Francais!

In March I turned 21. In April, my best friend Oakley also turned 21. At the time we were both too poor to buy gifts so instead we decided to save our pennies and take a road trip to France to tour some vineyards and drinks lots of wine and Champagne. Our first stop was Chablis, the home of our most favourite white wine. Our second stop was Epernay in Champagne, you can all guess what that was home to. These were 6 of the best days of my summer.

All packed and raring to go!

Chablis

We stayed in the most beautiful (and only) campsite in Chablis, there was a stream running through it which led into the town centre. The town/village is very small and quaint and full of wine cellars and a few bars. Amazing.

As this trip was a celebration of our 21st birthdays, we though it apt to buy a bottle of 1989 Chablis (Our birth year) This wine was an awful lot more expensive than the rest of our purchases but nevertheless, a brilliant way to congratulate each other.

Sharing the 1989 Chablis towards the end of our first and last day in the town.

Some sweetcorn (Maize if you want to be pedantic)

Epernay, Champagne!

Champagne was everything we could have hoped for and more. The first day we arrived we had no time to go wine touring, so instead we bought some food, ate, drank some Chablis and then played with lights and long exposure.

The Champagne Vineyards! (From the car window)

Again we managed to secure ourselves a lovely campsite, this one was a lot bigger and not our only choice, it did however, have a river running through it which was lovely, and had pedalos and small boats for hire, unfortunately, we spent all our money on wine, Champagne and cheese and could not afford to hire one.

Moet et Chandon! The house of everyones favourite, Moet Champagne. We went for a tour in the champagne house of Moet & Chandon which was fantastic and included a glass of Moet at the end.

At the end of Avenue de Champagne there was a roundabout with this amazing sculpture on. On the otherside, there was a sculpture of the metal cap from a bottle of Champagne too.

We also toured the Mercier Champagne house and afterwards were able to sneak into one of their vineyards. It was what we'd wanted to do all holiday, actually be in and running around a real working vineyard. It was exactly how I'd imagined it, so vast yet so orderly.

Definitely going to have another wine touring holiday. Next stop, Italy.

Bunting!

So when we finally found a flat for third year and moved in, we decided the place needed brightening up a bit. I made loads of cushions for the living room but this just didn't cut it. So I've spent my time away from work making bunting. I hope this works.

For the hallway

Buster was unimpressed that I was paying more attention to material than to him so he came along and rolled around all over it. Very frustrating but he got what he wanted.

For my room. Matches the carpet and everything. Well good... Until the sewing machine packed in and mum wasn't around to fix it. It's not as well made as the first batch but it'll do.

Summer Loving

I've not been very good at keeping up to date (photographically) with things that I have seen or made or done this summer. But here are a few snaps.

New housemates, new start. Very exciting. Playing in the brief week of sun in June when we should have been finishing our final projects.

Lunch with the brothers. (and father and grandfather) Always entertaining.

Amie bought a kitten! Her name is pippin and she is the cutest softest cat I ever did see. She was very well behaved on our drive down to Bristol. Just lounging around on the parcel shelf.

My cat at home got a bit jealous of my mum and I cooing over Pippin and so he decided to bring in a helpless little bird. We rescued it though and Buster realised this was not a way to win over our affections.

Book

As the final brief in the Type and Print module, we had to make a book. The project was called 'Everything about one thing' and we basically had to choose a topic/object/thing and explore into as much detail of said item as possible. We then had to make a book which would show what we had learnt about our chosen field.

I decided to look into my road, the road I lived on in Bristol. I thought this would be a good topic because I could find as little or as much information as I liked and could explore all sorts of different avenues relating to my road.

It turned out to be quite an interesting project and I found out a lot of information, both relevant and irrelevant but all very fascinating. I also made friends with a lot of my neighbours through interviews which came in handy when I was later locked out of my house!

My book was split into two sections, the first was about the residents of the road, who lived there, what they did etc. The second half was about the history of the road. After searching the local library, the city library, the council offices and the records office, the only information I could gather was from an elderly neighbour. He knew a lot though and it was pretty much all useful.

Here is how my book turned out.

I used an etching press to make the pressed type for the front cover of my book.

I had fold out pages as my book was small and landscape so this helped me display the information more clearly.

The book folded out into two sections to try and help separate the two chapters yet keep them together in one book.

In the middle of the book I had a fold out screen printed map of the area to show where abouts in Bristol the road is. There is a red dot to show the road.

My final book was put on show at the Arnolfini gallery in Bristol along with other students in my class during the third year exhibition.

Amsterdam!

So, I turned 21 on the 24th March 2010 and my oldest, bestest friend bought me perhaps the best present imaginable, a cruise to Amsterdam. Although we were only in the great city for 4 or so hours, we had plenty of time to see the main sights and attractions of Amsterdam. Sex and Drugs.

Fish Eye New York

Some more photos from New York, taken with my fish eye camera.