Dee Piiiigs!

Yesterday we celebrated my friend Lotte's birthday by going to Hackney City Farm to see and pet all the animals and then have a picnic afterwards.

With my multitude of (kinda!) heart shaped yoghurt cake cupcakes in tow we first had a look around Hackney City Farm, first going to see de piiiigs! Who were huuuge! I seriously don't think i'd seen a pig before and they were about four times bigger than I imagined but very cute and sometimes ginger...

We visited and fed the goats and donkey some leaves and stuff, the goats were cute and climbed on the fence so we could stroke them (well feed them is the more likely reason) Just before we left the donkey made a very loud noise and let of a giant fart...humerous!

Afterwards we went round the back to the park to eat our foo

d which included my cupcakes, Mina's bat shaped tea and chocolate biscuits and Cai-Jia's cucumber sandwidges! 

Whilst we were there Cai-Jia got poo-d on by a bird and we also managed to get invaded by 3 rather...enthusiasticly friendly, big and slobbery dogs who i'm sure were only saying hello but managed to step in our food, slobber on the blanket/our bags/ us and steal and then slobber on Cai-Jia's shoe...

Happy Birthday Lotte!

Pin curls numero 2 and almost QI

So I was all set (and pin curled) and ready to go to be in the audience of the live recording of QI with a few friends to see the magnificent chap Mr Stephen Fry, but unfortunately there were waaay too many people there, and we were not even in the 99 people in the immediate waiting line!! It was all very dissapointing, especically when we found out after that it was the Christmas special!! (In May?!?!) Ahh well...hopefully we will be able to claim priority tickets in autumn...

Here are some pictures of pin curls number 2, using basically the same pattern but with 8 smaller curls on the fringey/top of head area rather than 4 large ones that we used before.

It was good because it gave my long-ish fringe something to do (ie. poof up!) rather than like last time where it was sort of down...

In film news, they're making a sequel to Heathers....HOW?! Christian Slater is awesome and 80s-tastic but I remember rightly he clearly blows up at the end...

And Twilight...I watched...I liked...and i'm so ashaaamed! Although i'm not really a fan of the girl's sort of awkward acting and lack of complete emotion at times the guy is great!

Foundation Final Show

Last Tuesday was LCC's Foundation degree private view of our exhibition... We basically had a board 8ft by 4ft big and we could fill it with whatever we pleased. I kept it simple and did a series of illustrations with different media and then made a wallpaper to go behind it, it reminded me of a tea shop, although that wasn't intentional!

Here's me by my board... (i always look terrible in photos taken by my dad's camera   

I was next to my friend Electra's photography project...

Here you can see the wallpaper and illustrations a little more clearly perhaps? There are frames and teapots in the wallpaper...

To the pub afterwards! (trying on Mina's amaaazing 50s sunglasses!)

Hair - pin curls!

Mina spent four hours (yes i know...poor girl) pin curling my hair for my exhibition yesterday (19th), I slept with the pins in (i can sleep through anything so it wasn't particularly a problem) and then I took the pins out the next day and had suuuuper curly curls! I had to tame and shape them but I'm super pleased with the result! I really want to do this everyday! its just so great to not have straight hair and to be able to experiment with actually doing something with my hair for once (although the putty does leave the hair a bit mehhh - it looks great but doesnt feel as great, but maybe thats because i hairsprayed the hell out of it)

here are some pictures of it:

Its lasted really well and i've had them all curly today too, and hopefully tomorrow! hooray!

I used (well mina) a vintage hair pattern that I found online and the "poifect pin curl" video on youtube was a real help

urghhhhh phoooneee

urghhhh my phone got stoolleeeennnnn.... went to the pub, probably left it somewhere/dropped it/got it stolen and now people have it and were messaging from it....great!

Its just a pain having to collect all the numbers and i got a cheapo phone that i diddnt reeeaalllyy want an enormous amount, but hey its a phone and this one fulfills its purpose. I hate the lack of communication with everyone! I had to meet my friend Mina and i spent so long trying to get in contact and then there was super confusion with meeting and just a horrid mess! Who knew there were two o2 shops in like 100 yards of each other and that we would each wait an hour for each other to arrive - misscommunication mess - you see, a phone would have come in handy then!

In other news, how great is spotify?! Ive been listning to Link Wray, Wanda Jackson and Gene Vincent on repeat (literally) - its so great I can't believe its legal! I only listen to music on my laptop really anyway so its probably a good thing that its only streamed - huzzah for spotify

And also - M&S doing that vintage celebration of being around 125 years - love it! They're bringing in all these lovely old style packaging and food! Blackout cupcakes, genius! I bought Dandilion and Burdock pop which is amazing! and surprisingly cheap - I think I will have a wartime birthday party - make do and mend and all that jazz :D

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

One of the best things about London living is the great array of things you can do -  theres not excuse of "theres nothing to do" because there obviously is, you just need to find it...

