Blue jeans. New jeans.

If you've read this blog before you'll know my quest to find a pair of high waisted jeans, I thought I'd found 'my' pair when I bought a pair of 90's men's jeans from the charity shop but I got bored of the length and sliced them into a pair of very comfortable shorts that I plan to distress and shred in the future. That was my last try at finding a pair until yesterday when I went round the charity shops looking for vintage magazines to use in collages, I spotted a National Geographic in one a few weeks ago but after going to seven out of the eight charity shops we have in my teeny tiny town, even the weird smelling and completely unorganized one next to the chip shop that I never go in, and I couldn't find anything that I liked so I just went general charity shopping. 

I found a John Lennon T-shirt for my brother as his birthday is coming up and some record singles as every charity shop seemed to have new ones put out that day, I buy records even though I dont have a record player as one of my friends has one and we play them when we go round to her house. They're also a lot cheaper, like 25p, and they tend to have slightly cooler singles, I found Adam Ant's Prince Charming in a bargain bucket next to Max Boyce's Live lp, and while I love Boyce I'm not spending £1.50 on him.

Sorry Max

But my favourite purchase, and the first thing I got, was this gorgeous pair of 90's mom jeans. 

They are beautiful and I was so surprised I found them, in a shop I have a track record of finding nothing I like in apart from sewing patterns. It's stone wash denim in this beautiful blue and not only are they gorgeous but they fit really well, if a little loose, and after I put them on a hot wash I'll wear them in a bit with some good ol' butt exercises. 

Not only are they gorgeous but they're brand new too, the tages were the original GAP labels and were still attached which was kinda weird. This means the jeans were probably never worn which is sad because they are a beautiful pair of jeans but it does mean I have a 'new' new pair of jeans for the first time in about four years. 

It also backs up my argument for people who say charity shop clothes are dirty or smell bad just because they're second hand. Just think about all the times you try on clothes in a store and don't buy them afterwards, its not like they wash them before slinging them back on the rails, in fact its probably better at most charity shops as they tend to wash or steam clean the clothes before putting them out. Unlike a certain shop that I wont mention that had a shirt with a large foundation stain on the front that they left out on display. 

Any way I'm super excited for my new jeans, now I have so many more outfit possibilities, and I'm just waiting for the rain to let up so I can Photograph them somewhere outside of my gloomy bedroom.

xxx

Rosie

Haley Blais is a genius and no one can convince me otherwise

So about a month or so ago I put out a list of things that I like and included was the incredibly talented Haley Blais, I was getting giddy as the music video for her song Virginia was coming out and while it's been uploaded to her youtube channel for a few weeks I've finally done a review type thing of the video which is basically me just looking at the pretty aesthetics and going on and on about the beautiful lyrics. 

The song itself is incredible and beautifully written and it touches on that unhappy relationship drama in a new fresh way that isn't some cringey white boy trying to rap about his 'bitch'. It's got a real nostalgic sense to it and Haley's voice is magical, that as one youtube comment mentioned 'is so angelic and captiating that you should have your own personal chubby naked cherubs holding back your hair at all times or something' and I agree with this statement on both a personal and spiritual level. 

While I love the song the music video is something else and there's so much beauty and symbolism and while I thought I had the story down after reading the youtube comments I realised that its totally open for interpretation. Which is something that I think good stories/films/ect should have, something in it that makes it special and unique for each viewer. My impression of the story is that the girl and the main guy were together, way back when, with the girl coming back to haunt him and the other occupants of the house, trying to reconnect with her lost and slightly creepy love. 

The style and visuals of the video are beautiful and the use of the royal blue in Haley's dress and the suitcase with her white hair and hat makes a truly gorgeous image that I definitely want to paint one day. There is a very distinct filming style that reminds me of Wes Anderson in its vintage aesthetic and precise camera movement. All of Haley's video's, both music video's and lookbooks, have a fantastic individual and creative style about them and I love her use of story telling in her video's.

All images from 'Virginia' Official Music Video from Haley Blais youtube account

xxx

Rosie

Does your halo just not flatter your face?

Usually I've tried to update my blog fairly frequently, like every two or three days or at least once a week. But for the first half of last week literally nothing happened, and then in the last three days everything happened, I might make a post about it but basically I was too hungover every day to be able to post anything. I do have a bit more of a schedule and there are some posts I'm planning and some I've already half finished so I can get back on track. I've been a bit iffy about posting this, I keep talking myself out of it but when I go to edit it I cant find anything wrong so I'm biting the proverbial bullet and putting it out there.

I recently got back into pintrest after loosing interest in tumblr, many reading this are probably like how can you get bored by tumblr but after seeing the same posts and gifs over and over again I just wanted to take a break. So I logged back into pintrest and looked back into my old boards and found some pictures I was really interested in. After re-acquainting myself  with 80's and 90's loud and brash films, The Greatest Store In The World (completely out of season), Drop Dead Fred (RIP Rik), Pump Up The Volume and a bit of AbFab, I got into that in-your-face, IDGAF, just let me stick glitter glue all over my body and then come at me bro, aesthetic and I thought these images kinda summed that feeling up in their own interesting way. 

