*Ceiling eyes, via femke pastijn via Lolita*

*Granola, via Celine Steen via Tabitha Emma*

*Cobbled footsteps, via C1garettes via Lola and Clive via Fresh Collective*

*Speckled travel, via CSA Flat File*

*String of balls, via Seventy Tree*

*Citrus tips, via Cherry Blossom Girl*

*Neon scraps, via Le Dans La*

*Basketed socks, via Sunken Treasure*

*Concrete, via Emsedge*

*Wrapped up, via Lolita*

*Tweed rocker, via Kinzco via Chairsmith*

*Danger Tibi, via Style by Kling*

*African juice, via Oh Joy*

*Kitchen cube, via Hay via Yukkiie*

*Blue wall, via Hay via Yukkiie*

*Black strides, via The Blonde Salad*

*Cuffed, via The Blonde Salad*

*Kitties, via The Cherry Blossom Girl*

*1984, via Maklarhuset via Kakform via Emma’s Designblogg*

*Mountains, via Andy Curlow via All the Mountains*

*Safety yellow, via Street FSN via Wear Color*

*India, via The Cherry Blossom Girl*

So I think the last And She Was I wrote, was from my week in Tokyo. Since then, I’ve done the following “riveting” and “exciting” things with my life: celebrated the husband clocking up one year at WIRED UK, with a Vietnamese dinner in Soho. Went to London Fashion Week with a tech company, and hung out with Laura and Petah. Went to Barcelona for the MWC trade show, but had a few days’ sightseeing beforehand (more on that later — I just got the photos developed!) Interviewed James Dyson for work; went to Cornwall with my girlfriends Laura, Laura and Kam, and then…we arrive back to current day. And breathe.

I think that’s normal for any job though; the further you move up the ladder, the less you get to do what you actually, you know, want to do. Though I must say, I’m really enjoying the creative process of working to briefs, and the adrenaline rush of helping pull off ideas. Not to mention meeting new people, especially if it involves visiting offices as stunning as Ogilvy’s Canary Wharf branch, which I saw yesterday.

As a technology journalist, you’d think I really love gadgets. And I do! When they work properly, anyway. But over the last several years, I’ve become so concerned of my place in the chain, as an enabler for people who don’t really need to waste a tonne of money upgrading. Not to mention the effect of my job on this fine planet we live on — I’m racked with guilt about the landfill issue. Plus, seeing another effing tablet every week really makes you resent the process of churn. So when I see tech that impresses me, it’s like a sledgehammer to my esophagus.

Anyway! I’m digressing. What I wanted to write about was how enthused I felt after a meeting at Ogilvy yesterday, to check out their new digital labs. It’s very rare where I see tech I haven’t seen / heard of before, but Nicole and Will have done a great job of curating some impressive technologies around mind-control; augmented reality and the like; all of which other arms of the advertising agency are using in their Mad Men-style creative briefs.

The best thing though? Their office. These two pics I surreptitiously shot while my colleague was putting his jacket on only show the downstairs lobby, but oh, how I wish I could’ve shot some upstairs on their actual floor. I’m such a sucker for Ercol and Eames.

Vegas is a real mish-mash of other cities — seen here is the Paris hotel

Every year, the world’s tech press ravages Las Vegas like a virus. No hotel, bar or convention centre is left untouched from the masses of nerds that assemble to see the following year’s gadgets get unveiled.

It’s my fifth time out in Vegas for CES, but I still walk around like it’s my first time, marvelling at how big everything is, and saying things like “oh wow, they built that hotel really fast!” and “my god, I’m dying for something not deep-fried!” It’s the kind of city you feel like you know really well, yet because it’s constantly redressing itself and evolving, you can never truly know it. It’s a special kind of beast.

Back to the reason I’m out here, it’s rather funny seeing companies try and outdo each other not just with their products, but the conferences they put on. So far Sony has wheeled out Will Smith to shill TVs for them, and Panasonic threw some big bucks at Justin Timberlake so he would make an appearance onstage. Later this week, Justin Bieber’s meant to be unveiling a personal entertainment robot (yes, really) and Snooki from Jersey Shore is apparently announcing a new audio range. A company even brought a live kangaroo on stage with them for some reason-or-other.

Thankfully it’s not all work work work. Long hours are spent at the bar, or walking up and down the strip between hotels. I plan on doing a bit of shopping later this week before flying back on Saturday (Bloomingdales and Kate Spade better re-stock their shelves in preparation, is all I’m sayin’), and enjoy Jim’s and my lovely suite at The Palazzo hotel, which is one of the newer and fancier hotels on the strip. As much as us tech journos like to moan about CES, I’m feeling very grateful to be here again.

Eating in Vegas is one of my favourite activities. This Italian meal at D.O.C.G at The Cosmopolitan was pretty healthy, but since then I’ve managed to check off pizza and a burger on the To Do list.

