Be Mischievous

Day 8 of the 30 Day Drawing Challenge has brought me to my most mischievous and naughty subject; my favourite animated character.

I would love to say that the Wicked Queen from Snow White is my favourite - those eyebrows, those cheekbones! - but as per usual my allegiance lies with something completely immature.
Stitch from the Disney film Lilo & Stitch is amazing. He's SO cute, so annoying, so naughty! He's like a really irritating child but without the bad looks.

Here's a drawing of one of my favourite Stitch moments:

Whilst trawling the internet for a decent picture of Stitch to use as a reference I came across pretty much the coolest fashion site ever. It's called 'Disney Bound' and basically creates outfits based on Disney characters or themes. The attention to detail is brilliant. Here's an example for Lilo -

Amazing right?
Here's the link to Disney Bound - it's such wonderful outfit inspiration!

Contact Me!

Day 7 of the 30 Day Drawing Challenge has brought me to my favourite film. Now, if you know me, you'll know that I like to watch a LOT of films, and I hold many dear to my heart. There are some amazingly inspiring/amazing/funny/humbling films out there in the big ol' world. There is one film, however, that has stood the test of time for me, and that is Contact (1997).

*SPOILER ALERT* If you haven't seen this movie before and you do not want it spoiled for you then DO NOT read the rest of this blog post!

Jodie Foster and, in my opinion, weirdly cast Matthew McConaughey (man, his name is hard to spell!) are the stars of this amazing movie. The film follows Ellie (Foster) as she grows up and becomes fascinated and obsessed with the universe. She is convinced that contacting other intelligent life would be the most profound thing to ever happen to mankind. She comes up against many obstacles on her quest to prove the existence of extra terrestrials but is successful when she becomes the first person to intercept a message from an alien species.
This isn't your typical alien movie. The whole process is dealt with intelligently and extremely tactfully. Philosophical, religious and moral questions arise throughout the plot and the scientific language used is not dumbed down, just explained in a simpler way. It is truly the 'thinking man's alien film' and as it was based on a book by the legendary Carl Sagan you can see why.
Jodie Foster is just perfect as Ellie. I can relate to her in so many different ways. The acting is as good as the story - which takes you on a roller coaster of excitement, fear and awe.

If you haven't seen this film then I suggest you watch it immediately! And if you have seen this film then go and watch it again! Nothing has ever managed to knock this film off my personal top spot. It's got everything that I'm passionate about - science, love, aliens and sticking it to the man! (Not necessarily in that order).
Here's my drawing for today:

I decided just to keep it as a sketch today - I don't think I could do Jodie Foster the justice she deserves if I made it any more detailed!

'I'll tell you one thing about the universe though. The universe is a pretty big place. It's bigger than anything anyone has ever dreamed of before. So if it's just us...seems like an awful waste of space. Right?'

A New Look For Sophie

Putting together an outfit for this post was really fun! Today's drawing challenge theme is - 'Draw Your Favourite Book'.
Well as you can probably guess from Day 2 of the drawing challenge - my favourite book is The Tiger Who Came To Tea! I have loved this book for as long as I can remember. I can't believe it's still selling after 43 years in print. Amazing.

For those unfamiliar with the story, Sophie (the little girl) opens her front door one day to find a big tiger. He comes in and eats all the food in the house, drinks all the drink (even Daddy's beer!) and drinks all the water in the tap! Then the tiger just leaves. Because of this there is no water for Sophie's bath and no food for Daddy's tea so Sophie's Mummy, Daddy and Sophie all go out to a cafe and have sausages and chips.

The idea of this happening to me when I was a child was just too exciting! Every time to doorbell rang I would hope that it was the tiger! I remember being very jealous of Sophie!

My drawing today is based on the part of the book where the tiger is slowly making his way through all the food in the kitchen after he's already eaten the supper in the saucepans and all the cakes Sophie and her Mum were eating for afternoon tea.

