pre pubescent pop punk

so i thought i'd do a music based blog, recently i've been noticing exactly how much i listen to music compared to other people - pretty much whenever i get the chance! i even have a habit of bringing my laptop into the bathroom to listen to spotify when having a bath, i cant really fall asleep without music playing and when i'm walking anywhere i must have my trusty podster by my side.
my first love in terms of music is pop punk hands down, i remember when i was 11 my cousin came to live with us and brought her cd collection along with her, she was a couple of years older and she was really into punk at that time, she brought fat wreck chords compilations, NOFX, blink 182 and dookie by green day (she brought loads but they were the ones that really stuck out to me) i loved it and remember just going out to hmv and spending hours in the pop/ rock sections searching for ataris and mxpx cd's. when i was going through tough times at that point i'd just pop enema of the state on and it would cheer me up. obviously listening to this kind of music changes the way you dress too and everything that you're into. summers after this point were spend mainly on skateboards around the village or playing on street sk8er on the playstation and to this day, these summers with my cousin are the best memories i have.

something about this kind of music just makes everything bad go away somehow, it is just so carefree and brings a smile to my face whenever i listen. bringing back memories of evenings spent going to pop punk gigs, going to get piercings and just generally wanting to be american. i think these songs really spoke to me and ignited my love for everything musical and really at the minute i don't think i'd be able to cope with anything if i didn't have music.
following my pop punk enlightenment i went through the inevitable emo stage (a funeral for a friend hoody being my favourite item of clothing at this point) the ska phase (lots of two tone, trumpets and bands like farse) also in more recent times getting into more independent and european stuff (múm, jeniferever, sigur ros etc) no matter what i've really been into musically i've always loved pop punk alongside it and i really hope it will always be that way.

here are a few videos that provoke the fondest memories for me -

Chez moi deux

here are some cheeky snaps of mine and sarah's boudoirs (i tidied mine especially for taking photos)

in sarah's room there's a piece of string stretching from wall to wall, one night she decided to learn how to make paper cranes, made tonnes of them and then hung them all along this piece of string, it looks lovely now!

this is sarah's picture wall, a mish mash of different sized and styles of frames with lots of odd and pretty pictures in, all of which mean a lot to her (the cuckoo clock was a present i got her last christmas and it fits in nicely)

this is sarah's lovely little pansy window box, although we don't have a garden/ outside area since we're on the second floor we decided to make our fire escape all girly and that.
although we spend most of our time chilling in the lounge, when i need to actually get on with work i'll shut my self in my little haven!

although we've known each other for 4 years, me and my housemate sarah never seem to be able to find a photo of us both that we both actually like, since this one that i got developed we were both happy with i decided to take the opportunity to frame it and display it!
my little bedside area,my favourite mug which is always there since i wake up thirsty at least once every night, the photos on the wall are a xmas gift off my best friend rach!
i love these two little wooden postcards, i found them in a little independent book store in berlin.

i love my desk space, although i must admit that i don't spend much time sat there. the typewriter is from work and the J on the wall was a present off my good friend rach. you can also see my humble camera collection, my digi sony slr, my diana lomo, my smena and my polaroid.

this pici is a screenprint from a shop called ryan vintage in manchester, i really love stags heads at the minute and it looks pretty swell on my wall!

this is the favourite part of my room, a vintage mirror i found in snoopers paradise in brighton, i love it so much even though it was a right bugger to cart around brighton!
anyway i'm done with the house tour now, phew! that was a long'un.

Mumford and Sun

i've never been too bothered about mumford and sons, their C.D always used to be on in kitsch (where i used to work) and i kind of just thought there was nothing special about them and that it was slightly too folky for me.
when i went to York the other week to visit my good friend jenny we decided to take a road trip to the yorkshire moors more specifically the cute as a button village of hutton le hole. the sun was shining and it really felt like spring was beginning, since she didn't want to listen to punk or wutang clan (which is pretty much all i've got in my car at the minute) jen brought her mumford and sons cd along, i really enjoyed driving through beautiful scenery in gorgeous sunshine to their music and it has sparked a bit of a new found interest in them which grew vastly when i saw them perform on the grammy's, i'd imagine they're a band that really come into their own when playing live. so anyway the moral of the story is, i judged them too quickly and here a lovely song of theirs to listen to on a lovely sunny day.

