Quote of the Day

When people ask why I don’t have any tattoos I say to them, “Would u put a bumper sticker on a Ferrari?”

- unknown origin

Tags: Fashion, inspiration, quotes, random

Music I’m Loving in January

Hello!

I’ve been very quiet on the blog front for a while, but i’m back with some new stuff!

Today i’m going to share my music favs of the moment!

Firstly, while there seems to be many people who don’t like this song (and i don’t understand why) i love this new song by Pixie Lott “Kiss The Stars”! It’s really poppy and she always seems like she’s having fun doing her videos (and why not, if that’s what you love doing?!). My only issue is that she’s copied Katy Perry from her video for “ET” as Pixie is also seen whirling through space in the video… a bit of originality please!! Anyway, here’s the video:

I also quite like Will.i.am’s new single, “T.H.E. (The Hardest Ever)” which features Mick Jagger and Jennifer Lopez. It’s an odd combination, especially with Jagger in there, but it actually works! I find that it sounds a little bit like a Black Eyed Peas song but i guess that’s because Will.i.am’s voice is so recognisable! Nevertheless, i really like this song! Not sure J-Lo should be wearing that blue eye makeup though!

Back in November (see my post November stuff and music) i mentioned my new favourite artist, Jessie and the Toyboys. I have since downloaded her album, Show Me Your Tan Lines, and i had it on constant replay over Christmas and New Year because it is so good! You can find her on YouTube and watch her videos if you’re interested to know more about her. For now i’ll share her video for one of my favourite songs off the album, “Let’s Get Naughty”, which is a bit raunchy and sexy but damn good!

I have also just downloaded Avril Lavigne’s latest album, Goodbye Lullaby, even though it’s been out for ages. I do love Avril Lavigne but this album didn’t seem as great as the others, but i’ve decided to give it a try and see if i like it. As i am going to Edinburgh tomorrow for an interview, i thought it might be good to listen to on the train up there! I’ve also bought The Pretty Reckless’ album, Light Me Up, because i love Taylor Momsen’s gritty voice and the music is pretty good! I’m a recent convert of The Pretty Reckless and i’m so glad i realised how brilliant they are!

So there you go, my new musical loves!

If you have any suggestions of artists you think i might like, feel free to leave your comments below!

Tags: Avril Lavigne, J-Lo, Jennifer Lopez, Jessie and the Toyboys, Mick Jagger, music, music videos, popular music, songs, The Pretty Reckless, Will.i.am

Beautiful Art

I found this amazing artwork on My Modern Met’s website:

Ghostly Circus Smoke Art - My Modern Metropolis

It’s made by placing paper on a ceiling and then burning everyday items to create images with the smoke! The artist, Rob Tarbell, has done many of these pieces, all featuring circus animals, in a series called “Smoke Rings”. They really are beautiful!

Ghostly Circus Smoke Art - My Modern Metropolis

To see more of these, or for more information, click the link: http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/smoke-art-rob-tarbell

Tags: Art, black, Circus, inspiration, Smoke

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

I also hope you had a very Merry Christmas!

My Christmas was pretty good, with relatives coming to join us for the day and many glasses of bubbly and massive platefuls of turkey being consumed!

I had the exciting opportunity of an interview for an internship at a company in York, so i got up at 6am to get a train over there on the Wednesday before Christmas to attend the interview at 11am. And i also managed to get back home by 5pm the same day too, even with spending a couple of hours wandering around York after the interview! It was a LONG day! I didn’t get the position unfortunately, but it was nice to have a quick trip back to York, even though it was fairly busy as it was about 4 days before Christmas!

Things turned out rather well actually, as i had run out of the chunky purple wool i had bought back on my trip in November, and i was trying to find it online and wondering how quickly it would arrive if i ordered it online. Of course, when i came out of the interview and thought “well, what do i do now for a few hours before i catch the train home?”, when it occurred to me that i would be able to get some more wool from the same shop i got the first batch from! So i now have 2 extra balls of wool, ready to carry on with my snood knitting.

Weirdly, i unwrapped one of my Christmas presents and discovered a snood inside! So now i have the perfect model to base mine on, and i also get to try out wearing a snood before i finish mine!

Haven’t done any arty things lately, although i’m going to try to spend more time doing some – it can be one of my New Year’s resolutions!

Harrogate and York trip

At the end of last week, i managed to get in my trip to Harrogate and York!

I hopped on several trains to get over Harrogate and i’m so glad i decided to take the train and not drive because apparently the roads were rammed with all the cars trying to get there! By the time i arrived at the Harrogate International Centre, it was about 2pm and it was jam-packed inside! I always get lost in the Centre, there are maps around the place, but i can still not work out where i am! I went around in circles constantly! You kind of have to though, there’s just so much to see! It’s always fun trying to weave through the bustling crowds of middle-aged to elderly women, groups of Arts and Textiles students of varying ages and the occasional bloke! (always a lack of them, there were more male security guards than male visitors!)

