April As Told By Instagram

Do you ever get those times where you're just feeling your own Instagram? Like you have a good run of photos and you think to yourself "damn girl, I would follow me!". No? Is that just me? Maybe it's because I'm gradually edging closer to the 1000 follower mark, but I've been putting quite a bit of effort into my Instagram lately so I thought I'd tie that in with a little life update for April! Here's what I got up to last month...

Nipple Piercing Experience & 1 Week Update

First off, I'm just going to go ahead and apologise for the image on this blog post! Nothing really seemed appropriate so I thought I'd just go with something from my Instagram so yeah, soz about that one. Anyway, onto the point of this post! It's been a long time in the making, but after several months of researching, dithering, mind changing and more researching, I finally had my nipple pierced. It's been over a week now so I thought I'd talk a little bit about my experience and how the early stages of healing are coming along, in case anyone is thinking of getting it done too. Please remember that I am not qualified as a piercer so always follow your piercers advice as they are the experts, not me!

2016 So Far As Told By Instagram

So January is over for another year - we survived! As we are now into February (and my birthday month!), I thought I'd do a little run down of how my year is going so far as told by the photos I've been sharing on Instagram.

2015 New Year's Resolutions: 6 Month Update

*insert compulsory statement wondering how it's already June*

So along with just about everybody who has a blog, my first post of this year was sharing my goals for the twelve months which stretched out ahead of me. Now, six months (i.e. half way?!) though that twelve, I thought I'd do a little update and see how good (or not so good...) I've been at making my new year's resolutions happen.

1) Draw LOTS more (starting with a drawing a day in January)
Ok. ermmm. well. This probably isn't a great place to start! Drawing is something I struggle massively with, and it's mostly down to my own confidence. When it comes to drawing, I always feel incredibly inadequate and as a result I just don't do it as often as I'd like to. There's not much point in me doing this update if I'm not going to be honest about it so I'm just going to go right ahead and say that this has been a massive fail so far. All is not lost though - there's still six more months to get my draw on right?

2) Stop wasting time by worrying about time all the time
This is a bit of a personal problem. I have this terrible habit where if something doesn't quite go to plan, I waste time by worrying about it, and then waste more time by worrying about the amount of time I've spent worrying... and so on. I actually think I've made good progress with this so far in 2015. Last year this episode would plague me at least once or twice a month, but I'd say it's only happened maybe twice since the new year. Thumbs up!

3) Blog (just do it!)
Easily my biggest success of the lot! Pre-2015, I was a very on-again off-again blogger. There were so many silly worries holding me back from blogging on a regular basis and in January I decided enough was enough and I needed to just do it because I enjoyed it and I wanted to. So far so good I'd say! I've blogged at least once a week in 2015 and I'm loving every minute of it.

4) Update my wardrobe 
Unfortunately, I haven't made as much progress as I would've liked with this resolution yet, and it's not through lack of trying. Money has simply been a bit tight and I haven't had a lot of extra cash to spend on clothes, however I have made progress where possible. When I have bought new clothes, I have made sure ONLY to make the purchase if it's something that fits in with what I WANT my wardrobe to look like. This method has allowed me to make slow but sure progress with perfecting my style. This summer I'm determined to clear out all of the junk lurking in my wardrobe too...

5) Shoot in film
This is a bit half-yes half-no. Have I shot in film? Yes. So technically, goal achieved. However, this was only on one occasion and I would like to do it more frequently. Again, money has been an issue since film is so much more expensive than digital but this summer I'm hoping to have another go. I am pleased that I got my film camera working and have learnt the basics though so not a complete failure here.

6) Learn how to better deal with anxiety and depression 
Again, something slightly more personal. In honestly, it's been a really tough year so far in regards to this but I won't go into too much detail here (mainly because it's largely not about myself). On a positive note though, I've felt pretty good 90% of the time and I actually feel like a happy person within myself even if I do still struggle with anxiety in a big way. 

So there we have it! I'd say I've got a 50% 50% success rate so far which isn't bad considering we're only half way through the year. It's great to check back up and see that I've achieved some of the things that were merely a goal six months ago. Publishing my resolutions in black grey and white on this little corner of the internet has made me feel much more accountable to actually sticking to what I set out to do. 

How are you getting on with your new year's resolutions? Have you raced ahead in achieving your goals or have they fallen by the wayside since January? I'd love to know, hopefully some of you are doing better than me with a few, or maybe this post will give you that extra boost you need to revisit the goals you set yourself six months ago. 

FMP #3

Before I start this post I want to apologise for my less than consistent attempts at blogging over the last few weeks. Hopefully this post will go some way to explaining that but the short version is that I've been crazily running around trying to get my final exhibition together for the foundation/degree show at Manchester School of Art. My final deadline is Monday 1st June so I'm really looking forward to having more time to dedicate to blogging soon. For now though, since my life is revolving around my final major project and completing my exhibition, I thought it'd be good to do a little update. If you haven't seen my previous two FMP posts I will link them here and here so you can take a look at 'the story so far'. 

