art equals happy.

Checkpoint. :: Life & Photos.

I am 21. I am a homeowner. I am a student. I do not earn enough money to support myself. I make things everyday. I believe in honesty and kindness and hard work and magic. Sometimes I don't believe I will ever get rid of this illness. I believe in positive thinking and powerful suggestion. I have trouble sleeping. I take six different types of pills every morning. I like texts/emails/tweets that have no other purpose than to say 'I'm thinking about you'. I feel connected to so many of you through Instagram and Twitter- I check them everyday. I don't take as many film photos as I used to. But I do shoot HD video. My notebooks are messy. I like rainy days and duvets and film or audiobook marathons. I read William Morris. I enjoy, wholeheartedly, spending an entire day in a museum/exhibition on my own, drawing and studying. I frequent my college library. I have passed 2nd year and I am happy with my marks. I wear glasses everyday and I am a cat mum. Sometimes I wear my hair wavy and sometimes I wear it straight. It is often braided. Sometimes I hide my feelings from people. Sometimes they come spilling out. I am not a strategic person. I smile at people on the bus. I never listen to music while travelling around London. I prefer to listen to the sounds of life and people and traffic. Sometimes I want to escape it all. Most of the time I remind myself that I live in a destination that people travel around the world to see, and I could live here one hundred years and never understand it all. I enjoy learning about the history of the streets we walk on. I believe that if you are bored, then you are boring. All of my friends are supportive and I love them. Really love them. I like it when Sam is with me at the end of the day and he speaks or sings or just lays next to me. And sometimes we talk about meaningful things and sometimes we joke about sex and sometimes we are silent. My Dad still does my accounts. My Mum still does my washing. Being a grown-up scares me, but sometimes I feel a million years old. I like art and design that has meaning behind it. Sometimes I dream about moving away and owning a few sheep and a llama. Sometimes I dream about having a storefront on Carnaby Street. Sometimes I write letters and post them. Sometimes I send e-mails to people I miss. Most of the time I have to remind myself that I can't do everything. I do not eat much Gluten anymore. It makes me swell up. I often have a sore throat and my feet ache. I often have a smile on my face, until it is crinkled and squished and I feel ridiculous. I hope my face is beautiful and wrinkled when I am old. I laugh a little too loud. I often feel a little too big. I can walk to the co-op and back now, and I usually buy chocolate milk. Sometimes I sing in the shower. Sometimes I sing to my best friends. I don't sing very well but I like doing it. I miss the times when I could rely on my art journal to sort my head out. I am still figuring it all out and I want to make the world a better place.

Moments. :: My Life & Photography & Friends.

Hey, remember when I used to have a social life and take candid photographs of my friends and post them on here? Yeah- that used to be a regular thing on this blog. Actually- that's how I STARTED blogging. University and my health and other grown-up things have gotten in the way of that recently.BUT- I've had a friend of mine staying at my house (Sam, the red-head) and we've been constantly busy with old friends who have come to stay and visit. That and being able to have a break from Uni for the first time in 6+months has gotten me back into the swing of things. 

It's a good feeling & I am so greatful for my beautiful, kind and talented friends (especially when they are so understanding about my health). Here are some odd moments and faces from June that I love.Here's to late night silly faces and hair moustaches. kxo

Geeky pleasure- Murdoch Mysteries :: Inspiration.

I'm a sucker for a geeky t.v. programme with loveable characters and something 'magic' or 'mysterious' about them. Right now, I'm on a bit of a Murdoch Mysteries binge (like, one episode after another, haha).

Here's the gist: Set in Toronto in 1889(ish), a detective stirs things up by using 'new' and 'unusual' ways of solving homicides and other crimes. All of the stable characters are adorable (especially Crabtree!!!), and the mix of science geekyness and Victorian sensibilities makes the show fun and easy to watch. They often include nods to modern society too (like automobiles, electricity, mobile phones...) and I enjoy that twist. It's geeky. But hey- so am I. :]It's pretty low budget, but I enjoy the costumes a lot. More men should dress in three piece suits and have Mutton-Chops (big side burns!). It feels a little more realistic that the girls have only a few dresses unless they have well paying jobs and... well, I think they do a good job with the wardrobe.The cinematography leaves a lot to be desired- there are too many 'stock' shots, but I try to let that slide, and embrace the cheesy 'dun dun dunnnnn' zooms. haha.Oh, and I love the romance between Detective Murdoch and Doctor Ogden. She's a really powerful character- pushing the boundaries of what women are and aren't 'allowed' to do in that time. Love her (and her hair!)Thanks for letting me share my guilty geeky pleasure with you. I usually have something like this on in the background while I work/knit. Plus I've been feeling really inspired by this era. So many advances happening and yet there were so many boundaries... A very interesting time. kimxo
(All images in this post are from episodes of Murdoch Mysteries.) 

Pen Tattoo. :: Style & My Life.