The Bellagio’s infamous fountains, which are synchronised to a different song every hour. We were lucky enough to see them dance around to Elton John’s Your Song on Saturday night. Bonus info: Jim and I met in The Bellagio’s baccarat room five years ago this week (aww).

One of the newest hotels, The Cosmopolitan, is probably one of the gaudiest too.

…I do like the lights here, though.

The Cosmopolitan has a pop-up wedding chapel called iDo, which is designed to look like an Apple Store. Check out more pics and info on it here.

iDo from outside.

Some of the views from our suite window, with one of The Palazzo’s seven pools seen there.

The Palazzo’s suites ain’t half bad, right?

A gorgeous sunset, glimpsed from our suite window. Doesn’t Donald Trump’s hotel look nice bathed in orange rays?

It’s not quite Condé Nast’s Brides magazine, but I’ll take Condé Nast coverage where I can get it. Even if I did write it myself…

For the January issue of WIRED UK, I did a group-test of photo books from Blurb, Snapfish, Bonusprint, Photobox and Apple, and what better material to test them on than the most popular reason to use those photo book services? Wedding photos. Anyway, the issue is on sale now (it’s the one with a thumb-looking portrait of Zuckerberg on the cover), but unfortunately the review hasn’t found its way online yet.

The last thing I want to be is the person who turns their Twitter feed into a spammy linkfest pointing to self-congratulatory posts on their tech blog. I already follow enough of those people as is; I’d bore even myself to tears if that were to happen.

However (and you knew there was a “however” incoming soon), I can’t help but feel immensely proud of how my site, launched just five weeks ago today, is performing. So much so that I’ve got a lump in my throat and am on the verge of doing “a Gwyneth” right now.

Biased I may be, but there are so many amazingly-readable features, news posts and going up every day. All from the likes of my PhD guys (my news editor Sam Gibbs, and freelancer Jamie Condliffe); the one freelancer I’ve loyally commissioned across my four media jobs now (as he’s so bloody talented — step forward Gary Cutlack); Bulent Yusuf, the features guy who pitches ideas and writes so magnificently that I should really stop feeling so surprised each time by now, and the amazing Haje Jan Kamps who has such a knack with explaining photography terms to the man on the street, that you’d think he authors books on the subject for a living. Oh wait, he does.

Not to mention the hugely-talented gaming apps reviewers Chris Schilling and Stuart Houghton who covered for Bulent when he was off getting his eyes lasered, and impressed me so much that I was almost sad when Bulent’s eyesight returned (almost, Bulent! I said “almost”!), and our undercover London copper “Matt Delito,” whose weekly Notes From the Frontline columns are consistently pulling in astonishing traffic.

…And they’re just the British guys, who are creating original content. We’re “translating” some knowledgable, hilariously-written stuff from the big brother (the American Gizmodo), which is (understandably) making its mark on the site too.

Future Publishing will be issuing a press release shortly about our incredibly overwhelming first month’s traffic (sneak peek: let’s just say we’re several years ahead of target), but getting back to all things editorial, there are just so many pieces of content on Giz UK that I’d genuinely read myself, and I’d love you to take a peek at too.

Here’s a sample of some of my recent favourites, in no order whatsoever:

- Bulent’s rant about James Bond gadgets, or the lack thereof thanks to product placement
- Gary’s news post about Noel Gallagher’s rant about the iPhone
- Sam’s Nokia Lumia 800 review
- Jamie’s feature on Oxford’s nuclear sun
- Bulent’s hilarious report about some drunken, coked-up gaming awards ‘do sponsors
- Haje’s rant about the Canon 1D X DSLR’s missing features
- Matt Delito’s column about a BBM-lacking teenager and a father with a gun
- Gary’s expose on rip-off Britain’s worst offenders

Lastly, the commenters. Never have I been so scared of meeting a new site’s commenters, than I was before launching Giz UK. But every day the 1,000+ registered commenters make me blush with their daring cheek; impress me with their knowledge; and just bowl me over with their sheer wit. You only have to look at some of the few hundred comments we received on our “welcome to your new tech blog home!” post to see just how loyal and supportive these guys are. Mostly.

I feel like the luckiest girl in the world. (Even though it’s almost 8pm and I’m still stuck in the office, slaving away. Listening to, ahem, Jesus Jones.)

Anyway, if you don’t follow me on Twitter, you may’ve missed that I had some exciting job news today. I’m re-joining Future Publishing (after leaving at the tail-end of ’09 to join the US Gizmodo), to launch a UK version of Gizmodo. It will be a dedicated UK site that’ll take a feed of some of the more relevant content, balanced out with a heavy dose of localised content about UK networks, services and the like. Plus all the usual off-topic japes and shenanigans you’ve come to expect from Gizmodo.

