New Chapters.

Wow.

Well, hello again. It's been a while. But I needed a proper break; not a brief week or two, riddled with the guilty 'I need to blog' feeling. A full no-guilt-focus-on-work-and-personal-life-and-stop-doing-so-much break.

In fact, such was the magnitude of the break that it appears I decided I needed to pile more onto my personal life plate so... OH and I bought a house!

It's in our beloved town of Chorlton which isn't the cheapest place to buy so we knew we were never going to get a bargain but our friends and our much-loved lifestyle are based there and the thought of moving away from it was too much of a wrench for us so we sucked it up and bought up.

It's a 3 bedroom Victorian terrace which I know is most peoples idea of hell ("A terrace?! how small and, er, quaint!") but it's actually my idea of a dream home so I am beyond thrilled with it. Or rather...what it will be.

Right now it's a phenominal mess of a building site but it hasn't dampened our spirits. We are going at it full steam ahead and have 1 month from now to move in. Our evenings and weekends are taken over and we've become almost complete social recluses but we don't care. We need to put hours, days, weeks and months into our bricks and mortar so that's what we're doing.

Here are some pics of the house as it was when we bought it. I'll label them as what they are/will be:

Living Room

Dining room/bar

Kitchen

Our Bedroom

My Dressing Room

Yard

And the day we got the keys:

And here are a few pictures of it last week. I'll try to do it in the same order but if I don't succeed I'll label these too:

Living Room

Dining Room / Kitchen / Bar

Kitchen (knocked through to Dining Room)

Our Bedroom (mid-fireplace restoration)

My Dressing Room

I know - it's not nice. And it's not pretty. But it will be and we won't rest until we have it matching the vision in our minds. This was last week - we now have a lot of plastering done and even some initial paint work:

Our Bedroom

Our Bedroom

My Dressing Room

Stairs and Landing Plastering

As you can see, in our bedroom we've decided to restore the old fireplace which I cannot wait for. We've not taken a small amount on; we've had the house just over a month now and the progress we've made has been nothing short of back-breaking but we're seeing results every day. This weekend the french doors go in the back of the dining room to lead out to the yard and the floors upstairs are my project to sand and re-stain and varnish.

Pinterest is currently being an enormous help - if you want to see some of my inspiration pins follow me. I'm 2dyeiv - just click to see my boards and follow me.

So - that's where I've been. But I have been asked so many times about the build and the interior decoration side of things that it's given me the oomph I needed to get back on here and share it with you.

I hope you like it and will continue to follow my progress as we move forward with this gargantuan project.

Happy Tuesday!

Don't Push Me Push A...Sleeve.

It was in the middle of a phone conversation this morning - describing my latest, beautful summer trench coat from VILA - that I realised it. Something that has come as second nature to me* actually isn't 2nd nature to many people at all but is such a great, basic fashion tip that I had to share it.

*(the 'me' I'm referring to is the 'me' that is surrounded by beautiful fashions most days of the week. Of course, as far as I'm concerned, there are many versions of 'me'.)

Ladies (and gents) get shoving those sleeves up.

It instantly updates an outfit; turning even the plainest of plain tops into an edgier version of itself. Not to mention the beautiful platform it creates upon which your various wrist accessories are free to shine to their maximum potential.

Over the past few weeks, as the weather's heated up and my sleeves have been pushed up, I have been inundated with compliments about my watch. It's not a new accessory. I have worn it day-in-day-out for about 5 years now but the fact people are suddenly noticing it, my rings, my nail colour etc shows that a simple tweak to an outfit can create a whole new focal point on your silhouette. And it's a goody.

And that's that really. No long, in depth post from me today. A helpful hint is all.
 

Me today.

 

Now...shove off!

Sk8er Gurl

Skaters. Trainers. Pumps. Espandrilles.

We can no longer deny it. Flats have flooded the highstreet and are having their fashion 'moment' this Spring/Summer.

Usually this would perplex me - a 'heels' girl through and through. Espadrilles remind me of uncomfortable childhood shoes worn on holidays where sand got in between your toes and rubbed. Pumps put me in mind of awkward primary school gym classes where the boys and girls kept as far apart as physically possible, each group thoroughly disgusted by the opposite sex. And while I have enjoyed the trainer trend of late at an average price of £80 for a new pair of Airmax/Free Run/Flex it's a bit too much like hard work for my bank account to get into all that.

