I love a Christmas jumper. I love anything cheesy about Christmas really. I would buy all the jumpers if I could wear them to work in December, alas there's only one day where I can bare my festive knitwear. This year I'm going to be fundraising for my companies' charity of the year, British Heart Foundation. And on Friday 4th December, we'll be taking part in a festive themed day to help raise end of year funds. Text Santa also supports a variety of amazing charities; Macmillan Cancer Support, Make-A-Wish UK and Save The Children and host a fabulous, festive jumper and fundraising extravaganza on 18th December. Whatever the reason, it's a great way to raise some festive funds and get all cheery. Here's a few of my favourite Christmas jumpers for women if you're on the hunt for yourself or planning to treat someone, there's something for all the budgets!
The love of Christmas jumpers has grown massively in the last few years, with more and more festive fundraising ideas using them to promote brilliant charities! This year I'm going to be fundraising for my companies' charity of the year, British Heart Foundation. And on Friday 4th December, we'll be taking part in a festive themed day to help raise end of year funds. Text Santa also supports a variety of amazing charities; Macmillan Cancer Support, Make-A-Wish UK and Save The Children and host a fabulous, festive jumper and fundraising extravaganza on 18th December. Whatever the reason, it's a great way to raise some festive funds and get all cheery. Here's a few of my favourite Christmas jumpers for men if you're on the hunt for yourself or planning to treat someone, there's something for all the budgets!
You'd have seen me mention Stacie a few times now. Not only a best friend, but an incredibly talented designer, Stacie has been nominated for an award! I'm obviously so incredibly proud of her for the hours of work that go into her design process, she deserves this accomplishment so very much. Which brings me to ask you, my friends, to have a little read of her work and click the little link near the bottom, pop in your email address (you won't be spammed, promise!) and vote for my best friend! Also take a chance to look at the other nominees, there are some other inspiring new designers in the mix.
Plymouth College of Art Graduate Nominated for London Fashion
Award.
Stacie Clark, a Cornish Fashion Design graduate from Plymouth College of Art has been
nominated for the Sponsor Me Awards taking place at Blackheath Halls in London next
month, October 7th.
The Sponsor Me Awards supports emerging fashion designers through providing a
prestigious annual event, fashion show and platform for them to showcase their work.
The awards consists of 4 categories, with 1 winner per category as decided by a public vote,
as well as 1 lucky designer who will also be presented with the Judges Choice Award on the
night.
Stacie’s knitwear collection has been selected to participate in the Urban category which is
open to public vote. To vote for Stacie Clark before 30th September when voting will close,
please visit http://sponsormeawards.biz/votefordesigners/
“I’m thrilled to have been nominated for the Sponsor Me Awards and to have my work as a
designer recognised! I’ve spent the last year working on some freelance whilst developing
my next collection and winning this award would be great in helping me take those all
important next steps forward” Said Stacie.
Stacie graduated last year with a First Class Honors degree in Fashion from Plymouth
College of Art with her graduate collection which consisted of 19 garments crafted entirely by
hand and after receiving a great response at Graduate Fashion Week Stacie has had her
work featured in a number of publications.
Tickets for the Sponsor Me Awards event are on sale now and can be purchased at
You know when you've watched so much Netflix that your wardrobe becomes a sort of homage? That's pretty much what happened when I clicked 'order' on Sheinside a couple of days ago. Too much of a wedding saving push and too much of a spending ban makes Sophie a grumpy terrapin (that's an actual known comparison to me when I'm grumpy!) And hey what's wrong with stripes on every outfit and a 90's nostalgia t-shirt with some Trailer Park Boys shorts? Summer here I come.
For months I've been searching for the perfect watch. It all started at my interview a few months back, it turns out that when you've been told you can/should talk for 15 minutes, time goes really slowly. And when the sneaky interviewers hide all the clocks in the room, it's hard to know that you actually only spoke for eight minutes because you were too nervous of babbling..(sort of like what's happening right now)...
Anywhooty, this new found, adult realisation, that I actually should wear a watch everyday sparked a mass watch hunt; days of endless pursuing for 'the perfect watch for me' entailed, Pinterest boards created and bargain hunting consumed me. The problem that I have is that I used to work for a well known jewellery retailer and therefore have become a bit of a jewellery/watch snob. I priced my options way out of my budget and kept telling myself I'd find the one.
