by Carla Louise | Oct 10, 2011 | Uncategorized |
I don’t think I’ve ever actually posted about The List before. A working copy of it is here, which I will update and add to as things occur to me. There are more than 300 entries, so please don’t feel obliged to read it! (also, none of them are crossed off on this version – Google Docs is thwarting me)
This is a list I started, partly inspired by Mike Gayle’s book The To Do List, and partly motivated by a knowledge that there are an infinite number of things I would like to do and achieve in my life, plus I’d like to be organised like a proper adult (hence some of the smaller things on it) and I wanted to have some of those things in written form. Plus, I’m the original list addict and it would be odd if I didn’t have things written down (honestly, I cart half a ream of paper around with me each day, all covered in lists).
So. Today I reviewed it for the first time in a while. And you know what? I ticked off 49 things I’ve done this year, not including the things that were already ticked off. For someone who has spent the last six months panicking that she’s not done anything to be proud of… well, it’s changed my mind somewhat!
Admittedly, some of those things are as small as ‘put screwdrivers back in the hall drawer’ (it’s concerning how long it’s taken me to do that) but some are lifechanging. Doing a rally was on there, way back before Rob asked me to go… living on my own was on there, and so was (weirdly) buy a typewriter. And I’ve done all of those things in 2011.
So I must be doing something right… I’ll review it again (and one of the things I meant to do with my blog was post when I’d achieved something on the list, so perhaps that’ll become a regular occurrence?!) at the end of the year, along with my new year’s resolutions and such like.
Maybe I’m a bit too introspective, but I do like being able to look back at what I’d hoped and dreamed and see that despite everyday appearances, I’m moving in the right direction towards the life I want to live 🙂
by Carla Louise | Oct 9, 2011 | Collecting |
How can it possibly be past 7 on Sunday night?! I’ve had a stupidly busy weekend, although I did have a sneaky lie in this morning… not that long a one, but was so nice not to have to leap out of bed at half five, I couldn’t resist! (Ok, by the time I post this it’s half eleven… oops).
Have a photo – of one of my newest acquisitions, I haven’t bought model horses for aaaaages (the two I bought while rally shopping don’t count, hehe) and now I’ve had two in two weeks – it’s rather lovely, although my shelves are now protesting!
Spent yesterday with my parents, they brought my filing cabinet over then we went for breakfast and furniture shopping for their new flat – so much fun, but a bit dangerous, I kept finding the perfect chairs for my long-wished-for reading spot… and they were all hugely expensive 🙁
Then went over to Wendy’s for dinner with her and Sharon and Izzy and Jolee – was so lovely to see them all and catch up, and play some Wii Dance (no, no videos will make it to the internet!) and talk about crafty things and relax 🙂 Bored them with rally photos too, and in a minute I’ll upload those to Flickr – the carefully-selected 200 or so, instead of the full 2101!
Today has been filled with filing and admin and a bit of photography – not in the slightest bit exciting, but all necessary, sadly. Was supposed to be seeing a friend but had (and still have, annoyingly) so much to do I had to cancel… which I’m sad about, I don’t see her very often!
Have spent an hour or so sorting out the Project Pin Up blog header though, and here it is – projectpinup.co.uk 🙂 I’ll do a proper introduction to it when we’ve put the first few posts up, but I’m so excited for it and for my pin up journey to begin!
Here’s me with my Curiosity Project box – an anonymous swap of a box of curiosities. We’re hoping to match up senders and recipients once they’ve all been posted and received! Contents post once it’s gone up on the Curiosity Project’s blog! Posting mine tomorrow, can’t wait to see my recipient’s reaction!
Erm… no, that’s pretty much it, I do feel rested but I’m dreading work tomorrow as I have more filing to do, and it’s not so straightforward as my own filing is, mostly because it’s not mine, but it’s just as boring!
(update: at twenty five to midnight, the photos are only 39% complete, so I’m leaving them to upload overnight. Link to come!)
by Carla Louise | Oct 6, 2011 | Uncategorized |
A list I found in my notebook just now – it’s the sixth and I’m not doing too badly! (Clearly, there are a whole host of things to add to this now, lol… but it’ s ok, at least some are crossed off!)
by Carla Louise | Oct 6, 2011 | Personal Development, Photography |
I’ve been massively inspired by journals lately, and especially art journals. I’ve always loved the idea of recording your life, and probably my only regret in life so far is burning my teen diaries and deleting my typed uni diaries, which I did for reasons I won’t go into here.