But skaters. Now skaters are something I can very much get on board with. And boy, have I?

I started small with a cheap and cheerful pair from H&M in leopard print canvas. At £12.99 I thought they were a simple enough way to dabble in this trend and see if it was for me. Within hours I was hooked. I put them on Instagram and got at least 10 'likes' before I could even click off the app.

So loved, were they, that when a friend went to buy them online and they'd sold out I was enlisted to go and get her a pair from my local store and post them to her. (I did, of course - share the joy!)

Amazingly a few pairs are back in stock but move quickly if you want some - only sizes 5,6 and 6.5 left....HERE.

 

After this my appetite was whetted and I had to have more. Cue ASOS.

When my mother saw these she was a little taken-aback. I asked for her feedback. Bracing myself (I could feel the confusion radiating from her) she said, "Well, you certainly can't wear a skirt with them. You'll see straight up it!" Good thing I'm more of a trousers and shirt girl then, eh?

These were a pinch more than the H&M pair at £20 but I still think this is very reasonable. I've barely had them off my feet and they are giving me a lot of joy every time I wear them. Plus they're the perfect dancing shoes; last night I went to see Janelle Monaé in concert and wanted to dress up but with comfortable shoes that would see me in good stead for a boogy. These fit the bill perfectly. Some glitzy earrings, a bejewelled top and Red Stripe in hand (it was a gig after all) I felt a million dollars. Get yours HERE.

And now we come to my latest pair...

These bad boys have been on my wish list from pretty much the day they were released online. They sold out almost instantaneously but I am a believer in replenishing so kept checking back, almost daily at times, and today my determination was rewarded.

Let me introduce my baby blues from Topshop - another £20 wonder purchase. (OH, if you're reading this then...um...sorry?) 

I am over the (blue) moon to have them in my life - they are so pretty. The Topshop website reviews say they come up a bit small but the 6 (39) fit me perfectly. In fact, if anything, in comparison, the ASOS space shoes were a bit more snug than these at first but have now broken in beautifully. These Topshop perfections are available HERE.

Here's to a summer full of sunshine and skaters.

How about you? Got yours yet?

Met Blah-la 2014

Well, well... I have to say, for the first time ever, I am disappointed. Disappointed in, of all things, the women who attended last night's Met Gala.

Year upon year I wake up excited to trawl the plethora of websites featuring the red carpet pictures and all the fairytale gowns I can only dream of wearing. I even receive texts from friends - "Today's the day!", "Gowns! Gowns! Gowns!", "Time to get motivated to only eat dust for a year!" and the like.

I like to settle in with a cup of tea and fruit and be ready for a good mooch but today my tea was cold before I felt anything resembling envy towards anyone.

At first I thought it was perhaps that I had happened upon a couple of sites that just weren't featuring the best dressed ladies but after a few (hundred) clicks it became clear that, for the first year ever, the hype had taken over the outfits. And by this I mean so many of the guests were more motivated to out-do each other in the outlandish stakes that they appeared to have completely missed the point of dressing well.

Out of the many, many dresses I looked at there has only really been one that I would forgo chocolate for a year for and that was Leighton Meester's eye-wateringly beautiful Emilio Pucci floor length thriller.

I would have loved to have lusted after many more but was unable to so instead have decided to abuse your retinas with some of the horrors mine have had to endure this very day.

Enjoy!

 

I mean....C'MOOOON!

Candlest(u)ck On You

A few weeks ago I was browsing through my *favourite* daily email - Emerald Street - and they featured some candlesticks from Oliver Bonas that can really only be described as spectacular.

I'm not usually one for candlesticks but I put on my consumer head and asked myself the age old question I always do when I purchase anything for my home, "If I saw this in someone else's house would I want to steal it?" and with these 'sticks the answer was undeniable - those bad boys would be in my handbag before you could say 'matches.' I jest, of course, I'm not a kleptomaniac - but you get the point; if I think I would covet something  then I generally have to have it.

Neon has been popping up in interior design blogs/magazines/online image boards for a long time now but things like this can take their time to trickle onto the high street which is frustrating but makes sense in a commercial way, I guess.

There are so many exciting ways to introduce the neon trend to your home - some more permanent than others. Here are a few examples I've found floating around The Net recently that have inspired me.

    

What I like about this selection is that they demonstrate two levels of commitment to this trend - full commitment, and half-assed commitment. I most definitely fall in the latter of these two which is where my wonderful 'sticks come into play so beautifully.

