2016 in Review

As I missed out on posting this sort of thing in January, here it is now! 

Where to start... I guess January is a good place. I went into 2016 preparing for the first on my uni interviews. I was working on my portfolio and less that two weeks into the year I was up in Huddersfield at my very first and (in my opinion) the most important interview out of the uni I applied to. It was bitterly cold and I was trying to stop myself shivering the whole way through the interview! I sat up in the studio (where I now sit most days) and I could see my Mum walking Monty outside on the opposite street. I still look out the window now and expect to see her being pulled along by my over-excited cocker spaniel! That was the best part of the year as I received an offer right there and then and all I had to do was get the grades to get in...

.. a few stressful months of coursework and exams later I had finished. I had a great time at my leavers day and the Prom was even better! I worked all summer at my lovely little cafe job and then had a long awaited holiday to Italy. 

I had a great time, don't get me wrong, but in the middle of the holiday I was due to find out my results and ultimately whether I got into Huddersfield or not! And I was sooo pleased when I got the text saying "Congratulations on your place at Huddersfield University", boy was I pleased. 

A flat hunt and a couple of weeks later I was had moved up here ready to start my first day. I met two great girls which I am so glad to have as friends and realised just how glad I was to to on the course I am. I made a few trips home and had a lovely stay at Christmas and then here I am, a new year! 

I seems as if I haven't done that much when I condense it like that but I really did state the big events from this year but it was the other things as well like Thorpe Park trips, surfing and beach days and definitely not forgetting all the dog walks that made 2016 great, here's to an even better 2017. 

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Currently..

I thought I would do a 'currently' update seeing as I have been MIA for a while! 

I had a fab Christmas celebrating with my family and doing so many fun things which I will slowly be churning out over the next few weeks. 

Watching; HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER.. oh my god, this program is literally the most addictive thing. I started it around 4 hours ago whilst doing some work on my latest uni project and I'm hooked. I've also been loving Prison Break and after two (nearly three) nail biting seasons it is still one of the cleverest and unpredictable programs I've ever watched.  

Reading; What with being back at uni and starting new projects and all that jazz I haven't had much time to sit and read. To be totally honest I mostly just read when I'm at home or on holiday somewhere sitting in the sun in between dips in the pool!  

Listening; Just like the rest of the world, Ed Sheeran has my full attention at this moment and I am patiently waiting for the rest of his album to be realised **very excited face**. On a side note however I have also had Jax Jones' You Don;t Know Me playing in between Sheeran and I'm also very much enjoying that! 

Feeling; The last few weeks have been a rollercoaster of emotions to be honest. I left home to come back to uni 3 weeks ago which, for me, is always hard because I miss my family so much. We also had a family funeral which was sad but it also meant that last weekend I got to spend two nights with my family (and doggy!) in a hotel about 30 minutes away from here which was lovely. I got some good new from my uni project results which I was very pleased with and I'm also getting stuck into my new project which is looking very interesting! 

Smelling; CANDLES. Candles everywhere. I'm usually the type of person that buys cute and pretty candles to not burn and just sit somewhere to look pretty. However, I've got into a habit of lighting them in the evening or having them around my bath and it's been a great way from me to relax! 

Planning; I'm going home in just under 2 weeks and I can't even tell you just how excited I am!! looking further ahead though, I am going to LA in the summer with my family which I am so grateful for and it will be amazing to go back as the last time I visited California we stayed in San Diego so this gives us the chance to see more of Los Angeles! 

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year!

r. x

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Keeping A Pocket Sketchbook

Since starting my Interior Design course earlier this year I feel as if I've got my enthusiasm for art back. Towards my last year doing A-Level Fine Art I was just doing the work to get a grade, not because I particularly enjoyed it. But everything I'm doing now is so new and exciting and the way we are encouraged to present our work, it's all in development packs showing the ways we think.

Anyway, I've managed to go slightly off topic but basically my tutor took out my class out on a "sketch crawl" where we drew the inside of some of the shopping centres and arcades in town. Whilst she was demonstrating some drawing techniques my tutor got out her own little notebook full of loads of amazing sketches.

In the last arcade we went into to draw I found to cutest little art shop with literally EVERYTHING in it, I could have spent all day in there!! So I bought myself my own little sketchbook to practise and improve my drawing.

