HIGHLIGHTS OF 2013

❐ Best Moments of 2013

• Meeting Liam Neeson and appearing on T.V!
• Andy Warhol Exhibition
• One Direction
• Hen Party in Manchester
• ‘Sim Thursdays’ with Sebastian
• Media Formal in May
• Seeing Josh Groban in Dublin!!!!!
• Diane and Aaron’s wedding - when I was bridesmaid
• Taking part in FUSED summer scheme again
• BBQ at Cranfield beatch
• Emma and Rebecca sleepover and fun day in Newcastle
• Helping out with art projects (The Giant Fish!)
• Making Mary-Jane’s 21st Birthday BOX!
• Laura’s Segway Birthday
• My Photography Project
• Doctor Who and Sherlock comeback
• Awesome days spent in Belfast
• Making Candy Canes for the IMA dinner with Seb and Emma.
• The best NYE ever. Ever.

❐ Biggest Achievements:

1st and 2nd place for my coursework at the Ulster Media Show 

4th place in a worldwide competition for Josh Groban’s ‘In The Round’ tour

❐ Biggest Failures:

2nd Year in general. It had it’s good moments yes, but it mainly sucked.

❐ Happiest Moment:

Waving at people out the window of a limo on Diane and Aaron’s wedding! Seeing Kerri and Emma when they came home for Christmas. New Year’s Eve - Otamatone and Jewish song dancing. 

❐ Saddest Moment:

Thankfully nothing particularly bad has happened this year, the worst was probably that My Chemical Romance broke up. :/ And that the Jonas Brothers are too?? 

❐ Biggest Shock:

Peter Capaldi?!

❐ Best Purchase:

My Graduation Dress - SALES FTW and my green Henry Holland coat.

❐ Greatest Musical Discoveries:

Alex Day and Marina and the Diamonds

❐ Song and MV of the Year:

This is Gospel - Panic at the Disco

❐ Best Film of the Year:

‘Star Trek - Into Darkness’ and ‘Frozen’

❐ Greatest Discoveries of the Year:

Gel Nails and Community!

❐ Biggest Addiction:

Youtube, Korean Drama ‘Heartstrings’ and Snapchat.

❐ Favourite People Award:

Paloma Faith, Captain America, Dan and Phil and ‘the fine strapping young lad’ Josh Groban.

Happy New Year everyone! 

- Claudia

DECEMBER AGAIN

Hello, remember me?

I’ve missed blogging. Coursework got the better of me. I’m now half way through Final Year, and wow, it has gone so fast. I had a great few months and now I will share...

University

I’m really settled at uni this year, as I mentioned in my last post. I realised how important my friends are and feel I’ve got a lot closer to them this year. Work has tightened up for third year but I really enjoyed what coursework I was working on. You can see here and here where my time has gone during the 12 weeks of Semester 1. In late January I’ll be starting my dissertation (8000-1000 word essay) on a topic I’m interested in, and will also produce a final practical project which will be on display at the End of Year Show in May. Yikes! Although it seems daunting, truthfully I'm excited to working on a topic that focuses on my interests. I think I know what I’m working on, but an assigned supervisor helps me along who I meet once a week to discuss how I'm getting on.

Friends

Home and University life was weird due to a couple of my friends not being at home. Rebecca, Kerri and Emma were studying/working abroad but were coming home for Christmas. I was counting down the days until I saw them again so December was an exciting month! 

Christmas

Christmas is so wonderful I felt it should have it’s own section. Lots of festivities at University, including the Christian Union and my course Dinners. As well as shopping, films, Starbucks, days out with friends and sorting last minute presents.

Remember in my last post I fell in love with a jacket? I am excited to announce my Mother picked up on my many hints and bought me it! (shown above) I think I’ve worn it everyday so yeah I was delighted. I got lots of other awesome pressies too - perfume, an amazing laptop bag from Emma and an external hard-drive. It was nice spending time with my family and chilling for a few days. Hope everyone had a nice Christmas! 

- Claudia

LIFE UPDATE: SEPT/OCT

Hey - I’m writing this post in Starbucks in Belfast. To be honest I feel a bit of a prat sitting in by the window with my Macbook on my knee, sipping my Caramel Creme Blend. (Yum!)

Quick life update. I fear now that I’m in final year I won’t have any time to blog due to coursework/dissertation so I’m making most of this opportunity. I apologise in advance if I don’t post anything.

