Hola comrades, this is just a quick little post to tell you I am organising a tiny little meet-up in a few weeks time! I previously “organised” a meet-up for some of us London #TheGirlGang members and it was quite fun (Emily thought so too). You don’t need to be a girl or a blogger to come but it kind of worked out that way before…
This Christmas has been drinks with pals, Christmas parties, festive morning brunches, lots of mulled wine, the funnest gigs, five full christmas dinners, nights out in my favourite East London pubs, nights in with boxes of Celebrations and christmas movies, cheeseboards, four actually fun Christmas gigs, espresso martinis, rum hot chocolates, more fun brushing my teeth than I thought possible, limited edition chocolate baileys, one beautiful new dress, a lot of beautiful people, a different Christmas playlist for every permutation of travelling, unexpected festive cupcakes, ribbons in hair, one awkward bathroom encounter, kisses on the cheek, SANTA BEER, dancing dancing dancing, Brooklyn Lager and Camden Hells on tap, best friends, old friends, new friends, one upsettingly absent friend, a boot full of Santa hats and antlers, a new reason for high heels, far too many screenshots, the loveliest screening of Gremlins, horribly overpriced pints, two uncompleted advent calendars, so much Prosecco, three nut roasts, seventeen hours of driving, too many empty white wine bottles, a couple of slightly stale mornings, unquantifiable amounts of merriment and way, way, way too much tinsel.
I dressed as Cleopatra for a party we had a couple of weeks ago. The theme was the letter ‘c’: other costumes included cat, colombian, Candy Warhol, chopping board and candy floss. I can’t remember the last time I actually made anything for a costume but this time my housemates and I actually spent an hour in the garden making headdresses out of old necklaces (me) and gluing cotton wool balls together (cloud).
I’ve always liked Cleopatra. Aged 17 we studied Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra. I love Shakespeare and was happy enough studying Ophelia, Lavinia and all the other doomed nymphs but Cleopatra was a different kind of female; she was a huge, complex, dominating character. She was the best thing about the play; whole verses tumbled off the page praising her. I remember our teacher characterising her with the classic phrase “women want to be her, men want to be with her”, a modern counterpart to the line in the play; “Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety”.
We were encouraged to try and draw parallels between us students and various characters. For some reason I ended up as Cleopatra; at 17 I was pretty weird and fairly low down in the social heirarchy and I felt very far away from the assured and powerful voice on the page before me. I don’t know if my teachers could see something in me that I couldn’t, or whether it was purely linked to my beau at the time (coincidentally named Antony) but the nickname ended up sticking around for a lot longer than the essays.
Cleopatra is often depicted as a beautiful, sensual and powerful woman; but I like that there are so many other stories about her wit, her cunning, her intellect. Stories of tricking men into accepting dares she would win, or sneaking into palaces disguised in a carpet to have “relations”. She was educated by leading scholars in maths and astronomy, had a huge interest in star-gazing and spoke nine languages. Quite a few accounts cite her sweet and alluring voice as the most beautiful part of her.
Whilst 17 year old me couldn’t see any resemblance, mid-twenties Laila could draw a few more parallels. I find her to be quite a modern figure. She often styled herself as a masculine leader, comfortable directing large groups of boys. She laments how women are held back in society and that she cannot be considered an equal; a fight that’s not over thousands of years on. She had a love for exotic hair pieces (totally on board with that) and founded a drinking club with her friends called the Inimitable Livers (again, right on sister). And of course there’s the famous black and gold; the colours of royalty in ancient Egypt.
Cleopatra often said she was a reincarnation of the goddess Isis, who inspired her. It’s nice to think that through the years, huge influential people have drawn inspiration of their own from others before them; our hero’s heroes. It’s easy to look back at famous historical figures and draw conclusions about what kind of person they were, or draw parallels between yourself and them, when you can never really know. But for whatever reason Cleopatra has always stuck with me as a choice heroine. Who are yours?
PeteFest is a festival which was created in honour of my friend Pete who died last year. I’ve posted quite a lot on Pete so long-time readers (thanks both of you) will be familiar with this part of my life, and if you’re following me on social media you probably saw me posting bits last weekend.
