N E W // 01

first of all, happy new year! i find it crazy that it's 2014; i'm going to be twenty this year!
just before christmas, i took a few photographs of the house before we did anything to it. this was handover day. it was a bit of a standstill over christmas, but we got an alarm fitted and finally have started laying the flooring - i forced my parents to go to ikea in manchester to get the floor as it was taking too long to come into our local store.
once christmas week was over, i just wanted to get in & make it home, but of course the floor has to be down. i bought some fabric to hang up at the front window until the blinds have been made.
next week i'll share what i've bought/what's on my wishlist for the living room.

let's do this, twenty fourteen!!

happy birthday jesus.

while the fire is burning out & old episodes of the vicar of dibley are playing, i wanted to pop in & wish you all a merry christmas! i hope you all had blessed days filled with happiness & laughter.
i had a quiet family christmas with just my parents. after church, we went home to get dinner started & spent the day playing bananagrams, watching the sound of music and crying at matt smith's last episode as the doctor (well, i cried anyway). for me, no christmas is complete without a christmas episode of the vicar of dibley - which i thought wouldn't happen this year - but bbc swooped in and saved the day showing "the christmas lunch incident" just before midnight.

self portrait.

as soon as the words "self portrait" are uttered, i shudder. i don't like my face - i pretty much don't like anything about me, but we'll not get into that - so the thought of having to take a self portrait and to then have that in my portfolio is incredibly daunting. i had fifteen minutes to think of what i was going to do and go and do it. i knew i didn't want my face in it, but since i don't like anything else about myself, i wanted to incorporate movement, unwillingness and secrecy.
i tried one shot with a slow shutter speed, but you could see my face and the movement made it even worse than it already is, so i decided to go the opposite route and try fast shutter speed. i ended up with three images that look good on their own - one is even my profile picture on twitter - but together, they incorporate the movement i wanted to show, just more peacefully.
i'm glad i didn't cop out of this assignment & used my imagination and what i've learned so far to create this self portrait.
i'm incredibly inspired to see how i can grow and change and become more confident in my photography during 2014; i'm thinking a few photography challenges may be in the works. you know what i'm like though, i'll post my aims for the new year and (hopefully won't) fail at the majority.

N E W // a series.

as of friday, i will officially be moving out. i am moving out for the very first time into a brand new, unfurnished home and i am so unbelievably excited. i have always wanted to be able to design my own house for the longest time and i have a clean slate to do that with.
i really want to try and keep it as simple as i can, and i think i'll be able to as i'm on a tight budget. the space isn't huge, but it's just me & a housemate. i'm so excited to share the journey starting in the new year with a 'N E W' series.
i am going to be taking tons of before and progress pictures of the whole thing, but for now i will leave you with a quick iphone snap from monday.

christmas wishlist.

if you're having a hard time deciding on things to get for the people you love this year, take a look at the things i've been pinning on my christmas board on pintrest. i know i'd be so grateful if i received any of these presents, and hopefully someone you know would, too. 

one: make your own banner £12.95// two: back to the wild £21.44 (incl dvd) // three: pillow cases £42.76 each // four: tobacco & patchouli candle £19.99 // five: poster £9.17-£16.54 (free shipping worldwide thru sunday) // six: joy division vinyl £9.36 // seven: paramore vinyl £23.88 // eight: imogene & willie candle £33.63 // nine: multi-use towel £45.28 // ten: cardboard stag head £25 // eleven: tartan scarf £18 // twelve: paramore sweater £24.50 // thirteen: kanken laptop bag £80

light.

for my assignment we are are focusing on painting with light and today i had a go and did a few patterns and my name. i also did the alphabet which is a requirement but these are just some of the ones i did for fun. 

i also had to do overlays in photoshop workshop and i thought paramore then & now would look cool & threw a layer of my light painting on top. 

things i learned from having green hair.

when i'm in the shower, i write blog posts in my head. some of them are essays, most of them never come to anything. but they help me process life. reciting to myself an event or a thought process explains things to me. last night, i was washing my hair with medicated shampoo for the third time when my 'internal essay' began. 99% of the time, i never think of them again, or i forget what i had thought but i really wanted to write these thoughts down.