For my Walls.

Sunshine + Mushroom
It wasn't that the flat was full of art, not by any means, but we did have a certain amount of frames on the wall. Now we're 'doing up' the house, there's a lot of bare wall space to think about.

Some of the things that used to be on our walls have been relegated to keepsake boxes, other things that have been waiting to be framed for years are still waiting. Even though we've no shortage of things to put up, there's always more to find and a quick browse of Etsy has me full of ideas for our future gallery walls.


[Kate Broughton]
Just give me all the Kate Broughton things, please. This will be great to go next to our Billy bookcase bar.


[Kate Broughton]


[Finlay McNevin]


[Tim Easley]
Perfect to hang in the 'study' once it's no longer full of boxes.


[Bold & Noble]


[Michael Sapienza]


[The Motivated Type]
Apt.


[1st Class Posters]


[Mostly Harmless]
Unpopular opinion: I didn't even like Breaking Bad but Better Call Saul is totally my jam.


[Smal Adventure]
I'm generally noticing a mixed up theme of films, lists and animals seems to have come together, I just felt like putting these here because I've not done anything a wishlist in a while and they're all just so pretty I needed to share.

It's funny because as I was thinking of putting this post together I came across this post on Cup of Jo about the best ways to hang art, some real sound advice.

Babel, baby.

I was thinking about Tuesday Tabs but I haven't got a lot to show you in that sense and it seems like a bit of a cop-out considering I haven't posted in a little while. I guess I have a fair bit to talk to you about this week, or certainly a lot of photos to show you anyway. I thought I'd start off by giving the album that saw me through work most of last week a mention, and on it's week and a day anniversary, that album is 'Babel' by Mumford & Sons, and it's wonderful.



Having heard a lot of Mumford & Sons' new material over the last three years since 'Sigh No More' from seeing them at Glastonbury, I wasn't in much doubt that the new album would be good, but it's so much more than that.

On the surface of things, it seems as though the South London quartet have provided us with more of the same, but in reality they've demonstrated a whole heap of growth. Perhaps this isn't as obvious musically, although they've done a good job of tricking us into thinking that they're more 'upbeat' now. This change is most noticeable in terms of lyrical content, they're much tighter, and concise. 'Sigh No More' has been an album I've consistently listened to since it's release so I don't think it would be honest of me to criticise it but anything that demonstrated less experience on their previous album has been blown out of the water by three years work with 'Babel'.



My stand-out tracks are 'Lover of the Light' and 'Ghosts That We Knew', but I enjoy the whole album thoroughly. They've cemented themselves more firmly than before as one of my favourite bands and it will be great to see them in a gig-setting again in November. The leap they've made is fantastic, from the tiny weepy band I saw supporting The Maccabees back in 2009 to world famous musicians playing arenas and cracking the USA, it's incredible and I feel weirdly proud of them.

It's no wonder that they cracked the number one album spot last week, or that it was one of the biggest selling debut albums ever. Not bad for four guys from Wimbledon.

The physical album is so pretty, filled with whimsical images and 'on the road' snapshots. I pre-ordered the deluxe version and received a limited edition 'Babel' print - I got 340/1500! - and will go great alongside Moon's Frightened Rabbit 'State Hospital' print in our bedroom, as that's the next part of the flat we're planning on putting our stamp on. I was worried that they might have copped out on this but the quality is lovely and has one of my favourite animals on it so I can't wait to pop it in a frame.


Have you had a listen of Mumford & Sons new album? Will you be seeing them on tour in November, I definitely think it's been well worth the wait!

Moon wrote a review on the site that he writes for, and it's a little better than mine, I recommend that you check it out! ♥

Tuesday Tabs #22

Hello, Everyone!
I'm genuinely kind of sad about being such a lazy blogger recently, but I've been so busy with work and the weather has been so crappy that even when I haven't been doing anything, I've just been snuggling up and eating (a lot), so I'm afraid I've not really had much to say. I have some nice things to show you this week though, and I want to get things back on track and re-assess things before I start work tomorrow evening.

