Inspire Me Monday!

This is, admittedly, somewhat thrown together.
A collection of image elements I have been using as inpsiration according to a current design brief.

The brief:

Roller derby team
Red
Green
Black
Colours inspired by vintage horror movie posters.
AVOID CONNOTATIONS OF CHRISTMAS
Must include logo
Player name/number to go on the back.

Cut of jersey is set, but for print... Anything goes.

I like this. It's exciting, though I'm having a severe case of total design freedom vs too much choice. I need a little narrowing down. Though even the horror poster thing was only mentioned as a justification of colour, so I ran with that a bit.

I think this worked out quite nicely. :]

Living with CBF

"Gizz uh smile love, you'd look prettier"

Oh, gee, thanks mister.... Way to get my morning off to a better start!

I realise that the title of this blog makes it sound somewhat more serious than it's going to be. CBF, although it sounds like one, is not some horribly insufferable medical condition I have been afflicted with... medical, no. Serious, certainly. Insufferable, for those on the other side of it perhaps.
But I have found I am not the only one that suffers from the phenomenon we have affectionately come to knows as Chronic Bitch Face.
Allow me to explain:

(Kris Atomic - http://blog.krisatomic.com

Poster specific entry - http://blog.krisatomic.com/?p=1617)

Granted, this morning when that was said to me my face may actually have reflected my feelings at the time due to a combination of it being Monday morning and the war that my uterus appears to be waging on the rest of my body. It's hardly a recipe for smiles, is it girls? But this is beside the point and I am very aware that much of the time the adorable illustration above hits the nail on the head.
Maybe it's London... I certainly feel like I got more scowl-tastic since an hour commute became the start of my day. Central London commuters are a strange breed. Deathly silent, avoiding eye contact, serious faced people. Myself included, clearly.
Hearing someone speak on the underground first thing in the morning is the most strangely alien sensation and only then do you realise how quiet it is, save the sounds of tannoy announcements and rustling adjustments of the Metro newspaper.

So, as for "it might never happen"... it probably has. I have been removed from my cocoon of blankets , I did not emerge as a beautiful butterfly, and my uterus is clawing at my small intestine in a way that makes me want to punch kittens.
And, "smile, you'd look prettier". You're right... I probably would. But until I get to work and have had a cup of coffee none of us are going to find out.

However, because it is indeed Monday and I have upheld my promise, tonight when I get home you will receive the first of my Inspire Me Monday collages.
Now there's something to smile about...

This. Is. Costume.

All hail Suzi, Queen of Procrastination.

I am terrible for it. I'm sure I'm not alone in this and my particular favourite is the age-old trick of helping everyone else with everything else instead, it then feels like I'm doing something somewhat more proactive at least.

So... costume for myself for tonights 90's party? Pah! (But more on that later!)

This, boys and girls, was todays brief:
"Hey, Suzi, dress me for a This Is England party"

Wonderful! Even more excuse to be raiding vintage stores on this lovely London Saturday and a decidedly more awesome theme than the 90's.

Before we go further, can I just express my SEVERE DISLIKE of Camden on a Saturday afternoon. I am not good with tourists. (Yet love being the most obvious of tourists myself when the situation arises.)
I am not good with people walking painfully slowly.
I am even less tolerant of people stopping in front of me for no apparent reason.
Pedestrian. Rage.
So... why I do it to myself is beyond anyones comprehension.

Camden, being Camden, is a wonderful place for finding things if you just know where to look. Between the repetition of tourist t-shirt shops, quirky gadget stores, piercing palours and lacy/frilly/crocheted/cream/beige/girly things boutiques you can often find find some hidden gems. Admittedly it's not quite as samey samey as it used to be, but more often than not if you find something in one store, you'll find it in at least 5 more down the street too.

Anyways, anyways, I successfully located a Ben Sherman shirt, Harrington jacket, braces and Doc Martens for my friend after dragging him into a plethora of vintage shops he never even knew existed. All for under £100, which he admitted he would have simply spent on a brand new pair of Doc's had I not dragged him into Episode (www.episode.eu)
The last store specialised exclusively in skin-head attire and ska records. Perfect.

