RhianCaroline

things that make me happy; a list

- Skyscrapers
- Trees covered in snow
- Beautiful cards
- Pretend names on parcels
- High pitched piano music
- Blurry fairy light photos
- Getting emails
- Watching terrible terrible TV programmes with people who also know how terrible it is, but being able to make a running commentary on it, therefore making them brilliant

 
- Being surprised by people in a good way
- Trees covered in fairy lights
- Crochet granny square garlands
- Moleskins full of lists
- Christmas cards with scotties on
- At home hair dye that looks good
- Antlers
- When people re-tell a conversation they have had, but it is so utterly boring you can't do anything but laugh and tell the person that it was completely boring, and then they laugh, and you both laugh.

 
- Starting a new calandar
- Watercolour pencils
- Brilliant books
- Baths
- Dreaming up 52 things to do in 52 weeks
- Old vintage christmas jumpers
- Polaroid supershooters and 669 film

* Inspired by this brilliant book. Read it if you love lists. New York. Are a 20 something wondering what on earth you are doing, and what the point of it is.

and for winter

I posted my favorite summer cook book back in August. Well this is my favorite winter one.
I can pretty much live on broth, soup, and mashed potatoes during this time of year. I need foods that will keep me warm, fill me up, but won't take me 9 years to prepare. And if I'm lucky, will be perfect for reheating over the following days too!
It is definitely not as aesthetically pleasing as the marie claire cookbook, but it is jam packed full of way more recipes that I actually want to eat.
It would probably be fully adaptable for you meat eaters out there too.
My favorites are the chickpea broth with parsley dumplings, lentil and green chilli burgers, and tomato and butterbean soup.
Thumbs up.

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.

fresh+fast

 

i can not recommend this cookbook enough.
i love cookbooks. really. i have one pot cookbooks, the healthy jewish cookbook, multiple cupcake cookbooks, japanese, italian, vegetarian, blah blah blah.
but this one, beats them all. every recipe i have tried so far is a keeper. they are all ridiculously quick to throw together, full of healthy fresh ingrediants, and delicious.
and the photos in this book are beautiful. i won't lie, they are the reason i picked it up in the first place. i just got lucky the food is gorgeous too.
as i say, if you are on the hunt for easy peasy yummy recipes, this is the book for you.
home made pesto pizza anybody?

tuesday

 

beds with dips in the middle, early morning wake up, tuna and rice make-do puppy food, driving, vanilla custard muller rice, a call from barnardo's, boy jeans, rain, 2 loads of laundry to count, bon iver, getting motivated, hambly and fabric, 5 questions, waiting on results, scottie on a windowsill, attempted email blitz, mini twister, gossip girl catch up, headache headache go away, planned home made pesto pizza, magazine scraps, waiting on a phone call, dirty paintbrush water, miniture minis...tuesday so far. 

let us sumarise

My creative mood directly correlates to how much I read.

It is hard to blog when you really don't have much to say. Or the things you do have to say are a little inappropriate.

Delilah my laptop has pretty much died.

Frost is in New York and I'm flipping between jealous and happiness for her.

So far only one copy of Barefoot hasn't arrived at its destination.

I am reading an incrediably boring book right now and wishing I wasn't one of those people who has to finish a book they start.

Still no job.

I have done my neck in. What is up with whole general back area?

I'm thinking I will make this a Random Acts of Kindness week.

Here is an example you can all take away and think about, 'Old men with pipes are brilliant. To encourage this welcome sight more in society, the next time you see an old man carrying a pipe, pop off to the newsagent to buy him some extra tobacco.' (pg.73)

Or how about this one, 'Scrub a gnome.'(pg.140)

Really.

Okay. Last one, 'Tell a sweaty woman she has a healthy glow.'(119)

But really. There are some good ones too.

I'm going, to save myself from any more of this randomness.

these are a few of my favorite things

 1. Untitled, 2. state of play: acquired by occasional retirement, 3. Baby Shower, 4. Untitled, 5. Coexistence, 6. ryantown, 7. rainy day, 8. The Lanes, Brighton, 9. Boobs Cupcakes

BOOBIE CAKES! heh heh.

i always get the urge to sing, 'THE HILLLLLLS ARE ALIIIIIIVE' when anybody mentions favorite things.

for people not playing on tumblr yet, i post most of my flickr faves, (along with feminist rants, political news stories that i find interesting, and copious images of ed westwick and robert pattinson) on there. but some of these i don't think i did.

i have neglected dandelion wishes this week. but travelling and tiredness doesn't really make me want to blog. or email for that matter.

i've guest designed for angie delarie this month, so i'll post what i dids next week.

i like chips and dip.

and look at my puppy wearing a hoody.

