elegance does not consist in putting on a new dress

i think i need to stop beginning my blog posts with really awkward sentences. after this one, evidently.

so, yes. to the crux of the matter. (sorry, i'm fully aware this is making no sense at all. my brain appears to be highly frazzled due to large amounts of english coursework - which technically i should really be writing now, but i'm procrastinating by writing this, which shall only serve to make my brain more frazzled. alas, so the cycle continues)

for christmas (& my 18th birthday, which is in like 3 weeks, crikey and a half) my dad bought me a camera, which i totally did not expect & am still slightly bewildered by. don't get me wrong, i am unbelievably grateful for it! it is lovely, and very, very good. this makes me feel a little unworthy, & that i should be putting said camera on a high shelf in my room surrounded by candles, before which i shall sacrifice a goat every morning. 

ahem, cue obligatory camera & mirror shot;

(can we all just ignore how fat my hand is in this picture? and how messy my hair looks. thanks)

last week, my friends & i exchanged our secret santa presents, and i received some very lovely pieces of jewellery from my friend kiran!

some very sweet vintage feel brooches, in fact i'd had my eye on the paris one for quite some time! i've decided i need to buy some sort of jacket for all occasions where i can pin on & interchange all of my brooches - like joe strummer's leather jacket, except less scuffed & in a more neutral tone.

she also gave me this lovely coral ring which - horror of horrors! - was almost too small, until i realised i could put it on my little finger or wedding finger (even though that is supposedly bad luck, although seeing as i don't believe in marriage it can't very well be bad luck, can it?)

my favourite out of the gifts is the pair of earrings she gave me, which you can see here! they are little black bows with pearls hanging from them - very chanel as mother said!

my hair has started to grow out a bit, which i really like because it gets a bit more curly that way, & i can tie it up without having to use about a zillion kirby grips.

due to the earrings having a bit of a thirties vibe, i decided to pair them with my peter pan collar blouse (which i'm totally cool with being see through by the way, paha). i didn't like the bottom half of this outfit though, i think really i need to buy some all purpose high-waisted shorts, either denim or in a plain colour.

sorry if this has been a bit of a ramshackle post, i just wanted to update & i knew i wouldn't have the chance over the next few days!

confusion in her eyes that says it all, she's lost control.

over the past few weeks, some bad things have been building up between a few friends of mine & another acquaintance. sometimes i feel i should ignore them, at other times i feel the weight on my shoulders like a great boulder. i feel a dark cloud brooding over my head on occasions, & while i hate confrontation i am certain the situation calls for ill feeling to be brought out into the open, where it can then be dispersed. it seems as if we are constantly running along a knife edge; worried that one word could push us too far & we'll slip into an overwhelming sense of sadness - through no fault of our own.

it is always hard to feel like this, and hard to see your friends in the same state. it is also difficult when the reason for those emotions is a friend, or someone you thought was one.

i try to keep the dramatics & insults to a minimum, but sometimes i do wonder how somebody can be so oblivious to another's feelings, or how one comment - meaningless & flippant to the person making it - can affect and hurt another. i pride myself as a person who always tries to be tactful, & when others refuse to extend the same courtesy to me or my friends it hurts. perhaps the most astonishing thing of all is that my attempts to fix the situation(s) both on behalf of myself & for my friends were completely ignored, belittled & misconceived completely. how one person can lack such human decency to try & understand their wrongdoings shocks me slightly. something i have taught myself & constantly remind myself of is to take responsibility for my own actions & shortcomings - and i think it is not unreasonable to expect the same, or similar, from others.

attack is not, and never will be, the best form of defense.

in the absence of christmas

sorry about my absence over the past few days, i've had english & art coursework which has just been building up and i really needed to get a handle on it before i could even think of anything else. although, i have been doing a bit of panic-procrastination on tumblr & twitter.
i have some time for a quick post now, so i thought i'd update y'all on some of the presents i was so lucky to get for christmas! (i don't really think i can pull off the word y'all, can i?)

from my mum's side of the family, i got given some books about stitching designs which i cannot wait to try out! it looks like it will take quite a bit of practise though, eek.

my cousin gave me this typewriter necklace i wore in the last post, the daisy headband is from my sister (along with some beautiful gloves, which are sadly too small for my awfully huge hands!) & some vw campervan bookmarks. i also got some christmas socks & a bit of money, as well as some other little bits & bobs.

as my main present, my mum gave me this ukulele! i'm not sure if you can tell, but it's a lovely purple colour & i have decided to name him george. my aunt & uncle gave me a book of beatles songs with music for the ukulele which i can't wait to learn - although the strings need changing as these ones stretch far too much for my liking.

as you can see, i also have a harmonica! this is going to take much longer to learn properly than the ukulele, but i shall persevere!

