Kirstie's Homemade Hogwash

Thank you for the award, JessM. I shall treasure it (and then recycle it). Actually there are a host of duck tape crafts - google it and see!

*bees"
Just seen this. Hilarious, brilliant! My thoughts exactly.

Glad to hear I made a few of you laugh.

Nonu - yes I am a newbie - a friend who enjoys my musings/rants suggested that I join up. Apologies for references to Kirstie's appearance though - that was a bit below the belt - although I am not ashamed to admit to being fairly well-upholstered myself, but (i) I do know better and (ii) it wasn't in the spirit of Christmas and I can only say sorry and put my lapse of judgment down to a mixture of too much mulled wine and the pre-Christmas stress of frantically pulling old wrapping paper out of the bottom of drawers in order to quickly get something in the post which, in the end, took 10 days to travel 30 miles.

Happy new year to you all and I hope you had a smashing Christmas.

A warm welcome to you Bees, I've only just read this thread and am chortling away.
Actually, I've just read what I wrote and can hear my children's voices in my head saying, 'Mother' (in that condescending tone that only your children use), 'nobody says chortling any more!'

Not too good to sneer at the well upholstered on this site. I'm glad you apologised. Of course Kirstie chose her own school didn't she ?was that at the age of 5,15,? And there are so many people who have her talent or even more but at least she has got off her ample a* and made it a career. I still remember her making a cushion on TV and she was using someone else's Bernina and the panic in the owners eyes as Kirstie machined through pins not at right angles to the edge. That our generation accepted CDT instead of Domestic Science without rebelling could well be why we have the throw away take away society which gives Jamie Oliver with his save food book and Kirstie how to books their careers.

GA, I think we should revive 'chortle', a good onomatopoeic word (a rich chuckle?). From now on, I will chortle over humorous posts on GN!

Kirstie (or 'curse' as I call her) is quite simply the most obnoxious airhead who ever benefitted from our licence fees. I was listening to her spouting claptrap on a radio show over Christmas, suggesting that those people who complained about being without electricity for five days should just jolly well get a life and sit around a candle singing merry tunes and revelling in the warmth generated by having a Dickensian Christmas.

In another life, I was in the interior decorating industry - I mean seriously making an honest living out of advising people and creating attractive spaces, having studied for my recognised diploma for three years and running a successful business for seventeen. Fellow designers would all groan with horror at the prospect of another 'decor' show hosted by this idiotic woman. She did our industry a lot of harm. Its not just that - its that silly little girl voice and delivery that gets to me. Where oh where did they find her?

So Bees you're pushing at an open door with me but thank you for giving me such a laugh!

I meant boost not books ipad moment. But specki what has she got that you haven't ? Unless you are a renowned interior designer under a pseudonym? I dislike "interior design" but like what KA produces and obviously plenty of people do.

Do you think she did any more harm to the design industry than Changing Rooms specki4eyes ? I think we all grew out of that one fairly quickly.Although speaking as the woman who got her measurements for Harrods record department wrong (when the wall paper was being imported from America at astronomical expense) I'm not best placed to be judgemental

Bees, I don't know how I missed this, only saw it today. Fabulous, thanks for making me laugh.
I'm not a Kirsty fan, she's enough to put anyone off craft and crafters. I thought her comments about people who'd been flooded for 5 days over the festive period were stunningly smug.

Interior Design is a bandwagon just like garden makeovers. I was given a year's subscription to Country Living a few years ago and although I loved all the articles and was inspired by the pictures of country homes, it seemed we were all expected to live in seaside shacks, converted railway carriages, sheds and barns etc. Flowers in jam jars, sacking at the windows, picnics in an orchard with dinky little lights strewn amongst the branches.

My home is a homage......I love it!!

.....sounds idyllic Merlot

Actually, I referred to Mr P having a hearty chortle the other day, I think it was on the "Silent Witness" thread.

It always sounds a rather fat and smug word to me!

The problem with flowers in jam jars merlot is that that is exactly what they look like. I tried the dinky lights in the garden once - great till it rained and they fused

And you wake up awfully early when you only have a floaty bit of muslin covering an east facing window.

#mightaswellbeinatent

Or when a fox/badger/owl/hedgehog/vole/tree/feather/snowflake turns on your neighbour's motion-detecting security light outside your window. Several times a night.

Bees I have only just seen this!

Welcome! Do keep commenting it has made us all laugh. I enjoy any thing that takes the p* out of pretentiousness.

Just must defend the interiors industry - whether you call it interior decorating or design, it has, at the very least, played a useful role in enhancing the pleasure we get from the spaces we live in. Everything has to be designed whether its a coffee mug, a garden or a stately home. Why get all sneery about the concept of interior design? Just as there are some people who can't take a car engine apart or bake a cake or knit a sock, there are people who want to live comfortably in well designed and decorated houses, but they don't have that kind of flair. So if they can, they find someone to help. Those who don't care, don't have to bother.

My point is that K A is not helping people in that way - she is producing tat that one would expect a 6 year old to bring home from school. And she's getting paid for this by you the licence payer. No I was not a renowned interior decorator as someone put it - I just did what I was paid to do and as a result my clients gained more enjoyment from their homes. Whats the problem?

Frankly, I wish people didn't think it was a bit of a laugh to knock other people but there you go, it's modern life. The thing is that if you don't like someone on the TV then don't watch their programme. What KA does is fine by me although I wouldn't copy her makes. I like her straight talking approach on her Re/Location programmes and I did enjoy watching her renovating her own home (now a holiday home rental I think). The rest I ignore. Why does it matter if she's posh, has a squeaky voice, is 'well upholstered', is playing at ironing or anything else? If you don't like her ignore her. Can't we be a little kinder and perhaps promote and praise people who we do like for a change?

Well said Mollie

Chortle, tee-hee,chuckle! We all need a little [lot] of humour in our lives. I think that BeesLovelyBuns was providing that, although, given the name AND the thread title are you really a journalist Bees? Seeing what Gnet members are like? If you are, welcome, and if you are not, also welcome to the site.

I'm not knocking the interior design industry, Speki, but I don't have much time for the makeover industry which is normally no more than a vehicle for the presenters. Peter Andre springs to mind. Changing Rooms probably inspired a lot of people to attempt a bit of DIY and hopefully they were savvy enough to dump some of the more ridiculous 'themes' and not reduce the sale price of their homes. The DIY industry did very well out of Changing Rooms. I was doing a diploma in Garden Design when Ground Force first aired and those on the course who used it as a career change did very well out of the surge in garden makeovers.

Kirstie Allsopp and Phil Spencer make a great partnership and they know their onions when it comes to the housing market but I can't take KA seriously on her craft shows.

Totally agree with the earlier comment by specki4eyes about KA's recent radio interview. I was tempted to ring in and ask her if she had ever been without power over christmas and be unable to heat the home or cook the dinner. I think she forgets that not everyone has an aga dahhhhhling and anyway if she was ever unfortnate enough to suffer a prolonged distruption in power in one of her homes she could always move the family into one of their several others! Grrrrrrr

I didn't hear the interview and only read the comments about it here but I do wonder if KA was taking a swipe at our 'someone must be at fault and should be made to pay' attitude these days? I know personally what being without power in the middle of winter can be like and can imagine how miserable Christmas must be, but this was down to very unusual weather wasn't it? What good is money going to be after the event? And in the long run we ALL end up paying more to cover the cost of this sort of compensation...