The joy of geometrics

My love affair with grey and yellow is still ongoing but I have a new crush - geometrics! I'm not sure where this trend originated from - I think it's a follow on from the chevron trend?

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, let me show you visually:

1) Fruit bowl £12    2) Ombre duvet cover £15 in double size
3) Bath mat £10   4) Towels from £4  All from Matalan

It basically involves geometric shapes (triangles, pentagons etc) usually in pastel colours being displayed on home accessories and wallpapers. And it looks gorgeous.


Obviously, you don't want pattern on every surface so pick a few key items - like a geometric rug and cushions - to stand out and keep everything else subtle but colour coordinated.




Keep it simple for maximum impact

I scoured the high street for you (what a tough task!) to find the best places for geometrics:

1) Matalan are calling it "Pastel Pop." This is geometric on a budget. You could redecorate a whole room for £50 with their collections!

2) John Lewis are calling it "Pioneer." This is the designer option..... There are some cheaper options (like this geometric picnic mug for just £2.50) but the majority of items are a bit more costly. Cushions are around £35 and the matching furniture will set you back by a few hundred pounds.

3) For wallpapers check out Graham and Brown for quality patterns, or if you're on a budget try B and Q for a range of retro styles.

4) Have you seen the Mini Moderns Buddha of Suburbia range? Lush. I'd like it all please.

The backgammon range from Mini Moderns

This is one trend I need in my life!  I'll be incorporating a few bits and pieces

 into my spare bedroom - will you?

Kindle surprise!

After much thought and deliberation (I'm not one to buy on a whim!) I decided to get myself a Kindle from Ebay. I managed to get the keyboard model for £50 with over 900 books on it!

I love to read and I had been using the Kindle app on my phone but I did find it annoying to have the glare of the sun on the screen in the summer.....Today, the sun came out for the first time in a decade and I took my new Kindle outside and felt very happy.

Kindle Keyboard with free case!

A retro armchair in the sun? Yes yes yes!

It's amazing how much better a little sunshine can make me feel. My retro upcycled armchair followed me into the garden and even my zombie skin got a little colour! That's how I spent my afternoon....



I kept my outfit casual and cool. First time this year for a white top! 

In other news, I've been getting out my biggest crochet hook (having been inspired by Pinterest) to make a blanket for my preggers friend. She's a vegan so I made a special effort to find yarn without wool in it. Easier said than done....

Crochet hook size 10mm

This blanket should be quite quick to make as it uses only the single stitch and 3 pieces of yarn as one thread - so it grows really quickly! I've been happily crocheting away whilst watching tv in the evenings.

Single stitch crochet

It's currently a bit bigger than this but I think I've got a while to go yet! Luckily, I've got the next 2 days off - if I don't get distracted by sun worshipping that is....

P.S I know that I've only been posting once a week recently....if the sun continues to shine then I'll have more to post. Pinky promise!



Top tips for saving money, budgeting and finding a bargain!

They say that you should write about what you know, well I know A LOT about saving money!

Everytime I watch Superscrimpers (a UK tv programme) I end up shouting at the screen! The tips are really obvious to me. The people on the programme are idiots. It's really not hard to live within your means and there is no excuse for over spending on your income. Here are my top tips for staying in the black:

1) Buy your clothes out of season
Some of my best bargains (limited edition Hunter festival wellies for £15!) have been bought at the "wrong" time of the year. I buy wool coats in summer and tea dresses in winter. Shops need to get rid of these items to sell the more seasonal options, so they are going to reduce them heavily to entice you in.



Is your piggy bank feeling the strain?

2) Shop around and put some effort in
I don't find all these bargains without a little elbow grease! It really helped when I worked in a shopping centre because I could visit some of my favourite shops daily to check prices. Now, I have a little charity shop next to my work place and I can look out for items they have discarded around the back of the premises. I love to upcycle!
 You do have to put in the hours in order to find bargains. Sign up to your favourite shops' email newsletters and chances are that they'll frequently let you know about sales and discount codes. Which brings me on to:

3) Discount code websites
We use these a lot. Especially if we go out for a meal. You can find discounted prices, get a free starter etc or find free delivery for your clothing orders. My favourites are Vouchercodes and Fashionbeans

Dollar signs might not be helpful
if you live in the UK!

4) Look for the signs
That's a bit cryptic isn't it?! What I mean by this - look out for clothing that has been grouped together on rails or merchandised sideways - chances are that the shop is ready to go into sale mode. Topshop and other Arcadia Group stores will write the sale price in pencil on their labels the day beofre the sale starts. If the item is going to be £15, they will write 0015 on the label.

5) Pick a day. any day
Certain restaurants will do special deals depending on what day it is. For example, Slug and Lettuce do half price food on a Monday and Wetherspoons have a discounted curry night on a Wednesday.
Also, bank holidays and Easter are a great time to go shopping. Most shops will do an extra discount on their stock to entice you out of the house!

6) Designer outlets
Gunwharf Quays in Portsmouth is quite near to my house and also has some lovey restaurants so we can make a day of it. Sometimes, the stock is not great but every so often you can get a great deal. Paperchase is particularly good for discounted greetings cards and photo albums.


Is that enough for now? I have soooo many more tips to share with you but I don't want to overwhelm you! Bonus points if you've read even half of what's above and haven't just skim read the titles!
Let me know if there is a specific area you want help with.....

:)

Life got in the way!

Wanna know what I've been up to recently? Alongside ordering our wedding invites and picking a wedding photographer ( the lovely Kimberley Garrod ) these are the things I have been doing:



Vintage mirror - charity shop

I bought this beautiful, vintage mirror from my local charity shop for just £10! It has a little chain to hang it up with but at the moment I don't have a drill :(  so it's just resting on my table.

