London Living

It's been a while again, hasn't it?

Since moving to London, I have to say that my interest in keeping up with my social media accounts has plummeted dramatically (well, all bar Instagram which is the only one that I consistently update.) I've no idea why, and I can't see anything igniting a passion within me any time soon that may spur me on to update this blog as frequently as I once used to. That said, I thought I'd drop by again briefly to talk a little about what's been going on over the last 3 months.

Hello, it's me again

Hello blog, my old friend! Since my move to London at the beginning of January the internet on a laptop hasn't really existed for me, hence a lot of Instagram activity but very little activity anywhere else, such as my Twitter, Tumblr or this blog. I've only been here a little over two weeks now but it feels like I've lived in London for a lifetime, so I thought I'd pop by and just share a little update on my experience so far.

Ends & Beginnings

Firstly, please pardon my blogging absence.

Secondly, Autumn. Everyone and their dog seems to love Autumn, but for me, Autumn generally signifies the end of things; the end of summer, relationships, and more recently, lives. If you've read my blog for a while you'll be no stranger to the fact that I struggle throughout the Autumn and Winter months, and on the 1st of October this year, Autumn did as it always does and took with it something from me that I love, and this time it was my Nannan. 

christmas: snippets from the makings household

for my 21st birthday my dad bought me a new dslr camera, and on saturday night i finally got the chance to sit down and have a play around with it for an hour or so. the last time i'd played around with a dslr previous to this was when i was 16 (so a good few years ago now, sob, i'm getting old) so it was an experience to throw myself back into something that was once vaguely familiar, and was now once again something of a mystery.

after a while i found myself getting to grips with the camera again, understanding the effects changing features such as the aperture and shutter speed would have on my photographs, and before i knew it i was having lots of fun shooting the pretty christmas lights dotted around our living room. i'm by no means slick with a camera and i'm not posting to show off any fantastic photographs, but rather i thought i'd share them because i think it could be a nice point of reflection for me in the future as i (hopefully) get more involved with my camera and in time take more, hopefully better, photos.

a session with a camera wouldn't be wholly successful if i didn't try to grab a shot or two of ziggy, and i soon found out how difficult shooting a very active, very black, very shaggy poodle in a lowly lit room is. i think in the end i did alright, but in time when i brush up on my photography skills and ziggy goes for a haircut i think i'll be able to do her beautiful poodly self a little bit more justice. 

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a day out at chester zoo

 

yesterday me and a friend from college who i'd not seen in around a year headed out to chester zoo for the day, mainly because there was the promise of sloths (!!) it was really nice to meet up again and chat as though there'd never been any horribly long gap since we last met up and it made me wonder why the hell i struggle to make more of an effort to meet up with old friends i know i can have a bloody good time with; note to self: friends should always be glad to hear from you, so go for it!

£20 in as a student doesn't make for a particularly cheap day out, however when you look at how easy it is to spend £20 on a shopping trip and that the money you're paying into the zoo goes towards the care and conservation of the animals, it makes it all worthwhile. i also think a trip to the zoo makes for a great day out because it offers you the chance to enjoy the (hopefully nice) weather, it keeps you active, it's fun, educational (if you take the time to read about all the animals) and offers you the chance to really watch and observe all the different animals, and if you're anything like me, that'll be the part you love the most; in particular i always love to watch the apes because i'm always astounded by just how humanlike they are; see picture 8 and the chimp sat like a human, for example.

of all the animals i saw yesterday, there were a couple in particular that i really enjoyed seeing. one were the tapirs, who shocked me with their size the first time i saw them last year in germany – i'd always imagined them to be tiny, dog sized like creatures, so when i saw something that was more similar to a hippo in size it took me by surprise! i really like animals that appear to interact with you, and the tapirs yesterday really held eye contact and appeared to be really interested and aware that you were around, unlike big cats who appear to purposely ignore your presence (typical cats, eh?) i just felt like reaching out to give them a fuss every time they stuck their little noses through the bars towards me, so sweet!

and, of course, the other creatures i was excited to see were the sloths. when we arrived at the enclosure, both sloths were asleep – shock horror! however after waiting around for a while and going outside to see the jaguars for a short while, we headed back in and luckily caught sloth feeding time which very quickly woke both sloths up and saw them crawling down towards the keeper. i can't put into words why it is, but sloths fill me with such an overwhelming feeling of joy that it's hard to not turn into a giddy young girl around them, tearing up and squeeing involuntarily. i just love how they move, so slowly but steadily, tilting their head upside down and peering around, scratching at themselves so carelessly and just hanging around looking oh so content; if you've never seen a sloth in the flesh, i really recommend going to do so! where big cats are as they sound – just like cats, but larger – a sloth is unlike any other creature you're likely to have encountered in your life and it's just so fascinating to watch how they exist. they're also less common in uk zoos than animals such as elephants and rhinos, so they're always something of a treat to go and visit.

all in all, a really positive day out. a catch up with a good friend and the chance to spend some time around my all time favourite animal really does make for an extremely happy version of myself; i already can't wait to head back to the zoo in germany this august to see some sloths again!

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sunday synopsis

hello, you lovely lot! i'm coming at you all with some terrible alliteration now on a weekly basis, where i briefly update you all on what's been happening in my life over the previous week and provide you with a shameless selfie. i figured this would be a good way of making sure i post at least twice a week on my blog and that it would be interesting to see how my appearance changes over the course of the next however many weeks, months or possibly years i may keep this going for! will i get that septum piercing i keep pondering? will my hair remain this lovely shade of orange? who knows!

this week i started back at university, and while second year looks promising because it boasts a lot of self motivated work and the chance to explore briefs in a way that is relevant to our specialisms/interests, it's been one heck of a slog so far because we've been doing the same boring 'warm up' briefs we were also given in year one; one task involved designing a teaching guide, and the other  the notorious nss poster design that haunts design students all over the country. i find it constantly hard to motivate myself to want to undertake design briefs like the ones listed because they're totally not relevant to my style as a person, but also as an illustrator as i'm just not interested in helvetica neue, kerning and clean, pristine layouts - it's just not me; i want bunnies and scribble marks! i gave the tasks a whirl anyway to see how i could perhaps incorporate my style, and as far as i'm concerned, i failed miserably on the teaching guide design and did an ok job on the nss poster. i'm receiving further feedback on my nss poster on monday, so perhaps if after then i feel i've composed a somewhat solid design i'll actually post it up on here for you all to see, but only time will tell! another exciting bit of news for me personally is that i finally sold the first copy of my zine, how to become one with the sloths, yay! hopefully the buyer will enjoy reading it as much as i enjoyed writing it!

i hope you've all had a lovely week and that any of my readers who have started/returned to university have settled in well and are enjoying their courses so far more than i currently am. happy sunday!

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