autumn leaves

today my last lesson was cancelled, yay! no english with a stupid judgemental teacher!

anyway, i thought i'd do a quick update of some stuff from my weekend.

basically, i joined chictopia.

everyone in the blogworld seems to love it (yeah, suck on that lookbook!). i've browsed it a few times & it's full of inspiration, not just ordinary people's outfits but designers & inspiration too.

so, you can find me here.

the above photo is my first look, with the playsuit i posted about before.

god knows why it still looks like freakin' autumn in my garden - beech hedges, god.

i speak because i can

last weekend, my pre-ordered copy of laura marling's new album & live dvd came in the post.

YAY!

i've been looking forward to this for quite some time (like, ever since i heard her old album!) so i was extremely excited to listen to it.

it came in a very unique card box, & it also had a free poster which is of the same picture. i haven't put it up yet; i'm saving it a spot next to my vintage clash poster for when we move to the new house.

the cd & dvd cases.

i love how the illustrations are whimsical, yet so lovely & simple.

another nice surprise was the lyrics book it came with! i love how cute the coloured-in bits in the letters are.

close-up of one of my favourite songs on the album (you may recognise the quote from my "about me" section)

i listened to the album the old-school way; all the way through on a stereo. to me, it's really the only way you can properly listen to an album the first time, otherwise it makes less sense to m, & i don't feel like i fully understand it. i mean, the artists must have spent so long deciding on the order it would seem a waste to me to stick it on shuffle. especially as laura marling's songs often segue into each other.

it also came with some beautifully illustrated postcards (the one above is my favourite) which have codes one where i can "redeem some songs from laura's friends". i'm quite excited about this as she has some amazing folk musician friends, but i haven't had time to put all the codes in yet.

i've had quite a good weekend so far, it was my friend's birthday party yesterday night so we had a bit of a rave & a sleepover which was awesome. i might post some pictures from it later in the week - after my art exam on tuesday, eek!

oh, and i made a tumblr;

http://www.inthisnewromanticway.tumblr.com/

i would much appreciate it if you took a look, althought currently there's not much on it.

reach out, i'll be there.

OH MY GOD, it feels like it's been FOREVER since my last post.

i do sincerely apologise, i have just had so much work to do over the past week; i had a mock spanish oral on monday (which sucked), a mock psychology exam yesterday (which went alright i think) & a mock english poetry exam today (which went better than expected)! so pleased that's over & i can get on to doing things that i actually like; like prep for my art exam & my friend's birthday party on friday/saturday (happy birthday kate!)

i was also busy on tuesday night, as i was at a motown concert - which was a-ma-zing!

there were 4 groups playing; the three degrees were first. this was an all female band who i'd actually never heard of before but were actually very good! i didn't get any pictures of them though sadly.

the next group was the drifters (yes, i know the photo is a bit sucky), who were really really good! i'd only heard under the boardwalk by them before, but i loved the set they played. also, you actually can't beat a good turn, clap, kick dance routine or two!

it completely slipped my mind to take any outfit pictures so i'm afraid you'll have to make do with my accidental shot of my foot during the interval.

the next band were the four tops, yay! there was only one original member left (the guy on the far right) but they were really quite brilliant. if you haven't heard of these guys, i suggest you check them out as they do some wonderful soul songs. also - they wore the cutest sparkly suits!

the headline act; the temptations!

aaaaaahhhh i love these guys; and their incredibly awesome purple suits! they even had purple shoes on.

