The Life of Tash

Random Swedish Blog post

2010-11-23T18:54:00.001-08:00

som ni inte tvivla vet nu, jag är lära att tala en lite Svenska. Jag har lärande för två månad. Jag inte tror jag är särskilt bra - min grammatik är fruktansvärda- men många svenskan folk (okej, om fem folk... jag inte vet så många folk ifrån sverige) har berätte mig att jag är ganska bra, överväger jag har inte en lärare; Jag har en ordbok. Och en par av mycket tålmodig vänner från sverige. Båda kallas Fredrik. Båda är musiker. (de är inte samma personen, förresten)

jag inte vet varför jag är skriva den här. Kanske eftersom jag kan?... slags...
(på engelska, en 'slag' är orden vi använder att kalla en obehaglig bondläpp slampa tjej.. lik jordan/katie price för exempl)

bara i fall ni är intresserade att vet vad jag har använder för att lära sig svenska på internet, de här är de två webbsidorna:

1. Byki - Mycket bra! Jag älskar det - det har många upprepningar darför det är lätt att lära orden snabbt. Men det är något begränsade att enkla fraser. (jag använder gratisversionen).
2. LinQ - det är okej.. det är bra att se hur meningar är gjörda, men är också lite jobbigt att använde. (igen, jag använder gratisversionen) den 'flashcards' är en bra ide, men irriterande att använder/

och

Google Translate. Jag försöker undvika använder det. Det är okej på se om någonting jag skrivat är korrekt, men det är inte mycket pålitlig om grammatik.

inte tvivla full av misstag, men idag min blog på svenska.

(ps. mycket tack att den fem svenskan folk som har läst min blog enligt till flaggan motverka! ni gör mig mycket glad!)

Mythological Births are… peculiar.

2010-11-23T17:40:00.001-08:00

I’ve been ruminating on my Classical Mythology module from my first year of uni… I’ve been brushing up on my Norse Mythology. As I’m learning to speak Swedish at the moment, it kind of makes sense in my weird warped mind to understand Swedes origins and belief system (yes I know they’re probably all Christians or something now, but I think people’s national identity goes WAY back.. which is why I don’t think England really has one, because we were constantly being invaded by every Tom, Dick and Harry who had a boat).

People in myths are seriously messed up. Their entry to the world is no less messed up.

For example - Norse Mythology:

In the beginning, there were two lands: one was fog and ice. The heat and cold made layers of frost that built up to become Ymir, a giant. He got hungry, found a cow and drank from her. As she licked salt off a block of ice, it turned into Buri, the first god, who immediately somehow had a son. Ymir fell asleep and his sweat from his armpits (?!??) and feet created his children. Giants vs. Gods. Buri’s son married Ymir’s granddaughter and their kids (Odin, Vili and Ve) killed Ymir and made the world and Asgard and Valhalla etc. out of various bits of him.

Seriously… when I read stuff like this, it makes me wonder what on earth the Vikings were smoking. Most ancient myths sound something a little like this though - seriously trippy

ps. I’m writing this on the new Windows LiveWriter… it’s quite flash. It looks like the new Word.. kind of… with all the weird buttons for me to press and accidentally delete everything… I’m not entirely sure I like this yet.. the old one looked much cleaner and simpler.

Downton Abbey – Shameless Plagiarisation of a Beloved Classic

2010-11-08T08:24:00.001-08:00

While watching episode 3 of Downton Abbey on ITV Player, I had the most unsettling feeling of Déjà-View.

It went a little something like this:

You’re getting that feeling too, aren’t you.

Seem familiar?

Well, that’s probably because it is.

Julian Fellowes has basically lifted this entire subplot from Mrs Miniver; a film made in 1942 starring Greer Garson as Mrs Miniver and Dame May Whitty as Lady Beldon (a role which, in this case is also played by Maggie Smith).

If a student so shamelessly plagiarised, they would be discredited and probably kicked out of university, but if you're a lord of the manor, vaguely connected to royalty and with a few screenplays under your belt; this apparently makes you exempt from the rule where plagiarism = theft. Instead, you get it turned into a costume drama and broadcast on ITV with one of the best and most loved British actresses, in the role.

Rather than admitting what he's done, and being gracious and apologetic, or even crediting the film saying that something about it inspired him and he wished to pay tribute to it by using it as an influence in ‘his’ drama…he instead lashes out at the public like this:

"The real problem is with people who are insecure socially, and they think to show how smart they are by picking holes in the programme to promote their own poshness and to show that their knowledge is greater than your knowledge.”

-The Telegraph

If there is one thing I hate more than anything else, it’s a hypocrite. Firstly, this guy was educated at Cambridge so he ought to know better, secondly.. Who is HE calling posh?? Has he taken a look in the mirror lately? I don’t think he is any position to cast judgement when he’s written the book on snobs. Quite literally. I haven’t read it, and have absolutely no intention of reading it, but I’m guessing he’s modelled it on himself. What I would also like to know is: since when is plagiarism got anything to do with social class?

I'm really angry about this. Mrs Miniver is one of my favourite films. I mean, if you're going to be stupid enough to plagiarise from such a beloved classic, don't be surprised if you get caught and don't you DARE lash out at the people who catch you out. You should have come up with your own ideas in the first place, and not stolen someone else's. Denying it just makes you look a bigger fool than you’ve already clearly shown yourself to be.

Technorati Tags: julian fellowes,plagiarist,plagiarism,downton abbey,mrs miniver,greer garson,maggie smith

Bedroom Inspiration

2010-10-27T17:50:00.001-07:00

I’ve spent the past week and a bit revamping my bedroom. I haven’t given the walls a fresh lick of paint or anything for it to take so long… don’t ask. Wallpapering wardrobes and…urgh. ANYWAY. Almost done now – I’ll spare you the gripe about having far too much stuff and moving piles around.

This was all inspired by a trip to IKEA (You have no idea how much I love that shop) – seeing all the mock-up rooms made me basically want to burn my carpet and paint everything white. I’ve also had nothing but issues with storage in my house. We have a LOT of furniture here but not really any that is useful for keeping stuff in. My quest for storage solutions led me to browsing the internet looking for ideas on how to do that and I ended up ogling lots of pictures and wishing that my room wasn’t quite so old fashioned. Mismatched furniture is quirky, yes, but if it’s badly mismatched it can only look bad, hence the revamp.. It’s all a jumble still at the moment but it’s gradually coming together – I’m in the ‘putting things away’ stage now, which is my favourite stage, and it’s looking really good! I have a feeling that it’s going to always feel like summer in here – it’s so bright and breezy and lovely!… if it wasn’t for that damn carpet in here… (I detest carpets passionately)

Thought I’d share a slideshow of the pictures which inspired me – it’s all fairly similar in style, obviously because I was looking for ideas for things that were to my taste, but maybe something in there will inspire you. When this thing eventually gets finished, I’ll post up before/after pictures so you can see what miracles a tin of white paint, several black bin liners full of junk and a big tin of elbow grease can work!

It won’t look quite as pretty as these photos– until I have a house of my own, my bedroom will never just be a bedroom.. it will always be bedroom/study/living room/giantbathroomcabinet/library/airing cupboard/cloakroom/gym.

Enjoy!

I just cannot get over how cool this is

2010-10-26T12:38:00.001-07:00

Irony

2010-10-24T15:12:00.001-07:00

There was a wasp in my room this morning - you know the kind of idiotic insect that insists on bashing itself repeatedly against the one bit of glass that doesn't open. Couldn't find its way out with FOUR open windows on either side of it, so I hit it with a Lonely Planet travel guide, as it was the biggest book I had to hand. I didn't realise the irony til afterwards. It helped to take a little of the sting out of the fact I’d just killed something.

This Week’s Random Collection of 10 Interesting Articles

2010-10-18T18:01:00.001-07:00

1. The effects of LSD on an artist

2. Terrifying sculpture park in Finland

3. Design evolution of well known logos

4. Vintage adverts that would be banned today

5. Funny pictures of dogs with their heads sticking out of car windows. The 9th one down is my personal favourite

6. Awesome infrared photography

7. The Parisian Catacombs

8. How to restore an abused Iphone (not that I have one, but one of you might find it useful)

9. Airports from the pilot’s perspective

10. What a typical night out looks like in England. (I’d say this article has got it pretty spot-on)

Technorati Tags: LSD,artist,Finland,sculpture,design,logo,vintage adverts,humour,infrared photography,paris,catacombs,iphone,restore,pilot,nightlife,england

Ten Things about the Internet That Really Irritate Me

2010-10-17T19:58:00.001-07:00

Twitter/YouTube/MySpace/Deviantart/Blogcatalog:

1. SPAM MESSAGES:

“I just subbed to your blog!!! sub me back!!!” – Hey, I didn’t tell you to subscribe to me – that was your choice, I have no interest in discount boilers, why on earth would I sub to you?

“Hey! Awesome site!! here’s a really cool link to get more followers! www.iamanannoyingtwatthrowstonesatme.com”. Really? Thanks! do you actually even know what my site is about? Coz you have the addresses of at least 20 other people in your ‘to’ bar.

“Hey! I really love your site! If you put a link to my site about pest control, I’ll promote you on my site too!”. Funny, some form of pest control could come in handy right about now, I think..

“Hey I just subbed! sub4sub!” Thanks, but I only subscribe to people I’m interested in. I’m not interested in German death metal and penile tattoos. If you want to unsubscribe on that basis, go right ahead. No skin off my nose.

“I unsubscribed to you because you were not active enough on my channel”… hang on, back up…you subscribed to me. I don’t have to do anything on your channel. Since when does subscribing to someone mean they have to even look at your channel?

2. COMMENTS:

On a drag queen’s YouTube video: “ur gay” How observant.

“your video is sh*t” and you just wasted 15 seconds of your life to tell me that because…

“I want to cum in your mouth” great…good for you.

“die, you fat ugly ****” clearly, someone was not hugged enough as a child.

“ how u a gangsta n yu ask for a doublee shot frappe w soy millk at starrubucks” once more, and lets try it in English this time, hmm?

“you cant sgin!” And you can’t spell. Congratulations.

“ur hot” …marvellous.. You do realise the video was of a bear scratching its arse on a rock, right?

3. POPUPS:

“Talk to hot girls in your area”I live in chavsville. There are no hot girls in chavsville… unless you’re into fake tan, tracksuits and hoop earrings in a really BIG way. And why would I want to talk to them..? I have real friends. Who are actually girls. Not some fat guy called Dwayne with saggy underpants, broadband internet connection and no discernable life skills who goes by the alias ‘Tiffany, blonde, 19, 34-24-34’ on Thursday afternoons?

“Hot Russian girls are waiting for you” well they’ll be waiting a long time.

“Carly wants to chat" Good for her. I don’t.

“Amy says ‘didn’t we used to date in high school?” Seeing as I went to an all girls school and I’m not a lesbian.. probably not.

4a. ANNOYING ADVERTS:

One simple rule to a flat stomach! before and after photos showing one blonde woman who is very clearly pregnant and not fat vs. a girl who very clearly has a severe eating disorder, black hair and a tattoo.

EARN MONEY!!! with some random company I’ve never heard of and a dodgy looking website? I’ll..er.. pass… thanks though…

Learn One Mom’s Secret to WHITE TEETH for under $10! which involves mixing two types of teeth whitener…look mummy.. no teeth! :S… I think it’s best to leave the mixing of chemicals and bleaching agents to the scientists who actually know what they’re doing, don’t you?

SCRATCH! dumdumdumdumdum SCRATCH CARDS… *throws computer out of window*

Those random adverts that sneak up on you and make you go through about 20 open windows trying to figure out where on earth that ‘epic battle’ music is coming from and turn it the hell off! – Usually from some form of online RPG World of Warcraft type thing. Or Evony (whatever the heck that is)

Live Poker I hate gambling. It is the downfall of many a good, gullible, easily influenced person. I think it’s morally wrong that suddenly adverts for all sorts of gambling things have started springing up during the middle of a recession where vulnerable and stupid people are easy targets.

If these adverts were actually USEFUL then I wouldn’t complain half so much.

4b. STUPID ADVERTS

And a test for colour-blindness is reflective of your intelligence how?

5. LOLCATZ. 99.9% of the time they’re not even funny, they’re just highlighting the fact that many people are not only illiterate but also demonstrate a very limited capacity for creating humour. Leave it to the experts. You know… the ones that get paid for going on stage with a microphone and don’t get things thrown at them.

6. LOADING TIMES

2 hours later… still at 0% … sometimes when it’s feeling energetic, it goes to 5%

Impeccably times it so that it’s just getting to the good bit. Oh yes, and then, because I was actually watching the video and not the progress bar at the bottom, I don’t know the exact time it decided to block me, so 54 mins later I can’t just pick up where I left off. Which is annoying.

7. I have a love/hate relationship with SAFARI. I love the way it looks, and it’ is QUICK.

BUT it is also one of the most unstable things I’ve ever used.

When I’ve written a really long email/post and haven’t done my usual thing of copying the entire thing just in case something happens so I can simply paste it: Every time I forget to ctrl+c, I get an error message… often like the one above. Firstly Oh FFS!!!! *resists the urge to hit the computer*. Secondly – it’s not even true – because the little bar on the bottom right tells me I’m connected and have full signal so ONE of them is lying to me.. and I don’t think there are prizes for guessing which.

Usually, I don’t even get the courtesy of an apology or an explanation. I couldn’t find a screencap of the error message I usually get, which is basically - ‘Safari has experienced a problem and needs to close’ end of. I can click ok, but what if it’s not ok with me!? I don’t care what your so-called problem is, I’m in the middle of something – you can rodding well wait until I tell you I’m ready to close. Thank you very much.

Safari Web Browser has stopped working

Oh you think? You mean,the fact I was going to the task manager and repeatedly hitting ‘end programme’ wasn’t indication enough that I’d figured that little nugget of information out for myself – you give me a stupid message which I have to spend another 10 mins pressing ‘close’ ‘close’ ‘close’ repeatedly on before you actually DO SOMETHING about it!

You can probably tell by now I have heated one-way discussions with my laptop on a daily basis.

8. Another love/hate relationship, this time with GOOGLE TRANSLATE

It is an absolutely BRILLIANT programme! Long gone are the days of trying to take shortcuts on my GCSE German coursework using Babelfish… This thing is marvellous for helping me learn Swedish by translating websites and song lyrics… but sometimes I question where it gets its intelligence from.

9. “THE INTERNET IS FOR PORN” And STALKING

Words courtesy of Trekkie and Kate-Monster in Avenue-Q, but there is sadly a fair bit of truth to what they say. Everywhere you turn on the internet practically, there’s porn. I’m well over 18 so the actual content, while I still find it offensive visually and morally, does not shock me; what does disturb me is how easy it is for young people – especially kids to get access to something that is for adult eyes only. Prime example being if you’re on a website about Gossip Girl and you get confronted with ~~this:~~ I was going to post a link with a warning, but to be honest, I don’t want anything I publish to have anything to do with that area of.. um.. ‘industry’. But basically an advert featuring a topless girl with her hand down her knickers is not something kids need to see. I’m not sure if parental locks would even keep that out, seeing as it’s just an advert, not an actual website.

On one hand, social networking sites are a great idea – an easy way to keep your friends in one place, share photos with them rather than trying to get everyone over to your house at the same time and crowded round a computer screen to see the photos from the other night, and also, as many people have done in the past, let people know they’ve lost their phone and can they have everyone's numbers again please. Facebook is almost like a back-up phone directory. With a built in weird virtual farm game thing where you can buy turnips or something… I don’t know. I don’t really use Facebook anymore.

HOWEVER

People inviting/accepting people they haven’t really spoken to for years who they never even really liked in the first place, or people they don’t know just so they can look at their profile or to boost their friend count is a bit… pathetic. I said I don’t really use Facebook anymore, but I do go on it occasionally just to check my messages once a month or so, because I do realise that the rest of the world uses it as a primary form of communication… in my friend request list.. I currently have about 30 friend requests… all from hairy Arabic looking guys. Hairy Arabic looking guys I don’t know. Why on earth would I want some stranger going through my information and finding out where I went to school or which pubs I frequent?

I know people who dedicate HOURS, literally, HOURS of their lives ‘spying’ (stalking) other people they know or their exes on the internet – finding out what they’re up to, who they’re hanging out with, rifling through their photo albums, reading posts people have written on their walls, seeing where they went last night… thanks to places like Facebook it’s making creepy stalkerish behaviour socially acceptable. And frankly that actually scares me a bit.

10. ACCOUNTS

The sheer number of accounts I end up with and the number of usernames and passwords in their various combinations I have to remember is not even worth thinking about. From old emails that I don’t really use, to some technobabble forum I went on once because my computer went weird, and in order to post one question asking if anyone knows why it did something, I had to sign up… and then just to be sure I’d get a response sometime this year, I’d post the same question somewhere else like ‘theanswerbank’ (which is brilliant btw), and have to create another account with a username and password too. Trying to find usernames that aren’t already in use and ones I'll actually have a hope in hell of remembering that isn't the suggested ‘yourusername_8472_lskdjf’

Then there’s twitter, tumblr, spotify (♥), blogger, Google, twitpic, imageshack… ad nauseum. All things I use on a daily basis pretty much but the accounts really do stack up!! I have trouble enough remembering my pin at the cash point.

Favourite Painting of the Moment

2010-10-17T17:16:00.001-07:00

by Richard Phillips

As seen on Gossip Girl.

When The ‘Experts’ Get It Wrong. Very Wrong.

2010-10-15T17:18:00.001-07:00

I’ve only been learning Swedish for a month… but even I know that this is so far removed from the correct pronunciation that it would actually be funny if this person wasn’t a published author apparently responsible for teaching the beautiful Swedish language to noobs like me. On the left is an excerpt from an e-book on ‘Elementary Swedish Grammar’ that I stumbled upon on Google, By a fella called Henri Fort. After reading the svenska alfabetet pronunciation guide and seeing how catastrophically wrong he’s got it I can safely say I’m not going to bother wasting any more of my time reading the rest of it. I’m not sure this dude has even met a Swedish person, much less set foot in Sweden himself. You can’t get much more basic than the alphabet..

Yikes.

That’s all.

Technorati Tags: henri fort,svenska,alfabetet,swedish,alphabet,pronunciation,elementary swedish grammar

Shit My Dad Says is… well… shit.

2010-10-13T16:49:00.001-07:00

http://www.watchmissedepisodes.com/shit-my-dad-says-season-1-episode-1-pilot/

Sadly nowhere near as funny as I expected/hoped it to be.

It’s just a typical tacky American sitcom like Friends or Two And A Half Men. Same tired style. I’m really disappointed with it. Canned studio laughter went out of fashion over here about 20 years ago and for an extremely good reason - it’s bad and cheapens the show. A show should be funny enough to make you laugh yourself, not have to listen to a crowd of other people’s laughter injected at random intervals to say ‘hahaha oh yes, by the way, just in case you didn’t get it yourself, he just told a joke’. Canned laughter has always been a real pet hate of mine. And to add injury to insult, William Shatner’s comedic timing is non-existent.

EPIC let down.

Which is a real shame because the posts on @shitmydadsays on twitter are absolutely hilarious and I really wanted the show to do well and to be brilliant. It’s just… really dated. You’d think that this had been filmed in the early 90s rather than 2010.

It’s not often I turn a TV show off half way through. And I was really looking forward to watching it too.

To compare, for a moment with two highly successful British family comedies One filmed within the past few years, and one filmed in the early 90s

1. Outnumbered

2. One Foot In The Grave (alas, with crowd laughter… *shudder*)

American comedy really needs to evolve a bit. Just to compare for a brief moment, the English ‘Office’ with the American ‘Office’…

1. UK Office

2. US Office

I think you get the point.

the US version is so stilted and glossed.. the whole point of it was to appear like a documentary.. really missed the mark because it is so obviously acted.

FYI just because you have wobbly camerawork, it doesn’t mean that it looks like a documentary. It’s how natural the delivery of lines is that determines the extent of the viewers ability to suspend their disbelief. Not your cameraman's ability to fake having Parkinsons.

What did the Vikings ever do for us?

2010-10-07T18:27:00.001-07:00

I will update this as I go along - if I remember, but learning Swedish (for those of you who know me outside of this blog, yes I know I'm banging on about it a LOT) is absolutely FASCINATING!!!

For those of you who know nothing about the history of the British Isles, about a thousand years ago, we got invaded by the Vikings. And where did the Vikings come from? Scandinavia: Aka Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

We didn't really want them here but they settled anyway and as I'm going along I can see SO MANY links to our Viking past in the language of today!

For example -

Grått - means Grey in Swedish. Pronounced 'Grot'. Over here, we have a saying that something is 'grotty'.. it's a 'grotty day outside'.. meaning it's grey, damp and miserable. Incidentally, Gråt with only one t, also means 'crying'.

Andra Hand - literally means ‘other’ and ‘hand’ but used in conjunction means 'alternative' in Swedish. We say 'on the other hand' when we talk about alternatives. 'On one hand,I love coffee- but on the other hand I'm allergic to it'

I will update more when I can think of more, but right now it's late and I should be asleep, not getting excited about learning things!

Update: 14/10/10

Swedish ‘Barn’ = child. Scottish slang word for a child is ‘bairn’

Technorati Tags: sweden,svenska,sverige,viking,language,linguist,history

No Experience Necessary

2010-09-29T04:55:00.000-07:00

I’m not really sure how someone can post a job for a proofreader and say ‘no experience required’. Surely some form of proof (no pun intended) that the applicant can actually READ would be beneficial to not only the company acting as the agent but also to the client whose hard work is being put into the hands of someone to check that everything is ok. So, what, any average Joe off the street with a tentative grasp of the English language should be entrusted with the publishing future of someone elses hard work? I don’t think so.

