I'm back!

Nothing like a cheesy selfie to let you all know I'm still alive. Hello bloggers, I hope you remember me, last time I uploaded on here I was few weeks into my uni course. Fast forward about 8 months to now, and I have finally got the time to blog again, now that I've finished my course - it's gone so fast!

So much has happened this year, I specialised in jewellery, footwear, and fashion accessories (JFFA) at Central Saint Martins for my foundation year, and got accepted into BA Jewellery Design at CSM, so it looks like I'll be staying in London for another 3 years (Yay!). I've also got a boyfriend, James, we met at our sports team (Ultimate frisbee, a very cool sport by the way) and have been together for just over 6 months now. He studies illustration, and having an arty boyfriend really is great! This year has been my first year living on my own, I've become a lot more independent and confident in some aspects, but also less confident in others. I have struggled a little with body confidence, my weight, and making friends, but on the other hand I am really loving being able to lead my own life. 

Since living in London I have been able to mix with some very different, and interesting people, making me more confident with what I wear, and daring to wear things I wouldn't if I was still at home. What's nice is there is no pressure to dress a certain way, or stick to a certain style, so I've had a bit of fun this year. It's funny, I don't think I look like I've changed that much since September except I have longer hair and sometimes wear less makeup.

Demin shirt - Boyfriend's / Navy shirt - East End Thrift Store / Skirt - Charity shop / Daisy hair clip - handmade.

I hope I can keep up with blogging again (I might give this blog a good thorough makeover), I really struggled with time management this year, and uni work always had to come first. However I did manage to start a Tumblr for all the little arty things I've been up to outside of uni. Also I have my end of year exhibition starting tomorrow until Saturday so I might post some photos of my work eventually. 

It's great to be back.

x

Exciting news and a new dress to celebrate

Ooh what an interesting title I hear you all gasp. How mysterious. I do in fact have some extremely good news that I received about three weeks ago and have only just got round to blogging about it. Silly old me thought that I'd have time over the Easter holidays, what with it being a holiday and all, but been super busy instead. I now only have four weeks left of school EVER so it's now a bit of a rush getting all work finished. 

Anyway, on to the news. Anyone else in their last year of sixth form / college will know how tense it is awaiting uni replies and offers. I had applied to three universities to do an art foundation year, my 'back up' choice gave me an offer which was great. I had also applied to Kingston and Central Saint Martins, thinking there's no way I'd get into CSM but I loved it there and it wouldn't hurt to try. I was sure I'd go to Kingston, it's where my friends, teachers and I all thought I'd go, but after a not-so-great interview I was rejected. I was really upset and more disappointed in myself, feeling I'd let myself down and that my artwork wasn't good enough. 

What I really didn't expect was to receive an email from CSM saying I'd been accepted, I was with my friends at the time and we were screaming and laughing and celebrating! I honestly didn't believe I'd get in and accepted the offer straight away. I'm now so excited for my future, and it means I'll be living in London next year!

This leads me to the outfit; a few months ago I spotted some bloggers wearing this dress from AX Paris, and I really wanted to buy it because I loved the crazy pattern and bright colours, but I felt like I needed a reason to get it. I promised myself that if I got into CSM I'd get the dress too, as a treat. I picked out the red colour an teamed it up with a red cardi and a Crown & Glory headband. The necklace is from Delilah Dust, I also bought a silver and turquoise necklace at the same time. The skirt is pretty short but not too revealing for my shortness and the fabric is quite...strong? As in it's not floaty and unlikely to drift up in the wind.

Headband - Crown & Glory / Dress - AX Paris / Necklace - Delilah Dust / Cardi - blog sale / Belt - New Look / Brogues - Clarks

Blogging may be a bit slow for the next few weeks, but I'll be finishing school for good soon and lucky for me my exams finish quite early, and then I'll be a free elf!

Enjoy the sunshine!

What I Wore At Central Saint Martins

Horse print top, denim shorts, brown brogues, bee necklace, long black cardi from New Look
Grey cardi, blue dress, black skirt from H&M
Yellow top, gold leaf belt from Primark
Black brogues from Office
Black top from Topshop, plus own skeleton design
Robot/clock necklace from market stall


Okay so as you can see I'm a bit of a brogues maniac and my wardrobe may not look too exciting, but it was boiling hot that week and I was going more for comfort than style. But look, I wore my handmade headband for 3 days! 
Also, I'm still not entirely confident about posting photos of myself just yet which is why I drew out my wardrobe instead.

A Taste of the Future (Fashion Making course at Central Saint Martins)

1. Central Saint Martins Granary Square

2. Entrance to CSM

3. Inside CSM / Mannequins

4. More mannequins

5. The team! (I'm on the far right with the flower headband)

6. Notes I made

7. Pattern instructions I made

I feel like I have somewhat neglected my blog recently, but for good reason. This past week I have been travelling up to London to attend a one-week Making Fashion course at Central Saint Martins, which meant getting up at 6am every morning and arriving home at about 6pm, ready to fall asleep straight away, I have to say, it's been an exhausting week!

I must admit, of all the things I'm going to miss about that week, getting the train is not one of them. I don't travel by train often, let alone on my own, so at first I was a little nervous that I'd end up in Scotland or someplace other than London. By the second day I'd got the hang of the train times, except I really hate delays! I was late a couple of times that week, partly because it was the week before the Olympics, and partly because of cable theft. I can't believe how stressed out it made me, especially when one day the train I was supposed to catch which was usually made up of 12 carriages had been reduced to 4! It wasn't pleasant being so squashed every morning and evening, and you sort of feel guilty when you get the last seat, all the standing people kind of glare at you. The worst thing was coming home each day, I would nod off on the train and nearly missed my stop once, I'd do everything I could to stay awake, but I'd just be so tired. 

My first day there made me feel like the new girl at school, saying quiet hello's to the other people in the group and awkwardly asking where they were from, how old they were, the usually stuff. Turns out our group was made up of people from all over the world, which made for some interesting conversations and everyone was super friendly. 

The idea of the course was to learn about patterns for clothing, and how to manipulate them to made different shapes and cuts. We worked on patterns for bodices, skirts and sleeves, learning some really useful skills that I didn't even realise I needed, but I'm glad I did the course. When I booked it, I thought we would be making and designing clothes everyday so this course ended up being something a bit different, but not in a bad way. We were also encouraged to make a sketchbook full of all the things we learnt, making miniature patterns to show the stages accompanied by instructions. The book could be something I present with my portfolio when applying to an art foundation course, it'll give me a certain 'edge'. 

I also found it useful that we got to speak to some students studying different parts of fashion. I was most drawn to fashion with print because it incorporates illustration and drawing into fashion design, and I can never find the prints that I want on fabric, so this course sounds ideal! Fashion Design Marketing also seems like a great course, we got to look through some of the magazines the students had produced, and I fell in love with the photos and style of one particular magazine. It was full of quotes about happiness, and photos of floaty summer dresses, pastel coloured balloons, teacups and roses. It was just a gorgeous magazine!

Looking back, I had an incredible week. The weather was beautiful that week, my new friends and I would eat lunch outside, watching the awesome water fountains in the ground. The Olympic flame came by on Thursday but I missed it because it came at 6:30 in the morning, but it was still exciting to see the stage being set up. And even though the week left me sort of skint (train tickets, equipment, lunch), I felt a certain independence about travelling on my own, navigating my way around London and meeting new people. I loved being surrounded by people who had the same interests as me, and getting a possible taste of my future (even though I'm still not 100% sure on what I want to do) and seeing how confident and cool the students were. I'm so happy with my new set of skills, I feel like I can make anything now and can't wait to go back to CSM!