I love reading books. Most of my reading is done on the tube to and from work, and before bed. I probably average one book every two weeks which is a fair amount, but won’t win any awards. I’m no speed reader as I like to really take the words in, and am yet to read an entire book in a day (unless you count my childhood love, Roald Dahl).
I switch between chick lit and thrillers. Hurting Distance by Sophie Hannah, got me hooked on the latter (well worth a look!). I’m sorry to say that more recently I’ve found myself a little bored of classic girl meets boy stories and have been reading more of the heavy stuff.
You’ll see that my blog tag-line includes ‘novels’ and bearing in mind my love of books, a friend asked last week why I haven’t mentioned any on here yet. I replied that I only want to write about a book if I’d actually recommend it.
Well, you’re in luck because I just finished one that I love and can recommend whole heartedly.
A walk in the park by Jill Mansell has likeable characters, twists and turns and it’s fluffy, but not over kill. I absolutely loved it. Rather than give away any spoilers I’ll let you wonder over to Amazon for more info if you fancy the sound of it.
It’s her latest book and if you like it there’s plenty of her others to catch up on.
Find it here at Amazon.
I’m an impatient person. I easily get bored and distracted and when that happens I find it very difficult to get stuck back in to a task with enthusiasm (in case my boss is reading, at work it’s a whole different story!).
Creating a scrap page takes me around 1-2 hours, so there’s less chance of me leaving a job half done and at the end I get to look at and appreciate my work, which will hopefully last a life time. There’s also the hope that any little people who may come along will also cherish the pages, and maybe even their little people too. I love old things and if I were to see a scrapbook made years ago by any of my relatives my heart would skip a beat. Scrapbooks weren’t too big a few years ago, but for our grand children or great grand children, who knows what our generation of crafters will leave behind? Even if I saw a total stranger’s scrapbook I’d find it absolutely fascinating.
I tend to create pages using photos that make me remember special memories (I think that may be the whole point) and so for the time I’m working with them it’s like I’m in a bubble of loveliness and gratitude.
Then there’s the beautiful papers, ribbons and embellishments, exquisite things that make me glow inside. To me these things I play with are art and you don’t see them around on a normal day.
Finally, and this is what psychologists say is the good thing behind any hobby; you become engrossed in the task. Designing, methodically gluing and placing. It uses a humans simple skills and shuts the rest of the world out.
As my boss would tell you however, I love to order stationary. So perhaps that’s the real reason after all!
A tiny selection of my beautiful ribbons.
It’s been a very busy week in the office and I haven’t had the opportunity to have a proper lunch break most days (yes, I can see your impression of the worlds tiniest violin – thanks).
Yesterday I took a well deserved break and was walking aimlessly around the Piccadilly end of Regent Street, where a shopaholic like me isn’t with out aim for long. As Pennies are supposedly tight, what with wedding things still to pay off and a house deposit to save for, I figured a little wander in Uniqlo couldn’t hurt too much.
To me, uniqlo is a value brand who use some clever technology in their thermals. So I was quite frankly astonished to see collaborations in store from Lulu Guinness and Laura Ashley. At Uniqlo. At Uniq-low prices! AND in the sale!
A bit of Lulu for under a tenner. Yes please, I thought. I didn’t go crazy, I just bought one Lulu Guinness t-shirt (with the slogan “put on your pearls girls”!), and a Laura Ashley print t-shirt.
The remaining sizes are limited and I bet they’re selling out fast so if you want one, get there quick! They’re online: Laura Ashley and Lulu Guinness
If you haven’t shopped at Uniqlo before, their sizes can be a bit BIG so bear that in mind. For some reason, the Lulu one in a medium, and Laura Ashley one in an XS fitted about the same (and XS I am not!).
It’s possible that these lines are common knowledge and last seasons news (I have been living under a rock reading bridal magazines for the past 12 months), but I got very excited with this discovery!
Next up is an Autumn range by Orla Kiely, including tops, dresses, hoodies and scarfs: Orla Kiely for Uniqlo
At 5ft 7″ I’m not short. But that didn’t stop me wanting to wear beautiful shoes with a bit of a heel on my wedding day.
After much deliberation, and a pair of Miu Miu’s that experienced a bad dye job, I went for the absolutely gorgeous ‘Rosalyn’ lace peep-toes from Rachel Simpson. They have a 3 3/4″ heel, with a very important hidden platform (every girl knows that a platform makes a shoe around 25% more wearable – or so we think!). Still, I tried to ‘wear them in’ at home on a few occasions, with thick socks on my feet and sandwich bags over the top to protect them (very fetching). I was aiming to clock up 4 hours which was advised by the wedding dress shop, but managed about 1.5, and for 1 of those I was laying in bed, so Husband said it didn’t really count.
Photo: Copyright Source Images Photography
Anyway, all this leads up to me 6 hours in to the wedding and my feet KILLING. When a peep-toe shoe cuts in enough there is no amount of ‘wearing in’ prep or ball-of-the-foot cushioning that can save you. The shoes have won and wedding or no wedding, you need them to come off, NOW!
Fortunately for me it had been raining for about 10 million years on the lead up to the wedding and this prompted me to buy some marvellous Weddington Boots just 5 days before the big day. Yes, you read correctly, not Wellington Boots, Weddington Boots. Genius! The Catherine Weddington Boots give you a heel height of approx 2.5″ and as you can see, they look super cute.
As it rained on our wedding day (unfortunately this time!) you’d think I put them on at the soonest opportunity. But I didn’t, because I was fluttering here and there, smiling widely everywhere. It wasn’t until after the first dance at 8pm or so, when my feet were throbbing and looking distorted, that I put them on. They instantly made me feel like I was bouncing on clouds. I danced all night and I could have danced forever because my feet were so comfy. Who cared if under 1 layer of silk and 6 layers of tulle, I was hotter than a tube train travelling under the Sahara? I was having too much fun, and I’m married now so haha Husband, sweaty girl is yours!
