Photo Wall

This is an artsy fartsy post, but at the moment I'm trying to put more shazam! in my living room and basically in my house without actually changing a colour on the wall, since I need to ask for permission to change anything. Which not only is annoying but it also sucks because I am very limited to what I can do.


So, instead of changing colours I'm just going to change my walls. I have 2 walls that I can put to some seriously good use to, like using for photo walls. This seems to be a good tradition that seems to have received the good publicity it deserves to become contemporary because I see them everywhere now. It just means I can find a LOT of inspiration and I can put my SnapFish photography account to good use.


When you sign up you get 50 prints free and I know my dad once won 100 free prints on o2's extra's thing online, when you hook a duck and choose between the three ducks you've found. Thanks again for that dad.


I have also been thinking about putting my Spain holiday pictures together into some sort of scrapbook file, because Spain really was amazing and they should be out to be enjoyed. The only pictures I have out at the moment are; a flower in a frame above my fireplace; pictures from mine and Bethany's fake window shopping trip and the temple, which I would like to get framed.


I'm still trying to decide on which colour frames to use and how big I want them to be and whether I want them to be the same size or different, and whether I want a central picture or just a big pile of mess. Man, so much to decide just for a picture wall... sounds like fashion again! Hopefully some of the photos I've found for inspiration will hopefully help.

If I 'ad an 'ome of me Own

Apparently in Yorkshire we miss letters out of words and sometimes even miss words out altogether. Maybe that's why people like the English writing style so much; I don't know.

I am still 'addicted' to Pinterest. I say 'addicted' because I don't think about it all day every day and I can live without 'repinning' for a day or two but then its like my body gets withdrawal symptoms and I find myself going back to it and 'pinning' like mad.

Today's focus is usually fashion, but I think that's all I've really been posting about recently; only because of my new addiction polyvore, but I can't afford any of the clothes on there at the moment anyway... so all I can do is sit and drool, and let's be honest, where's the fun in that?

So, my post today is 'If I 'ad an 'ome of me own' it'd look something like this:








I love light and airy colours. :D What do you think?

Are You Pinterested?

I didn't actually know about this site, at all! Until a fashion blogger I know from church called Chloe had it on the side of her blog along with other links such as, twitter, facebook, etc, so I figured it must be something interesting and so I clicked on it. And what came up was nothing short of like 'SUPER' cool! It's basically a picture blog, which at first seems little like Twitter where you post and someone can repost what you've said or reply etc, but with this you can re-PIN a picture someone has posted and like/comment it and they do say a picture says a thousand words.


It's like an online pinboard for the whole world which is so cool. I mean I've seen pictures on there that I haven't seen anywhere else. I'm not sure how many personal pin-boards you can have but I have 5/6, some of them don't have anything in them yet because I only got my account yesterday but believe me they'll be full in no time!


If you want a pinterest account I think you need to go on the waiting list but I do have a few special invites for anyone that might think they're interested. I just love the way that it doesn't organise all the photos into specific size so they look like an artistic collage of fun.



Personally, I'd say, Pinterest is quite small at the moment, I'm not sure of how many people are on there but I pinned some things up last night and they're still top of the list today so nobody has pinned in the last 24 hours. I just think it's really inventive and you can get some really amazing decorating and interior design ideas from it.


Another good point about Pinterest is that you have this little button that you drag into your toolbar and anytime you see a website with a picture on it that you really like and want to save and have around for time to come you click the 'Pin It' button and it automatically recognises any picture files on that webpage and asks you which ones you'd like to pin. The only down side to this little beauty is if you find more than one thing you'd like to Pin you have to keep pressing the 'Pin It' button instead of being able to select more than one picture. But I guess this is because you might want to put each picture in a different category but that's easily rectified.


Take a look people, because the great news about Pinterest is that even if you're not a registered member you can still go enjoy their diamonds found in the rough and use them for your own!

Charles Rennie Mackintosh

I first came across this artist when I was studying GCSE Art. We had to research an artist and do some work in their style; I liked him so much I did my final piece in the same style.

I think what I liked so much about Mackintosh's work is the fact that it is so versatile. I've seen it on a lot of things, ranging from large large artwork pieces to furniture to small jewellery. In fact, I only realised once I'd started studying him that we had a small door window at the back of the house in the same style.

Maybe a lot of people have his work copied around their houses and don't even realise it!

