Everyday I'm hustlin

I think its fair to say the title of this blog post is pretty accurate at the moment, I'm not sure where this week has gone but it has been filled with briefs being ticked off ready for portfolio, handmade type, design competitions, a pattern everyday and a ridiculous amount of coffee and grime mixes to get me through. I have made it through the week though and just a couple more days of early starts/ late evenings before my portfolio goes to print, however I have no doubt after that I will conjure up something else that needs all my time. This happens on the regular, once I decide to do something I will get obsessed with it... just like with Hip Hop baking. Speaking of that next week I shall be back on my a game with hip hop bakes, I have come up with some pretty swish names but they haven't made it from being scrawled on my hand in a sharpie to the mixing bowl just yet.

This weekend was pretty intense on the work vibes, I didn't really stop and I have most definitely perfected the art of rolling out of bed straight onto my desk chair. It's like a habit now, I do manage to throw a shower in the mix mind you. Also it seems during portfolio madness I have perfected a variety of hair styles, every time I took a break from work I was just thinking about doing work so I ended up plaiting, curling, straightening my hair into a variety of hairstyles, even resulted in plaiting it every time I got a brief ticked off...definitely gonna roll with the corn roll look when all of them are done. Here are some visual updates of the week including a very sunny blue sky...its nearly summer yo!

Some hand drawn type for one of my project roll outs at school: 

One of the various plait hair styles I have tested out on my Barnett:

And finally todays flex, ''Packed Lunches for Playas''...one of my projects for my portfolio which is basically what the title says. Packed lunches delivered to the OG playas, all inspired by hip hops greatest. I was dreading this brief a little bit as I have all these visions and sometimes they don't come out how I hope/ visualise in my head but today everything went to plan and I ended up with quite a few good shots and a lot of bagels and cakes for my housemates. It is a spin off of the hip hop bakery brand so obviously includes a baked treat:

Tonight is finishing off the menu for the hip hop bakery and some more hand made type so on that note heres the soundtrack of my life at the moment, also check out my pattern a day if you're interested www.onepatterneveryday.tumblr.com

Thank God for Pizza and Pals

Day 5 of portfolio time at school (well day 3 at school plus the weekend where I didn't actually leave South East London, usually I love a little galavant but it was strictly work vibes this weekend) and I think its fair to say we are all feeling the pressure. All I can think about is Web design, mobile sites, corporate reports, grids, and type hype, not a bad thing but my housemate came in my room to ask who I was speaking to the other night when in actual fact it was just me going ''For fuck sake what typeface is that...this is shit, why can't I find it'' and I have caught myself talking to myself around 5 times today about aligning text in circles.

Anyhow I'm pretty lucky to have some good pals who are keeping me from going crazy, Sarah has been receiving regular calls from me in the bath, on the bus, stressing on my lunch and I even went as far to FaceTime her when I was taking a power nap only to realise I had face timed her boyfriend Pete so that was a treat for him on a sunday afternoon... my face under the covers nearly crying over a typeface. And then we have Liz who gets regular pattern photos saying ''what do you think? tile it out? separate? what do you reckon of the colours'' then usually an end of day text message explaining the ins and outs of how I have got on, luckily Liz is constantly reminding me that I have been so excited for this course all of last year and I need to enjoy this time now!

OG Lizzie Brown is my London playa so probably is the worst off out of them all with having to put up with me, however we went a grabbed some food last night to try and take a break from thinking/doing/talking about work and I ended up definitely eating my stress feelings with a delicious every type of cheese going pizza...check below. 

And of course accompanied by a vino, its not our weekly meetings without one it seems. We also had a little bit of an incident in the restaurant when we both heard Lana Del Ray start playing, it was probably hilarious to watch as when we both realised it came on and we proceeded to throw our arms in the air in a very theatrical manner with all these facial expressions both looking at each other in despair, how dare they play our ''I'm having a shit day so I will listen to Lana and cry'' song in a public place, thank god we were together and ended up cracking up when we both did the same thing else it could've been a crying into the pizza scenario if I was rolling Solo!  Anyway what I am trying to say is Thankyou Ladies, for being super amazing friends and putting up with the typeface grid pattern crazed playa I have become!  

So yes my days are mostly spent with the headphones in at the moment but I have been listening to some absolute bangers in the day, I have to have pretty upbeat music on else I will just fall asleep. I have a nap time playlist on Spotify and by god if I go near that I'm asleep before I've even pressed play.  This week has mainly been grime and garage and then I kind of have a mini rave whilst on Indesign however I made a rookie mistake this morning...I listened to the track below Kahn ft Flowdan- Badman city and for the rest of the day no matter what I was listening to I was remixing it with ''When I roll with my darrrrrgggggss'' but this is such a good vibe for 6.30am on the tube!! 

Wizpa Khalifas

So just a quick one as baking is gonna have to take a little break  during the next couple of weeks as I expect all I will be thinking about is Type, Layout, Grids, Hierarchy and a few patterns thrown in for good measure. However I needed a little wind down this evening and I hate watching TV so thought I would make some treats though unfortunately I have left all my cake tins at school therefore these will have to be eaten by housemates and anyone who visits our house over the next couple of days.

