Temporary Secretary

Over the past year I've put together quite a few fashion spreads for Fused and Area including a selection of purse friendly suggestions for the annual student guide and more recently (but not yet published) a colourful autumn spread. Fused and Area are independent magazines and as such I like to include a mixture of well known brands and lesser known gems. One such gem that I have used in several recent spreads is Temporary Secretary.

Sarah Wong founded the brand in 2008 and it's gone from strength to strength with fabulous designs and a great blog. In fact, she recently won the A/W 11 Look Magazine's Blog Competition - congratulations! In all honesty though, I think she shines when she gives the reader an insight into her life...particularly her adorable posts with the lovely cat Oscar.

Brand wise she is always a pleasure to work with, ready to help and with lovely pictures of her quirky and kitsch handmade jewellery. I can't wait to get my hands on some of her latest pieces... particularly her laser cut wood range and typewriter rings. I love the bright red tab key, I think I'll have to get that and a letter. Thankfully, it'll be Christmas before we know it. This year I am definitely making a list.

Images from the Temporary Secretary blog and website.

Autumn/Winter Style in Fused Student Guide 2011

For the second year on the trot (which is nice because it gives the impression it went down well last time) I have compiled the autumn/winter style pages for Fused's annual Student Guide, which has been transferred to their pocket sized Area format.  So, I suppose, it's now Area's Student Guide but it is as awesome as always.

You can find it here or embedded below (p14 - 19) but you should read the rest as well.  I particularly like 'How to Get Laid on the Cheap' (p34) and 'The Carpels' Guide to Birmingham Music' (p58).

Open publication - Free publishing - More fused

The End of Summer

I think it's fair to say that summer is officially on the way out, which is a shame as it always seems to be when I'm happiest and I feel like I've spent most of it doing work for my MA.  However, I have also done other things...I've been to Portugal, I've been to Wales where the boy tour me on a tour of many many castles (my favourite was Pehrhyn), I've baked A LOT, drank copious amounts of red wine, I've done some writing for Fused, prepared their AW Fashion Guide, wrote a short story for Cellardoor's wonderful End of Summer Issue (p84), got my little sister prepared for high school and waved the boy off to live bloody miles away.  Oh and I've more or less finished my MA.  It's been a busy one.

Barmouth Beach

View from the Caravan

We may complain about British summers but even when it's pouring it down a 99 from the ice-cream man and chips on the beach front make me reminiscent of summers when I was younger.  As a young girl I spent many summers in a caravan/apartment/posh hotel depending on our finances at the time but to me it didn't matter where we were.  I once adopted a seagull who I called Sammy, I fed him every day whilst we were away with my aunties and cousins and every one.  I only realised this year whilst telling the boy that story that Sammy was probably multiple seagulls.  Naive I know, but it shows how much I believed in the magic of summer - as a tiny girl I had a pet seagull.  So don't give up on British summers - they may be shorter, come at strange times of the year and be largely interspersed by rain but they're our summers.  Make sure you make the most of them.

My mother and I, Newquay, aged 2. 

BLAC Space Scape

Now I'm back in the Midlands I decided to try my luck and see if Fused Magazine would let me write for them again...and they said yes.  I will be writing for Fused/Area Culture Guide online and in print, so keep an eye out for me.  For those of you who go to Birmingham uni look out for my reprise in Fused's Student Issue, where I give you the best trends for the coming season...all affordable of course.

My first article went up on Tuesday entitled BLAC Space Scape.  (If you follow me on Twitter you'll already know this but I am a bit behind with my blog sorry!) You should read it because it features fabulous jewellery by BLAC and an incredible shoot by creative director Ashley Hilton, who will be graduating this summer.  It also features an amazing film of the shoot by Videographer Dima Kalenda.

Cake Britain

So...there's an amazing exhibition coming up in Covent Garden.  Art and cake...2 of my favourite things.  I've wrote an article about it for Fused so no point really re-writing about it here.  Think Heston Blumenthal's fairytale feast and the Skoda advert but you can eat the end result.  Amazing.

Catch up on your reading...

I'm dotted throughtout this months Area Guide and on their website too.  Sometimes my initials are at the end sometimes not...don't ask me why.  The important thing is that whether or not LB is tagged on the end people will be reading things that I have written.  It makes me all smiley and excited...and certain that I made the right choice doing an internship with Fused Magazine.  Working for a smaller company certainly pays off.  I've been writing actual articles rather than just cleaning the supply closet.

