Happy Father's Day

I'd like to wish a Happy Fathers Day to my Dad.

I really wish I could be spending the day with him, but that's not possible.

My dad passed away unexpectedly on 19th May 2010, aged just 55 years old.



We may not have always had time for each other, but I loved him nonetheless. My dad taught me to read and how to ride a bike... He passed on his passion for music and his love of animals and fig rolls.



I could never thank him enough for introducing me to music. He taught me that it's okay to like stuff that isn't necessarily "popular" or even mainstream and it's okay to step outside of your normal genre. He was one of the few people I know who can go from listening to Buddy Holly to The Beatles, Vengaboys to Enya, Meatloaf to Lindisfarne or The Everley Brothers, even Jive Bunny! To you he might not have had the greatest taste in music but he was so passionate about it.



When my dad passed away, one of the things I kept was his "stack" (you'll have to google it) and his records. There is nothing more perfect than listening to your favourite album on vinyl...the first time I listened to Adele's '21' it was on my dad's record player.

I wish I'd have spent more time with my dad when he was alive.



There are times when I find myself watching a movie that I think he'd like (though falling asleep as soon as he seen the opening credits was usually the case), I can't watch 'The Boat That Rocked' without crying because everything about the movie reminds me of my dad.



There'll be times when I go out for dinner with my family and I think about how many plates of food my dad would eat, or what would be his favourite...then I get a sinking feeling in my stomach.



There will be times when I miss him so much, I won't know how i'll get through the day. Days like my wedding day when I have nobody to give me away and I don't get to have a father/daughter dance, or if I ever have children.



Then there are days like today when I just miss him...for no other reason than the fact that he was my dad and I love him and he's not here.



Happy Father's Day, Dad.
I love you x

This is the song I was named after, dad's choice, of course. My sister told me that when I was born he dedicated the song on the radio to me & my mum.



And a song that will always remind me of him;



Laura x

Here are a few more pictures from my Nanna's 75th Birthday party

Thanks again to Martin Kirby, Peter Brown and Scrummy Mummy Cakes.
Laura x

Sorry I haven't blogged much lately!

I had a lot of family events going on over the last two weeks.

Last Thursday I travelled to Wolverhampton with my little family for my auntie's wedding. My nieces were bridesmaids and they looked beautiful, even if the youngest did scream through the entire service!

It was nice to be able to buy a pretty dress (in a smaller size!) for the wedding though. We left the evening do early on Friday night for the journey home.

Saturday was my nanna's 75th birthday. My sister and I had been planning a surprise party for her at the Holiday Inn and after months of planning and keeping it a secret we were over excited & very stressed! We had a sneaky suspicion that she knew about it, but after seeing her reaction when she walked in, I genuinely believe she didn't have a clue!

We invited her family from London, all of our family from up North and a few of the people she works with. It was a really nice night with entertainment from Peter Brown, a beautiful cake from Scrummy Mummy Cakes and Martin Kirby taking photographs for us.

We also paid for our nanna and her sister to stay at the Holiday Inn after the party. Their room was huge with a double bed EACH! I surprised her by putting the room key in her birthday card but it fell out when she opened it - she didn't even realise!

This is my nanna looking very happy/surprised/excited;

And her beautiful birthday cake;

I don't think I have any other photographs from that night that can be blogged without embarrassing my family or offending your eyes, so i'll leave it at that!

Monday was spent in the kitchen cooking up a storm for my cousin's birthday party. Typical British 'bank holiday' weather meant our plans for a BBQ/garden party were dampened (quite literally!). We settled for an indoor BBQ instead and I roped my mum into helping me. My favourite bit of the day was embarrassing my cousin by singing 'Happy Birthday' to her. I didn't enjoy when her cake was cut though. I made it myself and it took 8 hours!!!!!! After messing up my first attempt (which is rather unlike me!) I then had to remake 24 cupcakes and a 7" sponge, cover with icing and decorate. Of course, she couldn't have a standard cake, she wanted it to be Zebra print. Then I over complicated it further by suggesting the use of non-toxic black glitter...

Here's how it turned out;

Laura x

Interview with Save Your Breath

 

Save Your Breath are Kris, Tom, Adam, Ben and Bobby, a 5-piece pop-punk band from Wales. Having toured with the likes of Kids In Glass Houses, The Rocket Summer and Fireworks, the band are finally releasing their debut album and I for one cannot wait to hear it! Tom was kind enough to answer a few questions for me to put up here.

How did the name 'Save Your Breath' come about?
Um, we were all jamming together for a while before we even considered that we would need a name. Then it came to the point where we gonna have to play a show and put our name on stuff so we all started just thinking of stuff that sounded cool. We came up with that and thought it was a good name so stuck with it. No massive story behind it i'm afraid!

Who or what inspires you to make music?
Everything really, where we grew up, the people we grew up with and the situations that we've gone through going up. As well as that obviously we all have massive influences musically. We all like a large variety of stuff. We've been influenced by bands like New Found Glory and Saves The Day, but then different members of the band listen to anything from The Cure to Pink Floyd.

If you could cover any song, what would it be and why?
Um, i'm not really sure. In the past we've covered Blink 182 - "Josie", The Movielife - Walking On Glass and New Found Glory - "Ballad For The Lost Romantics" as they were songs that really influenced us while we were growing up. I'd cover most songs by those bands if we had the chance to be honest!

Your debut album 'Vices' is set for release in June. If you had to choose one song that would turn any listener into a fan, which would it be?
Yeah we can't wait! It's been a long time coming and we're excited for everyone to hear it. As far as a song that I would pick......I think I would pick a track that we've named "Nothing Worth Having Comes Easy". I love it!

