Hello 2012!

The first 2 weeks of 365

Paris

Sunsets and washi tape

Might have been seriously neglecting the blog... but I have been scrapping. Lots!

Majorly coveting these stamps!

Mainly for that camera. 

So here's the scrapbook I've just finished. Used a book that I bought from paperchase a few years ago. Love the way it's worked out. Am trying my best to just go with the flow rather than meticulously planning pages which I used to do. I might not be crazy about every single page the whole book makes me smile. More photos to follow soon. 

And here's the beginnings of my attempts at a more SMASH approach to art journalling.

This blog is back in session

After 3 long years at university, I finally seem to have realized how to scrapbook with limited stash. Well better late than never I guess. It's a shame the blog trailed off throughout my university days. It would be nice to have more memories of the last three years written down. For that reason, I've also revived my art journal in a rather different way. The all new SMASH books have inspired me to loosen up and realize that my journals aren't meant to look like the finished product. They're meant to represent my daily thoughts and my random inspired moments.

My trusty pink laptop recently went crazy and I'm now using my mum's laptop which doesn't have an inbuilt card reader or a webcam or bluetooth (I've been very spoilt). Will attempt to dig out my camera lead tomorrow and start uploading some piccies!

An afternoon in the sun

Yesterday afternoon I met up with two of my closest friends from home and had an absolutely amazing afternoon just chillaxing in the garden. We baked brownies and jigsaw roll and hung out in the garden for literally hours listening to music and chatting. 

Hope

Hope is a weird thing. At the moment I'm full of hope which fills me with a bizarre sense of euphoria. I can see the future panning out in so many ways. Education-wise, careers-wise and with various other aspects of life. But hope also leaves you so open and vulnerable. It leaves you flying high with a massive drop below you if hope leaves you and your wings stop working. It makes you do stupid things and it makes you interpret things in bizarre ways. But it's necessary for life I guess.

I'm home.
I'm happy to be home with my parents...but...
I'm already missing everyone far far far too much and it's only been a day. My uni friends have come to mean so much to me that it's untrue.
It's weird not hearing my best friends in the rooms next door.
It's weird not bumping into people when getting milk from the kitchen.
It's weird not being able to reach most of friends' rooms in less than a few minutes
It's weird living in a building with only 2 other people
It's weird not having my bike- I don't feel as mobile as I do in Cam
It's weird knowing I've only got just over a week before I head halfway round the world for 2 months
Life is weird
and yet I love it.

Home is where the heart is and therefore I've got 3 homes.
Cam
Macc
S'pore
<3

Over and out

I'm missing out...

...on what's meant to be the best week of the Cambridge calender. The week when everyone's finished exams and is having the time of their lives. The last week to spend with friends before the long months of the summer holidays. Especially considering I'm spending 2 months of my summer on the other side of the globe and won't even be able to enjoy the occasional meet-up with people.

I've missed both performances of the play that I supposedly produced
I've missed our college garden party
I've missed the may ball that I was meant to attend
I've missed going punting last night to watch fireworks

I'm experiencing May week through everyone's facebook photos and bawling my eyes out everytime a new album is posted.

I know there are thousands and thousands of people out there who are much worse off than me when it comes to their health. But sometimes I really wish I had a different body. A healthier model which doesn't inevitably get ill. I was so proud of myself, so pleased, that I didn't get ill throughout exam term, that I made it right to the last exam healthy. Maybe that pride, that happiness jinxed it all. Or maybe, as the biologist in me advocates, adrenaline carried me through the revision and exams and possibly into the week after exams. Then the adrenaline petered out and my body simply crashed.

So yeah...

I think I said something about posting more once exams finished but I'm afraid it's been a bit of a whirlwind.
A whirlwind that's left me in bed for 3 days with some sort of virus that's stopping me from attending the ball that I was seriously looking forward to. Ah well. I managed to sell my ticket with less than 12 hours to go and I'm sure the girl who's bought my ticket will enjoy it far more than I would've and at least I'm getting my money back.