My articles are:
Inbindable Volume (page 4) - the first article in the mag :o)
Behind the Mask (page 12)
Six Summer Saturdays (page 14)
Shambala Festival (page 22)
Graduate Birmingham: Lorna Hirst (page 33)
Give it Some...Sourz (page 39)


I also compiled the big long list of What's on for Septmeber at the end. See...I've been working hard :o)  I do not expect you to read them all. I'm just showing off as it's so exciting to see my work as it will look in print, in something that people will actually read...with LB at the end makes it even better!

I also wrote Claire's Twi-Hard Beauty Looks on Fused Magazine too...as well as having some of the Area articles published on there.  What am I doing now? Compiling the fashion pages for Fused's magazine September issue.  Birmingham is going to have some very stylish students.  Oh...and organising work with Style Birmingham to help at their Style Birmingham Live event hosted by George Lamb.  Busy busy...should probably stop blogging.

First Day at Fused

I had my first day at Fused yesterday...and it went alright I think.  Thank God.  I compiled for articles for Area, their local West Mids guide, which goes to print Friday, and wrote about a fundraising music photography auction for the website: Teenage Cancer Trust Six Shooters Auction.

I'm not going to say it's my best work, I've wrote more unique things, but it is very nice to see my name published with an actual article somewhere that is not here...and it's in the most popular articles section currently too after only going online last night.  Yay!  Check it out.

The Big Job Hunt

I have officially finished work for the summer.  Well...I have finished full time work for the summer, I start a work placement at Fused Magazine a week tomorrow and I am massively excited.  I will be writing articles, researching, helping out with their marketing/PR activity and organising their 10th birthday bash.  Awesome!  Sounds a bit full time though doesn't it?  I'm going to become superwoman to get it all done with only two days in the office a week!

Despite this excitement it is time to look for a "proper job" again.  Due to my father's encouragement I have a meeting on Wednesday about "going on the dole".  It will be terrible.  I hate the Job Centre.  However, hopefully they will help my summer cash flow whilst I'm off work and will of course push me to sort a job.

Now, what do I want to do...in no particular order...
1. Be a fantastical magazine editor.
2. Do the marketing for Burberry (they are so on it right now!)
3. Be a fashion buyer extraordinare.
4. Write a novel.
5. Take the world by storm.

Now...any chance of all these things being incorporated into one job?  Anyone reading this who will give me a job?  No, thought not.

Prague

Prague is one of my favourite places on Earth.  Just seeing pictures of the place makes me all reminiscent of times drinking Caprioska's on the bankside gazing at the Palace across the river as the sun sets, arguing with my friend over who should get a shot with the beautiful barman, gazing at beautiful stained glass in churches nestled in amongst a mass of buildings, embracing my long lost boyfriend with ferocity when meeting him on Charles Bridge after not seeing him for nearly two months as we both jetted around the world.
(Note: Read jetting as me basking on a beach in Spain for three weeks and crossing on the Channel as he headed off interrailing for a month.  Also note that whilst this moment was very memorable for me he probably has no clue what I'm on about.)

On my first visit I was so in awe I ignored the graffitti and the dirt, the beggars, the prostitutes.  That was all quirky artwork, blind women singing operatic tunes and eclectic women.  Prague is a beautiful place but on my second visit, when that 'I'm never letting you go' hug took place, I saw it more for what it really was., stipped back by a more realistic and older head.  It was still wonderfully but it was suddenly more touristy, people knew where it was when I said where I was going and the beautiful craftwork stalls had been replaced by...well...tat as my Granny would say. 

This is not to say I loved it any less but the love had altered.  Queue the hotel thinking we've done a runner without paying as we don't come back for a night after saying that we'd be back that evening to pay our bill, eating Pom Bears and drinking a gallon of Coke very hungover, getting annoyed that our favourite bar had closed and failing to find the perfect Caprioska anywhere else.

To my amusement I then read an article on Fused's website that followed a similar story, though with much less romance and illusion.  I laughed out loud, which is odd for travel writing.  Fused reminds me of a less protentious version of Wallpaper magazine and this article summed it up for me.  I like the attitude, the honest, and the funny anicdotes.  Take a look if you want to smile.  Whoever Johnny is I want to meet him.