A Week In Pictures

Visiting  Labour & Wait was a highlight

Token Alpaca photo

I've always wanted to visit The Barbican and I finally got around to it. I really love the Brutalist nature of the complex.

Got this from England at Home in Brighton

I've had a really busy week with a short trip to London/Brighton, minus any London Fashion Week. I plan on catching up with all the shows over the weekend. Here's a few snaps of my week, I ticked a few boxes in terms of places I wanted to visit but not all as London was rammed (my bad for choosing half term to go eh).

For all you guys that live in London some of these images are probably a bit old hat to you but I guess you can see the kind of things I find interesting. If you know anything any some of the things I have snapped please let me know. It's all been slow on the replying to comments and catching up with blogs but I'll get there.

Gone Fishing

I'll be away for a few days, off to London/Brighton, the original plan was to go to some shows at London Fashion Week but I couldn't really afford a hotel and train. So how could I turn down a free bed in Brighton!

See You on the other side.

Inspiration - Peter Callesen's Paperwork

I completely found Peter Callesen's work by accident, I've been racking my brain all day trying to think of another artists name and one of his projects came up in the google search. I was pretty blown away by what this chap can do with a single piece of paper and some glue. He cuts out shapes from the paper and builds structures to form complimentary shapes. His body work work is massive too, I have just chosen a few of my favs, mainly of the a4 work but he's done numerous large scale installations, commissions and even some stuff involving floating castles!

If that sounds all good to you I urge you to check more of his stuff out here. I'm pretty chuffed about finding is work, especially seeing that I wasn't working for it. All pics from Peter Callesen's site.

Handwritten by Tweet

Handwritten is a new concept blog by Clare from Tweet where each post is handwritten by her readers, friends, college ect. Each post will be accompanied with an illustration by Clare herself. It's such a sweet ideas, she is doing it for a uni project so the more people who get involved the better.


If you're interested in submitting an entry email Clare at showmeyourhandwriting@gmail.com and hopefully you will see your blog posts come alive like I did about. Mine was from my recent "Hiking" post, remember?

Any exciting plans for this weekend? We're off to a Parisian themed ball at Blackpool Tower, I can't wait.

New/Old Levi's

Wearing - Vintage army jacket, vintage Ralph Lauren brown shirt, Gap t-shirt, Levi's 511s, beige Converse, ASOS wooly hat.

Being on a tight budget is ok really, I seriously do fine. So when I hear of items going that I think could work in my wardrobe I try to snap them up, usually by swapping ect. So when I was offered these Levi's 511s by Johnny from Free/Man via Twitter I jumped at the chance. Being a few years old they have perfectly faded to created their own unique wash, they had just fell out of favour in his wardrobe, so I was there to scoop them up. Check out the cool pattern on the inside of the pockets.

It was a really sunny day across the North West today so these shots took place in Hollie's back garden. Hollie's make up looks pretty ace in the low afternoon sunlight so I took a couple of her too. She took the first few snaps.

In other news I'm making my way down county next week, the plan was to go to London Fashion Week but I'm not too sure on that situation now. I'll be spending 2 days in London but staying over in Brighton to keep the costs down, winner! Who else is going to LFW? 

Inspiration - Multi-Functional

Compact Living by Matroshka

Desk by Asher Isrelow

2 Hanger by Studiomama

Wooden bench with storage by a group of Swedish students

Customised Camera unit by found of Design Sponge

Coffee table with bookshelf by David Pickett

So it's all about function and multi function at the moment, after featuring Studiomama last week I've been totally consumed by anything with a second function/multi storage. Again it all spans from my uni project, I'm looking at people who like design but live in shared/small accommodation, so anything that has a storage solution is on my hit list. 

Can anyone recommend any products that fit this bill? Hope everyone's having a nice chilled out weekend. 

By the way, Hollie has had a bit of a redesign on her blog. Check it out and see what you think.

H&M Style Guide Feature

I just wanted to post this because, well I guess I'm just really chuffed about it. Me and a few of my selections were chosen to feature in H&M's February Style Guide. I was asked to take part last summer and I didn't hear anything back after that so I just assumed they binned it. So it was a nice surprised when I popped on the site to have a browse and I saw my face, admittedly I didn't submit a a couple of the images(they just pinched them off here) because I wouldn't have said yes to using the embarrassing image of me on a motorbike.

Anyway I'm flattered to be featured, even if I'm not the most photogenic of people. Go check it out further and let me know what you think.

Trekking

Wearing - Gap work jacket, Topman orange cord shirt, Dexter Wong for Topman baggy trousers, 2nd hand hiking boots, ASOS "Life Aquatic" hat, Topman socks.

If you have been following my last few posts and tweets you will know the headache I've been having about finding some new boots. I saved up for ages to buy some Redwing boots and when they arrived they were as hard as rock inside so it was back to square one. Then all of a sudden I bought two pairs in the space of a week. Above it the second pair, dark brown leather hiking boots, from a vintage shop in Manchester, priced at only £20(which is a surprise, as I'm sure everyone is aware of the rising prices in some vintage shops). I'm pretty chuffed with them I must say, they are in pretty good condition, a few scuffs and still decent inside. They're heavy but they is to be expected from a purpose built boot.

My attempt of a outfit post is always a bit hit or miss, this one is somewhere in between, I haven't got a tripod so I have to balance my camera on whatever I can find, and because I'm tall most of the time my head gets lobbed off. I'm liking the looser trousers at the moment, regular high street chinos are mega tight and will make these boots look like moon boots. 

Anyways, you liking my nod to the rambling scene?

Recent Finds Part 1

a) Tin and wooden butter tray

b) Turquoise wire magazine rack

I'm getting a bit obsessed with home ware at the moment, it's probably down to getting to a certain age combined with what I'm been concentrating on at uni for the past few months. Above are 2 things I picked up last week, the butter tray was 50p from my local charity shop. Hollie says her gran used to have to same one, which was a nice coincidence. Second up in a turquoise wire magazine rack from TKmaxx, weirdly I actually picked up a matching desk tidy type thing a few weeks ago to use for my project. So over the next few months I'm going to be collecting things for my final major project, which I mentioned I was working on in the last post.

Part 2 will include some clothes that I've bought over the past few weeks. It may sound like I'm buying loads but honestly, I'm curbing my enthusiasm.

Inspiration - "Studiomama" Knows Best

Multi-functional cabinet

Making use of space

Slick design always with a use

Mixing and rediscovering materials

I'm looking at London based designer Nina Tolstrup, for inspiration for my Final Major Project at uni. She has been a great starting point for me. My idea is to launch a homeware store aimed firstly at men but also a place where women would enjoy shopping. I'd going to be along the lines of what Pedlars and Labour & Wait do but a bit more masculine (this is what I'm thinking at the moment). Things I'm looking at include practicality/function/double-fuction/design/size/history/colour.


Tolstrup's designs usually feature a second or hidden function and are usually extremely practical. She has also design a folk/knife/spoon combo! I just like everything she stands for, if you like just swing by her site for more of her designs.


Images all from Studiomama