He looks a lot like Charlie Chaplin, maybe it was just the moustaches of the era. Anyway here is some of his millions of pieces of work and I'll just give you a quick blurb from Wiki, because we can all go look on Wiki at who he is but why need to if I can give you some info here.

He was a Scottish artist and designer, which is why he is more famously known for his artwork based around furniture and was one of the main exponent's of the Art Noveau era, which is an era I really love. His work is most famously based around the rose and other well known flowers.

Women's Wedges Wonder Woman!

Hmmm.

I am shopped out. But, I had a good shoe shop. Luckily today I started work early which meant I finished early, which meant I could go shopping. YAY! Which is weird. I'm not actually really one for clothes shopping. At least, I didn't think I was. I can't afford to shop anyway, only on a budget.

But today, my eyes were on the prize. Wedges! And what better place to go for shopping, in the middle of the afternoon when you live in Bradford and you have a bus pass... The White Rose Shopping Centre. For a few reasons really:

1. Bethany has never been there before... like ohh...emmm...duuurrr.
2. There are like, LOADS of clothes shops in there
3. It's obviously nicer than Bradford and more compact than Leeds.

One thing Bethany did mention about shopping for shoes was the fact that we could go into ANY shop that sold women's clothes & accessories and look at shoes. Usually we avoid topshop (we're not skinny rakes) and places like River Island etc.. but because we were shopping for shoes it didn't matter what size the clothes were because I was always going to be a size 6 and Bethany is always going to be a size 7/8 (She has weird feet). We started in Debenhams and I think we finished in River Island.

One word of warning for anyone buying shoes from Oasis in The White Rose and you DON'T have or want a store card... run. Run away now. Before you try and get accostered by the oh so lovely sales people in there. I am sure she meant well, like the shoes/wedges I tried on were gorgeous and I was so close to spending way more than I should on them but she kept pushing the stupid store card on me, which I was clearly trying to be nice about and said 'no', 'I'd just lose it' etc, I said all the excuses I could come up with, but she just wouldn't shut up. I mean she said "I'll just put these to one side for you to come back for later" uhm... if I had wanted to save them for later, I'd have asked you? I didn't say that to her though. Like I said, I'm sure she was a nice girl, but she was just being too pushy.


And I hate pushy.

I went for cream today and blue, I loved some blue ones in who knows what shop now, I think it was NewLook, who let me down in the shoe department today; it's not even half the size of the shoe area in Bradford, but I was generally going for cream. I eventually bought some from Garage that looked a lot like the ones I was going to buy from Oasis, only the ones in Garage were about £35 cheaper...


Then we meandered into Primark, accidentally. It's my fault, because I saw some jewellery I really liked and went and bought it and Bethany decided to wander upstairs so I followed. There's a lot of shoes in there. She tried some on, I tried some on. Then I bought... another pair. These ones are lower though, the wedges are quite high (for me), so they can be like my cool down pair for when I'm too tired of wearing the higher ones, they are brown.


When we got home, I tried them on with at least 4/5 outfits in my wardrobe, sad I know, but I just wanted to make sure they were right, and they look pretty nice, so I'm glad of my choices today.

Hope everyone is getting used to being back at work since the long weekend. Let me know what you think of my shoes.

Forgotten Friday's!

Sorry peeps. I have slight OCD so I need to write a post for yesterday. I completely forgot. Or rather I didn't forget, but every time I came to writing something I got side-tracked by one of two things.

1. The Sims 2.

(We've re-kindled our love for one another)

2. My Boyfriend.

(We've well not really re-kindled anything but you gotta keep the flame going! Haha, in a nice way)

So yeah, mind was blank yesterday. I am still unwell and I was SO glad it was Friday yesterday, I really needed this long weekend to re-cooperate and hopefully regain some brain cells. I've just noticed that this post is all about re-something. I'm having to RE-trace my steps from yesterday to write this blog and REmember what I did yesterday. I've RE-kindled my love for The Sims 2 (that is until I can afford Sims3). I need some serious RE-cooperation so yeah I REally REally needed this weekend.
I'm also going to have to RE-post today to talk about what I did with mummy poo this morning/afternoon. I think I could go on doing this all day. I might be a saddo and start a new blog with some Sims2 stuff on it. I'm not really one for story telling though, so I don't know how that could work.

