It Was Only Rock 'n' Roll...

Well, I have returned from the greatest party on Earth and ready to get things going here again. I took a bunch of photos, 35mm, polaroid and all as well as a few videos too so there's a little bit to get through. I don't want to bore you with it all so there will probably be a few other things in between while I get around to all of it.

Glastonbury really is the best festival, and everything bad about it, like the long drops, loud Mancurians and all the walking are all made up for in atmosphere (and the vibes). We were so lucky with the weather this year, and the acts, we saw some great things - including a few 'secret' sets. My musical highlights were probably The Rolling Stones and Dizzee Rascal, completely not my thing but I loved them. I actually didn't see anyone that I didn't thoroughly enjoy, apart from The Lumineers, but we'll just back-bench them.

It just seemed much more relaxed than previous years, I guess I'm getting on for being a bit of a veteran at this by now. It's the first time I've managed to see all three headliners on the Pyramid stage and I'm pretty proud of not having my usual Friday-meltdown from exhaustion that I've had before. We spent a lot of time on our own just because there's always so much to do, but the group we went with were a great bunch and it was so fun to find out what everyone had been up to at the end of the day.

Thank you for having us, Glasto, see you again next year. ♥ ♥ ♥

I'm not really sure what else to say, everything is a lot more mundane when you've given yourself two days off to take everything in and all you've got to do is get a haircut and do laundry. It's very quiet without 176,999 other people to enjoy a field with...

First Days of Spring.

It's been a little while since we last spoke and I'm incredibly aware that my most recent posts are a toss up between actually being okay, and talking about why I haven't updated. Truth be told the reason for my absence lies in laziness and lack of energy. I wish I could tell you I've been doing lots of exciting things and snapping away but what's actually happened is that I've spent most of my waking, non-working hours attempting to read nearly every article on Thought Catalog - which is super hard because it's updated every day! - and watching Werner Herzog documentaries - I liked Grizzly Man a lot. I sure am hoping this is just a winter slump, because how rubbish has the weather in the UK been recently?!

In between getting my car, seeing my mum and seeing friends, I've not really had a lot of time to go out and take photos of fun things recently. Also, because I'm not home until the evening most days, it's dark and there's less opportunities for taking decent snaps. I'm hoping that the arrival of spring will come with me updating this space more regularly again, but I feel so out of the loop.

I mean, I actually feel a little out of whack generally too, where have the first three months of this year gone, it's practically April! We've been able to make a few more plans in the coming months so I'm hoping the new season will bring more productivity than the first part of the year has seen and what better way to see begin this new season than with a list of things I hope will happen?

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1. Eat more healthily but find fun healthy recipes to enjoy – I actually hate eating for function and prefer to enjoy my food. That being said, lack of exercise (I really don't enjoy doing much when it's cold/wet outside and I'm aware how lazy this is) has left me feel a little more lumpy than I'd like and I want to fix it.

2. Do more – Not just going 'out' but also doing fun things for free like going for walks and taking in nature, something I really love doing but haven't wanted to do - do you see a pattern?

3. Keep on top of my money – March has been an expensive month (thanks, car insurance) but I hope to start properly squirrelling money away this month in preparation for my upcoming trips to Glastonbury, Paris and (eventually, yes please) Reykjavik.

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Have you set yourself any springtime goals, I think that it's so much easier to make plans when the air is fresher.

Bye bye, January.

January sure has been sleepy, but that's not to say it's been without nice things.
I started off the year with fireworks in Florida, visiting ice sculptures and Disney World while Moon started it with a new job, it's quite exciting but it would have been better if we weren't so skint.
I've spent most of this month getting back into the swing of things and watching a lot of documentaries.


So it's kind of little weird that we're already 1/12 down isn't it? February does mean that spring is kind of the way though and it's a good excuse to get out of the January slump.

The Good

• The joy of routine – I do relish in everyday things, although I like to make a big deal and to do new things, I do like to know what I'm doing and when too; dull things like cleaning the flat and doing laundry.
• A more affectionate little cat – Doll maturing is just about the best thing.
• Cooking, a lot – From baking to creating tasty mains, this has been a good month for putting food in my face. I've discovered so many great new recipes that will definitely be making it into our weekly meal plan, my absolute favourite is Oven Brinner, delicious but perhaps not something to have all the time.
• Making plans – Thinking about what we're going to do that doesn't involve sitting around the house is great. We're already pretty much booked up until the third weekend of March!

