My Autumn Allotment

A couple of weeks back I started working on updating my portfolio and shared some paintings in progress based on last years Autumn Allotment trend. 

Since then, I've developed them into repeat patterns and made visualisations. Today I'd like to share the finished collection.

All designs work, visualisations and boards done in Photoshop

The main target market was childrenswear but I added some accessories too since I felt there could be wider appeal for these prints. 

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I don't even care for carrots and radishes in real life! Do you?

- Part Time 小姐

Line Walker: Art in progress

Before I talk about the art itself, let's talk about TVB's Line Walker: The Prelude. 

I wasn't really that into the original Line Walker drama (my Mum was!) so I didn't have any expectations regarding this drama. My Mum however was a bit irked by the change in cast, leaving only Michael Mui and Benz Hui from the original. Nonetheless, we gave it a watch and I actually became very invested in the story and the characters. 

While I like a lot of the characters in this drama, I've admittedly fall more and more in love with Lok Siu Fung (Pakho Chau) and Tsui Tin Tong (Benjamin Yuen) as I watch this. 

And THAT leads onto the art. I've not drawn fanart or chibis in a while so I decided to do a piece in Photoshop of my favourite triad members!

Initial Sketch  ...  Fleshing them out, adding clothes.

 Line Art  ...  Base colours and light shading

Adding background and other details  / Final background. I debated between this and a wall.

DONE!

I think this is a decent representation of what they were like in the early stages. (No spoilers here!) My favourite part was dressing them. Lok Siu doesn't have as many outfits so I kind of knew I wanted draw him in the leather jacket look (lol, so triad!) but Tsiu Tin Tong has the BEST collection of suits! This one is one of my favourites. Still can't really do backgrounds, but I promise I tried here ^^'

[Full Size]

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I'm looking forward to the TVB anniversary awards. I will also be mad if 'My Favourite Male Character' doesn't go to one of my baes! Have you seen/ are you watching Line Walker? Who is bae? Lok Siu or Tsui Tin Tong?

- Part Time 小姐

REVIEW - Joules Bundle

Previously I shared my Top 3 Harbour tops (if you're interested, you can see that post here) so now I'd like to talk about the Joules pieces I own. 

(l-r from top) X_HARBOUR HSTFNAV, X_BERKLEY PINKCHK, X_WENSLEYPLUMVEG, X_HARBOURPRINT FNAGCMB

Harbour tops are a Joules classic and understandably so! 

Sizing - so personally I think the Harbours run a little big, I have been wearing a UK8 (I've not worn an 8 in a LONG time!) and it fits nicely. It's fitted but not so much that it hugs.

Comfort - with these tops being 100% cotton, they are extremely comfortable to wear!

Washing - my X_HARBOUR HSTFNAV washes well and keeps it's shape and size.

10/10 would buy again- a classic for a very good reason!

The Wensley scarf comes in LOTS of prints but can we just talk about how cute this scarf is? I passed on the Harbour top with the radishes but this was too sweet to pass up on. 

Material - 100% polyester

Texture - this scarf has a very soft, sleek feel to it. The hem is very fine and the overall scarf is very lightweight and smooth.

10/10 would buy again - a lovely scarf at a goof length for wrapping/tying in different ways, even slight snags are fixable!

This Berkley scarf is my newest piece and I'm so glad I got it! I especially love the pastel colours and it will 200% go with the pink bobble hat I've been eyeing up. 

Material - 100% acrylic 

Texture - this scarf is super soft and the oversized nature definitely adds to the coziness! I will absolutely be wrapping myself in this as it gets colder.

10/10 would buy again - beautiful colourway, beautifully soft. I love it!

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So that's how my collection stands at the moment,  I will share my thoughts on new pieces as I get them. Have you got yourself a cozy scarf for Autumn yet?

 - Part Time 小姐

Top Spoop

Though I only wear Lolita once or twice a month, I really enjoy the fashion and the meets with the Leeds community!

LEEDS! LEEDS! LEEDS!

Yesterday I went to Gothica Halloween meet where we went to see the Leeds Festival of Gothica exhibition at Leeds City Museum followed by food, drinks and games at Dry Dock.

Great times were had with the set and props from West Yorkshire Playhouse's Costume Department!

This set was way too good and too on theme to pass on and my various shades of red look like they almost match under this lighting xD
In my co-ord photo at the end of the post, you will find that they certainly do not!

A photographer from the exhibition kindly took a comm photo for us

(the settings on my camera may have needed adjusting)

As you can see, there is a perfectly good coffin and some of us decided to get in it for photo purposes - I did not, no thank you!!!

Some of my discoveries...

Some nice skull decor from one of the stalls

A piece of jewellery I rather liked

Following that, we went upstairs and explored an exhibition on skeletons! #topspoop

This turned out to be an extremely on theme meet and in some parts, quite educational!

