It wasn't as scary as I thought...

So I'm three weeks into my new course at York College and so far I am really enjoying it! =D

The content is a lot meatier than it was on my last course, so now I actually feel like I am learning something, and that something is going to help me in the future. I have met some lovely people and the college itself is very modern and has great facilities. So, so far so good :D

Besides college I have a lot of work days with 'The Shop Sitter' lined up this month. So all in all I am being kept very busy, which is good for me, I like to be doing things.

So as and when interesting things crop up, I will be sure to post them. I don't see the need to post all the time, as I really don't have all that much to talk about from day to day, so things would get very boring, very quickly. I like the way things are for now, so will continue like this.

I have the House of Colour event again on Wednesday, so that should be a fun evening! I'll leave it at that for now, have my Pilates session in 25 minutes!

Sort of dreading college on Monday...

...so to take my mind off it I decided to put a lot of my Edinburgh photos on Deviant Art so take a looksie if you have some time. Comments and criticisms welcome :D

Short post for now, need to go and get my curry out of the slow cooker. Date night with the bf tonight, definitely in need for some R&R after my blood test this morning, ugh!

York was Mobbed...Fash Mobbed!

I would love to draw your attention to this fabulous video created by Spinning Top Films. York has had an exciting weekend, what with the Fash Mob, Fashion Village and Vintage Jamboree. Weekends like this make me so happy and proud to live in York, it deserves to be a fashion capital in its own right. 

I really enjoyed the buzz in York this weekend, I met some fabulous people, and caught up with a familiar face or two. I would especially like to share Isabel Wong's with you. Her designs are fabulous and I always enjoy seeing her collections at the fashion events in York. Keep your eye out for her! 

I should really apologise for the lack of blogging through summer, I would love to say that it's because I have simply had no time, but that would be a big big fib.

A quick update on my life is in order I think, (although everyone who reads this knows me in real life anyway...):

- I know own 2 rats called Stan and Ollie, (dad named them after Laurel and Hardy), they are my furry babies and I love them dearly.

- I spent a week of summer in Edinburgh visiting Bill Baber Edinburgh and having my first Scottish experience. I enjoyed it very much, met some lovely people and took some pictures, which can be found on my Facebook. (I may do some more detailed posts about Edinburgh sometime soon).

- I am FINALLY self employed! It's only taken all summer, but I have finally done it. Although now I feel completely confused about my future, (but again, more on that later).

Anyway, enough of me rambling... some photos from the weekend:

Click to view Slideshow!

The Fashion Show, Open Evening, and everything since then!

So, a week and a half late, (sorry!), I am going to get some photos of the ethical fashion show on here. It's been so hectic here, people moving out, people moving in, best friends 21st, that today is the first opportunity I have had to sit down and sort these photos out!

The show was great! Short, but great, and put across a good message. The collections were great. Due to my camera acting up, I missed the first one, but here are the rest of the collections that were on display. I especially LOVE the Isabel Wong collection, I have been a fan since I saw her work at Fashion City York, and once again ended up buying one of her beautiful pieces!

Anyway, enough waffling:

So there we have it, there were some beautiful things, and the opportunity to buy the pieces after the show. 

The night after that I went to York College open evening to see where I will be studying from September, and it's made me so excited! I can't wait to get started. The College is so modern and the facilities look great :)

Since then I have been organising the best friend's (who is also my flat mate) 21st and then actually having the party which was awesome! So just spent the last two days recovering. I promise I will make the posts more regular now!

Will leave it there now because I am sure that this post is already long enough. Back to the business plan now!

A step back? Or a better plan?

Today I went for a business meeting at the York Eco Business Centre, whom I can wholly recommend to anyone planning to start a business, they give such good advice. 

Anyway, whilst there, my advisor, Heidi, raised some very good points. Such as, what will happen when I return to full time education? How will I cope if I am required in two places on the same day? Am I underpricing myself? All this has led to a rethink and a new plan. Speaking of plans, my business plan is a MUST and I really need to get on with some market research, (for someone who has studied marketing for 2 years, you would think that would be my first point of call!). 

So after 2 weeks resting at home, I am back in York, with a refreshed attitude and a new plan, and I am determined to do this the right way. It is going to take longer than I anticipated, but I will get there, and this time next year I want to look back at this and be sure that the decisions I have made now were the best ones for the direction in which I am heading.