So far this year i've only paid to see one band and the rest i've seen at free shows at Rough Trade or clubnights like my friend's Dance Magic Dance clubnight. Today I went to see the Pains of Being Pure at Heart who were amazingly cute! Especially the girl with her big glasses and oversized cardigan -  just look at their little faces

We also stopped off at the photobooth....

My fringe is getting too long and starting to annoy so i've been pinning it up...and perhaps i look a little...face-y in these pictures...or maybe im not used to not having a fringe...mysteries

(oh and i'm loving the new facebook ' pirate' setting! arr me hearties!)

Holiday?!

Well I've just broken up from my foundation art course (sorta...ive still got next week but theres no real reason to go in except for a couple of days) and i've got my exhibition next week, but it feels so wierd! like i'm missing out on a complete term, which is basically what I am doing.

Generally i'm not that keen on holidays because back at home I never really have anything to do and I get bored super easily - but hopefully not this year! Im making lists of places to visit in London before I have to move out of my halls and things to do and hopefully I will be getting a job to fill the time and make some much needed money, although finding a job is tough in these recession-y times!

My mum came down on Sunday and she wanted to somewhere new, so I took her on the big three East end market tour! First stop was Columbia Road Flower market, with a lovely stop at The Cake Hole behind the shop Vintage Haven for cakes and tea. Theres also the Rob Ryan shop on Columbia Road which i'd been wanting to visit for a while - heres the website:

http://www.columbiaroad.info/shops_5.html

http://www.vintageheaven.co.uk/

Next it was Sunday Up Market on Brick Lane and then a quick stop at Spitalfields before we had dinner at S&M (sausage and mash that is!) I was a little dissapointed as it was basically a glorified diner but with restaurant prices and not restaurant quality, nice but not really worth £8 at all. I did try Dandilion and Burdock drink which was absoloutly delicious! but also crazy expensive  - at least mum was paying!

Rough trade windows

I went past Rough Trade over the weekend and saw this...

Me and Mina and Xiao! rather big on a poster for the rough trade photobooth! It was a little bit of a shock but really funny...

London Zine Symposium

I've had a busy few weeks, with everything happening at once as it usually does - London is so beautiful with sun!

Today I went to the London Zine Symposium at the Rag Factory on a road just off brick lane. Entry was free but with a donati

on (which you cant really refuse...) and it was packed full of really amazing zine artists and sel

lers as well as buyers and it was really great to see how many people were interested in it - makes me want to start my own (hopefully over the summer when i've got more time!)

(heres the link to their website: http://londonzinesymposium.lasthours.org.uk/)

There were some really great artists and zin

es on sho

w - I ended up buying "Bad Men & Mavericks -  the ultimate fanzine for the hopeless romantic" by Isabel Greenberg, which is super and full of lovely illustrations of mavericks through the ages! Here is a page that I got from her website, which is isabelnecessary.com (haaaaa)

I also purchased "The Manly Boys Annual" by Steven Tillotson and Gareth Brookes which is an amusing parody of a war period private school magazine, with articles such as how to skin a rabbit, how to tattoo yourself

 and "what the devil do women want", nice! Its really beautifully printed as well and my friends all got copies for thems

elves as well after seeing mine. You can buy it at the banal pig online but I couldn't find the artist's personal websites.

The last thing I bought was a badge from hannah waldron - I've been a fan of her work for a while so it was nice to be able to buy something - I ideally would have purchased the larger book (as seen below!) but alas I am poor! Her website is hannahwaldron.co.uk

There was also a zine that they were making on the day that anybody could contribute to, so me and my friends printed out some copies of some work to bring in and they got in the "zine fest zine" which is a bit exciting! Heres what I contributed:

work work work

Back to uni now! I've got a lot of work to do before my exhibition!

We are (ie. some other lovely girls in my class) setting up a website for our class collective as well as a magazine for our end of year show! which is rather exciting as its looking really great so far and is getting printed out today hopefully. The website is www.volanscollective.com - its not completely set up yet but is on its way!

After going to the Diner on Curtain Road a couple of times and eating the delicious cajun spiced chicken burger I decided to try and make it at home - but unfortunatly i couldn't find cajun spice at tescos (damn youuu) so I just exchanged it for mixed spice and made "spiced chicken"! Falafels tomorrow hopefully!

here are the recipies: 

http://mideastfood.about.com/od/maindishes/r/falafelrecipe.htm

http://southernfood.about.com/od/chickenbreastrecipes/r/r70902a.htm

I've also been listning to Screamin' Jay Hawkins loads - his voice really is amazing! And his look aswell...apparently his voodoo skull was called Harry or something...They don't make them like they used 

to eh...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Siapac1HTpo&feature=related