After the museum we ventured onwards to Dry Dock which from my personal experience NEVER disappoints! I got ribs and wings which came with sweet potato fries (sweet potato fries are life!) and onion rings. I regret nothing!

Games included a race to see which team could draw the most extras from a list on their haunted house which we won (ours featured an extension lol) and consequences which seems to be a Leeds classic! The key themes seemed to be skeletons and Mr Yan. 

JSK - Sweet Addiction

Blouse - Magic Tea Party

Bats - After Midnight

Everything else - offbrand

Bonus bat pic!

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While planning this coord I KNEW spoopy wasn't my forte but there you go, I tried my best to spoop! If you wear Lolita, is your comm doing a Halloween themed meet? 

Are you a #topspoop?

- Part Time 小姐

Mandarin - Lesson #2

This week's lesson focused on pinyin and pronunciation.

In terms of pronunciation, we have initials, finals and syllables.

Syllables (which are words put together from initials and/or finals) can stand without initials but they MUST have a final. There are some rules in regards to spellings and letters being added in front of finals but I've not quite got my head around all that yet.

Initials - b p m f d t n l g k h

Finals - a o e i u ü ai ei ao ou

It took a while for me to get my head around how to sound these out, it's very different to English and they all have a very elongated sound in comparison. 

Here are some of the notes I made for myself to remember roughly how to sound these out.

Initials

b p m f - I likened the sound of these to 'wor' 

e.g. 'bwooor', 'pwooor'

d t n l g k h - I likened the sound of these to 'ugh' 

e.g. 'duuugh', 'tuuugh'

Finals

i - 'ee' (like in the Japanese word 'usagi')
ü - 'yu'
ai - 'aye' (I pronounce this like in Japanese also)
ei - 'A'
ao - 'oww'
ou - 'ohh'

Our teacher gave us a pinyin chart with lots of variations on with a link. On the website, there are sound functions which allow you to play the sound of each initial/ final/ syllable in all 4 tones. 

https://chinese.yabla.com/chinese-pinyin-chart.php

These are things that I find helpful personally, hopefully they will also be of help to anyone else who is also learning Mandarin and find it tricky to remember or get their head around how to sound out the letters/ words!

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Which do you find the hardest to sound out?
Top tip - elongaaate!

- Part Time 小姐

Portfolio Update - Autumn Allotment

Since going part time at work, I thought maybe try and see if I could get some freelance work as a designer on the side so this week I thought I'd make a start on updating my portfolio for a recruitment event by The Fashion Network.

Since I no longer have access to WGSN, I've been keeping myself up-to-date on trends and researching them using Pattern Bank, Pinterest and good old Google. 

Autumn Allotment - A/W 16/17

[Source: http://emilykiddy.blogspot.co.uk] 

Although it's from last A/W, I really like this trend and think that it is still very much relevant so I decided to design a collection around the same theme.

Though the inspiration is the same, I want my collection to look bolder and more whimsical. I'm just going to share some drawings for now, the actually designs and patterns will come later!

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What are your favourite autumn motifs? 

- Part Time 小姐

My Favourite Harbour - Top 3

Sorry folks, this isn't a travel post (though I love to travel! I'm a VERY part time holiday goer!) but it is an appreciation for a different type of harbour. 

A a part time sales assistant, I've been getting to know our stock and today, I'd like to share my favourite Harbour tops!

X_HARBOUR HSTFNAV

I have this top and it's a 10/10 classic! It comes in 6 different colourways. The navy is my first love but the 'Antique Gold' is definitely a firm favourite too!

X_HARBOURPRINT CRADSTP 

Can we just talk about how cute these little radishes are? They are adorable! While I resisted the top, I 200% couldn't resist the radish scarf!

X_HARBOURPRINT FNAGCMB

I think I *might* make this the next addition to my own Harbour collection! White and navy is an all time classic combination and the rich mustard adds a lovely pop!

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So here we are, my top 3 Harbour tops! 

Links are attached below each image should you like to see more pictures or get your own! 

What do you think of the Harbour/ Harbour Print tops? Do you have a favourite? 

- Part Time 小姐

大家好, Hello everyone!

Today I started my part time Mandarin course!

It was interesting to learn about the language itself, I didn't know that the language is actually called 'Hanyu' (language of the Han people) but this word doesn't exist in the English language.

Learning about the evolution of Chinese characters was also very interesting for me and I found I much prefer the look of traditional Chinese characters to their simplified form. We were also told we'd generally need to learn around 2000 simplified characters, I fear a little for how I'll get on but I hope knowing some traditional characters might help my cause.

[Image from: https://www.researchgate.net]

We started off with learning the different tones in Mandarin (there are 4 plus a neutral tone, compare to the 6 in Cantonese) and pinyin and I could clearly see how Mandarin is SO much easier for foreigners to learn than Cantonese.

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Overall I had a real field trip learning about my own culture and our writing system! I look forward to how I'll get on in the following weeks. 

- Part Time 小姐