Fake Monday link festival

I don't feel particularly brilliant at the moment in any sense of the word. Whether anyone else whose mental health is - let's say, slightly variable - finds what I do, but the first thing that having a bit of a cold tends to do to me is send me into a crashing spiral of defeatism, depression and cruelty. I have come to accept the first two things are likely to always be dogging my footsteps, but I really, really, hate the last one. It's not who I am at all.

So I am going to attempt to rage against it by doing one of my occasional linky posts and share the pretty things of the shop with all of you. I hope you will enjoy them. They are brilliant.

Vicky Slater Photography

Vicky is one of those people who makes the world a better place. I've not met her in person and yet I feel happier just for knowing her. It's rare to find someone who radiates such goodness, and just as rare to find someone who is so adept at capturing it in other people. Which as you may have guessed, she also does as you can discover here. Her portrait photography in particular, I think, has a beauty to it which defies words. It is magical.

Skulls and Ponies

I am starting to feel like I'm finding my feet on Twitter. It's only taken me 4½ years and over 20,000 aphoristic bursts of self-loathing to do it. But here I am. Skulls and Ponies is a blog about art, craft and life written by a friend of a friend I made through that site. I only discovered it quite recently, and I think it's marvellous. In many ways, it deals with a number of the themes I do, only with a lighter touch and less jokes about knackers. It also features loads of pictures of arty, crafty projects, another bonus.

Twohundredpercent

For anyone worrying that the previous two links were a little out of character with my famously macho personality, I've got one here about football, mud, deep heat and Bovril. You probably know that this is a blog written by an old friend of mine, but I don't really feel the need to declare an interest because its sheer quality is self-evident to anyone who reads it. One day I hope to get some of my mojo back and start to contribute again. Until that point, however, you can enjoy the golden age of the best football website in existence.