Final Year

Dun dun dun! My university course is coming to an end. I can’t believe I’ve just started my third and final year - honestly, I would want to do it all again. I really don’t want to leave! No plans as yet as to what I’m going to do for the rest of my life. Right now, I’m just taking it a day at a time. Back into halls this year and loving it. It’s so handy living on campus and my flatmates are lovely. I think it’s going to be a great year. 

Obsessions

I have fallen back in love with Fall Out Boy. The new album ‘Save Rock and Roll’, is okay I guess, but they’ve changed a lot over hiatus and I prefer their older work. Infinity on High is my all-time favourite album and it constantly plays in my car.

Also have got hooked on watching Youtube videos - completely adore Crabstickz, Danisnotonfire and Amazing Phil. I’ve been watching them everyday, so funny! Reminds me of when I was 16 and constantly watched Shane Dawson and Charlieissocoollike. The good old days.

Fashion

Hoorah! It’s finally Autumn! The weather is getting colder which means jumpers, boots, coats, HATS! I don’t really like summer weather (too warm so I die) so I get really excited because it’s coming into my favourite time of year. Was walking through Debenhams last month and a brand caught my eye called ‘H! by Henry Holland’ I’ve heard of him before but since that day I’ve fallen in love with his clothes. I’ve got my eyes on this green coat, it really is beautiful - I’ve tried it on like 4 times now, haha. The t-shirts and jumpers are also very cute and reasonable, I’m bound to buy one soon! It’s hard to save money. ~_~

Life of Claudia

I’m very excited to announce that i’m ~hopefully~ going on holidays next year. Woo! Instead of having a 21st party, Mum said I can go anywhere in the world for a family holiday. My first choice was Japan/Korea but she wormed her way out of that...hmm.. so the second choice was NEW YORK!! Nothing planned or sorted yet but I’m very excited for next summer! :D

Enjoy your weekend everyone!!

- Claudia

SUMMER-ARY (JULY/AUGUST)

I’m actually dying of the cold right now and have been up for 3 hours feeling restless. I feel disgusting but since I’ve been a slob all summer, I might as well write a blog post.

Usually I would write posts late at night but to be honest I haven’t been staying up as late as I used to, I’ve also been busy during the day and kept putting it off. So here you go...a SUMMER-ARY of my holidays. 

Aaron and Diane’s Wedding

Highlight of my summer was of course, Diane’s wedding. Diane is like a family friend/sister to me since we were both young, and I was privileged to be asked to be her bridesmaid back in July. This past year and a half, you’d soon see the wedding was all I talked about - it was fun having days out for bridesmaid dress shopping and the like. The wedding itself was superb - it was wonderful to see so much planning come together so beautifully. 

The couple got married at our church, a lovely service complete with flowers which coordinated with our dresses and a pretty little bicycle outside.

The weather was perfect, probably the warmest day of the summer. We went to the Silent Valley and took photographs there. Then we headed to the reception in a LIMO! (One of my favourite parts) And enjoyed a delicious meal after more photographs at Canal Court Hotel in Newry. After a video and slideshow, we danced the night away. I can’t seem to put into words how perfect the day was. Many congratulations to Aaron and Diane!

Fused

I took part in Fused Summer Scheme again in Newcastle this year. This is the 3rd year I’ve been a leader and I was involved working with P.4 - P.7 age group. It was different than previous years due to having no American team from Lexington, Kentucky, so it was originally meant to be made up of Northern Irish leaders. However God provided us with a team of 11 Americans from Washington and Oregon. It was really fun to work with different people, plus a bonus was that some were Doctor Who and Sherlock fans! As usual it was wonderful working with the children, some familiar faces, and also some new people too. A great way to spend two weeks of my summer.

Art

Remember last year I worked on a mural in my local village? Well this year I helped create a big fish at our Village Fete. Ashley and Susan created the structure beforehand and during the fete, we encouraged children to glue tissue paper and get a photograph of themselves taken to stick inside the fish. We only had a few hours to decorate this one, so it was rewarding to see the fish ascend down the steps and around the fete. It was so much fun, I love working on creative projects like this!

Friends

I’ve had a number of awesome days spent with some incredible people. Rebecca and Emma came to my house for a sleepover and tour of Mourne. A group of us also celebrated Hannah’s 21st birthday on Cranfield beach with a BBQ and singalong. I met with Seb, Dave and Becca in Belfast for a catch-up and Cosmo. I had a housemate meet-up and saw Uncle Gordon a few times too. I also caught up with James last week and had many, many Container Parties.

