I love #9

I have to admit I've been rubbish at blogging recently. Lots of work to be getting on with so I've only really been posting when I've had something to say or a recipe to post. I'm treating this as a quick break from work before I get back on with it! I've made a V festival playlist to listen to in the background and I'm really enjoying the variety of music and hearing some of the lesser known songs from people like Emeli Sande and High Flying Birds.

I thought I'd share a secret today. My organising and planning obsession. I like being organised, having a plan and looking at things for all sorts of inspiration. Although I like planning, I do like to be spontaneous too. Some of the best things I've ever done have been completely last minute. I just think that being organised means you're always on top of things and ready for anything that comes your way. I like to find inspiration for various things in magazines and also online on Pinterest. You can have different boards to store your 'pins' so I've got boards for food, parties, style, home, places, beauty, wants and thoughts.

You know those annoying 'keep calm and...' posters which seem to be everywhere? Well, I don't post those, but I do like quotations and little slogans which are fairly similar. If that makes me sad then so be it, but it's my geeky side coming out. I love quotations from books, pictures of places to travel to and things that keep me motivated. Here are some of my pinterest 'thoughts':

You can be addicted to a certain kind of sadness.

It has been a long week back at work and definitely a long week until payday. Monday was massively improved by a bunch of flowers and then a giant batch of spaghetti bolognese that I whipped up. The best thing to eat when running out of money is definitely a bit of good old spag bol. Mushrooms, onions, garlic, peppers, chopped tomatoes (from a can) and some mince all mixed in together and added to spaghetti is one of my favourite easy meals to make. I really want to do some more baking this weekend so I've been trying to think of some tasty recipes I can experiment with.

A few things I've been thinking and doing lately:

1. Money (and lack of) and all the stress it brings with it.
2. Watched the film Somers Town - interesting and would recommend it.
3. The pictures and comments on Whitney Houston's life and death are too much and very insensitive.
4. I really want that tiny dog on The Only Way is Essex at the moment!
5. Loving the website Hello Giggles - a great way to waste time.
6. Considering baking some banana oatmeal cookies.
7. Very excited about trips to see friends in Bath and Cardiff!
8. Halfway through re-reading The Great Gatsby and looking for lots of new books to read.
9. It's probably time to start eating healthily again. I can't get away with 'stodge' in nice weather.
10. I really, really, really can't bear that 'twilight' song. Awful.

And here are a few picture style thoughts and things I'm liking at the moment too:

If I had a dog then he would definitely look like this.

I'll always love Perry.

Love!

Rings, nails, amazing legs. Want all of them please.

The amazing Adele.

Just cute.

Diet inspiration.

One day I will do this and have a midnight picnic.

Style inspiration.

I want to be here.

 

Simple style love.

That's about all I have the energy for today.

Images taken from weheartit.com

Blog: Still a weird word.

Two and a half years of blogging. I remember starting my blog as a way to share thoughts with friends and as a space to write without having to add a new facebook status every five minutes. I've ended up writing about lots of different things and it's nice to refer back and see what I was thinking a few years ago. Blogging has seen a sudden popularity increase recently and there are blogs for everything, including fashion, cooking, crafts and general ramblings.

A few of my blog favourites this year:

Temporary:Secretary - Recently won the Look Blogging Award and it was fully deserved! I've been reading for ages so I'm glad this was the winner. Full of fashion, jewellery and gorgeous pictures.which give an insight into her life. I love the way she puts her outfits together.

The Londoner - Rose's blog is a mixture of delicious recipes, restaurant reviews, fashion and lifestyle and beautifully composed photos. I've made so many of her recipes now that I have her to thank for getting me into cooking! One warning comes with this blog: You will want her life!


Le Fashion - Full of inspiration and outfit photos, this blog is just beautiful to look at.

Loveology - Packed with bright colour, texture and interior design ideas. This really makes me want to get back into arty things. I could look at this blog all day.

The Clothes Horse - Described as an 'artistic personal style blog', this includes magazine features, reviews, illustrations and outfit posts. A good mix of everything!

WIMH - What's In My Handbag is a new website with blog which works on the idea that you get a sneak peek into bags owned by others and you can select the items if you like them. The blog covers a variety of beauty related things and always gives me inspiration! They're also giving away a Mulberry Alexa bag for Christmas (which I blogged about here) so don't waste any time... get on board.

