Hello and a merry Saturday to you! I believe it is half term now so I do hope you're having all sorts of fun - or at least have fun lined up. I have friends on holiday, at Gay Pride Parade and Slam Dunk Festival... Meanwhile I am about to go to a camera shop with dad because that's just my level of fun.

This week has ended well, despite being brimming with stress and exhaustion at the start, but now I can happily say I have finished a year of university, although I still have to go back and get the results from my last hand in, which I feel pretty okay with so I feel like I will pass which is enough for me. Not only that but now I am the happy owner of my own laptop - I don't know if I've spoken about it on my blog but if you follow me on twitter (and you should, I do try to be banterous and hashtag relatable) you'll be all too familiar with my desire and somewhat need for one. I'm typing this blog on it now and it's lush! I am one happy bunny. I'm also a bit excited for second year if only for the fact I get to whip this lovely device out and type with everyone else.

Anyway, I wanted to celebrate my finished a year of uni achievement by giving some tips and advice on surviving uni - I will probably do this again in September for all the freshers if any of them read :)


Number one: After securing your place, sorting out all the "adult" stuff (like finance etc) and telling your family the good news - get all the equipment you will need. For me, I was given a list of needing a memory stick and hard drive as these are your best friends in photography - but in any subject they will be most helpful. An academic diary will also be your best friend, mine is detailed to what time and room I will be in each day. These are all tools for organisation - which you really need to be if you actually want to survive uni! And be sure to whack your name permanently onto these things, so if they're lost they can get back to you, and if you need to hand them in, your tutors know whos is whos.

Hey hey hey! As I've been getting into book making for my last uni project I thought I'd share with you how it's done... I was stitching a book together while I was taking pictures for this blog post, with the help of [this] video, which shows you how exactly to stitch the pages together. For this and the simpler "fold and glue" method, you need:

• A pencil
• A metal ruler
• A bone tool - something hard and rounded works too
• Needle and thread
• A craft knife
• A cutting mat
• PVA glue
• Bulldog clips
• Book mull
• Cardboard
• Sheets of paper - lots of white and two coloured
• Coloured paper, card or cloth (bigger than the paper you will use for sheets)

Start off by folding your sheets of paper (the pages) in half, then  rub the fold with the bone tool - I compromised without one of these by using the side of a pen. Then mark out where the holes will be for your thread - be sure to make it the same on each page so everything lines up nicely in the finished book. With the needle poke holes in your markings to make it easier to thread, blue tack underneath the page makes this easier.

This is a good point to watch the video [x] and thread your book together!


This is how mine looked... And yeah it was wonky as hell. The lady made it look mush easier! Reinforce the spine with book mull - again if you don't have this, a sheet of ordinary paper will be fine. The inside of this book should look like this:


The fold and glue method is much simpler and easier... After you've decided on the size of your book, leave an extra 1.5cm margin, you'll need to score this (using the back of the craft knife) to make folding easier, and again smooth this down using a bone tool (or bone tool-like object). Then you have a tab to glue to the next page.

Level up your pages and clamp them together and glue the back of the tab onto the page on top of it, then once every tab has been glued, move the clamps to the glued spine to hold it together while it dries. It is best to have a scrap piece of paper between the clamps and your book so it doesn't mark your masterpiece. Again, reinforce the spine with mull (or paper) and you should have an open page that looks like this:


Despite having a much more obvious join, this method of book making is much easier - if you want a detailed step-by-step "how to" on this, let me know and it shall be done! The coloured end paper then hides the last tab at the start of the book, to do this you glue the inside of the tab and stick the folded end page into the crease, like so:


Then stick another end page onto the back - just glue a couple centimetres onto the last page and stick it down, there's nothing on the last page to see anyway so it's fine to cover it like this a bit.

Once you have your book block (a chunk of pages either glued or stitched together), the next step is the cover. For this little book I used this cardboard, in another book I have made I used book board, which is much thicker and harder. First, measure how big your pages are (when closed) and add on half a centimetre so that your cover is bigger than your pages and - well - covers them.

Put PVA glue all over the board and stick the back cover onto your coloured paper/card/cloth (in this case I have used black card). Then place your block of pages in the middle of this, place your top cover board on top, making sure both covers are lined up together. Glue the front board and then fold the card over the front of the book. Once both boards are glued onto the coloured card, smooth it all out and get as few ripples as you can. once it's dried a bit, cut off the corners, leaving a couple millimetres from the corner of the board so it doesn't poke out of the card when finished.

Fold over these tabs onto the board and smooth it out with the bone tool - or pen - and then glue it all down. Then you're ready to stick your pages in!


This is the most difficult part. Glue your coloured (or even patterned) end pages - but not too much as it will ripple or even get so wet it will tear (and induce stress and frustration, trust me!), perhaps even try a glue stick at this stage to prevent ruining it at this point. Stick the end page completely onto the back cover of the book, in the middle of the board. Once that's on and has been smoothed down with your hand, glue the first end page and fold the front cover over to stick that down. Your end pages should look like this:


With this book I decorated it with stamps for a little experimentation of design...




