Street My Style

Just some of the street shots I got in London on the art trip. I'll the the first to admit that almost all of them are blurry, but I think you can see the outfits ok. As it was a school trip I couldn't really go off and ask strangers if I could photograph them, so I just had to snap them as quickly as possible. Some of the time this was whilst I was walking, hence the really blurry one! I love the trousers of this first girl! I've been looking for a decent pair or trousers for well over six months now; ideally I want some floral ones but I think I may have to settle for a green or blue pair. I only have two pairs of jeans at the moment and I get sick of just wearing denim or tights! There are some amazing thick grey cable knit leggings in Topshop right now, but at £22 they really aren't much different from an £8 pair of tights I got ages ago from Gap? I do still love them though! So so cute! I loved her bobble hat and all of the navy.

This lady look so sophisticated. It's not really my style, but she stood out as being one classy lady.

I love the jacket, the fabric and colours are just what I like. Also, she's wearing trousers! I'd like darker ones for myself but they looked great on her. I also have massive love for ginger hair.I love the colour of the left jacket, and her whole outfit was actually really nice. But ew at her friend's Nike bag!

I was gutted that I didn't snap this one before she turned around, I don't remember the exact garments but I know that I really did like it!

This girl was amazing! Unbelievably tall, possibly because of those boots, but she just looked so cool. I think I need more grey and black in my wardrobe, it's not like I wear loads of bright colours but sometimes I feel I just want to put on basic pieces.

This person just had a really sweet floral jacket/mac.

I really like this girl's boots and lace top, but I'm not sure I would have gone for those tights. But then, I never really got into the whole dogtooth trend much, it seemed too much like office wear to me. She still looks great though! This was taken inside the Saatchi museum.

Oh, and I just noticed the two people on the far left- I'd wanted to photograph them all day but they kept walking off. I really really love the red trousers, they remind me of a pair which I think were by Isabel Marant for a/w '10?

Me with some of my art friends in Trafalgar Square- facing the wrong way so you can't actually tell! As you can (hopefully!) tell, i'm on the far right.

Inside the Saatchi Again, this room had really cool lighting and lots of metal chairs and all of this wire stuff along the walls.

This is just a drawing I did of a 40's oil painting from the National Portrait Gallery, only half done though; I used various black pens.

Going To Landaaan!

I am so excited right now, tomorrow i'm going to London for the day with school to go round art galleries and stuff! London is quite possibly my favourite city, mainly because everyone there seems to have the best sense of style (although that could just be my comparison after living in Peterborough all my life...). We're leaving school at 8am to walk to the train station so I had to sort everything out this evening ready for the morning, including my outfit! I sewed up the hem of this dress which I bought a few weeks ago from a charity shop, as I'd taken it up about a foot because it was mid calf length- not a good look if you're short like me. It also has no sleeves so I decided to wear it over a plain long sleeved top, as i'm expecting the weather tomorrow to be a bit cold and probably rainy. My plan is to layer! You can't really see my legs but i'm wearing dark green ribbed woolly tights with brown boots. I'm going for comfort mainly, but I still want to at least feel as though I look pretty decent. And I know for sure that nobody from school will be wearing the same as me! Although even if I made no effort whatsoever i'm sure people wouldn't have the same clothes on as me; at my school there aren't that many people who 'stand out' in terms of style. Don't get me wrong though, some look amazing!Next layer is a short sleeved thick navy cardigan along with a yellow and blue-ish striped scarf. I bought this scarf around a year and a half ago from a country fair because the two girls I was with got ones in other colours, and it was only £5. At the time I didn't even like it that much, but I seriously love it now!

See Right Through Me

I am so so sorry that I haven't posted for ages! I am such an awful blogger. Well, finally the other day I bought this sheer shirt from H&M which I have wanted for ages, but I've never quite had the guts to buy. It wasn't expensive, but I had very little money so I wanted to make it last- now I don't have to worry so much because I've got a job! But anyway back to the shirt, it came in black, green and white. I decided on black because it seemed the most versatile, and also the least see through! It is quite long on me but really I think i'll only ever wear like a cardigan or tied up at the front over high waisted shorts or a skirt, like below. The fabric is so so nice though, it's not too thick or stiff or anything like that, just lovely even on bare arms. I'm still quite a fan of doing shirts up to the top button in a sort of geeky-but-not-wearing-glasses way. These shorts were wayyy too tight last time I wore them, which was on gcse results day, but since then I think I may just have lost a tiny bit of weight off my thighs, making them actually slightly wearable! Although I still can't really sit down for long... I think that this shirt will be good in autumn and maybe winter for layering up with cardigans and scarves- so far this year I haven't been on my layering game at all. Must get some practice in asap!