The job of a proofreader is to thoroughly check over a piece of work to make sure that there are no mistakes: No missing words, no grammatical errors, no spelling or punctuation mistakes. Considering the average person in this day and age (judging by the volume of inane drivvel splattered all over the internet in the forms of blogs - mine included- livejournals, websites, etc etc etc) seems incapable of distinguishing between too/to and your/you’re and knowing where an apostrophe should be placed.. i.e. NOT in "a pair of shoe’s"….

I can safely say I wouldn’t want anyone near my work who can’t manage the basics. Websites promoting proofreading/editorial jobs to any old Tom, Dick or Harry are doing a real disservice to the publishing world.

Edmund Charles Tarbell

2010-08-01T08:37:00.001-07:00

Love the lighting in these 2 paintings. Just thought I should share the joy :)

When Art and Technology Combine To Create… STEAMPUNK LAPTOP!!!

2010-08-01T03:36:00.001-07:00

OH yeah!!!

Hands down one of the most awesome things with a motherboard I have ever seen in my life!!!! I’m not sure I’d want it for myself as I am still very much enamoured with my Toshiba Equium and I have RSI so having my hands raised up like that would probably not be at all good for them and that winder would really get in my way and annoy me… ASIDE FROM THAT – this is really one of the coolest things ever. I know I’m embarrassingly geeky sometimes, but when sci fi and Victoriana combine, only good things can happen.

Check out Datamancer’s (the creator) website HERE

Bulletin

2010-07-26T07:57:00.001-07:00

Hello readers! just to let you know over the next few days I'm trying to redesign this blog so apologies for it looking a bit funny - it will get better very soon, I promise!
Tash
x

Cancelling LoveFilm

2010-07-20T10:53:00.001-07:00

I’ve been with lovefilm for about a year and I don’t use the service – my last dvd had been sitting around on a shelf for about 3 months, so I thought – there’s no point in shelling out every month for something I never use. So on to LoveFilm I went, thinking it’d just be a case of clicking a button and closing my account. Not so. In the ‘account’ section there was indeed a button to press to say ‘cancel my account’. I’m a total phonophone- I detest making phonecalls, so if I have to deal with things, I’d rather press a few buttons, shoot off an email or get on a bus (in that order) even when I’m ill I’d sooner drag my sickly arse out of bed and walk 10 mins to the doctors to make an appointment than phone up. I know. It’s weird, but that’s just the way I am.

ANYWAY. So I pressed cancel, naively thinking it would take me to an ‘are you sure you want to cancel your account with us? yes/no’ page where I’d click a button and that would be it sorted. No, the next page was with a number saying that I had to call up to confirm my cancellation, and I seem to remember that number being a premium one. So.. as there doesn’t seem to be any way around it, I called, and it took me to some indian call centre where the woman on the other end of the phone was doing everything she could to make me stay – offering to downgrade my account (which was already the lowest) and giving me a free month. I don’t want ANY month! I WANT TO CLOSE MY ACCOUNT!!

I realise call centres do a fair amount of good generating jobs in poorer countries, but I’m sorry, I have better things to do with my life and my money than sit around having a chat to some random woman in India and paying through the nose for it and in the end not coming away with what I wanted. I had to settle for the free month for two reasons.

One, I stuck my disk in the post that day. Appaently they had already got it and had sent out another disk (though how they could have received my disk already is beyond me) and that she’d give me a free month while I get THAT disk and send it back, and then Id have to call again.

So basically the deal is like this: They won’t put a black mark against my name so when they get the disk back it cancels the account automatically so I don’t have to ring up. They won’t cancel my account while I still have some disks and until the disk is returned the account remains active.. yet the second a disk has been returned, they’ve automatically dispatched the next one. Which, in my opinion is utterly ridiculous.

Browsing around on some forums and such to see if anyone else has encountered these problems, it seems I am not alone. Seriously, just type ‘cancel love film problem’ into Google and see just HOW MANY angry people there are out there.

Here are just a couple of examples:

http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/internet-sites/lovefilm-com/1028646/

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1063656

http://www.wordsgofurther.com/user-experience/want-to-cancel-your-lovefilm-subscription-good-luck

Apparently there is a button to press to cancel the subscription without needing to call up, which mysteriously appears to a select few between the hours of 10pm and 5am and then vanishes again. Yeah. Fat lot of use. And there is another one which has been very cleverly hidden, but a kind user on one of the forums had posted up a direct link, which is the one I used today.

https://www.lovefilm.com/account/cancel_confirm.html

I’ve got a mark on my account and a confirmation email from them which seems promising so I’ll let you know how it goes!

In the mean time, this is what I’ve done to help myself out a bit:

1. Made a note of the day which I’m supposed to be billed next, In my case it’s the 26th so they have PLENTY of time to receive my DVD back and cancel my account. Also means that I know exactly when to check my account. Apparently they’re sneaky about it and once you cancel, they don’t appear on your bill as ‘lovefilm’ but just as a generic payment. I’ve also made my bank aware of the situation and I’ve got the number of my card company so if necessary, I can call them up and get them to block those transactions. Hopefully I won’t need to.

2. On my lovefilm account, I’ve gone into my list of dvds pending and totally wiped it. If they don’t know what’s next on my list, they can’t send me anything! See my logic there, eh?

3. When I posted my DVD I got my post office to give me a proof of postage certificate, so if they try and say ‘oh we never got your DVD’ I can say ‘well I sent it and here’s the proof.. suck on that’.

Hope these links etc help some of you guys out if you’re having the same problem – if you’re considering going with lovefilm, do so at your own risk. I’ve had no problems with them sending me things- that’s been fine but this cancellation process and the insult of having to pay a premium number to get put through to an Indian call centre and not even have my account cancelled at the end of it and basically jumping through hoops for something so simple has really put my nose out of joint and I can safely say I won’t be going back to them purely because of that. I may well be making a mountain out of a molehill, but when I’m paying for something I have got very little patience when it comes to people trying to screw me around.

Alec Egan Art Show

2010-07-13T15:21:00.001-07:00

Alec Egan, one of my favourite artists with a pulse is having some art shows starting from September this year.

I love his work. It’s very dark, leaves me feeling quite unsettled and mildly disturbed, but that’s why I like it: Because it makes me think. It’s not just grotesque or bizarre for the sake of it, like some of those so-called ‘artists’ who have a pile of bricks in the middle of the floor or a painting of a severed hand or something. His style is very choppy, very roughly done but you can tell that he’s put a lot of thought into what he’s doing – particularly in the blue men series and that there is a message in there he’s which he’s trying to put across if you take the time to look at it with your eyes and mind open.

Click the painting from his latest series, ‘The Art of Thinking Backward’ below to go to his website and check him out.

Technorati Tags: Alec Egan Art Artist

I Heart Rocket Dock

2010-07-12T04:38:00.001-07:00

My computer had to be reset and frankly – I’ve never used anything but Windows, and I find the cost of imacs morally objectionable, but I do like how simple and shiny all of Apple’s stuff is. And I am a BIG fan of simple things. I HATE the way Internet Explorer looks and use Safari instead, purely because it’s shiny. I remember when I got my Vista, there were a load of tutorials on how to pimp your XP out to make it look like Vista…So onto Youtube I went to watch some tutorials to see if it’s possible to make my Win7 look more like a Mac. IT IS!!! So I fancied a change and thought I’d give it a go myself.

And F.Y.I, yes, I am THAT much of a geek that I actually love computer stuff. I don’t understand most of it, but I like trying.

Anyhoo… all of them were banging on about this thing called Rocket Dock and how you install that, install a ‘skin’ and a few shiny icons click ok, unlock your Win7 task bar – shove it somewhere else, click click click, and job done! Normally I watch these things with an eyebrow raised and an sardonic ‘haha AS IF it’s really going to be THAT simple’ smirk on my face. The weirdest part was A) It really was SO EASY that I didn’t even stuff up once, and B) it actually worked and my computer hasn’t kicked the bucket. Both good things!! I downloaded the ‘mac snow leopard’ skin from the rocket dock site for this and a bunch of icons from various places. Main one is if you go in Google and type in ‘free icons’ it’s the second one down (icon archive).

And here to demonstrate my new pride and joy in all its shiny new glory is the lovely Jensen Ackles :)

(I didn’t make that wallpaper btw.. if I had it wouldn’t have such stupid writing like ‘lil devil’ on it and his face wouldn’t be green… I’m just saying….)

All the icons I need are in the bar below – no crappy windows 7 tasklbar hogging the limelight. No icons on the desktop clogging up the space… still have a couple of the vista gadgets – the calendar, a couple of sticky notes and a nice big clock.. And when you roll over the task bar, the icons bug out (as you can hopefully see from the one on the bottom) You can change this though, should you not want it to do that. And you know what the best thing of all this is? (other than Jensen’s face staring back at you) It is all FREE. Yes. That’s right. The rocket dock makers regard their programme as a ‘peace offering from the mac community’ because they feel for us aesthetically challenged Windows users.

<<<<<<< The rocket dock taskbar is really simple to navigate and use, and it’s ridiculously easy to add things to the bar. All you gotta do to add… say… MSpaint to your bar, is grab the icon from the desktop and drag it over. It’ll appear in the bar – and you can customise it with new icons if you want to make it look more shiny. To add a shortcut to an internet website like the youtube or twitter icons that you see here, on your desktop, right click >>>new>>shortcut>>> then type in the web address and press ok. Then drag that to the rocket dock bar and apply an icon (or not) job done.

The Shutdown ‘docklet’ is also a fantastic feature. Just click it and your computer shuts itself down. None of this faffing around with pressing ‘start’ first. These docklets are also relatively easy to install. It’s mainly a question of copy and pasting bits from your ‘downloads’ into the rocket dock ‘icons’ folder and clicking and dragging something down to the bar.

My only criticism of Rocket dock is that when you have multiple windows open in, say, Safari or Internet Explorer – with Win7 you roll over and it shows you thumbs of the windows you have open. Rocket dock does not do this, so I’ve not really made my Win7 toolbar completely redundant. You can’t see it on the screens I’ve posted, but I promise you, It’s still there :) As are all your icons still!! I’ll tell you how to do that now:

If you wish, you can make all your desktop icons invisible with a couple of clicks. It means that when you want to find something you just repeat the procedure and unclick one thing!

On your desktop, RIGHT CLICK, click ‘view’ then where it says ‘SHOW DESKTOP ICONS’ you just click it. This screenshot says is unticked because mine are already hidden. If yours are visible, it will be ticked and you will need to untick it. That’s all you have to do, and to reverse it and get your icons back, just do the same thing, but tick it where it says ‘show’.

Simples ;)

And finally – the not-totally-redundant win7 bar…

See? Up the right hand side? still there… and still with the ‘rollover to show open windows’ capability.

Basically what I did was when I installed rocket dock, I right clicked on the win7 bar, unticked it where it said ‘lock’ and dragged it off to the right hand side and locked it again, then right clicked it again, clicked ‘properties’ and then clicked ‘auto-hide the taskbar’ (which is on the taskbar tab in that window) you can also change its location here in the ‘taskbar location on screen’ options, but i just click and dragged it. Same difference. Click apply and then that’s that done, so it will be invisible on your desktop until you hover your mouse over it and then it’ll magically appear. I actually prefer it being up the right hand side for the already open windows tabs. It means you also don’t lose your ‘start’ button, although to be honest, I use it so rarely that I don’t miss it, because I’ve had icons and shortcuts cluttering up my screen for years. However, there is a ‘search’ Docklet on rocket dock that I might install…

If you want to watch a tutorial on this, just you on Youtube and type in ‘make windows look like mac’ or ‘rocket dock tutuorial’ or something and you’ll find out how to apply skins and customise icons and such in there :)

Technorati Tags: jensen ackles rocket dock vista windows 7 win 7 mac snow leopard osx customise

Judy Garland

2010-07-11T17:39:00.001-07:00

Just a few scribbles I did of the late great.. unable to do the colour correcting fandango because I had to reinstall windows and haven’t got around to finding my Corel disks and reinstalling PSP.

I’ll also have to figure out how to get these posts looking like the old ones too because I’ve had to reinstall Windows Live Writer (which is what I use to write my blogs) so all my settings were gone. Technology is a massive pain in the arse, but where would we be without it?..

… oh yes, having lives.

AGES 13 – 16. Survival.

2010-07-06T10:28:00.001-07:00

Q: SATS: How important are they?

A: While you’re in school – for me, it was basically to determine if you were put into the classes with the smart kids or the dumb kids. Just to kind of assess where you are and what level you’re working at. I remember my SAT score was 666… dunno what the hell I got that in – I just remember the number. English Maths and Science maybe? If I don’t even remember what they were, that’s a good sign they’re not overly important. It’s not really something anyone is ever going to ask you about.

Q: GCSEs: How important are they?

A: Honestly, not horrendously, but at the same time, pretty important. English, maths and science are the ones you need to do well in because they’re the basics and if you want to teach you need to pass all these otherwise you’re gonna have to go back and do them again. When applying to university – you apply before you get your A-level results, so universities kind of look at those and your predicted grades so they can see what you have under your belt already and your potential as a student for them. On your CV, people look first at your university degree, if you have one, and your A-levels. Those are the main 2. If you’re working somewhere, for example, in an international school, it helps if you can speak more than one language, and here your GCSE German/French is useful to say ‘yep. done it.’ Aside from that… because you’re 16 when you’re legally allowed to leave school and go to work – if that is your intention, you’re gonna need the best grades you can get, basically. Because if people who have spent years in higher education getting a-levels, bachelors and masters degrees are really struggling to get jobs with their lovely long list of academic qualifications, then good luck if you’ve left with only a handful of C/D grade GCSEs.

SURVIVING OUTSIDE SCHOOL

It is pointless saying to a teen ‘don’t do this’, because… let’s put it this way – I’m not sure if there is such a thing as a non-rebellious teen. You’re gonna press every button you can and see what you can get away with. I did it, and even though your parents will deny it, that they did too. But here are some things to bear in mind:

Friends:

It’s normal for friendships to blow hot and cold. It doesn’t make it any more fun or any easier, but just know this is kind of normal. Especially in all girls schools, there is a LOT of bitchiness and backstabbing and gossiping. I’m sure it’s not much better in mixed schools or all boys schools, but I suppose boys are more thuggish and less catty. Choose your friends wisely and don’t try to change yourself just to fit into a crowd. Be who you are and keep being who you are – that takes balls sometimes, but it’s worth it. Nobody likes a fake and the only person you’ll be fooling really is yourself.

If your ‘friends’ don’t respect you, your views, opinions and values and try to change you, or bully you into being someone you’re not or to do something you’re not comfortable with and don’t want to do – then those people are not your friends. If you don’t want to do something – don’t do it. The people around you should be mature enough to accept that not everyone is into the same things.

Parties:

1. THE GOLDEN RULE : if someone comes up to you and offers you something and you don’t know what it is, just say no and walk away. ALWAYS let your parents know where you are. If you’re secretive about stuff they’re going to come down even harder on you because they’ll worry and they’ll be less likely to be ok with you going out again if you’ve kept them up all night worried sick. If they know where you are and what time you’re planning on coming home they’ll be much more relaxed, and if something happens to you, they know where they’ll have to pick you up from.

2. DRUGS Don’t do drugs, because drugs are bad. Drugs are also expensive, and teenagers are not rich. So chances are, if you’re 13 and get your hands on some drugs, if you can afford to buy them with your pocket money, they’re going to be the lowest grade available – as in mixed in with a load of other crap so you don’t even know what’s in it. Which is not only dangerous, but stupid to risk your health/life just for a high. Someone I know did drugs when he was a teenager and he has ruined his life because they totally messed up his brain and now he’s schizophrenic, almost 30 and having to live at home with his parents because he can’t be trusted to live on his own and be able to look after himself. Do you REALLY want to end up like that? No? then don’t do drugs.

3. ALCOHOL. Everyone does it – it’s a learning curve – part of growing up. I had my first drink when I was 12 and the first time I got drunk I spent my 13th birthday in bed with a hangover. I am really REALLY lucky with my parents – they’ve, for some reason, always trusted me. My mother is very cautious but I think they were both smart enough to realise that if I wanted to do something, I’d do it anyway and if they told me not to do something it would make me want to do it even more. So they basically let me do what I want (within reason) because if they let me do stuff and we were open about it, they wouldn’t worry, because they knew what I was up to, even if they didn’t agree with it – which is better than not knowing and assuming/fearing the worst. Since I was a tot, when they had a drink, they’d let me have a bit, so by the time I hit my teens I knew I hated whiskey and Vodka and wine, and the mystery of booze was kind of eliminated. Still went out and got ratted and woke up under radiators in people’s houses. I never got in trouble for getting drunk, because I got (and still get) the most horrendous hangovers so me spending the next 2 days unable to move without wanting to throw up was punishment enough. Anyway. My alcoholic past out of the way – some basic things to remember.

1. Don’t drink cheap stuff because it tastes like arse and it’ll make you sick

2. DON’T MIX YOUR DRINKS – that is just stupid. Avoid snakebite black – your friends may all be drinking it now, but give them 2 hours and they’ll be the ones on their knees with their head down the toilet wanting you to call their mum and saying ‘sorry.. sorry.. sorry’ over and over again for an hour while you’re holding their hair out of their face, force-feeding them bread and water and feeling a little smug that it’s not you who everyone is going to be saying ‘haha can’t hold his drink – what a loser' about the next day. Also, if you’re aware of what you’re doing you’re less likely to do stupid things and get into fights and have rumours spread about you at school.

3. When you first start to feel sick, that is when you should STOP and swap booze for water and go and get something to eat. Preferably stodge like bread or chips. I say ‘stop’ the minute you start to feel sick, because that’s just the beginning of the wave that’s going to come crashing over you. If you keep drinking past that it’s just going to make you feel EVEN WORSE.

4. Sounds gross, but it’s true: Better out than in. If you feel sick, don’t try and act cool and keep going – go to the loo and throw it up. You’ll feel much better for it and your hangover won’t hurt quite so much the next day because you haven’t kept it in your system. Drink WATER after that and eat something.

5. BE SAFE: Never accept a drink from someone you don’t know, never have a drink you haven’t poured yourself, never leave your drink unattended and if you have a bottle, keep your thumb over the top of it while you’re walking around. It is SO EASY for someone to spike your drink. It’s happened to at least 5 of my friends – even big tough guys – when they thought they were being careful, and at university – where we’re all older and wiser about keeping an eye on our drinks. Basically spiking: if you’ve had one drink and feel like SH*T – really dizzy, really sick, feel a bit like you’re going to die.. chances are your drink has been spiked. Tell a friend so they know to keep an eye on you, and call your parents and tell them to come and pick you up. If you’re at a party where someone is going to do that to you, you don’t want to be there, because once you pass out, you don’t know what else they may do, and it’s not worth it.

Hope some of that is useful to you

David Bowie - Heroes (live)

2010-07-02T08:28:00.000-07:00

The most sexy man to ever walk the planet?

I think so.

Revision/Exam tips.

2010-06-23T15:59:00.001-07:00

EXAM TIME rolls around again: Just a few exam/revision tips from this old academic here which some of you young’uns might find helpful in this time of need.

REVISION

1. BREAK IT DOWN. Your memory is a pretty good thing - it's just the bit where you have to train it to recall the relevant information that a lot of people struggle with it's fine getting it in there, it's the getting it back out that is the problem - you need to familiarise yourself with the text as much as you can and take your notes and keep breaking them down into key themes and motifs.

2. CONDENSE Break these into smaller and smaller chunks and then to single words, it trains your brain to work like a spider diagram. The info will be in there and the key word will automatically trigger the rest of the info you need to fire off in your head.

THE EXAM

1. SLEEP. Good night's sleep works wonders.

2. HYDRATE. Brain is mostly water, so if it's dried out it won't work properly. Don't drink so much you spend the entire exam hopping up and down bursting for the loo though. Caffeine may be good for the initial burst, but it also dehydrates you, so water is best.

3. BRAINSTORM: You're allowed to scribble on the exam papers. When you've chosen your question, quickly bulletpoint everything you can remember - with your key words. With English, the first thing I always did was write down the names of the characters because knowing what i'm like I'd be making a really good point and then have a complete brainfart when it came to remembering the name of the person who said it. it's also good because the one-word triggers you've got from condensing all that info and scribbled down can really help when you're a little stuck because you've been focussing so much on what you're saying that you've forgotten what else to say.

4.PLAN: your teacher has probably already drilled this into your head, but when you get in, look at the time you have, look at how many words roughly are expected of you / the percentage, and allocate time accordingly, AND STICK TO IT. Doing this also makes you much stricter with yourself about what you have to say, because it's easy to waffle on for ages about something you know, but while waffling means you're getting a lot of words done, it doesn't necessarily mean you're answering the question. So basically just:

Keep it timed
Keep it relevent
Keep it concise

(I just had to teach my ex's mum all this because she's doing a course at uni now and didn't know ANY of this stuff, so just thought I'd cover my bases here)

5. QUOTES: The thing most people at school panicked most about when it came to our English exams was remembering the quotes. The thing is, it doesn't matter if you can't remember the exact quote. You don't have to write it - in fact, if you know you can't remember it, don't even bother trying to write it down.. AS a quote. You can work around it. Instead of:

Austen introduces Pride and Prejudice by saying 'It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in the possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife'

you can say

Austen introduces Pride and Prejudice by putting forth the assumption that all single men with good fortunes are looking for wives.

It's always a good idea to have at least a couple of quotes memorised, but often, providing you remember the general gist of the quote you can usually get around it by rephrasing your sentence a little bit like I did above so you're saying what you want to say but without having to use the precise quote. it just takes some of the stress out of pressuring yourself to remember everything.

6. ENJOY. I know it sounds insane, but have fun with it. I know exams are important, but the more you stress about it, the more pressure you put on yourself and the more likely you are to stuff up and forget things. You don't HAVE to agree with the question - if the question is 'to what extent do you agree that..' you CAN say 'I DON'T agree..' as long as you can make your argument and back up your points, you'll be fine.