Life is bloody hard, I have to start thinking about in-goings and outgoings, which was kind of horrible as I had to make a small stopover at the Bank of Mum, despite having a full-time job. I guess I understand why so many people are still living at home, it's much easier. It's not that I'm struggling, I'm just full of worry all the time, but I guess you can tell that that's quietly my general disposition anyway.

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(via Stars Stripes Skulls Lights)

My favourite Jenna Marbles moment, Kermit is one of the best dogs. ♥


Half Full/Half Empty Tote Bag, £8.50, Lazy Oaf
It's been a little while since I've found myself on the Lazy Oaf website, not for any particular reason, I guess just because I haven't had the time. While I have no need for any more tote bags, and am already the proud owner of another Lazy Oaf tote that I picked up at their Christmas pop-up shop, but I really love the design of this one. Basically I just really love Lazy Oaf.


Frenchie Dog Ring, £24, Lazy Oaf


Stig Lindberg - Swedish Tea Time A3 Print, £12.45, Re Style Shop
This would sit beautifully next to our Pie & Vinyl print, it's so vibrant.


You And Me And The Cat Print, £24.41, Ashley G
I'm not sure if I've blogged about this before or not, but I adore this print from Ashley G, in fact, there are a few of her pieces that I've love to own. This would look lovely in our study, although as it's a bit cat-centric I don't think Moon would go for it. Maybe when we get a dog, he'll go for the dog alternative.


Vintage Cat & Stripe Dress, £47.19, Rusty Cuts
This dress is too good (for obvious reasons), I don't think I can handle it.


Lord Pug Necklace, £18, Cheap Frills
I haven't bought any new jewellery in quite a long time. This is adorable and suits my general 'I love Animals'-themed wardrobe ♥.


I'm on a major scout-out for a summer handbag. Although my mum has been lovely and picked me up one of my cousin's handbags while she was over in Hong Kong, I've no idea when I'll be home again yet so it's currently a toss-up between these two. It's so hard, I love the pink one's shape but I like the colours of the other one. See how hard life can be?!
Left: River Island Fluro Messenger Bag, £25, ASOS
Right: ASOS Colour Block Nylon Hobo Bag, £35, ASOS

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Link Love: ♥

Andy Hope's 'Being Brave' — Portrait series by photographer, Andy Hope documenting children going in for dental procedures at Sheffield Children's Hospital.

Goodnight Little Spoon - Weekly List 17 — Goodnight Little Spoon is one of my favourite blogs for inspiration, it's list-heaven! Bianca posts so many great lists, in so many forms, from things she's done to things she wants to do. She's also big on Keri Smith's 100 Ideas and I love the way she interprets them.

Street-art from Austrian artist, Meersau — Sometimes I forget how good 'good' street art can be.

Emmerlie Jay's 'She Said' Beauty Box Review — These seem like a more youthful alternative to Glossybox, and it's slightly cheaper so may be worth a trial run.

Teal Vintage French Telephone — This is one of the nicest telephones I've ever seen, but we don't need two telephones :(

How to Make Your Own Nail Polish in Any Colour — Nail varnish is definitely one thing that I don't need extra, but this is a pretty simple tutorial to make your own custom colours using just eyeshadow, clear nail varnish and a toothpick.

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Today is full of housework, accounts and cooking. I'm also jumping back on the 'proper job hunt' wagon as that's another thing that's been seriously neglected in the last few weeks. I've done the productive thing of moving my laptop back to the study so I'm going to try and keep it like that. Honestly, I was pretty happy with keeping it in here, but Moon gets lonely if I go 'interneting' in the evening, as he often just sits in front of the telly with his laptop, nuisance, it isn't as though the flat is huge.

Thanks for reading, I'm off to sort my life out.

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Currently Listening To: Shallow Bed - Dry The River

Misc.

