V&A Wedding Dresses

Last weekend i went to my favourite museum (The V&A) to see a wedding dress exhibition. Although, i'm not very keen on weddings, i really enjoyed this exhibition. It was small and you could tell that every dress was specifically chosen. On the bottom floor, there was about three dresses for each decade for the 20th century and various from previous centuries. There was a brief but helpful description for each section. Upstairs was the modern dresses from all around the world. They had Kate Moss' and Gwen Stefani's dresses. I liked finding out the secret design secrets like that there was a little picture of Kate on her husbands tie at their wedding. The only thing i found tiresome was the description of each dress. It didn't excite me to find out who wore the dresses. I loved looking at the accessories and quotes from people in newspaper and seeing how much weddings have changed. The accessories included shoes, fans and hair garlands. I would have also liked to have seen who made the dresses and how long they took. Overall, i enjoyed the exhibition but would have liked something other than the material dresses.

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Drawing Calendar: February

This post is the second edition to my 2015 drawing calendar. I explained everything January post. February had my birthday in so i found it hard to keep up with all the dates but i have finally finished this month. If you don't think you can keep up with it every day or you like writing a diary then you could occasionally draw pictures to remind you of how you felt that day or what made you smile.

-Met an Akita and Husky club at the park
-Got Indian takeaway
-Noki's first snow
-Did well in fitness class
-Got my hair done
-Prepared for my birthday party
-My Hawaiian party
-MY BIRTHDAY
-Maths revision
-Pizza with the pals at lunch
-Volleyball dive
-Made potato cakes
-Train to Leeds on my own
-Walk around leeds and got food
-Boat broke down at rowing
-Prepared for the dance audition
-Ate a green pancake
-Opticians and dentist and orthodontist
-Saatchi Gallery
-Walk with friend
-Wedding Dress exhibition
-Prepared for school
-First day back
-Irish dancing lesson
-Irish Dancing audition at school
-Parents evening
-Got into the dance show and took Noki to the vet
-Wrote four blog posts

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My Hawaiian Party: Cake and Decorations

For the last post of my series of party posts, i wanted to show you the cake and decorations. The exquisite rainbow cake was made by my friend, who got the idea from Pinterest. It was a rainbow and had M&Ms in the centre. Finally, i accomplished my childhood dream of having a Colin the Caterpillar, my parents always thought they were too childish but i'm so far beyond 'childish' that they let me have one. For my outfit, i made a top identical to the one that Lilo wears in the film. I made it myself out of a red t-shirt and felt. Then i wore a hula skirt with matching hair, ankle and neck accessories. We also had mocktails in coconuts at my party. It took my dad an hour and a half to get the top off the coconuts and take the milk out. I then cleaned them out and put a straw and paper umbrella in them. There were two options for flavours:
The Noki Swirl- tropical juice and pink lemonade and a sprinkle of pomegranate
The Honolulu Wave- orange and cranberry juice with strawberries

I was really proud that i made the decorations in time and the managed to turn out quite well. I  got the ideas from Pinterest. The bunting and face of the lantern are made from card. I guessed the proportions and stuck them down with either Pritt Stick or the glue gun. I love the bunting so much that it is currently hanging in my bedroom.

If I stay Review

Chloe Grace Moretz is one of my favourite actresses; mostly because she isn't in a load of typical teen films. Saying that, If I Stay is quite a typical teen film adaptation of a book. I read the book in a day and thought it was a very unique idea to have a book set over 24 hours. Before you find out much about anyone, there is a sudden car crash affecting Mia, her parents and her little brother. She appears un-conscious to other people but she can see and hear what is happening after the crash. As more characters get introduced in the waiting room of the hospital and tragic things start to take place, the reader finds out through flashbacks what significance they have in her life. She is a passionate cello player, has an un-expected boyfriend and doesn't fit into her family. Mia must choose whether she wants to stay and wake up or let go and leave the pain behind. 