We finally got a new toaster after my cat peed in the first one and the second one blew up! It was only £8.99 down from £30 in Sainsbury's. Bargain queen.

Lemon drizzle cake - nom nom.

I made a lemon drizzle cake using a Nigella recipe and took it to work. It didn't last more than a few hours and was easy and delicious! Definitely a keeper.

Lindt chocolate bunny

My mum asked me which Easter egg I would like this year - I decided on a Lindt bunny. The chocolate is really thick and creamy and super yummy. Poor little bunny didn't last long....

Lulah - my tortoiseshell cat

Lulah came to stay with us whilst my ex went home for a few days. Thomas went to stay with my future in laws so it was just Lulah and Lily in our house. Lulah has lovely, soft fur and is very cuddly so we enjoyed her little visit :)


Apart from that, I have been baffled by yesterdays' snow flurries (I mistakenly thought we were in spring) and continuing the arduous task of wedding planning. I realise that I haven't yet shown you my new living room decoration so I'll do that as soon as the sun comes back. So, never then!

A sixties retro wedding!

Now I'm going to be honest here..........I've been stuck for something to write about for a few days! I haven't really done anything other than complain about the cold weather, worked busy shifts, and spent hours on the Internet looking at wedding invitations but not making any decisions about said invitations.

So after a bit of thought, I considered what  I would like to read about and hit on the idea of some vintage wedding inspiration. It's been in the back of my mind that I would like to have sixties inspired hair and make up for my wedding so here are a few ideas for you if you have the same tastes!




This is pretty much EXACTLY what I had in mind! Large amounts of black eye liner and a modern twist on the beehive. Ideally, I'd like my hair half up, half down with some sort of tiara.

A messy beehive looks more modern

Wow. If I looked like this, I would never stop looking in the mirror! I'm going to have to try and get my skin in tip top condition by September (hello! some sun would help!)
I've already started using deep conditioning treatments on my hair and plan to get it trimmed once more before the big day.....

Chocolate brown eye shadow and ombre hair

I'm not great at doing my own make up so I'll also be trying to find a make up artist to do it for me. I think it's important to feel special on your big day - and for me that means looking a little bit more polished than on a regular day!


And the best way to turn up at your retro wedding? A vintage camper van of course! Unfortunately my boy wasn't sold on this idea and we will be travelling in something a little bit more modern :(

And finally.......a retro cake!

An Orla Kiely cake!

And some matching Orla Kiely cupcakes!

Well, I hope you like this little insight into my retro mind! I was definitely born in the wrong era...

Valentinos hair salon Groupon offer review

As you know, I'm always on the look out for a bargain, so when I saw an offer on Groupon for highlights and a hair cut for only £28 it didn't take me too long to sign up.

I've seen quite a few similar offers on Groupon but have passed them up because the salons usually look a bit "uncool." However, I had a look at the Valentinos website and it looked pretty good. The offer was for either a t-section of highlights or for colour, plus a cut and blow dry so I opted for the highlights.

I went to visit the salon thinking I needed to have a patch test but apparently I didn't need to for highlights. That was a slightly iffy start for me and also I couldn't get the salon door open as it sticks! When I went in, there was only one, slightly older lady having her hair done and I started to wonder if I had made the wrong decision....

I stuck with it and after a few phone calls and a lucky cancellation, I headed to town today for the main appointment! The salon was a little busy and the staff put me at ease with a cup of tea and some magazines. The consultation was good and I felt pretty confident that it would be ok.

This is what my hair looked like before I went in:

The highlights were applied and left for a worryingly long time but they did check them a few times and it was nice to relax!

I read several issues of Ok magazine and found out all the celebrity gossip. Very handy.

After about an hour, the highlights were washed out and I was treated to several conditioning treatments and a head massage.

Getting highlights is really glamorous!

When that was all done, I had my hair trimmed (growing it for the wedding!) and blow dried. She did a good job of drying my hair and didn't iron it totally straight with the straighteners which is what usually happens when I get my hair done!

After! Subtle highlights and healthy tips.

I'm really pleased with the results and definitely wowed by the price. It usually costs me around £42 just to get a trim at Rush so this was great value. I was also given a half price voucher for my next haircut. Bonus!

I will definitely be going back to get my hair trimmed just before the wedding and I would recommend Valentinos. Good job guys!

Poundland Caviar and Stamped Nails Sets Review

So, as promised, here is my review of the Caviar nails and Stamping nails sets from Poundland.

Let's start with the caviar nails. Caviar nails were made popular by a company called Ciate and basically involves painting your nails and then sprinkling in tiny beads to the wet polish. They retail for around £18 a set which includes beads and matching nail polish. You can get them at Asos and Selfridges

My set was only a pound!



Flawless Caviar Nail Set from Poundland

They stock 3 different colours - I went for the opalescent nail polish and pink and blue beads.

They were really easy to apply and they feel fairly secure. I'll test them out at work tomorrow where they are sure to get a battering!

Blue nail polish by Barry M

I think these are great for a pound and make a nice statement.

And so on to the stamp set....

Konad stamping sets range from £10 up to about £95 depending on which set you buy. You can get fake Konad nail plates on Ebay for a lot cheaper!
The Poundland set only includes a metal plate, a scraping tool and a stamp. The Konad sets inlcude a thick nail polish to use to stamp the design.

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I have watched a few Youtube videos on how to do nail stamping and it is pretty easy....however, I didn't have any white nail polish or any that were particularly thick in consistancy. This meant that my design did not show up at all! I'll have to order some Konad polish from Ebay.

So, in conclusion, I would recommend the Caviar set but maybe not the Stamping set unless you have some gloopy nail polish to hand!