This World...

This World...
-WARNING, DEEP & CHEESY POST ALERT-

Earlier on I went for a walk at a local countryside park with my Nana and Grandad. It wasn't one of those blindingly beautiful days, you know, blue skies, scorching sunshine, the days that leave your mouth open in amazement as soon as it greets your eyes. It was a subtly beautiful day. The sky was a pale blue mixed with apricot and silver tones, the clouds faintly embedded within it. We were walking past tall arching trees draped with leaves of caramel, auburn, rouge, gold, with beams of pure sunlight weaving through the gaps. There were bushes of feathery emerald leaves and those that were a lighter shade, and they were so crisp and defined. There were fields of pale gold corn and barley gently swaying in the breeze, with small fluffy rabbits dotted here and there. In the horizon we could make out the motorway with cars gliding by, their headlights little glittery specks of silver, the motorway lights hazy circles of lazy orange. If we turned 360 degrees the countryside landscape that greeted us was so gently stunning that it repeatedly took my breath away, and I let it because I felt I had to repay my gratitude for such a sight in some shape or form,

It was a typical sight. Nothing too special. You wouldn't spend your life savings to see it. And yet it was simply amazing. Every time I tried to take a photograph, I failed miserably because my lens could not attune itself to the beauty it was trying to capture. I tried and tried and tried, but the photographs I got were nothing like the landscape that greeted with my eyes. But then I suddenly thought to myself, maybe that's the point. Maybe you aren't meant to be able to truly capture the beauty of the world in a photography. Maybe the whole point is that you're not supposed to spend your time trying to capture the present in one still image. Maybe get a souvenir of a beautiful moment yes. But life really is meant for living, and if we're spending all our precious time trying to capture one moment, we turn our back on the bigger picture that surrounds and encompasses us, and we're not really living. 

This earth is so incredibly beautiful, to the extent that us humans will never truly be able to comprehend just how beautiful it really is. And we're so lucky to live in a planet that was crafted to such an aesthetic extent. You only have to turn your head to see it. Life is beautiful in spite of everything that may try to suggest otherwise, and the whole point of our existence is to really embrace, appreciate and enjoy it. We aren't here for that long when you think about it, so we need to be out there, embedding ourselves within this life and absorbing it, letting it caress and inspire our souls, instead of spending all our time trying to capture it and find out its secrets, because we never really will. Life, this world and it's beauty is elusive.

A couple of years ago, I realised that my expectations of life were too high. That what I required to make me happy was too unrealistic and unreliable. I was looking for happiness in all the wrong places. And then one day, I was walking home from school, and it was such a stunningly picturesque afternoon. I had my music on too, and as I looked around me, and took in the world around me, I realised that I was content, happy, at peace. And since that day I don't know why, but I have been able to find the beauty in every scene that greets my eyes. Every part of the world that I visit, I can always see the beauty somewhere, rain or shine, old or new, and I never fail to appreciate it. I always take in the beauty of the world that surrounds me, because the simple fact of the matter is, it makes me feel happy, and more importantly, it makes me appreciate the fact that I'm alive. That I am so lucky to be living in a world like this. And ever since I began to appreciate and notice the little pockets of beauty in the world around me, and let those be the little things that my inner happiness and serenity depends on, I have honestly never felt so good, and life has never been better.

☼ ☼ ☼

Another Friday Five

Another Friday Five

It's Friday guys! We made it to the end of another week (well almost), and to top it all of it's Halloween too, as if life just couldn't get any better. So as a nice little reward for you lovely people, here's an awesome Friday Five I've put together, featuring some fabulous new music for you to enjoy, as well as some wonderful new artists too, and topped off with a fantastic feel good tune to see you off into a weekend full of ghosts, vampires, zombies et al. 

So sit back, light up ya pumpkins, do the time walk and that and just get lost in zee music.

1

HOLDING ON

-Fyfe-

2

SOMETHING FROM NOTHING

-Foo Fighters

3

COME TO ME

-Lily & Madeleine-

4

-MEDICINE-

The 1975

5

EITHER WAY

-The Twang-

BONUS TRACK (because it's Halloween)

LET'S DO THE TIME WARP

-The Rocky Horror Picture Show-

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And here's hoping we get some awesome treats like these insanely cool  and cute frosted cookies...

:)

Joseph Mallord William Turner

Joseph Mallord William Turner

This is another of those cases where I did A-Level Art and yet I somehow managed to completely miss out on yet another iconic English artist, and the artist in question this time (I'm sure there's more to come you see) is the one and only J.M.W Turner. I personally only discovered him last night after the curiosity bug bit whilst watching the repeat of Friday's 'The Graham Norton Show' on which Timothy Spall was promoting his film 'Mr Turner', which happens to be all about J.M.W Turner. Now I admit when I googled Turner (the first Turner I thought of is Alex from the Arctic Monkeys of course) my expectations really weren't very high, but when you see the examples I've included on this post, you will see why my jaw instantly dropped in wonder and amazement and I dived for my i-pod to make a note about doing a blog post on J.M.W Turner. This man's art really is rather awe-inspiring and oh so sublime and majestic and I'm not ashamed to say I've fallen completely head over heels in love.

http://www.william-turner.org/

-MR TUNER IS OUT IN CINEMAS NATIONWIDE NOW-

The Sunday Playlist #1

The Sunday Playlist #1

Yesterday was a rather exciting day for me because I was lucky enough to do my first radio show at Manchester Uni's fabulous radio station Fuse FM. I was absolutely bricking it before I went live, and when my friend, who's show was before mine, handed over to me my voice was literally shaking as I spoke. It was simultaneously the most exciting and nerve-racking of moments, but also one of the best experiences of my life. I got the idea for my show from a blog post I did on here a couple of weeks ago called 'The Sunday Playlist'. It was the most gorgeous of days, and for the post I selected ten songs which had that amazing feel good factor that you want on a Sunday, when the weekend's not quite over and Monday is still a distant speck on the horizon. So when the opportunity came to apply for a radio show, I thought about my blog post, and realised that I really wanted that chance to play the kind of music that makes people feel good. I wanted to give people the perfect Sunday soundtrack, and so with that The Sunday Playlist was born.