The final countdown for my FMP is well and truly in full swing now. This week I've been getting my hands dirty preparing my exhibition space, getting it cleaned, sanded and repainted as well as measuring everything out to within an inch of my life. I'll tell you now, if measuring burnt significant calories, I'd be a very skinny girl by now! It's no secret to people that know me that I'm a huge perfectionist and so everything's taking a fair bit of time to get right, but I'm really happy with how it has gone so far *touches every item of wood in sight*. I have been allocated a wall space in a corner so I've had quite a few obstacles to overcome including a big red fire alarm which has played havoc with my need for clean white surfaces! Preparing the exhibition space has been a fun experience though and it's been lovely to make some last memories and spend time with some really great friends I've made on the course. 

To a certain extent I thought it would be nice to keep my actual exhibition as a bit of a surprise for when it's fully complete, so I won't be sharing too many photos of it today. I will say that I'm still continuing with the theme of experimental typography which has evolved into using techniques such as crochet and knitting to make letterforms. Over the last 2 weeks I've been locked away creating what must be hundreds of little wooly letters - but I don't want to give too much away! All will be revealed very soon and I'm working my fingers to the bone to get it finished by next week. 

I realise this has been a very quick insight into what I've been doing with myself these past few weeks but I hope you all understand! There isn't too much completed new work to share but I still want to document the process of this project and I think the exhibition preparation is a big part of that. I can't wait to share the finished results of the show as well as photographs from the private view later on in June. One last final push!

*Sneaky preview!*

New Years Resolutions Update : 1 Month On

So today is the very last day of January and for what seems like the first time ever, I am NOT saying it flew by. In honesty, time seemed to be in slow motion this month and I for one won't be sad to see the back of January. However, as I mentioned my original new years resolutions post, this year is pretty much the first time I've ever set a list of serious resolutions, so I'm quite eager to make them happen. So, before we wave the most hated month out for another year, I thought I'd review my 2015 goals and resolutions list and see how I'm getting on with them so far as a way of (fingers crossed) motivating myself to keep going!

1. Draw LOTS more (starting with a drawing a day in January)
Ah.. so...hopefully I can start on a low here and work my way upwards. The good news is, I did draw a fair bit this month. The not so good news is that I didn't stick to my drawing a day. I made it 2 weeks in and after one long, busy day I forgot to draw and it all went downhill from there. So we'll call this one a half success, after all, new years resolutions aren't supposed to be fully achieved within the first month.


2. Learn how to better deal with anxiety and depression 
This is a big one and I know this will take time, most likely longer than the year ahead but I'm hoping to have a good crack at it in the coming months. I chose to research into mental health issues for my current art project which has opened me up to a wealth of information which I think is a good start but I still have a way to go with dealing with my personal issues. 

3. Stop wasting time by worrying about time all the time
Ok, so this is a big personal problem of mine and it stems back to my issues with anxiety. I panic about wasting time to the degree that if I've wasted 10 minutes of time, I will waste a further 2 or 3 hours panicking about those lost 10 minutes. I don't exactly know how I'm going to solve this yet and I have had a few episodes this month, but I've found that simply having this in my conscious mind as one of my resolutions has at least helped me to accept that this is an issue. 

4. Update my wardrobe 
This was my superficial resolution for 2015. I seem to have landed myself with a wardrobe that's stuffed full of clothes I don't wear. I've half-heartedly cleared it out several times over the past few years and now I think enough is really enough. This month I found Unfancy, a minimalist fashion blog and I fell in love with the idea of a 'capsule wardrobe'. Now, I haven't completely overhauled my wardrobe yet but I did make one small step - I was given a jumper for christmas which just didn't fit right, so instead of doing what I would usually do and keep it out of guilt, I exchanged it for something I really love. Feeling guilty about returning a gift that you won't use just doesn't make sense - my mum was much happier knowing I'd swapped it for something that won't end up gathering dust. 

5. Shoot in film
As you can see from this blog post's image, I got a long way with this resolution in just one month. I will probably do a separate post about my experience shooting in film but it was just by chance there was an opportunity to be induced into the dark room at my art school mid way through January and I grabbed it with both hands!

6. Blog (just do it!)
Hurrah! I think I can call this one a triumph so far. This post will be the 6th this month which I am more than happy with considering how on/off I have been in the past. I've decided to really have a good go at blogging and so far I am loving it! I'd like to say thank you to anybody who has looked at/followed/commented/supported my blog so far this year and I can't wait to see what the future brings.

How have your new years resolutions been going? Have you stuck to them so far?

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