One thing being ill has shown me yet again is how truly amazing my friends are and how much I mean to them. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate my friends a hell of a lot on a daily basis but there's nothing like being helpless to show you just how much they can be there for you. I also have an annoying habit of underestimating how much I mean to people. I know that most of my friends mean the world to me but I always seem to assume that I mean a lot less to them. It's something I really need to do less because in a way by underestimating what I mean to my friends, I'm underestimating them.

I've formed friendships at uni that are going to last for years if not decades. Friendships that will last through the good and the bad times. I've got friends that have sat with me for hours in hospital/at the doctors but that I've also sat with chatting about absolute nonsense for hours on end. Friends that will come running when I'm in so much pain I can barely move but who can reduce me to hysterical laughter in the blink of an eye. I truly truly cherish my friends so much. These girls and guys I've lived with for the last 2 years have become a different sort of family.

Next year, a lot of my close friends who happen to be linguists will be spending a year abroad. I don't even know how I'm going to cope the few months of the summer without everyone, let alone another year after that without some of them. Hopefully I'll be here in 4th year but I'm afraid the odds are against me. I really really want to do a management masters but considering it's one of the best courses in the world with only 40 places, I can but hope.

I'm done

I'm on pause

So the 365 challenge just didn't happen. I let it fall by the wayside and just generally forgot about it. To be honest that's what's happened with a lot of aspects of my life over the last 2 months. I haven't been drawing, taking photos, painting, generally crafting, mucking around on photoshop, reading fiction, listening to enough music or watching enough movies. Every spare minute has been spent either letting my brain just go numb or sharing some precious downtime with my amazing friends. Why has my life been so busy you ask? Because I have been revising like an absolute lunatic. A fact that I am so so so happy I have actually done because my first exam of the year is in just over an hour and I feel as prepared as I realistically can be. This feeling may fade completely when I sit down, wait for the signal and turn over the front page but hopefully it won't. I've kept my nose to the grindstone for so long that I think I'm actually going to feel extremely lost come my last exam a week from Tuesday. However I feel so proud of myself. I've worked harder than I ever have in my life. Hopefully I get the grade I need to do Zoology next year but all I can really do is my best. I've done that so far and I'm going to continue to do that for the next 10 days.

Once those 10 days are over I can finally hit the play button on my life again. Life will suddenly explode into a whirlwind of activity. I'm producing a play which needs publicity and stash(hoodies/other garments relating to a society or production - pretty sure it's Cam slang), I'm going to a ball, I've got various punting trips and movie sessions planned and there's also all the other things that will crop up in the 2.5 lecture-less weeks. I'm also going home for a weekend after exams finish which should be good fun.

Pseudomuch

Ok the last few days at home and my first day here have not gone well
I'm downgrading my 365 challenge
1 photo a day- compulsory
The photo of myself/something arty can be considered a bonus
However with the downgrade comes an upgrade of sorts
Any photos must come with some explanation re. my life at the moment
Anywho- photos will follow tomorrow

DAY FIVE 28/03/10

DAY FOUR 27/03/90

DAY THREE- 26/03/10

As I mentioned- this was my hiccup day :S So here's 3 pretty photos taken in York.

DAY TWO - 25/03/10

Oooh

Ok the good news is I'm sort of keeping up with this 365 thing.

Although minor slip on Friday but I will persevere and there's a bunch of very nice pictures of York that can make up for it.

The bad news is that I haven't been able to spend much time with my darling laptop in the last few days as I was in York for 2 days and then I've been spending time with my darling family today.

So photos will appear tomorrow!!

Over and out

365- Day 1

ooookaaaay.... posting daily is not happening.

The end of last term was beyond insane

And now I'm home.

But i'll be back before I know it and then life will get more insane.

So right now I'm starting project 365.

I know most people start on the 1st of Jan but ah well... this is me. I'm different. So 24th of March it'll be.

So my project 365 is a bit adventurous

1 random photo

1 pic of something crafty- collage, doodle etc.

1 pic of me(eek!)

Yes I'm being serious

And this includes the whole of exam term

Including exam week(and a half)

It takes 10 seconds to take a photo

And 5 minutes to do a quick collage/sketch

So here goes

Good luck to me
Day ONE