament

Pineapple Club

After the pineapple-themed events of The Wonder Hen we formed a little club, led by Liz (of pink-word fame), to continue our appreciation of that wondrous fruit.

A Pineapple Club, if you will.

Coincidentally, everything I see at the moment seems to be pineapple themed, which means we are fast amassing a Pineapple Club membership pack and even potentially a uniform.

We seem to have found glassware, homewares, jewellery, socks, bags and even clothes. 

 

We all caught up recently at Barrio East (sister venue to Barrio North), of course, due to its pineapple themed light fittings, cocktails and salsas, and decided that it was in fact the first meeting of Pineapple Club.

Technically I'm breaking the rules by blogging, as the first rule of Pineapple Club is not to talk about Pineapple Club (mainly because people will judge us/think we're mental/be scared of us), but I don't think it's a problem, because if they kick me out, I'm going to start Flamingo Club and be the leader, and wear pink and stand on one leg at all times.

 

Ha!

Suckers.

Oh, hang on...

Obsession: Flora and the Flamingo

I'm sorry.

I thought I was done with the flamingos. I thought I'd found them all. I thought I'd made my peace with it.

I hadn't.

I'm buying this.

I'm buying this, because:

1) It's cute and pink. I love cute pink things. Unless they cry/poo/vom.
2) She's called Flora. I wish I was called Flora.
3) Flora and the flamingo are dancing. I like to dance.
4) Flora is wearing a yellow swimming hat. I want a yellow swimming hat.
5) Flora is besties with a flamingo. Imagine being besties with a flamingo. 

 I bet Flora knows Alice too....

Obsession: Lulu Guinness Flamingo Friends

You all know how much I love Lulu Guinness and you all know how much I'm adoring long-legged pink-feathered birds right now.

Well this just combines the two in to a whole new level of flamingo-accessory obsession!

Flamingos feature discreetly in her new Miami-themed Spring collection and it has just made me love her crazy pieces even more.

I need this kissing flamingo pouch as a matter of urgency.

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.