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…
If you’re not familiar with my project Quizcats, Quizcats is a 10 piece band and we put on events that combine live-band karaoke with a pub quiz. The nights are themed (films, musicals, 90s etc) and end up superfun in a silly, easy way: dancing, costumes, prizes for best team name and so on. I spend most of my time working on Quizcats – sorting all aspects of the show and promoting it.
Next Sunday we’re doing a Christmas themed show, Quizmas. I am SO excited!! I didn’t think I could get through this month without telling you about it – it’s been my sole focus for so many weeks and I’ve dedicated myself to the project. This show has a few festive surprises – we have a Christmassy photobooth (I’m secretly jealous I can’t get involved with this!) and the rest of the band (the 9 guys in the pictures) will all be dressed in seasonal attire, complete with me in a ridiculous Santa dress. I can’t wait to see what the audience wear!
We get a lot of comments from the audience on how much fun they have and I think it’s genuinely because (as cheesey as it sounds) we, the band, have so much fun on stage. I put in a lot (a LOT) of unpaid hours to the job, but the minute I get into rehearsals with the guys or up on stage with Chris it’s like I’m having the time of my life. The shows are at the forefront of my mind for such a long time, occupying so much stress and toil, but on the night I just basically go on stage and have a ball.I think the place I’m really happiest is performing in front of an audience and the Quizcats boys are just such an awesome bunch, every show we do feels like we’re just hanging out and having a great time. To have an entire audience join in dancing along and cheering with you is indescribably fun!
I’ll definitely share some pictures of the event itself once it’s happened! If you’re London based and want to come then use the code “TapeParade” for 40% off tickets. And let me know so I can come and say hello! #Quizmas :)
I went to Tokyo DisneySea right after I went to Tokyo Disneyland. I dearly wanted to see both, and I think the main positive of visiting places by yourself (as I did with Disneyland and Sanrio Puroland) is that you can just run around visiting the things you’re most interested in with complete disregard to everything else (in my case, anything with a 2 hour queue).
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.
Happy birthday to me! I absolutely love birthdays! Parties, presents, being the centre of attention and getting older; I love it all. My Mum made me some gluten-free granola and some vegan peanut butter snaps which was the best start to the day and also got me such a gorgeous card. My Dad paid for my car to get serviced which was my main present but also loaned me his amazing Canon camera for the day for all these photos! On my actual birthday I met some of my best friends and we spent the day at the Natural History Museum before going to the pub. I wrote a song about dugongs last year hence all the photos with the dugongs!
I also went out the week before with all my friends and was honoured that the lovely Jess from Jessthetics could come too! It was such a fun (and particularly bleary) night and it felt like Jess had been part of our gang for ages. I felt very loved by the amount of birthday gestures I received this year; flowers (in the photos!) and cake from the charity shop, more flowers and cake from my theatre group, cake and wine from work, homemade vegan birthday cake from Jess, cuddly wolves, polkadot dresses, posh glittery things, LUSH goodies and headdresses from my friends and an animal safari t-shirt (!!!!!!) (amongst other things) from James.
It sounds cheesy but the nice thing about growing older is having people to grow older with! I don’t have much family or many friends from childhood so it’s fairly recently I’ve been able to appreciate how wonderful it is having close friends who you’ve known through multiple stages of your life. Pete (the tall ginger one) for example has been at every single birthday I’ve had since we met and we’ve gone from being two awkward teens to being two successful musicians running creative businesses (although still awkward every now and then!). I’m very grateful to grow up surrounded by inspiring and brilliant people every day and so lucky to call them my friends. :)
Vest – H&M, £3.99. Jacket – vintage from Fat Faced Cat vintage, £10 (sale). Hot pants – ASOS, £8 (via unwanted gift). Minnie Mouse ears – Mind in Camden (charity shop), 50p.
.I feel like this outfit is textbook Laila. I’m really not into planning outfits and my general “going-out” look (or “going-on-stage” look) is basically put on whatever clothes are nearest, throw on something sparkly, add some novelty headwear and then hope for the best! In these pictures (taken after a show at VAULT) as well as some charity shop ears and my newest sequinned item I’m wearing my trusty studded white boots, and my vest and dance shorts from rehearsals earlier in the day. Add to that my leftover show make-up from that evenings performance (classy) and my black and red camera bag and that’s my whole thrown together after-party vibe!
.These photos are from the week of performances I did at VAULT and I promise this will be my last post on the festival! Essentially every night after our show the whole cast and crew would hang out at the venue (big underground labyrinth of tunnels and rooms) and party, so being easy to spot was a good thing amongst all the other people! I’m aware some people save sequins or vintage for special occasions but I’m not like that at all. I don’t want them to just hang on the wall for fear of damaging them; I want them to get a bit frayed from messy piggyback races and end up smelling of smoke and spilt drinks from too much jumping around on a crowded dance floor. Clothes are for living in and not just looking at after all. :) What does your textbook outfit look like?
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The new glitter Kickers are the cousins of my shoes…
Who doesn’t love a house party? During my teenage years, there weren’t many Friday or Saturday nights that didn’t involve drinking games in somebody’s kitchen, but in recent years house parties seem to have been replaced with pre-drinking and going out. Last night was a welcome reminder of the fun of dancing on sofas, trampling in gardens for private conversations and waking up disorientated, squished next to friends.
TAPE PARADE 
