melancholy saturation

Photos from my leavers day last Thursday. There are others but they're mainly of people so I don't think they'd appreciate them being here! They were taken on my canon ae-1 if you wondered. Year 11 leavers day is a sort of pranks/dressing up thing, hence the pictures of people covered in foam with water guns below. The two converse ones below weren't posed, which I thought was cool. The one above is my converse with my wayfarer bike.

I will get back to outfit posts after exams!

- Hollie

Prairie Girl

All of this stuff is things I've bought from the SA over the past two visits/two weeks. I used to go to where the Salvation Army shop is a lot because Winton was a sort of central meeting place for some people in my class last summer (all the people who cycle everywhere). Then I volunteered there for 6 months and obviously had the chance to buy a lot but then winter came and I stopped going because cycling in the cold is equivalent to torture. Summer is returning and I'm starting to go outside/to charity shops most weekends again instead of being a hermit and only buying things online. All these objects have a sort of yearning/melancholy aura, the warm weather/adventures sort of thing I've been wishing for this weekend while I've been sat in my room revising.  I matched my playlist to this sort of vibe by accident. The only sort of interesting/recreational activity I engaged in was redecorating my wall and trying on my prom dress with my shoes, though.

Everything was off the 20p table but he gave me a discount off of all of it I think because he knows me from volunteering.

I smashed the glass bowl around the yellow candle and discreetly picked it all up and shoved it in my bag. I was too shy to ask for help. I walked out of the SA with hundreds of shards of glass in my bag acting like nothing had happened but really I had spent 5 minutes half kneeling as to act casual yet still be hastily clearing it while my friend Lizzie just laughed.

transient

This post could probably be dedicated to hating the temperamentality of film photography but I will limit myself because it's not very interesting! Basically I went to develop film yesterday and tried rewinding it but couldn't feel anything moving, so I opened the camera up in the dark and all the film was back in the canister already despite not having rewound it. I know for a fact that half way through the roll it was shooting properly because I could hear the film advancing (I am always super paranoid so listen closely to ensure it is properly inserted/working blah) but somewhere between it being in school and taking it to be developed someone has exposed the film (pulled it all out I guess) and I guess shoved it back into the canister  This is the only scenario I can come up with. I shall not leave my camera unguarded in future. Anyways these photos are more from ones I am unsure about - I only went out to revise so my outfit is boring. The top half didn't make me want to puke because I wore a lurex mesh top underneath my cardigan that matched the monochrome colour scheme to match my mood #hashtagstillangry (revision contributes to current  omnipresent mood) but the skirt is irritating because it is kinda green and yellow plaid not black and white. I think I have some sort of illness because I feel uncomfortable all day if the colours/pattern of what I'm wearing isn't cohesive.

These plastic hoop earrings are my new favourite thing. They were £1.99 from eBay for a set of 3 of varying sizes. The collar is one I ordered from eBay in November but it arrived like, last week. The cardigan is from eBay too (what a surprise(i have problems)).

THIS PHOTO IS VERY RELEVANT. I went down to the river to take some photos for my forever promised non -reality-zine that is waning in production ages ago. This episode was the first time my film didn't work. I won't go into details because it will only anger me because the photos would have been SO good. This is one of the only digital ones I have.

The weather is so undecidedly winter/spring. The drearyness of this picture captures that, and my lackluster clothes. I seem to only be wearing converse because I've forgotten I own other shoes (actually they are the only shoes I own that fit me).

This was also going to be in the zine that may or may not be happening eventually or not maybe not if I can't muster the motivation to finish it. It's just a double exposure of a photo of me from last summer but it's the same place we revisited to take new photos.

Again my absence has been due to exams/feeling guilty planning doing anything but revision then procrastinating because I haven't allowed myself to go out but then not actually revising or getting anyThing done. After exams I really really really want to blog more often. I have more urge to but I can't exercise it because of the studying lark.

