I couldn't say that I would mind

Today has been a very long Wednesday despite only having one actual lesson. The build up the exams is really starting to kick in now and my realisation that I still have SO much to learn / revise is really not helping keep calm and organised. I finished my art exam on Friday, which was definitely a good thing, so just have three more subjects to cry over for the next few weeks. It is undoubtedly less stressful than the nine or so I had to study last year, so all is okay really. I just need to try and focus (not helped by my decision to start watching Parks and Recreation).
Anyway, here is another very late set of photos from Cornwall a while back. We ended up getting lost, driving around for ages, giving up and going to the beach...not a bad day in my books. Also I've just realised I took these on the Wednesday of our holiday and today is Wednesday and I get excited about coincidences way more than is necessary.

I wore a vintage shirt and top from Hollie, dungaree dress from The Ragged Priest, boots from The Whitepepper and my backpack from Mi-Pac. The brooch was from an antique market and the pendant from a market in France.

Looking at beach pictures is really really making me want to be anywhere but in my house working...at least the weather has somewhat started to brighten up. Who knows, maybe it'll start getting warmer soon too...?
Anyway, I was recently introduced to the lovely people at Invaluable,  an online auction site that offers a wide variety of live auctions including art, antiques and jewellery. I was asked to share the story behind my jewellery boxes and most sentimental pieces of jewellery, and as a bit of an obsessive when it comes to collecting cute brooches / crazy earrings etc (and working in Hirst Antiques) I couldn't not take it up - although I am cheating slightly as I don't exactly have a jewellery box but hey, organised chaos. That's the way to do it.

I redecorated my bedroom when I was about fourteen and so there are still remnants from my pink/purple/black/grey phase. I have mostly covered it with countless photos, posters and prints and line my walls with clothes I can't bear to hide away in my wardrobe. Jewellery is spread everywhere: I hang necklaces on the walls, brooches and earrings on shelves, and my every day pieces often end up on various little trays or boxes I have scattered around. I quite like being able to see everything all in one place, although I am sure most people would squirm at how disorganised it looks (there is a strange sense of order to my mess, like its all over the place but I can tell if one thing has been moved or misplaced).

I tend to keep the rest of my pieces in various little boxes, such as the porcelain heart box my Granddad won for me in a raffle at a school fair one year (the ticket cost him no more than £3 I think). Then on the mirror are some of my more special pieces including a sterling silver marcasite set from Hirst Antiques and a pair of teeny silvery clip-on earrings one of the ladies I work for, Shirley, gave to me on my first ever day at the shop. The Mona Lisa earrings were an amazing Spitalfield's antique market find last summer, I have no idea where the ring is from (it literally has appeared in my collection and I don't know where from...although very possibly could have been from a stylist's pop up sale I went to with my friend ages and ages ago) and the necklace is Venetian glass (from my long-ago trip to Italy. It makes me miss the pizza. And the ice cream).

 

 

Three more little boxes: my little cat tin full of some of my favourite brooches from Dear Rose With Love, my £1 wooden box with the sweetest little Padstow finds, and a teeny bird box which I use to store my jewellery from Les Néréides. My collection is fairly small so far, but I adore their pieces so much - so tiny and delicate, with the same appeal that Bill Skinner has with his teeny bee and ladybug collections. The heart pendant is from Margate, the floral gold necklace from a stall on Portobello Road, and the donkey brooch from Hirst Antiques. The bracelet is made from glass mosaic and was a present from my parents for my 16th birthday from Hirst.

 

My brooch collection started after I found my Mum's collection from her teen years stored in an old jewellery box in our spare room. I loved the little sandwich pin, the dog, the lizards...and have been adding to them ever since. 

Anyway, apologies for going off on a slight tangent - I have a real thing for vintage jewellery and the opportunity to write about it was too much to resist. Thank you to Invaluable for asking me - and maybe check them out if you are thinking of buying some vintage or antique pieces yourself!

Have a great week!

it's just so convenient to be fragile

It is starting to feel as if every time I sit down to write a post here, the first sentence that comes to mind is always something about how hectic the last week has been, trying to balance everything all at once and often making the mistake of over-booking myself in an attempt to fit as much into each day as possible. I think this lifestyle has actually become normal to me now, so it shouldn't really require a sentence describing it because I've had a hectic week every single week since I started college, and I am quite certain everyone else with studying and exams coming up feels the same way. This week was a particularly interesting one though as I have my AS art exam today and tomorrow, which has taken up a lot of time at school and in preparation. It's probably one of the nicest exams that exists though, and my piece for this project involves lots of draped fabric, layering and beading so I am quite content.

These photos are from a while back in Padstow and at Mother Ivey's Bay in Cornwall during the Easter holidays. I ended up taking a ridiculous amount of pictures on that holiday and am yet to sort them out so I can post them all. These were all from our last day before coming home, so they are certainly some of my favourites as we managed to get so much done and see so much before leaving to come back home. The morning was spent taking a very early walk down to Mother Ivey's, which was beautiful and well worth waking up for. We then headed over to Padstow for the second time as we had loved it so much the first time (and as expected we discovered so much more on the second visit).

One of Padstow's most popular haunts is the Chough Bakery, which sells amazing cornish pasties, cakes, pastries and breads, and we got ourselves some lunch plus a latte from a nearby cute coffee counter to eat and drink overlooking the sea.

It was a slightly less sunny day compared to the first few of our holiday, so I ended up wearing a few layers (which I love to do anyway). I wore my leopard top and suede skirt from Beyond Retro, with a silky shirt from a vintage shop on Portobello road, H&M socks, Topshop coat and my bag from Mi-Pac. I feel so comfortable and at home when clashing patterns for some reason, and am still ridiculously excited to own a panelled suede skirt (especially as Beyond Retro make their own, so they have sizes that fit instead of the unusually big or small skirt sizes you often find preserved from the 60s).

I am really getting into wearing jewellery at the moment and have been wearing my stone necklaces from The Astrology Shop almost every day recently. The earrings were from a kilo sale.

The Trelaw tea rooms looked so pretty, quaint and authentically vintage, and although we couldn't stop by I did manage to take some photos through the door. I am weird when it comes to documenting things...I am that person who takes a camera everywhere and photographs anything and everything. Its worthwhile though, as you stumble across things like cats looking out of pretty painted windows.

We stopped outside a pub and once again I had a little experiment with my new polaroid (Fujifilm mini90). I still can't get over how it works so efficiently considering how tiny and lightweight it is. I bought it on a whim with a gift-voucher from my God parents and cousins as I'd wanted one for ages, but now don't understand how I lived without it - it's great to be able to get physical copies of photos straight away sometimes, instead of always having to wait for them to be developed.

We had dinner in Rojano's, which was a fantastic idea as it meant I got to comfort myself about going home with a crazily good chocolate sundae.

Anyway, that's most of the photos from Easter - now I can skip back to the present. I found out yesterday that i-D magazine had featured me in their "Tavi's kids: five high school bloggers to watch" feature which was posted yesterday on their US site and today on the UK one - I had no idea until I got an email from the lovely Emily Manning who wrote the amazing piece. I am still quite in shock - i-D has been so influential for me over the last few years, especially as I've been getting more and more interested in writing and journalism, and so to be recognised by them really is no less than a dream come true. It was even better as I shared the excitement with other girls I really admire, including Khensani and Tolly, which really made it such an amazing experience...thank you to anyone who has clicked the link through to this page, and to those who have been reading for ages, and to everyone at i-D for being awesome as always. Have a lovely weekend guys!