Disgustingly Beautiful Weather

Some of what I was selling...

Vicky's Pretties! 

Key Rings!

On saturday I did another Craft fair with vicky and I don't know about you but I am in LOVE with her paper bows! I want one for my hair! There wasn't a whole lot of people there but it went alright considering! The two girls at the table next to me went to the same uni as me and got talking to some girls who sell really cool vintage clothes who live quite close by to me check out their facebook page here! So either way it was still a nice day.

I dunno about any of you guys but I'm not at my best in hot weather. I complain... A lot. I am my fathers daughter when it comes to heat and we get very uncomfortable, we also like to voice that discomfort... all day. Much to everybody else's chagrin. Apparently I was born on one of the hottest days of the year, I don't know what my dad's excuse is.

That said I do enjoy me a summer's evening, me and Richard went to Southbank last night and it was so pretty and more importantly I was not sweating OR freezing my bum off. And it was all thanks to summer's evening time!

This week shall be one of putting up a ton of new listings up in my shop! Wish me luck!

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Facon

These past few days have been tough for my Sister. I won't air out ALL her problems here but one of them was that she wasn't able to make a trip to America that she had planned and paid for. So she ended up crashing with me for a while. I've decided that not being able to go to the states was a good thing, I reckon if she had have gone she would of gotten run over or mugged or probably suffered from a heart attack from all the fast food she would have eaten. So it was totally for the best, OK sis?

In the midst of being nice to my sister - she was very confused about this- being touristy and enjoying the nice weather I have been crafting like billio! To the point where I'm going a bit crazy! BUT I made my first few key rings and they're pretty darned cute if I do say so myself. This is all in preparation for a craft fair on saturday with vicky which will be good fun if a little nerve racking. Here's some pictures...

bag o' badges

royal bear key ring

badge o'clock (still getting the hang of the SLR, hence the blurry-ness!

Today I got up early to go to my local art shop in Deptford - ARCH Materials. I got there a bit too early so I went to a coffee shop near by called The Waiting Room where  I had the best vege bacon and guacamole bagel, so tasty! As I was walking out there was a guy sitting out side the shop next to it listening to Natalie Imbruglia on the radio, he smiled and said to me "It's summer!"

You know what Deptford? I think I love you.
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Indecision Indecision Indecision...

So I was creeping around some blogs and it was Miss Teacups who put a youtube video of Tavi - check out rookie mag it's supposed to be for teenagers but it's absolutely awesome -  giving and talk on Ted (also amazing). This sixteen year old really stuck a chord with me, mostly due to the way she dresses and her hilarious use of paint. The main focus of her talk was young girls (teens specifically) and their confusions and indecision and such. And go me thinking about how  at 21 and going into my third year of uni, I  have no clue as to what to do with my life.

Through out my life I've wanted to be a Doctor, an artist, a doctor but an artist in my spare time, then artist again. A Spanish translator. Then after deciding to do politics for a degree in Dundee I thought about Journalism but after not really studying for my A-Levels I ended up studying Philosophy in London.
It wasn't till I got to my second year of uni (the first time) that I realised that if I was going to study anything at university, I really should have done Religious Studies, I'm not religious - I consider myself agnostic - but it's a subject  that I always enjoyed and did well in. I thought about transferring to another course but my uni grades have been really up and down so I was always a bit worried about whether or not I'd get in anywhere and so never actually applied anywhere.
 Around this time last year, I had no idea why I was doing what I was doing, A degree I wasn't enthusiastic about in a City I didn't always feel happy in ( I have a love/hate relationship with London ). I just got in to a bit of a rut and my studying took pretty much all of the flack. But it was around then when I got really bored of myself and thought "OK, what have you always really loved doing?" And the answer was Art and music. I realised that I always spent most of my life wishing that I drew/painted more and that I was either a part of a choir or could take violin lessons again. So it was around then I started drawing again which later turned into making my own cards and now key rings, badges and magnets! I also started attending my uni choir (all though to be honest, i haven't been for a while!)

