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 (:

oh mist rolling in from the sea

happy bonfire night everyone! everyone in britain that is, as i don't think it's celebrated elsewhere.

today i went to a make & mend craft market that was on in newcastle which was really good, although i didn't buy anything because i'm trying to hold onto my funds at the moment. the affordable vintage market was also going on at the same time in another part of the city, but i didn't go to that as it's always a pain having to pay to get in when you don't actually want to buy anything. also last time i went i was really disappointed.

anyway, this is what i wore today;

i've been meaning to post about this skirt for quite a while, but just never really got around to it! i bought it a month or so ago in h&m when i was looking for a plain (as all of my clothing seems to be patterned and loud!), possibly blue button-down skirt and lo and behold there it was! sometimes i feel like it's a little bit short, and as you can see from the photographs it gets so creased so it's an absolute bitch to have to keep ironing, but i really like it! the wide waistband is great too, and it's a slightly looser fit than my other high waisted skirts so i can wear jumpers underneath it, wo0o0o!

i really need to start wearing more jumpers as the cold, dark months are starting to roll in, but i am so crap at dressing weather appropriately! this is one of two jumpers from my wardrobe that i actually wear. to me jumpers just seem to be a bit boring (and don't even get me started on hoodies! *shudders*), but this one has such a lovely collar & knit pattern to it!

jumper - vintage, vest (underneath) - h&m, skirt - h&m, tights - dorothy perkins, headscarf - vintage, earrings - jewellery market.

the one thing that bugs me about this skirt is the buttons, i just think they're a bit tacky & an odd colour against the pale fabric. to be frank, they seem a bit cheap looking for a skirt that cost £14.99.

i've been thinking about changing the buttons for quite some time, as i have some lovely white ones left over from this cardigan but i just haven't got around to it yet!

i really love all the muted colours in this outfit, although sadly i think i'm going to have to throw out these tights as i ripped a huge hole in them near the waistband this morning! they're ladder resistant which i hate because it just means they have no elastic and get holes really easily. it's such a shame as i love the colour - better start scouring shops for a similar coloured pair!

i don't really wear dangly earrings that much these days, i used to wear them a lot when i was fifteen/sixteen so i do have quite a few pairs lying around. for some reason, i don't think they really work with the length my hair is at the moment, also i used to wear them in order to jazz up a dull school uniform, and now that i wear my own clothes every day it all seems a bit much!

however, i bought these (or rather, my mother bought them!) a year or so ago at a country living magazine craft fair, believe it or not! the large stones are moonstone, and are just the most beautiful colour! or colours in fact as they change in the light! the little stones are freshwater pearls and rock crystal.

these earrings were only £10, which i think is astonishing as not only do they contain semi-precious stones, they are handmade & completely unique! a similar pair in somewhere like accessorize or topshop would be pushing £18, and they wouldn't be half as nice as something handmade!

today i did a little bit of charity shopping, unfortunately i didn't find any good clothes but weirdly i did see two people i vaguely knew working there! just a little bit awkward.

i've been really getting into pulp lately on spotify, so i was pretty pleased to find an album of theirs for £3.50!

i also bought a couple of vinyl singles by elvis costello & the attractions, billie holliday & the beatles. i only have elvis costello albums on vinyl, i'm asking for a vinyl to mp3 archiver for christmas/my birthday because i have so many records i want to be able to listen to on the go.

everytime i look through records in a charity shop and see that parlophone symbol my heart always jumps as i think it's going to be the beatles & usually i'm disappointed but today i managed to find a magical mystery tour single (or E, i'm actually not sure what to call it) with i am the walrus and your mother should know - some of my favourite beatles songs! i am the walrus is lyrically beautiful, and quirky & british & just so quintessentially beatles! i also have a major, major soft spot for your mother should know, in fact i was actually listening to it on the bus about an hour before i bought this!

bit of a long post today, hopefully that makes up for my general crapness at updating lately!

edit: my jumper totally matches the colour of my blog background!

i always seem to play these games with you my dear

last night, i went to go and see the kooks at the o2 academy! without being overly dramatic, it was pretty much the best night of my life! literally been waiting to see them since i was about fourteen years old and utterly (scarily) obsessed with the band.

