Hogwarts in the Snow

On Tuesday I surprised my best friend, Chloe, with a visit to the Warner Bros. Harry Potter Studio Tour. We have both visited before, in April 2012, but since then they have added the snow feature for Christmas, the Hogwarts Express train, and the Backlot Cafe. In addition, I knew that Chloe would never expect me to plan something of this scale, so I knew it would be a fabulous surprise. When we arrived at Watford Junction station I was frantically looking around for the shuttle bus (which, incidentally, we did not get the first time we visited), and when it arrived Chloe was like "no Angela, are we really?! I didn't think it was here, I thought it was further out in the country? ANGELA?" 

The Shed, Falmouth

At the very beginning of December a few my friends at uni invited me to their house Christmas meal at The Shed in Falmouth. To be honest, I wasn't aware The Shed served anything other than their quirky cocktails, so I was pleasantly surprised to hear they served food.

November Spotify Playlist

I must confess that I added Shutdown to my playlist at the start of December, but I listened to and quoted it so much in November that it would be a betrayal to exclude it from this post. And you may be wondering why I found the song so quotable, but you would be surprised by the amount of times I reworded the opening (i.e. "mans never been in Fal when it's shutdown") and felt the urge to say "ring, ring pussy, it's shutdown". Ah, it has been an wonderfully unexpected obsession. By far the best part has been stumbling upon JME's majestic Twitter account; please, I cannot urge you enough to take a look it it - it is packed with entertaining rants, stories, and random glimpses into his veganism:

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

October Spotify Playlist

In order of addition:

• Florence + The Machine - Only If For A Night
• Aphex Twin - aisatsana [102]
• Aphex Twin - Avril 14th
• George Ezra - Cassy O'
• The Drums - Down By The Water
• blink-182 - Adam's Song
• blink 182 - Dammit
• blink 182 - I Miss You
• Brand New - Sink
• Adele - Hello
• blink 182 - All The Small Things
• blink 182 - What's My Age Again?

August and September Spotify Playlists

Finally I present to you my extremely late August and September Spotify playlists update - oops!

N.b. I have listed my newfound favourites in bold.

Why The Hell Not?

Not too long ago, Kate Powell (a 19 y/o, moderately well known artist) tweeted a quote about how some people wait for inspiration to motivate them to work, whereas others simply get on with things, and don't wait for a burst of inspiration to drive them to create. It didn't take me long to realise that I am undeniably someone who waits for bouts of inspiration before starting or finishing any creative project. It's embarrassing, I know. You can probably tell from my abysmal post count how infrequently inspiration comes to me - I've had two posts drafted since June, with no excuse for not finishing them! The same applies to the artwork I (try to) produce in my free time; I've had an 18-week summer to experiment with creative projects, but I have only managed to complete one (a measly embroidery piece pictured below).

July Spotify Playlist

My bizarrely selected July playlist is definitely a musical representation of how haphazard July was for me. Before I begin I'll ask that you please refrain from judging me for some of my music choices because I, too, am slightly ashamed of myself for *cough* Kanye *cough* Fetty Wap *cough* Bieber *cough* Die Antwoord *cough*. I won't, however, bother justifying my choices because I honestly wouldn't know where to begin justifying why I've listened to Kanye and Die Antwoord, haha.

Working in Adventureland by Aidan McGuire

Left: James played by Jesse Einsberg. Right: Em played by Kristen Stewart.

Hello all,

Since watching Adventureland for the first time, the movie's biggest fan, Aidan, has been persistently asking me to review the film on my blog. Eventually, I told Aidan that he was welcome to write the review as a guest post because I didn't have the time to do it myself. I'm assuming that because of his adoration for the film, and his passionate hatred for his student job in catering, Aidan's post became a bizarre hybrid of a synopsis of the movie and a rant about summer jobs. For the sake of being appropriate, I had to edit his post slightly, but I can assure you that his original piece was a spectacularly morbid spiel about dead-end student jobs that left me in fits of laughter.

I hope you enjoy reading it anyway.

