If somebody told you that you had to freedom to do whatever you wanted to make yourself happy being you, would you? As a girl growing up in a convicting society, I never felt all that comfortable in my own skin and from listening to friends, other bloggers, campaigns, girls (and guys, I'm not ruling you out!) I know that this isn't uncommon. Lately that's started to change for me and on a selfish whim I'd like to write about it, maybe inspiring others who still don't feel comfortable in themselves to realise that it's okay, and start to feel at ease. 

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Stick a stamp on me, I'm officially a comic con approved nerd. If you didn't already know, my boyfriend (also writer) and I have been working on a comic for a good year or more now and were funded by Ideas Tap to print it and take it to conventions. On Saturday we took ourselves to Manchester to make connections and fangirl over real life superhero's.

The queue was like a parade and I'm pretty sure that the only costume I didn't see was a Nintendog. I'm gutted that I didn't dress up as I love any excuse to look a acceptably, explicably crazy for a day but I've been too busy to make a costume lately! Next year *shakes fist*. The irony of talking about Transformers in my last post and seeing real life Bumblebee from Transformers at Comic Con made me giggle more than it should have, and fangirl even more. We saw so many Harley Quinn's, old and new, a good few Jokers and I even got to rob a bank with the Joker's friends. Not really, but they were pretty cool.
We caught up with our favourite graphic-novelly friends, Twisted Dark, and Neil let us into an awesome secret which I won't disclose here (but you should definitely follow them to find out in due time) and met a load of cool artists and writers, so many that I actually can't remember the names of them all. All I know is that my macbook is now speckled with cool stickers and that I have more zines and comics to add to my collection! My favourite zine of the day and new discovery being from Childish Butt-Vomit who you can check out here.  We queued for a while to be drawn as a sloth by them but then were drawn in by the hilarious, crude comics, unforgettable!
With a tummy full of hotdog (I don't actually really like hotdogs) we touched swords (lol, samurai swords) and I fangirled over the mountains of Totoro merch that I couldn't afford. However I did purchase a few Kick-Ass comics, glossing over the crazy items that I might get for Josh for his birthday- watch this space sir. 
It was such a great day and I'm so glad we got the chance to attend! When we got home, I got dressed up and went to a friends 21st where we all shouted to Tenacious D songs and got acceptably, explicably drunk. What a day, eh? :)

Have you done anything or been anywhere awesome in the last week? Let me know if you're going to any of the comic con's this year or next and I'll meet up with you!
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Until this recipe, I was never a huge fan of scones. They were always too dry, too crumbly and never sweet enough for my never satisfied sweet-tooth. Then mum gave me this recipe made from only three ingredients.

All you need is some self raising flour, some lemonade (none of that diet lemonade stuff) and double cream. Don't worry, they don't taste lemony at all though it could be quite nice if they did! It takes about 10 minutes, if that, to throw all of the ingredients together and 10-15 for them to bake in the oven. I'm pretty convinced that our oven is a Transformer because of the horrific noises it makes when it's asked to do something but we'll let that one slide; if it was a Transformer, I'm sure it would've eaten these scones by now.

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I'm sitting here on my bed in the morning writing this, giving myself 45 minutes before I start work for the day. At the moment, 'work for the day' is drawing up mandala's and vectors for one of those adult colouring books- and getting paid for it! My 9 year old self might say I'm living the dream. Which I am, minus the New York apartment and hefty bank account.
Don't get me wrong, I'm so happy right now and it's crazy that I'm doing this at the age of nineteen having not even finished my degree yet but, it's always been an almost equal dream of mine to be living it up in the big apple. Whether I could actually cope with that, I don't know!

I'm from the Lake District,  which I absolutely adore. Sometimes (and I know that this isn't true) it feels like I've grasped at every opportunity that it's offered me and I've ran out of places to go here, places to push myself. But I'm still a country kind of girl at heart, I learned that after moving to Preston city, instantly missing the fresh air and rolling hills that make me oh-so happy. You can see more about this here.
So why New York? Perhaps it was watching too many american Disney shows as a kid, perhaps it's from watching Breakfast at Tiffany's a million times or the incredible fantasy of the New York apartments that roll down my Pinterest feed over and over again.
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My first tag! I was tagged by Helena's Teabreak a week or two ago in her 8 Photos of Happiness. It's taken me this long to choose just eight of them! I even got out the old hard drive and rooted through the photos on there but came to the conclusion that these more recent photos make me happiest, maybe just because the memories are still pretty solid in my mind.

The rules:
  • Thank your nominator/s and link them in your post.
  • Link the creator (Ariel’s little corner of the internet)
  • Post your 8 photos of happiness;
  • The photos can be anything that represents a moment, object, place or feeling that makes you happy.
  •  Pop in a brief description of the photo, why you chose it or let the photos do the talking!
  • Spread the happiness and tag up to ten other bloggers!

