Feeling Festive ♥

so it's that time of year again, the time when shops suddenly fill with shiny new things, the time when fairy lights appear to be strung from everywhere and the weather turns freeeezing (depending on where you live, if you live here... it's bloody cold!) it's time to pull on your hats, gloves and scarves and wrap up warm...

winter is here and that means... CHRISTMAS!!!!!

it's no secret that Winter is my favourite season (not just because of Christmas... honest) i love the snow and the frost and the freezing cold wind (not so much the rain but living on the Isle of Man you learn to live with it) i love any excuse to wear my big winter coat and my winter boots

winter, winter, winter... i LOVE it!

and obviously it's late November now which means Christmas isn't too far off!

so because i'm off to Coventry and Birmingham tomorrow for a few days to see my family for, i had lots and LOTS of presents to wrap and loads of cards to write

and i mean LOTS! i have a massive family and it literally took me about 6 hours (with breaks, lots of them) to wrap all the gifts!

my wrapping skills aren't that great but i try my best! 

i make a hell of a lot of mess as well when i wrap stuff... as you can see!

but my macbook kept me company the whole time playing a constant stream of lovely Christmas songs for me to sing along VERRRY loudly to as i wrapped

i didn't have half as much stuff to wrap as my mum did though! i popped into the Dining Room (aka Present HQ) to ask for some ribbon and the entire room was filled with presents!

the table was full and the rest were all bagged up, ready to go to Coventry tomorrow...

i'm so excited to be going away though! i haven't left the island since early September for the wedding in Montenegro (read about that here - Montenegro Times) so it'll be nice to get away for a few days

i packed my case earlier this evening, thought i'd share this snap with you...

good to see i'm getting my priorities right?! 

only joking... yes the Zombieland DVD is for me to watch at the hotel but the Mika DVD's are for my sister to lend 

contrary to popular belief i don't take them everywhere with me... honest!

my big sister is a Mika fan as well and she's never seen him live so i thought she'd like to see these

i can't WAIT to go away!!!!!

i'm hoping to do a few posts while i'm away as well, my macbook is coming with me and i'm pretty sure the hotel we're going to has wi-fi available = good times!

plus... on Tuesday i'm spending the day in Birmingham City Centre with my mum and my Auntie and i CANNOT WAIT!!!!

several reasons why i'm so excited about the day trip and the places i plan to visit...

1: i LOVE Birmingham

2: the Bullring Shopping centre... complete with Selfridges

3: Harvey Nichols in 'the Mailbox' building

4: the Christmas Markets in Victoria Square

5: the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery

6: Birmingham = awesomeness

that's about it i guess, oh AND 

i go on the 23rd and that just so happens to be the day that the latest H&M collection is launched!

that's right... the Lanvin collaboration (fangirl squeal) 

yay yay yay

i'll probably come back 'Lanvin-less' due to the hordes of people cramming into H&M but a girl can dream right?!

i'm already in love with most of the pieces in the collection but i have my eye on this dress in particular... 

although after spending £90 on my plane ticket home the chances of me getting this dress are now very slim indeed! 

saying that, i'd quite like one of these handbags as well... or both of them!

and maybe some of the shoes as well...

OH MY GOD it's going to be a nightmare!

i want it ALL but i can probably only afford one or two pieces tops!

i may have to BEG for some Lanvin-esque thing for Christmas but i doubt i'll even be able to get near the shop let alone get my hands on some stuff!

i've just looked it up on the H&M website (HERE) and apparently the Bullring branch of H&M will be open from 9:00am til 8:00pm so... maybe i can sneak back in in the evening and fight off some other Lanvin lovers to claim a piece!

sharpen your elbows girls...

to be honest though i'd rather come home penniless and laden with Lanvin loveliness that to get home empty handed!

why WHY Lanvin... why must you create such beautiful dresses!