(long term followers of my little blog may be aware that i have in fact seen the kooks before, but let's just say that did not end well and i actually cannot remember any of the concert. fun times hanging out in the medical room, oh yes)

this was such an amazing show, it hugely exceeded my expectations. they played so many obscure, lesser played songs from their first album which was so, so good! when they played matchbox, i pretty much lost all composure and started screaming like a bloody lunatic.

luke played a few songs acoustically (seaside, oh my fucking god) & was then joined by hugh to play tick of time. ohhhh my god. love all their ska-esque songs. sorry if this is all exclamations and incoherent babble, but everything about this concert was properly, properly brilliant.

also, luke is beautiful. and has so much energy on stage! i quite quickly regressed to my 14 year old, fangirly, writing-mrs-luke-pritchard-on-everything-i-own state.

the photos aren't great because i only took my little camera, and we were fairly far back - partly because i didn't want a repeat of last time and partly because there were huge amounts of people there! seriously, we queued right around the corner to get in, the show must have been completely sold out.

the encore set was incredible too, the piano led version of saboteur was really overwhelming to hear (especially as i've had a bad quality recording of the song on my ipod since 2008).

sorry about this messy overview of the concert, but i feel like if i describe it too intently the experience will somehow lose its magic for me. i'll just say this was easily one of the best gigs i've ever been to and leave it at that.

*

PS. booked a hair appointment for saturday! proper excited, and very tempted to go for a crop. we'll see!

once more darkness, it descends

sorry about how scattered my posting is lately, just completely rushed off my feet these days!

today after college, me and some of the people in my group went to the local pub for a couple of hours. because we are all total art nerds, we went round in a circle & drew pictures of each other! mine weren't very good because i can't really do illustrative drawing, but here are the ones of me drawn by everyone else.

we all made a pact to put our favourite as our profile picture on facebook, so mine is the one on the bottom left drawn by my friend eve! i think it's so good, she really wants to go into illustration as well.

also, my tickets for the kooks arrived today! so excited to go and see them, people who have followed my blog for a while may remember my major obsession with this band. i was pretty much their biggest fangirl ever from the age of 14 to 16, and it will just be so good to see them live!

(i have seen them before but passed out & missed the majority of the concert, lol.)

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hopefully tomorrow i'm going to buy this beauty from miss selfridge! i've been a bit unwell this week & a bit generally fed up, so i think i deserve a bit of cheering up in the form of nice clothing. besides, there's a 20% student discount offer on at the minute, get in!

hoping to blog a little bit more next wednesday, it just sucks that i have so little free time right now! i have a huge list of things to post about too, so i may schedule a few posts for later on (:

i'm a good woman and i never did say whatever it was that you did that day

hi! this is going to be a very quick post as i'm leaving for a concert in, ooh, 40 minutes and i still have to get ready! here is a short summary of some things i've bought recently;

laura marling's a creature i don't know, the kooks' junk of the heart and slow club's paradise.

laura marling's album is so good! i love her, and the whole album is just absolutely beautiful. so far sophia is my stand out favourite, i just can't stop listening to it.

i haven't listened to the kooks' album yet, but i have a huge love for this band (rather obsessively so when i was about 15/16) and i'm going to see them in october so i wanted to be prepared.

slow club are fast becoming one of my favourite bands, and i'm actually going to see them tonight! the new album is really, really good, it has a different feel from their acoustic/folky debut but still sounds like a slow club record. also, i pre-ordered the album so i got a free 5 demo track cd as well as a signed copy of the album! get in.

i got a free tote bag with laura marling's album at hmv, yay!

i bought sophia on 7" too, i really love the artwork although i haven't listened to the b-side yet.

today i bought brideshead revisited by evelyn waugh and the waves & to the lighthouse by virginia woolf. i loved mrs dalloway & ever since then i've been wanting to read something else by ms woolf. i love her style of writing and i think she's a very important figure in modernist literature.

i picked these up in a charity shop last week for 75p each, which is a complete & utter bargain! my pile of books to read just grows and grows.

