by Carla Louise | Oct 27, 2011 | Adventures, Thrifting |
A double dose today, as I don’t think I was organised enough to do a post last week…
Last week:
Unexpectedly meeting Val for lunch at Nandos
Corsets – hehe, see my posts on Project Pin Up
Tentatively enquiring whether our drunken ‘yeah, let’s do a rally round Ireland’ could become reality and getting a very enthusiastic response from the other teams. Hey, plans made at 3am in an obscure part of Europe under the influence of alcohol are clearly the best ones!
Spending an entire evening talking boys and horses with Lizzy
Type-writing a letter to Dan (another one – I’m improving!!)
Treasure hunting with Mum
Awesome numberplate on a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream van
Deciding we should drink the last bottle of Romanian rum and toast Rusty sometime
Starting my Vivien of Holloway dress fund.
This week:
Lunch with some of the girls from work last Friday, which was fab, as I got to speak to some of the ones I never see during work time
Going through the R2R photos again and reliving the whole thing
Mum coming round and making me soup after a truly hideous migraine on Tuesday
The sense of achievement that comes from having almost built a whole website for a dear friend
Vintage hair and makeup workshop (I really need to blog about this separately too) at Make Do and Mend in Chelmsford with the lovely Mimi and Lou, led by the equally lovely Hannah
Spotting a hedgehog under a tree on the way home from work one evening
An unexpected, glorious, sunshine-filled, warm roof-down blast round the Suffolk countryside on Sunday afternoon
Extended phone and text conversations – I have wonderful people in my life
Finally booking a haircut – I don’t want to lose any of the length but it’s long overdue, it’s lost its swish!
Lights near Bishopsgate in the evening
The general soaring happy feeling I’ve had most of this week 🙂
Fully aware I should have photos in this post but I’m absolutely shattered so may have to add them tomorrow. But really can’t go two Thursdays in a row without posting or next week’s will be utterly ridiculous!
by Carla Louise | Oct 27, 2011 | Uncategorized |
How I feel, and how the blog’s going to look! I have been shockingly absent from here recently (and from Project Pinup too, bad squishy), with various life events and working on another website which will shortly be unveiled.
However, I am working on overhaul number 2 of duckingfabulous.co.uk (It feels like overhaul number four hundred and seventy two, but these are minor details). With the imminent launch of Teasets to Typewriters, I’d rather my blog had its own domain, and that the content that sits on the current site made its way back over here where it belongs 🙂
So keep your eyes peeled (actually, don’t worry too much, I’ll blatantly make a massive song and dance about it once it’s finished!)
C xx
by Carla Louise | Oct 26, 2011 | Uncategorized |
Outside a lapidary in Hatton Garden, while hunting for jewellery boxes
by Carla Louise | Oct 23, 2011 | Creating |
It turns out I can be productive when I put my mind to it, hehe! One of my best friends came up to stay this weekend, so we could overhaul her website. She had one previously, but has now reached a stage where she wants to be able to add to, update and edit it herself without recourse to a web designer every time. So I volunteered to set it up so she could do exactly that (and it was a good excuse to play with WordPress in a bit more depth in preparation for the extension of Project Pin Up, the overhaul of Ducking Fabulous, the revamp of Checks and Roses and the build of Teasets to Typewriters. Wow, I had no idea I made so many websites!
Anyway, I’ll post when I’ve finished it but thought I’d pop a photo up in between times, of a friend of ours modelling a dress from one of Louise’s early collections – gorgeous!
by Carla Louise | Oct 18, 2011 | Photography |
I spent far too long at the station this morning, trying in vain to get on a train to work.
Having established I could work from home, I went to Asda. The sky was absolutely beautiful….
Then I decided to console myself with the special-offer Haagen Dazs. So after lunch (marmite toast) I dug into both of these. Happy days!