So there we have it, I will still be becoming self employed as soon as possible, but I will be taking the business slower, and I hope that in the end, this will work to my advantage, so watch this space!

On another note, I am, hopefully, attending an eco fashion show tomorrow night in York, at The Pitcher and Piano, (for anyone who is interested), so I will hopefully be able to take some pictures. 

And on Thursday I am attending York College open day to see the place I will be studying in September. As I have now passed my Foundation Degree, YEY, I am pretty sure of my place, and I can't wait to see what it's like.

AND... another exciting note, I am about to order a pretty pink point and shoot camera, happy days :D

A week's R and R

I have decided to come home to Flamborough for a week to take a break from trying to sort my business out.

After having attended a couple of business courses now, I know what I need to do, and I have arranged an appointment with a business advisor to finally get on with it, as there is not much else I can do on my own. 

So, there's not much new there. But on a different note, I have now nearly finished my skirt in my tailoring and dressmaking course, and I am really pleased with how it is going, so I will post a picture of that when it is completed :)

I know this is not a lengthy post, but just a small update of things going on in 'Lucy's Lil World'!

Frustration

And you just keep waiting and waiting...

That's all I seem to be doing at the moment, waiting. Waiting for forms / permission / and numerous other things, (such as the boyfriend to finish his exams so I can actually see him again!), and quite frankly I am getting a bit frustrated.

I want to get going now, I just want everything to click into place and for me to finally get out there, flyers and business cards in hand, (and the pretty notebook, diary and address book I treated myself to), and get on with promoting myself! I want to be busy, I want to be earning money, and most of all I want to be a businesswoman and make something of myself.

I know these things take time to set up, and I suppose I am just being impatient, but I just want to do something now, without college I feel like I have no consistency, and I need something to replace that.

Sorry for the mini rant, I just needed somewhere to vent my frustration.

Hopefully soon I will be able to post saying I have finally got myself sorted :) 

On another note, booking my Holland tickets this week, so that is exciting! And also I am going to see Take That in Manchester on Sunday, and Journey and Foreigner on Wednesday :) so an exciting and busy time coming up for me. Reminds me, I need to book that massage...

And now the hard work begins...

Finally got all of my projects handed in, and now life seems to be getting more difficult!

As I have previously mentioned, I am aiming to become self employed and offer last minute and temporary cover for small businesses in York, and in the last two weeks I am finally working on taking the plunge! However, it's not as simple as I was expecting...

Forms forms forms, and a million hoops to jump through! I suppose it is a bit harder for me because of the health problems I have had and the financial help I have been receiving because of it, but there just seems to be so much to do! That along with sorting out my flat and new tenancy, I feel I already need to hire someone to help with my paperwork.

Today though, I finally feel like I am getting somewhere, and that 'The Shop Sitter' will soon be a common service around York. I am feeling positive, but I just want to get going now, however, my sensible head knows I need everything in place before I take the final step and declare myself as 'self employed'. So I have set up the email, the Facebook and enrolled myself on some free business courses, and it finally means I can tick some jobs off the list. 

I still have a way to go, (along side this I am also promoting my mum's glass jewellery, who said that finishing college means everything slows down?!), so at the moment I barely have time to think! But I hope that one day soon I will be putting up a post that is to inform you that I am finally in business!

Wish me luck...




On another note, I did say I would post about my tailoring and dressmaking course, which is going pretty well. Tackled zips last night though, took 4 attempts to get the first part of the zip on, but I suppose it's all a learning curve, and another skill to add to my knowledge :)

I see light at the end of the tunnel!

3 down and 1 to go!

The reason there has been no posts for a while is because of the amount of work I have been doing for the last 2 weeks, and I am pleased to say I only have one more project to hand in!

After handing in PPD4 I worked for a week finishing up WRL 4 and FMT2 which I handed in yesterday. I am really pleased with how my sketchbooks turned out, not so pleased that they took the best part of a day to print, but at least I got there in the end :)

Here is a photo of the bag charm I created for FMT2, I think the leaves might be a little bit big, but overall I am pleased, let me know what you think...

Anyway, I should really get on with my final sketchbook now, the deadline for VM is May 17th and after that it's time to become self employed and start earning the pennies for Holland, Edinburgh and London. Hopefully going to have an eventful summer, and finally get around some of the tourist attractions in York!

