by Carla Louise | Jun 24, 2012 | carlalouise |
It’s been a bit of a strange week.
Good things –
WordPress course at Elstree Studios, where I learned a lot, watched Leona Lewis perform and got to sit in the sun for a bit. Excellent.
Unexpected dinner with Naomi and many many fizzily exciting plans for the future (watch Project Pin Up for updates)
Skating with Caroline on Tuesday and accidentally covering 8.5 miles
Picking up my beautiful new bike
Boudoir shoot with Emily by the fabulous Grace Gelder on Saturday – fabulous experience, which I never thought I’d be brave enough for. I will not be sharing most of the photos, haha!
Brunch with my parents on Sunday.
Mum buying me some fabric (so it doesn’t count for 100 days!) to make a pannier for the back of said new bike.
Bad things –
The state of my flat – I cannot get on top of it!
Spinning Poppy in some absolutely horrific rain today – which shook me enough to scupper my plans to drive over and see Louise Craftyguider. Large sulk, requiring large amounts of chocolate to soothe.
Semi-migraine on Friday – was dizzy and nauseous, but able to walk (just) – this is a new type of headache and I’m now on alert for triggers
Realising I have a craft fair exactly a week today and nowhere near the amount of stock I’d like to have (I know, stop blogging, start making). Come visit me – I’ll be at Bikes & Barges (including the Maldon Motor Show) in Maldon next Sunday 🙂
So more good than bad, but enough bad to make me think a bit. Have also had some rather profound conversations this week and realised yet again how lucky I am to be surrounded by the best friends and family in the known universe.
I have mostly listened to: Candyman by Christina Aguilera (new burlesque routine, I’ve been practising)
Mostly read – The secret life of a slummy mummy, The $100 Startup and flicked through Fifty Shades of Grey (I refuse to link to it, it has enough publicity). I’m not that impressed with the latter so far – stilted writing, overdone and not especially erotic sex scenes… perhaps the people making the fuss have never read erotic fiction before?! $100 Startup, however, is an absolute must read.
So there you go – a not terribly exciting update, because my head is full of other things (namely, am I ever going to be able to drive in the rain again without freaking out, and eeeeeeeeeee new top secret venture!).
by Carla Louise | Jun 19, 2012 | Uncategorized |
So I started the challenge as a way to try and get some stability back into my finances – and see where my money was escaping most often.
The first few days haven’t been as hard as I thought they might – I’ve bought food within reason, had dinner out with Lou and Julia (2 of 3 allowed for June, oops) and resisted buying all manner of bits and pieces I’d usually have bought without thinking.
Among these were Computer Arts Branding bookazine (£15.00), various fabrics at the Range (£8.50/metre so at least £17 saving), Fiji water because it was in a pretty bottle and umpteen small and ultimately useless things from exhibitions I’ve been to.
Have also resisted buying the $100 Startup book, although this I may give in to before the end of the 100 days.
I have acquired a bike and all the trappings, which I will collect next Sunday, and Mum bought me breakfast out at the weekend – which doesn’t count! The bike is going to help me stay healthy and get to the station faster (therefore possibly to work on time? A girl can dream…)
And instead of buying, I will be borrowing the infamous Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy from Em at the weekend. I am highly reluctant to read these, as I hate jumping on literary bandwagons, I’m conscious it started as a Twilight fanfic (and I’ve never been able to get into Twilight) and I keep being told there’s no plot, just sex scenes… but I’m also curious to know what all the hype is about. The most unlikely people tell me they sit up all night reading it – so I’ll have a nose and see. Might even review them if they’re worth it!
by Carla Louise | Jun 19, 2012 | Uncategorized |
I decided, a week or so ago, to start the 100 day challenge, in an attempt to level out and stabilise my finances, which are getting dire. (This is mostly due to my extortionate train fare to work, living on my own and having a sports car. In that order. The last is entirely non-negotiable!)
I came across it via a Twitter post from Sophia at the Tattooed Tealady blog, and having decided it wouldn’t be a bad thing for me to have a go at, settled down to write my list of things I can spend on, absolute “no” items, and exceptions during the period of the challenge.
