APOLOGIES

I've been hugely lacking for a number of months in terms of blogging, University work has certainly got the better of me (who knew a music course could be so demanding?) in terms of going out, socialising, and indeed blogging - I am in fact socially inept. A number of people have reminded me of this lack of blogging attention, apologies apologies. There's too much I want to write about; Coldplay, Rihanna's and Drake's new records, fashioning yourself for the up and coming Christmas and New Years events and during the holidays Pro Green is making a visit to our local town so I was hoping to do some sort of necessary write up on that.

With the holidays coming up I hope to pay far more attention to this little page. Currently there just aren't enough hours in the day. Next year for a particular module of mine I am to host a 'Live Event' so I will plan to distribute many updates and advertising via my blogging. So, when the time comes, get involved!

Bloggers love & Merry Christmas

Fur & Silk

Right now silk shirts and little denim shorts are my love. Reiss and Whistles currently have some effortlessly prim silk pieces and the blue silk crepe shirt from Topshop is my new bestfriend, owning the crepe shirt in khaki and coffee is a must. In terms of fur, I already have my coat and my sheepskin wax jacket so I am on the hunt for the perfect fur accessories - the mittens, the tuck stole and the cossack hat.

Press Play

I think this could very well be my fave of la summer...

Girl Crush

If you haven't yet heard about Beyonce's almighty Glastonbury performance then there is something wrong with you. I am CRUSHED I did not witness this performance in person but thank the lord for BBC live coverage and the little magic piece they call sky +. I have watched the performance five times and counting, obsessed? YES. But please, who isn't. The headlining spectacular is mentioned daily on the radio, with dj's reigning in on her performance. I wish I could give you an opinion and a review as a prime witness to the show however despite only going off from what I saw via BBC coverage I can safely say I have never witnessed anything to that standard. Live, I have seen fellow headliners Coldplay, Radiohead, The Killers, Arctic Monkeys, The Strokes, KOL etc all in their prime but I believe that if I had witnessed that performance in person it would have outshone all those acts, some may argue and disagree with comparing such different acts as yes, Beyonce is an artist whilst the others are bands, clearly, however at the end of the day a headline act is a headline act and in my opinion she shot those acts to hell. On the surface, her performance was all glitz and glam, very outlandish and Vegas but what completely shone through was her raw talent, that voice and her genuine sincere overwhelm of gratefulness. To say she was HAPPY to be there would be an understatement. And as a member of a crowd it's such a joyous feeling when the artist you are looking upon appreciates the crowd more than anything. Ever since KOL's arrogant, shocking, 'couldn't care less' behaviour whilst headlining Reading 2009 my opinion of them has been very quick to drop. In terms of Beyonce's performance however, I was very quick to purchase the new album '4' shortly following the headline slot and I recommend very much so. 'I Care', 'I Miss You', 'Start Over' and 'I Was Here' are faves in terms of tracklisting. Have a gander.

Weather Appropriate

It's currently torrential rain hurricane weather as I write this piece, very appropriate to the subject I am about to embark on - anybody else really very ready for the Autumn/Winter 2011 clothing, no?! The summer sales have kicked in yet I feel the summer weather is, still, yet to kick in. Although with the highstreet trying to get rid of their summer stock this can only mean one thing, make room for the AW11 clothing peeerlease. As much as I am a fan of the festival wardrobe in the summer it's probably the fact that my student broke broke life that discouraged me to splurge on any festival tickets this summer (sobs) has encouraged my yearn for the AW11 clothing to be released and the winter wardrobes to be stocked up. Due to last A/W being an absolute treat in terms of aviator jackets, Burberry aviator boots and large camel woollen coats I have high expectations for this years trends and i'm simply counting down the days till the September edition of Vogue is available in all reliable WH Smiths stores.

Topshop.com's recent 'First Look For Autumn' preview has obviously reeled on and encouraged the excitement and I have no complaints of the fashion demands to have more fur and boyish blazers in our lives. Being completely obsessed with knit wear and laying it's no suprise that this is my ultimate fave season of clothing. Let the Chelsea Boot hunt COMMENCE.

