'Little Box of Falmouth'

A while ago I posted ‘Wait… Mr Postman’, which to this day is the most popular post on my blog. To summarize, the post basically explained how I’d gained myself a crafty pen pal and how we intended to set mini projects for our self, send bits and bobs back and forth. It turns out that it’s incredibly inspiring, fun and to be frank, addictive. I wanted to post Sophie everything I’d ever made, but decided to refrain for fear I’d have nothing else to send her in the future.

Monday, whilst in work, I received a text from my mum saying that there was a parcel waiting for me at home. I spent the rest of the day eagerly anticipating going home and to open it and see what treats were in inside.

I started talking to the incredibly talented, Sophie Elizabeth Chadwick, last year through UCAS’s ‘Yougo’. We were going to be on the same course and we both loved tea and life’s simple treats. Even though I didn’t attend Falmouth last year we stayed in touch and talked about the idea of partaking in a gift swap and I was lucky enough to meet her when I was looking for somewhere to rent ready for September.

Anyway, I digress. When I got home on Monday, I sat cross-legged in my living room and pawed at the parcel. It took me a good ten minutes to get into it. Sophie had made sure the content wasn’t going anywhere. I felt really guilty opening it because Sophie had painted onto the brown wrapping paper and it was a shame that I had to rip it. I was really surprised once I’d managed to break into it though. Everything was wrapped with a little bow and it was all so neat and lovely and all the colours matched.

Inside was a handmade card. From Internet stalking Sophie for the last year, I’ve found out that she is a keen collager, so her card made perfect sense. The colours were lovely and she’s remembered that I adored Croissants. She’d included little letter that made me laugh and she insisted that I needed to visit a tearoom called ‘Dolly’s’, which I fully intend to do, wearing the tea themed badges that she’d made and included.

Behind the card was a box. ‘Little box of Falmouth’ was painted on the lid. Sophie’s letter hinted to the content but even though I knew what was inside it didn’t stop me from being blown away. It couldn’t have been more perfect. I couldn’t believe how generous Sophie had been with both her time and effort. She’d even included chocolate tea!! I’m yet to drink it because I’m waiting for the weather to cool down a bit so I can appreciate fully, badges, the sweetest earrings and the sweetest little bird, which she informed me was a ‘Pied Wagtail’.  Everything is taking pride of place on my desk! It’s all so inspiring.

I’ve been thinking about a few things that I want to send back although I feel that anything I send back is going to be really shabby in comparison. However I feel because of the high standard of Sophie’s work it will help me push myself, plus I have a really good idea of what to send back J

I feel so inspired. Thankyou Lady Chadwick!! 

You should check out Sophie’s Etsy too!!

Lazy Sunday's in the sun

Last Sunday I went to a place I'd been threatening to go for a few months now, Llangorse lake. It was a beautiful day and we knew Barry Island would be packed full of bathing bodies and screaming children., so we decided to go Brecon way. Sadly you can't really swim in the Lake, well you can, but you wouldn't really want to because you have to deal with a lot of water weeds and trying to hoist yourself back up onto the decking. I decided to save myself the humiliation and simply give my toes a dip instead.

A group of us went. Most opted to go for a walk and explore around the lake whilst me and my friend enjoyed the afternoon sun and giggled about our numerous recent antics, hers by far out shadowed mine. I plan to go back up there soon and rent a boat. It was most probably the nicest way to spend a Sunday.

June's Playlist

A bit late I know. However it's finally here!

 This months playlist is a bit of a mixed bag and most, in their own way are lovely for bike rides.
A few of these songs I've played to death but they're still very good.

Enjoy :)

Lovely Lovely Lino

-->

This is one of the post that I’ve been promising – or threatening – to blog for a while. The more I get into lino printing the more I realized that my old lino cutters were become inadequate. Without sounding too much like Goldilocks, the small cutter was too small and the next one up was too big, which made everything I tried to cut look clumsy. However through LinoCutBoy’s website I found a lino cutter that was everything I’ve been looking for. It’s is a dream to cut with, it glides over the lino, I don’t get cramp in my hands and I haven’t slipped and cut myself once! If that isn’t a reason to love these lino cutters I don’t know what is. Oh I forgot! They’re beautiful as well.