This is why you take Suzi shopping with you ;]

End result looked like a variation on this glorious Polyvore representation I kocked together for the pleasure of your eyeballs:

 

 As for my 90's-tastic outfit for the evening... I'll get to that tomorrow maybe.

Fashion on Thursday.

I'm still working out where I'm taking this blog... So far, on a vaguely mind wandering women's magazine type rant it would seem. I potentially read The Stylist too much.
I think I'm going to start doing some inspiration collages to put up, collections of images and colour themes that I have been using as source material on current project. Maybe a weekly thing.
How do "Inspire Me Mondays" sound?

Apparently I have started to narrate my life in my head too, as I go about my daily business. 
Excellent.

Anyway....
This is what I wore today
 I decided that the tights and leg warmers were the cutest part at least.
And the important part of the rest would be my City & Colour owl t-shirt over ever so slightly tatty wardrobe staple of black cotton jersey t-shirt dress.
Really, I live in these things. I need more!

I lack in any fancy way to take pictures of myself/my outfits at present but overly hipster looking fake photobooth strips of my legs appear to work fairly well.
(and that's from http://laphotocabine.com in case you were wondering)

In fact, I sort of love these Instagram/Hipstamatic type generators that have popped up all over the place, they're cute. I'm undecided whether Miss Pandawithacamera will hate me for saying so or not, but we did recently share a simultaneous excited moment about Photo Jojo's iPhone Holga lens.
And while we're on the subject... Phone upgrade day in 8 days.
The holga lens will be mine!!

Then there will be no stopping me...

Songs that make you smile.

Public transport being a major factor in being late for work could only be made worse by the heavens opening at the exact same moment you realise cannot even get into the tube station.
Needless to say, that was the daily commute from hell.

But there's things that make you smile no matter what else is going on, right?
Whether it's a smile from a stranger, or remembering a silly conversation out of nowhere...  For me it's quite often songs. You know the kind, the ones that come on the radio in the studio, or your iPod as you walk down the street and you can't help but beam and dance a little as you sing along. (And slightly wish that you life was a broadway musical and everyone else was about to spontaneously join in?  Admittedly, I  might be alone with that part)

So. Grumpy, late for work commuter Suzi with soggy feet descends on Deptford High Street with a face like thunder only to be greeted by the sight of the African gentleman who is sat outside the little Rag-n-Bone vintage shop across the road from the station. A shop worth a visit, too, may I add.
Every morning he will be sat there with his wireless looking happy as Larry and watching the the rest of  us scowel at the world. On the day in question, however, the song that met my ears improved my general morning mood.
I have no explanation for my love of this, other than that it genuinely makes me want to boogie.

What a winner.
I once has a similar experience concerning a gloriously sunny day, a very croweded Wimbledon town centre and Paolo Nutini - Pencil Full of Lead on my iPod.
And ohhh did I dance through town. You better believe it.

 

Here I am

I hate the pressure of  "The First Blog".
It's almost like that need to justify even having a blog... The introduction to just who the hell you think you are and why you are worthy of the Internet's limited attention span.
The expectation to have written something funny and quirky and eloquently witty.
The.. well, the big HERE I AM.

So...
This blog comes to you from a costume/fashion/posh frock designer in London with a love of vintage dresses, too much ambition, a penchant for drawing on her clothes, a weakness for American boys and a dream of running away from the mundanity of real life.
I sound like a giant walking cliché when you put all that into words... and much as I'm sure is a cliché for every designer, I dream that one day this blog will instead be coming from an adorable loft apartment in New York city.
(And very much in the same way that this country girl dreamt of life in foggy London town, so maybe I'm not so bad at achieving goals after all)

A girl can dream huh?

I have been nudged toward blogging by a friend of mine, and fellow blogger, so we can blame her ;)
People tell me my life looks interesting, to me it's just my life.. Sometimes it's kinda of hilarious and slightly ridiculous... but, intrepid blog readers, I will leave that up to you to decide.

For the time being; Here I am, Internet.
Here I am.

P.S:  The layout.... I'm working on it