I Am Alive

Yikes.

I’ve been so busy (and lazy) recently that my blog seems to have been abandoned – but fear not, for I have returned to enlighten you as to what I’ve been up to over the past month. Standby for a super long post…

Firstly, I’m back home! It’s so lovely to be back in little old Worsthorne with my family once again, but it is strange not to wake up and see all my flatmates. It’s weird not to be having porridge with Helen, chatting with Em, listening to Kat’s cheesy festive jokes and lending Scott my wok.

I have, of course, settled straight back into my obnoxiously green room, and was immediately set to work with my annual task of directing the entire Christmas decoration operation, including the six (!) Christmas trees that my mother has amassed over the years…

My main challenge was the living room Christmas tree (bottom centre), which is a real tree and which my mum is super protective of. We had a savings tin out all year in which we had to contribute to in order to save up for the purchasing of this tree – my mum was super impressed that we’d surpassed our target by £3 this year. Anyway, it eventually got finished to mine (and my mother’s) exacting standards:

Of course, Christmas passed smoothly due to my mother’s super organisation and the liberal servings of a cauliflower soup made by one of our family friends, a dish which fast become a family favourite years ago as we are given a batch every Christmas. Of course, I very much enjoyed wearing our tacky paper hats, and got right into the Christmas spirit…

As you can see, I was looking rather festive.

In other news, I’ve also embarked on a new project at work, tasked with designing the imminent Burnley Youth Theatre to “Burnley Arts Centre” rebranding!

I shan’t be divulging any of the developed designs as yet, but it’s a design which has to fit in with the existing BYT branding. The new design will be imbued in a new website, brochure and signage, which I’ll be designing over the next few months and will be sure to share once they’re officially launched. Here’s a photo of the results of a few hours of drafting and a lot of printing…

I also spent a morning catching up with my bestie Danni around Burnley town centre – where I purchased this large bauble (as my sole festive adornment for my minimal bedroom, naturally), but which also provided an excellent selfie opportunity…

Lastly, I also went on a quick trip to Halifax (back to Yorkshire!) with my parents a few days back. After reading a marvellous article on The Verge about iPhone photography, and realising that I do in fact own an iPhone 5S which I should probably make good and proper use of, I set out to take a few nice photos on my travels through the old town. Here’s a few snaps from my visit:

All the Halifax photos were taken on an iPhone 5S using either the standard camera app (with AF lock and HDR enabled) or using Pro HDR and all post-processing was done just in VSCO Cam. I uploaded most of these to my Instagram (be sure to follow me) but I opted not to add any of Instagram’s filters as I’d already edited them all.

So that’s my Christmas break so far – but I’m not over yet. I’m currently designing and prepping Issue #4 of Culture On A Shoestring ready for print, and also putting the finishing touches to my website design. After loads of sketching, coding and lots and lots of discarding ideas, I’m finally piecing together a viable design.

For now, however, I must leave you (hopefully not for a whole month again), as this laptop is going to give me square eyes (according to my grandma anyway) – and I really, really need want to use my Lush bath bomb.

Boy, am I going to miss this bath later in January!