Because Mia is a 'ghost' we follow her everywhere and see her feelings (which the other characters can't). This cleverly makes you think of yourself in her position. You sometimes forget that she is in a coma when you were watching a flash back and then be completely shocked. Although being quite discrete and reticent, Mia had so many people that loved her and it's had to fathom what you would do in her situation. I think the parents were exactly how i would imagine them from the book: contrasting to Mia but a very similar state of mind. Mia's boyfriend Adam, is played by a British actor which added to their differences. I think that the time that they were happy together was too short and their relationship went too quickly in the film. I wanted to see that Mia and Adam were opposites, just like Mia and her parents are opposite and Mia and her best friend are opposite but they all work so well with each other. I loved the music scenes and the way they showed that music was the one thing they had in common. The directors had interesting characters to play with but their personalities weren't disparate. I don't normally expect unique ideas from a teen film but from reading the tense book, i expected more individuality from the whole film. 

2 stars our of 5

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The Saatchi Gallery

The other day me and my friends decided to go to the Natural History Museum. We got out of the station and the queue went for miles and miles. It was the same for the V&A and Science Museum. We were so keen on not giving up so we went and found The Saatchi Galley just two stops down the line. It's very grand from the outside but very simple on the inside. I have never seen anything like the things inside this gallery. Everything was so outlandish and contemporary.

You could go up as close as you wanted to everything it was quite interesting that none of the art pieces had descriptions so you had to interpret every piece of art how you wanted to. There was some really wacky and diverse pieces of art and every piece was entirely different. There was art made from hair, optical illations, moving figures and broken hoovers. One of the most unique pieces was a floor full of petrol. It smelt so strong and it reflected the ceiling and looked like a floor. The rooms were long and narrow and there was no start or end of anything. It took about an hour to get through all of the galley. Even if you don't like modern art, you will find it interesting to see the innovative skills and ideas.

Wadjda Review

Wadjda is a film in the unlikely setting of Saudi Arabia. My mum recommended it because at the moment i am writing a short story about a young girl being forced into marriage in Saudi Arabia. I came up with the idea from listening and reading all the media coverage on Saudi women. Their rights practically don't exist and i find it so interesting that their society is surviving. My story is also about male guardians and the relationships that families have. I read a lot of wikipedia pages about women in Saudi but i wasn't getting the atmosphere from the facts, i needed to see it. The director of the film (Haifaa al-Mansour) was the first Saudi Arabian women to make a film and it be filmed in Saudi. It wasn't easy; she was disliked by the locals and she could not work with men so had to sit in a van and use a walkie-talkie to direct the actors.

Wadjda is a young girl living in Saudi Arabia trying to avoid the prejudices girls are accustomed to. She wants to ride a bike, paint her nails and back chat to everyone. Her father might remarry and society is shaming everyone. Wadjda sometimes finds school difficult but has an aim to make money. She wears converse and hangs out with a boy. Contrary, stubborn and strong.

This film is very relaxed and it doesn't require much concentration (except for the subtitles). The film gives you the basic rights of young girls but rushes over the main limitations of women (like being forbidden from driving). I would have liked if it was equally about her as it was about her mother. A contrast in ages but also a contrast in rights and expectations. It was humorous but lacked energy; only one emotional scene. It shows that women are second class citizens in Saudi's social hierarchy and really helped me understand how children feel living there. If you can persuade them, then this is a good first subtitle film for children around eleven years old. They will relate to Wadjda almost automatically and find her attitude hilarious. I never found it boring and i enjoyed the 'that's life' style of it.

2 and a half stars out of 5

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My Hawaiian Party: Games

Although i am fourteen, i really wanted all the childish party games. Only the best parties have pass the parcels. Everyone enjoyed playing and reminiscing over playing these games in our childhood. For most of the activities, i made some part of it. Here are the games that we played:
Pass the parcel
Musical bumps
Musical statues
Doughnut game
Pin the tail on the stitch
Hawaiian Quiz

Around the centre of the pass the parcel were sweets and hibiscus temporary tattoos and the middle was a pair of Stitch slippers. We made the games less childish and more fun just by being older. I also had the Lilo and Stitch soundtrack for all the games; it mostly consisted of Elvis. For the doughnut game, i decorated the string with small, paper flip-flops. I painted the large picture of Stitch for the pin the tail on the stitch with oil paint and water colour. There was also a lot of dance routines being created.