happy new year!

Yo, 2009, imma let you finish....


...but, ummm, this is genius.
HAPPY NEW YEARRRRR!
(and Happy Birthday Ana!!!)

PS, 200 posts, hello.

foam snow

I often try to claim that I don't know what's up with "the party season" cos I sure ain't going to a lot of parties, barring the family affairs. Which I don't count; I don't know why.

I have no office party.

I live with most of my best friends.

Most people I know are students; we're not a 'party' having people, we're just a drunk-getting people.

But this year, I suppose, I have been to a number of parties, non? Not counting Luke's birthday, really, there was our Christmas dinner followed by dancing at Jukebox, Bryony's meal the next night, gig/Cut times on the 21st...

And then there's NYE, tomorrow, and the long awaited Glitterfest. Which is, essentially, us lot getting drunk on cheap "champange" and dancing to Lady Gaga till the wee small hours, with a break only to play Don't Stop Believin' at midnight. The Journey version. But possibly a double bill with the Glee version.

This is including the magic that was ConnectionVSJukebox at theCut last night. It even SNOWED. Well. It sponge/foam-ed.

I will leave you, 2009*, with this post - a beauty, nay, a flurry, of photos - off of one of the best (but quite typical) nights out this year. Oh, 2009, you beauty.

* I SAYYYYY I will leave you, but, there may or may not be a scheduled post for midnight tomorrow which you should totally check out if you haven't seen Autotune 2009 already.

style resolutions III - not everything is black & white

That, dear readers, is a big pile of colour.

A big resolution to myself is to buy less black and grey next year. I have plenty.

Although I totally need to replace my BELOVED grey uniqlo cardi, which I might have accidentally dyed purple by washing it with a bright pink skirt.

Sigh.

If eBay throws up nothing I will literally be dyeing it back to grey.

Anyways, a recent charity shop jaunt added to the pile of colours; and in the spirit of procrastinating from doing uni work, I had a right old go at putting some "colour only" outfits together.

This is harder than it looks.

Unless you don't mind looking like a box of crayons.

Also, I had grey tights on and couldn't be bothered to take 'em off.

Also, I'm still allowed nudes cos I say so.

vintage skirt & lace onesie; thrifted/DIYed gold vest; legwarmers

Legwarmers?!?! Ana left me them. I've never been down with legwarmers. But I quite enjoy these. I also kinda enjoy the vests fraying hem.

asos stripe top; thrifted silk vest & wrap skirt; vintage shoes

orange and pink shoulnd't work, but it totally does. right? RIGHT?!

thrifted blouse&scarf; vintage lace onesie; topshop skirt; peacocks boots

coat&scarf - christmas presents!; thrifted dress and VersaceJeans skirt; ebayed Lagerfeld loafers

It amuses me that the skirt is the same colour as my hair.

Topshop/christmas present cardi type deely; gold crop vest; blue skirt DIYed from a dress; Pierre Cardin shoes

I am alllll about this cardi/jacket effort right now.

Let's take a closer look at that last one, cos I tied/folded/weaved that scarf into a turban type deely that I will likely never be able to recreate; but that I thought was totally hot for about 5 minutes.

This all came about cos we went ice skating earlier in the day and I donned this.

thrifted henley; vintage skirt&belt&lace onesie; asos boots; primark legwarmers&tights; DIYed scarf; ebayed coat; various jewellery

Hmm, outfit heavy post.

K, I've got stuff to be doing.

Like NYE tomorrow; still dunno what to wear, but it's likely that TS jacket/cardi/thing will make an appearance cos I LOVE IT right now.

style resolutions II - not actually to do with style....

Rather, to do with blogging and writing and working in general.

Must post; must keep on writing, unlike I did a little in the summer.

Must not be so lazy.

Must do something productive every day, whether it's uni work, blogging (setting up scheduled posts if I have a lot to blog about!) or working on "other projects"

Must undertake "other projects"...

...other projects being DIY projects; making stuff to sell on etsy, and the newest venture, the zine.

Yeah, so, having a whole bunch of writer/photographer/media/fashion-y type friends is a fat lot of good if you're not going to utilise them, says I. As such, we're looking at putting together a zine of some sort. No ideas yet, of course - we'll look at names, themes, articles etc in the new year, I think, and I'll put up a pdf link on the blog and probably send it about to a few people/bloggers if they're interested whenever it's ready.

Might even have a launch party.

And by launch party, I clearly mean we'll all go to theCut/Jukebox/Stonelove and get drunk.