So that kind of brings me to where I am now, I've just finished my second year for the second time and to be honest; I can't say I regret it, it's given me more time to think about what I want to do as a career and not get pushed out into the world to a job I don't like. I really, really don't want to spend to spend the next 40/50 years doing I job I hate.

 That said I do feel like now that I'm going into my 3rd year I should at least some sort of vague idea of what to do with my life career wise. Hopefully I might be able to figure something out over the summer and then maybe I can look for some jobs or internships or whatever with a company I like whilst studying. At the same time, I'm not going to force myself too much. I've already forced myself to make some fairly big life decisions too young and it wasn't till over half way through my course that I eventually realised what I actually should be studying. I don't want to do the same thing with my career choices too.

I don't know about anywhere else but I think in the UK there's such much pressure on young people to know exactly what they want to do with there lives... to the point where I actually think it's a bit ridiculous. I mean if you know exactly what you want to do from a young age then by all means go for it! But if if anyone were to ask my advice I would say take you're sweet time, there's no rush! (although I know it's not quite that simple) Take a gap year work some jobs, take up hobbies find out what you love and then work your arse off to be successful at whatever that is. And if your working at or studying something you hate, QUIT. I don't mean to reference Twilight here but I'm going to reference Twilight. You know when Jessica gives her Valedictorian speech? She basically tells her class mates to change their minds a million times and fuck up whilst they're young and I completely advocate this in every way. Although maybe try not to get into the habit of the whole fucking up thing TOO much.

In the meantime, I'll keep blogging, crafting and looking at what sort of careers there are out there that I could really enjoy. Maybe throw in some travelling in there too...

Oh yeah and graduating! That first!

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Craft-tacular

First two photos are of my badge making, I can't decide what I think of the first out come, I've been using colouring pencils on the shrinkle  but they come out a little weird. I used to use water colours, but they can react a bit funny on the paper and so are difficult to use but I do prefer the way they come out! So I am at a loss as to what to do, carry on with pencils or go back to watercolours again?! In the mean time I've taken a bit of a break from the confusion and been making some more cards. 

The picture of the one at the bottom is one i've made for my friend Chrissy. She was one of the first friends I made at uni and she goes back to Chicago for good this week. I'm gonna miss her tones! She was a great friend and just as (more?) importantly she introduced me to Salt Water Taffy. I thought Union Jack pants would be appropriate to remember her time here! I'll miss her but I plan to take a trip to the states after I graduate, so we're not done with each other yet!

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DAYUM!

2nd year Philosophy, I am fairly sure I finally tamed you! Feels strange, I'm still having those "HOLY CRAP I SHOULD BE REVI.... Oh wait" moments.
In other awesome news I GOT A NEW CAMERA! A proper fancy SLR (her name is Sheila) that didn't bankrupt the hell out of me! Still gotta get the hang of a few things but I'll get there! I mean not that I don't love my little Digital camera it's just that when it comes to my etsy shop I need to have awesome pictures and little digital camera doesn't quite cut it and I can't keep using my housemate's gonna be moving up closer to her uni so I can't keep borrowing hers. I'm so excited to learn how to take some proper pretty pictures!
Here's some photos of my first forays into the world of slr's (please note, picture's aren't actually good or interesting)

So as you can see I need to tidy my room and get my craft on too. I spent all last night cutting shrinkle and there's still more to be done! Aaah!

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Bumming around

I done gone and made some chocolate brownies! I was pretty nervous as I've never made them before and I used the same recipe as my mum uses (i think it's Nigella's). Mum always makes them absolutely perfectly so I has a lot to live up too! But I'm pretty happy with my first attempt. Actually making them made me realise that these brownies, although amazing are the most calorific/unhealthy possibly of all time. I used 6 eggs... SIX also around 675 grams of chocolate all together and more than a tub of butter! Oh well the truly tasty things in life are never going to be good for you are they? Also I'm gonna be sharing these bad boys around to prevent a chocolate induced heart attack. I thought I'd take some pictures, mainly because this was the first time I'd ever had such a big bowl of melted chocolate in front of me and I just had to capture the moment.