Yesterday I got home and crashed on my bed pretty much, for a couple of hours. I then went Sims2 game content shopping. It's amazing. You go onto modthesims2.com or .co.uk or . whatever it is and you look for stuff you want in your sims house and you 'download' them. It's like free furniture and wallpaper shopping. Shame you can't do things like that these days.


Oh and I'm going to put a couple more blogs, on the list of blogs I like to read on the right hand side of my page. You should go check them out. One is by a friend from uni, Hannah writes her blog about make-up and well randoms like we all do sometimes, but she is absolutely beautiful for 1. and 2. her make-up tips are actually really useful. I like that Hannah tries to branch out sometimes with her make up and then gives a review of what she likes about it.


Rachel's blog is just hilarious. I love how honest it is. Rachel's blog is mainly about baking; whenever she sets up a lovely new treat for herself and her husband she blogs about it, then at the end gives a quick overview of what it tastes like; how hard it was to make; how many casualties occured in the process of making it and most importantly, how much washing up there is to do once you've got the finished product!


Check them out. And I'll be posting again later this evening once I've finished with my day!

Have I...

Done anything exciting today? Not really
Explored new places? Haha nope.

So, what have I done today? Well, the organisation I work for got some pretty exciting news! I am so happy about it too. I can't tell you what it is yet though, not until we've crossed all the t's and dotted all the i's. But, it's pretty immense. I can't really think of anything to relate it to, but I was nearly dancing around the office when I found out.

My W.i.P really needs some time spending on it... I kinda, didn't forget about it. I just didn't get on with it. I might do that tomorrow evening. I rubbed out all the extra square lines and went around all the pencil lines I've drawn. I just can't decided on colours for the hair... and if I am painting it I want to get it exactly right. But, there is one thing I definitely know for sure... I need to get something done with it soon before I stand on it, rip it, crumple it, and do who knows what else with it. I have been a tad bit busy. But art is a really good passion for me, so I should stick at it.

What should I do with this picture? Should I put it in a frame? Should I make a make-shift frame? I don't know... so many choices. I suppose I should paint it first!


I went stalking on 'Pinterest' yesterday and I saw this knot! It looks so pretty, so I'm thinking of trying to make one, they look so cute. I think you have to have the right type of wool/thread/string whatever you wanna call it. But I'll make one and post next week.

Actually, this past week, I have done a bit of scrapbooking in my journal! Last Thursday night we had a 'Scrapbooking' and 'Family History' evening with the other ladies from Relief Society and I made a scrap book page. I'll take a picture and post it on here tomorrow, my journal is downstairs which is very far away at this moment in time... too far away for my legs to contemplate moving.

~ insert picture here when body can remember ~

I woke this morning to my mum's baking. She'd make a quiche which we had for dinner. I really want to bake right now haha, but I think people may think I'm a bit weird if I start baking at 9:30 at night when I'm not baking for any particular reason. I'll wait until I get paid, only another week. I completely forgot that it is Bank Hol Monday next week. I'm soo looking forward to a lovely day! I've just made a hot chocolate with about 1 teaspoon of Cadburys hot chocolate and 2 teaspoons of cooking chocolate powder and 1 teaspoon of sugar... I'll let you know how it tastes.

W.i.P Work in Progress

Well, I wrote a post not too long ago about how I was going to use one of my cute children's pics that I use in my posts and draw it out onto paper, but I can't actually find which post I wrote it in now; nevermind. Well I decided on which two I was going to do.

This one.


And this one.
I've already started doing the first one. Don't worry I'm not going to sell them as my own or anything I just think they are really cute and I can't admire them properly on the interwebs so that's why I am drawing them out. Drawing them out means copying from one small size to a larger size. I actually cleverly traced them from my laptop, so printing wasn't necessary then when I did that I went over the outline again with a thick B pencil.


Then this was the fun bit, I turned the tracing drawing over and scribbled on the back, usually you don't even need to do this; all you need is a ruler or something really heavy to press down on the paper and what it does is reverse the image onto the piece of paper underneath; and because you've pressed down hard enough with the B Pencil it comes out perfectly. I went over the pencil lines with pen to make sure I got it completely right and divided the picture up into squares... you have to be really precise and good with a ruler for this type of thing. I'm not the best but it works. I did my picture 18cm by 20cm... or rather 9 2x2cm squares by 10 2x2cm squares.


