Music Intensifies

You are now looking at a Bachelor of Creative Arts (Fashion) student!! That's right! I received my offer/conformation email the other week whilst I was on camp (more on that in a bit) so I was madly refreshing my email on my phone all day and slightly panicking since it didn't look as though I got in until my mum texted me to look in the spam/junk folder! What a way to freak me out, having such an important email being in that folder.
My course it a little bit special as it is the first bachelor course for fashion in Adelaide and is over two different campuses, so I will get to spend half my time doing "prac." work in the city and the "academic" work in, I guess you would say, the suburbs (at least, this is what I am assuming haha. I go in and work out my timetable and get more info on Thursday.)

Now, on to the camp I mentioned before *warning: nerd alert*
So if you have read some of my other posts you may know that I am quite the music nerd. I was raised in a musical/arty family and my mum joined a brass band when I was 3 so this soon became my life, and now I have been officially playing in one for over 10 years. Anyway, back to what I was actually talking about.
At the end of last year my friend conned me into applying for a youth brass band camp (that was organised by my conductor). This week long camp consisted of three intensive days of rehearsals then three days of tour in small towns around the Riverland, SA. We stayed at a camp that was right on a lake, which we were able to swim in in our free time (as it is summer here in Australia) and it was so nice, there is a really cool sunset photo on my instagram.

       Look at us being really really lame on a train (ha that rhymed) at a historical village.

We had a blue tuba as our mascot (seen in the photo above) that was used to promote the tour and to collect donations in at out gigs. We also had a piece written for us, by a local composed, that was called "Land of the Blue Tuba" which featured some well known Australian/South Australian songs such as "Bound For South Australia". This camp/tour was so much fun and I am thinking about doing it again next year, and there has been talk of having it in a different location so that would be cool.

Oh, but wait, my brass band camp life didn't stop there, oh no! All of yesterday and half of today was spent at my band's annual camp where we intensively rehearse new music for the Australian National Band Championships, which is held in a different city each year, this year being Sydney. We have to play four pieces, one a test piece (where every band in you section, ours being B grade, has to play this piece), a hymn, a march and an own choice. We also have to do a street march and to turn the corners you have to do fancy things like those American marching bands at football? games, how they do fancy patterns and stuff.

                                       Here is a random photo of half the band in marching formation.
Not sure if any of this actually made sense but oh well. I won't bore you any longer with my band life as you will probably hear more about it around Easter time when we have the competition. If you read all this well done! I guess it wasn't terribly exciting to read but I got a little carried away haha. I did actually have an outfit post planned but this somehow happened instead oops.

Bye for now,
Chelsea
Also if you did read all of it leave a comment? maybe? :) I need to learn to post a a decent time, not a midnight haha

Can't Tell

Hey everyone! I thought I would update you on what's been happening in my life. The other night I went to one of my best friend's birthday party; I have been friends with her for about 13 years now and it is crazy to think how much has happened and changed in that time. Surprisingly going to different high schools didn't ruin our friendship and it was funny to see some of the other people from my primary school who ended up being at her party whom I have not seen for 5 years!

Anyhoo, I wore my Andy Warhol tomato soup dress that I decided to shorten (since I am only 5ft ha) but when I pressed the hem, like an idiot, I didn't check the iron setting and melted the fabric a little eep! Luckily it is only on the hem at the back and so far no one has noticed. (also sorry for the dodgy phone photos, I was in a rush at the time)

Here you can see where I melted the fabric.
I have however embroidered over it now so it is less noticeable.

In this last photo you can see that is says "Can't Tell" instead of Campbell's, it is so sneaky, you wouldn't even notice at first glance.

Dress: Revival via Dangerfield (old), Shoes: Novo (no longer available, similar), Phone case: Ebay?

I hope everyone is well and had a good New Year ect. it's 2015, whaaat?!

Catch ya on the flip

Tunes Day, Tuesday #3

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard 

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard are a seven piece band out of Melbourne, Australia, and are fairly new band as they hit the music scene in 2011. Their listed their genre on Facebook is "garage" and this is apparent with fuzzy guitars and mumbling vocals, however, they have a very 60s psychedelic feel and similarities to the Beatles with the use of harmonica licks and sitar-like sounds.

