March

March by nikigirl featuring vintage style jewelry

Creativity takes courage

Quote by the French* artist Henri Matisse, whose work I studied during my days of GCSE Art & Design! The title of this post is relevant to 3 things;

a) The above image is my first shaped set ever! I've never made anything like it on Polyvore, and I really like the fact that it isn't square and that the pieces don't quite fit perfectly, I think it adds something. Trying something new or different requires creative courage.

b) Today I watched my sister's performance (at my town's theatre) which was written for the Olympic culture festival, and so my sister and her friends are the original cast! Standing up on stage, reciting lines and acting, in front of the actual playwright and associated press (tonight was the first time that the play has been performed) takes massive courage.

c) I've been watching the London 2012 Olympics (well, I love watching sport on TV, and I am mildly patriotic, I watched the Diamond Jubilee, Royal Wedding etc.) since the Opening ceremony** and the amount of creativity and courage involved in the Olympics is really inspirational. It's not just Danny Boyle's opening ceremony which was creative - every dive, gymnastics/trampolining routine, dressage performance, every athlete's requires artist design. It's not just the competitors who need courage either, the organisers, and so that decided to make the 2012 Olympics so eccentric and so different to any really seen before must have had courage too.

Therefore these two things, as illustrated by the above examples, go hand in hand.


*Speaking of the French - what a good night for their swimmers! Well done for winning against some pretty tight odds and even fiercer competition!

**I absolutely loved the Opening ceremony, seeing as some reviews have been mixed about it. It wasn't a complete spectacle, like Beijing, but it wasn't supposed to be, it represented the people of Britain, all people, and the crazy British sense of humour. It focused on some of the darkest parts of our recent social history (mistreatment of workers during the industrial revolution, Suffragettes, World Wars) but then reminded the world what Britain has given to everyone, the internet being the most incredible and appropriate example, considering that you are reading this online! Sure, some of it was confusing and chaotic, but so is life - even athletes are not machines, we're all human, and that's what binds us all, regardless of nation, country, language. Isn't that what the Olympics is really about?

Regardless, GO TEAM GB!

Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful.Times are hard for dreamers.

Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful.

This week has been randomly hard for some reason, I don't know why, everything has just felt like it's taking more and more effort to do the things that I would normally do anyway. Strange. Anyway, it's the end of the week now so I'm going to start completely fresh tomorrow, "a new leaf" as it were, and that goes for revision too :s

However, in a strange kind of way, time is on my side. 46 days until my exams end, so that's a month and 2 weeks, just long enough to really focus on revision, but the end is definitely in sight, if you see what I mean, school doesn't feel endless anymore, and I know that soon my life will be completely different. That's motivation enough I guess, only 46 more days of waking up and feeling guility every minute that I'm not studying, and to be honest, I started revising in March, so around 68 days ago, so I've officially done more revision than I have left to do (if that makes sense!)...

So this collage, it has all the usual in it (well, usual for me) icons of Paris, pink, cupcakes, tea cups, flowers, blossom, pink, books, some slightly vintage looking things and...the pocket watch in the top left hand corner. I think the watch is important, it shows that things don't go on indefinitely (revision :( ) and serves as a reminder that "come what may, time and hour run through the roughest day".

There you are, that's a very appropriate quote from Macbeth, and therefore I have successfully found a way to intergrate revision and blogging :D

28.04.12

  by nikigirl on polyvore.com

Well, the April showers have continued, and here we are a week later...I wish I had something more interesting to report, but aside from preparing for exams, schoolwork, and hearing people complain about the weather, this week has not been that eventful. Not that that's a bad thing, necessarily, but there you have it. I created this image ages ago, and for some reason having gotten around to publishing it before now, I think I've just had it saved somewhere and forgot about it. I hope that how my memory works, you know, during an exam when you can't remember something but then it appears really randomly, as if it's been "saved" somewhere, just waiting for the right thought to trigger it.

I think one of my favourite quotes that I have come across this week is by Mary Waldrop, she says;

"It's important that people know what you stand for. It's equally important that they know what you won't stand for."

I think for me this is a definite target, I have a horrible habit of saying yes to things, usually work, or something someone else wants, just for the sake of keeping peace. Although helping people constantly is a good thing, and let's people know that you stand for kindness and helpfulness, I think that there is definitely a time and a place to say no, otherwise you end up with nothing left for yourself!