I am starting a tailoring and dressmaking course on Thursday evening, which I am quite excited about, so I will definitely write a post about that :D

Once I have finished all my college work I do intend to keep up with my blog, I enjoy writing it and will hopefully have more time to devote to it and my Deviant Art account, so watch this space!

It's been a little while

So what with having a very busy week and then going home to see the family, it's been a while since my last post, and all I have seemed to do is work work work on all 4 of my projects.

There hasn't been any major events this week, apart from I did start work on the model of my shop, which involved me getting covered in paper maché and white acrylic paint, but it was fun. I am going to try and finish it this weekend while I am home.

At the moment I am really focusing on finishing my PPD4 project, as I have a presentation to give on the 26th April, I don't have that much left to do so I should be done in time. My other projects are coming along as well, but I definitely have the most to do on VM, but I am trying to get the others mostly out of the way so I can focus on that last.

Just a small post really to let you know I am working away, been ill today though so just woke up again after a nap, best get on with my report for PPD4 really!

I Love York

Just a quick update on my photography expedition, and the realisation I came to earlier. 

I did manage to get a load of photos for my research, which is brilliant, I have got a lot to work with now. And I also spotted that there is a new Apple Reseller store opening, which is quite exciting for tech geeks like me!

Thought I would share my favourite photo of the day with you. This is Browns window display. One of the main window trends at the moment is clearly themed around the Royal Wedding and all things British:

I love the bunting and the use of the ring graphics on the window. I think there is a good balance of product and props in this window, and it's quite a visual treat, there is a lot to look at. It's only recently that I noticed that Browns and Fenwicks actually have window displays and I am starting to appreciate that York really does have its place in the fashion world. With the introduction of Fashion City York I feel that York is screaming out to be heard. Not only does York boast a brilliant array of high street stores, it offers a wonderful amount of independent boutiques and craft stores that are begging to be discovered and appreciated. I love York, I really do. Being a little country bumpkin it offers me shops and opportunities of a large city, but in a smaller, quirkier and quainter package. The history and charm of York sells itself to me, but the shopping can definitely rival Leeds. And after living in both cities, give me York any day :)

This has turned into quite the post, but today walking around the city has made me realise how lucky I am to live where I do, in a fabulously fashionable and historical city!

A Busy Working Week

So it's been just over a week, and I have actually made a lot of progress in this time. 

Because one of my tutors was not going to be present on Monday, I decided to work from home, and I made some progress on my WRL4 project and decided to work on this for the rest of the week, because I felt if I got one project out of the way it would take some of the pressure off.

In college on Tuesday we did some work on branding in the morning, which helped us to check if our PPD4 promotional material we were creating was actually representing us properly. I finished working on my postcard and artists statement, so that's the last of my promotional material finished, well apart from the poster for the static show.

In the afternoon we had tutorials with an substitute teacher called Dan, who has a very interesting career history, and had a lot of good ideas for both WRL4 and VM so that put my head in a much better place for finishing up some bits and pieces for WRL4.

My WRL 4 project is pretty much finished now, apart from a couple of odd jobs that can't be done until I progress with my other projects, so I am very pleased about that. 

I also had a friend staying for the week so it was nice to have a fresh pair of eyes over my work and she gave me some very constructive criticism.

The weekend was spent with the family, enjoying the beautiful sunshine in Sheffield and in York. I spent a bit too much money but I suppose I could justify is as trend research?? HAH!

So yesterday and today I have been working on the 3000 word mini dissertation for VM. I completed the first draft after 8 hours yesterday, and have proofed it this morning, I have now sent it to a couple of other people to read to make sure I haven't missed any silly mistakes. Overall I am pleased with the content and the presentation (all 22 pages of it!), and I hope that once I have had it checked by the learning mentors I can consider it done.

So now, after having my WRL4 project read over by my boss, I have a couple of bits and pieces to add and change in that, and then I intend to work on FMT2 and get my research completed.

And tonight, after 5, I am going to roam the streets of York and take photos of some window displays for VM, then I can't get shouted at by staff. So that's another job down. 