- Hollie

you make my dreams come true

I took these last week but didn't upload them because I wasn't sure about them. However my absence is mostly due to revision and trying/attempting to/failing to meet coursework deadlines! I got this dress in Bridport for £10 from a warehouse vintage/antique shop a few weeks ago and I don't think these pictures do it justice. I might take some more in it and add them here. It fits perfectly and it has a weird back story which is interesting. There was a piece of paper stitched into the lining with my textiles teachers' full name handwritten (in her handwriting) on it. It freaked me out because I bought this dress 2 hours away from where I live/where my school is! Apparently it was bought from my teacher's church sale by a dealer and belonged to one of the congregation there. My textiles teacher now says she'll bring in suitcases of vintage clothing for me to take anything I want from! She offloads lace to me already but this is a whole new level of awesome. I don't know whether to keep it though because it isn't as practical as it could be, but it is such beautiful colours OOS OOS OOS. 

I did this at the beginning of April when the first odd days of spring were appearing and I was influenced by 'subtle psychedelia'. I bought the dress about then too!

Le dream collection I feel my dress has a tenuous link to. (Alexander Mcqueen SS12)

I finish school in 8 days' time to go on study leave. It's the last 8 days I'll need to wear uniform for a school day, ever, which is strange. It has been a constant thing for as long as I can remember. But I have a really long (11 week) summer and study leave is like, 6 weeks, so I will post a lot hopefully over that time! I am also going to see Jessie Cave's bookworm next month and I know what I am wearing and I can't wait! I also have a lot of film pictures to post if they come out well!

- Hollie

PSYCHOdelic

My blog title has changed yet again. When I can muster $10 together I'll get a custom domain too. Ch ch ch ch changez. The reason for the alteration is sort of not wanting to plagiarise because it was previously an altered album title. The Ditzy part of the new one means 'silly and scatterbrained' which basically embodies the fact this whole blog is basically just a splurge of thoughts, usually not cohesively, and the 'whimzy' bit is a variation of whimsy which means playfully quaint or fanciful, meaning attractively unusal or old fashioned and overimaginative and unrealistic respresenting my infatuation with the past and slight romanticism of it. I think it fits well? I promise IT SHALL NOT CHANGE AGAIN.

From watching Grease (specifically the opening sequence which reminded me of the Beatles' submarine sort of era) a couple of weeks ago and the series called Lightfields (lots of yellows AND while I am here GFD#FKNpDBNjAL watch it it was so good, possibly even on a par with Marchlands which I saw two years ago and this series was a follow up to) that was recently on ITV and with the approaching changing seasons I've been really into wearing psychedelic patterns, (hence the blue paisley dress and the beige dagger collar shirt I wore last week and two other items of clothing I bought but have yet to wear) but in a more sort of subdued manner as well as in brighter colours. So, repeating patterns, mod dresses, nature (and Nat Geos in general), 50s disneyland, Peter Blake etc but in beige and hazy tones as well as opaque, primary ones. I sit here writing this in beige 70s platforms. I have already included way too much text in brackets.

I love this photoset by Julia Baylis for the muted colours afore mentioned and aspect of the unknown captured within them, foreign places, adventure. The sort of promises summer holds. I have had a surge of wanderlust recently and my desire to travel as I get older only increases. About a month ago a friend and I spent an hour in Waterstones in the travel section, admiring the handbooks and spinning the model globe in front of us looking at how big the world is, in comparison to our tiny island, how much there is to see, pinpointing the places we wish to visit, skimming our fingers across the matte surface as it spun around I couldn't help but daydream about what is out there. A burgeoning interest in photography also makes me want to see interesting places now I can appreciate the beauty of them more, I only notice cool looking stuff more frequently as time progresses. My previous journal was all made from old National Geographic cutouts and most excerpts from the diary part of it are about ~dem deep thoughts~ like time being almost tangible and irreversible. I don't feel much different mentally from when I was 13 but I could have achieved so much in the two years that have passed since. I feel like I am wasting time, most of the time. Moments like standing in a field in Iceland outside our log cabins  in the pitch blackness with only the moon for light, slightly illuminating the silhouette of the mountains that were literally SURROUNDING us, gossiping and laughing about the days events with snow starting to fall while we shivered but couldn't feel the cold because of the pure elation make me realise how special things can be. I want more of these moments. It is a weekly conversation how good the school trip I went on to Iceland last year was, and it has made everyone desire to see more of the world, I think. It was so breathtaking and surreal YET real. The following picture moodboard/arrangements (sources relevant to pictures going clockwise from top left) follow the same theme, (unattainable?) fantasy, psychedelia, surrealism, the sorts of places I guess you'd be more susceptible to believe exist if you were on an acid trip or inside a Kaleidoscope. Also see Rosie Hardy and Tim Walker.

