by Carla Louise | Jul 14, 2011 | Uncategorized |
This week has been tinged with a great sadness – I lost a dear family friend who was like a second dad to me in the early hours of Tuesday morning. However, although I am desperately sad, there have still been things that have made me smile this week. It is, however, a very wordy Thursday because the internet here won’t let me upload pictures 🙁
- Heather and Steve’s seaside wedding last Saturday. Honestly one of the most wonderful weddings I’ve ever been to – and I must have good taste in friends because my close friends always make the most superlatively radiant brides! Post to come.
- Brunch after the wedding with Janine and Sean. Although they live the closest of all my friends, I don’t see them nearly enough and it was lovely to have a lazy brunch-lunch the morning after the wedding.
- Brighton and Lou. Spending time with Lou is always inspiring in all sorts of ways, and I always come away fired up with plans and schemes and ideas. We spent a day ambling around Brighton looking at vintagey things and came away with some fabulous treasures and inspiration as always. Post to come.
- The seaside. The golf course we’re staying at backs onto the sea, which was lovely anyway, but when I got the call from Dad on Tuesday morning, I needed to be by the sea. Being here, rather than stuck in London, meant I could escape for a long, long walk along the seafront to get my head together. I also snuck in a long skate along the seafront earlier in the week, when it was still sunny, which was fab but resulted in sunburn. Oops.
- Finally reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society which I have been meaning to read for ever. It’s utterly gorgeous, along a similar premise to 84 Charing Cross Road which is one of my favourite books, and I adore it.
I’m sure there have been other things, but as it’s also been a sad week, I’ll leave it there for now. Hope your weeks have been full of wonderful things!
by Carla Louise | Jul 14, 2011 | Adventures |
It’s strange – I was dreading this week, so much so that on the drive down I nearly had to stop to be sick, I was so nervous. I didn’t really know what to expect, I wasn’t massively fancying spending an entire week in close proximity with my boss and some colleagues, all male, who I don’t know very well, and there were the usual concerns I always have about my eating issues and sleep talking.
And yet – despite the unbearably sad news I got on Tuesday, in every other respect I’ve surprised myself enormously by really enjoying the week! The people at the golf club we’re staying at are lovely, my colleagues have been lovely (three of us went out for dinner and drinks last night and I feel more like I belong now) and I’ve totally unexpectedly fallen in love with this little section of the Kent coast. It’s beautiful.
I will be sad to leave this evening – but I know I’ll be back, it just won’t be for golf next time!
(Photo posts to come – internet’s been a bit intermittent and I’ve been much shorter of time than expected!)
by Carla Louise | Jul 5, 2011 | Uncategorized |
Rollerskating is definitely my new favourite thing. I’ve waffled about it on here before. I’m so glad I took the plunge and bought my own skates – completely in love with them! When I’m better at actually skating I shall decoupage them so they’re unique, but for now here they are…
I’ve been several times to my outdoor ‘rink’ – the last time I was significantly out-skated by a guy on rollerblades, not that he knew I was watching! Trying to be inspired rather than intimidated, lol! I also popped out to my local indoor rink on adults only night (the theory being that if I fell over and squashed anyone, I’d feel less guilty squashing an adult than a ten-year-old!) and tried to teach myself turning, stopping and backwards crossovers. I might have also developed a minor girl-crush on a fabulously talented but very nonchalant girl there – she was amazing! (for clarity and the pedants, girl-crush in that I wanted to BE her for a little while, not be with her).
I was sort of getting there but feeling muchly frustrated, and then someone very patiently showed me what I was doing wrong (aside from losing my nerve just before spinning, which I already knew I was doing) – I was trying to cross over the wrong way, and I have a lazy left leg. Bells are ringing in my head from when I learned to skate the first time, so I’m now working on crossing my left leg over my right at every available opportunity… and awaiting a chance to go out and practise!
(Ok, I know, gratuitous skating post… but I love it more than I thought possible AND I’m getting some much needed exercise!)
by Carla Louise | Jul 4, 2011 | Uncategorized |
Wigs. They seem to have popped up in conversation a lot recently… people wearing them, buying them, talking about buying them, talking about wearing them.
I have been in love with the idea of blue hair (electric blue, not halfhearted blue) for years now, but have never been brave enough to attempt bleaching my very dark brown hair light enough to cope with electric blue. Then I got my current job, in which blue hair probably equals no job quite quickly!
So after asking around I had a look at Lulu’s wigs on ebay. They were very reasonable and had some fantastic colours, so I ordered one. I originally went for this one:
When it arrived,it was lovely, but I realised I should have gone for one which was the same length as my own hair, otherwise it’d be super-obvious. So I went for the longer blue – they have a fantastic policy of exchanging your wig as long as it hasn’t been worn. And I fell utterly in love as soon as the longer one arrived!
