Trip to Brighton

Yesterday I went to Brighton with my parents and my sister because that's what I wanted to do with them for my birthday.

Unfortunately it rained quite a lot whle we were there, but we still found lots of indoor things to do.

We went to the Toy and Models Museum which was just a little place where my parents went around pointing and saying, 'I had one of those'.

But there was also an old machine for making this stamped metal plate. You put in 20p, then turned a cog to each letter and pressed down on a lever, and then when you were done out popped this little keepsake.

I'm thinking of punching a hole in one end and making it into a keyring.

We also went to a couple of flea markets and found wonderful things like a sombrero (modelled by my sister)...

... a fencing mask and boxing gloves...

...and a small photo frame containing a photo of Ben Fogel.

As difficult as it is to believe we didn't purchase this treasure.

(Excuse the blurry photo, it was a sneaky shot)

Fun times!

Beach trip

A few weeks ago while I was still in Norwich my friends and I took a trip to the beach!

Cromer to be precise.

It was a really fun day and the above painting that I just finished is from one of the photos taken.

I've never painted waves like that before but I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out.

Although it was sunny it was pretty windy which made it a tad chilly, hence all the layers. 

But some of the boys still went in the sea. Because they are insane.

We buried someone in the sand, cos it's tradition.

I'm loving it even if he wasn't.

And my friends made a stone heart.

We also had fish and chips, spent a long time on the 2p machines, and had those hot donuts where they give you four but you really only need one because they're so sugary.

Delightful.

House portraits

Remember this drawing of my housemates?

Well we thought it would be fun if we each did a drawing of us all, and here they are.

This is Lucy's. She's a fine artist like me.

This is Luke's. He's a graphic designer.

And this is Ryan's. He's the one with the beard and he's studying Games Art.

The idea behind his drawing is that I'm doing one of my signature poses while the others are looking annoyed. Ha!

We built a fort!

Since our final hand in of the year my housemates and I have had some free time on our hands.

So we built a fort!

This is the best photo I have of the whole thing.

We used many blankets (including my Camp Rock one that you can see on the right there) which we pegged to ropes and chairs, and we even made it so that the sofa was inside the fort.

We also added fairy lights on the inside which looked really pretty when it started getting dark.  

We did awesome things in the fort like watch Take Me Out...

...and play Scrabble.



Forts have come along way since I used to drape a blanket over two chairs and call it a den when I was little.

 And they're not just for kids as the following forts show.

from Flickr

from Apartment Therapy

and from Design Sponge which even as a how-to.

What was the last time you built a fort/den?

Piping tip

Now, I might be a little bit late to the party with this trick but I thought I would share it incase any of you were in a similar position.

I made my butter cream icing pretty!

And it was really simple;

Take a small sandwich bag.

Fill it with icing.

Cut of a corner to make a tiny hole.

Get piping!

No fancy equipment required.  

I don't have a photo though because I only have so many hands!

On the left you will see my usual method for applying butter cream icing, ie, smooshing it on with a fork, and on the right is the much prettier method.

You're welcome.

In related news Mollie over at Wild Olive is hosting a little blog tea party all this week.

There's going to be guest posts and giveaways and all of that good stuff, so be sure to check in at some point. And there'll also be a chance to win something from me!

Exciting stuff.

Hair

In the months leading up to my hair cut I wanted to make the most of my long hair so I tried out some different styles which I thought I would share.

I tried a fishtail plait which is kinda time consuming but looks pretty cool.

There's a tutorial for how to do it here.

I love this super big bun created around a sock. Check out the tutorial here, it's so easy.

And finally a hair bow, made of hair! If you follow srslyliz then you would have seen her rocking this look. I think it's so fun! See her tutorial here.

Hair today, gone tomorrow

Ok people, I have some news:

I got a haircut.

Now you may not think that this is blog-worthy, and certainly not a whole post, but for me this is an event. A major event. I hadn't had my hair cut in 2 years and 9 months. Not even a trim. 

So let's get straight to it. Here's the before and after.

April 2011

 Pretty drastic right? Well this is something of a theme for me; grow my hair really long for a few years and then cut it all off. 

See:



July 2008



August 2006

(And yes, I've gotten into the habit of wearing the same t-shirt for all my haircuts!)

This time was different as I had decided to donate my hair.

So after I told the hairdresser what style I wanted, I added '...and I want to keep the hair.'

Cos that's not weird at all! 

I was pretty aware of Locks of Love, thanks to Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, and found a UK based charity which basically does the the same thing, the Little Princess Trust.

They make real hair wigs for children suffering from hair loss due to cancer treatments and alopecia.

Holding your own ponytail when it isn't attached to your head is very odd indeed!



So now I've got to get used to being a short-haired gal again.

Here's an interesting read on the topic. 

My new favourite thing to do

I've seen these pictures with the colours picked out and displayed along the bottom all over the blogs.

On Little Chief Honeybee, on Moorea Seal, on Alisa Burke, everywhere!

I went from thinking 'that looks so cool' to 'I could do that!'

All it took was a little bit of photoshop and that fun colour picker tool and now I'm hooked.

Here are some of my favourites so far from my personal photos.

50s vs 60s

It was another dress-up night at the SU last week. The theme; Culture Clash 50s vs 60s.

I'm 50s, Natalie and Lucy are 60s.

There were mini dresses, poodle skirts, beehives and Twiggy lashes.

There was even a guy dressed as Andy Warhol. It is an art school after all.

All aboard the party bus!

Here's some loveliness from around the web inspired by the eras:

This sweet painting from Etsy seller Purrr.

Gossip Gossip's record bags are pretty funky.

I love this vintage 60s mini dress from Silverfish Vintage. So pretty!

1940s fashion

This weekend I walked in a fashion show of 1940s clothes as part of the World War 2 VE Celebration organised by the Arts Centre I work at. There were some awesome clothes and I love the hair styling.

Here are some crafty things of a similar vintage theme:

Get the pattern for this vintage apron on Sew 4 Home.

Etsy user Rumble Seat Cat has a 1940s Glamorous Hairstyles Styling Book. This would have been useful when doing my own hair for the fashion show. 

And how about a knitted gas mask? Bit too creepy? Found on Trend Hunter.

A pirate's life for me

Arrrrrrrrrrr! This time it was pirate night at the SU. So I dug out the headscarves and whipped up some eyepatches for my housemates and I.

Piratey things from the craftverse:

This pirate themed charm bracelet is by Big Face Jewelery on etsy.

From the hive shows you how to make pirate's gold. And fairy dust because you can't be a pirate all the time.

Dressing up isn't just for people! Andrea DeHart on Craft made this pirate costume for a dog.

And who doesn't love a good pirate joke: