Ali Baba Pants

Necklace - Spitalfields Market, t-shirt - New Look, trousers - China

Many things have changed since we last spoke on this blog. I think the most obvious is my hair - I chopped off over 22 inches/ 50cm for the Little Princess Trust, who make wigs for children who have lost their hair due to cancer treatment and other diseases. I would be so grateful if donate whatever you can via my JustGiving page or by simply texting "OINK77 £3" to 70070. To find out more about why I decided to do this and to watch a video of the actual hair cut, click through to my post on my other blog. For a very raw and personal post on my thoughts after my hair cut, I also wrote another post entitled : "Short Hair, Do Care?".

I have just returned from a fantastic 3 weeks on holiday in China. I will compose another blogpost about it as there is much to talk about but firstly let's discuss these funky trousers I bought whilst travelling. Wide leg trousers are basically glorified pajama pants that share the same comfort, but I think they look pretty stylish. Costing only £4, I bought 3 pairs of similar trousers, but I wish I bought more as clothes are so cheap out there.

I bought my necklace at Spitalfields Market from an Iraqi old lady for an extortionate £15. I normally would not spend so much money on an item of jewellery but the seller said it was handmade from Iraq and I thought I would support their trade, especially in today's grave political climate there.

I have actually acquired quite a few new clothes and since it is summer, I may have some more time to blog more often. Let's see if that is the case eh?

Rebecca

18th Birthday Wish-list

In a few weeks time it will be my 18th birthday! For my 16th birthday, my friends asked me to compose a birthday wishlist and I decided to publish it here on my other blog. I thought it was quite enjoyable to read so this year I am planning on doing the same. Here is the low down of consumerist goods I would love to receive.

How to acquire succulents for free?!

Picture taken in passing. God knows what my hand is doing. Shirt - vintage, dress - New Look, jelly shoes - Juju Jellie

Succulents have recently seen a surge of popularity on the internet. What is not to like them about them with their understated yet unusual fleshy leaves. These inconspicuous plants have been hailed the latest must-have interior accessory by the indie/hipster bloggers of Tumblr, however not everyone has the money to buy lots of pot plants as they are becoming increasingly expensive with their increasing popularity.

I have always grown up with succulent around the house so their recently rise to popularity was good news to me. The most interesting thing is that I don't think we've ever bought a succulent plant from a shop. One rather nifty aspect of succulents are that they reproduce asexually. It's been a few years since I've done biology but all this means that if you take a leaf that has fallen off the mother plant, a daughter plant will start growing from the fallen leaf. The plant can technically clone itself! They are hardy plants since they come from the dry areas of the tropics so they can easily be nurse back into a full grown plant. Whenever we would visit the garden centre, we would simply pick up leaves from succulents that fallen onto the floor and take them home to plant on pots of soil. This was our slightly cheeky, but not illegal way of getting an ever-so-cool succulent plant for free.

Speaking of clones, the second series of Orphan Black has returned to our television screens. Orphan Black is a fast paced, yet also slow burning sci-fi thriller with a touch of Scandi-noir which is centered around several women who are revealed to be clones. I recommend everyone to check it out on BBC Three on Wednesdays at 10pm. 

I hope you enjoyed today's random post. My images today are an homage to my favourite director - Wes Anderson who I spoke about in my last post. MS PowerPoint didn't have the exact font that he uses (Futura) so I had to make do with this one - yes I still edit my blog photos with PowerPoint. Have a good May the 4th.

Midnight Meta Musings

Wooh! Hello stranger. I bet you weren't expecting to read a post my me today!

Top - vintage, skirt - H&M, belt - vintage, shoes - Dr Martens

Falling off my stool

I have recently been reflecting on the purpose of this blog since I have not update in a while. Some have said that it is naive of me to having something so introspective and personal on the public domain as it can be read by anyone: future employers, teachers, and not-so-friendly acquaintances.  However, this is exactly why I love having a blog; it's my own time capsule documenting my thoughts and feelings at the time of writing that will forever exist on the omnipresent internet. As a proud introvert, blogging brings me great joy as it enables me to reflect on myself. So what have I been thinking about recently?

What's Going On?

Shirt - old, shorts - DIY/vintage, necklace - vintage, sandals- M&S

Yes! I am alive, not dead! Sorry for the unprecedented 3 month hiatus. I've pretty much lost my interest in blogging over this period as well as having copious A level exams keeping me preoccupied. Nonetheless, I actually had some free time today so I decided to document my outfit.

Cephalopods and Lepidoptera

A bit of a different post today! These are actually some pictures I took a couple of months ago which I never uploaded because the lighting was really bad and I wasn't very happy with how they came out. I am actually starting to hoard quite a collection of unpublished outfit photos as I have perfectionist tendencies and if something isn't quite how I want it to be, I won't upload it.

Anyway, I've been getting motivated back into blogging recently and since I had a few hours to spare last night, I thought I would recycled these old photos and make them a bit more interesting. Since the quality of the images were so poor due to bad lighting, I just edited them loads, which kind of gave them a "vintage" effect as they became so grainy and low quality.