Green Fingers.

me and my housemate sarah decided that there's only one way to spend a sunny sunday afternoon, go to the garden centre of course!
she picked up a window box, which is going to go on the fire escape since we are on the second floor, she got lots of pansy's in purples and reds! she also bought a cactus for our friend james since when she was drunk on wednesday night she ate his (don't ask her how or why she ate a cactus because she has very little recollection of it.)
we also got a strawberry plant and a tomato plant and some pots to put my chilli pepper plant in.
i'd love to say this is how my treasured chili pepper plant is looking

but it looks a lot more like this...

granny transformation update.

here's a little update on my slow transformation into a geriatric. my crochet blanket is coming along well, i've created 18 granny squares now (it takes at least 60 to make a nice sized blanket) i've chosen a dusty pink, cream, grey and pale brown colour scheme which will match my room nicely!

Memory Lane...

when i went home last i decided that the family computer at home is an actual antique which caused me to panic as i realised there are years worth of important things on there that i have neglected to back up. i made it my mission to pop a selection of images, documents and music onto my mac (which is now running a hell of a lot slower because of this)
i got pretty emotional when looking through the photos due to the fact that several family tragedies have occurred in recent years that have changed the family set up completely, plus looking at baby photos of my self never fails to make me feel nostalgic whilst simultaneously causing me to panic about ageing. i figured if i put some of my favourite kid pics up on here then they'll remain in cyber space forever if i ever lose them

Chez Moi

it's my 4th year in uni and i've finally got a house that i love living in, it feels like my first real home all of my own, well rented but you knoww.... also the area is a gazillion times safer than where we've lived previously. we've been here for 6 months already but i've been meaning to take few photos of it to send mama stewart! since i'm procrastinating greatly (i've got a presentation to finish for thursday) i thought today was as good a day as any to take some picis and therefore thought i would post them up here! they arent necessarily photos of the rooms, just the little details that make our house a home! (WARNING: this is going to be a long and probably boring post)


our lounge window with our baby plants and a very duurrrty window.

lovely view of the park estate

our pretty gothy fireplace, we got sick of buying flowers all time so we just hung dried ones up instead.




we really love rob ryan so we printed off this picture and popped it in a frame near our front door.



our lovely little herb garden in the kitchen (we only planted the seeds yesterday, hence the obvious lack of greenery)

this is all i can be bothered doing now because my computer isn't half taking its time. i'll post mine and sarah's rooms at a later datee

literal developments.

sooo i didn't know when i purchased my black and white disposable camera how much faff they are to get developed! everywhere is fine and dandy with coloured disposable cameras but not with black and white film oh no. it cost me £13 and took three weeks to get back but dont fear because i got them back (only about 6 actually came out though, bummer)

Hello Helsinki, Ta Ta Tallinn.

this post is way over due, forgive me for this.
mid-december me and two friends, lottie and amanda decided to go on a short winter break to Helsinki, we all love to travel and it was a place that i've always wanted to go!
typical of our luck the first day we were there happened to fall on their independence day resulting in EVERYTHING being shut all day, meaning we had to stroll around in freezing temperatures for hours on end. needless to say we were over the moon.
our luck changed when we found an open air ice rink and karaoke area (?) by the train station we had a lovely skate around and even found some finland flags to wave around!

we then found a little warm bar and got some glögi which is the most beautiful mulled wine type drink!
other highlights of the trip included a trip to the beautiful town of tallinn in estonia, eating the most delicious meal of my life in a traditional finnish log cabin that sold bear meat!! and a trip to the museum of modern art!

i'm a lazy oaf.

i've loved the lazy oaf brand for quite some time now and still believe that it would be my dream job to work for this lovely fun company. some of my favourite of their pieces areeeee.....







while they're quite different to my usual style i would gladly wear them with jeans or a plain skirt for a really fun and relaxed look!