The last couple of months, I haven't been able to stop thinking about getting a William Morris tattoo. Actually, ever since I saw Mandi's, the itch started. Hers is inspired by a ninteeth century engraving. I've been doing a lot of research and reading about William Morris- and I've learnt alot about myself through his words and designs. I think if I was ever going to get a tattoo- it would be something like this...Although, probably thicker lines (like brush strokes) and with more of a 'sketchy' half-finished feel (because I honestly believe that we are always growing and some of the best things in my life have started out as 'mistakes'). I'm thinking brown? Maybe with a teeny bit of yellow for the flowers?

I just did this in, like, 5 min to see if I could get used to having something there.I like it... what do you think? kxo

'Bi' at Mother, London. :: BA Illustration.

A few weeks ago- our class was working hard on creating an exhibition at Mother, London. Read a bit more here. Here are a couple dark photos from the opening night- and some wonky photos of my piece.It looks really skew here, but it's just the angle. Going to take better photos when I get the piece back. Just thought you'd like to see. :] kimxo

Meredith in London! Day 2. :: My Life & London.

See my post on the first day we met here. We met up again a day later & decided to take it a little bit easier. We had lunch at Harrods and then went over to John Lewis. (They needed to do some tourist shopping.)We spent a long time in the yarn section of John Lewis. It was my first time there too.Then we headed to the park to do a bit of relaxing and knitting. It just felt like something we had to do while we were together. :] I drew out a pattern while Meredith ate some ice cream, and we both instagrammed. hehe. I dorked out a bit that we could check our tension in real life! haha. Turns out we knit pretty similarly, even if Meredith was pretty scared of the squirrels, and I think they are cute. :](Last photo from Mere's blog.) Thanks for a fun couple of days girl! <3 kimxo
p.s... I think you should move to London so we can knit everyday at lunch!  

Related articles

Learning... :: Knitting Machine.

Blue/Green Hair- New on YouTube! :: Video.

Amy's yarn. :: Wool On The Wheel & Spinning.

In 'Gathered' by Mollie Makes. :: Publications.

Meredith in London! :: My Life & London.

YES! Meredith from One Sheepish Girl came to London for a few days & we got to hang out! I played tour guide for her and her mum (who is super nice!)- which was a little bit too fun. I love seeing places around London, and having out-of-town visitors is the perfect excuse! Here's a little peek into the first day we spent together:
I made her this little pouch (something I'm thinking of adding to the shop...) and took some quick photos of it before we met at Hyde Park Corner.It had been an unusally sunny and hot week in England, so we took refuge in the V&A museum- which is one of my favourite places to go.We walked around the statue hall, saw the stained glass, the tapestries, the cosutume/theatre exhibit and some lovely old paintings. We even sat outside for a bit and took in the beautiful architecture. And we had to have some tea and cake in the most beautiful William Morris room!Then we headed on into the centre and did a little shopping in Liberty and Carnaby Street. That was great fun- stationary and yarn shopping with my knitter penpal. hehe! We then tried to take a joint outfit photo but we were tired and felt a bit smothered by the weather so we ended up with some funny outtakes instead. :] haha. (see top of post!)It was such a good day, and it was awesome to hang out in real life. We both had momenst of 'are you really here?!'. :] We spent a second day together, I'll blog about that tomorrow. kxoSee more photos of Mere's blog.)

Exquisite Corpses with Jazz. :: Illustration & Silly.

Jazz and I had about 30min to kill today, and this is what we did. We love drawing games- and Exquisite Corpse is the easiest and quickest (and usually funniest) one we know. 

If you've never done this before- it's super easy- one person starts drawing a face, then folds the paper so you can just see the lines of the neck and passes it on. The next person draws the torso without knowing what the first person has done- It gets passed around like this until you've completed the body.  

We started most of these from the bottom up today just for fun- and I thought they were so silly, I just had to share. haha!I really love that there are no rules and you can be as silly or serious as you like! I usually just treat it like a doodle and never really know what it's going to end up like! So much fun. :] (I was green marker and pencil.)Lots of love, Kimxo

Mixed Special :: Camberwell Illustration!

It's summer degree show time of year again- and this year, the 3rd Year Illustration students at Camberwell have done a really huge job! They are calling themselves 'Mixed Special' and have a truely cohesive design/look that showcases all the individual talent amazingly well. It's a bit scary thinking that next year, that's going to be us- and how on earth are we going to live up to this?

The private view at college was this monday, and I got a little snap-happy! I coloured these photos a little in the hope that if you like the work enough- you'll go to the Mixed Special website (or visit the external show in London) to see the real thing. :] Here are some of my favourite bits and pieces from the show:This (above) was three huge tiled pieces! And lots of bespoke handmade pottery!(below)Such a perfect mix of craftmanship and drawing. So much love for these guys, and all the best! kimxo 
p.s. see more of the show here. 

Happy blues. :: Wool On The Wheel.

I know it's not a wednesday- but here are some pretty fibres that's on my wheel at the moment.I haven't had much of a chance during 'exams' to do any spinning just for myself- so as soon as the exhibition was over- I carded up this lovely bluey fleece and just went for it. it's got bits and pieces of curly sheeps wool, mohair, and some dyed & undyed english wool. The natural fibres give it a really great crimp. It'll be a nice chunky once I ply it up. Plus the subtle change from light-dark makes it really interesting to spin. <3 Have you started working on anything 'just for you' yet? Summer is here! Kimxo