Earlier in the week I met up with Eliza for some cawwwfee (come to think of it, both of us had hot chocolate). I've known Eliza from nearly the very beginning of Uni. We used to get the bus back together from the philosophy society and have know idea what each of us was on about because neither of us understood each others accent - she's half Ecuadorian, half Russian (sexy) and I'm northern Irish- but now we actually understand each other, we have some pretty good conversations. She likes to paint and is bloody good at it too! Have a look at her society6 page and her blog - my favourite thing about her paintings are that the are so completely her (so much so that I felt I need to make the "her" bold).
Eliza is probably one of the very few people I will ever meet up for a coffee with and then end up having my tarot cards read. It was pretty interesting and i think some bit were right but my future card told me that I was going to be a doctor or a lawyer - like some sort of strict career- and if that ever happens I will give Eliza a tenner because although I did actually USED to want to be a doctor when I was very young, I am in no way dedicated enough to follow that path!

Eliza getting her mystic on... in starbucks

Good week all around then - last night me and Richard met up with his family in Greenwich and then went out for some of the tastiest Indian I've ever had. The night ended with Richard's granny hugging me good bye and saying "oh Alex, you're just a little leprechaun!"

Hope everyone else had a good week!

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Sexy blog crushes

I still consider myself fairly new to this whole blogging fandango and just recently I've been starting to develop some serious blog crushes:

Matin Lapin

Am I biased because she's my boyfriends sister? or because everytime I go see her she gives me stuff like bikes , woks and oreos? or because she teaches me cool stuff like how to make key-rings? Nah. Because her blog is full of her shop updates, which you should all check out and general crafty goodness. She also knows loads of cool stuff like that there's such thing as world stationary day! Who the heck knew? And with posts called "I don't think you're ready for this horse fly?!" and "peacock + chocolate = pea choc", Matin Lapin is a blog I can objectively love!

Cheeky Cheeky

Cheeky Cheeky is my first serious blog crush after Matin Lapin. I can't quite pin point what exactly it is, but I think mainly because Carmen blogs about pretty much anything she wants and always makes me giggle.  Also because she is unapologetic about her love for reality TV (which is something I've always been slightly ashamed of). She makes me want to have a blog like hers but also not like hers because I feel like that would be blogger plagiarism. Check out her vintage shop too!

Stela Bird

Ever since I read her DIY ring tutorial I've been hooked! In it, she uses a wooden disk to make a ring, which you can also use to make a magnet and badge too and I just recently received the supplies to make my own magnets!  Recently she had an earring one too which I'll have to try out too, her tutorials are so simple which is perfect for some one who gets confused very easily (i.e. me!). And I am sucker for a blog that involves adorable dogs! I also want her house.


Marvelous Darling

I always love it when I come across a blog by someone around the same age as me and studying too! Marvelous Darling posts great links on Sundays and her posts can just get down right inspirational - check out her post What do you want? My favourite thing about Sarah's blog is that it's sex positive, something which I think is extremely important in this day and age weather it be because of alarmingly high STI rates or because negative connotations surround a woman who openly enjoys her sex life.


Check 'em out!

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Gentle Ray

I told myself I was gonna take some time to focus on my last exam so I've obviously spent the last few days in a big old state of procrastination. I've been drawing out loads of animals on shrinkle for magnets/badges/key rings but the main focus of my procrastination was this guy: GentleRay Jack! Manta rays have always been my favourite kind of fish - I actually had a really strange dream about one last night, the poor guy was swimming around in the living room (living room filled with water obvs!) and didn't seem to notice that there was no water in the kitchen poor guy just flew right in there and fell straight to the floor. I can't remember if we saved it in the dream but I assume we did... ANYWAY! So I wanted to do a Manta Ray and I'm not sure when but I decided it should be a gentlemanly Manta Ray... Gentle Ray!

So these guys...

Turned to this!

He's not QUITE perfect but I'll get there. But I really need to tackle Chomsky first.

Hope everyone has a brilliant week!

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