Now, I read a lot of blogs. These are just a few of the fashion/lifestyle type ones but I read a selection and I use Bloglovin to store my favourites. You don't have to have your own blog to do this. You can just sign up (which can be done through facebook) and then you select the type of things you want to read about. You click follow on each blog and then you have a list of blogs to scroll through and look at each time they update. It doesn't just have to be a 'girl thing' to read blogs, there are plenty of ones that appeal to guys too!

I read blogs to keep up with trends and also to get inspiration for things in general. I love reading and would read the back of a cereal packet if it was the only thing around! I need my daily intake of information, whether it be trivial or not, just to keep my brain going. Having said that, I have three books infront of me which need reading. Time to put the computer down for a while...

LISTENING TO #15

I'm suffering from the worst headcold this week but at least that gives me an excuse to coat myself in vaporub and lie around in a duvet whenever I have a spare moment. It's been such a full on week so far that I've not done much other than work and listen to music. I've fallen deeper in love than ever with Bombay Bicycle Club and The Kooks and seem to be listening to some of their latest tracks on a constant loop while I get marking and planning done.


I'm really enjoying getting lessons planned and doing all the background work at the moment. It feels good to use my brain properly after the six weeks of slobbing about and engaging with nothing more mentally stimulating than a drinks menu! One of my favourite parts of my job is the creative side of it. Having to think of different ways to do something or activities that will keep the kids interested is what I really enjoy. I spent most of last night making 'interactive posters' which are basically pages on the internet which you can add youtube clips, audio files, flashing symbols, quotes and images to. It appealed to my not so inner geek.

If I can get through this week with my voice intact then I'm looking forward to a weekend involving a cinema trip, drinks and night out, seeing birthday girl Emma for a much needed roast dinner and taking delivery of various new pieces of technology. I'm also going to be working on my self imposed mission to watch more films and read more books. So far this week I've seen 'Love and Other Drugs', 'He's Just Not That Into You', 'The Social Network', 'Othello' (Kenneth Branagh version for those English/Shakespeare lovers) and I've got 'The Town' to watch next. Books at the moment just consist of school texts and things I've been using to read around the subjects I'm teaching. I'm hoping to do some book swaps with people soon!

I have plenty of things to be getting on with so the songs I am surviving on are below. I always post tons because then I can find songs again easily when I want a listen! Storage blog comes to the rescue.

I wonder when I will get bored of Ed Sheeran? That furry little ginger man does have a lovely voice.







and this one just for a bit of extra cheese... if you think he is whiny anyway then I suggest you don't listen to this one!



Whatever this is, I want it.

FASHION FIX #12

I had a very small break (a whole week) from blogging and decided that I should just continue as it's something I really enjoy doing. It's not a 'fashion' or 'style' blog, I'm not stylish enough to be telling people what to wear! However,I do like showing what I've bought and particular things I like so I'll carry on as I was.

As everyone who knows me is aware, I am a big shopper when I feel the need. Recently I've been responsible and only bought those things that I really need. Every girl needs a splurge though, right? I thought I'd share a selection of my spoils, if only to make me feel guilty for the amount of things I bought.

Excuse the photo quality please! They were taken on my Blackberry as my camera is broken. Sad face.

First up: Shoe haul

Purple pumps, black pumps and black heels from New Look. Brown boots from Asda.

So maybe I didn't need to buy quite so many shoes but a girl can never have too many! I reasoned with myself that the three pairs from New Look can be worn to work and the brown boots are for my autumn/winter wardrobe. My old brown boots do need throwing out but I couldn't bare to part with them so they're still hanging about until I fall deeply in love with my new ones.

A last minute Primark buy.

 My staple shoes in Autumn are always black boots. Normally I go for knee high as they can be worn with lots of outfits but this pair were a panic buy as I was desperately trying to find some boots before we headed off to a festival! I like the studs and the fringing detail - not something I would dare to wear on other pieces of clothing!

I ♥ Leopard print

 Comfy pumps for work just to add a bit of colour. I always tend to rely on black as it's flattering and smart but I love this colour at the moment so had to have them!

Love the buckle detail on these shoes

Everyone needs some cute ankle boots!

Jewellery bits and bobs:

Sunglasses from Primark (another emergency festival buy) and a massive selection of new rings. From left: Big silver flower was a birthday present. Four dark gold spiky rings are from H&M, they also have small animal details on too which I thought were quite quirky but not over the top. The large stoned silver rings were bought from JWLRY, a shop I discovered from reading LLYMLRS blog. The two gold stoned rings (brown and orange) are H&M and the big stack of small gold rings are also H&M. Can you see a theme developing? I like to pile rings on rather than wearing loads of other jewellery at the moment.