There’s something magical about keeping snippets of your life between pages, to be kept and remembered and looked back on in days, weeks, months and years to come, and it also leaves a record for future generations.
I once came across a box full of tiny notebooks in an antique shop, and, intrigued, asked the owner what they were. She said she had another two boxes in storage and they were the handwritten diaries of a young lady who had started, in the twenties, aged 9, to keep a diary each day, and had written faithfully every single day until she died in her 90s. At the time I was still a student, and this collection was on sale for £250 – well out of my price range (although the lovely owner did say I could pay a bit at a time and she’d keep them aside for me, it was still more than I could justify spending on non-necessities at the time. But I sat in that shop for a good couple of hours, reading the living history of this lady who had lived through a war and through unimaginable changes in her world, and had recorded it all, huge world events and things that were important to her (first kiss, meeting a friend for lunch, all sorts) for us to look at.
On my 25th birthday, inspired by that find, I started a five year diary. I’d like to think I’ll keep it up till I’m 30, although I’ve already missed the odd day – I love that it’s laid out so that each year you can see what you wrote the year before, and it’s a small enough book to carry around. My own little piece of magical history.
Recently I’ve also started to see lots of art journals – Ashley at The Creative Place did a fabulous post recently about her completed travel journal, which made me think I could (and should!) do something similar for the rally. I have been meaning to create a scrapbook/journal of my life since just before my 18th birthday – bought the albums but never quite got round to putting things in them. (Actually, with hindsight that’s a good thing, if I’d completed it age 18 it would have been mostly full of my first love… while he is obviously an enormous part of my past, he is entirely unconnected with my recent past, my present and my future, and I feel a journal I make now will reflect that).
I also love the idea of keeping a journal of my creative inspirations – at the moment my laptop and Pinterest serve for those ‘squee’ moments where I can keep snippets, and this blog records my wafflings and thoughts and other things, but I’d love to have more physical things to look at when I need inspiring. And of course, a diary-journal (as opposed to a scrapbook or a journal for a specific event or trip) would show you how your crafting has grown and shaped and developed over the time you take to complete it.
So this weekend I shall be buying (or repurposing) some box files – they shall live in my studio and into them shall go anything relevant – photos, notes, fabric scraps, labels, broken but significant jewellery… anything that might help shape my journals, and perhaps in 2012 I’ll be able to put them together and make something wonderful to look at.
by Carla Louise | Oct 3, 2011 | Creating |
It’s been a ridiculously long time since I did an update on my creative projects in progress, possibly not since I moved the blog over to WordPress back in April, so here goes…
(and apologies in advance for the continued lack of photos – this is due to blogging on the go!)
Project Pin Up
A joint project with Mimi from Little Sips of Tea, we are hoping to launch this inspirational blog/website sometime in October. Designs and scribbles are ongoing!
The typewriters
I never did blog these – bought them by accident at a car boot I went to with Mimi a while ago, and have just had a very exciting phone call from Mike at InkXS – he’s sending me ribbons for both of them so I can actually use them – I may never print a letter from my laptop again!
Teasets to Typewriters
A long-term project that is hopefully coming to fruition, this is the relaunch of Ducking Fabulous… only not as Ducking Fabulous. While I still adore making jewellery, and have a commission in the workings for @craftyguider, I don’t have time to make the level of stock I’d like to keep the shop open, and I’d always intended to branch out into vintage. So this is it – inspired by my typewriters, the new Etsy shop, to be launched towards the end of October/beginning of November, will stock vintage loveliness for you, your home and the people that make you happy, and in time will also stock Ducking Fabulous jewellery (made by me!) too, especially the upcycled/reworked/repurposed lines to fit with the vintage feel.
