by Carla Louise | May 7, 2012 | Memories |
Just a really quick post this evening, I’ve spent the bank holiday weekend in Loughborough (where I went to uni between 2004 and 2008) with the girls I lived with there – we haven’t all been together for a ridiculously long time and yet we pinged magically back into our old ways and ease with each other… a mark of true friendship, I believe 🙂 We are muchly lucky to have each other!
Here is, L-R, Val, me and Mo…
And back in the doorway of the halls we met in, L-R Annie, me, Hols, Mo and Han.
I was nervous about going back to campus (although not of seeing the girls, obviously) and while it was lovely to see all our old haunts, I don’t feel any mad desire to go back. That was then, and this is now, and the future looks even more exciting 😀 However, we definitely need to all meet up more than once every few years, so we’ve now decided the May bank holiday will be our weekend to see each other every year, even if we don’t manage it in between times. Happy Carla.
Hope all your bank holidays were as successful and nostalgic and lovely!
xxx
by Carla Louise | May 2, 2012 | Uncategorized |
Today was just another day at work… only it wasn’t at all, it turned out to be a glorious extravaganza of a day. The morning was quite average, apart from a delivery of a box of feather boas for burlesque class, which massively entertained my colleagues. My desk now looks like a very pink chicken has had a fight near it.
Then lunchtime approached and my two lovely friends Naomi and Wendy, who had been up to Liberty to meet the incomparable Dita Von Teese, came to have cake with me. I met them at St Pauls station and we popped across to Bea’s of Bloomsbury…
Wendy and I had red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, and homemade lemonade:
Naomi had the most beautiful (and scrumptious) triple chocolate cake, with tea (of course!):
Having cooed over their Dita perfume and signed photographs and pictures with her, and had a thoroughly good gossip, we stopped to take a photo of these wonderful cake plates on the way:
and then they went off to the station and I went back to work. And shortly after that, I headed off to Bonhams to set up a work event. I was taking marketing materials with me so had a taxi drive me there, and spotted this little tailor’s shop, which I really think is straight out of Harry Potter and hopefully not visible to Muggles, halfway there…
Then on the way home from setting up I got this rather moody but lovely glimpse of the back of Harrods (which is in an area of London I usually avoid because it’s so busy!)
Finished off the day with a lovely long chat with Lou – and my first slice of bread for almost six weeks! (It was amazing – but I gave the rest of the loaf to my neighbour to avoid temptation, hehe!)
by Carla Louise | Apr 30, 2012 | Uncategorized |
I made my goal/resolution list at the end of last year in a bit of a haze – 2011 was such a momentous year in so many ways, good and bad, that I struggled a little to find clarity in what I actually wanted from 2012. Here’s how I’m doing with that list so far…. I’ve removed the ones I haven’t done yet!
Personal goals
Build confidence rollerskating – do a LNFS skate before December 2012 – haven’t done an LNFS yet but am definitely more confident on my skates.
Focus on work while I’m there and my own life when I’m not – try not to let the two cross over – getting much better at this.
Meal planning – for budgeting and health – Probably wouldn’t have done without the diet, but have been really good for most of 2012 (holiday excepted)
Ireland rally (this has been replaced by canal boating, which is exciting!) – boat trip is in less than three weeks!
Sort out routines during working weeks so I have time to do stuff I want to – this is progressing, so I can fit in DF, skating, burlesque and stuff like friends, food and sleep
Dance class – yes! burlesque! now I’ve started I don’t think I’ll ever stop 🙂
Go to at least 2 ROC meets – if Rob’s birthday counted as a mini meet (there were 6 MR2s outside!) then I’ll have done this by end of July.
Learn to say no occasionally!
Do the Harry Potter studio tour – Julia and I are booking this for October
Creative goals
Learn a new skill, maybe on a course (sewing?) – have expanded my range for Ducking Fabulous, but haven’t yet found a course to do
Business goals
Learn how to photograph products well – I don’t know about well, but my photos for DF are certainly a lot better than last time round, and a few people have commented that they’re good 🙂
Have a stall with Louise by end of 2012 – we are in the process of shortlisting our fairs
Stock and launch an Etsy shop by September 2012 – yay!! one that’s actually fully done!
Go to Autumn Fair (with Lou, parents, Chloe…) – Autumn Fair I won’t manage, but will do Pulse this year and Spring Fair & Top Drawer next year
Blogging/social media goals
Post more than 100 times to Ducking Fabulous over the year (roughly 2 posts a week) – on average I think I manage around 2 a week, in bursts!
Promote DF and PPU blogs via Twitter, Facebook etc
Wishlist
Tablet for on-the-go blogging – yup, bought with Christmas money and has changed my life (well, the commute part anyway)
Sewing machine – I have a gorgeous one from Kim and one I’ve borrowed from my aunt temporarily. Mum and I are going to buy one later in the year to share.
25mm badge making machine – lovely Louise Craftyguider has one which I hope to hire at some stage this year
Not bad, considering it’s not quite May!
by Carla Louise | Apr 29, 2012 | Adventures, Creating |
I’m finding it increasingly hard to believe we’re still in a drought and still have a hosepipe ban – it has done nothing but rain for days!
