Graveyard Smash

It's Halloween weekend(!) my favourite event of the year. I love all things horror and goffting so Halloween is the perfect mix for me. Oh and i really love a bit of craft and fancy dress so seriously, most fun for me. I started Halloween a bit early this week as i made a skull pinata for my friend Sylwia's party. Yesterday my housemate Fearghal, who is a very talented fashion designer, and i watched horror films and carved pumpkins for the party, of course drinking heavily and getting ready for the party.

I also went on to my friend and fellow illustrator Quim's party and am now faced with having to attempt to detangle my hair with is backcombed, crimped and hairsprayed within a inch of it's life. I didn't even use normal hairspray like Elnet that can be brushed out, i used Tigi Catwalk stuff which is like vapourised superglue. I think i might have to shave my head.

A while ago Cornelia O'Donovan a printmaker and illustrator who was an artist in residence at my university told me that when she was in an art funk, she got herself out of it by doing a sketchbook a day. I'm not going that craycray but i am trying to do a bit more sketching and doodling, hense the Bride of Frankenstein scratching. I love the styling of the film, and my costume this year was inspired by it. Oh and i'm knitting a ridiculously complicated cardigan, which i might have finished in like 8 winters time GAH. Yet i still have time to watch an entire season of NCIS in one day, hmmmm. Amazing me.

.You've Got the Blues in Your Shoes and Your Stockings.

About a year ago, i was asked to join one of those 'What I Wore Today' sites. Someone had seen this blog and thought i would be an interesting person to follow sartorially, and they wanted me to do some Beta testing and all that caboodle. Now, anyone who knows me in real life knows i am the last person ANYONE in their right mind would look to for fashion advice, and unsurprisingly the thought of photographing my hideous outfit choices (which range from Kings Cross Prostitute to the full on Tramp Slag) EVERYDAY filled me with horror and i turned down the offer (actually i deleted the emails they kept sending me and pretended it wasn't happening).

Anyway, anyone who follows me on twitter will know i regularly refer to myself as looking like various 80s icons. I myself am not iconic, but i do have pretty big hair. Since winter is drawing in, i have been unleashing my leopard fur coat on the North London public. The term 'pimpin' was invented for this coat, and the past few weeks it has been making me feel particularly Marc Bolan-esque. So much so i seem to have a Jagger pout permanently stuck to my face.

So, for anyone who wonders, this is how i Bolan-ed my way around today. I looked particularly glam rock as i spent most of this morning testing crimpers for my halloween hair. And i have since learned, you can't 'brush out' crimped hair.

In other news, I'm getting WELL HALLOWEEEEEEENED BOI! so keep an eye on my flickr for some banging photos YEAHHHHH?

(oh yeah, when you do this shit you're meant to tell people what you're wearing so they can be you right??

boots- ox blood 'Mardy' by Caterpillar

tights- coloured stocking effect by Primark

shorts- high waisted black denim hotpants by Primark

top - white tee by New Look

coat- leopard fur by Topshop

there, do i look like enough of a twat now?)

Sugar and Spice, Screaming is Nice

So this weekend was the baptism of my niece Ella. I embroidered her a little naming sampler, like a modernised cross-stitch sampler, and helped my mum make her cake. Unfortunately the piping on the top looks pretty shoddy but i was having icing issues. On the whole tho, i like it, and the cake itself was pink sponge with mascapone and fresh raspberries nom nom nom!

Anyway, it was a lovely day, saw all my wonderful fam and got some faboosh pictures of them, which are, of course, on my flickr>>>>>>>>

. a long time ago.

.despite my constant bitching about the trials and tribulations of having to be an adult, i still manage to do doodles like this. actually i've been looking at type for about 3 hours while working on a little project for my niece's christening, so i felt the need to do something with a bit more hand eye coordination. i very drunkedly promised to draw my housemate dan a picture of him as princess Leia seducing jabba the hut if he came home (he is currently in the country with a poorly foot). Unfortunately he is still not home, but i did a wee scrawl anyway, in the hope it will remind him how much he loves living with us.

.Hello, I Love You.

.oh hi. just so you know i'm still here, and i'm still alive. i'm just busy. unfortunately, not so much in the 'i've got so much work to do and i'm raking it in' but more like the mundane business of trying to be a functioning human being. but i have done some nice things, like going to Jaggedart Gallery in Marylebone to see an exhibition featuring my cousin Rachael Clewlow and her boy Nick Kennedy. They're both extremely talented, and it was really good to see their work in a gallery environment. The exhibition has finished now but you have have a look at some of the work that was on show here.

Other exciting things that are happening in my life are we finally got real internet. real, high speed, working, broadband. it's a miracle, although i did spend about 72 hours just catching up on american tv. I'm getting a bit fed up of my hair and am contemplating a Nicola Roberts pink toned ginger, circa 2008. Cons are that i would have to strip my hair, bleach it, and only then dye it. Pros are it would be easier to cover up my exponentially expanding grey hair, and i might look slightly less like a angry scouse. We shall see. Anyway i'm so obsessed with my own face i've done another doodle of myself. but with a fucking awful background that i managed to drop in and save in by accident. i do like the texture on the leather tho, so swings and round a bouts.

Burning All the Photographs of You

well well well, i have been off out of circulation again, basically doing portfolio stuffs and things like that. well today i decided to give in another step into complete internet synchronisation, buy opening a flickr account. i'd been at Sefton Park taking some photos, and it seemed like a bit of a waste to have them sitting around on my old memory cip so i thought lets flash my clickity click skills on the web.

SO you can now stalk me;

here, on flickr,

here, on my website,

here, on twitter,

here, on my vimeo,

and of course here, on blogger.

if you don't want to do that, you can always look of this pretty picture i took of Tottenham burning down last weekend. The riots were great, cos there's nothing quite like trying to get to sleep with a police helicopter hovering over your house and the threat of being firebombed to really ensure some good dreaming...

.You Drive Me Crazy.

.Well, long time no speaky. aside from general mania, my laptop again decided to ruin my life by self destructing. this time the hard drive went, and i lost everything, which, of course, i hadn't backed up.

.More importantly, my dole has been sorted out so as well as job hunting i can now properly hunt for an internship, as the lovely government are going to keep subsidising me as long as i continue to hound design agencies around london with my cv, portfolio, cover notes and dna samples.

.hmm other news, I'm working on a few bits that might lead to some work or jobs. I'm not particulary hopeful but it's good to be in the running for things, and in reality it's a lot better to be working on proper briefs, than just 'doing pretty pictures'. Anyway here's a doodle i did while working on one of these. As you can see, I am still in a pastel mood. I don't think i have anything else to waffle on about.