In school, I'll never forget one of my a-level exam questions:

"To what extent do you agree that Brian Friel's 'Translations' is a direct attack on the British Colonialisation of Ireland?'

I was like ...w...t...f. Instead of going 'oh my god!?!?' I just thought screw it - I'll write what I want! I basically wrote:

I don't agree that 'Translations' is an attack the colonialisation of Ireland - the entire play is about the destruction of language and the loss of identity with Ireland serving as a backdrop. It's not such an attack on the colonialisation itself (although there are references to violence between the Irish and English), but rather a reflection of the power which language has to unite or destroy a nation, and 'Translations' demonstrates how rapidly a nation can disintegrate when its language is taken away.

I finished half an hour early, only wrote about 3 sides of A4 whereas everyone else had written 9 and I came out thinking 'well... better put the money aside for the retake of that when I get home'. Turns out I was one of only 3 people to get full marks. Guess I argued my case pretty well.

Hopefully some of this stuff helped and you can apply it to some of your exams :)

Tash

Primark Rant: BOOBS.

2010-06-23T09:16:00.001-07:00

Primark is really irritating me lately. They have some lovely clothes, but nothing fits me. I thought being skinny would mean that shopping for clothes would be infinitely easier, as most things seem to be designed for people you can post through letter boxes. No more worrying about muffin tops, no more feeling mildly depressed when the size 12 jeans don’t even meet in the middle.. no finding nice 1930s style puffy short sleeved shirts where the sleeves are tight round the top of my arms… Now I am one of those people you can pretty much post, it is no easier at all.

Primark does not seem to realise that not all women who are thin are totally flat chested. In fact, I really don’t see very many flat-chested women these days full stop. This problem is easily resolved by buying a top and a bottom. But what if I want to buy a dress? A size 6-8 fits perfectly round the waist, but I can’t breathe in it as my boobs are squashed to make me look AGE 8, or I can’t get the zipper up past my ribs. If I try on a size 10-12, it fits perfectly round the boobs but the rest of it hangs like an old potato sack.

This brings me to the second gripe… have the people who design these dresses ever SEEN boobs? Because if they have, surely they should realise that the things are globular. If you look at any halterneck style dress that has two triangles for boobs, you will note that they’ve got a seam at the bottom so the thing will curve around the boob. They’re not literally JUST triangles of fabric which a) going with the gripe I’ve already had; cover next to nothing nothing and b) don’t fit around –you have the fabric stretched up around the middle part of the boob but it flaps madly in the breeze on either side. Which is a real shame, because the material on some of those dresses is really pretty.

Gripe number three: Why is it that I cannot buy an underwear set from Primark that fits both top and bottom? The people who put the two together seem to think that if you have biggish boobs, you must also be in possession of an absolutely MASSIVE arse. The size bra I need means that I end up with pants in a size 16-18. I’m a size 6-8, and I don’t think my boobs are even particularly big. Admittedly, I don’t really buy underwear from there very often – But really… come on Primark, lets have some sets for slim busty people too. Why does ‘cheap’ have to equate to ‘fits badly’ ?

My Summer Essentials for 2010

2010-06-22T18:46:00.001-07:00

SKINCARE

Makeup: I tend not to wear makeup in summer, unless it’s just a little bit of concealer under my eyes and some spf lipbalm I got from CVS in America– maybe a TINY bit of eye shadow if I’m going out somewhere.. which is why there’s nothing here about it.

Barry M Nail Paint in Lemon Yellow (I think.. I’ll check the name on the bottle when I find it)

It’s a really nice colour, although my parents both hate it and say it makes my hands look ‘fungal’

Bought it in Boots where they were having a 3 for 2 thing going on last month. Needs about 3 coats before it looks as opaque as it does in this person’s picture.

Boots Soltan for Kids, SPF 30

400ml

£15.49

I love this sun cream. It comes out green so I can see if I’ve missed any bits. It’s a little on the greasy side, but to be honest, that doesn’t really bother me as I only stick this on when I sunbathe, and I’d rather be a little greasy for a few hours than have patches of brown and pale from where I’ve missed. I don’t really tend to burn anywhere apart from my nose, but I have a lot of moles so I do need to cover them up – I use a cotton bud dipped in Soltan factor 50 to cover the main offenders with the highest protection I can without having to have the rest of me remain pasty.

AFTERSUN:

In my house, we’ve always used Soltan lotion and aftersun, which is made only for Boots. I LOVE the smell of the aftersun and it makes my skin feel ridiculously soft :) The one I’m using now is left over from last year which WAS called aftersun with tan maximiser, but I think this ‘Tan Prolonger’ one is pretty much the same thing.. it says this has tan enhancing agents in whereas mine says on the bottle that it contains a low level of self tan.. so.. hmm.. not entirely sure but I think it’s this years equivalent. £5.49.

If you’re in America, and you have a propensity to burn, then I highly recommend Solarcaine which contains Lidocaine, or the CVS own brand stuff for $6.99 which is just as good and again, It makes my skin feel absolutely amazing. I wish I bought another can of this when I was over in the states, because I would actually just use it as a moisturiser – it is so light and cooling and it soaks into the skin completely and isn’t at all greasy. However, It has some form of pain reliever in it which is why it’s so good for burns.. but if they had the aloe vera stuff on its own in a spray I’d bring back a bag full of it! Bought this because for the first time in my life I actually got burned ( I don’t go abroad much and in England our ‘summers’ are pitiful) I just checked on Ebay (.co.uk) and you can buy Solarcaine, but it’s like £13 + £7 p&p… when you think it’s sold for only $7.99 in the store, it’s a total rip-off (as most things seem to be in the UK…) you’d be better off just asking any friends you have in America to send you some. It really is brilliant stuff and to be honest, I’ve never seen anything like this sold in the UK for sunburn. On the CVS website it says their own brand one is not suitable to be transported by air, but I took mine home with me on the plane and it’s absolutely fine.

For everyday summer sun protector, I use Palmer’s cocoa butter body lotion SPF15 (£4.99 from Boots). I’m not overly keen on the smell, because I’m a citrus fan rather than sweet/musky scents, but it works wonders on my skin. If I’m not going out I’ll use the olive version of this instead. For my face, I use Olay Complete care with SPF15 (£8.99 from Boots)

Again, I really don’t like the smell – mum used to put Olay on my nose when I was little and going through the ‘dry skin’ stage of a cold and it stung like a bitch, but it does make my skin look really hydrated and protects which is very important in summer as it’ll make it less likely to get sun damage – wrinkles and sun spots.

FASHION:

A variety of sunglasses. Primark have some great ones that look like Ray Bans in various colours for only £1!

A big white linen shirt to slop around in and throw over a bikini. My current fave is a balloon sleeve one I got from Primark about 3 years ago for about £7

Red retro style halterneck bikini (minus the terrifying model)

I want a straw cowboy hat, but I can’t seem to find one I like anywhere. 3 years on the hunt for one now.

Blue and white striped shirt like this ‘Bethel’ shirt from CREW Clothing co. £55.00

G ood old Fashioned pair of denim cutoffs & grey/white/cream vest top

Flip Flops or white gym shoes.

DRINK

£1.65 from Sainsburys. Delicious and refreshing. Best served with ice! (doesn’t go too badly with a dash of gin either)

Summertime = PIMMS!!!!

chuck in a jug 1 part Pimm’s to 2 parts lemonade

Add in cut up strawberries and apple, a sprig of mint and plenty of ice and you’re sorted for the next few hours.

Don’t put in cucumber though – loads of people do that and it tastes HORRID.

MOST IMPORTANTLY: LOTS AND LOTS OF THIS!!!! (no, it isn’t vodka) It’s really important to stay hydrated, especially if you decide to crack out the Pimms or gin and lime – as alcohol dehydrates you, you’ll need to drink even more water.

FOOD

TZATZIKI RECIPE

When it’s hot outside, I never feel like eating. I am a sun worshipper – I LOVE the sun, but the accompanying heat is not something I deal with too well. I feel too sluggish to eat proper food. However, Tzatziki with some pitta bread is really refreshing, healthy, always goes down a treat and takes a couple of minutes to make. I had this for lunch today actually. This is how I make it:

Take a cucumber. With a vegetable peeler, peel off the skin of as much of the cucumber as you think you want. Use a (I dunno what the official term is, but I call it a) guillotine slicer to cut it very thin. Put in a bowl and sprinkle with salt. Leave for about 3 mins for the salt to draw the moisture out of the cucumber. While you’re waiting, cut up half a clove of garlic or a whole clove if it’s really small (this is for one person btw)

Hold the bowl above the sink and drain it by squeezing the cucumber up against one side of the bowl and letting the juices run out.

Stick a pitta bread in the toaster for about a minute.

Add a tablespoon of Greek style yoghurt, the garlic, a dash of white pepper and some black pepper to the cucumber.

Remove pitta bread from toaster. !!!!!WARNING!!!! it’s really advisable to use an oven glove or something to pull the bread out of the toaster! because they’re kinda hollow, pitta breads build up a vat of steam inside which is ridiculously hot and if you squeeze it a tiny bit, will come shooting out of the bread and burn your hand. I have done this SO many times and it really really does hurt.

Finally – ENJOY!

World Cup Flag Ban: Anti-English? or plain old stupid?

2010-06-21T06:23:00.001-07:00

I’ve spent the past week in Sussex. There’s a pub in there I go to quite a lot – full of locals and everyone knows everyone; and in a little village, news travels fast. The landlady had got a delivery of beermats promoting the world cup and the woman who delivered that said that the taxi drivers in Hastings had been banned from sporting the England flags on their cabs. Also, cabbies and bin-men (oh, sorry, ‘refuse collectors’.. we must be politically correct nowadays mustn’t we? pffffft) in Canterbury and London.

There are two versions of the story why: The first, is that flying the England flag is offensive to all the foreigners in this country. Which I have to say is utter bollocks (pardon my French). For a start, we should be allowed to demonstrate our patriotism if we want, and if foreigners have an aversion to the country they’re in flying its own damn flag, they know where Heathrow is – they can get on a plane and go home. Secondly, the people who moved into the house next to mine about 3 months ago are from Pakistan. They barely speak any English, yet they’ve got the England bunting hanging from their windows. So who are the councils to think they can dictate the views of all the foreign/ethnic people in their constituencies? I somehow very much doubt they’ve got the ‘I’m offended’ hotline rammed with Bulgarians or Poles or Asians complaining about someone driving a car with a little flag stuck on it for a few weeks. I think it’s more a case of they have far too much time on their hands and instead of coming up with ideas to improve the quality of the area they’re representing/governing, which would require some initiative and creativity, they choose instead to nitpick at completley unimportant things which only serve to irritate a few people and give one girl in the London Suburbs yet another thing to write a ranting blog about.

The second version is something to do with health and safety. Apparently they’re very dangerous… though I fail to see how having a flag on the roof of your car is anything other than patriotism and a waste of money coupled with an overly healthy dose of tackiness. It’s not like people spend a huge amount of time looking OVER a car. Looking around the sides, yes, but over?……

Potty. That’s the only word for either version really.

As for myself, I couldn’t care less about the football. I don’t know one end of the pitch from the other. This world cup season will find me lying on a rug in a bikini in my garden working on my tan, slurping lime cordial and reading a book.

This is so cute, I just had to share it.

2010-06-20T10:54:00.001-07:00

I got sent this in an email from one of my friends today. I’ve always had a massive soft spot for hedgehogs, but this one is so unbelievably cute that I just had to share him with my readers :)

Don’t you just want to put him in your pocket and take him home!!!

Banging My Head Against A Brick Wall.

2010-06-20T08:57:00.001-07:00

The abuse of the English language is increasingly making my brain hurt. I’m sure I’ve had this rant before. If I haven’t had it here, then certainly I’ve had it elsewhere. Using completely inappropriate/out of context words is one thing which makes me cry inwardly; but the flagrant disregard for the correct usage of the apostrophe and the inability of some people to use a basic spell check is something that almost causes me physical pain. Yes, I know I’m a little bit of a grammar Nazi, I should chillax– it’s just a bottle of shampoo, or it’s just a sign above a shop in a town which I’ll probably never find myself in again…

But that is not the point!

If you’re unsure if you should use to or too, or their, there, or they’re- then for the love of Samuel Johnson get a dictionary or something and look it up!! The guy didn’t spend nine years of his life writing it so you can use it as a paperweight.

The apostrophe: You’ve doubtless heard of the word – have a vague idea of what it looks like… you know, that little comma type thing floating in the air… but do you know what it’s actually for? It seems that a vast majority of people don’t.

Even some copywriters, apparently.

I raided the cleaning cupboard at home because my mug had left a coffee stain on my windowsill. I pulled out a bottle of stain remover and checked the back to make sure it would be safe to use on that surface. This is what I was confronted with:

“DIRECTIONS: Can be diluted 1 parts to 20 of water. Use neat on stubborn stain’s, safe to use on any type of surface. Spray on wipe off after a few second’s, leave stubborn stains to soak for a short time. Test an inconspicuous area for colour fastness before use ”

How, how, HOW can someone who makes that many mistakes in one paragraph consisting of only 47 words, (numbers don’t count as words) be employed to do that job? I don’t pretend to be perfect, I know I still make some mistakes with my own grammar, but these are mistakes my classmates would have noticed and pointed out when we were in primary school at the age of seven. Do people no longer teach grammar in schools? It is one of the most basic things – grammar is like the hangar which the English language hangs from like a coat. Without it, it is a crumpled mess on the floor.

Directions: Can be diluted 1 PART to 20 PARTS of water. Use neat on stubborn STAINS **WITH NO APOSTROPHE** **FULL STOP** Safe to use on any type of surface **FULL STOP** Spray on AND wipe off after a few SECONDS **WITH NO APOSTROPHE** **FULL STOP OR SEMICOLON** **CAPITAL L->** Leave stubborn stains to soak for a LITTLE LONGER. Test ON an inconspicuous area for COLOURFASTNESS **WHICH, F.Y.I, IS ONE WORD** before use **FULL STOP**

The apostrophe has been around for hundreds years. Some academics even suggest that it was around when the Saxons were. It is not like it’s something new that has just been introduced to the English language that we are having to get to grips with. It should be so ingrained into us that it comes naturally. So how come so many people manage to get it SO WRONG?! It is not rocket science!

FURTHER (basic) READING:

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Grammar

English Grammar for the Utterly Confused

Eats, Shoots and Leaves

Wikipedia article on the apostrophe

Making Your Own Cards

2010-06-19T13:56:00.001-07:00

I like making cards for my friends. I seem to make rather a lot because we all use any excuse we can to celebrate something. This year was a double, because Chinese New Year coincided with Valentines day.

I worked in a card shop for Xmas, Valentines and Mothers day, and I have to confess I detested every second of it; and the only thing that tortured my soul more than the job itself was the cards. They are all so putrid; with stupid twee little poems inside, cliché pictures of cute wikkle kitties and teddy bears (urgh), insipid inscriptions.. and the ones that try to be ‘dirty’ or ‘cool’.. the ‘happy birfday m8’ type things that make my hackles rise. On top of that they are all ludicrously overpriced for what they are: pieces of paper folded in half. The average price of a card from that place being £3.00 - £5.00. We even sold some absolutely absurd things that were 3ft high, lit up and played music and belly-danced (ok belly-dancing was an exaggeration)..but lets not forget the novelty of the fact that it came in a BOX ( everyone say ‘oooh’)…

At a price of £25 per card.

This is something I really don’t understand. You get a card, you read it, it sits on the shelf for maybe a week and, unless it really means something special to you- like if you’ve been having a rough time and someone’s sent you a card to say ‘hang in there’ and offer extended words of encouragement of their own- lets face it, it’s going to go in the bin. So that’s £3-£25 just thrown away. What could possibly be more special than having a 21st birthday card with a poem saying

‘Congratulations to a special daughter for today is just for you

Hoping you have a wonderful time and enjoy everything you do’.

I mean…. Wow. That would absolutely knock your socks off wouldn’t it. Totally bring a lump to your throat and a tear of joy to your eye. You’d treasure those words for the rest of your life, especially because they were penned by an anonymous underpaid stranger you’ll never know and printed by the million.

It’s the laziness of some people that beats me. For example, Christmas cards: To Nan, Nanna, Nana, Nanny, Nannie, Grandma, Granny, Gran, Grandmother… There are umpteen variations of the same design cards for the same person. How about you take one with a nice picture and get off your lazy arse and write 'Dear [Gran/Grandma/etc] in it? I mean, surely 99% of the population can’t be so illiterate that they only know how to write their own names at the bottom of a card.

In my parents desk, there is a drawer full of random crap – paper and envelopes and general stationary paraphernalia, and every card I’ve ever made for them. Yet not one single card I bought for them. I think that says everything.

‘But I’m not artistic’ I hear you say. So what? You don’t need to be Gainsborough to make a card. You can do something utterly unique with a sheet of printer paper, some glue, a pair of scissors, an old newspaper or magazine, and a little tiny bit of imagination.

For example, this is a card I made for one of my friends, combining Valentines Day with Chinese new year, and focussing on Paris- the true love of her life. Inside, I wrote down a list of ‘10 things that make you awesome’. It took all of 15 minutes to do (excluding 5 minutes of Googling how to write a Chinese New Year greeting in Chinese), and she’s still got it standing on her desk 5 months later.

So I guess the moral of the story is to take a little time to be original. If you can’t even be bothered to write the name of the person you’re sending it to, and opt for a pre-printed ‘coolest Gran’ card, it, in my opinion, shows how little you can be bothered with that person. If you don’t make your own, at least get something blank inside and take 5 minutes out of your life to write your own message. You don’t have to be Shakespeare – just the fact that you bothered to write more than your name at the bottom will mean the recipient will appreciate, value and treasure it far more than any mass-produced, overpriced, highly disposable piece of pre-printed tat.

Wall Art

2010-05-12T10:02:00.001-07:00

When I eventually get a place of my own, I am definitely putting this on a canvas in my kitchen:

Election Malarkey p1.

2010-05-08T07:18:00.001-07:00

my bitch for today - hate to make it political, but here goes. THANK YOU FACEBOOK for putting me in a mood this morning haha. You may, or may not know that over here we've just had our general election - that's the vote to get a new Prime Minister - and it's a hung parliament - which means that no party has got the clear majority (though how they can say that when the Tories got 306, labour got 258 and Lib Dem got 57.. to me that says Tories got the majority, but whatever.) So basically the dealio is that the onus is now on the Lib Dems to basically chose a party to form a coalition government with.. or I think failing that, to have another election. Anyway, here's where my beef came in - one of the facebook polls saying what do you think - reading some of the comments... One woman said:

Most of you have obviously not lived and worked under a tory government. i left sc;hool just after maggie thather came into powerand spent two years undemployed could not get on the property ladder for love nor money never knew whetheryou could put food on the table your family."

Firstly it really p'd me off because it's not that hard to check your spelling. People who can't be bothered to proofread things really irritate me - it's the English student side of me - I'm pretty anal about it. But I could not RESIST answering that with:

"And things are different now? I have a 2:1 university degree, I've been unemployed for two years, many of my other friends, all with excellent degrees are finding it nigh on impossible to find employment, unless it's some form of internship where they're expected to work twice as hard as everyone else and very often they're not even paid. With public transport costs as high as they are, this makes it 'interesting' trying to fund over £30 a week to get into London from the suburbs when you have no real income.

Almost all my graduate friends are living with their parents still and we're 23/24 years old, because we can't afford to move out to even rent somewhere, and to cap that off, we're all up to our eyeballs in thousands of pounds of debt from student loans to help cover our tuition fees (and now top up fees)... which Labour are responsible for introducing... and with no way to pay it off. I say bring on the Tories! I'm not sure they can screw up this country any more than Labour already have. I feel sorry for them for being left with such a mess to clean up."

God I hate that people can be so ignorant!!!! oh no Tories were so mean, Margaret Thatcher was so mean, rah rah rah. Open your eyes, look around!!! Did she not stop to think that each time the Tories have been voted into power it's because the country is in chaos, and they're the ones who have to clean up the mess the previous government have made? Each time Labour have been in power they've financially run us into the ground and the Tories have been having to make cuts all over the place to try and get some money. Of course it's unpopular, and probably unfair, but at least they realise that borrowing money is not going to resolve debt. It's not rocket science that cuts are going to have to be made if savings are to be made. And for the keeping the rich rich and the poor poor thing, people seem to forget that it is the rich that are the big investors in industry and without them we'd probably be in more dire economic straits than we are now. I also hate to say it but a lot of the poor are lazy - many young people these days are seeing teenage pregnancy as a career move, as the government will pay for the kids to subsidise them, give them a flat, help them out financially. To me leaving school to squeeze one out when you're in your early teens and to leech off the tax payer is not cool. I like the welfare system in this country. I like that people who need financial help get it, but it needs to me monitored a LOT more strictly as so many people take advantage of and abuse the system, and because of these people, there is not as much money in the kitty to help the people who REALLY NEED it. And the thing I don't get more than anything else, is that for the past 13 years people are like omg labour have ruined the country, we hate labour, labour have destroyed England, labour have done this that the other... We didn't even vote Gordon Brown in - when Blair resigned, he just handed it over to him without asking us if we even wanted him (dictatorship rather than democracy, no?). We should have dissolved the parliament and had a revote then and there to see who would have been more suitable at the time. But after everyone pissing and whining for the past x years, millions of people now VOTE for the guy?!?! wtf?!?! Gordon Brown is utterly pathetic about the whole thing - he will not accept defeat and is clutching at straws and clinging onto the doorframe of number ten going 'me no wanna leeeeeeeeeave'. He's really just embarrassing himself. A journalist said something i really liked :

Technorati Tags: election,brown,blair,uk

'it would be really nice if Gordon Brown could show a little bit of grace and stop clinging, with what is left of his fingernails, to his [tenure in downing street] '

rant over.