Unapologetic in their excess and femininity, over saturated and covered in sequins they almost show what happens inside my head. Just add in some fuzzy disco beat or an S-Club 7 track or two and you have a world I would love to live in. It does describe me in an interesting way, it's all pretty and sparkly and should be really cute but has an edge to it that just makes you go 'woah I don't wanna get in a fight with her when she's had a few'

The more I look at these the more I want to invest in facial glue and get buzay with my craft supplies.

I couldn't find a source for this but aint it pretty

Christian Lacroix Crown

Dolce and Gabbana S/S 2014

This is from a lovely collection by this gal

Pretty sure this is from Rookie

Art piece by Nicole-Andrijevic-Tanya-Schultz
And that is one helluva name

xxx

Rosie

Garden beauties and big holliday news

So for my first day of freedom I expected slobbing about in my pajamas all day, which I did, I got changed for dinner by putting a plain t-shirt on over my pjs. 

But aside from slobbing around watching 90's kids shows, I re watched that magical moment of tv history when Lizzie Mcguire met Aaron Carter, I also did something pretty major-exciting-scary-in-an-awesome-way-and-scary-in-a-non-cool-way-life-changing thing.

I, okay my mum because I'm still too much of a kid to work websites, booked me into a fashion short course at Central Saint Martins school in London. 

Its a huge thing for me because I've never stayed some where over night on my own, I've never been to London on my own before and the course lasts for two week which is a long time to be in London and away from home so i'm returning home in the weekend before returning as I don't really wanna be in London on a weekend in the middle of summer. I'm kinda nervous but I know there's no point freaking out as its going to be awesome anyway.

The course is Fashion Sketchbook and it's all about being really creative and cool and learning skills rather than just learning knowledge and after reading through a review on someones blog I'm really glad I'm doing it. It seems really artsy based and is all about building skills and getting degree level skills. I've been feeling like my artistic skills have been a bit crap recently and I've defiantly been in an artistic/fashion/creative slump recently, I blame exams and revision, so fingers crossed this will bring back some talent.

And I realise that a lot of my posts have been lacking in the visuals to I'm including some of the pretty photos I took in my garden when the sun was out and there was no gross grey clouds everywhere.

I really liked the roses and the clouds that day

I've become obsessed with frozen mango chunks this summer

My cats react to the heat by choosing a spot in the shade
and lying there for most of the day

xxx
Rosie

Its official. Schools out for summer

Schools out completely, in fact.

No more school, no more exams, no more past papers, no more staying up revising and trying to remember names and dates and sentence structures.

I had my last exam today and I'm both glad its over and terrified that it went wrong and I'll have to resit. I really don't want to repeat the year, and while I don't think I did bad enough to fail but I also felt like I probably haven't done enough to get a good mark.

It was a bit of a nightmare exam, not at all what we'd prepared for and I had to wing it on a few questions, I just hope the examiner is a little lenient this time. I get extra time in exams due to concentration issues and I wrote for 3 hours straight with like ten seconds to spare after quickly reading through it.

I'm trying to put it out of my mind, there's nothing I can do anyway, results day will create enough stress as it is and I want to have a few blissfully ignorant months before I the panic begins.

As usual I turn to alcohol and I'm waiting for my dad to bring back a bottle of cider for me while watching Pump Up The Volume which is like the teen rebellion with amazing 90's music and grungy fashion. Its so good, the 'popular' girl even makes a crazed statement to the news reporters in blue jeans, a baggy jumper and bandages on her nose from where she blew up her kitchen and that's something on my bucket list. 

Now that's I'm free I have the time for more posts and I'm planning some art and diy's to do with my free time, to break up the ramblings and selfies.

xxx

Rosie

Life goes on

So after finishing my last textiles exam yesterday I've passed the second hurdle and by next Thursday I will be leaving my last ever exam at my high school and I will be free!

It'll be a huge weight off my back and I know things will be so much better when its done but if you're like me you'll understand but after finishing something as big as high school, especially British high schools which are seven years worth of work, I tend to go into a bit of a numb state. It's as if someone's replaced the general buzz and hassle and regulation of school with nothing. I feel like someone's put a pair of headphones on my ears and is playing just white noise, things seem both clearer and blurred, I just feel like I'm not really feeling whats happening in the earth. 

Rookie Mag, which is fab in every aspect, changed its monthly theme to ACTION, after the Editor Tavi Gevinsion, who grew to be one of my favourite people in the last year, graduated from high school and wrote an incredible piece on not wallowing in nostalgia or worrying about the future and just living for now. It's something that I think the youth of today, me in particular, needs to consider. So much of teenagers lives are focused on the person we used to be and it seems like changing from that person is perceived as wrong or 'fake'. 

