Santa... Am I Too Late?!...

Now, for some reason, dear readers (if I have any!), I've had the sudden urge to own a Barbour jacket.  Why?  I'm not too sure.  I don't live on a farm, therefore have no sheep to herd or fields to harvest... but still, there's a little voice inside me that's getting louder, trying to persuade me to delve deeper into my overdraft and spend the (my gosh) £199 on one.  It is admittedly a dream of mine to live on a farm, with a sheepdog, in a wonderful farmhouse, and with Matt Baker... (although that could be a problem due to the fact that he is already married...damn).  If not Matt (I can hope can't I?), then someone very similar please.  I've realised that I've now gone off on an idealistic tangent, so lets get back to business; I want a Barbour and I want one NOW.

This lovely one would do me nicely... with the limited edition Liberty print inside, I think it's worth the two hundred quid... don't you?  

(Say yes.)

Picture above: Barbour 'Kate' Medium Weight Jacket, Red £199, available from John Lewis.

... one step closer to the country dream.

Matt Baker.  Gymnast, dancer, country boy, sadly not available at the moment.

Christopher Kane

Whilst browsing this month's edition of Vogue, I came across a dress by Christopher Kane.  It is just simply cosmic, and if only I could afford it.

Sadly, no matter how hard I tried, I could not find the exact halter-neck version that was featured in Vogue, however this one is from the same collection but in a different style, found on Matches Fashion.

If I Knew You Were Coming I'd Have Baked A Cake...

... I seem to be blogging (when I get round to it) a lot about the muffins and other such cakes that I make from time to time more often than any drawings I compose.

Maybe I should combine the two and draw my cakes?!  Hmm now there's an idea...

Rock cakes: A wartime staple, favoured by my Dad... except this one looks more of a 'blob' than a 'rock'.

Vanilla Fudge Muffins

Triple Choc and Vanilla Fudge Muffins... went down a treat at work

My creation this afternoon... orange cupcakes with chocolate orange buttercream icing, topped with orange and lemon sugar slices.

NOM.

You Were Made For Me...

... everybody tells me so...

Well they haven't really, and neither has Freddie nor his Dreamers mentioned these words specifically to my ears.  But I'm telling myself that these Topshop boots are in fact made for me.  If they don't fit I may cry a little.

Oh, and I thought I'd add the video of Freddie and The Dreamers performing this song on Blue Peter in 1964... I am totally taking these dance moves out with me!

Country Living Christmas Fair?...

Yes please!

Blik...

Whilst perusing this month's issue of Juxtapoz magazine, I came across 'Blik' featured on the Style Sheet page.  After reading further on, I found that they create stick-on and peel-off wall art.  So if you are as indecisive as me, you can rearrange these to your hearts content, without having to redecorate every day!  Brilliant, no!?

Curiosity got the better of me (as it usually does) and I visited Blik's website to find out more.  They have a catalogue of artists and designers that produce these amazing wall creations.

I might just have to get my hands on one of these ... but now I've got to decide which one.  Help!

'Breathe' by Sarah Joncas, featured in this month's issue of Juxtapoz

'Cat Moonlight' by Upper Playground

'Branches' by Amy Ruppel

When it rains...

... bake some cupcakes.  Yum.  I couldn't wait to try the icing, so I ate some whilst topping off my creations (probably consuming the sugar equivalent to 5 bags of Haribo sweets.)  Well I've got to make sure they taste right haven't I??

Purrrrrrfection...

Meet Mr Higgins.  The most beautiful cat in the world.  And unfortunately, he's not mine... but I came very close to bringing him home with me.

He is the size of a small lion.

Sophie Dahl, eat your heart out...

Take a look at these bad boys.  Those triple chocolate muffins I was talking about in an earlier post.  They came out quite well, if I do say so myself.

A tea-time treat to last forever...

I've had my eye on this little beauty from Accessorize for a while now, and snapped it up this afternoon on a spontaneous shopping trip.  I jumped on the baking-bandwagon quite recently; muffins, brownies and Victoria sponges, so I reckon these pendants suit me down to a tee.

And at least this lovely necklace will last me longer than those triple-chocolate muffins did...

Go get yourself one.  £10.  Bargain.

Come on Vogue, sign me up...

... well, I've got the hair for it... right?

I washed and brushed my hair earlier today (as you do) ready to dye it.  I never brush my hair when it's dry, but this time I had to and this was the outcome.  I just simply had to take a photo for you all to share in my amusement.

And a couple more recent ones...

An old drawing or two...

I haven't updated my blog in ooooh, about half a year it seems!?  Well I had better get on and post something now!

