by Carla Louise | Jan 2, 2012 | Adventures, Collecting, Creating, Personal Development |
This will have to be quick, because I should have been in bed half an hour ago… oh, how I have really not missed the 5.30am starts at all over the break!!
I’m starting 2012 in an incredibly happy, uplifted and motivated frame of mind. I am surrounded by people I love who love me, I have my little haven of a flat and my much adored Poppy-car, changes at work in the last couple of months of 2011 mean I’m much happier there than I thought possible to begin with, and I’m ridiculously lucky that my main stresses are usually that I have too many people and fun things to fit into my social life. Terrible, isn’t it?!
But genuinely, I’m very lucky and well aware of this fact. I’m also intending and hoping for 2012 to be my best year yet… full of all the things I love to do, all the people I love to see and empty (or emptier, at least) of things that make me sad and stressed out. I’m not completely in la la land, I know that various things will be impossible and hard and tearful through the year, but right now things are rosy and I intend to make the absolute most of that.
Things I am muchly looking forward to this year:
Julia’s wedding ~ this is the big one, my best friend and twin soul is getting married on 7th July and I CANNOT WAIT! I’m honoured to have been chosen as one of her bridesmaids and I’ll do everything I can to make sure her big day is perfect.
USA road trip ~ a road trip round the southern states with my parents that we have been talking about doing for close to ten years, we’re flying out to Texas on 9th February and I’m so excited I can barely breathe!
CAE 2012 ~ Camping Auto Extravaganza with the ROC boys and girls is always a highlight of the calendar – this will be my third one, and each one makes me marvel that a bunch of people who only met each other because of their cars can be such very good friends and have such an awesome time.
Neverwhere ~ one of my favourite books by the awesome Neil Gaiman, and my best friend Lou of Contrariety Rose has been working on the costumes for the play for months and months. I’m off to see it on 20th January and am very excited!
Goodwood Revival ~ another one of those things I’ve been threatening to do for ages, Lou & Paul said they’d like to go and much to my surprise so did Rob when I mentioned it the other day… and dressed vintage too! So I’m hoping we’ll get to do that in September… fingers crossed!
My 26th birthday ~ not a traditional landmark I know, but I feel like I’m hitting my prime, and will be taken more seriously once I’m in my late twenties, and I’m hoping to celebrate with lots of friends and lots of family.
Unofficial Ireland rally with Rat Patrol, Team Allegro and Bucket of Doom ~ Assuming we actually manage to get this organised, I would completely adore to see the others again. I am perfectly prepared to abandon the idea of a banger and just go in Poppy if that’s the only way I can afford to go (as the £250 banger car spending limit would probably pay for most of my petrol and camping costs, lol). I’ve missed those guys!
And last but not least, launching Teasets to Typewriters, rejuvenating Ducking Fabulous jewellery as part of that and hopefully becoming involved with a new website, What Simon Said, with a friend I met on the rally and have kept in touch with via Twitter. I have many, many goals this year… some of them are listed on the 2012 Things page of this site, which can be found on the tabs at the top.
So, enough photo-free waffling from me – it’s been wonderful blogging and tweeting and ‘meeting’ people (I’m mostly looking at you, @craftyguider,@fairlyairyfairy, @meanyjar, @CraftyThINKer, @MissJimJams, @ShhimUK, @LucyMoose ) in 2011, and I hope the friendship and support continues into 2012 and beyond! Happy 2012… enjoy it!
xx
by Carla Louise | Dec 12, 2011 | Acquired |
It’s been a while since I did a beauty post! Just thought I’d do a quick roundup of some of the the beauty-related things I’ve bought or rediscovered in the last month or two. Post 1 of 2 as while I’ve been typing I’ve remembered some other stuff I should have photographed *blush*.
Here goes:
MAC lipstick in Ladybug – my favourite MAC colour, this was a Back to Mac swap (you take in 6 empties and you get a lippie free – can’t be bad!)
