24.02.16

Worked on Dissertation all day trying to reach 1600 new words. Booked a room in the library for a couple of hours and made good progress.

23.02.16

Sat in my kitchen for the mojority of the day and worked on dissertation, following the new timetable Sinead drew up for me. Louise gave me a book called Place by Tacita Dean and (as per usual) its taking me ages to read!

This is the view for my kitchen window. It keeps me motivated and is always beautiful. 

22.02.16

Mondays are studio days and I felt particularly productive this week. Because of the timetable Sinead made for me after my last dissertation meltdown today was my only day dedicated to serious studio progress so maybe that was the cause of my motivation. Either way I am feeling good about it and received a lot of positive feedback both from my tutor and my peers. 

21.02.16

Obviously, today was a day of recovery and relaxation. I slept a solid 12 hours and then proceeded to spend the rest of the day in bed watching YouTube and sewing photographs for studio. I didn't feel hungover, just exhausted! ...but of course I was wide awake when it came to bedtime, typical! 

20.02.16

Happy birthday Sinead! Even though we already celebrated her birth on Wednesday and it was your actual birthday on Thursday today was officially the time to celebrate. The Otley run started at 2ish in the afternoon so all the day was devoted to getting drunk and partying! The theme was Cowboys and Indians and we made sure we looked the part! All of Sineads mates are really nice so it was fun to hang out with the ones I already knew and meet the ones i didnt :) Overall I had a fab night and I hope Sinead did too! x

19.02.16

Sinead came round to my house in the morning to proof read my work and made loads of really useful notes and comments. She also brought huge chocolate muffins from Costa so it was ok. We went into the studio together so Sinead could have her dissertation meeting. Then, to make sure I was feeling better she invited me out to join her and Nay shopping in town which ended up in KFC. They very kindly bought me my meal (which was only the second KFC I have ever really had) and I can confirm that food is the best comfort when submerged in sadness haha

I went back into uni before I went home so I could print off my dissertation at a size 16 font so that when I ggot home I could cut it all up and rearrange it all. This was very successful and I treated myself to a glass of wine and listened to Disney songs. It was all ok even though I was sad. 

18.02.16

I met up with Sinead and headed to the studio and worked for a bit before heading into town. I picked up some thread for my studio practice, a cowboy hat for Sinead's Otley run on Saturday and some other bits and bobs. We then went to Costa where Nathan (Sinead's boyfriend) worked and he gave me a free mocha! 

I needed to get back to uni for 3:45 as I had a dissertation meeting about the work I handed in a couple of weeks ago. The feedback I got was good and constructive, but I got the feeling my tutor didn't really have any faith in me and asked if it was possible I could get an extension. This comment and various others (such as the was she felt she wished we could have properly discussed my topic earlier in the year, her inability to understand my working style and what feels like a complete misunderstanding of the issues surrounding my learning disabilities) made me extremely stressed at the idea I only have a month until hand in and frustrated at my dyslexia. I cried in my meeting and then cried in the toilets for a bit. Sinead called me about something and ended up comforting me and kindly offered to come round to my house tomorrow to help me with my work. I then called mum who I vent all my frustrations and sadness to. When I got home I cooked brownies with Amy, Simon and John and we played cards against humanity and watched tv for the evening. I felt pretty shitty but put on a happy face. 

17.02.16

Sinead has been having a hard time lately and this academic year has been really hard work for her and Nathan thanks to her flatmates so me and Charlie decided to decorate the studio and throw a little party! Even though her birthday is tomorrow we decided to give her her gifts: a leather Pandora bracelet with a cute heart charm and a real life dinosaur tooth! Charlie is the queen of gift giving! I feel like we cheered her up and we had a really fun day together x 

 16.02.16

I hung out with Sinead in the studio all day before getting an unexpected call from my mate Alex from home who told me she was in Leeds for the night! I rushed home to eat some pesto pasta, throw some make up on and go to Call Lane Social. Alex had been given a £100 by her mum from shopping which she instead used to buy me drinks all night! We got a bit tipsy went to Beirkeller and danced on the benches. 