To start with, here is a drawing I'm quite fond of from my art foundation year at Bedford College...

Country Living...

On Saturday, my Mum, Auntie and I went to the Country Living Spring Fair at the Business Design Centre in London.  There were lots of lovely stands showing off wonderful collections of jewellery, crafts, vintage style accessories, antiques, gardening ideas, food and all sorts.  A very inspiring, tiring day...

Below are photos of some of the purchases I made throughout our visit...

A rather yummy cupcake (which I have just polished off) courtesy of Cute Country Cupcakes

This is a little antique I picked up from a stall named Kitty Fisher.

A selection of Little Birdie gift tags that I may just have to stick up on my wall, rather than on gifts for other people...

I like to layer...

It sounds rather backwards, I know, but these laser cut pieces came before my drawing work, featured below in previous posts.  I did more fabric work in semester 1 of my final year at Loughborough, compared to none at all in my final project of semester 2!  I intended to produce large laser cut pieces from the drawings I created, but decided to just stick with the drawing instead.  Who knows, I may well continue and actually get some large pieces made up some day...

Here I have two laser-cut designs layered upon each other, and then onto a flat piece of fabric.  The pink PVC-type fabric on top has large flowers cut out of it, whilst the blue satin fabric below features smaller flowers with geometic shapes, that represent urban buildings.  The idea was to juxtapose urban life with rural countryside.  (In my final project I just focused on the latter).

Here is a stranger mix of urban and rural life.  I tried mixing up different fabrics to see what would happen to the overall effect of the samples.

The satin fabrics worked extremely well with the laser cutter... so incredibly satisfying.

The laser-cutter man kindly kept all the bits that were cut out of the designs for me, which I used on other samples.  It was extremely fiddly trying to stick 2mm squares down!

Rabbit, leaves and flowers... oh, and some more teeny weeny squares!

Deer Oh Deer...

Some country-inspired drawing work, created with black pen, neon oil pastels, collage and ink from my sketch books... I heart the countryside.

And if you didn't watch Lambing Live on BBC2 this week, go watch it on BBC iPlayer.  I only caught one 'episode' last night, if only I had seen them all!  I wish I was Kate Humble... she is just too cool.

Spring time...

Would you just take a look outside... blue skies and sunshine, am I really still in England?  Not long ago it was snowing, and now its all clear and crisp feeling!  I love it.  Maybe Spring has finally sprung?  Maybe I shouldn't speak too soon... but on the theme of spring, here is a picture of an A1 drawing I did as part of my final project at uni.  I managed to stay up until 5am doing this.  I owe thanks to the Mocha I had drunk on the walk home from work that evening!  I added neon paints to parts of it during the finishing touches, to give it a bit of KAPOW!

Valentines Day is...

... much better with a big bag of Mini Eggs.

Technology is overrated...

Today my blog is frustrating me.  I have changed my blog 'domain' (?) name to the title of my blog instead of my initials... if that makes sense, yet it has not appeared to have changed on any other blogs.  Oh, and facebook is having an 'off' day too.  Sigh...

A New Sketch Book and the Pub Quiz...

Yesterday, I managed to finally buy a new sketch book, in order to start drawing again (which I haven't done in a while). Oh, and some magazines for a little inspiration! It's always hard knowing where to start on a blank page. When I get going, I'll put some up on here.

This evening, my friends and I went to the pub quiz... and came fourth. We've won once. And of course we didn't cheat.

Oh, and a big wave to Graham, he is currently flying over to Australia!

The one day I don't finish work at 7pm...

At the moment, I am making coffee for a living... exciting, I know. I worked at Costa in my last year of university, and then managed to find a job at home putting those latte-making skills to some use. So you could say I got some kind of job out of going to uni..! Not quite the career path I want to take, but I quite enjoy it, and it puts some money into my very empty bank account for the time being. Plus I get free use of the leisure centre (where the coffee bar is situated), which is a big money saver!

Usually I finish work in the evening, but Tuesdays are the one day of the working week that I get to finish earlier, because I have netball in the evening. I thought I'd make the most of this time and post a little something on here. Perhaps a couple of drawings...? We shall see.

I am quite fond of my squirrel. He looks quite mischievous.

Degree Show Exhibition

We each had our own section in the Boiler House down Brick Lane in London to exhibit our work...

My project was on 'Contemporary Countryside'. I created drawings from objects such as farmyard animals, flowers, insects, and other forms of nature from the English countryside, and then added a twist by introducing bright colours and patterns, through the use of acrylic paints, oil pastels, ink and collage...

So yeah...

I haven't been on here for a while... so let me see if I can get the hang of this...