I was trying to make a stamp to use for cards and since coming back from Falmouth everything I create seems to be taking a nautical theme. I was so eager to see what the design I had thought up looked like in lino form I missed out the ‘E’ on ‘I’ve’ so if anyone asks I’m simply going to reply ‘I wanted it to sound like a Pirate was saying it’. I hope that’s a clever enough and convincing lie.

The First Date!

-->

Saturday night, after I’d sang all the karaoke songs I could think of, sat in my bathroom, getting more and more lightheaded from trying to sing so high and loud and then lying on my back, on the floor of my room listening to Paramore’s new album, I realized I was bored. It was the type of boredom where everything just seems more boring and you just can’t even be bothered to muster the energy to try and find something to do.

When my back started to hurt from lying on the floor I decided I’d draw, even though, at that point, it didn’t really appeal to me as a way to pass the time. Recently I’ve been writing stories because I know at some point in the next three years I’m going to be asked to write and illustrate a story of my own creation and I’m not going to be able to think of a single good idea. I’ve been wanting just to doodle a narrative for a while now and I thought I’d give it ago about nothing of importance and of a snippet of a story that I’m writing or more the feeling I’m going to try to achieve.

I drew the first square and actually amazed myself by doing something that resembled what I saw in my head. The pure delight from that spurred me on, out of my bad bored mood and into a creative frenzy. I spent then next four hours and most of today pottering around with a really short, almost comic.

I was writing it as I drew it and I wanted to portray a first date and the excitement that you get from going to meet someone you really like. I’m not really sure if what I’ve drawn is the first date but it definitely is a date and I’m pleased with that.

I’ve been using a lot of blues at the moment. I don’t really feel like I’m going into Picasso’s blue period although it does seem that way. Anyway these are just some images of the sketches I did first and then the full Photo shopped version too. It’s not brilliant but I’m pleased to have created a little story and hey! Maybe some good things come from being bored! 

 

Ol' Fally

I’ve been meaning to blog about a lot of things recently but I’m either to tired or I get side tracked by videos of cat’s eating watermelons or other people’s blogs. Hey! I’m here now! In all seriousness I have been very productive in my absence.
For a few months now I’ve been regretting my decision to drop my place in Falmouth University to pursue a degree in Swansea Metropolitan. It became one of those ‘Well it’s too late now Naomi, you’ve made your bed’ situations. Yet I was thinking more and more about it and it was starting to get on top of me, until I decided to email Falmouth to ask if it were possible to have my place back. After all if you don’t ask you don’t get and I felt that I’d be forever kicking myself if I didn’t at least try to get back into Falmouth. After a few emails, phone calls and a week or two of having serious nuclear like butterflies residing in my stomach I heard back and I’m extremely pleased to say that I’ve been given my place back! I’m so happy!
When I found out the news I was in the middle of helping out with a wedding photo shoot. I happened to receive a few questioning and annoyed looks from some of the people surrounding me as I jumped up and down shrieking with glee. So sorting out all the financial bits and bobs as well as Ucas things has a lot to do with the fact I’ve been off the grid for a few days or weeks, can’t remember.
One of the most exciting things that I had to organize was where I planned on living for the next year. So last Tuesday me and my friend drove four hours to Falmouth. We stayed in a BnB where I slept in the cutest room. I’ve driven on the motorway before but not for very long, an hour and half at the most? I was pretty nervous about driving two hundred miles; never the less I sucked it up and was surprised how easy it was. Though I think blasting Muse down the M5 might have contributed to putting me at ease. My foot still hurts though, wish my car had cruise control.
Once my friend, Chris and I had settled in we decided to walk to the town to have a drink. Luckily we were a pleasant ten minutes walk away from the pub. The same pub that I wanted to visit and have done since I decided, over a year ago that Falmouth was the place for me. Walking through the colourful streets of Ol’ Fal it really hit me that this was where I was going to call my home for the next three years. I wondered idly whether I’d ever get bored of the multicoloured buntings; I don’t think I will.
We visited the Irish pub called Finn Mccools. It was amazing in there, it was the type of place where I didn’t feel like I was slouching too much or, that I needed to have a fresh drink in front of me at regular intervals. I felt welcome and for the first time in a while, young. We actually were there during Finn Mccools weekly open mic night and everyone was amazingly talented. At one point the two boys that were sat next to me decided they missed playing the keyboard so they got up and accompanied the boy who was in the middle of his - never though I’d say this because I actually hate the song he sang - an awesome rendition of ‘The tide is high’. I think me and Chris were the only ones there that didn’t actually fit in with the indie ‘High school musical’ that was unraveling around us, never the less I had loads of fun watching everyone preform whilst I sipped on my cider.
The next day I woke up ridiculously early, showered, packed, woke Chris up by knocking on his door till he proved he was awake and then had my breakfast whilst checking my emails. I was completely determined to find a house.
I know for a first year it’s most probably much better and is the norm to stay in halls with other Fresher’s and just try to settle in without the worry of bills but not only is the accommodation stupidly expensive in Falmouth if you want single occupancy, it’s also a good 50 minutes walk or 28 minutes cycle away or, if you’re a student with a lot more money than me, a 17 minutes bus ride away. The idea of having to rely on buses to get me back and forth to uni and having to pay to boot, really didn’t appeal to me. Plus I wanted to be nearer to the town and the beach. Yes! The beach. Ooo! And be able to ride my Mary Popping’s style bike around.   
After viewing what felt like hundreds of houses and being shown all types of things from moldy rooms, to what I can only describe politely, as a ‘bachelors’ pad. I was so pleased to actually find a house that I think will feel like home. I met some of the housemates who are staying there and they seemed really lovely. They were all so relaxed and the girls seemed really bubbly and friendly. Plus the room I’m moving into is so light. Ooo! I’m excited and it’s still three months away.
Whilst looking at my finances and having it hit me that I really am going to be living like a student, I decided that I would write my trials and tribulations on this blog, in the hopes that it helps someone else. I’m desperately searching the Internet at the moment for a persons real life accounts of what’s happening/happened with them during their time at university. At the moment it seems like everyone is having an easy time and even though I like to view the world through rose tinted glasses, I know it’s not going to be the same for me. Hopefully I can get myself a job. Never the less I’m sure it’ll all work out fine. As I’ve been told time and time again, it’s all about the experience and in this case, I’m going to go with that.

