get your glitter on...

sorry i haven't posted a lot recently.
i guess i've just been feeling a bit uninspired and unsure of my 'style' and have just reverted into regular, boring clothes!

perhaps this is led to my obsession with making glittery clothes...


susie bubble, outfit here



these last two are a gift for my friend who i'm going to london with today, to apologise for getting brick lane and portobello market confused, and being generally forgetful..

if i can get my brother's crappy camera to work, i will probably come back with tons of photos. i can't be bothered to lug my 400D up...

a pattern of deception.

last night was the first of six monday evening sewing courses.
during this time, we'll make a skirt and be guided through everything from pattern cutting, putting in zips and darts, buttons ect. i know a fair amount of it anyway, but it;ll be good to be taught it.
the pattern was already chosen, whcih i guess saves for dithering over what skirt to make! At least- kind of. we had five to chose from:

initially i went for the bottom left, as it looks as though it would have a nice flow, but i decided on top left as i would learn to do darts.

Then came the fabric.
I loved the print on this skirt worn (and made) by childhood flames so i was looking for something vaguely similar, but EVERY fabric i was drawn to was curtain fabric! Why are there no regular cotton fabrics with a large floral print?! well, at least not at Crawley Cloth Store...
Seeing as it's such an easy patten, i'll no doubt make other skirts from this pattern.
The fabric i did chose is pretty simple:

it's a pretty small print, and not too light a cotton, so i think i might be able to wear it in the autumn as well as the summer. if i wear it. it was only about £5 so if i don't, it was an experience making it!

The title of the blog came from my first expirience of pattern sizing. I came out as a size 16-18.
cue panic attack and not eating for several days. no, i joke (about things that aren't funny.)
everyone came up about three sizes bigger than normal, so i managed to rationalise and NOT go down the panic attack route. which was a plus.
But, it's kinda disheatening to see the size, don't you think?


ho hum.

london calling

on saturday I am venturing up to london, yay!
As i don't go all that often, i tend to stick to oxford street and camden, which as got slightly...boring now.
I'm meeting up with my wonderful Claire-friend, who is 6ft tall and super skinny, so i only pretend to be her friend. She's going to take me to Brick Lane, and I'm taking her to the East End Thrift Store.
We also plan on going to Tim Walker's exhibition.
Does anyone know of any good places with cheap thrift/second hand/charity shops in London? Advice! please!

thank you (L)


oh, i'm starting a sewing course tonight! we're making a skirt. I went in to see the pattern yesterday and it's pretty awful.
Oh well, experience...

delightful day

on saturday morning, my mum and i took the french students to the station so they could go home. there were so many of them there! we ended up taking them because the students of my mum's school couldn;t house any, so they were in desperate need of places. the majority of them ended up staying in the school its self, so i'm glad we could take some. they weren't nearly as bad as i had expected- being special needs students i was worried that they would be hard to communicate with (and i mean that with no discrimination towards anyone) but they were alright in the end.

we then went into town, and came across a charity shop we'd been meaning to go in for ages.
there were some cool things there- LOADS of books. mum and i went a bit mad and got lots of pointless ones, like Etiquete For Gentlemen and dressing up books. seeing as they were about 40p each, i don't feel bad about it!



my books- Handel's Messiah, which i plan to rip up to use in various collages, Etiquette for Gentlemen, The Quotable Woman and Knitting in Vogue. I can't knit but one day, i will knit myself an awesome cardigan.
I also got:

a full length night dress, which i plan to cut down and line so i can wear it on holiday

a really interesting belt- i just loved the pattern and texture of it, even though it's a horrible plasticy thing. I'll find something to do with it...


I also found a replacement purse for mine, which has fallen apart. when my dad saw it, he asked me why i had his mum's purse. oh dear.

THEN we went into the proper part of town and passed Whittards of Chelsea. As usual, my mum stopped outside and lusted over the plates. We have these horrible 28 year old plates that mum and dad got as a wedding present, that EVERYONE hates but mum wouldn't buy new ones because it would be a waste. I managed to pursuade her to get some new pasta and cereal bowls, because they were on offer, though!
She treated me to some crockery for when i go to uni (her words were "just choose whatever you want!" I felt bad so i only got half of the minimum i will need. what a good daughter i am...).
I got really bright stuff so they'll make me happy.



happy eating (:

we both ended up dressing pretty similar, actually. i wore this:

and my mum wore a printed dress and jacket of almost the same colours. but she wouldn't let me take a photograph. meanie.

the nub and jist of this post is that i love my mummy! sorry it's been so long and rambly...

uniqlo jeans...

i feel bad posting about this here, but i bought some uniqlo jeans a while ago, and they don't fit well, so i'm selling them cheap on ebay so i don;t have to treck to take them back!

they're a size 10 (but i'd say a larger size 10) boyfriend fit, tapered leg jean in light blueeee denim. they're really soft and i want them but they look stupid on me, because i'm short. they'd look best on people above...5"5 i reckon...

if you're interested they're here.

to the very end.

Today was the last day of my college education.
It seems so crazy and not real AT ALL. Hardly anyone's been in college this week, so it's been a bit of a let down, i suppose.
I can't decide if i'm glad or not.
My photography teacher was lovely- she gave me a card to say goodbye and her email address so we can keep in touch.

My boyfriend and i went back to his, and took some pictures until my batteries died.

this is a very unflattering picture, i don't really have a belly that big. i hope.