The illustrations are so wonderfully simple. I love how the tiger looks really smiley all the time. I'm sure if a tiger actually came into your house and ate all your food we'd all react like the guys from The Hangover!

So anyway, I decided to dress up and be Sophie today. Y'know, because she's only like, my IDOL.

I wore:
Bow Hairband - £3 Fancy Dress Shop
Dark Blue 3/4 Sleeve Top - £5 New Look
Purple Dress - £10 New Look
Chequered Tights - £2 New Look
Black Patent Shoes - $4.50 eBay (although the label says....you guessed it! New Look)

Oh Jennifer...

Day 4 of the 30 Day Drawing Challenge was SO much easier than I thought it would be! I was so worried!
The subject is - 'Draw Your Best Friend!'
My best friend is a lovely lass called Jenny. She's my longest and dearest friend. Throughout my childhood my family moved around a LOT. Every couple of years or so I had to attend a new school, make new friends and unfortunately lose others. Of course I wrote to a few but after you move house 5 times and start getting older, these things just peter out naturally.
Our last move was to Cornwall and on my very first day of school (I was 13) I met Jenny. Ever since then she has been there for me. She's warm, funny, beautiful and just a genuinely lovely person. For 10 years she's been in my life and makes up a millions times over for me not having proper childhood friends.

She was EVEN friends with me through my blonde hair phase!

We have NEVER argued. I've NEVER thought 'gee this girl is getting on my nerves' and I could NEVER imagine a world without my lovely Jennyfire.

Aint she a beaut?!
So yeah - the subject matter was covered - it was the actual drawing of the actual best friend that was the worrying part. How could I do justice to such a beautiful girl with such shiny hair?
My solution was just to start drawing - and stop before I made her look too scary...and this is where I stopped:

The picture quality on my camera is awful but even so, I think this is my favourite so far!

How could anyone resist a girl with such amazing taste in fancy dress??

Searching For Queenies in a Smugglers Haven

Day 4 of the 30 Day Drawing Challenge has brought me to my most challenging subject - draw your favourite place. Man, it was hard to decide where my favourite place is!
There are many places that have a spot reserved in my heart; our lovely little flat, my family home in Cornwall, places that I've fallen in love with whilst travelling...the list is rather large.
Eventually I settled upon a gorgeous little beach in Cornwall called Prussia Cove.

Prussia Cove is somewhat special for my family as we have a generations old connection with it and the surrounding area. The cove itself is very small, and can only be accessed by climbing down a narrow path that has been worn into the rock. The small pebbly beach is only uncovered when the tide is out.
The cove was used long ago as a smugglers base and you can still see the rail tracks worn into the rock today, where they used to load up stolen cargo and take it deep into the caves.
More recently my Grandmother (whom I regrettably never knew), grew up in the house that stands on the cliff overlooking the cove. It is a dramatic and untamed area. There are no large tourist car parks up on the cliff nor are there any food stalls or ice cream vans spoiling the view. To be at Prussia Cove is to be lost in time.

Here's my interpretation with watercolour pencils and black pen:

We have a very old empty 'Dimple' whiskey bottle at my Mothers house which is half filled with tiny shells. We call them 'Queenies' but their proper name is Trivia shells. Every time my Grandmother visited Prussia Cove she would hunt around in the pebbles until she found one, then she'd put it in the bottle. My Mother has always done the same thing and so the tradition has been passed down to me. They're very tiny and extremely hard to find. Sometimes we'll come away with only finding one and other days we'll be lucky and come away with perhaps three or four. I recently got The Boy in on this and he quite enjoyed himself! Once you start it's incredibly difficult to stop until you've found one. It becomes a mission! This is what they look like - the scale is in cm's.

Prussia Cove was used as the setting for the film 'Ladies in Lavender' starring Dame Judi Dench and Maggie Smith. The cottage they live in in the film is the same one in which my Grandmother grew up in. The film is set in the 1930's and very little had to be changed for the scenes in the house and on the beach. I'd definitely recommend it - it's a wonderfully made film.