Here they are:
| Spending allowed (“yes” items) |
|
Spending not allowed (“bad squishy” items) |
| Food essentials (grocery shopping, work lunches, etc) |
|
Books |
| Essential toiletries (shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste) |
|
Cards & giftwrap |
| Reasonable sweet treats |
|
Magazines |
| Postage (personal or business) |
|
Stationery |
| Non-alcoholic drinks out |
|
DVDs |
| Birthday & anniversary presents |
|
Alcoholic drinks out |
| Bills |
|
Dinner out more than 3 times a month |
| Existing debts to people |
|
Makeup |
| Essential underwear |
|
Technology |
| Petrol & travel |
|
Clothes |
| Listing fees (Etsy, Ebay, etc) |
|
Jewellery |
| Craft fair entry fees |
|
Non-essential toiletries (perfume, random products) |
| Reasonable amounts of Pepsi Max |
|
Craft supplies |
| Medicine/tablets |
|
Mods for Poppy |
| Burlesque classes |
|
|
| Baking ingredients |
|
|
| Experiences (like the photoshoot, Alice bike ride, etc) |
|
|
I know, the “yes” list is longer than the “no” list – but the “no” list is full of the things that chew my money without me really noticing.
Exceptions include eating out while in Jersey for Julia’s wedding, makeup & other things I need for the wedding, and investment in stock if my ventures come to fruition during these 100 days.
I started the challenge on 16 June and will finish on 23rd September. Taking inspiration from other bloggers I’ve seen doing this, I shall take photos of things I want to buy, and perhaps create a wishlist page here to showcase them – and we’ll see how many I feel I can’t live without at the end of the challenge.
I wouldn’t say I spend money madly, but I do have a tendency to fall in love with things and feel my life would be incomplete without them – so wish me luck, I think I’m going to need it!
by Carla Louise | Jun 15, 2012 | Creating, Food & Baking, Personal Development |
Bit of a mish mash, wordy, linky post, as I’m having one of the busiest weeks ever and am running around like an entire flock of headless chickens. And then some. So here goes, stuff that has made me happy this week…
– Discovering all over again that I actually have the best friends a girl could ever possibly wish for. I am very, very lucky.
– Fluffy white bread for the first time in ages and Ben’s cookies from a colleague at work
– Emily coming round and cooking for me – this was the most luxurious thing ever, quite aside from the loveliness of seeing her
– Exciting snippets of other people’s news – new chapters all over the shop
– That feeling you get when opening a brand new document in InDesign and knowing you can create almost anything you want
– Planning outfits, shoes and accessories for the boudoir shoot next weekend
– Discovering a Bauhaus exhibition, which we hope to go to tomorrow, to assist the lovely Lou with her research for an application she’s doing
– Business course with Startup Saturday tomorrow, WordPress course on Wednesday for work and plans for my future
– Making lists and feeling a bit more in control of my workload, finances and life
– Plans for blogger meetups with Annastasia, a PPU store (more of that later) and expansion of Ducking Fabulous (more of that later too), among other things
– Unexpected commissions – and selling a necklace to my director, which was a very weird but very nice feeling! Unfortunately I neglected to photograph it, but will recreate it for the shop soon 🙂
– Val telling me that she saw an advert for a burlesque show and immediately thought of me, “just like when I see horses and ducks”. It’s becoming a part of me in a way I never expected, but I love it!
– Reading proper chick lit again – I’ve read nothing but non fiction for a couple of months and it was very good to lose myself in a couple of Fiona Gibson’s novels (go and read them if you haven’t already, they’re funny, poignant and I identify with the characters so much – even the ones I’m not yet!)
– Planning the 100 day challenge, or a version of it, to get a bit of stability back into my finances (thanks to Sophia at Tattooed Tealady for the inspiration)
– Boutique Baking and Jamie’s Great Britain– I am so looking forward to choosing things to make and bake from these books
– Deciding, after last Sunday’s #bbloggers chat, that my blog is a place for me to indulge my many passions and hobbies and loves – it might get more readers if it was more focused, but I prefer it to be a true reflection of my character and personality – chaotic but lovely!
