Vita Brevis Breviter In Brevi Finietu

Vita Brevis Breviter In Brevi Finietu

Thursday 31 May 2012

Hightlight Of The Day

Today whilst doing my usual random internet browsing I came across the Gothic Wedding Planner on one of my favourite sites; Haute Macabre, as I quite like the idea of gothic themed weddings. I'd never have a proper gothic do myself for a wedding but would like to add some subtle gothic tinges to my dream wedding. This lead to me reading the Grymm & Epic Guide To Blogging on her site, Steff Metal. I found it to be well written and to have some good basic tips. At the end of the guide are some links to artices, which I also began to read. Which is how I came across Zen Habits. The inspiring artices full of tips to overcome slumps in motivation, things to do to make yourself happy and ways to escape becoming over materialistic inspired me to start a new part of my blog, which I will be calling 'Highlight Of The Day'. With this I aim to think more positively and to focus on the positive aspects of my day, even if I feel that generally it's been a terrible/boring/long day! If nothing else, it will at least give my readers something more to read!

So, without further ado, here is my first highlight of the day which is actually from yesterday (I'll do todays when I post my PED):

Highlight Of The Day: Talking to a woman in work who was bringing back a bra that didn't fit. We got talking and she told me that she was being treated for breast cancer up until very recently. She was positive and honest about her experience and I really felt like I was glad to have met her after she'd left. I hope she found a suitable bra and that she stays cancer free!

Wednesday 30 May 2012

Photo Every Day #151

Today has been a day of answers and the unexpected. It still amazes me how terrible people can make others feel with their cowardly, insecure behaviour. All part of living in a mixed society I suppose; some a good, some are bad. However, I have spent the evening playing with the boys. They're taken to running round in my dressing gown, including climbing up my back and then sliding down! Silly rats!

Rat Pile:
Rat Pile

Song Of The Day: Poe - Terrible Thought
Reason: Really good song, Poe reminds me of Shirley Manson from Garbage on this track.

Photo Every Day #150

Jean Paul Gaultier are my favourite perfume bottles. I just love how vintage they look, such a classic style. I love the perfume too, it's just a shame it's so expensive. I've collected miniture perfume bottles for ages now. Mostly I save them for 'special' occassions that never seem to happen as I don't want to waste them. It seems silly really, as they're actually just going to waste sat in a bottle, slowly going off. Maybe I'll start using them soon. For the average days.

Perfumed:
Perfumed

Song Of The Day: Frank Sinatra - When I Was 17
Reason: Just such a classic, timeless song.

Monday 28 May 2012

Photo Every Day #149

The rats are definately going through a naughty phase! They keep trying to run up the outside of the cage to get to the top, have accidentally scratched me a million times and they keep trying to throw their fruit bowl off the top level when they're done with it! I'm going to try and make them some rat toys, maybe a maze type thing too if I can find some boxes that are big enough.

The Explorer:
The Explorer

Song Of The Day: Garbage - Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go)
Reason: One of my favourite songs by an amazing band, really excited to hear their new stuff and would love to see them live!

Sunday 27 May 2012

Photo Every Day #148

Today we went for a picnic at Tatton Park. It was nice to be outside but it did get a bit too hot for my liking! Having black hair doesn't really help when you're trying to stay cool.

Sunny Day:
Sunny Day

Song Of The Day: Ramones - Blitzkreig Bop
Reason:  Love listening to punk music in the nice weather

Saturday 26 May 2012

Photo Every Day #147

Today has been so hot! It feels like I haven't seen weather like this for years! I was starting to get really sick of the winter weather, I find it so depressing. But I'm not mad on it being baking hot all the time either, so a few days is a nice change.

Stag Art:
Stag Art

Song Of The Day: Jedward - Ice Ice Baby
Reason: This is the only song I know that they once sang! GB will never win Eurovision, so Jedward and my second choice! I actually find them funny, in a good way.

Friday 25 May 2012

Photo Every Day #146

So it's nearly the end of mega week, but I couldn't let it go by without buying something! Especially since it's payday today. Since we have ended up with a stag themed front room, I decided to add a nice white stag ornament to the collection.

White Stag:
White Stag

Song Of The Day: Nachtmahr - Titanic
Reason: One of my fave Nachtmahr songs, and because I am, as a woman, not offended in the slightest by them, nor do I agree that they are sexist!

Thursday 24 May 2012

Photo Every Day #145

Today I noticed that my pepper plants have started to grow!! I'm very excited as I've just been looking at a pot of soil for about a month now! I quite like the idea of growing plants and veg, it's just a shame that I don't have more space on my window sill or a garden!

