Close Your Eyes, Look Up To The Skies

Raving It Up!

2011-10-28T12:07:00.000-07:00

Again, I've left it too long since my last post. What can I say, I've been very busy! Busy because, as i mentioned in my last post, I've started at my new college, Ravensbourne! There has been so much going on, too much to write about now so I'm just going to post a few photos of what I've been doing (probably a relief after how long my last post was!). All I will say is it had actually been so amazingly fun!

Taken from a storyboard I made in the first week for Lens Based Media; a carrot has been captured and needs to escape before he is made into soup!

This is a bit of a long story, we basically had to take photos of us in groups wearing bags we had drawn on on our heads; the topic that week was concepts and processes aka pissing about (as if the other weeks didn't already involve a large dose of this). By chance there was a Domino's stand in college that day so we decided to take a photo there with all the "merch" (Harry McVeigh would be proud -"Oh didn't you know Domino's is the only pizza he eats? It's a well known fact!"). Laugh if you like, but it worked better than expected as we got some free pizza out of it!

For one of our tasks during the 3D design week we had to made a bridge in groups out of cardboard and bamboo sticks. It was 15m long, the height of a table and could only touch the floor at 2 points. Plus, it needed to carry the weight of a toy car; a pretty large, electric toy car this is. At the end of the day we raced the cars over all of the bridges then proceeded to destroy the bridges; I told you it was all just a load of fun!

OK, this is not a photo of my own work; it is indeed a very childish photo of the toilets at Waterloo. For our final week of the rotations we had graphics so for our research on the first day we went to Waterloo to take photos and sketches of all of the graphics on display there (a lot it turns out), well until we were ordered to stop by the station security. Apparently there is no drawing allowed at Waterloo. Anyway, before that happened we ran around like primary school kids on a trip, giggling like school girls and taking photos much like the one above and getting a lot of weird looks from tourists. Yes, even the tourists thought we were taking photos of weird things. Ultimate gaijin.

So that's why I've been so busy. Yes, I know it looks like just a lot of fun and games (which to be honest is what I treated it like) but it actually involved work, which I realised a bit too late, and this week we even had an assessment! Scary stuff, if you don't pass you're kicked off the course, but I passed so it's fine! You might notice that I have not included fashion in this post. That is because I am trying to put this blog back on it's original track, which was predominantly a fashion blog. So next post will be all about fashion! Woo! In the meantime, if you want more of my ramblings about music, which is one of the reasons this blog went off track, you can take a look at the tumblr I created purely for music: themne.tumblr.com

Lyric of the Day: "I'd play with fire to break the ice" - Wendy Clear, Blink-182

What Did I Tell You?

2011-09-15T09:32:00.000-07:00

There has been so much going on recently I haven't had a chance to update this (I know, I know, I'm sorry!), so I really don't know where to start! Well, here is a brief summary of the things that have been going on in the last few weeks. Probably the biggest change is that I am now officially a student of Ravensbourne! I enrolled and I've even completed a "full" week there! More on that later, or more likely in another post, who knows when I may get around to it. I started a part time job at a local tuition place, I went to Example's signing at the Oxford Street HMV, had a small cocktail party, have been very slowly making my silver, robot-waitress, MB-esque dress...ah I'll cut to the chase! Just over two weeks ago it was of course Reading Festival 2011, and with it of course the eagerly anticipated Origin of Symmetry set by Muse!

Now regular readers should remember that I entered a Muse T shirt competition in the hope of winning VIP tickets to Reading (and of course for a further step in my journey to becoming a fashion designer and designing for Matt Bellamy!). Alas, I did not win. But if you remember I stayed positive and said that my time will come. One thing that I told my brother, who had helped me with the computer side of the designing and to whom I therefor promised the other VIP ticket to, stayed with me though. That was, whilst discussing the horrors that would be the campsite toilets, I said to my brother something along the lines of, it won't matter because we'll be in the VIP area! (cue a chorus of "hell yeah!" and "boo yah!"'s and so on, and so on) Little did I know what would be just around the corner...

Friendly Fires, of course!

I surfaced from the dingy depths of the garage at work on Monday lunchtime of the week of Reading, covered in dust and with a sore back from emptying the piles of boxes (68, I counted) and putting the contents into shredding sacks, a riveting job, and took refuge at my desk back inside. I hadn't even planned on going back to my desk, I had my lunch in a bag and told myself I'd be happy enough to eat sitting amongst the ceiling high piles of boxes, they was even an old spinny chair and that was enough for me! But my indulgence went beyond that; this particular lunchtime I decided to boot up the old pc and check my emails (something I never do at work)! As I scanned me inbox I noticed an email entitled "CONGRATULATIONS!" and instantly thought it must just have slipped through my junk filter. However, being the person I am I like to check my junk mail is actually junk before deleting it so, after reading a couple of emails I thought were more worthy first, I opened it. At first glance it did appear to be junk; it was written in that standard, plain font with no pictures or headers. But it was a short email so I read it.Low and behold, it was actually an email from NME telling me I'd won a pair of guest tickets to Reading Festival 2011. For a couple of seconds I stared, confused, at the screen. Then I remembered: I'd entered a draw for VIP tickets, these must be them! I was going to Reading as a VIP afterall! Surely this couldn't be real?! Well it was! Safe to say I went back to garage a very happy bunny and powered through the rest of the shredding whilst listening to a Reading playlist on my iPod, dancing around the garage and fantasising about the VIP area...

Taking a break from the luxury of the guest area: our miraculous BBQ which took no less than 49 matches to light after being left out all night in the rain, I actually cooked a pretty nice sausage on it!

After the small issue of having to sell my pair of normal Reading tickets (which was actually the biggest stress ever but lets not dwell on that) Thursday arrived and we left for Reading, guest tickets in hand! I painted the Origin of Symmetry album artwork on my nails, got my mum to put semi-permanent purple hair dye in for me and had my camping gear, sirius muesli (get it?) and the essential Muse t-shirt packed. I won't bore you with details of the longest walk ever from the car to the entrance whilst lugging all my bags plus over 20 cans of beer with absolutely no help from the far stronger boys I was with. But at the end of that walk, after leaving our friends at the "commoners" entrance, we finally reached the guest only entrance. We blew all hopes of trying to blend in and looking cool by first of all the fact we (namely I) were red as tomatoes and dripping in sweat after the weather took a turn for the better and got a lot warmer than we had dressed for, not to mention the ton of bags. And secondly by queuing at the wrong window. You see, there were two windows open and one had a queue and the other didn't (already a sign we should have noticed), so we went to the second window. After failing miserably to catch the attention of the workers inside I looked up and realised why we weren't being served: we were in fact queuing at the window for the bands, which explained the list of bands on the desk that had some ticked off (I blame seeing Muse written down which distracted me). So we made the walk of shame to the back of the other queue, which had grown considerably by this time.

After that brief hiccup though we received our exclusive "weekend guest" wristbands, so exclusive it only has 3 figures as opposed to the 6 figured "commoners" wristband, and proceeded on, past the tour buses and tv crews, to the guest camping area, located right next to the main stage (and also adjacent to the fair which we discovered that night). After another brief hiccup of accidentally unpacking our stuff in the disabled camping area instead, we finally chose our patch to pitch up in; a good 40 meters or so away from any other tent in all directions and with the grass still very green and unspoiled by mud and water logs (believe me, that is glamping compared to the other campsites as we soon discovered). Other luxuries of the guest camping area included portaloos that were 100 times cleaner than the "commoners" ones, shower cubicles (which still didn't get used, well we still wanted the full Reading experience!) and sockets to charge phones with, which really were a life saver after buying a dodgy "emergency charger".

My Origin of Symmetry nails!

But the luxuries didn't stop there, oh no! There was also a guest area on the other side of the main stage that had, wait for it, REAL toilets! Not to mention two different guest bars which both had different DJ's playing some really great music all day and night (well, until 3am, we know because we stayed until the end, the hardmen we are), a guest BBQ, real fires at night to keep warm by and a range of actual seats including picnic tables, deck chairs and sofas!! (why do I always sound like I'm trying to sell something?) But besides that the guest area also had the press area and and entrance to the actual main stage! Of course to get there you needed to be working as part of the crew or have access all areas, however, just being in the guest area means that you can see people going on and off from the main stage via this entrance and hanging around the press area. The very first time we entered the guest area within minutes my brother told me he saw a guitarist from Dry the River. He pointed him out to me but I don't know what he looks like anyway so it was lost on me. However, over the weekend we did definitely rub shoulders with Suggs from Madness, Stefan from The Midnight Beast (who I genuinely would have stopped if he wasn't rushing for the stage entrance) and I could have sworn I saw the front man of Two Door Cinema Club.

Also, one of the first things we witnessed in the guest area was a band doing an acoustic set, well we just caught the end of the set. I don't even know who the band were but I recognised the song, something about a blackout, I must look it up. There was also someone who came off the main stage not long after My Chemical Romance finished playing who caused a bit of a fuss and was having his photos taken with various people, not sure who he was but he must have been someone famous! It really was a case of being there at the right time though, Matt Bellamy probably passed through at some point but we couldn't spend all our time there, not only would we have missed the music we would have angered our friends beyond what we already had done!

Pulp (duh), so much better than The Strokes

God knows who else we were in the presence of that weekend, after all unless you win a ticket, guest passes are only given to friends and family of the band and people who work on the music industry. You can tell, and they can probably tell we were competition winners, as everyone is far to immaculately dressed for a festival and probably doesn't even venture out into the "commoners" area. (Yes, we spent the whole weekend referring to everything else as the "commoners...") That meant we felt very out of place striding in with our mud covered wellies and me with my bright orange "kag in a bag" on. Luckily, those pretenses, and our inhibitions, disappeared by night when, after all the acts had finished, we continued to party in the guest area, sipping rose amongst the other guests, some of who were understandably quite drunk and began dancing on mud covered tables (how this didn't end in disaster, I don't know). We even joined in on the dancing after a couple of drinks and on the last night even entered what appeared to be a very exclusive circle of people sitting around a fire. (one of those people looked a lot like Tim Minchin...)