The Less Good

• Being such a terrible blogger – I know it's not important but 6 posts in a month is pretty lacklustre for me so I'm not that happy about it. I guess it's a combination of adjusting, not doing anything interesting and not really having anything I wanted to talk about. It's definitely something I'm going to change in February.
• Driving – It's just something I'm absolutely terrible at, so let's move on...
• Snow/Rain/Wind - Snow's pretty but it's also pretty dull, I'm so looking forward to more consistent sun.

What's next?

• Read more, much more! – I'm not doing too badly at reading a bit more so far, but I still haven't finished a whole book yet, which is a little frustrating. It is basically because I haven't really tried but I'm halfway through the book I'm reading at the moment so I hope to read at least one more this month.
• Stay awake – I'm quite tired of being so tired so I want to try and force myself to have a little more 'get up and go', as I discovered a few days ago, actually doing things is less tiring than sitting doing nothing so I may as well give it try.
• See Wreck-It Ralph – Other people's opinions about this movie are irrelevant, I'm desperate to see it for so many reasons and I'm so excited that it's finally out in cinemas over here next weekend. It's a bit of a silly goal but I don't think it's too silly to get excited about movies, is it?
• Start editing my short film – Sounds a little pretentious like that, but I've got a ton of videos from Florida that I want to put together for my family and I've not even started to get down to it yet!
• Blog more – Easy peasy.
• It's St Valentine's Day! ♥ – I love Valentine's Day, and the cheesiness and the mushiness and the lovehearts. I love people watching too so sitting squished with couples isn't as bad to me as everyone keeps saying.

I don't know how I feel about round-up posts, but after such a slump I felt like I should write something.

This month I've been listening this a lot, put it mainly down to my obsession with American Horror Story.

Musical Whimsy.

It's kind of difficult to get the words out right now because there's so much that I have to say. I'll start by saying that I'm back from Reading Festival and it's so lovely to see some new faces, I hope I can keep you entertained. Today's been pretty lazy, given that it's miserable outside and I now have the luxury of bricks and mortar surrounding me rather than flimsy tarpaulin. Even though there was a last-minute raid of our tent by some idiot, which left them empty-handed (it's awesome being as poor as a church mouse), and us having to pack up in the dark, we managed to get home and washed by 1:30am last night. There are few things better than a post-festival shower, the colour of the water when I washed my hair was quite something.
Given the stories I've been told, Reading was actually really rather good, and I must say that Glastonbury should really book Reading's toilet guys because aside from the long drops being stinky for obvious reasons, they were practically immaculate, There were even flushing toilets in the arena, so fancy. That said, despite perfectly adequate toilets, certain festival-goers did seem to feel the need to go elsewhere, luckily I didn't have first-hand experience of this but I certainly witnessed the aftermath in passing. I think that's enough talk about toilets though, given that it's a music festival.

As I mentioned in my last post I only really bothered with Reading because my friends were going, I guess a part of me was missing an annual festival attendance, but there weren't really any bands I was dying to see that I couldn't see in other circumstances. I'll have to go back on myself though because the music was the best part! I saw so many great bands, and loved bands I didn't really think I liked. I don't think I'll go out of my way to head to Reading again for a few reasons but I did really enjoy myself. The average age was easily 16, at 23, I don't feel it's right to feel old but part of me really did.

Reading is absolutely tiny compared to Glastonbury so it was pretty luxurious to not have an hour walk to and from camp, but overall I'd say that aspect and the toilets are where it's oneupmanship ends, because it's just not Glastonbury - the theme park of festivals. I think I would recommend Reading but it's far to expensive considering the tiny price difference against Glastonbury and the lack of other entertainment and overall variety.

Anyway, I've yammered on enough, here's a list of my favourite acts from the weekend.
1. The Maccabees

(via BBC)

It was never not going to be because they're my favourite, they played a similar set to when I saw them at Alexandra Palace, but they were beautiful. The ended on 'Grew Up At Midnight' and had such pretty lights, I've actually decided it's the best when you see a band and you know all the words (it's even better when you know you're a crazy who's seen the band in question three times in the last year).

2. Florence + The Machine

(via BBC)

The weather was horrible and the stage was soaked, but she sounded CD-perfect, went into the crowd and looked beautiful. She's an amazing performer, and seems really genuine, I might be developing a slight girl-crush on her, very hard not to when she's such a total babe.

3. Dry the River

(via BBC)

I'm fairly certain this was the biggest gig the boys have played but they sounded as great as usual. Pete's vocals never fail to blow me away and it's kind of awesome to see how far they've come in a little over a year.
P.S. Pete's t-shirt is a winner.