Freelancing for Helitech
Much as the day job is good experience in many ways, it’s not using my design skills even a quarter as much as I’d hoped it would, and as they need to be used in order to keep them fresh. So, I’ve started freelancing again (because I didn’t have enough projects already on the go) and have just completed some work for two companies attending Helitech. Follow up work for HeliExpo in February is expected, plus keeping an eye on their respective websites, and it’s all good for the portfolio too.
Dining room table
I have some completely gorgeous vintage-style wrapping paper which I want to attach to the surface of my very battered dining room table… but haven’t yet had the time to sand it down and buy some decent glossy varnish to cover it with – it needs to look pretty and have a wipe-clean surface!
Bookcases
I have been collecting quotes for a year or so to adorn my bookcases with… now I know which ones I want to use, I’m struggling to work out the best way of putting them there – do I handwrite with permanent markers, or decopatch first, or print and mod podge on… the possibilities are almost endless!
Heather’s wedding present
Hevsy occasionally reads my blog, as her wedding is featured on it here – so I can’t post a photo. But it’s getting there!
R2R art for the living room
This involves plotting the route on a giant map, somehow choosing some photos to be printed, working out how to frame 3D objects and retrieving Rusty’s number plate from Rob’s house (I ran away to cry at the end of the rally and forgot to pick up my plate. Yep, I am an idiot).
Amy Butler dress
This one’s ground to a complete halt because my sewing machine quit and I’ve not yet been able to fund a new one. I bought the pattern on my birthday back in February, and have a shortlist of fabrics I like, but I’m not actually buying the fabric till I can at least start on making the dress.
The studio
Filing cabinet is to arrive this week and be installed properly on Saturday; this will then at some point be decopatched to fit in with the rest of my décor. I need to move the rug under the desk and re-organise the boxes… would like to be able to pick up one box for one type of craft, ideally.
I also have lots of bits of ideas for smaller projects, but haven’t actually started any of them yet… I do feel I have my creative mojo back now though, which is always a good thing!
What works-in-progress do you have on the go?
by Carla Louise | Oct 1, 2011 | Books |
Today’s been particularly gorgeous, clear blue skies and glorious hot sunshine, so I took the car and blasted down the A12 with the roof down and my music turned up loud, and arrived in Chelmsford in a spectacularly good mood. I picked up the book I’d ordered, got a few other errands and bits done, bumped into Apryl and Joseph, popped into the library and saw lovely Anastasia, who is blooming with pregnancy, and a couple of other lovely people, and most excitingly, bought the first few bits of stock for the relaunch of my shop! Squee! Ooh, and needed a new mascara, and accidentally bought ANOTHER red lipstick and matching lip pencil in Superdrug’s 3 for 2 deal… whoops!
Also randomly but massively inspired to customise some more of my shoes I don’t wear enough, so that’ll be a project for the next few weeks in between creating for the two new projects and, you know, living… washing etc. Crap, just realised I’ve forgotten to put my washing on. Whoops. Ah well, too late now, it’ll have to wait till tomorrow. I managed the washing up so I’m not a total slattern.
This week I’ve treated myself to Vintage Life magazine and the Burlesque Bible (which is also a magazine, a new one) – both of them full of masses of inspiration and happiness… made me muchly happy and full of ideas for lots of things. Sometimes I wish I could hit record on my brain, if I don’t have a notebook or my phone to hand I can’t write down the ideas I get at random times and then they just sort of disappear into the ether!
So this evening I’m off out into town to go dancing… promised a friend way back in February that I’d go out for cocktails and clubbing with her, and due in part to my busy schedule and in part to my inherent dislike of clubbing, this is the weekend we’ve planned it for! Now it’s here I’m actually quite looking forward to it, but I’m so tired already… must be getting old! Taxi is booked for 1am so it won’t be a massively late one… and I can at least lie in tomorrow, and/or finish off some designing in bed (thank goodness for laptops!)
Just been reading a really interesting discussion on my car club’s forum about the proposed 80mph speed limit – there are some unexpected points arising, and people on both sides of the rise, which I wasn’t expecting at all. I’m ambivalent at the moment, as there are some people that will always rush and go faster than they’re allowed to or is safe, and raising the speed limit isn’t going to slow them down. On the other hand, it would be great to know that if you have to put your foot down to get past a problem or a slower, dangerous driver hogging the middle lane, you’re not going to get done for speeding. But I don’t think it will stop the dangerous drivers and middle lane hoggers.