Seedlings:
Seedlings

Song Of The Day: Rammstein - Mein Land
Reason: Such an amazing band! Love the video too, bit different from the usual Rammstein video but can still tell that it's definately one of theirs!

Wednesday 23 May 2012

Photo Every Day #144

Today was the boy's birthday. We went to Blackpool for the day. First we had a litle walk around Stanley Park, we were going to go on the boats but we'd forgotten to take any cash or change so just had to make do with looking at the lake instead! We then went to the Sealife Center which was good, my favourite was obviously the sharks! We then played pirate mini golf and then had fish and chips for dinner. We played in the arcades for a while and won enough tickets for a For Me To You tea towel, apron and oven glove set! Woop! I took lots of pictures on my Mini Diana so that's why today's PED is a little dull considering we've had a day out! I will upload those as soon as I've finished the roll! I'm not super tired again and dreading going back to work for the continuation of mega week. Boo!

Hamsters:
Hamsters

Song Of The Day: Lana Del Rey - Blue Jeans
Reason: Perfect summer song

Tuesday 22 May 2012

Photo Every Day #143

Just a quick one as my back is killing and I just want to lie down! When I was feeding the boys before Quigley decided to climb up to their new toy, some ladders with bits hanging off, and climb across. They've only had it since Monday and I've yet to see them near it! Glad at least Quigley likes it though!

Ladders:
Ladders

Song Of The Day: Uberbyte - Last Human
Reason: It was my walking-round-the-corner-to-work song choice this morning

Photo Every Day #142

Just a quick one today as I need to sleep before the madness that is mega week ensues tomorrow! Today we had beef wellingtons for tea. They're just from Morrisons but they were surprisingly nice.

Wellington:
Wellingtons

Song Of The Day: VNV Nation - Chrome
Reason: Tuuuune! Love this song, reminds me of uni days.

Sunday 20 May 2012

Photo Every Day #141

Today has been a really good day. We went for a walk with Pixie and my parents through a little area of woodland. We saw about 12 heron's nests with baby herons in! So cute! They were really high up in some pine trees so we couldn't see them properly but could see them flapping their wings and the parents bringing them food. We also went to the Walled Garden and did some pond dipping. It was mostly children, but I got quite competative when I caught the first fish, a stickleback, on my first dip! We caught a few more fish and loads of tadpoles. We also bought some more of their homemade apple juice which is delicious. We then went to Nandos for tea with the boy's family for his and his sister's birthdays next week.

Pond Finds:
Pond Dipping

Song Of The Day: Grendel - The Judged Ones
Reason: One of my fave Grendel songs

Photo Every Day #140

Today we went to the Manchester Museum. I've never been before and it was full of taxidermy so I was very pleased! It was a shame they were doing so much building work as half of the museum seemed empty, but they had some really interesting exhibits, including one with live reptiles!

This was my favourite photo, one of a frog that has sort of craters in it's back so that it can carry it's eggs. If you look closely you can see the mini baby frogs' legs and heads sticking out!

Frog & Babies:
Frog

Friday 18 May 2012

Photo Every Day #139

Today was Mum's birthday and my last day in work for the week! It's been a super long week. Tomorrow we're off to Manchester to the museum so that should be good, but think I'm going to have an early(ish) night tonight if I want to stay awake tomorrow.

Birthday Chocolate Cake:
Chocolate Cake

Song Of The Day: Metallica - Nothing Else Matters
Reason: Super awesome song, stuck in my head at the moment.

Photo Every Day #138

Just a quick one today as I've been busy and I'm knackered! We've had a meeting for 'These Guys' and we're finally a bit closer to getting filming off the ground. It's also been another really long, slow day in work! I'm almost looking forward to next week when it will be a lot busier!! I am definately looking forward to this weekend off though, my poor feet need a rest! Tomorrow it's my Mum's birthday and today was my step dads, (it's already been my Dad's at the start of the month and it's the boy and his sister's birthdays next week!) so it's been a rather expensive month.

Birthday Wishes:
Birthday Wishes

Song Of The Day: Plan B - Ill Manors
Reason: I love how much of a true statement this song is, super catchy and relevant!


Wednesday 16 May 2012

Photo Every Day #137

Today my Lomography Mini Diana camera arrived!! It's so lovely, I'm glad I picked the fern green colour. I also ordered some colour negative film so that should be interesting to shoot with. I think I'm going to take it to Blackpool next week for it's first outing.

