KINGS AND QUEENS.

(image from 30 Seconds to Mars' official website)
Last tuesday I saw 30 Seconds to Mars for the second time in a short while playing along with Rams Pocket Radio and You Me at Six as part of Belsonic 2011.







Since being introduced to Rams Pocket Radio via Glasgowbury, I was rather excited to get to see them, and they didn't disappoint! They played a lively, confident and fun set to the growing crowd and I really enjoyed them! I'm looking forward to seeing what they get up to over the coming months and years.







You Me at Six are the sort of band that for me should be a bit of a guilty pleasure, but I don't even like them enough for that to be the case! The crowd, as a general rule, loved them, however, and they really contributed to building the atmosphere towards the main event.




















If you've listened to 30 Seconds to Mars at all, you'll be aware of their anthemic, stadium-ready style, and it was no surprise that they put on another super performance. The (gorgeous!!) Leto brothers and company lit up the stage and the audience together and really seemed to enjoy the gig themselves, which is always a bonus! If you get the chance, I'd recommend them for a gig, because it's truly an awesome experience.

love, Jessica.

BABY SHOES.

Being a Pharmacy student, you might think that my part time work should be Pharmacy based, but that's where you'd be wrong! I've been working for a few years every saturday for a local car dealership (answering the phones, not selling cars, silly!) but also during the summer for a local photographer, Jim Hamill, helping him out with processing photos and a few bits and pieces of design work.

The good news is, he and his wife just had their first baby last week, a lovely baby boy! Of course, the day I heard, I was in H&M, and if you've ever been in the children section of H&M, you'll know how ridiculously cute the clothes are. Particularly the baby clothes!




I couldn't resist snapping up a tiny pair of skinny jeans, a pair of braces and this plain grey long-sleeved shirt.

Of course, I decided to put a little personal touch to the shirt with a bit of Dylon fabric paint! I painted a D-SLR, since his Daddy is a photographer, and added his birth date on the tag at the side, for an extra touch.



I made the little baby a card too, with some lovely paper from a scrapbooking book my mama scored for me in TK Maxx, some rainbow coloured Sharpie markers and a bit of pritt stick!

He was thrilled with it, particularly the shirt, and said that it would never be off his back! Next week I'll hopefully be sharing some design work and possibly some illustration (if I get round to it)!

love, Jessica

MIDNIGHT CITY.

Once again, I've been thwarted out of regularly updating this poor blog! I'll soon have to make it a weekly update. As I mentioned last week, on Sunday night past, I was DJing at the Kitten Bar at the Stiff Kitten in Belfast at No Dancing Club. It's a weekly event, though I only provide the music once every month or so, but it's something that I really enjoy both attending as a listener and working at! The music is generally easy-listening indie and alternative stuff, which, as you may have gathered from my weekly reccommendations, is just my cup of tea!

Rather than sharing a single artist this week, I'm going to give you my top five tracks from this week's playlist, starting with:

What a lovely song! What a lovely voice! I hadn't actually listened to this song until I played it, it was one of many I'd gathered from downloads of playlists from all over the internet, particularly from Urban Outfitters! I'd seriously recommend checking out their weekly Music Monday download, there's some real gems on them!

Okay, so this one has some pretty strange sounds going on it, but there's something mesmerising about it that I can't resist! Kind of reminds me of Yeasayer a little bit too.

This Bon Iver track is not new to anybody who has perused their wonderful new album, but it was begging to be blogged about since the video for it has been released. I've been thinking that I'd like to visit Iceland in the near future, and the video did nothing to dissuade me! Check it out, it's beautiful.

Again, there's some pretty weird sounds going on at the beginning of this track, but it gives way to a real beauty of a song. If you haven't heard M83 before, it's hard to explain, and if you have, you've probably heard this one already.

Manchester Orchestra are one of my very very favourite bands. Like, right up at the top. And this song of theirs has got to be one of my most listened to songs of all time! I play it pretty regularly, usually towards the end of the night, and I love how it fills the room. Enjoy, please!

love, Jessica

BITTERSWEET.

So after we went to see Super 8 I bought some ingredients to make a cheesecake! Again, I used the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook for guidance, going for the New York style cheesecake with added Crunchie!








It was all going very well, the mixture tasted good, my bases were baked and cooled, and after baking the cheesecake it was looking good! My cake tin was about an inch too small, so I decided to fill a few ramekins and make individual portions with the excess.







..and, it's a good job that I did! I left the cheescake to cool and set overnight in the fridge, and we ate the mini cakes that night (they were really yummy!), and the next day, when I was really looking forward to a slice of cheesecake, and I took it out of the tin and slice it, it collapsed in the middle. Collapsed! It hadn't set at all in the centre and was impossible to slice and so on, so it ended up mostly in the bin.






It was an upsetting time for me! I'd recommend that if you've got the book and you fancy making a cheesecake, get yourself a few ramekins and only make small portions! Good luck!

love, Jessica