My greatest apologies to all you readers, once again life took over and I haven’t done a lot of blogging recently.
I have though been thinking a lot about this blog in the last few weeks, months or so and I’ve got post ideas running around in my min, so I thought it’s probably best to get them on here before I forget them all together.
Hopefully you will join up with this blog once again and I will be grateful if you do!
After having a think or two I have decided that I’m going to make Tuesday ‘Book Review Day’! I’ve been reading a lot recently and thought well, why not share my joy for reading and my thoughts on my reads with you guys?! Seeing as I’ve got a few reviews logged up in my brain ready to be typed onto your screens I thought let’s make Tuesday ‘Book Review Day’!
My last book review A Fabulous Trio, Three Young Spinsters was published on a Tuesday and I thought why not carry that on?!
Apologies for not posting one last week (I’ve failed already!) but I was on holiday down in Bournemouth and on that very day I was sitting on Brownsea Island enjoying the views of the lighting bolts striking over Poole Harbour, yes not the best weather to visit an island yet thanks to the hospitality of Brownsea Island Castle, I was warm and snug watching the storm from a very comfy armchair. Here’s some pictures I took on my trip…..
And there we have it!
If you’re clever enough to notice that it is a Tuesday today and you’re wondering where today’s book review may be, hold on….it’s coming!
Hi there, apologies but I have had a break from the blogging world for quite a while (11 months in fact!).
No particular reason why, I guess life has just got in the way a bit and well I just needed some ideas in my head before I made my return.
So since I last posted I have been reading a lot, my book shelf is positively full up of great reads, of which I will tell you all about in the next few posts coming up. I’ve also had arty and photography ideas which well we’ll just see how they turn out, but yes I plan to write and create more and will try my very best not to abandon this blog again, as I have missed it.
I welcome you back to the world of LHF creations!
We all remember Swim Deep’s first album, ‘Where the Heaven are We‘ as a great first album for an Indie boyband starting out their career in the world of music right? Well those boys have now turned into men and with the added addition of James Balmont on the synths and keyboards that feature heavily on this album, they have now created something, well awesome was the word that came into my head when I took my first listen this morning, when listening to ‘Mothers‘.
We’ve already heard singles ‘To My Brother‘, ‘One Great Song…‘ and ‘Namaste‘, which personally shocked me on the first listen. When I first heard ‘To My Brother’, I was expecting nothing more than a guitar, bass, drums combo, similar to the tracks that featured on the first album. However I was stunned when the synths kicked in and had to check my screen to see if it really was Swim Deep playing! This was the introduction to their new sound. I could literally picture lead singer Austin Williams bouncing around the stage with big sunglasses & maracas just like Bez from the Happy Mondays (see BBC’s Reading & Leeds footage, as this is exactly what I pictured!)
The rest of the album has a similar feel to the songs we’ve already heard. Highlights include ‘Forever Spaceman’, which has a David Bowie ‘Life on mars‘ sound to it and ‘Grand Affection’ whose intro reminded me of an 80s arcade game’s music. Continuing with the 80’s theme is ‘Namaste’, which Austin recently told me ‘reminded so many people of an 80s game show theme’, hence their choice for that brilliant video that went with it!
Another highlight is 8 minute long ‘Fueiho Boogie‘. There’s some long album tracks that you dread as they can often be quite dull and off-putting, however this is something to look forward to, it will immediately make you want to stand up and dance forever. There’s also ‘Laniakea’ with the line, ‘All the brothers and the mothers and the lovers…’ being one that will soon be stuck in your head.
It’s very rare that a band achieves such greatness in a second album, most we shrug off as ‘alright’ whilst longing for a repeat of their first, but this is something that won’t be forgotten and pushed aside. This is the future.
It’s very rare that a great band play live anywhere close to where I live. In Surrey not a lot happens with well known bands, the closest they play is usually London or Portsmouth but my luck was in when I heard that Swim Deep were coming to Guildford’s Boileroom.