Urban Decay eyeshadow set, a present from the lovely Ellie a while back – I have used this but sparingly as I rarely seem to go anywhere that requires pretty eye makeup. However, now I can wear more exciting makeup to work, I foresee it getting lots more use – I LOVE Urban Decay shadows.
NYX glitter palette – bought this for my work do, for the grand total of £4, and I have to say it’s fabulous – proper review at some point, but having different glitters in a creamy/gel formula is great, means you can accent makeup on special evenings. 
And finally (for this post at least), my brush set from Groupon. Made by Louise Walsh International, it took almost nine weeks to arrive and has a RRP of £99 (I paid £19 via Groupon including P&P). When I was trying to chase my order, I came across a few really bad reviews of the brushes’ quality when other people had received them, so I wasn’t expecting wonders. Interestingly enough, although I wasn’t impressed by the speed of delivery, the brushes are lovely – soft, a good range and easy to clean. The only thing missing is a foundation brush, but I have one of those that I don’t use that often so it’s not a problem. Here they are – have to say the roll is not the best quality but it’s easy to clean and is handy to cart them around in! 
So there’s a bit of my haul – still to come, my Space NK samples, some Barry M effects nail polishes, a gorgeous chunky eyeliner, creme brulee vaseline… I need to stay out of Boots!!
by Carla Louise | Nov 28, 2011 | Books |
I read this book while away with work at the golf Open in Deal. My godfather died during the week I was away, hence it’s taken me a while to publish the posts I wrote while I was down there.
It’s a while since I’ve read a book that’s made me smile, cry and laugh out loud. Which sounds like a cliché, but although these emotions often go through my head when reading a good book, it’s rare they escape as a snort of laughter, a smile I can feel or tears running down my face.
I’ve been meaning to read this since it came out, but it was such a favourite at the library and with book groups that it was never on the shelf for me to borrow! (I always think the highest accolade a book can have is to be forever borrowed by people, and incredibly worn from all the eager readers who have devoured its pages.)
I won’t spoil the plot for you, but suffice to say I’m also a massive fan of letters as a storytelling device. (Well, I love letters anyway – I wish my generation wrote more of them.) One of my all-time favourite books is 84 Charing Cross Road, and this is in a not dissimilar vein, of strangers finding each other and becoming great, lifelong friends through letters. (edited before posting to add that I send as many letters as I can, but I have already experienced the joy of making friends with people I have never met in person, through the wonder of Twitter. Perhaps that’s the 21st century equivalent?)
The exchange of letters, between various wonderfully-imagined characters who I dearly hope are based on real people, takes us to Guernsey just after the Second World War.
There are heartbreaking moments and moments of total joy – I urge you to go and read this book, if you haven’t already!
by Carla Louise | Nov 15, 2011 | Collecting, Thrifting |
I am typing this on the train, sitting next to a woman with an ipad and an iphone. I feel a strange mixture of clunky (my laptop is ENORMOUS in comparison and I don’t have mobile broadband) and smug (I can type so much faster and more accurately than she can, mweeheehee).
The last few weeks have changed my life, overwhelmingly for the better. For various reasons I can’t talk about any of those reasons in detail, but one of the net results is that I have signed up for a season ticket loan for a train ticket, which means I’ll be at work for at least another year. This will give me time to get my finances straight and live my life a little without worrying so much about the future and what’s round the next corner (in the job and finances side of life, anyway).
Secondly, I have decided to put my shop plans on hold for the foreseeable future and concentrate on making things for fun and learning, rather than pressurising myself. The same with vintage homewares and clothing – I’ll buy them for me or for presents, and I’ll continue to research them and blog about my finds because I find them fascinating, but I need to remove the pressure for a while so I can focus on other things.
