things are slowly coming together.

order.

Oh, and check this out. This is a painting you made.
Remember when you used to make paintings?

No, neither do I.

MAKE MORE PAINTINGS, DAMMIT.

Still Life October 2009

Oil on Canvas

36"x24"

(all via weheartit)

in the sun

(via so much to tell you)

Hello adorable Zooey :)
Ohh, what I wouldn't do to get inbetween you and your equally adorable husband..


I've been feeling very melancholic lately, with regards to most aspects of my being. Nothing here has changed in a long time. It should have been, but its not.

Words that could be used to describe my current state include but are not limited to the following:
lacklustre, snagnatic, listless, apathetic, pensive, apprehensive, lethargic.

The Son of Psoriasis.

So I very recently discovered that that book by Hemingway is actually called The Sun Also Rises.

What a nice title for a book. Just four short, easily decipherable words. NO.

I must've only ever heard it being spoken about on TV and suchlike and never actually saw the book in physical form because I have spent a lifetime thinking it was called THE SON OF PSORIASIS for craps' sake.

I should get trophies for reaching new levels of retardom.

I've kind of always pictured it being about some awkward "coming of age" dude, (suffering from of a long-term bout of psoriasis, conveniently) stumbling about life, trying to find his way all the while feeling controlled by his infliction. Whatever.

Way to go Scottish education system, way to go.

Studio, lately.

So this would be more accurately titled as "Things I have been doing in the studio when I should have been doing more useful things in the studio, lately."

I have slowly been getting better though. Getting more settled into a routine.

Kind of.

Things are looking good on the clothes front though! I haven't slipped up and have been discovering hidden gems in my wardrobe.

I have however been fantasising about what clothes I will be buying for the summer when these 3 months are over. I have a modest, "summer must-haves" list. How very cosmo of me..

I, Sir Emmalot, hereby pledge from this day until the 17th day of May to refrain from purchasing new items of clothing.

My reasons for doing such are as follows;

1. I have a heck-load of clothes. A heck-load of clothes whom I claim not to like. These clothes spend their precious little lives hidden at the bottom of wardrobes or drawers. They are constantly overlooked in favour of prettier clothings. I vow to go forth and show these clothes the loving they deserve!
2. I am rather horrendously in debt. Yet despite this, I seem to spend an average of £100-£200 a month on said clothing items who casually sit on top of uglier (albeit very wearable) other items of clothing. My simple calculations tell me that by refraining from new purchases I will soon see the light at the other end of my overdraft.
3. I don't know my clothes very well. I don't know which items are true staples in my wardrobe. By doing this exercise I will hopefully be able to downsize my wardrobe to what is really needed. And then It will be much easier to get dressed in the morning.
4. There rarely comes a day when I can see my room below the various mountains of clothing it possesses.

My only exceptions from the plan are as follows;

1. I may purchase clothing only from money I have made by selling old clothes on ebay.
2. I can sew up anything I like, so long as I do not spend money on materials.
3. I will allow myself one emergency purchase. Think of it as my "Get out of jail free" card. For example, someone may decide to invite me to a purple pajama party. If this occurs I will not want to miss out on such a valuable social affair and will use my emergency purchase card to purchase said purple pajamas.

Ok?

Lets see how it goes...

Num num num.

This, believe it or not, is pancakes.

And they, believe it or not, were delightful.

Blueberries seriously know their shit.

ducking for apples

I like Mr. New Telephone.

He enables me to take photos on the go.

And when I upload photos that I take on-the-go it makes it look like I do things and make things and see things.

Almost as if I have a life.

He's lovely to me.

Yo!

Yesterday at school we played with magnets and then we went for sushi. Oh, what a woeful life we lead.

Things that excite me still.

- Buying second hand books.
- Organising everything in colour order.
- The prospect of running away.

Things that used to excite me when I was younger.

-Wearing my pajamas outside
-Dressing my little brother up as my little sister
-Following the stream of water from my dad washing the car down the road and into the drain
-Bunk beds (in particular, making dens in them)
-Buying second hand books
-Spying (Harriet The Spy style)
-Dinosaurs
-Playing "Old Folks Home" with my friends and handing out fizzers as their daily medication
-Organising everything in colour order
-Dressing up at any given opportunity
-Sewing toys from fun fur
-Walking the dog with grandad in the dark while looking for bats
-Making perfume from flowers
-Writing stories
-Jim Davidson's Generation Game
-The prospect of running away
-Scented pens/bouncy balls/nail varnish
-Boys who liked reading and had lots of gears on their bikes

my room.

my room series 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5

oil on canvas

12x12"

all painted about 6 hours before handed in for assessment, but lets ignore that.

