Unicorn

Hello!

A week or so ago, I found out I won Tori's giveaway for a Lime Crime lipstick! I was really excited because I've never won a giveaway before, and it was such a lovely bit of serendipity as I had been thinking about buying something from Lime Crime for a while! I love Tori's blog & her shop too, and she's a Laura Marling fan like me!

The pretty sparkly unicorn packaging! I am such a sucker for tacky/kitschy things.

The lipstick (and my horribly chipped nails!)

I can't remember whether I was actually wearing any other make up when I took these photos? The lipstick is a lovely shade of lilac and, strangely, it fades to a pretty bright pink if you leave it on for long enough! It was quite odd putting on a non-normal (you know what I mean) shade, but I actually really love it! I'm no beauty blogger so I'll just leave it there in terms of my ~opinions on the lipstick (:

It will be so amazing to wear when I FINALLY dye my hair lilac again! I bought some hair dye online last week & it arrived the other day, so hopefully I will have unicorn hair soon! Going to have to get my mum (ha!) to help me out, so this may take some time.

To let everyone down would be my greatest unhappiness

After posting about my Final Show last week, I said I would do another post with the pictures from my photoshoot! There are lots of them, so I have tried to break it down to the best ones.

Embroidered brooches.

Doing the photoshoot was such a fun experience! I really loved the whole day, even though getting there was a bit of a nightmare as we had to switch photographers! Four of us did it on the same day, one friend did the make-up, another did the hair & one friend modelled for another. I did none of this, but I did book the photographer, the model and the studio space!

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More pictures after the break;

The butterfly cabinet.

I have been meaning to do a little post with this blouse for a while now, I bought it back in September at a vintage fair and kind of regretted it because it was actually way too big and shaped really weirdly. I had just had a really awkward/uncomfortable run in with someone (the very someone who gave me that necklace, ooh coincidence~) and I guess I was just in one of those I NEED TO EMOTIONALLY HEAL MYSELF WITH MATERIAL GOODS moods, so I bought this on a whim. Anyway, I left it languishing in my wardrobe for ages before deciding to cut the sleeves off, take it in and sew some scalloped hems on it.

Close up of the scalloped hem! This is the good sleeve, the other one is a bit of a mess because the feed dog thing on my sewing machine stopped working halfway through and I didn't notice, woops. I also scallop hemmed the bottom of the shirt too. I accidentally ripped through part of the shirt with a stitch ripper when I was removing the sleeves, so I added these sweet little yellow bears on both sides to disguise the rip! Just a little Meadham Kirchhoff-esque DIY. I think they make the blouse a little more interesting - although they were a total nightmare to sew on as I had to do it by hand! 

I went out today for a friend's birthday, it was so lovely! We went to this amazing little cafe near her house called the Butterfly Cabinet & I had the nicest spicy Korean stir fry ever! The cafe was so cute, it had lots of artwork and old posters and butterflies in display cabinets (which I kind of loved?) all over the walls. I really wish I lived near places like that, fingers crossed I will find some in Sheffield!

Nails from this post.

Blouse - vintage/altered, skirt - Topshop, cardigan - charity shop, necklace - gift, brooch - gift.

I also wore this pale blue cardigan! Which I realise has been in like the last three outfit posts I've done? Oh well, I love it! I originally bought it to do another Meadham Kirchhoff-style DIY (I have a problem okay) with pink teddy trim and yellow pom poms around the neck, but now I think I'm not so sure. I always buy things to alter and then change my mind! What do you think, should I add the teddies?

The primadonna life, the rise and fall

Hello! It was the opening of my Textiles final show last night, and I thought I would share with you a few pictures I took of my display.

This is the best wide shot I could get of my display, it was along the main corridor through college so there was a wall behind me! I also took this while everything was still being set up so that's why the coathangers don't match.

Side view.

 Mannequin with my ruffled collar and embroidered brooches.

Three necklace pieces and two felt cuffs.

Shelf with my two earring pairs on a jewellery stand, mulage book, another felt cuff and my daily diary for the project.

Sketchbook

My tutor had arranged out displays so that we were set up next to people who had similar colour palettes or themes in their work, this is our pastel corridor!

Me at the show. Bit of a lame photograph of me, but it was very busy so we couldn't really take another as people kept trying to get past. We didn't really have to dress up, but I decided to wear my vintage Marie Antoinette-esque dress that I used for the photoshoot (which I will dedicate another post to!). It just felt like everything had come full circle.

Baby face

I have been waiting so, so long to try out these Meadham Kirchhoff for Topshop nail wraps! I checked Topshop's website religiously every day when these were about to come out, and then missed them completely and they were totally sold out online (even though I actually asked Topshop HQ over twitter when they would be available, and they said they would tweet when they were on the site, but they didn't! But whatevs, the depths of my bitterness/stalkerism doesn't really need to be elaborated on any further). I was almost ready to pay £12+ on ebay for them, but then my sister saved the day by sending me some in the post, yay! Anyway, the reason I've waited so long to try them out is because I've been working with dye in college so I figured they would just get ruined. But now that I am (almost!) free I am officially trying them out!

(Also, I know my blog is becoming a bit Meadham Kirchhoff-centric at the moment, but I love them & it's my blog so I'm sorry but I'm not sorry)

There are 10 different designs in total, and they are all so cute! Personally, I think the vagina ones are hilarious and I can't wait to try them out.

