but gentle violets weeping with the dew

i went to my local charity shop the other day hoping to find some little photo frames to paint in pastel shades so i could use them to display necklaces when i do craft fairs, but unfortunately they didn't have any small enough! however, i did find a few nice things;

i'm not a massive madonna fan, but i saw this for £1 and thought it's about time i branch out my music taste into the 80s! besides, like a prayer & express yourself are brilliant, classic songs.

i also saw this little pocket book of oscar wilde's poetry, also only £1. i already own the collected works of wilde, but i thought this book was so pretty & it would be a beautiful addition to my bookcase. also, it will be much easier to take to uni with me than the completed works, seeing as that is about 10cm thick! it also has one of my favourite poems by wilde, which is the grave of keats. it's so beautiful, and i took a line from it to use as the title of this post.

there was also a whole box of vintage tights for only 50p each! i went for these blue christian dior ones because all the blue tights in my wardrobe are either riddled with holes or have lost their elastic so they are now completely unwearable.

i also popped into my local chemists to buy some hair padding (which they didn't have), but came out with this hair net instead. i know, old woman alert, but i love my hair to have lots of volume & be quite curly, and it's always getting squashed at night so i thought i would give this a go to see if it can help keep my hair in shape a bit more. it should also reduce frizz and static, so it's worth a try!

hope you're all having a lovely day (:

the rain falls hard on a humdrum town

yesterday i dropped off my camera to go have its sensor cleaned, or go through sensor cleaning, whatever that might be, & while there i decided to have a look in the oxfam on the high street while my dad went searching for some elusive part needed to fix the kitchen tap.

i only had a quick browse as we had to dash off to collect my brother from his drum lesson, but i still managed to have a good rummage through the shelves of vinyl & this is what i found;

a who double a side single - had enough/who are you in its original sleeve & a john lennon & the plastic ono band single - happy xmas (war is over) with yoko's listen, the snow is falling on the other side.

i was pretty pleased with these finds, especially as they were both about a £1 each & in very good condition.

the john & yoko single has a pretty weird graphic in the middle of their faces morphing together, which is somewhat creepy.

especially as john lennon is a dead ringer for my uncle sean.

i am sad to say i don't know much about the who, although i do have a few of their songs on my ipod (i can see for miles, anyone?) & i do love their whole mod look which i think you can see in this single cover.

i also found an absolute beginners bowie single which was only 29p because it's quite scratched. my record player is usually pretty good at playing over scratched vinyl, but if it doesn't work i'm going to put it on my wall somewhere. in fact, i may start buying more scratched records & do that with them. my pet hate is when i see melted down records for sale on etsy as fruit bowls, i just think it's such a sad end to something so beautiful. (yes, i think records are beautiful)

i bought another scratched single to use in my art sketchbook, i think i'll paint on it & scratch words into it or something. it's part of my "music" page, as i'm trying to do an individual page for each jigsaw piece of  my personality.

i'm also going to draw john lennon for a page in my sketchbook, as i think our icons also make up part of who we are.

at the moment i really should be working on my sketchbook for the college summer project (title; who are you? completely feel like scrawling "i don't know, that's why i'm taking the course" across several pages) but i just can't find the motivation to do anything. it's been so long since i've ever actually done any artwork & i feel like i'm completely losing confidence in my abilities, so much so that i'm actually scared to pick up a pencil & attempt to draw myself. it doesn't help that i have a colossal headache & some kind of fever that just won't go away. i only have three weeks to finish this as well, and it's so bad that i'm being so lackadaisical about it because that isn't the kind of artist i want to be, but i just can't snap out of this.

also, i'm feeling somewhat downcast as i just found out via twitter that caitlin moran (my actual idol, who i'm also going to draw for my sketchbook) is at vintage at south bank today, which i was supposed to be going to up until a few weeks ago. woe.

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sorry for the awfully maudlin end of this post! i'd also like to share a couple of links with you; i made a new tumblr for my jewellery shop, it's basically going to be a place where i'll post current jewellery & ideas for what i'll be doing next (and i do have so many ideas!), and also a little bit of what inspires me.

i also added a bunch of new rings to the shop, so click here if you'd like to take a look.

goodbye for now.

been listening

- scheduled post -

i am away until 27th of october

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as i am a bit of a fool, i forgot to mention i bought some records at the vintage fair when i posted about it! *smacks self in face*

for christmas this year, i have asked my dad for a record player & in anticipation of this i have relapsed to my obsessive record collecting days.

at the fair, emily gave me this vinyl rack for free as a thank you for helping out with her dolls & molls stall, & her husband martin sold me a roy orbison collection & a blondie single for only £5 together - which is pretty good considering their condition! i've decided to use the rack to keep all my records in good condition, it's only supposed to be for EPs & singles but considering i only have two of those i thought it would look a little empty without all my LPs!

i spent the day organising my records - alphabetically by artist, then by date of album (yes, i know i am a complete & utter nerd, but i do only have about twelve of them!) - and finally watching my laura marling dvd, which was so lovely! it's called laura marling & friends, basically it's a backstage film of an evening of performances by laura & other folk lovelies (who just happen to be her friends, natch) at the royal festival hall.

peggy sue - a punk/folk trio who played songs with an accordion. sounds do wrong, but oh my it was brilliant.

laura herself in some rather smashing spectacles.

marcus mumford & laura marling.

johnny flynn - great classical folk guitarist, a friend of mine recently burned me a cd of his two albums & they are excellent.