It was surprisingly relaxing being at home and working from my sofa under a big snuggly blanket – not as social as the office, but I did get my work done! 🙂 And now, no commute, so I can blog and chill out before making dinner. It’s enough to make me want to work from home all the time!
by Carla Louise | Oct 17, 2011 | Creating |
A couple of years ago, I started a blog called The Craft Experiment. This was intended to chronicle my attempt to make things from the seemingly thousands of amazing books out there on arts, crafts, jewellery, sewing, etc…
Needless to say, it got massively sidetracked by my propensity to waffle about other things. It eventually then blended into the Ducking Fabulous Diary, and both blogs got moved to WordPress and became this one in April 2011.
But I think it’s about time I did make things from the frankly obscene number of crafty books and magazines I own (I don’t think it’s possible to have too many books, but some visitors to my flat disagree!) and I will attempt to chronicle them here instead, as a series of posts instead of a whole dedicated blog.
Because, you know, I need more projects 😛
by Carla Louise | Oct 16, 2011 | Acquired |
Being, as I’m sure you guys have grasped by now, a fairly crafty type, I had intended for AGES to join one of the many glorious swaps going on. They happen over on Crafteroo forum sometimes, but I’m a rubbish member and don’t pop in nearly as often as I’d like to. (They have however just launched the awesome Crafteroo magazine… proper post on that coming soon, but go buy it for the bargainous price of £1.50 – it’s fab!)
So when I tripped over the Curiosity Project, quite by chance, I signed up. The timescale was two months from receipt of your swap address, and it was totally anonymous until after boxes had been both sent and received. Clearly, anyone signing up would probably be relatively similar to me, and the brief? To fill a box with curiosities and post it to your anonymous recipient.
I was muchly excited when, just a couple of weeks after we’d got our addresses, a box addressed to me, but without my name, arrived. You can see me holding it in the ridiculously cheesy pic above. Here’s what was in it…
A beautiful handmade floral notebook, handmade notecards and the most beautiful brooch. I was so excited I squeaked… my old housemates from uni were up and I think they were a bit mystified (but also used to my bizarre ways!). I LOVED everything, and it really was as if my sender knew me! Here it is on the Curiosity Project’s blog.
I’d been busy collecting things to put in my own box to send, but really wanted to include something handmade and hadn’t made anything in aaaaages. Spurred on by the handmade gorgeousness, I made some button hairslides and this was the eventual package that left my house…
It was blogged on the Curiosity Project’s blog a couple of days later, and looks like my lovely recipient Nicola (who was also my sender, eee!) loved it as much as I loved mine! Even the appallingly hand-typed note, hehe! We’re now following each other on Twitter, and I shall absolutely definitely be taking part again, it was amazing 😀
by Carla Louise | Oct 16, 2011 | Collecting, Thrifting |
**This is an old draft from a month or so ago. Since then I have decided to put the shop launch on hold indefinitely, and sort out myself, my life and my finances first. Which seems surprisingly sensible for someone as impulsive as me! Stay tuned…**
Mum and I went stock hunting for my new Etsy shop (launching soon! Squee!) a couple of weekends ago. To nobody’s surprise, I couldn’t resist adding a couple of pieces to my own collections as well as buying things to sell on. I am an incurable hoarder!
First up was this gorgeous musical box, shaped like a bookshelf. I couldn’t not bring it home!
Then I was relatively good for the rest of the day, until ten minutes before we left when I spotted this little beauty, and decided that even if he was expensive he had to come home with me. He wasn’t, and he did, and now lives on my mantelpiece!
In true Carla style, I could quite happily keep all the stuff I’ve bought for the shop – but I will do my best to keep it as stock. Unless it refuses to sell…
by Carla Louise | Oct 15, 2011 | Creating |
Or cocktail shoes as Apryl calls them!