Lots of love, Ang

Vinyl Collection #1

I've decided to introduce a new series onto my blog that is solely dedicated to my love for vinyls, including updates on my personal collection, my 'want' list, Record Store Day(s), and Secret 7". The series will begin with the vinyl collection I have so far. Don't judge harshly; my collection is fairly small considering I began collecting in 2011. I didn't own a vinyl player until Christmas 2013, so my collection only really begun after that. Now that I have a part-time job again, live in cheaper accommodation, and have my birthday and Christmas to look forward to, I expect I'll be able to accumulate more than I have done so in the past year.

My next update will be just before RSD 2016!

OOTD: I Forget Where We Were

Ben Howard - 'I Forget Where We Were'

I have spent the past week or so moving out of my university halls, meaning that I've had to live out of a small bagful of clothes whilst the rest of my belongings were moved to a different location. I kept my favourite items with me, which consequently resulted in wearing black outfits in the hot summer weather. I thought I would blog my favourite bag-outfit:

Brand New

Brand New supported by Dinosaur Pile-Up in Gorilla, Manchester.

I decided against titling this post as a ‘live’ review simply because I realised the bulk of my ramblings would be about my four years of anticipation for the gig, and how it impacted my experience. Also I’m not knowledgeable in the protocols of live reviews so, although I’ll attempt one in my own way, I know already that I won’t do the band or gig any justice.

'(500) Days of Summer'

Usually when I watch a TV show or movie with company I notice strange nuances in the plot or characterisations that I generally wouldn't pay close attention to. For instance, last week I watched S05E08 of Game of Thrones with my friend and, for the first time EVER watching Game of Thrones, I pinpointed things that didn't fit coherently into the episode. For instance, that entire scene of Ollie talking Sam felt forced, and I was left with the impression that it was inserted for those who cannot follow the plot correctly; whereas when I watch Game of Thrones solitarily it always seems flawless, leaving me in awe. So, up until watching (500) Days of Summer with friends, I thought (as most people do) that Summer Finn was a bitch who used Tom, broke his heart, then flaunted her engagement in his face. But I began to notice how Summer had treated Tom more-or-less fairly - she ensured that there was no uncertainty between what she and Tom were by reminding him on numerous occasions that she did not want a serious relationship.

Hair Experiments (September 2014 - May 2015)

My hair has gone through four main waves of changes in my first year of university, each being (for me at least) huge jumps of bravery in terms of colour and length. I'm still not entirely comfortable with the thought of dyeing my whole head an unnatural colour, or cutting my hair super short, but I'm gradually getting to a state of not caring, which is good. 

I think a lot of my fears about hair colour have simply been because I have never been sure about whether a particular colour would compliment my skin tone. From roughly the age of 15-18 my hair had fluctuated from being ombre dark blonde/ginger to just natural, boring black. And that concluded the extent of my experimenting. For length, I had emotionally scarred myself from ages 10-14 by both having unflatteringly short hair, and from badly cutting my own hair. I don't know why I did it or continue to do so?! From age 14 onwards, I absolutely refused to have a haircut, which resulted in having incredibly damaged past-boob length hair; I negotiated with myself to keep it long for prom, but to cut it to collarbone-length in the summer of 2014 so that it could be healthy.

Stress Spots

I'm 99% certain that exam stress is the cause of my annual May-time breakouts. Although I wasn't too stressed about exams this year (first year doesn't count towards my final degree), other silly stresses compensated for it, meaning that this year I still suffered from stress spots in exam season! (Hopefully next year will be better.) Accordingly, I thought a post like this would be helpful to remind other unfortunate souls like myself of what can be done to reduce stress-induced spots. The reminders are a good kick up the bum for exam season, but are also helpful to remember on strenuously busy days.

Lacking Motivation

I had pictured pretty flowers and pinecones on my windowsill for the header of this post, but I feel that the above image is more fitting. In it lies a feral Angela in her natural habitat: sprawled across her bed, tired and lacking motivation. (Captured by Ollie.)

'Retro' by Mac

Alternatively titled: Day-To-Day Mac Lipstick: Retro

I have long been frustrated by the cosmetics industry and their halfhearted attempts at catering for darker skin tones. Just consider for a moment the limited range of drugstore foundations and nude lipsticks that exist for darker complexions... Make-up isn't equally weighted for all skin tones, right?

The Versatile Blogger Award

Hello everyone, for this Sunday's post I was nominated by Louie and Coco to complete The Versatile Blogger Award. Thank you both for nominating me; I'll try my best to include facts that I haven't already mentioned in my 'About' page.

