Daily Shenanigans, 28/04/2014: Definitely feeling better!

I can confirm that the headache is gone. I repeat, the headache is gone. I can't believe how late we are in April, May is fast approaching! Time goes so quickly sometimes! I found it difficult to sleep last night, for some reason, so I was ultra tired this morning when I woke. I did feel a lot better though despite this. I spent most of the morning at home catching up on various pieces of Uni work that need doing. When I did go into Uni about midday, I found myself enjoying the train journey immensely because I got to read some more 'Days Of Blood & Starlight'! This book guys, this book! I enjoyed the first one so much, but I'm enjoying this one even more! I just really want to get through it and review it! I did receive my first Netgalley rejection today, but I was also approved for another title: 'Cuckoo Song' by Frances Hardinge.

I spent a lot of the afternoon/evening at Uni helping out with and watching my friend's Multimedia Performance, which was really good I might add! It was a really nice, relaxing afternoon actually. I talked to a few friends who I felt like I hadn't spoken to for ages and it made me feel a lot better about a lot of things. Yes I'm looking forward to when Uni finishes but I will certainly miss some parts of it. Tomorrow involves another trip to Uni (and work, which I am not looking forward to) but fingers crossed I can be extra productive! Oh and it's 'Top Ten Tuesday' day tomorrow so I need to think of a post for that too, I have a feeling I will find this week's topic exceptionally hard for some strange reason.

Daily Shenanigans, 25/04/2014: Exciting Netgalley updates!

Okay so we'll start with my day, which has been pretty action-packed! Firstly, I spent the morning and a bit of the afternoon in London, and reviewed 'The Hunger Games'. I enjoyed the book a lot and can't wait to get onto the next ones in the series! I'm currently reading Holly Black's short stories collection 'The Poison Eaters' which are pretty good so far, I'm about a quarter of the way through! When Mat and I came back from London, I wasn't at home for long before heading out again to Canterbury to watch my friend's Multimedia performance! It went well and gave me a bit more train reading time.

Now, onto Netgalley. I have had a heck of a lot of luck with this site, I'm not entirely sure how I've been approved for so many books, being a small blog with no current feedback! However, I'll update you on my more recent approvals which are all very exciting, because I honestly didn't think I'd get approved for some of these!

• 'The Queen Of The Tearling' ('The Queen Of The Tearling' Series, Book 1) by Erika Johansen
• 'Smiler's Fair' ('The Hollow Gods' Series, Book 1) by Rebecca Levene
• 'The Three' by Sarah Lotz
• 'Deep Blue' ('The Waterfire Saga, Book 1) by Jennifer Donnelly

I've decided to alter my next few reads about a bit. Yes I know, once again I'm going off my planned track but I didn't expect approvals on Netgalley to be coming in so thick and fast and I really want to get going on them so that I can keep up! So after my current read, I will of course read 'Days Of Blood & Starlight' which I've been waiting to read for a ridiculously long time! Then will be the first in a series of a book I was approved for on Netgalley, 'Hereafter' by Terri Bruce. I was actually approved for the second book, 'Thereafter', but I really want to read the first before I get going on that one.

I've also been receiving and sending some exciting emails regarding one of my 'Read Now' downloads and I won't reveal much now but expect updates on that when I have more information! I have a day off tomorrow so I expect to be very productive!

Daily Shenanigans, 23/04/2014: London again!

That's right guys, I'm back in London with Mat for a couple of days! We are going to see McBusted tomorrow which I said yesterday and I am extremely excited! My day was pretty average, I spent most of it in Canterbury doing some work and being productive. When I got round to coming home, Mat came round and we chilled out for a bit before setting off on the train. In fact, a lot of my day has been me on the train, but I don't mind. It means more reading time! 

Other than that, nothing to report. I am about halfway through my book now and feel like I have more time over the next couple of days to get a lot of reading done! Look out for reviews soon and obviously my Life Of A Blogger post tomorrow! 

Daily Shenanigans, 19/02/2014: Train Troubles.