While I’m still on holiday for another week or so, I’m really excited about pulling my sleeves up and getting started properly. This has been a long time coming — double, no triple the length of time you have in your mind! — and has been extremely difficult to keep quiet. While I already owe about 99.9 trillion people an email, I’m looking forward to the challenge – hopefully my marriage/friendships/blog won’t suffer too much under the weight of the launch!

And pyjamas, while I’ve enjoyed working inside of you for the past 20 months, I’m actually looking forward to swapping my “lady of leisure” lifestyle for the corporate world, believe it or not.

If I haven’t stolen enough of your time yet, we’ve had some nice media coverage about the partnership between Future and Gawker Media, which you can read about on these fine sites:

- The Guardian
- MediaWeek
- PaidContent
-TechRadar
- MCV
- PPA
- The Drum
- GamesIndustry

…and of course, on Gizmodo.

*Gold star if you can guess the warblers of those classics.

Plus, I found some pretty cute pictures this past week, if I do say so myself:

*Bike and frills, via Bluepool Road*

*Horizon, via Joeri Bosma via Colossal via DudeCraft*

*Peeling kitchen, via Hus & Hem via From Scandinavia With Love*

*Hello, via Oh Dier via Lovely Clusters*

*Mustard on fairy floss, via Cali Vintage via Wearcolor*

*Beautiful day, via Oh, Hello Friend*

*Test cards, via Oh, Hello Friend*

*Chook, via Krysten Hayes via My Owl Barn*

Should probably explain my relief at not waking up in a tent in Essex — we were invited to spend the weekend at V festival’s Louder Lounge, which we’ve enjoyed the past four years now. But this year the thought of staying the whole weekend and camping really didn’t appeal, so we only did a daytrip. It was great fun — those guys really know how to put on a good vip experience.

Backtracking a bit, we had dinner with Clare and Salome on Wednesday, and on Thursday I caught up with Laura and Petah for tapas and cocktails. I was still feeling quite under the weather from a recent illness, but it was nice to be spontaneous for a change. And then Friday was my last day at Gizmodo! I miss those guys like crazy already, but am really excited about my next challenge.

If you’re at a loose end tomorrow (Thursday 30th June), come along and watch/cheer/heckle* me as I talk on the ubiquitous yet wildly exciting topic of BLOGGING, in aid of International Social Media Day (yes, really.)

Part of Mashable’s global exercise, the two hour-long free event is being held at Lomography’s Shoreditch store, from 6.30 to 8.30. There’ll be free drinks, a chance to network with other bloggers/digital people, and the opportunity to hear other speakers gasbag about their chosen digital subjects. Not to mention eye up Lomography’s wonderful cameras. If you’d like to come, please do RSVP here.

*Please don’t heckle. I’m nervous enough as is.

*Image Credit: Voyons Voir via Ffffound via Photojojo*

Trying out new cameras — and old cameras! — is one of my favourite pastimes, and luckily it’s one of the perks of the job. As an owner and fan of several Lomography cameras, it was an honour to give the new LC-Wide a whirl last weekend for a Gizmodo review that should be going up tomorrow.

As unboxings on tech blogs are so terribly passé now (or so we’ve seemingly deemed), I’m plonking these photos on my blog instead. I don’t know about you lot, but I can scarcely contain myself when faced with well-branded packaging, like the following pictures show…

Peel off the paper cummerband, and you’ve got a black wooden box which doubles up as a handy receptacle for storing film!

I’m not sure if the little cardboard box that houses the LC-Wide is meant to have so much space on the side of it (the LC-Wide had been opened previous to me), but I love the care to detail in every single piece of packaging Lomography produces.

Inside, a couple of rolls of film; some masks for half-frame or square shots; a cable release and…

Two big hardback Lomo books! It’s not the big £70 LC-A+ one they sell, but smaller LC-A+ and LC-Wide tomes.

Slide the latch for half-frame shots…

Or open it wide for full-frame snaps.

As you can see, it also has a hotshoe for attaching a Diana flash to.

Tomorrow I’ll upload some photos from my three test rolls, so you can see the kind of quality you can expect from the £349 LC-Wide. Until then…bed! By way of the kitchen, where I need to do some quick midnight-icing of some cupcakes I whipped up earlier, that is.

Just a quickie to say that if you happen to switch on the telly and watch BBC News today, you might see me hovering outside Buckingham Palace talking about the royal wedding’s use of social media.

We filmed the spot last Wednesday, and I forgot entirely about it until I checked Twitter at lunch today and saw that it had already gone out. It must’ve made it onto BBC Worldwide as well, as someone from India mentioned seeing me!

Thankfully I don’t look like too much of a lobster in the 26-degree heat (it was surely London’s hottest day of the year that day), and I didn’t sound like too much of a dimwit. These media appearances are getting a little easier each time, but I still feel really awkward watching myself afterwards.

You can view the video on the BBC here.