Instagram by Oliver Cole

Hello all,

Ollie kindly agreed to guest post this week for me. I'm short on time at present because my course has unloaded two major deadlines on us all, so I'm moderately stressed and did not want the pressure of my blog timetable (Wednesdays and Sundays) to stress me any further. Ollie has been the backbone of my blog since the start, and now you can see for yourself how wonderful he is for investing his time and effort into this post for me - thank you Ols! Oh, and if you would like to find him on social media (namely Instagram and Youtube), his username for everything is 'rescw' (he insists it isn't pronounced 'rescue').

Lots of love, Ang

DIY: Tea (Valentine's Day Gift Idea)

Ollie and I are one of those couples who tend to do the bare minimum for Valentines Day, so this year I decided to make him homemade tea. His addiction to herbal tea is ridiculous; a gift that is tea related seemed like the only option at hand. After much thought I chose to make cranberry flavoured, heart-shaped tea bags because A) a heart is virtually the only shape to use Valentine's Day, and B) cranberry tea turns the water reddish-pink, thereby turning the hearts reddish-pink - ah such cheesiness!

Considering that Ollie and I spend most of our time together, I went to great lengths to keep this a surprise from him. As it happens, I habitually send Ollie my edited pictures to critique and I idiotically sent him the picture above, which completely ruined the surprise. I'm such an idiot. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the DIY!

OOTD: Swanpool Beach

01/02/14 OOTD at the Swanpool and Gyllyngvase beaches in Falmouth.

This wasn't supposed to be an outfit of the day post because Ollie and I had planned solely to explore Swanpool beach, which is a short 15 minute walk from Gylly beach. As it happens, Swanpool beach is a smelly subpar double of Gylly beach, so our entire journey/plan was rendered pointless. We ended up utilising our journey to Swanpool beach by taking some OOTD snaps for my blog; I accidentally ended up in an entire Topshop outfit, but I hope you like my first outfit post nonetheless!

Classic Polaroid vs. Fujifilm Instax Mini

Sorry, I realise my pictures (the DSLR ones for this blog) are too blue, but I hadn't noticed until I uploaded them onto my laptop, at which point I didn't have time to retake them.

Before beginning I'd like to clarify that I will be referring to the Fujifilm Instax Mini 8 as 'Instax', and to the classic Polaroid 600 Sun camera as 'Polaroid'. This is probably an important distinction - the Instax is NOT, as much as people may wish it to be, a Polaroid camera in make or nature, it is an instant camera. As you will find in the post, the cameras and films of both the Instax and Polaroid are entirely different. Also, all Instax cameras and films are made by Fujifilm, whereas all Polaroid cameras were either made by Polaroid years ago or are refurbished by The Impossible Project; all Polaroid film production was ceased by Polaroid, and now is only made by The Impossible Project. Incidentally, The Impossible Project have a few stores dotted around Europe - I stumbled across their adorable shop in East Berlin - but as far as I know, Fujiflm do not.

DIY: Fairy Lights Lamp

This is a bit of an easy-peasy DIY but nonetheless I thought I would post about it. The lightbulb in my regular lamp (that I desperately relied on) broke a while back, and in an attempt to organise my haphazard desk of jars and fairy lights, I somehow created a feasible substitute for my broken lamp. This post is essentially about the idea of a jar-lamp, and hopefully will be received more as food for thought rather than an actual DIY. I hope that makes sense? Forgive me if it doesn't; I've had a tediously long day of seminars, house viewings, and workshops. Anyway, without further ado, here is a not-so-DIY.

New Year's Resolutions

First and foremost, I'd like to say a belated happy New Year to anyone who is reading this!

Throughout the Christmas break, Ollie's dad was life-coaching Ollie to change his daily routine for the imminent New Year, and then, in the first few days of 2015, I stumbled upon this blogpost which in essence was what the life-coaching entailed. I think the blogpost affected me more than I had anticipated, and was my primary inspiration, along with the advice I had heard for Ollie, in changing my own daily routine for this year, and hopefully for as long as I physically can. I have pinpointed 3 aspects of my life which I would like to change, and that have so far proved successful in making my happier and healthier (I think)!