Art Inspiration from Jessica Durant

For my art coursework recently I've spent a lot of time researching artists, and the other day I went a bit off course and came across Jessica Durant. I've always loved these kind of fashion illustrations, but I have also always been the worst watercolour painter in the world, so I've never really given it a go, just out of fear of failing horrifically. But tonight, as I didn't have anything to do (that's a lie, I was avoiding homework), I picked up a pen and a paintbrush, and finally had a go. Here's what happened.

 

 

 

The majority of these are pretty much just copies of her work (I think I must have been dropped on my head as a baby and lost the imagination part of my brain), but I'm actually quite happy with myself that they turned out half decent. I really enjoyed doing these so I'll keep practicing and, if they turn out ok, will post some more soon.

Not all of Jessica Durants paitings are my cup of tea, some of the brighter coloured ones do have the tendency to look slightly like something a 13 year old American girl would've posted on her tumblr in 2012 with the word 'Yolo' overlayed. But the ones that I do like, I absolutely love. I particularly love the moody black and blue colouring, I think it just look so pretty in combination with this kind of minimalist style of drawing.

Here are some of my favourites.

The 'Long Bob'

Over the past year or so I've noticed a bit of a hair trend going round that, after a bit of research, I discovered is supposedly called the long bob or 'lob'. Basically It's just medium length hair, but damn does it look good! Last year Vanessa Hudgens went for this shorter hair look and I'm kind of obsessed with it. She's since changed it up again, but I'm still not over how incredible she looked.  I especially love how ombre looks on shorter hair and I've always been in love with those Ashley Benson style waves.

I'm seriously considering giving this haircut a go myself but you'll be sad to know that I don't look like Beyonce or Lily Collins, so there's a possibility that I won't be able to pull it off and that it will be the biggest regret of my life. Okay bit of an overstatement, but I certainly won't be happy if I end up looking like a 7 year old with a mullet.

Comment below if you think I should go for it!

A week in Brighton - Christmas day

If you didn't see my last 'A week in Brighton' post, I recently went to Brighton for a week (clues in the title) with my family. As I took quite a fair few pictures, I decided to spread out the photos by categorising them. If you want to know more, read the post here.

So that I don't ramble on too much, here's in short what happened Christmas Day:

1. wake up way too early to open stockings with my brother
2. 'accidently' make a lot of noise whilst waiting for everyone else to wake up
3. mince pie for breakfast
4. present time
5. full English brunch
6. Christmas walk along the sea front
7. sit around doing nothing whilst my personal chefs (a.k.a. mum and dad) prepare the feast
8. Christmas dinner
9. family games
10. family fight
11. more family games
12. cry inside because Christmas is over

The majority of these photos were taken on our Christmas stroll in the early afternoon.  Along the sea front it was absolutely packed, mostly with people and with tiny dogs wearing coats, but walking through the city on the way back was like being the only survivors of an apocalypse. The centre was practically lifeless except for a few seagulls loving life as the temporary leaders of Brighton. Usually I do tend to find these outings slightly on the boring side, especially when I'm walking with people who would probably come in 3rd place in a race against a sloth and a snail. So I brought my camera to keep me entertained. I hope you like the photos and that they manage to do this beautiful city justice.

Overall, I had a lovely Christmas and I hope you did too!

Oh and I just want to say that I am fully aware I resemble a chipmunk.

15 blogging goals for 2015

For the majority of 2014 I wrote this blog without wanting anyone to see it. I never posted about it on social media, never spoke about it to anyone other than my sister, and was constantly paranoid that someone I knew would find it. Now that I finally have Bloglovin, I'm starting to realise that there may actually be a few people out there who maybe like my boring thoughts and mediocre photography, and it's given me so much more motivation.
Right now as I'm writing this I have 17 followers, which I am over the moon about. But I do want to have something to aim for that will motivate me even more, so I've come up with a set of goals for 2015.

