16/06/2012 - Emilie's leaving party

Yesterday was Emilie's leaving party, as she's going to Japan for a year. I'm actually going with her (then coming home about a week later), so I didn't need to say goodbye or anything haha, but it was nice to see everyone.

Here's what I wore:

Quite a simple outfit, but I liked it.

On the way to meet everyone, a young woman opposite me on the tube got out a sketchbook and started drawing me! She didn't say anything, and I thought she was just writing something at first, but then a couple of minutes later I looked over and realised that it was me haha. It was really good too; I wish I'd asked to take a photo of it or something. 

I eventually got to Hyde Park, and found the others (as Dom told me I would over the phone, I found the group by seeing Dodo's hair from quite a distance). We had a picnic there for a while, and I ended up eating a disgusting amount of food haha. Eventually it got too windy, so we headed off to Soho for cocktails. 

Long Island iced tea

After, we went to do karaoke!

I can't sing at all, but I had fun being an idiot with Dodo to Gackt's Vanilla.

After karaoke, people went to eat. I wasn't hungry, so I headed off to meet my family, who were at a nearby restaurant for my sister's birthday. 

I leave you with this fabulous song/video:

-Finlay 

Liebster Award

I was tagged by Winona and Patricia. <3 Thank you!

So... what exactly is the Liebster Award?

•   The Liebster Blog Award is given to upcoming bloggers who have less than 200 followers.

•   The Meaning; Liebster is German and means sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, and welcome.

The Rules:

1. Each person must post 11 things about themselves.

2. Answer the questions the tagger has set for you plus create 11 questions for the people you've tagged to answer

3. Choose eleven people and link them in your post.

4. Go to their page and tell them.

5. Remember no tag backs!

Healthy eating and two shoots

Hi guys! It feels like aaaages since I've written an entry, but in reality, it's only been like a week haha. I think I blog too much. In the past week, I've been trying to eat more healthily. I don't think I really had a reason when I started, but my skin is already looking a lot nicer! I've also started running, because I've heard that you deal with hot weather better if you're fit, and as I'm meant to be going to Japan in a little over a week, and I don't usually do so well with heat. I might have left it a bit late, but I guess it's worth a try!

Here's a healthy ice lolly I made:

It's made of greek yoghurt, strawberries and raspberries. So delicious!

I've also been drinking my body weight in green tea every day haha. I think that may also have something to do with my skin looking better. 

-------------

Today and yesterday I did photo shoots. 

Yesterday's was a lot of fun, despite being freezing cold. The photographer was lovely; after we got out hair and make up done, he bought the whole team (2x models, make up artist, hair stylist) lunch at a Chinese restaurant. 

Hair and make up

After that, we all piled into a taxi to go to Hampstead Heath, where we were shooting. It was done in a forest-ish area. We were styled in a floaty, slightly mori-esque way. We had to use own clothes, though. It's completely different to what I normally wear, but this is what I came up with:

I got this top/dress thing in Thailand last summer, but had never worn it. I quite like it though, so I might try and put together a better outfit with it. 

I wasn't really expecting much from the shoot (the mood board they sent me was very vague and not particularly exciting), but some of the photos I saw looked amazing, and I had a lot of fun. The photographer only had a vague idea of what he wanted, as he said he prefers to just see what happens, which I think is a good way of doing it. A lot of my individual shots ended up being inspired by Alice in Wonderland, which was pretty cool. 

--------------

Today's shoot was good too. It was a very last-minute hair/beauty shoot. It was in a studio, and I ate a lot of grapes. 8) Not sure what else to say about it haha, but it looked like there were some good shots. 

They curled one side of my hair:

There were three other models:

That's a wig haha. It was so nice! We did quite a few shots together because we have similar hair/wig. 

----------

I leave you with this song:

I was really surprised when the opera-like singing started haha, but I really like it.

-Finlay

150 calorie meal and shoot results

I want to share with you guys a meal I made yesterday. It's delicious, healthy and only about 150 calories!

It's... some kind of noodle soup. Tasted really good though. 