My weekend has been rather lovely though – went to see Mum & Dad’s new flat, including their thoroughly gorgeous blue sofas and Dad’s reading lamp – wish I could sneak that out without anyone noticing, hehe (the flat is not ready to move into yet, but it’s getting there!):
I ran around town buying last minute stuff for the next three weekends (uni reunion in Loughborough over the bank holiday, Julia’s hen do in Paris and canal boat trip with Rob and friends) including surprises for Jules and a proper waterproof jacket – lol!
(hmm – no photo, waterproofs are not flattering. But hopefully will keep me dry!)
Then saw lovely Sharon and had icecream to celebrate having tried on the bridesmaids dress and found it now does up. Yup, my weight loss worked – but after this weekend I’m now fairly convinced it doesn’t fit again, lol! Back to le diet tomorrow… sigh. Loooong phone catch up with Lou, designed my business cards which I’ll order this week and was generally very productive. Although did nearly get flattened in the car park by wind and rain (which seems a tad unfair, if you’re going to be flattened in a car park you’d expect it to be by some large and impressive vehicle, surely?!)
Today I hibernated and worked on Ducking Fabulous until the rain stopped, and then I went for coffee with Wendy with the roof down – squeee! We went to Thorntons, it was lush:
And as we left, I left the water-themed keyring I’d made for the Out of the Blue Curiosity Project (which I talked about in this post) on the table – I hope someone picks it up!
by Carla Louise | Apr 26, 2012 | Uncategorized |
My to-do list is growing endlessly. I have a hilarious selection of tasks on it (ranging from ‘buy feathers’ to ‘washing up’ – the glam life of me, hey?!). Every time I cross something off it, I add three or four more things.
However, in the meantime, things that have made me smile in the past few weeks:
Earmuffs that are also headphones. These have transformed my cold early mornings! (and yes, I realise I’m really slow on the uptake)
Discovering the CycletoWork scheme and choosing this gorgeous machine to get to work (well, to the station) and back on – now waiting for admin to go through.
An Alice in Wonderland bike ride through London, which I am desperate to try and go on. A little more here.
These glorious saddle bags for bicycles (can you see a new obsession developing here?!) based around saddles. Yep, horse saddles 😀
The concept of a coffee and cake bike ride in London – will be keeping my eyes open for the next one! (Might even start a Colchester version…)
My first Etsy sale to a stranger. Appropriately, it was ducks!
Dressing up as a parrot and celebrating a special birthday, and meeting some fabulous people in the process.
Burlesque class! I love, love, love it – the people, the dancing, the dressing up. It’s a fabulous excuse to see several of my friends on a weekly basis, but even more than that I’d forgotten how much I missed dancing.
Dreaming I had mastered backwards skating and spins. I shall test this theory at the weekend.
Finding out that the company my Mum works for built the fans that power the life size Stonehenge shaped bouncy castle that is touring the country.
And also, continued weight loss. I’m still not enjoying it, and I still don’t feel any different, but I’m wearing a skirt today which hasn’t fitted for months, and the scales indicate I might fit into the dress by July – result!
All images link back to original sources.
by Carla Louise | Apr 25, 2012 | Creating |
(warning – wordy post)
I have been, for a while, in a toweringly bad mood that seems to be lingering, and I think the way to get rid of it might be to take part in the Curiosity Project’s new venture, Out Of The Blue.
This involves leaving a random gift for a stranger, photographing it and then hoping they will find it and come and tell us about it. Of course, if they don’t, you’ve hopefully still have made someone’s day with an unexpected treat.
I don’t know if it will cure my malaise (which I suspect has been brought on by the diet and the unrelenting crappy weather) but we’ll give it a go.
I considered leaving a present in my office, but there are so few women here, and I am so unlike the majority (all?) of them, that I think it would be too obvious.
On the train is a terrible idea, because I do not want to be arrested, nor for it to be thrown away because commuters are too frightened or otherwise occupied to pick it up.
So that leaves the following: somewhere along my walk to the train station (preferably on a dry day, of which there are frighteningly few at the moment); on the stairs in my building (but there are only six flats so it’s not so random); on a car in the car park (but I’d be furious if someone touched my car without my knowledge/permission); one of the approximately forty-nine coffee shops within ten minutes’ walk of my work (I’m not even exaggerating that much) or somewhere totally random on the weekend.
I’m leaning towards totally random – this weekend I’m away at a friend’s birthday, next weekend I am at home. Perfect.
Now for what to leave….
Both inside and outside Ducking Fabulous, I make things. I’ll probably add chocolate to whatever I leave, but for the main part I’m thinking something small and pretty, and perhaps themed… I’m a little obsessed with my new domino necklace range, so maybe a pocketwatch print in a clocktower? A leaf print in a woodland? A unicorn print in a stableyard? An abstract print in a coffee shop?
