Tunes of late

We all listen to music for various reasons.
To relax
To connect with an emotion
For fun
To cry and find a better understanding
To feel and understand

Really, it's a very personal thing, no?
A tune can take us so far back to a memory of singing in choir at school as a small child...
That first dance at the wedding ceremony...
The last beloved tune played at the funeral for a love one...

Of late, I really been appreciating music a lot more, it helps me drift somewhere peaceful and reading lyrics helps me feel not so alone. Some else else has felt the same way you did, enough to write a song about it. And nostalgia for tunes of my childhood and growing up...just for that awesomeness!

Bruce Springsteen - Dancing in the Dark
You just gotta love that beat! Your feet just start dancing before you know it!

Fallin' and Flyin' - Jeff Bridges and Colin Farrell
Last night I watched Crazy Heart starring Jeff Bridges who was a washed up country singer who is very much lost in booze and drifting on the road playing in run down, back road places until he meets a journalist who inspires a change in him....the film is so much better than I just described it. I watched it, not expecting much apart, knowing that Jeff Bridges would do a stellar job but the film just blew me away. Simple plot line but stunning cinematography and beautiful music and the fact it won two oscars - well deserved.
 I'm very much a closet country music fan, nothing I love than to hear the guitar at its best telling the whole story with its riffs and strings and the voice at it's humble but emotional best.
Give this song a whirl, I'm very impressed at how Bridges and Farrell sounds in this lovely little song...the chorus just steals it for me!

Shine Your Light - Robbie Robertson
Another song from another movie which is Ladder 49. I love the son which featured at the very end of the film and the scene in which is plays is very poignant especially with lyrics like "Saw a shooting star, like a diamond in the sky, must be someone's soul, passing by." its easy to see the beauty of this little song.

 Everywhere - Fleetwood Mac

I got a secret, I use to perform a burlesque routine to this song as a bird of paradise complete with the most divine bird pasties (nipple tassels to the mortals!) that cost me a pretty three figured sum to have made but the sparkle and beauty of them is so pretty! (Edge of Seventeen and Go Your Own Way were the other two songs I had routines for too!)
Fleetwood Mac for me is a band I discovered in my late teens and and boy did I wanted to be Stevie Nicks! But that's a story for another time!

Always - Bon Jovi

I be honest, I'm not a huge Bon Jovi fan but this song just captures things for me right now with how I am feeling and the energy of it all.

And I will love you, baby - Always 
And I'll be there forever and a day - Always
I'll be there till the stars don't shine Till the heavens burst and The words don't rhyme 
And I know when I die, you'll be on my mind
And I'll love you - Always

I am however loving Bon Jovi's Dead Or Alive...or rather the Rock of Ages version...

I'll tell you something - Tom Cruise is actually pretty good in this movie! And got a decent set of pipes on him! Keep an eye out for Hey Man in the film! :P


What ever your reason for listening to music of late, may it give you peace and make you feel lighter in this crazy life 
Give these tunes a go!

What you been listening to of late that you can recommend?

Birdie Love
xxx

Lazy Oaf - Looney Toons Collection baby yeah!

It is at times like this I wish I had a bigger wage packet, skinnier body, recession was over and bills are non-existent because I just seen Lazy Oaf's new Looney Toons collection!

If I did indeed had more money and a size 12 body, I would snap half of this collection up no questions asked!

   

   

   


How sweet is that Tweetie dress?! It already got a place in my dream wardrobe along with that amazing Pepe dress!
And those leggings! I'd be staring at my knees all days!

I love looking through Lazy Oaf's collections and clothing as they create colourful, cheery designs and colours and produce garments with a quirky but oh-so satisfying twist! So check out the rest of the many collections than the Looney Toon collaboration - you won't be disappointed!

I long been a huge lover of their sandwich Holdall that I one day dream to own!

 

Isn't it the Bomb?! I can't stop smiling when I see this ridiculous print! Epic!

Check out the collection at Lazy Oaf here

What do you think?

In the true Looney Toons vibe, I shall sign off....Th...Th...That's All Folks!

Birdie Love
xxx

ASOS Halloween fashion round-up!

Halloween here in the UK isn't celebrated as much as I think it should, and that is a shame especially since I think it's one of the funnest holidays on our calender. The good news though is over the years, we are slowly catching up with our American cousins and every year, Halloween is becoming bigger and bigger a more and more brits move to embrace all things spooky and dark.
And for that, I'm glad!

