Rough Luck

The past few weeks have been very hard for me. My mood has been low, without much hope of it picking up any time soon. There is one major reason for this sudden plunge into darkness; that little four lettered word beginning with ‘L’, shortly followed by betrayal and heartbreak.

I never intended to use this space to express my feelings – this isn't Live Journal. Instead this blog was created to express my creativity and promote my business. However, creativity is often used as an outlet for emotion, and I have to say that all of my creative work derives from good feelings rather than bad feelings. Regardless, I apologise in advance for any teenage angst this post might portray.

I have been spending a lot of my spare time watching Romance films. A lot of the time I have been looking for hope, but I have become so used to hoping for a better ending that I have used it all up. Instead what I have found is probably a lot more valuable. I've learnt to move on; or at least try to. I have a lot of things to be glad for in my life. I began listing these in my head today in an attempt to make myself feel more positive about life.

1. My family love me unconditionally. They know me better than anyone, and I don’t give them enough credit for that. They clearly miss me a lot, and I need to remember to never take them for granted... Not that I ever do. In addition to my human family, I also have the cutest, sweetest dog ever. He always knows when I'm sad and likes to lick away my tears. Or maybe he just likes the taste of salt.

2. I have an amazing job. No two days are the same and I work with some of the loveliest people. It can be full on at times but I have yet to dread a Monday, and I actually kind of miss it on weekends.

3. I live in my dream flat. It might need redecorating and the power shower isn't exactly powerful, but it’s everything I always wanted, and it’s all to myself. 

4. I have a cute little car. And a tank full of petrol to take me anywhere I want to go. I may not have anywhere to go right this minute, but with it the world – or at least the United Kingdom and extensively Europe – is my oyster.

5. I have the best friends in the world. They might not always answer the phone on the first call, and some may take a few days to text back, but they always deliver. They listen to my complaints, and put up with my general mardiness and brutal sense of humour. And they always give me good advice. I.e. “Stay away from the sociopath; we don’t want you turning up in the morgue.” They've got my back.

I might not be over this for a very long time yet, and I will definitely still have my dark days, as always, but I'm on my way to recovery. Last night was my first full night of sleep in a long time, and that has to count for something.

New Wharfrats Range

As mentioned in previously on my blog, I have been working on a new range for my fashion brand, Wharfrats. I have been crafting macramé bracelets to sell in my Etsy store. These range from charm bracelets, to beaded bracelets, to bracelets embellished with chain and even pairs of friendship bracelets. Everything is £5 with free P+P and I've also been working on some more. I'll post photos of these soon, but for now I just wanted to show you what is actually available to buy. I also have some really exciting news to share, but I want to include some photos so it will have to wait until next week!

All bracelets are available here.

All Charm Macramé bracelets available here.

☯ Peace out ☯

The Story Behind Wharfrats

Two years ago I started working at a nightclub in Newcastle called Digital. I made friends with another Rachel who was hired at the same time as myself. We share a lot of interests, and although I hate to admit it, she's like a better version of myself. We started tie dying clothes together at her house. We were just playing with patterns and old clothes, but we had a lot of fun.

As planned, I left the UK to travel Australia for three months. This trip broadened my mind a Hell of a lot. Although travelling may seem exciting, it leaves you with a lot of spare time sat in airports and on Greyhound buses. Armed with a sketchbook and a pack of coloured pencils I started designing.

I have always been creative, and have drawn clothing for as long as I can remember, but I have never had too much confidence in my art skills to study design at uni. But I do like to draw nonetheless.

I decided to make a few of my designs come to life, and when I returned to the UK I moved back to Manchester, got a part-time job in a bar, and started saving for equipment.

After a month or so I had saved up enough money to buy dyes and invest in a supplier. Whenever I had some spare time on my hands I was using it to create my designs. Each design took roughly about a week to make, and usually a further week to find a photographer and list them online.

To begin with, a lot of interest was shown in my designs, and I was making a nice profit. However, I didn't start designing to make money, I do it because it's something I enjoy doing.




One of my lecturers at uni ran a small market fair in the canteen one Wednesday, and invited the students and staff of the faculty to run stalls of their own. I took part in this, and began creating new stock. As it was close to Halloween, I even rolled out some special stock. This was a great experience, and preparing to run a market stall was hectic. I made bunting, flyers, stickers, a look book, custom forms,  labels, and other decorations. I got my photographer to help me, and take photos on the day. It was a long day, and a long week leading up to it, but it was really fantastic in the end.




This helped me learn more about my brand too. I could see, first hand, what people thought of Wharfrats, and the specific market it was attracting. Operating a store online is cheap and easy, but you will rarely ever get to meet your customers, and this can be a huge disadvantage. From experience, I know how difficult it can be to receive feedback on your products when selling online. Although I have never had any bad feedback from any of my products, I almost feel insulted that someone wouldn't want to leave me any kind of feedback. But I do live by the motto "no news is good news".

