So this is what I've been up to for the past few weeks, among moving back into university and getting back into work, preparing for our college arts week! I am so damn excited about it (my job is producing a play and hosting a Mods and Rockers after-party, so much watching of Rookie's tutorials has been happening)Our logo is a moustache, which has been so much fun to work into everything! And one of the amazing committee people has put together this trailer. I am so in awe of people who can do that, and this is a thing of beauty. And therefore is a joy forever. Oh and the feet in the puddle? That would be me..
If you are in England, and can get to Oxford fairly easily, have a glance at what we've got on! http://www.wegottickets.com/f/4307 I'll be ambling round with a huge grin and a camera most probably.
That title took me a while, so hope you appreciate it.
It has been a fair week or two since my last post, so I do apologise. Also this isn't the recipe post I'd promised myself either; so apologies for that too! Somehow, the weather has taken a decidedly wintery turn this week. Not so good for getting anywhere (read: out of bed) but lovely if you want to take some time out your weekend and go on a morning photo walk, as I did last sunday, or an afternoon photo walk, as I did yesterday. No wonder I'm getting no work done...the snow cleared up a bit in between and is mostly gone now, but I have some lovely snow picture to share. Far too many in fact. Here's a few, and some more instants, but no doubt there'll be another post or two. In the meantime, there's more on Flickr for you to peruse at your leisure. Have a wonderful, hopefully warmer, week!
Just a very short one tonight, because I can't resist showing you some of the lovely things that have arrived in the post or by courier (aka my lovely parents) this week. There'll be a nice long post on the IMPRINT exhibition from Friday coming up, so watch out for that. Such a brilliant day, full of inspirational art and lovely people, so a huge thank you to everyone.
Until then; the Topshop Dalmation Coat arrived from my parents on tuesday, a complete and fantastic suprise! The film is for more instant snapping
with my Polaroid 300, so I now have 50 more potential shots, thank you
ebay. And that floral saddle bag was from the gorgeous Tieka at Selective Potential
from a Christmas giveaway, perfect for little jaunts when I don't need
to take the world and all its books with me. Just waiting for the rain
to let up a bit for all of these beauties to be put into action...Hope
you all have a lovely week, mine's shaping up to be quite exciting. Also I promise there WILL be more baking related posts soon, Don't know about you but I've missed them!
Goodness it's been a while. But I've decided to make myself have a breather and accept that Paradise Lost is not going to get read in the next hour or so. So important to take time over these things is it not? I actually had some other present posts lined up, but to stop this blog being too 'Look at my new things!' I'll intersperse them with these pics. I've been meaning to scan these in for a while, they're from a Polaroid 300 (Basically a Fujifilm Instax mini) which my mother won and I promptly adopted. I'm still working out how to guess the light properly, but I still love these shots. And they make rather nice tags for personalised presents, if I do say so myself, which is why I only ended up with four to scan in here...
Christchurch Meadows Oxford on the left, though it was not that dark! And blackberrying on the right in Cheltenham
Also, again if anyone is in the London area THIS FRIDAY then do please come along to the Centre of Possible Studies for the Fabelist IMPRINT festival, it's going to be an incredible day, and hopefully my beautiful camera will be there too, as I've just had 50 more instant film sheets delivered. Waiting is overrated.Have a lovely week everyone..hopefully there'll be a new post soon, I have some very exciting things to share!
More often than not I seem to accidentally pick this bench. And it always brings a smile to my face, for an obvious reason; someone in the long distant past (No-one I know i'd like to add) has carved my name on the arm. And so many a memory of shopping days, dates, people-watching sessions, waiting for rendevouz etc have been peppered with some comment about my supposed vandalism. All very amusing of course, but it fixes this place and all the varying experiences I've had around it together in my mind. Me and a group of friends were even interviewed on it once. I think we talked about vampires...And every time this little thing, six scratches on a bench, has been noticed and noted, filed away in the brain. So what if the shopping trip was a failure. I had 'my' bench, my Christmas coffee (my first of the holidays, a Toffee Nut latte, and very good it was too) stollen from Huffkins in my bag, my cape and a lovely walk through the crisp wintery sun home ahead of me, to be greeted with some excellent news from my genius little brother. I won't go into it, but so very proud of him, even more so than usual...
