2013: A Recap.

This is the last photo I published to my blog in 2012.
A lot has happened in the months since then, and many moments were captured.

So… here’s my recap of 2013 in pictures…

January

I took my first 50 Week Photo, named “Steaming Mug Of Ice”.

Grant came to visit and we frolicked in the snow…

And I used a 5×4 camera for the first time.

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February

We celebrated our 1 year anniversary…

And Dom got me some lovely presents…

… and the sun shone for the first time in months.

*

March

We played chess…

Pulled stupid faces…

And spent time with my little girl.

*

April

Grant and I went to see and met Derren Brown.

And sipped free champagne for his 21st!

Oh… and I turned myself into a puppet.

*

May

I dyed my hair orange…

Sweep wore a coat…

We laughed… ❤

Spent time with friends…

And I watched a lot of Dexter… 🙂

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June

I started rereading all of Harry Potter… (In the bath… ahem)

Summertime started peaking out of hibernation…

I went to Download Festival for the first time…

Finally saw Slipknot live…

Plus Rammstein! (Among others)

And turned myself into an Elf!

*

July

We went to Oxford for my 21st!

Celebrated with Misty…

Tried Jason’s amazing cocktails…

Drank yet more free champagne with these rascals!

Jason, Tav and Grant. 🙂

We saw Cirque Du Soleil: Alegria in London…

I made my first piece of pottery!

And we sunbathed the month away!

*

August

I dyed my hair back to its natural colour for the first time in 5 years!

Dom and I went on our first holiday, and my first one in 7 years!

We went to Venice!

And we had an amazing time!

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September

We went to Yorkshire and spent time with my “little” brother…

Plus Vladimir the Impaler!

My sister came to stay…

My laptop died right before term restarted…

So I got my first Mac!

Some friends came to Manchester…

And my precious little baby girl sadly lost her fight with cancer…

*

October

I got my new winter coat.

Found the first conkers of the season…

Developed a little obsession with them…

Got dressed up for the Manchester Zombie Walk…

And made brookies!

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November

I got a surprise present from Dom!

Shot my photographs for the exhibition…

Got the seal of approval for my images from my tutor…

Went to bonfire night at the Alma…

Visited Alton Towers with friends and saw the fireworks!

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December

I got my business cards…

Spent most of my time getting the exhibition together…

Put up my first Christmas tree in my own home…

Watched Elf with my friends…

Opened my first exhibition of my work…

Went drinking after the exhibition with my fellow photographers…

We had our first Christmas spent together!

And I got Christmas bow ties for all the animals!

I finally got Starbucks to call me “Gandalf”…

And we saw in the New Year in Reading with my lovely sister and her boyfriend.

*

2013 was an absolute whirlwind. Some incredible memories created, new friends made, and sadly some goodbyes too.

I want to wish all my beautiful followers a Happy New Year, and I sincerely hope you all have a great 2014.

❤

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Christmas 2013!

Well, that’s Christmas day over for another year! Still got New Year’s Eve coming up, which I will be spending with my boyfriend at my sister’s new house. So we’ve still got some celebrations to be had!

This year I spent Christmas with my boyfriend for the first time- we’ve been together for almost two years now and have been living together for over a year, so it was awesome to spend Christmas day with him and his family. 

Exposure13 was a massive success- we had our opening night on the 12th December and we had such a good turn out, and many of the artists got a lot of attention and interest in their work- maybe even some print sales!

I’m relieved that the exhibition is now done, but there’s still a lot to get done before I graduate- only a few months left now. I will be working next year primarily on a magazine I am launching for the university, along with two dissertations. Next year will be a little crazy! I also need to start preparing for leaving uni- getting job applications out, CVs written and where I’m gonna live sorted. 