I hope this has been helpful - or at least interesting! Do let me know if you give it a try, I;d love to see your results.

I'm sure I've spoken about my window before, but now I'm gonna tell you all about it. My window is my happy place, more so as I have to sit on (or in) my bed to be next to it. Sunny days always lift my spirits but in late afternoon it gets better as the sun shines right into my window, and when my window is open the wind catches my pretty net curtain and the movement of it really soothes me. After I cleaned it back a day and had my brother re-paint it while he was mid way through painting his whole room white, it's so much more pleasant and I still haven't gotten over how much lovelier it looks now. There's still bits and bobs sitting there but it looks "cleaner", and there is actually some space there to put something on every now and then - like my phone or a mug of tea.

I made a little video of it the other day because it was sunny and a little windy and just plain lovely. I had to capture it and share the peace and happiness it ensues in me. Often I will sit back (or even lie) in my bed looking out the window, come rain or shine, and just get lost in watching the weather thinking of nothing in particular. Other times I will watch it while my mind ticks over all sorts of things - like ideas for blogs or photographs, or plans for the next day or two, even to a lil bit of grief and other mental happenings. And then there are times where I rest my chin on the shelf/board/sill (whatever it's called) and look over all the details of my pretty little window - including the dirt and dust that has now found it's way there that I really ought to clean.

One of my favourite things about this window is also how I get to watch the sun set in between the houses, and soon enough I see the moon. I like the moon too. I've blogged before about the sky [x] and how much I love it. I think it's my favourite thing, I mean, I look out at it from my favourite spot, and from where ever I am and it sets a balance in me and brings me to a calm place where I close my eyes and smile a little. I would adore to have a window seat in my own home, where I have a beautiful front row seat to watch the sunset. That would be the ultimate happy little window!

Everyone should have a favourite place - a happy place. And mine is here in my bedroom, on my bed right by my happy little window. Watching the breeze blowing through the curtains and the clouds take different shapes, the sun beaming right into my room or setting in the distance as the sky blushes, and the raindrops hitting the glass before the moon comes in to view for a quick hello.

Where is your happy place? - I'd love to hear where you like to lose yourself in quietness, it's a nice thing to do. Maybe watch my video [x] of my window to help you think :)

Firstly (ha) I got a first in my third university module, which I don't want to brag about or show off but I'm insanely proud of the achievement - I still need to get my hands on my prints and memory stick from this project so I can be reunited with my work, but like most things I keep forgetting. My memory is tragic.


As I hinted at the start, I don't remember anything happening this week, other than some quality time with my bro... And I sort of cheated by using this image I took much more recently, but I remember spending time with him in this second week of April, particularly going for a walk and sticking a sticky plant onto his back and snapchatting his oblivious-ness this green hitchhiker.


In the third week it was camera club meet again and the plan was to go to West Bromwich and photograph their large St George's Day parade. It didn't go to plan but I still loved the images I got from it... You can see them all [here].


Finally, week four and I began shooting for my current project, where I am experimenting with photography in both techniques and subject matters and self portraits (which is much easier said than done, let me tell you) to convey grief. I am doing this because it's almost and "issue" how little is spoken about grief, but in showing how I deal with it and who I am grieving, I'm trying to bring it to the surface and make people think about love and loss. In this self portrait I'm holding up a dead bunch of my mom's favourite flowers, alstroemerias.

I'll possibly share more of this project once it's complete - I've shot loads but haven't had time to edit a single thing! In the meantime, take care, and a merry week to you!

Hey-o! Last weekend me and my dad went to West Bromwich to see their huge St George's Day Parade - which me missed by trying to drive to the end and avoid walking but got detoured and really rather lost. But that's okay, it was still a nice day with my papa. We both took our cameras and each got some good shots, so here are mine...


I call this "Man With Red Face Looks At White Horses"- I like this hint of the colours in St George's flag.


And of course it isn't a St George - patron saint of England - parade without Scotsmen (and women) in kilts playing bagpipes...



As I was trying to get a shot of the mass of people marching away from us up the hill (as you can see below) This guy walked right in my shot but I still kind of like it, I think his patriotic outfit helps.



When we managed to re-join the parade (as they were coming to the finishing point) dad spotted this guy sat on the wall taking photos... so he got his photo taken too.


Remember those horses? They looked beautiful. And even the flowers were in on the red and white...

I was really glad it was such a beautiful day to wander around a town I don;t think I've ever been to before - although if I have I'm SO unfamiliar with. It made the day more enjoyable despite spending maybe too much of it in the car wondering where the heck I am.



Then we spent some time in the park which was littered with bad entertainment, but interesting people to photograph...

Including this guy on a homemade war spitfire, just shilling with his mate and er... world renowned photographer Martin Parr having his lunch.



