Tuesday 27 September 2011

Lost my style


Hallo lovelies!!

Yes, I'm sorry, I am a loser when it comes to blogging... but I am here and ready to share some thoughts with you today. It's my favourite time of year, nearly.... Autumn is my favourite season. From those years getting ready for school to start (sharpening pencils and dusting off satchels!) to my amazing days at the University of Leeds (picture above), I've always liked the beginning of the academic year. It has such hope and promise. The weather changes really subtly; a chill in the air begins, you reach for your scarf for the first time and wonder whether it's time to light the fire. The leaves start to turn and then it's just wonderful colour and crisp cold days with blue skies. Love it!

The only problem this year is I have a new companion that I'm not very fond of. She is residing around my middle and is rather tyre-like! When I was breastfeeding, I could eat like a horse and lost far too much weight, having trouble even fitting into a size eight. As soon as I stopped it all piled on, right around my middle. I'm now the heaviest I've ever been, but because I have such a small frame, carrying it round my middle looks very peculiar. I'm like a barrel!! Plus, I have no clothes that fit and most of what I have is scruffy or not suitable for autumn/winter. So, today's task is to go and buy some new clothes. With the help of my lovely friend Amy, who is ten years younger than me and always looks impeccably turned out, hopefully I can find some stylish and attractive clothes to help disguise this belly until such a time when I can lose it. I fear I am descending into a middle-aged mum frump phase and I need to halt this decline post haste.
I can then waft about campus looking all glamorous whilst discussing Derrida and coming home to watch art house movies and read Freud. Hahaha! Yeah right, coming home to read Thomas the Tank Engine books more like...

Wednesday 7 September 2011

PJ Harvey

So, so thrilled that PJ Harvey won the Mercury Prize for the second time. She is such an inspiration on so many levels; very glad to be writing my thesis on her work

Tuesday 26 July 2011

Dreaming

I've just joined Pinterest and have become a bit obsessed with it, which has meant I haven't blogged so much - sorry lovelies! But one thing I've noticed about Pinterest is that it shows you trends and themes in the things you like. It seems that I like beautiful places to write and sit and think; somewhere where there is a connection to nature. I think at heart I'm just a dreamer....

Picture via Marvelous Kiddo

Sunday 10 July 2011

Me and my Arrow



Such a happy song from my childhood - Harry Nilsson's The Point is a classic tale of being different, acceptance and friendship. Thanks to my sis for reminding me of this today.

Also, we're thinking of getting a puppy soon *squeals*. Maybe we could call it Arrow?

Friday 8 July 2011

Goodness, I'm a gardener!!!


So, with our new house came our very first garden... it's huge! We're already quite overwhelmed with it and the amount to do, but I've managed to create one piece of lovely garden which is my very first. And it appears that *whispers*... I'm a gardener!

Most of these flowers and plants were grown from seed, which is amazing to me. I did get a lot of help from my mum - the gardening oracle - but I'm very very pleased with my efforts. Huzzah!






Wednesday 6 July 2011

The Idler


My first article for The Idler is now available! I'm waiting for my copy to plop through the letterbox - v exciting to be in such an illustrious line-up. The Idler has often been accused as being very male-centric, so this article is about women and idling, and aims to redress that balance somewhat

The Idler website says:

The issue explores the idea of small enterprise as an alternative to the nine-to-five, and contains a wealth of practical advice and inspiration for those who yearn to escape the rat race.

Idler 44 also offers an inspiring interview with Bill Drummond, who argues for the importance of taking responsibility for your own life, and just getting out there and doing it, which is, paradoxically enough, fully compatible with the idle ethic. This issue could have been called ‘the industrious idler’.

Other contributors include Toby Young, Robert Wringham, Sarah Boak and Penny Rimbaud. We also reproduce all twelve plates from William Hogarth’s Industry and Idleness series. There are fine illustrations by Clifford Harper, Alice Smith, Bronwen Jones and many more.

Just 1,000 copies are being printed of this first edition, which is bound in blue cloth, printed on heavy paper and typeset by Mr Brett.

Saturday 2 July 2011

Friday 1 July 2011

Garden delights



We're enjoying the first fruits of our labour at the moment - nom nom!!!

Tuesday 28 June 2011

The sound of summer


Oh my goodness, Cults completely rock! This is the sound of my perfect summer band - old school bubblegum Dirty Dancing-esque 1950s inspired pop, with a lo fi rock-out edge. Soundtrack to my summer

via {frolic}

Sunday 26 June 2011

Can a doodle be art?