We are over-worked, under-paid and flipping run down into the ground as a nation and I think we need all the cheer and good times we can get and nothing beats dressing up, embracing the change of the seasons, enjoying the darker evenings and the colours, tastes and sights of October 31st!

A lot of shops and companies have now cottoned on this under estimated holiday and now there's a nice range of products in many shops. Plus its gives people a good chance to stock up on clothing and bit and pieces of a more darker and spookier nature if they are that way inclined, when they would be limited for the rest of the year in choices.

ASOS this year has a pretty good range of clothing and accessories items that are not so much of the costume but more of a wardrobe staple, perfect if you want something with a dark twist!

skeleton glow in the dark jumper £30

bat clutch £18

Ghouls T-shirt £16

Bats Jumper £45

pinhead cardigan £45

pumpkin beanie £12

spooky cardigan £42

pumpkin bag £18

skull tights £8

monster sleeve sweatshirt £35

There is more in their Halloween round up which is well worth a look! You can see the collection here
What I like about ASOS collection is the pieces can be worn all year around and are pretty unique on the market in some designs, away from the usual Halloween images/colours.
(the captions under each image are the links to the products themselves to save you time - are i sweet?! :P)

Another popular clothing company here in the UK is New Look who too have done a Halloween collection as shown below

boo jumper £22.99

Creepy t-shirt £12.99

ghost jumper £22.99

bite me t-shirt £7.99

pumpkin face t-shirt £7.99

let's hang Bat sweater £17.99

There's some pretty nice bits in the New Look collection too isn't there?

Overall, I think the Halloween fashion is pretty spot on and I'm glad to see more of it in shops. I mean, I treated myself to some Halloween themed socks and a "happy Halloween" t-shirt from Primark which I plan to wear to death next week! ( no pun intended!)

All that is left for me to say i lets enjoy this dark holiday all the more and Viva Halloween!


Birdie Love
xxx

Wizard of Oz quilt!

I don't think I could go much longer without showing you these lovely pictures taken of an amazing quilt I saw at a recent craft show! I cannot recall who made it but believe it to originate from Exeter?
Just look at the amazing colours and detailings of each character panel!

The quilt was huge! I would say close to maybe kingsize perhaps and the skill needed to work each panel and bring it together to create this huge, beautiful beast is just staggering! I couldnt get a picture of the whole piece as sadly, where they mounted it was in the demonstration hall by an auditorium where it was forever tightly packed with the comings and goings of people.
(note to the exhibitioners - mount beutiful things like this in a good space where it can be seen and appreciated properly! Not some crummy corner tucked away!)

I'm not sure which is my favourite panel....I love the flying monkey but the sweeteness of Glinda the good witch with the detailing of the cowardly Lion are just as amazing!

What do you think?

Birdie love
xxx

Right now...

• My hair has gone wild! Re-did the colour the other day and it gone turquoise....erm...yeah....wasn't the shade I wanted! Turns out the brand I picked up had somehow put another shade in the box that wasn't the one advertised on the front of the box! Going back to my darker blue shade soon...hopefully the right one this time (after getting some free dyes sent as an apology!).   Though I do like the multiple shades of blue/green my hair currently is! It goes a "peacock-like luminescence that changes colour in different light" as a friend said. I think the need their eyes tested but I'll roll with it for now! ;-P  Don't worry, the "Jedward" style didn't last much longer after this picture was taken...I sported a sleek retro quiff soon after!   I don't mind the blue hair for now, I did it as I fancied a changed and someone said I should go blue/pink so they could find me easier at an event I was at...it worked! It cheered me up as especially through my low spell of late, I've been receptive to colours and how they lift me out the gloom.  Don't think I will stay a blue for too much longer as it's expensive and time consuming to maintain as I hate having the colour fade out my hair or roots on show. Think it just becomes lazy and tacky then (but that' just me, I've seen too many badly maintained/dyed hair!), if you can't commit to the necessary hair maintenance when it comes to brightly coloured hair then it isn't for you! Maybe pink/bright red tips next time? thinking navy blue roots like I had before then leaving the turquoise at the tips for an ombre effect? Blue with dip dye pink tips? We'll see!

• I went ski-ing! been ages and back in the days I was a pretty good skier and snow boarder. shame the venue where I skied at has gone down-hill and the experience was mired by a panic attack but I was impressed I still got the moves for most parts and did the big run a few times. Think I need to get my legs back though as they are aching!