Going home on Thursday but there is no rest for the wicked, it's likely I will be working from there too, but once its done it's done and I can relax. Saying that, I am considering taking part in a dressmaking a tailoring course straight after college finishes, but it will be very useful and will keep me busy :)

Speaking of busy, best get cracking really...

Fashion City York

So here is the post I promised about this weekend.

It was actually a great experience for me, I got to meet some local designers, and even got myself offered another job! But more on that later.

So I went down to the fashion village in St. Samson's square on Saturday to find it rather busy, and rather a treat to behold! Jewellery, clothing, hats, I didn't really know where to start! Every stall was different, but the obvious place to start was with the Bill Baber stall of course, here are a couple of pictures of our stall:

Our use of colour definitely caused some interest and I had a great time talking to people and handing out leaflets. But I did go for a nosey around. I ended up treating myself to a couple of things. Firstly I went and bought a couple of pieces of jewellery, (and later a top!) from a up and coming designer called Isabel Wong see her online portfolio. I was having a chat with her and she said she is working on an e-commerce website, so keep an eye out. She specialises in up-cycled jewellery and had a wonderful sample sale displaying garments made from beautiful fabrics in nudes, creams and muted blues.

I also treated myself to a skirt from another local designer, Kelly Ewing. Her use of texture was absolutely beautiful and her designers looked slightly Vivienne Westwood-eske to me. Her website is definitely worth a look at!

I will try and put pictures of my purchases up in a day or two, I need to have a mass photography day, because I need photos for several of my projects.

As I mentioned above, I have been offered another job. I was introduced to Sharon from Bolsita Bags through my boss Jack. She also has a shop on Micklegate and mentioned that she may need someone to cover some hours. After some consideration, I have decided that I should become self employed, so I can work for both companies and gain as much experience as possible. I hope to learn a lot from Sharon, especially about garment construction, as she makes made-to-measure tailoring, which is unusual and beautiful. I am very positive about my decision and I am excited to see what this summer will bring for me!

So now for the fashion show on the Saturday night, yet another treat. The Guildhall was the most beautiful and perfect setting for a fashion show, so dramatic and layered in history. Despite the minor hiccups with the projector, the show was thoroughly enjoyable and showcased some of the best local designers along with more well known brands. Browns and Fenwicks sponsored the event and this was obvious by the contents of the goodie bag which was available for all seated guests, and also by the amount of garments showcased from each of these department stores. The goodie bag contained a few perfume samples, a piece of jewellery from a company called Swirl, and a couple of other bits and pieces from Browns and other local companies.

So instead of me waffling about everything, I am going to let the pictures do the talking, thank you to Melanie Miles for taking some fabulous pictures for me :)

This dress was beautiful, slivery grey, but really all about the fabric.

The Finale Dress by Vivienne Westwood for Vivienne Westwood.

I love the clashing colours!

The statement pieces having another showing.

The models one last time.

Designs by Kelly Ewing being followed by the Vivienne Westwood dress.

The beautiful runway.

Hopefully Fashion City York will be making a return in September for a winter show, and I am very much looking forward to being involved through my current job, and also to see what goodies will be available. Best get saving, I feel some Christmas shopping may be on the cards by then!

Blog Updates

Just a quick little note to let you know that there are updates here and there around the blog, in particular the About Me page.

I will be posting all about this weekend once I have had the pictures emailed to me, so keep an eye out for that :)

This Week in a Nutshell

I really don't know where this week has gone! It just feels like I have floated along and I don't have that much to show for it!

In college on Monday I continued to work on both my FMT2 and WRL4 projects. I am quite comfortable with the amount of work I have to do for FMT2, and I do feel that now I have a bit more clarity, that I have more direction for my WRL4 project. 

Tuesday I didn't go to college because there was mentions of me going to help with styling for the fashion show at Fashion City York, the first fashion event in York, which my employer Bill Baber Knitwear, is involved in. It's quite exciting for me because it means I get to be involved too! Unfortunately the organisers decided that they did not want retailers involved in the event to be present at the styling. So instead I got on with my college work from home, and worked more on FMT2 as I am keen to get this project done now.

Wednesday I had House of Colour training at work. The House of Colour help people to understand what colours and styles suit them and offer lots of services to help transform not just your wardrobe, but your lifestyle as well. The training was very informative, but I do feel I should have been making notes, because there was a lot to take in. Also while I was at work, I took advantage of the fact that I work for a small business and asked Jack, my boss, to help me with my 'accounts' for WRL4. He helped me to make realistic estimates and projections for my business. When I got back from work I started another InDesign sketchbook for my WRL4 project and I am very pleased with the overall look of it.