My Weddington Boots literally saved the day (well, evening) for me.
I ordered my normal size and they fit perfectly. A word of warning though, you’ll need a strong helper (or two!) to assist you in removing them. I have a very funny video of a bridesmaid removing them during a test run, and a husband that got extremely hot and sweaty undressing me when we finally ended our wedding night (and not in a good way).
I can’t wait to wear mine again at a festival! I shall be the belle of the ball.
I recently read that although toner is an important step in your beauty routine, the excess moisture left on your skin actually dries your skin out. This made a lot of sense to me and I have been following the simple tip of pressing a tissue to my face to absorb the excess ever since. I remember the same being done during facials and if they do it, it must be right!
Toilet tissue isn’t a good idea as lots of particles are left on your face. So it’s a good excuse to get a pretty box of tissues, or even a gorgeous tissue box holder (the shopaholic in me is happy!).
This small step has really made a difference to my combination to dry skin. My absolute favourite toner which I’ve been using religiously for a year and a half and can’t imagine moving from, is Soothing Apricot Toner by Elemis (around £18). I love it because it’s, err, soothing, smells divine, and leaves my skin feeling so soft. As its alcohol free it doesn’t leave my skin feeling parched and stretched anyway, but since following this tip it feels even more comfortable.
At the moment Hubby and I are living in a pokey flat with limited space (same as half of London then!). There is a loft, but I already filled it up to the hilt when I moved in, and that was after heaving bags to Charity shops. As Husband (often!) says, I have a LOT of stuff.
Some of my crafting supplies were casualties in the ‘sort out’ and got relegated to the loft, with no access.
We’re saving for a house and fingers crossed can start looking next year. Until then I have my desk and a few craft bits in the bedroom which keeps me going (when said desk isn’t piled under a wedding wish tree and boxes of random wedding bits – another ‘sort out’ needed then).
So, for now I’m dreaming of not only more space, but a whole clutter free area (dare I say room) where I can neatly store all my crafting supplies and get down to the good stuff (for all of you naughties, I’m referring to crafting!). Pinterest has proven to be the limitless pool of inspiration it always is and gave me these beauties:
Image from House & Home
Image from scrapbook-werkstatt
The ultimate dream is to have a craft studio at the bottom of a house with a garden. Somewhere where I can spend hours quietly playing with papers and ribbons, framing happy photos with beautiful materials to cherish for years to come. To me that is absolute joy and calmness 🙂
You can see more of my craft room pins here: http://pinterest.com/belleheartsthis/craft-room/
I plan to show you my craft projects in this blog but currently my ‘craft area’ at home is swamped in post wedding paraphernalia. When people spoke about post wedding blues I didn’t realise it would be because you have so much stuff in your apartment that you can’t move! Anyway… I digress.
Whilst I can’t currently work on any new projects, I do have a few wedding bits I can show you. I didn’t take any step by step photos whilst I was working on them because, well, I was busy doing 20 wedding related things a day. But I’ll talk you through what I used (if you’d like a demonstration please comment).
The first item I’ll show you is my wish tags. If you’re not familiar with them then you’ve obviously not read any wedding magazines in the past year (which probably makes you normal unless you’re engaged). Guests are invited to write a wish for the couple on the back of the tag and then it’s tied to a ‘wish tree’ or something similar. The whole effect is very pretty. It can be used instead of, or as well as a guest book.
For my vintage love bird/birdcage themed wedding I used manila luggage labels and a Tim Holtz ‘Birdsong’ Cling Stamp (used with an acrylic block). ‘WISH’ was stamped with indivual letter stamps. For the aged edges I used ink by memento in rich cocoa and standard gold ink. The ribbon ivory organza by ‘Celebrate’.
I’ll add a picture of the wish tree and tags in situ at my wedding as soon as the professional photos come through.
Other half popped to the corner shop last night for some essentials (read: beer) and came back with a little treat for me, as he often does.
We wondered if perhaps you mix this ‘Gel Candy’ with water to make a sugary drink, but no. The candy is squeezed in to your mouth, you enjoy the soury goodness for a few seconds and then it’s gone. I am BIG on sweets but even to me this just seems wrong. What’s next, sugar for the orally competent via intravenous drip?
Dried lavender as confetti looks nice, smells nice and you can display it very prettily (I made cones out of paper from books)…but it doesn’t feel nice being pelted in your face.
As my new husband said whilst we walked past our ‘lovely’ guests who were energetically throwing what was effectively little bullets in our faces and down our shirt and dress; “It’s like being on a Japanese game show”.
Here’s a picture of classical confetti which falls softly over bride and groom. Notice the smiles of happiness on the couples faces.
And here is a picture of us…
I’m sure you’d agree that a picture can speak a thousand words.
The 90 second confetti attack was traumatic, but certainly wasn’t the last of the lavender drama. Husband was able to take his shirt off and shake away the entire cone full that had been poured down his back by a ‘helpful’ usher. Wedding dresses aren’t quite so easy to slip on and off, so I spent the remainder of the day with this under my boobs:
Excuse the pic, it was taken at the end of the night!
Little grains don’t brush off tulle so well either, or hair…hence a member of the the wedding party looking like a monkey clearing my fleas during the speeches. That is one special moment on the wedding DVD.
Convinced yet?
It can be so difficult to buy for men so I thought I’d share these personalised cufflinks which I absolutely adore. I had these made up to be presented to my Husband on the morning of our wedding.
They’re by Posh Totty Designs Boutique at www.notonthehighstreet.com.
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