A greyish blue day

As I hinted the other day, I'd started a new project whilst Michael was away. When we moved into our flat, my dad very kindly gave us a chest of drawers. It fitted into our built in wardrobe, had enough storage for all our stuff and was generally perfect. Except it was lilac... Silly Stacey forgot to take the before picture pre-first-coat-of-paint, so this sorry excuse will have to do. 

As you can see it had been a wonderful shade of purple.. And also lime green at some point.. And a lovely neon pink too. But now, instead Of all of those wonderful colours, it's these...  

I found inspiration from Pinterest (common theme of the blog, all hale Pinterest) and after Michael and I had decided an olive green/blue colour scheme for the bedroom, I remembered that I had the paint leftover from my room project to hand. 

I love the finished piece and it feels good to have something that we've made our own, it our own home :) listen to me.. What a sap. 

Pinterest Finds

Maybe it's because I feel like I have no time to do anything anymore, but recently I have been finding lots of stuff of pinterest that I'm interested in and want to try out. Here are a few things that have made the show-and-tell cut;

 

Self Explanatory 

Cut Illustration

Cork

Loo Roll

Notebooks

 Have you been up to any simple crafty things recently? I'd be interested in reading about them! 

What I made: hair ribbon tutorial

I've always been inspired by this pin - http://pinterest.com/pin/169799848423174908/. I think it leads to a tutorial about how to wrap your hair under the band to create the wrapped look, but I'm more interested in the band itself. So when I found these beautiful rolls at a local craft chain...

I knew I'd found my latest project! 

With any project that you start without a tutorial, there were a couple of hitches - 

Actually, there was only that one. I had thought that I needed to be cautious of where to cut the ribbon but didn't think it through enough. It did only happen once though- I learned from my mistakes. 

Anywho, here is a tutorial in case you're interested, these ones are super simple :)

You will need: pretty ribbon, fabric elastic band, thread to match the colour of your ribbon and a needle. Simple as that! 

1) unwrap your ribbon and measure it's length from the behind/bottom of one ear, round the top of your head to the next one. Remember to consider the pattern and where is best to cut. This is only rough, I have other hair ribbons with lots of elastic but I don't like them as much for that very reason. If you plan on wearing it with your hair down (or like in the pin above!) then it won't matter as much, but I'm planning on wearing them with my hair in a big messy bun so they'll be on show. 

2) sew one end of he fabric elastic band to one end of the ribbon before you cut your elastic, this means you can place it around your head again to get it at the right tension for you. Consider which side to sew the elastic on: think about which side will be seen when you wear it and try and keep your stitches neat. 

3) wrap around your head, trim the elastic at the right length for you, and sew the other side to the ribbon. Trim any unruly bits like the one I'm touching with the safety pin...

4) sign off your thread and trim, you're done! 

Ta-da! Easy as pi. Is that meant to be pi or pie? On a similar note I'm reading the life of pi, have you? What did you think? It's going a bit slow at the moment but I like how he describes animals in a zoo vs the wild, that was interesting.

P.s. Don't let anyone come in whilst you're doing your creating. Michael came in to my room and complained about the mess... I told him where to go ;) 

It feels really good to be making again after the move- definitely got the creative juices flowing!

Relocation, Relocation, Relocation

No.. I'm not doing some weird kind of review of the TV program, Michael and I are moving! Here starts a long story with lots of components:
-After our short trip to Prague and our long journey home, I had a job interview in a county near to Michael's army base. I think it was two full weeks or close to two weeks later, they called and offered me the job stating there was a delay because they didn't know which team to put me in.
- The job I applied for is in one area, whilst Michael's is another, so we are meeting it the middle and commuting each day. We decided, when I applied for the job, that it was a step we were ready to take together, but that we would leave it up to fate - if this is the job I got, when I'd applied for a few, then it was meant to be. And it's all worked out, so it was clearly the right choice!
-Flat hunting and contract waiting later, we viewed a flat and pretty much fell in love. We had to wait for a week or two again for the contract, but the new council's HR department are super lovely and I'm so appreciative of this.
-Crazy times sourcing and looking for furniture. (charity shops, of course!)
-Contract came, contract was signed, contract was sent.
-Estate agents was contacted and the flat we loved was ours! Well... credit and reference checks later (long, so long), we found out Friday that the flat is ours!

Pinterest has been an absolute God send for all of this, check out my relocating board here. It's a place I like to keep picture of my absolute goal, so I can keep them at the forefront of my mind and don't end up buying crap.

The Flat:
We have a top floor unfurnished flat that has two bedrooms (aka a bedroom and a study, Michael gets the garage!), a kitchen, bathroom, lounge, airing cupboard and coat/shoe room, garage. oh and a little patch of grass we have to take care of. The floors are mostly laminate, bar both bedrooms which are carpeted.