4. Kaiser Chiefs

(via BBC)

There's always a soft spot in me for Ricky Wilson, but Kaiser Chiefs are so great live! Their lyrics and concept translate so well to large crowds, they had me singing along and thinking.

5. Of Monsters And Men
I must admit to being sick of them as Moon always has their CD in the car, but they were flawless and I might not complain so much about them now.

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Favourite new-to-me bands: Not necessarily my favourites of the weekend, but definitely acts that I'll be plugging myself into now I've given them a try.
Palma Violets — These guys were the second band we saw of the festival, I can't ever really get enough of indie-pop-rock.
Friends — The lead singer, Samantha Urbani looks so cool and is a mega-babe, they're also super-fun.
Metronomy — I know that they've been around for a while and it's not like I've avoided them, they've just never crossed my path. I saw them headline the Lock-Up/Dance tent on Saturday night and their bass was so high it vibrated through my whole body, which was pretty amazing, I just want to hear more.

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My 15 year-old self would definitely be very happy with me as I managed to take in the worst (best) kept secret of Reading and see Green Day, who were so good! I definitely feel like Foo Fighters and The Hives deserve a mention too, past-Me would be super happy with the energy they brought, I may have even teared up a little during Dave Grohl's speech during their encore.

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I have a few photos of my own to share with you soon too. I feel quite excited, if only it wasn't the bank holiday then I'd be able to get them developed. I hope you enjoy the rest of your bank holiday.

Tuesday Tabs #28

Howdy, I hope you're having as an amazing Tuesday as I am. It's been a year and almost a full month since I graduated and I've struggled and muddled my way through life ever since, with semi-exploitative but invaluable internships to my current, confidence-boosting not-what-I-want-to-be-doing-but-will-do-for-now minimum wage job. All that aside, I've grown as a person and am stronger than I've ever been, not that I have to worry about any of that now, because I finally have a really grown-up job!

It was coming to the point where I was on the verge of tears at the beginning of every other shift and I just didn't know what I was doing or where I wanted my life to go. Now I have an escape route and I can see the end, I'm going to be an 'Online Merchandiser' for a company in Reading. Not 100% on discretion right now, but I'll tell you this, I'm bloody excited. I had the interview and was rung while still on the way home, I actually hung up on the MD thanks to my silly touchscreen phone, but this is the best news I've had all year. Pizza tonight to celebrate!

Back to business, here are my favourite things from around the Internet this week. I was going to try and tie this into a 'birthday wishlist' kind of dealio as it's only 9 days until I'm the grand old age of 23, but there's too much going on and I never really know what I want anyway.

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(via It's Nice That)

Michael Cho's comic-inspired artwork is awesome, I wish he did prints. His other art is pretty cool too, you can check out his Blogspot here.


Wire House Envelope Rack, Invotis Orange
Kind of hard to resist now these are on Fab.com with £4.50 off. I've been searching for the perfect envelope rack for a while as Moon just plonks his post everywhere and I'm almost just as bad, this would look so cute on our kitchen counter.


Beach High Waist Skirt, Love Ur Look
How cute is this skirt? Now I have an little excuse for a slight wardrobe expansion, I'm tempted. Love the simple waist detail!


Anorak Twin Rabbit Duvet Cover, Urban Outfitters
I wish Urban Outfitters weren't so stingey with their bed linen, I can't work out if this comes with pillow slips, as well as not having the cash, but this is one of my favourite patterns and I'd be all over it if the description wasn't so vague and if I was a single duvet kind of girl.


Turquoise Brimfield Bookcase, Urban Outfitters
Urban Outfitters announced their furniture range last week, and you should know by now I'm smitten for pretty interiors and these came as I'm looking for something in this kind of area. It's a little big for the flat but we are in need of more storage, I wish this came half the size, the colour is so nice.


Nearly forgot how good Tom The Lion is.


Paper Dress Necklaces, Hug A Porcupine via The Little Dröm Store
So adorable! I like the blue one best. ♥


Marathon La Sardina, Fototo
I've been using Charlotte's La Sardina for a couple of days and although I'm still making a decision, this is definitely the La Sardina I would want should I decide to get one. The images will definitely be the deciding factor but I'm not even halfway through my first roll yet.

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Link Love: ♥

Summer on Film on The Dainty Squid — Summer is always the perfect time to get back into film, I think I'll be taking 35mm to Reading to spare getting robbed. The quality of these images is great too, I definitely want to spend some more time working with film even more after seeing this.

