So I'm completely aware this relates to absolutely nothing that I blog about but I just couldn't help but share this.

I find it incredibly lovely and I intend to try these 16 steps of happiness. Perhaps you should too?

1. Push yourself to get up before the rest of the world — start with 7 a.m., then 6 a.m., then 5:30 a.m. Go to the nearest hill with a big coat and a scarf and watch the sunrise.

2. Push yourself to fall asleep earlier — start with 11 p.m., then 10 p.m., then 9 p.m. wake up in the morning feeling re-energized and comfortable.

3. Erase processed food from your diet. Start with no candy, chips, cookies, then erase pasta, rice, cereal and then bread. Use the rule that if a child couldn’t identify what was in it, you don’t eat it.
4. Get into the habit of cooking yourself a beautiful breakfast. Fry tomatoes and mushrooms in real butter and garlic, fry an egg, slice up a fresh avocado and squirt way too much lemon on it. Sit and eat while doing absolutely nothing else.

5. Stretch. Start by reaching for the sky as hard as you can, then trying to touch your toes. Roll your head, stretch your fingers, stretch everything.

6. Buy a 1L water bottle. Start with pushing yourself to drink the whole thing in a day, then try drinking it twice.

7. Buy a beautiful diary and a beautiful black pen. Write down everything you do, including dinner dates, appointments, assignments, coffees, what you need to do that day. No detail is too small.

8. Strip your bed of your sheets and empty your underwear drawer into the washing machine. Put a massive scoop of scented fabric softener in there and wash everything. Then make your bed in full.

9. Organize your room. Fold all your clothes (and bag what you don’t want), clean your mirror, your laptop, vacuum the floor and light a beautiful candle.

10. Have a luxurious shower with your favourite music playing. Wash your hair, scrub your body, brush your teeth. Lather your whole body in moisturizer, get familiar with the part between your toes, your inner thighs and the back of your neck.

11. Push yourself to go for a walk. Take your headphones, go to the beach and walk. Smile at strangers walking the other way and be surprised how many smile back. Bring your dog and observe the dog’s behaviour. Realize how much you can learn from your dog.

12. Message old friends with personal jokes. Reminisce. Suggest a movie or sushi date soon, even if you don’t usually follow through, push yourself to follow through.

14. Think long and hard about what interests you. Crime? Sex? Chinese folklore? Long-forgotten romance etiquette? Find a book about it and read it. There is a book about literally everything.
15. Become the person you would ideally fall in love with. Let cars merge into your lane when driving. Pay double for parking tickets and leave a second one in the machine. Stick your tongue out at babies. Compliment people on their cute clothes. Challenge yourself to not ridicule anyone for an entire day, then two, then a week. Walk with straight posture. Look people in the eye. Ask people about their story. Talk to acquaintances so you become friends.
16. Lie in the sunshine and daydream about the life you would lead if failure wasn’t possible. Breathe in, breathe out. Open your eyes and take small steps to make it happen for you.

Wow, it's been two years since I've updated this blog!
It's mainly used for essays and college work but now I'm deciding to use it as a blog for Lionheart Accessories. To start with my first post shall be a giveaway!
The instructions are on the image and they couldn't be easier.
Just head over to www.facebook.com/LionheartAccessories and like the page and share the picture!
The giveaway will end once I reach 600 likes and don't worry if you don't win this time around as I'll be hosting giveaways at 700,800 etc.
The winner will receive a prize worth around £20. :)

Good luck!

Yorkshire Sculpture Park: Jaume Plensa Comparison

On Thursday 29th September I visited Yorkshire Sculpture Park. I took a trip here to generate ideas for the Tapton Grove project. The first pieces of work I looked at were by Jaume Plensa. His work ranged from the largest gongs and polyester resin humans right down to the tiniest models of his work and mixed media pieces. I felt he seemed to relate a lot of the work in the two beginning rooms we looked at 'depression, anxiety' and other unhappy emotions. His worked continued through other rooms to show connections with religion and continuing with the theme of unhappiness. A lot of his work also looked at using poetry in connection with something else. For example the glass squares at the beginning of the building showed paragraphs of poetry going down the door way.

[Artists visited; Jaume Plensa, Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Sophie Ryder......... unfinished ]
 All of these artists seemed to use the human form as inspiration for their work in some way. Jaume Plensa used the human form in the most obvious way. Where as if we compare his work to that of Barbara Hepworth we can see that she has taken a more abstract approach when she has looked at the human form. [Unfinished draft]

3D Sculptures: Angel of the North



“People are always asking why an angel? The only response I can give is that no-one has ever seen one and we need to keep imagining them. The angel has three functions - firstly a historic one to remind us that below this site coal miners worked in the dark for two hundred years, secondly to grasp hold of the future expressing our transition from the industrial to the information age, and lastly to be a focus for our hopes and fears.” - Antony Gormley, sculptor

 A contemporary sculpture created by Antony Gormley, Angel of the north is a steel sculpture of an angel standing at 66ft tall with it's wings measuring over 177ft. The sculpture is located at Gateshead, England.
The purpose of the sculpture was that it was built to symbolise the memory of the miners who worked underground in this part of the country for over 200 years. It is also thought that the sculpture was also put there to give hope to the people who visit it.

Ingrid Siliakus

Ingrid Siliakus is a 'paper architect'
Paper Architecture is cutting and folding a three dimensional object.

Ross Ashton

 The artwork Ross Ashton has produced shows a clear relationship between artwork and architecture as well as light and surface. 

His work never fails to catch emotion, be thought provoking and is known to be very exhilarating. 

Taptop Grove: New brief

To begin the new brief we began by working in teams of two mind mapping words we had taken from project brief. We selected words such as ‘Care’ ‘Diversity & Respect’ ‘Health’ and Environment.  We then began to make individual mind maps for each word. 

For example with diversity we looked at all the ways we thought people were ‘different’ through religion and emotions. 

Before researching into design ideas I wanted to look into my target audience and see what treatments were used to treat people with mental illness. 

One of these treatments was light therapy.  So I began looking into artists that used light as a form of art and began trying to create my own ideas.

My first idea was aimed towards the subject of race.  I thought this was a strong idea to use as structure at Tapton Grove. I wanted to use light as one of my main materials for this idea. Either drawing with light or projecting light through a group of people I would stencil out. I would begin experimenting with these ideas by using card and the light box. As well as continuing experimenting with light through light photography. I started to look at projecting light through paper  after researching an artist called Ingrid Siliakus who is a ‘paper architect’  I also looked at artists who project images onto building. This artist was called Ross Ashton.  

I also looked at an artist who uses laser cutting to create his images, which would be an ideal way to produce my experiments as it would be letting through a large amount of light, which is something I wanted to do. Going back to projecting light through paper I also want to experiment by projecting words through stencils.  I feel this may be more visually pleasing as it is giving the viewer of the sculpture more to look at rather than just having a clear light shining through. 

                                                                                     Roger La Borde: Laser cutting stencils. ( Similar to own initial ideas.)