Do something different. Words of wisdom from Shaytard

2010-04-10T12:49:00.001-07:00

The Latest Offering

2010-04-06T18:13:00.001-07:00

Starting to get my hands working again now that it’s warming up a bit and I can start picturing myself in my studio again (pun not originally intended, but hey). I don’t usually draw stuff, but found a good website that sort of inspired me to try my hand at graphite (with the aid of one of those paper stub blender thingys). Was watching Australia while I did this, so the time it took for me to draw was the time it took for the film to play out. Australia is a very good film, by the way. If you haven’t seen it yet, you should.

Creaturemag - Art Magazine - Publishing interesting Art and Literature

2010-04-01T10:11:00.000-07:00

Discovered this cool little site which quirky illustration-y type people might enjoy :)

Creaturemag - Art Magazine - Publishing interesting Art and Literature

Brief update on me:

Just as it's warming up and I'm thinking of my plan of attack for the summer in terms of art, the parentals decide they want to move. I don't, so this means getting a 'real' job and move and trying to figure out how to keep up my art too. *Brings out a violin*. My CV thus far reads as follows: Artist with English Degree. Will paint for food.

Looking down several employment avenues at the moment - copywriting/proofreading, advertising.. either way, y'know, I'm an artist first and foremost so yes, I have a literary background too - I have a 2:1 BA in Comparative Literature, so I'm by no means 'just another dumb artist' who only paints stuff because they're not good at anything else. (That stereotype really irritates me) But I want to use my creativity somehow otherwise I don't really see the point of having it. If that makes sense - I've been given that gift, so I should use it. If anyone reading this actually works for any publishing companies or does any of these kinds of jobs and has any friendly advice etc to give, please feel free to do so!

ramble ramble ramble

Working on sketching out ideas for redoing my website as my current one is embarrassingly bad, ridiculously slow loading for some reason and full of rubbish. Just needing to get my hands on dreamweaver and photoshop (still!) and then my will shall be done. So that's something shiny and new to look forward to...

er.. that's about it really.

Going to the Boat Race in London to watch Oxford and Cambridge battle it out on the Thames over a pint or several.. it'll be good :) I would laugh a lot if the boat overturned. I know that's mean, but I would.

Also looking forward to polo season starting up again! Ham Polo Club is just up the road from me, so I thought some highspeed photos would be quite fun to attempt.

2010-01-22T07:41:00.000-08:00

I got bored.

My Morning as a Time Traveller

2010-01-22T03:01:00.000-08:00

The District Line into South Kensington was cancelled this morning because of a powercut, so I was wondering how on earth I was going to get into work. I had to go to Waterloo and take the Jubilee line and change to the Circle line at Westminster - I've never been to Westminster station or taken the Jubilee line before but oh my GOD this morning was a weird experience - London tubes are pretty much identical - kinda grubby tunnels with billboards plastered on the opposite side of the tracks with grubby white tiles going up the passenger side of the wall and across half the ceiling with some more posters and maybe a tube map or something up there too. Rows of identical looking people lined up, crowded along the platform all pushing to get on first.

The jubilee line was almost deserted. It is a maze of connecting tunnels that are lined floor to ceiling with grey things that look like speakers/subwoofers. They're all identical, bright strip lighting overhead and then you pop out into these big open spaces with aluminium tread plate underfoot and Huge metal pipes running overhead. Some long tunnels have travellators, again, it's all silver/grey and glass with strange lighting, and then the platforms themselves you have a sheet of glass blocking off the tracks from the platform with sliding doors which hiss open when the train arrives and you have to step down into the train, which I've never had to do before. Then out at Westminster and it seems to never end. I had to get up onto the Westbound circle/district line platform and there were all these people dressed in black marching past me like I'd been catapaulted through a time portal into some surrel futuristic ant colony or something and I seemed to be the only person who didn't know where I was going and looking around taking it all in - going up about four silver and glass escalators with little portals of light coming through the sides, again massive tunnels and tubes suspended from the ceiling... it was like walking into a Zamyatin novel or the set of Metropolis or something.

Dave Cole sums it up far more succinctly than me in his blog:

'Westminster tube is, for my money, the least human station on the underground.
The exposed steel and concrete, marked in places by damp and leaks, gives you
the feeling, if you go down its great maw towards the Jubilee line platforms in
the early morning, of the human race having become troglodytes after the surface
was rendered uninhabitable. It feels like a post-apocalyptic industrial complex
built for an army of workers that are turning to dust somewhere. Clearly, it is
designed to handle a large throughput of passengers but its open galleries,
sheer drops and inhumanly large scale mean that, except during the busiest
periods, you feel as if you’re on a Ridley Scott movie set. It is a vertiginous,
agoraphobia-inducing and ugly building that makes us feel like ants in a giant
formicarium and not people.'

At least I can't complain that my commute in was boring this morning.

A Few more films.

2010-01-14T03:53:00.001-08:00

Dean Spanley:

Really enjoyed! Although a good portion of the film was the three of us watchers (friends) debating whether or not Jeremy Northam’s nose was real or prosthetic (I personally don’t care – I’m just in love with the man’s voice – he could read me a bed time story any day). It looked lovely and the old chap playing his dad was hilarious! I dunno his name, sorry – I’m hopeless with names.

Nine

Oh my GOD!! who wasn’t in this film??? seriously – Judi Dench, Nicole Kidman, Sofia Loren, Penelope Cruz all on one screen… It’s like the cast list reads like the phonebook of Hollywood Royalty. Great numbers – amazing choreography – reminded me quite a lot of Cabaret because of the style and the dance was obviously heavily influenced by Fosse, who choreographed Cabaret. Wasn’t too keen on a couple of the melodies af the songs – Judi Dench I think had more than enough in her to have more of a challenging song that she could have rocked, and also I personally felt Nicole Kidman’s song was a little low and monotonous for her when we all know what she can do thanks to Moulin Rouge, but that’s just me being picky – I really did think the film was excellent.

Star Trek

Watched this because everyone has been banging on about it for AGES so I was like 'FINE’… it was pretty good – I mean it looked flashy and cool and I like that they focussed more on the characters as individual people rather than on the technobabble aspect which the shows seem to like so much, so I felt that made it more appealing to the general public of those who wouldn’t necessarily go to watch a ‘trekkie film’ – like all the other trek films before – this had a TOTALLY different feel to it – the other films to me were like extended episodes of the series where they’d been given a fat budget to play with, but this was a proper MOVIE movie. They also did a great job of getting a cast of younguns together who looked the parts too, the only one I wasn’t really convinced by was Chekhov – he looked a bit like a nervous little toy poodle than the other guy in the original series, but I liked him because he was sweet and forgot to take the handbrake off, so I didn’t mind. But yeah. All in all, a good film, although my brain kind of switched off when the massive SFX bomb was dropped towards the end - full on action and massive explosions and stuff kinda bores me so my mind wanders off onto it's own little adventures.

Angels And Demons

YAAAAAWN.

I really loved the Da Vinci code movie (I feel I should point out that I haven’t read any of the books) and this latest one… it started off ok – I mean, all these films LOOK very good – I mean – no expense spared on the budget with cameras and set hire etc, but… to be honest, I really couldn’t tell you what the hell this film was about. Something about people being branded, statues pointing at places and some fella being drowned… obviously totally to do with religion, but after going' ‘oooh’ over the introduction, I just totally zoned out. Really couldn’t give a rats what was going on.

District 9

I couldn’t watch this film. It was AMAZING, the bits I could sit through, but I’m a complete humanitarian/softie so I couldn’t handle it – that kind of treatment of individuals and that level of cruelty and disassociation and total lack of sympathy and compassion between two beings just does not compute with my brain. I really want to know what happens, but it just disturbed me too much so I had to leave, because I was watching it on my own and go so completely immersed. This film is EXCELLENTLY done – it’s done like a documentary, and.. yeah ok so there are aliens walking around, but the way it’s been done and put together is so incredibly well done and so convincingly portrayed that.. well.. for me, anyway, I had immense difficulty thinking ‘this is JUST a movie, Tash, it’s not real’… beause this film isn’t’ JUST a film about aliens vs humans, it’s a very intense social commentary on just how absolutely VILE we are as a race. We’re really disgusting creatures – and I know in the film it’s south africans vs aliens, but it could just SO easily be about.. for example, black v white during the colonial times with slaves on plantations and how they were treated, it could be about Jews v Nazis in the 2nd WW and how we treat anything we regard as being below ourselves and that we take a disliking to en masse. Watching this film really made me almost feel ashamed to be human in a way because we KNOW that these things do happen and we are the cause of it. If you’re not a complete bag of mush like me, go and see this, it is AMAZING. I just wish I was made of tougher stuff so I could have made it though the whole film.

4 Kids Films and one Grownup Film – my opinions of

2010-01-01T03:32:00.001-08:00

I’m a big kid at heart. Had the end of year blues in a big way last night – definitely not helped by a horrible toothache from my wisdom tooth deciding to make a bid for freedom resulting in a colossal headache. So basically I spent the day in bed with a hot water bottle on my face feeling sorry for myself watching kids films on BBC iplayer to cheer myself up. I’m wondering how much ‘wisdom’ this tooth will bring me in the new year.

Watched a grown up film the previous night so I’ll do that one first:

The New Sherlock Holmes Movie

Brilliant film. I’ve grown up on murder mysteries- I LOVE them and my dad absolutely loves Sherlock Holmes, so I’m used to a tall, elegant, immaculately dressed, soave, slightly peculiar in the head Victorian opium addict with a cape, a nose like an eagle and a deerstalker or a top hat.

Basically this bloke:

So when a tall, elegant, immaculately dressed, soave, man appeared on the screen I thought ‘Yep. That’s my Holmes’… and then the camera panned down to a rogueish, scruffy, bohemian hobbit-like creature who opened his mouth and said ‘Watson’.. I was very confused. I was like ‘WHAT??? that’s not Holmes! That’s never Holmes!’. He is as far from the Holmes I’ve grown up knowing as you can get really, BUT this is not necessarily a bad thing. The banter between Holmes and Watson is absolutely brilliant and by about the first 10 minutes of the film I thought ‘You now what? If he wants to be Holmes, that’s fine by me’. His English accent was pretty convincing too – there are few things that irritate me as much in films as an American attempting to do an English accent and getting it wrong. I really couldn’t find fault with him. The girl from The Notebook was also in it – she looked pretty but that’s about it, I thought she was pretty irrelevant as a character – seemed she was kind of thrown in there with a vague tie to the plot to serve as eyecandy for the male members of the audience. The bloke who played Moriarty was excellent! (although he looked quite a bit like the lovechild of the Sherlock Holmes pictured above and Poirot, which made me smile so I didn’t find him as scary as I perhaps ought to have done). Quite a few special effects used in this film, but unlike most new films they weren’t done to death – they added to the film rather than compensated for a lack of a storyline (think The Pirates Of The Carribbean – Davy Jones’ Locker as an example of all Special FX and no substance). A couple of bits were predictable and I thought maybe more of a danger element could have been put in there to balance out the comedy (if I’m being brutal) but all in all a really good film which I’d give a good 8/10 for.

The Incredibles

Seen before a number of times – great characters, brilliant animation and creativity. Always a good watch when there’s nothing on.

Heidi

Never seen this before, even as a kid (It was all about the Secret Garden for me when I was a kid) – made in 1995 and featuring some kid called Emma(?) Bolger. Was pleasantly surprised – I thought this is going to be sickly and twee and full of mush. Really wasn’t that bad. Had Diana Rigg in it playing a nice old grandma which was a bit of a shock to the system as I’ve only ever seen her play Psychos before so I was half-wondering when she’d murder Heidi in her sleep or something LOL. Also had the woman in it who played the housekeeper in Father Ted as Heidi’s aunt. My main question about it was this: Why is Heidi Irish?? seemed incredibly random that the thing is set in the Alps yet the cast is English and Irish. I haven’t read the book so I dunno if maybe Heidi came over from Ireland or something when her folks died… who knows. I liked the kid who played her though – I usually find child actors insufferable, but she was ok.

Here it is on Youku if you wanted to watch it and can’t get iplayer

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNTAyMzMwNTI=.html

The Shaggy Dog

A good brainless post-christmas-dinner kinda movie about a man who gets bitten by a dog and turns into one himself to uncover a plot by mad scientists to make people live forever. Quite predictable – turned out mainly about the protagonist realising what a dick he is in regards to his family and resolving to be a better person.

Bridge to Terabitihia

Nice gentle-paced film about kids imaginations. Quite slow, if I’m honest – one of those films that kind of drifts along for hours without any real direction. Had a twist at the end I didn’t see coming and which hit a nerve but a fairly likeable film about being a kid and growing up and learning that life isn’t easy and things aren’t always as they seem. Thought the girl in it was beautiful – she’s going to be a real looker when she grows up! Not the best actress but I liked her, and the guy’s kid sister was absolutely adorable and a great little actress for such a pint-sized person. I think she’ll go on to do good things.

So. Those are my films from the past few days. Going for a walk with the folks today so I may (or may not) have some photos worth doing something with when I come back.

Elle est Absente

2009-12-18T15:56:00.001-08:00

I know I've not been on much lately - I've been getting up at 6am for work lately (obscene! I'm an artist - don't do mornings!) which is at a card shop. It could be worse, I’m getting money coming in for a change – the christmas season and the same bloody cd of christmas songs is making my want to rip out my cochlea and having to tell pretty much every single customer who buys cards, giftwrap or a calendar that it’s buy one get one half price, when there are MASSIVE signs all around the shop saying so, yet they still go ‘oh!! really?? OOH….’ grrr… come on people – you have eyes – USE THEM.

Yeah so this Christmas as far as work goes it’s more ‘bah humbug’ than ‘hohoho’ but still – only a few more days then I’m done with the place. I don’t actually know what I’m writing right now because I’m so tired so probably rambling horrifically… so yeah.. basically saying that I’ve not been on for ages because I’m working and too tired when I get home to be bothered to think of something interesting to say. The place I work is located in chav central. I have never seen so much velour in one place. It offends my eyes.

Social Life.

2009-12-09T16:00:00.001-08:00

I complain a lot about having no social life. It is true, but this week has been a pretty good week. I went up to London to The Windsor Castle Pub in Marylebone and had a surreal time, which I have documented with moving pictures.

The first Friday of every month, The Handlebar Moustache Society meet in this particular pub. My best friend has a weird moustache/pipe fetish, so every month we go along to sit with a bunch of drunken face-furniture wearing people.

This time, My friend brought along a bag of mistletoe, and declared she wanted to raise enough funds flogging it to random people, to buy a pint that was funded by nature.

While in the pub and waiting for about 2 hours to find somewhere to sit, we ended up on a table with two businessmen from a ‘digital company’ (their wonderfully vague, non-specific self-labelling, not mine) who sort of took over Suzy’s game and brought it to a whole new level:

I don’t know how interesting it got after this because I sadly had to leave at 11 to get my train home. Nobody really remembers what happened after this.

Tonight was my Art Club’s Christmas party. Whoever said that old people are really boring needs to come along and meet these people. I am the youngest there by at least 30 years and I had an absolute ball.

Here’s a little quiz for you that we had (a few I can remember anyway). You have to find the colour associated word with these sentences. For example ‘cilla’s real name’ – Cilla Black’s real name is Pricilla White… that kinda thing.

1) stuck on a desert island (8)

2) Franciscans (10)

3) European nobility (5,2,6)

4) Here’s one I made earlier (4,5)

We then had a bag of random bits thrown at us – consisting of tissues, a sheet of wrapping paper, a newspaper, a wiry bit of tinsel, scissors, sellotape and 2 balloons. We had 15 mins to make a crazy hat. I won a bottle of pinot for mine! hehe! I scribbled the design in about 2 seconds and then sat there while the rest of the table sellotaped stuff to me! LOL We weren’t sure what to use the balloons for, but we came up with a good use fairly quickly, which got a huge laugh from everyone in the room! That’s something about myself that I like actually- I’m never too shy to make an eejit out of myself when it comes to dressing up. I LOVE wearing costumes!

I’m working as a Christmas temp in a card shop which is absolutely soul destroying! The people I work with are nice, but the work itself is absolutely mind-numbing, not to mention spine torturing. Standing up pretty much in the same square foot of space all day is already taking it’s toll on my back (which has been a bit dodgy since I was about 14) – walking around the supermarket today and it was aching! If we had a stool or something to sit on when we felt like it would really be so much easier on us – pretty much all of us have really sore backs by the end of the day. It’s horrific being stuck under strip-lighting punching numbers into a till for 8+ hours a day when I’d rather be getting high off white spirit fumes and wielding a paintbrush and making a mess. I know it’s getting me money and I badly need money, but still…. I NEED art. It makes me happy and keeps me sane…

Ok so ‘sane’ is a term I use loosely.. still

Me and My So-Called ‘style’

2009-11-28T12:41:00.001-08:00

DAY 1

Since winter has rolled in and I’ve gone from shorts/jeans and polo shirts to my usual style of clothing which is rather 1940s influenced, I’ve been getting SO MANY people commenting on the way I look and the way I dress and people staring at me when I walk by. Admittedly I do dress a bit unconventionally because I hate fashion trends – I just wear what I like and to hell with everyone else, basically. But literally, the past few weeks, if I go out, at least one person will compliment me. Which I find incredibly weird because.. let’s just say my whole life I’ve been kind of used to being the weird invisible kid in the corner doing her own thing in her own little world. It’s nice weird, but still weird. I think the weirdest it’s got was a month or so ago when I went to South Kensington to pop into the Royal College of Music to see some old friends, and a bunch of Japanese guys in identical business suits were following me up the road with a video camera. I have NO idea what that was about but I can’t say I enjoyed the experience too much. Obviously they’d mistaken me for someone else. Anyway I’ve also had a few people encouraging me to do a post on what I wear, so today’s post is just going to be showing you an extremely typical day look – like what I’d wear to go out food shopping or something. Basic slob gear really. The weather is dismal outside and even standing in front of the window it’s horrifically dark so I’ve tried to lighten it a bit by using a really crappy basic programme but I look kinda washed out.

The hair is a bit different to what I usually do when I curl it. Tried for ringlets today – it didn’t really work.

<Regular every day face: (looking horrendous because I’ve not had a decent night’s sleep for about a week now)

Foundation: Maybelline Dream Matte Mouse in Sand, Concealer is the Lancôme foundation I tested the other day (see here for review) Brows: Collection 2000 Kohl in Brown, Eyeliner: Collection 2000 black waterproof liquid line, Cheeks: Natural Collection in Sweet Cheeks Lips: L’Oreal: Star Secrets in Rouge Penelope (the Penelope Cruz one)

<- Nails. With 2 coats of the Nails inc primer under and one over. When I took this, I’d put the polish on over a week ago. (And I’m very hard on my nails)

Somewhat embarrassingly, I’m like the poster girl for primark in this photo. Minus the shoes, the whole outfit is from there. I love Primark, not only in the ‘I can’t afford to buy anything else’ way, but in the general ‘I really like their clothes’ way too.

You can’t really see the skirt in this too well, but I’ll wear it tomorrow and take a photo then so you can see it more clearly.

belt and skirt detail:

DAY 2

Again – regular face, using same makeup as above, but wearing the NYC lipstick in Dubonnet. Main difference is the light when I took the photo and the amount of sleep I had. Hair bow was improvised from an old bit of ribbon I found at the bottom of my drawer. Tied the bow around a pencil and then pushed a hairslide through the knot at the back to fix it to my hair. It’s a bit rough around the edges because it’s pretty much as old as I am – I used to wear it as a sash around my waist when I was about two. So i’m going to go shopping for some new bits of ribbon soon, because as dorky as it sounds, I like wearing bows in my hair.

Went for a sort of 20s-30s look

navy blue top, grey cashmere jumper – tucked it in because the skirt is high waisted and it looks better than being over it because it’d cover the detailing on the front of the skirt (which you can sort of see in the entry beforehand) (primark) and a belt just didn’t look right with it because of the silk scarf around my neck – just made it look too cluttered. Grey ribbed tights from topshop (i think? I remember them being about £7 anyway) and patent 2-tone brogues from New Look.

Day 3 (today)

Found this dress in Primark for £1 and thought this is so vile that it’s actually pretty cool!

The top part is a really vile sort of salmon peach colour. One colour I absolutely DETEST but the dress actually fits pretty nicely so I attacked the top bit with a red DYLON pen which I picked up for £3 at a local sewing shop.

I wear this over a navy blue top because it’s too cold to wear as-is at the moment and it tends to slip down a bit – there’s none of that sort of rubber stuff you get in other tops that are supposed to hold themselves up, so I don’t really want to end up flashing people so i just pin it to the top to hold it up.

Wearing this out to the pub tonight - this is the hair and makeup side of things. I’m not very good at doing Victory Rolls – I’ve only just started trying to do them so I still need a lot of practice – I have trouble getting the side bit curling rather than flopping so if anyone has any tips on how to do that better, then let me know!

the whole outfit, with the top bits painted red with the dylon pen. Looks much better, no?

And now the shoes:

(tights aren’t blue btw – they’re black woolly ones. just not as black as the shoes. )

OR tone it down for daywear with less fussy hair and flat shoes like these: (tip for suede, give it a squirt with suede protector before you wear them outside – so if it rains they don’t get totally wrecked)

Deviantart photosplurge

2009-11-25T17:45:00.001-08:00

I’ve not been on deviantart for AGES – lieterally since photoshop broke, I’ve barely shown my face there.

Decided to have a look there today to see what the folk I watch have been buys producing, and thought I’d post my some of my faves from the past 2 months here : )

Makeup Test: Day 3, Organic Glam & Sisley

2009-11-25T06:49:00.001-08:00

First off, the circles this morning: This is the last one I’m going to be posting for a while. I’m honestly not seeing one shred of difference with this stuff and it’s kinda pointless posting a photo of my naked undereyes every day so the next one I’ll post up will be on Sunday – give it a few days and see if there’s any difference there. Today I used the Organic Glam foundation in 03 and the Sisley concealer (you know the one where the sales assistant went for my eyes with her finger like a rabid seagull), and that was in shade 03. Which was pink.

