Upcycling, decorating and toastying

I've had a slightly more productive day today and it's been nice to get a few things done. I made the effort to get dressed in my what I call "posh clothes" and went to browse the local shops. Ended up buying a cheap toastie maker to enrich my day of painting.

Boots: Oasis, Jeans: River Island, Scarf: Fat Face,
Gilet: Joules, Jumper: Warehouse.

My second bedroom is now white and awaiting a new bed which is due to arrive next Wednesday. For the moment though, it's still a junk room!

I got a little bit adventurous with my toastie maker.....I made the most amazing concoction from banana, peanut butter and chocolate spread with popping candy! (All ingredients from Sainsburys)

Then I enjoyed eating it with a cup of tea and my copy of Prozac Nation by Elizabeth Wurtzel. Perfect way to spend a Sunday, in my opinion.

 

I've also been planning how to upcycle this retro cabinet that I got for £4 from my local charity shop. Unfortunately, before I could get it home, it got knocked over and the mirror broke. Sad face.
So I've smashed off the rest of the glass with a hammer so I can cover the front with some funky wallpaper. Possibly something Orla Kiely stylee!

Retro mirrored cabinet from a charity shop

And that's what happens when you smash glass without wearing gloves. Not recommended. Health and safety is, of course, very important......

What did you do with your weekend?

Oh no panic!

Well, don't panic actually....I'm just panicking for some reason because I haven't blogged all week! I've been trying to think of something interesting to tell you, but the truth is - in January I mainly just hibernate. My days are mostly spent going to work, watching a LOT of tv and complaining about how cold it is. I also seem to get migraines in January. I only have £4 in my account until next Thursday so I'm not going to be buying new clothes or going for meals at fancy restaurants!

I toyed with the idea of finding my diary from my uni days and copying out an entry....I've been feeling inspired to write a new diary recently. However, first I need to find one that locks so no sneaky little eyes can find their way in! I also thought about writing a letter to my body (bear with me) that would be sort of an apology for hating it and treating it badly, and how I've now come to accept it.....but I thought that might be a bit crap.

So instead, you have a few paragraphs of waffle and no photos! Bet you're glad you tuned in now!

This week I've learnt that you can wash your kitty stinky curtains in the bath and that you can iron the creases out of them with your hair straighteners. Who knew? I've also treated one of my cats for cystitis and the other cat has acne. Again, who knew cats could get acne?! Totally random. Acne cat also "ran away" for the day causing us no end of worry. My cats dislike each other intensely so most of our evenings are spent keeping them apart and trying to give them "equal attention."

I'm sure this is somehow good practise for parenthood in some misguided kind of way......

I'll leave you with that terrifying thought.

Oh no, it's snow!

Most of you are probably bored of talking about the snow but mine only arrived this morning so I'm still hyper about it, ok?!

Predictably, the whole of the U.K has come to a halt. Trains and buses have been cancelled, customers have panic bought every warm item and sledge in our shop and Facebook has been inundated with status updates and pictures of snowy roads! British people cannot cope with snow. Fact.

Our Sky tv apparently had no signal this evening, causing me to wonder how people in places like Canada or Norway get their tv? And how do their planes take off in the snow? Clearly, the British people just relish the chance for a day off from work and a little bit of drama!

There's no business like snow business!

The clientele for the shop I work in tends to be from the posher side of town, however most of our customers today were teenagers and chavs! Call me judgemental (please, I take it as a compliment!) but the people I served today where clearly skiving off school and work whilst I did an almost full length working day.......not entirely fair, me thinks.

Anyway, I did stop to appreciate the snowy scenes on my walk to and from work so all was not lost and the snow flurry was not in vain. God will be pleased!

I think that snow can be a little bit like Christmas.....really, it's only there for the kids. Once you get older, you are far to aware of how long it's gonna take to thaw out, once you've put your hands in the snow! But as it only happens once every few years I shall embrace it. Pneumonia and all. X

Etsy loves!

As I have nothing of interest to say or show you this evening, I thought long and hard about the sort of post I would want to look at and came up with an Etsy round up.

I'm a big crafter at heart so what could be better than a website run by crafty people? Surely everyone knows what Etsy is and I don't need to explain? You can find the home page "here."

First up is this cute but random stamp set. Everybody loves cats (if you don't, what's wrong with you?) and everyone needs a stamp set in their stationary stash.


It costs £6.15 and you can buy it here    
 I don't know what those little symbols mean. It might be swear words. I accept no responsibility for accidentally advertising inappropriate products! I particularly like the one that says "no."