On the Saturday night, after our friends had "called it a night" we went back for more drinks and sat up one of the bar's balcony. From here we could see backstage and we witnessed about 5 trucks arriving and loading out equipment onto the stage. Being the night before Muse we were of course convinced that it was the mysterious Origin of Symmetry stage, it probably was you know.

"Polaroid app on my iPhone..." me near the guest camping toilets, being all gaijin, photo taken by my brother who would like me to remind you that the link to his blog is on the right of this *rolls eyes*

Given the people we were probably rubbing shoulders with we overheard a few interesting conversations that weekend. I heard what I deduced to have been a photographer who has worked with Jared Leto talking abut how difficult he is to photograph, apparently he always pulls the same facial expression no matter what you ask him to do, who knew? There was also a group of what seemed to be reviewers, or generally people who work in the music media, slating The Strokes after they came offstage (late, might I add!), saying how boring they were, which I couldn't agree more with, I should definitely have seen The Midnight Beast instead. That's why it came as a surprise to me when publications such as NME and the likes didn't have a word to say against them the following week. I certainly didn't hear anyone in the guest area, or elsewhere, that had a good word to say about them. However, the following night more than made up for it! Muse! What can I say? Yet again, there are no words! (which I'm sure you're glad to hear, this blog's already gone on for too long!)

An idea of how epic Muse's Origin of Symmetry Stage, and set, was!

I'll leave you with my lyric of the day then. It's taken from the internet viral "Being a dickhead's cool", a song that we couldn't stop singing all weekend purely because there were so many real life references to it! "Hipsters, there's hipsters everywhere!" were my brothers words as we got out of the car. This particular lyric though reminds me especially of one night when we were entering the guest area after the acts had finished. I have never felt more exclusive in my life, it just beats being photographed by about 20 Japanese strangers in a train station as if I were a celebrity. As we strided into the guest area, being waved through by the security guards after flashing our guest wristbands, we passed a pair of clearly desperate girls begging to get in, even offering bribes of money, or more! I couldn't suppress a grin as the security guards just went "sorry, if your name's not on the list you're not getting in".

Lyric of the Day: "exclusive list, look, there's my name! I got in! You couldn't get in!" - Being A Dickhead's Cool

The Unsocial Network?

2011-09-07T12:03:00.000-07:00

(I need to just say I was meant to finish this and post it ages ago but I've been so busy there's a bit of a backlog of blogs at the moment, updates coming soon!)

I don't know about you but I think the idea that social networking sites are actually, rather ironically "unsociable" is becoming a bit of a cliche. Whilst in Ireland last week I read an article in an Irish Newspaper (possibly the Times? it doesn't really matter, I'm not out to name and shame) of a similar title that was basically complaining about the annoyance and unsociable nature of social network sites, in particular Twitter. Now, I myself have been known to have mixed views on Facebook, it has it's pros and it's cons. On that topic I have now decided that the pros by far outweigh the cons and as long as you handle it in the right way there really isn't a problem with Facebook.

But back to this article; I found the writer of it infuriatingly ignorant. He made no apologies from the beginning of the article to being completely out of touch with the entire concept of social networking; having never used Facebook or Twitter and having no interest in starting. Yet he proceeded to condemn the sites themselves and their users. After admitting to signing up to Twitter (he was forced to by his son or something) he then recounts that his main problem with it is that most of its users uneducated, grammatically incorrect imbeciles (his words, pretty much, not mine) that share way to much information. Who wants to know if you've had toast for breakfast? he exclaims. Well there's a simple solution to that mate, don't follow these so called imbeciles who give share far too much information! Really the only imbecile here is you; you're clearly either too old or too out of touch with the modern world to fully understand how these social networks should be used, and the benefits that they can have. And you definitely haven't done your research for this article very well. Whilst some of the readers of The Times may still be firmly stuck on their anti-social network (The youth of today! *tuts*) "high ground", I can almost guarantee you that they will start to dwindle and authors like this need to realise this and adapt.

Rant over. I think.

Lyric of the Day: "Something is wrong, spit it out!" - Mothership, Enter Shikari

2011-08-15T15:48:00.000-07:00

I need to blog this milestone in my internet presence, no matter how small: I have (partly unintentionally) made my way onto youtube, if only for 3, rather embarrassing seconds.

Those of you, however few, who read this blog regularly may remember me talking about how my brother and I entered a video for a fan intro of a fan-made "Muse: The Movie". About 2 weeks ago the final trailer for this movie was released on youtube and it included the fan intro: a selection of the best videos sent in of why people love Muse. Unbelievably, a clip of our video made the final cut; quite an achievement considering 40 videos didn't make it! Anyway, here it is. I won't say where we are, try and guess!

Kudos to the maker (takeabow19), if you're a Muse fan then you should check out his other videos and stay tuned for the completed movie, which will be available from Muse bootlegs (if I remember correctly!).

In other news I have just gotten back from 10 days in Ireland; staying by the beach in the middle of no where practically cut off from society (really a very nice place to reflect on things). On return it has hit me that I only have 2 weeks left of my summer holidays and I haven't even begun the list of creative projects I meant to take on. However, being away has really made me want to start and since today I found out I am not needed in work for another week now is my chance! So today I started making the pattern for a dress I have been meaning to make for aaaaages and tomorrow I will buy the fabric and get started! Expect to hear more on that soon...

Lyric of the Day: "Looks like a new transition" - Witchcraft, Pendulum

Positive Thinking Wins Again!

2011-08-02T16:33:00.000-07:00

First of all can I just say I've been wanting to write this blog for two weeks now and I've been so busy I haven't had the time! Oh and also I know, especially after my last blog, I must sound like one of those self-help "guru's" I so often mock, but this needs to be shared. Right, now that's off my chest...

It's Saturday night and I'm standing in the Roundhouse, Camden, waiting for The Wombats to come on stage. And I think to myself, this really is the epitome of positive thinking (my mum will be proud!). Less than 24 hours before I had made plans to get the train into London for early afternoon in order to queue for stand-by tickets for that night's iTunes Festival gig, The Wombats. However, my plans were crushed by torrential rain that morning and even before I woke up I could hear the rain lashing into my window and I had that sinking feeling as I knew there wasn't even a point in getting up. Maybe a bit of rain wouldn't have been such a large problem if I wasn't battling off, rather badly, a bad sore throat and cold (ironically caused by the previous gig I had been to which was also an iTunes Festival one, White Lies again as it so happens). So, after my fears were confirmed and my plans were well and truly cancelled, all I could do was mope around feeling sorry for myself. I really like The Wombats; I've seen them before and it was so much fun and being the greedy person I am I wanted to go again!

The thing was, all day I couldn't shake the feeling that I was meant to be there, I should be there. Like when you know you've made the wrong decision and it's like you can feel what could have happened if you'd taken the other route. (or is that just me?) It was at the back of my mind all day and every time the clouds cleared even for just a second I got a shot of optimism, mixed with the anger and disappointment that it was to late now anyway. But since you already know I ended up going I'll cut to the chase; my brother and I got a train up to Camden and arrived there half an hour before the doors opened, waited for half an hour then were let straight in despite not having won tickets. We were even let in before the people with tickets! I can't describe how lucky this was or how happy it made me, within less than 2 hours I had gone from moping around at home to waiting for one of my favourite bands to come on stage. It must have literally been one of those things that were just meant to be. What I will say is that even though I didn't win tickets I had an insanely good feeling about it when I entered the draw!

This hasn't been the only occasion where "positive thinking" has proven itself. Even if I only take into consideration examples involving gigs there has been many. Possibly the most lucky thing that's happened involved a Muse gig I went to with my brother and best friend (I say "a" Muse gig, it wasn't just "a" gig, it was the best dam gig I've ever been to in my life!). Originally I had seating tickets but all I could think about would be how good it would be to have standing. So About 2 months before the gig I advertised my tickets for a swap. This never happened but I did manage to buy someones standing tickets, after answering an add literally seconds after it was posted, and sell my own pair. That's pretty lucky considering how sought after those tickets were. However, what's even more lucky is that my friend didn't even have a ticket and just two weeks before the gig she managed to buy one despite it being sold out and then find someone (who I will be eternally grateful to) to swap it with so she could sit at the same gate as us. Just luck, or the result of months of imagining that gig from the viewpoint of standing on the pitch (it was Wembley Stadium), in the company of my best friends?

And do I really need to remind you of what happened earlier on this month? Oh I do? Oh well I can always post another photo in case you've forgotten (I'm going to milk this for a while!)

Me with Harry McVeigh, again, just from a slightly different angle!

Weeks before the White Lies gig in Coventry I booked a room at the travelodge so we could stay for longer after the gig, and so I didn't have to drive. I'm sure there's some philosophy my mum would tell me about making preparations for what you want to happen before it happens but I can't remember the exact words of it, but you get the gist. Then, whilst we waited in the Kasbah for White Lies to come on all of my friends were talking about how they wanted to catch a guitar pick or get a setlist and I just kept saying, all I want is to meet them and get a photo and perhaps an autograph! That's all want! (I wasn't saying this out of the blue by the way, we met a very nice lady before the show who said she'd show us how we could do it, and boy did she!) That's another one of my mum's philosophies right there: know clearly what you want and you will get it! And we have proof!