• I'm climbing back out of my mental relapse and bouncing back. no where near 100% and still shaken up and got work to do but it shows the intense therapy I was doing works, just need to find a new therapist since mine had to quit on health grounds. I think this downfall just reminds me i'm only human and still got a long way to go. What scary for me is I found out that some celebrities who had my mental disorder all died young/before their time in scary ways...Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse to name a few...I guess its ok to feel bad at times, it wasn't an easy thing for them or for anyone to go through of this nature. They just didnt make it as it got too much for them, I shall be another story and get better. Mental health is no laughing matter and it's a shame I still feel too embarrassed and scared to say what is wrong with me, despite it not being my fault. One step at a time!

• 
• I received a surprise parcel in the post this week from a friend! Inside was this gorgeous vintage embroidered fabric covered brooch and card and this hand crafted Superted Coaster! Mega Love! Made me so very happy for the rest of the day and lifted my spirits! Awesome!

• Just changed some money into Dollars and getting ready for Florida! Cannot wait! Three months time baby yeah!

how is everyone?

wishing you all a great day!

Birdie love

xxx

Craft haul - Stitches '13

If you are a a regular reader of the blog or a follower on instagram, then you might know I have come back from a craft expo with a massive haul!

Stitch, Sew and Hobbycraft show is one of the major craft event on the calender in the south-west of England and every year I always try and visit and over the numerous years, I have built up a knowledge bank of vendors, shops and designers that are firm favourites and always on my list to check out once I am there!
It is also an excellent opportunity to see new things on the craft block and have the opportunity to purchase rare and imported fabrics and wares from abroad.

Oooooh my! All these wonderful goodies just makes me so excited to see them!

Some beautiful kawaii little wooden buttons, gorgeous edge binding tapes and the most wonderful catcus printed cotton that is brushed to the point it is the softest flannel...got plans to make these into some pajama bottoms! 

Lace zips from Japan are just perfect if you are not confident on sewing in a zip or just tired of concealing it and want something sweet on show! These make excellent features on make-up bags!

amazing fabrics! I'm so in love with the ice cream fat quarter and that map of the world fabric....I just adored it so much that I had to have it though I don't know what I am going to do with it! And that black tattooed fabric...I've seen it so many times on the roll pilled uo high with many other fabrics but talked myself out of buying it, this time I caved especially when there was the last two meters left and the man confirmed it was a limited print and he couldn't get anymore of it...SOLD! 

I buy my glitter and glue for it from this expo, its the best one I've worked with and the glitter is so powdery fine and sparkly that its just amazing to play with! I'm half way working through sprucing up a par of white converses with the most amazing turquoise and pink glitter!

The most expensive fabric of the day at £14/15 a meter but just look at it! so beautiful no? And that orange trim just makes it pop! I bought it to hopefully make a skirt from it but I'm so nervous cutting the fabric up! I think it is destined to sit on the shelf for a bit until I stop being so frightened!

Aren't these ribbons so cute/kawaii/adorable? I'm in love!

fabrics and craft goodies always makes me a happy Birdie!

Birdie Love!
xxx

blast from the past - the truth about art college

It's amazing what you find in your inbox and on the internet these days isn't it?

No, it's not me!...though she is so very lovely is she not? This is a shot taken of one of my final collection where the class had to make "Le smokin' jackets" using tweed (the tweed we used was rumoured to have been by the same manufacturers for Chanel but we will never know!) and my model in the picture above is wearing the tweed jacket I have designed, cut the pattern for, altered and sewn up (it has lining and all!)
I had gone for a small boxy looking jacket as I wanted to come away from the traditional jacket silhouette that everyone else seemed to have gone for, had slit sleeves and a deep lapel with an asymmetrical front closure fastened by a nifty brooch!

It was a wonderful surprise to be e-mailed these images by an old class mate and certainly a blast from the past with all the memories and good times but my god, the work that went into doing and completing this course was unbelievable!

There were days I was in the pattern cutting studio for weeks from 7am to 7pm, with constant back cramps from hunching over the pattern cutting table, no one ever met their deadlines (they were unrealistic!) and the course very quickly became hard work and no fun.
I studied so hard there for a couple of years and left with all motivation and passion for the arts and crafts I once adored, thoroughly killed off by the college and it's academic course.

The most gutting thing?