Made Music In Chelsea

I, like many others, find myself completely hooked on "reality" television programmes. Made in Chelsea, The Hills, The City, Geordie Shore, Jersey Shore, The Only Way is Essex - you name it, I watch it (listing the programmes and coming to realisation as to how many I actually watch really makes me doubt the strength of my social life, maybe I need to start getting out a little bit more...). Nevertheless the final episode in the current series of Made in Chelsea aired last Monday, and whether you watched it or not, it included an excellent soundtrack. I hunted down on youtube the band 'Bastille' who have such a White Lies vibe to them. Scrolling down at the comments below in regards to their youtube vid, many of the most recent comments consist of the 'Made in Chelsea brought me here!' sort. Television programmes and movies are such a great use of promo for unknown bands and artists, some of my all time favourites have been distinguished via tv shows e.g. Death Cab for Cutie featured in the OC. E4 seem to get it spot on in terms of their music engineers arranging music for their television shows - Skins and Misfits have continuesly great soundtracks, and the entire first series of Made in Chelsea, in my opinion, has consisted of some great material.

Judge for yourselves...
(both artists are featured on the final episode of MIC)

On Repeat

DREAAAAAMY

I heard this fella whilst I was drooling over the highlights of the IOW festival on Sky Arts (it depresses me that I have to admit to you that I was enjoying the festival this year in my living room as appose to on site like last year...). Paolo Nutini will always be my number one whom I wish to marry, howev let me introduce you to his competition:

Why Aye Man!

I LOVE GEORDIE SHORE

♥ ♥ ♥

I'm such a fan of Greg James and his afternoon show on Radio One, I have even more time for him after he introduced us all to Ludovico Einaudi and brought the listeners something a little different to his show to broaden our musical ears a little further. As an attempted pianist myself I melt at the sound of any beautiful piece, and this is BEAUTIFUL. I plan to look further into his work and set about to learn various personal favorites on my own piano throughout the summer.
In the mean time...

Life In TECHNICOLOR

Myself, among many, turned into F. Cots show on Radio 1 last Friday at 10 to 12 to listen to the exclusive first play of Coldplay's new track.
Myself, among many, immediately fell in love.
I saw Coldplay live at Wembley performing alongside of Jay Z, Girls Aloud and White Lies (with a little luck I got to meet the front fella' of White Lies after the show) almost two years ago now and they were incred.
New song + new album = new promotional tour, ultra fantastical!

p.s. Seriously pissed at anybody who gets to see 'em at Glasto.

Au Revoir!

France, as always, was beautiful. It reached 30 degrees and I succeeded in gaining tan lines on the second day out there. Can't complain.
Here are some cute phots from the trip:


In terms of holiday reads I recommend 'The Fry Chronicles' by Stephen Fry and avoid 'A Long Way Down' by Nick Hornby. Don't ask, simply avoid, easy come easy go you know. (Don't be fooled by the encouraging quote to read the novel on the blurb of the book either, even if it is Johnny Depp who serves up the encouragement).

Oh! And in terms of technology and me - I caved. Countless texts and dozens of bbms, my phone bill is over double the regular monthly charge. I also ventured to the neighbours to check my University emails...and facebook...three times.

Six Years And Counting...

I love following an act or a band for so many years and never growing tired of them, it kind of symbolizes this personal loyalty to them, so much changes and happens throughout a period of say, five years, and listening back to songs you favored in the past brings you back to that time in your life - what you were wearing, who you hung out with, who you were dating etc. Listening to these songs are simply an alternative memory to photos.
Bands who I've sincerely favored throughout consist of Tegan and Sara, The Killers, Death Cab for Cutie, Coldplay, The Strokes, Radiohead and Kings of Leon. Most of which I began listening to when I was about 14, I remember being in the Science class room in year 8 at my secondary school and a fellow student handing me a burnt copy of 'Hot Fuss' by The Killers. I would stay up all night listening to the CD on my walkman trying to learn the words to Mr Brightside and On Top.
I remember being about 15 when I started getting into music from 'the past' as it were, Joy Division, The Smiths, The police, really starting to appreciate The Beatles (Eleanor Rigby will always be the fave) you know. I had this Ramones tee that I used to wear to death with some tights and a little denim skirt my friend fashioned out of an old pair of Levis (proud to say the tee and skirt still fit!) with my little tight converse pumps - I thought I was pretty awesome.
I've really got back into Tegan and Sara over the past year. I think I first heard their track 'Downtown' when I was about 14 and I still listen to it now with the same amount of enthusiasm as I did back then. Here are two tracks that made it onto my 'top 25 most played' on the i tunes library pretty swiftly:

I Here By Announce That, As From Tomorrow, I Will Have A Three Week Break From Social Networking. Gulp.

