Giveaway: $15 Gift certificate to Hobbies From The Heart!

The ever so kind Mari has offered you guys the opportunity to win a $15 gift voucher from her little Etsy shop, Hobbies From The Heart.  All of the above which I received is a ton of samples which would cost a lot less than $15 so it will definitely stretch! The items are all excellent quality and one of a kind, as well as being great value for money.

All you have to do to enter is:
1/ Be a follower of this blog via GFC or Bloglovin'
2/ Like the Hobbies From The Heart Facebook page here!
3/ Leave a comment saying 'enter me' with you e-mail address.

Extra entries (MUST leave a separate comment for each):
1/ Follow the Hobbies From The Heart blog.
2/ Follow the Hobbies From The Heart Twitter
3/ Heart the Hobbies From The Heart Shop
4/ Heart your favourite item in the Hobbies From The Heart Shop
5/ Tweet about the giveaway saying: "@amyvalentinex is holding a great giveaway on her blog! http://amyvalentinex.blogspot.com/2011/11/giveaway-15-gift-certificate-to-hobbies.html"

The giveaway will end in 10 days, so the 26th November! Best of luck everyone!
love amy x

Sugar Skull

I woke up this morning feeling terrible, I'm pretty sure I do have tonsillitis, as I looked up the symptoms and I'm almost a complete match.  I've booked a doctors appointment for later so I can find out for sure and took the day off college.  I didn't really want to because I have 100% attendance, and I really hate missing lessons and catching up, but I got up and didn't even have the energy to get dressed so have just been resting all day.  Hopefully I'll be better before Friday though, because I'm going to see A Day To Remember in London and they're one of my favourite bands!

I took these photos for my photography assignment.  The brief is 'people' and after seeing a ton of sugar skull pictures at halloween I wanted to try it for myself and I'm really happy with how the images turned out.  They were all edited on photoshop, using the curves function. I don't really know how it works yet, but I had a play around and it turned out alright.  I am, however, getting a little tired of having just me in the pictures, mostly because working with a tripod is difficult, especially as mine is so temperamental! I'd like to work more with models, but my teacher gives us such short deadlines that I don't have time for it which is a shame.  Anyway, what do you think? (:
love amy x

Sunday Summary Week 26

1/ Got a bit adventurous with the nails.  The colour doesn't photograph well but it's coraly pink
2/ Freddie helping himself to Pringles
3/ Made a wish at 11:11 on 11/11/11 !
4/ Drew a little dreamcatcher on my wrist, thought it was cute!
5/ Alex in my pink pajama bottoms and fluffy socks hahaha
6/ My Asking Alexandria tickets arrived!
7/ Human poppy my college did on remembrance day

Things I loved this week:
1/ The Crown & Glory blog, especially her '30 for November' feature, where she adds a new product to her shop every day!
2/ Love Parker Fitzgerald's Flickr! (here)
3/ Take One Last Breath - Abandon All Ships (Listen here)

If you're a follower of my twitter you'll know that the students of my college all went to the field on remembrance day and formed a giant human poppy in honor of the fallen soldiers of WWI.  Us students were given red pieces of paper, the teachers black and we had the army come in to be the green.  Unfortunately the weather was too misty so the helicopter couldn't fly over to have an aerial shot which is quite disappointing,  but it's the thought that counts I guess!

Yesterday I filmed my day for 'Britain in a day' and cannot wait 'till they make it! I have yet to submit my videos but I really loved Life in a Day, and I could even be on TV! If you haven't seen Life in a day already I strongly recommend it, it's so moving and beautiful.

On a less positive note, I woke up this morning feeling absolutely awful.  I think I may have tonsillitis as my throat is killing me and I looked up the symptoms on the internet and there's a match.  However, I'm always assuming the worst with illnesses and stuff, so I'll just pop into the nurse at college tomorrow and see what it is, as my college attendance is 100% and I want to keep it that way, I can't stand missing lessons as there's always so much work to catch up on!
love amy x
ps. This is my 26th sunday summary of 52, so I'm half way to a year!

Like Lions Do

I've been really busy with photography coursework lately, and just thought I'd share some of my work with you guys! The topic is 'objects' and my inspiration has been taken from both Frederic Lebain and Lissy Elle, I love her work so much!  The pictures were a little difficult to take, especially the levitation ones, which also took ages to edit!  My photoshop skills are still at rookie level, as I've only just been taught to use it, but I'm happy with how my photos turned out! What do you guys think? (:
love amy x

Sunday Summary Week 25

1/ Saw a dying butterfly, pretty depressing actually ):
2/ Cute quote in a galaxy wrapper
3/ The sink after I used powder dye, so pretty!
4/ I braided my entire head (can't really see it too well in the photo)
5/ Had my own personal firework show at my window, win!
6/ SO MANY PAIRS OF SHORTS TO MAKE
7/ New rings coming to the shop!
8/ Went to a proper fireworks show, was really nice (:

Things I loved this week:
1/ Really loving Leonie's blog, ENDLESS SPRING
2/ This blog with a ton of free downloadable photoshop curves, they're really great!
3/ 9 Crimes - Damien Rice (listen here)

This week has gone pretty quickly in my opinion and I'm knackered from this weekend.  I went to see fireworks in Farnham then a party afterwards which was really fun, although I was knackered this morning as I had a terrible nights sleep.  My first A-Level photography project is due in tomorrow so I've done like 3 photoshoots today as my teacher made me re-do my whole book, I was so annoyed when I found out but I'm actually really happy with some of the photos turned out.  I'll definitely post the photos some days this week!
love amy x