Lomo:
Lomo

Song Of The Day: Enter Shikari - Sorry You're Not A Winner
Reason: Takes me back to when the song was the Casis' song of the moment and makes me remember some good nights

Tuesday 15 May 2012

Photo Every Day #136

Today has been a day of answers. That's all I will say! In other news, I'm hoping to track down some Alanis Morissette tickets for Manchester Apollo, fngers crossed.

You Can't Catch Me I'm The Gingerbread Man:
Gingerbread Man

Song Of The Day: Joseph Arthur - My Home Is Your Head
Reason: Just hauntingly beautiful

Monday 14 May 2012

Photo Every Day #135

Today I edited another photo from Delamere Forest. This is of a bluebell flower. I quite like bluebells for their colour. I remember being part of a BBC North West Tonight feature when I was in primary school about saving the bluebells in our woods, or something similar. I couldn't have cared less at the time, I just wanted to be on the tv like most 10 year olds!

Save The Bluebells:
Bluebells

Song Of The Day: Alanis Morissette - Not As We
Reason: Such a beautiful song, makes me well up every time I hear it.

Sunday 13 May 2012

Photo Every Day #134

Today's PED is on a fallen telephone line (I think it's a telephone line anyway!). I've not edited it or anything, this is just exactly as I shot it on my lovely Canon 550D. I love the industrial look and the little wheel/spinner type things on the top. I love the browny, rust colour as well. I think I may tweek it a little to better bring out the colours.

Hanging On The Telephone:
Hanging On The Telephone

Song Of The Day: Lady Gaga - Teeth
Reason: One of my favourite Gaga songs, we've not heard from her for too long!

Photo Every Day #133

Today me and my Dad built a good old box! It was from Ikea and is for the rat's food and toys. Forget the smell of petrol and fresh cut grass, I love the smell of new wooden furniture and I love the smell of sawdust too. Nothing like the smell of a good flat pack kit! Tomorrow is the audition day for Boom In Shot which I'm really looking forward to, it will be nice to meet the rest of the crew and get another step closer to shooting!

Boxes:
Boxes

Song Of The Day: Nicki Minaj - Starships
Reason: Saw the video for the first time today, I love Nicki and think she's a really watchable character. I've decided that she also my new body icon. She has a fab figure that's realistic rather than skin and bones.

Saturday 12 May 2012

Photo Every Day #132

Today I went on a 'bad' food binge! I bought a huuuuge bar of Galaxy (it was on offer), some mini eggs and some skips. I was torn between pom bears or skips, but felt that I was in more of a skips kind of mood. I love retro sweets and stuff I used to eat as a kid! There's an old fashion sweet shop in town that sells the stuff I used to buy when waiting for my ballet lesson on a Saturday morning from the newsagents, along with Spice Girl postcards (which I still have!). Aah the good old days! I'm defiantely glad I was a child through the '90s; great animated Disney films, proper sweets full of E numbers and colourings, awesome girl bands and colourful, mismatched fashion.

Skips:
photo(2)

Song Of The Day: Alanis Morissette - Not As We
Reason: First heard it on an episode of House MD, I'm a big fan of hers and this song is perfect for film/tv.

Friday 11 May 2012

Photo Every Day #131

Good news, the toilet is fixed!! The plumber spent ages trying to plunge it, to find that it was a big chunk of metal stuck in the open drain outside. The drain has been left uncovered for weeks because our buildings management are terrible so I assume it fell in when the drain cover smashed. Backed up water was gushing through the drain for 15 minutes after apparently! Gross! I've also been doing some more research for Boom In Shot, the horror-comedy short film I'll be working on until June. I really love the script and think it's the best thing I've worked on so far, right up my street! Check out the website and sign up for updates!!

Loo:
Loo

Song Of The Day: Emily Browning - Sweet Dreams
Reason: An awesome cover by my favourite actress of an amazing song! Still need to remember to watch Sucker Punch....!

Wednesday 9 May 2012

Photo Every Day #130

Today started off well, work went fast, had my hair cut and missed getting my new do rained on, bought some spin pins and then went home to a relaxing afternoon. However, evening arrives, I start to make my tea. I decide to go to the bathroom, only to find that the fucking toilet has filled itself up with (clean) water?! After much ado and many phone calls, I've had to retire to my Mum's and ring the landlord to get it sorted tomorrow. I swear who ever lived there before us has cursed our flat!! Everything breaks! Even the shower head fell off when I was trying to rinse everywhere down. Gah! Here's to hoping I have good news to report on tomorrow's post...!

Spin Pin Bun:
Spin Pin Bun

Song Of The Day: Limp Bizkit - Rollin'
Reason: Such a tune! I know all the 'actions' to it too! haha.