Hmm. I’ll keep you posted!
by Carla Louise | Apr 16, 2012 | Uncategorized |
Ohh, how I love Instagram. Hoping for lots more week-in-photos kind of posts 🙂
Top to bottom, L-R: a wooden mouse I keep on my desk; the Move Dancewear catalogue making me daydream; a splash of colourful tulips outside St Paul’s Cathedral; me in my skates and new sparkly legwarmers; Dad waving me off from the balcony of their new flat; sugar free Polos – keeping me sane during the diet!
by Carla Louise | Apr 15, 2012 | Uncategorized |
I have no idea how it’s already Sunday again, this year is whizzing past! So the main thing that’s happened in the past week is that over the Easter weekend I managed to relaunch my Etsy shop… but despite my best intentions this week, I have not managed to add anything to it! This afternoon I’ve been photographing new stock though, so hopefully will get some up this evening.
Things that have made me smile over the past days and weeks included…
Dashing Magazine and 91 Magazine – online, inspirational craft magazines which I can easily read in my lunchbreak from work. Gorgeous.
Instagram for Android – just in time for my new Sony Xperia S. So now I’m snapping away and posting furiously to Instagram all day long – follow me, I’m @duckingfabulous!
Someone telling me at the roller rink that they thought I was a professional (I am in no way professional, but it’s nice to think that I at least look like I know what I’m doing!)
A corset party I went to a couple of weeks ago, and signing up for burlesque class – squeeeee!
Dinner at Sophie’s with Ellie
National Cupcake Week
Seeing Toria for the first time in two years
MagCloud – how useful is this going to be for catalogues?!
Mum & Dad’s new house – it’s four miles from mine and is utterly gorgeous.
The four day Easter weekend
My bed – it’s genuinely one of my favourite places inthe world, though I don’t spend much time there
Experiments with new jewellery being a success
Lovely colleagues buying me chocolate (and ironically, then cutting down drastically on it and actually shifting some weight)
Successfully making pork belly and fennel mash despite an oven that wouldn’t play ball. It was lush.
Sales to friends and family, and my first Etsy sales
Changing my pin up name to something that suits me better
I’m a lucky girl, no?!
by Carla Louise | Apr 1, 2012 | Photography |
Aren’t they gorgeous? 😀
by Carla Louise | Mar 26, 2012 | Personal Development |
Well, I have discovered something – blogging really can change your life! Even if it’s only in small ways… I drafted a post on the train home tonight about how I was going to be more organised now that I have full permission from the day job to relaunch Ducking Fabulous (excuse me… SQUEEEEEEEEEE!); and with the oft-lamented 2 hours each way commute, I thought it was high time I got my life in order. I have approximately two weeks to do this, before my labels arrive and I can open my shop in earnest.
So I arrived home after a bizarrely productive day at work, dropped a necklace back to my neighbour, chatted to her housemate for a while, came upstairs, made dinner, ate dinner, read for a bit… and then suddenly had a fit of usefulness which surprised even me! So now my labels are ordered, my filing is in a box on top of the filing cabinet, my accounts are done, my computer is set up in the living room rather than on my bed, the bathroom is cleaner than it was and I’m about to hang out the last load of washing. And I’ve replied to some emails which I have been meaning to reply to for at least a month.
I know, right… what happened?! I’m not sure either… but I’m going with the flow, and will re-draft the post to take account of the fact that I actually did housework of my own accord 😮
I’ve also been asked to share some photos of my flat so I’ll do that when I’ve had some decent light to photograph it in, and having had a glorious weekend full of kittens and cooking (but not cooking the kittens), I have those pics to share too 🙂
For now – it’s gone half 11 so I must be heading bedwards. Goodnight, lovelies!
by Carla Louise | Mar 24, 2012 | Creating, Food & Baking |
Focaccia ready for the oven and a somewhat experimental baked cheesecake just emerged 🙂 We are aware the focaccia looks more like a naan bread. Minor details!
by Carla Louise | Mar 19, 2012 | Adventures |
Up early and had a very entertaining breakfast in the hotel, watching all the tourists fight over coffee and investigate the mints (yep, at breakfast. Weird.)
Then out to the less affluent part of Memphis, where the Stax Soul Museum resides. Stax Records was, by the sounds of things, and from Dad’s memories, an incredible hive of musical talent. More of its history can be found here and here.
Though I wouldn’t have said I knew much blues, and certainly not much about blues music, I found I recognised so much! It was beautifully put together, staffed by very knowledgeable, young people, and told the triumphant then tragic story of Stax in a very moving way. I found it almost unbearably poignant in places, but uplifting that from the ruins there is now the museum, a record store and a school and music academy, ensuring the legend will live on.
Should you ever be in that part of the world, please visit, it was unquestionably one of the highlights of the trip. Photos to follow.
Then on to Nashville… And I drove all the way!
I was nervous about going back to campus (although not of seeing the girls, obviously) and while it was lovely to see all our old haunts, I don’t feel any mad desire to go back. That was then, and this is now, and the future looks even more exciting 😀 However, we definitely need to all meet up more than once every few years, so we’ve now decided the May bank holiday will be our weekend to see each other every year, even if we don’t manage it in between times. Happy Carla. 