White Layer Cake with Lemon Curd — This will be great for making those multi-coloured 'Pinterest/Tumblr' cakes, thanks to Wrapped Up In Rainbows for sharing.

Dinosaur Bunting from Sass & Belle — Super cute!

Home Sketchbook — This post from Goodnight Little Spoon on the sketchbook about her home she made for a class is really neat. An idea I might be stealing to fill up my own sketchbook, I need a little boost.

Eames Pens & Pencils Mug from Urban Outfitters — I already have so many mugs, but I keep seeing so many pretty ones around. I might start coyly smashing the ones we already have just to pick up beauts like this one.

The Pronunciation Manual — Hours of procrastinating fun to be had.

Turkglishish.

Given that I've returned to the same drizzle that made me want to up and leave, I'm currently wearing tights and I need to go food shopping, it pretty much goes without saying that it would be very nice to still be in Turkey now.

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For a first time visit, it was pretty great, I really went in blind and was only searching for sun. I loved where we stayed, even if our hotel was a little rough around the edges and I've left with so much to share with you. It was the most relaxed I've seen Moon in about a year and it was great to really spend time with him without having to worry about anything other than suncream applications. It was between 40 and 50°C nearly every day with hardly any humidity, the sea was so clear and there were even cats! Still, at least I can have hot drinks again which will help the sore throat I'm currently nursing.

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I don't want to create an information overload so I'm going to break everything up but I am excited to share everything with you, as well as a few other un-Turkey things in between. I have so much myself to catch up on too, hello new faces, it's nice of you to stop by ♥. I'm coming back with fresh eyes to everything, with much more energy ready to head in the right direction and even get back on the job hunt bandwagon.


I made myself the best playlist to go away with, filled with summer tunes from now and before. I hope to share a few with you in the coming posts, even if to take your own mind of the miserable weather too.

Today (after a food shop - boo!), I'll be heading into town to get my photos printed and scout for an album to put them in, I'm feeling creative and so looking forward to throwing myself into a project. Tonight, I'm hoping to round off my lovely holiday with a Jurassic Park marathon, pretty exciting.

Tuesday Tabs. #6

Hey, so I missed last week, because I was busy being pretend-romantic, so let's pretend that it didn't happen and carry on, yeah?

My internship might be finishing early and end this week, it's been a bit of a struggle to find things for me to do recently. I'm glad my boss recognised this, I had a previous internship where I finished all the work by 12 but sat until 6 with nothing to do. I've learnt a lot though, and I think I could handle working in a 'weekly publication' environment. I realise that being an intern is completely different though as you don't really have much responsibility but I love to learn and I'm already quite organised, so...
I don't know, I'm not saying that it will be fun to get back to applying for jobs, but it will be good to do it without worrying about other commitments and feeling guilty.
I'm spending today job hunting as it happens, with Moon and then we're going to go to the post office and for a walk, which is nice.

Because I missed last week there are a few Valentines things, although like I mentioned in a previous post, hearts should be (and basically are in my case) all year round.

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Don't leave rug, £12, Urban Outfitters
How lonely is this rug? I wouldn't keep my hopes up for quality, but you never know with Urban Outfitter's pricing structure. I'm tempted but I'm really trying to steer away from novelty homewares, attempting to semi-grow up and go for classic items...


ASOS Eiffel tower sunglasses, £12 £9, ASOS
Struggling to see when anyone would be able to wear these, but I kind of like them. You'd definitely be the coolest girl walking around Paris if you were to wear these.


Bunny slap-watch, £12, ASOS
Although I love my watch, because it's simple and I'm unlikely to ever become bored of it, I often find myself drawn to kooky watches like this one.


Like everyone else on the Internet, I've been loving a bit of Gotye this week. However, having a boyfriend who loves music as much as mine does, I had actually heard 'Somebody that I used to know' without realising and in the form of this cover. I wouldn't recommend bothering with their other covers because they just don't live up to this one's 'epicness'. I do permanently have this song in my head anyway now though, thanks to it being overplayed at work and on the radio. I'm getting used to the full album and am still unsure how I feel but Gotye has definitely placed himself firmly on my playlist with 'Somebody that I used to know' at least.