Apart from a few minor (major) technical blips, including forgetting to turn the microphone on (hello 45 second silence), getting a tad tongue tied, and pausing too long after songs ended, it generally went alright. My mum texted me saying my voice had a Brian Cox vibe going on, which I assumed was a compliment, and I just can't stress to you enough how amaaaaaaazing it felt sitting at that desk, talking to my five listeners (if that) and having the chance to play some of my favourite songs on my own radio show on my favourite day of the week. IT WAS AMAZING. And now I want to share my first ever Sunday Playlist with you all, because even thought it's a Monday, if you close your eyes and whack up a quick roast dinner, you can almost pretend that it's Sunday all over again....

-If you want to listen to my next show which will be on the 9th of November, tune in to Fuse Fm online between 1pm and 2pm :) I'd also recommend tuning in whenever you're online as there are some other really, really brilliant shows on all throughout the week too!-

1

LOVE NEVER FELT SO GOOD

-Michael Jackson & Justin Timberlake-

2

BUDAPEST

-George Ezra-

3

A NEW HOUSE

-Deacon Blue-

4

ABOVE THE CLOUDS OF POMPEII

-Bear's Den-

5

BEST FRIEND

-Foster The People-

6

DON'T STOP BELIEVING

-Journey-

7

CRUEL CITY

-Augustines-

8

TO BUILD A HOME

-The Cinematic Orchestra-

9

EVERYWHERE

-Fleetwood Mac-

10

LIFE IN COLOUR

-OneRepublic-

11

RATHER BE

-Clean Bandit ft Jess Glynne-

12

DON'T YOU (FORGET ABOUT ME)

-Simple Minds-

And last but not least, here's my radio selfie.... *woop woop*

^^ LOVIN' LIFE RIGHT THERE ^^

http://www.fusefm.co.uk/

Rob Ryan

Rob Ryan
I adore (x a million trillion gazillion and maybe even more than that) the work of the phenomenally talented British artist Rob Ryan, and it was only the other week that I realised I had never done a blog post on him before, which seemed kind of absurd seeing how much I am in love with his artwork. So here it is, a post completely dedicated to the amazing artistic talent that is Rob Ryan, and if you couldn't already tell from the main image above his work is an absolute aesthetic dream. Rob's art consists of the most intricate, detailed, blissfully beautiful carvings from paper; he takes a piece of paper and uses a scalpel to sculpt away the excess, progressively unveiling a ridiculously gorgeous hidden aesthetic gem full of pattern, words and beauty that lay within the paper, unbeknown to you. When I look at Rob's work, I find it so hard to believe that someone could possess the technique to create the pieces he does, that he can look at a piece of paper and coax such stunning imagery out of it, and I desperately wish that I could do the same.

It was only recently that I found out Rob only found large scale commercial success in the recent years, something that is rather difficult to comprehend when you look at the sheer scope of his artistic prowess. How did such talent go undetected for so long? Whatever the answer, all I can say is that it is an honour and sheer delight for such amazing artwork to be so accessible to us all, and if you too have an intense love affair with Rob's work (if not yet then you will do after looking at this post), you simply have to check out his Ryantown shop in London, as well as his online store.

http://robryanstudio.com/

♥

Iggy Azalea & Nick Young, Forever 21

Iggy Azalea & Nick Young, Forever 21

It's quarter past midnight and I have a super hard Audiology lecture tomorrow first thing but I found these photos of the fabulous Iggy Azalea and her boyfriend Nick Young and what do you know, I just had to share them with you all before I go to bed. The gorgeous couple are leading Forever 21's new US campaign and don't they just look amaaaaaazziinggg. It's so nice to see Iggy in particular fronting such a huge campaign because she's such an inspiration to women everywhere, not just because of the way she embraces her curves and the female form, but also because of how she made her way to the top of the music industry through sheer hard work and an intangible belief in herself and her capabilities. Iggy is an inspiration to us all and on a last note, I'm majorly crushing on Nick Young right now...

Forever 21

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♥

John French

John French

I discovered the sublime work of the English photographer John French a couple of weeks ago, whilst looking at the postcards in Paperchase when I went shopping at the insanely amazing Trafford Centre. His work graces some of the postcards and boy are they beautiful. If you think of the poise, vivacity and glamour of fifties fashion and beauty, combined with the most alluring monochrome tones, add a swirl of retro chic in to the mix and you've almost got the right idea. I'm not sure how he did it but John somehow managed to transform the women he shot into mysterious, elegant, sparkling icons of sheer beauty, and when you see his work you almost feel like you too have that sparkle within you and it just needs a little coaxing out. He makes you feel proud to be a woman. However no matter how hard I try, no words can quite describe the sheer gorgeousness and magic of John's work. You simply have to look and appreciate it for yourself (which really isn't a hard thing to do when he makes looking such an aesthetic treat)...

♥

♥

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-You can view more of John's work here-