It was the ever lovely Hannah Dostine who introduced me to Sticky Institute, via her blog, zine swapping, pen palling & her contribution to SWEAT. & I sent off a few issue 5's a while back & pretty much forgot about it, only these wonderful long e-mails started arriving every month or so from Sticky telling me about what awesome things Zinester's all over the world were getting up to & making me feel bad for not putting more effort into that sort of thing. Until a couple of months back when a lovely package arrived as the payment for the zines of mine that they'd sold. 

I'd opted for payment in the strange underground art form of Australian zines because... it's never really been about making money & I really love seeing other people's work, because all zines are so different. So 6 months after I waved goodbye to mine, 16 zines came back in return. From the informative Macarons are not Macaroons & Mutiny to the very personal Watch Him Bleed & Ladybeard (3rd photo). Ladybeard was a particular favorite of mine because it was a story I'd never heard before, written extremely eloquently & opened my eyes to a whole new section of society. For just $2 I would recommend it to anyone & everyone, I have made most of my friends & my mother read my copy & they have all been suitably impressed. 

Tales of a 34-year-old Man Whore (4th photo) was another highlight, sketched messages sent to the publishers friend from a jerkface cheating ex. I found myself laughing more than a few times. There were also 3 issues of Y.O.U zine (photo 2) with one on CD that I haven't got round to listening to get... but am very intrigued to. I also loved the zine in picture 5 too (not sure of the title) about two deers who squat & have cardboard antlers.

Anyway what I'm really saying is there are some properly amazing people out there making lovely paper things. I could get lost on Sticky's website for days...

Zine Love.

Yay! Projector fun! Probably would've all worked better if I had a partner in crime, but having a free night for once I just had to get on with it. Trying to line up the light before it got inappropriate etc etc. There are actually some cool ones I did that are less appropriate but I kind of don't want to put those on the internet. I'm sorry I didn't really think that through. But anyway, I hope you like them. & Mat's already suggested old photographs might look cool so I'll try & get on that. For more images head over to my flickr. Plus my Berlin films are up on there too... the ones I still haven't posted.

Good day today, even though *he* went home, but Blink 182's new album came out. & even though what I'd previously heard just sounded like +44 or Angels and Airwaves, rather than Blink, the album is a lot better than I expected. It also hits on the little nostalgic feeling that started brewing when I saw them at Reading last year, so good! Oh to be 14 again. 

Spent the weekend watching Disney films. I really love Beauty & the Beast. I forget how amazing it is & then something reminds me why it's my favorite film. So want to get "For who could ever learn to love a beast?" tattooed somewhere...

What did you do?

Getting my orange on with these two new purchases. Zara via eBay skirt feels like a wetsuit & is a little too big but I've made my piece with it. & UO jumper I bought of my friend who got it in the sale. I'm not sure if this overrides my New Year's Resolution, but as long as I didn't walk into a UO shop or website & hand over my money surely that's ok? Plus, it's awesome. If a little see-thru. I don't know what the weather is up to at the moment so it puts dressing all out of whack. & I feel a bit out of whack generally. Maybe it's the season, all the change going on, whilst all I've done is quadruple my days at work. I dunno, having the conversation about "what the fuck to do with my life" about 10 times a day with myself & the people around me has started to give me a sort of groundhog day feeling.

Also me & the J-ster started playing with my projector FINALLY this weekend. Although we/I haven't quite figured out the best clothing to wear & we also forgot that doing it in daylight would make the images seriously shoddy. Plus tattoos & ugly bruises kind of distract from the projection pattern. Being instructed to "move your head up a bit, no. & right. too much." whilst I tried to get the word TIME on my forehead & KILLING on my chest so they were readable, was hilarious.

& finally before I have to decide what to do with my Sunday, a big HELLO to all the new followers who have arrived recently. I am trying to be a better blogger, more regularly etc. But I've just lost my inspiration these last couple of weeks. Maybe it's the big "D" word looming again. Oh no. Anyway hello!