I didn’t stay there as long as i have in the past and i also didn’t spend as much money as on previous visits (usually end up spending about £20, only about £6 this time!), but it was really interesting! I looked at some of the installations and artworks which were nice, and i wandered around most of the stalls! I lingered over the bead stalls, as i always buy beads while i’m there because you get to look at them closeup and there’s so many companies there under one roof that its better to find a bargain at these shows! These are my findings:

Beads

I’m not sure what i will do with them, but i will hunt out what’s left of the beads i bought last time and see what i could make!

I also bought some lovely chunky bamboo knitting needles, a bargain find because they were about £2.99!

Chunky bamboo knitting needles (and new purple wool, see below)

The Centre was crazy with people and i had to barge my way through! I left after just over 2 hours, having done the tour of the show pretty quickly! I wandered a little way into Harrogate where the Christmas lights were already on because it was starting to get fairly dark when i left the Centre.

Harrogate Christmas lights on Cambridge Street

After 4pm i hopped on a train to York and arrived in early evening when it was dark and city was all lit up and pretty! I was originally going to get a bus from the train station but decided i wanted to walk through the city centre for a bit to look around because its pretty at night. I made a beeline for York Minster of course, and it was lovely:

York Minster at night

I wandered around the streets for a while before getting a bus to the place i was staying the night, the Shoulder of Mutton B&B/Pub in Heworth. I used to live around the corner from there so i knew the area quite well. The pub was nice and i had a drink in the bar but they weren’t serving food that night annoyingly, so i wandered down to the Chinese takeaway around the corner and got myself a chip butty for my tea (Doesn’t seem like a great meal choice but i wasn’t hugely hungry and i didn’t fancy anything else). I spent the evening watching TV in my room, which was warm and comfortable and clean (the three main things i look for in accommodation, being a housekeeper makes me picky!). I slept like a log despite the noisy road outside my window!

Friday morning waking up in York was lovely, as it has been about 18months since i loved away! I had a long leisurely breakfast before checking out and commencing my shopping day. The weather was gloriously sunny, a bit nippy by midday and then it rained and got quite chilly after midday but it was still a lovely day in York. I met an old uni friend/housemate for a drink in Starbucks (one of many coffee shops which have taken over in York!) and we had a nice catchup. It really nice to see her again.

Then i did my shopping. I wandered around the St Nicholas Christmas Fayre which was ok but nothing spectacular and i wandered around the little independent shops as well as a few bigger shops like Fenwicks. I bought one Christmas present! It’s a start at least! I did buy several things for myself though: I got the Twilight dvd 1-3 boxset ( i have developed a weird liking for the films after initially not being impressed), and i got some lovely purple wool to knit with for my bamboo knitting needles!

Purple chunky wool

I also broke my rule of not looking in chain shops and ended up buying clothes in H&M, which is officially my new favourite shop! I got this awesome jumper:

grey cowl neck jumper – H&M

And i got these lovely funky skinny jeans!!

Panel Skinny Jeans – H&M

I left York before 5pm and hopped on the train home, having killed the batteries in my camera and then my phone battery as well (trying to get photos of everything) and having spent a fair bit of money! I was knackered for days afterwards as i had to work first thing on the Saturday! It was a fun two days though and i’m so glad i got the chance to get a break from home!

My autumn hobby: Knitting

Yes, i know it might seem a bit sad, and not very much like what me, Blueclover, would usually write about, but i have started knitting!

Well, i say “start”, i have tried a few times in the past and not got very far. I was clearing out my wardobe and found my stash of textiles stuff which i have collected over the years, some going back to my days doing Textiles Technology at school. I found the knitting needles (which i nicked from my mother after my rubbish little wooden ones got broken) with a knitting project still attached intact. Now, i worked out that this wool dates back to when i was about 15 and started knitting a scarf. It is now eight years later, and you can see how little i have done!

My purple scarf!

I have done bits of it over the years when i keep digging it out after having numerous clearouts, but it’s still not finished!

So, due to being bored all the time while i jobhunt, i decided to get on with finishing it! I have also bought some more wool and some circular knitting needles so i can try new projects!

Circular knitting needles and wool (75/80cm and 3.75mm)

I’ve been watching various videos online so i can relearn how to cast on, and i have never forgotten how to do knit stitch, but i am aiming to learn the purl stitch and a few more so future projects are more interesting!

This is the result of my practice on circular needles:

Knitting in the round practice piece

It is nothing special! It curled up because it wasn’t very long!