I will do a more comprehensive post before the New Year I think. I felt like I just needed to write a little something on here as I’ve been neglecting pretty much everything other than the exhibition for the last few months- which means my blog has gotten a little dusty, along with my Flickr page and my personal photography… which I need to sort out and pick back up as soon as I can. I want to finish my 52 week project but I feel it’s hardly worth it now that I’ve gone so long without posting… but hey I can just consider it a …. very long holiday? 😛

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and have something awesome planned for the New Year!

xoxo

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2013: The Best Yet…?

It may be a little early in the year to start having musings like this, but… I get the feeling 2013 may well end up being my best year yet.
I’m a person who absolutely LOVES having a full diary. I love being busy and I have so much lined up this year that I feel it will be very rewarding.

My personal portfolio  of work is growing rapidly with help from my 52 Week Project on Flickr, I have my first ever wedding shoot coming up (which is also my first commission! EEE!!!!!!) in the summer, and a few shoots with aspiring models too!
I’m hoping to donate a few posters to the Every Day Sexism Project campaign in exchange for some publicity, which will be amazing for getting my name out there; plus helping out a cause I am so passionate about will be so rewarding in itself.
I am determined this year to GET SHIT DONE.
“Ohhh I want to read more, but I don’t have the time”. NO. You DO have the time. But you spend it on Tumblr looking at photos of cats when you could be lost in Middle Earth. STOP IT AND PICK UP A BOOK.
“Ohhh that novel I wrote when I was young- I want it to be published but it has to be rewritten first.” SHUT UP. Just bloody WRITE the damn thing then! Sit down and just WRITE for hours like you used to do when you were young. Get lost in the story. SEND IT OFF.
“Ohhh I’m not as skinny as I’d like to be.” YOU ARE A STUDENT. That means you have free access to the swimming pool in designated time slots. FUCKING GO AND SWIM OFF SOME CALORIES. It’s not even that far to walk to get there! (Do NOT get a taxi.)

Quite besides all my personal projects of the year so far (and it’s only March; JESUS!), I also have so many exciting plans lined up for the summer!
Dom’s 21st birthday is next weekend, and we’re going to Laser Quest. I’ve never been before but I’m really excited! Basically paintballing without the pain! ME LIKES!

Plus, as a birthday present to him, his mum and dad are sending the two of us to Venice in the summer (?!?!?!?!?!) !!!! Which I am BEYOND stoked for! I’ve never been to any part of Italy before, and Dom’s always wanted to go to Venice. It’ll have some incredible photo opportunities for me, and it will be amazing to see it before it sinks. Plus, I’ve not been out of this country for about ten years now. I need to go somewhere with SUN, dammit!

This year is also my 21st, and for that we’re going to go and see Cirque du Soleil in London! I am SO EXCITED!! I’ve wanted to see them perform ever since I was a little girl and I FINALLY get the chance to!

In April it’s my best friend Grant’s 21st; for that him and I are going to see Derren Brown for the second time. It’s an all new show that’s not even been announced yet. I love Derren Brown so much and I’m so looking forward to seeing him perform again! I might even get to meet him a second time!

As if all of this wasn’t enough, we’re also heading to Download Festival in June! Which means I will finally get to see Slipknot live!!!! Not to mention Motorhead, Iron Maiden, Rammstein, 30 Seconds to Mars and Bullet for my Valentine!!!! AHHH! I’m so stoked I might be sick!!

This year looks as if it might well be the best yet! Now just to get through these fucking assignments and the fun can begin! 😀

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Resolutions Update!

I’ve done pretty good with my resolutions so far this year. I’ve not thrown in the towel on any of them yet and it’s already been a month! 😀

So, first off, I’ve started my 52 Weeks Project. I had a bit of a delayed start thanks to illness, location, lack of camera etc… but I’ve started it now, and I just published week 2 the other night.
Please go check out my Flickr stream, where each photo will be uploaded, plus a few others here and there outside of the project. Please help get my views up and leave me criticism. Help me get better!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bryonyharwood/

As for healthier lifestyle, I’ve been half good half bad… I’ve found a gym I will be joining very soon and mostly been eating pretty damn well. A few Dominos slip ups is fine for only the first month, right? 😛

The technology free night a week hasn’t happened yet. Frankly, I forgot about that resolution until I re-read my post… whoops… I will be starting that soon though!