(i actually hadn't realised until now, the guy's head in front of me is lit up rather nicely!)

they were just amazing, it really was a fantastic night.

i hope i will be back with a few more posts soon, but times are so unpredictable at the moment that i just can't be sure.

dear yoko

happy wedding anniversary john & yoko!

i wish this guy was still around.

i don't care what people say about yoko; in my opinion she's a wonderful conceptual artist, & she made john happy, which surely has to be a good thing. anyone who has ever listened to dear yoko or woman cannot deny the love these two had for each other.

imagine

today was a bit of a blast, i only really had one lesson (english, the teacher's rather mean) & did arrrrrrt all day which was actually awesome! i managed to finish my chalk drawing of a girl looking out a car window, which, if i do say so myself, looks quite good. i really love art at the moment, i wish i had more time to concentrate on it. but, oh yes, i have 3 mock exams next week which are clearly not going to let me do that, sigh.

in my last lesson of the day, my friend made me a groovy little woodblock etching laser cut thing which i think i may add a bead or some form of ribbony business to make a necklace.

isn't it sweet? imagine by john lennon has to be one of my favourite songs ever, the lyrics just mean so much to me.

after schoolio, we went to racquet club, which was quite humourous. i actually didn't even play badminton at all, i just ran around taking pictures, spun around in circles & took pictures.

what a facial expression.

skirt swishing time!

you can kind of see the hearts on my tights in this picture, the new ones i bought at the weekend.

see, just look at the way i am masterfully clutching that racquet.

yeah, i could totally be a badminton genius if i wanted to be.

obviously, we felt the need to do some carlton-from-the-fresh-prince-of-belair dancing.

'cause clearly, it's not unuuuuuuusual!

as it was sport relief day today, our school had a "sports themed" non-uniform day & basically i own nothing sports related as frankly i think the clothes are ugly & see no reason for them. so, as i compromise i wore my brother's old converse, because they are fairly sportsyish aren't they?

oh! i completely & utterly forgot to post a picture of this yesterday;

i bought this cute eiffel tower ornament in a charity shop yesterday (after my printing excursion) for just £1! i want to fill my room with little things like this, & this paris baby goes right next to my growing collection - this consists of my mini buddha statue & jimi hendrix snowglobe.

setting free the bears

so, i don't know if anyone is going to be interested in this post, but today i went on a trip to a print studio with my art class. myself & a few friends arrived early for meeting our teacher & the rest of the class (try an hour early!) so we wandered around & took pictures in the frankly beautiful surroundings. it wasn't traditional beauty, but there was a picturesque quality to the rough buildings & incredibly arty street grafitti.

i took loaaaaaaads of pictures, but here a couple of my favourites.

one of many owls dotted around the place.

"anarkiki" the bear, his necklace says "fuck the pigs" - i must admit this made me laugh

a laughing fox about to eat a rooster

i love this picture's incompleteness, i think it must be some kind of local protest group poster.

one of a few interesting silhouettes dotted around the buildings.

i adore this so much! i even skipped around a truck to take this photo.

moving on to the actual printingness of today;

me rolling out the wax onto the printing plate - this was to coat the plate so that we could scratch our design onto the surface.

me scratching my design onto the zinc plate.

the plate coated in blue ink, we had to scrape it right into the grooves which was extremely tough work. i have honestly never used so much elbow grease in my life!

then we ran it through the press!

sorry for the hugely image heavy post, but i wanted to keep a record of my awesome, ink-covered, arty, tiring yet wonderful day.

she's a good girl, loves her mama.

happy mother's day everyone! i hope there's lots of love around you all (:

(anyone who gets the song reference above, you are incredibly awesome)

yesterday, it was my friend's birthday celebrations (her actual birthday was the 6th) & we went out for a meal & a wander about town. i told myself i wasn't going to buy anything apart from files & file dividers.

yeaaah, that didn't really work out.

first i bought some socks & FINALLY a pair of heart tights, then i spotted the most looooovely dress i think i may have ever seen.

however, as it was £29 and i am actually quite broke (damn you ebay!), i walked off forlornly into dull, file-buying, being-without-a-darling-dress life.