to keep things in the christmas spirit, here are a few things i bought in the paperchase christmas sale;

some reindeer lights, a 2011 diary & some christmas cards. this stuff is just making me wistful for next christmas!

i'm a fool to want you

on monday night, i went to the 18th birthday party of one of my best friends who i've known since i was about nine years old! she's very interested in eras gone by, much as i am, so she had a 1940s themed party. a group of us clubbed together to buy her some vintage records we thought she'd like as a present, & i've just received a text saying she's just been listening to them & she loves them!

it was such a lovely night (even though a couple of annoying, inconsiderate people ruined it for me at the end, but we'll say no more about that) & i can honestly say cathryn - that's her name, by the way - is one of the cutest people i know. unfortunately, there really aren't any pictures of me from the night, but i have a few i took before i went.

this was my attempt at pin-curling my hair, although you can't really see as my hair is so dark in photographs! i was pretty pleased with how my hair turned out, as i have next to no experience in styling hair. in fact, i may have to try it again some time!

as the 1940s aren't really a decade i know a lot about, i didn't have much in my wardrobe that i could wear for such an occasion. thankfully my mother, amazing woman that she is, has forgotten more about decades of fashion than i could ever know so she was the perfect person to guide me.

i love this dress so much, the style isn't 40s in the slightest but the print is so i think i got away with it.

forgive the disaffected youth pose, my camera has a lot of trouble focusing in low light & this was the only shot that came out alright. this is pretty much the same outfit i wore in this post, so i didn't do any full length shots as it seemed slightly gratuitous to me. the only thing i'm slightly annoyed about is that i forgot to take a picture of the tights i wore as they were the most 1940s-ish thing about the outfit!

i'm wearing pearls in these photographs, but i decided to change my necklace at the last minute to this typewriter one i got for christmas from my cousin (the very same cousin who features in the post below!). i thought it was very appropriate, & of course it meant i could spend the night pretending i was one of those wonderfully mysterious women who spent the war working as a code-breaker. or something like that, ahem.

this will be my last post of 2010 (gasp), so i shall see you all in the new year! (:

i'm glad of what keeps me afloat

merry happy christmas dears, i trust you all had a lovely time! my christmas was lovely (except for the food poisoning that kept me awake from 2am christmas morning, but i won't go into further details as it was not pleasant) & i shall post about presents & things once i see my father & open the presents from his side of the family.

while staying with some family over the holiday, i had the chance to take some photographs of my cousin for my art project which were based on some of the pictures i talked about in this post. i'm really pleased with the way they turned out, especially as i'm really not an experienced photographer. also, my cousin is ridiculously pretty so she took the picture quality up a notch.

practising my mad photoshop skillz.

i can't decide if i prefer this with a blue tint, or the original version.

this is supposed to be to millais' portrait of ophelia, i think it sort of works. even though that facial expression of my cousin's was accidental.

i plan to blow one of these up & draw it in pencil, hopefully with the aid of a friend's projector.

i shall be posting quite frequently over the next week or so, as i have yet more wisdom to impart. or just things to write about, potato patato.

it's christmas & you're boring me

merry christmas eve eve followers! both christians & non-christians alike (:

i don't know if you remember me saying, but this monday i went to a winter ball organised by my school's events team. it was a really good night, even if there was the odd bit of dramatics here & there - like the fact the hotel kicked us out an hour earlier than billed! silly people.

this is what i wore;

atrocious photograph quality, but i took this when i got back & i was tired!

dress - dorothy perkins, jacket - dorothy perkins, tights - primark, necklace - homemade via tynemouth craft market, bracelets - gifts, wristband - school events team.

i've never worn this jacket out before, but i love it so much! i bought it for £10 (reduced from £60ish, score!)  in the dorothy perkins sale in january & was unsure of how to wear it, but i got a fair few compliments about it on monday night so i'm pretty pleased!

here follow some gratuitous shots of me & my friends, feel free to skip past these - or alternately you could giggle at how silly my posing-with-friends face is & how unnecessarily shiny my outfit appears with the use of flash.

laura & me.

kate & i with the free candyfloss, this is my version of an open bar baby!

cathryn, me & harriet.

shiny shiny shiny!

naomi, beth, charlotte, kate, me (aka floating head in the back), cathryn & catherine. spot the double names.

grooving on the dancefloor to various music atrocities - the highlight of my night was when they played passenger by iggy pop... and the dancefloor was immediately virtually empty apart from me getting far too into it! it seems i'm a bit of a music pariah in my sixth form.

this is going to be my last post before christmas, so i wish you all glad tidings & christmas felicitations etcetera! peace & love (:

ps. in reference to this post title, i urge you all to check out slow club & their christmas EP. the songs from this album are quickly making their way up my most played list this month.