Tuesday Tabs #19

I haven't been very good at blogging recently and it makes me a bit sad because I like doing it so much, most other things have been nice though so I can't complain.

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Catch Your Eye Mini Wall Clock, $44.99, Modcloth
This is such a cute wall-clock, I don't even mind that it's a bit of a novelty item, it would look so nice in our hallway.


I just really love Keane and I don't care who knows it, this is my favourite track from their new album, it makes me so pleased that it's summer. I currently have Keane and King Charles on repeat, which is unusual for me but both albums are so great.


Heart Mesh Flippy Dress, £48, Topshop
I usually avoid Topshop in an attempt to avoid disappointment, but this dress is too adorable. It would be awesome for a date but the price tag is a bit much for what is (come on, Topshop!) though I'd certainly be pleased to own it.


I sure hope this movie is as good as it looks, it's been a while since I've seen a new film like this and I love Steve Carrell when he's serious.


Horse=print dip-hem blouse, £28, Dorothy Perkins


Backless Shirt Dress, £39, Oh My Love for Topshop
I seriously need to have a sort-through of my wardrobe, I'm sure I have some pretty summer dresses in there somewhere, I have to, just to stop myself from picking up cute little numbers like this. It would be so great for a day like today.


ASOS VIXON Flatform Creepers, £35, ASOS
I've been waiting forever for a pair of more affordable creepers, although I'm not dying about the colour of these I may bear them in mind, even if they are a bit more Autumn/Winter. Thank you, ASOS.


You Bring Light to the World Ceramic Tile, Rob Ryan
I have a new favourite Rob Ryan tile. ♥

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Link Love: ♥

Hanging Basket Garden DIY — Moon and I have just put out our tomatos out and planted a load of other tasty vegetables and a strawberry plant, fingers crossed it all goes according to plan. I love this tutorial for hanging baskets, they would look nice in our tiny garden. I wish this place was ours so we could do up the garden properly.

Charlie's apartment from HBO's 'Girls' — Girls is my current favourite programme, it's perfect, I can't even properly express how much I enjoy everything about it. The LA times have done a beautiful feature talking about Charlie's apartment, which was featured in the show a couple of weeks ago. I was at thinking to myself how great it was so I'm pleased that they've featured some more detailed images, the bed is so neat!

Jubilee Novelties from HelloYou Creatives — I'd love a temporary tattoo of the Queen.

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There are far too many clothes this week, clearly I'm trying to tell myself something, but I think I'm wrong. Short and sweet this week, I think, I'm promising myself to give this a bit of a boost in the coming weeks.

Tuesday Tabs #15

Time to de-clutter my tabs bar once more, a much more productive way to wait for paint to dry.

Currently I think I need at least a 28 hour day, that would be good, I can't seem to fit everything in. Doll is settling in almost too well, and although she was being - weirdly - affectionate when I returned from an interview this afternoon, I didn't appreciate her loud wailing outside our bedroom door at 5 o'clock this morning, so our visitors are probably in for a treat when they stay at the weekend...

I'm not sure how much I want to talk about job hunting today, I'll just say it's steady and leave it at that. I can't get any more fed up with it than I am already. Let's just get started, shall we?

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Due to all the stress, I kind of failed April's Photo A Day challenge, so I'm going to try and start again with this months, again from Fat Mum Slim. I might only post it once a week though rather than every day. I didn't like how cluttered it made my blog look if I posted something else. #ocd

(via It's Nice That)

I don't know what Ikea think they're playing at by being this awesome but how good is this? Following the previous week's announcement about their new TV units, I was already pleasantly surprised, but this is too up my street. Ikea are doing all kinds of exciting things at the moment and KNÄPPA is one of them, would love to know when it will be released so I can try one out.

(via The Dainty Squid)

Make A Run For It Skirt, $188.99, Modcloth
I have too many printed animal items of clothing, but this skirt is perfect, and the colour is lovely, definitely in need of more orange in my wardrobe.


Wombat Hug Brooch, $AUS35, Made By White
Wombats are wicked, easily my favourite Australian animal and I don't actually have that many brooches, let alone any wooden ones.


Interview with The Maccabees for Swiss TV Show 'POPBAR'. They say some good things, like how it's silly to cover The Beatles.


How many great movies are coming out in the next few months?! I'm a big one for trying to avoid full-trailers if possible, especially if I've already heard good press about a film or know who's going to be in it. However, I'm a little obsessed by this viral trailer for Ridley Scott's Prometheus, everyone needs to at least watch this trailer, but the film itself, judging from it's official trailer, just looks generally epic.