Please excuse the rollers. They were both so useless that I didn’t bother putting the rest of my makeup on. The face I’m pulling is one of my many ‘unimpressed’ faces. I just scrubbed it off and re-did it with my usual cheapo Maybelline.

The organic stuff didn’t cover up a thing. It was a bit too dark for me anyway but it was like I was just slicking fake tan on my face. The formula was really thin and drippy – it felt light…. kind of like a runny moisturiser with fake tan in, and actually made me look worse than I looked without it. Those dark patches on my face aren’t there normally.

On the website it says “

Organic Glam Luminous Antioxidant Foundation: A luminous sheer foundation that gives a flawless radiant complexion. The formulation imparts a natural look that is light and comfortable to wear. Antioxidants help protect the skin from pollution and free radical damage, while mineral colours correct imperfections leaving the skin fresh and luminous. This unique formula can be layered for light, medium or complete coverage resulting in a natural looking, radiant complexion, protected by antioxidants.”

And it clocks in at £29.31 for 40ml. The models on the website really do look like they’ve had makeup absolutely slapped on with a trowel. The website also boasts that this product won Gold on the Bridal Beauty Awards for ‘You and Your Wedding’ Magazine 2009. Good job a majority of brides wear veils. I personally would never buy this product, even if the shade was right for me because it simply just doesn’t cover up anything. I like that it’s organic – I like the principle of not wearing any more chemicals than necessary. The sales assistant gave me a catalogue that’s like 1cm thick and half of it is some fat long preachy list of chemicals commonly used in makeup that are apparently carcinogenics. Like I’m going to memorise 6542 different names for chemicals I can’t even pronounce let alone remember and then scour the backs of products searching for them. I don’t think so.

I think there is a fine line between promoting organic products that are great for you – like Canterbury Whole Foods – when I lived in Canterbury I did a LOT of my shopping there – it was run by hippies who took your old plastic bags off you and reused them etc, and all the stuff was there and you were left to makeup your own mind about what you wanted – like a lifestyle choice. The other side of the organic market is the side I don’t like. The fashionable ‘ooh lets be organic and spend insane amounts of money on things’ side when, in essence you really don’t have to spend ludicrous sums of money to support local businesses and have organic stuff – and the ‘this chemical is bad it gives you cancer, if you drink coke you will get fat and die, this is why you need to use our product because we’re high and mighty and ORGANIC and you must bow down before us and worship us with your money’ preachy side. I don’t have people tell me what to do. If I want to find out what a certain chemical does, I’ll look it up. If I want to buy a foundation, I just want to buy something that works and looks good – I don’t need to be confronted by a ton of scientific technobabble that I don’t understand and frankly don’t care about in a preachy attempt to freak me out enough to spend an exorbitant amount of money on the product. The sales assistant was nice, but I don’t like the sales pitch the company is giving me.

The Sisley stuff was the wrong colour for a start, secondly it didn’t really cover anything up. Was light but a bit oily, and about £50!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHA

hahahahaha

haha

Or not. No wonder that woman came flying at me – bet she’d have got a fat commission for that. Blimey. The Lancôme stuff does a superior job of concealing to this stuff. and from this three day marathon of testing, it has come out triumphant. I really love that product and if I had £26 to spare, I’d definitely buy it.

Coming up.. kinda 1940s. Ish… ‘What I’m Wearing Today’, basically.

Awesome Art Installation

2009-11-24T17:53:00.001-08:00

Goin through one of my old mobile phones today and flicking through the pictures on it – got some awesome ones of a random art installation I came across in London around this time of year in 2006. I can’t remember if this was an actual building site that they artified or if it was just some random bits dotted around.. anyway, I thought it was a fantastic idea! I’m not usually one for sculptures or installations.. I mean, I thought Emmin’s bed and that pile of bricks were steaming piles of excrement and an insult to the art world, but these… I dunno.. beautifying the ugly, turning the mundane into something eye-catching.. made me smile anyway, and I like art that makes me smile. Anyway – enough gab; here are the pics.

The Cake of Awesomeness

2009-11-24T12:01:00.001-08:00

A while back, I mentioned having baked an awesome Michael Jackson cake for my friend and that a picture would come. Well, here it is:

Makeup test: Day 2, Lancôme

2009-11-24T10:42:00.001-08:00

Day one and 2 applications of the Elizabeth Arden miracle goop is over and I can’t see any difference yet. Early days though, and I did have a shocking night’s sleep last night so that probably hasn’t helped matters either.

Here’s the state of my eyes this morning. I decided to take the picture standing over by the window this time because it’s been really gloomy out lately and my camera doesn’t seem to like focussing when it’s dark. The circles don’t look so bad with that lighting, but they are actually darker than they were yesterday.

My skin did not agree with that horrible MAC foundation at all and my face has errupted overnight. Hormones aren’t helping, if we’re gonna be honest and feminine with each other, but in this case I’m going to say the MAC gunk factors in heavily with it’s nasty oily texture.

Today I’ve been testing Lancôme’s ‘Teint Idole Ultra’ foundation in ‘Beige Porcelaine’. First off this is a great colour for me & the saleswoman did a great job picking it out considering I wouldn’t let her put anything near my face! haha

It smells DELICIOUS. It smells like summer. It glides on, has a smooth velvety texture and kind of dries to a soft, almost powdery finish. I’ve had it on for a few hours now and it honestly doesn’t feel like I’ve got anything on my face at all – no cakey ‘mask’ feeling whatsoever. It glides over pores and conceals them, eavens out skin tone really nicely, for blemishes I just patted a tiny bit extra over them and they disappeared. This foundation is £26.50 if you buy it in Boots, and I’d say that so far, it’s definitely worth it. It’s not got rid of my black under-eyes, but it is JUST a foundation. After trying this on I can’t wait to see what the concealer would be like – they didn’t have any samples of it so I’ll try somewhere else or brave someone wielding a brush near my eye. I can’t afford this right now, but when I do eventually manage to get a ‘normal person’ job that gives me money haha then this is definitely going to be on the ‘list of things to buy’ (providing none of the others I’ll be testing this week beats it.. but I really think they’ll have a tough job –this has set the posts pretty high.)

Here’s what it looks like on – along with all the rest of the crap I’ve put on my face (the lipstick, in case you’re wondering is a combination of Clinique’s long last soft shine lipstick in blushing nude (great name) and the L'Oreal Penelope Cruz aka #708 lipstick I reviewed last weekend (which I have warmed up to a little, despite the smell, because the colour is really nice) over the top. I really hate having to take pictures of myself unless I’ve got like a proper theme in mind like the stuff in my DeviantArt self-portrait folder, so that’s the reason behind the totally gormless expression here… I may have to work on my 16 year old thrust out chest, bottom lip stuck out, holding the camera WAY above my head myspaz style poses.

<- 6 hours later…

It stayed on my face just fine, and I barely even got shiny, but it seems to have migrated from under my eyes somewhat. Maybe I was rubbing my eyes or something. Still want to try the concealer of this because I think it will be great! I’m not keeping it on ‘til 11 tonight again because I’m going to have a bath. Looks like it’d stay put pretty much all day though, so that’s good. All in all, a favourable review from me for Lancôme.

Makeup test: Day 1, MAC

2009-11-23T05:57:00.001-08:00

11.00 AM

I have to say I’m not overly impressed with MAC. I put on the foundation and the concealer. I was expecting, considering how everyone RAVES about MAC foundation etc that it would be like some little miracle in a bottle, but it really wasn’t. The concealer is ok – it conceals well but it’s quite thick and as you can see from the photo on the right settles into every little crevice in my skin and makes it look wrinkly, which I can assure you it isn’t. It’s great for covering blemishes but I don’t think I’d use it under my eyes again because it’s just too thick, and to be honest, under there, my £1.99 stick of Boots Natural Collection concealer does just as good a job of brightening and concealing that area, if not better. It’s only been about 3 hours now – I’ll keep it on til about 4 or 5 and take a photo so you can see how it lasts (if it lasts). The foundation I thought was horrible. It’s really oily, it doesn’t really cover anything, let alone pores, and it just felt like I was smearing something really cheap on my face, like those awful foundations by just-17. My face looked really greasy and I had to put a ton of powder on to take the shine off and now my face feels like it’s caked in theatrical makeup. I guess this product is ok if you like to slap it on with a trowel and wear tons of the stuff, but not for me. I don’t really like wearing makeup except for lipstick and around my eyes and maybe a little blusher on bare skin so if I have to wear something, I don’t want to feel it sitting on my face.

By about 5pm ^^^ and by 11:30pm ^^^

By about midday I’d scrubbed off all the foundation because it just turned my face to grease and my face has been really oily all day because of it. The concealer did stay put, I’ll credit it with that, but it was really cakey under my eyes. So MAC is a no for me.

HELP

2009-11-22T17:30:00.001-08:00

I made my first 999 call today. I went shopping and then I went to the bus station to wait for my bus. At the stop up from mine, a bus stopped and this guy who was probably in his 50s to 60s was really struggling to get out - he was clinging onto the door handle and his legs were giving way beneath him. NOBODY offered to help him. He was clinging onto the handle and reaching out in the air for something to stabilise himself because it's a big step to get down off London busses - it's a good 2 feet from the floor of the bus to the ground. NOBODY offered to help him. They just stood there and stared at him. What the HELL is wrong with people???!??? the guy was clearly disabled - he looked like he had Parkinson's disease quite badly from the way he stood (when he did manage to stand) and was clearly retarded which you could see in his face, the way he spoke, the absence of anything really going on behind the eyes and the fact that he was a bit on the grubby side and dribbling a bit, so I went up, grabbed his arm, steered him over to the seat, sat him down and asked if he was ok - he'd clearly been drinking because i could smell it coming off him, but alcohol aside he clearly wasn't right and he said 'can you call an ambulance' - he'd fallen over and hurt his back - took me a few goes to actually understand what he was saying - you know when a 2 year old talks in his own language and you generally just smile and nod and pretend to understand. So I called one and sat with him while he was being sick down himself - and everybody just moved away from him and stood staring at him from a distance like 'I don't want to help him, he's not my responsibility, somebody else can do it' - it gave me the absolute fucking rage, pardon my French, I mean what the hell is wrong with them - he's still a person, a human being - just because he's a bit retarded and a bit disabled and a bit drunk doesn't mean he's some kind of insect or something vile and inhuman - he's a living being that needed help - how would they like it if they needed help and nobody wanted to come near them because they looked a bit different, or like they were struggling. Why is showing physical or mental weakness so abhorrent to other people? I shouldn't have had to walk up to this guy from another stop to help him, I shouldn't have had to miss two busses to sit with him until the ambulance arrived and watch him be sick down himself and dribble everywhere and I shouldn't have had to sit in the freezing cold (10'C) for over 45 mins wearing only a miniskirt and a tshirt with a thin cardigan - not because I didn't want to help him, but because the other arsehole people who claim to be human beings who were only a couple of feet away from him or barging past him to get off the bus should have got there first.

There are times when I am embarrassed for what people have become, and I detest society for it. So utterly self-absorbed that they are only interested in what happens to other people if it gives them something to gossip about or if it benefits themselves in some way. Yes, I know I'm very angry, but I think I have got absolutely every right to be.

The Quest… and some foraging.

2009-11-22T13:01:00.001-08:00

I was on a scouting/foraging mission today in my local shopping centre. I’m on a quest to find the perfect under eye concealer. At the moment I’m using the Clinique airbrush but that’s running out really soon and so I’m looking around to see what else is on the market, just out of curiosity. I’m perfectly happy with Clinique, but if there’s something that can banish my undereyes even more, so much the better!!

The fruits of my scouting mission are as follows:

Lancome Teint Idole Ultra in 010 Beige Porcelaine – she gave me the foundation sample because they didn’t have one for concealer but she said they’re pretty much the same anyway. Says on the packet enduringly divine comfort makeup- 14h retouch-free Oil-free SPF10

MAC concealer in NW20 Select- that’s what she’s written at the bottom of the pot anyway. And just for laughs she threw in a pot of foundation in mineralise NWZO

Organic Glam Luminous Antioxidant Foundation in shades 02 & 03- a relatively new company – they;ve only been around for 7 years or so. On the packet it says A luminous sheer foundation that gives a flawless radiant complexion. The formulation imparts a natural look that is light and comfortable to wear. Antioxidants help protect the skin from pollution and free radical damage while mineral pigments correct imperfections leaving skin looking fresh and luminous. buildable formula that can be layered for a light, medium or complete coverage.

Elizabeth Arden Prevage eye anti-aging moisturising treatment- not that I’m worrying about wrinkles right now – I’m only 23, but it said on the stand thing that it’s supposed to help dark circles. It’s one of those twice daily cream things. Ok so I went in looking for concealer, but.. it’s free… so… This exclusive eye treatment with I-Seryl Complex and clinically proven Idebenone helps fight the effects of environmental damage: fine lines and wrinkles, crows feet, dark circles. Visibly smooths, brightens and lifts the look of eyes. Proof… not promises. And at £75 a pop it bloomin’ well should work! Obviously I can think of FAR better things to spend that kind of money on.. phone bills for about 7 months for example… I’m not vain or desperate enough to ever buy anything like this or even contemplate buying something like this, but hey, if it’s a free trial, why the heck not give it a shot.

Last, and by all means least – Sisley eye concealer with botainal extracts in 1 and 2. I did not like the sales assistant from that place one bit (hence the ‘and by all means least’) she was incredibly pushy, trying to convince me that my skin tone is pink – I think I know my own skin tone better than you love, and then despite me saying at least 3 times I’d rather have a sample to try on at home because the skin under my eyes is sensitive and it stings if it doesn’t like it. She then stood there going ‘but it’s botanical so you can’t have an allergic reaction and it’s great on all skin types’ – I’m sorry, but ‘botanical extracts’ do not qualify as completely botanical and/or organic. Let me put it this way… digitalis is organic. Pull up a few fox gloves in your garden and you can give someone heart failure. Ok so you’re not exactly going to ingest concealer unless you’re really really stupid, but I think I made my point… but disregarding all that, she then came at my face with her finger loaded up with a heap of dark brown gunk. I’m trying to get RID of dark circles, not put them on!! I have a phobia of things being near my eyes in general which was made worse by burning my eyeball a few years ago when part of a lit match flew off and landed in it. To have anything - forget anyone else’s finger near my eye is an absolute ABSOLUTE no-go area. There is only one person I trust to have his finger near my eyes and even then with limits. Yeah and then she gave me the sample to take back in the 2 colours I said I didn’t want, and refused to give me the one I actually wanted to try on, because apparently she knows what colour skin I have better than I do, when I’ve been buying makeup for myself for over 10 years…

I’ll try it on and post photos for a laugh but even if by some miracle the thing looked good, I’m not going to get it on principle alone. Coming at my eyes with your finger. Jesus. FYI it says on the packet ‘eye concealer for dark circles and under eye puffiness. Reduces signs of tiredness, masks imperfections and visibly diminishes lines.

My undereyes are pretty horrendous as I think the photo below demonstrates quite well. So i’ll try to remember to post updates of my makeupless eye at various stages of using the Elizabeth Arden goop so that if there is actually any visible difference, you’ll see it yourself, not just take an airbrushed model in a glossy magazine or sales assistants word for it.

If anyone has tested any of these products, please feel free to leave a comment and let me know!

Do You Want The Truth, Or Something Beautiful?

2009-11-22T05:51:00.001-08:00

A couple of posts back, I regaled you with an adventure of the media variety – being on the set of Paloma Faith’s then upcoming music video. (To refresh your memory, click the picture of the set on the right)

Here’s Paloma’s video diary of the making of – The first part was during the day and the bit where she’s in the trailer was done probably in the final bits – coz she did the crying stuff around 10-11 – not entirely sure why she’s putting makeup back on, coz I thought we’d wrapped by then, but then what do I know… LOL

The guy with the big rectangular glasses was an absolute DUDE – I’m horrendous with names, but I think his name was Josh? he sat down with one of the extras (who I immediately named ‘duck’, for some reason) and I as we were the first arrivals, and set about explaining that they have an on-set choreographer and they were wanting a few shots of ballroom dancing but don’t worry if we’ve never danced before because the choreographer would teach us all the steps and everything…. the looks on our faces was that of pure horror which cracked him up and he told us he was only joking but we should just get comfortable because we’d be sitting down for a really long time. I think the guy with the baseball cap Enrique (?) was sitting a few seats away because between takes Paloma would come off the stage and jump him haha so he’s in it too somewhere, but you can’t see him.

The video is now out, and it looks great! it’s different to her others – it’s very simply done which works with the song – her others have a lot going on in them – like the backdrop of a bowling alley becoming New York, or being in a warehouse full of people in crazy costumes and burlesque dancers. Can’t really see any of us extras in it – we’re more indistinct shapes than anything and I find it mildly mind blowing that the director spent about 2 hours filming us in various seats, and shots over Paloma’s shoulder panning down the middle of the aisles of seats etc and we did that stand up and cheer thing about 15 times – probably spent the best part of 40 minutes on that alone, and they put all that work into US and we hardly even show up – this isn’t me having a moan about not having my 15 minutes of fame at all – I’m just more stunned about just how much was cut – and trying to imagine what it must have been like for Paloma, and other actors and singers and on-screen people, when they’re one their feet slogging it out for 16 hours doing take after take after take, and that 16 hours of work gets condensed into about 40 seconds of video and the rest of it ends up on the cutting room floor. It’s crazy.

Anyway – here’s the video – Enjoy!

About Art…

I know I haven’t really written much about art for ages, but with winter rapidly closing in, it’s just not the right weather for it. My studio is the shed in the garden and is not insulated, and with the horrendous weather and everything we’ve been getting lately I don’t really want to electrocute myself by running an electricity cable down 80 feet of garden in torrential rain, and it’s also just too dark with the bad weather and the nights drawing in. I still want to keep this blog going though because for some reason I actually kind of enjoy writing it, so I’ll be writing on.. well.. whatever takes my fancy until the weather improves enough to start work again. I’m also having to look for a job (I know.. URGH) over winter because if I’m not painting, then frankly, I need to be doing SOMETHING because I cannot tell you just how boring it is to be stuck indoors doing nothing. Some envy this bohemian lifestyle of mine – sleeping in til late and pottering around until 4am, but I promise, it’s solitary and it gets really old and really dull really fast. I can’t wait for summer to show its face again!

This blog is also kinda boring looking so I’m going to see what I can do about sprucing it up a bit and making it look a bit more interesting. So.. we shall see what we shall see. Til then, Take care

x0x0

Simply Red

2009-11-21T20:14:00.001-08:00

As some (if not all) of you are aware, I’m pretty obsessed with all things 1940s, and this also translates into the way I dress and how I ‘put my face on’. The key colour for 1940s makeup is red. Red lips, and red nails. Thing is, it is so easy to go wrong with red and end up looking like a bit of a slapper if you go too garish, and a bit of a goth if you go too dark. So. I just thought I’d rifle through my makeup bag and give a quick review/overview of what stuff I use to get my look (I will post up a picture soon hopefully – My camera doesn’t really agree with red values and I need to get photoshop so I can sort the lighting out so it does actually resemble the colours more closely – call me a snob, but windows live ‘fix’ thing doesn’t quailfy as worthy editing software.. if something is worth doing….

Ok: my face type. Quite pale, slighly olive toned, quite dehydrated combination/oily skin, a few blemishes, green eyes with massive black circles under them. Ok so it’s not exactly flattering but hey, at least I’m honest and not kidding myself.

All these prices are based on Boots prices

Base: Maybelline Dream Matte Mousse in 030 Sand. £6.84

I HATE using foundations – it makes my skin feel like it’s covered with a film and like it’s suffocating.. that kind of feeling that your face just feels gunky. Yuck. Bought this on the off chance and it’s actually great! it’s a really nice light formula, really good coverage and you barely need to put any on for it to work its magic, so it lasts for ages. Covers up large pores nicely without clogging them and stays on your face for ages.

Concealer: Clinique Airbrush Concealer in 04 Neutral Fair. £14.68

With my dark circles (which, before you say have nothing to do with lack of sleep or iron deficiency – they’re just like that) I really need some heavy duty stuff to cover them up, only heavy duty stuff tends to cake into the creases under my eyes and I end up looking about 80 rather than 23 within a few hours. This stuff doesn’t – it’s absolutely brilliant – it’s light, non-greasy, stays put and covers everything up. The price makes my eyes bleed a bit, but for what it does I’m willing to fork out for it. I know quite a few people swear by YSL Touche Éclat, but I actually prefer this. I literally only use it under my eyes so one of these things lasts me about 6 months.

Powder: Rimmel Stay Matte Pressed Powder 003 Peach Glow £2.99

Keeps the shine at bay effectively. It also has a light fresh fragrance, but you actually have to put your nose in it to smell it so if you’re sensitive to scented products this shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

Eyeshadow: Natural Collection solo eyeshadow in Sea Shell £1.65

I couldn’t find a photo of this but it’s basically a little pot of a very pale beige eyeshadow that I put on my lids, which is good for the very flat 1940s style of makeup, and a little underneath – it’s lighter than the stay matte powder so it doesn’t cake as much and it lightens up under my eyes even more plus it’s very slightly shimmery so it reflects the light too. Fragrance free, this has been a staple in my makeup bag for about 4 years now.

Mascara: Max Factor False Lash Effect in Brown Black £10.99

Every time I run out I try to use something else, although I tend to stick with Max Factor as my eyes don’t seem to mind it. This stuff.. I wouldn’t say it makes me look like I have false lashes (which is the main reason why I bought it – massive long lashes are one of the big features of 40s makeup – I wasn’t expecting them to actually look as long as false lashes, but a bit longer than this product actually gets them would be nice. One of my pet hates about advertising is they always use models with false lashes.. I mean.. how the hell am I supposed to judge how a product is going to look if you’re not even going to show it in use properly?!), but it’s pretty good. I like the big chunky silicone type brush – I hate having gunky lashes and this totally avoids that. For a 40s look – lots of big lashes on top but don’t do your bottom lashes.

