Welcome, Autumn.

Autumn is my favourite season of them all. The knits are cosy, the crumbles are tasty and the colours are so beautiful. When I came across all these Autumnal images on Pinterest and Flickr, I couldn't help but share them. (Click on the images for their sources.)

Blackberries and baking; My parents went blackberry picking not long ago (one of the perks of living in the country) so now we have a steaming hot apple & blackberry crumble at home, delicious! 

Knitted jumpers and markets; I'm forever on the hunt for a big knitted jumper, or cardigan - I love Ruby's ones from the Great British Bake off, I wish I had her wardrobe - and hair and baking skills while I'm at it! And those markets filled with pumpkins have the most beautiful autumnal colours.

Big Duvets and forests; Now that my lessons only start at 10:30am on most days, I have that little extra time to stay warm in my duvet which is glorious when there it's cold outside. As for the forest element, they just remind me of Autumn walks.

The chilly outdoors, bobbly hats and more baking; I just had to add in another baking photo it is such a good photo! As for the chunky bobble hat, I can't wait to get outside and wear mine once again!

Hope you're all feeling inspired and have your knitted jumpers at the ready! If you're still not feeling Autumnal enough, here are a few songs...

Listening toooo: 'Soil, Soil' by Tegan And Sara and 'Time Is All Around' by Regina Spektor

Pages From My Sketchbook

This post is a little peak into my summer sketchbook I kept whilst I was in Villard de Lans last summer. Whenever I had a little bit of time, or saw something I really liked, out came the sketchbook! It's such a nice way to keep memories.

*I also managed to sneak in my beautiful super soft new blanket into a photo again. It's actually a scarf, but seeing as most blankets are over £100, and I am a student with a small part time job, this massive scarf was perfect for me! (It's from Zara if anyone wants one too.)

 Above is my little sketch of the view I had from my bedroom window & below is a pretty little shadow I found in a park which I traced & painted.

 

Above: My utterly delicious 'tarte aux mertilles'. (So difficult not to eat it whilst I was drawing...) And below is a little watercolour study I did whilst E & I paused in the shade during a walk.

HAPPY AUTUMN!! (my favourite time of the year)


Listening toooo: 'Grow Old with Me' by Tom Odell & 'We Come Together' by Goldfish

Chelsea Buns With Tea & Cake

'Tea and Cake' is my favourite book right now.

I bought it for the beautiful illustrations by Emma Block (one of my favourite illustrators) and my oh my has it lived up to my expectations. Her work is absolutely lovely, the colours, patterns & drawings are pure delight. Not to mention the recipes.

(P.S. that blanket I sneaked into the photo below is the bees knees)

Yesterday, E & myself thought we'd have a go at making one of the recipes from the book before she left for Italy (teeny bit jealous). Seeing as I'm missing the lack of Made In Chelsea on my TV screen, Chelsea buns seemed the next best thing. After lots of kneading, rising & a little cooking, out came these beauties.

They're delicious. This was my first time making Chelsea Buns so I was shocked at how delicious they turned out - the perfect amount of stickiness & sweetness. I'm seriously considering having a lunch consisting of just Chelsea buns today, they are that good.

Also, I now have twitter, wooo, you can follow my everyday nonsense by clicking on the little icon on the top right of my blog.

Listening tooo: 'Inspired' by Healyum - they're a band of 3 siblings from my school and they are so good, definitely listen to them - more songs here.

London's Finest Cheese (I don't even like cheese...)

I'll explain the title later, but to begin with, I WENT ON THE BEST TUBE. It was one long carriage and you could see all the way down and every curve we went on you could see the whole thing bend. Awesome.

The reason I was in London to start with was for the London universities Open Day. After having taken pages of notes & bombarded the lecturers with questions, it was of course time to hit the streets of London to meet both E & my dad for lunch, who both happened to be working in London on the same day.

We met in the Spitalfields area where E was working & naturally we were spoilt for choice.

In the end we settled for this huge falafal sandwich (no idea on official the name...). I think I was more attracted to the look of it than the actual taste, but nevertheless it was tasty & incredibly filling for the size of it...

In the afternoon, I searched Spitalfields & Covent Garden for traditional food from different cultures - this is what I'm focusing on for my A2 Art. How come I couldn't find a single food market in Spitalfields?!

Incidentally, this photo below includes 3 of my favourite things right now: my scarf, stripy top & new boots! I wear all three a lot.

After searching nearly everywhere for some cultural food. I landed upon an adorable little British cheese shop.

I don't even like cheese (there's where I got that title) but this shop was perfect for my art. No kidding. The owner was really helpful when I told him I was there for my art & gave me loads of papers and information about the cheeses.

Just look at those textures! Not sure how I can approach drawing cheeses, but it's worth a go, maybe watercolour? Let me know if you have any suggestions.

