My Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday! I am now twenty five. Gulp. To celebrate this, me and Mike had a little walk around Notting Hill, ate huge burgers and most importantly saw ONLY GOD FORGIVES! Crazy good, you guys. Go see it! I would recommend Notting Hill Gate cinema, its so tiny but the sound is lovely, I have a real problem in Cineworld cinema's sound quality (trailers are quiet, film even quieter) so it just goes to show you should always shop around rather than going with whatever is closest! Also I would NOT recommend trying to walk down Portobello Road on a Saturday, it is teeming with tourists who can't walk in a straight line. HONESTLY LOVE, TAKE UP THE WHOLE PAVEMENT WHY DON'T YOU. 

If you follow me on instagram (username: ucrazyutaraptor) I've been tweeting all about my day! :)

Dress Up

Do you ever have one of those days where you just put on something fancy even though you're not leaving the house because god, if you have to wait for a fancy place to come along to wear it you might just go crazy? That was me yesterday. Luckily, no one was around to think I was crazy since Mike is away this weekend, unluckily no one was around to take my outfit pictures. These are all kinds of abysmal, but I really want to share this dress with you!

This is actually the underlay. I spied this dress in the Tokyo Doll section of New Look and actually got lucky and scored it in the sale for £9! Originally it had this cropped tshirt attached to it, but I picked it off so I could wear the top separately, then I noticed actually the under vest bit could pass as a normal dress. I was so stoked! I've wanted a dress with a tulle-ish skirt for ages to prance around in.

I basically ruin every good dress with my DMs. I can't help it, I just wish I was Courtney love, okay? I got these babies off Ebay two years ago for £35! They're STILL the most painful to walk in. Does anyone have any tips for breaking in DMs? Whoever said they're the most comfy shoes ever is a complete liar!

Burger locket is from Lazy Oaf, I'm still way too scared to wear it out in case I lose it. It was a birthday present and just the most perfect thing I have ever owned. I still don't have anything inside though! Maybe a tiny bit of burger from Five Guys when I finally get the chance to go? No, that's gross. 

That but of fluff in my hair is irritating me so much! My hair is gross at the moment, I think its "got used" to my shampoo and is just mega flat and always feels like there's loads of product in it. I'm determined to actually finish a whole bottle of shampoo though so I'll have to put up with it!

Sunday Update

I'm so pleased with myself for starting up blogging again, its like there's this part of me that isn't satisfied unless I'm sharing the most mundane things about my life with other people. I'm hooked on reading other people's blogs and I'm most attracted to ones where they just talk about what's going on day to day, or various hobbies they have. I used to have a livejournal too when I was a teen so I think this is just a grown-up transition! Hopefully you're not bored by what I have to say, I'm hugely critical of everything I produce whether its art or writing, and I don't claim to be a writer at all (look, I just put a comma and then an 'and'!) but I think mainly everyone with a blog has to come to the realisation that they should blog for themselves rather than "an audience". If you've got people who like what you're saying then that's just a bonus!

This week has, yet again, been far too hot. We live on the top floor of a block of flats, with only three windows that open, so it's been a trying time! The fan has nearly overheated from being on constantly and I'm dreading the electricity bill. Last Sunday I went out round Southbank and it was just too hot to enjoy anything, we came home pretty sharpish and I haven't gone out since! Maybe just to take the bins out! As much as I love hot weather this country just isn't prepared for it, our houses are designed to keep heat in and we don't have aircon. I'm hoping I wont be in such a state when we go off to Florida, October should be a little cooler and I'm sure there is air conditioning galore in DisneyWorld! 

Speaking of Florida, I've started trying to eat healthy and do a bit of exercise before we set off. I'm mainly hoping my thighs will shrink so I can fit in all my shorts again and I wont have to deal with chub rub. My weight started to creep up when my skin condition got diagnosed (exercise makes me really itchy) but now that I'm out of Cheltenham my skin feels a lot better. I've just been doing basically aerobics on Just Dance, you can put in your weight and height and then it tells you how much you're burning, with a choice of work out times. My diet has improved since I've moved in with Mike because he doesn't like cheese so that is no longer part of my diet, and we only have one drawer of freezer space so mostly everything we cook is fresh veg! I'd like to be down to a small size 16 to mid 14 by the time we leave, fingers crossed!

Other than melting into the sofa, I've also been watching Orange is the New Black. I love it, its really fantastic! Its a Netflix original and thankfully that means its a good quality show from my experience, so give it a whirl if you have an account!

Recent Loves

So what have I been obsessing over recently? As a lady of many obsessions, it's weird I never made something like this a regular feature. Here is a collage of what I've been loving these past few weeks...

Disney World

I am so excited for my trip to Florida! It's not until the end of September but I wish it was nowwww. This snow in March is really messing with my inner peace and I just need some fucking WARMTH. We're going to be staying in Coronado Springs and partying like its 1992 (pretty sure that was the year I last went to Florida!).

Howl's Moving Castle

I've been reading a whole bunch recently. I go through stages of never ever reading and then consuming books for a few weeks. I got an amazon voucher from work so I bought a whole lot of books and since then I just keep buying! I'm really into the idea of having a bookshelf full of books I can pick up and reread at any moment. Since the start of this year I've been reading: Howls Moving Castle, Coraline, Traci Lords: Underneath It All, Perks of Being A Wallflower and a bunch I haven't started yet! I'll be doing a book review post soon.

Les Miserables

The thing about Les Miserables is it is the best fandom to be a part of. Because Les Mis is so fucking depressing that whole fandom is just SILLY. and there is SO MUCH to be silly about. Javert's willy hat is just the tip of the iceberg.

These Sunglasses

I'm starting a collection of sunglasses for my Disney holiday (I already have like ten pairs of sunglasses) because now that I wear contacts I can totally actually wear sunglasses. I really like these ones from BooHoo at the moment.

Maniac

I feel like I waited FOREVER for Maniac to come out. I finally got to see it on Sunday night and it was better than I could ever even imagine! Here is a review I did of it. It's not for everyone, but despite (or in bonus counting on your tastes) the gore it is also brilliantly filmed and man, it has a killer soundtrack! Have a listen:

Does it sound like The Running Man soundtrack to anyone else?!

Workaholics

I'm kicking myself for not watching this show sooner! I LOVE IT. It is super funny and kind of like what I wanted Office Space to be when I watched that. I loved the episode where they ate the mushrooms!

Juno Temple

If something has Juno Temple in it, you can guarantee I've watched it or will watch it as soon as its come out. I love her so much, she chooses perfect films and I don't think I've seen her in anything bad yet! Jack and Diane, Dirty Girl, Killer Joe... Perfection! I'm really excited for her future projects and of course pretty proud that she's British! I just think she's so so talented!

Spring Breakers

There are SO MANY films coming out that I am so excited for! Spring Breakers is the main one as I'm convinced its going to change my life, and then I'm also eagerly anticipating The Bling Ring, Carrie, Afternoon Delight, Lovelace, oh man too many to even mention! Here's a list I made of most of the stuff I hope to see this year!

Don't Call It A Comeback

FORGIVE ME. I have been a terrible blogger. I guess on one hand you could say I "took a break" but that's not really true, I was just so bummed out with my job that I couldn't even focus on blogging. All I could do was go to work, eat, watch films and sleep. FOR NINE MONTHS. But now work has finished and I've found myself with all this free time for a couple of months and I'm determined to do some blogging again!

So what's new with me? Well quite a lot actually! My contract ended with work, I'm moving up to London in two months, I've watched a billion films (here's my letterboxd), I cut my hair and lost a septum piercing (still regretting it every day) and I'm finally going to Disney World this year! Oh, and I also got massively MASSIVELY obsessed with Les Miserables. Don't even ask.

I'm going to take this 'getting back into the swing of things' thing pretty easy, but I knew I couldn't stay away forever!

Instagram Update

Here's some stuff I've been up to last month and this month!

burger locket from mike || blink 182 || mouse || unexplained bubbles in birmingham || dragon lamp || cute new shirt from primark || robocop blu ray || pimms and a burger ring from cheltenham food festival || mural on the wall of snog || snog ceiling || my boo || otter sweater

I am kicking myself for not buying that otter sweater! What was I thinking leaving it behind?! I've had a few fun filled weeks with lots of activities, but the weather is seriously bumming me out! We've basically lost two months of summer to RAIN. When you live in England I guess you sort of live for the days that aren't overcast and I just feel pretty damn cheated. The worst part it there isn't anyone you can blame for it either!

A Special Week

One of the many cool things about me and my Michael is that our birthdays are only three days apart. This is good because we usually get to be together, they're both in the middle of summer and stuff like that. This year we've both got a week off work to spend some time together (we're currently in a ~LDR~) and I'm going down to London to spend it with him! I've been trying to think up a bunch of awesome things for us to do on our week off, and here is a list I've come up with so far...

•  Go to London Aquarium - I'm mildly obsessed with aquariums as you probably know, but I haven't been to London Aquarium since I was really little (I actually went on my tenth birthday!) so it'd be nice to get reaquainted with the place.
•  Explore Soho - Mike works in Soho and often finds little record shops or cafes that he wants to try, but we never seem to have the time. I'd like to spend a whole day really getting to know Soho as its probably my favourite part of London!
• Stroll along South Bank - I also really love South Bank, one day I'd like to get up super early and go take some photos and just hang out around the BFI cinema. When we went and saw the Harry Potter all-nighter and the IMAX we emerged at about 8 AM and the whole place was pretty much deserted, it was really nice but I was way too tired to appreciate it!
• Eat Dim Sum - I've never had dim sum before. Isn't that crazy?! I know I would love it so I'd like to find a nice place to get some as a birthday meal. 
• Rummage round Spitalfields Market - I love Spitalfields, especially the antique and vintage sale they have. It's a good set up, independant designers down one end and then the antiques dow nthe other. Wizened old Londoners letting you dig through trunks full of costume jewellery and old 50s magazines. Bliss! 
• Play Lollipop Chainsaw - I haven't been as excited about a game for a long tiem the way I got excited about Lollipop Chainsaw! No word of a lie, it's like someone made a game especially for me. Mike has a PS3 so I'd like to stay up late playing it, or rather watching Michael play it because I'm not very good at zombie games unless I can get to high place and sniper zombies like in Red Dead Redemption...
• Go to the Planetarium - I love space and I think Mike would get a kick out of going to the planetarium too! He doesn't really like fish or aquariums so maybe we could do both in one day!
• Go watch Phantom of the Opera - I've never seen a show at the West End and my grandparents are paying for us to go see a show! My nan recommended Phantom and I'm going to stick with that, even though as a little kid the music used to make me cry because it was so scary!

As a huge bito f luck, it just so happens that one of mine and Mike's favourite bands are playing a show on his birthday! So we'll be heading down to go see Head Automatica! I'm excited because I've seen Glassjaw twice and I'd like to see Daryl Palumbo in a different setting!

Do you have any London suggestions for me? I'm always on the lookout for stuff that happens during the day or finishes around 11 PM because I hate getting the nightbus and our last train leaves quite early! But apart from that I'm interested to hear what other people have to say!

An award!

Oh hello! My computer is fixed finally but oh god, I've lost everything. Months and months worth of pictures I was steadily editing, I have a back up but It's got something like 5000 photos to go through and I can't face it right now! Also my boyfriend is currently in posession of the camera, but when everything's back to normal I can RESUME AS USUAL.

Anyway, a couple of days ago Paula nominated me for a Verastile Blogger Award which is so nice! It's the first time I've ever got anything like that so thanks very much! The rules of the award say I have to state seven facts about myself and nominate others, but I definitely couldn't choose who to nominate because I'm USELESS at doing stuff like that. I'll just tell you about three of my favourite bloggers instead!

Bee Loves Beauty - I love Bee because she is super funny on twitter and also on her blog. I really trust her recommendations when it comes to make up and stuff so she's definitely worth a read if you're in a pickle over what to use. DID I MENTION SHE'S HILARIOUS?

Agent Lover/Rookie Mag - Marie from Agent Lover is pretty much my icon on how to live my life. When I first found her blog I was pretty stoked that someone had managed to turn obsessions of Drew Barrymore and defunct RnB stars into something that seemed so cool. As for Rookie, Marie is a regular contributor and overall it's THE BEST website for teenagers and adults alike, I can spend hours just reading and reading through it!

Hometown Unicorn - Steph was one of the first people to regularly visit my blog and I was so happy when she did because SHE IS THE COOLEST. She likes britpop and cats and does AMAZING art projects. I'm so jealous of her talent and her adventures, I pretty much want to live her life.

And onto the seven facts about me...

1. I find it impossible to finish anything. I watch films in chunks, TV programs in chunks and read books in chunks. I've never finished a painting or a cross stitch or anything in my life. I'm just too impatient and I always feel the need to move on, which is pretty awful for a person as lazy as me.
2. I love hot air balloons, I just find them dreamy. I never want to go up in one, but every year I say I will go to the Bristol Balloon Fiesta, and I never do. Something always comes up, which is crazy since I actually lived in Bristol for three years and never got round to seeing it!
3. I'm quite a good cook, as in I can whack out speedy meals and multitask. I'm not so good at fancy stuff though! 
4. When I was little I was obsessed with Superman and used to get bummed out at school because my group of friends would always play Batman and my cousin always make me be Supergirl when we played so I never got to run around as Superman! I even had a costume and everything!
5. Manatees are my favourite animals.
6. I once was issued a Twitter ban by Twitter because I exceeded the daily limit of tweets you can make (which is like, 1000 by the way). It was because I was live-tweeting Jurassic Park.
7. I've never been trick-or-treating.

Well I think that's everything I have to say for today!  At the moment I'm currently playing Neopets furiously (robocoprules is my username in case you want to be friends) and trying to reinstall everything that was ont he computer before it got wiped. Have a great weekend!

Ups and Downs

On Sunday night my computer gave up the goose. Is that even a saying? I can't be bothered to google it, but anyway my computer got a virus and crapped out so I'm currently typing this on my laptop I've had since I was thirteen. That's nearly eleven years! None of the number keys work and its super slow so if things get kind of quiet around here you can blame virus makers.

In better news, I may have an actual real paid job pretty soon which I am super stoked about because MONEY. Money means DISNEY LAND!! Okay, thats about all I have to say so I'm going to leave you with a jam because I haven't done My Jamz for a super long time!

 I love this song, it is perfect pop and the backing vocals are really nice. I also really like the video and Alexis Jordan overall. FOUR FOR YOU.

New Camera!

I scored this beaut on Ebay, I love it so much! It takes Polaroid 600 film but I haven't got any to see if it works yet, I'm waiting until pay day! Does it annoy anyone else that Impossible Project only sell their film in packs of 8? WHY NOT TEN?! I don't understand, it doesn't appeal to my "always work in groups of five" brain.

Thank You!

Yesterday I hit 50 followers and I am so stupidly stoked! I never thought anyone would want to read anything I write but to have fifty actual people deem me worth enough to follow is incredible! A massive thanks to those of you following on Blog Lovin' and Hello Cotton too, as someone who is shy in a real life it's a pretty big deal!

Instagram Update

polaroid 1000 carboot find || rings || beautiful bruce campbell in maniac cop || songs in the key of springfield || drive || counting flowers on the wall || comic || taxi driver || me as a baby || my lunchbox || hello! || two coreys vhs find || robocop comic || treats from mike || michael jack || sunday morning || mlp || unicorn || bruce lee vhs boxset || old pic of my big bro || mad hatter tea || three new dresses

 

Wow! Its been quite a busy bank holiday here, filled with lots of treats! On Saturday me and Michael went and saw Drive at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival. We got to wear headphones and got given free olives! It was really nice to see my favourite film ever on the big screen again. It is just as breath-taking. On Sunday we went to a carboot at Cheltenham Racecourse during the morning, we got there nice and early and the sun was shining! I picked up some really neat stuff, especially the Polariod 1000 camera. I love the way it looks, especially the rainbow stripe! I can't wait to load some film into it and see if it still works. We also went and saw Beauty and the Beast 3D on Sunday! When I first saw Beauty and the Beast I was very small and slept the whole way through the cinema, so to see it again was awesome! The 3D looked AMAZING during the very first scenes, where the narrator is talking. My mouth was hanging open! But of course, it slipped into terrible 3D as soon as the scenes started moving faster. But still, Beauty and the Beast is a remarkable feat of animation and it looks stunning all polished up! The rest of the weekend was spent watching films and of course, The Voice. Back to work tomorrow though! I hope you have had an excellent bank holiday!

Sunday Rambles

I don't have access to my boyfriend's phone at the moment so no instagram update! Instead I snapped a picture to despair over the terrible lighting this torrential rain is causing for any photos I'm snapping!

(i did my make up with the free eye palette kit from the mua website! it's amazing!)

Soooo grainy! Anyways, I'm kind of on a health kick at the moment so I was thinking I would photo document my packed lunches for work this week, would anyone be interested in seeing what I'm eating? We can try and do healthy lunches together! 

I'm also really thinking of ombre-ing my hair, blonde on the ends. At the moment it's ginger and I've got about two inches of dark roots coming through, but I think they look kinda neat but I've got the dying bug, so I thought WHY NOT BLONDE ENDS. ~Watch this space~.

This weekend has been a total washout, but I really hope it stops raining soon. Our fence blew over today and squashed our neighbours flowers, whoops! I really hope it clears up by next weekend because it's a) bank holiday and b) Cheltenham Jazz Festival! I'm not a massive jazz fan but they have food stalls and they're screening Drive and I'd love to see it on the big screen again!

Well, I think that's everything I have to say, so here's a My Jamz sinec we haven't had one for a while. Enjoy!

Instagram Update

mike's rainforest bedroom || pac-man socks || maps || good morning! || katamari || disney map || stylish king || draco malfoy || burger dress weather || draw something || tucker and dale vs evil || mike draws submarine

I'm all packed up to leave London and go back to Cheltenham after my Motion City Soundtrack adventures. The weather is super crazy in England at the moment, April showers and that. Lots of hail, too! I'll be glad when we're on our way to Summer finally, although that will probably be a crushing disappointment. Hope you all had a lovely weekend!

Instagram Update!

the cutest unicorn || diy galaxy t-shirt || john cusack in my make up box || polaroids || chanel no.5 || cherry tree || sunny day || so pretty || jeff on telly || cute || lilac lace || green day || hello kitty dj || pink socks and sneaks || sea life badge || happy

OMG OMG OMG OMG

OMG. In less than two hours I'll be on my way to go see Cabin In The Woods, probably my most hyped film of 2012 (If you follow me on twitter you're probably sick of hearing about it). I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT IT, BUT I'VE BEEN LOOKING FORWARD TO IT FOR WEEKS. I just had to share my excitement!

Here, have a song to make this post worth while!

I'll let you all know how good the film is, don't worry! haha.

My Anniversary

Today is mine and Michael's four year anniversary! Facebook told me so. I don't celebrate anniversaries or Valentines or anything like that, so I've just made a lovely collage of some of my favourite pictures of our time together. You can tell when two people met at uni because they are always in various states of fancy dress. Michael has had more hair styles than I have!! HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MICHAEL! 

view full size here!

Instagram

Just a quick note to say that I am back from my holidays! Also I have instagram now @ 'ucrazyutaraptor' but you should also follow my boyfriend 'insults2injury' since its actually his phone!

Visiting Canterbury

This weekend I went to London to visit my boyfriend and on Saturday we took a ~day trip~ to Canterbury. I was meant to go to Canterbury for uni, I was going to study Religious Studies and Criminology but I chose Bristol in the end to do Film, which was probably for the best because even though Canterbury is SUPER NICE I don't think I could handle all the twee shops and things all day every day!!

We didn't do much sight-seeing, in the end we just walked around all the shops (Canterbury has a surprisingly large number of "goth shops) where we scored some awesome shit.  Mike found a Kingdom Hearts t-shirt and I finally found a Specials t-shirt that wasn't totally over-priced, amongst other things. The best thing I bought was at a Vintage Fair though. I usually don't have much luck at them because everything is out of my price range or doesn't fit right, but the gods were smiling on me because I scored a ridiculously amazing jumper for a fiver. It's bright green and has dolphins on it, the lady running the stall said "I didn't think I'd be selling tis today", LADY IT'S A JUMPER WITH DOLPHINS ON IT OFC YOU'D BE SELLING IT. 

Also we had yummy cream cakes, I got cream all in my hair it was quite disgraceful but the cake was lush so who cares? If you can't wipe cake into your hair on a day trip, when can you?! Anyway, onto the pictures!

Canterbury is full of important looking buildings. For such a tiny place it has a lot of towers and stuff. But you have to pay to get into the cathedral which is a dick move ~imo. You don't have to pay to get into Gloucester Cathedral and they filmed Harry Potter in there! Also Canterbury is full of old buildings that are a bit crooked and adorable. I wish we could have come when it was sunny so we could have seen some ducks orrrr ducklings!

MY DELICIOUS CREAM CAKE. I nearly had a break down trying to choose what I wanted in the shop but it was delicious and had jam in the middle and a strawberry and a chocolate button! I wish I could eat it again. Also there are lots of pigeons in Canterbury. I quite like pigeons, I'm down for any animal that is tame enough to strut around my feet. Also I like their pretty oil slick colours and the way their heads bob when they run really fast. We watched two pigeons having a bath in the castle moat for a while, it was quite adorable!

I'm not sure what this lamb was for, but I'd quite like a lamb statue for my house. They had a huge CEX store in Canterbury and its the first CEX I've been in that doesn't smell like feet. For international readers, CEX is where people go to sell their used games or DVDs or CDs and sometimes you can get awesome things real cheap. Once we got the first series of Twin Peaks for a tenner. BARGAIN. And lastly, my amazing dolphin jumper! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT WAS FIVE POUNDS?! I am so stoked!

Whats In My Bag!

I'm a very nosy person, so I love looking into people's private places (amirite)! I thought I'd show you what was in my bag today. The bag in question is from Primark and has a really cute bright yellow lining. I love it!

This cute keyring was found at Spitalfields market in London. I also got a Mark Owen smash hits keyring and a Rugrats one!

Sunglasses, glasses, purse, fringe brush, phone, strawberry chapstick, hair ties, Superman mints, mirror, eyebrows and a good book!

I love my owl purse! It's the perfect size to hold cards and coins. The phone is ANCIENT. It's not even mine, my boyfriend gave it to me so I would stop using my even older phone. I love this phone because I dropped it in town the other day and bits flew everywhere, and its still working. The Superman tin is so cute, its got mints in it and I bought it at EuroGamer last year for more money than it's worth. My Superman obsession cannot be contained! The book is Drive, like the film. It's amazing, go read it!