This dress- i've decided i don't love it as much as i did. it doesn't fit too well on the bust, which makes the material under the bust balloon a bit. I'll still wear it loads though (:

falling from the ground

photograph by ed (:

dress: topshop

& it was all orange

Apparently, one of the first things someone notices about another person is their hair.
a lot of girls in my college get their hair cut and styled really regularly, GHD it every day, colour it every month blah blah blah.
When I was younger i always HATED HATED HATED my hair- i was bullied for being ginger a lot, and i died it a couple of times and it looked awful.
Now i've "come to terms" (oh gosh, it sounds like the most SERIOUS thing in the world...) with my hair colour, and my hair is my favorite feature.
I've been playing with it recently, with heidi plaits but wasn't too sure about wearing it out.
This morning i saw this picture, and decided to shamelessly copy it

I think the model has a prefect shaped face for the style, and although it didn't look half as good on me, i liked having it done slightly differently.



it's so easy to do- just do a side parting and take the front section of hair, start plaiting and pin wherever you want (:

(and, thank you so much to anyone who's complimented me on my hair...you've bought the self-indulgent hair related posts on yourselves :P
and, you've also made me really chuffed (: )

the invasion.

My personal space is being invaded.
I have three french boys, aged 14-16 in my house.
I don't want them in my house!
They scare me! Get out!

I feel mean now, but my mum keeps trying to get me to talk to them, and i don't remember any french, and they are creepy and one of them went in my room and picked up one of my bras.
i did not find that particularly amusing.

Grr.
Anyway.

i thought it was going to be sunny today, so i wore this dress i got from Tescos supermarket (oh yeah...) last year. I took it up because it was too long, but now the...pleats, if that\s what you would call them, never lie flat. grr.



dress: tesco
tights: topshop
cardigan: new look
hoody: h&m

fortunately, the exam went pretty well, so i won't complain to you about that!

In my A Level art class, there was this awesome girl, who had henna'd, dreaded hair and did wonderful things with a sewing machine.
She based the WHOLE of her self-directed project around this film, The Science of Sleep.
It was on sale for £3 at HMV so i got it, and watched it last night with my boyf and his sister.

It's a WEIRD film. I need to watch it again, because i didn't quite get all of it, but it's really bizzare, but dreamy and soft and...i thought it was really beautiful.

The female protagonist is played by Charlotte Gainsbourg, who is my new heroine.
I think she's beautiful, but in a tired way. Like...she looks worn down, but her long limbs and swinging hair and graceful hands just work.




I've just found out the film was filmed in 2006- a big suprise, as there's none of the high-tech special effects that there was huge scope for (although if there had been, it would have ruined the softness).
It's a french film, and about half of it is spoken in french (subtitled) with a tiny bit of spanish, and the rest is english.

Anyway. some pretty pictures of Charlotte.




(vogue paris)

she also has a beautiful voice.

yes, she is my new girl-crush. replacing Scarlet Johansson in (and only in) Lost in Translation.
I love that film.
I REALLY love that film.

desperate times...

I have an exam on monday.
the exam is world development.
i hate the lesson of world development.
i think our teacher is a nob.
he gives us mountains of paper. on monday evening i am taking it to the recylcing point so that the trees of the amazon are no longer cut down for shitty hand outs, and the ingieonous people are no longer being driven from their homes into floor plains yadda yadda.

anyway.
i do not want to revise for this exam.
so i played with my hair.
and then made some videos on my mac of my trying to straighten my hair.

oh, photobooth. what what i do without you...

i secretly wish my name was Heidi and i lived in some mountains. with sheep.




wardobe, hi.

trying to look about eight..

clothes i wore.






have a nice day.

Iron Man

my boyfriend and I went to see Iron Man at the cinema today. it was a pretty good film- entertaining, even if it's not the most...highbrow of films!
i was very impressedat Gwyneth Paltrow's ability to run in what looked like five inch heels, whilst being chased by a huge, even lump of metal!
unfortunately, this is the only image i can find of her...

[stolen from IMDB...]

speaking of films that i've seen in cinemas (yeah, really specific there, Annah...) I remember liking the outfits in Cloverfields...



this girl, Marlena had a really cool "i don't give a crap" attitude. especially when she got bitten and then exploded.

this actress is SO skinny. she spent most of it in pajamas, covered in blood from a piece of metal that went through her chest...yum..


I think a bit of blood, fear and rubble dust adds to them...

a wing.

I was having such a bad photograph day today.
this is the best i managed- looking very broad, and with a falling off cardigan!
i wear this to death- i had to sew it up last night as it was falling apart.

blah blah blah anyway
beloved cardigan- new look, £15. best buy ever.
dress- new look
tights- topshop sale. £1!
shoes- debenhams

dumped.

i've just realised how many cool places there are to take photographs in my garden!
Anyway, here is a nice bin, with some lovely shoes I got yesterday!
[please excuse the horrible vampire bites on my feet- these are the handy work of these]



brown peep-toe sling backs from qube.
crazy...for only £5!
there was a grey pair i really really loved, and they fit really well, but there was one shoe on display, and the other was no where to be found ):




wooden heel sandals from Debenhams- they had a 20% off sale on, so mum got me these (: i really like them! although they make such a noise..

I'm not used to wearing heels to college, so i felt a little over dressed, in a weird way
the rest of my outfit was:



jeans- dorothy perkins
cardigan- new look
top- miss selfridge
bracelets- dorothy perkins & markets
shoes- debenhams

like bumblebees