Right, enough waffling from me, need to go and sort out what the hell I’m wearing this evening! Have a lovely Saturday night folks 🙂
by Carla Louise | Sep 30, 2011 | Thrifting |
I haven’t even looked at my bank account, because although today is pay day, I know that the total is going to be massively depressing (once I’ve extracted my monthly rent & bills, my £400 train ticket and my credit card bill). There is a transfer to be made from savings to cover the credit card (because it’s the flights from the rally), but otherwise it is what it is. Obviously I’ll be using the overdraft as I do most months but the intention is to bring this usage down slowly over the next few months. (with Christmas and my car insurance due… hah, who am I kidding?! But worth a try, certainly).
So… Buy Nothing Unnecessary, aka phase 2 of Project Thrifty Chic. I have an enormous amount of stuff in my flat, most of which I don’t even know that I still own. Quite a lot of which is makeup – cue some more beauty blog posts!
I have some lovely things planned this month for which I’ve already budgeted, but outside of those I am going to try, very hard, for just one month, to not buy any more stuff. (I also have a freezer full of food, which I’m going to use up before buying any more. Apart from vegetables, which I’m nearly out of.)
Now just to test this theory, I am going into town tomorrow (1st of the month… whoops) and there are some things I need while I’m there… I have a small separate budget for the beginnings of Teasets to Typewriters, but aside from stock/packaging for that (and the packaging I really should buy in relative bulk, online), I’m going to be good. Well, I’m going to try!
(and in the evenings, I intend to skate, blog, work on the secret projects ready for launch… lots of things! Hopefully none of which will involve too much money… also intend copious use of the slow cooker for both convenience and thrift 😀 )
PS I would apologise for the continued thrifty posts… but I keep getting good reactions so I won’t 🙂
by Carla Louise | Sep 29, 2011 | Adventures, Photography |
(edit: just realised I’ve forgotten the cocktail pic… will add this weekend! Bad squishy…)
Wow, it’s been a busy few weeks! Any notion I had of life calming down when I returned from the rally and ‘settled down’ to real life again has been firmly squashed, if anything it’s got even busier!
Haven’t even had time to draft a Happy Thursdays post, but instead I thought I’d post a few photos of the rally as a) they’re nowhere else on the internet yet (this is because there are 2101 of them and I have no idea where to start editing that number down to put online. They’d also cost me over £100 to print), and b) it made me the happiest I’ve ever been. Ever 🙂 I clearly have some adventure in my heart!
So… (warning, this doesn’t really even start to cover everything we did, but should give a glimpse.) Don’t forget full write up (well, of the rally – I’m still faffing with the two extra days) is at rustymclusty.wordpress.com 🙂
The P-reg Laguna we bought, after a weekend of Nitro-Mors on the bonnet. See how pretty she was… but I think we made her prettier 😛
Trusty Rusty McLusty (ok, that was terrible, but she was very trusty) in my aunt & uncle’s field:
Rusty & Allegro in Germany, camped near the Nurburgring:
The view we woke to in Switzerland (the coldest night of my entire life, I swear):
View from Rusty’s rear window in the Swiss mountains:
Some proper extreme ironing, not far from Stelvio pass:
Popping to Italy for lunch:
Trying to fix Rat Patrol’s car in Budapest:
Me on Rusty’s bonnet at the Romanian border:
A bunch of us parked at the Romanian border:
Scaring the bloke in the petrol station – I think he thought we were about to hijack him!
Some shots of us driving, just to prove we did:
Group shot in Sibiu, somewhere around 2am:
DONKEY! On the Transfaragasan Highway (as seen on Top Gear – the road, not the donkey):
Group shot at the foot of the south side of the Transfaragasan, left to right me, Andy (Rat Patrol), Graham (Rat Patrol), Rob (Rusty McLusty), Craig (Allegro), Jenny (Allegro), Pete (Allegro):
This was a single vodka and coke in Brasov, celebrating the end of the rally. I dread to think what a double looks like!