Once i’ve done practicing, my aim is to knit a Snood!! Hence the circular knitting needles: it looks easier to knit a never-ending loop than sew a rectangle and then have to sew it up! (But i may live to regret saying that!)

Who says i can’t be creative in more ways than one? I can take photos, i can draw, i can write…. why not do knitting as well!?

Tags: knitting

November stuff and music

Hello!

I have been really bored lately, what with work being quiet and having nothing else to occupy my mind at the moment! I have just been watching DVDs and listening to music mainly.

I am quite excited because Porcelain Black, one of my current favourite recent discoveries, has finally released a new song! It is massively addictive and i’ve played it several times! Her music is only available on iTunes at the moment, but i don’t have that, so i’m stuck with listening to it on Youtube for now, although her website lets you have a free download of her latest song “Naughty Naughty” if you share it on social networking sites, which i did! Here’s the song (no official video yet):

I’m waiting on her to release her debut album as it seems to be taking forever to come out! I loved her music when she went under the name of Porcelain and the Tramps, and you can find it on her Myspace or just look on Youtube. To see her previous video, check out my older post from April.

Another new discovery of mine is Jessie and the Toy Boys. It is juts this blonde girl Jessie by herself, and the Toy Boys refers to her collection of mannequins who dance with her. She supported Britney Spears on her Femme Fatale Tour, and i only discovered this girl yesterday on Youtube, quite by accident! She released her first single “Push It” earlier this year (in the US i think) and the video for it is here:

There are several other of her songs on Youtube and i’m going to keep an eye out for her, as her music is quite catchy and different!

Moving on, i’m currently frozen because our boiler broke so we have no hot water or heating. Just what you need as you head into November and the temperature suddenly drops!! Brrr.

I had a lovely day last week, shopping for my winter wardrobe during the day, and then meeting up with 2 of my best mates who i’ve known since secondary school. We had an amazingly cheap but tasty restaurant dinner together (with my mate’s sister waiting on us!) before we moved onto a pub to play pool (i lost!) and then onto a final bar for another drink. Definitely needed that night out!

I have depleted my savings a little bit, but i haven’t even started my Christmas shopping yet, and with it being 6 weeks tomorrow, i have drawn up my lists of what i want and what to buy for others!

In a fortnight, i’m off to Harrogate and York (weather pending, if it snows like last year i’ll have to cancel again! fingers crossed!) to do some Christmas shopping, and to get away from home for a few days. It will be my sort of holiday for the year, as i haven’t had one yet! I am looking forward to it, as i’m hopefully seeing some old mates from Uni (that’s where i did my Undergraduate degree) and attending the Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate, and the St Nicholas Fayre in York!

Weirdly, i’m actually in the mood for Christmas this year, after last year being so difficult to enjoy. I’m not bothered that the Christmas adverts are in full swing on TV, but i still dread the moment i have to go into a card shop because they just start way too early with their Christmas stock! I walk in, groan, and then walk right back out again!

6 weeks to go…. bring it on!

Rubber Ducks… slight obsession!

I thought i’d share this with you today, it’s not exactly new, but it popped into my head during a discussion with a friend about the weird novelty factor of normal objects blown up into stupidly large proportions, for example we were talking giant dice (my friend teaches young children by the way), and then i remembered the joy of giant rubber ducks!

Florentijn Hofman – Giant rubber duck project

Florentijn Hofman giant duck

There’s something oddly amusing about this giant duck!

Florentijn Hofman giant duck

Redbubble, the art site where i display my art (click the link in the right hand column of this blog to see my profile) actually has a group dedicated to art featuring rubber ducks, although not giant ones like above, but still really amusing!!

Why not have a look?! Rubber Ducks group – Redbubble.com

I have even done a few works of my own featuring rubber ducks over the last few years, due to owning several myself!

 

 

A Duck's Best Friend, No Matter What Size - copyright Blueclover @ Redbubble.com

But please don’t steal this photograph, it is copyrighted, and is for sale. (If you wish to buy it or any of my other artworks, click the photo above, alternatively click the Redubble link on the right hand side of this blog!!)

I hope you enjoyed this random post!!

 

 

Tags: Art, photography, Rubber ducks

Share five things you’re thankful for.

1. Time – It heals every wound eventually.
2. My family – Always there for me, no matter how much we fight, no matter the situation.
3. My health – Being able to do pretty much anything without pain is all anyone can ask for.
4. Karma – My mistakes may come back to haunt me, but that’s the only way you can learn.
5. The seasons – It’s like the cycle of life, Spring brings renewal after death in Winter, and the world comes to life in all its glory and beauty in Summer, before breaking down into Autumn ready for the cycle to start again.

Quote of the Day

Time heals all wounds…. but the mind never forgets

- Blueclover