I actually used a recipe straight out of a book, usually I try and mix it up a bit a freestyle them but tonight I went back to a favourite and she didn't disappoint. Mary Berry is the OG of the baking game and I have quite a few of her books which have a good variety of recipes from easy ones like these to crazy ones. I actually decided to use Vanilla icing as I thought with the Wispa on top it might be a bit of a chocolate overload but heres the recipe link...http://www.bakingmad.com/mary-berry-chocolate-cupcake-recipe/ and heres how mine turned out...

''Wizpa Khalifia Cupcakes''

Unfortunately both the housemates are out this evening so we have no reviews so far but I am pretty confident these bad boys won't disappoint. Also I have started another mini project where I am painting/ drawing a pattern a day so I will keep this blog for hip hop baking and the general life of a full time playa and then check the one below where you can find a new pattern each day...Who knows why I decided to start this when its probably about to be the most crazy 2 weeks of my life doing portfolio work but a playas gotta play and I like having little projects, just like running I get excited to meet a target or hit a goal and also this will be nice to do after I graduate to keep my busy whilst I find a job...

http://onepatterneveryday.tumblr.com/

Now it wouldn't be a hip hop baking post without a tune to get your bake on to, to be honest I am not the biggest Wiz Khalifa fan however this song reminds me of my lovely friend Lexi as I remember her loving it at uni and we were most definitely Young, Wild and Free back in our Southampton Solent days...

Spring is most definitely here...

Yes yes it is, finally after months of socks and by god did I manage to buy every floral patterned, glittery and dog faced pair, scarves and winter coats it is finally feeling like spring is here. I mentioned in the last post that I had been home for the weekend but I arrived back in sunny London yesterday (look at the beautiful blue sky)

 and proceeded with research to put towards our final brief which is now well underway. I actually find researching really fun and especially when you have an end goal to achieve, this morning I was flicking through a fashion graphics book to be inspired by a lot of nice typography and also interesting invites and tickets. 

One of my favourites was this lovely Paul Smith invite probably as it combined 2 of my favourite things, floral and the word playeeerrrr!!! Though personally Paul Smith I would've spelt it with an A!

And the 2nd piece of inspiration came from good old Kenzo, can't bloody beat them can you..how amazing are these invitations...they actually open up to the 3D butterfly extravaganza!!

And finally here is a little pattern I was working on yesterday. I wanted to try something really simple but with a bit more colour so here I present the floral tutti Frutti flex... 

Patterns, Cakes and Pals...

Time really is flying by at the moment, I can't believe how quickly my time on this course has gone and how it's nearly over! This week was all about portfolio talks, designing a mobile site and our last brief however this week I decided to try making a pattern a day, I was pretty successful drawing away in my evenings after school but think I'm going to set that challenge for when portfolio time is over. For as long as I draw one a week I'm happy. Here's three of this weeks treats, one inspired mainly by the fact I was starving and considering ordering a pizza and then thought "no draw" and I ended up with a fast food pattern which instantly reminded me of my friend Jens fast food bikini, she said she wants this wall papered on her wall!! 

Then I was thinking about woodland patterns and key elements and ended up with this which I'm not actually too sure about and will work on the sizes and angle because it doesn't look quite right...

And finally this below one is probably my favourite of the week, a playas take on paisley...

So after a busy week at school it was time to return home where I got to spend time with two of my best friends and also arrived back to some treats from mama..what better way to start a weekend than with Oh Comely and a V&A tile pattern book...

It was actually one of my best friend Liz's birthday which obviously meant tea, homemade cake, a little gift and obviously a few cheeky ciders thrown in there for good measure, it's not a birthday without a bulmers! So big up Mrs Bega and Happy Birthday lovely!!

And ofcourse while I was home I managed to squeeze in a trip to my favourite shop. Anyone who knows me will know that "The Hambledon" in Winchester is my idea of absolute heaven. The store itself is a beautiful building, filled with homeware, cards, beauty products, shoes and clothing. Sarah and I popped down to check out the new Norse Projects stuff (AMAZING- and sometimes I wish I was a boy) and have a browse of their exquisite home decorations. The great thing about The Hambledon is their displays, always changing but always utilising their products to make enticing and interesting table and shelf displays, check out Sarah here purchasing her treats but with the amazing cake inspired display going on at the till. 

I strongly advise anyone who likes the exquisite things in life to pop down there and have a browse, you won't be disappointed but you might leave a bankrupt playa!! 

Show a playa what you're worth, Yeah put in work

Another week completed at School, I can't actually believe how fast it's going and were actually nearing Portfolio time which means it will all be over soon. This week has been pretty intense with various briefs being set and completed in a matter of days however I did manage to squeeze in making a pattern for one of the briefs, inspired by vegetable patches here's a preview before it went into the design...

This weekend I will be mainly working on my packaging, I'm actually really excited to create the mock up products and photograph it all...not so excited about my photoshop skills being put to the test to mock up the labels onto product, we can only hope it doesn't look like a 5 year old has done it!