I swear I have the worst luck when it comes to modes of transport. Seriously, something just always seems to go wrong! I hopped on the train this morning and settled down to read a bit of 'Pure' on my way to my lecture. About two minutes after we set off, we stopped. Apparently, the railway lines on the journey were flooded, meaning a slow journey to where I needed to be. Slow indeed, I arrived at my lecture an hour late! This wasn't too much of a problem, it was a free slot to practice rather than an actual lecture. However, the journey home was just a nightmare! My friend kindly gave me a lift to the station so that I could catch the half past seven train, which was lovely of her! The problem was, there was no half past seven train. Instead there was a replacement bus service. Apparently, that track flooding hadn't gone away and it was worse on the line home. So about ten minutes later the bus set off! Ten minutes after that...it broke down. I was hoping to be home by a bit before eight o'clock tonight, but I finally got into my house about quarter past nine. I was not a happy bunny.

Other than minor travel nuisances, my day has been rather good! Uni was actually relaxing today, in a sense. Work too was pretty good, busy, but good. I had to run from work back to Uni to watch a Show Preview (which I actually ended up missing anyway) but that went well and I had a productive meeting afterwards with the Stage Manager of that show. Lovely. I will also just say,  because this is the most exciting part of my day, that my first 'Goodreads Giveaway' win has arrived! 'Wolves' by Simon Ings has now been added onto my currently reading list, as I plan to get a review of it posted ASAP. The front cover looks great, and the blurb is promising so I can't wait to get a review of this one up for you guys! Tomorrow I am spending the day with Mat, who has a lot of work to do so that means more reading time for me! I can't wait!

Daily Shenanigans, 10/02/2014: Multimedia Piece sneak peek!

I have had such a good day. Mere minutes after I blogged yesterday's nightly post, I got a message from my lovely friend (deviantART here) who is doing the art for my Multimedia piece. She has drawn some character concepts for it and was in the process of doing some sketches for the environments I'm after. She posted them on Facebook for me and I am going to put them here because I am just so excited about them! The piece will be based on the story of 'Little Red Riding Hood', to give you some context, and will basically be a fully immersive performance which involves a live narrator telling the story, and the audience choosing the path that this particular Red Riding Hood should take. It therefore involves a lot of research, a lot of scripting and a lot of art which as you can see I'm receiving some good help with. I had a lecture today on the topic and I am so happy about how it is progressing so that certainly started off my day well. I was completely taken aback just by how much she had understood exactly what I wanted and, despite claims that she isn't psychic, managed to draw the environment art exactly how I imagined it in my head! The character concept too was beautiful and has given me so many ideas for my Poster/Programme design that I have been planning like a trooper in my notepad all day!

Next up in my day was work. As knackering as it was, I actually had a really good shift today! It went pretty fast, despite a quiet afternoon customer wise, and that meant that this evening's activities came quickly. As it was one of my friend's birthdays, she invited me and a couple of others out for dinner. I had a lovely time! The food was delicious and it was so nice to be able to relax after a busy day and have a laugh! Three cheers for a good night out! Despite having to wait 45 whole minutes for the train afterwards in the cold (that will teach me not to check the timetable properly) I still went home in good spirits, as a 15 minute train journey means? Yes! You guessed it! Time to read some more of my book in an effort not to fall asleep and end up goodness knows where! I'm about a sixth of the way through Andrew Miller's 'Pure' and I am pretty intrigued to see where everything that has happened so far is leading up to. 

Time now for bed, I have another day off tomorrow though a lot to do in terms of work and going out (so not really a day off then). 

Monochrome Winter

Welcome to my blog.

So here is my first post. This blog is going to, as my description suggests, become my artistic outlet. So many times I have had an itch when seeing something inspirational. Something I want to share!

The title of this post comes because while on the train back from Uni today, I was looking at some distant hills. They were covered in snow and I realised how everything looked so Black and White, like something from an old movie. The hills were of course a bright white with the snow, combined with ash grey freckles. Then the thick shrubs, bushes and trees were a coal black, set against a light silver sky. Not a single speck of colour was to be seen. Dismal and mirky as the sight was, it was strangely beautiful. Who knew? Unfortunately I couldn't get a decent picture to show you, but the sight made me decide i was finally going to stop procrastinating and start blogging.

Talking of black and white movies, I'm (weather permitting) off to see 'The Artist' tomorrow with the fella! I've heard good things, so have high expectations of it! I'll let you all know about it tomorrow, it's quite late and I'm knackered!

This is the most similar picture I could find to the kind of view I was getting. Pretty isn't it?