• 20 followers by February
• 50 followers by my birthday (June 28th)
• 100 followers by 2016
• 3 months of daily blogging
• Create 3 new tags
• 3 outfit posts
• 3 food posts
• Improve blog photography
• Reply to every comment the day it was posted
• Talk online to other bloggers
• Be more consistent
• More personal posts
• 5000 page views by 2016
• Be more original
• Post more about music

I think what I'm going to do is at the start of 2016 (whoa that sounds scary) I will do an update post saying which of these aims I managed to fulfil. I tried to keep them realistic, I'm not saying I want to gain 1 million followers in a year, but even so, there's still a strong possibility that I won't reach all of these goals in time. Expect the worst, hope for the best I say!

Tell me in the comments what your goals for 2015 are!

New year, New Watch

Yes. I am sitting here writing about watches. That's what my life has come to.

 

A Watch is one of those classic gifts that pretty much everyone has at some point received for Christmas, whether they wanted one or not. Does anyone else remember like a year ago, when the Michael Kors rose gold watches were the gift to get, and it seemed that every girl and their nan were getting one for Christmas? They are really pretty I must admit, but I've never really seen the point of watches because...duh...I have a phone, and surely there's better ways to spend over £100.

Being the hypocrite that I am, I've actually had my eye on the Daniel Wellington Classic Sheffield watch recently but would have felt so guilty asking for something so expensive for Christmas, so I was really happy when I unwrapped this Marks and Spencer watch. It's nothing particularly special but it's simple, it does the job, and I actually really love it. I guess what I'm trying to say is that at the end of the day, a watch is watch, who cares about whether it's made by some fancy designer brand making it cost 10 times the price .

 

Throwback playlist



There are kinds of people in this world: those who jam out to the music of their childhood every now and then... and liars.
Obviously not everyone was born at the same time as me, so to you this playlist might not be anything but a list of out of date pop songs sang by cheesy bands with bad hair. But I'm sure those of you born in the late 90s won't be able to resist having a bit of sing along (because you somehow still know all the words), whilst reminiscing about the 'good old days' before Britney shaved her head, before Justin Timberlake exchanged the pile of noodles on his head for a decent haircut, and before they let Lady Gaga ruin music.

Sorry this playlist is so long, I definitely got a bit carried away!

Obviously - McFly
I wanna hold you - McFly
All about you - McFly
Five coulours in her hair - Mcfly
Bye bye bye - N Sync
She will be loved - Maroon 5
This love - Maroon 5
Love machine - Girls Aloud
Sound of the underground - Girls Aloud
Complicated - Avril Lavigne
Mobile - Avril Lavigne
Anything but ordinary - Avril Lavigne
My world - Avril Lavigne
Breakaway - Kelly Clarkson
Thunderbirds are go - Busted
Air hostess - Busted
Year 3000 - Busted
Superstar -Jamelia
Happy people - R. Kelly
Take me out - Franz Ferdinand
Toxic - Britney Spears
Don't stop moving - S Club 7
Bring it all back - S Club 7
Reach for the stars - S Club 7
Stolen - Jay Sean
Gotta get thru this - Daniel Bedingfield
Murder on the dancefloor - Sophie Ellis-Bextor
Cry me a river - Justin Timberlake
Lets get it started - Black Eyed Peas
Where is the love - Black Eyed Peas
Shut up - Black Eyed Peas
Don't lie - Black Eyed Peas
You had me - Joss Stone
Can't stand me now - The Libertines
Suddenly I see - KT Tunstall
Whatever u want - Christina Milian
Caught in a moment - Sugababes
Round Round - Sugababes
Hole in their head - Sugababes
Too lost in you - Sugababes
In the middle - Sugababes
Is it 'cos I'm cool - Mousse T.
Beautiful - Christina Aguilera
Genie in a bottle - Christina Aguilera
Crazy in love - Beyoncé
Dilemma - Nelly
Yellow - Coldplay
Somewhere only we know - Keane
Eternal flame - Atomic Kitten
Survivor - Destiny's Child

first world problems

We're all guilty of it. We make a big deal out of the tiniest things that shouldn't really be important. But no matter how stupid we try to tell ourselves they are, there's no escaping the fact that when added together, these tiny things can make you feel like the whole world is against you. I don't know about you but I find a lot of comfort in knowing that there are others getting their privileged knickers in a twist over the same 'stupid' things as I do. So hopefully I can make someone feel the same way. Here are my 'First World Problems'.