I am to wake up at the crack of dawn (the only bad thing about the holidays, minus the leaving to come home part, is the waking up at 6am to begin the travels to the sunny destination part) tomorrow morning to aim to get ready to sit in the back of a car from 7:30am till about 8pm at night. Oh my life. The idea of driving to France has never been in my favor, it has always encouraged me to start thinking about the idea of inventing the ability to apparate (Harry Potter style), but I suppose I have simply never got round to it. To say that my second year at university has been ridiculously hectic would be a complete understatement. It has been a cross between a season of Jersey Shore and Gossip Girl, who knew so much could happen in such a short amount of time? The strange thing about UOG is that a night out a week ago seems like a month ago. Time goes so fast and things move along and happen so quickly, when something rather miss-pleasing occurs because time goes so fast at UOG it's so much easier to get over that miss-pleasing incident so much faster than it would be in reality. University life truly is a bubble. When you come back home things catch up with you and you have time to dwell over all that has happened and it all comes a bit of a shock how much has occurred and how much you've learned. I feel that over eight months of University second year life I have learned eight years of knowledge! (most of which, I am ashamed to say, isn't knowledge based on education, more so knowledge in life and growing up)

What a better way to contemplate over those past eight extraordinary months than at my house in France? I pray for good weather but fake bake has already been applied and packed JUST in case. However no tights, leggings etc have been packed, simply bikinis, my denim high wasted hot pants and summer reads consisting of Stephen Fry, Nick Hornby and Bill Bryson (the Harry Potter hardbacks weighed a ton in my leather case and simply have to be left at home), so I'm taking the risk and packing for a guarantee of good weather. Here's to hopin'.

Other than any suitable English weather based clothing I am also leaving behind my Blackberry (my child, pretty much) and therefore cutting off any access to facebook whatsoever. I am thoroughly looking forward to this, however I do have my fears. The amount of people who tell me I over use my phone is excessive. I sleep with my Blackberry, it is the last thing I look at before I go to sleep and the first thing I look at when I wake up in the morning, I'm obsessed. As for facebook, we are all over compulsive users. Whether we are too afraid to admit it or not, we browse, we comment, we 'like', we stalk, we chat, ALL OF THE TIME.
It's sad really, but we are all so consumed by technology that I am afraid that I may have the slight chance of experiencing a mini break down during my holiday and Father will have no choice but to book me on the first flight back to England just so I can get my fix.
During the Easter holidays I suggested to my friends that I would leave my phone at home whilst visiting family in York for a few days and they simply laughed, shook their heads and told me I would never be able to do it - I wasn't. I grabbed my phone last minute just before we were about to journey to York, I crumbled. But hey, what's the difference of a few days to a few weeks huh? Three weeks without texting, calling, bbming, and all that facebook has to offer. I'm determined to do it just to simply get a little more grounded in life and get my feet back on the ground a little.

So in three weeks time, expect a post filled with photos of the French countryside, and expect another post either exclaiming that I succeeded or failed. Here's to three weeks without technology! oo err...

2011's Answer To Gold Dust, Serious.

Here's To Friendship

I HAVE NO WORDS!

Umm, isn't this amazing?!? Travis Barker AND Lil' Wayne, It's like christmas day in a song.



...which then leads me to my favourite advert of the moment:



...Which THEN so easily leads me to the full version of Tinie's 'Simply Unstoppable':



GENIUS!

Welcome Back Into My Life

I have been to V Festival three times on the trot now so this year I was planning to avoid and venture elsewhere, however now the headliners have brought out a tune as big as this, they may have twisted my arm a little...

This music vid also - reeeeeeem. It's hypnotic, psychedelic vibe draws you in, and Alex Turner is looking more Julian Casablancas day by day, how very rock 'n' roll of you Turner, now all you need is the drinking and drugs disorder and you'll be on top form, just don't try all too hard along the way.

