It's late. I should be asleep. Instead I will blog

I haven't had a lot to say of late but I have been feeling sorry for myself and haven't wanted to bore anyone else with this. However the big count down to the new year is here and personally I cant wait to see the back of the last few months of 2010. More on my new year count down tomorrow, today however is my festive update.

Christmas seemed to come around ever so quick this year and wasn't quite the festive season I hoped for. As I have been interning I wasn't able to give my family and friends all the gifts I wanted to, but I hope they liked the little they did get. Hopefully next year I will have some sweet sweet money to throw around.

Anyway enough of the bring down, my favourite part of Christmas is the family tradition we hold every Christmas Eve aptly named 'Crap Christmas'. (I realise I have used that word three times in the last sentence so I will try to refrain from using it again) Anyway the whole family get together and exchange gifts gathered from charity shops. The idea is to give each other the most awful presents we could hope for! It's always very keen but everybody loves it.

This year I have been banging on about getting a kitten so I got lots of cat related gifts, they were meant to be horrid but I quite liked them. I also quite liked the sequin horse art I got too (I have actually been sitting pinning sequins to a polystyrene rectangle for the past two days). I wasn't too sure about the little Austrian man statue or the Dalmatian on wheels. It was, as always, a really good way to start the celebrations.

The rest of the period has been pretty standard with not much to write home about. Good food, good company and terrible TV. But I am a 'Christmas Keeno' so even if I don't feel like it I always make the most of the season.

Tomorrow I shall hit the sales and try to add to my already bulging wardrobe with clothes I actually want to wear.


Crap Christmas Photos

Example -- One Night

Love and Other Drugs

"Love is the drug and I need to score"

-Roxy Music - Love is the Drug

A Grovelling Retraction

I wrote that anyone who puts their decorations up more than a week before Christmas is a chav. Ma and Pa Cridland do not that is DO NOT think those that put up their decorations early are chavs. I also don't think that, I was merely using artistic licence. In fact my distinct lack of festive feelings is probably due to not having the decs up early.

Please Please family (Auntie Kim) don't hate us!

xxx

Sunday in Heaven

Today will be good......

I can't wait to climb into my freshly made bed tonight

Decorations

I have been raised to believe that if you put your Chirstmas decorations up more than a week before Christmas you are an awful chav with too much time on your hands. I do however miss out on the festive feeling for that extra two weeks or so, and much envy those free to have their decorations up in August or whatever crazy time of year they start springing up across the country.

So today, in traditional Cridland family style, we put the decorations up. However this year Al (the younger brother) refused to help as he is anti Christmas/capitalism at the moment (I'm sure that will change come Christmas morning) And poor old Papa Crids has been pretty under the weather. So whilst mum tackled the ceiling decs I was allowed free reign on the tree. Believe me when I say I tried to control myself. But there are certain tacky baubles that just have to be hung year in, year out.

After the decorations were hung/ erected/ laid out and the take-away was chowed down once again I let loose with the camera to take some 'artistic' festive snaps of my Christmas tree work...............Rest assured I show no signs of improvement as yet!

Snowy Saturday and Festive Feelings

From katyavegas

It's all want want want with me

1) I want to be this girl. She is a cool Londoner living in Melbourne, she dresses like a Fifties pin up and pulls off red lipstick as daytime make up (somthing I have longed to be able to do for too many years) And she loves a good pair of heel (a girl after my own heart! You Should check out her blog.



2) Right now I want to be drinking this!

Image from bawkbawkbawk

3) I want to go for a stroll with interesting company along Clevedon Pier. This picture of it is stunning. I suppose a lot of seaside towns are like this during the winter, but this just strikes me as a beautiful, uninterupted spot for an afternoon of winter calm, possibly with a hot chocolate in hand spiced up with a dash of Baileys.