So is it positive thinking, fate or just luck? Or God? Who knows? Personally, I think it has more to do with something meaning to be, because I also now that positive thinking doesn't always work (or true "positive thinking" is very difficult, to difficult for us pessimistic humans!). After going back to work where I mainly take staples out of files (oh the joys!) my free time has been partly occupied with something creative for the first time in over a month: I entered a Muse competition to design a t shirt for Reading and Leeds. The winner would not only get a pair of VIP tickets to Reading but their design would be printed and sold as well as receiving one copy signed by the band. Unfortunately, despite having a good feeling, I did not get picked for the shortlist. On reflection I could have put more effort into the creative side of things but due to my lack of time once I had the idea I just stuck with it. I ended up sending in 5 designs in total, 4 being just slight variations of the design below and the final one being hand drawn because I can't use GIMP. Here's one for now, I trust you won't steal them since the competition's closed now anyway!

the front of the t shirt, it says "Symmetry" at the bottom, it's a bit too small to read on here

the back of the t shirt, I couldn't find a back template so the neck is the same as the front!

But as I said, I believe that what's meant to happen will happen and I'm not too sad because my time will come! And Matt Bellamy will still one day wear one of my suits! Thank you again for reading my pointless rambles, until next time! (which could be a while as I'm going on holiday :D)

Lyric of the Day: "Do the macarena in the devil's lair" - Don't Sit Down Cause I've Moved Your Chair, Arctic Monkeys

Citizen Erased

2011-07-17T17:30:00.000-07:00

"Wash me away, clean your body of me,
Erase all the memories, they'll only bring us pain,
And I've seen all I'll ever need"

I've always loved these lyrics; they are so beautifully sad but true, in my opinion. Today being the 10th anniversary of the release of one of the best Muse's best albums, Origin of Symmetry, seems like an appropriate time to bring this up. Well actually, I had written this blog about 3 months ago. The reason I didn't post it was because it was too bitter so I thought I'd wait for a more appropriate time when I would have a different perspective and re-word it, which is exactly what I have done. So anyway, this is going to get deep so turn away now if you can't handle it!

The reason I love these lyrics so much is I can really connect with them. If there is ever an event or person that causes me pain in my life then I would much rather forget all of the memories, good or bad, because remembering only causes me more hurt. If the memory was bad then it's obvious why it hurts, but if the memory was a good one then it hurts even more because life isn't like that anymore. This is contradictory to what certain "self-help guru's" preach.

A common method of "letting go" taught by many of these self-help types is to imagine a bubble or a pen (in terms of animals, you know?) and put all of the good memories inside this and mentally blow them away (or blow them up if you chose the pen option, I'm guessing?). I find this a bit hard to imagine for several reasons. Firstly, can you really just "blow" away all those memories that easily? I highly doubt it. Secondly, why would you want to get rid of just all the good memories? Wouldn't that leave you with only bad memories and make you feel even more bitter thus making it harder to let go? Now I know this contradicts what I said earlier about good memories being more painful, but even I hold on to good memories (whether I want to or not). At least if you can only remember the good memories then you are slightly brainwashed into believing nothing was ever wrong because, until someone brings it up again, you've forgotten the bad things that happened.

To be honest, the whole thing's a paradox, and over the recent weeks I have realised that you don't need to listen to any of these so called self-help experts to find the secrets of letting go. Nor can you try, using whatever method, to let go of anything. You can't really let go of anything until there is something worthwhile in your life that is big enough to fill the gap after you let go of whatever it is. Se when the time is right, you will be able to let go. You may even be able to hold on to the good memories without it hurting.

So I leave you with my lyric of the day which is a rather different, more hopeful, way of looking at letting go (well in my interpretation, which, considering the artist, is often proven wrong) than those of Muse's Citizen Erased.

Lyric of the Day: "I gave you back your power, I gave you back your glory, when really I hadn't noticed, until I had the power to give it all back, until I felt the glory when the buildings collapsed" - The Power and the Glory, White Lies

Rock The Kasbah!

2011-07-09T15:11:00.000-07:00

I know after my last blog post it must seem as though I've lost the function to communicate in any form of coherency, but I really can't convey this in words, definitely not written words anyway. So yet again, despite jeopardizing my anonymity on blogger, I will just have to post a photo. If you've read any of my previous blogs you'll understand why this is just... :Dx100000000000

me with Harry McVeigh, as if it needed an explanation!

Literally my dreams have come true. Standing there just didn't feel real, to be honest I still have to pinch myself! It was soooo amaaaazing, and thanks to my brother's inability to use a camera I was stood there for just a bit longer than necessary. Needless to say, it was well worth the trip to Coventry and a bit of my heart broke as I had to wash that section of my shoulder in the shower this morning.

Lyric of the Day: "Maybe some day I could move like you" - Holy Ghost, White Lies

2011-07-06T14:59:00.000-07:00

It feels like ages since I've written a blog post! I kept meaning to do one as so much has being going on! But that's exactly why I haven't done one. To think I thought I'd have to stop during study leave, yet whilst I was doing my exams I managed to post quite often, since the summer holidays have began I just haven't had the time! As I have said, so much has happened and I really can't be arsed to go into it all. In short, I finished my exams (including the tragic textiles exam), have left school for EVER, had my ball/prom thing and various other events have gone on.

In all the commotion it appears to have slipped my my mind that I have finished art! It's a miracle! Well, until I start my year long art course in September (which will be a lot better than A Level art so I'm not really counting it as the same thing). I don't think I can explain what a relief this is, so I'll just post a photo from the exhibition:

Anyway, later that day something even better happened: I went and saw The Killers!! I actually can't put into words how good this was. Despite loving them since Hot Fuss I really didn't think it would be as amazing as it was, mainly because I though they'd play some new stuff and a lot of songs off Day and Age, which is my least favourite album. But they didn't! It was a proper comeback gig, in my opinion: they played mainly songs off Hot Fuss and Sam's Town, my two favourite albums! It's just so great that they are "finally" back together and Brandon Flowers has realised that he is nothing on his own. One of my life ambitions to see them live was crushed when they went on hiatus, luckily it turned out to be the most pathetic hiatus in history. Oh it literally was one of the best nights, despite the rain; I'm telling you, it's up there with Muse, and that says a lot! It was made even better by the atmosphere and the crowd. After briefly encountering some idiots during Kaiser Chiefs (who were also amazing!) which caused us to move to a much more central position, in front of the stage, we found ourselves in the company of some seriously awesome Killers fans (who also happened to be Muse fans :D) who seemed to be as crazy about them as we did. This just made it so much more enjoyable as we were all belting our hearts out all night! It sucks when you end up next to people who seem like half-arsed fans. I haven't been able to listen to The Killers in the same way since, and it's slightly, no very, torturous listening to the songs that did get played (which included Bling!! I practically died! :D). It may sound pathetic, but the emotions come flooding back to me so much when listening to some songs that I could almost cry. I literally can't put it into words, so again I'll leave you with a photo:

possibly the only disappointment was that Brandon Flowers wasn't wearing his trademark feather coat, on the plus side he didn't have a mustache!

In short, I have to see them again, ASAP! But in the mean time, I'm off to see White Lies!

Lyric of the Day: "saw Cinderella in a party dress, but she was looking for a nightgown" - A Dustland Fairytale, The Killers

She Shall Go To The Ball!

2011-06-19T13:58:00.000-07:00

If I'd have written this blog 48 hours ago, or even less, like I had been planning to, then it would probably be a whiny rant about the dire state of the British fashion retail outlets and how they seem to completely disregard about 90% of the young female market. Since finishing Japanese (woohoo!!!) and my weekend off (more about that later, maybe) I intended to resume my textiles revision. Instead, I have spent a large part of the last week trying to finally find a dress for my upcoming leavers ball. To be perfectly honest, I had practically given up before the week began and was mentally preparing myself to make a dress, and to be honest I was actually looking forward to it. Never the less, since my nanny was over from Ireland I tried once more to find a dress.

Well let me tell you, I would never have guessed dress shopping would be so stressful! It has been the bane of my life for past month! First of all, I have trawled my local shops (no surprises there wasn't much there) then moved onto London and Westfield, which I made several trips to at various points in the year, and finally a nearby large shopping center. What I found was a severe lack of dresses suitable (at least what I or my parents deemed as suitable) for a ball. The few dresses that were suitable were well over £300 or even £500. There were a few mid range dresses that were about £200, but paying that for a glorified evening dress seems a bit steep for me. Then, the odd time I did find a gem they didn't have my size. Typical.

Oh, I said this wouldn't be a ranty blog, let me get back to the point. Well, Murphy's law, yesterday I ended up going back to my local shop and buying a dress I'd tried on there weeks ago. It is an amazing dress and, thanks to some haggling due to a broken zip, it only cost £48! Why didn't I buy it in the first place, the males among you may ask. Females might understand; the truth is, it was nice on me the first time I tried it on but, since I hadn't looked at much else at the time, I thought I'd find something better. Going back to it after weeks of joyless shopping I realised how amazing it really was, and since they still had my size (2 of them!) after all these weeks it must have been fate.

The funniest thing is, the most stressful thing about trying to find a dress is the pressure everyone else seems to put on you. That's why I like shopping alone, or at least with a friend who understands. Having to justify every time why you don't want to even bother looking in "Jacques Vert" or the like (for the last time, 18 year old's don't shop there!!!) or why you don't want to buy a dress that fits you and they think looks nice, gets extremely tiring, much more so than trying the actual dresses on! Maybe it's just me, maybe a future fashion designer in the making is the hardest person to go shopping with. In fact, that's exactly the thing, isn't it? I said earlier about how I had resigned myself to making my own dress, I had in fact a few sketches already penned. I would still love to make these dresses, they were pretty amazing, if I must say so myself! Anyway, they were at the back of my head the whole time, I even knew exactly where I'd buy the fabric and knowing that it would cost about 10% of the price was an attractive feature! So I basically compared every dress I tried on to that, so of course nothing could beat it!

It's really got me thinking, the UK needs a prom dress supplier, not like those cheesy, tacky American ones though, that the average teenage girl can ship at, ie not over £200, under £100 even. Something that sells long formal gowns, and shorter flouncy prom dresses, and everything in between. There are too many retailers bringing out the same old dresses every year. Oh and another thing I noticed, considering the fact that girls going to these leaving balls are between 16 and 18 years old, why are there so many so called "prom dresses" that look like frumpy bridesmaid dresses, that age you so much? You're only 18 once and there'll be plenty of opportunities to wear more serious dresses in the future. I think there is a serious gap in the market there!

