it's a mystery

Photo blogging is my new favourite pasttime.
I should've been doing work (I should be now) but a secret, and free, Mystery Jets gig in a car park with free drinks followed by a night of flailing dancing at Digital is hard to pass up. Excellent day.

(You may enjoy pics below of Aaron's mandals; the set up in the car park, various shots of us enjoying our free lagers, Aaron's full on nerdiness in the form of Doctor Who pencil tins, and Cat's sheer excitement. Also some Mystery Jets.)

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ah, oui oui

Imagine this, on a bike, with a basket, tootling through Newcastle on the way to uni...

thrifted top+skirt+coat//ebayed shoes//topshop ring

Well French.
Far too hot for the coat by the end of the day, though...

The top is new, from a charity shop sweep last week.

Man, I have so much design work to do this week :(

But come next Wednesday, it's a hand in, and then I have a freeeeee summer. And by free, I obviously mean I'll have a dissertation to write and some sketchbooks to fill. (Y).

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crazy eyes

This post has been a long time in the making.

In the sense that I cba'd to take photos and stuff. But I got round to it yesterday! And mighty glad I did.

Warning: there are a shitload of photos here.

from yvan rodic

So, this picture was on Yvan Rodic a month or so ago, and I fell in love with the makeup. That's something I look out for, on catwalks, in lookbooks, on streetstyle sites. Style is one... faction of influence, makeup is another. An interesting makeup detail can elevate a plain outfit.

All this is a round about way of saying I had a bash at this look myself, and LOVED the results.

I very rarely wear heavy eye makeup. Mascara is a must, and I trytrytry with eyeliner - my mac pot is the best I've used, but still, it eventually wears away. So, last time I did a makeup post, my friend Hana recommended I try this primer from Urban Decay.

It's £11, which is steep for a tiny bottle, but it's genius. And it makes looks like this much more possible to me. And you, y'know, if you have a problem with running eye makeup! It'll at least stop your eyeshadow running down your face.

So, this is what I used:

Rather than go full on black, I started with a moss-y green base, a Collection 2000 cream shadow I've had for YEARS, since last time I went through a moss-y green/khaki phase. (Think I'm back in said phase now. FYI.) - applied with the sponge tip brush....thing, all up the length of the shape I want.

Follows by black powder from this palette. Also ancient. It's the one in the top right corner. Applied with the fat gold brush, all over the green base.

Then a little mac liner, applied with the other end of the sponge tip brush top the top lash line and up into the eye socket a little.

Pretty sweetass, non?

Just while we're on the subject of eyes, these false eyelashes from Paperself are amazing - intricate, delicate, and made of paper.

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there's a first time for everything.

Well, I was POSITIVE I'd written about Gemma Degara before, but I've raked the archives and can I find such a post? Can I fuck.

Her A/W 10 collection, 'Sleepless Night' with its rich blues, greens and turquoises, mixed with whites, nudes and owl prints, all in amazing cuts, with draping, pleats, tucks and sheer panels....
Lovely.

Beautiful.

Amazing.

So I've kept an eye out for Gemma popping up around the internet....
She pops up on different blogs now and then, but these pieces, which are definitely born of 'Sleepless Night', though seem not entirely the same as any of the pieces therein, popped up recently on pixie market...

oh hai purple Topshop Unique shoes in picture one...

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"it looks a little like student work"

Tim Gunn quote for you there.

Say Tim, how is that a bad thing? Student work isn't all badly fitting and experimental, yknow!

Last week I got a whole bunch of blogging related emails.
I was all "whaddup with this? i'm not even proper blogging right now*" but righto, whatevs, i'll read and reply and so forth.
One of these was from Krakow School of Design (I know, random, yes?) essentially going 'ere, have a look at wor student's work", though obviously not in a geordie accent.

See, they have a blog, on which they post loads of stuff, including, but not limited to some of the students work. (I suggest you check it out, but note that unless you can read Polish, you'll just be looking at the pictures.)
As someone whose coming to the end of third year, with the dreaded final year looming, I'm really interested right now in seeing graduate collections, and what my peers are creating...
Anyways, I scrolled all the way down the first page and two collections popped out at me, so I thought I'd post em.

Firstly, Anna Wendeker...

She even has her own site, or at least, somewhere to show her stuff, yknow. I loved the structured drape, which is a contradiction but also an accurate description, non? Perplexing. Interesting pieces, even if I don't often care for that shade of pink...

My favourite though, was the all black collection of Anna Ziemniak:

Especially the third pieces down...I adore - ADORE - any mix or variation on poofy skirt and fitted-ish jacket/top half. My my.

Both Annas recently graduated, or at least, recently showed and won various prizes, internships and scholarships (along with 12 other students from Krakow SoD) at the Krakow Fashion Awards 2010, which I think is their equivalent of Graduate Fashion Week?
(Big up to this article for telling me this stuff in plain english...!)

Anyways, all this talk of students and final year and graduating has made me cement this decision: for the time being, I'll carry on writing about whatever the hell I like, but next year I'm gonna write about me making my collection and generally blundering through 4th year, with lil' updates about what my friends are up to too. (Though maybe not Eppie. She's got her own blog dammit, even she only updates once every 3 months...).

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* is it just me, or has the blog world gone a bit...quiet? of late. maybe the disenchanted have moved on....anyway, everyone seems to be posting less, and viewers are viewing/commenting less left right and centre. maybe it's just me. lacklustre. etc.

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lazy sunday: you will make it...

...but only if you run.

I'm gonna do a proper actual post today. Probably. But until such a time, chillax and listen to this while I read the paper.

Julian Plenti = Paul Banks off of Interpol INCASE YOU COULDN'T TELL.

Feeling much better, btw...

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double denim

I have nothing more interesting to share than outfit posts...

Might have something to do with having tonsillitis and generally being ill.

Anyways, I am embracing the double denim 'trend', mostly cos I never want to take this shirt off. Love.

I like how you can always tell what time it was when I took these pics...

thrifted denim shirt+fish brooch+necklace//ebayed jacket//H&M skirt//garage shoes

Mm do excuse me, I must be off to the doctors posthaste.

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summer, summerboy

Another photodump?
I think I'm getting lazy; sorry.

I got a bike on Saturday, but I haven't got a picture of it on it's own...

We had a failure of a barbecue on Friday; we went on a bike ride and had another failed barbecue on Saturday, then went out. Larks.

BBQ smoking away//

Pikachu watching burgers not-cook//

Aaron in a coat cos it got cold and we were still outside//

The view from the Free Trade Inn beer garden, late on Saturday//

Me and Lucie, being tipsy//

Me Lucie & Kate, looking like we're on holiday//

Hannah and a bigass pile of bikes (mine is the one nearest the lampost! It now has a basket on t'front...)//

I nearly lost my keys at the Free Trade...which would've been WELL HELPFUL when it came to unlocking my bike.

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