i also bought the complete works of oscar wilde in the charity shop for £4, which is incredibly cheap considering just how thick it is! i love the illustration on the top too.

i adore oscar wilde's works and i've read the picture of dorian gray (of course) as well as most of his plays, but this also has his children's stories and all of his poetry. i'm excited to read all of this but it will have to wait for now!

i'm really sorry my posts have been so infrequent recently (and that this one has been such a whistle stop tour!), college is keeping me far too busy at the moment! it really is a huge amount of work, and when i'm not working i'm just so exhausted. i've hardly been able to keep up with my jewellery shop either, i was meant to list some new items today but just haven't had the time! hopefully i will have time to list them at the weekend, and post here too (:

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.

concrete jungle

- scheduled post -

i am away until 20th february

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as you read this, i will be in london on the school art trip! yay! excitement, fun, art etcetera etcetera.

i haven't really had time to think about scheduling posts this week, what with coursework & interview preparation (which went well, & they gave me an unconditional offer!), but i decided i would post about the outfits i packed in case i don't have time to take any outfit photos while i'm there.

outfits 1 & 2

jumper - lazy oaf, blouse - car boot sale, cardigan - vintage, skirt - topshop, tights - topshop & river island, bow - free.

necklace - gift, bracelet - accessorize, earrings - gift.

rings - gifts.

outfit 3

shirt - stella mccartney for tk maxx, cardigan - vintage, patterned shorts - new look, lace shorts - ebay, tights - primark

necklace - car boot sale, earrings - sugar and vice, bracelet - gift, brooch - tynemouth market

outfit 4

shirt - ebay, cardigan - vintage, skirt - diy, tights - dorothy perkins

necklace - dolls & molls, earrings - h&m kids, brooch - gift

flower - h&m.

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i'm trying to pack light by taking pieces that i can double up, & i'm also taking a minimal amount of jewellery & hair things. i'm taking three pairs of shoes, all comfortable for lots of walking! i shall post pictures of the trip when i return, & perhaps some of my purchases (if there are any!) from portobello market.

in the mean time, feel free to enjoy my london playlist;

taxman - the beatles

you & your heart - jack johnson

train in vain (stand by me) - the clash

sheila - jamie t

london calling - the clash

the wind cries mary - jimi hendrix

waterloo sunset - the kinks

travel light - laura marling & johnny flynn

hey porter - johnny cash

cornerstone - arctic monkeys

ghost town - the specials

travelling like the light - vv brown

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!

anarchy in the uk

don't forget, you can still enter my giveaway here!

last weekend, i went to a small car boot sale nearby. i was mainly going to look for fabric to use for my final piece for art, but it was a bit disappointing on the clothes front really as there were only about 10 stalls, one of which was selling pet food!

i still managed to get quite a few good things though, i bought these cds for £1 each.

i downloaded kate nash's album ages ago, but somehow it disappeared from my computer so it was nice to get it back again. also, i've been wanting to have a listen to james' first album (i have the second) because i feel weird listening to artists out of sync. yes, i know that is strange but i can't help my audiophile tendencies; think of me as a less oppressed lane kim.

this book only cost me 30p & i've been wanting to get a copy for a while, as it's one of those books that we always end up having a discussion about in english! the guy on the stall tried to get me to buy three for £1, but i think he needs a bit of help with his selling logic.

my favourite (and cheapest!) buy of the day was this swallow necklace, which is a lovely antique gold colour. it only cost me 20p & it has the cutest bird charms ever! i can't decide if i want to keep it to wear because it's a slightly awkward length (it's a double chain necklace), or to take it apart to make my own jewellery from it. i think for now i'm just going to stick with it as it is.

for some reason, i came over all gothic & bought this sheer black blouse for £1. i deliberated for quite a while over it, as i literally never wear black, but i just thought the peter pan collar was too cute to leave. i tried it on when i got home & realised it was a lot more sheer than i first thought (although the light in my room was odd, so it isn't quite as see-through as it looks here). at the moment i'm trying to decide how inappropriate it would be to wear this to school, but i'll probably wear it anyway. a little bit of anarchy is always good.