My absolute favourite artist of all time is Dan Hillier and a photographer I really enjoy the work of is Elena Rendina. Both artists have a signature style of juxtaposing vintage-ey/Victorian botany/zoology drawings with the human form. Dan Hillier primarily works with extremely intricate black line engravings when Elena Rendina does a lot of fashion photography. I love her strong sense colour palettes and use of mirroring. Both of these artists were inspirations towards my two edits above.

I found two images of an octopus and butterfly from possibly the best website ever: Vintage Printables - the best section on the website is titled "Animals acting like Humans".  I then used Paint and Microsoft PowerPoint to juxtapose the drawings on top of my photographs. Yes, you read that right - I used Paint and PowerPoint! It is an extremely primitive way of editing photos but it sort of worked (I think?). I'm not very happy with how the second images' octopus tentacles are not cropped properly but I was pretty limited with my technical ability of photo-manipulation. I feel like I know what I want the end product to look like, but I just don't have the technical skills yet to execute it. I suppose the next step is to actually learn how to use a "proper" photo editing software - a job for the summer holidays!

So yes, the work of Dan Hillier and Elena Rendina are a few things I have been enjoying this month. Since it is approaching the end of April (eek!), I might as well sum up some of the things I have also been enjoying:

1. Mary's blog. Mary is a 15 year old girl from Germany and every time I go on her blog, the posts are just getting better and better. She is just so creative and crafty in the way she dresses and you can tell that she truly enjoys putting her blog together. I feel now with so many blogs becoming increasingly monetised, you begin to lose the raw enthusiasm and passion of blogging as a hobby and it begins to feel forced. I don't know if what I just said made sense, but basically just check out her blog.
2. UNIVERSITY CHALLENGE! I love that shit. The final is tomorrow which I am honestly so looking forward to. I am rooting for UCL to win, although I have a feeling Manchester may suddenly have a lucky streak and take the crown. The Manchester team are just so boring to watch when I find UCL to be so entertaining to watch - just listening to the voice over man say Papaphilippopoulos is exciting in itself! Half the time I have no idea what on earth they are talking about, but whenever a rare science question crops up, I'm always shouting at the screen. The science questions are always so easy though in comparison to questions on classics or literature - some only require GCSE level knowledge. I often find Jeremy Paxman's snide remarks extremely rude but you cannot deny that he is what makes UC so exciting. 
3. Chili sauce! Coming from a Chinese family, I have always been into spicy food , however recently, I feel like I am becoming a chili connoisseur. Slightly off topic, but I also broke my Nandos virginity this month and I found it extremely underwhelming. As a business model, I think it is genius how encourage brand loyalty with the loyalty cards, how they can use a small range of raw ingredients in so many combinations to create different meals which probably works out well financially for them, and their strong sense of brand identity with their continuum of spicy sauces. Although, as for their food, I found it insipid and uninspiring, despite them trying to be masked this by smothering it in their pungent sauces. However sauces are probably pretty cheap to by in when meat and veg are expensive, so that's probably how they manage to make their profits.

Wow, I have managed to ramble today. As you can probably tell, I like to over-analyse everything  but I don't see the point of being superficial. Also, I miss writing so it's all coming out today. Anyway, I should stop procrastinating now and start revision for my exams in 2 WEEKS!

Thanks for visiting - come again soon!

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P.S. It actually makes me so sad how shiny my Dr Marten's Tanner shoes look in these pictures.  I took these pictures the day the shoes arrived, so they were in pristine condition  Now I have literally worn them nearly everyday and it now has more of a brushed metal look. :(  

"Imagination is more important than knowledge"

Coat - Topshop, Disco Pants - American Apparel, boots - Dr Martens, jacket - Vintage Kilo Sale. 

Derp

This "ugly-chic" or just down-right ugly jacket/shirt thing only cost a bargainous £3 from the Vintage Kilo Sale. The Vintage Kilo Sale is basically one of the coolest events I've ever been to.

"You can never be overdressed or over-educated"

Clothes - all hand-me-downs, bowler hat - River Island, pewter shoes - Dr Martens

Today I made the rookie mistake of taking my blog pictures out during the midday sun, hence the horrendous over-exposure on these photographs. As you can see, it was actually a cloudless day in the UK - what is this malarkey?

Goodbye England till next year's snow

Button up shirt - charity shop, Disco Pants - American Apparel, Chelsea boots - Doc Martens

Yes, I am a crazy lady and I took all these pictures whilst standing in the snow. Surprisingly  it wasn't as cold as I imagined, but it certainly was not a pleasant experience. However, I feel like I owe it to you guys since I've not posted in so long. I've done 4/5 of my AS module exams now so hopefully I will have more time but I highly doubt it so I'm not going to make any promises!

This shirt is possibly one of the best items I have ever thrifted. I should've taken a close up, but it's got burnt orange velvet and shiny black autumn leaves on a shirt black chiffon with a black fringed edge. It's really hard to describe, but is all my favourite textures and materials combined into one shirt. I call it my cowboy top but it's sort of annoying to wear since the fringed bits always get hooked or attached to everything. I love it nonetheless.

And then there are my disco pants! Yes, I finally have the much coverted and highly hyped American Apparel disco pants. They are everything that everyone says they are and I love them so much! My sister bought them for me for Christmas and I am so glad I have them in my possession. Anyone wanting a review of them since they are quite pricey but in my eye, completely worth it!

Have fun and stay safe in the snow,

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