Learning on the last day when the course teacher pulled out a book and said they been running course from this tiny book and if we wanted to buy it, it would certainly help us remember the skills we have learnt....i got the book and I wish I bought the book than did the course...the book did a far better job of explaining everything than the teachers could in half the time and stress.
I'm sceptical as to whether art institutions and colleges really do help develop students....I mean I left with all the passion and hopes I had, thoroughly killed off and it took many, many years before I picked  up a pencil and drew once more.

Any art institution/college needs to let its students have a degree of creative freedom, that much I do know! I had a teacher who encouraged us to be individual in our designs but as long as they were within her remit...which was just awful and sucked the passion very quickly.

I mean I don't even have a portfolio from college, I just couldn't bear to go back and collect it and they didn't really help us build one....sucky for sure.

Whatever your creative path is, you just need to to open as possible to everything and most importantly...enjoy it!

Birdie Love
xxx

Honesty

When I properly started this blog, it was because I was going through a really bad time. After a life changing injury that made me become more disabled, severe social anxiety and depression which lead to finally getting a diagnoses on having a mental disorder, several turbulent relationships with some incredibly destructive people that bought me right down, being signed off work over the year whilst undergoing financial hardship and on top of this all through this for good measure, several attempted suicide attempts...I needed a place to just simply "be".

Facebook isn't the place to put statuses up about feeling bad, before long you will be deemed as an "attention seeker" where actually you were crying out for help through your pain and so to take it away from people's news feeds and to not bombard everyone, the blog was started.

Of late, I felt myself sliding back, feeling right on edge and after an incident where a panic attack went bad and I said a few disastrous things to a much beloved friend who since, havent spoken properly as he wants space (more than reasonable though it just about kills me), it built up to the point I simply went for a walk this Monday and simply "blacked out" mentally and just kept walking for hours in whatever direction my feet took me.

 I went "missing" for around 7 hours...I simply don't have a clear memory of what happened, just remembered feeling incredibly isolated, consumed in pain and "black" in all I felt and thought. I dimly remember replying to a few texts and apparently to the few people who received them, they knew immediately I was "off".

I simply came to when the first interaction of that day happened in the form of a small dog who bounded up to me looking for attention and immediately I became very freaked out, especially when I realised I was soaked from the rain, extremely hungry and tired and somewhere far from home on the other side of the city.

It was made worst to see loads of phone calls and messages on my phone and then seeing that it was almost evening and the length of time I was gone for....I was seriously freaked out.

Long story short, after wandering the streets a bit, I realised roughly where I was and made it to a relatives house where they informed the search party I was safe. Since then, I've stayed away from social medias and my phone, gone back to work but pretty much kept to myself and retreated from everything for a bit. I've felt this pain and extreme lost and hopelessness before but this time around, I'm better equipped to hopefully deal with it.

Right now, I'm googling "What do normal people do on weekends"...stupid I know, but simply put, I dont know what to do. I dont know what other people do with their time and when I look at myself, I sometimes feel like I should be doing more, like this wasnt what I planned my life to be....then I remember that from the start I didnt exactly have a plan to begin with so does this makes me a lost cause?
Is it all too late for me?
What do I do?
Where do I go from here?

So many questions but so little of me to figure it all out. I mean where would I start?

How do I simply "Live"?

I know this posting is rather a somber one and difficult to read and unexpected and I apologise for that. It isnt my intention. But i figured as this is my space and place to rant and talk, I will do just that as It helps me get through the day now and the ones that follows.


thanks for your time my dear readers and your messages of late, I'm sure things will be back to normal here soon.

Birdie Love
xxx

BRB

Just having a bad couple of days with my mental disorder/depression. So i will be right back...

Birdie love
xxx

Right now...

...I have blue hair and endless compliments!

...I'm a lover of green tea milkshake!

...I built a batmobile...even if it  is in lego....

...Bought too much craft stuff and fabrics at a recent craft expo....

...I'm enjoying the early signs of autumn with all its sights and colours it brings...

...i want to go mushroom foraging!

...I'm so happy I got pass the first and hardest stage of applying for a hearing dog for the deaf...!

...is in love with her fur babies, playing together in a warm, snuggly house on a cold and wet night!

...loving this piece of ice cream fabric!

...i'm admiring how beautiful a quick doodle to try out some shrinkles looks...pretty!

...how amazing is shrinkles?!...look how tiny it is now!


How life treating you all of late?
feel free to link and share on your blog!

Birdie Love
xxx