'LOL I'm just kitten' t-shirt, $28, Burger and Friends


Hand screen-printed Dala horse, Seventy Tree
Ever so slightly gutted that this piece is now no longer available. ;(


Rob Ryan's Bells vase, £35, John Lewis
I'm obsessed with Rob Ryan's 'Bells' series at the moment, it just makes me feel so warm because the words are so beautifully put. I'm also lusting after the plates, but as I wouldn't want to eat off of them and have no where to display them, I'm mainly eyeing up this vase, especially since seeing it on display in the local John Lewis, perf. ♥

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Link Love: ♥

Camera Bag Round-up from A Beautiful Mess — I'm currently waiting on a new bag, but a huge, and I mean huge part of me wishes I had the will-power to save up for a great-quality, pretty camera bag like the ones talked about here. It's a really strong well-rounded overview too, talking a bit more about what else is on offer other than Jo Totes. Don't get me wrong, I adore Jo Totes, I'd just never considered there were other similar brands.

Perfectly-timed Animal Pictures

Per Johansen's Mæt (Full) — Wonderfully, grotesque still life images from Danish photographer Per Johansen.

Make a teddybear from a sock — This is a super-cute craft idea, definitely on my to-do list once I get the never-ending list of everything else out of the way.

Create Your Own Fabric Patterns — Amazing!

It Looks Hard But Isn't: 15 Dishes to Impress Your Guests — Don't think I'm quite ready to impress people with my cooking just yet, but living in your own (non-student) home does bring about a certain notion of 'entertaining' rather than the more manageable 'drinking'. I like cooking anyway, so if nothing else these are some good ideas to test out on Moon at least.

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Currently listening: 'Call Me Maybe' - Carly Rae Jepsen
Currently watching: HBO's 'Girls' (Lena Dunham ♥)

Move to the Beat of London 2012.

I'm a little indifferent to London 2012. I hope it will do good things to London but there's a lot of pessimism both inside me and around me that says otherwise. London can barely handle two rush hours a day, yet there's an expectation that the transport system has the capacity to handle an extra three million journeys a day, just by making everyday commuters 'take a holiday', avoid London altogether or walk, not really good enough, especially when the trains aren't even nice.

Where I am concerned, transport is the tiniest issue as I hope to be based elsewhere, although never say never. Anyway although 'everything Olympics' is bound to be in our faces even once those two weeks are over, I thought I'd share Mark Ronson's neat, Olympic-inspired track (no pun intended) with you. Despite having been undoubtedly sounded pretty samey for the last four or five years, I think Ronson's really done something great with this one. I'm a big fan of things like 'STOMP' and the use of everyday items as instruments, so this was bound to please me. You may have spotted the Coca-Cola advert on television recently and obviously something as simple as this couldn't be related to the Olympics without being a bit commercial, but it's still clever and a definite must-watch.

Full-length 'Move to the Beat of London' Coca-Cola advert
Ronson has spent months working with athletes collecting sounds from their field and put it all to a beat to make something pretty catchy. Everything comes together as the Coca-Cola advertisement above, but has also be documented by director Kim Gehrig to show the journey from initial idea to finished product, and that's what looks like the really interesting part.

Even if the Olympics does end up making London look stupid, Mark Ronson, with his weird English-American'ness', will have gained a legacy, or at least acknowledgement that he isn't just all about trumpets. I might have left Katy B out of it though.

(via It's Nice That)

Beat 2012 Documentary Trailer by Kim Gehrig of Some Such & Co.

630: Drive.

What a way to round up a weekend (pre-X factor, of course).


I'm fairly gobsmacked, I have no idea what I was expecting because all I had in my mind when deciding to watch it is: 'OMG it looks so nice' and ;Ryan Gosling is in it'. I really wasn't expecting Drive to be as good as it was.

(Excusing myself in advance) The cinematography of this movie is absolutely jizz-worthy and I don't care how many or how few people on Tumblr agree with me, it actually is. The film is beautifully lit and shot, with a great grasp on scale and depth. Can you tell that I loved it?

Although I, like many, do have a slight crush on Ryan Gosling, there is no doubt in my mind - not that there was before - that this guy can really act. With the most minuscule facial movement or change in body language he is able to convey such a quick change in emotion. This is something I noticed previously in Lars and the Real Girl, a completely different, but also brilliant film. So, I really appreciated Gosling as an actor and due to the film being released during 'guaranteed Oscar season', he may be in for a shot.

(Images: Google)

Apparently I love a good gangster movie anyway, but it's more than that, the casting is spot on, Carey Mulligan is both convincing and worthy as the vulnerable love interest and we see a slightly different side to the usually polished Christina Hendricks, but I don't want to give anything away.

The soundtrack is also brillant, flowing really well throughout the film with a brilliant consistency to the visuals as well as sounding good, most importantly. I know what I'll be downloading onto my iTunes next.

I would be surprised if this film isn't Oscar material, and if The Social Network was, this deserves to be. Director, Nicolas Winding Refn has demonstrated in previous success, 'Bronson' that he knows what he's doing, and Drive has taken his craft to the next level.
In short, and I'm aware that the rest of this wasn't, go and see this movie, you need to, it has everything in it to ever make any film work.


Now I can settle down with my much sought after copy of Little White Lies and enjoy it properly.