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard latest album I'm In Your Mind Fuzz is the second album they released this year and boy, it is cool. With a total of 10 tracks, this (roughly) 40 minute album takes you on an almost acid-like trip. The first four tracks smoothly flow into each other and is virtually one long song with an instrumental break in the second track. King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard are known for using (basically) one word or phrase for a whole song and this album certainly stays true to this. Some examples of this are the repeated phrase "i'm in your mind" in the first and fourth songs (I'm In Your Mind and I'm In Your Mind Fuzz) and repeated words "cellophane" in the third track (Cellophane) [so I counted how many times they said "cellophane" and I came to a total of 24 wow] and the sixth song (Hot Water) repeats "hot water". The majority of the album is very energetic however there are slower songs such as Empty (track 5) and Slow Jam 1 (track 8). If you listen with headphones or left and right speakers you will notice the use of panning in Cellophane, I'm In Your Mind Fuzz and Hot Water. There is also use of wah-wah pedals and whammy bar (or something similar to those) in the last two tracks Satan Speeds Up and Her and I (Slow Jam 2).

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard are an all round awesome band and hopefully one day I will get catch them live as I hear is is pretty spectacular!

Check them out on Facebook or their website and listen on Spotify

Bye for now, not forever

P.S. ok so it is now (only just) Wednesday but it is still Tuesday in places other than Australia so it still counts haha

also I feel as though I should of done Christmas music but oh well...maybe I will post some Christmassy music tomorrow

"Schoolies" Trip

Oh Hey

So at the start of the month (wow how time flies) my friends and I went on a little road trip to celebrate finishing high school. Our little getaway was instead of going to Schoolies (if you aren't from Australia you probably have no idea what this is. It is basically a weekend long party for students that have just graduated school to get really drunk and what not.) because we weren't really interested in getting drunk with thousands of annoying people (no offence if you did go, ngl it did look fun, from what I saw from various Snapchats ha.) We somehow managed to get everything organised in a few days after our original plan of where we were going to stay didn't work out and then having trouble getting input from everyone to figure out somewhere else to go.

Anyhoo, it was a 3 hour car ride to our friend's shack in a quiet little fishing town on the Yorke Peninsula where we stayed at for 2 nights. Even though there was beds in the shack we decided to camp outside in a tent, however on the second night we noticed there was a storm coming across so we had to quickly pack the tent up and sleep inside haha.

Photo by my friend Shannon @shannylee1 on Instagram

This photo was taken on the first day (I think) when it was quite warm and you can see how blue the water looks in the background. We didn't go swimming however because apparently there are razor fish there and the sand was really weird, I don't even know if you could really call it sand...it was really gooey and your feet would stick to it...so weird.

Action shot on the jetty ft. pelican

We found some eggs on the beach in a shell nest

We also found a dead crab but how beautiful are the colours of the underside!

Close up shot of a strip of cute tiny shells

I did take a few shells home even though you aren't really supposed to but shh ;) These photos were taken on my phone and like wow they turned out so nice!

How flippin cool are these sunset photos! I love it when the clouds and sky go all pink aahh. It was around this time when two of my friends walked up a hill and noticed the storm coming, luckily they did as we may have gotten a bit wet and blown away in the tent haha.

I will leave you now with a "super gangsta" photo of my friends and I (the one with the blue bandana)

We call ourselves the "Recess Crew" photo from Instagram (@chelsealikesyoursmile)

Bye for now, not forever

I Can't Stop

Or should I say start...

Start my work that is! I have been having a serious case of procrastination lately. I just can't bring myself to actually do my work, not just when I am at home but also when I am in class. I honestly spend most of my time at school staring at blank word documents, blank pages or into space! Like I don't even doodle or anything, I just sit there thinking to myself that I should be doing my work. But I just can't. 

I don't even know why. Maybe it is because I have so much to do I just don't know where to start? Or possibly because I only have 2 and a half weeks left of school --ever-- and I am trying to somehow make time stop so I don't have to leave? Or it could be that I am subconsciously challenging myself to see how long I can put something off and see how quickly I can finish it and still get good marks?

I don't really know.

The good thing is next week I will be on holidays for 2 weeks before heading back to school for another 2 weeks before exams. (I only have one yay) During the holidays I will turn 18 (aah) and have a "Wes Anderson Inspired" party, so that will be fun.

(I am also trying not to think about all the work I am supposed to finish off in the holidays eg. my 60 page art folio that I only have about 20 pages of so far :c )

I guess I am also procrastinating by writing this post but oh well, have a photo I took last year at the Botanic Gardens.

Bye for now.

P.S. I have also been procrastinating by learning German, like wow that is serious procrastination there! (I did learn German for a year when I started high school but yeah haha)

It's Starting To Look A Lot Like Spring

The weather is finally starting to warm up and as much as I like winter, I am quite excited for longer days and wearing cute dresses and skirts!