Teens are constantly told to look into the future as well, that this test will affect your overall grade and that will affect which class you're placed in which will affect what you do at A levels which affects what you do at university and will set out the path for your job and the rest of your life. And I remember being in year four at primary school, about nine years old and being told that the test we were about to take would influence what sets we were put in during secondary school. Which to me seems insane. Putting all that pressure on a child who's just taking a spelling test. And it doesn't even matter in the grand scheme of things, kids change, minds change, in my primary school I used to be in the top set for year two, yes year two, we were like six, which meant we got to sit on the red table and worked more independently and by the time I got to GCSE level I was being asked if it would be more suitable to move me into set four and do the foundation paper as there were too many people in set three. It made no sense and I think the education system and society in general need to understand that people change and there shouldn't be anything wrong with that. 

I think it comes down partly to nostalgia and the idea that previous generations were so much better and kinder and nicer than the current generation, which pushes teenagers to distance themselves from this generation, just look at the 90's tags on tumblr or watch an old music video and see the hundreds of comments about 'real music is dead' and 'modern music is all crap'.

I myself am a nostalgic person and I have a love of vintage and antique things but that doesn't mean I cant appreciate the way things are now. I want to live for now, not in an annoying YOLO sense by being an idiot and saying 'I live in the moment', but by enjoying and appreciating what I've accomplished today, in the last week, month and year. Its important to reflect on the present, rather than just reminiscing about the past and hoping for the future. Alyssa from Visions of New York City wrote a response to the Rookie article and it eloquently puts some of the points wanted to explain in this post but have gone off track slightly. 

I've done a lot this year, good and bad, I've worked harder at school than I've ever done previously, I've failed tests I was certain I was going to pass and I got my first A in my life. I've liked a boy properly in that crushy weird stomach kinda way and I've kissed two boys I didn't know in one evening. I've felt happier than I have in a long time and have cried in school in front of a class of eleven year olds. I've been braver, felt more creative and started focusing on photography and taken my secret writing more seriously. After a long time I'me beginning to like my body and the way I look, I'm more outspoken and have stopped fearing my own voice and developing a lump in my throat when people asked me a question. I've tried my hand at things I had only ever thought about in the back of my mind, I made a short film, submitted my work into competitions and performed in a musical. I've changed my style and thought about the way I wanted to appear and that sometimes that doesn't fit in with what people expect of me. I've shared more with people, I've kept things secret, I've learnt what stays in my comfort zone and where my boundaries are. Most of 

all I've learnt who I am and that's not to say this is the best version of me and who I should be forever and that things can never change. It just means I'm okay with how things are turning out. 

So dont focus on the distant future and how that one mark on an answer on a piece will drastically alter your whole future and dont wallow in the past and about that one time you called someone the wrong name or something. 

Enjoy your time, have fun, make mistakes and learn from them, as my friend Millie puts it

"We're young, now is the time to behave like young people"

xxx

Rosie

Go for broke buy shopping exclusively second hand

So I'm preparing for the summer, not by getting my body beach ready, although I did do a wall sit while taking my makeup off which takes like five minutes minimum, no I am preparing for the next few months in which I will be completely broke.

With birthdays, meals out, camping, the summer ball and days away, including Reading I'm trying to regulate my spending so I'm not completely broke by July. 

But as retail therapy helps de-stress and motivate me, which is something I need desperately during this revision period, I've been getting my consumerist fixes by shopping secondhand almost exclusively. It's not too hard as I'm a born charity shopper and I live in a town that has a charity shop for almost every charity you can think of. 

I went to the local car boot sale this morning to get out of the house and it was a little bit rubbish overall, all the good regular stalls hadn't turned up and it must have been the first proper sale of the season because everyone was there and it got really busy but on the plus side everything was super cheap and I got some good stuff even if the fruit boys hadn't turned up.

A cute vintage postcard from California I think

A cute little stamp from the postcard
Seriously I may actually be a stamp collector

I'm collecting these photo's not only because they look
cute but so I can stitch through them as little art diys.

With the approaching summer comes jeans shorts

Rather than buy women's jeans that fit me and stuff I thought
I'd just buy some men's jeans and pretend they're meant for
me.

This was more of a hair update, it's now butt level and has
developed a bit of a curl at the ends which doesn't usually
happen

I do plan to take them in at some point, and I'm defiantly
ripping or shredding as they look too clean

And now for my favourite purchase today. A film camera! I've been wanting a film camera for ages and have been looking online but the prices are way expensive. I was even thinking of buying from the charity shop in town, they got in a load of old cameras as a donation and I was thinking of treating myself when this beauty waltz into my life. Or rather it sat in a bucket of old cameras my mum pointed to. I was distracted by the old 90's video camera for a second but then I spotted the camera wouldn't part with it.

I asked the guy manning the stall if it was working but he seemed a little clueless but nice and he only charged me 50p for it and gave me a free bag so it was a win win! 

I've spent my revision breaks researching the camera and my mum is a wiz at old cameras and we bought film and everything so I'll be set to take fancy artsy pictures!

Look at this beauty,  I still have to find a name for him.
Yes. It is a boy camera.

So that's it for my second hand haul, I guess that's what this is, and I'm kinda proud that I've managed to be a little cleverer with my money and consumerist ways.

 Now I have to go to sleep because I started this at 7 o'clock Sunday and finished it literally first thing Monday morning.

xxx
Rosie