wolf

I am an official teeny bopper. I went to see New Moon on the day it came out. Then I went to see it again on the following evening.

I have to say, it really did not dissappoint, it was a beautifully made and brilliantly edited movie, with a perfect soundtrack and great direction, I am glad Chris Weitz got it right with this one. It was also pretty faithful to the story by Stephenie Meyer despite a few minor edits. The best part of the film for me was Taylor Lautner's portrayal of Jacob Black, which I thought was really true to how Jacob acts in the book, and made his part of the story more important. It made the wolves look pretty good, even though there were all the cool vampires. It was good to have Lautner to look at rather than just Rob Pattinson, because as much as I love him those amber eyes are pretty creepy.

But less of my I-want-to-review-films attitude, back to the point. Back to a lovely apostrophe I saw the other day. Recipes in a newspaper, font really rather big.


Pie's

(pie's what?)

reminiscent

I recently purchased the greatest hits album by Will Young. It made me feel pretty old! I forgot how much I loved him as a teenager and having all these hits has made me feel better, it's pretty perfect for cheering you up on a rainy horrible day.

Had my mum and her friend over for the weekend, and her daughter who is one of my best friends. I love seeing people from home because it really makes me appreciate the change in accent that occurs depending on who is around, and listening to phrases like "her was reeasty" and "ooh he were fusty" really makes me miss the black country.

Not got a lot of new work to show at the minute, but my friend from uni created a lovely spelling error the other day - her campaign for her advertising project became french camping when she spelt it "campagne"on the presentation sheets. It did make my day just a little.

Because I haven't got much new stuff going on as I am in the brainstorming stage of a children's narrative fiction project, I've decided to put up a bit of typography I did in my summer sketchbook that made the motto of the last owner of Snowshill Manor - Let Nothing Perish.

book

Just finished reading a book called "Nightlight"; a Harvard Lampoon take on the ever popular Twilight novels. It was brilliant - it encapsulated Bella's character completely - if you're not afraid to take the mick out of something you love (you lovely twihards out there) then give it a read, it's worth it.

Started to read a nice new copy of an old favourite as well today that I got from the bookseller in Fal, which is "To kill a Mockingbird". I adore this book, I have done since I studied it in school and I thought it was about time I got a nice new copy of it, and I happened to pick one up that had a really nice cover illustration on it. Not sure who it's by, I'll find out, I think it's a Penguin version of the book though.

As I have been reading so much recently I decided to make myself a little bookmark with the stamp that Jenna got for me and my new cutting and sticking skills from visual studies, hoorah. the wierd shape in the middle is supposed to be an open book, if you were wondering.

face

Haven't blogged in a short while, because I haven't had much work to be posting on here, but soon I'm going to start looking into making christmas cards for people so I might just have a few exciting things to look at!

It's also been a while since I spotted a really good spelling mistake, so for now all I have to show is a painting of a face I did. Enjoy.

stamps

I've just been into town today to buy some ink blocks for the fab stamps that Jenna bought for me from Portobello when she visited London at the end of October. As I was feeling christmassy, I picked up some Gold ink and some black.

I also managed to pick up some really good value fairy lights for my bedroom from Trago Mills in Falmouth, the best shop in Fal! I'm looking forward to start making some christmas related things - cards, decorations,paper chains. It's gonna be a good one this year, I can feel it!

week

it's been a while since I posted something because I've been under deadline and my internet has died.. AND it was Hallowe'en :) had a really epic night dressed up as a wierdo zombie girl, and I still have stains on my wrists from my greasepaint "stitchmarks". Good night!

Did some adult narrative work last week for my project, illustrating a piece by Margaret Atwood about the Female Body. Did some work wil gouache and collage, really enjoyed myself working with the strong line too. This week we've been given an advertising task, but I have to wait til Thursday to get the full brief. Got to do lots of reportage illustration soon, really have to get cracking with my location drawing sketchbook cause it's an important part of my course.

Getting really excited about Christmas now, looking forward to making lots of christmas decorations for my house and I really want to get us the most amazing christmas tree ever! Getting ideas for gifts for my friends too, getting very excited. :)

cupcake

Since I have been back at uni I have been hankering for some baking, I really do miss making cupcakes. Since buying a new cookery book over summer, I really got into baking and I made loads and loads of things so I just thought I would post a few photos of my creations from over summer, and hopefully in the future if I manage to make something special in our oven I will get a snap of it for you.

editor

My housemate Millie knows me too well. She came back from work last night all excited, and told me she had a present for me, and removed a cutting from The Sun newspaper from her bag.

here it is.

love you millie. and love you, sun newspaper sub editor.