Thursday was pilates day, and I was definitely in need of it, I have let things slide recently. I also went on a bit of a shopping trip and got the bits and pieces that I need to make my bag charm for FMT2. The lady in Craft Basics on Gillygate was very helpful and I managed to get most things in there. However, I did have to venture to Barnitts, another great shop in York which sells everything, to get my clasp. In the evening I got on with more small tasks for a few of my projects.

And then to Friday, cleaning and college work day. And basically I did what it says on the tin, I cleaned, and I worked.

So that's what has been going on this week, and now I am watching Saturday Kitchen (I love food programmes!), and I am about to get ready to go down to the fashion village to help out on the Bill Baber stand. So if you're in York head down to St. Samson's Square, near the Disney Shop. I am also working tomorrow and attending the fashion show tonight, so more blogs tomorrow! I have also being waiting to post about something else, so look out for that too!

Harvey Nichols and the iPad queue

Ok so I am feeling a little bit worn out today, have had a crazy weekend helping to see off a friend of mine who is leaving for Afghan with the RAF, so last night was a late one!

This week has been a bit crazy so apart from writing my VM essay plan, I haven't done much more college work, but now the boyfriend is back at home, I have a few weeks to crack on!

Wednesday was the Harvey Nichols event, this was the second one I attended and this time I did not spend as much money, and actually bought something useful, and that was included in the 10% and £10 off offer; a Marc Jacobs iPad case, but more on the iPad shortly.

The evening at the Leeds store was just as lovely as last time, champagne and wine available on every floor, helpful staff, and a wonderful fashion show displaying the new season stock. I did try to get some pictures, but I only took my point and shoot and they aren't really worth uploading because most of them are blurred.

The women models all sported vibrant pink eyes and cheeks and slicked back hair, and trends displayed were pretty much what can be seen on the Vogue website. All in all, a great night :)

And now for the iPad 2, the new love of my life, a love which the boyfriend and I queued for 5 hours in the Currys York store for. Luckily the lovely staff let us sit in the store rather than queue outside, and operated a ticket system for their limited stock of 12 iPads, (which did not include the one I originally wanted, so I compromised, and also stayed up until 2am to order the smart cover I wanted, because they didn't have that either!) So I ended up being the first person to purchase an iPad in York, and came home with the 32gb wifi version in black, and I love it. I will post at some point about cool apps and features once I have explored it more thoroughly. But here is some photos of mine and Justin's adventures:

Our tickets

Doing my Wordsearch

Cheesy Grin

Smiles all around :)

Sorry this is not a very detailed post, just a summary of a wonderful week. Now best get going to pick up my Akbar's takeaway, mmmm :)

The Weekend and The Window Display

Since working on my PPD4 project last week, college work took a slight backseat as my sister came to stay for the weekend, (I did do a bit more work on my sketchbook for FMT2 though).

My sister and I, amongst other things, attended the York Affordable Vintage Fair on Sunday to see what vintage treats were available. This was the second of these events we have attended and have enjoyed both, however they are very busy so patience is required. For a reasonable £1 with a student card, you can enter the Hospitium in York Museum Gardens and rifle through the clothes, jewellery and homeware available from several small stalls. There is everything from denim shorts to fur coats and leather handbags. We picked up shirts each, mine used to be a large Levi's denim shirt but the lady selling them had re-worked them into cute summery tie-up shirts, and I thought it was quite a bargain at £15. I really wanted to take some pictures in there but it was so busy that you sort of just had to move with the flow of traffic, but I will try and attend the next one and go at a quieter time, (it opened at 10:30 and we were there just after, so it was probably peak time). 

We also went to York Designer Outlet and into the city and shopped 'til we literally dropped, then I had to find the energy to make a Sunday Dinner! But all in all a great weekend!