And here is me, wearing it…
Please excuse the shocking self-portrait – I’m planning a proper shoot with it soon but am short on time till mid-September 🙁
A hairdresser now working at MAC in Reading recognised it as a wig, but did ask if it was colour or a wig and said he loved it *grin* and I’ve worn it out a couple of times and think it’s realistic enough… obviously people who see me regularly realise I don’t have bangs all the time lol! But it’s fantastic fun and it’s a great way of boosting my confidence on those days where you just aren’t quite in the mood to be the life and soul of the party… 🙂
If any of you guys wear wigs… I’d love to see the results!
by Carla Louise | Jul 3, 2011 | Photography |
Oh, how do I describe the wonder that is the Fling? Here’s the website and last year’s video, for a flavour…
2010 Fling goodness…
Last year there were a few of us. This year, there were a LOT of us. I had the obligatory zebra picture (I want to take that zebra home – suggestions on a postcard as to how I can smuggle him home please) on my own and with other people. I’ll just post the one for now…
me with the zebra - the equivalent pic last year is one of my favourite photos of all time
(I could do a separate outfit-of-the-day post, but I won’t… the corset is one from a boutique in Loughborough, the skirt is a vintage French Connection one, bracelet is my favourite steampunk-ish one which I bought from a car boot sale a while ago and while I’d usually wear heels with such an ensemble, the flipflops are gold leather ones from New Look. Comfortable and much more appropriate for ambling around a field! (I actually spent a lot of time barefoot… it’s that sort of a place where you feel more at one with everything minus your shoes. Or maybe that’s just me. Anyway.)
A ridiculous number of my favourite people in the world were there, and it was so gorgeous to catch up in such an amazing atmosphere. There aren’t really words to describe the Fling, it’s just magical… seven hours of wonder and escapism, and there really is something for everyone.
Lou and Kelly getting into the festival spirit
I did less activities this year than last year, because I was having so much fun catching up with everyone, Pimms in hand, and just soaking up the ambience to sustain me through another year… the weeks after the Fling feel distinctly tedious.
There was music, wordsmiths, burlesque (squee!), sewing workshops, clay, more music, a beach, random performers, a peep show, a silent disco, a fire garden, and far too many wonderful things to mention. My personal favourite was the fairy crown workshop, run by the Fairyland Trust, who do some fantastic conservation work throughout the UK, as well as raising awareness and working with children to preserve our woodland and learn the magic of nature. Our crown-making workshop (complete with storytime!) is usually aimed at 7 year olds, but I fell totally in love with my crown and will be renewing the willow base with season-appropriate foliage for each of the eight season celebrations through the year. I always mark them in my diary but never actually do anything to mark the festivals. And I’d like to.
I was so chuffed with my crown... do I look fairy-like?
(unrelatedly, this photo shows I’ve achieved a lifelong ambition of having my hair so long it doesn’t always fit in photos. Yay!) I am nowhere near as trashed as I look, either – it’s just the sun in my eyes. Honestly!
Here are a selection of photos that made me smile – I’ve not seen the ones taken by other people yet, but I’ll remember this Fling forever… and I’ll be at the next one come hell or high water! Sending huge hugs to everyone who came this year, it was even more fabulous with you all there 🙂 And my apologies for my waffly lack of eloquence, it really does defy words. But it makes me quite ridiculously happy!
Me with Karen - being experienced Fling-ers!
Naomi sewing 🙂
Me with Janine and Heather. Lovely Heather is getting married next weekend!
Wendy and Apryl with the results of their sewing workshop
There are quite a few more pics – more than last year! Waiting to get hold of Lou’s and anyone else’s too, and then I shall sneak a link to a Flickr album into a future post. Massive thanks to Nastassia, Anna and their team at Chelmsford Borough Council – you guys have done an incredible job and made a large number of people very happy. Should any of you lovely readers be in Chelmsford in July next year – go. Really, it’s a perfect seven hours.[Edit March 2012: due to the Olympic Flame celebrations, the Fling will next be held in July 2013.]
by Carla Louise | Jul 3, 2011 | carlalouise |
Aw, was a bit late but made it home for #bbloggers this evening – discussing blog layouts… the good, the bad and the ugly 🙂
Will be back with some posts after the chat and washing up!
xx
by Carla Louise | Jun 28, 2011 | Uncategorized |
So about two weeks ago, I made a decision, and as part of this decision, I was going to blog more. Blog more, photograph more, write more, comment more, record more. Have I actually managed any of these things? Not yet. Hmph.
In my defence, work has been super-busy, the trains were so delayed last night I didn’t get home until the time I usually go to bed, last week was just chock-full of celebratory things so I didn’t go near my laptop and I’ve also had a couple of crisises (crises?) to deal with.