Liner: Rimmel Exaggerate in 002 Absolute Brown £4.88

It’s ok – does the job – felt pen style at the end makes application easy and mess free – the tip is a little on the thick side for some people I suppose, but I like it personally – it’s nice and sturdy and doesn’t flick all over the place like some with thin brushes do. A common mistake for people doing 40s makeup is to go really overboard with eyeliner and flick it up at the edges – that’s 50s, not 40s. Look at the pics below – you’ll see there’s a lot of fake lash going on but not thick eyeliner.

Brows: Collection 2000 Kohl Eyeliner 2 Brown £?

Perfectly Manicured brows are VITAL to the 1940s look. You can yell ‘Audrey Hepburn’ at me all you want, but she was 50s, not 40s. Yes, I know I’m using an eyeliner, but I’ve found a lot of eyebrow brushes are far too gummy, crumbly, and it’s kinda like smearing kiddies facepaint on and it all gets clogged up. I like using this with a brush stuck on the end that i took off one of the ‘proper’ eyebrow pencils I had before I threw it away.

I can’t actually find this on the boots website – I hope they haven’t stopped doing them, coz this one is a good colour for me! this pencil is a good few years old though, so they might well have done.

Blusher: Natural Collection in Sweet Cheeks £1.95

Yet another colour I’ve discovered isn’t on the website –I’m guessing Rosey Blush (or whatever it’s called) is probably similar

NOW FOR THE REDS:

NAILS:

Base Coat/ Top Coat: Nails Inc, Hyde Park £7.00

Firstly, if your nails are pathetic like mine and are weak and tend to peel, stick on a couple of layers of this stuff under your polish – I totally swear by it. I also have a problem with polish flaking off/chipping etc – apparently this is a problem that loads of people have – even relatively expensive polishes like Max Factor can’t make it through the day without chipping. Put a layer of this stuff over your polish and it’ll last at least a week. If you can’t find Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens is basically the same – same colour, smell etc – I dunno if they just changed the name or if it’s actually a different one, but they both work exactly the same. It’s expensive, but definitely worth it.

BARRY M £2.89

the name has rubbed off the label so I can’t read it but I think it’s the darker of the reds. It says 1A 315 on the bottom if that helps.. I have a newer one lurking somewhere that might be legible. When I find it I’ll post it up. It needs 2 coats and an overcoat.. in fact, they all do.

Collection 2000 Hot Looks fast dry in Diva £1.75

Needs AT LEAST 2 coats – it’s a bit lurid but once you’ve put on several coats it starts to look ok.

Rimmel 60 seconds in 320 Rapid Ruby £3.49

Nice thick formula – doesn’t dribble or drip, only need one coat because it’s pretty opaque as well as thick. Nice rich colour, although perhaps a little dark for some – it’s not as dark as it is in the photo. I love this one.

Bourjois So Laque in Rouge Diva (11) and Rouge Escarpin (10) £5.37

I’m actually kinda used to the rimmel one so I found going from this to Rouge Diva a bit drippy, if I’m honest. it’s pretty transparent so it definitely needs a couple of coats, but the shade is nice. the Escarpin is quite a bit brighter but not so bright it looks tacky.

LIPS!

To start with my favourite and work my way down:

Sleek True Colour in Vixen.

It was about £2 in superdrug, if memory serves. I just went on the superdrug website and couldn’t find it, or anywhere else on the web come to that, but it’s definitely there because I only got it last week – but I think you’d have to go into one of the bigger stores in order to find it. I got mine in the Superdrug in Kingston upon Thames, so I KNOW it’s there. It’s IMMENSE! serious ‘voom’ power. Outrageous without being slutty. I think it takes some balls to wear this lipstick because it is really very red. once you’ve blotted it, it’s quite a matte finish (it’s pretty matte anyway) and it doesn’t go anywhere. Seriously – I can put it on at 10 in the morning, have tea, eat sandwiches, do whatever and it’ll still be on at 11pm. in fact you have to scrub it off. It’s WONDERFUL stuff. Next time I go to Kingston I’m going to stock up because I don’t think this one will stay on the shelves long. I’ve actually had quite a few heads turning to stare at me when I’m wearing this but it doesn’t really bother me too much because my whole look is a bit ‘different’ if I’m honest, so I’m kinda used to it. The ONLY downside to this is that it dries my lips out a bit so I use ‘blistex ultra moisture’ and let that sink in before applying it.

Mac in Ladybug £ (I bought mine in Fenwicks for about £12 I think)

Love Love LOVE this lipstick. It does wear off but it still looks good, moisturises nicely, stays put – no bleeding. REALLY NICE shade of red too – not garish at all, yet still vibrant. It’s a lustre lipstick so a bit shiny – personally I’d prefer it if it came in matte – but that’s mainly because I have quite long hair which I wear down and I hate getting my hair stuck to my lips (which is one of the main reasons why I avoid lip gloss like the plague.. the fact I think it looks pretty cheap and nasty and like you can’t stop dribbling or something also features heavily). I don’t think it’s scented per se, but it smells like the way makeup SHOULD.. if that makes sense…

NYC in Dubonnet

– don’t remember the £ and it isn’t listed on boots.com but I reckon it was about £4

a nice perky but subtle colour – I’d say it’s one of those that enhances natural lip colour rather than painting over it – I dunno how much sense that makes… I guess it looks like a pretty natural shade – like when you come in from the cold and your lips go bright red – like that.

L’Oreal Colour Riche Star Secrets, Rouge Penelope (708) £7.82

It’s a nice colour and fairly moisturising but that’s about as far as my good review goes. Designed for Penelope Cruz, apparently, for what it is, it’s expensive. It stinks of flowers and the last thing I want near my mouth is something pungent and floral, and it wears off faster than you can blink. I’ve never bought a L’oreal lipstick before, but this is pretty off-putting. For the money I paid I expected a lot better.

I divided my mouth up in sections so it might be easier to see - please excuse the retard smile but it’s kinda hard not to smile like a spaz when you’re holding a camera inches away from your mouth and trying to get it in focus.

From right to left (in the photo) we have…

MAC ladybug, SLEEK vixen, L’OREAL Penelope and NYC Dubonnet.

And here’s what they look like lined up:

it doesn’t look it in the photo but the one on the right – the ‘sleek’ is really about as scarlet as you can get. Brilliant lipstick!

Quite a long post.. art, movies, life etc

2009-11-17T09:42:00.001-08:00

WELLLLLLL….. it’s been quite a while since my last entry and surprisingly I’ve actually been having a fairly interesting life for a change! haha! well the past week or so anyway I actually have something to say for myself and some opinions to express.

Had an art show at Bourne Hall in Ewell Village, I don’t think anything has sold, which is a bit annoying to be honest – what I’m finding increasingly irritating is that everyone loves my work, and I get emails and messages and such from folk saying they love it, yet when it comes to parting with cash people are less keen. I know it’s the recession and the recession bites but seriously – what’s going to last longer and bring you more joy? a pair of shoes which’ll last as long as fashion dictates, and will probably give you blisters, or a painting that can put some sun in your life when you see it hanging on your wall? Artists have to eat too.

From artists to authors…

Enid Blyton

Like millions of children over the past 80 odd years, I was brought up on Enid Blyton’s books: The Famous Five, The Children of Cherry Tree Farm, Josie, Click and Bun, Naughty Amelia Jane, The Secret Seven, Brer Rabbit (yes she did write a version, before you jump at me with ‘actually.. it’s American’) The Magic Faraway Tree… to name but a FEW (!) I absolutely loved them – I even had a few of her stories on tape and listened to them til they wore out, and the tedium of annual 9 hour car journeys up to Scotland was dissolved by immersing myself in her safe 1940s world where boys were boys and where toys came alive. I really thought she was the best thing since sliced bread.

Last night the BBC aired a biopic called ‘Enid’, starring Helena Bonham Carter

Apparently this was a ‘low budget biopic’ according to the Telegraph, but I personally thought it was exceptionally well done (although Matthew Macfadyen’s voice tends to grate on my nerves – through no fault of his own). The only problem now is that I feel like a good portion of my childhood has been a big fat lie, and I am feeling terribly disillusioned. I had a good old rant to my friend about it on MSN last night, when she asked what made Enid Blyton such a bad person, I gave her a list. This particular friend lives in America, so I don’t think she can get BBC Iplayer.

If you’d like to see this for yourself, here’s the link: WATCH NOW ON BBC IPLAYER

And for those who want the fairly detailed summary.. ****SPOILER ALERT******* (this is pretty much a cut n’ paste jobby from the ‘lowdown’ I gave my friend)

Her mum was quite a prim proper, cold, reserved person, and her dad was her soulmate. He was also a womaniser and walked out on her mother when she was about 12-13. She left home to become a teacher and got her books published. She married her publisher, Hugh Pollock and treated him like a dog (she actually treated her dog better)– constantly barking orders at him, being incredibly brusque and absolutely obnoxious. She had two children who she pretty much wanted nothing to do with. She treated them as though they were nothing more than a massive inconvenience – she didn’t even want to pick her youngest up out of the cradle when she was about a week old and crying because she’d decided that the baby was being naughty and wilful, and so palmed her off on a nurse to bring up. She’d rather spend time with her pet dog than with her children. When the dog died, she pretended he was still alive. Lived completely in her own world. She told everyone her mother was dead, because she didn’t like her and blamed her for driving her father away – she had this ridiculous image in her head that her dad was like some perfect creature that nobody could even come near – absolutely deluded. She put on the perfect wife image for the cameras and for radio and the papers, and invited children over to have tea parties with her… scenes like this (picture) while her own children were banished to the play room. When a child asked who those two little girls on the stairs were and why didn’t they come in, Enid made a comment about them being her two daughters who see her all the time so don’t need to see even more of her during the tea party. Seemed she had some peter pan syndrome going on – she was happy to call children her friends and to write stories for them and slurp jelly with them, but when she had to play the grown up and actually look after her own children, she didn’t want to know.

When the war started, Hugh had to to go surrey to work for the homefront or the home guard (whichever) in Surrey, and Enid tried guilt tripping him ‘what about your wife and children? you have responsibilities here’ – when if she wasn’t slagging him off or yelling at him she totally ignored him, which drove him to drink. While he was away, she had an affair with a married man, a surgeon. Her daughters had two pet rabbits, and Enid and her lover ate one of them for dinner. She suddenly decided that her older daughter was a nuisance (both children were really well behaved!) and so packed her off to boarding school, leaving Imogen (the younger) alone. She continued her affair with the surgeon, who had rented a flat in either Knightsbridge or Kensington, I forget which, under the name of Blyton’s nanny, Dorothy. The wife turned up at Enid’s house and confronted Enid, who denied everything, and then rumours started circulating about Dorothy, because the flat was in her name, and Enid just totally dismissed these slanderous allegations being made against her nanny, who she supposedly regarded as a best friend! (some way to treat a best friend). Her attitude was basically one of ‘stuff happens, get over it’. Which is fine for her to say when it’s not her name or reputation that is being dragged through the mud. Hugh came back from Surrey and Enid demanded to know what he was doing there – he was like ‘er… well… This is my house too you know’. She asked for a divorce. On the condition that if he let her sue him for adultery, she would give him unlimited access to Gillian and Imogen. He agreed and then every time he tried to see his children, she came up with an excuse. Which was rich considering she never bothered to spend any time with them herself. She married the surgeon. In the biopic, she summoned Imogen into the room, sat her down, informed her of her decision, and that the surgeon was to be her new dad and wouldn’t that be great. When Imogen said she liked her old daddy, Enid basically told her to stop being a brat and to get out. Which was nice. She also called up her publishers and threatened to leave them and go with someone else if they didn’t fire Hugh, and as she was their biggest client, the obviously made sure his career was destroyed.

Her brother turned up to inform her that her mother had died and to give her the dates of the funeral (she didn’t even know who he was) and asked her what he and his brother Carey had ever done to her – the whole mum and dad thing he could understand, but why did she cut them out of her life for 30 years too when they’d done nothing wrong. Enid had a cry (which I think was out of complete self-pity rather than any real sense of remorse) and then dismissed it. When Imogen asked who the man was and what did he mean when he said ‘mum’s dead’, Enid decided she too was a pest and a little snitch and needed to be set away as soon as possible. She got pregnant again aged 47 - then 'accidentally' fell off a ladder and lost it - the way it's portrayed in the doco she's like 'oopsie oh dear I've just had a miscarriage.. looks like I don't need to raise another child after all' (to herself) and all apologies and remorse to her husband. She developed dementia/Alzheimer's and died aged 71.

So yes. feeling pretty sorely disillusioned by the whole fandango.

There’s an interview/talk given by her daughter, Gillian here, which you can download and listen to. I had some problems trying to get it to play with media player, and realplayer flatly refused to have anything to do with it, but VLC media player (which is free to download and is totally safe and actually really good – I've used it for years) has absolutely no problems.

Click here to link to the audio interview.

I have a feeling that the BBC heavily relied on Imogen for information because Gillian doesn’t really seem to carry too many ill feelings around with her. She’s now dead, but according to Wikipedia (hmmm… well we all know how reliable that is) she was estranged from Imogen.. so maybe part of it was their differences of opinion about their mum? who knows…

From authors to singers…

Paloma Faith

This girl is hands down my absolute favourite singer at the moment – I saw her on tv completely by chance at about 4am on some obscure music show one night when I couldn’t sleep and I thought she was adorable – she was promoting her song ‘Stone Cold Sober’, and I was so absolutely blown away by how much she looks like my friends little sister, Liv, that I immediately trawled the internet for a photo of Paloma and sent it to her. Usually people don’t really see it when people say ‘you look like this person’ but Liv was shocked to see someone else with her face (and her hair!!). A bit later I decided to have a flick through youtube to see what else she’s done, which was when I came across New York (this song and ‘upside down’ are my favourites)

I then caught her on Later With Jools Holland, where she again proved herself to be a fantastic live performer (despite a sore throat) as well as a really down to earth person who is an absolute sweetheart.

She’s one of those people that springs out of nowhere and is so different to all the other inane bullshit (pardon my French) that is being spewed out of the music machine that when someone like Paloma comes along and breathes fresh air into the radio waves it really does give me hope for music as a form of entertainer… I mean ‘under my umbrella-ella-ella’….?…… kill me.

No. This girl is good and she’s already skyrocketed from relative obscurity a few months ago on a 5 minute slot on a late night tv show that is on at such an unsociable hour that only complete weirdos like me would be awake watching it! HAHA!

The reason for including her in the blog today – apart from helping to spread the awesomeness of Paloma Faith, is because my exciting news for the month is that I’m in her forthcoming music video! ‘Do You Want The Truth Or Something Beautiful?’ from her ALBUM of the same name. Yep! An audience member in the background, but the whole experience was pretty bizarre. I’ve grown up in a theatre – my dad was an opera singer, I spent most of my teen years and a bit before in various drama classes and putting on shows, or working in wardrobe at The Royal College of Music between productions, and helping out on the stage there or ushering. Yes, I have actually even slept on a stage before. It is not comfortable. So the world of theatre is very familiar to me – the smells, the sounds, the light checks, the bits of multicoloured tape stuck to the floor, cables rolled up, lots of dust etc… that is all totally normal, but I’ve never done anything with film before and the thing that really got me was JUST HOW repetitive it was. I mean I had some vague idea from watching outtakes of tv shows and some documentaries and such but actually being there where you shoot maybe 15 seconds of film and then do the same again and again and again and again all from different angles.. it’s insane! the rigging is different too – with the dolly with two guys on it whizzing back and forth, some guy up a ladder, and the COLD!!!!! the front was pretty warm where all the lights and the action were, but in the back (we were in a church hall) it was absolutely FREEZING!!!! why are church halls always so flipping cold? The extras all banded together swapping jokes and ribbing each other – made a few friends there and met a lovely couple from the village next to mine who gave me a lift back as we wrapped up over an hour later than expected. The whole atmosphere was really relaxed but not in the lazy way – it was very positive and ‘we’re going to do this and it’s going to look GREAT, but we realise it is tedious so we’re trying to get you to have as much of an enjoyable experience (minus the cold) as possible. Being fed with dominoes Pizza also helped that tremendously! haha

They’d been there since 7 in the morning – I dunno how long Paloma had been there for, but she must have been absolutely shattered. I have SO MUCH respect for her. Now I think about it, I think live performers have it easy – when I say live I mean as in people who go on a stage, sing a song and then go home. This poor girl has just spent the past few weeks going all over the world doing promotion before her tour which starts this week I think, which sounds fun, and probably is to an extent, but constantly travelling is exhausting, and having to sing and do all that on top of everything else and then work really very hard shooting the video – long hours, few breaks and constantly having to have high levels of energy projected at the camera. Even more respect goes to her two dancers who were on their feet for the best part of 6 hours straight AT LEAST, and in 8 inch heels. They must have been exhausted! I do not envy them at all. What amazed me is that even after all that, Paloma still wanted to chat to us, joke around and sit with us between takes. For all the Paloma bashers out there, she really is the sweetest person in the world and before you judge her, you should meet her yourself. I’m not saying this as a raving fan – I’m a fan, but more of a casual one really to be honest – I like her for herself and her style more than her music- what I am a raving fan about is what she stands for – as in the anti-conformity. Also, for all those people who leave comments on youtube saying Paloma is chubby, Paloma is fat, Paloma needs to shift a few pounds – ad nauseum – you need to get your eyes sorted out. I’m 5ft3 and have a 26 inch waist. I do not consider myself to be the slightest bit fat. Paloma (minus shoes) is roughly the same height as me I reckon, and she is absolutely tiny – she is much thinner than I am. Take a good look at your own waistlines before you call someone fat based on a 2d image on your computer screen.

Me looking incredibly dishevelled at 11:30pm having not had the benefit of the attention of Paloma’s makeup lady LOL and taken on my crap quality camera on my mobile phone. The ONE TIME I leave the house and forget to put my camera in my bag!!!! GAH!. I’m not sure why Paloma is so yellow and I’m so red.. hopefully when I get photoshop again I’ll be able to sort it out. If you’re wanting a height guide thingummy.. I’m wearing ugg boots and she’s wearing these:

If not these actual ones, something extremely similar –> –> ->

When it comes to Ruby Slippers, I prefer mine if I’m honest (I couldn’t walk in Palomas for starters – I’d be flat on my face in an instant… I think I’d have to hold onto something just to stand up in them!) these are mine:

From filming to films…

The Men Who Stare At Goats

Went and saw this the other night. I won’t say too much about it because you can see it for yourself and make up your own mind but it was ok. I might have enjoyed it a bit more if we hadn’t left it till 11pm to see it and my feet weren’t in agony from wearing 4 inch heels for hours! haha The trailer was done extremely well, it picked out pretty much every single funny bit in the film.. which is great, but the rest of the film is basically bridging the gap between funny bits. It was still a good film – bizarre and amusing… when Euan Mcgregor wasn’t being annoying and whiney.

There is one more thing… an awesome Michael Jackson cake – but the photo is one another camera- not mine – and I’m not sure where it is at the moment

That’s all for now… I think…

Good Times

2009-11-08T18:20:00.001-08:00

I’m having a bout of insomnia as I write, and, thanks to Twitter, I’m feeling nauseatingly nostalgic for my university days. The reason why Twitter is to blame is because one of the trending topics is #GoodTimes, and it got me thinking about the fun I had when I was at uni (University of Kent at Canterbury) and thought I’d share some of my flashbacks of my good times. I’ll try to make each as brief as a ‘tweet’ – fleeting moments of my memory.

One of my professors was disabled and whizzed around in an electric wheelchair. His name is Dave Reason, and he is a LEGEND. He introduced himself in my first ever lecture by whizzing into the unlit lecture theatre, announcing to the darkened room ‘Greetings, students… I am Dave, and I am a Cyborg’ and switching on all the lights. Absolute Legend.

Another would mutter half-to himself, half to us as he paced back and forth at the front of the lecture theatre. When he got to one end, he’d scratch his head, when he got to the other, he’d cough. Every few laps he’d stop in the middle, look up at us, and swear loudly. Then repeat the procedure.

Going to ASDA at 3am in my PJs with my housemate to do some late night ice-cream shopping, and being highly amused by a man in the dairy aisle who was yelling at the yoghurts to stop talking to him.

Revelling in smugness when my evil housemate (in first year) decided to throw a roast dinner party for her gangster friends and the first thing we knew about it was when black smoke was billowing out of the kitchen door.

Having christmas dinner at a friends house. I peeled 24 potatoes and we made gravy in a washing up bowl. xmas dinner with all the trimmings for 7 people. I was very impressed with my friend’s culinary skills and our creative use of kitchen utensils.

flicking Jelly out of the window of a 3rd floor flat because we liked the ‘splat’ noise it made when it hit the ground. If it hit a Christchurch student, we got bonus points (Christchurch were the ‘scum at the bottom of the hill’ – the friendly rivalry between my uni and the other uni in town which had only recently achieved ‘university’ status having previously been a polytechnic, and therefore an inferior ‘not real’ uni)

Getting off a bus after my first weekend home in my first term of uni to be confronted with about 20 naked guys running round a roundabout while one person squirted them with washing up liquid and another squirted them with a hose.

Going into a gay bar in halloween dressed up as Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz, being harassed by a giant chicken trying to convince me to take up smoking, and totally not getting what being a ‘friend of dorothy’ actually meant. I thought people were just being nice to me.