So that was the weekend, and now for the promised Window Display. I have been waiting for an image for it so I haven't been able to blog about it until now. So on January 15th we had to set up Window Displays made predominantly of plastic bags for our VM project. Quite a challenge really, how do you make plastic bags look fashionable and form a creative and high-end window display out of them? Well, a bit like this:

Our under-water window display was inspired originally by this dress from the Vogue trend website:

My group of Avneet, Becky and I were instantly inspired by the colour and style of this dress, and with my interest in all that lives under-the-sea, decided that this would be the ideal theme to work with. Sourcing blue plastic bags was a little tricky but it so happened that we had plenty of those at work, and I got a hand from home with the blue cellophane (and fairy lights). We wanted to create something really simple and effective which would appeal to the high end market. 

It would have been really easy for us to go mad with coral and fish and all things reef-like, but we felt that a few carefully placed props was the right way to go. So with that we decided on a couple of pieces of large coral / seaweed, which we made from cardboard, ripped up plastic bags and gold spray paint, and some bubbles, (which due to the image quality can't be seen that well, but they are glass baubles filled with iridescent shred). We also decided on using lots of white carrier bags to cover the back and floor of the window, and to also blur the light of the fairy lights to give a more sea feel to the whole display.

When making the actual dress we found that plastic bags were very hard to work with and that it would be difficult to create the flowy effect of the inspiration dress. So instead we decided to create a more up-and-down silhouette and added a belt. I think we still made a very fashionable dress that suited the theme of our window display.

Overall I am very pleased with how this part of the project went, I think that my team worked well together and we achieved the image that we originally set out to. If we had more time and more resources I think that we would have tired to get bigger bubbles so they stood out more, and also more fairy lights. Furthermore, we would have covered the sides of the window with white bags as well, so they fit in better with the rest of the window. But all things considered, I think our attempt at a high end window display, (made out of plastic bags!), was a success. 

Opinions and comments are most welcome.

Right, I think I am all up to date now, and I have just finished my essay proposal, and it's been a sunny day, so happy times!

Enjoy the sunshine, long may it last!!

PPD4, almost done :)

Yesterday at college I finally got to designing my business cards to go with the rest of the promotional material I am working on, (I will be putting pictures of these on the new page on my blog, you see that up there, shiny new pages!!) I am really pleased with how they have turned out, and the design came about quite by accident. I was working on a polaroid theme, which is reoccurring throughout my promotional material, and I was trying to create an image of myself with a few of my own images of my interests around me. When importing an image of a rose, (which I took), into the business card, it appeared huge and as though I was stood in the flower. Instantly I liked it and thought it was quite surreal yet effective and eye catching. My original plan for my business cards was to create several different images with polaroid type sleeves / frames, which the card could be pulled out of to reveal my details, however, after some research I found this would be difficult and expensive. So instead I have incorporated the frame into the card itself and used 4 different images of flowers to create different business cards, but all on the same theme and layout. Please let me know what you think once they go on the new page.

On another note, the tutorial on essay writing we had yesterday was very useful and it has made me think more positively about writing my mini dissertation. And the tutorial on my WRL4 module never happened as my tutor didn't turn up, which is slightly frustrating.

Finally, as soon as I get the images for it, I will be blogging on the team window event we undertook a couple of weeks back, because I think it's definitely worth a mention, and my team of Avneet, Becky and I are very proud of what we achieved, so keep an eye out  for that :) right, best get those business cards uploaded, and then get ready for pilates!

That Monday Feeling

So today I am working on my sketchbook for fashion marketing theory trying to get to the end of the designer trends I am researching. This project requires me to undertake extensive research and so far I have researched designer trends for Spring / Summer 2011, as I feel that this will influence the designs of my handbag charms. From this I am going to focus on designer handbag trends and then turn my attention to high street fashion and handbag trends. Finally I will look at brands that already have handbag charms in their product line and see what trends are influencing these. 

From this I will be able to draw some inspiration for my own designs and then start to think about how I will package my product. One of the constraints of the project is that my product has to be able to hang, but I am also considering including another packaging option such as a small bag for if the product will be given as a gift.

As I previously mentioned I think I am going to focus on knitted handbag charms as I like to knit as a hobby. The theme for my charms will probably be florals, as this trend reoccurs every spring so the charms will be a long lasting accessory, the product line could just be updated every season depending on how the florals trend changes. I also considered focusing on under-the-sea themed charms but I feel this trend will die down quickly and it does not fit my interests in eco-fashion as well as florals do.

