'Twas on a starry night

Two sparkly bullets I dodged recently:

1/ Did not buy sparkly gold hotpants from TopShop even though I was drawn to them like a moth with questionable taste to an artificial-fibre flame.

I'm slightly ashamed to say that I have got shoes which would go with these

Although I could probably get into these hotpants with a wing, a prayer, and a very small lunch (look, I'm not suggesting it would be pretty, only that it would be physically possible), where would I wear them? And how much would I have to drink before I felt quite convinced that sparkly hotpants had been a good sartorial choice? And what would that lead to? And how old is too old for sparkly hotpants? (for all of you who are thinking, 17 or indeed 5 is too old for sparkly hotpants, I would like you to know that I once wore a tutu – a proper tulle tutu – to work when I was a senior manager (i.e. at the stage I should have known better). It looked good. I wore it with a fitted tank top because I think if you’re going to wear a tutu you need to keep your top half streamlined).

2/ Embroidered a star on a certain something (which I shall hopefully have finished to show you soon) without screwing it up.

Best to do it on fabric where you can see the threads, that's my Top Embroidery Tip

I have always been nervous of trying embroidery because I thought it would be hard, but, actually, it is not (I mean, obviously the star is not complicated, but, you know, I conquered my fear of embroidery floss and everything). I always like that really seventies kind of satin-stitch embroidery, so if it turns out I am able to go near a bit of floss without hyperventilating I may experiment with combining it with patchwork. We shall see.

I promise I won’t ever embroider hotpants. Well, I won’t embroider hotpants and then wear them out of the house.