I want to see her dancing all over the polls.

Crayon

I forgot to actually add text to my last blog, so here we go. We have been experimenting with expressive faces in our visual studies sessions at uni over the past two weeks, and the previous image is one of these examples. I used fineliner for the image in the last blog, and for the next image in this blog I used gouache paint for the face and Crayola wax crayons for the hair. I love experimenting with new combinations of materials and I'm really getting into using gouache paint.




Life outside of my studio has been just so, nothing too exciting happening but it's life isn't it. Seen a few friends, done a few errands, same old same. Watched the movie Year One with my flatmates the other day, which was mediocre, but Michael Cera who I love had some brilliant one liners, made me happy.



Another thing I haven't mentioned in this blog yet, seeing as it is called thoughts and observations, is something I like to observe all the time - spelling. It's become a little bit of an obsession for me, which is probably bad considering my boyfriend is dyslexic, but I keep wanting to correct bad spelling that I see all over the place. Here's a few examples.



A category label on a shelf in my university library, in the section refering to folklore...

"399 - Customs & Folk Law"



A sign in my university cafe...

"Hot chocolate with whipped cream and marshmellows"



My friend from uni writing something on her hand...

"Umberalla"



Another friend who works in a bar showed me his promo posters...

"A great experiance"



there's just a few examples. You might think it's a bit of an obsession, which it really is, and I do sometimes feel bad for pointing them out. But as trivial as it is, it doesn't half get to me! Although I do enjoy it when these signs become humorous because of their downfalls!


8th Feb 2010 - Just realised since writing this blog I have infact changed the name of the blog to drawings and spelling mistakes, purely because of how much each amuses me :)

face

blanche

I was very sad to find out yesterday that Maggie Jones, who plays Blanche Hunt in the soap Coronation Street, has been through a serious operation and an illness :( she is on the mend now, and I am very glad as I think she is so fabulous. Her comedy performances are second to none, and she is the subject of various caricatures that I do for my brother, one of them in the birthday card I have recently finished for him. My brother and I have many inside random jokes that we share and it has now become a little tradition for me to document them on his birthday cards, so here is an image of it for all of you/nobody who read this. The jokes come from all kinds of sources,a lot of them on youtube, so if you are curious in any of them you could try searching "the milk sex and the city", "yu-gi-oh abridged", "potter puppet pals" or "123456Pokemon". I haven't posted the cardt to him yet so I hope he likes it when he receives it soon (postalstrike forgiving!)

grape

First lesson of visual studies today, which means lots of media experimentation and drawing fun. Last year was very unstructured and frankly didn't really help very much, but this year we have a different tutor and a different brief so we have some direction, YAY!

can't seem to get the uploader to work for me today so it'll be no pictures for this blog :( I would write about a few little dramas but there isn't really much exciting to say! I will say about my friend though, who recently lost a parent in a very sudden way, and I am so proud of him for coping so well with everything that has been happening, and it really puts it into perspective how amazing humans are at coping with things. It makes you realise how lucky you are to have people in your life.

Time

Ok, I admit I have already seemed to forget about blogging slightly, as I have had lots of project work to be getting on with for uni over the last week. Had a project about contextualising an inanimate object to make it into something conceptual, and my word was bags, which was a fun little project to start off with. Getting onto the editorials this week, which will be fun!

This weekend (saturday 10th) was my first year anniversary with Chris, and we had a really great day,and he gave me a fab little necklace as a gift :) I can't believe it has been a year since we met and it's amazing to think how time has passed without noticing, which was highlighted this week as I didn't even realise I hadn't blogged all week!

to finish, here's a small section of one of the"bag" illustrations I did last week, which was all about emotional baggage and beight weighed down by your emotions on a daily basis. I used patterned and plain coloured papers to make this collage.

montage

Here's something I forgot to post a few days ago when I decorated my little uni room. I made a few montages of cuttings from magazines on my walls to brighten them up a bit, and I really am very fond of them so I thought I would share them with you. The images come from elle magazine, dazed and confused, the times fashion and culture supplements and glamour magazine. See if you can spot Kristen Stewart, Christina Aguilera, Lindsay Lohan, Pamela Anderson, and Britney Spears among them, some very well disguised!

cocktails

Yesterday was a really good day. I love girlie time when I can get it and when I was asked to go into town with the girls in my flat I couldn't say no, so off we went down into Falmouth on a mission for party dresses and various tranclements for millie, but unfortunately it was a bad shopping day in Fal. Millie wanted an iPod and they weren't in stock, Lal needed a dress and there just wasn't anything good on offer. So because of this we decided to hit Truro for a little more city shopping - much more of a success! Sale bargains to be had, and one bargain iPod for millie.