Waiting for my English mate in my English fashion...



I found it odd how there's little fuss over St George's day in England and people are much more excited about St Patrick's day, but the sense of patriotism here was powerful and I somewhat admired people for being so proud to be English.



Even some of the dogs were kitted out in red and white. I think the dogs were my favourite part, especially Rocky and Pippa the extremely fluffy huskies.


THEY'RE SO FLUFFY I'M GONNA DIE!!



There were also a parade of bikers at the front of the march - which me missed in full action - but while they were chilling out, displaying their motorbikes I enjoyed looking at all their cool-ness.

Again I feel lost for words this week, I say time and time again how I feel better when I have pictures to present to the world (and here is a rough edit from a shoot I literally just did for my next uni project) because I have something to say when I have images to explain and they have stories attached to them.

And then I thought how I also feel pretty lost for words generally recently... I realise I feel a bit numb to the world and at a loss for cares. I'm enjoying caring less, it's something I've always wanted to do since I was young. Which sounds totally bizarre for a kid to want - to want to care less. I've always been a caring person and I still care but about a lot less than I used to, if I shouldn't be caring about things I have no control over, then I stop caring about it and let it happen.

I've locked myself away in my own little universe and keep very few close by - even then I'm still most open with my blog, with myself just typing alone. And I  acknowledge that's probably not best to shut some people off or think about people without following through and dropping them a message and most of all ignoring the mess that is politics. But I'm blissfully ignorant and I'm okay with that.

Feeling "numb" is something I - and perhaps many others - associate with feeling sad or depression, but I'm not necessarily sad, just a bit much of nothing in particular. This might well be something I look into for my current photographic project, which I think I've mentioned is a book, wherein I'm using experimental photography to represent grief... How it makes me feel, how I live with it and bringing awareness to it - much like the Prince's have done recently by talking about Heads Together and their internal struggles after their dear old mom passed away. I'm not royalty but I can hashtag relate.

It's okay to feel numb sometimes I think, more so when you talk to people about it or have some from of release like I do by blogging. But when emotions come around, good or bad, let them in and feel them from head to toe and express them, through writing, art or speech. Take care :)

Hey-o good people and a merry Saturday to you! It's sunny here, it has been for a few days and I am  LOVING it! I am mostly in a good mood, I always am when it's sunny but I have added reasons to be. My last uni project received a First (essentially an A, in case you don't know) which I don't want to brag about but I am very proud of, but it means they're keeping a hold onto my submission to double check the grade is correct, so I can't post my pictures from said project yet as I don't have the memory stick - argh! Nevertheless the next - and final project of first year - has been launched and we have to make a photobook which I'm very excited for.

It comes to no surprise that I love books and although it's been a long while since I've read some beloved fiction, my thoughts about books remain the same... I like to make books feel read. That sounds bizarre but I do. I like to crack the spine, fold the corner of the page rather than use a bookmark and now I've begun underlining parts that really resonate with me, as you can see above.

Some of you a probably launching your blog reading devices across the room right now thinking that's sacrilege, but books were made to be read - so read them rather than protecting them and handling with care just because it's a book. I do have exceptions of course, like if it's a photobook or a library book - in which case they are adorned with colourful tabs stuck to the best pages. And when buying a book - I got two semi-educational ones very recently - I always pick out the one in best condition. Contradicting myself? No, I accept books get battered in bags and such (even though I am sad at the first mark) but I like to make my own "book bruises", because it's my book after all and the marks on it are mine and tell the story of where I've taken it to be read, as well as the actual story inside.

I have books from school complete with highlights and annotations inside. I have books with rippled pages where the rain has soaked through. I have books littered with tabs to mark my favourite pictures to revisit later when I need a dose of inspiration. I have books with bent spines and scuffed up covers. I have books with creased corners. I have books in boxes and on shelves and in bags ready to read when I get bored enough out and about. I have books with tea stains when I've partnered a good read with a cup of tea. But I also have books in perfect neat condition.

I never feel like I read enough and I'm always wanting more books when I ran out of shelf space years ago. But books make me happy, they're a welcome distraction from the world, and more often now my collection is growing from just fiction novels, an interesting addition to how I live in the world with all it's factual insight. And because I love them so much, I make sure to make the most of the book and read it thoroughly; cracking the spine so I can hold it easier, folding the corners of the pages to not let a bookmark slip out anyway - or break when I fiddle with it while reading - and marking the sentences the author has written so beautifully.

I encourage you to do this with your books too. It was a slow process for me to get up to this point of making these "book bruises", I used to use (and collect) bookmarks religiously and never ever crack the spine no matter what. Even now I only write on the pages in pencil but I expect it's only a matter of time before I whip out a pen to read with. Perhaps begin like I did with sticky tabs and pencils galore, or even with a book you don't mind about so much - an old one or second hand so your marks aren't so strikingly out of place. And try not to mourn when it gets boshed in your bag and accept these "book bruises" as your own.