15.02.16

Busy studio day which ended with watching Drunk History with Amy in the living room. I have been really ill today (out of nowhere!),I think its a sinus thing, so I bought myself some grapes and had some yummy soy milk with honey and cinnamon. 

14.02.16

I spent this years Valentines day alone for the most part, working on dissertation in the Kitchen before heading to the library for a change of scenery. I made myself a bomb ass breakfast though, and so, seeing as it the most interesting thing to happen to me today I thought it might as well be today's photo. Egg is my fave and coupled with veggie couscous and salad leaves it is a dream :) 

Rory couldn't remember exactly what date valentines day was so has wished me a 'happy Valentines day' almost every day this week just in case :') Me and Rory have never really celebrated Valentines day because either we forgot or because we haven't been able to see each other, but its not really our thing anyway! I mean, we always forget when our anniversary too and so never celebrate that! To be quite honest, I don't really care about that stuff, its not what defines my relationship. My relationship should not have to deal with the strain of these weird traditions my culture thinks I should care about. I couldn't care less if Rory got me a gift or took me on a date, in fact I would prefer him to do that ANY OTHER DAY because then it would feel like he wanted to do it, rather than being told to by society. However I do think valentines day is a fun day and I hope everyone has had a lovey-dovey day :) I painted Rory a cute picture of Jigglypuff and Gengar (which you can see on my Instagram @awesomefroghat ) printed off some photos of us over the past few years and wrote up my recipe for iced tea that he has been asking for and put them in the post yesterday so he should get them tomorrow/Tuesday. The beauty of this sentiment is it only cost the price of a stamp. Thrifty gift giving is my specialty ;)

13.02.16

I woke up early and went on a spontaneous morning walk in the Meanwood valley. It was nice to get away from the urban, listening to Streetlight Manifesto and taking photos. The weather was nice for the most part, apart from being caught in a hail storm for a good 15-20 minuets. Although I ad fun I could not help but question weather I was going for a walk because I am now officially a grown up or because I am taking procrastination to the next level in my attempts to avoid doing dissertation. Either way I need to crack on with my work. 

12.02.16

I got up really early and headed to the post office in town to send some packages to Courtney and Jess. I felt like a grown up doing grown up things because I had never sent a parcel before! It was fun and easy and the experience has confirmed that me and Rory will be celebrating our first valentines day in 4 years! I am hoping to send him a little something :3 

I then went to the Henry Moore Institute to see an exhibition Snead had recommended which was really good! If your in Leeds I would recommend popping in, its called 'The Necropolitan Line' by Katrina Palmer and its a quite small but very quirky exhibition. Even if you think you don't like art, you never know, you might like it! In the City Art Gallery there was another y helpful for my studio practice. In the City Art Gallery the work of Christine Kozlov was being exhibited. I found this very inspiring and extremely helpful for my studio practice. In this exhibition I found a quote by Gertrude Stein from the 1933 'Autobiography of Alice B' which perfectly explains my reasoning behind this blog: 

"The abnormal, it is so obvious.  ...The normal is so much more simply complicated/and interesting."

I made an appearance at uni, ate my lunch and printed some work off. I headed home, ate pasta and had a relatively quiet Friday night in. Today was a lot more productive than yesterday and I am ready to buckle down with dissertation over the weekend! Lets hope these good feelings last! 

11.02.16

If I want to be positive (which I do) I could try and claim that today was a productive day but if I am completely honest it was not the right time of productive. I NEED to do dissertation but instead I did a tone of other stuff like clean, tidy, laundry and studio work. The highlight was the fact I was on Skype to Rory and his flatmates for most of the day (like 5 hours) so they kept me company and were an amazing distraction from the bad mood I always get into when I feel I have not been productive enough. Thanks guys!

10.02.16

Today was a studio day. I got a decent amount done but haven't felt very productive this week - I hate missing Mondays! I made potato soup when I went home and Skyped with Rory which was awesome.

