we're back to the beggining

Now we're back to the beginning

It's just a feeling and no one knows yet

But just because they can't feel it too

Doesn't mean that you have to forget

Let your memories grow stronger and stronger

'Til they're before your eyes

You'll come back

When they call you

No need to say goodbye

The Call-Regina Spector

Before i do anything else, i owe the whole blogging world an apology. I haven't commented on anyone elses blog, or touched my blog in practically a month. There is no real reason for this, i wasn't wisked away by fairies or anthing. Any tim i did have was taken up by something else. I've also started a Tumblr, where alot of the people i've met on Flickr are, and i've made alot of friends. It's not that i don't still love the blogging world, it's just Tumblr is easier, and i get alot of inspiration from there. And i originally started this blog to be a fashion blog, and that's not my interest any more. Photography is. I don't avidly follow runway shows anymore, i only buy clothes that i like, if they're in style or not. I still love expressing myself through what i wear, but i don't think about it so much. I've had this blog for over a year, i'm grateful for the self-esteem it's given me, the person it's made me, the friends i've made through it. I just don't need it so much anymore, not like i need my camera.

Moving on, Sam tagged me with a tag i've had my eye on for a while.

The rules:

1. Answer the questions on your blog, replace a question you don't like with one of your own invention and finally add a question of your own.

2. Tag 8 un-tagged people.

1. What is your current obsession?

Cath Kidston's beautiful fabric designs, Tumblr, Notebooks and new pens, Bluebells, Blythe, Poppies, Strawberries and cream, airmail paper, clouds...

2. List three things you must do.

-Buy a new lens-cap for my camera (i lost it in a feild)

-Write more stories

-Start shooting photos in film

3. What do you see outside your window?
the pigeonier, with my cat on it's roof, and verginia creeper, and my Mum wearing paint-spattered overals.

4. What is your favorite colour?
Pink! and cream.
5. Your weakness?
Saying yes to everyone, and wanting to please everyone.
6. Which animal would you be?
A cat, most definately. A white one, with grey ears, and a butterfly nose (one side pink, one side black), and blue-violet eyes....
7. What would you like to learn to do?
Dance ballet!! I gave up when i was 9 and i've regretted it ever since.
8. What do you never want to happen in life?
Have anyone i love suffer.
9. What is on your bedside table?
A jar of bluebells and dasies that are going over, A Room With a View, I Capture the Castle , my battered copy of The Photo Book, The Horse and His Boy (which i'm currently reading), my little floral travel clock, last night's glass of water, and a framed postcard showing a vase of wildflowers.
10. What's the last thing you've bought?

A new blythe!! Who will be a mohair custom.
11. What do think about the person(s) who tagged you?
Incredibly beautiful, and stylish, with wonderful shoes!!

12. What's your favorite childrens book?
Ballet Shoes, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, The Swish of the Curtain, Swallows and Amazons, The NARNIA series...i could go on for ages, really.

13. Who do you want to meet in person?
Ana, from Silver Wings....

14. What did you want to be as a child?
The obligitary Actress, Vet, Nurse (both bad choices, i'm so squeamish and i can't stand seeing people or animals in pain), Marine Biologist, Artist, Writer and Journalist.
15. What did you dream of last night?

I was floating above a feild of poppies, wearing a nightdress.

16. Do you prefer day or night?

Night, more space for dreams.

17. What's your favorite piece of clothing in your own closet?

My pink gingham dress or my lace-and-lilac Zara dress. Or my frilly-tu-tu skirt

18. What's your plan for tomorrow?

Spend some time doing nothing, do some homework, write a story.

19. If you were going on a long trip (you don't know where you're going), which 10 things out of your wardrobe would you take with you?

My black topshop coat, My pink gingham dress, my silver shoes and my pink polka dot wellington boots, my lace and lilac dress, my favorite pink cardi, my cream lace tights, my heart print socks, my oversized angora sweater from topshop, my wooly floral leggings

20. What would you like to have in your hand right now?

Hmm...a bowl of strawberry sorbet and vanilla icecream, with fresh strawberries!

21. What is your must have at the moment?

A playsuit!! So practical, and pretty.

22. What's your favorite tea flavour?

Mint, or strawberry.

23. If you could go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would you go?

Paris! I've never been there, even though i live in France.

24. What colour is the sky where you are?

Bright blue!!!

I shan't tag anyone, most people i want to tag have already been tagged. So if you'd like to do it, go ahead.

Okay, here's a random mix of photos i've taken since my last post, and i've taken quite a few!! I'm still going on with my Home Away from Home project. Most of the photos are taken from my tumblr and too big for the Html on this blog, so click on them to see them in full.

