Just a minute...December (and a bit of New Year chatter)

Making: Money! Working overtime this month.

Watching: Misfits (TV series), Inception, An Education....etc...

Reading: Elle, Vogue (usual suspects!) and have had an urge to read The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe lately!

Listening: Animal Kingdom, Carpark North, The Black Keys and Yeasayer.

Loving: All the pretty Christmas decorations and lights :)

Buying: Christmas presents! and maybe a few sneaky presents for myself...

Bye Bye 2010

I love New Years eve and the promise it holds on the other side. Time to wipe slates clean and make big plans for the following year. I took a look at my 'list' from last year- here's what I achieved...

(and what I didn't!)

1) 'Write More' This one I did! Have written more this year than any other, for work and for voluntary projects.

2) 'Move to an exciting city'  Yeah this one didn't happen. Still at home with the parents- but I've been working on my career which at the moment takes priority over moving. Maybe this year will be the year?

3) 'Learn to bake' I baked once!! Kinda. See here. Will work on this one in the new year too....

4) 'Be a shade braver with fashion' Yeah... I'd like to think I achieved this one! I wear things now I wouldn't have dreamed of in the past :)

5) 'Start a photography blog' Yep! Definitely achieved this one! See here.

6) 'Go to more gigs' Yes! Have been to some great gigs this year, Peggy Sue, 65 Days of Static, Alice in Chains....

7) 'Go to more art exhibits' Again, I went to one...see here.

8) 'Be a touch healthier' I was great with this at the start of the year- gym, yoga etc. Just didn't keep it up! Will have another bash at this one in 2011...promise....

So there you go, more ticks than crosses, so I'm happy. Will publish my 2011 list when I've had a chance to think about it :) Here's a quick look back at my highlights from 2010....

Travelling around Thailand

Gaining an Internship in fashion writing

Gaining a freelance job at the end of it

Going to Turkey with the boy and his family

Having my first fashion article printed in 'Think Local'

Gaining more and more writing experience

Going from about 7 followers on my blog to an amazing 33 (THANK YOU!!)

I hope you all have a brilliant night tonight and bring in the new year with style!

Here's to 2011

*raises a glass of bubbly*

(All images from here)

Festivities

Just wanted to do a quick catch up post...

How was everyones Christmas? I had a lovely day spending time with my family, eating too much and being spoilt rotten with gorgeous pressies!

Best bits:

Bacon for breakfast with amazing hot chocolate!

Giving out all my presents

Seeing my grandparents

Eating an amazing meal cooked by my Auntie

Seeing my boy and his family for an evening of Christmas Telly, chocolate and more pressies :)

Here are a few snaps....

Xmas dinner

Me and my sister, Sara :) Also the scarf I'm wearing was a present from my parents, it's from Italy!! In Love <3

Piggy Bank pressie! Came with Percy Pigs!

One of my favourite presents- the perfect satchel! Thanks Sara!

Pretty Camera necklace from santa



Pretty 'K' necklace from Sara

Very cool cat-orientated photography memoir from my sisters boyfriend- LOVE IT!

Other brilliant pressies included: professional de-tangler for my hair, awesome PJ bottoms, subscription to Elle magazine, photography book, Banksy book, jewellery, chocolate pennies, fluffy jumper with poochie print, peacock feather hair slide.... I could go on.

All in all a brilliant Christmas! What did you guys get up to? 

Christmas Favourites...

This post will probably be my last before the big day (aka Christmas / Jesus' Bday) so I thought I'd do a list of my favourite things about the season to get myself and you lot in the Christmas spirit :)

Also an excuse to post lots more pretty images ;)

1. Decorating the tree- nothing beats the feeling you get when you flick that switch and see hundreds of sparkling lights....

2. Impromptu snowball fights! Be careful though- my friend managed to really hurt herself recently after a spectacular snow ball throw, hours spent in A + E aren't very Christmassy...!

3.Christmas movies! Especially 'Love, Actually'

4. Animals in Santa hats. Just 'cos.

5. THE CHOCOLATE

6. Giving presents, I always get so excited to give mine out :)

7. The lights. I love that everyone pulls together to make everyday life that little bit prettier at Christmas.

8. The Fashion

9. Having someone to kiss under the mistletoe

10. Family.

Merry Christmas everyone

Xx

(All images from here)

New Blog Loves

Have been discovering so many amazing blogs lately, too many to mention in one measly blog post, so for most of them please take a look at my ever growing link list --->

(It's here where you'll find some absolute gems, promise)

But there are a few I haven't added yet, they are that sparky and new to me, and these are the ones I want to quickly share with you...

so here are some brand spanking new favourites....