I have rambled for waaay to long, more about my amazing weekend next time, I'm off to catch up on Mock The Week and have some coffee cake!

Lyric of the Day: "Haven't you people ever heard of closing a goddamm door?" - I Write Sins Not Tragedies, Panic! At The Disco

2011-06-08T05:30:00.000-07:00

I feel like I've been trapped in some sort of Japanese mind prison recently. What with having a near impossible, 3 hour Japanese A2 exam tomorrow morning, and my next exam being another 2 weeks away, I have spent almost all of the last two weeks living, breathing and practically eating Japanese. I really hope it pays off tomorrow. Oh well, to late to dwell on that now.

Anyway, due to this I have not really had a lot of creative things on my mind, or anything . When I do suddenly feel inspired I have to fight the urge to pursue the idea and push it to the back of my mind. I find this rather annoying, and it's made me realise that I really do want a job in the creative industry. I've really reached the end of my tether with this revision. I just find it very difficult to sit and try and retain information, my mind tends to wander, a lot.

I comfort myself in the fact that this time tomorrow Japanese will be over and the only thing left to revise will be textiles which I don't mind as much and isn't quite as pressured as Japanese is (mind you I bet I'll be eating my words this time next week). Plus I've got some really great things lined up for the following 3 days after the exam! Firstly, on thursday I will be going up to Ravensbourne, where I could have been this evening if it weren't for Japanese, to see the end of year show for this years art foundation students and getting a taste of what next year will have in store for me. After that I'm going to stay up in London and try and go dress shopping. The last time I did this I gave up after one shop, so hopefully it will go a bit better this time. Although as it stand I will be window shopping as I have no budget. Anyway, on friday evening I am going to Wagamama's (which means selfish in case you were wondering, and I mustn't forget that for tomorrow's exam!) to see my favourite waiter, oh yeah, and not forgetting my friends, one of whom's birthday it is, which is why we're going.

But the to top it all off, and possibly the best news I've had in a while, I am going to the L.E.D Festival in Victoria Park this saturday!!!! And do you know why? Because my amazing mother WON us tickets!!! I had actually entered 3 separate competitions to win tickets to this, including one my local paper was running which both my mum and brother also entered. Well who would have known it but the local paper is worth reading after all! They called up my mum yesterday and told her she'd one! I know she'll be reading this at some point so I would like to say THANK YOU again!

I'm going to take this opportunity to say thankyou, to whoever might be out there, for reading. I know I tend to ramble a lot, but for some unknown reason this had record viewings last month (and by "record viewings" I mean about 150, which to be honest is the total viewing for the previous 4 months or so, so yes by my standards that is record!). So what I'd to say is thanks, and keep reading! And don't be scared to follow or comment!

Lyric of the Day: "Turning Japanese I think I'm turning Japanese I really think so!"- Turning Japanese, The Vapors

(note: my Japanese exam was actually this morning, I got distracted before posting this last night but wanted to post it anyway. I'm sure this post is long enough already without going into the details but let's just say I am relieved, to say the least!)

2011-06-02T15:35:00.000-07:00

So I officially left school this time last week, wow how time flies when you're revising Japanese all day! I know I left compulsory education two years ago but that doesn't really count, the following two years are practically the same as school. So this means no more lessons EVER!!! I don't think the enormity of that concept has really hit me yet. To be honest the only real lesson I had was Japanese and since I'm still doing that all day very day for the next 6 days I haven't really realised yet how much of a relief that is. Art is not really a lesson and we all know I'm far from finished with THAT. And well, the pathetic excuse for a lessons that is textiles, don't even go there.Whats more, the last day was the most unemotional last day in the history of the education system. Even my year 11 leavers day more sad, and I wasn't even leaving! That, in addition to the fact that I will still be going back there for at least another 6 or so days and we still have presentation evening and prom and all that jazz to get emotional over, means I don't even think I've realised I've even left school.

However, last night it suddenly dawned on me that without lessons, I will never see certain people again with a definite excuse. i.e. from here on in people who want to stay friends will need to make an actual effort to meet up. From here on in, you find out who your real friends are. Wow, that sounds dramatic. But it's true isn't it? Well, only time will tell what's going to happen from here on in.

On other news I am seeing my beloved White Lies again! (apart from Reading, which they'll be at and so will I!) What's more, it's at another intimate venue, Kasbah Coventry! Since York Hall was practically pure heaven I have high hopes for this one and I know they won't let us down! I'm actually getting really excited! Roll on the White Lies roadtrip!

I'll leave with another photo I took from when we saw then at Shepherd's Bush this February, to remind you, in case you forgot, of how amazing they are (and how much a Dish of the Day Harry McVeigh is ; ) )

you don't know how long it took me to choose, there were too many good ones!

Lyric of the Day: "And just because he's had a couple of cans he thinks it's alright to act like a dickhead " - A Certain Romance, Arctic Monkeys

Moar? YES PLEASE!!!

2011-05-30T14:16:00.000-07:00

I don't really know how well my last Blog post regarding Matt Bellamy's fashion sense went down but I'm sure there a few people who want some more so here it is! (I also quite like this as a break from revision and school and exams and just generally everything that's going on right now)


Matt on a magazine cover in 2001, image from microcuts.net

For my first full blown feature on the fashion sense of this legendary front man I am going all the way back to 2001, a full 10 years ago. It's funny how it wasn't that long ago that I though that 2001 wasn't really that much in the past but looking back on it now things, and especially fashion, have really changed. I personally feel I have been doing a lot of looking back recently due to the fact that I am leaving school (which I'll probably expand upon in another post, so you can look forward to that!).

Anyway, here Mr Bellamy is seen wearing a long-sleeved, black top with a round neckline and panels of black netting, or tulle for us "textile nerds "( I do hope this counts as revision!), in the sleeves. He teams this with the standard red spiked hair of the Origin of Symmetry era, which ladies I think we can all agree was the best era for hairstyles! This top particularly reminds me of the early naughties because it was around this time that me and my friends were starting to rebel against our parents clothing choices for us, well as much as you can when you're 8. Being a goth seemed cool back then and I particularly remember my friend having a top similar to this one, which I loved. The closest I got was a black and green striped top with safety pins and skulls. Oh well, maybe there'll be a goth revival and I can finally get my chance to wear some netted sleeves.

Hmm, this has turned into more of a nostalgia fest than I intended. On a completely opposite note, I received a letter from Ravensbourne today with some very exciting news! It had the dates of some pre-September events for future events and the starting dates for the new term. Unfortunately, due to my Japanese exam, I can't attend one of these events and the first day is a week earlier than I thought it was. This makes it an extremely close shave with Reading; I start the morning after Muse, which will not be fun. Getting off a train after four days in a tent with barely a shower is not exactly the first impression I was hoping to make...

Lyric of the Day: "When I saw you last night I wanted to say run away with me...but all I could say was 'Hey'" - Mercury, Bloc Party

Riddle Me This, Textilenerd

2011-05-23T14:59:00.000-07:00

Exactly a month today, as any A level textiles student will know, the A2 textiles exam will take place. This would fill me with joy as it is also my last exam, if it weren't for the fact that we have not been taught any of the syllabus. It's a very long story as to why which I can't be bothered to go into right now. Anyway, one lesson a few weeks ago I humored my textiles teacher by pointing out to her that we had missed one part of the syllabus out. Here's where the problems begin, and the main reason we haven't learned anything this year; the AQA GCE Textiles Unit 3 does not have a textbook (why? God knows...) and our teacher doesn't actually know anything about A Level Textiles. This meant that she had to trawl google for source materials for the topics, this particular one was global and cultural woven traditions.

Whilst doing this she came across an "A2 Textiles Revision Site" called "Textilenerd". (She felt the need to point this out to me in front of the entire class, sparking laughter from my friends. My own teacher calling me a textile nerd?) This instantly caught my attention as since there was no revision book, perhaps a revision website would actually be useful. However, when I looked at this so called "revision site" I found it was a fellow blog. Now it would be hypocritical of me to abuse a blog but the particular post that our teacher had printed for us simply copied out AQA's specification for textiles. I could have read that myself.

I was intrigued and when I got home I looked at the blog in more detail. From what I could see the posts were mainly a collection of websites with useful sources to learn from. This is fair enough, but that is what our teacher had already been doing, rather unsuccessfully, for us. What we were searching for was something more concrete to revise from. As good as the internet is, there is something slightly untrustworthy, and certainly unreliable, about it. Call me old fashioned, but the only dependable way to revise is from a book, especially an exam board approved book - which is frankly the only way I can be given peace of mind when learning. But there lies the issue: AQA has no approved textbook! So where else does one look?

The mark schemes provided by AQA are quite possible the vaguest things I have ever seen. The average "answer" given goes like this:

Limited description and poor quality answer 0- 4 marks
Reasonable description and a quality answer 5 - 7 marks
Detailed description and an excellent answer. 8 - 12 marks

WELL NO SH*T SHERLOCK! This kind of thing in a mark scheme would be tolerable if it came accompanied with an actually answer to the question, which in some cases is given but at an extremely basic level which if you were to write you would probably get 1 or no marks. This means there are virtually no resources to refer to when revising for this near impossible exam. No wonder over 50% of candidates get C's and D's.

So it appears that it is not only my teacher who is poorly equipped to teach a lesson; AQA need to learn a few things about writing an A Level. God help us all.