Eventually I came across Shore Projects and immediately fell in love with their well crafted, high quality and simple designed timepieces. As someone who likes their jewellery relatively simple, I didn't want anything that I'd loose interest of relatively quickly. An investment piece if you will. With the interchangeable straps I can always adapt the smart, simple, androgynous face with my outfit. The one I ordered came with a lovely light blue strap that I've since changed to a black Italian leather one that I really must say is the softest, highest quality strap I've ever owned.
As well as being a British company, the strong, durable quality of these watches is shown throughout. The crystal sapphire glass, luxurious straps and being waterproofed up to 100m meant that immediately I knew what I wanted for my birthday. Funny how that happens hey? The cementing fact was that for every watch sold, Shore Projects donates £1 to Marine Conservation Society to help protect our beloved seas and coastlines, the beaches and the animals that surround them.
The delivery was amazing, it arrived the very next day after ordering, at no extra charge and I'm so very happy with it and I'll never under-talk at an interview again!
*By the way, I have no affiliation with Shore Projects, I just really like their watches!
Happy Tuesday to you all! This post is possibly the most important and special post I've written for a while. I find that whenever I write a post about Bimble I notice that I take 20,00000 times longer to write it, almost worrying that I could never express his wonderful spirit in the right way however I think that this picture sums it up rather nicely. It's time to finally introduce the inspiration for all of my fundraising in full. People and Gardens is the charity that Bimble-(If you're new or don't know who Bimble is, have a quick catch up here!) has been a part of for over a decade! The organisation holds a very special place in my heart; founded by Ken and Lorraine Radford in 1997 People and Gardens was the brainchild to encourage those with learning disabilities or emotional impairments to be able to develop as individuals, encouraging them to learn to work and develop their social skills and giving them the choice of having equality in the workplace.
Watering Lane Nursery is located close to Pentwen near St Austell and if you're in the area, you really should pop down. You'll be greeted by lots of friendly faces, For years I've been going here on and off, supporting Bimble and the brilliant work that the team do. Giving these individuals a sense of accomplishment and the feel good factor of a hard days graft builds confidence and pride, what better way to shape the world don't you think? The work at People and Gardens is varied; supplying plants and veg to the local Eden Project, deliverable, fresh veg bags for local residents, as well as supplying The Cornish Ketchup Company, to name a few, the entrepreneurial attitude of this charity has always been an inspiration to me. Not only that but it's been a 'life constant' for Bimble. When he left specialist schools and activity centres, there aren't many places that cater for those with special requirements in such a unique way. Bimble's life revolves around his 'work', he has structure and routine, needed most at the loss of both of his parents, People and Gardens was the one constant. On a personal level, I am forever grateful to them. Being able to help provide a new packing shed last year resulted in Ken and I bonding at a swanky London lunch where it brought a tear to my eye celebrating his hard work (it still does!). It was that moment, beaming with pride, introducing him to as many as I could, that I made a resolution to do more in my community, donate my time to such worthwhile charities and organisations in Cornwall and all in all, I've had an amazing year doing it. Which brings me to the reason for all this unveilment! I'm super proud to be announcing the most special (and final!) charity event that I've had the pleasure of being apart of this year. People and Gardens Fashion Show and Shopping Event 22nd November 2014 in the gallery @Eden Project!
A night of Cornish and Devon fashion designers in all ages and sizes, Cornish craft stalls with a selection of goodies ranging from Christmas goodies to needlecraft goods, a performance from Cornwall's Rock Choir, Pasties and Prosecco and much much more! Seriously it's like my perfect evening all rolled into one, with a distinct theme of local craftsmanship and Cornish heritage, what's not to love? Tickets are available at £10 including a free drink via Santander St Austell or please contact peopleandgardens@hotmail.co.uk to purchase. Doors open at 7pm. With my heart smiling at the thought of seeing Bimble strut his stuff down that catwalk and my eyes widening at the thought of myself stumbling down as well, I invite you all to spend a fabulous evening with me and the people that I adore. I hope to see as many of you as I can there.
Happy September to you all! Bring on the fallen leaves and wooly hats I say! Hurrah! Someone remind me of this in a few weeks when I'm bitching incessantly about how cold I am? Thanks. Anyway, as summer comes to an end (or has it officially ended now? Are we in Autumn?!) My usual Wednesday posts are back from their summer break and instead of spending evenings in my garden, marvelling at what a fabulous tomato grower I am, I'll be snuggled under a blanket, reading much more news and generally hibernating (one of the best things ever.)