I thought I'd accompany this with some more suprisingly sunny winter days, these from Oxford
Trees on Brasenose Lane, and into Radcliffe Square
And some light of a different kind, a few blurry shots from the Christmas Lights switch on a fair few weeks ago, again in Oxford.
I'm back home now for the holidays, and busy planning all the things I'm going to be making and baking for the festive season. Influenced in no small part by the incredible offerings around Oxford in the last week of term, including this INCREDIBLE cake in The Cake Shop which depicts a famous feature in fondant glory; the Radcliffe Camera (images of the real thing can be found here.) I see this gorgeous building on a daily basis, so to see it here, in cake form? Pretty much perfect... And more cake based beauties came from Happy Cakes' stall at the Christmas Lights switch on. Unfortunately I was just about to eat, otherwise one of these beautiful christmas cupcakes would have been mine. To test whether they tasted as good as they looked, of course.
I don't really have much time to write an in-depth poetic post about the lovely afternoon from whence these photos came, so I'll let them speak for themselves. Partially because I have not yet quite finished the essay i WAS going to do on sunday, partially because I am too damn excited about going to see Laura Marling at Gloucestershire Cathedral this evening! Literally so psyched I am barely able to type coherently...calm self. And speaking of calm, last friday afternoon I did a walk that I've never done before, on one of the most gorgeous Autumny sunny afternoons ever; all crisp air and golden colours. We seem blessed with them at the moment! Lovely friends, good weather, and a wide expanse of work-free-wonder to wander in. Who could ask for a better escape?
It's been all quiet on the blogging front for the past few weeks, as I've been caught in varying degrees of literary frustration, topped off by a week rushing round uni in a silly (read: wonderful) gown, blouse, and velvet ribbon combo...in short; I've had exams. Now however, first year is over and I am back in merry Cheltenham, ready to embrace the long-neglected internet.
Twice this term I've managed to go out on one of the two rather lovely rivers around town, and so thought I'd share some of my pics from the punting trips before launching into recipe and shop-find blogs again...Enjoy!
The conveniently placed pub just along the river from the Boathouse
That's all from the Cherwell Boathouse, early on in the term, about 2 weeks in. These next photos are from the Madgalen Boathouse, on my very last day. It was less sunny, and the river's a bit more overgrown, so a rather different atmosphere...
Sometimes even an English student needs a reminder that she does actually like books. For me this respite from the stress of studying them mostly comes with a reminder of just how beautiful visually works of literature can be, and how lovely bookshops are (especially, needless to say, second hand and independent ones.) For a long time, Moss Books in Cheltenham has been one of my favourite places. It’s a wonderful, haphazard, crazy mound of books masquerading as a shop, and has a particular little corner which I just love. There’s a little stool there, and I have frequently just tucked myself away among the old books that are stored in that one corner, and whiled away far more time than was strictly necessary…[apologies for the fairly poor quality of these photos, by camera was having an off day]
However, there may be a rival to my affections. A few days ago, taking advantage of a brief respite in workload, we visited the bookshop-café Albion Beatnik in Jericho (the artsy bit of Oxford.) There’s a strong focus on the Beat generation here (hence the name) but also some contemporary stuff, and a substantial second hand section. Basically whatever the owner finds interesting, and all put together in a lovingly well thought out shop, with experimental jazz in the corner putting me very much in mind of the music for Funny Face’s café dance scene. In fact there was an atmosphere of quite genuine intellectual bohemia there (possibly aided by the gorgeously dressed girl studying on one of the tables and a man on a sofa pronouncing Marxist theory.) Plus, and more importantly, it has an impressive array of tea and choice of teacups. And they wrapped our purchases in paper parcels. Only future visits can tell whether this hub of book lover-y with its Prufrock quotes on the door and paper roses can replace my original love for ‘my’ corner of Moss Books, which means I shall have to return to both, inevitably spending more money on their wares. What a pity.
Tiny tiny books...
And just to make this post even longer (and multimedia) a friend showed me this lovely little book related stopmotion video a few weeks ago, which just cries out to be put here;
