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 I am actually starting to hoard quite a collection of unpublished outfit photos as I have perfectionist tendencies and if something isn't quite how I want it to be, I won't upload it.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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New Year Lookbook: Tartan & Fur

Fur coat: M&S, tartan dress: New Look, headband - Accessorise

Muddy flatforms: Office

I know, it's been a while. School work and everything else has gotten ontop of me, so consequently, blogging has sunk pretty low down on my priority list. The British weather is pretty dire in the winter, crippling my blog productivity since it's always freezing cold outside and dark before I leave in the mornings as well as before I come home in the evening. But those are not the only reasons why I have refrained from blogging since November (craziness) - I have been unhappy with the quality of all my last blog posts and being the perfectionist I am, it has made me unwilling to post any more.

However, now it's a new year and that means time for changes. One thing that really bugged me was the format of all my posts - the mirrored outfit posts were fun to begin with, but they have quickly lost their novelty. I have some fantastic equipment in my disposal and it's time that I started utilising it to make my photography a bit more interesting. Today was such a beautiful day for once and since it is a public holiday, I decided to creep into the secondary school next to where I live to take some pictures outside the confines of my garden. My plan was almost over before it began as I ran into a caretaker but I just told him that I was taking pictures for a "school project" and he let me carry on.

I go through phases of loving different patterns - lastly it was paisley print, but now tartan is definitely my new obsession. The more tartan the better. This dress is actually from the Generation 9-14 range in New Look and it's age 12-13 which is absolutely ridiculous as it's pretty much a size 8 dress. I've worn it so much throughout the Christmas season. Next I am searching for a tartan suit jacket and skirt combo for sixth form, much like Cher's in Clueless.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this post. I cannot guarantee a regular schedule of posts, since I have a total of 5 AS modules within the next 3 weeks. However, I will try to make the ones I put out as good as possible.

Thanks for sticking around.
Hope you have had a fantastic Christmas holiday and New Year.

P.S. I have no idea what a "Lookbook" is, but rhymes are cool.
P.P.S. I've missed my 1 year blog-iversary. I really am a terrible blogger.
P.P.P.S. Post coming up tomorrow on my second blog about New Year's resolutions.