I am creating my sketchbook on InDesign, which I am still learning to use, but I am finding it a great programme. I think it is a cross between Photoshop, Illustrator and Publisher, and with a basic knowledge of these three programmes you can start using InDesign quickly and easily and get great results. So far I am very pleased with how my sketchbook is going. I will eventually put pictures of some of my favourite pages onto my Deviant Art account (Click here to see it =]), but I think I will have to wait until it is printed as all the editing boxes within InDesign make the pages look messy and you don't get the overall effect.

So there's an update on how this project is going. Tomorrow I will be working on PPD4 and attending a lecture on how to construct essays which will help me in starting my dissertation. I will also  having a tutorial about my WRL4 project so I will give you and update on how that is going tomorrow. Best go get on really =]

Japan

Also, just a very very short post to just express my thoughts to Japan and the other areas affected by the devastating earthquake and tsunami, such a devastating act by Mother Nature :( 


I am following the live updates on the BBC website, sounds like there has been several more powerful aftershocks, which is such a tragedy. 


I hope that the people of Japan get the help they need very soon <3

New Start...Prettier Blog

Oh My Gosh!

Yes I have been rubbish, but to be honest, I HATED the theme of this blog, it was awful. But, as I now have to do a blog for college, I got myself in gear and played around with editing it, and I am much much happier with it =]

So, it has been nearly a year since my last post, and I can't be bothered going through everything that happened, but here are the important points:

- I live in York now.

- I have taken up Photography as a hobby.

- I have a job, I work as a sales assistant for Bill Baber York, a family run knitwear company.

- I am still at Harrogate College but I am going to York College in September, to top-up to a Business Management Degree.

That's a brief update! I also now have a Deviant Art account so check out http://lucyslilworld.deviantart.com/ if you have some time. Most of my photo's and my college work will be going on there, but I will post the odd photo on here too.

So college now requires me to keep a blog, so hopefully that will get me into a good habit for the future, because I do actually like blogging, but I just seem to get lazy.

Well I should just give you a quick run through of the projects for this term, my final term, eep! The projects are quite exciting, but there is a LOT of work to be done:

Work Related Learning 4- This term I am required to come up with a business and cost it. I do already have an idea for this, but, as I may plan to do this in the future, I am kind of reluctant to post my full idea online, (not that many people read this, but you never know!), I am pretty excited about the idea, and if it seems like I could run with it in the future, I might just do so!

Fashion Marketing Theory 2- For this project I am required to undertake extensive research into a specific line of accessories, and then design a product and it's packaging related to the research. I am looking at handbag charms and in particular, knitted ones, which combines one of my hobbies into the project. I am enjoying this project, at the moment I am on with a lot of research, and am creating a sketchbook on Adobe InDesign rather than a paper one, so it's a never ending learning curve at the moment, as I am still getting to grips with the software.

Personal and Professional Development 4- Probably my favourite project at the moment. I am required to design and create a set of promotional materials for myself, including a creative CV, business cards and a digital portfolio, (hence this and the Deviant Art account. Also in this project I have to undertake some careers research. I originally undertook some research into other creative promotional material to gain some inspiration and ideas, I am going to display these ideas in another sketchbook created on InDesign. At the moment I am working on the promotional material, and that is where the new theme for this blog came from. The materials have to represent me, and I think that the theme I have chosen is quite true to myself and my interests.

Visual Merchandising- This is the biggest project we have this term, and we are treating it like a final major project including a mini dissertation. So far we have worked in a group to create a window display made from plastic bags, and have also created presentations about visual merchandising and store image. The presentation will aid us in our dissertations. Also as part of this project we have to create a 3D model of our dream shop and a decoupage of our dream shop window, and support these ideas with A3 boards and sketchbooks, (I am also working on InDesign for this project). I have some initial ideas for my shop and window display, (linked to my WRL4 project), but at the moment I am working on some trend research, and some research into shop interiors and window displays.

I will be using this blog to document my progress in my projects and my thoughts and feelings towards it all. On top of this I may document other events, (such as the Harvey Nichols event that I am attending on 23rd March), and projects that I am undertaking in my spare time, for example my photography, (most of my images go on Deviant Art, but I might post about my outings to take some pretty pictures!)

Anyway, major long post! But hopefully now I am more up to date :) and I WILL keep on top of this, I promise.