Another quote I found (Einstein's extension of Parkinson's Law) is one that I'm writing up simply because it describes my life so well at the moment; "A work project expands to fill the space avaliable", it's the same with my revision for the next 6 weeks, it's not about getting a certain amount of revision done, it's about filling all the avaliable space I can with revision, and subsequently re-remembering and learning things constantly, rather than sitting down and saying "I have to do 5 hours a day" or something.

Wish me luck.

Keep Calm and Dream On

Keep Calm and Dream On by nikigirl

:)

Got an A* on my Extended Project! Pretty happy, it means that all of that work was really worth it! Half way through the (academic) year I considered dropping my Extended Project, or at least radically re-designing it, but obviously now I'm glad I didn't, and it serves as a good reminder of the reward of projects carried through, despite whatever reservations you have about them.

Once again the theme "Keep calm and carry on" appears in this image, among some of my other favourite things (Emma Watson, blossom, Paris, fruit, the colour white) because at the moment I feel a LOT of anxiety about the future :/ I worry about passing my driving test, getting 3As to fufil my university entry requirements, coursework, going on holiday for the first time abroad, with my friends, without parents (!) and even stupid things, like going clubbing for the first time, (I just don't know what to expect. My family want to go away in May, when I have my exams, leaving me to look after the house and my little sister by myself (because I'll be 18 then).....I'm just so freaked out by the enormity of life at the moment.

Rant over. I guess I just feel really anxious at the moment. I'll stop now. Time to take some advice from my own art work and just take it one day at a time. Here I go.

Simplicity

Sometimes the basics are the best.

Only 2 more days in school, 2 more exams, then it's Christmas!

The wait is hard, but it will be worth it, just a few more hours of revision, a few more cards to write, presents to wrap, decorations to display, and time will pass before I know it!

But I do love black & white photographs, and Paris, and pink things, and of course, the beautiful Emma Watson to set it all off :) this image is a reminder of why I should persevere - once it gets to the Christmas holidays I'll have loads more time for image editing!

Simplicity by nikigirl on polyvore.com

Day Dreamer

Day Dreamer by nikigirl

I may see in colour, but I still dream in black & white.

Can you miss being somewhere before you've even left?

The term nostalgia describes a yearning for the past, often in idealized form.

Sometimes I want to live in the past, literally.

Winter

Winter by nikigirl


So. This week, had a mock interview, driving lesson, helped at open evening at my school...much of the same.

Next week however couldn't be more different, I've got literally one day at school before I go and stay at one of the world's best universities and be interviewed by some of the most learned history academics in the world...it's going to be amazing. Intense. Hard work. But most of all intense, insanely beautiful, both the city and the university, intensely hard, the studying and anxiety, constantly challenging (like life itself) but hopefully ultimately rewarding! I really can't wait to meet some incredible people, and have one of the most interesting (in every possible way) experiences of my life so far!

Play

Play by nikigirl featuring heart jewelry

Paris/ end of the holidays/ ensuring I do some sort of work...

Paris by nikigirl

So, after finally dragging myself off Polyvore this morning I have come to the conclusion that I have done virtually none of what I was supposed to do over the last few days, especially involving school work and filing and revision etc. For this reason I'm updating earlier rather than later so that I have no excuse later before I go to work/ out to think to myself that I should update my blog above ALL ELSE as I normally do :) BUT, I have had a good time during the half term, definitely feel much more positive about school (ask me again in about a week...lol)

Admittedly I do have a full-blown obsession with the city of Paris, and to make things worse one of my friends went there with their boyfriend last week and had loads of amazing pictures of the Eiffel tower all lit up! So I had to make this to compensate....well not really, but I did.

City of Paris motto - "It is tossed by the waves but does not sink", what a great phrase! I shall try to adopt this position as I plough through schoolwork and the various trials of next week...wish me luck, it's a beautiful new day!

Started planning for my Personal Statement and university application, really made me think about what makes me myself, and I think that this montage/collage/ image gives a pretty good idea :)

Seriously though, I wish that we could submit a picture instead of statements, writing about myself is one of the hardest things I've ever done :/.

This day will only come once every thousand years...and yet everyday in our lifetime only happens once.

Did you know Photobucket has a "vintage photography" section? Seeing those images reminded me of my trip to Paris a few years ago, and so I have created something in a similar style. I took all of the photos, except the 1964 image of a Parish street (top centre -I wasn't alive then) and changed the more modern ones into black and white to create my collage.

Parties, games, fun, and for me, travel, friends and life in general. This image, titled "Play" really summarises this for me and was also created in May 2010 with my other GCSE Art images.