• slow internet
• chipped nail varnish
• not finding a coke bottle with your name on
• the tweet you want to post is over the character limit
• eating so much you can barely move
• tangled earphones
• your phone is almost out of charge
• not being able to fit everything you want to take in your suitcase
• your favourite song comes on the radio just as you get out the car
• there isn't enough milk left for the cereal you just poured
• the embarrassment of paying for something in small change
• one eyebrow looks 100x better than the other
• all the tv programs you want to watch are on at the same time
• you had to spend your shiny 2014 coin
• you can't see your phone screen because it's too sunny
• you've eaten all your snacks at the cinema before the film's even started
• you can't hear the music you're listening to because you're eating crisps
• not seeing anyone to impress on a good makeup/hair day
• the subject changed before you could say your funny comment

A week in Brighton - Brighton Pier

Over Christmas I went to stay in Brighton for a week with my family. I've always wanted to go to Brighton because of its mix of city and seaside (#dreamteam), and I wasn't disappointed. I loved how I could get the benefit of amazing shops and restaurants and then simply walk over to the beach and admire the sunset. I also have a bit of an odd obsession with the Georgian style architecture that you find a lot of in Brighton. I've spent many a late night scrolling through property websites, bookmarking apartments and houses (the majority of them being in Brighton), and practically drooling at their perfection. So I was pretty damn excited about the holiday house. In all honesty though, I would have been completely over the moon just to be reunited with my family, so it was amazing that I could be with them in such a lovely place.

City, sunsets, pretty house, family, Christmas; It doesn't get much better than that.

I took a load of photos during my stay so I thought instead of bombarding you with them all in one go, I'd categorise them and gradually post them over the next week or so.

 

These photos are from Christmas eve, when I went to the arcade on Brighton pier with my brother, sister and dad. It's something we've always done whenever staying with my nan in Lowestoft, so It's almost become a bit of a tradition for us when we're at a seaside town. Call me lame, but there is a certain excitement that comes with wasting a load of money in the form of 2p coins, just to win a couple a tacky plastic key rings that probably only cost 5p to make.

 



Reflecting on 2014

I don't know how interesting this will be to anyone because it is something very personal and I do feel slightly uncomfortable posting this, but I thought it would be good for me to just sit down, gather my thoughts, and try and get my head around the past year.

Around this time last year I was crying about 3 times a day, going to a psychologist once a week, on medication, and failing school.

Since then a lot has happened.

I became medication and psychologist free, my mum's cancer got cleared, I started this blog, I dropped out of the international baccalaureate, I moved from France to England without my family to live with my grandma, and started A Levels at a new college.

Wow.

You might be sarcastically thinking 'ooo great... well done...big deal...' which is understandable, everyone goes through lots in their lives. But for someone like me who has always had quite a stable life with every year being pretty much the same as the last, this has all been quite overwhelming to say the least.

I'm not going to say my life is now exactly how I'd like it to be and everything's great, because it isn't, but at the moment I'm just relieved at how much everything has improved. This is the first time in ages that I've felt like there's a chance that things will get good again.

Hopefully in a years time I'll be sitting here blogging about how great 2015 was !

Blogging Everyday of January?

If there is actually anyone out there who follows my blog and keeps up to date with my new posts, you will have realised by now that I'm not the most consistent of bloggers. What usually happens is my blog will be dead for about 2 maybe even 3 weeks, and then suddenly a bombardment of new posts will come through. I want really want this to change, and I think the way to do that is to challenge myself.

The 'Blogmas' band wagon may have been and gone, but I still really want to attempt (attempt being the key word here) to post every single day for one whole month. That's 31 days. I don't even have that many posts on my blog yet!

The reason I didn't do blogmas along with many other bloggers was that December kind of crept up on me before I had even really thought about it, but I will make sure that I'm prepared this time! Bring it on!

What have I got myself into...