John Austen, Ro Van Derbeat.

Peter Blake, The Wizard of Oz, 1960s colour blocked fashions in Sputnik Magazine, Beatles print.

The print of my shirt.

Biological by Air (I think my parents are sick of hearing this song).

Synchrodogs' new photos in Novembre magazine #6, John Austen, Fantasyland  in 1956.

The opening sequence to grease.

Various Beatles art.

Hyperballad by Bjork ""I find it so amazing when people tell me that electronic music has no soul. You can't blame the computer. If there's no soul in the music, it's because nobody put it there." - Bjork". If you want me to talk about how brilliant Iceland is again I can start right here with Bjork???

Unknown, bottom half of a the Vivian Girls album, Unknown, Courtney Love still from Violet.

Lightfields trailer.

Andes, south America by Dmitri Kessel, Source, Source, Source.

Kate Compton by Neil Favila, styled by Yuka Iwasaki and Mia Cirelli at Salvation Mountain.

Salvation Mountain.

2 pictures of Iceland by me, 4 pictures by Petra Collins from 'Summer of Love, part 1'.

60s psychedelic album art (TR Jimi Henrix, BR The Zombies).

Unknown, Petra Collins, Unknown, Nat Geo scan of mine.

Grease, Jimi Hendrix, Unknown, Source.

This music video directed by Petra Collins AND the song itself is amazing.

-Hollie

mint fantasia

My Journal (that Ibe gave me) where I tried to copy the type font of a disney vinyl, a vintage postcard and a picture of me last summer.

Last week I said I felt as if I had given up on this blog but since then I have been weirdly motivated to come on here more. I DON'T UNDERSTAND MY BRAIN. But it's good because I know I definitely want to carry on blogging. It might be to do with the fact I'm off school and the fact I'm able to choose what I wear instead of being confined to school uniform. Maybe it's making me think more. I am primarily doing revision these holidays (she says) but I hopefully am meeting up with some blogger people on Friday and doing a photo shoot on Monday (she says).  Most of my plans seem to fall through though so I don't know.

My sister in my room.

Arrangement in my room with the record I tried to copy the font of below.

A picture I took of my sister by the same place.

I have been trying to make my room into more of an organised mess rather than a chaotic mess. It has resulted in colour coding and grouping of similar objects together kinda by accident. I got that DECCA radio about 3 years ago at a car boot sale, lace/broderie anglaise square from my textiles teacher (she offloads anything lace onto me), candle from my primary school, spelling bee book from a car boot sale, SA broach, eBay necklace, vintage postcard, Enid Blyton books, a journal, random patch, glow in the dark star and 40s picture.

All my records, stones I have collected, candle from Ibe, fan from Malta, random patches, SA medicine bottle and daisy ring.

More books and a journal, Joni Mitchell CD in the background and a record.

~my pile of school books is really tidy~ ~my legs are really pale~ ~hair is too triangle shaped when i wear it down so bjork buns it is~ 

70s panel skirt I scavenged for on eBay after I saw a similar one on Tessa's Etsy. Except that one was nicer (I am just poor).

Another picture of Harriet in my room.

More attempted/failed copying of text.

Boscombe beach on Friday.

American Apparel socks, eBay glitter sandals.

The last picture I took of Harriet.

- Hollie