Tomorrow I’m with Lou in London, planning for the future, and Sunday hopefully collecting my new bike (squeee) so more posts to come!
by Carla Louise | Jun 14, 2012 | Creating, Memories, Thrifting |
I know it’s now Monday, but I was so enthused when I wrote this post, and having been to Startup Saturday I’m even more determined, so I thought I’d share it anyway. I promise the next post will be relevant. Or at least up to date 🙂
Wow, how is it already Thursday?!
Feel like I need more than a week’s round up… I had last week off following the Jubilee, with the intention of spring cleaning. Instead I passed the week in a delightful blur of family, friends and making, with so much inspiration along the way!
I spent time alone and with people, at home and out exploring and with family and friends old and new. I made plans and dreamed, created and experimented, and felt my drive and ambition return – they took a hike a while ago and I was left somewhat floundering.
I was inspired, delighted, busy, saddened, gloriously happy and newly determined – and that was a snippet of how I feel my life should and could be. Will be, if i can only work out a few small details like financing it. Changes shall be afoot!
So what did I get up to?
Did quite a lot of helping parents to move house – and we managed to have a bbq!
Dyed my pointe shoes, did some sewing, finished first burlesque routine… and laughed a lot with friends. Had brunch with two fab people I don’t see often enough, and wrote letters to some I see even less often! Carbooted (on a Wednesday, which felt delightfully quirky) and came home with a sewing machine and two vases.
Had a whole day in London with Lou and talked and ate and talked and ate – and made friends with the lovely couple who run Lily and Lush / Fairy Gothmother in Spitalfields.
Then Friday I met Louise Craftyguider and the fabulous and very well behaved craftyguidelets (I wonder, if I have children will they be ducklets or ducklings?!) for a gorgeous pizza express lunch and borrowing of badge machine. It was so nice to meet in person after lots of tweeting!
My Gran turned 83 so we did lots of eating to celebrate, mostly of cake.
Miraculously, the bridesmaid dress still fits. May have to get some Spanx to go underneath, but at the moment it looks just fine 🙂
I spent a fabulous Saturday shopping and lunching with my mum, then decadent afternoon cocktails and food with Annastasia and Dan – so inspiring! Blogging workshops, crafting, a fair at which we hope to share a stall, burlesque and just the general goodness of life… Wonderful. Must do that more often.
Sunday I did attempt to go to Pulse London to look at expanding what the DF shop offers, but unfortunately the trains broke so I went home again.
And now I’ve done almost a whole week at work, spent the first two days in a state of emotional exhaustion and now the sun has come out I feel like a different person. Also started a new burlesque routine last night which is fast, fun and has the added benefit of an.old friend joining us 🙂
So let’s see where these days have led me, and how I can change my life to match my dreams 🙂
by Carla Louise | Jun 12, 2012 | Uncategorized |
Sometimes, when you’re having a crappy day week and thanking your lucky stars that you can cry without looking like you’ve been crying (weird talent, but necessary so I can still appear professional), you spot a tweet that makes you go “oh!”.
This is today’s ‘oh’ moment.
It is not technique or champion status that makes a dancer great. It is the energy of the mind and the sheer joy of dancing expressed.
Full blog here. It’s a good reminder why although I’ll probably never dance competitively again, there is no reason at all why I can’t continue to dance my whole life. For me.
Tonight, I shall meet my deadline, go home, do essential housework, and sleep. Tomorrow… tomorrow I will dance.
by Carla Louise | Jun 10, 2012 | Creating |
I have a boudoir photoshoot coming up in a couple of weeks, and as one of the things I’ve always wanted is a photo of me on pointe, I decided this would be a good opportunity.
However, none of my corsets are ballet pink. So I embarked upon a project (see how I get craft into everything?!)
First, you make sure you have all the necessary bits and pieces in one room… ballet shoes, dye, salt, sponge brush and a waterproof covering for your table. And GLOVES. Rubber gloves.
Then you mix your dye – this was the scary part, black is quite drastic…
Then stuff your shoes with newspaper or plastic bags to protect the inside and brush the dye on, being careful to cover all the folds of satin, but not to get the shoes too wet. 
They should then look like this and you can leave them to dry.