Lets check out a little selection of news that I've still been reading during my summer hiatus (most of which is quite possibly 'old news' now- but who cares!)
I'll be honest with you. It is this video that brought my news posts back this week. I was planning on blabbing on about the end of summer a bit more and saving all of these other articles until next week. When I saw this I genuinely cried for about an hour. My Grandad (not to be confused with Grandpa) suffered with Alzheimers and sadly lost his life to the illness, amongst other health complications. I remember to vividly visiting him and the hope of him remembering who I was fading each time. He was a wonderful man, yet I can only imagine the surge of bittersweet love that this woman and her mother share in this video. Something that I'm sure will be cherished for a long while.
Aaaahh I laughed at this for so long! Look at the moose in an office building! I read about this on loads of different news sources, one of which claimed that the moose had become intoxicated after eating fermented fruit nearby, that once he'd stumbled into the offices, nobody could get him out! Brilliant. What a great excuse to have not done any work all day.."Oh sorry, I couldn't get to the copier, a drunk moose was in my way."....Brilliant! I wonder if I could adapt this to my work? Hmmm.."I'm sorry I didn't do that paperwork, a drunk cow came into my office and got in my way?"
I am typing this frantically because the official countdown to GBBO is on and I want need to get this posted before just incase my beloved NORMAN (best name) gets booted out by the horrific Paul Hollywood. Who definitely has a vendetta against our Norm! The whole buzz feed article beautifully describes exactly why I love Norman, and I sure will be rooting for him this evening!
Just wow. The whole website is a little out of date but some of these dresses are just phenomenal! Robin's work is using everyday objects and turning them into amazing dresses. I've shared a few of my favourites below, but I'd recommend you go and check out her work. Inspiring.
Feather Duster Dress.
28 Second Hand Dresses. Red Dress.
Casino Chip Dress.
Pinecone Dress.
It's good to be back. How are we all? Any amusing news that I've missed this week? Who do you all want to win the GBBO title? Team Norm?
Good day or night fellow flowers of the summertime!
Here's some arty farty types that have been keeping me gawping at their work for one way or another over the last month! Still going through quite the illustration phase, and loving it. All images will take you to the source (nobody likes a thiefy!)
The first two images are from a 'Strange Dreams' series, which I just love the idea of! Her pictures are so imaginative! Does anyone keep a dream diary/journal/record? It's something I've been thinking of starting...but I'm not sure what I'd really do with it? Send my strange ones to Rachel I suppose?
The composure of her images is just brilliant, wouldn't you agree? I follow Emily on Facebook and Instagram and just love seeing her work as I'm scrolling through.
These were created as part of an editorial spread, but I really love the use of illustration and photography! Aren't they beautiful and dreamy and spectacularly amazing?
So the last three years have totally been worth it. It all came down to that exact moment above when my girl, Stacie strutted down the catwalk at the end of her BA Hons fashion show and my heart just leapt out of my cheast with pride for my best friend. Her final collection was amazing, as was many others. I love a good fashion show. Typically my camera wouldn't charge so I was left with ol phone camera again. Sozages for the quality again. Also sozages that I seem to have misplaced my list of artists and designers, so please if you can help, tag away in the comments and I'll add as I can!
So my date for the evening was the super snazzy Lois (that isn't his name but it keeps an air of mystery about him) who is Stacie's boyfriend (we're actually lovers, she has no idea.) We arrived a bit early for the main event so spent some time checking out the life drawing work. He found it a bit hard to look anywhere with the amount of painted penises around, but some of it was just spectacular. I'd wrestled this giant pretzel just before we left but bit my tongue the hardest I ever have in my entire life. If Lois hadn't been watching, I surely would've cried. It bled for absolutely ages and meant that for the next four days I could barely eat or drink. Harps just laughed. Prick. Fucking pretzel.
After a complimentary glass of champers, we settled down for the show. Practiced our best reaction faces to the models, just to put them off, and got ready to clap our little hearts out. (FYI- We did and it bloody hurt.)
I took loads more photos but they barely came out. There wasn't one single photo that I took of Stacie's Collection that was usable. Dang nabbit. Isn't there some amazing talent though? Please again, tag anyone below and I'll get them linked in!
Here are a few snaps of it in all it's glory though. Click on the images for credit.
And the only other photo I got. Proudest. Friend. Ever. Hire her. Now.