The process of putting on nail wraps is notoriously difficult (in the blogging world, anyway!) and after a few tries I became (unsurprisingly) rather impatient and gave up with their method. I simply painted my nail with clear varnish and quickly smoothed the wrap over it. It seems to have worked pretty well, although it may be slightly tricky to get off!

My pretty nails!!1! I decided to keep it pretty simple & just use one design per hand. I went for the cute little baby doll face because I think it goes quite well with my blue polish. I am seriously quite worryingly excited to try out the rest of the designs.

I decided to do my other hand slightly differently to make my nails a little more interesting, and so that the nail wraps last a little longer!

I used Collection 2000 in Button Moon and Model's Own Pink Fizz.

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I am going to see Simon Amstell live tonight, I am so excited! He is basically the male me. I'm going to see him on my own as well so I'm hoping that I don't do something embarrassing like snort or cry laughing - although let's face it I probably will! Sorry posting has been so slow around here lately, this will all be changing soon hopefully!

Mermaid parties beneath the sea

Hello!

I bought this top a few weeks ago in River Island (a place I pretty much never shop in because neon offends me) after trying for months to find something pretty to spend my £25 gift voucher on. I think I have succeeded as this top is very pretty!

I really love the mermaid and shell print on this top, I actually bought this in a size 10 as the print placement (textiles word alert) was much nicer than on any of the size 8s. Also, the pretty pinks, blues, greens and purples in the pattern will go nicely with almost any colour!

I actually wore this outfit to college last week, despite its sheerness and open back (slut pride forever guys!~). I obviously had to wear my (fake) pearls, and the muted green headscarf is a nice break from my ~signature~ colour palette patterned one, which you all must be getting so sick of! I have been finding it quite hard to pair this top with anything other than these trousers though, which I love the colour of but I just hate the feeling of wearing them all day!

Top - River Island, trousers - H&M, necklace - gift, headscarf - vintage.

I just realised most of the stuff I'm wearing is from the hight street! That feels so strange, I never really think about it but I simply don't really shop there any more.

The back. Look how bad my roots are! I will be paying a trip to the hair dye fairy soon (hopefully).

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I listed some new pieces in my shop last night, including the knitted collars from my giveaway post!

Also, I'm going to start selling lots of my clothes, jewellery & shoes on ebay soon (true to my word in my last post!), but I was wondering if maybe I should put some up to sell here first? Let me know in the comments if you'd be interested!

PS. I couldn't resist the Flight of the Conchords reference in the post title.

Introspection

 So, some things I have been doing since I handed in my Final Major Project (four of my final pieces photographed above);

Doing Judy's Vintage Fair in Newcastle.

I had a pretty lovely time doing the fair, it was really nice to catch up with my friend Alix & eat homemade (very good!) coffee cake. I did go home quite disappointed though as I didn't quite make enough money to cover the £50 cost of the stall, falling £3 short. Like, I know that's not much, and I did sell quite a few pieces, but it's still a bit of a knock. Especially as I was hoping to make some money to put towards a holiday. I know that it was only because the stall was so expensive that I didn't make a profit, and at least I still got my name out there. I don't know though, it has shaken my confidence a little bit. 

Knitting all night and making some new pieces for the shop.

Finally getting around to converting all my vinyls to mp3, and discovering this lovely little requirement on the back of my Ziggy Stardust record.

Making pointless long strands of knitting with my knitting doll and leftover pieces of wool.

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This summer I have decided I want to be productive. And creative. And everything that I said I would be every summer, but haven't. I think I have been holding myself back a bit over the years because I don't want to be wrong or mess things up, as if there actually is any wrong way to be creative. I have always had it in the back of my mind that I want to be a writer, and I do sometimes still tell people this, but I find it so hard to put pen to paper because, again, I'm scared that what will come out won't be very good. I used to write all the time - songs, poems, stories - but for some reason it all stopped when I got to about 14.

I am going to keep a journal and write things down all the time. I will take it with me everywhere and write anywhere, because contrary to my own ingrain belief nobody actually cares what other people do on trains or in coffee shops and no one will look at me funny. I am not going to care about what kind of paper, book or pen I use. I always felt that having the best stationery would make me a better writer, but it is the great writer who writes on napkins and the backs of envelopes, because it is something they simply must do. (I think I'm butchering a quote from somebody there).

I am going to buy a sketchbook and print out and chronicle all of the things that inspire me inside it. Quotes, pictures, people, fashion collections, artwork. Everything. Just because I am now no longer studying an art subject does not mean that I cannot carry on recording and storing the things I love to look at. I will draw. And paint. Embroider. Knit. Stitch.

I am going to finish reading all of the books I have piled up around my bedside tables. This will be the summer I read War & Peace. I will read The Female Eunuch and A Vindication of the Rights of Women. I will copy the reading lists of my favourite feminist bloggers. I will re-read some of my old favourites and annotate some passages.

I am going to put loads of clothes I don't want or wear any more on ebay, and alter the ones I have been meaning to for ages. And do this myself, without a dressmaker or my mum looking over my shoulder. I will only shop in charity shops (except for shoes). I will do all the DIYs I have had written down for months.

I am going to take pictures all the time. And not be afraid to ask people to take mine. I will learn how to use the more complex settings on my camera. I will buy disposable cameras and appreciate film photography. I will plan a photoshoot for my jewellery shop.

I am going to start anew.

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This post has been so long, and I am sorry. All of this introspection had to spill out somewhere. I will return to normal posting next week. Thank you for sticking with me.