With Turners ever growing ego aside, I love how much heavier the band have become, Fluorescent Adolescent seems a million miles away from this. More of the same, if you please.

Everybody Hates Chris

I have decided to finally forgive Chris Brown for messin' with Rhi Rhi and begin to enjoy his music once again.

I LOVE this - It's one for the summer, no?

Some Things Have To Be Taught

One of 'em is years old (something you may recognize from nineties flick Cruel Intentions?) and another is brand new, however the similarities of the piano patterns are uncanny. I've been teaching myself both on my piano this week, they are simples to learn by the way, absolute simples.

This Time Of Year...

Tunes like these always appear this time of year in preporation for all the cute indie festies out there, this one in particular sounds like it should be a part of an e4 cult teen drama or something of the sort, never the less i am a fan.

Take Me Here

There is no where else I'd rather be on July 12th of this year than at the Eden Sessions watching Brandon Flowers play on that particular night. I'm just waiting for the money tree in my back garden to start growing. The sighs over how broke I am are becoming a regularity. The venue of the Eden Project itself is phenominal and the whole experience of it is believed to be so surreal, as a lover of live music it just seems to be a place that, at some point in my life, I MUST attend (we all have that list of places and events to attend at least the one time in our lives - my list consists of festivals such as Coachella, Benicassim, the obvious vv cliche at least one time attendance to Glastonbury etc), and there seems no better time to attend it when my all time favourite musician is headlining the Eden Sessions for that particular evening.

Oh Na Na

So once I got over listening to Rihanna 'What's my name' on repeat for the majority of November, December, January AND February, I eventually started to open up to my eyes to music other than the one woman in this world who I want to BE.

Some of which I discovered, some of which I had forgotten HOW GOOD they really are and have therefore RE discovered (duh). Long story short I cannot stop listening to...

Long Time No...Post?

I'm a mass failure with keeping up to date with my entries as of late, I am AWARE. Everything is so up and down and forever moving forward FAST at university that there's barely anytime to sit down and write the important essays that go towards my final grade in LIFE let alone a time out to just sit and write for this - which, fyi, I miss.
That's why I have scooped up the opportunity of freedom a little whilst taking a break from Cheltenham back at home to update this a little.

Their are four main posts I'm dyeeen to write and get out there, consisting of (in no particular order) films I've seen lately, music that is quickly jumping up the scale in my 25 most played on i tunes, festival season that is creeping upon us all, and, last but not least, with my university summer ball being the talk of the Cheltenham town I really fancy doing a piece on my ultimate summer ball dresses, similar to the whole NYE dresses theme I had going on for a previous article, spectacular spectacular!

Over and Out.

Yum

I WANT A GILET, OKAY?!!

Now i'm not going off my rocker and splashing out on some friggin' uggs, but...I want a jack wills gilet? Something in my brain has quite honestly snapped and I'm suddenly typing jackwills.com instead of urbanoutfitters.com into my google chrome. I cannot justify my reasons apart from backing up my love for this particular item with saying that the colours appealing, it has a FUR lined hood (I have a big thing for fur...) and it's practicality:

BBBBRIXTON BRIEFCASE

Today on the 31st of January was the official release date of the new Chase & Status record and gahhhhhd downloading it HAD to be the very first thing I did this morning when I woke up, computer ON, internet CONNECTED, i tunes UP - dun. The album 'No More Idols' has been ridiculously long awaited, they teased us from absolutely ages with their release of Heavy (feat. Dizzee Rascal), Hypest Hype (feat. Tempa T) and Blind Faith within 2010. But they kept us waiting until the new year for the full 15 tracks to be released. The album is far more clean cut and polished than 'More Than A lot', they have got rid of their rough around the edges look but the whole thing is still pretty heavy. They've taken more risks adding a soulful side to 'Midnight Caller' featuring Clare Maguire, however despite this soulful, toned down image their future gigs are hardly going to lack the fun and the crazy promoting the new one, which they totally managed to portray the past couple of times I was lucky enough to catch 'em live with the promo for 'More Than A Lot'.
The biggest treat in my eyes is that they managed to nab White Lies onto their record, but that's simply my biased opinion because I have always been head over heels for White Lies - I'm sure those of you who are obsessed with Tinie Tempah will find 'Hitz' as yer biggest treat within the tracklistings.
Personally, 'Embrace' (feat. White lies), 'Flashing Lights' (feat. Sub Focus) and 'Fool Yourself' (feat. Plan B - so many points for putting Plan B back onto their tracks, that man can do no wrong) are so far my winning favourites. I urge you to downloaddownloaddownload all 15 tracks and decide YOUR ultimate faves.