Check me out. Check out my "look what I've made" roll. Its almost enough to fool someone into thinking I actually do things.

room

collage

manifesting procrastination in a slightly more constructive manner

Books I have purchased with the intention of reading but actually never got round to reading or started reading but gave up halfway through.

Otherwise termed as ;

List of Books I Shall Endeavour to Read in the Near Future

Naive. Super - Erlend Roe

OK, so technically I am cheating because I am currently reading this but considering my terrible track record an easy start is a good idea. Yes? Tick.

Everything is Illuminated - Jonathan Safran Foer

Purchased on a whim while waiting for my bus on a snowy day last year. The cover looked nice.

Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Because this seems to be one of those books you just have to read.

Farewell Waltz - Milan Kundera

I like Milan Kundera. He often joins me on trains. Or planes. Or he entertains me while I'm waiting for trains. Or planes. I have not had a travelling situation yet to bring this one to however.

No one belongs here more than you. - Miranda July

Because this woman is glorious. She created this glorious website, and directed this glorious film. If she were a bearded man in her early twenties she would probably be my desktop background.

Don't tell me the truth about Love - Dan Rhodes

Whats this? A book of short stories sandwiched between two other books of short stories!? What a delightful concoction. So delightful, in fact, I may just gobble it up right now. Yum yum yum.

Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams - Sylvia Plath

Purchased as a highly introspective, diary-writing 14 year old girl who claims The Bell Jar changed her life.

Running with Scissors - Augusten Burroughs

I purchased Possible Side Effects one day because it was exceptionally green. Low and behold, it was also exceptionally readable. Thus, I decided it would only be right to purchase its bestselling companion.

The Trick is to Keep Breathing - Janice Galloway

I accidentally stole this book from my old school's library. What I have managed to read of it was pretty intense. Was picked up by that highly introspective, diary-writing 14 year old girl we met earlier.

To See Every Bird on Earth - Dan Koeppel

Another accidental, school-time thievery. It has a really pretty cover. And a very endearing story.

hold on to yourself.

Final assessment will be taking place in approximately 12 hours.

I really could do with at least another week.

Yet I still seem to find myself checking up on facebook updates every half hour.

coffee black and egg white.

I just finished watching Cruel Intentions.
Its one of those movies that I remember watching as a child in my bedroom, sitting 6 inches away from my tiny, ancient TV screen with the volume turned down the lowest it would go. Then I'd quickly turn it off whenever someone would walk past my room. God forbid a parent would catch a glimpse of sex or swearing.

This is also the method I used to learn about vampires.

Anyway, it opened my eyes to what great music was around at the end of the nineties. Placebo, The Cardigans, Blur...all good stuff. I of course at the time was too wrapped up in where Steps stood in the charts to notice what was going on around them. Deary me, wasted youth..

i got a new toy.

Lets ignore the fact that I've taken such a rubbish photo of such a pretty camera.
But shes here! Shes here!
Thank you glorious postman for braving such a blustery morning to bring this gorgeous creature to my bosom.
I am just now beginning to research how she's going to be burning holes in my pockets. But that is beside the point.
Look how pretty she is!

Anyway. Today has been a fairly unproductive day. Fairly unproductive by most people's standards. However by my stayinginbedalldayplayingmafiawars standards I've been crazy busy! Check it.
I made 5 whole canvases from scratch. (As well as levelling up in Mafia Wars. Twice.)
I'm also in process of making a tiny, terribly-decorated, 70's styled bedroom. More light will be shed on this later.

Sex and the City is currently on the television as I type. There is something about that show that makes me feel terribly organised. Perhaps its the fleet of confident, successful, single women going into the world and making it on their own. However, I think I am influenced solely on the visual of Carrie Bradshaw typing on her laptop in her beautiful duck-egg blue apartment.

Thats it, I need a duck-egg blue bedroom. Then I can justify having long-winded but ever so well put together internal monologues that make a confident, organised woman.