Photo 1: Every time I wear this dress I'm amazed at how well it's cut for Topshop. I got it like 4/5 years ago & yes it's made out of horrible things but I was young & innocent then. Still doesn't make me want to break my 2 (or more) year Topshop hiatus though...

Photo 2 & 3: Recent charity shop purchases. A silk dress with a peacock print because I've been slightly obsessed with them since loosing a vintage peacock liberty printed pajama top thing on eBay that I had already integrated into my wardrobe in my head, if you see what I mean. I'm not sure about the top of the dress, might turn it into a long skirt, but it's silk & the print made it worth £20. Plus books, books, books. More on the Just Monkey one later maybe, it's AMAZING.

Photo 4: Went to Cheltenham today with my mum (trying to make use of my young persons railcard without spending too much money) & found this REALLY expensive shop with all those overly designed, lots of fabric clothes you find in independents. But we kept seeing these silk dresses from a brand I'd never heard of: Privatsachen. I wouldn't have bought it but it was on sale & it's the kind of garment I can wear like into my 90s (if I make it that far). I'll post me in it sometime in the near future & we can discuss further? Yes? Good.

Photo 5: The only good thing about friend's going to uni whilst I'm still here is the post. Lovely, wonderful, amazing Amy sends me awesome cards & always gets all my middle names right. Plus you guys totally ARE the Bee's Knees.

Photo 6: Some face so this isn't a weird headless ghost post. With the bright light & all...

Too many caps.

Working in a bookshop for 3 years, I've come to appreciate more & more the rarity of books with good covers. It's shameful how many books choose covers to blend in with their genre archetypes: history books are all about the words or sepia, popular science covers are always brightly coloured & fiction more or less consists of books with open ended photos on the cover, usually of a girl with no face for some reason... So when this row of bright titles on black spines appeared around D in the fiction section, it caught my attention.

After 3 weeks of forgetting to write down the author, & thinking the title was The Body Painter, I finally looked it up this weekend. Don DeLillo is a really well known author, more fool me, with books like White Noise & Underworld being future classics (thanks wikipedia) these new editions have possibly got me hooked in a way not seen since Douglas Coupland. I'm starting with The Body Artist just because it's the one that first caught my attention, but has anyone else read any of his books? I'd love to know what you think! Plus they're on 3 for 2 at Blackwells.

Score!

Rules to live by for the bank holiday weekend/half term. I want to steal Baron Von Fancy's trousers. For now I'll make do with staring at his lovely art. Anyway, has been nice being back to regular blogging, lets try & keep in touch, keep it up.

Things I will be doing this half term:

• Physics revision (most important)
• Pretending there are no obstacles between *us*
• Making lists of things to do when my education runs out
• Leaning the words to Suck It & See as it filters into my subconcious
• Taking Amber swimming
• Doing my first gig in like 2(?) years. Oops. How do I get myself into these things?
• Sticking 35mm film canisters together in anticipation of the 120 film I will be taking to Berlin & which is now in the post...
• Going charity shop shopping
• Spending as little money as possible
• More physics revision

How about you?

This gif amuses me greatly. From my earnest/in pain face on the first shot, to the fact that using images from two different jumps means you get 2 angles like those 3D MIA photos that did the rounds a while back. Plus my black socks, because I wore creepers, & in my mind creepers require socks, ok? Anyway how beautiful are these shorts? They're vintage 60s/70s, handmade I think because when they arrived from the magic etsy land I had to re-sew the seam around the crotch. They also came with a tunic in the same print, but it's too small for my massive rib cage. Thinking of selling...or waiting until I get bored of/too big for the shorts to sell again as a pair. So lovely though! Anyway, because I want to, here's an A-Z...

Age: 19
Bed Size: Double
Chores you hate: Emptying the dishwasher. Because it's so loud & clanky. If that is a word...
Dogs: I like elegant hairy ones. Like Lurcher's. Or maybe a Dalmation. I'll stick with my elegant, very hairy, evil cat for the moment though.
Essential Start to your day: Guardian suduko. So middle-class. Shoot me.

Favourite Colour: Blue.

Gold or Silver: Silver.

Height: 5"11 last time I checked. Hoping it's got to 6 by now!

Instruments I play: Drums. With my hands on desks/thighs/heads. Not on the drum kit I have that has never been put together though, no.

Job Title: Dirty student/bookseller

Kids: I want loads. A brood. I need at least 4 to guarantee one ginger one. All boys, maybe one girl. But definitely a boy first. The names I have so far are Helvetica (if it's not copyrighted), Walter, Quentin & something I keep forgetting. I'm the broodiest person I know. & yes my kids might get bullied. Hopefully I will raise them to be awesome enough not too, even with their stupid names.

Live: Bristol! (said in a football chant manner, as it should be)

Mum's Name: Diane

Nickname: Ginger, Ginge, Ginger Buns, Bunyan, Jezebel, Bambi, Legs, Ginger Jess In The Tiny Dress. Everyone gives me a nickname for some reason...

One wish: Rupert Murdoch never to have existed.