The Romantics

I'm an absolute sucker for romantic wear when it comes to talking trends, I have this piece of information buried somewhere else within this blog I'm sure of it, but the passion is strong people. Chiffon, silk, satin - I crave it. You can never fail to look anything other than elegant, sexy but sweet and the effort of the outfit is clearly shown, the trend allows dressing up in the daytime acceptable. I like to make an effort with what I wear, yes I will turn up to my lectures in a maxi dress, but when you're wearing the pretty, cutesy romantical clothing it makes you feel good about yourself. I tend to wear a dress when I'm hungover because it doesn't make me feel so terrible rather than lounging around in my sweats or pjs all day (although, don't get me wrong, I'm totally guilty and game for a pj day where you sack off plans to play on The Sims or have a Gossip Girl marathon).

The designer See by Chloe (a personal fave of mine) have some very romantical pieces in their s/s 2011 collection, I've completely fallen head over heels in love. I've picked out the ones that i want, need and must have:

Awards Season, Darling.

I always get all silly and over excited over this time of year, award shows grab and fascinate me - ridiculous amounts of entertainment. I love to research the hotly tipped and nominated for the shortlist of each award and view 'em to see what all the fuss is about.

So, a bezzie of mine wisely illegally downloaded an amazing copy of the tipped for the Oscars ballet thriller Black Swan and this week my housemates and I had a bit of a girls night in to watch it - 'mazin. I have to admit I was ridiculously hyped up for the film, due to all the awards buzz that has completely surrounded the movies release my expectations were built HIGH. Expectations were met - Natalie Portman deserves the Oscar as does absolute fitcake Mila Kunis (yunno the brunette from Forgetting Sarah Marshall that every girl wanted to be and every guy wanted to be on?) who was as good if not better than Portman.
With every film along with the praise comes the criticism, It's a shame the films been shammed so much for the poor portrayal of ballerinas, is it not clear that Portman's character isn't representing every single ballerina out there, she's simply portraying a schizophrenic who's symptoms are triggered by her hobby/job/life? The ballet doesn't conjure the schizophrenia, yes Portman's character falls far into deep with the role she plays within Swan Lake and therefore this triggers the schizophrenia, but some critics have simply said that the films basically portraying all ballerinas as schizophrenics with eating disorders, when it's in fact the characters issues in her mind placing themselves to something in her life so they are triggered, the problems were always there, they were just waiting for the character to be placed in a convenient situation in her life (her taking on the role of the swan princess) for the problems to start showing themselves and for her to be involved in something that enables them to be triggered.
The film doesn't deserve the criticism it's gathering and I believe the critics are being narrow minded with their perspective of the film (meow!).

Last weekend a trip to the cinema was in order to watch 127 Hours - please, if you have not seen this film, you MUST, I can not encourage you enough, it will not disappoint! I preferred it to Black Swan, which is simply down to the directors and the way each went about their films, I have always favored Danny Boyle (127 Hours) over Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan) due to his hugely fabulous films such as The Beach (you all should have seen that by now, right?) so favoring 127 Hours over Black Swan didn't come as a huge shock to me. The filming and screen play of it is completely spot on and totally fast paced and original, the music is absolutely fantastic and no other choice of soundtrack could fit the film any better than it already does, James Franco is AMAZING (no complaints about watching him for 90 or so minutes), the critics spoke total sense with this film when they said that this is by far his best role and performance yet - couldn't agree more. I feel as if I should stay loyal to my country and root for Colin Firth to win the best actor nom for the Oscars, but heck I hope Franco wins first prize! 'Mazin.
p.s. Franco cutting his arm off is gross.