Image from simplevillagegirl

Thats enough wishing for now......back to reality : (

Lissie - Kid Cudi live cover - Pursuit Of Happiness

"Crush a bit, little bit, roll it up, take a hit
Feelin’ lit feelin’ light, 2 am summer night.
I don't care, hand on the wheel, drivin drunk, I'm doin’ my thang
Rollin the Midwest side and out livin’ my life getting’ out dreams
People told me slow my roll I'm screaming out fuck that
Imma do just what I want lookin’ ahead no turnin’ back
If I fall if I die know I lived it till the fullest
If I fall if I die know I lived and missed some bullets"

Muppet Christmas Carol - Marley And Marley

Obsession

I love these guys

The Naked and Famous - Young Blood

We're only young and naive still
We require certain skills
The mood it changes like the wind
Hard to control when it begins

The bittersweet between my teeth
Trying to find the in-betweens
Fall back in love eventually
Yeah yeah yeah yeah

Can't help myself but count the flaws
Claw my way out through these walls
One temporary escape
Feel it start to permeate

We lie beneath the stars at night
Our hands gripping each other tight
You keep my secrets hope to die
Promises, swear them to the sky

The bittersweet between my teeth
Trying to find the in-betweens
Fall back in love eventually
Yeah yeah yeah yeah

As it withers
Brittle it shakes
Can you whisper
As it crumbles and breaks
As you shiver
Count up all your mistakes
Pair of forgivers
Let go before it's too late
Can you whisper
Can you whisper
Can you whisper
Can you whisper

The bittersweet between my teeth
Trying to find the in-betweens
Fall back in love eventually
Yeah yeah yeah yeah
The bittersweet between my teeth
Trying to find the in-betweens
Fall back in love eventually
Yeah yeah yeah yeah

2011

Rather irresponsibly on the bosses part I have been left in charge at work and I quite like it. For an intern it’s quite a big deal. Maybe they actually trust me to get things done and to only slightly mess up a tiny bit. It’s like when your mum and dad leave you in charge of the house for the first time; I’m full of responsibility and wild party ideas. This would be a good office to have a party in, but instead I shall write a quick post and then get back on with work. In actual fact I’m on my lunch break and I never had the guts to throw wild house parties. Too straight laced for my own good.

Things seem to be going somewhere at the moment, and the career front doesn’t seem as bleak as it did a few weeks ago. With a growing list of responsibilities and small successes I am starting to feel like hard work does pay off. I know the next few weeks and months are going to be hard with probably a lot of change but if hard work has got me this far then hopefully in a year’s time I will be where I want to be. And hopefully I will have ticked off everything on my 2011 list of things to do. Yes I know it’s a bit early and not even Christmas but this is what 2011 will hopefully look like for me.

1. I will have gotten rid of my overdraft for good and never go back into the negative again

2. I will complete all five of the uni birthdays in a wild and scandalous manner

3. I will go on holiday to somewhere I haven’t been before I’m thinking Vienna, and go back to Italy to explore some of the other cities there.

4. I will finally start learning Italian and maybe shorthand

5. I will join a masters swimming club, get fit and maybe even start competing again. (The swimming pool is the only place I can clear my mind)

6. I will get my cello fixed and try and remember how to play it. If that fails I’ll have to pay for lessons.

7. I will be a happy media whore and get articles published all over the place (for this I will have to overcome my fear of the phone and my fear of rejection)

8. I will find a flat and move out of home and hopefully Essex

9. I will master photography once and for all

10. I will go to more gigs and hopefully finally see Paul Weller (he is getting on a bit and I don’t want to miss my chance)

11. I will be able to buy lots and lots of pretty clothes and wear inappropriately high heels to all occasions

12. I will overcome my fear of the ghost that I think is living in my room.

I am going to be a busy busy girl

Unatainable Skill Set

I think in my entire lifetime I have taken approximately three pictures that can be classed as aesthetically pleasing. I don't really have brilliant artistic vision or 'an eye for detail' as you can probably tell. However I do appreciate photographic finesse and have a selection of photographers I admire, so I decided to try and teach myself a bit of photography whilst on my trip to London. Last night with my fairly bog standard Kodak in hand and a new discovery of the 'night time landscape' mode I let loose on the the Southbank and this is what happened.....




