Week end of madness! Tfios, travel and...modelling?!

Woah, what a week end! Not a weekend, but a whole four days of fun time! Sitting here on a sunday evening, totally exhausted, with a stress-related headache and irritated, bloodshot eyes is totally worth all the fun I've had the past few days!

It started on tuursday, when I went to see The Fault In Our Stars with my best friend Ari. I've been a nerdfighter for a few years now, and was super excited to see the movie after reading the book all that time ago and following the progression of the movie through John's updates and videos. I really enjoyed it. After over an hour of not crying, I thought I was home free, but eventually towards the end I found myself dripping tears on to my shirt along with what seemed to be the entirety of the theatre. I've never been in a movie screening before where most of the audience is audibly crying, and it was a surreal but pretty cool experience; I'm glad that the movie has moved so many people.

Ari and myself in the 'Okay? Okay' TFIOS shirts I made for us!

On friday I embarked upon an adventure with my sister, as she had bought me train tickets for my birthday so that I could visit Manchester. I have been several times when I was younger, but I enjoyed my recent visit much more. Seeing a big city and all of its different communities of people, the appreciation of art and culture and the variety of shops that cater to alternative and vintage lifestyles was awesome to me. I hope that one day I'll be able to live in a place like that, but even though I'm living in a small and relatively unvaried city for the moment, it gives me hope that there are places out there with more to offer.

I love to travel to new places, and decided that it'd be a great opportunity to grab my camera and do some snapping, since I've neglected my passion for photography for way too long now. I posted my photos to my newly created instagram account, as I finally gave in and signed up, hoping that it would relieve some of the pressure I put on myself when taking photographs for my Deviantart account – I thought the random snapping would allow me to take photos in a more casual way.

I bought some cool stuff from Manchester, including a pair of adorable TUK kitty shoes I've wanted for many years now but have always been unable to find in my size. Super happy Gina go!

Another great place that my sister was excited to show me was Affleck's. It's basically 5 floors of varied, weird and wonderful shops, including alternative clothing stores, American confectionery stores, vintage and retro stores, and even a whole store dedicated solely to Totoro items. Needless to say, I could have spent much longer in there than I did...

After the adventure that was friday, saturday was a bit of a rest day for me. My roller derby training was on but I was exhausted from waking up at 5:30 the previous morning and walking around all day, and my anaemia was rearing it's ugly head, so I took a rain check. Instead I spent the day in the sunshine, where I went to the Cathedral grounds and had a picnic with my mum, went to a tea shop for a gigantic and delicious gotta-eat-it-all-because-it's-so-good slice of fudge cake, gardening, and writing a letter to my Australian pen-pal!

Today (sunday) was a big day for a couple of reasons. My hair dresser recently asked me if I would be a hair model for her as the salon were looking to shoot some new photographs for their website. I cautiously and half-heartedly agreed, not knowing anything about the process or what happens at a photo shoot or, let's face it, how to model. It wasn't just a case of expecting the unexpected however as I suffer from social anxiety and the thought of being in front of a large camera lens and having people scrutinise me is a thought I find less than comforting to say the very least. The fact that I actually managed to do this is a huge milestone and accomplishment for me, and something I'm proud of. If I'd been asked to do this a few years ago I don't think I'd have been able to go through with it, so just overcoming that hurdle makes me feel great. The process itself was quite unexpected. After finding out I was one of three models for three different hair stylists, I had my hair washed and cut, and then found out that the photo shoot would be taking place at the city's university. After we got there, I had someone apply my make-up. It was a really odd experience. I sat very awkwardly on a chair and felt cold liquid being liberally applied to my face and wondering whether it was foundation or something else entirely, and trying to keep my eyes open as the make-up artist painstakingly applied mascara and copious amounts of eye shadow. I had no idea what look they were going for until the photo shoot itself when I got to peak at the photographs that had been taken. I then proceeded to sit on a stool in front of all the light boxes, trying my best to follow the photographer's direction and hoping I didn't look too awkward, or that my posture didn't look too sloppy, but I soon realised that everyone was very nice and was told that I did a really good job.

Modelling was an incredibly surreal experience. It was quite enjoyable at times, but it certainly isn't me, and I definitely would not want to do it for a living! I will always be the tall, awkward girl who would rather be behind the camera than in front of it, but I'm glad to have had the opportunity and the experience of stepping way out of my comfort zone, because that's what makes life exciting.