Pete’s wonderful parents had already told us: no sadness. The weekend was not for mourning, for grieving, for tears and choking up. The weekend was for celebrating, for smiling, for fun. For embracing and for making a lot of noise. For beer, for sunshine, for cake and for getting involved.
Everything there has said repeatedly; it was awesome. The music was diverse and interesting, the sun was shining, the people were friendly, the pints were flowing. The theme was orange; orange bunting, orange shirts, orange and ginger cake, ginger beer, orange balloons, orange ribbons. Even on an aesthetic level it made the whole weekend brighter; my camera got confused by the higher than usual levels of orange and tried to contort everything into being sepia.
Pete’s family are to be hugely commended for the festival as a whole. Their attitude and determination really dictated the whole festival; I don’t think a single minute passed without seeing smiles and hearing laughter; people dancing, joking, making friends, catching up or sharing a moment. To have a space to meet people we otherwise would not have met without having to outright make a big emotional deal out of it, is amazing. The organisers put in months of work and it really showed.
I lost 3 people close to me last year, all unexpectedly and all in their 20’s. Pete’s passing is the only one that has caused people to come together; creating festivals, awards, legacies. I’m not done posting about it or figuring it out (will I ever be?) but that’s not what PeteFest was for. PeteFest was for being happy.
For me, it was a weekend of confronting truths and being surrounded by friends. I intersected with the festival in a lot of ways and it was hard not to see what was happening through those multiple filters: I attended the festival, I played a (small) part in organising it, I performed several times under several guises, I helped promote it, I manned the social media and I made a small attempt to document it with my camera. I was a weak link; I turned in some truly awful performances which I subsequently felt disgusted about, and I also got very drunk. Luckily I had all my friends around. Besides, any festival that ends with the barmen buying you a pint is a success Pete too would have approved of.
I wrote so recently about my wonderful friends and they were all there at PeteFest. I had my closest friends from school days. I had James and Danilo, the remaining pillars of my personal and irreparably broken triumvirate. I had the people I think of as family and I had my actual family, however that goes down. I’m perennially the one with my crap least together, but for my part I fell asleep surrounded by all my oldest and dearest friends; all the people who know me best and care for me most sleeping in the same tent. I remember thinking as I fell asleep; if I don’t feel safe here and now, where and when will I? And that was PeteFest.
Alongside the festival there is also an award set up in Pete’s memory. You can read more about it here. I know a couple of you have written to me in the past that you were so moved by previous blogs that you decided to donate, and I can’t tell you how much that means to me. That I have readers I have never met who are so kind and generous and giving is really incredible. Thank you so, so much for your support and for your love.
Pete further discussed in these posts: 1, 2, 3, 4.
I’ve shared mostly photos of my friends and myself on this blog as I thought it would be weird to share photos of people I don’t know on a personal blog; but it’s weirder I feel that way as a) all the photos are mine and b) they’re all publically on the internet anyway. So if you’d like to see more they are all up on this page. If you’re in one of these photos and don’t want to be – please let me know and I shall remove it immediately. 
Happy Fourth of July to all of you! Yesterday was the fourth of July – Independence Day in the US. Like any self-respecting American away from the homelands I gathered together a load of friends and celebrated at home, because good luck finding anywhere in London to celebrate.
I absolutely love themes and drinking games and I’m at my best when organising convoluted rules for new games and nights like this! I quickly threw together a playlist, came up with a constitution of ground rules (such as constant American accents) and then devised an American-themed drinking game for my friends which involved short skits re-enacting moments of American history, swapping drinks on the regular and greeting everybody with an elaborate high four and “HAPPY FOURTH” whenever you entered a room.
From the opening chords of “Born in the USA” to the moment we kicked the constitution to one side in order to dance, it was a great night. Sadly between the stupid costumes, hours of impersonations (I do a great Bob Durst), impromptu group sing-a-longs to “New York, New York” and general mayhem, there wasn’t a whole lot of time for taking photos. At least the meagre offering of photos indicates a great night! Whether you’re from the US or not I hope you had a great night. God bless America!
