Motel Rocks Nail Art Competition.

Hello, I've made it through to the finalist's stage of the Motel Rocks Nail Art Competition! It's so exciting and would be so awesome if you could head over to the Facebook page and like my entry because it would be great to win.

I promise I'll post something interesting soon, but I've been so busy job hunting, driving and house hunting that I've not really had anything interesting to show you or to talk about. I was down in Newbury this afternoon looking at places, we saw some game changers as we were pretty dead-set on the one we're viewing tomorrow, we've got to act quickly so it's all quite intense.

I picked up some great fabric in Fabric Land today as I plan on making my own version of Elsie from A Beautiful Mess' plush fox as well as some other things. I also bought some paint to revamp an old chest, I'm in a really DIYing/crafty mood, that might give me something fun to show you.

I hope you had as good a start to your week as I have.x

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.

This week I'm working on:

I might actually have finally begun to get round to it! I've been putting it off basically because I've been so caught up in finding a job and going away. Now I can worry a bit less, I figured that I may as well and I've familiarised myself again so it shouldn't take as long as I thought it would, particularly now I've sorted the photo-side of it out.

I've also been inspired to create a 'Ruth Magazine' CV to send out to companies to grab their attention, don't know why I didn't think of this before I have fairly solid InDesign skillz.
I think I just needed to be pointed in the right direction, and that help came in the form of the 1987 edition of 'The Chris Wheal'.

Keep Calm and Arrive Late to the Party.

After coming across what is now my latest desktop wallpaper via Hello You Creatives, I became inspired to write a post about the 'Keep Calm and Carry On' brand which has been growing in popularity for two or three years. I became aware of 'Keep Calm and Carry On' after The One Show featured a story on Barter Books.

Barter Books, a second-hand book shop in Northumberland, discovered a copy of the poster in 2000 and due the image being in the public domain, subsequently reprinted the poster for customers, a trend later transferred carried out by others, mugs bags and clothes soon followed. The popularity of the phrase has been linked to a sense of nostalgia for stereotypical 'British-ness' and the ability to keep going, particularly in the times of trouble from which this 'motivational' poster originates. The phrase has also been transferred back onto recent times of hardship in Britain regarding the current recession.


The design was initially printed by the Ministry of Information in 1939 as part of a series of posters sending the message of King George VI to his people that all capable measures were being taken to defend the country. Only a few of these posters actually made it onto walls and the prints remained largely unseen by the general public until it's discovery at Barter Books. The origins of this iconic expression and it's designer are unknown.

With the popularisation of 'Keep Calm and Carry On' not only came a stream of homewares and clothing but also a seemingly endless amount of phrases playing parody to the original. I for one enjoy the phrase as a simple framed poster, but it has to be said that the Etsy shop, Keep Calm Arsenal really have outdone themselves with their wide range of Keep Calm parody prints.


I can't wait to do some proper nesting and have my very own Keep Calm Arsenal print as part of my interior landscape. Here are some of my favourite related Keep Calm and Carry On images that I found while researching for this post (yes I researched it, I used Wikipedia and everything, just because I'm allowed to now).

(via Google)

(via Matt Jones)

(via IamTh3q)

BBC - Who owns 'Keep Calm and Carry On'?

A wide range of Keep Calm and Carry On merchandise is available from numerous different sources. I would recommend 'Googling' it but I found that Etsy comes out on top, particularly for un-cheesy original parody designs.
Keep Calm and Carry On Shop
Keep Calm and Carry On at Heal's
Keep Calm and Carry On at Etsy

Desktop: 25/08/2011

Not anything particularly exciting but I figured that I should blog something before I head off tomorrow, and considering that I haven't packed yet and there's more job hunt to do, I doubt that I will have much time.

I figured that I would include another desktop screenshot as I haven't posted another one since the first one. I think I'm due for a change now though because it makes me uncomfortable that the image doesn't fill the whole screen.

So, I'm off to France tomorrow, I know it is quite British and untravelled of me, but I was all the way in Hong Kong a few weeks ago, and I do quite like the area of France that we're going to. I hope we get some sunny weather because I'm really fed up of how temperamental it has been here.
So looking forward to spending time with Moon and lazing about, as well as 'getting away from it all' — and 'the' pool.

We're going to St Malo via Portsmouth, which is an overnight ferry, I love ferries and I love being on the sea. This time we actually have somewhere to sleep too, which will be a luxury as last time Moon and I had to scavenge for a sleeping spot and ended up in the children's crèche in the café, really.

As always I'm looking forward to taking lots of photos, which only enhances the fact that I really must update my portfolio when I get back because relying on this just doesn't really cut it. I mean there are a lot of photos on here that I've taken that I like but that I wouldn't show off to a client, quite uninspiring when being a 'photographer' is supposed to be my ultimate goal - but that's something to worry about when I come back.

Should perhaps try my best to prevent this from happening to him again...

Desktop: 15/08/2011

Quite like being nosey and looking at other people's desktops, so I thought I'd start to 'document' mine. I don't think I particularly change it that often, but we'll see how it goes.

Think that I will be more likely to work on my website once I have a desk again — I'm currently at my Gran's — and when I'm out of 'holiday' mode; it's my birthday tomorrow then there are few family events before I head off to France next Friday. I signed up for another recruitment agency this afternoon and I have an sign-up interview with another one on Thursday, let's hope that something comes from it. I'd really like to have something to occupy my time for a bit, although I'm sure the website will be fun, *derp.

Profit.

I'm quite happy with this, despite the fact I actually wanted these Doc Martens for myself, but Urban Outfitters went and sent me the wrong size and don't (and will probably never) have the size that these were actually supposed to be, so I thought that I would make myself some money out of my bargain rather than just get my money back.
Plus whoever is the current highest bidder is still getting a good deal £21 is great considering they are literally brand new.
Join in, if you happen to be a size 7.
They should have been a UK 5, which is apparently a US 7, which is what it says on the box, they sent me a UK 7 instead. They never even had a chance to be mine, curse my slightly smaller feet.