March was a fun month – here’s what I got up to.
Fave 5 from the blog
- Paper-cut sunflowers for Mother’s Day
- Which on-demand site is best for you?
- My new sewing storage area
- Free Easter garland printable
- T-shirts and leggings at Nuvango & Redbubble
Links I Loved
- Emma wrote a great post about keeping a diary featuring my 5 year diary
- Really excellent guide to food photography that works for products too.
- Cool article about typography and The Prisoner at Creative Review
- So many interesting things to do in London at Conversation Pieces.
- In-depth overly serious essays about The Legend of Zelda are becoming one of my favourite things.
- This Q&A at The AV Club made me happy to know I’m not the only person who needs silence, instrumentals or foreign language music to concentrate on work
Reading
So, I caved and started re-reading the Wheel of Time. I’m already five books down as they are so much easier to read the second time, once you know who most of the 7 billion characters are and can skim through all the recapping and dream sequences. We’ll see if I get bored once all the tedious plots of doom get going around book 8.
I also read a ton of zines that I must write about soon.
Unread books update: 0 down, 1 added
Watching
The Tale of Princess Kaguya
I was pleased to find out this was showing when I planned my birthday trip to Glasgow. A Ghibli film is always a treat, even if it’s not a Miyazaki, and this one looked like it was going to be very pretty to look at. It’s based on a Japanese folk tale about a bamboo cutter who finds a tiny princess inside a bamboo stalk, but the story isn’t all that important since mostly you will be mesmerised by the animation. It’s like a watercolour sketch come to life and the lines and colours are just beautiful with some amazing sequences where the line and style mirrors the mood and emotions of the scene. The first half was amazing and the second half dragged a bit with the story going a bit mental and depressing, but it’s still definitely worth seeing if you get the chance.
The Big Painting Challenge
I only liked one of the amateur artists taking part in this, and thankfully he won. Mostly I was just interested in the challenges and what everyone was doing with different mediums. I have been very frustrated by my stupid winter hands preventing me from doing any art or sewing lately so now I’m desperate to do some painting.
Suffragettes Forever
Three part documentary that has been brilliant and one of those situations where I realised I actually knew virtually nothing about the subject while thinking I did. I’m sure this will pop up on iPlayer regularly so look out for it.
What Did Lovefilm send me?
The Grand Budapest Hotel, which was as good as I expected and maybe my favourite Wes Anderson. Mockingjay Pt1, which wasn’t as boring as I expected but still not exciting enough to justify the split. S1 of Silicon Valley, which I am enjoying a lot so far.
Listening
A new Errors album was a nice birthday present and is shaping up pretty well. Looking forward to a proper listen on the train tomorrow.
How was your month?
