STYLIN' - Chavabilly

A slightly less classy variant of Trashabilly, this style speaks to me for many reasons. Mainly because of my massive love of female rappers (Kreayshawn, Awkwafina, Lil Debbie) my need to wear brights and yearning for a solid pair of trainers. Here's 5 Chavabilly Must Haves:

1. GOLD JEWELLERY - I'd say it's all in the accessories with this one, they've got to be bold and they've got to be gold. Not real gold mind, in fact the cheaper you can go the better, as long as you're not rocking the green skin too. I'd obviously recommend anything from the Extreme Largeness Street Style range.
2. BODYCON DRESSES - OK OK so a steady diet of saturated fat for as long as I can remember hasn't exactly given me a Barbie figure, but if I want to wear fucking Lycra, I'm going to wear fucking Lycra. Everyone else can deal with the garish leopard print and oversized florals stamped all over my lardy rolls, I feel good in shit that's skin tight.
3. TRAINERS - I got my Nike Air Max about a month ago and rarely wear anything else now. They're comfy, versatile and look hella flashy.
4. MAKE UP - I think this is where the rockabilly element comes in, I'm talking eyeliner wings so big they're gonna fly away and opaque red/ pink lippy. It's what's going to bring all that cheap shit you're wearing up a notch. Classic rockabilly hair also looks good too like beehives and bandanas.
5. YER SWAG - You can drink Lambrini, but make sure it's cherry flavour and out of a cup, not straight from the bottle like what you would usually do. You'll need to step up your twerk game from Miley to Major Lazer. You can still listen to hip hop but they've got to have a Tumblr, and maybe just stick to girl rappers that are feisty feminists. As a life rule.

What You Should Listen To This Week: THE AMAZING SNAKEHEADS

I'm such a blog slacker. I could say I've had a week off, but in all honestly I've either been
a) lazy (most likely)
b) doin shit with the fam
c) listening to The Amazing Snakeheads
Amphetamine Ballads is a very apt name for this album, it stimulates your senses and then you become completely hooked on it. This Glaswegian trio have been dominating my earphones for the last week or so with their growly bluesy rock and I love every track. You can hear licks of The Cramps and The Birthday party in songs like Nighttime and the rough croon of Tom Waits and Nick Cave in Every Guy Wants to be Her Baby. If you like the recent offerings of my other favourite scuzzy-rock band Fat White Family (former single of the week) then wrap your lug holes around this filth.

Woman Crush Wednesday: 5 Reasons Why I Love ReeRee Rockette

I found out about Rockalily Salon a couple of years ago when looking for different rockabilly blogs to contact for work. I was excited to find an alternative style hair salon that specialises in retro and vintage styles, but even more excited to read the salon owner's blog. I instantly subscribed through Bloglovin' so I can easily read it everyday and started following on Twitter and Instagram. Here's why I think she's one of the best bloggers around...

1. She's determined - Ree Ree blogs everyday. Not only does she magically manage to do that, she always posts read-worthy content, whether it's thoughts on business and marketing (one of her recent posts introduced me to Peek Test, which I found really useful) to hair tips and tricks. It's a blog that's appealing and readable for practically everyone.
2. She's inspirational - Her "fitspo" posts are amazing. I've always thought her dedication to healthy eating and exercise is so inspiring, she's disciplined yet realistic. it's usually just something like what she's having for tea or what route she's been running recently, but when you see her "now and then" weight loss posts, it's incredible how much these decisions she makes have changed her body! She also inspires me as a business woman, a feminist and a blogger!
3. She's always smiley - You only have to take a quick look at her Instagram to realise Ree Ree takes a lot of selfies. This is great for many reasons, but mainly because she's always smiling! It can really lift your mood when you're scrolling through an otherwise dull feed of other peoples boring snaps on IG and then you see a happy face, it's lovely and refreshing! 
4. She's diverse - Ree is well known for her Outfit of the Day posts and one thing that always stands out for me is how eclectic her taste is (and how many clothes she has, srsly this woman has the biggest wardrobe in the world!) She wrote a blog on Trashobilly about a year ago which I loved because it finally gave a name for something I consider to be my style (ish) and it summarized a whole range that Extreme Largeness did, so we did a blog post off the back off her! Her style can vary from full on rockabilly glamour to casual charity shop jumpers, but she always looks gorgeous!
5. She's intelligent - From what I've read of any of her thoughts and opinion style blogs, Ree Ree has this fantastic ability to really simply analyse something and eloquently articulate her view without it seeming over thought or verbose (unlike me clearly.) There's a quote in her piece titled "Creating our image and fighting our fears of style" which she discusses the beliefs we hold about different pieces of clothing and whether it symbolises who we want to be - "They're just clothes, and anyone can buy and wear them. Yet we create barriers for ourselves. A lack of confidence is so restricting!" I thought this was a straightforward yet punchy statement that I'll be carrying with me when considering something new.
6. BONUS - She has a super cute dog!
   

