3 Years

Love London Print from Weavers of South Sea

I'm leaving to go back home for the summer in a week and it's strange, I've basically been living in London for three years now. It's all gone pretty quickly. It's been a lot of fun and sometimes stressful... being an adult can be very annoying (even then, I don't feel like much of a grown up) The thing I hate most about living away from my parents is the amount of time I spend thinking about bills. It's the most boring thing to think about in the world. That said I've had some experiences that I don't think you could get in any other city. I've had my standard drunken uni experiences but I also accidentally hit David Blunkett on the head with a plate (he was cool about it don't worry) and worked in some amazing places. I've made some good friends and met Richard here too. And I honestly don't think I would have gotten back into drawing/painting if I had gone anywhere else.

So for my 3rd year of London Living here's a few things I would tell my pre-London self-

People aren't as unfriendly as you think they are:
I mean yes, generally people keep to themselves but I've had strangers help my with my luggage at the tube station and on two occasions have people in front of me in the queue let me go in front of them because I "looked rushed" (i'm not sure how I managed to "look rushed" whilst standing still). Bus drivers have just waved me on when the oyster machine wasn't working I could have sworn they would make me pay, It's always nice to get a free journey.

That said, people can still be a bit shit:
I made the mistake of walking around central at night with my iPod out. It was quite stupid of me really. I'm just walking to a bus stop and and EIGHT YEAR OLD tries to snatch it off me. Luckily I've got a death grip and the little bugger couldn't get it off me and he ran away before I could figure out what the hell just happened. Lesson learnt.

The Jubilee line is so damned cool:
Especially at Westminster. It's so futuristic looking... It makes me feel like I'm in space with out actually having to go into space (which would be terrifying).

Prepare to cry when you hear how little other peoples rent is compared to your own:
All this money to get a degree in Philosophy????? I remember going up to one of my best friends house in Newcastle. Her house was huge! One of the rooms could have been a ballroom and she still pays about half of what I pay for my house. She doesn't have a sort-of conservatory though! BAM.

You will always stand to the right (on escalators):
Basically in London -mainly on the underground/trains (possibly only on the underground/trains)- when you want to use the escalators but are feeling lazy you stand to the right, if you're feeling sprightly you walk up on the left. So everything works out nice and organised for city that is literally always full of people...
The only time I ever feel like a semi-ish kind of proper Londoner is when I use escalators in any other place. One time when I was back at home at top shop, I was taking the escalators down stairs and I automatically to the right and then some one else came on and stood to the LEFT right beside me. It was absolute anarchy and I was genuinely weirded out and thought he might be some weird person and try and talk to me or something. Then I realised where I was and calmed down.

Art everywhere!:
It's London so it's kind of obvious that there's going to be Arty stuff about but it'm going to mention it anyway. When we got off at the train station today we were treated to a display of a gold fish bowl, a rubber chicken head and a batch of muffins. I really wished I had eaten a bit of the muffins and not listened to Richard and our friend when they told me not too. I don't think they had been there for that long... anyway there's also this display window close by which has some pretty freaky displays in them, the first time we saw it it was filled with the creepiest dolls, I wish I had gotten a picture!
Makes getting off a train slightly more interesting.

That's all I could think of, It's definitely been an interesting few years.
Hope everyone's enjoying their week!

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Sheffield

I'm in Sheffield visiting one of my besties and so far, so ADORABLE. I when I arrived at the bus station they were playing classical music and tat the customer service desk there wasn't a glass window between you and the man which I found very strange. I was very tempted to like poke is friendly little face or something. Then when I got on the Tram the voice over thing tells you to "hold tight" before it leaves! I'm not here for long, I leave tomorrow but the plan is to go shopping and for me to make use of going to the cinema without having to pay stupid ammounts to do so in the process. I bought the fancy camera as well so I'm going to try and get some nice pictures. Me and Beth have have been friends since we were 12 and I think it would be nice for us to have a picture of us looking nice and all grown up.
You MAY be wondering why I'm writing a blog post during my short visit here. It's because Beth is STILL at uni! Poor girl! And Since my lappy is out of order it's nice to be on one again.

