Toy Box

Toys, photography, play. (Fair warning, you’re not going to find anything with ‘Ages three and up’ labelling in here …) After something specific? try visiting the Toy Box Index.)

23

Freebies and Discounts: Begging, peek-a-boo bras, and sub-£20.00 silicone

I’ve been utterly rubbish with my Friday Freebies and Discounts round-up lately. Smack on the hand. But in my defence, I have been out and about enjoying the British summer (we’re actually having one this year) and trying to do a bit more writing. However, there’s a bank holiday weekend on the horizon and I think you may be in need of a little something to fill the next three days, yes?

 

EBOOKS

*The following books were listed as free at the time of this post’s publication. Please double-check that that’s still the case before you hit the download button.

 

Beg – C.D. Reiss

Beg

‘If you loved Fifty Shades of Grey or Sylvia Day’s Crossfire series, you’ll love BEG – book one in Songs of Submission…’

In all honesty, that strapline puts me off wanting to download this one (anti-marketing!), but the ratings appear to be pretty solid (most are between three and five stars). I rather like the cover, too.

My name is Monica. I’m a singer born and raised in Los Angeles.

I’ve stopped dating. When I cut a record, or win a Grammy, maybe then I’ll be with someone, but every man in my past has done everything he could to make me submit myself to him, and it’s gotten in the way of my career. I won’t do it again.

But there’s Jonathan. He owns the high-rise hotel where I work, and he is gorgeous and charming. I refuse to fall in love with him, even though when he asks me to submit to him, I want nothing more.

 

Continue reading →

21

The cream of the crop

Jack's Floggers crop

What we used: standard riding crop
From: Jack’s Floggers
Material(s): leather, glass fibre
Price: £12.00
Reviewer(s): Lizzie & Thomas

A crop is a crop is a crop. Or is it? Find out what Lizzie and Thomas think of their newest purchase from U.K.-based Jack’s Floggers.

First thoughts

Lizzie
So, can I just say that my eyes were going all over the place when I saw Jack’s line up of truly beautiful implements at LAM (the London Alternative Market), which is where Thomas and I bought this lovely, lovely riding crop a month or two back. The quality of Jack’s products was abundantly clear but, not only that, they were all, without exception, incredibly stylish. This crop stood out to me, first and foremost, because of the colour – I’m a sucker for red – but as soon as I picked it up, I thought ‘ooh!’. Our current Bondage Boutique crop, the one we reviewed a while back, is now a little worse for wear and, lately, we’ve noticed the keeper has started to part company with the shaft.

Thomas
Like Lizzie, I noticed straight away that this crop of Jack’s looked and felt far superior to our current one. And although they’re both about the same length overall (approximately 27.5 inches from end to end) the leather strop/keeper on his design is much longer (7.0 inches at the attachment point as opposed to 4.5). Continue reading →

28

Sinful Sunday: Swing

This is my entry for this week’s Sinful Sunday competition. The brief? ‘One Word – Convey the meaning of your chosen word through your photograph(s)’.

As per the title of this post, I picked the word ‘swing’, which, at first glance (before you see my images), could suggest something else entirely …

Once again, these photographs were a joint effort, with my friend, E, on the other side of the lens. Continue reading →

14

Sinful Sunday: Lay (Wander Series)

This Wander image (another shot taken on my afternoon walk with the lovely E) has tortured me a bit. My photo editing skills are somewhat limited but I decided to try and knock all the colour out of it, bar that in the red top I was wearing, in order to stop the hayfield from dominating me (pun intended) quite so much. Er, yeah. Unfortunately, I wasn’t quite good enough to negotiate my way around all the grass blades in the foreground so, after much growling and muttering, settled for messing about with the colour levels to make all the green stuff a little more silvery. I kind of like what I ended up with (I think the seed heads feel a little bit ghostly) … Continue reading →

11

From tweezers to clovers: a rough guide to nipple clamps

Thai Nipple Sticks (floral)

If you’ve been rummaging around in the Chintz Toy Box, you may remember that last year, Thomas and Lizzie reviewed a set of Squeezer Teaser nipple clamps.  Low and behold, that post has gone on to become one the most popular and visited on Behind the Chintz Curtain and, even weeks and months after its publication, it continues to draw readers on a regular basis. It seems there’s a definite appetite to know more about the practice of nipple clamping – the various clamp styles, how they’re used, the pros and cons of the different designs out there, and the sensations they create.