These started off as work shoes. But I brought them home the other day and realised they are no longer smart enough for work…
(click for bigger pics – they’re still ok shoes, but they’re scuffed a lot on the heel)
I’ve seen several pairs of sparkly shoes recently, properly glittery ones, and I want some like you wouldn’t believe. But I also have a vast amount of shoes, and no money. So I nipped out and bought some fine glitter glue… and here is the result:
This photo doesn’t really pick up the immense sparkle, but I am SO PLEASED! It took three coats and three days (to make sure it dried properly between coats) and I’ll touch up and set with spray varnish tomorrow. And probably not wear them in the rain, hehe! For once a project worked exactly as I’d seen it in my head, with the silvery sparkle on the main part, and the aqua blue sparkle on the heels. I have many plans for my other tired shoes…
by Carla Louise | Oct 14, 2011 | Thrifting |
Last weekend I was round at my parents’ house, and my uncle popped across with a bottle of sloe gin, for a sundowner in the unseasonably warm weather. We even coaxed Gran outside!
While we were drinking it, Mum and Dad remembered we had some homemade sloe alcohol kicking around the house, so Mum went and fetched it… and here it is:
And on closer inspection of that gorgeously retro Tesco vokda bottle…
Yep – almost exactly fifteen years old. Which means I was still in primary school (just – I left in 1997) when they made this, which is muchly exciting! It tasted pretty good too – I’d go for the vodka over the gin, it’s slightly sweeter and suits my palate better.
Thrifty, homemade AND vintage… does it get better?!
by Carla Louise | Oct 13, 2011 | Creating |
I’ve found it really hard to make time for crafting since I returned to working in London in March. I can just about crochet, knit or cross stitch on the train, but my work tends to get a bit grubby that way, and by the time i get home at 8ish, make and eat dinner, wash up and do a bit of housework, it’s time for bed. And that’s without meeting anyone or going to the park to skate for exercise.
So I was over the moon at managing an entire two hours in my studio yesterday evening. I was mostly playing with different effects with a host of stamps, inkpads and embossing powders that I’ve owned for a while but not had a chance to use. And then towards the end of the evening I made this…
Rubbish photo I know, but I was really pleased with it! That middle one is actually pale blue with tiny white flowers; the one on the right is cream and artistically smudged to give the look of a battered Beetle; and the one on the left is translucent and coloured with colouring pencils. It’s shrinky plastic, inspired by Jen over at On Diversion, and I’m fairly sure I’m addicted already 🙂
However, note to anyone wanting to play – if heating with a heat gun, make sure you have an acrylic block (or something else smooth, cool and flat) to squash it with, or it will set curled up. Also, if you forget to punch a hole, you cannot turn it into jewellery. Drilling it will result in either a) a ruined drill bit, coated in unremovable plastic; or b) small bits of shattered shrinky plastic EVERYWHERE. You have been warned 😛
But I wore it all day today and it was a great feeling – had entirely forgotten how nice it is to be able to say “Thanks, I made it” when someone compliments something you’re wearing!
by Carla Louise | Oct 13, 2011 | Uncategorized |
Wow, what a weird week it’s been! No photos, I’m rubbish… but photo-filled posts coming shortly!
First and foremost, launching Project Pin Up – more on that later 🙂
Posting my Life List and the reaction to it – everyone was overwhelmingly positive, which was amazing!
Crossing 49 things I’ve achieved this year off The List (which is what led to me posting it in the first place) Note to self: must find a way of showing the crossed-off things on Google Docs
Opening my National Trust magazine to find PG Tips samples – tea is a great soother
Reading the Burlesque Bible magazine all over again – it’s inspirational
Wearing a vintage dress to work (I must do this more often)
Starting to sparklify a battered pair of heels
Spending a whole evening crafting – it restored my sense of self
Making a necklace and wearing it the following day – I’d forgotten how good this feels
Staying with Julia last week, it was so lovely to see her and catch up rather than being passing ships in the night. She has awesome ideas for her wedding, too
I have friends at work… actual friends, it’s such a lovely feeling!
Rollerskating in the dark without falling over – it’s much scarier but feels like much more of an achievement afterwards
Sending my curiosity project box – more on that in another post
Meeting Dad unexpectedly for drinks after work today
Typing letters on my typewriter (all thanks to Dan)
Furniture hunting at the weekend, I had no idea it could be so much fun
And finally,wearing red lipstick on the way home as well as the way into work – it has unexpected effects!