shirt- H&M, shorts- thrifted, hat- mum's vintage, black tights- Boots

Lyrically Motivated

I'm afraid there probably won't be any outfits posts for quite a while yet still, because I rarely wear anything interesting after school and at weekends i'm just doing school work so I don't have any reason to wear nice things! This is another arty post, there are quite a few photos but not as many as the last photography post, you'll be glad to hear. These are some photos I took around christmas time last year, using old film photos and lyrics. I first found a plain-ish film photo of something like a landscape, then wrote a short line of lyrics on lined paper, then ripped around them and placed them down on the film photo. I then took the photo with my dslr! They're a bit more personal and meaningful than the usual boring photos I do, and i'm thinking about using them in my as level art project entitled 'views and perspectives'. I don't want to write too much about them in case this turns into some sort of art analysis/essay! But I showed them to my mum today (I don't really show her that much of my photography) and she actually thought they were by some professional person or a stock photo, until I told her that I took them. That sort of thing makes me super happy- maybe that's partly why I like them so much?!

This photo is of a beach in Northumberland, lyrics by Regina SpektorPhoto of Brancaster Staithe (Norfolk), lyrics by Fyfe Dangerfield
Photo of the Golden Lion pub in Hunstanton, lyrics by Regina Spektor, shells from Hunstanton beach

Photo of Ferry Meadows (Peterborough), lyrics by Fyfe Dangerfield

Photo of the sky in Norfolk somewhere, lyrics by Fyfe Dangerfield

This photo is slightly different because it's digital made to look like film using Poladroid, with the text added on later in Photoshop. I do still like it though, I suppose because of the shadows and how it's still very simple.

In terms of school right now i'm very very busy, yesterday I spent four and a half hours painting a page of a book from 1836 (they were giving it out for us to use in art) as my own interpretation of an artists work! I'm also doing textiles where we have to decide on our own brief; I've decided to design a coat based on the costumes of a book character. This will probably take me down the cape route (a la Sherlock Holmes but more modern), and i'm thinking of adding some 'The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe' influences based on the outfit worn by the white witch (or whatever she's called, maybe a queen?) in the massive battle. It's got lots of shaggy fur around the collar with leather and chain mail- maybe I won't be including the chain mail part so much!

Also, I got my first job! I'm not sure I should say where just to protect the company's privacy and everything, but i'm going for an induction next week. I'm working on the checkouts which is quite good, and from talking to other people about their jobs apparently the pay i'm getting is really decent too! It's literally the first job i've ever applied for, but I did make sure I did it properly and at a place where I would be happy working, unlike some people I know who just handed tons of cv's out around town.

Scott Pilgrim vs The World- and more

So first of all, i'm really sorry I haven't posted for so long! I went back to school last monday, so I've just started my A- levels and I have so much work to do already. I swapped maths to textiles, plus i'm also doing art, physics, classical civilisations and general studies- altogether lots of work! But anyway I shouldn't complain, after all it was self inflicted and I knew how much work it would be doing art as well as textiles. On another note, we rescued some rats yesterday! I don't think I mentioned on here but the rat we found in our garden (Monty) died 3 weeks after we got him, which was really sad and everyone was very upset. These two are both 18 months old, called Alice and Bella- we didn't name them haha!
Anyway, sorry that there aren't any photos in this post but I thought I could do a mini film review for you, just as something different. Last friday I went to the cinema with a friend to watch Scott Pilgrim vs The World, and let me just say it is the best film i've ever seen! I don't know that it's something which would appeal to everyone, really it's more of a geeky cult thing, but that suited me just fine! I'll try and get through this without giving away any spoilers, but really it's more the overall feel and effect of the film which is great as opposed to the storyline.

aaagh something stupid just happened where I said 'publish post' and half the post got deleted! that is so annoying.