So I'm - perhaps a little stupidly - about to embark on a 6 week experimental art e-course, having very very little 'artistic' experience and with quite a low sense of my own creativity or ability in the visual arts. The first assignment won't be posted until tomorrow, but I got my sketch book out tonight... and I didn't know what to do with it. Total fear of the blank page....

Then I decided just to start writing and drawing something, with no pressure or sense of having to be 'artistic'. I drew what I felt. A big scared face shouting out 'BLANK PAPER. AAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!'. It was the kind of drawing I do all the time. It was a doodle. My friends and I do these doodles at the back of our lecture room during research seminars (they generally are drawings of glasses of wine with 'I neeeeeeed vino!!' underneath or pictures of how we might escape the room, in search of wine). But a doodle is not art, right? Then I thought, well maybe if it is, I could start here. In a place I know very well. With a doodle.

Here are some examples of very cool doodlings that most definitely are art.










Via cariblogger and richworks

Saturday 25 June 2011

Wednesday 22 June 2011

I love universities a bit too much - I'm fascinated by the sense of tradition mixed with politics and radicalism. I have spent nearly half my adult life in university settings (cripes)... Here are a few great university photos from the wonderful LIFE archives



Australian-born feminist author and journalist Germaine Greer makes her students laugh as she teaches a class on 17th century literature at University of Warwick, England, March 1971.
Photo: Terrence Spencer/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Mar 01, 1971



Freshmen John Sease and Beverly Cayford meet on a random couch which is being moved into the dorms at Princeton, New Jersey, 1969. Beverly is one of the first 101 female students to attend Princeton. Photo: Alfred Eisenstaedt/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images
Jan 01, 1969



Hippie poet Allen Ginsberg speaking at Kansas Univ.
Photo: John Loengard/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Jan 01, 1966



Irish author, scholar, and theologian C.S. Lewis (1898 - 1963) walks past a Magdalen College building at Oxford University, Oxford, England, 1946.
Photo: Hans Wild/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Nov 01, 1946

Sunday 5 June 2011

Songwriting



Here's an amazing example of songwriting. Some wonderful lyrics in this tune. Am spending a lazy sunday listening to Shawn Colvin and the Indigo Girls and marvelling at their craft

Saturday 4 June 2011

New beginnings


This past year has been a crazy one - notice the lack of posts, right?! - and I've been struggling with the demands that part-time lecturing has on my time. Marking, marking, marking for an intense six months of the year, then no work and no pay for the remaining six. It's been great not working in an office, not doing admin, not managing staff, but actually the lack of stability, and regular income have been problematic. Not to mention that marking hangs over into your home life so much... I miss being in a job where I can close the door at 5pm and leave my work there. So, this week I start two months of temporary administrative work at the University of Southampton, three days per week. And hopefully, if the interview goes well, I might get this gig permanently (if they let me stay part-time). The money is not as good as it needs to be to pay all my bills, but it's regular money. And hopefully what this job will give me is a bit more time. Sounds illogical, but it's time in the evenings and weekends that I need, to be able to write, research, make music and do all the other things that I want and need to do.

When these new sorts of beginnings come, I find it a really positive time to look at my life overall and see where I think things are going. This first spring in our new house has been amazing, and we've been doing so much in the garden. It's starting to look good now - though there is still masses to do, there *is* progress! - and we have a lovely seating area and some wonderful flowers starting to bloom. E has really been enjoying all the space and now has a climbing frame and slide, which keep him busy. So, this side of things is great. The woodsman, the boy and I are happy here.

There are two areas I'm not happy about. One is time - too many things to do, too many deadlines, not enough time. Hopefully the one job that I can leave behind at the end of each day should solve this. The second is health and diet. I've been so busy that I've been eating loads of junk, and it's really starting to show. So from next week, I'm trying to get back to some of my old good habits. Less booze, less caffeine, more fruit, veg and grains, herbal teas - basically more fresh food. None of that 'argh I'm at a train station and have 5 mins to eat, grab a bag of crisps!' thing that has been going on. And definitely no pain au chocolat for breakfast at the station any more!! To be honest, I won't miss it much. I'd rather make time to eat breakfast at home and have something tasty. E is up at 5.30am most mornings at the moment, so there should be plenty of time before I leave the house to get my breakfast. Novel thought, but perhaps I could get mine whilst he has his?! Oh, and also I've just found this site - 101 Cookbooks - with these delicious veggie recipes for some inspiration.

Finally, this Simple Living Manifesto has been providing me with some great ideas.

Now for watering the garden.... lovely job at the end of a hot, nearly-summer day

Photo by beauty that moves