I took a couple of quick snaps before I washed off the make up.
It was very weird seeing myself with such heavy blush; something I never usually wear.

So, it's been a great week, wherein a got to see great friends and a great movie, travel, take photographs, eat cake, enjoy the sunshine, and try something completely foreign to me. I hope I'll have more fun stuff to report soon, but until then, I think I'll just lie down for a little while...

Hummingbird glasses, derby, wheels and box cats!

It's been a fairly eventful past few weeks!
It has been quite stressful in parts, but there have been some fun things going on. The other week I got to hang out with Ari which is always fun, frequenting our usual book stores, eating pizza, looking at shiny things we can't afford but still enjoying ourselves, and Ari continuing with the latest piece in her art project aimed at photographing me in ridiculous cheap 'sunglasses' while looking fairly unamused. We've amassed a fair few shots now...

Apart from that, other social stuff has been derby, derby, derby! And despite the soreness I am not complaining. I passed all the skills on the skills session from last weekend, yay for progress! I've also gone up to practicing twice a week; this is great, as limited skating time makes it much more awkward to find your feet each time you get to practice. Speaking of which, yesterday I received my brand new wheels. I'm very happy to have new wheels as my current ones are too hard and during faster skating I find myself slipping. I've only gone down a couple numbers with the durometer of these (95a to 89a) but they're a much better quality wheel and are supposed to be quite grippy. Hopefully I'll get to try them this thursday at practice!

In other derby related news, I finally bought some new (proper) running shoes for off-skates work-outs, both at practice and not, since I was kind of tired of ruining my converse and I definitely didn't relish the thought of tripping over my laces. 

Apparently I didn't need the box...not that I had a choice!

It's been much nicer weather lately - aka, not freezing cold!- so I've been much more proactive with exercising and being outdoors in general...

Sibling's dog - not mine!

Overall it's been a pretty good couple weeks, excluding the stress! Glad to be progressing at derby and motivation is always good. Until next time...

Burlesque and hair cuts!

First things first! More photographs from derby last week:

 

Spot me line up NSOing with Dionne, complete with clipboard. So legit.

 
On sunday I had the fun experience of attending the Gilded Merkin Burlesque revue and cabaret.

I saw the show with my friends Charlotte, Beth and Lydia, who kindly drove us there as it was about an hour away. After some slight timekeeping issues (okay, pretty close calls!) and having to trek across the city to the venue in the rain, we finally made it to our awesome balcony seats. The show itself was great, funny and incredibly varied, featuring comedy performances, cabaret dance and even an aerial acrobat. Sadly you're not able to take photographs during the show, but it was a good time.

 

 

L-R: Lydia, Beth, Charlotte, me.

 

As you may notice from the photograph, I have had my hair cut! It's the shortest I've ever had it. I'm liking it so far.

Fresh Meat, writing and comic books.

It's been a pretty good couple of weeks. Above (and below!) are photographs of the recent LBRG recruitment day last weekend that I helped out at. My friend Megan was there to try things out and really enjoyed herself - it's awesome to pass on something so fun to another person. There were a lot of new people and they seemed to have really enjoyed it. 

Not a lot happening apart from that lately, but things have still been pretty good. 
I'm looking forward to hopefully having another meet up with my lolita friends before going all the way to London with them in just over a months time - and thus I need to get saving up!

This seems to be an accurate representation of my sleep schedule recently, minus the artistic skill. 

 I have been informed that the latest issue of the steampunk magazine I write for will be finally released soon as there were some complications with the printers. It's rewarding to be part of a project like this. 
I have also recently applied for college this coming September and I'm waiting to hear back (fingers crossed!)
I think that's all the disjointed news I have for now!
 
Oh, wait!
I was recently introduced to two awesome comic book series by my comics-mad friend Ari: Rat Queens and Sex Criminals. Totally unique concepts for someone like me who tends to usually stick to weirder graphic novel - empowering female characters! Weird themes! Explicit artwork that you might not want to read on the bus! (You're welcome)

New year, new stuff, lots of links!

The new year is here, and I'm finally ready to make my first post.

