Fat Frocks: September 2013

Lemurs, stalking boys in bands and To the Lighthouse...

By Gem - 16:34:00

2 Comments

CDF BLOG CLUB

By Gem - 21:28:00

We enjoy hosting our bigger events from time to time but we all thought it would be nice to have a smaller, more regular meetup for people to attend and so, we present to you…The Cdfblogs Blog Club!

Excited yet?! Chill people. Calm yourselves.

Every month we’ll hold a meetup somewhere in Cardiff where you, the bloggers of Cardiff, can sit down together and work on your blogs, exchange some ideas and generally get to know each other a bit better while still, and this is the important thing, being productive!

We all have those days, weeks and even months where we just can’t get motivated or we’re just not inspired or we just can’t find the time. Our blogs bear the brunt of it and they sit there, looking lonely and neglected, as we struggle to get some words out or figure out exactly what we want to say.

This is where Blog Club hopes to help.

By gathering a small group of you together in the same space – from new bloggers to the more experienced and established among us – we hope to give you the kick in the ass to get things moving again. With other people around you working on their blogs you’ll hopefully be inspired to get things going on yours again or their productivity might rub off on you as you sit near them.

Our first Blog Club meetup will be on Sunday 29th September 2013 at Chapter Arts Centre in Canton and a handful of our team will be there from 2pm to 5pm (of course you can stay as long as you like). You can come along for the full 3 hours, if you’ve got the time to spare, or you can just drop in for an hour anytime throughout the afternoon.

We’ve created an Eventbrite so we can get an idea of how many people are likely to come along during the session. If you’re coming for all or part of it then sign up so we can make sure we can plan enough space for this and future meetups.

Interested? Hopefully we’ll see you there! And remember, the first rule of Blog Club is… I jest! I jest! There aren’t any rules. Except for the ‘You must bring cake for the organisers’ rule

*This post was written by a follow cdfblogs team member Tzevai, and originally appeared here.

3 Comments

Cardiff

The White Company - Cardiff

By Gem - 16:03:00

6 Comments

Angel Haze

All aboard the HMS Bestival

By Gem - 12:46:00

September means the end of festival season here in the UK and Bestival is one of the last major festivals of the year. Radio 1 DJ Rob da Bank and his wife Josie curated a wonderful line up this year to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Bestival. Some festivals concentrate on just the musical line up but Josie works hard on creating a beautiful site and a full experience. I had the most wonderful time at Bestival last year with lots of blogging chums and couldn't wait to return.

Each year Bestival has a theme and this year's was HMS Bestival. People dressed up all weekend as sailors, mermaids, pirates and various sea creatures and there was a spectacular new stage that was a giant ship and 40ft giant anchor on the main stage.

There are loads of photos in this post and some were taken by my friends Harri, Emma or Laura.

This year’s line-up was a very eletronic as always but there were still plenty of bands and things to keep this soul girl interested. I managed to see Bastille, The Strypes, Snoop Dogg and The Polyphonic Spree do the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Bestival really is a place where you get to see some more unusual acts and you find yourself singing along to all sorts. I also danced in front of a huge shipwreck whilst Annie Mac was on the decks with lasers floating above the crowd and dancers twirled from huge cranes. Bestival definitely opens me up to listening to different types of music and to experience acts I would never see at home.

A few things dominate my festival experience each year and they include glitter, vodka, frolicking and obviously the music. It's over a week since I arrived home from Bestival and there are still a few specks of glitter lingering on my belongings.

I wore my lovely Crown and Glory custom fascinator for the fancy dress day.

I got to try out some fantastic Fickle tattoos with a very fitting nautical theme. If you're anything like me and way too scared to get permanently inked then these are a fun way to try it out without the pain. They were easy to apply and lasted without any wear for about two days. The 'Ship Happens' design was definitely my favourite and got lots of comments from other festival goers.

A little merry on the Saturday watching Franz Ferdinand.

The forecast for the weekend was pretty grim so I took my waxed jacket with me, plenty of waterproofs and some sensible footwear to deal with the mud but we really only had a few showers so we were very lucky. I had visions of knee high mud and freezing temperatures. I think I'm probably going to take more jumpers and a pair of lighter Dr Martens next year as my wellies got a little heavy after 4 days wear.

My musical highlights of the weekend wwre Johnny Marr playing some of my favourite Smiths songs and seeing the rapper Angel Haze for the first time. The Sunday night headliner is always a bit special and this year's was no exception. Elton John hadn’t headlined a UK festival since 1969 and he played his hits from six decades for over two hours. There was one point during the set where he looked close to tears and said he would never forget his Bestival performance which for a diva like him was pretty touching.

The weekend drew to a close with a spectacular 10th birthday firework display.

If you don’t manage to get Glastonbury tickets next year you should go to Bestival. If you do get tickets, go to Bestival anyway! Happy birthday Bestival, hope you're around for another 10 years.

11 Comments

pink clove

Introducing Pink Clove

By Gem - 13:00:00

15 Comments

American food

Barrowman, Burgers & Brecon

By Gem - 10:58:00

Last weekend was packed with loads of fun excursions and plenty of good food and for once I was in Cardiff/ South Wales all weekend which makes a nice change from getting three hour trains across the country.

I went to see a musical called Stalking John Barrowman at the Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff. Stalking John Barrowman is a new musical by Naomi Chiffi, Jude Garner and Patrick Steed which was full of laughs and for a Barrowman and Doctor Who fan like myself was the perfect way to spend a Saturday afternoon. Its story is about two unlucky-in-life characters that meet through their love of John Barrowman. The cast were all fantastic and a lot of them were locals and I even went to school with one of them. I hope this travels across the UK because it was full of laughs and deserves to be seen by a big audience.

I spent Saturday evening with my boyfriend having a bit of an American themed night. I made chilli cheese fries, burgers and root beer floats and we staying in watching Always Sunny in Philadelphia which is my new favourite show. I like to go a bit overboard when it comes to food so I even got some burger papers and trays so the food looked like it had come from an American diner and not Cardiff M&S. I wish I could eat like this all week, ice cream floats are the best.

I got up bright and early on Sunday morning and headed to Talybont in Brecon to explore the waterfalls there and to walk off some of the burger calories from the night before. There are more dramatic waterfalls in the UK but I don't think there any as closely located as these.

If you're going to do this walk in the winter it could get very slippery so I wouldn't attempt it in All Star shoes like I did (was scrambling all over the rocks), you would be better prepared if you wore some practical walking boots. This Topshop jersey dress is the most casual thing I own, really need to invest in some outdoors type clothing... I would say this is a fairly easy walk and most people could attempt it with little difficulty.

The views were really spectacular and its a shame that I don't get out and explore Wales more, I tend to spend most weekends over the border or going to gigs and plays. I think I will be making trips like this a more frequent occurrence.