Me at the top of Brasov, breathtaking view but I did not like being that close to the edge!
Rob and I on the very last day at Peles Castle in Sinaia:
Yeah… there’s so much more I should put into this post but I don’t want to crash anyone’s computer or bore anyone out of reading my blog 😛 Will link to Flickr album when I’ve evntually got them all up there in some kind of order. But you get the idea. Best nine days of my entire life 🙂
by Carla Louise | Sep 26, 2011 | carlalouise |
Having found this article completely by chance (it’s from my pre-regular-blogging days), I thought it was worth sharing. I’m most definitely an Unmade Bed, and all the happier for it. Women, she says, are either Unmade Beds (UBs) or Pristine Pillows (PPs).
We all know a PP or two, those women who never have a hair out of place, whose houses are shrines to minimalism and white leather, and who always turn up early for everything, in high heels. They don’t eat much, turn their noses up at proper alcohol and keel over in shock if they catch you eating carbs. The rest of us live our lives… we eat pasta, we drink wine, we go barefoot, we play, and we’re liberated and happy. We also scrub up pretty well when the occasion calls for it!
To demonstrate, my flat only gets properly tidied (and indeed, the bed made properly) when my parents or a man are coming to visit. My friends love me for who I am and are quite used to the organised chaos I usually live in (some of them had the mis/good fortune to live with me for a year or two) and don’t object to it. I’m anal about cleaning my kitchen, but my tidying is very much of the shove-stuff-in-wardrobe-and-shut-door variety. Only I have rails, not wardrobes, so instead I shove in boxes, put boxes in the studio and shut that door instead.
In the article, Shane also mentions handbags as another dividing line between UBs and PPs. Ohh, handbags. From mine today (and this is very much the light version, as I’ve not been home from holiday long and haven’t had a chance to clutter it up properly), I extracted the following:
hand cream, deodorant, my purse, £4.10 in change, six euros fifty in change, 90 Romania Lei, various cards, my driving licence (these were all loose at the bottom, not in my purse), a ticket to colchester zoo, a notebook, six pens, one pencil, mobile phone, mum’s camera, usb lead for my phone, earrings, sunglasses, a box of plasters, sudocrem, chewing gum, keys for my flat, keys for julia’s flat, keys for work and keys to my parents’ house, my council tax bill, various bits of printed paper, a map, socks, ibuprofen, a bag full of makeup, a random red lipstick, pro plus, my hairbrush, a glasses cleaning cloth, tissues, four hairbands, spare floozies, spare tshirt, can of diet coke, a half eaten bar of chocolate, a novel, a Homes & Antiques magazine and eleven post it notes.
And I wonder why my shoulders hurt! I’m seriously considering doing a monthly post on what’s in my handbag… I might discover some long-forgotten treasures! However, I usually have everything I need with me (actually it’s missing cross stitch, knitting or crochet – I almost always have my current small project with me) and I’ve been the go-to girl in every office I’ve ever worked in for the random things you should have in your bag but just never do… painkillers, tissues, hairbands. After 25 years of trying to be tidy, I’ve accepted that I’m a chaotic but happy kind of a person… and that’s just fine by me. Us Unmade Beds live life to the full 🙂
So which are you? An unmade bed or a pristine pillow? And what’s really in your handbag?
by Carla Louise | Sep 25, 2011 | Uncategorized |
Since I blogged properly. Life has been utterly mad in the last couple of weeks, and my feet don’t seem to have touched the ground!
I’ve managed a Happy Thursdays post, and that’s probably the best summary of my life at the moment… lots of small things that make me smile and one massive thing that made me the happiest I’ve ever been, which I’m still trying to adjust from. Got my camera back in the post from the other team on Friday evening, with all their photos – I’m still to look through them, can’t quite bear to look as they’re the last I’ll have (apart from when Justin posts his on the StreetSafari site I suppose).
Had an eventful weekend, we surprised a dear family friend in Surrey for her 60th birthday on Saturday, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone quite so taken aback, bless her! Was incredibly lovely to see her, and she took us to Hobbycraft too (well, we didn’t want to interrupt the plans she already had for the day, now did we?!) – so I stocked up on things for the Curiosity Project and a few bits for personal stuff I’d like to do soon.
