Tuesday, 31 January 2012

Tuesday Tabs. #4

What a morning it's been, I've applied for five jobs and arranged two interviews for next week, all before I've even begun my internship with Shortlist tomorrow, bit crazy. I'm a little bit desperate for a bit of a life-change soon though, so it's really exciting. Both the interviews are for things that I'd really like to do too, so that's a real bonus, so chuffed!

Anyway, enough blabbing about jobs, this is a safe haven, free from stress etc.
Here are some great things I've found this week, some I even only found this morning.
Isn't this dress awesome? I don't think it's very practical but it's certainly a lovely way to recycle a map. Made by Annex as part of their Travel Wardrobe collection, each dress is unique and handmade from a vintage map



Cheese! Satchel, Jump from Paper, $80
This is a real life satchel from handbag designers Jump from Paper, their whole shop is full of similar neat designs that mess with your eyes.

Second impractical dress of the day, this time by artist Joy Kampia. Sadly this dress is a one-off and has now been sold but Joy is still taking commissions.



I kind of really love that HelloGiggles lets things like this happen.


(via WAH Nails)
I've given this a go and it actually hasn't come out as badly as I thought, takes a lot of patience though, wouldn't recommend doing these if you're in a rush.


Dap Bros. - Jeff “The Dude” Lebowski and Walter Sobchak, The Big Lebowski (1998) by Henry the Worst



I actually thought this was a much better advert than the full-length Superbowl version. I wouldn't go as far as to say the full-length one is bad, as many others have, I just wouldn't say it has as much 'Ferris magic', although some of the references are 'so choice'. Who really cares if Matthew Broderick is milking a cash cow anyway? He was the coolest teenager to ever exist.


Giorgio 1982 & 2011 Paris. Back to the Future, Irina Werning (2010 onwards)
Part of an on-going series putting subjects back in the shoes of their past. Some of the images are spookily similar, others beautifully poignant.

I think it's very important that I put at least one cat-related thing on here. This is from Cat Versus Human and is available on a nice t-shirt.

Link Love:
  • Timeline Movie Maker — This pretty much does what it says, but it's a lot more impressive than you might think. Here's the link to my one to give you an idea. It's not hard to do anyway and another good way to procrastinate, plus you can pick theme music!
  • A Beautiful Mess — A lovely Typepad blog which posts all sorts of lovely craft ideas, including how to make floral boots, and DIY salad dressing.
  • Polyvore — This is for my own reference more than anyone else's. I have known about Polyvore for a long time but keep losing it, I probably won't even use it, but it's nice to know that now I can find it if I need to. If you don't know what it is, it's basically an incredibly easy way to make up clothes wish-lists/look-books from your favourite shops and designers, it's quite clever.
  • Hi My Name is Elliot Hasse — Sometimes job-hunting turns into a full-blown career, and it's no wonder when witty, creative people like Elliot Hasse are the people that graduates have to compete against. I wouldn't even know where to start if I made a CV like this.
  • Anxiety Cat — As I've mentioned a few times, my nerves aren't great right now but Anxiety Cat really puts things into perspective, and reminds me how ridiculous humans can be. I do find it strange that there are a couple of unrelated posts offering discount depression medication but I would hope that people are just looking for a fun meme rather than the former.
  • Eye Contact — A great collection of film stills of actors 'breaking the fourth wall', and generally making unintentionally pretty pictures. Naturally you can only find this kind of stuff on Tumblr.
  • Top 10 Business Card Designs
  • 5 Simple Ways to Get Your Work Out There
  • Another Graphic Design Graduate — The details of how I found this blog are a bit vague but I was feeling pretty low on the job from last week and this anonymous guy/girl took the words right out of my month. It's pretty interesting and talks about the highs and lows of being an seemingly eternal intern.


