put your records on

helloooooooo again!

how are you all?

looking forward to new year's eve?

i kind of am, we're going down to see my auntie & cousin in yorkshire which should be good 'cause i haven't seen them in aaaages (and they have beatles rockband, woo!) but i would much rather be at my lovely friend kate's party =/

oh wellies, typical!

yesterday i opened my presents from my mum's side of the family, and they were quite awesome.

mother gave me this AMAZING record player, i love it!

so far i've only played one song on it (dire straits - romeo & juliet if you were wondering) to see if it works, as all my records are at the father's house, but i look forward to playing all the golden oldies :)

i also got this necklace from my sister, which is pretty groovy.
this is going to be my last post of 2009!

:O
i hope to see you all in the new year, have a good one!
x

music & laughter

yesterday, it was a friend's birthday so we braved the sales for a day out in town.

it was ludicrously busy so we didn't do much shopping, although i did buy rather a few CDs.

the first one i bought was dylan and the dead - a collaboration between bob dylan & the grateful dead, 2 of my favourite recording artists of all time. this is the most amazing chill out guitarry album ever, i loooove it so much!

HMV had a 2 for £20 deal on (and i had a voucher for £12, woo!) so i decided to get gossip in the grain by ray la montagne. i've been a fan of this guy for a while, but never bought more than the odd single. can't waaaaait to listen to it!

flight of the conchorrrrrrrrrrrds! i love this guys so much, they are just so funny & lovely. i bought the first album 'cause it's a bit more folky.

and i am a HUGE folk fan!

it's amusing too, what more can you want in life than folk that's funny?

i also bought the first days of spring, noah & the whale's new album. now, i haven't got their first one but i do love the few songs i've heard off it so i'm hoping this one will be goooooood.
apparently it's the story of charlie fink (the lead singer & songwriter) & laura marling's break up, and there's a film to go with it - which i am SO going to have to watch!

and finally, the complete eric clapton. i love eric, that's all there is to it.
hmmmm, i think i must have a thing for beards, cause i find all these men far too attractive for my own good!
today i watched the russell howard live DVD which i got for christmas, which was fantastically hilarious!
i also watched the DVD extras where people got to ask him one-on-one questions - my favourite bit was when somebody asked him if you could play any film role at all, what would it be and why? and he said he would play jim carrey's role in eternal sunshine of the spotless mind - which just happens to be my faaaaavourite movie of all time! are we made for each other or what?

jelly belly

merry boxing day everyone! i trust you all had a lovely christmas?

i did!

we drove up to my auntie's house just outside edinburgh, & it was amaaaaazingly snowy up there!

myself & the father made this rather wonderful snowman.

his name is ernie, and he is very pleased to meet you.

oh, and that thing on top of his head is a pair of earmuffs.

opening the presents was fun too, although it was later than expected as we spent too long eating & playing musical crackers!

i pretty much got my weight in jelly beans (yum to the max)

and an *WARNING: extreme artist paroxysms of delight coming up* absolutely gorrrrrrrrrrrrrrgeous set of new chalks!

*cue hallelujah chorus*
seriously, aren't they just beautiful?

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh i love them so much!
today i found this AWESOME hat in one of my auntie's spare rooms

makes me feel like a bit like a russian explorer.

unfortunately, it was my cousin's so i couldn't keep it =( so i'll have to battle my way through the crowds & see if i can pick one up in the january saaaales.

sherry darling

yesterday, i received a little package in the post from lady luck rules ok (a truly lovely jewellery website).

inside was a folk guitar name necklace - which i posted about waaaaay back in november.

eeep! how cute is that?

and so what if it only has 4 strings, it can be my folky bass guitar!

because it's christmas, i managed to get 25% off & a free perspex candy cane brooch!

isn't it sweet? can't wait to wear it tomorrow :)

...
although i am slightly bummed that we may not be going up to my auntie's this year :(

see she lives on a pretty remote little farm up near edinburgh where it's been snowing really heavily, and apparently loads of the roads are closed so we might not be able to get there. double :(

they've had about 8 inches of snow, but i'm hoping with a little bit of heat, rain, christmas magic & my dad's 4x4 we'll make it up there.

so, goodbye for now dears, from me,

paul, george, john & ringo,

and the kooks, we wish you all a very merry happy christmas!

tinselitis

merry christmas eve eve!

i really should be doing some work right now, but instead i thought i'd watch scrubs & post a few pictures of the christmassyness around my house.

this is the christmas tree at my mother's house, it's colourful & a tad chaotic - just like us.