Pet Peeve: Ignorance. & people who walk slowly in front of me.
Quote from a Movie: "What is your greatest ambition in life?" "To become immortal...and then die." From A Bout de Souffle AKA Breathless. Although much of it is quotable.

Right or Left handed: Right.

Siblings: Sister who's 10 years older than me, brother who's older than her.
Time you wake up: I wake up usually about 8, then I lie staring out my window/reading/watching stuff on the laptop/talking if there's someone in my bed. I get up about 9/10. Earlier on Friday's for physics.

Underwear: Done best by the French.

Vegetables you dislike: Aubergine.

What makes you run late: I don't like being late, so I'm not really. Probably just forgetting the time. Like I'll be doing something that I think will take the 10 minutes before I have to leave the house & it ends up taking half an hour without me realizing it. I don't like to make people wait though. It's rude. LAURIE.

X-Rays you've had done: My head when I fractured my skull. Teeth.

Yummy food you make: My flapjacks & triple chocolate (with peanut butter) cookies are like world renowned.

Zoo Animals: Meerkats.

That was fun. Stolen from We Could Cause Catastrophes who got it from Anchor of Roses.

Now you.

Ok this post is all over the place because I have lots to say today! First & foremost THANK YOU for all your well wishes yesterday. I was very much freaking out. After waiting to be seen for 20 minutes he put a temporary filling in & basically gave me a big telling off that I hadn't been to the dentist in so long. I wish I could go in, be put under general anesthetic, have them do everything that needs to be done in one go & I pay the extortionate amount all in one go, then it's done & my check ups for the rest of time aren't so painful. Of course it's not like that. Dentists can't give general anesthetic. So...in his words I have to think about "what to do next" eek. But the pain's stopped!

Secondly, honourable mention needs to go to Mrs. Obama who is frankly, has been killing it over in the UK & Ireland. I was going to blank out Mrs. Cameron just because I hate her, but here we can clearly see the comparison between someone who dresses well, understated & suitable. With no confessions of fashion icon-ness. Next to Mrs. C who is meant to be an ambassador of fashion given that she designs - much a loose term - disgusting hand bags, Mrs. O makes her look try hard & boring all at the same time. How? Purple + Blue = Beautiful.

On Sunday we were at a loss of what to do with a craving for chips. So we decided to go to the cinema & as a reward for um...leaving the house, get Nando's after. Nando's is worth leaving the house for. So to avoid tweenage over exposure we swerved Pirates of the Caribean & went to see Attack the Block instead. It was SO FUCKING GOOD. I know, I know, bits of it (the beginning mainly) are slightly embarrassing, blud & all that. BUT the casting is fucking ace on the kids & the story is actually surprisingly well executed. Also special kudos go for actually explaining why aliens have come to kill people rather that just that they're crazed killers, & for the monsters themselves who are the best aliens I've seen. Usually when you see the aliens it's an anticlimax but theirs are awesome. Honestly, if you have a spare 2 hours(ish) & £5(ish) go & see this film!

& finally if you've made it this far you are going to be rewarded with a shifty apology about me jumping the gun over Arctic Monkeys new album. The song they released first is still shit, I stand by that. & there is a lot of randomness rather than storytelling on the album as a whole. But after Chris buttered me up & *accidentally* left a copy in my car I let myself listen to it & was... pleasantly not made homicidal towards A.C (as she will now be referred to). There are lowlights of course, but there are highlights too. Can't wait to actually get the album. See? Listening before it's released was good! I was considering not even buying it! See!?

Best lyric so far (on my 3rd listen) from Suck it and see: "that's not a skirt, girl, that's a shawn-off shotgun and I can only hope you've got it aimed at me"
Now that wasn't too bad was it? Too much?
Phew.

Something the internet (& I) didn't know until this morning: I haven't been to the dentist since 2008. After a week of loading up on ibuprofen & paracetamol to pretend the giant toothache in the top right hand side of my mouth isn't happening...I finally broke down & rang to make an emergency appointment today. I'm well scared. Having previously had a guy randomly fill in teeth to try & get rid of a toothache he didn't know the source of, & therefore doubled the pain instead. Then one guy spilled the numbing stuff on my tongue & came at me with the drill. & finally on one of my last visits having broken my front tooth giving a child a piggy back he told me that I have "very large front teeth" so large he decided rather than to match the fake tooth to my real one, just to make his shorter. As if that was better. I feel like my reservations are justified. If you're American you're probably thinking I'm a British cliche with my teeth in pretty awful shape, but seriously? SERIOUSLY? Giving me fillings I don't need, not giving me numbing stuff properly & taking the piss out of my teeth, when I'm there, doesn't exactly make an already traumatic experience any better. See you on the other side I guess. Unless they kill me. Photo by Justin Quinnell, of course.

Wish me luck

ISSUE±10 OF SWEAT IS HERE!

You can read it here, buy it here & stare at photos of my reaction whilst reading it *ahem* right here. You can only see the exclusive, awesome very special pull out Royal Wedding poster by Jaymie O'Callaghan if you buy the hard copy, but since it's only £1/$1.50, why the hell wouldn't you buy it? There's also Karolina Burdon, poetry by Shanna McCloud, John Garcia, xkcd & my very first published short story!