Tuesday 8 May 2012

Photo Every Day #129

Today was an expensive day yet I didn't even leave the comfort of my home! I've sorted the boy's birthday presents and bought a Mini Diana camera!! I'm super excited about the camera arriving already!! I'm hoping that it comes in time for the boy's birthday day out to Blackpool, but will just take the Practika if not. Since I've not been out anywhere today I was looking forward to seeing the rats, but they decided to spend all day sleeping instead! Charming!! Ah well, back to work tomorrow but looking forward to getting my hair cut afterwards as it's started to get all horrible at the ends. Really wishing my fringe would hurry up and grow out though, it's at the stage where it's dangling right in my eye all the time, which is rather annoying!

Patterns:
Patterns

Song Of The Day: LMFAO - Sexy & I Know It
Reason: They performed on Britain's Got Talent tonight and were awesome, they always put on a good display!

Monday 7 May 2012

Photo Every Day #128

Today we had my Dad over for his birthday. We had a nice meal made by the boy but I forgot to take any photos! So you'll have to make do with the rats eating their tea instead! For the meal we had a starter of pigeon on toasted bread with mango, spring onion and chilli salsa. Then we had chicken with a herb crust with ratatouille and rosemary rice. Yummy.

Eating My Kale:
Eating My Kale

Eat Your Greens:
Eat Your Greens

Song Of The Day: Alex Clare - Too Close
Reason: Superb song, really love the use on it on the Internet Explorer advert. I think it's a song that gives the imagination life.

Photo Every Day #127

Today has been a good day. First, my Mum, Step-Dad and Pixie came over for lunch, then we all went to Willowpool. I will illustrate today with a photo story!

Firstly, we had a gorgeous desert at Willowpool! It was called something cream delight or something very similar:
Cream Delight

Saturday 5 May 2012

Photo Every Day #126

Today I edited another photo of the boy's dogs. This time it was of Luke holding his paw up for a treat. I only made really slight changes as I was pretty happy with the photo anyway. I gave it a little crop and just did some minor enhancements.

Original Image:
Luke - Original

Edited Image:
Luke - Edit

Song Of The Day: Daughtry - It's Not Over
Reason: Just woke up with it stuck in my head!!

Friday 4 May 2012

Photo Every Day #125

Anyone who knows me will know that I love ancient Egyptian mythology, artefacts and the like. This is my statue on Anubis, the ancient Egyptian jackel god. I got it for a few pounds when we visited Egypt years ago. I'd love to go to Cairo again, but it was a bit scary and we had to be escorted by a jeep full of military guys with huge guns!!

Anubis is my favourite Egyptian god as I think  he's fascinating. He's usually portrayed as half human and half jackel and is associated with the afterlife and the embalming process. Anubis is shown as a jackel as they scavenged dead bodies from graveyards. He's black to symbolise the colour of rotting flesh combined with the black soil of the Nile which is linked with rebirth. Anubis is often seen in his full jackel form sat on top of tombs, protecting the deceased, or as his half and half self weighing the heart in order to determine how worthy the deceased is in order to allow them to progress into the underworld. This process is part of the Book of the Dead, a part of the funeral process which was mean to assist the dead through the underworld and into the afterlife through the spells contained within.

Anubis:
Anubis

Song Of The Day: Stone Sour - Through The Glass
Reason: Such a beautiful song, love Corey Taylor when he sings properly too!

Photo Every Day #124

Today I had an uber long 10 hour shift! My feet are killing me! I did get time to do a quick edit of the boy's dog, Benji though. I took the photos yesterday so will try to edit some more over the next few days. I just straightened and cropped the original photo, then turned up the sharpness, contrast and saturation slightly. It looks slightly greyer than the original which I think give it a bit more of Benji's characteristics.

Original:
Benji Original Image

Edit:

Benji

Song Of The Day: Brand New - You Won't Know
Reason: Brand New remind me of uni and my old housemates and the good times!

Wednesday 2 May 2012

Photo Every Day #123

Today we went round to the boy's mum's house to see a robin that has made a nest in her backgarden! It's made its nest in a stack on plant trays/pots and looks very comfy. It's already sat on some eggs too!

Mama:
Robin On Nest

Song Of The Day: Hed PE - Killing Time
Reason: Love this song, especially for the line 'dreaming about a better time, better place, better life'

Photo Every Day #122

More fun times with the rats today! They're getting braver and braver!

Nom Nom:
Nom Nom

Song Of The Day: Lana Del Rey - Diet Mountain Dew
Reason: Lyrics I can really relate to at the moment.