Later that night we went down to the Shed for some cocktails, a fab little bar down by the Maritime Museum, if you ever get a chance to go there do it because they have amazing food and fabulous cocktails. I had one, and straight away I was feeling it, and I don't know why! I got a little squiffy, and then we met up with millie who was tired after work, so we came back to our fabulous house. Good night over all, if not short!

Today we plan on going to Jacob's for lunch I think, and then I believe everyone is going to surf, which might be boring for me as I'll only be sitting on the sand watching but hey I can take my poi as there'll be no disruptive kittens there!

No pictures for today, so here's another painting. This time it's Emma Watson from an Elle photoshoot, which is why she's a bit unrecognisable!

Poi attack

Went out into the garden again today to have another go at poi spinning in the hope I would get some peace.

Apparently not.

It does make a good photography game though.

Kitten

Today has been a full day. Got up and had yet another walk down into Falmouth, this time with Chris, and had a mooch around the shops in town, in particular Dig N' Delve, one of the greatest and craziest shops in the town! Full of anything you could possibly think of, all sorts of stuff. I got my mom a nice old copy of The King's General by Daphne Du Maurier as she loves her. A bit mildewed but you can't argue for 75p.

Next we went into Truro for a little look around, and I purchased the new Audrey Niffenegger novel, The Fearful Symmetry. I loved the last book of hers I read, The Time Traveler's Wife, which I bought after seeing her at a talk she did at my uni (University College Falmouth) and I thought she was a brilliant character, so I figured her writing would be just as enigmatic as she was, which turned out to be true. I hope that this book is as compelling as the last.

Finally, I bought some poi from another shop in Truro. Now, I have never tried these before, and my boyfriend is interested in learning too so we decided to invest in some. I had a practise in the garden earlier, and was really getting into it when the cat from two doors down ran under the gate and started to claw at my poi! It made a pretty fun game, watching it leap about 3ft into the air every so often, but I had to put them down when I just couldn't get any progress made because of that cat!

has been a good day, however have no relevant pictures to put up, so I think I'll just show you a bit of my work. Here's a painting I did of Kristen Stewart (you'll probably know her as Bella from Twilight) for my summer sketchbook. Enjoy! :)

Gestures

A quiet day in Fal today, we have been chilling out in the house. This morning I got up and caught up with the telly I had missed - Waking the Dead! One of my favourite programmes of all time, when I came to uni I was worried I wasn't going to be able to watch the last two parter of the series. But BBCiPlayer came through for me and it was great, brilliant series finale! My love for Trevor Eve has been fulfilled. :)

Later I went to help peg out Chris's washing, and what did we find? Recently, our house has been going under a bit of a re-vamp thanks to our most generous landlord, and we have had an entire re-paint of our outside walls. Our painter, Mikey, has done a really great job, and to thank us for all the tea we made for him he had left us a mixtape CD in our peg basket! It made me think about how little gestures of kindness can make your day. And as a bonus the CD is great, if not a little bit random.

Falmouth

I'm back in Falmouth now and today Jennavie and I went for a walk around the town. I've really missed the shops down here, especially the great charity shops and antique places. We went for lunch in the Cavendish Coffee house - lovely food and really friendly staff. Had a really great afternoon, and now we're going to have a girlie night, as there is nothing else to do! Can't wait to start back at uni next week.

Whilst in Fal I went into an antique shop at the top of the town and found a lovely (if not slightly mildewed) copy of Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne, adorable.

Shiny new blog :)

Hello, welcome to the first post on my new blog! If it's looking a little amateur it's because this is my first ever blog - ten years behind the times apparently! I will add a description of my soon when I work out how, but for now, I'll introduce myself here. I'm originally from the lovely Black Country and I have now moved down to Falmouth to study Illustration at University College Falmouth, just starting my second year. I love lots of things and people - all my housemates and family and friends back home, and I have interest in lots of things. Obviously I love illustration, and I also love fine art, photography, film, music, baking, making things, and reading, among other things that escape me. I will mostly be using this blog to record things that happen to me, and things that happen in my life, as well as illustrations or nice photos I find. I'll be uploading some of my work and my photographs too if anyone is interested! I might also even post new recipes from time to time as I love making cakes! Long post to start the barrel rolling :) I hope I manage to entertain you somewhere along the blog, thanks for taking the time to read.

But for now, you can look at this cake I made for my friend Amber's birthday. enjoy!