09

Take us and Break us: we’re on Cari’s cover!

Remember the write up that Michael and I did for Cari Silverwood’s Take Me, Break Me back in March? Of course you do! Who could forget deliciously sadistic Klaus and Jodie of the capture fantasy? Well, Cari, God bless her, stopped by Chintz to read our review after we’d posted it and was sweet enough to pay us both some lovely compliments on our respective ramblings. She even said nice things about my questionable ‘art’ skills. (I can’t help but have serious love for anyone who gets my stick figures.)

Anyway the other day, Michael and I received a fantastic surprise: Take Me, Break Me will soon be released in paperback and guess whose words will be appearing on the cover? Yup. Mr M’s. Continue reading →

03

The Crow Flies Straight – A Sam Crow Love Affair

Madeline Sheehan’s Hell’s Horsemen. Joanna Wylde’s Reapers.

Kurt Sutter’s Sons of Anarchy.

Every so often, a genre will send me on a complete and utter bender. I find something that strikes a chord and that’s it; for as long as I can find the reading material (or in this case, the celluloid) to feed the addiction, I’m a total junkie.

A few weeks back, I bought Madeline Sheehan’s Undeniable, the first book in her series about a biker club known as Hell’s Horsemen. It was, loosely speaking, a romance, but a brutal one. There were a lot of things in it that morally and ethically I didn’t agree with (the treatment of the women, the sanctioning of criminal activity) but the bottom line? It was like my eyes were super-glued to the train-wrecking pages. 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 →

25

Flat-chested heroines

See Jane ScoreYou have fifteen seconds to name a fictional heroine who doesn’t have an amazing rack. And your time starts … now!

[Magic blog time-lapse technology]

Couldn’t do it? Eh, don’t sweat it. Seems they’re in pretty short supply.

I am flat-chested. And when I say ‘flat chested’, I don’t mean small hillock, gala apple, or half an orange. I mean like a blackboard. Little House on the Prairie flat. As a teenager, it used to bother me a lot. All the girls around me wore bras, filled out their tops and generally had the whole womanly shape thing going on. Me? Let’s just say there wasn’t (and still isn’t) much between me and an ironing board.

These days I’m perfectly fine with my flatness but there’s no denying that, as a society, we’re pretty damn obsessed with breasts. And, as far as the media is concerned, if you’re not sporting a pair of perfectly-shaped D cups then you might as well pack up and go home. Much to my dismay, however, it seems that the big-breasted ideal has set up shop and commenced trading in a lot of romantic and erotic fiction, too. 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 →

21

Truth (Finding Anna) – Sherri Hayes

Truth - Sherri HayesTitle: Truth (Finding Anna)
Author: Sherri Hayes
Publisher: The Writer’s Coffee Shop (25 July 2013)
ISBN: 9781612131610
Reviewer: Jane

 

Doing the wrong thing for the right reasons. (Well, mostly.)

How do I even begin reviewing Truth? Firstly, let me say that if you haven’t read the previous two books in the Finding Anna series, Slave and Need, you’re going to be seriously, seriously lost if you go straight in with this one. It cannot be read as a stand-alone. All three instalments are closely tied together and to truly appreciate the circumstances that Brianna and Stephan find themselves in, you need to understand how they got to where they are. Continue reading →

18

Parlour talk: a girls’ night in

Girls Night InSex. Do you talk about it openly? And if you do, exactly how much do you confess or share in the company of others? How frank are your conversations?

Personal experience tells me that the act of sex and our perceptions of our sexuality often become more complex as we get older. Generally speaking, we’ve learned what we like, what we don’t, and often, with a little maturity and experience, find ourselves wanting to explore things that we may have been too timid to tackle or acknowledge in our youth. However, for many of us, finding the time and the space to talk about what interests us with other like-minded people can be difficult. And invariably the things we discuss and the conclusions we draw from our conversations are not widely shared.

The other week, I was contacted by a very lovely lady by the name of Angelina, part of the team from The Boudoir, who wanted to let me know about an initiative the latter have started in the U.K. called Girls Night In. The premise? Groups of ladies getting together to talk frankly about their sex lives behind their very own (chintzy) curtains and, in the process, helping to build an online information resource for others who may be less comfortable with being so open. Continue reading →

16

Sinful Sunday: Stroke

Stroke

This photograph was a happy accident. It’s from the Working Girl sequence I did for the Sinful Sunday competition a few weeks back (some of you may recognise the lingerie) and I was playing around with downwards-looking shots. In the end, I decided that it didn’t communicate the film’s title clearly enough, so pushed it to the side.

I was actually wearing a fake fur coat over my stockings and knickers during that snapping session and I think the reason I like this image is that you can see a hint of its texture. The coat in question has been hanging in my wardrobe since I was 20 (my OH calls it my ‘Tickle Me Elmo’ coat) and I love it as much now as the day I bought it. It’s very warm (I’m someone who tends to feel the cold!), the fur is thick and lush (it feels amazing against bare skin), and I often find myself stroking it when I’m wearing it. What can I say? I’m a tactile girl. :-) Continue reading →

14

Sex Toy Stories: Fifty Shades of Pink

Fifty Shades of PinkDisheartened. That’s the word that comes to mind after watching last night’s Sex Toy Stories on Channel Four. I didn’t plan on writing this post. But I went to bed feeling annoyed about it and when I woke up with my teeth still clenching, decided to let loose on the keyboard.

If you follow the Chintz Twitter account, you may have seen the tweets I posted following the show’s the conclusion late last night. They were, largely, to do with the colour pink and how annoyed I was that sex toy manufacturers-slash-sellers seem to think that every women wants something that looks like a piece of rock candy to stick between her legs. However, for me, this gripe was really the tip of a much bigger iceberg.

A quick recap for those who didn’t see get the chance to see this documentary … Eight everyday women – the ‘O Team’ – are recruited by adult toy/lingerie giant Ann Summers to produce a range of sex toys for ‘real women’. A camera crew follows them around for a year as they share their thoughts and ideas, and documents the Summers team taking them from concept to completion. The final (pink/purple) products are unveiled, everyone claps, and Ann Summers make a sh*t load of money. The volunteers? Oh, they get the kudos of having designed something for Ann Summers. And maybe a few free toys. Continue reading →