As for having fun? Well I’ve got a lot planned coming up!
This weekend marks mine and Dom’s one year anniversary! Exciting!
He’s planned out a whole weekend too, and won’t tell me what any of the plans are. I’m excited! 😀
I’ve also got a lot of other things in the works… if money allows. 😛

So far, so good!!

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New Year, New Resolutions.

So, the world didn’t end. Let’s take a moment to pat ourselves on the back for once again avoiding an inevitably firey and painful death because a bunch of nuts once wrote a book, or in this case, stopped writing one.

In other news, another year is gone. I don’t know if it’s how busy I’ve been this year or just generally my increasing age, but the years seem to be going by at very unnerving speeds. I swear it was only the other day I had my 18th birthday. Now this year I am poised to take up my position in the eyes of British law as an “adult”. I shiver at the thought.

With the New Year, come New Years Resolutions. I normally make these with the best of intentions of keeping them… I always fail miserably. This year I think I worked out the source of this issue; I set my goals a little too high. For instance, last year I vowed I would take an amazing, jaw dropping, well processed and original photograph a day. Trying to achieve this after year of absolute zero motivation and inspiration may have been the reason this didn’t happen.
This year, I want to make resolutions I know I at least have a shot at keeping.
So, without any further ado, here are my resolutions:

1/ I want to take a photo a WEEK. Not one every day, just one every seven. That gives me a whole six days to plan out the next photo, and inevitably the end result will be better as a result of proper planning. This project will be called “52 Weeks” and each photo will be uploaded to my shiny new Flickr account, to document my new “style”. I will link my Flickr below. I think you should all, yes even you, you reading this right now, go and check out my stream. Please. Keep me motivated.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bryonyharwood/

2/ At least once a week, as well as taking a photo, do something else artistic. I’ve been guilty before of putting one of my arts before the others I enjoy. I tend to be focused on one type of medium so heavily, that a year will pass where I haven’t written a single thing. This will change 2013; on top of a photo a week, I will also either write a poem a week, complete a chapter of one of my many novel projects, etc.

3/ Have one night a week where I have a technology free night. This sounds strange coming from someone who blogs, wants to start a YouTube channel and relies on a computer for most of her work, but I want to give it a go. Turn off my phone, shut off anything that requires a plug to work, and just do something else. Paint, read, draw, even just sit and talk to my boyfriend for a night. I think it will be really nice and therapeutic to take time away from the Internet for a few hours a week.

4/ I would like to lead an overall healthier lifestyle. Now, I’m not one to take on insane diets. I don’t feel the need to go to the gym every day of the week. And I’m not wanting to do that. I feel the “diet” and “slimming” resolution is so cliche these days, I’m pretty sure about 90% of the world are taking on resolutions like this. I don’t want to be one of those.
No, when I say “healthier lifestyle” I mean in general. I want to be mentally, emotionally and physically healthier. I want to consume less sugar, do more home cooking (I do a lot anyway, but I feel it’s limited, I want to try more cooking techniques) and actually start eating breakfast before noon. Overall, I want to be happier in myself.

5/ Finally, I would like to ENJOY this year. 2012 for me was a whirlwind of stress and bad news. And rain. So much bloody rain. So much rain that we couldn’t do half the stuff in the summer we had planned. This year that will change. I want to do all the things I’m planning. I want to go to a load of festivals, go on trips, see more of the world, and just generally get out more. I want to have FUN. I don’t want to spend the whole year being stuck inside with only my degree to occupy my time. I want uni to be more FUN. And the only way to do that is to just bloody DO the things I plan on doing, rain or no rain. If I get wet, then I get a towel and carry the fuck on.

2013, COME AT ME BRO!

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