The final film I'll quickly mention which won the Golden Globe for best picture and took away a few more along the way is The Social Network, heaps of encouragement to buy this on DVD, I came out of the cinema in ore. I have no criticism to give, only a piece of advice: you MUST concentrate, very fast moving fast pace film, trust me you don't want to miss a second of it.

If it was up to me, the Oscars would belong to the three masterpieces mentioned above, hands down.

obsessed.com

Crushing so bad on Rihanna. The girl is HOTHOTHOT and too fucking cool right now, I got 'Loud' as a stocking filler and 'Complicated' as an absolute fave,

The godsend company Live Nation have released a bunch of 'Club Experience' tickets for her LOUD tour incl a two hour pre show party and complimentary bar, darling. I want, I need, I must have.

I never thought I'd be in ownership of a Rihanna CD, (also, on the topic of popularmusic i may aswell add...) I'd never thought I'd be a fan of the JLS and Tinie Tempah combi that's gracing the screen of MTV hits right now, never the less, I AM. (whathashappenedtomymusictaste&whendiditgoohsocommercial!??!!?)

♥ ♥ ♥

Brandi Strickland

Injection of COLOUR

Mara Hoffman Crystal Printed ANYTHING please!

If I didn't know any better I'd say these prints were inspired by acid or mgmt videos or sommin'.

Her S/S 2011 'Military gone Native' collection is mesmerizing, I love the vibrant, busy prints,,

She's previewed her S/S collection in her blog and I pretty much want to own 99.9% of the pieces!^&^^$%£!%$£!!

Music like this gets me in the mood for modelling prints like that:



p.s. This website has offered me endless entertainment, their range of jewellery, particularly the 'Pyramid' collection, bodes well with Hoffman's aztec theme, cute!

Oh, Russell!

(yesyes vvv blog happy tonight here I go again,,,)

I have been up each night, when at home, till about 4 in the morning, totally, completely, 100% HOOKED on Russell Brands second helping of his autobiography nonsense. If that man was a song writer he would be a lyrical genius. Heck, he IS a lyrical genius, be it song writer or novelist! I have yet to read around 40 pages of his 'Booky Wook 2' until it comes to an end and it saddens me greatly, coming to an end of a good book is like losing a friend. The book has been full of humor, philosophical reasoning, wittiness, sadness, and at times filled with just damn right stupidity - however all in all absolutely ULTRA FANTASTICAL.
PLEASE read, you will NOT regret,,,

(hahahaha nervous laughter - his fan puts my on edge slightly...)

BBC Sound of 2011

I'm going a little blog hyper tonight, clearly have too much to say (or too much time on my hands?)...

All this week Radio 1 have swapped their night time DJ's and put them in the daytime slots to get the daytime listeners tuning into a bit of a varied style of music and to introduce them to some new sounds, love this. I have adored listening to Mr Nick Grimshaw aka Grimmers during the day playing some of my faves that you wouldn't usually expect to hear on day time radio, e.g. Nero, Funeral Party, Yea Sayer, Chase & Status, Warpaint etc. (full track listings of all DJ's shows this week are indeed on their radio1 website yada yada yada) This week has all ofc been in aid of the 'Sound of 2011' (those of you who are not aware of this topic,,, basically at the beginning of each year, the BBC introduce a number of acts and create a list of the top 15 acts who are bid for greatness within the year to come). This list always excites me stupendous amounts and the top 15 have finally been announced! I have already chosen my faves; James Blake, Jamie Woon, Clare Maguire, Nero and The Naked And Famous. I urge you to go and find out YOURS.

WHERE THE EFF IS ADAM BRODY!?

My bezzie and I watched god awful so bad that It's brill horror flick 'Jennifer's Body' with sex bomb Megan Fox in it tonight and it was a total delight to see the OC's finest Seth Cohen aka Adam Brody starring. I had forgotten how much I adored this man and obvo fell straight back head over heels in love with him as soon as his face appeared on the silver screen. Which begs me to ask the question, where the eff is Adam Brody!? I just imdb'd the fella and apparently he's in post production for Scream 4 - like that will be a success? The guys actually pretty ultra talented, he was fabulous in the OC, vvv charismatic, no? I miss him, his character got me into DCFC for crying out loud, and I therefore felt obliged to dedicate a post to the hotdog. Channel four should at least consider airing re runs of the OC, no? Replace Friends with the show on E4 when that eventually gets taken off air? I may pursue and suggest the idea to the main bloke at Channel Four, or at least see what Adam's getting up to on perezhilton.com... (omgzomgzstalker.com)

Home Sweet Home?

