Hello, my name is Cas, and I have a problem. I am addicted to gifs and tumblrs with gifs.

This is a good example.

As is this one

And this (still the original and best to me)

This has been known to make me giggle

And This one, because not everything happens in New York

Finally, I really wish I didn’t identify quite so much with
this entire tumblr.

Please tell me I am not alone with this addiction?

Hi. I am stuck on the boat this weekend, so can’t put together a decent Roast for you. However, as I am doing my best to stick to the new posting schedule, you need something.

I suggest you all go to BuzzFeed to satisfy your cravings for the strange and unusual.

I will be back properly on Tuesday 🙂

Just two things today. I need to work out a better way of sourcing my Roast links, clearly!

Nerd Girl Problems – I really wish I didn’t identify with quite so many of these :S

I love Hamlet, (though the I have yet to see a version of Polonius where I don’t cheer at the arras scene), but it can be a little bit like this sometimes.

Today it feels like spring is in the air. The sun is shining, it is warm enough to go out of the house without a thick jacket (just), and everything just feels fresh. I expect we’ll be back to sleet and snow tomorrow, but for now I am going to enjoy it.

What has grabbed my attention this week? Not much, because it has been a little bit busy at work, but some things have made my antenna buzz.

The Guardian has this fascinating break down of names by profession/era/education. The visuals are quite interesting.

Along with Pinterest, Tumblr has to be THE biggest way to waste an hour. I bring you WTF Evolution for your viewing… I hesitate to say “pleasure”, because frankly some of those images freaked the crap out of me. But it is amazing what variation there is in the natural world.

This spelling challenge is rather addictive (needs audio to work). I won’t admit what I got. It is slightly embarrassing.

And to finish off, here are some photos of awesome people hanging out together. Awesome.

Seen anything this week that has tickled your fancy? Why not share in the comments below 🙂

So I have finally been sucked into the world of Pinterest and, as a result, I have found myself disappearing down the rabbit hole of design blogs. I say partly, because I have always read such blogs, I just haven’t been able to save/share my inspirations and lusts in such a convenient fashion before. All hail the mighty internet. It finds solutions for things I didn’t even know where a problem!

And oh, the pretty, shiny, lovely houses and design ideas… I so want my own house *whimper*. There is also a hefty amount of jewellery p0rn in there as well. I just can’t help myself.

Shana Logic has some of the CUTEST stuff in creation. Help me.

Haute Macabre – well, it’s all in the name really, isn’t it? Fashion and design for the grown up goth.

Young House Love – THIS idea is genius. Wish I had known about it last year when I was in a picture hanging spree…

And two places that can ALWAYS be guaranteed to give rise to plenty of ideas/envy:
Design Milk
Domestic Sluttery

For those of you who aren’t a 30 year old blogger with the an urge to nest and a magpie gene, I give you some other things to ponder.

The the world in tweets is a wonderful representation of, well, the world in tweets at that moment.

Sadly, WhiskeyCat is no longer with us, and I find myself missing the fluffy little hellbeast. She was evil, but in the same way penguins are evil. It was part of her charm. Perhaps a trip to a Cat Cafe would help?

And lastly, the 50 years of Doctor Who you sort of wish we had actually had…

All the links this week have come from people on Twitter. Isn’t Twitter great – I now have a gazillion blog minions out there, all finding fun things for me to roast about, and they don’t even know it. Mwhahahaaaa!!!

To start off with, who didn’t enjoy a good game of tag in the playground? But to play the same game for
23 years? That takes some unique sort of friendship. (from @jonesabi)

This perfectly sums up my attitude to dating. I once dated a guy who had no books in his house. NO BOOKS. AT ALL. He did drive a BMW, but even that couldn’t mitigate the lack of books for long. (from @girlwithtrowel)

Amazing picture of someone feeding birds in Krakow. Seriously, so much better than that sounds. (via @TomChivers)

Like coffee? Love Coffeisseur, a new coffee blog written by @peejaybe.

It goes against the grain to link to the Daily Mail, but this article at least might be worth it: the danger of little princesses. (@mushenska)

I like the odd and the strange and frequently chronicle what I see here on BrightMeadow. But I can honestly say I have never seen anything this strange whilst out and about in Oxford. (via @JillMansell)

And lastly, what happens to lovers while they are sleeping? (@Lu_Loves)

Happy weekend everyone. I am going to go back under the blankets and sleep some more now. I hate being sick. Cas 🙂

Hi there. Remember me? Cas? I used to be quite good at this blogging thing. Every Sunday, for YEARS, I did this thing called the Sunday Roast. It was a mix up of interesting news items, links, videos, and general rambles on my life. They were a lot of fun to write, and we had even more fun gossiping in the comments. One thing led to another (I moved to Oxford, Twitter, jobs, health, yada yada) and I haven’t roasted since February 2009.

So I thought I’d see what would happen if I did a new one. Da-da!

Firstly, a couple of you have been asking where I got this mug from. So I will tell you. It was purchased from an Oxford shop called Ansari and is a design called “Wild Wood” from Disaster Designs. I also bought a lovely spotty blue satchel from them, and they are a GREAT spot for scarves… They can be also found on Twitter. Go on. Give in to temptation. You know you want to.

The Life in Publishing site entered my life before Christmas and I haven’t stopped laughing since. It is all just so true! (Also on Twitter)

Publishing Girl Problems is a slightly different take on the same theme. Hilariously applicable to most any career. I just wish so much of it didn’t feel like it came directly from my life.

I love the new Dr Who (I even enjoy being able to rant about Stephen Moffat and his frequently troubled take on female characters). I’m not so sure of puppets – frankly, they freak me out most of the time. Lady Jane made this Madame Tussaud puppet that I swear turns to follow me as I leave the room… Anyway. Doctor Who yes, Puppets no. Then I met the The Doctor Puppet and fell utterly in love. LOVE I tell you.

Abi Jones is one of my old blog regulars. Since she started commenting all those years ago, she has gotten married, landed a job at Google, had an ADORABLE baby, and many other things. I, on the other hand, have done none of those things. OK, now I feel a little bad about my life, so I will go read her comic and cheer up.

#Whatshouldwecallme is another tumblr (I think I have a small problem) which cracks me up. Again, eerily familiar at times. In particular this.

Lastly for today, the Pioneer Woman. She deserves a post all of her own and, maybe, I might even get around to writing it. Suffice it to say for now, I am so obsessed with her life that I am in the process of reading EVERY SINGLE POST in her archives. After a week I am now up to March 2010. It would be more, but it turns out there is a limit to how much a girl can read about cute cowboys and ranch life and sheer perfection before she wants to shoot herself in dispair because her own life will never be like that. Plus, like good chocolate, I am trying to savour it and make it last.

Talking of chocolate, American chocolate is just awful. Truly nasty. Hershey’s Kisses just taste like… *insert vomiting graphic here* To be fair, most American people I talk to agree with this. They have good hard candy, and Reeses Pieces are ridiculously addictive, but they just haven’t cracked the simple block of chocolate. I had heard good things about Godiva chocolates though, so when I was in NYC at Christmas visiting with Brother Dearest and Little Star, I gave them ago. They were OK I guess – maybe on a par with the cheap chocolate you get in advent calendars. But nothing like the luxury brand I was expecting. Which makes me wonder – what would American tastebuds do if offered Green & Blacks, or even a humble Thorntons truffle?

I’ll leave you with that thought. As ever, comments welcome 🙂

Love, Cxxx