Ingredients:

• Konnyaku noodles (super low calorie noodles- blog post about them here)
• Bouillon powder
• 1 small spring onion 
• Half an ear of sweetcorn 
• Half a red pepper 
• Sesame seeds 
• Paprika 
• Soy sauce (about 3 tablespoons) 
• Chilli powder 

I'd tell you the exact quantities of the spices, but I don't really know what they were haha, so just add to taste. I had no idea what I was doing, but I managed to figure it out, and I'm terrible at cooking, so I'm sure you guys can do it too!

--------------

I also got the rest of the photos back from the shoot I did in April. Here are my favourites:

GAME OVER

Garments - Ciara Ip

Photography - Christian Alegria

Model - Me

Retouching and editing - Ciara Ip

-Finlay

02/06/2012 - International Lolita Day and Slimelight

Saturday was International Lolita Day. There was a meet that involved going to some kind of exhibition. I was tired and missed that part, but I still wanted to celebrate the day haha, so I met up with people after. It's been a while since I've worn lolita, and even longer since I've been to a meet, so it was really nice. Here's what I wore:

And I finally wore my headband from Necrosarium:

Dodo had also missed the exhibition, so we met up and bummed around Piccadilly Circus together whilst waiting for the others. 

We noticed a NeoPrint machine (something I haven't used since I was about 7), and decided to use it for laughs.

We pretended to be in the 90's haha. 

We finally met up with the others, and after failing to find somewhere to have cocktails, we settled for a pub instead. 

Pimm's 8D

I'd been wanting to go to Slimelight (a goth club) for a while, and as there was some kind of special night happening there apparently, I convinced Memz and DeMc to go with me. Conveniently, I live about 5 minutes away from the club, so after the meet, we headed back to my house for pre-drinks. 

First, though, Memz and I had to change, as we weren't sure whether or not we'd get in with what we were wearing (and clubbing in lolita is not so fun). I was lazy and pretty much repeated what I wore to see SCREW, but I had fun dressing up Memz, who doesn't usually wear anything that isn't related to lolita. 

Before

After (I had too much fun with the sparkle brush, shh)

A lot of Nachtmahr, vodka and mead (I don't know why this was in my house lol) later, we were ready to go!

I'd only been to Slimelight once before, to see Nachtmahr, but we didn't stick around after that, so I'd never properly experienced it before. All I can say is that it's amazing, and now my favourite club. Lots of smoke, cages, and glorious industrial music. And a barbecue! There was also a crucifix:

The lighting makes this picture really scary somehow haha.

I'd heard that it's usually pretty dead in there, but there was some kind of  event going on, so it was really busy, and we met lots of lovely people. I got to practise French and Italian on native speakers, and I actually ran into the only cybergoth I'm following on Tumblr (I seem to be meeting a lot of people from Tumblr lately). Nearer the end of the night, we met some lovely gay guys, at least one of whom was into J-rock, so we hung out with them for the rest of the night, then all went back to mine for pizza at about 5am. They headed off at about 7am, and the rest of us collapsed into our respective beds, sleeping patterns thoroughly destroyed. 

-Finlay 

01/06/2012 - Hair shoot

I had an amazing (paid) shoot today! 8D It was a hair shoot (which is fast becoming my favourite kind of shoot), but it wasn't for a salon or anything, so I didn't have to get my hair cut. This was probably my favourite shoot to date, both in the shooting experience and the results.

I had to be there for 9am, but luckily the studio was only a 15 minute walk from my house. Was a bit lazy with my outfit, as it wouldn't be in the photos, but here's what I wore:

I finally wore this necklace:

There was a full creative team, plus one other model. Here she is shooting:

We both did two different hair/make up looks. Here's my first one:

Getting ma hair did for the second look:

I looked like a plant at the start lol

It was a really fun shoot; all really laid back, and the photographer was lovely. We did mostly plain shots, but occasionally used props like glasses and headphones, which was fun. I was slightly worried they would look tacky or something, but I actually really liked the shots I saw. The photographer even said she'd send me the image files eventually, which I wasn't expecting due to it being paid. So yeah, I'm happy about that. 

---------

I also got a couple of shots back last night from a shoot I did in April:

-Finlay