Having been placed on the guest list (it’s easy when your cousin is the lead singer!) myself along with my family arrived to support Austin Williams and his mates, (Zach, Cavan, James & ‘Higgy’) and to enjoy what turned out to be a great evening!
Austin & Higgy on stage
Starting off with first album favourite ‘Francisco’ the crowd were jumping away and singing along. ‘I still can’t believe that people are singing along to our songs’, said Austin when I chatted to him after the show, ‘It’s still really weird to see!’
Following with more from the well loved ‘Where the Heaven Are We’ album, Swim Deep played ‘Honey‘, ‘The Sea’, ‘She Changes The Weather‘ and ‘King City‘, all of which were greatly enjoyed by the audience, especially ‘Honey’, where it literally felt like floor was going to collapse, as the audience were jumping up and down along to the ‘Ooo Ooo Babys’.
Songs played from their upcoming album ‘Mothers’ (out September 19th) included singles ‘One Great Song & I Could Change The World‘, ‘To My Brother‘ and ‘Namaste‘ (a former hottest record in the world on the Annie Mac show!). They also greeted us with ‘Grand Affection’, another song from their upcoming album, which unfortunately was cut short due to problems with the PA system, no-one seemed to mind however as what followed was truly great and we all soon forgot about the little glitch in the programme!
Stage After The Gig
As bias as it may sound saying this about my little cousin’s band, Swim Deep are truly on their way to great things, Having massively improved from their first album (which is still great in my ears!) they can only get better and better as time goes on! Having rocked Reading & Leeds this past weekend as well, their fan base is growing with many a screaming fan at the Boileroom on Thursday night and I’m sure there’s many more to come once they discover the magic of Swim Deep!
If you’ve been reading my blog for a while now you may remember a post I made back in March about Adult colouring books. Unfortunately for me, I’ve found recently that I haven’t had much time for the activity. However I think I’ve found something that may have solved my problem!
When browsing the app store this morning I came across ‘Colorfy‘, an app that lets you colour on your tablet/phone! For the time conscious amongst us it is very useful, as instead of spending time colouring in a block, just one tap will immediately fill the section with colour. It’s also handy if you change your mind on the colours you’ve used as you can change them around as many times as you like, allowing you to test out different colours to see which fits best!
Here’s one I completed this morning… What do you think?!
The only bad thing about not colouring in real life is that you can’t shade and blend colours, however if you like to keep it bold & simple this app works wonders!
It’ll be a great thing to have on train commutes, relieving you from the stress of the working day!
Okay so I thought it was time I updated you with how I’m doing with my 25 Day Drawing Challenge, so here’s what I’ve been tackling lately on days 5 – 10!
Day 5: Favourite Word
Now there’s no intention of rudeness here!
I chose this word as I find it’s a word that can be used to convey many emotions, for example, Fuck you/Fuck this, conveys anger and frustration whilst
Fucking brilliant/Fuck yeah, conveys happiness and excitement.
It doesn’t always have to be a nasty horrible word people!!
Day 6: A beach Hut
Or 5 beach huts should I say?!
To be honest I couldn’t resist doing a line of beach huts, it’s your typical English beach scene, with of course, a seagull looking to steal some chips!
Day 7: A City
Can you guess what city I’ve tried to fit into my theme?
Let’s just say a recent trip gave me some inspiration!
Day 8: A Hot Air Balloon
Going up in a hot air balloon has always been on my bucket list and I certainly wouldn’t mind going up in this one!
Day 9: Trace Your Hand Then Decorate It
Tip to anyone who fancies doing this one…
Don’t trace your hand with a sharpie, it’s ink will end up on your skin and it’s a pain to get off!
Next time I think I’ll use a pencil!
Day 10: A Made Up Character
Rabbit Clown is a character I made up a few years ago, he’s always stuck around in my mind!
So then people what do you think?!
Let me know by commenting and I’d love to see your own drawings if you selected to do any of the days and hey if I like them they’ll get posted!
More to come soon….
If you haven’t noticed already, look at the very top of this page and you’ll see I’ve made a new header! And what do you think? Let me know by commenting!
