Tales from the nut house: My mental health guest blog

Greetings Lords and Ladies, Sirs and Dames,

 Madames et Monsieurs! 

As I'm sure is the case for many of you creative beings, life is a pretty tricky thing to get to grips with sometimes and can kick you in face harder than a Neo-Nazi in a pair of steel toed Doctor Marten Boots! As a result my poor old brain occasionally likes to have a bit of a tantrum and a soap opera style melt down, which can be a pretty scary thing to happen to a small, dreadlocked hobbit like myself!


I haven't yet randomly shaved my head a la Britney, or cut off my own ear like Van Gough, but mental health troubles do certainly make you feel like a completely different person to the one you are used to being.  


So in aid of depression awareness week,  I wrote a style themed guest blog for Mental Health Awareness website Black Dog Tribe. Keeping creative, writing this blog and having projects to focus on has certainly helped me feel a hell of a lot better and I wanted to share some ways of regaining confidence after suffering a visit from the black dog.


I won't babble on in too much detail about it's content, but it's bound to resonate with 1 in 4 of you, so why not go have a read, support and make the subject of mental health less of a bloody taboo! Read, share, 'like' and Re-tweet if you please.


Yours crazily,


The Fashion Turd x 

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Organizing chaos!

 

I got a request on Facebook recently asking me to write a post about how I organize my colossal amount of clothes, accessories, collectables, geekery and general stuffs
To be honest i'm a bit of a messy fuck and up until that point I would have to admit that the structure of my possessions was more organized chaos than structured bliss. So I decided to get tidy. Here are the results - more organized than an OCD sufferer's diary!:

Necklaces and Eyewear:
 Hanger: Primark

Clothes, underwear and socks:

Clothes organizers: Brixton Market

Geekery:

Adornments and Jewels: 

Hanger Bag: Primark

 

Memories:
Photo Organizer: Urban Outfitters

Desk: 

Boxes: 99p store, Drawers: Ikea

Movies:

Pretty impressive eh? Notice all the straight lines and neat folds and structured corners!? See how everything is in it's rightful place? How everything looks as if it has been given  the once over by some yoga chomping lifestyle guru? Fung Shui - eat your heart and lower chakra's out love! 

But to be perfectly honest, only time will tell how long I can keep it up before it turns back into a habitat fit for a bag lady! Oh well, at least  it's given me something to fill an empty afternoon with while London continues to be cursed by storms. Loser.

Are you neat freaks or messy pups? Any good tips on keeping your life organized? Let me know below purlease...

Anyway, high fives all round,

The Fashion Turd x x 

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The Dreadlocks turn purple...

Glasses: American Apparel

Jacket: Thrifted

Bow Tie: thrifted

Shirt: Thrifted

Pom Pom: Sweet Trash

To be honest I think my dreadlocks are on their last legs. After being with these knotty fellows for nearly 10 years, I think our relationship might be on the rocks. As much as I love being a crusty they are a starting to get weak and brittle and by this time next year I wouldn't be surprised if I have pulled a Sinead O Connor and sent my locks to hairstyle heaven :-(


But until then I thought my dreads could do with a little makeover, so I invested in a couple of pots of hair dye by my favourite brand Manic Panic NYC. I wanted a that 'oh so trendy' lilac colour so I mixed a pot of Electric Amethyst with Electric violet and diluted them with some hair conditioner for a lighter shade. After sitting with my head in a hair turban looking like something from a 1950's surburban hair salon for 1.5 hours I revealed a head of locks that, to be honest, weren't exactly the colour anticipated!


As much as I like the Katy Perry meets Marge Simpson look it wasn't what I was expecting and I think it might take a bit of getting used to! It's certainly a giant leap from the candy pink eh? Thank goodness I have this gigantic pom-pom headband sent from Sweet Trash to distract you from it's retina melting hue!


What's your opinion my trusted readers? Are they smoking or just need revoking?! Let me know your thoughts!


My love in abundance,
The Fashion Turd x 

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Outfit: Rainbow Bright on the front line

 - The Colours: Pinks, Blues & Greens
 - The Fabrics: Denim & Heavy Cotton
 - The Influences: Meadham Kirchhoff, D.I.Y, 
1980's, Bricolage, Teenage Bedroom 

Hair Bow: Self Constructed Freak

Skull Slide: Gift from the Mrs

Gilet: Customized

Shirt: Vintage M&S!