(this one's actually from about 6 weeks ago, i forgot to post it)
(my bookcase collapsed!!)
Now i really must get on with some homework. I think i'll take it outside, the weather is so glorious. Hopefully it won't be so long before i post again...

Home away from home and more

Some more from my project.

The bath was in my neighbour's vegetable patch. I snuck in there on saturday afternoon to take photos...
And i took some pictures of my best friend Chloé when i went round her house this morning, it's nice to give the self timer a rest!

I wish i could do a more detailed post but it's back to school tomorrow and i have to go and pack my bag!!!

x

Happy Easter!

A very Happy Easter to you all from me and Sorrel, although it doesn't FEEL very eastery here. It's rainy and grey, in a word: dismal!

I'd planned easter photos outside, but never mind. Instead i'll post some from the past few days.

The last three are from a series i'm doing called "Home away from home", basically it's me with (carryable :D) furniture in outdoor places. When the rain clears up i've got ideas involving tea in the woods and possibly armchairs in the middle of the road?

I hope you all are having a lovely day, and that the sun is shining where you are, at least.

x

E lucevan le stelle

E lucevan le stelle,
e olezzava la terra
stridea l'uscio dell'orto
e un passo sfiorava la rena.
Entrava ella fragrante,
mi cadea fra le braccia.
-From Tosca, composed by Puccini

(And the stars were shining,/and the earth smelled sweet,/the garden gate scraped,/and a step brushed the sand./She came in, fragrant,/and fell into my arms.)

(new shoes!! My poor red mary-jane pumps gave up the ghost. These are actually sparkly, too. Shiny shoes are my one weakness)

Sorry i sort of dissapeared for, um, two weeks. It's not like i was even really busy! Any time i did have sort of slipped away. It meant i haven't been commenting on all of your blogs, i promise i'll start commenting again this very day. Well, i'm on my easter holidays now, so plenty of time now!

While i wasn't blogging (!), i found Lillie Jayne. "Here's what she likes: Books.Here's what she doesn't like: People.She wears red ribbons on her plaits to remind herself she's there.She's very tall, and that's why people say she's highly strung.People tease her, but i think she's nice.", i scrawled under my first picture of her in my scribble-journal (i've drawn her several times now, in various mediums) She's like my imaginary friends of old, i don't invent her, she just IS. I've started, or rather, she started, her diary,i might make another blog to publish it, if i keep on at it. I have 1001 unfinished stories on my laptop. (I'd love to hand-write stories but my hand tends to go slower than my mind and i end up with bag handwriting and frustration. )

Well, the sun is shining and i don't know how long it'll last, so i shall go and skip in the dandilions (and boy, are there alot of them) incase the April showers come back again. x

"i shall merely think"

I shall hold a little mental chat with Miss Blossom. Her noble bust looks larger than ever against the silvery window. I have just asked her if she thinks Rose and I will ever have anything exciting happen to us, an i distinctly heard her say:
"Well, i don't know, ducks, but I do know that sister of yours would be a daisy if she ever got the chance!"
I don't think I should ever be a daisy.
I could easily go on writing all night but i can't really see and it's extravagant on paper, so i shall merely think. Contemplation seems to be about the only luxury that costs nothing.
-I capture the castle by Dodie Smith
I really can't think how i've not read that book before. I praise the day Amazon.co.uk reccomended it to me. I don't know if you've ever felt that a book was written just for you. I've only felt that once before, when i read Ballet Shoes for the first time. I'm not a dancer, and i'm too shy to be an actress, but i identified with the Fossil sisters more than anyone living. I felt the same from the first words of I Capture the Castle. I feel like Cassandra is writing just for me.
Right, i shall force myself to move on: i spent the morning writing an essay about The Three Musketeers, i've got into the habit of analysing things. Here's what i did yesterday:
Got up, ate breakfast, washed, rearanged dollshouse, got sidetracked and read for a bit, got dressed, did homework, took photographs:

Had cheese on toast and salad and chocolate cake, then me and my mother went off to the huge annual brocante (like a flea market) in the next town. We brought:
Postcards (including one of the hotel where my mother and father spent their honeymoon and my grandmother lived in her youth!), and a book of unused postcards for my penpals, clip on earings (for my mother) brooch (for me), tourist photos, for people who didn't have cameras (one of london!), 24x32mm negatives showing holiday snaps of a 50's family.
(these are the snaps of london, with the names of the places written in english and french on the back)

This is the back of the postcard in the top left hand corner of the first picture: I diceipered it and translated it. The postmark read 9th April 1908.

