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Sunday 24 February 2013

February Half-term

 
As much as I love my new job, I sure do love a week off from it too!
I spent my first weekend meeting up with the girls I lived with in Uni, the three of us are scattered over the country these days so we don't get to meet up as often as we'd like. We explored the shops in Cheltenham, scoffed ourselves silly in TGI Fridays (traditional for us) and did a lot of laughing about the old days.
With everything new in my life at the moment it was really nice to step back into the past and it always amazes me how we can all slot straight back in like we had never been apart.
 
Then I spent a few days at home, relaxing (or watching charmed from the start) and finishing off the jobs we never got around too after moving in. The state of my home has an enormous effect on the state of my mind so clearing out and organising makes me feel a million times better!
 
A second reason for the cleaning spree was some of my family visiting Thursday, this was the first time anyone visited us in our little flat so I wanted it to look its best, my gran, grandad and sister came over for the day and after the grand tour we took then into town and introduced them to las iguanas, which I'm really into at the moment, the lunch menu is excellent and 2 for 1 cocktails (including the alcohol free ones, which is pretty rare) we also bought some cakes from Patisserie Valerie (Ive never seen one of these in Wales) to bring back home for afters which was a real treat!
 
Then Friday Phil and I took a trip to Oxford, we really want to make the most of the trains through reading and visit places that are now only a short train away. Although the day was absolutely freezing (it snowed at one point!) we had a really lovely time just roaming around with no set plans, stopping for lunch in a lovely olde worlde pub, thoroughly exploring the covered market and finding a gorgeous antique jewellers on Turl Street. We also started a new tradition of buying a postcard when we take a trip and writing about our day on the back, hopefully we will keep this up as it will be a really good way of storing some memories and something to look back over in years to come.
 
The last thing I got up to this week was learning to crochet, I've been planning to learn for a while as I have never got the hang of knitting but love the idea of making something real and practical from a ball of wool so I trotted off to John Lewis and bought some really snugly wool and a crochet hook for less than £5 (which felt like a very grown up thing to do) the picture above was taken earlier today, when it was light, and its considerably bigger now although still not very neat and I'm dropping/picking up stitches all over the place.
 
So that's my half term!
How would you spend a week off?
 
Cariad xxx
 
 
 
 

Sunday 10 February 2013

My pride and joy - make up storage

 
 
The absolute first thing I bought when we moved was this lovely desk (£10 from ikea! ) I haven't had a home for my makeup for a while and the idea of a dedicated place to sit and put it on literally made me squeal with excitement!
 
The mirror was a Christmas present from my mam (also a bargain £20 from Asda) and is the perfect size, so no more straining to fit my whole face into a small compact mirror yay. I already had the little Perspex drawer unit, it was a jewellery box from marks and spencer about 6 years ago, I'm always ahead of the curve me! It now holds all my flat items like blushers and eye shadow palettes and my gorgeous daisy by marc Jacobs and secret wish by Anna Sui on top, these are two of my favourite perfumes ever but I do have a few more that haven't been unpacked yet so ill have to remember to rotate the best ones.
 
I love my little cotton wool jar I bought it from Matalan for £2 it had lots of mint humbugs inside which Phil is now enjoying and the label peeled off really easily, practical and pretty what more do you want eh!
 
Finally my actual pride and joy, the amazing cupcake stand from dotcomgiftshop (£8 in the sale from £26!) On the top I have a glass saved from an old Yankee candle now storing all my lip products, the middle is all my skincare products and the bottom has the rest of my make up and brushes some of the smaller bits are in cheap glasses to avoid falling through the gaps in the metal. I haven't got a huge collection although I do have a huge wishlist so as it grows I will probably end up moving the skincare elsewhere and taking over that shelf too!
 
Hope you like my lovely dressing table (I'm not sure that anyone cares as much as I do about things like this but maybe you do!)
 