It was a looovely day (I even managed to pop into Urban Outfitters, ooh yeah!). And on a completely unrelated note, I'm back doing work experience this week, woooo. Except this time I have to do it after school, so everything is pretty busy right now... but I looove it.

Listening toooo: 'Sleepyhead' by Passion Pit & 'You're The One That I Want' by Angus & Julia Stone

Architectural Drawing at the V&A

Towards the end of the holidays, I travelled up to London on my own for the first time in like, forever AND didn't get lost. Major success.

But the fact that I'm now a train & tube pro (okay not quite...) isn't what I'm here to say. The reason I went to London was an architectural drawing workshop at the delightful V&A.

15 of us had managed to book a place at this workshop & every person I met was super friendly, creative & intelligent which was looovely.

The first task of the day was to discuss a selection of the very best architectural drawings. This one below was my favourite; From afar it looks pretty standard, but when you look close, you see that every little piece of this drawing is created using lines & plenty of cross-hatching.

Next up, we went up to the architectural gallery of the museum & sketched three structures. 

The first one we did had to be a line drawing, the second, a tonal drawing & for the third building, we created an atmosphere using colour, weather, people, perspective or anything we could think of. This final task was really fun to go a little wild with.

And then it was time for lunch. As we all got to know one another a little better over lunch & exchanged summer stories, the fountain was filled with children paddling & the place was buzzing with art enthusiasts. Perfect or what?

As the afternoon went on, the tasks became even more creative. Our final task of the day was to come up with our very own concept for a community sports centre. It could be ANYTHING.

I let myself go slightly crazy and decided to create a place where skiing, painting, huge hanging lightbulbs & hidden hills all came together. My jumble of ideas wasn't particularly photogenic so instead here are a couple of my favourite ideas from the others:

The day was absolutely perfect, not only was it exactly what I'm interested in but it was also great to meet the other students & the organisers, who provided us with loads of great advice, as well as encouraging us to approach architecture in new ways.

At the end of the workshop, I had some time to kill, so after a compulsory trip to the cafe & garden, I set off to the nearby houses, snapping away before settling down for a spot of painting.

Yup. That is me sat on the pavement across the road from the house I was painting. And yes, that is a bottle cap I am using as a water pot...

Before long, E met up with me and we wandered towards our train home, passing these pretty places on our way home.

Listening tooooo: Bastille's cover of 'We Can't Stop', Rizzle Kicks' cover of 'Summertime Saddness' & Ellie Goulding's cover of 'Mirrors'

Can you tell I'm loving Radio one's month of live lounges?

READING PART THREE

On day three of the festival, the morning was a face-painting fandango. By this time the smell of the campsite toilets was creeping to our camp, so to stay & paint was a true sign of dedication. After all, when else is it socially acceptable to do this?

Below: Paul, myself, Loz, Luke & Abby

The rest of our morning was spent at the main stage of the arena, where Luke make a heroic transformation, and I spotted some pretty cool boots.

Later on, Abby, Luke & Paul bought drinks from the slush hut & they came in these oddly shaped 'bottles'. I had a little taste & blue was the best flavour, although I have no idea what flavour that actually was...

Below: Myself & Luke

Music-wise, Sunday was one of the days I was most excited about, so as we were waiting for a good spot to see Alex Clare & Haim, Sophia & Viki introduced me to the very dusty dance stage. It was so much fun. If you forget the fact that you can't breathe from all the dust in the air, it's an awesome place to just go crazy dancing seeing as everyone else is too.

Then for Alex Clare & Haim. Okay so the crowds were apparently not as into these people as I was, but nevertheless I loved them. Especially Alex Clare... and Haim, aaah I loved them both! No but really I think Alex Clare was one of the best when it comes to music.

Followed by Disclosure! We weren't even standing in the tent, but the atmosphere at the screen was perfect. Everyone was dancing/moving to a sort of rhythm/climbing up the tent/ doing gymnastics, and it was an incredible atmosphere.

In the evening, nearly everyone went to see the headliner, Biffy Clyro, but Paul & myself set off to see Spector (highly recommended by my sister), via the food stalls for my last trip to the veggie van! I bought an irresistible Burrito, mmmmm.

SPECTOR WERE AWESOME.

Literally my favourite of the whole weekend. They worked the crowd really well, everyone was up & dancing and the music was soooo good.

We even managed to catch the end of Biffy Clyro's set from afar before heading back to camp for our last evening with the group.

On the Monday, we all packed up & witnessed our neighbour's burning their tent (true Reading experience eh?) before leaving for home, with beds & flushing toilets, bliss.

Not being one for band tee's, this was my little memento for the festival.

I definitely want to go to another festival next year.

READING WAS AWESOME.

Listening toooo: 'F For You' by Disclosure, 'Better Off' by Haim, 'Hands Are Clever' and 'Up All Night' by Alex clare & 'Friday Night, Don't Ever Let It End' by Spector