The second in Ari's series of artworks entitled 'Gina is unimpressed by dumb glasses'. The book shop bag in my hand seems to be quickly evolving into a permanent fixture.

So far it's been quite a busy year in terms of events and seeing friends. I've been to the vintage fair in Sheffield with Ari, and last week we finally held our first lolita meet up of 2014.

Maturity lapse.

I've been looking into volunteering opportunities (sadly it seems there aren't any!), and I recently wrote the first article on our joint blog in a while. It seems we took an unexpected hiatus, but we're busy working away on new features for the coming year and will hopefully become more productive in the next few months. 

Recently I have been reading a lot, trying to write more of the multiple Secret Book Projects That Will Never Be Finished, having fun times with friends, playing games, and thinking about the answers to the Big Scary Questions About The Future that need sorting. I've also been trying to keep up to date with my Goodreads account as one of my new year's goals was to try and read even more than usual!

I have a few plans in the upcoming months, and one of the most exciting is that I will be attending the annual Tea Party Club event in London in April, Enchanted!

I'm pretty damn excited for this event! I was meant to go to Frock On! which was their event last year but sadly in the end I couldn't make it. This year however I am definitely going to be there, and outfit planning is in the making, but I am also indecisive and this hinders the progress a little tiny bit lot. I am bouncing between styles - classic, gothic, or sweet. Polar opposites, I know...

A shot from the meet up last weekend, with newcomer Beth (second-to-the-right) who was lovely!

Also in the next month or so I will be purchasing my tickets for The Asylum weekend! It is totally unbelievable and mind-boggling to think that the recent event happened 5 months ago, and as usual I am proactive and planning my attire for the next one, where I will be accompanied by some of my closest friends!

At the beginning of the year I started making these cute jars for friends and family. I paint them and add glitter and ribbons, and sometimes add pieces of paper with funny memories that I've shared with that person. Everyone seemed to like them! One of my goals this year is to travel more and visit new places with Ari, and so I made myself a crazy rainbow jar in which to save my travel-funding monies!

In the next few weeks I plan to write another article for our joint blog, and keep up with my reading goals, not to mention updating this blog more and more frequently when I have news to share/things to ramble about/junk.  
 

Currently reading: This Star Won't Go out by Esther Earl.

Currently drinking: Copious amounts of chocolate milk.

Awesome internet person who makes me happy: Peachie!

What helped get me through this month: Her awesome musical talent

2013 Year end, and defeating procrastination!

Long time no write!

It has been a busy few months and the holiday season has just ended, and I am attempting to use this time to relax, ward off the inevitable stress headaches of the season and catch up with things I've been procrastinating with! It has been a pretty successful day, and I have managed to clean out my second bedroom, and find homes for some lovely new things I received as gifts.

I did have a nice time this christmas. For me it's a secular holiday to celebrate the year gone by and the new one ahead. I got some wonderful gifts, including copious amounts of books... and a Kindle, for more books!

And no, I have not amassed any number of vampire novels on the Kindle. Of course not.

I'm very lucky to have received such thoughtful gifts!

In other news, the month ahead is looking very busy, but hopefully I will find time to post again in a timely fashion.

My friends often joke about my fondness for stripes. I didn't realise how right they were until the other day.

I've done some fun things this year, and managed to attend some really fun events with friends. 

 

Tea parties & preparations

It has been a fun couple of weeks. In the absense of a local lolita meet, Ari came over the other day and we had a super fun day gaming (and realising we were having incredibly nerdy game-related conversation for much of the time) and bowling, both virtually and in the tangible sense. 

Our tea party was delightful

 

Asylum 2013 is fast approaching and I've been planning for a week or so now. I have most of my outfits sorted out (all 4!) but they do need some minor tweaking. I need to figure out my hair and make-up plans and make a few adjustments but I'm on schedule. I didn't realise how organized I am about these things until a friend told me they weren't planning their outfits until a few days before - the thought is enough to give me a heart attack.


I'm also taking the next week to break in my new corset which is not a very fun endeavour as soon as I want to sit down in a relaxed position. Since the initial limit for breaking in a corset is no more than a 2 inch reduction, the modesty pannel just fits. It is however very pretty and good quality, and I got it for a steal so it's all good. 

I think that's it for now!