Here they are on the OB website:

Available here

Available here

And here they are all over my house as I try and decide where they will live (for now - I'm nothing if not a fan of the 're-jig' after a few weeks of the same set-up.) At approx £16 a pop they aren't exactly a throw-away decision foray but they are a cheerful addition to come home to and have certai UK enhanced my week.

They have ended up on the mantelpiece with white candles in them but I have come up against a real issue with them. I can't use them - they have to be purely ornamental. Why?

Because there is nowhere for the hot wax to drip except onto the neon paintwork and I've a feeling that once cooled, picking the wax will destroy the paint underneath it.

So - I end with a tip. If you do buy these lovely, lovely things (and you should) be aware they are for looking at only!

Oh, and a quick garden update - it's coming along nicely.

Gold Fingers.

I am someone who relies heavily on technology every day of my working life. Be it emails, photoshop, my phone or excel, it is safe to say I need technology at some point every few minutes of my 9-5 post. (Technically 8.30-5 post but it didn't scan as well.) Which can leave me exhausted and my eyes weary from constant focus.

Don't get me wrong. I *love* my job but by the time I get home the last thing I want to look at is pixels. So I have turned to DIY as a sort of 'departure therapy' from a stressful day in the office.

And it's working quite well. On any given night of the week it is not un-common find me, needle/paint brush/wallpaper paster in hand, some sort of radio podcast blaring out and a huge grin on my face. I love DIY/craft/upcycling - whatever you want to call it. And one website has fuelled this love like no other - Pinterest.

Now that Spring appears to have arrived my design aspirations have turned to my tiny back yard. OH and I don't own the house we're in so any 'improvements' (IMO) I make have to be removable when we leave which is frustrating but it's also become a fantastic time to focus on building a beautiful base of decorations for our home that we are going to love when it is our bricks and mortar surrounding us. Anyway... I digress.

With the Bank Holiday looming (last week) I took to my beloved Pinterest to get my creative juices flowing and within minutes a new board had been created and I was off on my next project.

Now, a little know fact about me is that I adore bees. And butterflies. Not in a cutesy way - Lord knows I would never have anything 'themed' in my garden based on them but there have been a lot of reports recently about the decline of both these beautiful creatures in the UK so after reading into bee and butterfly friendly plants I got shifting towards my local garden centre, armed with my list of ideal plants to help the local animals thrive. (Not you, cats, you can stay out of my yard!)

I also knew I wanted an explosion of colour so picked a bright palette and got purchasing.

OH and I appear to have inherited a heck of a lot of terracotta pots, which are fantastic but I'm not really a terracotta kinda gal so the first garden DIY I am going to share is my new plant pots. (I know, brace yourselves, it's a lot of excitement for a Tuesday.)

Deciding on my old faithful - gold spray paint - I set to work scrubbing the pots clean with normal washing up liquid.

And gathered my resources.

I used PlastiKote spray in 'brass' as I think it's more of a 'true' gold - their golds seem a bit yellow-y to me and I prefer a bronzed tone. I've used this spray for indoor DIY jobs before but not in the great outdoors and I didn't fancy its chances up against the famous Manchester rain so I erred on the side of caution and also fished out my clear lacquer enamel from Wilkos (this is a matte spray so won't leave a shiny finish.)

Now, if you've never spray painted before here are a few tips:

- Make sure you have a large(ish) area to do it in. And cover it in newspaper. A lot of newspaper.

- Preferrably do it outside as the fumes are somewhat extreme after only a few short minutes.

- Do it on a windless day - nobody likes back spray, especially when it's gold and permanently damaging to clothes and shoes.

- Hold the can about 20cm away from what your spraying - this helps keep the coverage even. (I learnt this the hard way - by ruining two mirrors. Rookie.)

I gave my pots 2 coats of gold and finished it with 1 coat of the clear laquer to keep them water proof and, after today's rain I can confirm this has worked a treat.

Another tip - spray the inside of the pot 2/3 inches deep - this means when planted the top section that isn't covered in soil will still be a golden dream.

And here's my first completed, potted plant.

I have a lot more but we'll get further into the makeover in time. After this I was rudely interupted by a summons to the pub so that's where my DIY-ing halted and the Sauvignon Blanc started. Whoops!

And look, it must be working because I found his guy tonight when I went out to check up on things... Not quite a bee or butterfly but we're getting there. More soon!