What I had not foreseen (and after I threw the dye away, of course) was that the colour would soak in and lighten while drying. So now I have this rather lovely blueish grey colour pair of pointes, and I can’t decide whether to re-dye black, or leave them like this. Thoughts, please? (on the basis they’ll be paired with dark burgundy and turquoise/black striped corsets…)
by Carla Louise | Jun 4, 2012 | Creating, Personal Development, Photography |
Rediscovering my pointe shoes…
Makeup trial for the wedding (done by me) – this is look one, neutral eyes with sheer-ish red lips. Shocking phone photo and my glasses obscure my eyelids, I know. More of these to come before the actual wedding. Skin’s looking clearer though – Nars illuminator is magical stuff!
Challenging myself to sew something for the Popular Crafts Union Jack swap… here’s my finished needle book 🙂 Will be posted with a treat and a cross stitched card!
Munching the cake I bought for a friend’s BBQ that was abandoned due to rain. I suspect the diet will be back on when I’m back at work, I’m maintaining weight but there’s so much yummy food involved in this week… lol! These cakes, stocked in our local Wyevale (Colchester Stanway and Braintree) are my favourite fallbacks if I don’t have time to bake, they taste homemade!
Sorting bookshelves and installing a ballet barre *cough perfect height clothes rail cough* in my living room – if I’m going to be ready for this burlesque cabaret in October, I need to strengthen my long-neglected dance muscles and improve my flexibility. Removing my glove with my foot is, as expected, somewhat trickier than it looks on stage! My intention is to try to do 10-15 mins of stretches and barre work each day even if I manage no other exercise. Combined with burlesque each week and hopefully cycling when my bike eventually arrives, plus skating which I do whenever I can but usually once a week, I should be trimmer, fitter and more flexible in no time. Yeah. I live in hope. But I’ll at least enjoy myself in the process!
Also managed to paint my toenails (my feet are not fit for photographing so here are the colours I used) and ogling the Pashley Poppy on the front of this month’s Homes and Antiques. Cannot WAIT for mine (it’s the blue, rather than the pink, version) to arrive – hopefully in a little over a month. Squee!
Footnote: I’m aware that wearing pointe shoes while not a trained dancer can damage your feet; I’m also aware mine should have ribbons attached for support. They’re mostly decorative and I intend to wear them for a photoshoot. I doubt I will ever again dance that level of ballet!
by Carla Louise | May 30, 2012 | Little Business, Multipotentialite Life |
Flicking through my emails and Google reader feeds this morning, one quote stood out to me –
“As many of you who have your own baby blog will know, there are days when on top of your day job, your family, your social life, paying the bills and dealing with life’s other unexpected twists and turns, keeping up your true passion seems all a little bit overwhelming and a tad tricky.”
(http://normalityandme.com/2012/05/29/ifabbo-uk-conference-2012-inspiration-breeds-inspiration/)
I work full time in London, I spend 3-4 hours a day commuting and I also run a business, two blogs and have numerous interests I pursue while also trying to keep up with a wonderful but sometimes overwhelming network of friends & family. While it’s all my choice and I wouldn’t have it any other way, it does occasionally all get on top of me and I wonder what the hell I’m doing. However, every time I’ve tried to drop something I do regularly out of my schedule, I’ve just found myself miserable without it. I’m not designed for sitting around doing nothing – I need to be doing, planning, achieving, socialising, building – but it’s unutterably lovely to see, written down in black and white, that I’m not alone in sometimes feeling a bit “eek!” about it.
Despite the occasional terrified feeling, I do feel like I’m making some progress – I am in the process of booking my attendance at some fairs later this year, have plans in place for expansion of my range and am booked onto the Cybher bloggers’ conference next year. I regard this blog as its own entity, not simply a way of promoting my shop (though it does that too sometimes!) and I often look back at my pre-blogging days and wonder what I did with my time. And what moments I’ve missed recording!