  • You may or may not have noticed that I've given in on the '30 day challenge' at the halfway hurdle, mainly because on further investigation the challenge was stupid and I don't have enough different friends that range from being 'shoulders to cry on' through to 'people who have always been there', it was lame. I'm an adult, I want to try and find one that involves taking photos of specific things for a set time period, if anyone could help me out that would be nice. :)

    Monday, 30 January 2012

    Workspace-Playplace.

    One thing I am looking forward to incredibly once I am finally able to move out is not having to have a desk in my room. Silly as it sounds, I'm a definite believer in keeping the bedroom a bedroom, it's for relaxing and sleeping, not somewhere to work and be distracted, I'm even in two minds about having a TV in my room still, but I don't use it as much as I was worried I would.

    However, while I deal with my distaste over having to have everything I own confined to one room, here is where I spend my days job hunting and pointlessly refreshing Facebook and Twitter.

    Over the last couple of weeks I've been trying to create a more 'Me' space, just to keep myself motivated. So I've ended up making extra room, getting rid of my monitor and replacing it with nice photos. I'm still bummed about the desk but I should be getting a new one/my old one back in the next few weeks.

    I'm a big fan of looking at lovely, creative workspaces and right now mine isn't fully living up to my expectations but it will do for now and I'm quite happy with it.


    Lovely desks, and interiors in a similar category.
  • Raisin Heart — I found this on Tumblr through Lyzi from Being Litte. I think it has a really good balance of work and play without becoming clutterd.
  • Kate Moross — If there's one thing that I admire about Kate Moross, it's definitely her studio/work spaces. She's got a great set on Flickr documenting the changes in her studio environment between 2006 and 2010, there's so many nice colours and so much lovely storage space.
  • Crap by Never Ever Ever — This is a photo I found on Flickr years ago, but I still think it's great in fact when making this quick list I was kind of hoping that I still had this one tucked away so I could share it with you.
  • Samantha Stolz — There are things that are almost perfect about this one.
  • Oliver Fields' Office — (If I could find a better photo, I would) Although 'Beginners' is beginning to feel like my 'movie to obsess over 2k12' this is relevant. The main character, Oliver, has the most bangin' office space at the design agency he works for, it has a yellow wall, this very important and provides major workspace porn.

  • While I'm here, here are the cute things I bought on Saturday in Shoreditch. I didn't go mad or really spend much so I think these purchases were both justified and harmless.

    Tea-light holders, InSpitalfields, £2 each
    These were in the sale at InSpitalfields, an adorable giftshop in Spitalfields Market, I can't go to Spitalfields without a visit there, everything is so cute. Not quite trumping Maiden to the topspot of 'Fave Shoreditch shops' but it's still pretty great and I thought these were a steal and I've been looking for some for a while. I wanted three but they didn't have any with ladies to go with the gentlemen :(


    Vintage 1930's Transfers, Spitalfields Flea Market, £4
    I will be the first to admit that this is a bit pricey for what they are but I also don't think that they broke the bank either. Plus the lady I bought them from said that I can stick them on anything and that she'd just stuck some on some glasses, which sounds like a cute craft idea. If nothing else, they'll definitely match my new cat-lady persona.


    The Maccabees Fabric Poster, Brixton Academy, £10
    Frame, Charity Shop, £4
    You probably spotted this above, I found a frame for this a lot quicker than I thought I would. It's a really old and weird frame but I don't think anyone will notice/be looking at the back so it's all good. I'm in two minds over the crease across the poster, on the one had it show it's fabric and it's effort to iron and take it out, but on the other it would probably look a million miles better if I ironed it... I think I'll leave it like this for the moment until it has a more permanent home.


    Paul Thurlby card, Scribbler, 75p
    Frame, Barnados, 99p

    So while I was taking these, Dolly realised that paper is the enemy and must be destroyed, apart from paper bags, they're the best. So thank you InSpitalfields, not just for the tea-light holders but also for the minutes of entertainment that you provided my kitty.
    We're getting to know each other better and better and she even responded to her name earlier, although finding bits of tissue paper everywhere is slightly annoying...


    730.