It's not really an excuse but running has taken a serious backseat infact I don't even know if I can still run. A pal and I tried to sign up to the Nike "We own the night" ladies 10k but unfortunate it was full, I was fully counting on that to be some motivation to train and was also more inclined towards a night run so that noone could see how red my face goes. Anyway we missed out on that so now gonna search for some more runs to take part in this summer. Also with school finishing next month I will be able to get my training back to 4 times a week and hopefully regain my personal best 5k time.

I'm also super excited for summer now, the past couple of weeks it has been getting lighter and lighter in the mornings on my way to school and I just love the summer evening, being with the pals at the pub, picnics, early morning runs and to be honest everyone are just in better moods when the sun is out. Now if their is one thing thats making me want summer to hurry up its got to be these, I saw them a couple of weeks ago and immediately sent them to Sarah with a million hearts. Liberty collaboration with Acne absolute dreaminess...

I broke my favourite glasses from last year, in the photo below (which I found yesterday and made me even more hyped for summer) I absolutely rinsed these last year, not even sure if people saw my eyes for a good few weeks. Circle glasses are tha bomb!

Anyway today is all about the work hype and I have my summer soundtrack currently blaring out on my mac, I might make some sort of cocktail in a minute and put my sunglasses on have a dance...that is the normal kind of thing I like to do on work break.... enjoy this and maybe put your sunglasses on too!

Foreign Eggers

A little late on the updates but I'm a full time playa with a jam packed agenda at the moment. Bringing it back to the UK hip hop vibes, with this three layered bake off inspired by the trio..Foreign Beggars though to be fair every time I've seen them I swear there has only been two of them... Anyway Easter is just round the corner so this one is the perfect treat to fuel your Easter egg hunt.

''Foreign Eggers''

You will need: 

10oz butter

10oz sugar

8oz Self raising flour 

2oz Cocoa

1 large bar of Dairy Milk

5 Eggs

2 Tablespoons milk

For the Icing/ topping:

500g Icing sugar

200g Butter

Vanilla extract

Whipped double Cream (couple spoonfuls)

1 Tablespoon Cocoa

1 Bar Dairy Milk

Mini Chocolate Eggs

Method: 

I haven't really been stretching my baking capabilities lately mainly because I just don't have to time to go shopping for all the ingredients so have been winging together various twists on sponge classics, 

Simply beat the butter and sugar together to form a creamy soft texture then cracking the eggs in one by one and stirring as you go. You then need to sift in the flour, gonna be honest I didn't have a sift so mine took a lot of mixing to make sure there were no bumps...no one wants a mouthful of flour in their slice. Add the milk into the bowl to make your sponge super tasty and fluffy! Now this is completed you need to take a third of the mixture out for the chocolate layer. 

Once separated you can mix in the Cocoa and melted bar of chocolate, I used dairy milk but any kind would do the job and even mix the game up and throw a mint aero flavour in there if ya'll fancy. 

Just pop the mixtures into 3 sponge circular tins ( 2 for vanilla and the chocolate one) and cook on 150c for 35 minutes/ until golden and springy. 

Now for the icing. I made two types one for between the sponges and one to cover the cake. Firstly you will need to beat the butter and Icing sugar together and mix in the whipped double cream, I kind of judged this as I went along so it totally up to you how creamy you want to make the icing. Now split in half and add the vanilla essence to the first one and melted chocolate and cocoa to the other. Again its personal preference which way round you use the icing, I used chocolate for the sandwiching between the sponges and vanilla to cover it but mix it up, marble that shit do what ever yo want! 

Once iced for can place your foreign mini Eggers on too of the cake and voila!

I'm gonna say the only album to listen to whilst having this bake off has gotta be 'Stray Point Agenda' with your ultimate track ( probably best to whack it on whilst cakes are in the oven ) being this banger...brings back so many uni memories...

Patterns are for playas

It's been a busy week at school the past couple days and for the first time I was super tired by the end of each day though it was very proactive and I'm really excited about the current project.. Creating brand packaging! Obviously keeping in theme with full time playas I have come up with a real (well I think TREAT). 

Earlier in the week I was working on an illustrative pattern for some web design and was drawing inspiration on socialising and friends which obviously means drinks and ice cream?! I came up with this pattern idea which made me so excited for summer using pen and watercolour...loads of people have said they love this one so I'm thinking of getting it printed into some fabric and making some cushions/ summer dress.

Unfortunately due to such a busy week I didn't get time to bake anything but I expect I will have a hip hop bake off this weekend at some point but for today it's pattern inspiration, type lockups and lunch with my favourite ladies Liz, Alex and baby Niahm. 

Also one of my patterns has been short listed for a competition, so if you have a spare 5 minutes would really appreciate the vote.. It's Becki Clark "Nature" and here's the pattern in the drawing stages before I sent it off... You can vote here http://www.salesgossip.co.uk/competitions/design_tote_bag_students/?action=competition_vote_page&mobile&id=10