Lyric of the Day: "They're gonna clean up your looks with all the lies in the books, to make a citizen out of you" - Teenagers, My Chemical Romance

2011-05-20T14:35:00.000-07:00

Remember many moons ago when I was talking about my art coursework final piece? (the recycled materials dress) Well you'll never believe it but I actually finished it this week! And after having spent the best part of the last two weeks in an art lock down my sketchbooks are actually finished as well it seems! It's a miracle! Well here is the final product:

The front view

The back view

In other fashion news I had a rather serious "wardrobe malfunction" today. It happened just as I was getting into the car to go to school, which I suppose was a good thing, it would have been beyond bad if it happened AT school. Basically my skirt hitched up as I was getting in to the car but I ignored that and proceeded to stretch my leg in to the car but as I did the entire back seam of my skirt ripped all the way up! There was barely a thread holding it together at the top! I assumed I must have imagined the massive ripping sound but when I went to check sure enough my entire backside was on display. Luckily my Dad very kindly drove me to my Mum's house where I picked up my other skirt and I got to school earlier than I do on most mornings which was rather strange. All's well that ends well.

Lyric of the Day: "Anticipation has a habit to set you up" - The View From The Afternoon, Arctic Monkeys

Oh procastination, you temptress!

2011-05-18T11:19:00.000-07:00

Matt Bellamy: front man of rock Gods Muse, four time winner of NME's sexiest man in music, nominated for both best and worst dressed at the NME Awards, the male Lady Gaga?!? (well, maybe not that extreme) Over the past 12 years his fashion sense has certainly changed a lot, for better or worse though, is debatable. He has been known to wear such fashion atrocities as a feathered coat, a Hawaiian shirt and flashing LED glasses, to name a few. His onstage outfits alone are worthy of their own blog. Incidentally I did wonder if someone had done this before, because if not there would surely be a gap in the market for one! Turns out there is: http://wtfismattbellamywearing.tumblr.com/ It's not quite what I had in mind, but it's a fashion blog of sorts I suppose. Well, if this post goes down well I may make a weekly (or whenever I can) feature of analysing the many fashion disasters, and the few successes, of Mr Bellamy.

Muse in 1996, oh the simplicity of the 90's!

Matt Bellamy performing at Wembley Stadium, September 2010, showing his love of glitter, donning a mirrored suit with his (late) Glitterati guitar (image from www.muse.mu)

You may have gathered by now that my lifetime ambition is to become a fashion designer. You may also have gathered that I am a massive Muser. What few people know is that one of my other ambitions is to design suits for Matt Bellamy to wear on stage. (or any of my garments to be honest, I'd be happy if he wore a scarf I designed!) What no one knows, I think, unless I have actually told people and my memory is failing on me yet again, is that I once had a dream that I won an award for a suit I designed for Matt Bellamy and I walked onstage to collect it with him and after wards him and the rest of Muse performed Uprising. Some, namely my sibling, may laugh but someone has to design his clothes right? So watch out, my designs could very well be coming to a stadium near you soon!

Lyric of the Day: "Fashion! Put it all on me! Don't you wanna see these clothes on me?" - Fashion, Lady Gaga

I'm On The Edge Of Glory

2011-05-17T11:20:00.000-07:00

Radio One's Big Weekend was on this weekend, for anyone who's been living in a cave (or just doesn't listen to Radio One). Obviously, living 300 miles away from Carlisle, I didn't win tickets. Instead I had to settle with watching it on my PC. I spent most of Saturday doing art coursework and it provided the soundtrack, and quite frankly was the only thing getting me through the unbelievable mountain of work I had to do. Can you believe it, those jammy dodgers got Arctic Monkeys as a surprise! They were pretty good (and made me really want to see them live!) but the performance of the weekend was without a doubt Lady Gaga.

I watched Graham Norton on Friday night (woo! what a life I lead!); this is a rarity for me but Lady Gaga was on so I had to. She never fails to amaze me; who else can pull off dressing like the devil's dalmatian on a chat show?

You know how sometimes when you watch a performance it just makes you want to get up on a stage and rock it like you own the place? Well Lady Gaga's headline slot on Sunday night was one of these performances. God, why didn't I keep up dancing or practice the piano more so I could do that? Oh well, I'll settle for designing her on-stage outfits.

Lyric of the Day: "If it weren't this dark you'd see how red my face has gone" - You Probably Couldn't See For The Lights But You Were Staring Straight At Me, Arctic Monkeys

Arty Farty Party... Not

2011-05-12T11:30:00.000-07:00

This week I have "finished" my final piece for my exam module in art. The term to "finish" is a loose one when it comes to art, because it is never finished. I could spend my whole life trying to finish my art A-Level and it would never happen. But for now it appears to be completed, how long it will be though is unknown. With the amount of drama going on in the art department recently I could be told to rip it to shreds at any moment, but I won't bore you with that.

This is view one of my, overly complex, final piece. It is meant to be my eye, but very pixelated

View two...I can't even be bothered to start explaining this one

The final view. This one is my personal favourite; it's meant to be of my brother's eye, again in a simplified form

Lyric of the Day: "I'm the candyman....Also known as Dave, Dave from Sheffield" - F**k The Millennium, Scooter

2011-05-05T14:08:00.000-07:00

I knew the tranquility and peace of mind of handing in my textiles coursework wouldn't last long; yet again an extremely short deadline has been sprung on me. I now have three weeks exactly to finish ALL of my art; that includes my final piece (both exam and coursework), both of my books, three essays and two exam boards. Bang goes my social life. And, considering all of this work that still needs to be done, what do you think we spent our art lesson today doing? Eating a chocolate bunny and playing wink wink murder. Well, one last moment of relaxation before the art lock down begins- tomorrow. All I can say is roll on the summer!

In other news today was the referendum and local elections and for the first time ever I was able to vote! I did not feel a wave of responsibility or adulthood though. Ironically, the polling station is my old primary school and I haven't been there in about 5 years, despite living 2 minutes around the corner from it. The hall looked quite different to how I remembered, for one it was much smaller, but it would be wouldn't it? I was pleased to see they still had the tile I made up on the wall though!

Lyric of the Day: "She just laughed and said 'Oh you're so funny' I said Yeah? Well I can't see anyone else smiling in here" - Common People, Pulp

2011-05-03T14:14:00.000-07:00

I have finally finished my textiles coursework and today I handed it in! Despite the fact that my teacher wasn't even in on this very important deadline day, which really doesn't surprise me as she's never in when it really matters. I didn't realise it would be such a wight off my shoulders! I have had so much coursework recently, what with my art exam as well, that I've been feeling a bit snowed under. Here is my completed top and jacket:

Speaking of which, today was the last day of my art exam. This doesn't really mean the end though; I now have the evaluation to do and, due to the complexity of my piece I still have to assemble the whole thing. I'll post pictures when it's finally done, which will hopefully be in the next couple of days. It's feeling like gradually, bit by bit, things are getting done. It's not so bad after all!

Lyric of the Day: "We all got old at breakneck speed, slow it down, go easy on me" - Wetsuit, The Vaccines

2011-04-26T14:05:00.000-07:00

It has come to my attention that recently my blog has been going slightly off topic. This is not necessarily a bad thing but since the original purpose of this blog was for me to document my journey to becoming a fashion designer I should really post a bit more actually related to fashion. : s

Let me see...well I didn't mention it at the time but I got rejected from Central Saint Martins, which is no big deal as I have my offer from Ravensbourne, which was my preferred choice anyway. I've also spent the last couple of months doing my A2 textiles coursework and today I finally finished it! We have to hand it in tomorrow and let me tell you, it will be such a RELIEF! I ended up only making the top and jacket and abandoning the trousers; it was an unnecessary amount of work and I just didn't have the time.

Also happening tomorrow is the start of my art exam. This is traditionally 3 days long but since it starts tomorrow and this Friday is the Royal Wedding (wooo!), and therefore is a public holiday, our art exam must be continued a whole 4 days later! This means if we suddenly find that 2 thirds of the way through our exam we are struggling to finish we will have 4 days longer than any other year to do parts of it at home and bring it in on the last day, and no-one will ever know! Get in! (but you didn't hear that from me...) I actually really enjoy art exams because, unlike any other exam, by the time you get to it there is nothing you can do but be prepared so in it all you do is sit, relax, listen to some music and do art. And it gives me three days off school so that in combination with Easter and all these bank holidays means I have over 3 weeks off! However that also means that the end of school FOREVER!!!! is fast approaching. : s But I'm trying not to dwell on that...

In other non-fashion but highly Musey news, this weekend my brother and I, who as you may have gathered are avid Musers, recorded a video of ourselves dancing like mad men to the outro of Micro Cuts in an effort to be included in a fan intro to "Muse: The Movie". We look silly as hell but we sent it off and the maker of the movie really liked it and hopefully we will be included! And, I need to contain myself for this part, MUSE THEMSELVES ARE VIEWING THE MOVIE!!! Aaaahh I may just die! I apologise for going all fangirl again, but when it comes to Muse, I simply can't control myself!

Lyric of the Day: "Sounds like forks on a plate" - Micro Cuts, Muse

Why Tuesday Is The New Friday

2011-04-07T13:20:00.000-07:00

(yes I know it is now Thursday and so following my own theory today is Sunday : ( but luckily my theory isn't real and therefore today is Thursday and tomorrow is Friday! Everyone's a winner!)

Over the past 7 weeks or so, as I think I have mentioned before, I took back up my part time job. I do it every Tuesday afternoon for about 3 and a half hours because I have a "study" afternoon, ooh naughty me! Trust me though, if it weren't for the money I'd much rather study than have to haul around god knows how many boxes full of files up and down stairs and into attics then painstakingly remove every single god forsaken staple out of every flipping sheet. This week was particularly painful as, after believing I would have the "luxury" of only having to de-metal, I arrived at work with very tired legs and bruised ribs, preventing me from bending even the slightest amount, to find I in fact had to lift a further 10 or so boxes, oh the joys!

Why were my ribs bruised? Because the night before I had been to see Does It Offend You, Yeah? at Heaven and since we were by far the first people to arrive there, even though we dawdled in comparison to how early we usually turn up to gigs, we got right to the barrier and hence the bruising. It was an amazing night though, and I finally got a set list! The support acts, Tripwire and Hounds were also pretty good and the venue was really nice and intimate. So far my challenge of going to at least one concert a month this year is going well. The worrying thing is now though the next concert I have booked is in July! So I really need to sort something out for May soon!