How intense are they? Are they easy to get on? What happens, exactly, when you take them off?

To that end, I’ve asked the pair of them to put together a quick ‘n’ dirty overview of their clamping experiences, discussing their perceptions of the sensations clamps generate, and a breakdown of the benefits and hindrances of the various styles on offer.

IMPORTANT: This isn’t a ‘how to’ guide. If you think clamping is something you’d like to try, please make sure you do your homework and are aware of the risks involved/understand how to apply clamps safely. Please also take the time to read the Behind the Chintz Curtain disclaimer.

 

Sensation

Lizzie
First off, let me say this: clamping won’t be for everyone. To use the old flavouring analogy (although I’ll avoid the term ‘vanilla’) it’s all a matter of taste. For me, personally? I find that having my nipples clamped incredibly erotic and the sensation of compression a huge turn on. Bluntly, I get aroused by the pain they generate – the hit when they go on, the ache they generate once applied, and the devilish throb that kicks in when they come off. Some of the more intense styles also leave me feeling incredibly sensitive after removal and there is nothing nicer, I think, than experiencing the brush of clothing, or lips, or fingers a day or two later and being reminded of what Thomas and I did together to make them that way. Continue reading →

30

Sinful Sunday: Hay Field (Wander Series)

This is the second group of pictures from my Sinful Sunday Wander Series and, as you’ll see from the below, E and I moved out of the woods and into a much more open space – a huge hay field. Surrounded by elderflowers and big trees, it’s a truly beautiful place, especially when the grass is long like it is now.

We had a little bit of an, er, encounter with some dog walkers while doing this set – I was haring around with no top and suddenly saw a golden retriever bounding through the grass towards me. Cue frantic dropping to my knees and scrabbling about for my t-shirt (not easy to find in long grass!) whilst E tried not to laugh and give the impression she was taking photographs of seed heads. Thankfully, we were alone again a short time later and were able to continue.

Once again, massive thanks to the lovely E for her help in shooting these images. Continue reading →

28

Freebies and discounts: half-price lingerie and The Business of Pleasure

No discount and freebie thread last Friday (sorry, my review of Truth had to take precedence) but I think this week’s round-up more than makes up for it. The summer sale season is upon us and there are some serious, serious lingerie bargains to be had over at Coco de Mer, Agent Provocateur, and Figleaves.

 

TOYS AND LINGERIE

Agent Provocateur
AP is one of my favourite, favourite under-thing brands but at full-price their stuff, while beautiful, is death on the old wallet. This is definitely the time to buy. These corset-style Ilya Big Briefs? Reduced from £110 to £55.  This Mercy Waspie? £185 to £95. These Syble tie-side knickers (similar to the ones I wore in my Sinful Sunday pic a while back)? Reduced to £35 from £65.

 

Coco de Mer
Is offering up to 50% off selected items, including lingerie, bondage/fetish wear and sex toys. There are some beautiful, beautiful items in this sale, including FYI’s Binding Briefs (£64.00), the Coco de Mer Jade Petite Rosebud Small Butt Plug (£60.00), the DL & Co Lady Rhubarb Ombre Collection Scented Candle (£32.00) and this beautiful Crystal Flogger from Bo’s Tit Bits (£98.00). Continue reading →

22

Sinful Sunday: Woodland (Wander Series)

The following images wouldn’t have been possible with the help of my very lovely friend, E, who didn’t bat an eyelid when I told her I needed help shooting some (sort of) revealing photographs. Or balk when I said ‘bring wellies!’.

We had such a blast taking these pictures – and the others in what I’m now (pretentiously) calling the Wander series; they were all snapped in a single afternoon on one of my favourite walking routes. Having the opportunity to experiment with natural light, textures and, in some of the shots, gusts of wind, made the whole experience both fascinating and enjoyable. We had so many ideas we wanted to explore but, in the end, we ran out of time! Looking at what we ended up with, I decided to group the images according to setting and, rather than reveal them in all in one go, post them over the next few Sinful Sundays.

Relatively speaking, the photographs in Wander are pretty tame (although for me personally they are quite risky) but I hope that you get a sense of the open spaces we were in and a little hint of something sensual going on within them. Continue reading →