2012 contains, among other plans, my best friend’s wedding, my parents’ long awaited move into their new home and another rally, closely followed by a Canada trip to watch ice skating in early 2013, so now is not a good time to be starting up. Quite apart from the fact that although I know I’m capable of running a business, my finances are most definitely not, and I’m not sure I’m yet ready to sacrifice my social life in favour of it.
Thirdly, but possibly most importantly, after the weekend that’s just passed I am left with a feeling of happiness, peace, freedom and infinite possibility. My sense of self is fully restored and my inner pin up is well on her way to being part of my everyday life! Although I am never taking a train that far again – driving is SO much more fun and less hassle!
So I’m going to make the most of feeling like that, use the sense of purpose to get my flat and my life in order, and then focus on doing fun stuff… and blogging about it all, of course!
Sorry, this is somewhat of a stream-of-consciousness post, but it does feel good to write it down rather than just have it floating around in my head! A little part of me still can’t quite believe I’ve come this far and made this life for myself. When I look back to how I was four short years ago, and realise just how much I love my ‘new’ life… I wonder how the Carla I am now and the Carla I was then can possibly be the same person. I wouldn’t go back now if you paid me, I love who I’ve become and everything that I do. It’s amazing, empowering and really rather lovely. Ok, enough of the soppy crap now.
Right. Before you all throw up, I’m going to get off the train and go and make sausages and chips for dinner 🙂
by Carla Louise | Nov 13, 2011 | Adventures, Collecting, Photography |
So, I had every intention of participating in the One Day On Earth project, until I realised that a) 11/11/11 was going to be super-busy, full of train travel and that the project wanted video and I very much work in photos not videos. So here, instead, is a selection of snapshots from my weekend…
This was actually on Tuesday, eating ice cream on the back of a Vespa at Joe Deluccios in Westfield Stratford City.
On the train. My handbag (the red and beige one) snapped on the way to the station, so I had to hastily repack, then ditch it without looking like a terrorist. Not easy when you go through London train and tube stations looking shifty!
I spend quite a lot of time doing this – sitting on the floor of a train, reading books. People think I’m mad for sitting on the floor, but I like being able to stretch my legs.
Twitter Mafia love on a Friday morning – love these ladies!
The reminder email that came round from lovely Kim just before the two minutes’ silence for Poppy Day.
Biscuits! Work has a delivery of biscuits and other groceries (tea, coffee etc) every month, and this is what the cupboard looks like just after delivery!
Impromptu trip to Moorgate to buy a new handbag. London is grey but has some striking buildings if you look up while walking.
Mid-afternoon Wispa. Is any day complete without chocolate?!
The emergency/accidental new handbag, to replace the one that snapped in the morning. I like it!
St Pancras station – took this on my way home after a fabulous weekend. It was utter carnage on the way in, and I was trying to sprint which is never a good idea!
And finally home again, with the awesome vintage suitcase we took to Romania. That case started off full of 80s porn magazines, went all the way to Romania on Rusty’s roof, and came home with Team Allegro on their roof. It has a lot more character now than it did when we bought it, but I’m in love and it improved the journey home enormously – I felt like a 40s starlet! (for the first couple of hours, anyway – six hours later I just wanted to be back home, lol). The wheelie case under it was bought for Poland and also came on the rally with us – my luggage is well travelled 🙂
by Carla Louise | Nov 1, 2011 | Adventures |
Happy November, y’all!
I have no idea where 2011 has gone… but it’s been one hell of a year so far. Fingers crossed the last two months are as good as the previous 10 have been… minus the bad stuff, obviously.
In other news, StreetSafari’s 2012 season opens for registration at 10am today. They’re only running two rallies this season – Staples2Naples 10th anniversary, limited to 100 cars, and BABE rally (New York to New Orleans). http://www.streetsafari.com/ if you’re interested.
I shall be on neither of those – I’m going to do Ireland with some of the teams from R2R, I hope… Christmas project is to see just how possible it would be to take the Micra… 😀
Right, back to work – and to daydream about Christmas!
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 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 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 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 🙂