Finding Furniture:
This makes me laugh, because Michael kept going to family gatherings and texting me like 'I've got us a bed, I've got a mattress, do we need a nest of tables?' We are very grateful to both families pulling together to help us with all of this - furniture is expensive stuff! We thought we would just get items to begin with; this place is not our home, I don't need my forever pieces, it doesn't have to be perfect, it can be just so - we'll replace it when the time comes. The kitchen is already all sorted - I have tonnes of stuff from Uni, and luckily white goods are already in the property. Currently we've managed to nab - bed frame, mattress, dining table, bed side cabinets, nest of tables. I already have a beautiful vintage side board that will be used as the TV stand (and storage!), and Michael's parents have bought us a three seater sofa and an arm chair. Wardrobes are already built in, so our current needs are;

• Desk
• shelves for study
• rug
• drawers for bathroom

Bathroom Drawers/Storage

The bathroom is mostly set, there's a medicine cabinet etc but no shelves in the shower or place to store toiletries, hence the need for something like this -  

                                              Ikea                                                    Argos                     

The lounge

The floor is yellowy wood laminate. I love grey so the sofa and arm chairs are grey. To set the room off I know I need a colour scheme, as grey is just the base, and I'm currently crushing on these colour variations. The place has blinds up and I'm not sure if there even are curtain poles in the property, but that's something I  might need to think about too 

 

(already purchased - Tesco)

 

Pinks/Greens - but always dusky

 

Just the shade of green on the right - not the shelving, that's not my kinda thing. 

Ikea - I need this in my life - imagine that over the sofa. 

Lounge tables 

The Study

My initial thought was wooden - it's always wooden, but dark wood. Then I thought about having a big steel workbench of a desk and the ideas started flowing. I would like a metal desk, and also some metal shelving - for books, but also creeping/hanging plants - that mix of silver and green is just going to be perfect.

 

 

Other

These look like handy little contraptions 

hehe, so appropriate

I think that's it for now, it's so nice to have them all down in one place so expect another installment. And then of course a house tour! All links are on my pinterest, either on the 'relocating' board, or the 'for the home' (for the lounge colour schemes). 

I had a quick browse over the 'My Style' board on pinterest yesterday, and I am currently just crushing on long skirts for winter... especially these

 

Lucky ladies.

Autumn Style

I found this photo on Pinterest earlier, and decided it was the epitome of Autumn style - something I very much am a fan of. Having had my summer style cemented far before summer came around, I decided I wanted to do the same for Autumn (even if it's already on its way). I actually have very few components of an outfit like this - no denim shirt (also thinking different coloured checks would suit), no boots, no leggings. I have (many) a scarf, I have a cardigan, I have under tops. Hmm.

(here)

 

(here)                                                (here)                                          (here)

So from there I've been doing a little research, (of course).

Leggings, I bought these -they are fleece lined!! how toasty am I gona be when that wind comes whipping round. I'll let you know if they're worth the purchase or not too.

I am majorly crushing on both these and these boots, but alas, right now I cannot afford them. I will be purchasing these or something similar when I get paid.

Shirt wise, I am loving checked ones; one, two, three, four; but some might need to be taken in. For other shirts, one, two,

For cardigans/jumpers one, two, three, four (so many colours).

I have also been wanting a leather jacket for over a year. I finally took the plunge to start researching them, to see what kind of styles I think I'd be interested in. Here is a short list of my favourites, one, two, three.

If only I had a money tree in the back garden, huh? Until then, I shall carry on with outfits like this, this, this and this.

Blog Every Day In May-Day 8: My Piece Of Advice

For all the other days I have managed to not peek at the next days hint so I could trick myself into blogging the actual honest answer, but I have to admit that I peeked at day 8's prompt on day 7. That said, it didn't help me in the slightest. I'm stuck to offer you blind advice, I've been taught quite strictly not to give advice and treat myself more as a sounding board, so this one did not come easily to me.

Instead, I looked at my pinterest board and had a bit of a rummage around and compiled a couple of things I tend to live by. There are also more on my 'about me' page, that you should certainly have a browse of.

1. nope, never. I have felt regret for not being nice enough though. 

2. this taught me to not be afraid of showing that I'm happy and being proud of being happy doing things - from a silly dance or asking that burning question. Once you're happy with you, others will be happy too, and maybe you could help them be a bit more happy with themselves. 

 

3. Crying yourself to sleep really works at the time, but it will be better in the morning. I don't know how and I don't know why, but the evening really gives your emotions and feelings a different edge. I can honestly say that I have felt different about something every single time I've woken up. 

4. I literally live my life by this, not because it's a quote written on a tin lid. But because of it's message. I'm peculiar in that I don't need others approval and I don't judge my looks/weight/progress/whatever on anyone else, I am my own harshest critic, and if it's okay for me, then it's okay - I don't need you to tell me too. So if I was mean when no one was looking, I'd know I was a mean person, and I wouldn't be okay with that.

but mostly

5. if you know you are true to you, and your intentions are never bad.. who could bad mouth you? and what would their words be worth if they did? I left bitchiness behind in year 11. I haven't had an argument about something someone said about me and whoever else whenever, in a long time. and it feels good. I know that I'm a good person, my friends and my family know that too, and that's all I need.

I think my confidence came from there. I think I became happy in my own skin because I like who I am and it's something I can continually develop. Once you don't care if someone thinks something bad about you that's untrue, you can focus on being you and the best version of you you can be. And then you'll enjoy your life more, which I guess is my advice...

p.s.