my favourite decoration, our little fairy! this is supposed to be me, my sister has a cat & my brother has a dog decoration. yes, i know, i got the good end of the deal.

and finally, this is our little advent village! every day you have to make a cardboard house & a chocolate to go underneath it. i get the chocolates under the houses with the odd numbers (simply because i enjoy the irony) & my brother gets the evens.

i hope everybody is having a very decorated christmas!

simply having a wonderful christmas time

last night was my christmas ball, it was amaaaazing!

i had such a good night!

gluing my friend's eyelids together with false eyelashes.

falling over my heels in the snow.

bonding over classic songs at our pre-christmas meeting.

twisting & shouting in the back of the car to the beatles.

accidentally flashing my underwear at my friend's dad getting out the car :S

getting far too into don't stop believing by journey.

getting carried away with the air guitarring.

having the most hilarious time dancing to music i'd normally avoid like the plague.

laughing generally too much.

the drama of it all!

sadly, i didn't take many photos, this is the only one i have with meeee in it.

with my aweesome friend kate who i spent most of the evening dancing like a maniac & being hilariously (and *ahem* uncharacteristically) bitchy with.

we look a tad deranged in this photo, but i think that's what forced smiles do to you.

oh, the weather outside is frightful

but the fire is so delightful,

and since we've got no place to go,

let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

last night it snowed pretty heavily & i snuck outside to take a few pictures.

there's something just so magical about snowflakes falling.

today i made a few christmas presents for my family, for the girls in my family at least.

turquoise bow & pearl earrings for my younger cousin.

heart & light green pearl necklace for my older step cousin.

long pearl earrings for my auntie - i'm hoping these aren't too conservative for her, she's a bit of a wild one.

and finally these shell & pearl earrings for my older cousin.
today has been very chilled out, listening to david bowie & elvis costello, eating bombay mix & doughnuts & now watching about a boy - one of my all time favourite films!

christmas ball tomorrow, eek!

happy christmas (war is over)

starting to get into the swing of all things christmaswise recently, thank god!

yesterday my school broke up for the holidays (can i get a woop woop?) & had the most hilarious christmas carol assembly ever! basically our head of year, dave (who i'm a little bit enamoured with), organised this band together & got the school rugby team to sing sing low sweet chariot and santa baby - it was brilliant! the whole year sang the twelve days of christmas with actions. my little group got "the four calling birds" part of the song & we got very into it!

it was also a non uniform day so i took this as a perfect opportunity to wear my john & yoko war is over tshirt.

i love this tshirt, it always makes me think of their christmas song - which i listened to today, it's on my john lennon's greatest hits record.

i also wore my (homemade) dove necklace, cause obviously it goes very well with the peace theme!
today i've been really rather lazy, although i have been doing quite a bit of picture hunting for art & at one point i even went outside to take some pictures in the snow. yes, snow! fingers crossed for a white christmas! picture hunting involved looking through the very limited stack of family photos my dad has for ones of me & my grandpa (he's an artist & i'm including his work in my project). it was really nice, but a tad emotional in places.
also in my lazyness, i watched happy go lucky which i've been meaning to watch for ages & it was fantastic. i think i'm going to be exactly like poppy when i'm thirty.
time for a little festive cheer i think, so i'm off to watch love actually. classic christmas film.
*
ps. hello to my two new followers! pleased to make your acquaintance *handshake*

oaf no. 5

so, a while ago i posted about a jewellery competition i entered.

unfortunately, i didn't win =(

but the winning entry is really rather excellent, so i don't feel too hard done by!

an "oaf no. 5" perfume bottle pendant.

i think this is really cute, well done eleonora bardelli!
image from here.

ohmmmmm.

excuse me, but how freaking awesome is this?!

okay, so the photo is kind of small, but basically it says the dalai lama is following me on twitter.

oh happy days

things that made my day today :)

seeing my dad laugh at the birthday card i gave him this morning (nice people have holes in their socks).

watching a spanish film with my class & understanding quite a bit of it without the subtitles.

laughing hysterically during said film at wholly inappropriate moments.

recreating one of my "favourite scenes" from the film with my friend - we chose the bit where a boy is run over my a car - and my friend just said "ahh, un coche!" and calmly sat on the floor. it's a bit of a had-to-be-there moment, but i assure you we were all in hysterics.

going for mcdonald's as opposed to "classy food" & making friends with the order taking guy.

meeting friends accidentally.

frantically searching for candy canes for ages to no avail, before finally finding them for ridiculously cheap.