I will, of course, keep you lot updated on what's occurring with it, but expect something a bit mismatched and random. A bit like this blog, then, non?

style resolutions I - hair

It's the last week of the decade.

In case you hadn't heard.

That, of course, also makes it the last week of the year.

Now, 2009 was pretty effing amazing.

I mean, I literally had the year of my life. It can only be downhill from here, can't it?

I assume the next, oh, at least 18 months will be. Stress, stress, stress at uni, I assume. I do hope I can continue to keep up with the ol' blogging.

London, travelling, socialising, meeting the people I met, having the nights I had, starting to blog and as such becoming part of such a welcoming community? Allllll amazing things.

So, what for 2010?

I don't know what the next year, or indeed, any of the future holds in terms of, well, anything, but what I can predict, or make a resolution about at least, is the evolution of jenn.

Not that I'm gonna start talking in the 3rd person; I'm not that pretentious.

If you've been reading for a while you might note that I'm a bit sick of having such short hair. Turns out I have a whole hair plan for the next i-don't-know-how-long, but I think this is achieveable within a year, non?

Hairspiration numero uno:

Some 60s model lady, found on...I don't remember where. It's nearly at this stage already, I think.

Hairspiration numero due:

Taylor Tomasi, senior market editor for Teen Vogue (both pics from Jak&Jil).

All I need is the length! Then a bit of thinning out and a nice straighten. Just not too straight. Never a fan of this.

Hairspiration numero tre:

Daphné Burki (from Garance Doré's blog.)

Back to natural colour, tips dipped in honey blonde, a bit tousled. This time next year, friends and readers, this time next year. I think hers is a honey blonde that's growing out, but I'm not doing that, aww hell no.

happy jesusmas

I hope you're currently eating turkey sandwiches and chocolate and watching questionable TV.

I was gonna say "I am!" but I haven't mustered up the energy to make a turkey salad ciabatta (OH YEAH. YOU HEARD ME.) and the TV isn't on - we just sitting around with our laptops, catching up on the lack of computer usage yesterday. Oh deary, deary me.

I feel like I should be watching Disney films....

Boxing day is a Disney sort of day. I planned - and I use that term loosely - to watch The Hunchback of Notre Dame today, and do a post about how Disney music is awesome and Frollo is the clearly the most evil Disney villain ever, more so than Scar off of The Lion King by a long way (don't you dare disagree with me!), but he's not the best villain ever cos that's CLEARLY Hades off of Hercules. I mean, he has FLAME HAIR and, yknow, it's James Woods. I think of Hades every time JW is on Family Guy.

/ramble

Hmm, so, yes, this is all cos I've been on a Disney binge up on my ipod this week. Man, I'm cool.

But yeah, I went to grab my DVD to bring it home and then I remember it was in Luke's room and I didn't know where his spare key was. McNinz! *shakes fist*

SO I'LL DO WITHOUT, SHALL I? Hmph.

Instead, I suppose I'll do something fashion-y.

Handily, there's an awesome set of photos up on fashion156 right now, featuring some designers I've spoken of before, and some I plan to look up and probably post about in the New Year, if not later this week.

Featured designers (in order of appearance): Peter Pilotto/Bitching&Junkfood; Gareth Pugh/Hermione De Paula/Pam Hogg; Petra Metzger; Maria Francesca Pepe/Luna and Curious/Bitching&Junkfood/Blushless; Pheobe English; Craig Lawrence

Expect posts on a handful of those labels soon! Many I hadn't heard of before, but am keen to see what else there is to see of them.

Although, I'm sure you've seen Bitching&Junkfood about, given that their blog is linked over to the right there - their feathered neckpieces and bejewelled necklaces are just awesome.

Back to eating! And doing photoshop-based Uni work :(

snow joke

This is the view outta my window.

I shoulda taken a photo of the actual street.

The paths on ours are like sheet ice, for realz.

They're not that bad once you get of our street though. Main roads = all good.

Given the ice/snow/cold, and that I'd be at a gig then a night out, clearly this outfit was an excellent idea:

primark blazer; vintage sheer blouse and high waist trousers; topshop heels; various jewellery

Ana was much more suitably dressed, in her boots. I love our classy 'in the Camp David toilets' photos. Teehee.

Oh, ask her where everything is from. Likely she'll do a blog, I've sent her t'photos.

I don't know why we were impressed by this machine in said toilets, but we were. Ana especially.

And, lo! Obligatory "i love my friends I do, look how awesome they are" pic.

