This is a bit of a 'throwback' blogpost. I visited Cambridge back in June, which feels so long ago. I have a friend who I reconnected with through instagram after losing contact for many years. She is super spontaneous and very keen to travel, she suggested going to Cambridge for the day to go 'punting' and I was up for exploring somewhere new. I did my research, which made me all the more excited for it. I made the travel arrangements and a rather ambitious itinerary (sometimes it goes off schedule). We gotten the fast train from King's Cross, which took just under an hour. The weather was beautiful. It was a glorious 23 degrees, sunny, not a cloud in the sky and...guess what I was wearing? A grey and back outfit and as you can imagine I was a sweaty mess. Typical outfit choice. 

Exploring Brick Lane: Street Art and Vintage Outlets

Brick Lane is a street that I hear SO MUCH ABOUT and have been wanting to go for visit ever since. I have been to Shoreditch several times in the past for internships (that's where all the designers' studios are hidden!) Seeing another different side of London was so interesting and admire it's traditional flea markets, diverse street food, vintage fashion, vinyl shopping, independent book shops and street art. Straightaway you notice that the people in East London just look very edgy and who seem like they don't conform to the fast fashion trends - so it is definitely a great for street style inspiration. 

I was completely in awe of of the unique street art! It was definitely the highlight and it's the first time I've actually seen street art (I need to get out more). I love that bird piece by ROA and that butterfly disguised as a elephant looked so creative and has more of a surrealist appeal - found nearby Hanbury Street and Tower Hamlets. The Trump street art is rather terrifying I must admit! However it is depicted and illustrated so well that really does resembles Trump (haha). Ballon Dog piece is very reminisce of Jeff Koons's popular Ballon Dog sculptures. In particular, I was really captivated by the street art of the girl with the heart glasses and keys scattering around her hair.

POP! Design, Culture, Fashion Exhibition at the Fashion and Textile Museum 2012

So this is a pretty old exhibition visit. I completely forgot I had pictures for this exhibition because I was so awfully busy with Uni that me blogging anything flew out the window. I had included this research in the early stages of my dissertation preparation, which was useful. 

This is the POP! Design, Culture, Fashion Exhibition at the Fashion and Textile Museum in 2012. This exhibition explores how much of a revolutionary impact music, art and fashion made during one of the most iconic eras of the 50s, 60s and 70s. A new wave of rock 'n' roll and youth culture emerged in the 1950s America, which took the country by storm. There was a combination of popular images, music, art and fashion that made history and changed the way people dressed, as well as pushing the boundaries of commerce, culture and style. The 60s era saw the cool stylings of the Mods, the high baroque of Psychedelia and the kitsch glamour of 70s retro by designers such as Mr Freedom and Miss Mouse. 

Travel Journal: Four Day Trip to Paris, October 2016

I've always wanted to go to Paris but every time there was a school trip, it'd always be cancelled because no one was willing to pay. But said to myself one day that I need to travel more and Paris was the destination I was desperate to visit and eventually I managed to go!

I travelled to Paris back in October of last year. I was actually planning to go on my own, which would have ben a pretty bad idea but its annoying to have to ask people to go with you. I was going home from work one day, got on the bus and went upstairs to find a seat and then suddenly someone grabbed my arm, which really startled me. But it turned out to be my 6th Form friend. I was happy to see her because we lost contact. We talked, had a very short catch up and I was saying I'd really like to go to Paris and she spontaneously said we can go together!

We were absolutely drained and knackered from getting to Paris and to our BnB (disaster followed suit, just when I thought missing the flight was the worst thing to have happened), that we decided to call it a day, sleep it off and said we'll explore more sights tomorrow.

Birthday Stuff: Zizi's, wandering in Covent Garden and TGI Fridays

November 12th was my birthday. I know I am about 2 months late posting this!

Call me sad, because I know I clearly am, but I hadn't celebrated my birthday in a very long time. 

The last two years especially I just hadn't been in a mood to celebrate because of family issues, but this year, I put my foot down and decided to do something about it. In the past, I just dreaded my birthday because I knew I wasn't going to do anything but this year I surprisingly looked forward to it! ^_^

On the actual day of my birthday which was on a Thursday, I spent it with my dad doing some 'bonding' where we went into London to do a shop around, he brought me some birthday gifts and we ate at a Chinese restaurant in Leicester Square. To be honest, my dad spend most of the day giving me pep talks -_- but it wasn't as awkward as I thought it was. My dad had a very humourless look and wasn't understanding my banter and sarcasm, he was like 'what?' And I just say 'forget it...'

It was on the Saturday that I celebrated with my friends. I met them at Covent Garden Station and from there we walked to Zizi's restaurant. I took an annoyingly long time in deciding which place to eat but in the end Zizi's was the perfect place as I really like Italian food.

Left to right: Charlotte, Gertrude and me. 

Fashion & Books Collective Haul

Zoella wore this insect bugs print shirt in one of her fashion haul videos. I was thinking, Where did you get your shirt?! When Zara launched their Summer sale, I jumped into the chance. It's probably my favourite shirt. I made a Polyvore set featuring this striped shirt (below), knew it would be expensive but on a whim I clicked on the link anyway just to see and realised it was actually on sale! I love me a good bargain. 

