2011

This picture makes me absurdly happy, genuine, belly, hearty laughter... theres not much better.

When I look back on 2011 in many ways it was actually a pretty amazing year in respects that I got to visit my most favourite place, NYC for the second time with my bffl and I went on holiday to Kenya for one of the best experiences. I've also been to some amazing gigs, theatre shows, fun days to london and brighton. But 2011 also brought some of the worst weeks I've ever had to experience with losing my Grandmother in October, it hit me so hard and I will still miss her with every coming day. I've met some amazing people this year who I consider to be good friends of mine now from the blogging world and I hope to meet lots of the ones I didn't have chance to this year. I've opened my Jewellery by Jaymie shop and have been working hard on designs and making pieces. In 2012 I want to learn more about jewellery making, maybe take some classes and practice with different materials and equipment, I've recently been talking a lot to Faye who is the created of Wired Jewellery (beautiful pieces that i need in my life!) and we want to have a jewellery making/ inspiration/ lesson day which would be incredible. I've also embarked on freelancing full time and entering the world of self employment, thanks to the support of my family and creative peers!

I decided that to summarise and have a roundup of the year, anwsering some questions inspired by my lovely girl Vic (she said it was okay) which she posted on her blog. If you want to know anything more or have any over questions don't hesitate to leave a comment or email me :)

1. What was your "2011" look?
 My 'look' was still very much true to myself. Still full of contradictions boy meets girl, preppy rocker, prim and punk etc and it's no secret I'm a 60s, mod loving look fan. Pretty much always got my feline flicks and pink lips. My hairs changed a few times this year. From longer ombre, to dark, to shorter, longer bits at front etcccc. Seriosly considering growing my hair again and thinking i'm going to balayage once more. I 

really want pink hair and to wear fun wigs, maybe my 2012 look...

Feeling the burn, remember when i got a nice nasty sunburn on my chest and back? Still got tan marks on my back from it...

Tried some new hats...

Experimented with different make-up... 

2. Favourite store of 2011?

I've bought quite a bit from ASOS this year. They've been my all rounder shop of 2011, So many pretty dress, collars, shirts, shoes, coats. mmm love. 

3. My style icon of 2011?  

Constant icons of mine are Twiggy, Alexa Chung and Audrey Hepburn. I've also been coveting Coco Sumner, Audrey Tatou as Coco in 'coco before chanel' Fearne Cotton and Charlotte Free for her pink hair in particular. 

4. What have you been listening to this year?

Mainly Foster the people, Ed Sheeran, Mystery Jets and She and Him. 

5. Top 3 films of the year?

Submarine, Hangover part 2 and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2. There was so many film I wanted to see at the end of this year like Hugo and My week with Marilyn and I never got the chance, gutted!

6. Favourite tv series?

I really got into the new Pan Am series. Oh to be an air hostess in 1950s america would be incred. Can't wait to start watching 'New Girl' I love Zooey Deschannel and pretty much anything she in is going to be amazing. 

7. Sum the year up in less than 30 words.

new york, illustrating, making jewellery, opened a shop, kenya, safari, fed a monkey, lost my grandma, left my job, started freelancing, met some lovely people. (if this makes you laugh don't worry... I chuckled at fed a monkey, lost my grandma. Laughter is the best medicine!)

8. Top beauty product of 2011?

Brow zings by benefit, my face isn't complete without filling my eyebrows in. The tail end of my eyebrow is lighter then the front bit and when I got them waxed and shaped a couple years ago she said i should tint them but doesn't last all that long so I can never be bothered really. I also bought Nars blush in orgasm when I was in New York and it is definitely a firm favourite, I'm a fan of pink hue blushes and that marie antoinette look haha. Oh and my sigma make-up brushes!

9. The 2011 smell?

Still rocking my jimmy choo and daisy by marc jacobs but i'm loving vera wang princess as well which I use to put on when I worked in perfumery all the time. 

10. Moment that you will remember most from the year?

I have a few but generally most of them are from my trip to New York in feburary with my bestie and spending our time in radio city and outside of rock feller centre and then theres my holiday to kenya this summer, two big memories from this is my safari and seeing all the animals for the first time, seeing lions close up and the excitement, laughter and pain as we drove up to them and got thrashed about, watching elephants bathe in the watering hole outside our lodge and being about a foot away from an elephant when I came out of a toilet, amazing. 