I've been back home for two weeks and three days now, away from the house in Cheltenham that I share with five other fellow University students, for the Christmas holidays, and despite having another week and a half here at home - I am very ready to head back, so ready in fact, that I am yet to UNPACK from Cheltenham, because I know that I won't be sticking around here for too long. I have adored the novelty of being at home - home cooked dinners, someone to wash your dirty laundry, my original bedroom, needless forget the excessive amounts of Christmas decorations - however I think there comes a point, when you hit a wall and you once again crave that freedom and independence that you gain as soon as you walk into your very first home alone, aka the one without the rents. As soon as you have a taste of this independence your original home somewhat changes, you begin to realize and acknowledge certain characteristics that you were unaware of before - the control, the nagging, the complaints - everything that makes a family what it is, typical family values. It saddens me somewhat because what was completely 100% your home before isn't necessarily what it is now. I crave freedom and I have always considered myself somewhat rather independent, but freedom and the crowded house doesn't make a perfect fit. On a positive note this brings new ideas into my life, what can be done during the Easter and Summer holidays to avoid this crowded house; travel, festivals, work experience.

I'll leave you with a quote from my ALLTIMEFAVE film, Garden State, Zach Braff knows what I'm talkin' bout YUS:

"You know that point in your life when you realize the house you grew up in isn't really your home anymore? All of a sudden even though you have some place where you put your shit, that idea of home is gone. You'll see one day when you move out it just sort of happens one day and it's gone. You feel like you can never get it back. It's like you feel homesick for a place that doesn't even exist. Maybe it's like this rite of passage, you know. You won't ever have this feeling again until you create a new idea of home for yourself, you know, for your kids, for the family you start, it's like a cycle or something. I don't know, but I miss the idea of it, you know. Maybe that's all family really is. A group of people that miss the same imaginary place."

Now it's 2011, It's perfectly acceptable to get excited for the spring time, right?

I am aware It's only the 02.01.2011, I am AWARE it is FREEZING cold still (no complaints, I'm still holding onto the dream of owning the 'Best of British - Wax Sheepskin Short Coat' for as long as England is holding onto this cold, cold temperature), yet I cannot help but already be over excited for SPRING! Spring is by far my favourite season, and due to England's famously messed up climate, March, April and May always end up warmer than summer itself, ergo the season of spring is ridic appealing. Besides, Topshop's website have just released the preview of the spring/summer collection and have recently added some cute cute spring time pieces to their 'new in' range (Cream Butterfly Print Flute Sleeve Blouse you WILL be mine).

Here are my faves:






...I have been living in black for far too long, here's to injecting some COLOUR into my life!

Artists and their videos can always inspire a season. I've literally had this track on repeat whilst creating this specific post, the mood of the song, outfits, and video setting itself has got me mad excited for spring, here's to pub gardens, pimms (eep, is it too soon to mention pimms when a Christmas tree is still standing in my living room?) and rosy prints.

Begin As You Wish To Go On...

Happy New Year my darlings!

An essay reporting NYE antics will surely arrive on here asnap, however for now, it is currently 2.28am (ah, insomnia) on the 2nd of January 2011 and I am still mildly suffering from the 31st of December 2010 and I am therefore in no fit position to ramble on just yet. Therefore, in the mean time, i leave you with three songs that were featured in Jo Whiley's personal top 40 hits of 2010 broadcasted on her radio 1 show. I briefly caught a sachet of the show whilst tuning into the radio to accompany my coffee making, and these three gems were infact played in a row, the first two tracks I was only just being introduced to through this broadcast and the last I had previously heard yet attention was previously lacked with such a masterpiece, ah, better late than never, no? The full show is obviously available on her Radio 1 page and minus a few tracks (aka no. 10), her list is rather marvelous - hot job Whiley.

Enjoy!







p.s. - another I forgot to share, I adore this, It's beautiful,,,