09.02.16

At 2:15 pm I had an opticians appointment to determine what colours my eyes are sensitive to so that I can get coloured lenses to help with my dyslexia and dyspraxia. I ended up with a pink/orange colour and chose some lovely frames to put them in. It cost hundreds of pounds so thank god my disabled students allowance covers it! :) 

I then had my weekly meeting with my disability tutor before going to the library for a couple of hours and heading home to make pancakes! I have never made pancakes by myself before but they turned out quite good and, as always, were eaten with lemon juice and sugar Y U M. 

Spent the evening making books and doing random things in preparation for my studio day tomorrow. Amy Smith joined me for a bit and we watched the episode of the Simpsons where Bart jons a boy band: aka the best episode of the Simpsons! yvan eht nioj! Went to bed later than I would have liked. 

08.02.16

Had to get up early so that Courtney could go to work and spent most of the day chilling in her building doing sketchbook work. We went for lunch at one and then said our goodbyes as she had appointments all afternoon and wouldn't be able to see me off. I caught the bus to the bus station at 4pm and made it to the Mega Bus in good time. I found a seat and set up camp, immediately taking off my shoes and wrapping myself up in a blanket. I tried to sleep for most of the journey but the time just dragged on and on and on. It was 1:30am by the time I finally got to bed. Thank god I had Amy Smith and Rory to text and keep me company or I might have died. After that journey I was so tired I could have slept for 100 years.   

  

Ok, the last photo might be a bit too much information but I want to be as honest as I can on this blog and this picture highlights something that defined my day and made my life much more difficult and uncomfortable than it needed to be! Because of my allergies to the chemicals in latex and rubber I am allergic to shoe soles. I know, totally sucks. When I say it, it dose not even sound real! Anyway, because I have done so much walking in the past week the skin on my left foot has become extremely hard and tender, swelling and then turning into one massive blister! The photo dose not really do justice to the pain I was in but it was bigger than a 10p piece and stood about a centimeter tall, full of liquid. I spent the day limping around and even on the mega bus I struggled to get comfortable because of my stupid foot! I wasn't going to post this but getting home and popping this motherfucker was literally the highlight of my day!!! 

 Jager bombs and champagne yum...

 I look awful! but everyone else looks cute so ill just deal with it! 

 Ring of fire at the bar! :D 

 The Superbowl

07.02.16/08.02.16

Courtney booked a table at a sports bar to watch the Superbowl which was not only really cool but gave us a free bottle of champagne! At Courtney's we ate potato skins (which are my new favorite thing!) and played games like cheers governor and fuck you pyramid. I literally cant emphasize enough how much I like her mates, they were super nice, really good fun and all up for a good time! I feel this was a good experience for my first Superbowl; at a bar with a couple of Americans and A LOT of alcohol. The game started at 11-11:30pm so it was a very late night. 

towards the end of the night something went wrong and Courtney ended up leaving early, dick move because I didn't know where I was! But her Italian friend Camilla luckily lived down the street and walked me home at the end of the night. Apart from that I had a fabulous time! 

07.02.16

Courtney took me on the cutest date today: we took the train to a  seaside town called Dawlish where we got tea and scones :) It was a bit chilly but sunny and clear so we wandered around the town looking at shops and buying gifts for peoples upcoming birthdays. As I love a good bargain, my shopping highlight was in a little charity shop where I bought a little trinket box, a tiny ceramic elephant and some white thread (for my studio practice) for under £1.50! Amazing! Never underestimate charily shops! :)

Dawlish is also famous for its black swans which are super cool but kinda feel like they should be a mythical creature to me.. haha dont ask me why!

It started to rain just as we began to head to the train station. I was helping Courtney host Superbowl pre-game before we headed to the bar to watch it so we went to the supermarket to pick up some food and alcohol. Because the events of the Superbowl mostly happened after midnight I am saving it for my post tomorrow as I think that will be far more interesting than my bust journey tbh!

06.02.16

Went to the pub to watch the rugby with Courtney's mates (who are all really lovely!). After a couple of drinks, the bar we were at started to get really crowded so Mike suggested we go back to his accommodation and watch the England vs, Scotland game there. We headed to his, stopping at the shop to pick up alcohol and pizza on the way and ended up spending the evening at his. Me and Courtney headed from there straight to the bar, convincing a couple of the others to join us. We ended up going to this cool indi/rock bar where entry was free before 9pm and the mixers were surprisingly cheap. Had a lush night, which ended with walking home with cheesy chips and curry sauce, yum! 