I've been doing lots of different styles of doodles, sketches and drawings in all sorts of media. I also got some pro marker pens recently and so they have been really fun to try out. I've done sketches of my favorite places I've visited, my favorite memories, places like cafes and buildings I have been to recently and draw whilst I was there.

I have also used it to support my Uni work and to test things out and play around and practise things like illustrative people. I use the back pages to document the colour markers, watercolours and pens I have so that I know the way they look on paper.

I'm really excited to carry this on and especially over Christmas when I will be going to places and seeing things that I want to document and I think this is such a great way! You can even store tickets, images and keep sakes of cool places you've been to and things you've done by just paper clipping them in and then you can write or draw near them to explain and always remember.

I'm planning on doing a more in-depth post on this and showing more of what I have inside.

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Christmas Crafts

This year I decided that as I have some spare time in the evenings since finishing my project that I would make something personal for my family this Christmas. I used to do this a lot when I was younger and particularly for my Mum's birthday I would always draw or paint a card or picture for her. They are so quick and easy to make and its fun being able to choose designs and personalise them depending on who you are giving them to. 

I took inspiration from Pinterest and tweaked them to suit the person I was making them for. The first card I made was my Mum's birthday card and I am really pleased with this one. My Mum love flowers so I hope she likes it! 

I used card from one of my Pink Pig sketchbooks which is an A5 square book. I then folded and trim it down smaller to a good size for the little designs. 

They were all super quick an fun to make and there are so many more great ideas on Pinterest that I can't wait to try when I make more! 

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Yet another update!

Just like hundreds of other people around the world I am counting down the days..hours and minutes until Christmas! Well, mostly until the holidays start and I can go home for a whole month! It is now more exciting to me to be spending time with all my family and all the things we have planned than when I was little and I just couldn't wait for the presents. I don't know if anyone else feels like that but it must be a sign of finally growing up!  

I've just handed in my first big project and as far as I know it has gone well but I will find out officially next week. I have one final presentation next Wednesday and then I'm off home! It has been such a good term and I am very glad I made the decision to come up here, it really has changed me for the better and made me grow up. 

I have a couple of posts planned and hopefully I can get a few more up over Christmas! 

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An Official Welcome!

New Welcome Video!

Today I posted an "official" welcome to my channel video as I had just taken the plunge and put my other videos up and got straight into it! Its actually so cool to see a couple of people commenting on the videos and getting a few subscribers. To think that even one person would want to watch a video of mine is exciting. I also think its cool when people leave links to their own channels as I love finding new YouTubers to watch. 

I hope to be posting some more videos soon and then I will make sure to write up a post on here about them too and keep the two linked! 

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New YouTube Adventure

Check out my YouTube channel, leave a comment and subscribe! 

It's a Sunday afternoon and we have had a lovely morning having a lie in and then lunch out and of course I couldn't go past a retail park without having a quick look in the shops for Christmas decs! It has actually been a lovely weekend as yesterday we went to a cute little garden centre just a couple of miles away and it was basically Santa's grotto! I always come away from garden centres at Christmas feeling so festive and yesterday was just the same, I officially feel like I can listen to Christmas music, watch films and start sneaking the decorations up. We actually bought our Christmas tree there yesterday and some baubles and beads in red and gold to decorate it with and I am now counting down the days until it is acceptable to put it up! 

I've managed to go off on a bit of a tangent but what I was really writing this post about was the fact that I have started a YouTube channel. It is something that I have wanted to do for a long time now and the thing that has been stopping me is the fact that I was living in a small town at home with my parents going to school and I was focusing on my A levels at the time whilst working weekends as well. Overall that didn't leave me much time to spend on a channel and so now I am able to put more of my spare time into this so hopefully it will be something I get into. 

The first video I put up I actually filmed and edited a year ago and as I said, living in a small town I just didn't want to put it out there in case anyone I knew saw it but now, living away most of time I feel more confident to do something that I enjoy and why shouldn't I! 

I plan to do everything on this channel and I don't really have any "set ideas", anything go really! I think it would be fun to film my trips to places, things like going to the Christmas markets around my area, trips home and then next year I am going away somewhere really cool on holiday for about 3 weeks which I cannot wait for! 

I'll add the link within this post and then if any of you want to go over and take a look you can. I obviously want to continue with my blog and I think that this will hopefully give me even more to talk about and I will probably intertwine them both in ways as well!

Check out my YouTube channel, leave a comment and subscribe!

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