I have decided to create a new range for my brand, and as I am in the process of creating this new range, I thought I would share some of my favourite items I currently have in stock.

All stock is available in my Etsy store here.

A Working Weekend

Saying as it is a bank holiday today, my family and I decided to get away for a long weekend. We ended up camping in Beadnell on the North coast. Being a bank holiday in England, it was inevitably going to rain. After walking the dog on the rainy beach, giving up on the barbecue and settling for tomato soup, there wasn't much else to do. So I decided to get creative! I ended up making a lot of bracelets for my online store. Some of them aren't complete yet, but by the end of the week they should all be available to buy!

Here's a sneak peak:

I also collected a 'few' pebbles and shells from the beaches we visited over the weekend. I'm not 100% sure what I'm going to do with them yet, but I have a couple of ideas to keep me busy.

All-in-all we really enjoyed our little weekend away, despite the weather and a trip to A&E (my mother slipped on the beach and broke her wrist). Now it's back to working hard to get this stock out!

It's been too long

It would appear that I have been neglecting my duties of a blogger. I have my reasons, but none of them are good enough! Well they kind of are...

So I began my final year of university around the time I last updated. It was one hell of a year! I don't think I've worked so hard in my academic life! There were a lot of assignments to get done, exams to revise for, and a personal research project to conduct, and I had to put my time and effort in if I wanted to do well. But I tried my hardest and received a 2:1 honors in International Fashion Marketing.

My good friend Hope and I keeping to traditions and throwing our caps in the air.

During my final year of uni I also had a part-time bar job, where I worked about 16 hours a week to pay for treats like clothes, make up, hair dyes, books, etcetera. I quit this just before my final deadlines and exams to focus on my studies, but now I'm feeling rather poor for doing so. Nevertheless it meant I could enjoy my summer to the max before I throw myself into employability.

Of course, as I mentioned in a previous post, I started my own clothing business, Wharfrats. This was a big venture for me, and although I have made a lot of sales, it's not quite paying the bills just yet and is still a work in progress.

So they are my excuses. Good enough? I didn't think so. I'll be trying to update a lot more now that I have a lot of spare time on my hands. Hope you're all looking forward to it!

☯ Peace out ☯

Business Cards

I have decided to make some business cards on Moo.com. 50 cards for Wharfrats and 50 for personal use. Here's an idea of the mock ups:

It's costing me a lot of money, but I don't really mind because I really like them.

9 Months

It's been a very long time since I last updated. It seems my last blog was the last day of 2011. Wow, so much has changed. I moved to Australia and travelled around after living in Manly, Sydney for a while. It was the most amazing trip of my life! Travelling definitely changes you as a person.

Since then I moved back to Manchester and started up my own little clothing company! It's called Wharfrats and I specialise in making tie dye and grunge products. Here's the link to my Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/Wharfrats

I have one mega weekend to look forward to of university, working, tie dying and parents, so I will update more thoroughly next week!

Thanks for reading :)

Happy New Year!

Just a few new year resolutions to stick by. I'll do a proper update in the new year, but for now I have work until 6am, woop woop.

1. Quit smoking

2. Cut down on drinking

3. Exercise more

4. Get out of this country

5. Be happy

Things I Find at Work

So I decided to start a photography project based on the weird and wonderful things I find at work and decide to bring home with me. Here's just a few I've collected so far:

Reflect

I forgot to mention that I entered a photography competition called Reflect in October. The brief was to enter up to four photographs of places, people or the environment in the North East. I went to an old colliery nearby my home in Wardley, and these are the photos I came out with:

Unfortunately I didn't win, but it's no wonder when you look at the finalists. It was a lot of fun taking part though!

Its been a while...

I didn't realise it has been two whole months to the day since I last blogged. Its fair to say that having three jobs has totally drowned any sort of life I ever had beforehand. Basically all I do when I'm not at work is sleep, which isn't nearly enough of the time. On Saturday I handed my one week notice in at Primark as I really can't handle the hours they are giving me. Considering my contract runs out on the 24th of December and I only work on menswear tills eight hours a week for £5.93 an hour, I think it was probably the best job to drop. Digital pays me £6.08 an hour for between 15 and 25 hours a week, and I get on with everyone better there. Its like a massive family, and I love it.

I recently dip dyed my hair all by myself. I ordered two bottles of Crazy Color semi-permanent hair dye in Peacock Blue and Aubergine (£3.99 each or 2 for £7.49). I went for Peacock Blue to begin with, and put about an inch on my tips then left it to set for an hour. It has to be said it lasts a lot longer than Directions semi-permanent hair dye does; a whole week to be exact. However, my mum insisted I'd made a state of it, even though I was quite proud of the job I'd done, and insisted I let her do it for me again. Well, she's gone about four inches up my tips and one side is really patchy, and I really don't like it at all! Definitely doing it myself from now on. Next time I think I will do Peacock Blue tips with Aubergine above it. One of my friend's at work has asked me to dip dye her hair for her too because she likes mine so much.