Until next time lovely bloggers...or as they say in Cornish - Dha weles!

You Either Love It Or Hate It...

Day 3 of the drawing challenge has come up with the easiest subject matter thus far - my favourite food.
Now, if it wasn't for this brown elixir I think I'd have real trouble choosing a favourite grub but because this exists-

-I have no other real contenders. It will always win. Even over chocolate cake....yeah I said it.
Here's my hastily sketched version...

I don't think I can quite put into words exactly how good Marmite is. For all my readers who aren't from the UK - it's something that's very hard to describe. The taste of it is what the Japanese call 'Umami' or in English, 'a pleasant savoury taste'. It is a very acquired taste and most Brits either love the stuff or hate it with a passion.
Personally I like to keep a jar and a spoon handy at all times. The Boy and I even take a squeezy bottle of it with us whenever we go anywhere...y'know, just in case we have a sudden salty delicious gooey craving!
Marmite has even found its way into my jewellery box. Behold - one of my favourite pieces of weird jewellery - the Marmite jar and Marmite on toast bracelet!

I bought this on eBay a couple of years ago and it always gets a fair few comments. I bought it from this seller, who unfortunately does not do the bracelets any more but she does have some rather fetching Marmite earrings!
Yum!

Leopard Print Aint All That

Leopard is a pretty iconic Rockabilly print. It's everywhere. I LOVE my leopard print bag, don't get me wrong, but whilst doing Day Two of my 30 Day Drawing Challenge I came to the conclusion that tiger print is way better!
I adore tigers. Ever since my Christening (fat lot of good it did me!) at 18months I have been obsessed. It all started with a gift from my Grandmothers' neighbour. He was a gorgeous, fluffy, orange and black, whiskery TIGER. I grabbed him and wouldn't let him go again for the whole ceremony. I didn't let him go on my first day of school. I didn't let him go whenever we went ANYWHERE. Guess who still shares the bed with myself and The Boy to this day? Yep. Tiger does.
He looks quite different now. He has two new layers of fur, he's been flattened because I use him as a pillow, his eyes are scratched, his ears and tail are pretty non existent and he's covered in sewn up holes. Check him out...

He began my love affair with tigers. They're just gorgeous.

I'm wearing -
'We Love Tigers' T-shirt - Given to me as a gift when I was 5! (1992)
Black Weave Belt - £3 Boohoo.com
Grey Pencil Skirt - £7 Primark
Yellow Tights - Can't Remember (Whoops!)
Black Patent Shoes - £4.50 eBay

Here's a few items I've found that I think knock that leopard print right out of the water.

You could go all out and make tiger print the main attraction...

...Or just accessorise with a pair of killer heels....

....a rockin' tiger bag can make enough of a statement....

...or just a tiger print hair flower can be enough. Grr!
And here's the drawing that inspired my post today - my attempt at Day 2 - Draw Your Favourite Animal.

To learn about tiger conservation and why they're so threatened please click here. It's an important cause. The thought that they may become extinct in my lifetime is just too upsetting.

Long live the tiger!

I'm On FIRE! And I have a PENCIL!

I understand that the title of this post is rather IN YOUR FACE and doesn't make much sense so here's a brief explanation...
Two blogs in TWO days. That's consistency. Hence the fire.
The pencil reference is to do with a 30 day challenge. Yeah - one of THOSE. I'm sure you've all heard of it - it's the 30 day drawing challenge.
I really love to draw. I really love to paint. But I never have the time nor the inspiration. So this is basically a bit of a kick up the arse to myself. I'm hoping that after 30 days of drawing every day it'll just come naturally again.
I'd like to point out at this moment that I am not technically very good at drawing - I just enjoy doing it. So I apologise for clogging up your blog feeds with random ass sketches for the next 30 days.
(I know, I know, you're thinking '30 days? Kiki La Mer blogging 30 days in a row? Every day?' Well I'm gonna try. The word try leaves just the right amount of room for failure =P)

Day 1 of the 30 Day Drawing Challenge is...
1. Draw Yourself.
Well great. This is already a pretty self indulgent blog subject - let's just make it more about ME heh? *Rolls eyes*
I drew myself with a HB graphite pencil and a 4B graphite pencil. I pictured myself wearing my favourite comfy casual outfit whilst sitting at a table with a presumably alcoholic drink in my hand. I'm sure a psychologist would have a lot to say about that.
Anyway - here's the damn picture.

 Here's a photo of me in said outfit...with a pint glass...y'know just for you ;)

Yeah - we have a lot of fridge magnets.
Blue Swallow Earrings - £4.99 Camden Market (I posted about that particularly wonderful visit to London here)
Top - £1.99 Charity Shop
Moustache Necklace - £4.99 eBay
Jeans - £4 Charity Shop
Doc Martens - £20 eBay (Worn once! Steal!)

Hope you enjoyed. If I start becoming one of these people that actually does what they say they're going to do then I'll see you all tomorrow!

Oh so you're NOT dead?

No - I'm not dead. I know how you might think that, what with me saying I was back and blogging and then...y'know...NOT blogging.
Sigh.
I'm bad at this. But hey, I'm here now.
I've recently stumbled across a website called Wanelo and it scares me for two reasons. The first being that it has SO MANY cool things on it that I had no idea existed (it freaks me out that I don't own any of it yet) and the second reason being that I'm scared of what it's going to do to my bank account.
Here are just a few things that I think the world needs to know about. I just can't get over the coolness. Yeah...I should get out more.

I LOVE unusual jewellery. I like making people smile when they look at me - in the laughing with me not at me kind of way.

I am a little bit obsessed with coffee table books. I have so many that I have to rotate them so they get decent coffee table time. This one looks amazing.

These tights are AWESOME! The butterflies look so cool like that. It's actually inspired me to do the same thing with bats...and with a tattoo instead of tights!

Too cool for words. The coolest things are the simplest and most obvious ones that you hadn't thought of yet. Divine.

I think if I ever wanted a swimsuit then this one would be it. As it happens I go swimming very rarely and I never go to the beach. I'm more of an adventure/exploring holiday kinda girl. But for this bad boy I'd totally get my pasty white ass out.

DE-LISH.

I had to stop at 6 things. I'd go on forever otherwise.
The Boy and I have been on a real mean budget recently and we've literally only had the money to feed ourselves so finding this website was a REALLY bad idea. I've managed to be good so far...do you think the landlord would mind if I paid our rent with coolness this month??

What's A Girl Like You Doing In A Place Like This?

Woah. I'm in shock. I'M ON THE INTERNET!
The boy and I moved into our own place in May and here we are, 3 months later, finally online. The amount of hassle and money we have been through just trying to get an internet connection here has been gargantuan. So much so, that I am currently enjoying a nice wee glass of champagne to celebrate being back in contact with the big wide world.
And now I can start blogging again! Oh how I have missed you all....
Since I've been gone my half sleeve has finally been completed and the boy and I went to Sonisphere which was beyond awesome. I've wanted to see Metallica for a long long long time so to have them headlining and actually playing with Anthrax, Megadeth and Slayer absolutely blew my mind!
We had fun rocking out to Slipknot as well...even though it was raining.

The camping part was pretty fun too!

My sleeve got finished just a few days before we left for Sonisphere - which was perfect timing! I'm using a picture that a stole from Toni's (my tattoo artist) blog (you can see it here!) as my camera isn't amazing! 

I'm SO pleased with it. I feel much more 'me' now. The flowers are all just right. It's everything I wanted and more so thanks to Toni for making it happen!

Now that I'm online (long may it continue) I hope to blog much more. Got lots to say and lots to do!