As you can see, it reverses the image. I then decided I wanted to make the image 2 times bigger than it was so I made a square 36x40cm and divided them into 4x4cm squares, which gave me 9 4x4cm squares by 10 4x4cm squares... Do you see where this is going? I drew whatever was in each box into the corresponding box on the bigger picture and voila!


I'm thinking of making their hair like pastel colours like baby pink/baby blue/lilac and all the other things in the drawing bright colours like vibrant red and green etc. I haven't decided yet and I don't want to start painting it until I do. Sorry it is so blurred I was trying to get a picture without getting my shadow from the light. The next step is for me to rub out all the squares on the bigger sheet of paper (two A3 sheets together) and reinforce the drawing with more pencil lines.

I'll keep you updated until its done. This is a great way of getting small ideas onto a bigger picture! This of course is not my own idea though. I just love the cute pictures!


P.S. Sorry about the quality of the photos, my only reason would be because I haven't defined the lines on the bigger picture enough yet so you can't really see it, but it's a W.i.P.

Jazz Hands!!

Today, my lesson was about being thankful for our hands!

I had a brilliant day. The children were all well behaved. I've settled into my role in Primary a bit more. I'm finally more relaxed and can do the action songs without feeling like a complete dope... now I think "Why was I so bothered? Nobody else was" So I dance along to 'Do As I Am Doing' and 'If You're Happy And You Know It'. I've always loved Primary and I just love it even more now!!


My lesson was about what we can do with our hands. I pretty much followed the lesson plan with a slight divert when they got too giddy. My brain seems to be thinking on it's feet this week and I managed not to make anyone cry and I didn't want to kill anyone at the end of the lesson... This is progress people!!

I told them to rummage around in the bag I took to church, I was going to take some finickity items with me, you know... toothbrush, teddy, keys, bobble etc and get them to feel around in my bag, but due to yesterdays super uber clean out I didn't have the clothes to hand that I thought I had, so I had to change my dress plan for today, which meant I got ready late, which meant I didn't have the items I wanted for my bag. So, anyway, instead of the interesting items I just had my bag of stuff. I got them to feel around and without looking tell me what they could feel. They said various stuff and then I explained that they felt with their hands.

I asked what they used their hands for to get ready for church and what they use their hands for whilst at church. We did the 'Two Little Hands' song. Then they got a little restless which was a little annoying, but argh! Quick thinking I took the 'Good' and 'Bad' signs off the side of the wall and put them on the opposite side of the room to one another. I explained that Heavenly Father and Jesus gave us hands so we could do good things with them and help others, I also told them that we mustn't do bad things with our hands like hitting, punching or hurting others. I got them to stand up and I told them something we do with our hands and they had to run to which ever one they thought it was... either a 'Good' thing or a 'Bad' thing. They had fun doing that one.

Then we learnt some sign language. I explained to them that some people cannot hear so they cannot communicate by their voice. I asked the girls to put their hands over their ears so they couldn't hear and I waved to them. I told them to take their hands off their ears and I asked them what I did, they said "You said bye/hello" I told them this was called 'Sign Language', I asked them if they wanted to learn some and they said yes. So I taught them 'I love you' and 'Mummy/Mother', 'Daddy/Father' which we had fun doing. I had some cut outs of my hand in different colours, I helped them write their names on them; we coloured in the rest and then we stuck them on the tree I drew. I wrote underneath 'I am Thankful for My Hands'. It was such a cute lesson.

I've had an amazingly awesome evening. Just winding down a bit now, and getting myself ready for tomorrow at work. I decided to draw out one of the pictures I use on my posts because it's just so cute. Once I've drawn it I'll paint it I think, or pencil colour it in because the paper is quite thin... hmm

Pattern Art

I love natural pattern art. Most of this can be found on the National Geographic. It all started when I went to a friends house they had postcards in a pattern plastered up their old and rustic chimney of places they had been; of places friends had been; of things they loved and it just looked so fun!

I decided to start my own postcard collection and do my own art work with them on my bedroom door (this is before I went to Uni). I collected all sorts of post cards; people started sending me them; finding them in shops; I'd buy one in any museum or small town that I went to and my collection started to grow. I think one of the best places I found some were at the open day at Bath Spa Uni before I even started studying there. I used to work as a Volunteer Radio Presenter at BCB radio in Bradford and so I'd get sent free music to try out and play on air, with that would come post cards, and so the collection grew a little more.