The real point of this post is to reveal how I made this header.
Wanting to do so for a while now, to add something special and good looking to this blog, I’ve been wondering how one goes about doing so. The first option that popped into my head was downloading some very expensive design software, maybe I could find something for free I thought. No such luck!
However just yesterday I came across an app called Canva whilst on the app store on my iPad and wow, it is just amazing for someone like me who has only little graphic design experience and is not too good at the whole process!
Canva allows you to create and design things like blog headers, posters, business cards and a whole lot more either by signing up to their website or downloading the app. It’s definitely a great thing for independent companies!
It’s really easy to use and you can create something great in just a few minutes! It also allows you to use your own photos, so your design is individual to you.
So yes if you’re interested in this kind of thing then I definitely recommend that you visit their website! Even if you don’t own a company or a blog, it’s a fun and easy way to get creative!!
Here’s another design I’ve made and I’m sure there’ll be lots more to come!
Earlier this week I decided to have a fun day out in London!
Having wanted to visit the Tate Modern for a while, I decided that there was where I was heading, so off I popped onto the train up to Waterloo station!
After I got off the train and deciding to walk instead of taking the tube (you see many more sights this way!), I followed the directions that Google Maps were giving me and started to walk in the right direction to the Tate Modern!
It’s not too far to walk there, halfway through my walk I was directed up to the Thames River and walked alongside it to finish my journey. Along the way I saw many a sight, that if shown to anybody, they would say ‘Hey is that London?’!
View down the river
St. Paul’s Cathedral in the distance
London, Chatham & Dover Railway Insignia On Blackfriars Bridge
The Millennium Bridge looking across to St. Paul’s Cathedral
After my walk I got into the Tate Modern and spent a couple of hours there looking round at all the fabulous pieces of artwork they have on display there at the moment. Here are some of my favourites…
Marilyn Diptych by Andy Warhol
It made me laugh when a schoolgirl walked past this piece of art and exclaimed ‘Somebody’s left their shoe on there!’
A robot made out of old radios! by Nam June Paik
After my look around, I walked back up to Waterloo station and this time walked by the river the whole time, and discovered more fun!
I passed the OXO tower, a place full of great tiny shops selling gifts, design and more, a good place to go and visit!
As I headed towards the Southbank I was delighted to see that they had a festival going on! There were many sights to see and here’s a few more pictures!
A Snog on a London Bus? Brilliant!
A Carousel
The London Eye, Big Ben & the Houses of Parliament
This made me giggle 🙂
‘One scoop please’……. Wow!
So yes, if you’re thinking of a trip to London and are not sure what to do, a walk down by the Thames is highly recommended!
Everyone’s going on about it, yes Glastonbury officially starts tomorrow and well all I can say is that I’m jealous of anyone who’s going along!
One band playing during the weekend is Wolf Alice, hailing from North London, their debut album ‘My Love Is Cool‘ was released on Monday and after a few listens, I must say that if you catch them this weekend you’ll have fun!
‘My Love Is Cool’ Debut album from Wolf Allice
Many people have described this album to be similar to that of the 90’s grunge scene, however singer & front lady Ellie Rowsell has told NME, “It’s 100 percent not a grunge record. It’s a much braver record than that.” Yes that’s true. Whilst there are moments of tribute to 90’s grunge, there’s a lot more in this album and the more you hear it, the more you will discover.
Favourite track of the album for me has to be ‘Bros‘, I’ve loved this track since I first heard it early last year. However there’s now the ‘newer’ version of this track, which when released received some controversy from fans who preferred the original. I at first agreed with them but after many listens over and over I fell back in love with the song and in my opinion it remains one of my favourite songs of the year so far and I’m forever bursting out into song with it!
Other highlights on the album include single ‘Giant Peach‘, ‘Your Loves Whore’ and ‘Turn to Dust’
So if you’re a fan of the band already or if you’re looking for something new to try, get this album, you’ll enjoy it!
A great debut album, and one of the best I’ve heard in 2015.
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