cemeteries of london

while in london, i got the chance to do a bit of sight-seeing from the "comfort" of an open top bus. i know, i know i'm a shameful tourist. but it was actually really fun! it was kind of nice to see all the famous buildings without having to walk around a LOT & it was quite educational, actually.

i took quite a lot of photographs, most of which came out really dark for some reason. i don't think my camera likes its "landscapes & scenic shots" mode. or any of the other modes for that matter. but anyway, these are some of my favourite shots of the holiday, there are also some from the v&a & a few from our ferry boat ride to the o2 (where we visited the british music experience exhibition, which was unbelievably incredible, but more about that later!).

i am actually supremely pleased with this photograph. don't ask me why, it's probably not even that good.

hey, you know what this house is?

oh, it's only THE FIRST HOUSE ALL THE BEATLES LIVED IN TOGETHER!

*cough*

excitement over.

just to clarify; i'm not trying to show myself off as being an amazing photographer by posting pictures at weird angles & things, that's just the angle i was sitting at.

oh, and i think it looks pretty rad.

i actually don't know what this building is, the houses of parliament maybe?

tower bridge!

this photo would kick ass if it wasn't for the freaking scaffolding.

reason no. 146 to hate builders.

oh, hello attractive stranger who decided to interrupt my achingly hipster photograph of the clouds!

jimi hendrix, playing guitar with his teeth! i love this man, so much.

me & mother spent about half an hour frantically searching for this exhibition at the v&a (photographs of musicians backstage at top of the pops throughout 62-70something) after my mum told me she'd seen a picture of jimi on the website. it took a while, but by god we found it.

that exhibition was a bit strange actually, it wasn't totally clear what it was about & for some reason there was a rhino costume right in the middle of it all.

i love street humour.

the faraway towns

why, hello there (:

i just got back from london this afternoon after a 5 hour drive - which actually wasn't so bad, i watched beatles & jimi hendrix videos on my ipod & played along with the pop master quiz on radio 2. yes, i know i'm a dork.

(i'm not quite sure how i'm going to space out my posts on london. i think i may do a post about kew gardens, then a sight-seeing one & then one with all my purchases, mainly i just don't want to bombard you all with lots of pictures!)

i had a really lovely time in london with the family, even if sharing a room with the brother practically drove me insane! it was very much a whirlwind visit, i didn't quite get to do everything that i would've liked as obviously we had to do things that everyone wanted to do, but it really was awesome! on our first full day, we went to kew gardens to meet up with some of my mum's family who live in london. i hadn't realised how large kew gardens was, it's a really beautiful place too & quite inspiring. seeing as my project title for art is the natural world, i took a few photos that i thought i could maybe use in my sketchbook.

(i apologise in advance, these aren't going to be very good)

i actually don't know why i took so many close-up pictures of leaves & flowers. i mean, don't get me wrong they're quite pretty things, but with this project i was looking forward to drawing water, & landscapes & sunsets & things.

okay, so i'm digressing.

these flowers were lovely, but most of my photographs of them suck. this was about the only decent one.

sometimes when i see lovely pieces of old ironwork like this i think i should've chosen the built environment as my project title, because i just find this kind of this really beautiful.

in the wider gardens, we saw a couple of peacocks which was actually kind of amazing as i didn't realise there were animals there. i'm quite pleased with this photo, i was only about 6 feet away from him! there's actually a series of photographs of the other peacock sitting on the ground, where throughout five pictures i get closer & closer to the bird because i was scared it was going to either leave or get up & run at me!

i really liked the lily pond they had there too, i'm doing claude monet as one of my research artists for this project so i wanted to take a few pictures of my own so that i could attempt my own stylised version of his iconic artwork.

brown paper packages tied up with string

- scheduled post -

i am away in london until the 9th of august.