Alber Elbaz you have a LOT to answer for do you hear me! i don't care if you're best friends with Mika, your designs are so pretty it's almost criminal!!!

end of rant

* * *

in other news...

look what arrived today all the way from Austin, Texas!!!

that's right folks... it's the ORIGINAL copy of my 'free crappy portrait'

the lovely and utterly super duper and fabulous Anne Genung who created the masterpiece 'Bluebird Cupcakes' based on a photo of me having a baking day 

(for more info check out the Baking Times post) 

anyway she got in touch with me after i posted all about the genius of the FCP site (read the 'my free crappy portrait' post and all shall be explained) and kindly offered to send me the original copy of the drawing!!!

how could i refuse!

i couldn't...

anyway it arrived today in a tube with a little note off Anne 

how awesome is that!

i can't believe she sent it to me! i am so soooo grateful i really am!

in light of that, here is an utterly shameless plug for Anne's gorgeous website

Anne Genung

seriously... check it out, her artwork is amazing! her paintings are so beautiful, really stunning work!

also Anne has a super blog full of arty fun times and she even did a post all about MY blog post about the FCP... how fabulous!

she said this about my post

"Isn't that just the loveliest response ever? I should draw more crappy portraits. And I do hope that she appreciates having the original."

well Anne i can tell you that i DO appreciate it

i LOVE it!

you can check out her blog here and scroll down to see the post about my FCP - Anjanung

so thank you Anne, you are officially AWESOME!!!

* * *

and that's it for today i think, sorry for the rantings and the ravings, can't be helped...

so tomorrow morning i get the boat to Liverpool then it's off to Coventry

i'll be posting tomorrow evening probably, i'm so SO excited about the hotel we're staying at so i will DEFINITELY want to share this one with you all!

see you then

that's all folks...

◕‿◕ ★ xX

'vielen dank und auf wiedersehen'

(that's thank you and goodbye in German, big thanks to all those German people out there checking out my blog, danke ♥)

Halloween Countdown ★

whaaat! there's a star instead of a heart in the title!!!!!

crazy times! 

anyway.

so i've been poorly today = the reason why i failed to make it into collegio today! bad times all round...

this means i have pretty much spent my day watching Family Guy and Mad Men... so it hasn't been all bad! ◕‿◕ 

i have something to share though, since it's October and Halloween (or Samhain or Hop tu naa or whatever you want to call it) is fast approaching, the Haunted House Halloween Showcase of images has once again been opened up on Art Wanted.com (one of my fave portfolio websites) aaaaand... i've got a couple of illustrations in the showcase!

i honestly don't have a clue where the other three pictures are but i know that the creepalicious Tattooed Pin-up Girl (see previous Blog Post - 10/10/10 ♥) is on the FRONT PAGE of the showcase!!!!!

so at the minute i think my picture is about 36th out of 50 on the front page of thumbnails. i feel very honoured to have made it onto the front page for the second year in a row. you can see the whole Showcase riiiight here - Haunted House

just follow the link above, click on the 'thumbnails' option in the top left corner and scroll down to spot mine ♥

i got a little screencap just to keep a record of it being on the front page (i did this last year as well for my 'killer zombie heels' as well... i know i'm a saddo!)

i LOVE getting my pictures in the Halloween Showcase simply because it always seems to get me sooooo many image hits! last year the Killer Zombie heels got 1847 hits in October alone!

so i uploaded the 'Tattooed Pin-up Girl' yesterday... and she already has almost 500 hits!!! in 24 hours that's amazing for someone like me!

i sometimes get 500 hits a MONTH with the collective hits for 100 images not just 1 picture on it's own...

god bless the Halloween Showcase Haunted House!