I soon found I had a taste for natural things that had a pattern in them, like leaves, or matchsticks, or trees, or the list is endless. But I just thought I'd share a few with you that were in my collection somewhere... mostly from National Geographic. When I lived in Bath they had a season around Autumn/Winter where they'd put these great big stands in the town centre, scattered around the Abbey and main street, and on these stands were big natural patterned photographs taken from around the world that those of the National Geographic had taken then at Christmas they had a big book or calender of some of the photos taken. They are so amazing!


It's a great way to pass the time too, staring at patterns all day, looking at all their intricate details and how they all come together to create this bigger picture. Doctors are continuously searching for the complete picture of how our body works, but it could take thousands of years to find out EXACTLY how the body works, just like it could take years to work out how natural patterns are created. They are just there, ready and waiting for us when our eyes choose to see them.

Things That Make Me Smile

So, just another random post. But this one is mainly pictures once I get round to it.

Things that make me smile:

Cats:



The Forgotten:



Roborovski Hamsters:



Proper Romantic Genre Films:



Beauty in the Beastly:



Just a few things. There are also others which I couldn't find a picture for. Like when I get off the train and I see others greeting a loved one they haven't seen for a while and there is just such a look of longing and affection in their eyes; it's so pretty. Funny people make me smile obviously. Some of the things the children at church say the funniest things which also make me smile. I tend to look at the smaller picture whilst not forgetting the bigger picture, I look for detail in everything. I once saw a butterfly swaying up a main street in the centre of Bradford and it looked so beautiful, not a care in the world; it was so peaceful in such a busy road, it looked so out of place... and then it was gone; brushed away by a lorry.

What makes you think and smile?

The world is what you make it.

T-shirt Thursday

Hey all,

Bethany told me I should title my post today 'Tuna Pasta Bake Thursday' but I'm not going to, mainly because it sounds weird. Today was really good. I accidentally stayed up until 5 o'clock in the morning my eyes fixated on a book Bethany told me I had to bring with me over this holiday called 'The Kommandants Girl' set in Nazi Germany. I was completely hooked. I was on Chapter 20 when I decided I should probably sleep. Don't you just love it when you get so involved in a book you can't bare to turn your attention away; there's something so great about leaving the real world behind having transfixed yourself into your own imagination.

So, because I didn't go to sleep until very early in the morning I didn't get up until 12ish. I actually woke thinking 'I don't want to open my eyes incase it's earlier than I think it is in the morning and it means I have to go MAKE myself go back to sleep' but I gazed over to Bethany lying on the blow-up bed and I poked her in the arm; she was awake. She said it was 12ish so we all got up and decided to get ready for the beach.

We wandered out of the house in skirts and shorts prepared for a sand filled afternoon instead we were met with a bitter wind and a cloudy day, okay so not an extremely cloudy day because the sun was out but clouds made the sun disappear which made it cold again... nooo.

But Bethany was extremely determined to get out onto the beach. We bought a make shift racket and a frisbee (in hindsight probably not a good idea since it was really windy) and powered on down to the beach. Once we got there... it was still cold. But we had loads of fun. We spelt our names out in the sand; played bat and ball; Emily and Bethany ventured down to the sea, I'll admit I was too cold to dip into sea, then we went for some chips on the sea front and played airhockey which Bethany won.

Hmm, I actually digressed quite a lot from what I was actually going to say. But what I was going to talk about is the infamous t-shirt. In fact more infamous than just the t-shirt is the white t-shirt! Everyone should have one. In fact I bought one from Primark the other day for get this... £2, they have long sleeved ones and short sleeved ones and vest top ones and strap ones hmm, they probably have strapless ones too but I didn't look. In actual fact I have about 3 white vest tops and now 1 white t-shirt. I mean it goes with everything I wear.


I think it's just because of the holidays that I seem to be watching so many films but this evening we've just finished watching another romcom 'How Do You Know' with Reese Witherspoon and Paul Rudd; he's actually quite good looking for his age, and is it just me or do his eyes just GLISTEN in every film that he is in. Strange right? It's one of those 'nice-guy-actually-comes-first' romcom's which is really cute; even if his competition is Owen Wilson, but you can't win them all.

To finish off the evening we are having a meal; 'super' late and then we are watching 'Laws of Attraction' a film Bethany decided we have to watch. Enjoy our second bank holiday and the beautiful Royal Wedding tomorrow.