Shopping Binge ★

wow it's been quite a few days since my last post!

apologies for that, i wasn't very well on Boxing Day and i just haven't really had much to blog about since then!

those days between Christmas and New Year are like a strange bewildering limbo, i honestly lose track of the date and day, it's scary!

anyway, i got up at stupid o'clock (also knows as 6:00am) to get ready for a trip to town

now i'm not a complete shopaholic, yes i have my moments but i tend to be pretty sensible when it comes to shopping binges

sadly today didn't go quite according to plan!

i had a big list of things i needed to get and for once i actually managed to get everything on the list!

the problem was that i also got quite a few other things as well...

i believe an appropriate term would be 'seriously good haul today' 

amongst these 'things' was a super duper Gil Elvgren Pin-up Calendar for 2011 

my mum got me the little desk version of it for my College desk but i wanted one for my room as well

i also got two gorrrrrgeous children's picture books by two of my favourite illustrators, i always pop to the picture book section to have a skeet and chuffed that i found these two.

there's... the Princess and the Pea

 with artwork by Lauren Child (and photographer Polly Borland)

and the Princess who had no Kingdom 

with beautiful artwork by Sarah Gibb

i also snagged myself a Doctor Who annual (i'm a total sci-fi fan girl ok... live with it! + ANY excuse to look at pictures of Matt Smith... yes i am sad, get over that fact also)

i also went to 'Funny Love' and found a new Popobe bear to add to my collection...

then i spotted a cuuuuute memo holder with days of the week on pegged boards (from Pomegranate in Onchan)

i also popped back to 'Funny love' and treated myself to a luuuurvely little 'fluff' luggage tag

actually i'm pretty sure that it's the SAME one that i bought Charlotte for Christmas, so i hope she won't mind but i loved it so much i wanted one too! 

they're tags are soooooooo cute though it was hard to resist!

and,  last but not least, i treated myself to the truly awesome Dita Von Teese 'Stripteese' book set which includes three little mini flipbooks full of photos of the lovely Dita

i luuuuurve this so much! i spotted it during my first trip of the day to Waterstone's and just had to get it

ah yes... about Waterstone's

i actually made no less than THREE separate visits to the store today and i'm afraid i bought books EVERY SINGLE TIME i went through those doors! 

god knows what the staff thought, the same ones were serving every time i went in so they were probably moderately freaked out!

arrrghhh what is it with me and book shops! 

i bought a few others as well but i can't post them on here since they're going to be gifts for family members 

the point is... i should NOT be allowed near that bookshop more than once a week let alone more than once a day!

three trips... THREE!

there is clearly something wrong with me!!! 

* * *

oh oh AND!!!!

before i forget...

i also got a few more little bits to add to the GIVEAWAY pile

here we have a little fluffy acrylic phone charm from 'Funny Love' + a pot of pretty turquoise eye shimmer from '17' at Boots + a mini Bourjois lip gloss phone charm also from Boots

cute stuff to add to an already cute collection of bits and bobs!

now about this Giveaway... hardly anyone has entered it so far! and i am not best pleased!

i should have explained this before but... there are NO country restrictions for entering the Giveaway!

it doesn't matter where you live, you're welcome to enter and if you win i will post out the prizes to you regardless of how much the postage costs me!

hell i've won stuff from America and Australia before so the least i can do is post stuff out to the winner, regardless of the country they live in for MY own Giveaway!

so come on... get entering already! it's super duper simple and you've still got just over 20 days to enter so there are NO excuses!!!

read THIS post right here to find out how YOU can enter the Giveaway - 

★ ★ ★ Giveaway ★ ★ ★

* * *

and that is it for today dudes and dudettes

i'll post again before the new year, maybe on New Year's Eve

who knows...

until next time,

that's all folks...

◕‿◕ ★

teşekkür ederim ve hoşça kal

(that's thank you and goodbye in Turkish on behalf of Turkey, so thanks for visiting my blog all you lovely Turkish people out there x)

Halloween Pinup Girls ★

so it's almost that time of year again, the most spooktacular and creepalicious of days... all Hallows eve aka Halloween or Samhain or Hop Tu Naa etc etc...


anyway in light of this, since i literally never do anything for Halloween i thought i'd have a go at a few more Halloween Pin-up Girl illustrations.


so... thus far i've completed the Tattooed Pin-up Girl and the Midnight Burlesque Girl (follow the links if you haven't seen them already)


i haven't actually finished any more of them yet but i HAVE been trying to gather a pinch of research and a sprinkling of inspiration from some of these gorrrrgeous classic Pin-up paintings...


we'll start off with a little bit of Gil Elvgren magic...

swiftly followed by... some more Gil Elvgren spookiness

followed by this super duper Pin-up Witch, by Bill Layne (1966)

and 'This Trick's a Treat' by Freeman Elliot (1950) 

then on to... George Petty's 'Salem Witch' (1945) 

and after that, here's the rather fabulous 'Lady is a Witch' novel cover by Earle Bergy (1950)

and we'll finish with my personal favourite... some more classic Gil Elvgren sparkle... 

'Riding High' (1959)

and that's pretty much all of my research so far... just thought i'd share these rather darling little vintage lovelies with you all...

ok i'm off to have a go at some more of my own Halloween Pin-up Girls now!

i'd also like to point out that almost all of the pictures used in today's post were sourced from the utterly fabulous and super duper Sexy Witch blog which (witch...) you can go and visit riiiiight HERE - Sexy Witch

actually... now it's time for some lunch so i'll start on the pin-up stuff after!

that's all folks...

◕‿◕ ♥ xX

Pin-ups and Printers ♥

It is officially Pin-up day here at college. Well, it is at my desk in the HND cave anyway! The printer is finally working for me again so my desk is now quite literally covered in pictures, paintings and photos of Pin-up girls! It's awesome and very super duper. And yes... I brought my laptop in with me again, but only because I had so much research to print off!

I had a go at sorting a few more of the keyrings this morning as well. They're looking pretty nifty I must say, but it's given me loooads of ideas for other keyring designs and badges, mirrors etc etc blah blah blah. I won't bore you with my merch daydreams!

Oh I also spent some time this morning on THIS (don't worry the image below should be linked to the page as well) It's a totally fabby and marvy Pin-up girl maker 'paper doll' (or digi-doll since it's all online) by one of my fave artists, Kei Phillips also known as 'Kinkei'. Check out her super blog here – Kinkei's Blog

here's a folder she made on deviantART chock full of her awesome and totally gorgeous Pin-up Girls - FOLDER

If you love all things Pin-up have a go on the digital paper doll, it is sooooo much fun! I could have spent hours on it creating pin-up girls. As it was I had to stop playing with the doll to talk to my tutor Helen about my project ideas. She also seemed to like the Pin-up idea so... success so far!

Anyway, I managed to grab a screen cap of these four little lovelies before I had to stop...

See, instant Pin-up's and hours of fun...

right i have to go now because it's nearly time for me to 'sign-on' at college. no i'm not going on the dole, it just means i'm being officially signed on as a student. for the third year in a row!

happy Friday btw, TGIF and all that jazz. i got some bad news last night/this morning but thankfully i'm at college all day so it's doing a smashing job of taking my mind off everything!

have a great weekend

that's all folks...

◕‿◕ ♥ xX