JEN’S TOP 10 FAVOURITE BANDS OF ALL TIME

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Alt Fashion, alternative, Alternative Fashion, bands, Blue, bow, Classic, colourful, design, Fashion, Fashion Design, frills, j fashion, lace, list, Mint, Music, otome kei, top 10, Vintage

So yesterday I briefly mentioned that I have a top ten favourite bands of all time list tucked away in my head. I thought I would share it because what’s the point of being a music fan if you don’t spread the love of your favourite artists!

SO IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER, JEN’S TOP 10 FAVOURITE BANDS!!!

10: The Crooked Fiddle band: http://www.crookedfiddleband.com/ These guys were first introduced to me through my current band. Both Tim (bass) and Jake (guitar) were (and still are) huge fans at the time that they linked me to the wonderous sound of Crooked Fiddle. What really cemented them as a favourite band was the first time I saw them live. (Incidentally it was also Vanishing Shapes first ever proper gig) They are absolutely nuts in the best way possible.

9: System of a Down: http://www.systemofadown.com/ I stumbled upon this band in year 9 after growing bored with Linkin Park and various other not so fab metalish hardcoreish bands. If I had to choose a favourite album it would definitely be Toxicity

8: Panic! at the Disco: http://www.panicatthedisco.com/ I was 13 when I first heard this band. Their first album A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out was a life changing album for me. I’m not one to listen to music over and over again, but, this album was on repeat for all of my major heart breaks in high school. This band was also a catalyst for my next band…

This is Sundays outfit yo!

7: The Hush Sound: http://www.thehushsound.org/ Do you guys remember last FM? In high school it was the way I found new music. Anyway, the way it worked was that you typed in a band that you liked, and it would play you a bunch of music similar to said band. Of course the first band I typed in was Panic! at the Disco. Once my super slow internet started the streaming process, I heard this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFjw4IAkQEQ fabulously orchestrated snazzy tune. I then proceeded to download the rest of their discography. What can I say? I was hooked!

6: Oren Lavie: http://www.orenlavie.com/ I’m pretty sure this man is the only solo musician on my list. No words can do the beauty and mastery of his only album justice. Every song is perfect, with amazing orchestration, and silky smooth vocals.

5: The Cellar Door: http://findthecellardoor.org/ One of my favourite Youtubers Abb3rz07 https://www.youtube.com/user/abb3rz07 introduced me to this band. From the very first listen I was deeply in love with this band. They are very folky, but not in an antiquated way. They also have a cello in their band. It’s a well known fact that cellos make everything better!

4: The Decemberists: http://www.decemberists.com/ This is yet another brilliant folky band! They have such a vast and varied repertoire, one can listen to them for hours and not get bored (which is no easy task for me!) If you’re going to start with one of their albums, I suggest their concept album the hazards of love.

3: Dead Letter Circus: http://deadlettercircus.com/ This alternative rock band captured my heart with their infectious beats, and beautiful melodies. Like SOAD, I found this band after becoming bored with Linkin Park. I’m so glad I did, because their music is brilliant!

2: Fair to Midland: http://fairtomidlandfans.com/ I have a large Fair to Midland shaped hole in my heart, which I doubt I’ll ever repair. This band has produced the most perfect music I’ve ever heard, and the fact that I’ll never get to hear them live again devastates me. Their official genera is prog rock, but they also sport a very heavy folk influence.

1: The Gorillaz: http://gorillaz.com/ I’ve yet to meet a person who doesn’t like the Gorillaz. I have quite a long history with this band. I first heard them when I was about 5 on Rage. After seeing the video 19-2000 I fell in love with the music and art style. Being so young, I didn’t have the resources to track down the rest of their music.  My next encounter was not until I was 12. There was this website, take 40.com, which was really big with the year 6 class. Feel good inc. was in the top 40 at the time. I used to listen to this song on repeat, until it eventually drifted out of the top 40. When this happened I purchased my first ever CD, demon days. Since then I have been a hardcore Gorillaz Fan (except for plastic beach. Lets forget that ever happened)

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Manic Weekends

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Alt Fashion, alternative, Alternative Fashion, Blouse, bow, casual, Classic, colourful, design, Fashion, Fashion Design, kei, knee high socks, Music, nautical, otome kei, pleats, socks, Vintage

This weekend hes been slightly manic. It started friday when I attended my friends bands album launch (They’re called Valko http://valkoband.com/, and if they keep heading the way they are, they could find themselves with a spot in “Jen’s top 10 favourite bands of all time” list.