Fading hair with washing up liquid and bicarbonate soda

It works! I guess. The purple I had on my hair was Directions Plum, but I had a Bleach London "Washed Up Mermaid" which I was well keen to use, so I started the lightening process. My technique was to mix some washing up liquid with bicarbonate (baking) soda, get my hair wet and just rub it in. I left it on for half an hour each time I did it, and rinsed it off as normal. It was definitely most effective the first few times I did it, but it really really dries your hair. I use Lush Retread Conditioner and coconut oil on the ends of my hair, so it's just about back to normal. In the end I also ended up using a hair stripper and bleach, but this was a good idea to get most of the purple out.

More sculpture making with Miles Gavin

So my classes with Miles have been continuing over the last few weeks but because I've been a massively lazy blogger recently I've not been posting progress. BUT how it has progressed! I have really fallen for this medium and I'm already looking at future projects based on what I learnt with Miles.
I did a few more sketches so I could get my colour right and look at all the details I wanted to include (eyelashes, ribbons, and gems)

We then made the basic structure of my cat which involved Miles using a laser saw! It was way too threatening for me to do on my own so he covered that part. I'm sorry but I just don't trust myself with an electric saw or any power tools, I would be a danger to myself and anyone in the surrounding area. I then made this weird looking featureless cat thing and whacked a load of resin all up on it. MIlliput is a versatile 2 part modelling resin which dries in about 45 minutes and goes rock solid.

The next session we carefully put together the facial features, I wanted to give it big bulgy anime style eyes and they are literally the majority of it's face. The face-making process wasn't challenging at all, but you do have to consider little details what you wouldn't normally think about like eyelids and creases on the nose and where whiskers go, but these little details are what really makes the piece what it is. And a stuck a cute little heart gem right on its forehead too.

In the latest session we did some painting! The cat is spray painted all over to create a smooth quick-drying finish. Then the details are painted using a really fine brush. I've somewhat obviously opted for pinks and blues cuz, well, pink cat. This was all done in a step-by-step guide instructed by Miles which had obviously been perfected over his many years of painting animal faces. We then whacked on a layer of spray varnish and my kitty was all shiny!

I'm loving my cat's Sphinx type look but it's all lumpy and bumpy so it'll be getting a nice layer of fur in our last session next week!

What You Should Listen To This Week: TODD TERJE

This morning was like any other Monday morning in Manchester, grey, snotty and depressing. So when walking from the train station to work, I decided to brighten it up by delighting my ears with the electronic sounds of Todd Terje's latest single Delorean Dynamite. This fantastic jam sounds like the love child of the Knightrider theme and your favourite '80s video game. For a man who has a recipe for "disco dough" on his website, he knows how to mix tunes as well as he mixes... dough. In the marvellous way that shuffle works, it rolled nicely into a newly discovered Neil Young gem Sample and Hold (I've been slowly getting acquired to him over the last year) that song is basically Kavinsky before Kavinsky. Then I wanted to listen to the Drive soundtrack, which I have on delicious lemon yellow vinyl. Anyway, based on Todd's offering, I'm looking forward to listening to the amazingly titled "It's Album Time" soon. 

Speaking of really '80s things, my little brother came back from Japan last week and he went to Disneyland one night and saw this amazing Michael Jackson film in 3D...

Have you seen TK Maxx's "My Style My Size" campaign?