SWEAT LOVE

From my monthly Fawcett Society e-mail. I was thinking of moving to Spain with their lovely Socialist government & then... Los Indignados aka The Indignant One's both prove that even a socialist government can't ride this out whilst still paying back the debt, but also that their young people get angry about the right things. 45% youth unemployment versus tripling university fees, I think I know what's more important. Anyway...

Happy Sunday

So after this post I went on a hunt for the perfect peach/pink midi skirt to fufill all my granny/Jil Sander tendencies. Lovely etsy (who has also just solved my anniversary present issue) presented this wonderful vintage pearlish button through pleated skirt. The pleats just pushed it over the edge into perfect. When I wore it sans jumper last week I felt concious of how much that Jil Sander image has been saturated & wondered if anyone would pick up on my ma-who-sive nod to it. I had one comment. ONE. Bristol is not the fashion concious city I thought it to be. But then today to put icing on my smug fashion-on-the-cheap cake, I saw an old lady wearing almost an exact copy of my skirt. Without pleats & the colour was a little more muted but I burst into laughter & will take it as a sign of approval. Finally I've reached granny level. Yes!

I've been sneaking around the internet trying to avoid e-mails linking to the new Arctic Monkeys album, trying to avoid anything about it at all actually, after seeing the video for the new song & having my heart broken. But then Jesus e-mailed me a link to these single covers/illustrations for every song on the album. You'll all probably adore the Alexa Chung cover but as I may or may not have gone into before, I have an ingrained hatred of Alexa Chung. So I like these two. But the guys illustration is fucking brilliant. I wish I was on the forum so I could ask him to feature them in the zine...wonder how difficult that would be... Anyway, yes, there are still 7 more to go so I look forward to the others, even though I haven't listened to the songs they're portraying.

Oh well.

I'm not buying Dazed anymore. For £4 it just doesn't feed me like it used too. Apart from this amazing random spread. What Dazed does best...things that make no real sense.

No Mag.

i-D Summer 2011, shot by Wolfgang Tillmans. Source.

I've become one of those bloggers who only ever posts to apologise that they haven't been blogging. So let's just assume that you already know I'm sorry & carry on. A quick post of these amazing photos of Gaga, because she's been on my mind lately, around the UK, being rammed down my throat by the media. How wonderful are they? I mean, all her imagery is killer (apart from the recent album/single covers) but I thing something really new was captured here. I love. I love big time.

In other news: my education is almost over, a book recommended by my English teacher, the Electric Michelangelo is finally really good, Das Racist were fucking awesome on Saturday night, & are just in general, I have made some new purchases (yay!), have also bought two ma-hoo-sive maps & my life pretty much consists of planning physics revision that I'm not doing, business plans & spreadsheets at the moment. Roll on half term.

How are you?

Another post of unorganized thoughts. Sensing a theme...? Anyway. Bruises. The coolest internet comic strip thingy xkcd which often makes me laugh & sometimes leaves me in awe with the creators knowledge on everything from maths & physics too uhr...photoshop? I suggest you go there now! It will make you laugh & feel smart all at the same time. Perfect. & some Addams Family Values because after watching it for the first time as part of mine & Jesus' Christina Ricci obsession, I have now watched it like 3 times. Still in love. I want my future family to be like that. Minus the killing. Note to self: goth up.

Had an art exam today as I'm sure you're enthralled to hear. 12 hours is too long to do textiles, there's nothing that takes 12 hours (or just 12 hours) so I got to leave 3 hours early, score! Completed everything I needed too so I'm just hoping my art teacher doesn't mark me down because a) he doesn't really like me & b) I finished 3 hours early. Anyway so that's art done. Now it's just physics...for a whole other month.

Dammit.

This is one of those dresses that gets comments every time I wear it. Usually from the couple of people who have actually realised that the girls on my dress are flashing. I love that sometimes, from a distance it looks like a floral print, & it's more unexpected when you realise all their skirts are blown up.
After whole heartedly deciding not to go last night. After painting my nails multi-pastel colours Cat wormed her way into my brain & convinced me too. We were late, but luckily so was Mr. Doherty & well...it was beautiful. Odd but charming. I wish I could've really got in there & shown my adoration rather than standing at the back with goosebumps the whole night, having flash backs to Reading. But hey, I guess that just makes me a proper grown up.

Sunny!

Back on track. Physics exam went surprisingly well, or at least ok today. Well chuffed anyway. Now just need to do some revision to the theory paper tomorrow. Then decide if I'm allowed to go & see Mr. Doherty...or not.

Anyway, I've been wearing this a lot but never put it on the blog because it's so...well...a bit boring. But it's about quality. The shirt is a cotton silk mix that is like the best fabric ever (apart from cashmere obvs) & it does have like some weird faded dye job but I stole it from my mum after she got in the Gap sale so I guess there must've been something wrong with it. Also, fills my need for a tied bottom shirt at the moment, without actually having to seek out & purchase one. I guess I could cut the arms off as well, but that would be sacrilege. But yes, this is what I wear to a physics exam. A see-thru shirt & skin tight disco pants. & I wonder why I don't fit in?

Loser?