I've been thinking about the changing the knobs on my chest of drawers and these seem the perfect size. Better still, it's only £12.42 for the set of six. Find them here




This Cathrineholm print would look great in my lounge. It's no secret that I love a bit of mid century modern in my life! It's £14.64 and you can buy it here




Robots are awesome. If I have a boy as a child, his whole room is going to be filled with robots!
These robot dolls are only £6.37 each and you can get them here



There are so many awesome clocks on Etsy but this one particularly took my fancy. This fox is called Matthew. Of course. He is £29.50 and available here

And finally................




I'm pretty sure this polar bear is what's missing from my life and the only thing keeping me from being truly happy.  He/she is £15.92 and you can get one to complete your life here

Happy shopping my little monkeys.

Pinterest interior decorating ideas

As we live in the 21st century, it would be wrong if I didn't utilise the technology on offer to me. So I spend a fair bit of time looking at the "home decor" section of Pinterest!

Here are a few of my recent favourite ideas:

Painting chevrons on to a feature wall

Using a white day bed and pastel colours

Paint lolly sticks in your wall paint colours and then take them with you to match
with curtains and cushions!

Buy each colour on a paint strip to
make ombre drawers

I love to read - this would be my
happy place....

I love Orla Kiely so this would be a good
budget diy.

Now I just need more days off for painting and decorating! And maybe a higher budget!

Sales and birthdays

Would you like to know what I've been up to for the past few days? Of course you would.

I try to plan a lot of my sale shopping online before heading into town and braving the crowds - that way, I can see if there are any shops worth going in to and which ones are not worth the hassle.
Going into TK Maxx wasn't actually in my plan but I always pop in to see what's on offer. I wasn't disappointed and managed to find the cake stand that I had passed on when I visited my mum a few months back!

It's by a company called Magpie who seem to sell mainly gorgeous, retro style, vintage china. My cake stand was reduced from £30 down to £9.99 - the colours are just beautiful!



Woodland cake stand by Magpie at TK Maxx

I also saw an Orly Kiely duvet cover with matching pillow cases for a really good price but I had to pass it up as I have a bit of a duvet cover collection....
The only other thing that I have purchased in the sales is a shirt from Crew Clothing. I've had one of their shirts previously and have been really impressed with the way it washes. (God, I sound old!)
I went into the Gunwharf Quays outlet branch with the intention of getting a new shirt and managed to pick one up for £16 down from £55!! Bargain.

Apologies for the lame photo! The hat in the corner was bought in the Gap sale last year!
I also have a Fat Face gilet on its' way to the shop I work in as I can get it for a stupidly good price. I don't need it but heck, do I want it!

Yesterday was my boyfriends birthday so we went bowling and had a yummy lunch in Chiquitos. Then in the evening was a work colleagues leaving do so we headed to a cute little pub in the countryside.

Looking ridiculously cute in the hat I bought him!

I won two out of the three games!

I dressed up warm in some cosy winter layers.

Today, I've been painting the house. The hallway upstairs is now white and so is most of the second bedroom. We've planned to paint the lounge in a sort of lime green colour (nicer than it sounds, promise) with a wall of feature wallpaper.

I've been spending lots of time on Pinterest looking at other peoples rooms for some inspiration!
Anyone got any ideas on wall colours that go with a green carpet? Answers on a postcard!

I'm now working for a few days (dull) so I'll be back at the end of the week with some inspiring decorating photos!

How to make Slutty Brownies like The Londoner

I think I've mentioned before that one of my favourite blogs is The Londoner .....
A while ago, Rosie posted a recipe of hers called "slutty brownies." They are called slutty because they are made with packet mixes and are ridiculously easy!
I like recipes that are easy to shop for and even easier to make so I grabbed some extra bits on my last food shopping trip and whipped up a batch this afternoon.

The only ingredients you need are a packet mix for cookies, a packet mix for brownies and a packet of Oreos - I managed to find double fill ones in Sainsburys. Oh, and an egg and some oil if your packet mix requires it!

You make the cookie mix first and squash it into the bottom of a lined tin (mine was 8"x8") then push the Oreos into the cookie layer. Then just make the brownie mixture and pour it over the top!
Rosie recommends cooking it for about half and hour but mine took a full hour.

The layers of a slutty brownie

The missing bits on the top are the bits I ate already!

Oh my god, they are sooo tasty! The Oreos go a bit squishy and creamy and then you get the yummy cookie dough at the bottom. I'm off to cut some out of the tin to munch on whilst I watch Madagascar 2: Escape to Africa. Basset hound.