Anyway here's some cool things from some Sheffield based Etsians to pretty up my blog post

Frigging AWESOME Dinosaur Skirt from 4getmenotshop

Corgi Face Cloth! from Bear Country UK

Big Top Cushion from Butterscotch Bee Sting

Cow Print from Sdolman

Some great stuff in Sheffield then! The Dinosaur skirt is amazing and I have know idea what's going on with the pillow - is that a Hippo/ Bird/ Dinosaur?! For a second I thought it might be on crutches... but that's exactly why I love it!

Father's Day



Where's the remote? Fathers Day Card



Papa Bear Fathers Day Card


Hey guys! It's Father's Day soon and whether you like your paps or not you should probably get him a card!
My father's day cards have been to pretty well! I've sold 4 all together (to some this may not be a lot, but every time it comes up to a major holiday or at least one that involves a greetings card, I always aim to sell one and so far I've been exceeding it! I'm still in my first year of Etsy-ing So I'm happy to take it slow!) Basically my fathers day cards are based on my Dad, who we call Papa Bear or C-bear. And C-Bear has the embarrassing habit of walking around the house in just his pants, occasionally when we have visitors too! (I thought this was a normal dad thing but according to my friends and some craft fair goers... It is not. ANYWAY. So my fathers day card if a Bear in Pants was born then Sub-sequentially my birthday bear cards and "Bear in pants says Thanks"! I do like the little bears I draw I cannot lie. Probably one of my favourite animals that I've done! And I've got some ideas for a bear themed mothers day card based on my mum for next year!

The card making will probably be a bit slow til I go back to Northern Ireland for the summer so for the next few weeks I'll be sorting out all my shiz and cleaning the house. I few weeks ago I realised that I'd be moving for the 4th time in 3 years! (!!!) I'm starting to get really sick of moving but I'm excited to get my next academic year started.

Anyone else's Dad got some embarrassing habits?

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A terrible tea experience

Today I went to Liberty to see if they had a watch that my sister wanted. They didn't (wah) but it did mean that I got to spend a good couple of hours trying not to jizz myself over the stationary section. They have some of the nicest cards, notebooks... EVERYTHING! I got myself a a notepad which is pictured above. It's just  too cute! Basically i've started to make  realistic to do lists in a bid to make myself a bit more organised. Other stuff on the list is just to take pictures around where I live and in brighton/worthing when I go tomorrow, something i've been meaning to do for a while. That and to tidy my room.

To do lists/goal lists are something i've noticed a lot around the blogging world, but a lot of them have very big goals and are pretty long too! (30 before 30 lists and stuff like that). I'm not dissing them at all, i love reading them and they work for a lot of people too. But I need small, easy to digest lists! If i have a big list with loads of big goals I'd get distracted with how awesome it would be to achieve it/them when I good be achieving the little goals that I need to, to get to the big goal. So all my little to do lists are build ups to the big goals I want to achieve in the long run... and also to make sure I don't spend all day watching How I Met Your Mother and reading rookie mag.

I've actually ticked one and a half of them off already. I glazed some of my keyrings/badges and I've taken photos of them to put them up on etsy but I don't like how they came out so i'll going to re do them later!

Mach Lav,

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Browsing Etsy

Circus Skirt by Daisical

Triange top form Things Like Diamonds

Crochet rabit necklace from Late Night Drawing

Diamond Temporary Tatoos from Hello Sailor

A couple of days ago I had my 20th sale on Etsy! I know it's not a lot but I'm really happy about it, I remember when I first started my shop I was so worried about not selling anything at all and I'm really happy with how things are coming along!

Pay day was yesterday, I'm trying to be sensible with my money (trying!) and the above pictures are some of my Etsy favourites and I love the bright colours of the circus skirt!

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