So since Tuesday is the only day I work and it really is more tiring than all of my coursework, homework and revision put together, which is really saying something, when it is finished for the week it is more relieving than the end of the school week on Friday. It may also have something to do with the fact that on Wednesdays I don't have Japanese, my only academic subject left now that I've finished maths, and the only subject I actually have to think in. Therefore Wednesday usually feels like a bit of a dos for me. However, this feeling probably won't last much longer as my art exam and textiles coursework deadlines are rapidly approaching, not to mention my actual exams which I haven't even properly started revising for yet. Oh well.

Lyric of the Day: "Crazy, crazy! Easy tiger" - Norgaard, The Vaccines

2011-03-23T15:09:00.000-07:00

I am currently sitting here, writing this, on my laptop. Pretty normal you may think but the HP Wireless Assistant on my erratic laptop, which has failed me many a time, decided to just die on me over a month ago. After coming extremely close to throwing it out my window- I read countless online DYI articles about fixing it, to no avail- the internet is finally working again thanks to a USB connection. It is surprisingly liberating being able to browse the internet on the privacy of my laptop- not that I do anything dodgy on the internet! But since my laptop has been out of action I have been using the home PC and so my use of the internet has been only for homework and the odd social networking. Hence my less frequent blog posts. This may have been a good thing; I had more time for homework with less distractions of pointless internet browsing. But then again it did make me feel strangely out of touch with the world. I suppose only time will tell if the lack of internet is a good thing.

Regardless, I have been thinking about the internet, and particularly the rise of Facebook. I was thinking about how many things I use Facebook for and how handy it really is. Its just weird the amount of things that I would now struggle to do without Facebook and how inconvenient I find it when someone doesn't have Facebook. But is it really a good thing? I sometimes find myself resenting it, I'm never 100% sure why but there can sometimes be something sinister about it. I suppose if you weren't to have it it would encourage more "real" forms of conversation, like phone calls. It's just too easy to send someone a Facebook message, easier than talking some may say, but if we continue like this will our real communications skills suffer in the future? This generation is the first to have grown up entirely with social networking sites so the effects can't yet be known but surely it will have a vast effect on the future of the human interaction?

Well, I may have got a bit carried away there but in other news: I have a Reading ticket!!! Even better Muse are headlining!!! After suffering severely from PMWS (Post-Muse Withdrawal Symptoms) for the past 6 months and having nothing tangible to concentrate my obsessive levels of fan-Dom (hahar!) on I can finally begin the countdown to what will hopefully be another out-of-this-world concert again! Plus, it's going to be an Origin of Symmetry special to celebrate the 10th anniversary of its release with a 3D representation of the album cover on the stage and the possibility of B-sides!!! I think I might just explode!!!

Lyric of the Day: "This is the last time I'll abandon you" - Stockholm Syndrome, Muse

Deals With The Devil

2011-03-16T15:38:00.000-07:00

I don't know if anyone else does this or if its just me being weird, as usual. But I sometimes think to myself, "If I do this, then that will/won't happen". That probably sounds quite normal but I'm talking about things which are out of my control. A trivial example would be before receiving exam results, a more extreme case would be if someone was ill and I wanted them to get better. When I say this I don't mean "if I revise then I will get good grades". What I mean is if I perform a completely unrelated task, it could be as random as going into a certain shop, then I will get good results, or whatever it may be that I'm hoping for. I also sometimes think that if there are two different situations which can have good outcomes, in this example me getting good grades and someone getting better, then only one can happen. These thoughts seem to be completely uncontrollable; I don't actively think about it but they just pop into my mind. The thing is once they are in my mind I have to see them through. If I don't complete the certain task the guilt will drive me crazy and if there is a bad outcome I will blame myself, as silly as this may be. And that is why I call it doing deals with the devil. I hate it, I used to do it a lot but I do it a lot less now.

On a completely different topic altogether, I went to see The Wombats on Monday night. They were amazing! It was such good fun! We started off the evening one row behind the barrier, right in the middle. I had a bit of a disjointed view though as the people in front were a bit on the tall side. However, it was fine, until the second support act came on and this bunch of annoying, putting it politely, girls started pushing between me and my friends to get to the barrier. Trying to hold my ground, and thinking it would stop when they got off the stage, I managed to keep my space, but I was separated, only by one person at this stage, from my friends. I thought I'd be able to get back before The Wombats came on but then a group of guys also started pushing forward, pushing the girls even further forward, and pushing me further away from my friends. The Wombats then came on and the situation only got worse, so I surrendered and let myself get pushed back into the crowd and into the mosh pit. This was not a wise move for me; the floor was wet, my shoes had no grip and I am not a very stable person at the best of times. Needless to say I was on the floor within seconds, but not before I dragged some random guy down with me in an attempt to stay upright. I now have a massive lump on my leg but quite frankly it's a miracle how I got back up without being stampeded to death. After that I moved more to the left where the crowd was still pretty wild, but there weren't any death traps. Thinking I'd have to spend the rest of the night alone but not wanting to spoil seeing one of my favourite bands for the first time, I danced like no one was watching for about 5 songs. Then I heard my friend call my name, I turned around, and there they were! Finally reunited, the rest of the night was amazing! They played most of my favourite songs and the supports, Team Me and Morning Parade, were actually pretty good! I would definitely see them again!

Lyric of the Day: "If you love me let me got, back to that bar in Tokyo" - Tokyo (Vampires and Wolves), The Wombats

2011-03-09T13:24:00.000-08:00

I think I know how Locke, a character from my favourite TV programme, Lost, feels. At my part time job I have once again returned to the dingy depths of the garage, surrounded by a fortress of boxes twice my height. I have to haul these boxes down to a height where I can reach, empty the contents into a shredding sack and then try and drag the sacks somewhere within the already jammed garage whilst still keeping the boxes in the garage. It is like the real life version of some sort of flash game, the name of which I cannot remember but it really remind me of some game I played as a kid, how I managed to manoeuvre the boxes and the bags in such a cramped space I do not know. Anyway, it is a job so boring and monotonous it is enough to make anyone want to slit their wrists with the paper for the shredding sacks. This is how, I am sure, Locke must have felt, not feeling fulfilled in his job at a box factory, and this is exactly how I feel, or would feel if it were my full time job. I was told by a passer by that I must lead a terrible life, after all. However, unlike Locke I probably won't find the purpose of my life on a mysterious island with a smoke monster and a guy who wears a suspicious amount of eye-liner and never ages.

This is actually a promotion from my last job, would you believe it, of de-metalling; which is a glorified staple remover. I thought that was bad but at least then I got to sit on a comfy chair and plug in my iPod. There is no rest in the garage, unless you construct a sofa out of cardboard boxes which I may have done on the odd occasion. Plus, in the safety of an office there is not the constant threat of attack from giant spiders. I cannot complain too much though; it pays pretty well for what it is.

Lyric of the Day: "Savour the moment, because the memory's fleeting" - Easy Target, Blink-182

2011-02-14T14:40:00.000-08:00

Well, today's Valentines day, and surprise surprise, its a let down, as usual. I would have said it was a let down but it is only 8 pm therefore the day is not over and it could still be good, the optimism inside me refuses to die. After all, there is a large, if heart shaped, chocolate cake yet to be eaten. And I say let down but I didn't expect anything in the first place. I do like the idea of Valentine's day, because I like cheese, as I think I've mentioned before, and I am a hopeless romantic deep down, but it really does no favours to teens, or single adults I'm sure. Many people of my age are already very self conscious and lacking in confidence so to have a day where the world (well the media really, they're always to blame) makes you feel worthless and ugly for not being loved by anyone really just rubs salt in the fragile wounds of insecure teens. I'm probably coming across as a bit more depressed than I actually am, but Valentines day is not really a day of any significance, unlike other saint's days, and yet it has become a day, fuelled by peer pressure, that many people see as a mark of their worth, and for some, single, people it is really the last thing they need. Again I may sound uncharacteristically pessimistic; I'm sure there are good sides to this day and if I was "loved up" I'd see it as just an excuse to make more of a deal over showing that special person that I care for them.

The disappointing nature of today does not bode well for the rest of the week. I predicted this morning that this week would be unbelievably crap in comparison to last week and I can see it coming true if I don't do something about it soon. Last week was very good, the best in a while and really what I needed. It was always going to be good as we had booked tickets to see my beloved White Lies on Thursday since before Christmas. Although I knew it would be good, because the White Lies do not have it in them to be a let down, it turned out so much better than I though it would be. I am sounding pessimistic again, I think the last few weeks have made me a cynic, I can't let that continue. But after seeing them at possibly the most intimate gig I will ever get the honor of being at in my life, York Hall, I really wasn't expecting it to be so good. First of all we managed to get right to the barrier yet again. I personally loved my position as I was unbelievably close to Harry McVeigh but at the same time I was right in the line of sight of Jack, the drummer. Not only this but I am pretty sure Harry recognized us, well we have seen them four times now, and on all occasions we were right at the barrier basically and we saw them at a signing. On top of this he properly looks you in the eyes and when you sing the lyrics back at him he does this ridiculously cute smile and you just know he loves it. The cherry on the cake was that they finally played E.S.T, one of my favorites and I have been waiting to hear it for aaages!!! AND they played Unfinished Business and Holy Ghost, my day was made. Oh yeah, and we got the set list and another guitar pic. AND there were no annoying arses shoving between us, in fact the crowd behind us was practically dead and we didn't get so much as nudged throughout the entire night.

I also had two study afternoons last week, which considering I have never had one before was quite a way to start the proceedings. I even had a half price lunch out with the girlies in one of them which really was surprisingly good fun and surprisingly delicious. Then on Saturday it was my brothers birthday party which turned out to be pretty fun. I was really in the mood for dancing but I wasn't sure if anyone would but they did so it was good! I also managed to go from having done absolutely no textiles coursework to having half finished my jacket. So all in all it was a pretty good week.