Going into another bar opposite the gay bar the same night, and coming face to face with a stranger dressed as Scarecrow. We hugged, we laughed. It was a beautiful moment.

walking home from uni in my stockinged feet because it was raining and i didn’t want to ruin my shoes when i jumped in puddles

Pulling one of my many all-nighters to get an essay in on time, and drinking about 9 cans of coke to keep me awake… then remembering in a panic that i’d seen a documentary that showed that if you drink too much coke your stomach can actually explode. Immediately went onto google to find out just how many cans qualified as too much.

waiting for over 2 hours for a cab in the pelting rain after the summer ball (my friends wouldn’t let me walk home alone at gone 2am because i really didn’t wanna wait around indefinitely for a cab in that horrendous weather), I wore a red dress and the dye was running down my legs and i looked like Carrie. got home and stood fully clothed under the shower to warm up. i figured as i couldn’t possibly get any wetter it didn’t matter. by the time i dried off and had packed my bag, it was time to leave the house to embark on a 13 hour bus journey up to Glasgow via Edinburgh to see Liza Minnelli in concert at the Armadillo

Finding my friend drunk and asleep in a tree in the middle of artsfest.

finding a ditch in the field behind my student house that had tadpoles in and grabbing a few handfulls and putting them in a bucket to transfer to the pond in our garden, then watching them grow up into frogs.

Making ‘Beanpole’ the 6ft3 skinny snowman.

just a few memories there to add to the ones on twitter…

A Yorkshire Adventure and a Good Day in London Town

2009-10-28T11:59:00.001-07:00

I’m writing this post using Windows Live Writer, so I’m really not 100% sure how it’s going to come out, IF it’s going to come out at all! So here goes!

The other week I was up in Yorkshire, staying with a friend of my parents, Margaret Roberts, who is an artist! As in a real one haha – she’s been a working artist her entire life, and she’s done pretty much everything from doing adverts on the back of busses to newspaper cartoons to set design and.. well.. I think you get the picture (pun not intended originally, but it’s too good to leave out). Very interesting and varied life! She’s working on making a website now (which I might have slightly bullied her into doing) but it’s not ‘live’ yet – I have to go back there and sort all that out for her when she’s ready, but for now you can see a couple of pieces of her work here:

The reason why I went up there is because I cannot draw to save my life and I hate not being able to do something. It seems that most people got some form of education at school and learned the basics of perspective and all of that during their GCSEs. I didn’t do GCSE art – I don’t know what the heck I did, music or something, so by the time I managed to talk the art teachers into letting me take it up for A-level, everyone else knew how to do this stuff and I was left to make it up as I went along.. which is fine… if you don’t ever draw a building or anything with any form of perspective in it in your life. Literally. People ask me how I can paint when I can’t draw – and really – they don’t see my ‘preparation’. for example – for a painting of something like this (this isn’t my photo by the way)

would be like this ^

a vague idea of where things go and paint fills the rest out.

So. I learned all about perspective and had some good walks on the dales and the moors which was great! I will post some photos up eventually, but when my computer died a few weeks ago, I lost Photoshop and have been bemoaning it ever since, but hopefully I'll have it back soon – I also got Windows 7 yesterday which is B.E.A.UTIFUL! I dunno what everyone is complaining about. It’s shinier than vista and a HELLUVA lot quicker. And I like the pin to menu thingummys. Installing AVG was initially a little bit of a challenge, but one easily overcome by looking in the avg forums. I’ve only had this for a day soIi obviously can’t judge yet, having not put it through its paces, but so far so good!

Yesterday was a day of adventure and intrigue!

On the way up to London, everyone on the train was staring at me – I hate people staring at me because I get very self-conscious. All I did was pin my hair up a bit 1940s at the front and slap on some lipstick.. I didn’t realise that wearing red lipstick gave people licence to stare at me. Didn't realise it was half term either and South Kensington - where I was going- is museum central – you’ve got the V&A, the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum, Imperial College and the Royal Albert Hall and the Royal College of Music ALL THERE on the same bit of road, so it was a battle past millions of kids - actually had to queue for 5 mins to get OUT OF the station - as in to get up the stairs off the platform.. This is where it got a little weirder: I was walking along, and a bunch of about 8 Chinese guys all wearing identical business suits turned a film camera on me and were filming me walking up the road (??!) Evidently they thought I was someone I’m not. Met up with a friend for lunch at the ‘nines’ (aka the queens arms – I love that pub) made friends with a puppy there - a beautiful husky with ice blue eyes - called Charlie, who I wanted to steal and take home with me. I may have a couple of jobs coming up (normal-person jobs) working on a switchboard, and had a meeting with the new stage manager to see if I could possibly get some work on a show doing props and scenery end of November/December... um.. went up to the National Gallery but got off at the wrong stop - read 'Westminster' as 'Embankment' but it's just like a 4 min walk from Westminster anyway so no big deal, sent my friend a text, because he works in Big Ben, saying 'I just walked past Big Ben so thought I'd say hi!', got halfway to the gallery when he text back saying 'fancy coming in for a cup of tea?'
It only 4 mins walking in the other direction, so went and was x-rayed and checked and stood on a thing and had a photo taken that made me look like an axe murderer and.. yeah, so went in and had tea in parliament, in 'the village', they call it...No idea what kind of village they based that on, it's all palm trees and water features.

But yes! interesting day!
oh! I DID eventually get to go to the National Gallery - for all of 15 mins before it closed, and saw a peepshow! (not like that) -this really cool box in there where they'd done a kind of painted mock-up of a room and you peep through 2 holes in the side of it and it looks 3d!!... but this was done in like the 1600s - very awesome!
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paint ... utch-house

Not very busy today but got some stuff done

2009-10-02T14:51:00.000-07:00

Actually saw the new car properly and had a ride in it. It's the new Volvo v50 and it is white. I was totally against white - I dunno, maybe it's because, firstly, we've always had white cars and I find them immensely boring, and secondly, they just make me think of white vans. Also, I find it a bit daft that my folks want an estate when they have no small kids or dogs or anything or really use it to carry stuff around - but hey - their car, not mine. Up til now, I've called it 'the hearse', because estates really do just scream 'funeral car' at me - especially black ones. White ones scream 'vegas hearse'.

Seeing it 'in the metal' now, it's not so bad - the shade of white doesn't really look white - it's kinda greyish and it reflects the ground around it so it looks more like a very pale silver than white. Which is fine. We used to have a real old rustbucket - if I said it had a cassette player in it and no jack for cds or ipods or anything, that'll give you an idea of just how old. Steering wheel, speedometer, fuel guage, clock, radio with 2 knobs and an aircon button, and that was about it. I've not really been in a huge number of cars - I'm more of a bus/train/walk kinda gal, but this thing looks like a rocketship. I've now changed my name for it from 'The Hearse' to 'The Delta Flyer'.

Went to the library today and got this book out:

To learn more about the marketing side of things. I'll let you know how it works out!

Then went to Polesden Lacey and did an absolutely horriffic watercolour/pen sketch of part of the house... straight lines, architecture and watercolours are my absolute biggest weaknesses, but here it is anyway, so you all can see I'm just a fallible human being in spite of my extreme awesomeness hehe

Aaaaaand spent 3 hours battling with my computer to place an order with 123print to get some real business cards. Vaguely productive day, all in all.

September in Review

2009-09-30T15:37:00.000-07:00

First of 2 commissions I'm working on for my neighbour

Commission 1 by ~Tashlentine on deviant ART

I'm still not a fan of drawing stuff and infinitely prefer painting, but at least I've proven to myself I can do it and my commissioner is happy with what I've done.

The bad news is that my computer broke and I've had to reinstall vista. Along with that breaking my Adobe Mastersuite has vanished taking dreamweaver and photoshop with it, so bye bye any hope of redoing my website and editing photos until my friend has time to come down and re-install it for me. I could actually cry. The only plus side from this (other than my computer isn't a complete write-off) is that the few photos and files I had on here weren't obliterated and have been saved, because one thing I am good at is backing up my files onto my external hard drive... mainly because my C:\ gets very full very fast and I just take all my files off and dump them on the external drive to free up space

Gallery exhibition closes on the 3rd of October, not on the 26th of September as previously stated (although I hadn't been told about this) - No idea if my work has sold - haven't heard any news from the gallery yet. My folks are getting a new car tomorrow so I'll try to persuade them to give it a spin past the gallery so I can check up on what's going on. Mum and Dad popped in last week and one of my paintings wasn't even up on the wall because 'there wasn't enough space'. Apparently. So not sure what's going on there. *Frown*. We shall see.

Joining a local art group which meets in Bourne Hall in Epsom, so shortly I shall be a member of the Epsom & Ewell art Group. Went to a meeting today to check it out to see if it's something I'd want to join - I expected it to be a bunch of people sitting around doodling and being hands on, which it wasn't - it seems more geared towards kind of open lecture type things by other artists which also suits me just fine.

Today, artist Toby Ward was the speaker.

Here is a little bit about him - info gleaned from his website (if you click his name in here it'll take you there)

He has worked as artist in residence at St.Martin-in-the-Fields, the Mercers’ Company and the Athenaeum and travelled as a recording artist with HRH The Prince of Wales...
...In 1995 he spent a month working with the United Nations Peacekeeping force in central Bosnia making a record in drawings of the life and work of the soldiers...
...Also during the 1990s he made a series of drawings in two volumes for the National Trust recording the conservation of Chastleton House in the Cotswolds. This led to a commission to make drawings and watercolours of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden before and during its redevelopment in the late 1990’s. The Ritz Hotel commissioned a series of paintings of all aspects of life at the hotel from the kitchens to the gymnasium which now decorate the lifts in the hotel...Among a number of significant commissions have been portraits of HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, Lord Rothermere and Sir Sidney Kentridge.

Really nice guy! He brought in a massive (to me) canvas and started work on it, describing his process and fielding questions from the rest of us.

There were a few people asking things like 'what kind of blue is that?' but be me being me, and probably a pain in the arse lol was asking loads of questions about what did he think of art school, did he think it was important to go to one or is it more of a social thing and did he think that it could be limiting because you get taught to paint - and to paint like other people - rather than kind of finding your own way through it... I noticed that when most people asked him something he'd just carry on painting with his back to us, but when I asked him something he'd turn around to face me.. possibly because my question demanded an answer that went slightly deeper than 'ultramarine blue' and he needed to think about it, or because he hadn't been asked that before and was mildly surprised, or because I was about the only person in the room with pigments in my hair - I seemed to be the youngest in the room by at least 35 years.

It's not a bad thing - it's good that older people group together and are still interested in learning stuff, but I found this at uni as well - things like this are mainly attended by retirees. Younger people are really missing out on learning stuff because of the 'o.a.p' stigma attached to social clubs.

To be honest I don't understand why the label is there in the first place.

Had a chat with him afterwards and he gave me a brief explanation of underpainting I've never done it before and the 'blank' canvas he brought in was bright green, which he started painting on so I was like WTF??! why is it green? What does that do? Really nice guy - no attitude, no ego (which is surprising, considering how well he's done for himself) no question was too stupid or too personal - ie his thoughts on Tracy Emin, or what his routine is like (both my questions ;)

the Tracy Emin/modern conceptual art question sparked a bit of an outcry from the others - not an outcry against me, or the question, but a mutual disgust for 'that sort of thing' from the other members who until then had remained reasonably quiet and let the main 4 chatty people (including me) think of all the questions. Heh I love sparking group discussions! I absolutely rocked at doing that at Uni.. maybe it's because I can be a little opinionated... in that I have an opinion on pretty much everything and am not afraid to share it, even if it's about a view that isn't particularly popular! I remember somehow getting a good discussion going about Virginia Woolfe (the one about the wallpaper) and James Joyce's 'Ulysses' (vile man) - my presentation was supposed to be 20 mins long in a 2 hour seminar... I did a little too well at the getting people motivated in the 'group discussion' side of things and my 20 min slot got extended to the full 2 hours of the seminar! haha! Got a cracking mark for it too which I was chuffed with. Got 76 for that. If you even got 50 from that Professor you should count yourself lucky

Anyway. I might be exhibiting there with them this month (as in the month we entered into approx half an hour ago) - I dunno yet, because I'm new and I'll only be half a member because membership rolls around in April so I'm only paying for half of a year as we're already half way through... the treasurer was a bit unclear about the whole thing but next week we'll be learning how to make our own pastels (which I'll never use) so I'll hopefully find out more then.
The exhibitions are good - they do a few a year - one I've just missed and was held at the Denbies wine estate which i've been to a few times and it's a lovely venue - and they also get wall space at Bourne Hall ..
Which did look like this:

But now, (sadly) looks like this:

It's kind of like the millennium dome on the outside, but smaller, and on 3 levels. half the ground floor is a library and the other half is divided up into a shop selling... something.. I dunno - postcards or something - I never looked really, and some smallish rooms (which is where we were). There's a mezannine up the stairs which hosts a cafe and a museum - local history i think... what there is of it anyway. Downstairs is a big hall where people do line dancing as such.

I've never been involved in anything to do with the community before - always regarded 'community' to be kind of WI bake-sales and flower arranging and church bric-a-brac sales for old people. This is still kind of 'old person' stuff, but... I dunno... maybe i'll be able to bring some young blood and enthusiasm with me and spice things up a bit ;)

My series of London photos is also finally complete (for now) and has been uploaded to a gallery on deviantart

Art show now on!

2009-09-16T04:11:00.000-07:00

Here!
http://www.viewlondon.co.uk/whatson/corner-gallery-maps-59255.html
i've seen 3 different dates listed for this show now, but as far as i'm aware, it's the 16-26th of september - those are the dates she's been telling us artists, so... :)

aaand the first two pieces are already on here, called 'simplicity' and 'england's green and pleasant land'

hoping to get these 2 in next:

MCMXIV by ~Tashlentine on deviant ART

and

I hate watercolours by ~Tashlentine on deviant ART

The Latest

2009-09-10T06:32:00.000-07:00

MCMXIV by ~Tashlentine on deviant ART

and a work in progress

Autumn: w.i.p by ~Tashlentine on deviant ART

I'm on facebook!

2009-09-06T06:44:00.000-07:00

Here I am! :D

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Natasha-Page/155688491074

I thought that considering how many people are on facebook it might be easier to send out gallery notifications and whatnot on that too :)

So there ya go :) Tash on facebook.

I am now almost a 'proper artist'!! woop!

2009-08-30T05:51:00.000-07:00

I have my first exhibition coming up in a few weeks - part of a local art show at this gallery:
http://www.corner-gallery.com/upcoming_shows.htm

!!!!!

I'm submitting (initially - it's one of those 'once you sell it, replace it' things)

This

Englands Green + Pleasant Land by ~Tashlentine on deviant ART

and this

Simplicity by ~Tashlentine on deviant ART

They've both made it though submission, which I am IMMENSELY relieved about - which is what makes me an 'almost proper' artist. Once they sell, THEN I'll be a real one. Will also be very nice seeing money coming IN for a change! haha!

Becoming an artist has been SUCH a tough decision to make. It has meant for me, being utterly selfish, having to dig my heels in and be absolutely stubborn and really really actually fight my corner and defend this choice passionately.

There seems to be a census that if you don't make money instantly, if you're don't get massive bucks for your paintings instantly, if you're not a household name instantly, and have galleries beating down your door and falling over themselves to get your work... then what's the point? get a real job.

The point is art doesn't work like that. It is, I'm finding, incredibly hard work, especially for someone like me, who hasn't gone to art school, who doesn't have the tools and contacts that art students have, and I'm really working about 5 jobs at once, if you think about it:

1. Trying to catch up on 3 years worth of work that art students have behind them and build up a portfolio (I'm not too fussed about the 'training' aspect paint-wise, because I want to paint like me, not like anyone else.

2. Promoting my work so that it gets out there and seen by people. - Learning from scratch how to do that, and having to make contacts off my own bat, not having them handed to me on a plate

3. Promoting my art on the web - ie. having a website which i'm having to make

4. Learning just how in gods name dreamweaver is supposed to work - learning my way around that programme, css code, html code, web design.... complicated stuff.

5. Making my own canvasses - I knew how to do that anyway because i learned how to do it in school, but it is pretty time consuming and at the moment, with my RSI and tennis elbow (hah yeah - i'm a cripple too, forgot to mention that lol) it takes a lot out of me physically to be able to do that and i pay for it for the next few days and have to be best friends with volterol, cuprofen and hot water bottles and ice packs.

Art for me also means making sacrifices at my own expense as well as at the expense of others. I actually can't remember the last time I bought something for myself. I am a total shoe addict - I love shoes and handbags (yes, I am a total girl sometimes) but since Christmas it has been a case of £10 for a handbag, or 3 tubes of paint - paint always wins out.

(an A.D.D moment - I have a butterfly in my room as I type this and have no idea how it got in)

Sacrifice also - having a regular job with a regular income and regular hours. Regular income means not having to worry about not having enough money, and also means that I could move out and live in my own place - Being a graduate, it's not like I don't have the qualifications and the intelligence to get a very well paid job...

But to me making art and being happy in life is more important than having money (although I really do want to move out and soon so my parents can have their house back! LOL)

but yah. that's that said.

Revamping the website at the moment - dunno how long it'll take because i'm trying something different this time - making my site in photoshop and importing it over to dream weaver to convert it into website material, so hopefully it won't take quite so long to load as the current one.

Cleared out a lot of my stuff on deviantart, just trying to put up more/better photos as and when i have time - submitting everything as prints too

Going to blitz the studio today when i'm done writing this as it's got to the stage where I can't actually fit in through the door - Been manically busy this month and my normally reasonably tidy studio doesn't know what's hit it! so it's going to be gutted, hoovered and put back together methinks.

At the moment I really can't complain about being bored and having nothing to do - I'm working non-stop pretty much from 11am to 3am. Ees-a-crazy, but better than doing nothing, i'm sure you'll agree!!!!! :D

A really good photoshop tutorial vid explaining curves!

2009-08-22T11:12:00.001-07:00

Curves and Adjustment Layers by =kuschelirmel-stock on deviant ART

The past couple of days....

2009-08-21T10:24:00.000-07:00

Have been a good couple of days!! (Although I could have done with a bit more sleep)

I've made a start on two new paintings

I've somehow managed to accumulate 12 watchers on deviantart

I've made my first news features (2 of them) which haven't been complete flops, which I'm extremely relieved about, because that would have been embarrassing if they went totally ignored

I've done a little (very little - I still can't use the computer for too long because of this arm) work on revamping my website.. for some reason the current one takes absolutely forever to load - I'm not sure what is going on with that - my computer tech guy is hosting that for me on his server so I dunno if it's my design that is too clunky and slowing stuff down, or his server being slow... either way - a lot of stuff will be disappearing from it and a fair bit of new stuff will be appearing on it.

I kind of want to host it myself (ok not 'host' per se, but you know what I mean) because I want to hold the reins with it and update it whenever I want without having to hassle someone else to do it for me or to keep knocking on the poor guys door every few days to ask him to update it - he's a busy guy - he has better things to do than do favours for me all the time - and he's hosting it for me for free too, on top of that - which is why I feel bad pestering. If it was just a hobby or something, It wouldn't be so bad, but... I'm a working artist... I need a working site to inform folk of happenings and exhibitions and shizzle, and often I don't find out about something til a week beforehand!...

Basically I'm aiming for a smoother running, neater, more professional site with better stuff on it, LESS stuff on it (I mean... stuff I did 6 years ago in school is hardly conveying the 'I'm a real artist, take me seriously and buy my work' message, is it?) and the 'about me' section needs to be totally cleared up - People really don't need to know what my favourite movie is. Jeez - that site is actually quite embarrassing now I think about it - that kinda nonsense might be ok for myspace but not for a proper artist.

onward

Put a painting on ebay 2 days ago - ok so it hasn't sold yet, but it's had a good few views - people may not have bought it, but it's apparently not shit enough to ignore, and is worthy of at least being looked at, which gives me hope.. It's not a particularly good painting anyway to tell the truth - I started it about 5 years ago and it's just been floating around gathering dust and I thought I might as well just finish it off and try to get rid of it - I don't really have the space to keep stuff any more - so things need shifting. I'm not totally sure about ebay as a selling tool for art anyway - looking at the other stuff there that is much better than mine, and not selling or the artists have put on there for a pittance - like £4.00 or something (which I think is ridiculous - I charge for my paintings in terms of material+Tash-hours gone into it - and I base that upon minimum wage per hour that people would get paid in a normal job, which is like £5 an hour or something. it seems that only established artists get anything for their work anyway on there so I won't be too disappointed if it doesn't sell - a little peeved, because I need the money, but it's not a particularly big deal or particularly worth getting upset over. Once I start getting my stuff out there and people begin vaguely recognising my name, then all good things will start to come my way. I just need to keep my head down and keep working hard.

It annoys me when people complain about not getting recognition for their work - like they do one thing and have arrogance to think they're amazing and the world owes them- that money, fame and all the rest should come to them without them really putting in any hard graft behind the scenes in terms of generating publicity themselves and talking to galleries and taking the time to make connections.
The world owes you nothing. If you don't put shit in, you don't get shit out. It's as simple as that.

Caved in and got meself a twitter account 5 days ago and last check already have 31 followers . I'm guessing/hoping this is not bad going for a 5 day old thingy! um... what else....
One of the paintings I'm doing at the moment I'm doing in 'real time' (or trying to) Basically I take photos every hour I'm working on it (aka 'whenever I remember to) and post it up on twitter, so a kind of 'watch my progress, understand my art a bit better' kinda things...

aaaaand....

I think that's about it actually!

Painting on Ebay!