& thank you!

Runway to pavement in 11 days, beat that highstreet. Yes, I may have had some screen printing issues (ie, having to paint through the stencil on 'more' leaving all these splodgy bits) plus having to cut the t-shirt neck to make it more comfortable. But hey, it's a start. & seems more appropriate with all the part conferences happening around now. Shame it would be inappropriate to wear it to work... no? Worn with disco pants & platforms because I felt like stomping around & feeling powerful, as you do.

If anyone wants a t-shirt please e-mail me! I'd be well up for producing more once I get hold of some more t-shirts & new screen fabric. I'm sure copyright can be wavered, I mean... it's a different font!

And runway to Moleskin in 2 days, that's even better! Got inspired to do some painting & rewatch 500 days of summer (how good is that film? I mean I can pretend it's cheesy when I've been away from it, but really I can imagine watching it with my kids when it's a classic), even though I probably should have been more inspired by bagging a new lens on eBay that arrived yesterday. So now I should have better photos again! PLUS good old Curry's took my money in return for a tripod that won't throw my camera to the ground & a cable that means I can stream my laptop through my projector. Arty photos of me in front of various photos, on their way soon. Oh the suspense!

How are you today?

It's nice when someone comes to buy a book at work & instead of my automatic retail robot I actually learn something, or have an insightful conversation about the pros & cons of say... Douglas Coupland. On Saturday a man came in wanting to order the new Edwin Smith book & unfortunately I couldn't get hold of it for him, but I cursed myself for having not heard of Smith sooner, especially (embarrassingly) not only having studied photography for two years but also done one project focusing solely on architecture photography. Working in large format, his compositions are very much those of the larger scale & I can't imagine how fantastic it would be to see them life size rather than screen size... (images from Google)

Can I also say hello to Sarah (I think that's the right person, Sarah of Dischohecho if it wasn't you, please let me know!) who I met today in Berkley Square on my lunch break who professed to be a reader of this blog. She was intriguingly taking photos of berries & I was disappointingly dressed for the shit weather & lugging heavy boxes around a humid shop... Oh well. It's nice to remember (most) people on the internet are real & lovely.

Mondays, Mondays

Sick artwork by Carmen Garcia Huerta. His website's down at the moment, but his blog is loaded with his work from Glamour to Portrait Now! I prefer his more sketchy ones that the highly digitalised stuff he does, but each to their own, the others are pretty sweet too. & his portraits of people from Louise Bourgeois to Amy Winehouse & Madonna are amazing. Had to go for Morrissey though, because even though he's a twat, The Smiths were so fucking good that you can't discount his imagery completely. Oh & sorry for all the boobage.

More here.

This is the third or fourth French Connection collection magazine thing I've got & it's always a nice little punctuation in the post. I always mean to post them because they're just so darn beautiful, but somehow the organisation has always alluded me. This time though, I've done it straight away! You'd think FC were paying me but I promise they're not mainly because I can say this: I don't actually like their clothes. I personally think they're overpriced & pretty generic, but it's their campaigns that set them apart for me.

Their "He is man" & "She is Woman" campaigns from last year are what made me sign up, but the magazines themselves are lovingly put together, wonderfully photographed & printed on gorgeous matte paper that smells amazing. Now that's a lot of positive adjectives but genuinely, I think French Connection deserve to be singled out for their unique dedication to odd & quirky advertisement. You can watch the videos to accompany them here... read the catalogue here (although I can highly recommend it in the flesh) & I'm gonna try & find out who the photographer is.

Just a shame about the clothes.

This is what I wore to work today & I thought I'd take some photos of me grimacing into the setting sun because the colours made me smile today, & a stranger I saw on my lunch break. It's nice to make people smile with clothing. & there's something about a) wearing just one colour, b) wearing bright colours full stop & c) wearing only primary or secondary colours, that make you feel like a child or something. It's also been on the runway a lot & I think it's a subconscious way of nodding to fashion in everyday life without looking like a complete twat.