I thought this shot made for interesting framing.........








Now, this picture I think is quite impressive really. Looks like a Monet or some other really good artists work...............






Okay so it might be blurry, it might make you feel dizzy but I still think this one is pretty cool

I don't want to blow my own trumpet but this is probably the best picture of my Mum and Dad ever.............

I think it probably has become quite clear why I post other peoples work. I don't think I'm ever going to make it in the Art world : ( I would be so up for an East London gallery space as well.

Laaaandaaan Baby

Tonight I'm going to Roast at Borough Market and taking an evening flight on the London Eye. I'm pretty excited as I have just looked at the menu and I am already salivating, also I have been on the Eye quite a few times but never at night so that should be good

Venice...........................take me here

Music To My Ears

Try as I might I have never been cool, and this innate ability I have to be totally un-cool usually manifests itself in the form of a passion for ridiculous music. If there is one thing I’m good at it’s enjoying the delights of a novelty song. When people speak of soundtracks to their lives or songs that take them back to a particular point in time, they usually have meaningful records, or at least songs that make them sound slightly current. However the songs that remind me of good times are numbers by the likes of Bombalurina and Frank Ifield.

The reason I’m telling you this is because Christmas is my favourite time of the year, presents galore, family and friends flooding in and out of the house and enough food to feed a small country, but the best part of the whole period is revelling in cheesy music, and not really being judged too much on my terrible taste.

My obsession for all things cheese probably comes from the paternal side of the family. I have received plenty of stick for participating in family sing songs (pretty cringe really) but I can always remember something funny and always slightly naughty being sung at family gatherings. One of my favourites goes a little something like this. Ahem......

I like working down the sewer

All amongst the piddle and the poop

Picking up the little bits of paper

Polishing up the automatic winder

Down in the sewer all amongst manure

That’s where the navvy does his bit

You can hear shovels ring

With a ting-a-ling-a-ling

When you’re working down the sewer shovelling shhhhiiiiiiiiii........

Whilst I may put a few good tunes on here, (well that depends on your opinion I suppose) when you have a scroll through my Ipod it’s full of Chas and Dave and the like. Don’t get me wrong I do appreciate a well penned verse, sung by a husky voiced male to a banging guitar riff (note my lack of musical terminology which probably has something to do with my lack of taste) but I am always drawn to out of tune voices, stupid lyrics and strange instruments.

Christmas time tends to bring out a whole manner of different qualities in people, a lot of people do charitable deeds, some unleash their inner Nigella and I transform into Tony Blackburn. I don’t normally get invited to organise the Chirstmas playlist but this year I’m going to make one that nobody can forget.

And I will finally fulfil my ambition to learn the Wham Rap.

if you like pina coladas........Such a sweet song and now I want to wiggle around a beach with cocktails and pals.

Decorating my room

I really want to redecorate my room and found some really cool stuff on the H&M website. These cushions were my favourites I want to just swamp my bed and sofa in these delightful little gems. The velvet covers and soft shades are just right. Only £7.99 each at the moment too, an utter bargain. I also really like the bow detail cushions below which are even cheaper at £3.99 each. I think they will all be going on my Christmas list.



Also I'd be pretty happy with either of the below in my room. I can't remember where I found the pictures but I think the alphabet shelf would be more practical, besides I don't have a spare guitar lying around for an art instillation anyway.

One day soon I'll write more than a sentance on here....

Images from yay!everyday and Milk

Some delights for the eye

Dreamy

I wonder if this is what old ladies do to the back of their heads?

This piece of art by Andy Smith seems pretty apt right now.

Images curtesy of Milk.