Basically, I think I need to learn not to think weeks will be bad because they won't be as good as other events in my life. My life will probably be better when I live as if each week is a new opportunity to do great things and maybe it will be better than the week before, you never know. (I told you I liked cheese) I think I came up with this theory after seeing Muse in Wembley Stadium; this was, and remains, the best concert I have ever been to. I was worried that any future concert I would ever go to would be a massive let down since it would never be as good as that night. However, I just thought, if I mentally separate the Muse concert from all other concerts I can't compare them and it will be fair on the other bands. If you are following this then I think it is a pretty good analogy to life. If you were to live by comparisons I don't think you would every be truly happy.

As for Valentines day, I think music, and the dish of the day himself, Harry McVeigh will be my Valentine.

Lyric of the day: "I'm your absent Valentine" - Embrace, Chase & Status feat. White Lies

Magic Fingers

2011-02-09T14:33:00.000-08:00

I have just recently started my exam module for my art A-Level, this time last week actually. Our new title is "Exploration and Discovery". I'm not going to lie, the first thing that popped into my head was pirates. I do like pirates, I held a Pirate themed night last summer, I like holding themed nights, my forte is Mexican nights. But after that initial thought I realised instantly why, the very next day, we had to go to the British Museum. Oh God, it's going to turn into such a cliche, I thought, drawing old pots and other so-called "discoveries". Yes, I know that technically these are discoveries as they were literally dug up from the ground but I really don't like taking the literal meaning from an art theme, and plus I'm not really into history, it's all about the future.

I began the trip by pointlessly wondering around the Egyptian and Greek sculpture rooms taking pictures of everything in case in turned out to be necessary. I couldn't have been less interested or less inspired. We were meant to do some drawings as well but I couldn't see any thing I produced form this day being any good. However, after a while I found the room with the mummies in it. I had the thought of looking at them on the back of my mind all morning and thought I'd indulge myself, although I really didn't want to have anything to do with them in my art book. It was here I saw this skeleton and, a bit morbid I know, a corpse which, despite being hundreds, maybe thousands, of years old, still had flesh and hair. Thinking I'd hit the jackpot I started sketching them.

It was then that a horde of primary school kids stormed and shoved right past me, interrupting my tranquil sketching time and blocking my view. Typical, I thought, until one by one the kids noticed what I was doing. Then the awestruck gasps began. (yeah, not to blow my own horn or anything) Then this one little girl asked me if I had magic fingers! Thinking she was being nice about my drawing I modestly admitted that I am no magician, just insanely good at drawing. I realized immediately that I had just missed the perfect opportunity to manipulate the whole class of kids that I was, in fact, magical. Looking back at my drawing I realized then why the girl thought I was magic; I was holding a tiny piece of charcoal between my fingers, so small you couldn't see it, and as I moved it across the page, marking it with charcoal she must has thought my fingers were just making it appear, as if by magic. Hmmm, I wonder who else I can fool with this...

That was just about the best part of that trip, unfortunately I feel myself being sucked into the black hole of cliched artwork. We are being made to work on from our trip and since the only thing to see there was ancient artifacts and old pots it seems that this is what I will be doing. Oh well, if it gets you the grades.
I seriously cannot wait for art foundation.

In other news there have been no musician sightings this week, so far. Tomorrow I am seeing the White Lies though! You never know, I may finally get my photo...

Lyric of the Day: "Controlling my feelings for too long...pushing us into self destruction" - Showbiz, Muse

2011-02-07T13:24:00.000-08:00

So it turns out I am not 100% free from maths, yet. After being blissfully unaware of what was to come I spent little just under a week, which was actually only about one maths lesson due to my interviews, enjoying free periods in place of my maths lessons. Then, the rude awakening came in the form of my maths teacher approaching me one morning before maths telling me that I still had to attend the lessons in case I failed the exam and had to re-take it. How pessimistic can you get? Well I had decided that I didn't need maths anyway for an art foundation so didn't really care if I failed. But, my inner (well maybe not-so-inner) goody-two-shoes prevailed, and the promise of EMA, and I reluctantly went to maths. How was I ever going to finish my art and textiles coursework now? However, my mini-drama didn't last long as our protesting in the maths lesson, preventing the people who didn't drop maths from learning, forced our teacher into negotiating free periods with us and I can now FINALLY say that I am free from maths.

I heard back from Kingston the other day. I received an email which very kindly stated in capital letters on the subject of the email "Reject". How nice. I didn't even have to open the email, so considerate. This may seem like a bad loser type thing to say but I didn't even really like the place anyway. Seriously, what kind of University locks the building on the day of an open day so you can't see inside?

On the extremely bright side, I head back from Ravensbourne, my top choice, today. I was offered a place!!! Now I just need to sort out some from of transport, it is possible that I may spend at least 3 hours a day commuting, either that or pay un-holy sums of money for accommodation in central London. I think my final decision will be made after I go to the Bucks New Uni open day.

It has come to my attention that my blogs are getting a little wordy and since it is meant to be my journey to becoming a fashion designer I should really start posting some more of my work. So here is my A2 art coursework final piece (no where near finished mind you). I made it by sewing and weaving together a selection of dyed tissue paper, melted plastic bags and papier-mached newspaper which I then mono printed over. Its part of my recycling project. I have got so much more to add to it and we're technically meant to be finished the module now. Yeah. Now you see why I need all my free periods for art.

Lyric of the Day: "And I can tell just what you want, you don't want to be alone" - What You Know, Two Door Cinema Club

2011-01-31T14:16:00.000-08:00

Well the day is finally here, I am finished maths FOREVER!!!!!! (well you know, as far as school work goes) Today was my first full day back at school since I finished my maths A Level, I was at a Ravensbourne interview and a Central Saint Martins portfolio review last Thursday and Friday (more of that in a bit), and I loved it! I didn't realize not having to go to a maths lesson for the first time in 14 years would be so liberating! It feels so good to have 2/3 of my lessons being creative! I have so much more time to spend on my art and textiles now so hopefully I can actually get my coursework done, well that's easier said than done, watch this space.

So, I went for my interview at Ravensbourne on Thursday, I think it went alright, felt pretty painless, actually not as bad as I thought it would. It's now definitely my top choice, but I'm not too sure on the practicalities of getting their, the journey to North Greenwhich via the Picadilly line was a nightmare; try squeezing yourself onto an already jam packed train with two massive art folders and a lady with a suitcase complaining at you because you have the ignorance to think you'll get on this train! I got on though and made it just in time. Luckily, the Jubilee line was a lot less crowded and this is the line I would be using if I went there. I am making no further comment on the interview itself because I have no idea how it actually went as the lady interviewing me gave me absolutely no signs as to whether she liked my work, unlike the last interview. The student ambassador on the other hand said I would make a great textiles student though! Note to self: must not get my hopes up!

Then, the next day I had my portfolio review at Central Saint Martins. Apart from missing the train I originally intended to get due to the extremely irregular traffic Slough suffered that morning, Murphy's law of course, and arriving 20 minutes late and then having to lug my work up 4 flights of stairs, almost killing myself in the process, it was an extremely easy day. The fact that I was late turned out to pose no problems at all and I got to browse around London whilst they decided my fate. You could say it was a pretty good day; I bought some of my favorite Meron Pan from the Japan center, I got to look in all the shops with practically no-one in them, I ate my lunch in Covent Garden whilst watching a street performer (I think it was called the Tom show?), albeit in the freezing cold, and I bought a bag that I have had my eye on for aaages in Irregular Choice that was reduced from £45 to £18! And the best part? I only went and bumped into Dom from Muse, my favorite band!

This is how it happened: I was starting to get a little bored (you'll be suprised how bored you can get in London when you know you have to spend a certain amount of time there and you're on your own) so I didn't really know what to do so I just started walking down Oxford street, I was by the Tottenham Court Road end. Then what happens? A taxi pulls up next to me and who gets out and walks right in front of me? Only flipping Dom from Muse! I literally stopped in my tracks! And this was no Harry McVeigh moment, this was definitely the real deal! I could not believe my luck! Dazed and starstruck I continued to walk in the direction I was going, no real point to where I was going. About 3 minutes later I thought to myself, "What if he's going to meet the rest of the band? I must follow him!" Yeah, an obsessive shot in the dark thought to have but I had nothing better to do. So, despite almost 5 minutes passing, I continued down the road I saw Dom go down and reached a Tesco. Just as I thought "this is getting ridiculous" who do I see by the checkout in Tesco? Yes, Dom again! I slowed down and did a bit of a double take to check it definitely was him and yeah, it definitely was! I didn't go in though (not that much of a stalker!) but continued until I reached a corner where I stopped and got out my phone to text some people what I had just seen. However, my phone was being its usual self and not working so I gave up. Putting my phone away I realized I had got myself onto a small side road in London by myself and thought "Well I've had my fun, now its getting stupid" and turned back towards Oxford street. I was just grinning stupidly to myself, not quite believing my luck, when I see Dom again! This time he's walking in my direction, but he's with someone whos talking to him so I don't disturb him by shrieking about how much I love Muse. Instead I just slow down as much as I can without him noticing and just gawk. Yeah, I really just wanted to respect his privacy, it was clearly his day off.

All in all, it was pretty surreal. Like one of those moments when it feels like you're actually watching it on tv, when in fact you're there! That brings me to my lyric of the day, it seems only apt for it to be a Muse song...

Lyric of the day: "Future soul forgive this mess, you waste twenty years, then wind up alone, demented" - Fury, Muse

License to...