Basically, it was a bit like an old game e.g. Zelda in the sense that the fights were so unrealistic and at the end he got 'points' for defeating the ex's! They even played the Zelda music in the background at one point. Sorry but i'm too tired to re-write the whole post now, basically it's a great film to watch with your friends or a boyfriend, but your parents probably won't get it. Me and my friend came out wishing we had cute geeky boyfriends- you would think with the reputation my school has there would be plenty but actually there's none!
Hopefully i'll get back into blogging regularly, but there will definitely be less outfit posts because nobody wants to see my school uniform!

Autumn Cleaning

Sorry that this post contains so many photos again, I promise the next one will be much shorter! This one was just to show you guys some photos of my room, which my mum and I have gradually been changing over the past few months- but by making and adapting things ourselves, without spending much money at all. We're both quite crafty and I've just done gcse textiles, so really there was no excuse to not do things ourselves! My room used to been quite modern looking, but I decided I wanted it to look more old fashioned and 'vintage' (vintage meaning I wanted to make things using genuine vintage fabrics, not the so called 'retro' stuff some high street stores sell!).
In the photo below you can see the headboard, which used to be metal and generally modern. Well, it still is but we've covered it with an old throw and then sewn an old curtain over the top. It's not particularly neat from the back, but seeing as my bed is always pushes against the wall I don't see how that matters! The three pictures above the bed also used to be all brightly coloured, from when I went through a crazy 60's hippy phase, but I covered them with blue paper and images of interiors from magazines. I also used to have a silver blind and a pair of those curtains which were really 'in' a while ago- the cream ones with huge brown/black/silver flowers? I never really loved them, but now we've swapped them for an old pair which used to be on the landing. We also found a net curtain in the blanket box which we then pushed a garden cane through and wedged underneath the pelmet. Not the most professional way to do it i'll admit, but I still love it!

My wardrobe is gradually getting covered with photos from flickr members, paint cards (who knows why?!) and various other postcards. The purple plastic on the left is actually packaging from issue 2 of Pigeons and Peacocks magazine, and says "It's always darkest before the dawn/ But things are going to be just dandy, I promise/ Warrior queen, you're looking fierce".

The chair and hat boxes were all brought down from the loft, the thing on the wall is wrapping paper from john Lewis, and the cushion cover was found in my grandad's house. The dark paisley fabric was a bargain from Hunstanton- it was worth £24.00 per metre and we got 3.5metres for £7! It was the end of the roll.

You can't see too well here and I forgot to take a more detailed photo, but on the larger chest of drawers I've sewn little fabric covers for the handles to make the modern furniture stand out a bit less. I still need to do them for the other drawers and wardrobe, but it's a start! Also on the middle drawers the lamp shade is from the loft and the picture was from a charity shop.

Okay yes, I do have a lot of bags and scarves. But I only ever use one of about five bags, and really only ever scarves when it's cold. I haven't actually bought bags for a while apart from a couple, I've had most of these since I was about 12! I really need to find a better place to keep my necklaces, instead of on the door handle.

Phew, last photo! I finally organised all of my magazines; the bigger stack are all Marie Claire, the smaller one is Elle and Vogue, and the books stood up to the right are uni prospectus'. I had more but chucked them away, and i'm still no closer to knowing what I want to study! I've managed to put my fabric in the baskets underneath, which is way better than the three bags i've been keeping in my room.

Gosh, sorry again for how long that was! Tomorrow is the first day back at school after about three months with no lessons. I'm starting sixth form and a-levels, which i'm actually really looking forward to. What i'm not looking forward to so much are the clarinet lessons (and grade 7 exam in Novemeber, eek!), and the new people. I've met some and they're lovely, but my best friend from primary school is moving to my school and i'm worried it'll be weird. After all, I have new friends now, and I just don't know how it'll be. But hey, i'm sure everything will work out fine :)

Views And Perspectives

Just a massive photo post to show you some of the photos I took last night with mum for my art sketchbook. The topic is 'Views and Perspectives' so we tried to take some where the setting stayed virtually the same but through posing and movement etc. the mood of the photo changed, and so your perspective and interpretation of what it showed changed also. Overall there were around 160 photos, and I think i'll print them off as a contact sheet to show the process I went through in choosing the best ones. Some look a bit silly, but I do really like some of these- especially the ones towards the end by the tree.

I uploaded the last one to flickr too, because I particularly like the framing of the two trees. For the last ones by the tree I changed the white balance so that the photos had a more blueish hue, to look colder and more emotional.