I had a pretty amazing Christmas; it was nothing special, just a few family members, lots of alcohol and good food... I think that's the best kind of Christmas though. I think the only thing I wasn't too happy about was that I couldn't really afford to buy people the presents they deserve... I want to put alot more effort into that next year.



The day after boxing day I travelled down to London to shoot with the incredible Lavezzaro; I'll post some of the edited pictures soon as I have them, but for now here's a preview posted on her Instagram (hence censoring):

I really had a blast shooting this and I can't wait to show you guys! Lavezzaro was lovely and more than made up for the fact that the people I was renting the room from creeped me the hell out, heh. It was also my first time visiting London, which was a bit overwhelming; I really wish I'd had more time to enjoy it and taken more pictures tbh, but I'm sure I'll get more chance to do that this year.

I actually look forward to/enjoy New Year as much as - if not more - than Christmas, especially this year. Not so much the actual celebrations since I never really do much on new years; this year we had a little get together at a friends house, with lots of alcohol (again!), onesies and drunken twister.



Despite the fact it was nothing special, I actually had an amazing night again, much much better than expected.
But, the thing I love most about New Year is the whole emphasis on "New". I always make resolutions and take them seriously, I love throwing out old stuff and buying new stuff; I love looking back on the past year and reflecting, I love the feeling of potential the new year brings.
I have a tradition every year of changing something about myself at New Year too - I noticed this year that the level of "drastic" is really affected by how down and stuck-in-a-rut I feel. Two years ago I was really feeling caged in, so I cut all of my hair off. Last year I was feeling pretty liberated after coming out of a long, sour relationship, so the only thing I did was pierce my nose... This year I'd been feeling really down and worried about the future, sort of a dull panic, it was horrible. So, this year I've done quite a bit!
I changed my hair - I'm allergic to hair dye and I didn't want to cut it so there's not much I can do with it, but I've been thinking about doing this for a while. This is a work in progress, I'll be fiddling with my hair for weeks I think!


Then I took myself down to my favourite piercing shop... I got a smiley piercing - definitely very inspired by Miss Katherine's.

I was really worried about the pain, but it turned out to be the easiest piercing I've ever had! I love it so much... it also makes smiling at squeamish people about 5x more fun.
I also got these done in the same visit:

Now while my smiley was the easiest... these were BY FAR the worst ones I've ever had. So so painful, nothing else I've had done even compares. I'm so glad I had them done though, I love them to pieces, and I'm much happier with how I look sans-clothes. Plus they're fun as hell.

So, after well over a year of being very happily single, I guess I'm finally seeing someone... It's taking alot of getting used to. I'm a very independent person naturally, and after the mess of the last one I avoided relationships altogether. A friend of mine recently told me that I'd "built up walls"; she was completely right, and I hadn't really realised till she pointed it out... Still, as different as it feels, he makes me smile. I'm happy. That's enough for now.

With me working and being so busy I haven't really had as much time to make art as I wanted to - I miss my paints so bad!! - but I do have one or two things to show. Lots of sketchbook stuff:






SuicideGirls inspired stuff
Some sketchbook experiments with Radeo and Katherine:


Some digital paintings of Nemesis... I discovered her a few weeks ago and instantly fell in love completely. So bummed she'd already left. Major girl crush like crazy. These are from her Dorian set:



And a watercolour study of Hopeful Von_Chaos:

I haven't touched watercolours in aaages, I was so rusty but I just couldn't resist painting those eyes... So striking. The whole set is stunning, I can't believe it hasn't been bought - cannot believe that it hasn't gotten more love in the percentages, either! From her Immortal Rites set.
As always you can keep up with my art updates on my Art blog, Inkinsomnia!