I was doing some research at work yesterday looking at online retailers and was delighted to discover TK Maxx have their stuff online. Working in e-commerce and website design I always pay attention to what's on the homepage and calls to action prompted by retailers for their customers. But I thought their choice of "My Style My Size" was a bit odd. I'm assuming it's based on shopper research and how their customers browse by size, but I feel that it conflicts with their other super positive something-for-everyone be-unique-and-individual image. Although I get it's still promoting clothes for all shapes and sizes, plus the phrasing personalises the shopping experience, but I feel like it's forcing me to pigeonhole myself by what size I am, and why should I be defined by my size? Who says that the pieces that are in my size are my style? Why isn't there a one size option, surely it's more satisfying to browse what you like than what will fit? I'm just seeing "this is what fits you, this is what you have to buy." And obviously I understand you're only going to buy something if it fits you, but you can take inspiration from things you like that don't! This prominent size restricting browsing is also only implemented to Women's Clothing too?! Are men less likely to browse by size? I liked this post I saw the other day on the Nikki Lipstick blog and I'd love to see more "one size" options on websites. This would reassure me that everyone is getting every piece available and won't make me feel restricted by what's on the label.

What You Should Listen To This Week: BAD GRAMMAR

I was first introduced to jazzy shirt wearing Manc two piece Bad Grammar when I saw them supporting Giant Drag at Deaf Institute last year. I loved their excited happy vibe and grunge-pop sounds, so I bought one of their rad shirts and saw them again supporting Future of the Left with The Wytches at Soup Kitchen which was an incredible gig. So I'm chuffed that I can now listen to more than the 2 songs that were on Spotify, they've upped their game and added four whole new songs, packaged as their new EP Forced Fun. Also available on Soundcloud and Bandcamp.
Check their "LADS ON TOUR LADS ON TOUR LADS ON TOUR #LADSONTOUR" style video for Temper Temper

Bad Grammar on Twitter
Bad Grammar on Facebook

Encountering Corpses: Jewelled Skeletons & Getting Pissed at Church

Paul Koudounaris (from Heavenly Bodies)

I was introduced to the personality and charm of Paul Koudounaris before his beautiful photography, when my bestie Jessica informed me she was talking to a dude from LA online who's obsessed with cats and has a house full of taxidermy and I would love him. I initially dismissed it as Jess being her weird little self as always. But when browsing tumblr and Paul's Heavenly Bodies work came up on my dashboard with 12,000+ notes attached, I realised it was something more special than just being weird. Soon after his book release I was reading articles on Vice, seeing more of these images being shared around online and met his lovely friends from LA Mike Odd and Sugarpie (who came over for Rebellion Festival and seemed to enjoy the tacky horror of Blackpool more than anyone who's ever been to Blackpool.) All the while I was becoming more intrigued about this mysterious photographer.
So I was obviously very excited when Jess started to put things in motion to get Paul's photography exhibited in Manchester. She put Helen Malarky in touch with him, (Institute of Humanities and Social Science Research project manager at MMU) and plans were forming to hold the Encountering Corpses exhibition at Sacred Trinity Church. I got my tickets for the opening night in January, it sold out quickly and soon everyone I knew wanted to see this work.

  

The exhibition consists of 12 large scale photos of charnal houses and jeweled skeletons which Paul had taken around Europe, part of his 2 published works Heavenly Bodies and The Empire of Death. The was also a small sectioned off room showing the work of MMU's Sue Fox. Sue gained access to autopsies, mortuaries and crematoriums to create Post Mortem, first published 17 years ago, creating graphic images of limbs and corpses with a sort of soft harsh-ness. The church was also scattered with pieces by community artists in response to the exhibition and soundtracked by the murder ballads of Lee Mellor. We also had some magnificent skull cake from the gorgeous Annabel de Vetten of Conjurers Kitchen (who got very excited about the Frida Kahlo skirt I was wearing and stuck stickers on my boobs.)

Sacred Trinity Church

Skull cakes by The Conjurer's Kitchen

Cake cushion with chocolate skull

Me and Paul Koudounaris

The following night we went to a goth club night at the church which was... interesting. The idea of a club night which was in a church near my flat and bring your own beer (obvs churches don't having alcohol licenses so they just trust you to drink responsibly) was very intriguing. What with me not being a massive goth I didn't know much of what was being played, but they did lay down some Huey Lewis and the News! And there were UV lights, weird dressed up child skeletons, and we were getting pissed in church.
  ENCOUNTERING CORPSES RUNS 28TH MARCH - 10TH APRIL MON-FRI 10AM-4PM