11. What I hope for the next year?

I want to continue blogging and enjoying it as much as I do now, working harder on my writing and providing interesting content whilst still staying true to what 'By Jaymie' is, gaining more valuable followers and readers who genuinely want to read or look at my blog or work. I want to meet lots of new people that I have been talking to the past year and formed bonds with and get to know them IRL. Continue to work hard, strive for my dreams and to have a very successful, exciting and happy year. More trips, gigs and traveling please!

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year whatever you're doing, be safe and happy. Don't go out with the intent it will be the 'best night evahhhh' as this is always the set up for an anti-climatic fail of a night, i know from experience, now I just roll with it. 

Jaymie

♥ 

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01/03/11

I have a phone again! 2 weeks without tweeting, texting and generally feeling a little lost without one. fonesafe who insure my phone delivered me a replacement yesterday so I had to go to t-mobile to sort out the sim situation but I am now back in business. I didn't end up going to see any kittens yesterday because of having to go into town for my sim card.

Whilst in town I made a little pit stop in Topshop and ended up buying these shorts from Topshop they look even nicer irl and sit high waisted. I know I'm going to be living in this summer and whilst were not quite there yet I'll be teaming with the regular opaques. I'm digging the whole Vada influence from My Girl I use to want to be her when I was little. The summer I'm going to be all about shorts, denim, white, tropical prints, fruit, inspiration from what I use to wear as a child basically... I'm really after one of those tops that I had as a child, they're like a cropped top vest with fringed bottom and usually had some kind of hawaiin tropical print on them, hm. Hope you understand what I mean because that is the best that I can describe them really, I may have to had a dig around some old family photos to see if I can find a photo and try and recreate the top myself because it is proving very difficult to find on Ebay!

Jaymie
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28/02/11

Hooters! nothing more to say. Except that I bought the most rad top ever from there. LOVE IT.

Jaymie

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New York in a Nutshell

Beautiful NYC.

I woke up nice and early this morning which has been a change from the past few days! Whilst flicking throught the TV channes at 6.45 in the morning I saw that cartoon everyone had been going on about a couple of weeks ago 'Rastamouse' haha it's amazing, love it. I've also had my first cup of tea in 3 days and woke up actually feeling hungry this morning so I may actually have my blueberry pancakes, a few days late I know but still, never to late for pancakes. Think I may go down to the cats protection re-homing event today that I mentioned yesterday, but I have a feeling it'll just be asking for heartbreak as I wont be able to do anything about getting a cat, er. I also very much need to do some drawing I feel like I haven't in so long and it's the only time I seem to make sense. Have a gorgeous weekend!

Jaymie
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27/02/11

Woke up nice and early pretty much did this everyday (proud!) Went for breakfast at Tick Tock diner near Penn station and had pancakes with fresh strawberries. Then went to get the bus downtown to get the ferry to the statue of liberty we passed a pretzel stall and couldn't resist getting a NY pizza pretzel he wrapped in foil so we saved it for a little later (a little later being whilst in the que to board the ferry) Yet again it was another beautiful cold sunny day. We Walked around china town, exploring/ getting a bit lost trying to find the urban outfitters and pink berry we saw whilst on the bus earlier in the day. In the end after popping into our 100th Duane Reade we jumped in a cab, I bought a lovely summery dress which is a bluey purple colour and has a cool pattern on it and some cat eye sunglasses both from urban outfitters. We also saw the most adorable puppies in a pet shop window with a crowd of people around them, seriously so cute. Especially the king charlies cavalier and fluffy Chihuahua, me and Michelle decided these would be our pups when we lived in the city, we went in and I saw a couple playing with a black wolf looking puppy, eeek so sweet. I ended up holding the King Charles Cavalier and didn't want to give it back! Got a cab back to Times Square and walked past the AMC cinema which is huggggge, it was 40 minutes til The Kings Speech was playing and we both had wanted to see the film and to go to the 'movie theatre' in America. It was a really good film, the seats were so comfy as well as they reclined (England take note) though this did make it hard to put your feet up on the seats so cue a lot of fidgeting. The Americans well loved the swearing in the film and couldn't stop laughing, love atmosphere like that in the cinema. We were knackered when we got back to the hotel, so decided just to go have a quick drink in the Irish pub which was only a few shops down from the hotel and eat something, had the best mozzarella sticks everrr. Then we went to bed in our clothes again but for a different reason, we wanted to see if we woke up in the night and fancied doing something then we could just get up and go but we were to tired haha.

I've nearly finished reading Eat, Pray, Love? It's such a deep, spiritual kind of book which I think on many levels most people can relate to certain aspects of it. Being a book worm anyone have any recomendations? I still want to read Dorian Gray and still have Lolita to read but if anyone has a must read do let me know!