* * *

anyway, in other news... and literally 'news'

as i've said before, i'm not a particularly religious person and i'm definitely not much of a praying girl... 

but right now my prayers are all going to the Penniman family, praying for the swift and safe recovery of Paloma Penniman.

in case you have no idea what i'm talking about, it's all to do with the singer Mika and his family.

basically Mika's sister, Paloma had a terrible accident and is critically ill in hospital :-(

now you all know i'm a huuuuuge Mika fan, but i'm also a fan of the Family Penniman in general since they all seem to be so amazingly talented and super duper (I'm a huge fan of his sister Yasmine's wonderful illustrations + i sat near the whole brood at Mika's London gig last year and they really were the sweetest bunch of siblings!)

from left to right we have Zuleika, Yasmine, Mika, Paloma and Fortuné

i know it's literally none of my business and everything but i am a fan and it's sad to hear that she is so ill! 

they are renowned for being such a close family so my prayers go out to all of them at what must be a terribly traumatic time.

i won't go into details but if you want to know what happened you can read the full story here - Daily Mail article

* * *

ok that's it for tonight i guess, bit of a short post i guess... apologies!

i spent the afternoon tidying my room (oh what jolly fun) and i have decided to post a few pics of my room. you may be wondering why the hell i would want to do that... but wait and see! you haven't seen my room!!!! there are so many books in there i might as well be living in my local library! 

ok, off to watch the rest of 'rude tube epic fails' which i recorded the other day. i recorded it for three very important reasons! it's very VERRRY funny, it's EPIC and full of fails and most importantly... it's presented by the adorable and rather super duper Alex Zane!

that's all folks...

so long and thanks for all the fish!

 ◕‿◕ ★ xX

rainy days and gloomy nights

Well the days grown colder and the imminent return to College becomes more annoying, yes the Summer is over at last (at least it is on the Isle of Man) at least it's cold and gloomy enough for me to prance around in my lovely winter coat! oh and I'm still struggling to do any (much needed) logbook work, i have however been drawing away like a trooper here are four of my latest 'Girls'

 

as per usual, i've been watching a lot of movies, Kill Bill has obviously inspired me (see Beatrix Kiddo and Gogo Yubari in the top pic) that and my regular doses of 'True Blood' (oh i just can't get enough!) the girl on the far right of the bottom pic is my 'Fangtasia Girl' (inspired by the Vampire club in True Blood and the Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris). i'm a little bit low at the moment though, almost all of my friends are shooting off to University over the next few weeks, i feel ridiculously left out and very alone right now. i've hardly anything else to do but wander around the house drawing and watching movies, or visiting the local museum... and wandering round there as well. hhhmmm i really need to get out more!

lots o' luv dudes and dudettes :-D x

ps-how super excited am i for the new Mika album??? you guessed it... absoflippinglutelycompletelyandutterlyridiculouslyexcitipated!!! :-)

Mika Madness and London Calling

so... i had a lovely birthday, lots of lovely prezzies (including a heavenly Chloé Paddington handbag!) but the highlight for me had to be going to see Mika in London on Monday! it was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! that really is the only word that can describe it! whether you are a fan of his music or not, no-one could deny just how good a show it was! mountains of glitter covered the stage and Mika entertained the crowd with his brilliant new songs (which are now permanently stuck in my head!) it also can't be denied that the boy has style, especially since he was wearing a pair of bespoke mens shoes by the shoe god (and my own personal idol) Christian Louboutin!

check out this shot of the crowd before the gig eagerly awaiting his arrival! 

the trip to and from london on the train was fun as well (my older sister came with so... good times) but now it is sadly my last night in Coventry, i have been quite good this time, spending my days out shopping or with my family, but spending my evenings doing lots of illustrations for my Hospital Art project. anyway, i'd better go, i'm watching Ghostbusters 2 with my darling little nieces, au revoir mes amies :-D x  ps: i also have a brand new online Portfolio (that's right... another one!) check it out here byeeee x  

back to college!

well i'm back at college now! slightly sad not being able to lie-in for ages every day, but still glad to see my friends again. i am reeealllly starting to enjoy this new project! i've already made a teapot and a money box in ceramics! they are amaaaazing! and in fashion i am sooo ridiculously excited to be styling a 'Rave' themed photo shoot! it is sooo much fun! with Glow-sticks galore! i am also trying to update my myspace page as often as possible, i now have a grand total of 30 friends! hahah how saaaad! i've also been sneaking onto my cousins MFC page! i don't have my own profile on it because i can't really be bothered to get one! but she told me her password so i sneak on from time to time! :-D