Today was the first day in who knows how long when it actually warm enough to go out without a jumper (although it was only 20ºC ha) I think us Australians get a little excited after winter! I wore this dress today when I went to get some decorations for my birthday next month, it has come so quickly.

It is nice looking out my window and seeing the sun shining even if I am stuck inside doing homework. I have so much to do this weekend as lots of my work needs to be handed up this week for marking eep! I have been working on a lot of art work over the past week I still have heaps to go!

My visual study is focused of self portraits so I spend a lot of time looking at photos of myself which is a bit weird haha. This photo is of a lino cut that I have been working on, inspired by Barbra Hanrahan. I feel like it has a sort of 60s mod vibe to it which was unintentional.

Okay so I have nothing against other people's paintings but boy oh boy, do I hate painting! I can never seem to get the right shade, or if I do, there isn't enough of it. It frustrates me so much and I try to avoid it as much as possible haha.

That's all from me for now, until next time!

Well Hello!

Over the past month or so I have been thinking of getting back into blogging and well, here I am!

I guess I will start by re-introducing myself...

Name: Chelsea

Age: 17

Currently: in year 12 (and have about 8 weeks left, which I am kinda freaking out about)

Subjects I am doing: English, Art, Fashion, Music-composing, history, solo performance and ensemble performance

(I am actually doing more subjects then I need to because I am crazy and like doing lots of things even if it drives me insane)

Plans for next year: I am hopefully going to be studying fashion at uni (if I get in, fingers crossed)

Hobbies: playing in my brass band (nerdy, I know haha), sewing, reading magazines, playing Animal Crossing (shh it's fun and cute okay) and painting my nails (when I should be doing things like homework haha) 

So yeah that's about all I can think of really :)

Here are some random photos from the last couple of months

A square from my art project

We got new band uniforms

DIY circle skirt

Space nails

Got an awesome book from the art gallery

New pair of shoes that I can't stop wearing

Self portrait for art

 Bye for now, not forever
-Chelsea

Tunes Day, Tuesday!

(It is really Wednesday but let's pretend I posted this yesterday)

Introducing: Twenty Years of triple j's Hottest 100

triple j is not your average radio station. Not only are they on the radio, they have a tv program  (triple j tv), magazine (jmag) and are on-line (www.triplej.net.au)
"You should know that triple j is completely AD-FREE. We ain’t pimpin’ no-one’s shit (unless it’s our own), no matter what the price." This is just another example why triple j are different from the other commercial radio stations.

The Hottest 100 started in 1993 and has been going strong ever since.
This year bought us 20 years of the Hottest 100 and triple j decided it would be a good idea to let the public vote for their favourite 20 songs from the last 20 years.
It was broadcasted live in two sections, 100-50 on Saturday and 50-1 on Sunday.
The list features artists such as Blink-182, The Cat Empire, Silverchair, Arctic Monkeys, Daft Punk, Nirvana, Radiohead and Gotye but the number 1 spot was taken by Oasis' Wonderwall.


To see the whole list from  triple j's Hottest 100 of the last Twenty Years and extra info visit: www.abc.net.au/triplej/hottest100/alltime/20years/

Tunes Day, Tuesday

Introducing: Bleeding Knees Club

Bleeding Knees Club are an indie surf-punk duo (now trio) from Australia. Having only formed in 2010, they have played the stages of British music festivals the Great Escape and Liverpool Sound City and have toured with the Vines, all within the first two years of formation. After releasing the Virginity EP, they band was named one of NME's 50 Best New Bands of 2011. Between touring, they released their first album, Nothing To Do, in 2012.

Bleeding Knees Club have only just recently released a new song Feel and are currently touring Australia. Their live shows are always bound to cause chaos. They have been banned from a venue in Adelaide, ripped down two disco balls (so far from the current tour) and always cause a bit of blood.

Nonetheless, these crazy boys are all bout having fun and sharing rad music.

Find them on their: SoundCloud, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter and YouTube

What Time Is It?

Adventure Time!

I managed to stumble upon Adventure Time stuff on Etsy yesterday and oh boy, there are some awesome things on there!

Here are some of my favourites... 

Theses rings just so cool. I think the Finn hat is my favourite. Find it: Here

How cute it this bow-tie?! Find it: Here

I wouldn't mind having this PB print in my bedroom. Find it: Here

Lady Rainicorn earring that looks like she goes through your ear. Find it: Here

This Peppermint Butler plush gives me a few ideas for my own. Find it: Here

When I update my phone I will totally conceder getting this case! Find it: Here

The Hidden Snail that shows up in every episode can now be hidden on your clothes. Find it (and more) here!