  1. Walking Langdale. This was taken at the top of a hill (I can't remember which!) that my mum, auntie, cousins, sisters and dogs hiked in May this year. I hiked it in heeled boots because I didn't know we we going on a walk, pretty proud of that feat! We visited a little lodge by a river that my auntie had rented out for a week and caught up with the whole family. Theres little more I love than feeling free and standing on top of a windy fell with the world below me is something that will always make me smile.
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If you're reading this then chances are you've been through the grueling task of applying for uni through UCAS, been through the nerve-wracking interviews and in anyone going for an art courses case, weeks of portfolio arranging and rearranging. 
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As you might have read in my previous post, it's been a busy few weeks! There's nothing like a bit of R&R to make you feel yourself again which in this case this was Roses and Relaxation. While at the Retro Rendezvous festival last week (see what I got up to here) I picked up some goodies from the Little Lakeland Soap Co. including this sweet tube of bath salts and rose petals. 
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The past few weeks have been a bit of a rollercoaster, a literal ride between my home town and the city where I study, between graduation parties and helping my boyfriend to move out from his house I've felt a little stretched- as much as I enjoy doing it.

Quite a few huge events have happened the past two weeks; shortly after the Retro Rendezvous festival last week, my boyfriend and I finished the comic book that we've been working on for the past year (or more, at intervals). It's been quite the journey from an idea we had before I entered the Lakes International Comic Art Festival in 2013 with a piece of comic art I'd made illustrating his writing, to the full 28 pages of art, poetry, flash fiction and short stories that it is now!

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A lot of people say that they've considered getting a tattoo but are too scared to get one, afraid of the pain or the chance that it might get messed up. Yes it hurts, but not as bad as you'd expect and if you choose an artist who you trust (you'll get to know them on talking to them, talk to people who've been tattooed by them too!), and who's work you admire then you'll feel in much safer hands! It's important to any artist to make you feel comfortable and give you the best experience, especially if it's your first one.

Personally I feel like people put their first tattoo on a pedestal. That's not to say that it shouldn't be special to you but they don't always have to mean something. You can even just like a design that you've seen or a piece of art that looks pretty that you want to honour by having it on your body!

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I came across the organic and natural brand Greenfrog Botanic when I was scrolling a few of my feeds. Being the illustration nerd that I am, it was the pretty packaging that drew me in- I love the modern yet delicate simplicity of it and how the colours compliment the actual product.

Greenfrog pride themselves on their ability to concoct natural and chemical free products with biodegradable plants and minerals, after the company's founders (Nick and Julie) met through working together on Human rights in Thailand. After moving to India they came across soapberries (or soapnuts), a sustainably grown berry that contains a natural low-sudsing detergent called saponin. After much experimenting and great success they have produced a beautiful and organic range of hand body wash products for us to use! 
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Firstly, prepare yourself for lots of pictures! This weekend I had the pleasure of attending Ulverston town's Retro Rendezvous Festival, an event that celebrates British past, post and pre wartime, transforming the cobbled streets of the small South Lakes town into a 40's, 50's and 60's time warp that everyone can enjoy.

We arrived in the centre of town and were greeted by the thud of drums, morris dancers dressed head to toe in all of the bells and whistles (literally) and the smell of British food stalls. Little Mylo, our pup, came along with us and almost slipped his collar because he was scared of the dancers.

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Yesterday, my boyfriend and I had been working in Preston for our upcoming comic '3 Parts Mad' and decided to grab a sandwich from the deli when we finished. A few doors down there's a little red shop called The Secret Garden which I've been meaning to go in for about a year or more. The outside is usually adorned with tiny cacti, bunches of flowers and I'm sure I've seen the odd painted wheelbarrow before but it was a pretty rainy day and although a few of the usual flowers had been taken in, it still looked fantastic.
I have an obsession with cacti and little house plants, (preferably ones that I can't kill or that don't die when I forget to water them haha) and it's so hard for me to resist an addition to my jungle of a windowsill. I went in with the intention of just looking around but when you walk into a treasure trove like this, it's hard to leave without a piece of the gold.

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Do you ever have days where you sit in a slump, unsure what to do with yourself, lost for somewhere to be? I do. It's one of my many flaws, that when I start to feel down it spirals and I'm unable to beat away the blues. Learning from this, I've compiled a little list of things you can do to rid yourself of that horrible feeling- even if only momentarily.
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Summer seems to have opened it's doors to us and everyone's coming out to play. With the warmer weather comes a warmer skin tone (for the lucky ones) so I built this look using warm pinks, golds and browns from the Naked 2 Palette and MakeUp Revolution's Redemption Palette. 
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This time last week I had the pleasure of meeting children's author Cathy Cassidy at a 'Mad Hatter's tea party' for the launch of her new book Looking Glass Girl, arranged by the MA Publishing students at UCLan. I originally heard about the event through my boyfriend who is currently interning for the UCLan Publishing team, who didn't forget to mention about the free bubbly and cakes that would be there! Jokes aside, I jumped at the chance to get a ticket.

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