Exams over... At last

Well, the last exams I'm going to take in this place are over... Management Studies has the awesome feature of seriously early exams that means that we lost our Easter vac, but can enjoy all of what the approaching summer has to offer! I do have a project to do, but it's nowhere near as stressful and much more structured than the impending doom of exams encroaching upon one's happiness and health!

So... I am going to try and return to the blogosphere. Slowly, softly, perhaps, but freedom awaits in a few months with graduation, and as I'm still unsure what the future holds, I might manage to reinject some life into this little side project of mine. I do miss it when I drop off the face of the earth for months at a time, and since I will be rejoining T-B in London-town in July, we might even get the occassional photoshoot done!

Anyway, what brings me to the computer today? It's another installment of the fab Aussie Angel initiative. I am, as ever, slow on the uptake. Claire posted about it a while back, and I'm proud to have my little "Luscious Long Tribe" pack which arrived at college today.

The wonderful people at Aussie have sent me a Welcome Pack for "surviving until your Tribe party" - in July, and when I'm supposed to be in France, but that may not happen, so I'm keeping an open mind!

They have been so generous and sent some of their lovely, yummy Luscious Long shampoo and conditioner, a mini brush, a compact mirror, some badges to display my allegiance and some chocolate... I have to admit that the chocolate will be going to The Boy, as my body hates me and does not allow the consumption of dairy. The Boy will likely be very pleased...

Awesome huh!

In other news, I went shopping for the first time in yonks today. After almost giving into a tapestry bag covered in cats in Ark Vintage in Cambridge city centre, and trying to decide whether I should buy oversized stripy shorts from Joules (- my new shop crush... All those pretty candy colours! All that outdoorsy blowsiness! YUM!), I wandered into Karen Millen. Now, I don't have much occassion to wear what they do best - gorgeous luxe night-out wear - but I have to admit, they have upped the ante from what I remember from the last time I seriously browsed in there, as a teenager... Searching for hot house party outfits, out for the afternoon with my mum, shopping on the King's Road. I seem to remember coming out of there with an outfit involving an orange crochet shell encrusted halter top... Strange memories. Sigh. Nostalgia.

Anyway. Browsing in there today was rather fun. And I have to admit to falling for a dress... A £165 dress. GULP! As a girl who shops either vintage or designer sample sales, I get a bit cranky shelling out almost two hundred quid for glorified high street. But that's the snob in me. (Please don't hate me! I just have an issue with our hardcore, wear-it-once, who gives a shit about quality, consumer culture...) But here I must admit I can see where the money is going. Ish.

The embroidery is awesome and it has the most darling bow at the back... Sigh. If only I had the money, or the event to wear it to!

Right. That's all for now folks... Xxxc

We're Angels. Obviously.

Ok, so this is very very very tardy, even by my standards, but today's post is about being an Aussie Angel!!! Along with Claire, Winnie, Nicola et al, I was contacted as one of 50 bloggers to get the Undercover Aussie treatment...

It all kicked off with a treasure hunt to Chelsea Farmer's Market, where I also popped into the food bit to find some sheepsmilk yoghurt and rice flour! We were sent a key and a clue to find the "silo", and when we turned up, we got a lovely box of goodies including Aussie products, a Topshop voucher and a spa voucher!!! Uber uber exciting.

I haven't used them yet, mainly as I'm saving them for uni supplies. Living at home in the summer = use parental posh shampoo time!!!

I do use Aussie's 3 minute miracle on a very very regular basis, as long hair gets a bit damaged, and it JUST SMELLS SO DARN NICE!!! Thus, I have to admit I'm rather excited about trying their normal shampoo and conditioner! I will also post about Topshop and spa choices when I stop working all hours and get back to Cambridge where one has time to take a breath and treat oneself!

Anyhoo... Next stop, a week later, was Adee Phelan's salon in Covent Garden for hair styling and lots of champagne! We were allowed to take up to two friends along, so I brought two uni college girlies, Sarah and the lovely Becks, T-B's gf. IT WAS SUCH FUN!!! Claire was also there with some of her pals, and we all ate lots and lots of jelly beans and got a bit merry on the champers and cocktails provided when we went down the road to The Hospital bar!

Claire and her amazingly glam hair...

Me and my crazeeeeeeee but lovely stylist!

Becks and her shampoo... Loving the Lana Turner-esque eye hiding!

Sarah really loved her goody bag!!!

Angelically Posing...

Not so angelic...

COCKTAILS!!! Yum.

Pretty! Sparkly! :-D

We three have better hair here than Charlie's Angels!!! Fit.

Shocker - I ended up with curly hair for several days! Woop woop!

Night night!

Xxxc

Another day...