Insect shirt by Zara, on sale for £19.99 (RRP £29.99)

Striped Boston shirt by Tommy Hilfiger at House of Fraser, on sale for £29.75 (RRP £85)

I really like this blouse; the delicate crochet embroidery is just so darling. Basically its my dream shirt! I think it was in June where the UK was getting a heatwave and I was in Mango searching around in the sale section looking specifically for t-shirts. I actually don't have many t-shirts to go out in for the summer weather. I saw this grey t-shirt and the slogan is in French and google translated it says, 'yes it's me.' It's really soft and wearable, I love it. 

Cream embroidered blouse by Miss Selfridge, 30% off for £24.50 (RPP £35)

Slogan t-shirt by Mango, on sale for £4.99 (RPP £9.99)

The Victoria and Albert Museum presents: Alexander McQueen Savage Beauty

The Alexander McQueen Exhibition ended on 2nd August 2015, so it feels like I'm a bit late to the party talking about this! But it was probably the best exhibition I've ever been to. 

My friend booked us tickets in advance for the 26th July 2015 to go, as we realised that tickets were seriously selling like hot cakes! We wanted to go on a saturday but worried that we won't be guaranteed a ticket to see it. This exhibition celebrates the best of Alexander McQueen's work.

I was so surprised on how much more there was to see. When we entered the A Gothic Mind and the Romanticism Primitivism rooms, I assumed 'oh well this is all we're getting at this exhibition.' How wrong was I? There were so many rooms and I kept saying 'oh there's more!' I was getting excited. I don't have any words to describe how MAGNIFICENT this exhibition really was. I wanted to take photos of everything but usually V&A exhibitions are prohibited and get this, you're not allowed to even sketch. In the large dark room, it was the only opportunity where I could take some photos on my phone (quality wasn't good).

MY HIGHLIGHTS

This is the Romanticism Primitivism room, I call this the skull and bones room because the walls were entirely made of skull and bones! It was pretty cool and it kind of felt like I was entering a scene from Game of Thrones. As we entered, I could get a sense of the dark atmosphere of being under water and especially the music - it set the mood and tone of this collection perfectly well, but a little scary more so. 

How To: Overcome A Drawing Hiatus

I’ve had drawing hiatus for an extremely long time. Since I graduated, I lost my enthusiasm for drawing. My fashion degree had caused me hate everything (mostly to do with fashion design). I just didn’t find it in me to be creative anymore, which was quite sad. I burned out excessively.

I grew up with drawing and now feared that if I don’t become creative anymore, I’d lose it altogether. So at the start of 2015, I said to myself that I’m going to start drawing again. I even brought a moleskine. Heard of Cass Art London? Its the best art shop and I just love going in there for buying art materials. 

These are my personal ways of overcoming drawing hiatus:

Step 1: Pinterest is a great inspiration. I could procrastinate on that website for ages and ages because there just so much inspirational pictures to get inspired.

Step 2: You can never go wrong with drawing things you like, whether its buildings, portraits, objects or flowers. Record it in a sketchbook and make it your drawing diary. Currently in my moleskine, I began drawing typography, fine liner hair studies and most recently designing my own book covers, which are quite mediocre because let’s be honest, I don’t know much about layout design. 

I am actually not that great at drawing faces and I don’t look forward to drawing them but I try my best to draw them. When a see a really beautiful editorial, I have this need to draw it. Sometimes I think its not about how realistically you draw them, (unless you are really brilliant at drawing realistic things), but its also about how you interpreted it in your own way.

Step 3: Consider getting a Wreck This Journal by Keri Smith. They’re great for getting back into creativity and to basically get out of your comfort zone. If you’re a perfectionist, then this is the book for you. There are a lot of fun pages to do. I brought one last year and have not finished it yet (too busy) but I plan to finish it this year, hopefully. It is literally taking me forever. 

Step 4: If you’re like me and hate your current portfolio because its bad memories and you know that you can do so much better than what you did at college or university, consider creating a new portfolio of new projects.

I want my portfolio to look more illustrative and print/pattern designs, rather than Fashion Design based. At the moment, I am attempting to do a new project. The theme is Where The Wild Things Are, so I started looking into drawing things such as deers, antlers, wildflowers and pine trees etc. but its quite hard to get back into that mood because projects take longer than anticipated. I'm eager to get it done.

I upload on my Instagram. My artwork thus far: 

Zoella sketch. This was my first portrait in a long time. 

I Have A Shirt Obsession

Everyone's got a fashion item obsession.
I wanted to include this in my last post, but it seemed to make that post very long, so I've decided to separate it. My obsession with shirts began when I was using Polyvore and from that point on, plus using Tumblr and Pinterest, I was (still am) inspired by minimalism, clean cut, less is more understated style. My current favourite is the fox. When I saw it online, I didn't like it as much because it seemed oversize but saw it in store and tried it on, and I quite liked it. To be honest, I looked a bit like a cowgirl (lol). Shirts! Can't get enough of them.