*

last week, i was tagged by both JC & amber for a favourite things award, where i have to list some of my favourite things with some photographs. thanks to both of you, it is very much appreciated.

my favourite things right now;

reading about my favourite people in music magazines.

this is an old mojo edition about the beatles from 2006, i've been buying loads off ebay recently.

finding inspiration for art.

beautiful photographs, lovely outfits & interesting articles.

making jewellery.

i haven't done this in so long, i really miss it.

watching the rain.

i know it's summer right now & i should probably be hating on all the rain, but the truth is i actually don't like summer very much. i really prefer autumn & spring, where it's warm but not stupidly hot & everything isn't built up so much.

my new way of hanging clothes.

i just think it looks pretty, basically.

now, i think i'm supposed to pass this on to something like seven blogs, but i'm just going to pass this on to one; and that is amy at the lonely teapot

(also, because this is a scheduled post, i'll leave a comment giving the award after i get back)

shake, rattle & roll.

- scheduled post -

i am away in london until the 9th of august

*

my friend joanna & i went to town yesterday (which is like, 2 days ago because hopefully this is posting on the 4th) to wander round some shops, & joanna showed me this vintage clothes shop she found called attica vintage.

this is the upstairs of the shop, which was lovely.

they also sold furniture & home furnishings & things. there was this table that i basically fell in love with, it was glass & had illustrations of musical instruments all over it. alas, it was almost £75 & unless i go back with either of the parents there's no way i'm getting it.

there were old photographs of musicians, actors & actresses everywhere which was so amazing. the beatles kept popping up a lot of the time too, which is always lovely.

the fitting rooms. oh, and us as well!

joanna's nail varnish matches the dress! how very serendipitous.

who could that be awkwardly holding a fur coat? oh, i think it just might be me.

there was a music shop just opposite from attica which looked really good, although we didn't stay long. they had lots of vinyl which i may have to go back to look through, i found a bob dylan bootleg album which looked really good, only it was £69! sheesh, i think i need to win the lottery soon. they had signed pictures up as well, which was really awesome as they had some from the kooks & jamie t.

after shopping, we went to have a bite to eat at the american diner (another of joanna's finds!)

which has pictures of 50s icons all over the walls; marilyn monroe, elvis, james dean & more.

we had icecream sundaes, joanna's is the chocolate on the left & mine is the honey nut thing on the right.

i actually finished it! i am very proud of this achievement.

say hello to james dean's crotch.

the jailhouse rock elvis photograph in the bathroom. this is the only photograph that i took by the way, the rest can all be credited to joanna.

joanna's present to me, which makes me very happy (:

i do love a good bit of john lennon impersonation

and sweet marie who waits for me

i just got back from my auntie's wedding yesterday, which was a two day event at their farm just outside of edinburgh. it was a really lovely day, & everyone was really happy & stuff (obviously) & there were many amusing moments. i met so many family members that i never even knew i had, second cousins, great aunts, cousins once removed! in fact, there was so many of us that the photographer had to break out the huge wide angle lens to fit us all in the photograph! i also got to see my family from australia who i haven't seen for six years, so that was really amazing.

this is the arch they got married under, my granny grew all the flowers & they put everything together themselves! i thought it was so cute that they decided to have the ceremony at their home.

i didn't take any pictures of the actual ceremony, but here is one from their dance routine. oh, which was to is this the way to amarillo? by tony christie. never let it be said that my family doesn't have a sense of humour.

how cute are the favours?! they were all handmade as well, by my long-suffering cousins. it's a little shortbread biscuit, which i don't think you can really see, that was lovely.

the homemade table decorations.

so, this is what i wore for the wedding! the dress is from dorothy perkins, the necklace & the hairbow were made by me & the tights are from primark.

the light on this one is a bit weird, but you can still kind of see the dress i hope!

i was sharing a hotel room with my brother for the night (which was thrilling) so i only had a few minutes while he was in the bathroom to take outfit photos.

here is the back of the dress. no, it isn't just an oops-i-forgot-to-look-at-the-camera moment.

i love the fabric of this dress, it's so swishy & awesome. i pretty much fell in love with it as soon as i saw it.

my shoes, avec the DIY ribbon ties, in more detail. you can see the tights a bit clearer too, the brother said i looked like i had warts all over my legs. seriously, that boy's a charmer.

of course, i couldn't leave the boy out! here's my brother's outfit for the day, or what i could get of it (he's a little camera shy).

i'm going away on wednesday to london for a few days, so i will try to schedule some posts for then. i knowwww i haven't put up my surprise yet because i get very distracted & i want to actually do it justice, but i do sincerely spologise because i promised i'd post it about a week ago!