So today is the day I post make-up free outfit photos! It may seem strange to some people that I'm bringing this up, but bear with me - I have some things to get down on (virtual) paper...

Basically, I find it really difficult to do anything in life without my ritual make-up application, and quite a lot of hair brushing, skin touching, deep breathing at the rising anxiety etc.

This probably sounds vain to most people. Obsessive concern with one's appearance? Vain and shallow right?

Well, that's what I try to avoid thinking, because underneath the surface perception of perceived defects and ugliness, that, rationally, I know are at least a tiny bit ridiculous, there is an underlying issue.

I have something called Body Dysmorphic Disorder. This is something which causes excessive concern about one (or many) perceived defects in appearance, and means I can get completely consumed by panic just by looking in the mirror for too long without any make-up to hand. It combines both obsessive and compulsive aspects, and is strongly linked to instances of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder ( - guilty as charged! ). It involves some problems with social situations, and can take over your life really easily.

For some people, it leaves them completely crippled - unable to go to work, socially interact, lead normal lives... It can become that consuming. I'm one of the lucky ones. For me, it's not too bad. I have a very low register of the disorder, that I manage easily most of the time. I had a really bad patch when I was ill with CFS / ME, and last year during exams, but most of the time, like the OCD, it is only noticeable to the people who know me well.  Or who try to take photos of me! This is part of the reason I'm doing this blog... Working on photoshoots with T-B is part of my 'training' myself out of the bad reaction I used to have to cameras. So far so good. 

My close uni friends only started noticing when I got addicted to Sour Skittles in the bar, and spend about five minutes sorting them into groups of 4 of the same colour (or two and two)... I then eat them in 4s, and get very protective of the little groups... I count pretty much everything (especially food) in 4s. My room mate has known for much longer, mainly because she has had to sit through many dinners where peas were involved, and I would sit for aaaages, sorting, and eating them in 4s, to her amusement and eventually, once twenty minutes passed, horror!

But it's a big decision for me to put these photos of today's outfits on here. I didn't really go out today, and noone was coming round, so I had one of my 'brave' makeupless days lol. I also tend to change clothes several times a day to cope with how I'm feeling. All part of my strategies, but it does lead to a very messy room! Hehe. My room mate jokes that I change more times in a day than she does in a week! 

So. Deep Breath. Here goes.

- I wore this for a bit of twirling mid-panic attack about dissertation. Cheered me right up! ;-D - in a Betty Jackson "Two" dress, Kate Kuba shoes, Jocasi belt, ToyWatch.

- Worn for most of the day - my favourite American Apparel tri-blend tee, Warehouse skirt, Kate Kuba shoes, ToyWatch, Max C London cardigan...

That's all from me today... I'm supposed to be writing up a case study of conversion (to Christianity from 'pagan') of the landscape of a site in Northumberland... The excavation report is from the 70s and I'm dying here! ;-D

Xxxc

P.s. I hope noone thinks I wrote this post for sympathy / compliments... I just wanted to get it out in the open as an issue which is so rarely talked about. I tend to be quite self-depricating, and this is why... Thanks for reading this far and not writing me of as some self-indulgent crackpot! :-D

Musical Theatricalities!!!

Has anyone heard of the musical Return to the Forbidden Planet?

We did it as the Lent term musical in my first year, and it was SUCH FUN! "Shakespeare's long lost rock-and-roll masterpiece" pretty much says it all... (Look it up on itunes and you'll see what I mean! ;-D)

Basically, it's pretty much the biggest show of the year, and I'd applied to be costume assistant... It was my SIXTH show that term and I was exhausted and got really ill in the middle of term and hadn't noticed that the actual costume designer had done nothing...

So, with A WEEK to go, he pulled out, citing wanting to run for CUSU (our student's union) as reasons he couldn't do it... Basically elections were at the same time. LAMEST EXCUSE EVER!

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I was suddenly costume designer for a show that went up in a week, with no costumes made and 22 people waiting to be able to practice in them...

Let's just say, it was one of the most stressful, but exhilerating weeks of my life... We basically redesigned the whole costume concept, and I roped in an absolute horde of people - mostly techies, more used to hanging lanterns, carpentry and programming sound desks than to sewing machines, mountains of pink fabric and miles of ribbon - to help with endless sewing, sticking badges onto shirts, and glitter-glue-ing late into the night! 

And it ended up beautiful! We got rave reviews and I made a tonne of new friends in the process... Silver linings eh!

This is the show where one of the boys' pants split mid-show and gaffa tape was the only option... My favourite costumes were definitely the neon pink dress we made for the lead, out of UV spangly material, from scratch... Oh, and the cute little shirt-shifts we made for the girl pilots... They had ribbon hems and were just So Darling!

