Lost photos

As you probably know, I enjoy taking photos. There are some from over the past few months that never made it into blog posts. The intentions were definitely there, but various drafts never came together. I thought i'd do a post on these which I like but never made it to publish. These photos date back to the summer and include quite a few of the wonderful Harry Potter studio tour!

The Homespun Tip

My boyfriend Aled and our good friend Mel have been meaning to put on a gig together for a good few years. Finally, after many months of organising, their first gig took place on Thursday. Under the name The Homespun Tip, a great line up of folk and acoustic music was planned for a favourite venue of ours, The Slaughtered Lamb in Clerkenwell. Headlining were CoCo and the Butterfields, with support from Patch and the Giant, Charlotte Carpenter and Andrew Butler. The gig was a success, the music was amazing, and the basement venue was rather packed by the end, and the thanks for this goes mainly to the stellar effort of our friends.

I found it quite tricky to photograph the gig, as it was quite dark (like most live music photography, obviously) and my skills in manual mode are still developing. Although the photos aren't necessarily sharp, I quite like the dark and grainy effect. Let's pretend that was intentional!

New layout & links

I have been looking for a new, fresh layout and design for my blog for a while. I am very computer literate but not really versed in design and HTML and I kept knocking up things but was not really happy with the overall look. I saw this layout in Gillian's blog shop after browsing her blog, ElevatorMusik and I am really happy with it. Some of the top tab pages are still in progress and I plan on adding more content this week.

I haven't felt very motivated to write or take photos recently and I think a new blog design, even though a small change, will help me to see my blog in a fresher light. I feel as though I am in a bit of a creative rut. I'm still reading a lot of blogs but I haven't felt compelled to post anything of my own.

Seeing as my blog has become rather bare of late, I thought i'd share some of my favourite recent posts from blogs I love;

• Jen posted the first few pictures from her wedding and they are absolutely beautiful
• I always love Jazmine's posts and I love the autumn photography and fashion in this one
• Jasiminne's blog Posh, Broke, Bored is a hilarious tongue in cheek look at her lavish life, although her illustration blog Audaciously Yours is seriously impressive and I love checking out her creations
• I love the dreamy travel photography of My Suitcase Heart and these pictures of a Bali beach make me want to drop everything and hop on a plane
• I really enjoyed this post on Betsy's blog about untranslatable words in other languages, I love the idea of other languages having unique words. I think "Sobremesa" is my favourite. 

Hello Autumn and hello again internet

Mid-Jerusalem - at Last Night of the Proms 2013

Hello again, blog. Apologies for my short hiatus, I now have the internet at home. It's been a hard month.

Weirdly I haven't picked up my camera that much this month which is very unusual for me. I don't know if it was the change in life dynamics because of the move, a lack of creativity or just pure laziness, but I feel like I really miss it at the moment. I keep finding blogs with such amazing photography which sucks out my inspiration and I start feeling very amateur. Comparison is the thief of joy, they say, and that couldn't be truer in my mind at the moment. I keep reminding myself that I am not a professional photographer, it is merely a hobby, but still I doubt myself a lot.

Nevertheless, I of course, did take some photos in the last month, albeit only with my phone. Even though I do sometimes post instagram photos here, I don't like to post that many as it feels slightly repetitive. If you'd like to see what I got up to in the last month, check out my Instagram here. And, as it feels weird to post without at least one photo, above is a snapshot from Last Night of the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall last month. I felt very lucky to go and I enjoyed every second!

Moving flats & internet-less

Our half unpacked room

As the post title indicates, I recently moved flats! We moved last weekend and I am pretty sure I am still feeling the tiring effects of the day. I really love our new flat and I like that we have a new area of London to explore, plus the fact that my rent is a lot less. We moved from a very busy area of West London to a much quieter area of North London, so it will be a very different atmosphere here. Luckily my commute time has only increased very slightly, and I am rather glad to be rid of the Central Line's humid climate although I do miss the speediness. Our new flat is a lot more spacious and I am (sadly) quite excited to have a desk in our room to blog from. It is probably a bit better for my posture than on my sofa or in bed. Our internet can't be installed till mid September, so I am mourning the lack of internet at home at the moment, and rinsing my 3G data. Hopefully I can get the odd blog post or two done from elsewhere.

View from our bedroom window - our shared garden (!)

I still have a bit of unpacking to do, I think we'll still be in settling in mode for another week. It's actually really nice to have housemates again (especially when they are already very good friends), it feels very student like and we're trying to kid ourselves that we are students again (I wish). I think we'll head to Ikea at the weekend to pick up a few bits that we've all realised we need. The girls are looking forward to this whereas the guys are not. I am not ashamed to be a massive Ikea fan. A trip there is a whole day out, breakfast or meatball dinner included!

New housemates!

My birthday & other updates

A favourite from Paris + expert face blocker 

Aled also got one of my photos that I took in Paris turned into a canvas. I love it!  It was my birthday the other week (I am continually behind with posts, I know!) and I was rather spoiled with a few outings and treats. Aled also bought me a ticket to see Matilda the Musical, which we saw last weekend and really enjoyed. Tim Minchin's lyrics were as clever and touching as usual. I love the story of Matilda, and Roald Dahl's magic does seem to translate anywhere. 

Me and Megan at Ping

On the evening of my birthday I went to Ping. .I wanted to go to one of these ping pong bars for ages so it seemed like the right opportunity. The cocktails and pizzas were delicious and we had a lot of fun on the ping pong tables, although our reserved half hour passed very quickly. My ping pong skills did leave a lot to be desired though....

The day after my wonderful best friend Becki took me to the Harry Potter studio tour. I was so excited about this, I could barely concentrate on work all day! I even wore my Gryffindor Team Seeker top in honour of our visit. It was really, really good, and really worth if if you are a Harry Potter fan. There are so many original sets, props etc from the films and it took us about 3 hours to get around it all. I absolutely loved being in the Great Hall.  I think I will do another post with the photos from the tour as, as you can imagine I took quite a few. 

Unashamed HP fan...

This past weekend has been spent with family. My mum is up visiting at the moment, and we went out for lunch with Megan and her boyfriend and then went to the cinema to see the Alan Partridge film. I am a big fan of the TV series and the film exceeded my expectations. I haven't laughed like that in a cinema for a long time! 

Megan & Matt

I also just wanted to add in the below photo I took yesterday as the sky looked beautiful. I love how London looks at dusk. I love how it looks most of the time, but I do really have a thing for dusk Best time of the day. 

Trafalgar Square with added new fourth plinth!

Lounge on the Farm

A few weekends ago I went to Lounge on the Farm festival near Canterbury in Kent. It was a lovely weekend, despite the schizophrenic weather (thunderstorms, torrential rain and sunshine are just great when you're camping….), and even though it slightly paled in comparison to other smaller festivals I have attended (namely Larmer Tree and End of the Road), we really enjoyed it nonetheless.

The highlights, musically, for me were Jessie Ware, Seasick Steve, Sivu, Beans on Toast, CoCo & the Butterfields, Tribes, Lucy Rose, Eliza & the Bear and Gentlemen of Few. I would recommend checking out any of those artists you haven't heard of! Talking of music, I keep meaning to do another monthly playlist. I posted the first one in January with high intentions that have never been channelled into actual posts.

I took along my camera to take photos for Aled's review for The 405 which you can read here!

Here are a few of my favourites...