Bags both from H&M during my giant spree the other day. I prefer plain bags as they go with more things and look timeless. The brown bag is also massive so I can fit all of my work stuff in there and not look too dorky. The big green pendant is from Topshop. I saw it in the sale and decided it would be a crime not to buy it.

This is the interior of the brown H&M bag. I don't actually like horses but I really like horse prints on things. Strange I know. I only bought those bags recently so they're still in the shops if you fancy having a look for yourself.

Clothing. I'm embarrassed to admit that this is only a small selection of what I've bought. 

Dress from Miss Selfridge. I was looking for a mid length floral dress and it just seemed to pop out at me. It was in the sale in my size so I decided that was more than enough reason to buy it. Wore it the same day and immediately spilt drink all over it. Doh.

 Top from H&M - it definitely fits my mood at the moment. I wear it with a long black vest top underneath so it looks a bit more casual and then add skinnies and heels. Bag from Primark. I love satchels and this one is so bright I needed to have it in my life.

Dress from Primark. Another festival buy as I wanted to make sure I had a dress I could wear with wellies if necessary. I added a big chunky navy cardigan (the blue and black rule bores me) and I busted out some moves in the dance tent with this baby.

 Two work tops from New Look. Blouses can be really unflattering on me but tucked into a pencil skirt I think it should look ok. I think I need to start looking a bit smarter so this is my attempt!

 Here's the bow from the maroon top. Not sure why it came out so pink (rubbish phone camera) but I wanted to show the detail. I like the fact that it's quite slouchy and not all rigid and stiff looking.

 Primark dress. I keep buying polka dot things at the moment and this is one of those moments. It's a mid length dress and quite clingy but it makes me feel super glamorous during the daytime!

And finally, two chunky jumpers from Primark. Big fan of blue and red and the particular style of both of these. The blue one has half sleeves and the red one has full length. Lovely.

I'm definitely feeling suitably guilty about all of this shopping now. This is to serve as a warning that I should calm it down for a while. The six weeks holiday must make me go shopping crazy! Back to work tomorrow and time to get back into a routine. The school holidays always confuse me as I like having an order to my life and end up being so unproductive when there are no particular deadlines or immediate pressures on me to get things done. That said, I do enjoy a daily lie in!

The blog is back and I don't see it going anywhere anytime soon. x

Life was much easier when Apple and Blackberry were just fruits.

I'm so excited for the next few days I can hardly contain myself! Friends visiting for a couple of days of catch ups and partying, a festival over the weekend and my new car being delivered.

In other news, I'm thinking about this blog and why I actually write it. It started off as a way to share things with friends in more detail rather than just writing a facebook status every time I eat a piece of toast/buy some shoes (I hate it when people do that!) and I started adding photos, videos and things I love along the way. I'm always careful not to make it too personal because although I want to share things, I do think there is such a thing as too much sharing! I tend to end up posting about fashion more than anything else because it's something I love, it's down to individual style and taste and it won't offend, upset or come across as preaching to anyone! However, I do sometimes think that just posting about fashion makes me come across as quite a one dimensional person when I'm really not! There are plenty of other things I'm interested in but time/energy always seems to dictate what I write about. I decided I don't want to post tons of pictures of my friends on a blog because anyone could search it so I'm keeping facebook for pictures and blogging for rambles. I also don't really want hundreds of pictures of me on here either for the same reasons so I'll be limiting those too. I do want people to read the blog and I really like it when people comment or send me a message about reading it but I don't want my face and private life to be splashed about all over the place! Anyway, that was a really long-winded way of saying that I'm reconsidering the blog and what to put in it.

Like I said earlier, I have a busy couple of weeks coming up followed by the return to work which will inevitably lead to my prolific list-making, marking and organisational skills coming back into full force. I've enjoyed the summer holidays but I do feel quite bereft without a structure to each day!

While I take a break from blogging I'll be working hard, hoping I manage to drive my little car around safely and making sure I appreciate my friends and get the work/life balance right! It wouldn't be my blog if I didn't add hundreds of pictures to wrap it up. Here you go.

If you just can't keep away from me then here is my Tumblr and Twitter!

See you soon xx