Kirstie Bloody Allsop (Or How To Be A Trendy Peasant)

[anarchistinslippers]

Grrr!!

Has anyone here seen that show where she reveals how to pretend to be poor by recycling old things. Apparently, jars can be used after you've used up the last of the asparagus in brine from Fortnum and Mason to store all kinds of things. You know, like those free-range ivory hairclips little Porcini uses while doing her piano lessons. Because you'd never forgive yourself if her beautiful locks got caught in the keys.

I've not seen the show, nor do I want to. The very idea makes my blood boil.

I have a fairly middle class background (without wishing to set the cat among the pigeons, I can sense most of the people here are too!) but I also live away from home now and my beloved and I were poor (though not quite destitute) long before this recession thingummy hit. Before it was in fashion to make do and mend, grow your own etc.

I think it's great that people are discovering "old ways" again, but I don't need some posh trollop telling me that loo roll tubes make handy desk tidies and that bargain clothes (some are even designer you know!) can be found in charity shops*

Grr!

*That said it cheers me somewhat to see some people who are clearly "comfortable" giving money to worthy causes. It's a well documented fact that the poor give more, proportionally than "everyone else" does and yet they're the people who need that money the most!

I realise I'm starting to sound like a whiny Westerner, but DAMN IT ALL!!

[Millymollymandy]

I saw a bit of it but wished she'd stick to the property market which is more her forte. Didn't like her sense of style or design anyway! Anyway that series was on in April so why bring it up now?

[anarchistinslippers]

It just came into my head.

[Green Aura]

At least she recycled when fitting out her five bathrooms

[Helsbells]

Ha ha, my husband hates this programme.
I find it quite annoying, in one episode she claimed to have found a mirror in a skip. I mean honestly can you really imagine this woman in a skip.
In another episode we visit her parents house. Its a flamin mantion!! Basically a manor house!
Yet for some reason I still watch it!! I find programmes that make me angry with people quite appealing for some reason. I am also a fan of the Jeremy Kyle show and Underage and Pregnant!!

[lovelygreenleaves]

I think she is being misunderstood. The programme looks at traditional methods of making things and encourages people to buy old instead of new. Trying to change the common trend of everything being new cannot be a bad thing. We already know the benefits of this, but don't forget that many people don't. I have seen the programme and it is delivered in a good way. I also don't think she deserves to be called a 'posh trollop' when we don't know her, her accent and upbringing aren't her fault and I don't think she has done anything wrong in this programme

[Susie]

Hi - just wanted to agree with lovely green leaves (love that username ) that I think it's good to have something on tv which challenges the idea of New Being Always Good, even if it is done in an irritating way (I only saw a bit of one of the Kirstie programmes so I don't really have a strong opinion - she was making a mosaic table).

Also wanted to say, me and my mother sometimes laugh (in an admiring way) about the things my grandma (who had absolutely no money) did to be thrifty and recycle - one of her best ones was she used to make pegged rugs out of the leftover loops from sanitary towels which she used to 'acquire' from someone she knew who worked at the sanitary towel factory - it is a shame they don't have loops any more, because otherwise perhaps Kirstie could have featured that in her next programme as a traditional skill...

[Green Aura]

I think the thing that I find most annoying is that because programmes like this become trendy, you can no longer buy cheap secondhand stuff from a scrap merchant, it becomes architectural salvage and costs more than new - which somehow defeats the object.

You're right though, she may be a lovely person

[lovelygreenleaves]

I think the thing that I find most annoying is that because programmes like this become trendy, you can no longer buy cheap secondhand stuff from a scrap merchant, it becomes architectural salvage and costs more than new - which somehow defeats the object.

You're right though, she may be a lovely person

That's true, as long as there's still car boots! PS I like these new grins!

[MKG]

I can see a world in which posh trollops are lovely people. Yes, I think I can see that.

Mike

[anarchistinslippers]

Maybe it's coz she reminds me somewhat of an ex of mine, who really was a posh trollop. Who went to Cheltenham Ladies College "but only because Daddy was in the navy and they paid for my education". Ahem.

Ghosts of girlfriend's past aside, she irritates me. Or at least the programme's content does and I've never even seen the damn thing.

[Millymollymandy]

I didn't even know anyone considered Kirstie to be posh! I just think of her as one half of the presenting team of Location Location. Her hats, coats, shoes and clothes sense should give some indication of her interior design style, neither of which are my cup of tea but whatever her background is I don't see what that's got to do with the price of fish. And if you haven't even seen the series then I don't think you can get angry/upset/be critical of it.

[Green Aura]

I have watched it and it is really annoying. It's not the woman herself that's annoying (I think she is quite posh though - she's the Honourable Lady Allsop - for real!). I do find the whole idea a five bathroom house annoying - imagine all those toilets flushing and showers running. I hope it's on a water meter.

Actually I don't even think it's the genre of programme that p****s me off, because I have watched them avidly. It's the same as when chefs telling us about cheap cuts of meat - they become trendy and no longer cheap. I don't mind paying for good quality meat, but if Jamie says liver is the new big thing then even the poor quality stuff rockets in price.

Secondhand paving slabs (just bog standard concrete ones) at a fiver a piece and scrape off the old mortar yourself is a joke. Someone on the TV says it's good and everybody gets dollar signs in their eyes.

So don't blame Kirstie, even if she is posh

And apologies for the incoherent rant - I've been looking for reclaimed flooring and paving for ages and can't afford it!

[TheGoodEarth]

Ghosts of girlfriend's past aside, she irritates me.

...oh but you would though wouldn't you?

[mrsflibble]

....I liked her show.



mind you, I dislike now that if someone asks where i got something and i say "I made it" they then mention kirsty allsopp. grrr. I WAS MAKING DO AND MENDING BEFORE IT BECAME COOL!!! I WAS GROWING STUFF BEFORE JAMIE FRIGGING OLIVER SAID IT WAS GREAT TO DO SO!!!