Other films starring Ryan Gosling that I have seen and liked:

The Notebook.

Blue Valentine.

Lars and the Real Girl

All Good Things - Bit weird, but still enjoyable

Not Half Nelson, I can see why hipsters love it but I disagree.

On my list:

Crazy. Stupid. Love.

The United States of Leland

The Believer

Fracture

Trash Arts: Wasters

A few months before I finished Uni I had the pleasure of meeting Sam Mason Bell. One of the first things Sam told me when I met him was that he was an aspiring filmmaker. Bringing us up to present day and Sam has just released the teaser trailer for his upcoming feature-length film, 'Wasters'.

The film is set in March 2010, and follows three nameless characters on a long weekend of decadence, ignorance and hedonistic pleasures. The idea of the film stems from Sam's personal observations of party lifestyles and drug culture while he was out and about last year. However, the aim of the film is not to preach that this culture is right or wrong, but to tell the story and allow the audience to observe. So stop thinking in 'glamourous' 'Skins' terms.

The casting process for 'Wasters' was very straight-forward. Having made films around the Portsmouth area previously as well as having a lot of friends, Sam wasn't short of people to help. However, something that I think quite admirable of Sam is his utilisation of the University. The main 'Wasters' cast comprised of drama students from the University of Portsmouth, all good friend's of Sam's. In addition to using the University, he also found two actresses on StarNow, an online talent agency.

The film uses various locations in Portsmouth including Envy's popular alternative club-night, the aptly named, 'Waster'. The production process was mainly a smooth one, with any issues coming to light earlier in pre-production with writing and cast members dropping out.
Luckily, he pulled it all off, so expect a premier around Portsmouth some time in the New Year.

Sam is part of Trash Arts, a Portsmouth-based production company which has had minor success with both various short and feature films, come 2012, they will be entering their fourth year. This is Sam's first attempt at going it alone under Trash Arts, and it's bloody good stuff, so expect to see more in the future.

Related links:
Take a look at the Trash Arts blog
Like Trash Arts on Facebook.
Follow Sam on Twitter.

Trash Art's next project is called 'Our Last Summer' and casting begins on 9th October at the Groundlings Theatre in Portsmouth; if you think you have what it takes, have a look at the Facebook event and head over to audition.

Casual Andrew Garfield porn.

Fully recognising that this is definitely not Tumblr and that I can't go around flaunting my fandoms all over the shop (I've since ceased using Tumblr slightly though to be honest), I'll just say, that after being increasingly disappointed with Tobey Macguire's Spiderman as the films went on, Andrew Garfield's looks much more beautiful impressive, so I'm really looking forward to it.

Having admired Andrew Garfield as an actor for a number of years, I'm quite pleased that he has gained such notoriety since appearing in The Social Network last year and was especially excited when I heard he would be playing Spiderman, a role that cements him as a leading man (unless it's awful).

If you can't get enough of Garfield, some other things I can recommend that he is in include:
I'm Here - Streaming here for free as part of last year's Creator's Project.
The Red Riding trilogy
Never Let Me Go
He was also in Sugar Rush, but is shatters all illusions of him because although his character, Tom, was incredibly sweet, he was also very lame.

Roll on 2012, I actually can't wait for all the superhero movies that are being released next year, if this year continues to whizz by as fast as it has been, it will all role around soon enough.

Just watched.

"Sliding Liberia", even more motivation for doing my dissertation.
As someone who has never properly even watched a 'surfing film' either, I can still appreciate that it was beautifully shot. I'm also very happy with the fact they are backing 'surfing to boost Liberia's economy', I think it's a brilliant idea.

© Britton Caillouette

"Come to Liberia, we have nothing."

Scott Pilgrim.

Hello clichéd 'blogging an opinion that most people already have or have read'.
Scott Pilgrim vs The World is a great movie!
This article pretty much sums up why I think you should see it; /08/go-and-pay-to-see-scott-pilgrim-right-now.html

It's funny and definitely different from any film I've seen, also like Youth in Revolt, Michael Cera is actually a little bit less like his character from Juno, which is always good, and even better than Youth in Revolt - which was also pretty good by the way - he plays his age, finally. He's no longer 16 and he can be his age, my age, and he might belong to me rather than people my sister's age, who ruin everything.

The girl who plays 'Knives' (Ellen Wong), looks like my cousin Mandy, uncannily, particularly in the part of the film where she has long hair.
"You punched the highlights out of her hair!"

So that's what that is...

Just been recommended this by Lovefilm - yes I'm still subscribed to it despite wanting to cancel for months now - but this looks pretty interesting, I'd heard of it, but by the looks of it, this isn't what I thought it was.. I think I was too stuck with Harold and Madge from Neighbours, don't think they're even on it anymore.


Also, fans of patterned backgrounds should go to Pattern Cooler if you're looking to spruce up your Twitter, blog or Myspace (iknowrite?)

(via How About Orange)

Feeling bored and fat.