BUT THEN when we were in topshop, i remembered my auntie is getting married soon & that this would possibly be the most perfect dress for a july wedding, so i quickly texted my dad to find out if i needed to wear a particular dress (because i was going to be a bridesmaid, but now i'm not as she's worried about the cost). but no, i didn't so yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay i bought it! (:

here it is in all its lovelyness.

i'm afraid the photos are a bit rubbish, cause the lighting in my room is awful & the timer on my camera for some reason wasn't working.

full lengthness.

if you can't quite see the dress properly, it's light lilac/pale blue flowered lace on top, over a pale pink satiny fabric. it's got a drop waist & a cut out in the back - which i was going to take a picture of, but you could totally see the back of my bra, i think some new underwear shopping is needed.

dove necklace, which i made.

i paired this dress with my pink vintage cardigan, which i thought went very well with it because of the lace flowers it has.

for some reason, i feel very alexa chung in this outfit.

i think for the wedding, i'll wear some white/cream/pale pink tights & maybe some blue/pink mary janes.

i've been wearing my hair tied up a lot lately, i actually quite like it! i used to hate having it tied back as i hated my ears, but i think if i pin the fringe & leave a little hanging down, it looks quite cute.

a hard day's photography

here, as requested, are the rest of my photos for my art.

but shhhh, let's just keep this to ourselves, okay? cause i kiiiind of didn't get permission, oopsies *^-^*

i'm really pleased with the way these turned out, i'm really not a genius at photography or editing, but i managed to get through it quite well which i'm rather happy about.

this has to be one of my favourite shots. it took forever to get them all in a line like this, the windows in our school's courtyard have an awkward windowsill which got in the way, & then there was the hassle of getting them up to that height! eventually, we used this door. actually, it was rather serendipitous as i think it mirrors the train door in the beatles' photo quite well.

this is my absolute faaaaaaaaaavourite photo of the lot!

i used a "cinematic" filter in photoshop, & i think this worked to enhance the truly effing gorgeousness of the light reflection on the window. i love their facial expressions in this too.

just as a reminder, this is the kind of look i was going for. i think i've kind of captured it, but the effect is different.

to get a different angle on the beatles' vibe, i chose to take some single shots of some of my female friends.

this one is truly hilarious, no?

comedy facial expressions-a-go-go, obviously.

a colour photograph for a change! this one has a slightly creepy feel to it, & what's more i think i may be in love with the cinematic filter!

i really really love this one!

i was going to draw a couple of them, i think this one in charcoal & my self portrait in pencil, but my art teacher says you should never put the photo & the picture you drew from the photo together in your sketchbook.

thank you for the lovely responses to my last post, i really wasn't expecting such a good reaction to my photos, it meant such a lot. i may even post more of my art stuff in future! (:

"mister, can we have our ball back?"

spanish oral question writing is getting me down at the moment - in fact, espanol me molesta! (that's "spanish is irritating me" to you non-spanish speaking folks) - so i thought i'd update y'all on my arty goings on (:

i feel like a always promise to post my art stuff, & then never follow through! tch, what a bad blogger i am *slaps own wrist*

the title for my art exam is windows & doorways. now, i'm not really sure where to go with this project as i think it is quite open-ended, so currently i've just been doing technique experiments & trying to find inspiration.

inspiration came to me last week, as it often does, in the form of a beatles song. i was listening to a hard day's night when i remembered a scene from their film of the same name where they had their faces squished up against a train window.

never let it be said that the boys are not attractive.

last friday, i got together some of my friends for a "photo shoot" type thing at our school & took some photos that were more or less copies of this picture. i would post all of them, but i don't want to offend anyone by putting their squashed face on the internet - especially as barely any of them knows about this blog - however, i will put my own photo up.

extremely attractive, i think you'll agree.

it was such a good, funny experience, we all spent far too much time laughing - especially the boys, as i wanted them to try & recreate the same expressions as the beatles, which led to much hilarity i can assure you!

this is the edited version of the above photo, i put it into grayscale and then i found a filter which made it look like an antique film strip - which i love!

getting my mojo back.

