Next year is approaching on the calendar, quicker than I could have ever expected.

I don't have much of a BEST OF list, aside from saying that the best album that came out all year (and yes, I've heard the new Iron and Wine AND the new Andrew Bird albums) is STILL in my humble opinion, White Rabbits' It's Frightening. Audio candy. I have a sweet tooth.




Best movie? District 9. Equal parts funny/action/gross-out/political statements.






Now for the holiday paintings!

These were all completed for the holiday season. My favorite three pieces I finished in the month of December (out of the NINE I managed to crank out in the month's time) are below:


A humble effort for Thea and Stan Kirkwood...


And for my dear friends Nathan and Leah LeMasters:





( Here's the BIGGEST and best one, in my humble opinion... )

Am I the only person who sort of fancies Captain Von Trapp?

I'm guessing it's childhood Sound Of Music Conditioning.

I added my old chemistry teacher on facebook whilst my profile picture was of me and my Nephew.

He thinks I have had a baby and congratulated me.

This has made my Christmas.

Current Mood: amused

I stole my friend Joe's camera. Thank God for Autofunction. x   MUSHY PEAS!!!! x

 "When I had nothing to lose, I had everything. When I stopped being who I am, I found myself."
Paulo Coelho, Eleven Minutes

Current Mood: contemplative

It's just started snowing again here in (now sunny?!) London. It's all a bit too exciting really. It's also a shame it isn't settling but that's probably for the best considering Londoners are evidently allergic to more than 0.5cm of snow on any surface. So yesterday, I got to hold my nephew for the first time yesterday. It was amazing- I've never actually held a proper baby baby baby before!! I don't understand how such a small body can work with such a big head but he seems to be coping. I just hope this world can sort itself a bit before he gets old enough to start questioning things.. 



A photo of me and then the boys from training yesterday..  me attempting escoripon (it's like a headstand but where your back is arched and the feet almost tough the floor) and the boys just loving some camera attention and trying to out-do each other.  Massive amounts of happy weekend love to everyone x

Tags: capoeira, nephew
Current Mood: cold

I just finished piercing my foot with a needle, no less than 20 times, as I relieved pressure from blisters. Yum. This afternoon I ended up in an almost trance-like state after playing maculele for the first time. For those of you who may not know, maculele is a dance associated with capoeira. There's a lot of theories of why it's around but the main idea is an expression of freedom- I don't know if the slaves would have played this in Brazil/Bahia but we also use machetes when we do performances (machetes would have been used on plantations- seeee?! it's fun to learn kids!)




So, I hate the fashion industry with an un-rivalled passion.. BUT..words cannot even describe how happy I am that Audrey Tautou has exactly the same hair as me in this advert.
I used to, until recently, straighten my hair almost every day and hate how my hair settled without any expensive products which claimed miracles and insisted that I'd be a better person for using them. Ergh.
Fingers crossed for a shoulder length NATURAL wavy-hair revolution instead of women spending hours trying to make their hair look a certain way. Any move towards the natural look is a good one. 10 billion points to this advert.


In other news;
It snowed in London today. I was so excited when I woke up. I then went to Southwark Cathederal for a carol service which had a brass band. I am loving brass at the moment in a huge way and have even considered trying out some instruments to finally fulfil my dream (one of many silly ones) to jam in a ska/brass/funk band.

Also, is it just me, or is there a kid called "Justin Beaver" who has done a song in that repetitive shitty R&B style you always hear where the last word of a song is always repeated-eated-eated-eated? I think it's spelt "Beiber" but it's still friggin' funny. I saw his music video today and it was brilliant; so these kids are about 12 right? I'm bad with ages. Maybe they're 18. Either way.. they're at a cool house party?! His testicles are still almost inside him but he's thrown a sexy house party? I don't understand the music industry. I don't understand the world any more when I watch TV (which I only ever do when I'm home.. at the moment I can't find the remote control and am too lazy to get up and change this.. on a side note, EVERY single girl on TV has the aforementioned fake/styled until you die hair)
If house parties for those born after 1995 is your thing, enjoy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNI43Q6MNt0

Right, enough ranting, I'm going to bed. Hope everyone is as groovy as .. um.. flares?