Workaholic

I recently went for an interview for the new Primark store opening in the Metro Centre. On Monday I found out that I got the job and start working two 4 hour shifts on Saturday's and Sunday's from 15th October. Then yesterday I went for an interview at a club in Newcastle called Digital. They asked me to work last night as a trial shift, so I did. I already know quite a few people who work at Digital as one of my friends currently works there and two recently left. If I do both of these jobs, and keep volunteering at Oxfam, my life will look something like this:

Monday: Oxfam 0900 - 1300, Digital 2300 - 0400

Tuesday: Free Day!

Wednesday: Oxfam 0900 - 1300

Thursday: Digital 2300 - 0400

Friday: Digital 2300 - 0400

Saturday: Primark 1600 - 2000, Digital 2300 - 0400

Sunday: Primark 0900 - 1300

I am going to be dead on my feet after those weekends, but I enjoy working, so wish me luck!

Autumn Shopping

Over the past couple of weeks I've became a little bit obsessed with accessories on ASOS. I recently bought an ASOS Floppy Hat with Flower Cut Out Detail for £6. I really only bought it because it was in the summer sale, reduced from £25, and I've wanted a big floppy hat for a while now. I'm sure it will come in handy next summer.

Today I saw the double of a grey coat I bought from Topshop two years ago in Oasis. The only difference was that it had a faux fur collar, but it was beautiful. So I got to thinking, faux fur collars are on sale in most places, and I could just buy one to jazz up my old coat a bit. I couldn't find any in any of the regular high street stores I popped into, so my first stop when I got home was obviously ASOS! I have ended up buying an ASOS Faux Fur Pointed Collar in Chocolate for £12, reduced from £15, and a pair of ASOS Faux Fur Short Cuffs in Chocolate to match for £9.50, reduced from £12. I would also like an ASOS Turban Knot Headband in Tobacco, but I'm going to see if there's any cheaper similar ones in Primark first.

Within the time its taken me to write this blog, I have ordered another two items from ASOS. This includes an ASOS Boudoir Ruched Front Chiffon Petticoat Slip in Cream for £11, reduced from £20, and an ASOS Pleated Open Back Jumpsuit in Firebrick for £25, reduced from £60. I have a serious shopping issue!

ASOS Floppy Hat with Flower Cut Out Detail

Oasis Peggy 60s Faux Fur Collar Coat for £100

ASOS Faux Fur Pointed Collar

ASOS Faux Fur Short Cuffs

ASOS Turban Knot Headband

ASOS Boudoir Ruched Front Chiffon Petticoat Slip

ASOS Pleated Open Back Jumpsuit

Elegance

I wore the ASOS Shift Dress with Knot Waist in Tobacco for the first time on Friday night when I went out in Newcastle for a friend's party, and it's fair to say that it is now my favourite dress I own. I wore it with a long black blazer, black opaque tights and black peeptoe ankle boot wedges from Primark, and the Brushed Gold-Tone Pendant Watch with Gold Flower Charm that I also bought from ASOS. The whole outfit itself looked beautiful. So beautiful in fact, that my mother encouraged me to order another dress in a different colour. I settled on rose, mainly because it was the only one the had left in my size, but I'm so glad it was! The dress itself, although a little hard to iron, is really easy to wash. It does state that it needs to be hand washed due to the fabric, but it dries really quickly. I was a little worried as I spilt some drink on it on Friday night, but even though the drink was dark, it came right out. It's perfect for nights out as well as smart occasions and job interviews, a complete multifunctional dress.

Now, onto the shoes. To the left are a pair of shoes I bought a little while back from Primark. I have a very similar pair of wedges from Miss Selfridge in brown that I love so much, but they started to get a bit scruffy after only a couple of wears in nightclubs, so I decided to keep them for nicer occasions. I noticed that one of my friends from university would always wear the same wedge ankle boots whenever we went to nightclubs. They were very nice boots and looked quite expensive, but she didn't seem to mind if they got ruined. I eventually asked her about them, and she said she'd bought them from Primark for £15 and they were the most comfortable shoes she owned. I didn't believe her at all, because it seems that almost all shoes damage my feet in some way, my Dr Martens, pumps, Keds, Vans, and especially heels of any kind. However, I found this pair of beauties in Primark in Manchester for £20, and as soon as I tried them on, I felt that familiar fluffy feeling in my stomach, which usually means I've fallen in love with something and must have it. I pretty much where these shoes with everything, everywhere I go now. They're so comfortable and easy to walk in, I can even run in them! I just hope they don't fall apart any time soon otherwise I will be heartbroken!