05.02.16

I went to bed at 11pm last night for a few hours to get up at 3:30am to call a taxi at 4:10am to catch the Mega Bus to Exeter at 4:50am. My body has been very confused today (most likely due to the lack of morning cups of tea rather than a wired sleeping pattern! haha). The bust journey was long but good. I spent the first few hours sleeping, and hopefully not snoring, and woke up in Birmingham. The rest of the ride was spent listening to Streetlight Manifesto and doing embroidery works for my sketchbook. I got a lot done so I am feeling good about studio. 

When the bus arrived I met up with Courtney and we headed straight to a good old greasy spoon cafe where we enjoyed a hearty brunch and a pot of tea. Courtney has spent the last few days moving house and her morning was spent pacing and transporting the last of her things so she was ready for a sit down, cup of tea and bite to eat too! We quickly went to the shops to pick up some bedding before dropping our stuff off at Courtney's new place and heading to her uni. Its so different to Leeds but just as nice, I sat on some sofas at the top of Courtney's building with a cup of tea doing some uni work and writing this blog. 

04.05.16

Mum came to Leeds today for a training day and so parked at my house just after 9 in the morning. I got up to let her in and rushed to get ready so we could have a cup of tea before we called the taxi which would take her to the training day venue in the city centre. I got in the taxi too and asked the driver to drop me off at uni, where I spent the day in the studio until about 3pm when I left to meet mum for some food. We met up in the city art gallery cafe, which is one of the nicest rooms I have even seen! We had a cup of coffee each and talked about our days. She told me about her training day, which she thought was part of an interview for a job when in actual fact she had already been given the job (well done mum!) and I gave her a sketch book tour. 

We then popped into Primark so I could grab some hair ties and sunglasses for my journey to Exeter tomorrow and then went to Las Iguanas for some food. After our lovely meal we walked back to my house where me and mum parted ways. It was a fabulous day and Im so glad she got the job (and the opportunity to visit!). I spent the rest of the evening packing for my weekend away and preparing food and charging my iPod, laptop, phone, etc. ready for the 8 hour journey. I went to bed early-ish in an attempt to get some level of rest so I would not rely on having to get a good amount of sleep on the bus. 

03.02.16

Today's big event was helping Charlie take a book out of the University library for there first time! The library is my second home so I cant understand how she has never taken a book out before! I haven't felt like I have done a lot of work today, which isn't ideal as I have mum visiting for the day tomorrow and them I'm going to Exeter to visit Courtney on Friday so I don't have much of the week left to do work. I am really going to have to get it together!  

02.02.16

Today was the submission of the final draft of my dissertation before the real thing. I made it to 5000 words a few days ago and even though I didn't make it to the recommended 8000-10000 words for this deadline i still feel good about it! I had a really amazing talk with my disability tutor about all my key themes and we came up with some really cool ideas for me to explore in the upcoming weeks. I'm feeling pretty confident! 

Me and Amy Smith ended up meeting up with Simon and all his international friends (who all seemed really nice!) at old bar. The plan was to then head to Bierkeller but there was a big line so we all decided against it and we took them to Belgrave instead. After everyone left myself, Amy and Simon hung out at the bar until closing before heading home and looking at stupid shit on the internet. 

01.02.16

It feels so good to have a camera again! After a full day in the studios I rushed home to pick up my package which had been dropped off at the next door neighbors house. Although this camera is very different to my old one I don't really care as long as it gets the job done! :) Cant wait to get back into the swing of things! 

Feeling creative, I spent the evening making some artist books (which I will probably eventually end up on here when they are finished!) and hanging out with Amy Smith and Simon in the kitchen. I stayed up a little later than I probably should have, but it was worth it. 

...also for a second I didnt know how to control the flash settings on this camera and it was literally blinding. This photograph is a hilarious documentation on how horrifically bright it was before I fixed it hahahaha