Monday 18 March 2013
Casa de Corduroy Clouds
I thought I would do a series of posts on some of my favourite parts of my home. We are currently renting so can’t do any decorating (I long for the day when I own my own home and can buy some Farrow and Ball paint!) so we try to make it our own by adding some quirky bits and pieces around the flat that we have picked up from all over. Hope you like!
Sunday 17 March 2013
This week I have been mostly...
Saturday 16 March 2013
Primark Haul
I accidentally went for a little
look around Primark on my lunch hour yesterday and on my way to the till
to get the face wipes stumbled upon all these things so had to buy them
too – oops!
Spotty navy elasticated waist and pleated skirt dress - £10
Chartreuse flowery dress (this feels like thick cotton/light denim) - £10
Navy and white stripy jersey dress - £10
Black flower embossed skater dress with capped sleeves - £13
Boxy sleeved black shirt - £8
Stripy navy and white round neck cardigan - £6
Black baggy studded vest (sort of satin-y) - £4
Face wipes - £1
Silver feathered statement necklace - £4
I'm hoping the necklace and shirt go well together!
I haven’t tried anything on yet so hopefully they will all look good on.
These face wipes are excellent value I always get them – I have
quite sensitive skin but these are great and don’t irritate me at all!
Friday 15 March 2013
Waiting to be read....
“If you have enough book space, I don't want to talk to you.” Terry Pratchett
I always have a stack of books ready to be read. Here’s what I currently have piling up to read next (once I’ve managed to finally finish Citadel)…
· Die Trying by Lee Child – the second in the Jack Reacher series – I quite enjoyed the first one so will keep going with them but might get a bit sick of them during a VERY long series as how many times can one person be in a life threatening situation and then somehow manage to survive – I think my threshold will probably be about book 4 or 5!
· On Dublin Street by Samantha Young – I’ve read some of this authors YA fantasy novels and really like them – am a bit worried this might be a bit 50 shades but am willing to .give it a go.
· Dark Places by Gillian Flynn – having read Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn and really enjoying it (bar the last 5 pages) I’m looking forward to trying something else she has written
· Paper Towns by John Green – again I’ve just read the fault in our stars and loved it so looking forward to reading more from this author.
· The Twelve by Justin Cronin – this is the second novel in the series and though I found the last one quite hard going in places I did enjoy it so will carry the story on.
· Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor – again the second in a series. A YA series but with a bit more depth to it than usual and some great world building so am looking forward to starting this one
Have you read any of these? Any recommendations?
Thursday 14 March 2013
Cross-stitch
I’m a big fan of cross-stitch and am hoping to incorporate it into the wedding somehow. Here’s some pictures of bits and bobs I’ve made recently.
Wednesday 13 March 2013
Book club
As
I’ve said before I’m part of three book clubs. Two as a regular member
and one that I run. Running this book club doesn’t take too much
effort’ just some reminder
emails really. It’s at work and the book discussion is only a small
part of the night – the larger parts being wine, potato skins and
gossip. It was established when a group of us all worked together and
enjoyed reading but we have now all moved to separate
parts of the company we work in so it’s good to get the chance to get
together and have a catch up. Sometimes the numbers are small – the
least we’ve had show up is 3 and sometimes everyone comes – 10 for the
max! We meet approximately every 6 weeks and though
the book discussions can sometimes be fairly limited, if the other chat
takes over, the numbers do seem to deteriorate if the book hasn’t
enthralled anyone/everyone so it is the choice of the book that is
paramount to getting people to show up! The worst turn
outs we have had have definitely been for the books that no one was
really interested in such as Lance Armstrongs autobiography. We discuss
at each meeting what the next choice will be – everyone can offer
suggestions and then we just go with the consensus
but I’ve found that the best choices are when a book is:
· Highly publicised – in the charts or various
media book clubs like the channel 5, Richard and Judy, Waterstones etc
· Cheap – so everyone can get a copy again
helped by point 1 as these are usually on special offer
Tonight’s
book club was Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn which is massive at the moment
and definitely grabbed everyone tonight – 9 came in total so was one of
our best
turn outs in forever! Everyone had read the book (again another
miracle) and everyone had something to say. I personally really enjoyed
this book – I love unreliable narrators and the two main characters in
this book were SOOOO unreliable. This book definitely
kept everyone intrigued till the end. Unfortunately it’s the ending
that let the book down for me and for others at the group – the final
few pages just weren’t feasible to me (but I won’t give anything
away!). I would give this book 4/5 and am definitely
going to read for of Gillian Flynn’s books. Everyone else seemed to
agree with 4/5 too! Finally, just a few pics of what we get up to at
book club.
Tuesday 12 March 2013
Wedding Inspiration
Some pics that I've amassed on my wedding pintrest board. Pintrest has given me way too many ideas though - there are just so many different ways to do things its difficult to choose just one dress and just one cake!!!
Original sources can be found at my Pintrest
B O O K S
I love reading. There isn’t a day goes by where I don’t read.
It usually happens on the bus into work, in the bath, in bed, in
the park (on the few and far between days where we have a summer) etc
etc.
I have a very broad range of genres I tend to read and am quite
happy to try anything new – so any recommendations would be gratefully
received and taken up on!
The past few weeks reading, below, show just how different my tastes can be.
I won’t do synopsis’ for the books – goodreads is great for this
and if you enjoy reading you should definitely join this website –
friend me too I love seeing what others are reading – link on the right
of the screen!