& by far my favourite thing of the day, laughing so much my face hurts, but in a good way.

knockin' on heaven's door

my christmas ball dress has arrived!

wooooooooooo!

basically, it's a 60s-esque white lacey minidress with the most adorable balloon sleeves.

like the flower? i'm thinking of wearing my hair like that for the ball but i'm not sure if it's christmassy enough =/

here it is full length, i did think maybe it was a bit too short!
now i just need some shoes to go with it, eek.
also, i watched i'm not there today while i was doing my english homework. it's a film based on the six different sides of bob dylan, and it was amazing! cate blancette's performance absolutely blew me away, i never really rated her as an actress before but she was incredible in this! if you're a bob fan, i can definitely recommend it.

pearly queen

cardigan numero uno.

baby pink (a colour i don't wear much of) vintageness with flowery detailing and pearl buttons.

I LOVE IT!

it's so cosy too.

even if i do look like i've "robbed a granny"

close up of the detailyness.

i wore it with my jimi hendrix tshirt, my most adorrrred item in my whole wardrobe, so here's a shot of that.

deliveries

oh my god.

i can't believe it's the 10th of december already & i still haven't bought any christmas presents.

god knows what i'm getting my friend this year, i think we're giving money to charity instead. although i may do little presents.

arghhh i am so confused!

christmas is stressing me out at the moment, i ordered a dress for my school christmas ball off ebay...without realising it takes over 2 weeks to get to the uk.

:

*sob*

on a happier note, two cardigans i ordered through the post have arrived!

yaaaaaay!

i shall post some pictures at the weekend maybies, with some tinsel & a dash of christmas cheer to lighten the mood :)

kookies :)

the 6th of december last year was the first time i saw the kooks live in concert.

my friend jess & i travelled down to doncaster to see them, to put that into context, that is about a 100 mile journey. i am a huge huge huge fan of this band.

which is why i was so devastated with what happened at the concert.

basically, right before the kooks came on stage my friend passed out & shortly after so did i.

:

i missed like over half the concert, it just wasn't a good night at all.

so, this year we decided to do an anniversary type thing to give us a happy memory of the day & we made kooks cookies!

us posing with various kitchen acoutrements.

including jess with a tortoise pastry cutter! :O

yes, we're wearing matching tshirts.

we got them printed last year for the concert - i told you i was an uberfan!

they have kooks lyrics on them, mine says i'd like to take you out for tea & biscuits (very apt i thought!) and jess' says yes i like stormy weather, from my windowsill.

kooooooooooooookies!

the more madly decorated ones.

jess' expertly decorated tortoise.

the special needs biscuits.

luuuke!

the lead singer's name.
yes, that thing underneath it is a straw hat.

hugh, the guitarist.
and, of course, a fedora.

kooks & paul the drummer boy.

these biscuits are spectacularly yummy, surprisingly as we messed up the recipe so many times & had to get my brother to save the dough - who then ruined it again!

can't wait to take these into school tomorrow :)

tweeeeetie pie.

today was starving artist day.

i felt very parisian & pale, painting & collaging all day in my big artist's shirt.

*sigh*

it really was lovely. days like these make me want to run off to paris & leave in a one room studio flat & sit in cafes all day sketching people i see there.

woaaaah, okay, that daydream went on a little bit too long.

this is a deer necklace i got from a friend.
she was sorting out all her jewellery that she never wears any more & she thought i might like it to play around with.
i must say i do rather like this one, it makes me feel very folky.
anyways, here is the aforementioned art i was doing all day:

double page collage for my personal identity project.
so, i decided to get a twitter account today.
follow me perhaps?
i'm still trying to figure out how it works, so bear with me. it just seems like a good way to get my inane ramblings out without cluttering up this blog.

fly on little wing

can't believe i haven't posted since tuesday, yet it feels like aaaaages!

i've had so much stuff going on at the mo recently that i haven't even been able to think about blogging, let alone actually do it!

i figured i'd give you a bit of a round up of things that have been going on, sound good?

here goes.

i've had lots of art stuff to do recently & so far i have been up & down the spectrum from deliriously happy with my work to borderline wanting to rip my hair out i'm so angry.

anyway, today i found some pieces of a shattered mirror (bad luck, i know) & decided to take some pictures of myself in it.

this is the best one i think, one of my friends took this.

i've just realised, the weird things in my hair are off the native american headdress thing my other friend whacked on my head!

schoolwork's been pretty manic, so thankfully i had 3 frees today where i played cards :)
also, i had my grade 2 guitar exam on monday...

...which i just found out today i got a merit in!
:D
i put this down to the jimi hendrix tshirt i was wearing for the exam, obviously his spirit helped me through it ;)