Jaymie
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26/02/11

The day started off with waking up in the same clothes as I went to bed in. Sign of a good night? Yes. Michelle the poor cub cub felt rough as, though and awoke then decided to take up on the floor with her head face down... not as good of sign. We headed down to Radio City to venture up the Rockefeller centre, to look at the breathtaking views of the whole city on this particular clear sunny but still such a cold day. We ended up watching the ice-skaters for a bit (show offs!) Got approached by the men in yellow (ticket sellers) who were soon to become good friends of ours haha. We bought a 3 day bus ticket which allows you to go to the top of the rock or empire state, statue of liberty and the ferry ride, we also got unlimited use of the bus which went uptown, downtown, a night time tour of the whole city including Brooklyn with some seriously amazing views. It worked out really worth while for us to do this as it only cost $86 so I would really recommend doing so if you want to do touristy things, learn stuff and get off at certain areas. We also saw hundreds of people queing outside of NBC to audition for The Biggest Losers, so strange don't really think of people auditioning for that show?! We indulged in one of our favourite cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery which is literally just down the block from Rockefeller, Red Velvet hmm my fave.

Just chilling with the empire state in the middle of us and our eyeless worm friend that William from the pub gave me. Excuse the face, we were still hanging.

Magnolia Bakery!

Very strong frozen sangria and mojito from Caliente Cab Mexican in Greenwich Village. Best food ever!

Hope you enjoyed an insight into my 'getting our tourist on' day in the city. As some of my readers have mentioned about wanting to go NY or that they're going there themselves this year, I hope it helps and that you get some good tips and find some cool little places!

How's everyones Monday going? I went uptown today with the mother for a girly type of cheer up day with intentions to go and see the Titanic exhibition at the O2 but in the end run out of time did go to brick lane for bit of a vintage rummage didn't come away with anything but I love to dip my toe in and look around, went to the tate, walked in the sun at the southbank and ate dinner at Giraffe. Now I have the trawling around town fatigue. Cup of tea and Corrie time!

Jaymie

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25/02/11

It rained a lot the first proper day we spent in New York so I didn't really take many snaps mainly because I didn't want to drown my new camera but think the illustration sums the day up as best as a drawing can.

Some LFW illustration articles which I provided a couple of illustrations for Amelias Magazine they were published whilst I was out of the country so thought I would share the links now the illustrations were for Olivia Rubin and DAKS shows.

I have zero energy and motvation to do anything. Does any one have any tips? I want some get up and go! I want to not feel so lethargic so I can do some excercise but feeling full on laze :( viscious circle. Boring quick post because as just said can't even really be bothered to be on a computer really, I'm so lame! The only thing to note about this Sunday is that I have watched a whole bunch of Save By The Bell, Inception and trying to not for asleep. Ah.

Jaymie
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24/02/11

Leopard faux fur coat - Next

Wolly oversized jumper - Primark

Shiny leather look leggings - Primark

Riding boots - Ebay

Satchel - vintage

Scarf - Zara

Woke up insanely early 4.45. Had tea and toast before setting enrolee to Heathrow. Had starbucks white chocolate mocha and muffin. Shopped (bought Jimmy Choo perfume)  boarded our plane (after trying to board the wrong one - I blame Michelle!) watched Never Let Me Go, ate a strange dinner type meal for breakfast... Arrived at JFK, jumped up and down on hotel beds, went for a walk around bryant park, times square, bought sweets and bud light from Duane Reade (our fave place ha) ate chinese in our hotel room, got ready to go out went times square I wore leather shorts and stripey top went to forever 21, sephora and M&M world got tired and lasted til about 10pm before we crashed in our beds watching something on MTV.

I'm still feeling pretty blue and craving to be back there, plus I've not being very well probably change in water again, getting a chill and feeling homesick (from NY) I've got some things to keep my busy though working on the rest of these 'Today' series, an idea I have for a small zine and a book in the pipeline pretty much based on these type of drawings an illustrated journal of sorts? If I was to make a small scale version for a zine would anyone be interested in buying a copy? I'd make it as cheap as possibla. I've also got a commision that's going to be a focal point of this weekend.

Has everyone seen a possible new feature that I'll be doing with Vicky from Aha Shake Heartbreaker blog she's one of my daily reads and I love all her quaint essentialy british traits, she drinks as much tea, girl crushes on alexa and writes beautifully, anywho click here to see a What Vicky Wore Illustration avec moi.

Jaymie

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