My dear children. We are waiting for news from you as early as possible because we are scared that you are ill. The measles are at Boussac, and there are lots of children. We are all fine for the moment. I kiss you. Your mother and sister, Marie Bumery.

( i translated it litteraly, which is why some of it sounds a bit odd) It makes me feel so strange and melancoly to think of that poor woman worrying about her children. I wonder if they did get the measles.

People tend to charge us alot for things at flea markets, maybe because we talk in English between outselves, (and the English are supposedly rich in France) which is annoying because they assume you can't speak french, and act like you're stupid. Sometimes i come out with a flood of french and they are usually shocked into giving us 5 euros off. Sometimes other people try to translate for us which makes me angry because i'm perfectly capable of knowing what "vingt" means. Or maybe it's because my shoes and socks and bag matched that they charge us alot (i wore the outfit in the pictures plus my patent heart bag and a cardigan). Some people wear their slippers to flea markets, and jeans are as frequent as rusty keys. I don't usually wear jeans any more. I think of not wearing jeans as clothes vegitarianism.

Talking of clothes i ALSO found this:!!!!!. 1950's, handmade, absolute bargain. It fits perfectly, although we had to stitch the petticoat onto the dress as i don't have a 1950's waist (and i doubt anyone who could fit into this dress does!) so i couldn't close it. It came with a belt with a bow on the back, bit it was so yellowed we couldn't get it to the colour of the dress so i cut the bow off for my hair. I confess i jumped for joy when i got out of the stall, and people stared more. (they kept staring at my socks and i couldn't tell if it was because they'd rolled down or not).
And i ALSO owe somebody a huge thank you. You recall the painting the sky pictures i took a few weeks ago? Welll...Marisa of Thumbelina made a picture of one of them! It certainly is beautiful, she's a wonder. I feel like the queen having a portrait painted! She knows how much it means to me, but thank you thank you thank you honey. Dear me, this must be the longest post in the history of blogs. Have a happy rest of sunday and next week.
xoxox

Oh, it's my birthday!

Oh, hello you. I turned 15 today. Did you know? (actually i was born at 11:55 pm, so technically i don't turn 15 'til then). I usually hate being an odd number but i like 15, actually. It's so...round? People always say they don't feel different when they're a year older, but i do, i feel a bit like i did when i was 12, but wiser.

I had a day off of school in the end, it was a national strike! One of my best friends came for lunch and to drag me away from my birthday books (it's a family joke that i feel a birthday or a christmas day wasted if i haven't read atleast one book by bedtime): we watched a film and took photos and watched clouds, and then we had my birthday cake for afternoon tea. I'm sitting here in my pyjamas, and i'm still full!

I promised photos of presents, and so:

Left to right: Zara lace and lilac dress, Topshop dress, ASOS pink lace tights, floral purse and luggage tags, cushion patterns, candy cane, moleskine notebook, lark rise to candleford series 1 DVD (i love costume dramas), tea cup necklace, body scrub, I Capture the Castle , by Dodie Smith, japanese keyring, The Photo Book, Hairband, Heart Socks from topshop, Geometric print tights, Once Upon a Time in the north, by Phillip Pullman, Chocolate Cookery book (:D)

And, beleive it or not, more arrived in the afternoon post and there's more on the way! I feel so so so lucky and grateful, thank you any of my family, if you're reading this.

Well, i think it's the best birthday i've had. I say that every year, but this year i really feel it was!x

Golden Afternoon

I'm making the most of my last weekend of being 14. You're only 14 once, and 15 is a whole new world. It's half of 30. A quarter of 60. In four times my age this thursday i'll be an OAP. In six times i might even be an angel (i hope not as i want my telegram from the queen). In a years time i'll be almost old enough to have a job.

In one week's time i'll be a whole year older. That's a bit scary.

On a lighter note, in a week's time i'll feel like the luckiest girl in the world. People tend to give me such lovely presents.

I promise to give you all full coverage, complete with pictures of my birthday cake, presents and the likes. I also made another film, go here to see it.
I found the dress in the pictures in the back of my wardrobe yesterday. I bought it last year and decided i didn't like it. I can't think why, now, it looks pretty with my favorite white tights and my pastel cardigan collection.

Also i owe two amazing people two big thank yous. Solanah and Izzy (and Romona), many thanks for your letters, they made me so happy. I'll be writing back to you asap, i'm quite busy but i will make time to write to you both. Lots of kisses. Lots of fairy dust.

I probably won't post until next weekend, or maybe on my birthday as i may have the day off school as my teachers are on strike.

x