Must get back to meaningful posts.

If the last couple of weeks was all 'this designer' this and 'that designer' that, this week has been all 'me me me!'. I don't like either of these scenarios, in particular. Shall strike a nice balance in future.

New Years Resolution the first.

-------------------------

So it's Christmas Eve.

I'm back at home in Durham. I'm going to actual Church for the carol service tonight (the only time we go to church, ever. Although, it'll be the second time this year, given Lewis' christening earlier this year.)

Probs no posts for a few days, but of course you'll all be busy eating and swapping presents so you won't be reading either!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

granny chic

Ana was in town on Monday - sushi date, charity shopping (i spent a lot of money. i need to stop that.), bit of a gig, night at theCut (accompanied by Daniel, among others.)

Expect a few posts on the subject today/tomorrow.

Firstly, we like a good granny.

Grannies are like, the ultimate fashionista (eurgh, i hate that word.)

In the sense that, a well dressed and confident person (as I would deem a fashion person) would wear what they like and literally not give a shit, so do grannies.

Now, the magic is, sometimes, they are AMAZING, and they don't even know it.

We managed to snap some (iphone camera, apologies for lack of quality) while we were wine&sushi guzzling in Fenwicks, which is totally the granny hotspot of Newcastle.

Granny number one: working the Pugh/McQueen-esque checks with a red snood. Dude, I don't know people my age who would rock that outfit so hard.

Granny number two: working the fur hat like she was made for it.

There were other awesome grannies we didn't manage to snap in our sushi hour, but man, I'm gonna be watching out for them next time I'm in town.

blue christmas

Yeahhhhhhh! Another outfit post!

Bryony's christmas affair....

pink coat (girls; tiny), the free shop in London; sheer grey tunic, thrifted in Berlin;

blue dress and belt, vintage; blue socks, Primark; shoes, New Look; Topshop jewellery

I don't remember the last time I wore nail polish; but here it is.

I do like that jade Chanel colour (no chance of getting it though...), but this deep green I've had knocking about in my nail polish bag for months is pretty hot, non?

a christmassy christmastime

Photo-heavy post alert!

:D

I believe this is Cat's plate o' food. Yeah I made all that - homemade cranberry sauce, homemade apple sauce, a big-ass chicken and a pork joint too. Everyone was reet happy, and shovelled it down and all we had left was enough chicken to make a couple of toasties the next day.

In the spirit of 'Jenn's family christmas' which is what I essentially forced on my unsuspecting housemates, there were stupid games a-plenty after dinner, including peas. Which involves dry peas and straws.

A minute to move as many peas from one plate to the other, in 2 teams of 4 - Auntie Kath would be proud! (I hope you read this Auntie K!)

Me, Aaron and Cat ended up at Jukebox; there were loads of folk we knew there. Excellent and most spontaneous night, I heard.

And again, in the spirit of a family chrimbo; the obligatory family photo. In the snow. VERY FESTIVE. (and cold.)

Plus, of course, some candids.

Merry Christmas!

(and a big ol' happy 21st to my friend/ex-housemate/treasured reader Deanne, whose birthday it is today. Obvs. :D)

an avalanche

An avalanche of outfit posts, that is.

Christmas dinner (post coming later!) was on Friday - it was a right old treat; I done a lot of cooking and drinking and playing games and then dancing at Jukebox, and was worse for wear on Saturday but had to do it all over again (well, the eating part) at Bryony's fake christmas.

I was "going for" a "victorian" look.

Lies.

I put the brown dress on on the morning to wear to cook in and was gonna get changed for tea, but then I put this super awesome and amazing vintage blouse on to keep me 'warm' (blouse what I charity-shopped for a fiver when I worked in Cancer Research) and tucked it under so it was at the same height as the waistband and decided that was a festive enough outfit.

Fur coat (what is super warm and fluffy and I can't help but snuggle in) & beret for popping to Boots/the post office....

beret, some shop in Australia; fur coat & blouse, vintage (fur coat from Paris!); brown dress a

freebie off of placement; tights from tightsplease.co.uk; boots from

peacocks (?); necklace off of portobello market.

And the tights! The tights I ordered when I was in Dundee, the first time. THE START OF NOVEMBER. And they finally got them in stock last week, and they came on Friday morning, and I got in on Friday night to discover I'd managed to ladder them in approx 4 places. NON IMPRESSED.

Debating buying some more (they were only a fiver) but god knows how long they'll take to get here. Gawd.