 

i would like to purchase some grey converse high-tops.

finally. i am going to amsterdam next month. the boy does not realise this yet, but i'm sure he will be fine with it. will there be tulips? this is my biggest concern.

i need to buy a book on amsterdam.

goodbye.

reviews schmeviews

i forgot how much i love Wuthering Heights. i shouldn't leave it so long next time.
goodreads is like my version of imdb. although granted, i couldn't live without imdb either. ("oooh ohhh, whats she off! i know her off something!" "I'll imdb it!")

my brother watches a lot of films. a lot of bad films if his recommendation of Raise Your Voice is anything to go by. when he finishes the movie he goes on imdb to read the boards, and probably flame some people too. i'm sure he was telling me recently how he was sticking up for ashton kutcher on a denzil washington thread?
when i finish a book, i like to go on goodreads and read the reviews. now, thankfully, the people on goodreads seem to have a little more intellect than some of the users on imdb (my brother included.) most of the reviews are clever, witty, and well thought out, my favorite review i have ever read on there so far, is this. 
even if i don't agree with them, i don't feel the need to roll my eyes, warm up my fingers, and reply with high sarcasm.

untill now.

i have come across two reviews, for two different books that i happen to love almost more than the sun, that have been so ridiculous i have had to bite my fingers to keep from commenting. i don't want to be that person. that annoying person who comes across as all, "oh your opinion is stupid."
BUT REALLY.
these reviews were stupid. one for Wuthering Heights.
and one for The Disreputable History of Fankie Landau-Banks. a book i want to press into the hands of every young girl who believes Bella Swan is a female character worthy to look up to.
it was that review that stemmed many a page that will be in my soon-to-be released zine.

i was not so much concerned by her dislike of the book. but by her apparent lack of understanding of it.
in a book that is bravely and intelligently asking, "who created these assumptions we all adhere to when it comes to our gender?" a book that beautifully articulates how young girls are encouraged and expected to perform to a certain role, and portrays just how suffocating and limiting those roles may be for some.
there is a review that supports the mainstream stereotype, and actually dares to suggest that this is just the way it is; now quit moaning girls and get on with it. boys will always play video games and ignore you, and if we dare have an opinion otherwise then we have just become that whingey, moany girl none of us want to be.

i have so much i could say. so very much indeed. but i will save that for the official introduction of my zine. and when i am feeling more focused for a bitchcake session.
in the meanwhile, i will say, read it. read it now. put down whatever book you are reading, and run to the store/order The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks.

read it loved it

 

A true heroine rises from the Grimm Brother ashes.

Hale has created a female character worthy to be loved and adored for a long time to come. She is filled with guts, heart, and soul. 

This is a tale of imprisonment, courage, love, romance, fantasy, and one spectacular protagonist.

This is a tale of the silenced being given a voice, of the oppressed fighting their way out of darkness, so they can feel the burn of the sun of life on their skin once again.

It is a tale about the power and magic of words. And the power of the female body.

Hale uses Dashti, her beautifully crafted mucker maid, to express the necessity of the written word, and to provide the glorious hope of storytelling. 

Everybody has a story worth telling, because everybody has a life worth living.

Dashti, for me, represents of those who have been told they can't. All those who have been silenced, broken down, pushed aside. 

But all those who have believed in their worth, in their need to tell their story.

 

This book was made to be read and loved and shared.

i no longer know what to do

*maybe a spoiler in here*

i just finished breaking dawn.
deep sigh.
i thought by waiting until all the books had been completed i would love them more, i'm a closure kind of girl. i would have been chomping at the bit to have to wait years in between.
it's bad enough that i will have to wait for all the films to come out.

but now.
now i have an empty space in my head where the cullens once used to be.
seriously people! i'm finding it hard here! i know they weren't the most well written books in the world, and bella is actually quite annoying, (although i did like her as a vampire) but there is something so enthralling and addicting to them, for the better part of the week as i read them i've believed i LIVED in forks!

so i need help. clearly. and because you can't all give me mental help.
please suggest to me some other series books i might love, based on my clear obsession with twilight.

not that anyone will match up to edward cullen in my eyes.

*i will get back to emails tomorrow, if you havn't heard from me, its because i've been living the life of a vampire for the week.*