But I have been lurking when I can on the forums I frequent (even if the inhabitants of one of them are definitely going to kill me when they find out I’m not coming to the latest meet *blush*) and I’ll be back to posting soon, I hope.
Very chuffed to be one of the top ten posters in the Sunday before last’s #bbloggers chat – I’m one of the Gobby Fivesome, hell yeah!!
And on that note, I shall be off.
P.S. I went skating today. But was out-skated by a really cute guy on blades. Who had decided to use the same place I do to skate outdoors. I need to practise more so I can hold my own!
by Carla Louise | Jun 23, 2011 | Uncategorized |
I think it’s completely impossible to overstate the importance of friends. All sorts of friends, in your life for all sorts of reasons. Some drift in and out, some are there forever, all are essential to life. Without mine, I would, quite simply, not be here.
I’m particularly lucky in that I have a large number of very dear friends. I don’t tell them nearly enough how much they mean to me and how overwhelmed I am at their continued presence in my life, or how lost I would be without them. But then I’m already considered the sappy emotional one, so that’s probably not a terrible thing! And I’m sure most of them know exactly how much they mean to me.
Much of the time, friendship just ticks along… lovely, but standard. You arrange stuff, you cancel stuff, you call friends to moan about your day. Then you hit a rocky patch in life and suddenly there they are, clustered around you, helping you through it in a myriad of ways. Not just the major rocky patches either, the little ones too. (Actually sometimes it’s the smaller ones that show you the true friends – lots of people will get involved in a major trauma just for the drama of it. The ones who care about the tiny things that make you sad are the ones who truly care about you.)
This week, the early part of which was hellish, my housemate and best friend has listened patiently and offered advice and a shoulder to cry on, despite having an infinitely more stressful job herself; another old and dear friend has let me ramble almost non-stop in texts without ever once judging me, yawning or not replying with wise and sympathetic words. A friend I miss a completely ridiculous amount since I left my old job replied to an email and made me genuinely smile for the first time in days. And unexpectedly, in the midst of a particularly stressful day, a new colleague suggested going for a drink after work to de-stress. We drank, and we chatted, and she reassured me, and we gossiped about girlie stuff (no mean feat as the majority of our colleagues are blokes) and it made me feel eight squillion times better. And work today was better for having a friend in it.
Annie once told me that people come into your life ‘for a reason, a season or forever’. I’m finding it to be truer by the day. So treasure the ones you have, don’t let go of them too easily, and always be open to the possibility of new ones, however unlikely the situation seems.
(*I know, I must get better at titling my posts!)
by Carla Louise | Jun 23, 2011 | Uncategorized |
- a lovely colleague bringing us all rock from Brighton. ROCK. So summery!
- getting the giggles (proper ones) with people in the office – maybe I do fit in a bit, after all
- sitting in a roofless Poppy, stretching my legs after a skate, watching the sunset on summer solstice evening
- Caitlin’s email which brought an actual smile to my face after a day of hell
- Pink, purple and turquoise fountain pens for work, so they don’t go walkies (boys don’t like writing in pink, haha)
- Theatre and dinner with my girlies on Saturday – completely gorgeous if a little bit bittersweet, I’d managed to forget how much I miss them
- my accidental blue scarf – realised on the train my dress was much too low-cut, Sar suggested a scarf, I found a perfect one (blue paisley) in the sale at the station and it worked beautifully with the blue dress I was wearing!
- unexpected drink and chat after work with a colleague/friend who made me feel so much better
- a revelation about a postcard
- my MP3 player is working again after a prolonged sulk – the music on it is a bit out of date but I can block out the pesky commuters!
- I entered a competition to win a classic Pashley bike – crossing everything to win, I adore them!
by Carla Louise | Jun 22, 2011 | Creating |
Not that I can use Illustrator yet – but this is really handy 🙂
Adobe Illustrator Tip: Turning Your Sketches into Vector Art.
by Carla Louise | Jun 22, 2011 | Books, Photography |
Stumbled across this, through an email I get to my work account updating me on stock images and illustrations.
The first photo, of the caravan and the horse, blew me away… the illustrations and other photos are also fabulous.
I *really* hope he has a blog!
Meet a Shutterstock Contributor: Binkski.
by Carla Louise | Jun 21, 2011 | Uncategorized |
So yesterday was super-stressful and today I just had loads to do… and then this evening after dinner I put my outdoor wheels onmy skates, put the roof down on the car, drove up to the train station and skated with headphones in for half an hour. Then sat in my car looking up at the sky and the gorgeous colours the dusk was making, and I felt the happiest and most content I have in several weeks 🙂
It really is the little things in life that make me happiest, I think.
(idiot me didn’t take a camera so will do my best to recreate the scene tomorrow evening when I get in from work…)