On Saturday I found myself faced with two long gigs with two different Orchestras: The New Empire Ballroom Ragtime Dance Orchestra, and the Central Coast Symphony Orchestra (Which will be called “Symphony Central Coast” from next year) Both gigs were so much fun, but today I found myself feeling quite dead.

Unfortunately I didn’t get to relax. I had my music schools end of year concert. Although it was very long (5 hours D: ) It was lovely to see so many children (and a few adults) enjoying music so much.

Hidden gems

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Alt Fashion, alternative, Alternative Fashion, Beret, bow, classy, cute, Fashion, lady petrova, Skirt, Vintage

I learnt yet another very valuable camera lesson on Tuesday. That lesson was ‘always make sure your camera is charged’. Oh well, at least I got to use my phone camera’s funky external fish eye lens!

I found yet another Park I didn’t know existed this week.

I’m not sure what this one is called, but it has some very very pretty spots.

For example this spot here:

This was the only picture I got on my camera before it died and I switched to mobile. 😦

Beret : thrifted, shirt : lady Petrova, belt : shop 55, Skirt : home made, socks: Alannah Hill, shoes: kmart.

Everything about this tiny part of the park was absolutely perfect in a forest fairy type of way.

Fish eye fun times

As I mentioned earlier in the post, I snapped a few shots using my external fish eye lens. About 5 years ago I bought some teeny tiny little phone lenses to make taking photos on my ipod tough easier. I have a wide angle, a macro, a telephoto and the fish eye. Unfortunately I don’t get to play much with them any more, but it’s still very fun when I do get a chance to use them.

Big Green Bows

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Alt Fashion, alternative, Alternative Fashion, altfashion, Beret, bow, Classic, colourful, cute, design, Fashion, Fashion Design, Green, lace, sewing, Skirt, spring, Vintage

This is the last item from my weekend sewing binge.

I bought this fabric about 5 or 6 months ago, and I originally intended to create a pair of pleated high waisted shorts out of it.

Obviously that did not happen. Instead I made this skirt. It was partially inspired by a grey polkadot drop waisted dress with a giant bow by Alannah Hill.

The skirt is a 3/4 circle skirt with a gathered section in the lower portion of the dress. I made he skirt super flouncy (Because that’s the way I roll.) I’m thinking maybe I’ll have to compile a video of how swishy some of my skirts and dresses are (Comment or whatever if you want that to happen) because when I have a swishy skirt on, literally all I want to do all day is stand in front of a mirror and swish.

Also, just quickly, I reached 100 blog posts the other day (I totally missed it. I think this is post 103) so there’s that. Thanks to everyone who reads/supports my blogs 🙂 It means a lot 😀

The skirt

Fairy Dress

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alternative, Alternative Fashion, alternativefashion, altfashion, blazer, Blue, bow, Classic, colourful, cute, design, Dr Martins, Dress, fairy, Fashion, Fashion Design, floral, flower, Flowers, Green, lace, Red, sewing, spring, Velvet, Vintage

I sewed a dress yesterday. Today I wore the dress that I sewed.

This is the first dress I’ve made out of a non stretch fabric. I also drafted the pattern myself. I’m quite surprised it turned out this well. The last time I attempted to sew a dress from cotton, it didn’t end to well (which is part of the reason I hardly sew dresses)

Hair bow: Alannah Hill, Choker: Home made, Velvet blazer: Thrifted, Dress: Home made, Tights: Myer, Shoes: Dr Marten.

I suppose you’d call this type of dress a ‘skater dress’. It has a fitted top, and the skirt is a 3/4 circle skirt. I’ve made the dress out of two layers of material. The inner layer is a floral printed cotton, and the outer layer is a sort of netting.

The frilly bits around the base of the dress were hand gathered, and then hand stitched around the base of the outer net layer of the dress. (never. again.(Although, in saying that, the gathered net frill is what turned this dress from an nice dress into a really nice dress))

If I had the choice, I would have used the machine to stitch the frill onto the bottom of the skirt, but unfortunately the net was super fragile, super stretchy and super uncooperative.

Close up of the fabric.

Close up of the bottom layer of fabric.

Sometimes the only way to salvage a photo is to stick a vintage filter on it…

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Alt Fashion, Alternative Fashion, corduroy, cute, Fashion, Fashion Design, lace, playsuit, sewing, teacups, teapot, Vintage

I had a sewing day today. Because I got wrapped up in my sewing, I forgot to go out early afternoon to take my photos, thus having outfit shots with shitty lighting.

Luckily I managed to somewhat rectify the situation with filters!