 

*Click Click*

For my Birthday last November, I was given an Olympus Om10. Now I’m no photographer but I’ve always been in love with the idea of using film. I’ve completely romanticized the idea of using an analogue camera. The idea of walking through fields of long grass and flowers, taking pictures of friends or a loved one whilst the sun casts everything in the kind of golden glow that you only get on a warm summer’s evening, is utterly appealing to me. Completely unrealistic too. Rather like my expectations for myself as a ‘photographer’.

Now being the type of person who hates reading instruction manuals and who’d much rather just try to use something or put something together straight off the bat, I, of course, loaded the camera up and went out shooting. I took pictures of vintage fairs, the snow, farmers markets and family members through the space of a few months. Don’t ask me why it’s taken me around six months to fill a film because I honestly don’t not myself.

A few years ago I was bought a Lomography Diana camera, also for my birthday. I remember looking at the website for months prier and being convinced that I was going to become some creative genius by simply using one of these incredibly quirky camera’s. I really couldn’t have been more wrong. It took three rolls of film, my money refunded twice, having a pity discount and asking for someone’s help before I could actually capture something that was a mass of blurred colour. After all of that I now have some really fun pictures of my friends and some weird bits and bobs, that I’ve grown to really love and that have become really precious.

I still wasn’t getting the type of images that I wanted from my Diana and being a mad work man who nearly always blames her tools, I decided it was time to invest in a proper analogue camera in the hope that it would fix all the problems that I had been experiencing with my Diana. Yet again I was wrong.

Like always I went to get my photo’s developed optimistically believing that at least two out of the twenty-eight photos would be good and makeup for the rest of them being awful. After an hour of waiting after month and months I finally got to see the fruits of my labors. Which weren’t great.

Although the pictures weren’t as bad as the first few sets of Diana photo’s I had developed they weren’t brilliant either. Only seventeen were developed – still better than the measly five-blurred Diana photo’s. It was at that point I thought ‘Maybe I should read a book about how to take photo’s’. In the end my friend sent me a link to a digital copy of the original manual, which I never thought about trying to find and I also thought that it was a really sweet thing to do. Over the next few days I plan to read the manual in the hopes that it teaches me how to use my camera to gain a good shot and not just a blurry mess from where I was trying to be ‘artistic’.

Some of the Photos I took are bellow :)