Rob Ryan: Four Trees, Four Seasons ceramic plates, £29.50, Amazon
There's basically nothing stopping me now I've discovered a goldmine of affordable Rob Ryan products. Like I said I was a bit bummed out about the mugs I bought for Moon, but the amount of stuff available more than makes up for it. I would be very proud to own these plates indeed. I've already picked up a copy of Rob's latest book, 'This is for You' for a snip of what Urban Outfitters was charging, out of principal, I probably wouldn't have picked it up from there anyway.


Red/orange dolly coat, £75 £25, Dorothy Perkins
So tempted by the price but winter is almost over and I wouldn't even get to wear it, and by next winter I'd hope to have a job and therefore be able to buy whatever coat I want without worrying about it being on sale.

(via Hello Giggles)

I thought this was a pretty nice tribute to Whitney Houston from Autumn Andersen and Eli Boragine for Hello Giggles' video juke box. I don't feel like I would say anything that hasn't already been said on the rest of the matter, and overall it's not my place to say anything anyway.

(via Interior Porn)

(via HelloYou Creatives)

Cute advert for Social Media Week. I often wonder what I'll be like in forty years time...
Link Love ♥

DIY Valentine's Day Inspired Nail Polish — I thought this was a great tutorial, not only for creating heart nail polish but also realising that there's actually no reason to fork out for overpriced glitter polishes when it's that easy to make you own. Why had I never cottoned on to it before, it's so obvious! The actual blog also has a ton of other neat DIY ideas which you should definitely have a peak at. (via Gem Fatale)

Eva Franco for Modcloth — I try and stay away from Modcloth because it's just too tempting with too hefty a delivery price for the UK. But this collection is beautiful, my favourites are the Swan in a Million dress and the Frames and Fortune dress, so happy to see the galaxy print slowly diffusing down into wearable items.

Katy Perry by David LaChappelle for GHD — So, I'm not that interested in fashion photography overall but I can appreciate it and I've got a soft spot for David LaChappelle, because I was a Photography student and because he's one of the ones you have to like, like Nan Goldin or Martin Parr. So I enjoy this campaign he shot for the new GHD collection, it's put together in a really clever way and it's so shiny and pretty.

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I guess I'm a bit sorry that there's not so much this week despite the fact I didn't post one last week either, but I've been both busy and tired, which isn't a great combination. Don't worry, you'll reap the full benefits when I'm definitely unemployed again next week.

Happy 4th January!

And happy new year, etc.

I would apologise for my absence but I've been quite busy, and productive so I won't say anything, except hello!
I have a backlog of photos to share with you. Mainly from NYE, which was actually quite fun, until Moon and I ended up on his sofa at 3:30am watching Glastonbury highlights that we'd already seen. A bit of Ring of Fire always brings people together, but more on that in a future post.

Right now, I'm sat here typing to you because after literally months of promising (really you can check up if you want), I finally got round to uploading and posting my online portfolio. I'm actually quite pleased with it, so thank you Digital Photo Gallery, you are simplistic and just what I wanted.
The only thing I am having slight issues with is that my 'About' page looks odd, but it will do for the time-being as I think I'm overdone on the whole thing after spending the last two days on it.

The New Year was definitely a good excuse to get it over and done with because after having put it off basically since graduating, I'm fairly certain that I needed a reason for a little get up and go. I mean, I dabbled in making one from scratch and if I was honest with myself and really tried, I could probably have breezed through it, but sadly, I have a tendency to be quite lazy and would rather just refresh my social presences all day.

I external-linked to this blog because I've grown far too attached to it to create a new one for the soul purpose of having everything integrated. I also linked to my old Photography Tumblr for my University work for the sheer ease, but also due to the fact that had I not, I would have to list each project in the sidebar (unless someone can tell me otherwise), which would definitely look crap, and the Tumblr isn't too dissimilar to my portfolio anyway, plus no one will actually be leaving the site.

So I'm fairly pleased with it anyway, and feeling a lot more confident in my abilities as a photographer now that I've categorised and ordered everything and it's out there for real people to see. It would be nice to have some feedback on it.

Link: http://www.ruthjohnstonphotography.com

On the job front, there is nothing that exciting, although I'm sure there are people still bleary-eyed from their first day back. I'm going to give everything a bit more time as most of the emails I've sent out were over Christmas so I wasn't expecting an immediate response anyway.
I have got an interview tomorrow though, not sure if it's creative as the description was a bit vague and the title was kind of general, I'm still looking forward to it though, it sounds like it has potential to be interesting.
This is not very 'me' for my first blog of 2012, but I thought you should know that I have a portfolio now and that I've begun the year with an attempt to be less lazy and do the one thing I should have done the previous year.