1. FASHION LITTER

Written by the gorgeous Margret Shaw, this has become one of my recent favourite places to stalk out some style inspiration...

2. Diana Mini Love

As a fan of vintage style photography it's my dream to own a Diana Mini one day, and through this blog I can admire other peoples beautiful work...

*Edit* This amazing picture was taken by Marcus Butler, click here to see more of his work :)

3. Jack Gilliland Illustration

A great discovery for fans of illustration...

4. Tattoologist.

Discovered this through Jess at Draw The Stars (yet another great blog!) really great for ink addicts like myself!

5. Last but not least- Dottie.

Love this girls style and love the content of her blog- fashion and intellect in one visually perfect mix.

What new blogs have you been discovering lately?

365 Knitting Clock

Have discovered yet another brilliant artist/designer to share with you all. Her name is Siren Elise Wilhelmsen and the item in question is her 365 knitting clock.

The designer sees time as a concept that unites us all- and this creation is a physical manifestation of this.

The 365 knitting clock measures time through knitting, and after a whole year has passed you have a completed 2 metre scarf.

How brilliant is that?

I love this concept and it seems especially poignant as we head towards the end of 2010.

Bring on 2011 and let it be filled with knitting clocks....

....I've always hated numbers anyway.

Song of the Week....

 

 This song has been on repeat....pretty much all week. I am a girl obsessed.

The band is 'Animal Kingdom', yet another brilliant recomendation by Mr Luke DC.

The song is 'Mephistopheles' and it's from the album 'Signs & Wonders' Which is simply awesome. 

Sorry, no official video, just close your eyes and set your ears to stun....

Furry things

I hate the cold. At the moment I would quite happily skin a yeti and cosy up in its fur until June. I would also stack some silver rings and start smoking so I could look badass.

(source)

Whilst we're on the subject of furry things, I'm afraid I'm about to get a bit *serious* about one I lost today. My gorgeous cat Saffy passed away today. She was a birthday present to me when I was 7 and she lived a happy 17 years with me and my family.

She was so timid when we first got her that I had to coax her out from behind the sofa just to eat. As she grew up she got so much more confident and became a proper little minx who loved attention. It's crazy how pets can become part of the family, and Saffy truly was. I'm beyond devastated to have lost her, but at the same time happy she is no longer suffering.

Here she is in all her cuteness :)

Thanks to everyone on Twitter who have been so kind- the kindness of strangers always amazes me, you guys rock.

Thinking Local....

Hooray I'm back from the non-blogging abyss! Have had a very hectic week, but finally a day off today which was spent with my lovely boy who fed me pains au chocolat and went out to get me magazines, (yeah, I've trained him well).

Finally I can blog about something that's made me very happy this month- I've had my first fashion article published! It's the first time I've been able to physically hold and flick through a piece of my fashion writing. Of course I've had work published before, but always on the Internet- which is great! But it was quite special to open up a magazine and see my name in print.

The magazine I wrote for is brand new and available to those in the Solent area, (so that's Southampton, Portsmouth etc.) and best of all it's free! The publication is called 'Think Local' and is designed to help local businesses flourish whilst offering a varied and interesting read. I loved flicking through it, there is so much in there from interviews to recipes to event reviews. So if you're in the area pick one up!

I was so excited when I got my copy that I took a few photo's.... I know very un-cool, but I don't care. I'm proud of myself. I'm currently thinking up article ideas for next month and am also contributing to another new mag in the South West- so will keep you posted on that one too :)

I have to say a massive thank you to my friend Tom for making all this happen and for having faith in my writing, really means a lot.

Anyway, I'll stop gushing/showing off now. Take a lookski...

I did a little piece about Winter style, going over the trends and easy ways to style them. Very happy with the results, looks so professional. You can read it online here....

If any of you do happen to read it or even pick one up, I would love to know what you think :)

MIA

Eeek. Sorry I've been a bit MIA this week- have barely had a minute to myself! Lots of work going on at the moment- some of it brilliant, some of it...well, not quite so brilliant. Have lots I want to blog about, including a cheeky blog about my first printed fashion article....

Normal service will resume soon, promise :)

(ps- the image above was from here and has no relevance to this post....just thought it was pretty....)

Song of the Week

Another band introduced to me by my boyfriend- Kyuss. Very stoner rock, very fucking cool.

This song has been on repeat all day. Love the intro. Hopefully seeing these guys next year with the boy....