2011-01-18T14:44:00.000-08:00

I'll start with the bad news, apart from one night, I think it may have been Friday or Saturday, I have not been sketching in my fashion diary! I know, I promised not to fall behind again but this month has so far proved to be the most busy and important month on my life so far, well that what it seems like now. I currently study four A2 levels, a choice which many would see as idiotic and even masochistic, but due to studying in the further maths class I am finishing maths this January, leaving me with so much more "free" time. However, before this can happen I must revise for the two exams that my maths A Level culminates in which so far, I have not really been doing nearly as much as I could be. But this isn't really the end on the world because I have an unconditional offer! (note to self: must not let this get to my head - my maths A Level is very important for my future career) Anyway, besides this I have an art deadline in 2 weeks for which I still have an astonishingly large amount to do (more so than I originally though it seems, but more on this in another blog) and a textiles deadline in about 2 months (this may seem like a long time but I have taken on quite a challenge for myself; making a jacket, top and trousers may be pushing it just past my limit). On top of all of this I have had the impending doom of a driving test, which had to be rescheduled because of the snow and was given to me with less than 2 weeks notice, resting on my shoulders and, quite frankly, overshadowing the importance of everything else in my life.

OK I didn't realise the bad news would take so long, so on to the good news! Said driving test was actually today and, drum roll please... I passed! With 2 minors! It was the biggest emotional roller coaster of a half an hour of my life I think. Within 2 minutes I thought I had failed (this turned out to be only a minor fault) and for the rest of the test I came close to giving up, sure I had failed after the examiner screamed at me to stop as I pulled off to of a right turn, my foot was shaking so much on the clutch as I did my maneuver ( a 3 point turn- the one I wanted!) I still don't quite believe I got away with only 1 more minor after the mini disaster of the first 2 minutes. So, that's a whole lot of my mind, and now I can finally focus a bit more on the creative side of my life, and every other side of my life for that matter.

One of the very few nights off I have had this month came last night, and just in time, if I had spent another night doing maths past papers I think I would have driven myself insane with nerves for today. I have been waiting for last night, with extreme excitement, for a few weeks now and wow, it exceeded all of my expectations! My brother, his friend, my best friend and I went to see the White Lies in HMV at the opening of their new album "Ritual". They played about 6 songs and did a signing, unfortunately I didn't get my new facebook profile pic but I did get a copy of the album (which I have been waiting with immense anticipation since seeing them at Wembley Stadium, supporting Muse, and York Hall) signed and we got out drumstick signed and some guitar picks! Whats more, I am pretty sure, well I say pretty sure it could have just been a mirage caused by having too much White Lies on the brain, that I saw Harry McVeigh about 45 minutes after the signing walk past us on the platform at Oxford Circus waiting for a train to Ealing Broadway (White Lies are from Ealing!). He was literally identical and had the same trousers on. Coincidence? I think not! We kept an eye out when we got off at Ealing but he was not sighted again. Oh well, next time, which won't be too long, I'm seeing them in February! (Harry McVeigh ; p)

Lyric of the Day: "I've got a sense of urgency, I've got to make this happen"- Strangers, White Lies

Decisions, Decisions...

2011-01-13T14:06:00.000-08:00

Today I went to an open day at Central Saint Martins. After a mini-heart attack caused by finding the old confirmation email that said it actually started at 12pm at 10am, not 2:30pm which I could have sworn it was at, all turned out well because they said it was fine for us to just turn up whenever. I have mixed feelings about the place to be honest. As soon as you start to approach the place, before you even turn the corner into the road is is on, you know there's an art college near; the quirky bookshops, the crazy hairstyles and the vintage clothes. I know it has an amazing reputation; I was reminded of this during the tour when we were told that every artist or designer who has made it has studied at Central Saint Martins at some point along the way.

However, before going on this open day I was warned that CSM has a bad reputation for not giving their students enough one-to-one tuition time. My mind was not put at ease when I was told today by a member of staff that the intake for the next academic year will be 750. All of the other colleges I have looked into only have between 100 and 200 students per year. To be perfectly honest 750 students is way too much for a foundation course, I'm sure you would get no where near as much attention as you would need during what is a very important year of your life. Another slightly negative point (well it is when I compare it to my new first choice, Ravensbourne) is that the building is quite old, which is fine but each area for the different departments seem quite small this wouldn't be a problem but lets not forget the small issue of their being 750 students. One of the tutors even used the word "stampede" to describe what its like trying to get into your preferred area of specification. To be perfectly honest it seems just too competitive, what with 750 students all hoping to make it big one day and not enough space or tutors to accommodate these egos. It seems like the pace where you could either hit it big and manage to get yourself into the right crowd and rocket to fame and fortune, or, get trampled by the "stampede" and be lost among the crowd and become just another statistic.

I'm just not getting the same vibes off it that I got off Ravensbourne. I think now this is now definitely my first choice (before it was tied first place with CSM). Its been relocated to a brand spanking new building this year (like the rest of CSM will be APART from the art foundation course, of course) and its just so spacious and airy. Its like a designers heaven; it has technology more modern than the industry, a completely open plan layout and massive tables to spread your stuff out on. The facilities just seem a whole lot better and the best part? Their student union is the O2 Arena which is right next door! My mum has always told me to go with my instincts and my instincts tell me that Ravensbourne is better place for me. Plus, in a slightly biased statement maybe, the tutor at Ravensbourne did say that they would prepare you for the industry better than the University of the Arts London would (basically called them arty farty and ignorant of the current economic market and the need for industry ready graduates).

To cause more confusion, I have my unconditional offer from Bucks New Uni. I still have no idea what this college would be like apart from the fact that it is the closest one to home. I was told to make my decision by the end of January but the thing is I haven't got an open day until February and I don't want to reject this offer as it is just too good but I can;t decide until I see the place.

But enough about University choices, its getting far too late for thinking this deeply. In completely unrelated news I listened to the original Violet Hill by Coldplay for the first time in a long time. Let me tell you, it sounds absolutely feeble in comparison to Pendulum's cover which I have recently re-discovered and finally have on my iPod, although I could be biased.

Lyric of the Day: "If you love me, Won't you let me know?"- Violet Hill, Coldplay

Disclaimer: do not take my word if you too are looking into these colleges, they suit different people in different ways

2011-01-10T12:55:00.000-08:00

First things first, I have managed to maintain my new years resolution! So far, so good! I also just today found out that Central Saint Martins have asked me in for a portfolio review for a place on their art foundation course! I'm really happy about this one as it's my first choice (well joint with Ravensbourne)!

In other news this weekend I finally decided what I'll be making for my textiles coursework; a top, jacket and trousers. I intend to make most of the patterns myself, modifying patterns I already have for parts of it. This may or may not have to be handed in just after the February half term, I'm hoping not, I fear I have bitten off more than I can chew.

On top of this I have to finish my art coursework by the 1st of February, including the evaluation. Thanks to my having to finish part of my final piece before Christmas I am at a slight advantage. However, I also have 2 major maths exams in 2 weeks which I am no where near ready for. Thankfully, after these exams are finished I am done with maths FOREVER! I can finally put all of my attention on art and textiles (and also Japanese but that has nowhere near as large a workload).

But this is getting slightly depressing so I thought I'd show you some of my art work so far. For my current module I have been looking at fashion designers and artsist who use recycled materials and experimenting with doing the same myself. It all started last summer when, after looking at the work of Chinese artist Huang Xu who works with plastic bags, I got the idea to make a dress out of melted plastic bags. I did some research and turns out I wasn't the only one who had this idea so there my A2 project began. To the left is the bodice for a dress (as far as I've got right now) made out of plastic bags I melted together with an iron then sewed with raffia. Below is the back of the bodice which I made from weaving the straps from plastic bags.

I was going to also put my final piece up but I think you are probably losing interest by now so I'll save that for another day, ooh the suspense! Until next time, I'll leave you with the lyric of the day which I heard very appropriately whilst designing my textiles coursework. It's a cheesy sentiment, I know, but it's from my favourite band and I do admit I am slightly partial to a bit of cheese : )

Lyric of the Day: "Best, you've got to be the best"- Muse, Butterflies & Hurricanes

Hello!

2011-01-07T11:27:00.000-08:00

So its been a few of months since I actually created this blog, not that anyone would know, and I have finally got round to writing my first post. I have been so busy for the last few months, but, over the Christmas holiday I had a bit of an epiphany. I originally didn't know what to write about, it was going to be just a random reel of my thoughts really with no intended structure. However, there has been one thing in my life that has stayed a constant since I was about 6: I want to be a fashion designer. As I am nearing the end of my life in school and I am starting to get offers for places on art foundation courses my dreams are starting to become a reality. So, to document this pivotal part of my life I am going to use this blog to record my journey to becoming a fashion designer.

My earliest memories of wanting to design clothes were from about reception and year 1 of primary school. I was about 5 or 6, I think, and every wet play break we had (when it rained, so a lot) I would sit and draw clothes onto bodies. That continued throughout my entire stay at primary school; I would even hatch plans to create fashion houses with my friends or we'd design our wedding dresses and joke about how we'd get married to the cast of Harry Potter in them (I had Harry, of course). Then, when I outgrew this in secondary school it got a bit more serious and I took art and textiles for both GCSE and A Level, where I started to design and make dresses (pictures to follow soon). As part of my current project, I am making a three piece casual outfit, comprising of a top, jacket and trousers (maybe a skirt or shorts, I haven't decided yet). I will be started this in the next week I'd say so more on this later. I am also currently exploring a fashion theme in my art work, using recycled materials to make dresses (again, more of this to come). So far, my only current claim to fashion fame is that I won a competition held by the V&A last year to design an outfit to be worn 20 years in the future. But I intend to change this.

I have always jotted down ideas in random notebooks whenever they come to me, often just before I drift of to sleep actually, but this has always been a very inconsistent and unorganized affair, with segments of ideas scattered between several notebooks. So, my new years resolution this year, and the first I actually plan to stick to, is to sketch an idea in my book, bought especially for this purpose from Paperchase, everyday of the year as a kind of fashion diary. So far its been going well, and by that I mean I stuck with it for the first 3 days of January, a personal record. However, I have caught up and I promise, I won't break it again!

So that is my brief history in fashion, keep reading, there will be pictures coming soon!