Yesterday, my new favourite film magazine, Little White Lies held a Twitter competition to win a beaut gold foil-block print of The Tree of Life by illustrator, Joe Wilson and I won one! I should definitely get round to watching The Tree of Life now, it's been on my 'films to watch list' for ages.
So, long story short, this should be making it's way to me pretty soon:

(via Church Of London on Flickr)

In other news, I have been persuaded to abandon creating a website from scratch once more due to an invite to join DPG.com. I already know a few photographers that use it and it has a really simple and easy-to-upload-and-maintain system, as well as being fairly customisable it seems like it could be right up my street. So when I have the time that's what I'll be working towards, if my domain name stops giving me minor grievance.

I also thought I would take the time to share these photos with you from the dribs and drabs that I've taken in the last few days, like I mentioned in my previous post I haven't been snapping that much, but I thought that here was as good a place as any to put them.



I've been spending a lot of time thinking about the squirrels that live down The Cut, it must be such a stressful lifestyle, living practically on a railway line and being so small.
Here is what my nails look like, I used this tutorial for the Picasso/Motel-inspired onces. I did have that design on each nail but I got a bit fidgety. Emma, the girl who does the nail art tutorials on the Motel Rocks blog also posts some really neat designs on her own blog, a great blog to visit for nail-art envy.


I start the internship tomorrow, I'm surprisingly calm, I've spent nearly all day playing The Sims 3... really.

Foxy.

It's no secret that I pretty much can't resist any item of clothing or anything that has printed animals on it. I think I'm addicted and it's getting to be a bit of a problem because so much of my stuff has these printed animals on it that I hardly have a complete outfit to put together. I just can't wear my horse-print cardigan with my horse-print dress, and then there's the horse belt, as an animal, horses aren't even close to being my favourite either. Clear issues.

Anyway, despite the fact that I know all of this, I still couldn't resist picking up this cute fox-print dress from Primark yesterday. I feel like a bit of an idiot now, but I'll come back to that later.



Not only was it just £6 but just look at this cute pattern, I thought I was getting quite lucky as well because it didn't seem to look too short like the other dresses that Primark push at this price and of this shape. I was wrong though, the reason this 'dress' was so cheap is because you have to be 3'2" in order to wear it respectably, probably. It is a bit too bummy, which is needless to say a 'bummer' on a day like today because it's the kind of weather that calls for tights and I just can't in this dress. My saviour to this problem was a £2.99 bodycon skirt from H&M, definitely essential. Now I don't need to worry as much, especially seeing as I'm shooting the Flower Festival for Malden Fortnight later this afternoon, and it's held in a church.

What I would eventually like to do, which would be a better way of sorting it out, would be get get some kind of 50's-style petticoat. Stupid Primark, I will never be called tall by anyone and my legs are certainly not long, WHO is wearing these dresses and how?

Shirt: H&M
Dress: Primark
Skirt: H&M
Belt: Primark w/ some chinos
Leggings: New Look
Apologies for not thinking to put on some shoes.

It's something.

Finally gaining some satisfaction from today, posting off a print to one of my subjects for my half-Chinese project. His is printed and mounted professionally, so I would offer this to all my subjects, but I just can't afford it and this one was technically printed the wrong size. Maybe when I get my exhibition over and done with I'll start sending out prints. I've been pretty good at showing everyone the work on here though.

Here is a photo from The O2 that I took on my phone, I quite like my new phone.

Home stretch.

I love this point in a uni project. I'm going to like it even more after my final tutorial on Wednesday.
I've spent the morning trimming down my final images and re-printing images that weren't quite up to scratch the first time round - so another £12 down the drain. My RDB is very nearly finished and then it's just the Project Report to get done and that's everything. Then I can begin to focus on the dreaded dissertation. Boo!

I sent one of my images to be mounted professionally onto foamex but it didn't arrive in time for the final crit so I had to mount another on foamboard as well. I like the paper they've used and I'm aware that I've done quite a shoddy mounting job, but I don't see a great deal of difference other than in the weight. I might just stock up on thinner self-adhesive mount-board and do it the easier (slightly cheaper) way. They also got the sizing wrong, so I just have a print of Gareth forever now anyway.

I have another ASK meeting in a bit. It will hopefully sort me out enough for my dissertation to be fantastic. I don't really like being told that I use 'weird phrasing'. Although, if I get a 2:1, I'll still be happy with it.