The most fun thing to make was the hat for the robot (bottom right and left above). It was a colander we'd bought from Tesco, spray-painted silver, with millions of little LED lights all over the place. It was fantastic, and I will be forever indebted to my best mate, Will, for sorting all those fiddly little blinking lights, when he was supposed to be orchestrating the building of the entire set (as he was Technical Director, so supposed to be in charge of everything Else!)... Hooray for girlie charm eh! ;-D

And, of course, the necessary costume wench pic... Look at me in my boys shirt and red lippie! Odd angle, and rather ill, but Too Cool For School anyway eh ;-D - can't believe this was 2 years ago! Gawd I feel so OLD!

Hope you like the pictures! 

Xxxc

Photos are either my own, or copyright Charles Arrowsmith and Damian Robertson. Poster copyright Esh Alladi. Thanks on this post have to be extended to WW, SM, PN, JD, H, PMD, HO, EA, HS, AB, SP, RL, The B, Spangly G, R, HG, The WHOLE S.O.D. and many many more...

Walking on Sunshine... Wooooaoh!

So today, once again with two essay deadlines looming, we skip out to take photos... 

It's really rather warm and sunny and so today was the first time I've been tights/trouserless in quite a while! Please excuse the winter legs ;-D

Lady in red... And yellow, and blue.

I don't often wear red, but it did make me quite hyper today! 

I'm wearing my Riva boots, a skirt bought in a Dublin boutique about 5 years ago, a vintage belt nicked from my mother equally long ago, my room mate's Primark tank top, a cashmere cardigan (with a button missing... must find it...) from Magaschoni and my vintage tooled leather bag.

Has anyone seen this month's Teen Vogue? I've just realised how much I love it hehe. It's just so bouncy and bubbly, as magazines go ;-D

I actually downloaded Taylor Swift's new album the day before I got this, and didn't even notice she was on the cover! I was more interested in the yummy colours (, seemingly reflected in today's outfit).
I so so so want those balloon brooches... I feel a DIY coming!

The brooch and  the colours of this make me happy...

PYJAMAS and a wild cat... Hehe.

I know I'm supposed to be blogging about sophisticated magazines like LOVE and Lula, but this was just too cute to not talk about :-D and I haven't managed to finish the other two yet... 

Another black tie dinner tonight, and this one has a "with a twist of pink" dress code, so I may wear the same dress again. I'll post a pic if there's a full length one.

Xxxc 

I wanna clockwork man and clothes like this!

Film for Lowe perfume... Shot by one of my absolutely favourite photographers - Eugenio Recuenco. 

Esencia de una Seducción
by erecuenco

Amazing imagery. The stills online at his website are even more fantastic. Those along with literally a thousand others. My favourites are the historical-ish ones - Titanic, Vive La Revolucion and fairy tales... Slightly politically incorrect but a visual feast. (Might post some of my favourites when feeling a little less sleepified!)

Thanks HEK for reminding me to check up on him!

Xxxc

Off topic.

Any poetry buffs out there?

I'm reading a poem on Sunday. Anyone got any thoughts on Gerard Manley Hopkins' "Carrion Comfort"?

It's a bit of a bitch to work out how to read aloud:

Not, I’ll not carrion-comfort, Despair, not feast on thee;

Not untwist-slack they may be – these last strands of man

In me or, most weary, cry I can no more. I can;

Can something, hope, wish day come, not choose not to be.

But ah, but O thou terrible, why wouldst thou rude on me

Thy wring-world right foot rock? Lay a limb against me? Scan

With darksome devouring eyes my bruised bones? and fan

O in turns of tempest, me heaped there; me frantic to avoid thee and flee?

Why? That my chaff might fly; my grain lie, sheer and clear.

Nay in all that toil, that coil, since (it seems) I kissed the rod,

Hand rather, my heart lo! sapped strength, stole joy, would laugh, cheer.

Cheer whom though? the hero whose heaven-handling flung me, foot trod

Me? or me that fought him? O which one? is it each one? that night, that year.

O now done darkness I wretch lay wrestling with (my God!) my God.

Doesn't mean I don't rather like it ;-D Xxxc

I'm really awful.

I just ordered something from Rokit...

There's something about essays that makes me do something else... Like buying pretty accessories online.

It's a scarf that reminds me a great deal of the print from Marc Jacobs' Fall 09 stuff, and a studded bangle. Woop! I'll post when they arrive, but I suppose this gives me an excuse for some shameless MJ love. 

For me, this collection really was all about the colours... The shapes scream ladies of leisure, but the colours say otherwise... The use of velvets and silks is masterful, and I just love those pinstripe trousers (grey, blue and mustard - SIK!) and the 80s makeup!