 Star printed shirt by Bershka, on sale for £12.99 (RRP £15.99)

Latest Haul: Books, Topshop, Urban Outfitters and Sass & Bass etc.

You know when you've brought too many things when you feel the sense that your money has been flying out the window because you've spent on things that you perhaps didn't actually need... yup that's what happen to me. Uh Oh... and I thought I was stingy.

Harry Potter Box Set: The Complete Collection from Amazon, £74.75

I finally understood the hype of Harry Potter after I finished reading the series in 2013. I read the series as ebooks and enjoyed it so much that I needed to purchase hardcover copies. When you buy new books, you never know if they will be a good read or a bad read, so there's always that risk but I know I will want to read the Harry Potter series again at some point. Initially I only wanted the third book because its my favourite, but the new covers for Bloomsbury are stunning overall. I feel that the illustrations reveals spoilers but they are a beau! Time to pass on the magic. 

Book Review: Girl Online by Zoe Sugg (Zoella)

Book Review: Girl Online by Zoe Sugg by bittersweet89 featuring wooden candles

Girl Online by Zoe Sugg
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Actual rating: 3.5 stars

Okay, so we all know what a great YouTuber Zoella is, but now let’s just see what a great writer she is... or if she can actually write, that is.

To summarise, this book is about fifteen year old Penny Porter from Brighton who has an anonymous blog called ‘Girl Online’ where she blogs about everything that involve friendship, boys family and her panic attacks. Things start getting really bad for Penny, but then her family takes her on a business trip to New York, where she meets Noah. But Noah has a secret that could threaten Penny’s cover.

Mini Collective Haul

HELLO.
A very long time since I blogged. I haven't completely abandoned this blog. Thought I'd share with you some of the things I brought recently, which is a bit boring (I know).

A lot of the time, I can never spend on myself because I have this guilty feeling and say "do I need this?" or "am I being materialistic?" Usually in the end, I'd let it go (annoyingly so)... mainly because I don't want to make impulsive purchases that I'll later regret. I'm seriously the worst person to go shopping with because I can never decide. I spent the last 4 years studying fashion and all my money went to fabrics, printing, models and many other annoying things. It made me really stingy unfortunately, but it is probably a good thing. I think its good to stay in control of what you need or don't need. There is a fine line between wanting something or needing it. Before I start my purchase process on whether I need or want something, I always seem to think in the Maslow Hierarchy! These are a few of my favourites : )

Unboxing MONNIER FRERES!

On the same day that I got my gift from Polyvore, a little later on, I got my DKNY bag I ordered from Monnier Freres! This parcel was massive, I really like how it was packaged with the ribbon. I was asked by a member of Monnier Freres if I wanted to participate in their Christmas collaboration, where I had to make 20 Polyvore sets for them and I was given a voucher to spend on their website. I went for the bag because I don't have any professional looking bags (I have too many canvas totes!) here are my pics on unboxing my parcel:

A Nice Surprise from Polyvore

This morning I was actually expecting my parcel from Monnier Freres (it came later on), but I received a really nice surprise gift from Polyvore! This morning I was feeling very groggily (not a early bird unfortunately!) I thought 'oh is my bag I brought in in this small parcel?' and then I saw Polyvore's address. It was just a really pleasant surprise :) I wasn't expecting it because I did receive something last year. You can see my blog post here. Anyway, I received a pack of 4 customised coasters, a coaster holder and some nail wraps. Thank you again Polyvore :)

LFW: Dissecting Flowers at Christopher Kane Spring 2014

Gah. I'm so bad at blogging. I was going to write this Christopher Kane post following the Ashish Spring 2014 collection but got sidetracked and I never got to it...next time when its fashion week again (in Feb!) I should just do a round-up of my favourites rather than do a collection by collection post. I never have the time and it's hard to keep up with fashion week! Anyway, I really really loved this collection. I'm a huge fan of laser cutting! Depending on what your laser cutting, I think it's such a versatile machine cutting on plastics or fabric. I just loved using it at Uni, too bad I never got to use more of it.

The photos below (courtesy of style.com) are some of my favourites from the collection. I really loved the idea of using dissecting flowers from a Science textbook and photosynthesis. Flowers are always used in spring summer collection but the way Christopher Kane has interpreted it in his own way represents a unique concept. I think the detailing on the sweatshirt are gorgeous and there are really great use of fabrics in the dresses. So much attention to detail!

LFW: Coca Cola Sparkles at Ashish Spring 2014

The Ashish Spring 2014 collection opened up at Somerset House on 14th September 2013. Aside from Ashish's fascination of sparkles and sequins in his designs, this collection features the renowned Coca Cola logo embodied in vibrant sequins and he said that he was inspired by the celebration of a the multicultural city. I really liked the mixture of different fabrications such as distressed denim, sheer, plaid and animal prints; it looked very eclectic, playful and not taken too seriously. I loved the elements of the heavy metal jewellery and accessories, the green dyed hair and the grocery shopping bags also embodied in sparkly sequins! There was also a 'S&M' green shopping bag - sound familiar? (Hint: M&S!)