Army Camo Jacket: Customized Army Surpless

Skirt: Gift from Mummy Rivers

Badges: The Shed Laser Co, Self Constructed Freak,

Random Eye Boutique and various charity shops

Tights: Primark

Tie: Primark

Shoes: Donnay

Make-Up: Mac,Urban Decay, Rimmel

I adore getting jiggy with a needle and thread and just can't help customising my clothes with random fabrics, bits, bobs, odds and sods. I don't think it's possible to have a more heavily adorned jacket ensemble unless you are one of those lick arse girl guides who has won every badge possible for helping the community and saving dying squirrels. 

I never really pay homage to particular designers through my outfits but the above was definitely me plagiarising the hell out of Mr. Meadham and Mr. Kirchhoff's  A/W 2012/13 collection. Come on, we allow 'borrow' ideas once in a while and besides, I like to think that Benjamin and Edward actually drew their colour inspiration from me to begin with anyway anyway. Ha!

Who are what is inspiring your clothes at the moment? Anyone or anything you think I should know about?

Laters kids, The Fashion Turd x

P.S I am very aware that my roots need touching up thank you very much. Should I carry on pink or go for a whole new colour of dreads?

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My week in piccies...

 I thought I'd do some of the old 'blue sky thinking' and give you something a wee bit different this week. I'm sure you are a completely bored of seeing self indulgent portraits of moi in attention seeking outfits by now, so here (with the aid of a certain popular camera phone app) is a sneaky peek at some other elements of interest outside of my clothes. Yes, despite popular belief I am actually a 3-dimensional character.

Gift of the week:

I got sent this wicked pom-pom necklace from the fantastical

 Sweet Trash last week- she must know that 'bigloudcolourfuljewellery'

 is my middle name. Each piece is made from upcycled

materials and fabrics, so I can feel like I've done my bit for

Mother Earth whilst looking fantabulouso!

Purchase of the week:

My Asterix and Obelix set of 1990's Pez won 

on Ebay. Geek? Whatever.

Song of the week:

Anything by Hercules and Love Affair. Queer

disco beats from heaven!

Shoes and sock combo of the week:

Shoes: Pink Dunlop, Black Converse
Leg Warmers: H&M
Trousers: H&M

Thrift find of the week:

I found this delightful tartan ringmaster style blazer in

St Christopher's hospice in East Dulwich for a Scrooge

worthy £3.50. Better value than a half price sale at

the pound store!


Polka Dot piece of the week:

A better shoe has yet to be made! My

spotty D.M lace ups.

Food of the week:

I can't get enough of these Asian fruit jellies with 

Nata de coco. Weird texture, weird taste and weird flavours
 but utterly addictive nonetheless. Get 

deep down in my belly...

Book of the week: 

"Hi, how are you?" - A book featuring the artwork of one 

of myfavourite singers Daniel Johnston. Why, oh 

why didn't I buy this book on sale ? Douche.

Signage of the week:

Just in case we needed any more proof that

Christianity isn't funny.

Monster of the week:

Grrrrrrrr.....

Film of the week: 

Talking pumpkins, flying taxidermy heads,

clockwork robots, gnome kings and Fairuza

Balk in the only good film she ever made!

Unnecessary face of the week:

Did you enjoy that forage into my personals hmmm? I bet you did...

You can have some more next time, but until then I'm buggering off.

Your Sincerely, The Fashion Turd x 

Grandma Rivers - Demon Knitter!

I have mentioned my Grandma a few times on the blog as she is responsible for knitting a fair few of the wool based beauties I have featured. Give Grandma Valerie a wool based challenge and she is always up for attacking it from all angles with her 4.0mm needles! Jumpers, ducks, jelly beans, tissue boxes, dreadlock tams - you name it, Grandma Rivers can fashion it from wool. She has even branched into Ipod holders, the yoothful little minx! 


This is hardly surprising though from the woman that treated herself to a laptop on her 80th birthday, plays daily on her Nintendo Gameboy, and regularly downloads books from Amazon for her new Kindle. Not forgetting her penchant for ordering Dominoes Pizza and a dirty Doner Kebab once in a while!


Grandma, you are one in a million and a huge inspiration. I love it how we have a stitch and a bitch and how I'm still allowed to sit on your lap for a cuddle even though I'm nearly 30 and even though you hate my tattooes! May you be knitting me candy coloured, striped jumpers for years to come.

Aren't Grandparents super? Anyone else got any good ones?!

The Fashion Turd x