Plus yay for this jumper that I sneakily found in my Mum's wardrobe whilst ironing the other day & have partially adopted as a comfort to Autumn. It also pleasingly exposes my collar bone which I like & reminds me of that fucking ace Alkaline trio song Clavicle. Is a clavicle the same as a collar bone? Not sure... where's a medical student when you need one. Apparently good collar bones/clavicles run in my family. Like height.

Hmm

I've always had a secret love for lurex, but my problem is when I run up to touch it I'm repulsed. So when I saw this gold lurex polo neck jumper in the biggest charity shop I've ever been in, back in Berlin & it didn't feel disgusting I seized upon it. I think it's like interspersed with silk or something. I'm not sure because I cut off the polo neck & sewed it as a messy neckline losing the label along the way. I know, I know, polo necks are meant to be big this season, but I hate stuff up around my neck, especially a scratchy ribbed lurex. & because I'm in morning over the departure of my best friend, I wore it with all black.

On a brighter note, one of my favorite shows out of New York so far has definitely been Araks. I'm not keen on drop waists, just because I think they're unflattering & not impactful enough to counteract that. But with the shirt combo I'm almost won over. & the half sheer black dress? Insane. I'm getting back to blogging I swear. Right now I'm going to try & comment on all 158 of you followers, whilst watching Submarine for like the 3rd time this week...

Lovely.

Another gif? Am I trying to give you a headache. Well, no. I just like the way they look. Especially over amazing things such as politics making it onto the catwalk. Go Johnson Hartig for living up to the brand name Libertine. Disappointing though that the shirt itself will probably cost hundreds. Oh well, I feel a DIY screen print coming on. Anyone else want one? Maybe I'll sell them, just to subvert the whole idea itself. In other news I've started blogging the Spring 2012 shows so if you fancy seeing them through my filter, in a nice scrollable, tumblog manner, head over to ICBFASHION.

Not much else to say except that I am a shit blogger, I have just eaten a proper amazing pie at the pub & my best friend/platonic soulmate is abandoning me to go to Russia tomorrow. I'm pissed. But more sad. Oh well, as least I have a day off to wallow. & everyone's packing it seems like. Either to go away to uni, or on holiday, or back to where they came from for the summer or off to do something proper with their life.

Oh well.

ISSUE±12 OF SWEAT

HAS LANDED.

For it on your doorstep it's just £1.50 + postage. You can find a link to buy it, or observe the beauty of it ***here***. It'll make you make faces as above. Or you can possibly use it as an, um, hat. Packed full of delights from Jonathan Kelham, Siobhan Barbour & Mice Ailing.

Well good innit.

Photos from my computer to convey my mixed up head. Sorry for no posts but I've been working like a real person (almost) four days a week.

1. Gillian Zinser is lovely. 2. Lulu DK puts my lame collages to shame. 3. Amber Rose because... you know she's beautiful & Kanye West obviously still isn't over her. 4. Kanye & Jay-Z from THE BEST ALBUM SO FAR THIS YEAR aka Watch the Throne. 5. Couldn't find a nice enough image for "teal" that wasn't a dress from Topshop, have to do with stationary. 6. From tumblr I'm guessing. 7. Yes yes they are a feral underclass, you are the secretary for justice, JUSTICE, as in giving people second chances no matter what they've done & treating them with the respect they deserve. 8. Many of the e-mails I have been getting from job applications or work experience applications I half heartedly filled out, not really knowing whether I wanted to do them or not... 9. Fighting the want to buy a load of fake nails & decorate them beautifully like this girl, or at least go to this exhibition. 10. This blog is so beautiful I could get lost there for days. 11. One of my favorite Beyonce songs & just feels sort of appropriate.

That's all.