Anyway, this is what I wore today. I made this play suit earlier this year, and don’t wear it often enough!

It has the cutest tea set pattern on it

Can’t wait to show you what I sewed it the coming days!

KILTS YO

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Alt Fashion, alternative, Alternative Fashion, bow, Cardigan, Classic, cute, Fashion, ootd, Red, Skirt, spring, tartan, Vintage

Something I love about Spring/Summer is how long the sun stays out. Because it stayed out until about 7pm, I was able to return to the boardwalk after my last student for the day.

Unfortunately, with spring/summer (because lets face it, in Australia we don’t really have spring) comes mosquitoes. I got bitten alive on the boardwalk 😦 (Although, the photo’s were totally worth it)

Cardigan: Alannah Hill, Skirt: Kilt shop in Gosford, Tights: Myers, Shoes: I don’t remember.

Welcome to the 60’s

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60's, 60's fashion, Alt Fashion, alternative, Alternative Fashion, bow, Classic, classy, coat, colourful, cute, Dr Martins, landscapes, lense flair, macro, photography, Vintage

As well as being a loving mother, my mum is an enabler of my crazy fashion adventures. She went shopping on the weekend, and bought me these fantastic shoes. When I saw them, I just had to pair them with a vintage outfit I’ve been meaning to try for ages (But never felt game)

The coat I’m wearing is one half of a yellow two piece my dad found at a vintage shop in Sydney. The dress is one half of a pink two piece my mum and I found in the best shop in woy woy (shop 55 yo!)

I don’t wear this type of dress very often (I think it’s called a shift dress?) If you’ve followed my blog for a while, you’ll notice that I tend to go for form fitting dresses, which come in at the waist, and almost always with a full skirt. This dress is the exact opposite, but, I kind of love it.

I took my outfit photos on the board walk near a local park. While I was strolling around/looking for the perfect railing to attach my camera to, I found myself reminiscing.

At the high school I went to, we had to participate in thursday afternoon sport. Myself and my small, but close group of friends used to choose what sport we’d do as a group (because unless you took sport with friends, it was a lonely and painfully boring experience)

Anyway, when we were feeling particularly cheep, we’d choose “powerwalking” (which was really walk around at a leisurely pace around Gosford) Often the path would intersect with the board walk.

The boardwalk was always my favourite route. It’s such a serene place. I don’t get to go as often as I like, but whenever I go, it’s always so very quiet, and I’ve never seen another person there.

Speaking of memories, it’s weird how they can change over time. When I used to think back on boardwalk fun times, I always remembered there being a bench here. There is no evidence of a bench. I’m entirely sure my mind created a bench, and now I am questioning my sanity.

mermaids and teacups

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Alt Fashion, alternative, Alternative Fashion, beach, cute, Fashion, heart, lace, mermaid, mermaids, ocean, Red, sweet, tea, teacups, thrift, Vintage

This is the outfit I wore to uni a couple of days ago. I made the skirt last year and I don’t wear it enough!

The pattern on the fabric is tiny adorable mermaids.

I also urge you to imagine some red shoes on my feet as you view these images! My  parents have a no shoe rule in the house, so I had to take my outfit photos sans shoes.

Cardigan : gifted, shirt: thrifted, belt: Alannah Hill, Skirt: home made, tights: ebay, socks: topshop, stoes: Diana Ferrari

I’ve had a bit of extra time lately to be able to do some eye-shadow which is nice!

My old flute teacher was doing a clean out of her house and gave me these beautiful old teacups that her mother owned. I love how bright they are (and I will definitely be drinking tea out of them soon)

It looks like black bubble wrap

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Alt Fashion, alternative, Alternative Fashion, bowtie, cats, design, disney, Fashion, Fashion Design, jacket, Pinocchio, sacks, skort, thrifted, Vintage

I have a double shoe shot today to show off the socks I wore on Monday. Cat’s in bowties are the cutest ever!

The title of this post is in reference to the cropped jacket I wore Monday. Basically I asked Ro Dogz what he thought of it, and apparently it looks like black bubble wrap.
The jacket in question is a recent purchase from the best shop in Woy Woy (aka shop 55)

Jacket: shop 55, shirt,: kmart, belt: Alannah Hill, skort: home made, tights: ebay, socks: kmart, shoes: ebay

I’m finally on uni ‘break’ (which isn’t really a break. It’s uni ‘you don’t the have to attend class but there’s still a butload of work to do’) I have a pretty major flute exam coming up so I’m taking advantage of my ‘ free time’ to practice like a maniac. I actually can’t wait till its over.

Such. Fun.