RhianCaroline

you're only what you give back

i've been doing lots of training with barnardo's lately. it's been exhausting, overwhelming, boring, interesting, amusing, frustrating.

i've been listening to a lot of imogen heap, and i've been avoiding watching into the wild (for around 6 months). i know it is going to be one of those films. those films that both challenge and make you feel completely mediocre.

i've been reading a lot of don miller, and trying not to be too cynical and sarcastic about his life filled with bike rides across america and meetings with families who jump in rivers to say goodbye.

i feel lots of random journaling about being your actions, and what the decisions you make in your life say about you, the story you want to cultivate for yourself, coming on.

thoughts about documentation, and story, and the necessity of silence.

but here is my bloom wearing her autumn scarf. she's my favorite.

this beautiful thief

 

This Beautiful Thief is a British indie band from Birmingham. My second favourite UK city. They released a new EP yesterday, kicking it off with a little tour. Birmingham yesterday, London tonight, Brighton tomorrow, and Liverpool and Newcastle squeezed in there somewhere too.

 
I designed, drew, and made the 120 limited edition cases and mini zines for their launch yesterday. Originally designed in craft, the boys chose their own colours they preferred. Not everyone has a love of craft like me!

I met Olly (singer) on tumblr; online social networking/inspiration blogs bringing people together since NOW.

I am so happy the boys loved my obsession with anatomical hearts as much as I do :)

i want so much

i want to ride around on a hot pink bicycle that has white streamers flowing from the handle bars. i want to taste the perfect key lime pie even though i have never ever tasted any key lime pie. i want to travel to paris with just one backpack, a pair of kicks on my feet, and a camera in my hand. i want to live at the heart of a group of friends, reading and painting writing and loving the world a better place. i want to wear the same pair of jeans every day for months on end so that they become a part of me, all frayed and creased and beautifully tattered. i want to read books full of glorious words all strung together to make magnificent sentences. i want emily dickinson lines tattooed on my arm. i want to put my mattress on the floor and make a fort out of sheets and feather fairy lights and paper lanterns above my bed. i want to feel like i want to paint stuff again. i want best friends here, in my town, for weekly coffee and trips to the museum. i want to do something that will change something. that will make something different and better. i want to sit in my back garden and listen to the birds and the stream and gaze up at the sky and breathe in and out and in and out. i want to know that i believe what i believe because i believe it and not because i don't believe the other stuff. i want bubbles sparkling in sunshine. and long grass brushing against pale legs. i want toenails i can paint blood red and my plants to grow with abundance. i want to not be so distracted by what i should be doing, who i should be being, how i should be feeling. i want a sims character designed to look exactly like me. i want to not be so me me me. and be a lot more you you you, us us us, them them them. i want to not be so angry. i want to dance to styx and van morrison in flipflops and drink ice cold lemonade.  i want to stack up the books by my bed so they reach to the stars. or at least my ceiling. i want pure white walls and dark wood floors. i want home made ice lollies. and to make pretty things out of doilies. i want to know that he is there. in the quiet. where he says he will be. i want to maybe just once not have to decide that i know he is there, but actually know that he is there.

drive by

blogging is hard when your computer has gone to the great games store in the sky. i will be back soon-as the boy makes me a new desktop. which will be able to handle photoshop, sims 3, illustrator and the internet, all at the same time.
if i so choose.

i will also be back with a couple of [free] mini workshops precariously titled A Glimpse and Linear. Please email me at rhirhilove @ gmail . com if you think you would prefer these set up on a separate blog, or if you just want to be able to download the .pdf's with no workshop structure.

there are a few more zines up in the etsy store too. in case you went looking and they were gone. i hadn't realised they had sold out.

much love, bitches.

xoxo

the zine edition

i love a lot of zines. they are my newest crack.
along with cake, gossip girl, books, and ranting.
so here is a list of a few of my favorites.

 Culture Slut

Brilliant brilliant brilliant. Want a glimpse into a retro glasses wearing, tattoo loving, feminist loner's mind? Read Culture Slut. It literally is her version of a diary, put out there for other zinesters to love and adore. She has definitely inspired me for issue 2 of Barefoot.

The La-La Theory

My favorite (so far!) word loving zinester. Not just because there is a Welsh word included in this edition! But because the way Katie writes makes me want to write. This is a good thing to find in a zine.

 The Lucky Ones

I'll admit it. I bought this zine because I loved the name. Then, when I got it in my hungry little hands, I loved this zine because of what the name represents. 54 pages taken from Mark's sketch book, 54 random observations of the wrorld around him, 54 lucky little sketches making it into this inspiring little zine. It made me want to ride on the New York subway, and carry my sketch book everywhere. His follow up, Dead Letters and Rare Words is on my wish list also.

Finally (for today) my understanding of the boundary between zine and MAGAzine is vague, at best. Simply, I understand it as coming down to advertising. Zines are grassroots, they are indie, they are  anti-commercialism, self published from the darkened bedroom of a person wanting to get their thoughts, their issues, their causes out there. So in my mind, when a zine includes advertisments, (unless it is advertising oneself) then it moves over into the MAGAzine realm. 
However, Subtext classes itself as a magazine, but rather has the feel of a zine. There are no adverts, just a group of people writing about things that matter to them, that effect them and us and you. It's a British feminist magazine, that is a breath of fresh air amongst heat, and look, and glamour, etc.  

My first zine list ;)

hi-ho hi-ho

it's off to london i go. hurrah.

i'm away untill monday, playing in london with my brother, and brighton with frost. any etsy orders will be dealt with as soon as i return :)

Now i should really pack, oy.

update

I just need to let you all know, the paypal buttons on the side stopped working so I had to remove them.

All sales will be through etsy now, it seems! If they they run out, more will be stocked tomorrow.

Don't worry, for those of you that already paid through the paypal button earlier today, it worked. Your zine will be shipped out tomorrow :)

Thank you thankyou to everyone who has purchased one so far. It makes me happy and crazy scared at the same time.

its up

 

You can either purchase it straight from here via the paypal buttons over there <----- If you do that, please make sure you click on the appropriate button. ie. if you're not in britain, you're international!

There are a couple up on my etsy too, if you prefer that method :)

issue one

 

 

 

 

 

 

Barefoot Wondering is a zine. A collection of sketches, journal pages, art journal pages, poems, facts, things that influence and inspire me, or things that should influence and inspire me.

It's a look at femaleness, and what that means for me.

In future issues there will guest articles, (female) artist spotlights, issues that I believe are important, or that should hold more importance in my life.

Basically, its a figuring it out. A little glimpse into my mind.

And it will be available May 13th, for $5. ($1 inland postage (UK) $1.50 international postage.)

You can mostly ignore this, its for future linkage :)

twitter

i don't get it.
i tried to get it. but i don't. i am content in this final decision on my twitter life.
this video is brilliant.

the zine is done :) it will be up later this week.my editor is just proofing it ;)
heh.