London Design Festival was about a month ago but I just finished sorting all these photos from the launch party! C4CC (the space where I work) hosted a series of workshops and talks. WOLF PACK (aka my business) contributed a workshop and I also helped to co-ordinate the events, along with the other C4CC residents.These photos are all from our super-snazzy launch party. There was banoffee pie, free Camden Hells (my all-time favourite beer), group singing, super-cheesy dance floor music (courtesy of yours truly), a super-cute dog, merkins and even a short set from me and Danilo. Some of you may remember this frantic post which I published on the day!
I haven’t discussed C4CC in much detail before but both of my major enterprises are based there (WOLF PACK and the brand new Quizcats) are both based at C4CC, aka the Centre For Creative Collaboration. It’s an incredible place filled with lots of innovative start-ups, small businesses and creative enterprises. It is an amazing place; there’s constantly new people coming in and out and I’ve met so many inspiring and wonderful people since working there.
Some of the residents who featured at the party (and are pictured) include:
AOI Sheep – who created the sound-reactive projections that displayed whilst Danilo and I performed (video here).
London Loo Tours – who entertained us with a toilet-themed quiz.
Guerilla Science – displaying a variety of merkins, latex nipples and bum hole paint.
Grow Up – Sophia from Grow Up helped to oversee and organise the LDF events.
Youth Media Agency – helped us with the amazing promo.
Madeline Trigg – organised the whole thing!
ELX Art – curated the downstairs exhibition (the incredible black and white pieces).
Cinter – incredible design time, helped install the exhibition and created the hanging logos and boards.
I’m wearing an American Apparel skirt, DIY studded tights (now dead – note the massive ladder), Irregular Choice cat shoes and my favourite Ginny shirt from my beloved Family Affairs.
Here’s some photos of a supercool blogging party Bel took me to a few weeks ago. Me being me I arrived too late to meet any actual bloggers (in my defence, apparently bloggers like early nights as it was only about 9.30). We eventually moved on to the pub: three rounds of free drinks and a couple of very drunk patrons later, it was suddenly 2am on a Monday morning. The only new contact I made that night is a barman who I’ve awkwardly bumped into round Camden since. Fun times! Have you guys been to any blog events?
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Welcome to the world of Flimsymoon! Flimsymoon lingerie have been running a Kickstarter since the beginning of this month and yours truly helped with the launch party. Whilst I’m not a massive lingerie person (it would be pointless me owning nice pants as they’d just get forgotten at peoples houses or lost under the bed) and most of the collection isn’t vegan, I do love the handmade touches and the intimacy conveyed in the products; you can see the artists loving hand at work in every single piece of the collection. I especially love the gorgeous sequinned collar!
The key thing with Freyia’s work is her eye for aesthetic; the placement in the photos, the layout of the pieces and models in the video. I tried to use a similar aesthetic in taking the official party photos – you can view the whole set here and I think they feel very different to my usual style of photography. What do you think?
I first met Freyia (the gal behind the pants) back in February or so. I’ve got a varied background in running events, production and social promotion and PR (I think a lot of these go hand in hand with music/theatre types such as I) and was happy to help her out with her party (you can see me decorating below!). It was quite a strange experience for me; I’m used to running the whole show and it was very strange to be taking orders and not giving input. I constantly was trying to hold my tongue and stop suggesting ideas at every juncture; nobody wants to be a nuisance!
I learned a lot from Freyia; she is a huge pro at asking for help. The amount of time and energy her friends put in was astounding to me. Alongside donating, bringing drinks, helping to run the party and promoting the Kickstarter most of her friends also created the decorations and donated art of their own as pledge gifts and prizes. It was incredible to see the amount of support amassed just from asking. I so rarely ask for help that I doubt I’d even consider it an option. The pledge items especially all perfectly matched with the overall aesthetic of the brand and the party. As pledger number 4 I ended up with the gorgeous crown above made by Zachurpurbowty (side note: my friend is rocking the other one, don’t you think?).
There’s just 7 days to pledge; please have a look on Kickstarter, facebook, twitter and pinterest!
My turn to ask for help… please consider following me on Bloglovin / Facebook !
Fun with vinyl lettering! Has anybody else done this before? Fiddly!
TAPE PARADE 