todayyyy i went to town on my own to buy some books for my english literature course, & a couple i've been wanting to read for a while now. frankly, i was a bit disappointed with the selection the shops had - i went to two & none of them had any of the three books i wanted most; john lennon by philip norman, why is john lennon wearing a skirt? by claire dowie & snow falling on cedars by david guterson.

i spent ages wandering around the biography section looking for the philip norman book, like seriously, they need to get fricking organised in there! i had no idea if they were ordered by author, the biography person, title, or anything! when i asked the guy at the desk where the book was, he said there was one in the music section downstairs. so i walked downstairs, THERE WAS NO MUSIC SECTION. grrrrr.

anyway, these are the books i did get.

alice walker - the colour purple

george orwell - animal farm, i LOVED 1984 so i know i'm going to like this.

susanna kaysen - girl, interrupted

JM forster - a room with a view

nick hornby - juliet, naked

vikas swarup - slumdog millionaire.

i'm really looking forward to reading these, if anyone out there has read & enjoyed them, i'd love to know (:

after getting frustrated in bookshops, i wandered down to the make & mend craft market where my friend emily of dolls & molls was working. she gave me these as a thank you for working with her at the vintage fair last month.

(yes, this is a bit of a beatley post)

some yellow submarine postcards, & two mojo magazines from about 10 years ago. one has a big 1965 feature with intervies from the who & the kinks, and the other one is about the beatles solo careers so far. that issue was released just after george harrison was diagnosed with cancer, & just before he died, it was really sad to read all the "get well soon" messages.

today i also wore my cameo headband for the first time, quite the premier occasion obviously.

i think this outfit can be a little overly cutesy, what with the pink, pearls, lace & whatnot, so clearly i had to punk it up a smidge with my vv brown tshirt (i'll give you a cookie if you know who she is) & turquoise skinny jeans, which aren't pictured.

here's the cameo a bit clearer (:

the long and winding road

i wish.

i wish i could gain weight.

i wish i could go back in time, when things were simpler & easier.

i wish i was prettier.

i wish i was more comfortable with myself.

i wish i didn't wish i was prettier.

i wish people wouldn't judge.

i wish for peace & love & harmony & happiness.

i wish for nothing bad to happen to those i love.

i wish my parents could accept my life choices.

i wish i was braver.

i wish i knew what this life was for.

i wish i could be more free.

i wish i could express my emotions better, & not be so scared.

i wish i was more musically gifted.

i wish there was more time.

i wish i wasn't so materialistic.

i wish i wasn't so selfish.

i wish i was less fickle, less lazy, less tired all the time.

i wish i knew what was going on in my brain sometimes.

i wish for some tights with hearts on.

i wish for more energy.

i wish for validation that this means something.

i wish to have a future, to fall in love & have children.

i wish to always dress in colour.

i wish to see alice in wonderland, like everybody else.

i wish for the friends i have now to always remain my friends.

i wish to marry a musician, or an artist, or a bohemian.

i wish i knew who i was.

*

hank you for bearing with me on this unorthodox post.

i've been feeling slightly wistful today, here is the result. this post is more for me than anyones else, sometimes i feel like writing things, & finally i have an outlet for this.

the mad march hare

happy march everyone!

it's been a while since i've done a jewellery/inspiration post, so when a lovely email from tatty devine popped up in my inbox i just had to share it.

this is my favourite necklace of their alice in wonderland inspired collection - which to be honest doesn't seem all that alice-like, frankly i think some people are just jumping on this tim burton bandwagon.

but it is still rather lovely;

i think it's wonderfully cute - i love the contrast of the pale ribbon against the creamy perspex! there are also matching earrings (pictured above) & it comes in several different colours (white, black & tortoiseshell), although this is my favourite.

unfortunatel, i don't have a spare £96 lying around, so this necklace will just have to go in my mental inspiration folder.

although, i think a project over the summer could be to make my own version. sadly, i don't have access to perspex or a fancy laser-cutter, but i think i can manage to make do with some hobbycraft lace & some ribbon offcuts.

if i do make a version, i promise to post some pictures of it (: