Fire Spinning

I joined the university juggling club at the start of this year as I have wanted to learn more poi and hula hoop tricks for ages!  Since then I have been doing mainly hooping, Amelia the president  is amazing at hooping so has inspired me and the other hoopers to learn lots in a pretty short space of time!

On sundays we often do fire spinning sessions which are fun, if a little scary when flaming poi nearly hit you in the face...

Have been using my new camera to experiment with light trails and long exposure, my photos can end up being pretty abstract at times. This is why I didn't do a photography degree, because I hate being told how I should use my camera when I like to just place around with it :)

One of the jugglers brought along his housemates to celebrate chinese new year and they had chinese lanterns and sparklers to play with!

Shine Silently Concert

So this weekend was pretty important for me. I have been practising guitar alone in my room for the past 4 months working on my singing and learning new songs to be performed at a concert at the Chapel Arts Centre in Bath. 

The venue is so nice, just big enough, and they had tables out with candles so it was all very beautiful and atmospheric!

The concert was especially important as it was in memory of my Auntie Shirley who died suddenly of a stroke last year. She always did a lot of fundraising for Childrens Hospice South West so all the proceeds from the tickets and raffle are going to them (and we made a very decent amount too!) 

I sang backing with my dad and his band before doing a few songs myself. We then had local artists Sadie Fleming (so smiley, and an amazing voice!) and Johnny Coppin headlining. 

All in all it was an amazing evening, all the family and friends came along and the venue couldn't have fitted any more people! 

And now I have to go and get on with some uni work! 

Plans for the new year

I have decided to use my instagram feed to show some of my plans for this year, not really resolutions because I never make new years resolutions, more just a few reminders for the coming months :)

1-Never stop drawing, even if your brain hurts from doing the same thing all day just find another sketchbook and doodle some weird things in it for fun! use this but for drawings.

2-Keep hooping. I started to learn hula hooping this year and I am hoping to get good enough to perform by the summer, when I feel I have improved enough I will reward myself with an LED hoop (because they are awesome)

3-Keep playing guitar, go to open mics. I am performing at a concert at the end of this month, I can count my public performances on one hand, I want to get to the point where I can play without shaking!

4-Make more things, do more craft fairs. I have enjoyed trying to sell more this year, though it is hard when you fail, I have learnt lots from every fair I have done and am slowly getting better at working out what is worth the effort of making and what people like. Will hopefully set up an online shop soon.

5-Eat more food like this. When deadlines loom my studio diet starts to look more like this:-

 Leading to: 6-Take food into the studio so that this isn't my dinner!

7-Work really hard on dissertation and keep motivated.

8-Buy more illustrated books and comics. Also read more, I started reading books on the kindle app for my IPad and have really enjoyed it, having not read a novel since the summer of first year! 

9-Wear animal hats. That is purely because I like this photo :) 

Whats is everyone else doing with their 2013? 

happy 4th of July!

Ok this is perhaps 2 days late but nevermind. I have been off all over the place the past couple of weeks! Went to France for a week with my uni flatmates and their friends, there ended up being about 15 of us all helping my flatmates parents with odd jobs and building work on their barn. Was great fun, especially the evenings spent eating large amounts of food and drinking even larger amounts of very cheap wine! 

Flew back into London and went straight to visit my friend Hannah who had a load of us to stay for some partying and celebration for her birthday and to say goodbye before she goes off to america for uni next year (jealous much!) 

So we had a couple of nights out in Windsor, lots of Pimms and jelly shots! Went for a boat ride down the river, cream teas at the Duchess of Cambridge, and a night out in London, american themed for independence day!!!

I went out dressed as Miss America, almost forgot it was the 4th only to be reminded by the many americans in the texass embassy bar who all thought we were very patriotic americans! "OMG are you miss america?" "yes... im english.." awkward! Ah well they seemed impressed by our efforts at joining in the celebration!