train times.

thrifted jacket//ancient primark shorts//h! by henry holland blouse//topshop body//garage shoes

blogging from the train (to london! onward!); THIS IS THE FUTURE.

...cept maybe not cos train-photobucket is being a douche, and won't upload my pic. so. here, tiny blogger pic. (shall update later with a bigger one later...) (since updated!)

monday night shenanigans (read: beer drinking and dancing and trapsing around Ouseburn followed by towntimes.)

i'm so into beer right now. g'bye vodka; g'bye feeling rough next morning; hello beer-y goodness. you are cheaper and come with lime. yumyum.

kele.

pics are either mine or stole from Bailey's facebook. she won't mind...

a little thursday evening gigging. he was awesome - some remixed bloc party stuff, as well as the new album stuff which sounded great. of course, alcohol may have helped my thinking here.

i remember being at gigs at age 16 and having a hard time deciding whether the 14 year olds declaring the love for whatever band were more annoying, or the drunk older people dancing around with no regard for others.

having now experienced being a tipsy older person at a gig, i find the sober kids giving us withering looks to be the most annoying.

a life lesson learned, i think? younger people are always the most annoying; maybe because you will, inevitably, be the older people one day, but you can never be the annoying young person again.

this is getting a little philosophical, so here are some dodgy club-based pics of my outfit, instead.

thrifted jacket+bag(not seen)//vintage dress+necklaces//topshop crop top+cropped leggings//

oasis wedges (of course) (not seen)//H&M necklace+ rings

dancing, not posing.

denim.

today, i'm wearing jeans.

as you may be aware, i'm not a jeans person. i own 3 pairs - all skinny; one grey, one dark blue and high waisted, one black. i'm on the hunt for some pale blue ones on ebay, but they've got to be perfect.

but that's beside the point.

the black jeans are my favourite by a mile - they're topshop, and they came with a label that said 'ankle skimmers', or something, which i assume means they're supposed to be considerably shorter then they are. on me, they are the perfect length (although i love when skinny jeans are too long and they crumple up at my ankle).

the thing about me and jeans is how i wear them. i don't mean what i wear them with, although that's part of it. i mean, my "relationship with denim" as it were.

jeans are my lazy outfit. since i pretty much never dress down, jeans are my 'lazing round the house' clothes. they are my jogging bottoms. unless i'm being really lazy and wearing pyjamas all day, jeans are my go to. they look good and they make me feel good, but they require absolutely zero effort.

today, for example, i am hungover. well, not anymore, but i was earlier. and, as such, putting effort into an outfit, or indeed, anything, is a bit of a push. i know i have to leave the house later, so, the black jeans plus a slouchy, stripy jumper is an outfit i'm not ashamed to be seen out in but is also the epitome of 'thrown on'.

course, that suggests that any other outfit is born of a time consuming, labour intensive thought process, but the difference between the two is, at most, some standing about in front of my mirror.

no need for mirrors today.

throw on some shoes - anything black, with any height of heel, or even NONE AT ALL, works particularly well. or a chunky boot. the tan chelsea boots i'm hoping don't get expensive on ebay would be great - and maybe some jewellery and a 'chic' outfit is born.

chic. what a horrible word.

luke is moving out today. ;__;

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.

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!!

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.

you shall not pass!

Wooo a post about my actual ventures!
These have been lacking lately...
Because mostly my ventures involve my sketchbook.
And the blog is not living up to it's title, but that's ok, right? We're still having a reet good time, right? Yeahhh.

Yeah.

It's the year of the big birthdays in our house (all pretty close together too. Apart from Dean. And also Aaron, cos he's only 20. But t'were my 21st last month, Luke's last Saturday and Gemma's in February, and Aaron's 20th is in the middle of that. And then Dean's 21 in July, too. But that's AGES away. Pfft.)

WAIT WHAT WAS MY POINT?

Oh yeah.

Party time! Fantasy theme, I heard. Cue LOTR/Harry Potter-based funtimez.

Erm, this was the only fancy-dress based pic I pulled out to upload (there's loads on facebook though, if you're a friend. BTW, if you're a reader, and add me, let me know, cos I tend to not add people I don't know!), but let's face it, it's the best. OH APART FROM LUKE'S. And mehbehs Josh's. Luke done Gandalf (complete with amazingly accurately detailed staff, and itchy wig) and Josh was erm, that tree what talks off the second LOTR film. He had loads of cardboard leaves; they didn't last long.

But yeah, Hannah's Bellatrix Lestrange was unrivalled, and her wig did the rounds. Aaron's Salazar Slytherin just made him look Mexican, FYI. I think it's the tache.

Re: wig doing the rounds, it ended up on Matthew; doing a Cher impression.

"Gypsiiieees, Tramps and Thieeevesss"

Actual going-out-to-the-Cut-times. The 'proper adults' followed by the return of my gay boyfriend and a nice bit of theCut wall. It's a pretty awesome venue.

Oh, and then this random girl who was wearing Henry Holland tights. She was waiting for t'toilet, we were just outside on the smoking balcony, and I literally went "HENRY HOLLAND TIGHTS!! PICTURE?!?!"

Hah. I enjoy her "wtf, I'll just stick my thumb-up. Fucking weirdo" pose.

birthday suit

This is the only decent outfit shot off of last night.

You can't even see it!

Vintage lace dress from off of my neighbour at home-home, DIY-ed a little. Topshop shoes; various necklaces - including one that Luke got me for a birthday present :D

We went out, for sure, but beforehand Aaron put on a buffet of sorts. Mostly to get rid of food that needed to be eaten.

It was quite the spread - jam on toast, cheese on toast, stuffing balls, chocolate digestives, the lot.

We also sang some Gaga - Bad Romance and Alejandro, specifically - loudly and out of tune; several times. And danced to the latter...

I don't know where the bunny mask came from, but it made the rounds. I enjoy this.

Me, Aaron, Matthew, Hannah. Rabbit mask.

eagle eye

So, ana (off of One Fabulous Thing After Another) met me from the train on Monday. We had a celebratory Steak Bake (ahh Greggs, you northern institution, you) and a little sit down and done some photos:

a nice spot of vintage boots+faux fur coat; HoH tights, thrifted

dress and MASSIVE CASE. Which has since gone in the bin, cos it's so utterly knacked.

Eagle's various accoutrements - hat, scarf, boots, DIY-ed Karl Who? bag and Heidi Seeker radio bag

The one at the top of the page is like a melange of fabric. Faux fur, satin, leather....hello.

A couple of the ol' coursemates went to Heidi Seeker for placement, including Eppie, whose recently started blog, BIGMOUTH STRIKES AGAIN, is here for the reading. Kudos for naming it after a Smiths song.

Also celebratory was the outing to Connection (last one at Stereo, fact fans) so here are some "evening out being drunk" style pics. I wore those damn thigh highs, and they were oddly comfortable, and I love them for this. Shall be donning them again on Friday for Halloween night one, but Halloween night two might be an overstretch. Think I'm going as Florence on saturday, with the ol' floaty dress I bought in Paris.

ANYWAY

jacket, eBay; dress, thrifted; belt, vintage; boots, Zara

Bonus picture of the week: Aaron dons his flat cap. I spent the rest of the night mocking him by talking about whippets and the pit in a Yorkshire accent. Good times.

Stand by* for some LITERALLY HILARIOUS vlogs what me and Ana done when we were bored this fine Wednesday evening.

*stand by as in, in a couple of days, yeah?