It’s been excellent, however I’m losing three of incredible people - Kerri, Rebecca and Emma! Kerri and Rebecca have headed to U.S A to study for the year and Emma is leaving for Spain in a few weeks! I shall miss you all dearly but good luck and have a wonderful time. :D

- Claudia x

SHERLOCK FTW

Heylo!

Okay well I have some exciting news!! Back in May two pieces of my coursework were nominated for the Ulster Media Show. This show is an opportunity to showcase the best and most interesting pieces of work by media students from Colleges and Universities in Northern Ireland.

Although I was nominated last year for my Motion Graphics piece (y’know, the one with the animated version of myself) unfortunately I couldn't make it due to the death of my Granny Green. Thankfully I was given the chance again this year, and submitted my Interactive Flash based narrative “Sherlock - A Scandal In Belgravia” and Interactive film “Ultimate Guitar.”

My classmate and good friend, Rebecca was also nominated for her Flash about Marilyn Monroe “Marilyn and her Monsters”. It was a great opportunity for both of us to meet different people in the media industry as well as showcase our work.

Meeting Sarah Travers with Rebecca! She was really lovely.

There were 5 categories and both of my pieces fell under ‘Interactive Content’. Sarah Travers, who you may know as a BBC Newsline presenter, hosted the award ceremony - and also kindly took photos with us afterwards too! ‘Interactive Content’ was the first category announced. Like most award shows, it showed some of the nominee’s work on screen, that was cool - I felt like I was up for a BAFTA! Then following that a commendation was released, then the winner.

‘Ultimate Guitar’ won a commendation for original idea and special effects so I was delighted for that, but when I went down to collect it, Sarah told me to wait because I also won first prize for ‘Sherlock!’ Then suddenly all these photographers started snapping my photos, and wow, after that I really didn’t take much in after that! 

On stage, award presented by Kate Duffy, NWRC Director of for Workforce Development and Administration.

After the awards, there was food available and a chance to talk to people and get photographs taken too. An excellent evening, definitely the hard work paid off. This year I found my course was a big step up from first year and didn’t think I could handle it - fearing my work couldn’t be up to standard to the level I would want it to be. So I feel these awards have encouraged me to keep going and has given me new-found faith in myself! This is a big deal because it’s been something that I’ve been struggling with for a while. 

The award was engraved with name and work, wow!!

*speech time lolol*

I’d like to thank family and friends who supported me and kept me from going mentally insane during the past academic year and those wonderful human beings who have already congratulated me, because I still can’t believe that I actually won something.

A massive thank you to Rebecca - who although who’s work was in the same nominee category as both of my pieces, kindly and graciously congratulated me ( although I felt so SO bad about it! :[ ) I appreciate it so much, you’re amazing! ♥

In particular I need to thank Jared for his leading role in Ultimate Guitar - it would have been appalling without him and oh, also to Mary-Jane/Emma who introduced me to Sherlock! Whee! You are all brilliant!

With much happiness,
Claudia

ROOM (2)

Lack of blogging about university (or anything at all for that matter) this past year has made me very sad. However I had my hand-in’s today so I can proudly announce that I have got my life back! It’s already May and this afternoon I thought I better take a few photographs of my bedroom before I begin to move out. (Last year's post here)

Unlike last year’s post, this year I moved into a house with 5 other girls. I must admit, I like this room better than my room at home - you’ll see why now...

Reason 1: My room is GINORMOUS

The biggest room in the house. Although sometimes cold in the winter months. (Saying that, I’m usually too warm than too cold so it hardly bothered me.) But what's behind that door, you wonder?

Reason 2: A WALK-IN WARDROBE.

Reason 3: Posters everywhere!

Due to the generous wall space, both in wardrobe and out, I can have lots of posters on my wall! This room has 6 posters up! This little table area is where I keep my beauty stuff. The Doctor Who and One Direction poster was bought by my friends for my birthday, yay!

Reason 4: Double BED!!

I never had a double bed before but they are AWESOME! Fergus and Harold the terriers say hello, they live on the bed and make me feel better. :D And of course, the Andy Warhol cushions have returned.

Reason 5: Study Area

This desk has been a life-saviour this year as I worked. Although I miss looking out the window like last year in Cranagh, I ordered a big corkboard and decorated it with everything I love. Have a look:

Such things which may catch your eye here is my BIGBANG calendar, 16th Birthday Joe Jonas card from Jordan, a drawing of a Princess that a P.3 gave me in Tutoring for Schools, BIRDS, autographs and cute cards. c:

Short post yes, but I have returned, with many more updates of my boring life to come!

Talk soon,

Claudia