'El Rodeo' (Sorry, no official video!)

Probably quite an acquired taste for this one- anyone else enjoy a bit of gritty rock on occasion?

Cable Knit Deers

Another very cool artist doing very cool things with everyday materials, this time it's Rachel Denny and wool.

What's she doing with wool? She's turning it into PETA friendly deer heads, that's what.

How cool is that? Discovered this gem through the lovely Claire at Shy Shoe Gazer
(always discover great stuff here!)

What do you guys think? I suddenly want my house adorned with woolen critters :)

Just a Minute....November

(Source)

Making: Lots of hot chocolate. With marshmallows.

Watching: Back to the Future 1 and 2 (still got the 3rd one to go)

Reading: ID magazine, Short Stories by Kashu Ishiguro.

Listening: Interpol, Kyuss, Matt Nathanson, Mogwai and Sigur Ros.

Loving: My hand-me-down chunky knit jumper from my sister. Haven't taken it off in days.

Buying: Clothes! And jewellery and lots of Delicious lunches out.

Letting Go.

This post was inspired by my far too clever for his own good boyfriend, (who, as it happens, has just started his very own blog!! Go follow). I was having a mini meltdown, letting work stress get to me, and as usual, he snapped me out of it.

Do you ever have days when you feel like you can't do anything right? Today was that day. Getting quite a lots of negativity from various things, (shan't go into detail), and I was getting stressed, panicking and thinking- why haven't I got it figured out yet?!?! Couldn't grasp the fact that I was 24 and grappling with 2 jobs in order to both survive financially and to hold onto a dream.

Other mid-twenty-ers out there may be able to relate. You're out of education, thrust into the real world, and by now you should have the job you wanted, the flat, the social life- the whole deal right? So it's a bit of a slap in the face when you spot that you're actually living with you're parents and are more than a little further away from your dream career than you wanted.

But you know what, (and sorry if this is a little blunt), but THAT'S LIFE. Shit happens. It's all part of the so-called 'journey' and yeah, there are times when it sucks and you just want to curl up in the foetal position and sob, but it's these times, (and the way we handle them), that shape us.

Key things I took away from my conversation with the boy:

• Don't Panic. You're still young, you don't have to have it all figured out yet.
• Don't Take Any Shit. Don't slog your guts out for employers that take you for granted just because you're young and a teeny bit desperate. Take it in your stride and learn from these mistakes.
• Let Go. It's all part of the ride.

OK I'm probably over elaborating on the actual words that were said, but none the less, these are the thoughts that followed. 

So here's to all the people of the world who are lost, confused and maybe a little scared.

LET GO

and enjoy the highs and lows of this mental rollercoaster we call life.

(And try not to vom during the loop-di-loops.)

(All images via here)

Imogen....

Just a quick post tonight, wanted to share some more awesome jewellery with you, (seem to have developed a slight jewellery fetish at the moment!). 

This talented designer is called Imogen Belfield and I've fallen hard for her organic metal and porcelain creations. Each one looks like a work of art, carefully put together by the elements, twisting metal and gemstone into a textural dream.

I love my pretty delicate jewellery too.....but sometimes I just really crave work like this-

 rough, unpolished and raw.

What do you think?

Song of the Week....

I heard this song on the radio earlier this week and it stopped me mid - conversation....which nearly never happens..... it was that good. Turns out it's Adele's new single, due for release early next year. All I can say is- I'm excited. If the whole album is full of songs of this quality, it's going to be effing brilliant. I've always liked a bit of Adele, just love that soulful voice.

So here it is, not sure if this is the official video, but whatever it is, it's freakin' awesome....

'Rolling in the Deep'

ADELE 'Rolling In The Deep' (Studio Footage)

- Watch more Videos at Vodpod.

  

What do you think??

Butterfly and Bush...

Feeling in need of some pretty imagery today, off sick from work! So I thought I'd share an artist I came across in one of the Sunday supplements this week called Tracy Bush.

Tracy is a British artist that works with paper to create butterfly and flower pieces as well as artists books. I particularly like here butterflies, here's what her website has to say....

 "For many years Tracey made scrapbooks, collections of ephemera that could not be thrown away. The use of scraps is a way of recycling both materials and images in a process of reconstruction. These books have now emerged as Lepidoptera; butterflies and moths, ancient symbols of transformation. Each moth or butterfly is hand-cut from layers of recycled papers and then sewn together using a bookbinders pamphlet stitch. They are then pinned out in entomological boxes made by the suppliers of the Natural History Museum London and the Paris Museum. "

Beautiful, no?