2009-08-19T08:52:00.000-07:00

finished a painting today! It is now on ebay!
Here is a picture

and here is the link!
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150367009699#ht_500wt_1053

Painting in real time

2009-08-19T05:42:00.001-07:00

today (or as much of today as I can manage - (I'm painting in oils so have to wait ages in between layers for things to dry) I'm going to be doing a painting and posting Twitter updates every hour or so (I'm in the garden so no clock so partly guesswork, partly looking at phone to keep an eye on the time) with photos of my progress!

http://www.twitter.com/Tashlentine

Enjoy, and feel free to pass comment :D

I'm thinking this will also be a good way to discourage laziness and actually get me to work a bit more consistently and less sporadically! Painting really drains me- especially after last week where i was painting pretty solidly from 11 in the morning to 9 at night with only toilet and food breaks (!) i've had a few days off now, And feel much more rejuvenated and revving to go! In the meantime, I've been working on getting some bits together to revamp my site - seeing Alec Egan's fancypants new one is making me want to pull my finger out a bit and sort my poor excuse for one out! hehe

The painting you'll be seeing me doing now is one that will hopefully get me into an exhibition - due for submission by the end of the month. Keep your fingers crossed for me please!!!

Also - any artists reading this, please feel free to follow me on twitter and drop me a note on here letting me know who you are and I'll return the favour :)

Tunnel

2009-08-19T03:50:00.000-07:00

Tunnel by ~Tashlentine on deviant ART

This photo has done extraordinarily well (for one of my photos) in terms of favouriting/views on deviantart! Am very chuffed/surprised!

70 years of oz

2009-08-18T18:45:00.000-07:00

I published a news article on deviantart to celebrate 70 years of the release of MGM's 'The Wizard of Oz' by F. Baum - featuring art and photography found on the site (and there is a LOT!!)

here's the link:
http://news.deviantart.com/article/90251/

enjoy!

Deviant feature

2009-08-18T05:53:00.001-07:00

people seem to like my ladybirds! i've had like 6 features on this one:

ladybird 9 by ~Tashlentine on deviant ART

And now I've had these two both featured in the same article! nice way to bring a smile to my face in the morning eh?!

Lunch by ~Tashlentine on deviant

and

ART
Inverse by ~Tashlentine on deviant ART

Here's a link to the article - there are some extremely cool photos on there!!
http://news.deviantart.com/article/90149/

A good blog

2009-08-15T05:02:00.000-07:00

I have 2 weeks to do 2 paintings, i wanted one to be in oil, oil takes ages, so looking around, i found this
http://allthestrangehours.blogspot.com/2006/09/how-to-get-oil-paint-to-dry-quickly.html

which is very useful - the things to do/things to avoid using oil paint

this is an old version of this guy's blog (but i know where the article is on it)

The new version is here:

http://rourkevisualart.com/wordpress/

Well worth checking out!

A little overambitious

2009-08-15T04:23:00.000-07:00

Trying to get 8 paintings done in 2 days was... a little overambitious. Ok, a LOT overambitious. I only managed to get 3 done that were vaguely passable because I was stressing over wether or not I'd be able to get things done in time or not. If nothing else, I've learned a valuable lesson: There is no point in rushing. More haste = less speed + less quality. Besides, people aren't stupid - they're not going to pay for something that's badly done, and frankly, I'd be embarrassed to try and push something that isn't my best.

I had THE most unconstructive day in the studio I think I've ever had yesterday - I did absolutely F.A. I was in there painting all day, but you know those days when the 'gift' decides to pack its little bags and go on holiday? (usually when you need to rely on it. typical.) Yeah? I had one of those. It's SO frustrating, I can't tell you - to see paintings lying around that are good and then to be completley incapable of painting something that's basic is the most infuriating thing in the world! Plus I decided to try to paint on board which was in itself a bad idea because I hadn't worked on board since I was in school.... now I remember why! If you're going to work on AS level material, you're gonna get AS level results. Total waste of a day. A word to the wise? Just because you were good at doing something almost 6 years ago does not mean you are good at doing it now. If you haven't done a specific thing for that long, I'd suggest NOT doing what I did and trying to do it off the bat, but to have a practice first. I'm going to have a break from the studio today and try and realign my chakras or whatever you call it (get self together by removing self from source of annoyance) and hopefully will have better luck in there tomorrow.

Here are the aforementioned three:

Epic Fail.

Crackle Paste

2009-08-12T15:04:00.001-07:00

The one by Golden worked a treat! here's a section of my latest piece that shows it nice n' close up!

It's pretty expensive - about £10.50 from Pullingers and is a very light mousse texture which you have to spread on at least a few millimetres thick in order for it to work, but this is what it looks like on canvas - this is over a layer of white emulsion, then with a layer of blue emulsion and then acrylic paint over the top:

Very brief update

2009-08-11T13:16:00.000-07:00

* arm is royally buggered - going to a muscular-skeletal specialist asap to get it sorted - this RSI is taking far too long to heal so am avoiding all unecessary typing. Fortuanately for you this includes lengthy rants on here

* still plugging away at the USA collection, pictures to follow - done a few more pieces

*Art show on saturday. found out about it today so have 2 days to do about 8 pieces. Ambitious/crazy/stupid much? pictures to follow.

All I have to/can say right now

Hope all my readers are well,

Tash
x

An Artist with RSI. Fun Times.

2009-07-27T04:13:00.001-07:00

Good combination, huh.

Ok, well it seems RSI is a fairly common injury, but there doesnt seem to be a great deal of information out there for people like me who use their hands outside of the typing world who have RSI... either that or I'm not looking in the right places. This RSI has been going on for far too long and I am absolutely fed up with it, so I'm taking drastic action and cutting out as much crappy typing and unnecessary use as possible (as of the start of last week). This is pretty hard to enforce, as I'm pretty isolated where I live.. I don't live out in the middle of nowhere (sadly) I live somewhere MUCH worse... the suburbs (!). My parents nag me saying I should go out and make new friends, but to be honest, I don't want new friends - I'd just like to be able to see the ones I already have a bit more often, but everyone I care about lives miles away - Scotland, Yorkshire, and two of my best friends are travelling in Peru and Australia - so my computer really is my portal to the outside world! Sad, probably more than slightly geeky, but true. However - I have discovered Skype! so I'm keeping touch with them over that now instead, so minimal typing required. Huzzah!

My weapons are what I call a 'granny wrist splint' which is one of those heavy duty wrist supports with velcro and a metal stick along the bottom, so my wrist doesn't move around too much; Volterol, deep heat, hot water bottles, ice, and massage. All well and good.

However

Most normal people don't put their wrists what I put mine through. Stretching canvasses really does put a lot of strain on my wrists and I'm such a perfectionist/stubborn person that I like to do it myself because I know what I want, and I know how to do it - my canvases have to be extremely taut and I don't trust anyone else to do that for me (and it's far cheaper to DIY than to buy premade). I have canvas pliers now which are a godsend, but after stretching a canvas yesterday my wrist swelled up a fair bit in protest. To take some of the strain off, i thought i'd use the stapler with my left hand....

I say 'thought' because I have pathetic hands and i physically can't push the handle down with my left hand. I can just about do it with my right.

Fun times.

Hopefully this splint thing will help me get better faster. When I went to see my physio a few months ago she didn't want me to wear one and said if you must wear something, wear a tubigrip.
HAH. Like a tubigrip helps when you're stretching a canvas.

nothing much

2009-07-26T09:53:00.000-07:00

I know i've not written anything on here for ages - i haven't really done anything worth writing about for a while - my wrist has still been playing up which has halted play for a while and i had 2 weeks holiday on top of that so there's nothing to say really.. been taking a load of photographs - some are cool- they're on my deviantart site (tashlentine.deviantart.com)and about to start another painting. I've been hunting high and low for a crackle glaze with little to no success... i initially wanted something that would dry and peel off, but no. Nothing seems to work like that on canvas, because that would be too easy wouldn't it. I've had to settle for crackle PASTE which means the whole painting will be crackled. I've bought a tub of the stuff from GOLDEN which seems to be pretty good so far on the test strips, so here goes - wish me luck!

Huffing and Puffing

2009-06-29T05:04:00.000-07:00

It's too damn hot. I can't do any work because it's bad enough being in my house let alone being in a wooden shed/suntrap. Hot and bothered are two good words to use. I'm stuck indoors watching a marathon of episodes of Supernatural on the internet. Don't get me wrong, I do love summer, but when it's above 34'C in the garden with no breeze, I don't feel too impressed with mother nature.

Deviating from the point (10 things..)

2009-06-27T05:06:00.000-07:00

First off, the progress news: mid-way through another painting - another 3x3ft one which isn't going quite as swimmingly as I'd hoped but never mind, I shall persevere, they always turn out ok in the end- I'm sure it is salvagable.

Secondly - I got invited to exhibit a painting in a gallery in Long Island NY (!!!!!!!!!!!) Another one I can't do because they want a small thing and I don't really have anything small apart from Mrs O'Reilly Goes to Market and I'm not really prepared to pay $50 for 30x40 inches of wall space on top of postage and packing at this stage of my career - I mean, yes, it would be awesome to be exhibited in New York, but right now I have to be realistic in terms of what I can afford to do - I don't have an indefinite amount of money and that little gig would probably set me back about £50 in total at least - if it doesn't sell - total money down the drain which could have been spent on art supplies.

Speaking of art supplies, does anyone know of a good crackle glaze they can recommend? I want to have a painting glazed but so the varnish cracks and looks like an old oil painting - so far I've mainly been able to find pastes that you mix in with the paint which then crack, so the whole thing is cracked and I don't really want that - and the other thing the people in the art shop suggested was using an oil based glaze and then putting a water based one over it - but they also said that that is pretty uncontrollable so there's no guarantee of how it'll end up.

I am still finding this incredibly surreal - this whole being taken seriously by other people thing. I dunno - maybe it's because when I first made this decision, I had such a hard job of convincing my family and friends that I wasn't joking and that they should take me seriously - art is as much of a real job as any other desk job - it's just an unconventional one with incredibly unsociable hours - that now people are actually taking a serious interest in my work I can't quite believe that they're not pulling my leg! hah the life of a skeptic eh?

Another point is that although people like Rivy and my other friends all say they love my work, in my own eyes, nothing I do is good enough - which I guess is a good thing because it means it gives me the impetus to keep going and to keep striving to do better with every piece I do.

Now for the rundown in literature, art, music and photography from external sources (aka mainly from my shelf, the radio and deviantart)

LITERATURE: I'm reading Shirley Temple's autobiography at the moment - mainly because I'm a huge fan of Judy Garland, who, as we all know had... quite a messed up life. As much as I love her, I don't see the point in glossing over the truth and romanticising my idol. Now she was working professionally pretty solidly since she was 2 and there's an alarming pattern between child stars and drug abuse and how absolutely messed up they become - the first 4 modern examples that spring to mind are Britney Spears, Michael Jackson, Liza Minnelli (who I also love, but admit that she's had her issues in the past) and Macauley Culkin or however you spell it - so basically I was wondering given that she is possibly THE most famous child star in the history of entertainment to date - How little miss Temple ended up so NORMAL! I admit - I don't know much about her (yet) but being catapulted to international stardom before she was 5, having dresses with her name on the label, dolls made in her image, kids going to school with her face on their book covers and lunch boxes... how does anyone get their head around that and remain with both feet on the floor?? I'm only about 1/4 of the way through it at the moment and she's about 6, but it seems that it's largely thanks to her mum and dad that she survived this - most child stars mums are pushy stage mums who just push and push and push their kids to fame and then live off the profits - Ethel Gumm being a prime example (Judy's mum) siding with the producers against the best interests of their child for the sake of money, not nurturing them at all or really asking the kid if it's what they really want to do....

Shirley saw her mum dancing and wanted to do the same, so her mum took her to Meglin's dance school where she learned, she took her to auditions, but the only 'grooming' she did was to say 'sparkle' and Shirly just did her thing - when she came home she was a regular little girl - it's just that they kept moving to bigger and bigger houses as her income rose - she made mud pies, she got spanked when she was naughty, she got hugged a lot and encouraged but was always treated as their daughter rather than a star and i really do think this grounding is the reason why she's still here and people like Judy and Michael aren't and people like Britney ad nauseum almost aren't - or are in body but not in mind.

So. Here's to Shirley!

10 things art-wise that I found on Deviantart today that I liked!

Plague Parade-detail1 by *kuksi on deviant ART

MENTAL how much work was put into that!

Portrait art deco 2006 by ~avacreat on deviant ART

The Native by ~hardcoremiike on deviant ART
I've always had a thing for Native Americans - probably me just being totally English and ignorant of the reality of things but in films anyway, they always come across as being so wise and totally one with nature, and respectful of the world around them, and to me, anyway, I think that is something we should all aspire to.

today i hope by *relaxeder on deviant ART

Manhattan Bridge by ~LinaLightning on deviant ART

London Street by *duytter on deviant ART
this guy has really got the feel of london here perfectly... for me anyway ;)

Loch Glencoul by ~NewAgeTraveller on deviant ART

Canterbury Cathedral Interior by ~fetch-a-spade on deviant ART

Seascape Ireland by ~chalk42002 on deviant ART

Robin by ~JoeyBee60 on deviant ART

and now 10 for photography

New York by ~fiona438 on deviant ART

.: remember tomorrow II :. by ~biszkopciik on deviant ART
London

Charles might get embarassed by this coz it's one of his, but I think it's gorgeous, so sorry dah-ling, it's up and it's staying up!

A stroll on the beach.. by ~CharlieCreighton on deviant ART

stars shine, stars fade by ~mediocre-matt on deviant ART

hometown glory by ~muszka on deviant ART

m ii by =Pretty-As-A-Picture on deviant ART

Dream On by *antre on deviant ART

My favourite photographer on Deviantart: '~CompleteSilence'

41413 by ~CompleteSilence on deviant ART

Knight by ~MacKenziesPride on deviant ART - i love the lighting in this, even if the photo itself wasn't painstakingly composed coz it's just for stock - still - i think the lighting is beautiful

If I Were A Butterfly by ~tenaciousc1 on deviant ART makes me think of those silk screen prints! :D

aaaaand finally - my 10 songs of the moment

this is CRAP quality video, but it's such a sweet song
you can hear better quality of this here: http://www.myspace.com/lowanthem
'the horizon is a beltway' is also great!

ignore the pile of crap video - just listen to it

Hands down my favourite song at the moment

In Good Company (the highlight of the morning)

2009-06-20T06:09:00.000-07:00

A fat, black rat huffed and puffed as it squeezed itself between the panels of wood that separate my garden from next door. Shiny, silken, with a long scaly tail and yellowed teeth. Once through, he hurriedly scurried across the lawn (while being chased by my mother in her apron, armed with a broom) and disappeared into the quince bushes at the other side of the garden to play with the cat on the other side of that fence.

I watched over my steaming coffee as my mother, red faced and red slippered returned to the house, while my father stood under the grape vines with a mug of tea in one hand, stroking his beard thoughtfully with the other; pondering over what action to take regarding this uninvited and unwelcome visitor.

My neighbour, bald headed and black-hearted has no idea of his four legged tenant. Prior to today, I would have said the rat would be in good company and clearly chose to live there, because he recognises his own kind. The fact that he has chosen to play with a cat rather than stay in that man's garden has made me reconsider this opinion.

A few of the aforementioned bug photos

2009-06-15T14:46:00.000-07:00

A Video

2009-06-14T03:59:00.000-07:00

Finally sort of figured out how to use Premiere Pro and photoshop to edit video - here's a little something I put together of my friends and I from our uni days *sniff* I want to be a student again! I miss this so much! :(

Love from judaline on Vimeo.

Happenings.... or... more to the point... nonhappenings

2009-06-10T13:01:00.000-07:00

I just got an email asking me if I could do an exhibition in St Albans next week! this would be my first exhibition and taste of being a 'real artist' but I had to turn it down! *throws self on floor in tantrum* I'd have to submit six framed pieces by Saturday - which I can't do, because I can't afford frames for a start - and more to the point - I don't have a stack of spare paintings just lying around on the side for 'just incase' moments like this yet - I'm not willing to part with any of my USA collection yet either because the collection is only half done and I want it all in a gallery at the same time, otherwise it defeats the whole object of having 13 paintings for 13 colonies! ARGH! I'm so miffed! I could seriously use the money! he'd only be taking 20% off me in commission fees as well!

I don't know whether I should be over the moon because I got the offer and it shows at least someone is interested in my work, or distraught because I have to turn it down.

Now I know why we were born with two legs: so we can stand on one while giving ourselves a good kicking with the other.

I think I might just have a coffee and a sit down.

A Very Short Rant.

2009-06-10T09:36:00.001-07:00

Right. I am getting absolutely sick of people 'reading' my blog, or visiting my website and saying 'we'll link to your amazing site if you put a link to ours' 'win win situation' etc.

My site/blog is about art, photography and a little bit of music. Why the hell would I want to link to watertanks or powertools or herbal remedies? If you are one of these people who is reading this and thinking of emailing me requesting the same, in the nicest possible way.. FUCK OFF!

However if you're an artist or musiciany type person and I like your stuff, THEN I'll consider it. To any other promoters of unrelated goods, please don't waste my time as well as your own by emailing me.

New bits n bobs

2009-06-10T08:32:00.000-07:00

I've been taking it easy for the past few weeks because this arm/hand/elbow has really been playing up and I find the painting action tires it out really quickly so I've mainly been out and about while we had some sun taking photos of bugs. I have a lot more respect for those critters now than I did before, having spent a lot of time staring down a macro lens at them! haha

My friend has been an absolute darling and installed photoshop CS4 for me so I'm trying to figure out how to use it... it's a lot like Corel PSP but everything is in a slightly different place and with different keyboard shortcuts too, which I'm having to learn...I'm also learning about filters and whatnot too! it's a whooole new world! I'm totally geeking out over the wonders of complicated technology! I watched a half hour long video on 'tutvid' about vectors this morning... and I know about as much about them now as I did then. Slight information overkill there, I think.

I know photographywise there are a lot of purists out there who are totally anti-manipulation/editing, and I'm in two minds about it - I confess I'm not overly keen on all these fancypants weirdy beardy colour effects that people seem to be going nuts for lately, but I find that the camera doesn't see the world the same way I do, and I generally edit my pictures to look the way I saw the original.. and also - what's the harm in taking a good picture and turning it into a better one - and turning a snap into art? I don't know why some photographers are so uppity and closed-minded about it. Yes it's slightly cheating, but you can push the boundaries further and that's what art is about in part, is it not?

However, here are the two latest paintings first (and as soon as I figure out how to put a slideshow on this thing, bugs etc shall appear!)

Acrylic - to be paired with that 'looming' piece of Times square

And I'm beginning to conquer my fear of buildings... OK not fear, but I've always been absolutely useless at painting buildings so have avoided them like the plague because I'm really anal and perfectionist when it comes to things looking like things.... forcing myself to loosen up and be expressionist is really hard - seeing a crooked line or slightly wrong perspective absolutely does my head in, but I'm learning (slowly) to leave it and that it doesn't really matter - it adds character and as long as it vaguely looks like what it's supposed to be the viewer won't complain too much (I hope)

mixed media

There's also a vaguely funny story to go with this one. After doing a few of the Mrs O'Reilly paintings and outlining things - I've discovered that I cannot stand outlining with a paintbrush - I am hopeless - everything comes out wibbly and blotchy and looks retarded and... well, basically - I hate doing it and I don't have the patience. So. I remembered seeing a kind of pen in my art shop - a paint pen - the kind of thing people use to write on those black menu boards, right? So I thought to myself 'self.. get yourself one of those and quit whinging'. So I went in. 'I'll have one of those in black please - one of the thinner ones'.

'Have you got any ID?' he says. The guy behind the counter. Who is floppy haired and about 17 and blatantly in some emo school band playing keyboard.

'excuse me?' (blinking)

'Have you got any ID?'

'for WHAT?!'

'you need to be over 18 to buy those'

firstly - wtf? it's a PEN??? secondly 'Are you kidding? Darling, I'm 23.. give me a couple of years and I could almost be your mother'

'Sorry... I need to see some ID'

Well it's a good job I keep my old uni library card... I mean.. ID for a PEN?!? I don't drive... I don't carry my passport around with me.. I hate ID.. I know I'm on the short side, but always having people think I'm under 18 isn't so much a novelty as an inconvenience. What am I gonna do with a pen that needs proof of age identification?

Stick em up!! - I have a pen and I'm not afraid to use it... don't test me man, or I WILL draw on you!

... jeesh.

A side note - some of Dad's friends came round to dinner the other day and got dragged down to the studio by the parentals, but they think that I have the elusive 'it'. How much of this is truth and how much of this is them being nice because they're Dad's friends, I don't know - but I'm hoping there is some vague truth in there that others agree with.

Blimey!

2009-05-29T03:54:00.001-07:00

On deviantart, I've been featured in a thing called 'Traffic stopping photography' for this picture of a bug that I took in my garden yesterday!

Bug by ~Tashlentine on deviant ART

Didn't expect such a rip-roaring response! i'll have to use the saturation control feature in psp more often in future!

more pictures to follow.

I'm going to have to update the photography section of my site I think - there's so much absolute rubbish on there that it's a little embarrassing. It shall be deleted!

The Dealio

2009-05-24T15:08:00.000-07:00

Alrighty - to cut a short story shorter - I've had a bit of a body-blunder. When I was younger, I gave myself RSI(repetitive strain injury) in my right hand, and I've kind of sparked it off again after stretching my canvasses by hand before I got my pliers... and it's radiated up my arm so now I have a cross between RSI and tennis elbow! fun times! so I'm giving l'internet minimal use and minimal computer use in general because my physio says that typing aggravates it. FABULOUS. I'll be updating photo-wise, but not writing. Sorry to those who have emailed me - I shall get back to you eventually when I'm feeling less pained!

A couple of bits.

2009-05-19T08:39:00.001-07:00

I've finally finished the oil painting I was doing, Which I've decided to call 'Jill's House', in dedication to one of my friends

The picture qality isn't the greatest, I'm afraid, it was absolutely BUCKETING down outside and the lighting was ridiculously bad. When we get some sun, I'll try to remember to take some decent pictures.

And another 'Mrs O'Reilly'.

I know she comes from inside my own head, but I'd love to know who she is and where she's going.

Done a couple of rough prep ideas for my next piece... not sure where it's going now, but it's going to be expressionist and times square. Another one to add to the USA collection