Can I have some of those gold shoes please? Thank you very much. Oh and the grey cardie wouldn't go amiss either...

Teeheehee. Hopefully my scarf won't take forever! Cross fingers for me... Already got plans...

Xxxc

Beautiful beautiful...

Lovely camera work from Nirrimi on Flickr... Everyone should check out her photostream! Thanks to because I'm addicted. 

I have a yen for pink sunglasses and for drawing hearts in red pen all over myself... Oh wait. I may have just done that. Oops! :-D Maybe I'll cover it up for Ash Wednesday Evensong!

Xxxc

Going round on the windmills in my mind...

Mishmash of street syle (The Sart, Style Slicker and Copenhagen Street Style), the makeup and colourway from the Kinder Aggugini show and the Richard Nicoll for Topshop stuff from Dazed Digital...

Feast:

I regularly think I prefer street style photos to runway... There's just so much more personality.

Though I did have several mini heart attacks at the TopShop unique show... Lots of my favourite 'colour' - grey grey grey - yum yum yum - aren't I wierd? Cyberspace meets 80s meets circus. Yum. I'm feeling more black and shiny these days. plus I've always loved metallic. ;-D

sequin wings? off the shoulder? me likey!

FIT purple sequinned pants... Probably akin to my ASHISH rarely worn sequinned rugby top, but so so so perfect for Planet Angel...

OMG!!! HAVE TO HAVE THAT TUNIC!!! SERIOUSLY!!!

Jewellery-crush...

I so have this as a DIY project... Neon fabric paint, black body con dress... Numnumnum.

Grey layers... All slouchy... Yay.

Xxxc

Hedi Slimane's Photo-Frenzy... Me-likey!

So, elsewhere on Dazed Digital, I find something much nicer... Hedi Slimane's photos of London Teens. Amazing images.

I want to BE one of these girls... Please. Pretty Please. Pretty Please with Cherries on top!

I also made a collage of the best... JUST LOOK at that smouldering boy in the bottom left.YUM! (Is it just me or does he look a bit like Robert Pattinson from Twilight / HP?)

You MUST check it out... I wish I could take photos like this. They are going to haunt my dreams for WEEKS! And not just because I a) want those lace dresses, b) want a fringe like the girl third along, top row and c) want a boy like the one bottom left! ;-D

Note to self: try and find a January issue of Dazed and Confused... Damn me for being on an economy drive and not buying it!!! :-(

Xxxc

Whispers, Wispiness, WASPs

This fine, cold evening, I've gotten very drawn towards faded, wishy-washy colours a la Virgin Suicides... Sofia Coppola's genius film not only has the delectable Josh Hartnett in, and may well be the only Kirsten Dunst film ( - apart from Bring it On which is standard chick-flick-love doesn't count territory - ) that I actually like, but also has GREAT VISUALS...  

I love this film with a passion akin to my geekiness about the lives of saints (trust me, that's BIG)... And this is thanks in no small part to the washed out beauty of the colouring, and clothes, more specifically. 

I started thinking about it because of the StylishWanderer's post yesterday; all washed out greens and pinks and pops of coral rose... Sigh.

So then I went a-wandering through google images and IMDB for...

(Ok, so aside from the colourway, this one's a Josh-ogle...)

 
Oh! The lace! And the Twirling!

Next: An ode to those DETAILS!!! Now I know the first two images are morbid... But I LOVE the stacking of beads in those chintzy-seventiesesque-pastels and the tights and shoes with thefit block heels!!! 

And these reminded me of a post Susie Bubble did a while back, which included this 'Virgin-Suicides-esque' Elena Fernandez Raya photograph! (Not very original, am I? ;-D) I can't find a useful lin k though, so you'll have to make do with Susie's amazingness I suppose... Hehe.

 

Oh... And can I have a white corsage from Josh Hartnett please? With that plasticky ribbon and the evergreen sprigs? Oh pretty pretty please?

And, of course, the Seminal shot of Kirsten on the playing fields which just sums up the mood and dreaminess of this movie for me...

Which of course (well, to me anyway...) brings up a Studio Ghibli image I have from a friend's music collection (so no source, but go to the wikipedia page instead!)

So anyway... I slept on it, and didn't really do anything about it today... Until, on an EPIC shopping expedition, I ended up with the Noa Noa Spring09. Feast:

Oh, what fun this journey into my brain's special little image-association-game has been!!! The shirt that may have been influenced by these colours / thoughts may work its way into an outfit post soon, and I'll flag it up. Honest!

Yet another EPIC picture-filled, rambly post - apologies - Xxxc