How has the band evolved since your EP 'Nothing Worth Having Comes Easy'?
Well we have a new singer in Kristian, and to be honest it's the first time we've felt completley comfortable as a band. We feel comfortable playing live together now and then songs we have written for this record we feel are the best we've ever done. It's a great feeling, we really feel like everything has finally come together.

What is next for Save Your Breath?
Well obviously the record comes out, and then we really we will just be touring as much as possible and playing these songs to as many people as we get the chance too. We want as many people as possible to hear this record as possible so we're making it our mission to try our hardest to get it into as many peoples hands as we can.

And finally, is there anything you'd like to say to SYB fans or anyone reading this interview?
Thanks for taking the time to read this and thanks so much for supporting our band and being good friends to us. It means the world and it really does allow us to carry on what we are doing. Other than that, if you have a spare moment and some spare change, if you could pick up "Vices" from http://www.saveyourbreath.bigcartel.com/ you would be helping us more than we could possibly explain, we put so much into this record, all off our own backs, so any support we receive from you guys helps out so much.

Cheers!
Tom

So there you have it. It is so refreshing to come across a band that are down to earth and genuinely grateful for every fan they have. Anyone who has read my blog before will know that I'm a huge fan, but without being biased, I strongly recommend pre-ordering their album....you won't be disappointed! Look out for new tour dates coming soon.

 

Picture take from www.myspace.com/saveyourbreathband

Videos taken from www.youtube.com/user/saveyourbreathtv

Follow them on Twitter

Become a fan on Facebook

Visit their site: www.saveyourbreath.net

Good Friday

I'm pretty OCD when it comes to my routine and planning my day, so when people change my plans at the last minute, it kind of annoys me. I need to realise that sometimes it can be a good thing, though.

I wasn't really looking forward to today because my 'plans' for this morning weren't exactly something I wanted to do, but they got changed at the last minute and my day ended up being pretty good!

After an unscheduled nap, I went out into the garden and finished weeding the rockery before putting up the fairy lights and butterfly solar powered lights, then I planted seeds and rearranged the ornaments. The ornaments look a bit crowded and the rest of the rockery looks a bit bare, but once the flowers start to grow I think it will look beautiful.







Me and my dad started the garden this time last year but we never got a chance to finish it because he passed away. I finished it on my own, mostly for my dad, but I also found it quite therapeutic...it gave me something to focus on and helped me get through my grief.
Easter Sunday was the last time I saw my dad, so I'm feeling a bit sad at the moment and I think having something to throw myself into is helping again.

After that, I made cornflake cakes with Bethany and Chloe. We put mini eggs and a fluffy chick in the middle of each one so they look like nests. We're growing some cress too. I love doing activities and art & craft stuff with them, I never did anything like that when I was a kid.

Now me and Chloe are snuggling up on the sofa to watch some Doctor Who! We have episodes 7-13 to watch in preparation for the new series kicking off tomorrow! Then we're all off to my nanna's for dinner, which brings me to the question; why do we eat fish on Good Friday?

Laura x

chilling at the beach

Sitting in the garden, surrounded by my family, enjoying some yummy food (if i do say so myself!). It's perfect BBQ weather today!











I've been reading my Recognise magazine (follow them here) which has a rather refreshing interview with Jessie J. I think she's a breath of fresh air to the music industry. An artist who refuses to be labeled, wether in relation to her music or her sexuality, constantly telling people they can be whoever they want to be. She's a pretty inspirational character.
There is also an interview with McFLY which made me laugh quite a bit! I saw them on their Above The Noise tour a few weeks ago and their performance was so strong, I can't wait to see what they do next.

Laura x

Mayday Parade/The Maine

It's almost a week since I saw Mayday Parade & The Maine and I'm missing them epic amounts already!
I must admit, I'd heard a few of The Maine's songs but I was more interested in bassist Garrett Nickelsen than the music. They were great live and their banter reminded me of an early Blink-182, which is never a bad thing! My favourite song from their set was "Girls Do What They Want".

Mayday Parade performed second and I'm now in love with Jeremy Lenzo. 'Miserable At Best' will always be my favourite song of theirs because it means a lot to me, but 'Three Cheers For Five Years' was pretty amazing too! Brooks has such good stage presence and his hair is epic.

Apparently the bands will be back next year and I'm crossing everything I physically can that they'll come to Newcastle again.

Manglaze review!

I was so excited when this turned in the post this morning! Not only did it arrive earlier than anticipated (estimated delivery was 2-3 weeks but it turned up in 10 days!) but it was very well packaged to ensure there were no breakages.

After unscrewing the lid and taking out the brush, it looked like any other nail varnish. It had the same consistency and the same glossy colour. However, upon application it turned out to be so much more! As I painted my nails I could see all the tiny bits of glitter that gave the nail varnish something more. It dried after a few seconds and I could actually see it drying (which I think is definitely a bonus! I'm forever smudging my nail varnish, thinking it was dry). I did like the overall finish, but I think its going to take some getting used to...Its strange looking at a beautiful colour nail varnish that isn't glossy.

This is getting a huge thumbs up from me!

On Wednesday night I went to see Futures at Newcastle Academy.
I first saw them in May when they supported Kids In Glass Houses at Newcastle Uni and they were pretty good.
So glad I got the chance to see them again though, headlining a tour obviously works well for them!
I was a little bit disappointed that their set wasn't very long, but the fact that they promised to hang around in the lobby to say "hi" afterwards definitely scores them some cool points. Unfortunately, I had to leave straight away so I didn't get to see them. Nice work boys, hope to see you again soon!