    I had quite a busy weekend in the end, and it was definitely one for friends, it was quite nice to take my mind of my nerves for a while.

    On Saturday I met up with my friend from my course, Abbie, who I went to Paris with. We met at Liverpool Street station and we then headed over to Spitalfields and had pizza at Fire & Stone; I had a weird pizza called 'Byron Bay' which had sweet potato on it, it sounds odd, but it was delicious.
    The vintage flea market was at Spitalfields so I couldn't resist taking a few snaps but was a bit disappointed at the lack of taxidermy this weekend, although there were some other weird things such as a vintage litter, which would have been fun to ride around in.
    I like Waterloo & City because it's mint green but I hate Bank because it's like a lab-rat run.




    Saturday seemed to be the day for HMV record players, I was quite tempted by this one but how could you guarantee that it would work?



    I'd love a wacky house-phone for my someday home. I think this one is stretching it a bit, and I doubt it would even go with anything, but I thought the fact that it even exists was pretty funny.


    This stall was run by a a proper wheeler-dealer. He had a Volkswagen emblem hanging on a chain around his neck and a Delboy jacket, but he was only about 25. He had so many cameras to choose from (including the ones below), as well as lots of weird clothes. I kind of wish I'd taken a photo of him as well.


    This stall was probably my favourite. I picked up some 1930s transfers from here, that can be used on any material, even glass! I was so tempted by those dog shot glasses but resisted purely because I don't really like shots or have anyone to do them with even if I did.



    Here's the litter I mentioned, it was quite small but even so it's not exactly something you see everyday and you could definitely easily get an Emperor at least.


    This is New York-based artist OLEK show at Tony's Gallery just off of Brick Lane. It was a room covered in knitting, so cool. You might remember I posted a yarn-bombed bicycle from the last time I visited Shoreditch.

    After Spitalfields we walked down Brick Lane and towards Box Park. It was my first time actually seeing Box Park since it was finished at the beginning of December but I thought it was really well done. I'm still incredibly surprised that there are still so many empty lots when I would have thought the revenue generated would far outweigh the issue of having to furnish and brand one from scratch. Nonetheless it was still awesome, we went into most of the shops on the top deck and bought a few bits from Cyber Candy before peeping in at the slightly less affordable shops on the bottom level. They're all laid out so well, I can't wait to see how Box Park evolves in the future.


    It was a really nice way to spend a Saturday afternoon, and I really love that part of London, made me kind of miss working at Ink.

    Yesterday, my friend Tom came over, it was kind of last-minute but kind of not at the same time. Either way I think if we had planned it better we would have got a lot more out of the day, but it was still a lovely, easygoing Sunday.
    We had a cup of tea and then went over to the restaurant for lunch, before deciding that Richmond Park would be a nice way to while away the hours. I came up with the idea to do a photo scavenger hunt; in that we would all try and capture images of different things that can be found at Richmond Park; you can see Tom's photo of the list here. I think we may have been a bit over-ambitious because there were no deer to be seen, unlike the last time I visited. There was also a lack of other things on our list that are listed on the Richmond Park website. We did have a good walk and some fresh air though and I did manage to get a few of the things on the list as well as some other nice photos of the landscape, which looked so baron on such a cold day.

    An oak tree.



    A body of water.



    I didn't manage to spy any songbirds but there were a lot of green parakeets around, this was the best photo I got of one though... :(


    Fungi.

    Some of the trees made really interesting shapes, I wonder what this one looks like with its leaves on.





    Canada goose.


    Dog walkers.


    Pen pond (We think)



    A duck.


    Swans.

    Sadly, this is the closest I got to horseriders...

    I still think Richmond Park is beautiful, even on a wintery day like yesterday.







    People on a day out.

    After returning from Richmond Park we played with Dolly for a bit before Tom headed off home.


    The whole weekend was great and laid-back, so lovely to meet up with old friends after a long time. I'd definitely love to try another photo scavenger hunt again soon.

    How did you spend your weekend? I hope you did something fun.

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