Cariad xx
 

Monday 4 February 2013

Living Room Tour

I've mentioned quite a few times that I've moved house recently, my boyfriend and I are living together finally, after 4 years together and some of that long distance, which is incredibly exciting and really couldn't have come sooner.

What's even more exciting however is finally having our own space to decorate and make ours, well more exciting for me not so much him, until now I've lived with family and in student houses (grotty, miserable, cheap student houses) so I'm in bargain home wares heaven!


I love my brick wall! The canvas was a real bargain only £10 from BM bargains, if you have one of these near you definitely check it out for homey things I have found some real gems! As we are renting the sofas and most of the furniture was already here, luckily they are quite neutral so a few throws (Poundstretcher!) and cushions (cream with hearts from BM bargains, red ones were dug out from Grans stash & the love cushion is from bhs in the sale) make them fit in with my reddish theme really well.


My giant tv is ancient, it belonged to my Great Gran but is still perfectly good and works brilliantly so until we are a bit more flush it will certainly do! The cupboard it's on was also a real bargain as we got this for £10 from an eBay seller 10 minutes drive away so we just picked it up in the car, its solid wood and in really good condition and the drawers are really useful for all the random cables and batteries I seem to acquire! One day I might paint it cream but for now I'm really liking the cosy wood.


This is my big blank wall, we aren't allowed to drill lots of holes in the walls so I'm a little bit stuck deciding how to inject a bit of colour/interest into this side. 
Let me know if you have any suggestions!


This one is the garden view from the window, as we have the ground floor flat the whole of this is ours! We weren't really looking for any garden space on our house hunt (because our budget was pretty low) so this was rather an unexpected benefit of this place. You can't see a great deal of it but its huge and grassy with a beautiful tree in the middle and I'm really looking forward to getting out there in the summer (after clearing the mossy path) for barbecues and relaxing.
I've definitely missed an outside space when I've lived in houses without some so it's great!
Hope you like having a little glimpse into my living room; any suggestions for decorating walls in a rented house?
Hopefully I'll get some nice pictures of our bedroom (once I've cleaned up) and can show you my amazing dressing table next!
Cariad xx

Sunday 3 February 2013

A busy weekend!

So somehow this weekend I've managed to go to 2 blog meet ups but very cleverly I managed to take no photos what so ever!

Make up on Saturday

We met for brunch in Bills which was lovely, I had scrambled eggs and bacon on toast if your wondering, then had a nosey around the shops after. Quite the blogger cliché shopping trip boots, space.nk &, muji (we don't have these in Wales so that was exciting!) but I was soo well behaved and didn't buy anything!

There was quite a few of us too which was lovely, although we did struggle to keep together around the shops, here are some of the lovely ladies links Rosie, Tabitha, Samantha, Emma, Catherine, Gem, Ellie, Ceri & Sharmeen

Second meet up of the weekend wasn't an organised one as such but Sarah and I have been planning to meet up for a while as she lives nearby and we first met at the Bristol blog meet a few weeks ago. We were chatting about it on twitter when Leanne jumped on board too, we have met up a few times in Cardiff but it was soo nice of her to travel all the way here from Wales for today and good old Spencer for doing the driving, what a nice hubby!

We had a good look around the shops in Reading, all of us have left with pink sparkly hands from all the swatching! My spending wasn't as good today as yesterday though I bought a mac eyeshadow in wood winked for my palette and a dress and tights in primark (both suitable for school though) and we had lunch in las Iguanas, including starters and buy one get one free cocktails! (okay i had a mocktail but these were bogof too so worked out cheaper than a coke!) the food was sooo good I've really eaten well this weekend!

Mocktail | enchiladas | Leanne meeting one direction! | MAC palette

Oh and Leanne had a photo with one direction! Primark in Reading are selling cardboard cut outs for £20! Honestly the best thing we saw all day I'm devastated I didn't buy one hehe.

Hope you like reading about my busy weekend. Clearly meet ups are my new thing (along with brunching!) so invite me if you know of any!
Cariad xx