Then headed off to see some more friends, had a late lunch, helped out with a website holding page and drove home again.
This morning we had a lovely leisurely breakfast, then drove over to get some oil and a filter, and lovely Dad did my oil change for me while I sorted out the rest of the website stuff I’d started for Gary yesterday… have had to leave my car at home this week so it can have an MOT, Mum brought me home but it feels ever so odd not to have her parked outside 🙁
On the plus side, I did get back to parcels from Rob and Chloe… Rob’s ensured my camera has a lens cap again!! 😀 and a rather lovely new card reader too, which is handy as my old one is totally knackered and a bit suspect (probably due to the abuse it’s received since I bought it five years ago, lol). Chloe is an angel and has sent me buttons (BUTTONS!! My favourite thing, well one of them) and the originals of the Rusty McLusty illustrations… squeee 😀
But after making dinner this evening, blitzing my (ridiculously messy – how does it get that bad in just a week?!) flat and calling Anna for a chat and to help with her first ever blog post, my doorbell goes. No one EVER rings my doorbell, so I was somewhat confusled… turns out it was Laura, with a flat battery. But of course my car is at home with Mum and Dad, so we had to find a random neighbour to jumpstart her car. Sigh.
So now I’m finally settled down with a glass of wine and my laptop, catching up on all the stuff I haven’t had a chance to look at all weekend. I swear my weekends are busier than my weeks, sometimes.
Photos and normal blog service to resume soon, I promise.
by Carla Louise | Sep 22, 2011 | Adventures, Collecting |
Skating with Jess – and the first picture I have of me on wheels since I was about twelve 🙂
Fizzing with excitement over a new project with Mimi from Little Sips of Tea… watch this space for details
Finally settling on my pin up name… to be revealed along with the new project launch 🙂
Having my gorgeous uni girlies over for the weekend, it was so lovely to see them… and then seeing Val & Matt on Monday on their way to the airport for an impromptu dinner and drinks – was exactly what I needed!
Reliving the rally through showing family & friends photos and videos… bittersweet as I still want to be there, but lovely to remember all the little details
Cake!! Bought by lovely Sophia to make work better this week
Speaking to lovely friends and knowing I’ll see some of them soon
Catching sight of my blackbird just as I was feeling a bit down – he always pops up when I need him 🙂
Completing my first bit of freelance design work in ages – gave me a real sense of achievement!
Booking a vintage hair & makeup workshops with Lou, Mimi and Anna at Make Do and Mend in Chelmsford- it’s going to be SO EXCITING!
Bunting in London, most unexpectedly
The glow after the rally and the feeling of knowing I can do absolutely anything – it’s liberating and a little bit scary!
Wearing beautiful shoes to work
Finding this picture of Rusty online – taken by a complete random when we were on our way to Dover. Muchly exciting!
Talking business ideas with friends and being taken seriously, which is always a good thing
Seeing this lovely little Figaro parked in the smallest space ever – I’m fairly sure it wasn’t a space, but it made me smile. And there’s a Banksy/Robbo rat behind it, which made me think of the rally, which made me smile wistfully.
Two new ponies arriving… one that I’d ordered and one that I’d bought on impulse… whoops! Rather nice to have some new faces on my shelves, even if my shelves are ridiculously overstuffed now.
Janine being on my train entirely unexpectedly 🙂
Making a new friend at work via emails about the staff day – we’re going for lunch and drinks when she’s back from holiday, yay!
So many happy things this week… and it’s of course lovely to be back in the blogosphere! Still not used to not being on the rally, my adventuring spirit has well and truly taken hold, but I have plenty to keep me occupied and plenty to plan 🙂 (edit – have updated with some bits I’d forgotten – apologies if you get this twice!)
by Carla Louise | Sep 19, 2011 | Photography |
Because I haven’t blogged with photos for a silly amount of time, because the last post was highly uninteresting to anyone but me (and possibly Mimi from Little Sips of Tea), here is a photo of me with three of my gorgeous friends who came to visit at the weekend 🙂
Left to right – Holly, Val, me and Anna
(And look! My Sleek Pout Paint with added blue!)
