Home Sweet Home

Turning photographs black and white is the biggest scam in the world. I'm not a terrible photographer, it's 'vintage'! I do wear the same things all the time, yes. This is a H&M skirt and top, with a big chunky Primark belt that I love.

At this time of year, everyone I know is getting sick of their parents and is going back to university. I'm still at home, with a reading week and exam leave, and I for one am getting a little tired of all my friends trashing their homes. I love my home, and my hometown is not without it's charms. So this is my tribute to home comforts.

The last picture is of a baked apple stuffed with honey, cinnamon, and almonds, from a great recipe by Greedy Gourmet. With a nice scoop (or two) of Ben and Jerry's Baked Alaska ice-cream, it was a nice filling, wintry snack.

Moonstruck

I'm back from Newcastle with no photographs or outfits to show for it, so I thought I'd tell you about a new cinematic discovery of mine. I don't know how I went so long without seeing Moonstruck, so now that I have, I'm spreading the word!

Cher plays a widowed book-keeper engaged to Johnny, who goes to visit his dying mother. Loretta Castorini (Cher) has to contact Johnny's estranged brother Ronny (Nicolas Cage) to invite him to the wedding, and ends up entangled and in love with him instead. It's wonderfully predictable and filled with hilarious asides and unforgettable minor characters.

Of course, I can't talk about Moonstruck without mentioning how stylish Cher is. I had my reservations at first, but no more. The female characters are proper and elegant, everyone wears heels and blouses and beautiful coats. It's one of those films that makes you long for a more glamorous time, when lipstick and heels were an everyday occurence. Despite how well they dress, though, my favourite outfit of Loretta's is in the final scenes, when her hair's all piled up on her head and she's wearing an oversized cardigan.

If you haven't seen Moonstruck, you really need to. Even if you don't go gooey over young Nicolas Cage or fall in love with the Castorini family home, it's a really funny and heart-warming watch that'll make you think about love.

A Short Trip

Hello! I've been revising my face off for the past few days, and this evening I'm catching the train back to Newcastle to take an exam tomorrow. I'm quite nervous; it's my first exam at uni! Nerve-wracking. I'm not taking my laptop so updates will be even more minimal; I leave you with these poladroids of my recent hair transformation!

Thursday

Black Double-Scoop Tee - H&M

Navy Pencil Skirt - H&M (I love these)

Belt - ASOS Sale

Tights - H&M (they're actually polka-dot)

Apart from odd splashes of colour (I have a soft spot for ochre), I wear red, white, navy, and black. When I started to re-assess my clothes, I decided on a colour palette that I love and I think it makes my clothes look very pulled together. In summer I don't stick to this so much, but in winter it works! I'm also wearing red shiny heels from Faith.

Cake Cake Cake

I only just got dressed and all the attempts to photograph myself in my dress minus tights were a bit too scandalous, and I really can't find the energy to put any on. After yesterday's skid down the path I am aching all over. So I present you with exceedingly moist apple cake, to soothe my soul! From this wonderful recipe by Afeitar; I had a nice big chunk with a cup of fresh coffee. Whichever nation first came up with coffee and cakes, I salute them. Who needs tea and scones?

Embracing My Ego

Cardigan - Wallis (on sale!)

Pencil Skirt - H&M

Breton Striped Top - H&M

Hairbow - Topshop

Messy Room (feat. potato masher) - Years of hard work

The first outfit photo of what I hope will be many! I have finally heeded superblogger Gala Darling's advice and decided to photograph my outfits more often, to help me critique them and find something to wear quickly when inspiration does not strike. Please excuse the wrist support! Its recent dodgy-ness was not helped by skidding down the icy front drive this morning and landing on my back.

I think what's been stopping me is the whole idea that caring for your appearance is shallow. I admire bloggers and well-dressed people everywhere, so why did I feel that saying "Yes, I enjoy looking good!" would compromise my intelligence? Even at my grungiest phases, I've been reading Vogue and keeping an eye on fashion. It's okay to be interested; it's okay to be passionate. And I hope to convince myself once and for all that it's okay to wake up and want to show the world how good you look and feel today.

Amelie

Photograph by bunchadogs & susan on Flickr.

I'm pretty sure that if you hunted down every girl on the internet that loves the film Amelie, you could fill a lot of football stadia. However, this does not deter me. I love Amelie. What, frankly, isn't to love? It's a film about appreciating the small things. Eccentricity. And it gives me warm, fuzzy feelings in my stomach. Not to mention the wonderful sense of style throughout the film; a whimsical grainy, lost-in-time atmosphere. If you have developed a taste for eating raspberries off your fingertips or plunging your hand into sacks of grain, then you might be interested in further Amelie-fying your life.

Polyvore is stuffed with Amelie-inspired sets; here's one I put together:

There are lots beautiful sets (that my amateur blogging skills cannot get to cut and paste) that can be found here. My favourite thing about most of these sets is the simplicity of the items involved; it goes to show the power of a colour scheme and a garden gnome!

However, for those who want Amelie's philosophy, and not her clumpy shoes and cardigans, I've found some sites dedicated to making the small and ordinary an event. PostCrossing is a vast network of snail mail enthusiasts swapping postcards with people all over the world. It only takes a few simple steps and a few postcards sent to start recieving postcards from all over the world! Keri Smith, illustrator and author, offers activities and prompts for your own creative revolutions, however great or small. I sincerely recommend her 100 things, a list of creativity-based prompts for your life and sketchbook. Her blog, Wish Jar, is a great starting point for viewing the ordinary in a whole new light.

Lomography, whether you love or hate the company, is a wonderful concept. Looking for subjects for your spontanous photographs, as I found, makes you see details and patterns in very ordinary things. If you prefer concept over the cost, great sources are Just Shoot, a collective based in Manchester, and the lomography group on Livejournal. I'm sure I'll write a longer article on Lomography at some point, complete with my own badly-lit shots.

These are just a few to get you started; there are so many ways to appreciate the everyday! I love Of Mornings, a community dedicated to photographing your first meal of the day. Go for a walk and look at the flowers growing in the cracks in the pavement; eat a clementine and draw or photograph each segment. Slip poems between the napkins in a cafe or collect apple stickers.

If loving Amelie makes me an internet cliche, then baby, I wouldn't be any other way.

Bienvenue!

Welcome to Sitting On Cushions! My first New Year's Resolution was to start a blog of my very own, and the second was to find ways to procrastinate not involving sleeping or lightening my purse. I'm not sure yet where this blog is going, but as long as it's going somewhere, let's not trouble ourselves with exactly where.

For now, allow me to show off the fact that I'm the latest drawing on Your Face, a fantastic blog featuring members of the blog-reading community. I'd never really noticed that my glasses look a lot like headlights.