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green – my book of the year so far!
I loved it – a beautifully written and poignant story about two teenagers suffering from cancer.
Though a sad subject there were some really funny moments and the characters seemed so life like.
I did have to stop reading this on the bus one day as I could feel the tears coming!
Would definitely recommend! 5/5
Beautiful creatures by Kami Garcia
and Margaret Stohl – I wanted to try this after seeing that the film
version was coming out and I ended up with the paperback with the film
cast on the front.
Big mistake – all I kept looking at was who had been cast and
then trying to figure out why as no one apart from Emma Thomson seemed
to be anything like described in the book.
This was so off-putting especially with the ‘dark’ Ridley who was 17 with blonde hair yet played by Emmy Rossum????
Anyway I digress, the book itself was an ok read as far as YA fiction goes.
The best part was that the narrator was Ethan the male
protagonist so a bit of a shift from the norm but I just felt a bit
bored by the plot and a bit let down at the end – which as with every YA
book is never actually an ending but a to be continued
so we can make even more money out the idea! 3/5
Murder Farm by Andrea Maria
Schlenkel – I’m a massive fan of The Killing and The Bridge TV series
and this led me to join a book club that specialises in European crime.
It’s been going for just over a year and I’ve read crime fiction from most parts of Europe now.
This book is set in Germany and though a short book it really hooked me.
Each chapter is told from the point of view of a different
character mostly in the form of witness statements following the murder
and I loved this way of storytelling.
As the reader you feel that you are the only person that gets all
of the information and can put everything together to try to figure out
who the killer is and ultimately are the only one who really knows what
happened.
The book was loosely based on a true story which made it all the more chilling.
One of the better books I have read as part of this book club. 4/5
The Greatcoat by Helen Dunmore – this was the monthly read for another book club I’m in.
Again another short read that reminded me a bit of some of Susan Hill’s ghost stories.
The main difference being though I didn’t find this scary in the
slightest whereas some of Susan Hills stories can be quite chilling.
It was an ok read but I just didn’t care about any of the
characters – probably due to the length of the book – it could easily
have been padded out a bit to give it more depth. 3/5
A Cold Season by Alison Littlewood – I picked this up on a
recent visit to the library thinking it was more of a crime novel
but it ended up being supernatural – if I read the blurb on the back
before I started reading then I would have known.
The descriptions of the lonely and isolated village and mill were
impressive and created a very sinister and cold atmosphere that you
could really imagine but this was let down by the characters and plot –
all a bit clichéd for me I’m afraid. 2.5/5
The Girl You Left behind by Jojo Moyes – a recommendation from a friend.
Now we all know you should never judge a book by its cover but I definitely do and this cover just made me think chick lit!
It is in parts – its set in two time periods; WW1 and around the present day.
The present day stuff was much more chick lit and I struggled to
like any of the characters, bar the old school friend or care about what
was happening to them with the court case.
However, the saving grace for this book was the historical
element – it evoked the harshness and loneliness of the period and I
think the book would have been all the better for just focussing on this
part of the story.
3/5
And am currently struggling through Citadel by Kate Mosse.
This is the third book she has written in the Languedoc series.
I really did enjoy the first two but have taken some time to get to grips with this one.
The supernatural element in the first two is such a strong theme
but I feel like it is much weaker in Citadel and actually if it wasn’t
there would probably not be missed.
I am enjoying the story of France during WW2
though ( a bit reminiscent of the Jojo Moyes one above but that was WW1)
so will keep slogging but at 696 pages it is a long one!
I think it’s about time I picked up a classic as it’s been a while.
I recently treated myself to the beautiful Barnes and Noble
Hardback version of Jane Eyre with some Amazon vouchers I got for my
birthday so think a re-read of this may be on the cards.
I love this collection and am coveting them all!!!!!!!!!
Wedding Weight
Ok so I’m trying to go on a diet for my wedding. I figure if I write this down even if no one reads it I’m still accountable for what I say I’m going to do and it will hopefully give me a kick up the you know what. I went on the scales after new year and was disgusted with how much I weighed. I’ve never been skinny I just thought of myself as not very lean and not surprising seen as I rarely exercise. I thought the weight I was would have given me such a shock that I would start being good getting ready for the wedding but unfortunately that just hasn’t happened. I may have a good few days but then I have some awful days and I really need to try to get my weight loss into gear. Me and two of my closest friends are going together in the scales now every Monday – camaraderie helps! Yesterday was the first day – we followed our trip to the scales with a pizza slice?????????? Arrggh need to get so much better at this. I am going to try slimming world. My mum has been on this diet and lost an amazing 4 stone and is now a size 8/10. Though in my wildest dreams I would love to be that size I just don’t think a) I could get there and b) I would look any good! I am quite a curvy lady and I don’t want to lose my curves but I do want to lose the flab! If I could get down to a 12 like I was when I left University I would be so happy with that. I also think that this should be a manageable weight for me to maintain. I don’t want to lose loads and then put it all back on again! So here goes I’m going to try my hardest and will keep the blog updates with how I’m getting on!
Monday 11 March 2013
Recently I have been....
Trying to sort all my crafty things into the one place
Enjoying chunkiness in all its varieties
Cooking up a mexican feast
Visiting our wedding venue and starting to get excited
Reading issue 3 of Homemaker magazine - can't believe I've just seen this and missed out on issues 1 and 2!
Spending too much time trying to make things look pretty
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