Hope you all have a fabulous Wednesday – I’m off to burlesque class tonight, and will be working extra hard as I missed last week. We’re learning to take our gloves off with our feet…
by Carla Louise | May 28, 2012 | Objects of Desire |
While shopping for boring electrical stuff yesterday, I might have had a sneaky look at cameras, radios… and also landline phones, weirdly. I appear to be showing signs of being a proper adult. Meep. Anyway, on my wishlist are now these babies:
Excuse the terrible photos – quick sneaky snaps on my phone while I was conscious I should be doing useful things instead! 🙂 If the orange one came in blue or purple… I think I’d have come home with it, £99 price tag or not. The Roberts radio is on my Christmas/birthday list. I ADORE it.
by Carla Louise | May 27, 2012 | Adventures, Memories |
So, having planned & booked this trip in January, we suddenly had freak sunshine for our week off. Woo yay! Monday morning, I headed for Oundle to find the others and the marina. Oundle is pronounced OWndle not OOndle. Obviously. (Obviously I am not a local!) Said hello slightly self-consciously – holiday was with Rob and his friends – I hadn’t met Andy & Gemma before (they live in Australia) and the first & only time I’d met James & Jo, I was dressed as a parrot in a corset (of course!) and had had a few too many jelly shots. Ahem. Anyway, it was lovely to meet them properly.
I’ll do a proper photo post/album when I’ve got my pics off the big camera, but in the meantime here are a few, in no particular order, that I’ve managed to persuade my phone to transfer…
Instagram of the bow of the boat – ultimate tranquility…
Watching a wrecked narrowboat be righted and towed away in Peterborough
We took a steam train ride on Wednesday while waiting for Jo to join us…
…and disembarked somewhere that felt a lot like Hogwarts!
View from my bedroom window on the last morning – it really is a gorgeous way to wake up!
It was fabulous and over much too soon – so good to really slow down, there is almost no signal out on the river, and I learned to do locks all over again, and ran over the roof, and tried to master my fear of jumping off the boat when there’s water between the boat and the side, and we cooked and drank and talked and read and took photos and drank some more and it was gorgeous. Also gave me time to have a proper think about life, the universe and everything (:P) and I’ve come home and started a huge spring clean. Which I think is a good thing!
We also managed to meet Jenny and Craig (from Team Allegro, when we were rallying with Rusty) for dinner on Wednesday night which was really nice, as I hadn’t seen them since September 🙂
More pics and such soon – I wish I was still there, I do not in any way want to go back to the real world tomorrow!
by Carla Louise | May 27, 2012 | Memories |
Ooh, I’m back. The last nine days have been utterly glorious – but I’m having issues with technology so there may not be as many photos as I’d like. (These issues would involve me having lost my phone charger & transfer lead. Oops.)
So last weekend, I headed up to London to meet the fabulous Hannah for a production of Swan Lake on Ice by the Imperial Ice Stars at the Royal Albert Hall.
The tubes were, as usual at weekends, completely useless, so I went up early and planned a bike ride through Hyde Park to get there instead. Here’s my first ever Boris bike.
The ride was fantastic – I can’t wait for my Pashley to arrive 🙂
Here’s me being a blogger and taking a sort-of outfit photo, before I got on the bike:
Last time I went to the Royal Albert Hall, I was performing. So it was bizarre in the extreme to be walking round the normal parts instead of sprinting round the underground connecting tunnels, half in and half out of my costume, panicking because a crystal had fallen off my hat/boot/face.
Here’s Hannah and I outside… (I’m on the right)
And Hannah and her lovely mum Sue, who also came with us:
We had Prezzo for lunch so I abandoned the diet (the dress was loose by then, woohoo) and had honeycomb smash cheesecake 😀
The performance was utterly brilliant, blending skating, ballet and trapeze seamlessly. I could happily have watched it for several more hours!
Then Sunday was a packing-for-holiday and chilling out kind of a day, punctuated by buying a ridiculous amount of snacks in Asda for the boat, and coming across (and yes, buying) this – butter with a free brownie tray. Why wouldn’t you?!
Most excitingly, I had a proper sense of achievement when I tried the dress on and found it was actually loose. So having completely stuffed myself for a week on the boat, I shall now be trying to maintain this weight for the next seven weeks until the wedding. 🙂
And I shall continue in a separate post for the pics I have of the boat trip 🙂
