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 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!)
by Carla Louise | Sep 1, 2011 | Uncategorized |
Photoautomat http://photoautomat.wordpress.com/
A man stopping (not just slowing down) to let me get off the train in ridiculous shoes without hitting an unwary commuter
Watching a man walking through Broadgate in London with his nose buried in a really old-fashioned, proper leather bound book
Meeting my girlies for dinner and feeling human again 🙂 (and pigging out on ribs and cocktails, hehe)
Sunshine on the first day of September
A beautiful mint green vintage-style bicycle spotted on my morning walk to work – what a way to commute that would be.
A girl in Tesco saying she was inspired to skate after seeing Jess & I carrying ours.
Our second weekly Hyde Park skate – it was fab!
Mum and Dad keeping roast dinner for me even though I nearly didn’t come home to get it and was a stroppy, overtired moo when I did go and see them. Blush.
Lots of people wearing polka dots – they’re my favourite thing, and I’m half hoping it’s some sort of key A/W11 trend so I can build up my collection of dotty clothes, and half hoping it’s not in fashion at all or the world and his dog will be wearing the.
Ellie and Lee, Sar and Sarah, Lou and Paul and Cate all moving house – I can’t wait to visit!
Caitlin and Sedge going to uni in September – two more exciting places to visit, yay!
Cadbury Twirl Bites
Successfully wearing red lipstick (actually Sleek Pout Paint, my new favourite thing, but more on that later) to work (phase 1 of Project Pinup)
Standing my ground when challenged by a colleague about my weird eating habits (it has taken me years to get to this stage, I’m actually rather proud)
by Carla Louise | Aug 28, 2011 | Photography |
Beautiful skyscape on my way to Mersea with the family last weekend:
Lunchtime in the Barbican centre – I go here probably 3 lunches out of 5, it’s a wonderfully calming space and has a gorgeous library.
Books from Barbican library – retro wrapping paper, bookbindng for beginners and fashion from the 50s.
Taken during a break while rollerskating in Hyde Park with Jess:
This is London in August.
Finishing off the (working) week with cocktails and Karen 🙂
by Carla Louise | Aug 24, 2011 | Books |
Yesterday, within another post, I posted a brief introduction to the Pinup Project. This is my attempt to look better all the time, and therefore feel better and get further. I do not subscribe to the thin-is-everything look, but I do want to be healthy and happy and yes, to turn heads on occasion. It’s my attempt to be a more polished version of myself, which I hope will have a positive effect on my life.
I’ve long thought that you can be strong, independent and career-minded, look fabulous while doing so and still ultimately want more traditional things like a partner and/or children. I can be quite forceful, when the subject arises among friends, about our rights to choose what we want – just because I’m not yet sure I want children, doesn’t mean I want to be a ballbreaking career woman married to the boardroom either. It’s all about the balance. And for women who are working, particularly in the City, I think it’s really important to hang onto your femininity – among the many things we can do equally or better than men, that’s the one they can’t even compete with.
I don’t think we should be ashamed of dressing up and wearing pretty things, be those things shoes, clothes, jewellery or makeup. It doesn’t affect our ability to work and it should differentiate us from the men who do similar jobs. A close friend of mine always wears a vintage dress, curled hair and red lipstick to work on dress down Fridays, and gets a lot of stick for being ‘so dressed up’ – when actually, that’s how she would like to dress all the time and only conforms to the office dress code in the week because it’s required in her contract. It’s as though turning up in anything but a shapeless suit during the week, or a tshirt and jeans on Fridays, is somehow against feminism. And I really couldn’t disagree with that more.
So it’s rather nice, all of a sudden, to find that my views are being backed up by Dr Catherine Hakim from the London School of Economics. She’s dubbed it ‘erotic capital’, and there is a halfway decent article on it here, written by Bryony Gordon (with whom I used to work in my design days).
The last time I was this close to the zeitgeist was when I wore a tshirt under a strapless dress because the air conditioning in the office was cold. I spent all day fending off compliments about how on-trend I was. But it is a good feeling to know there are others out there who feel the same way as I do on this particular issue, whether or not it’s a trendy topic or not.
by Carla Louise | Aug 7, 2011 | carlalouise |
(found this on The Crafty Librarian, thought it was lovely so I borrowed it)
Reading: In My Sister’s Shoes by Sinead Moriarty; Gil Elvgren monograph; magazines galore; Goodbye, Jimmy Choo by Annie Sanders
Writing: Blog posts for the next week or two while my life goes mad.
Drinking: Pepsi max, as ever, water and pear cider
Listening: to smash hits radio via my TV. Yep, enormous TV and I only ever use it as a radio really. Bad squishy. And Now 79, loudly, in the car.
Buying: in theory, nothing. In practice, stuff for the house, antiques and lingerie.
Enjoying: Proper time with Jules for the first time in ages, reorganising the flat and taking the first steps towards the new me, and planning the rally which is going to be both terrifying and exhilarating.
Loving: sunshine, time with friends, my new hairbrush, rediscovering stuff I’d forgotten I owned
by Carla Louise | Aug 7, 2011 | Adventures |
With less than a month to go, we’ve both suddenly kicked into panic gear. For those of you uninitiated into the wonderful world of banger rallying, here’s the StreetSafari link which will tell you all about it…
http://www.streetsafari.com/ssaf.esp?p=about
There’s lots of lovely clickable links on there too, should you fancy delving further.
So… banger rally. This one’s to Romania, starting in Calais, in the first week of September this year. When I met Rob he was doing a UK one (Lands End to John O’Groats) and I thought it sounded like so much fun I told him to call me if he ever needed team mates. I was not expecting the call, six months later, to ask if I fancied doing this one!
However, I thought it sounded bloody brilliant and signed up on the spot. We had a weekend of preliminary planning in May, and then have been flat out busy with work and stuff so haven’t given it any more practical thought. After CAE we realised we needed to get a wriggle on, so Rob duly bought a car the following week for us to rat. Here she is, the affectionately named Slag-una…
(Photo courtesy of Rob, I haven’t actually seen the car in person yet)
Yeah… she’s in such good nick it’s almost a shame we’re going to rat her! The theme of the rally is Rat Look, so we’re looking to make her along the lines of this, ideally…
(photo from http://www.ratroduniverseblog.com/?p=354)
Rob’s servicing the Laguna this weekend, and starting on the paint stripping – I’m on the hunt for roof racks, tricycles, random crap to bolt onto it and cameras to film the trip. Keep an eye on this blog – updates will follow 🙂 (and I’m intending to blog the trip day-by-day while we’re out there, too).
by Carla Louise | Aug 7, 2011 | Adventures, Photography |
Bit of a late post, but here goes…
So first of all, CAE stands for Camping Auto Extravaganza. Which should give you some idea of the type of event it is. Last year was the third, and my first. And the first time I’d met the majority of the club members, even though I’d spoken to them all online via the club forum.
In the intervening year, friendship and bant has developed and I now consider them all to be friends and some of them to be close friends.
I had Friday off to get ready and get there, and Brad suggested I join their convoy from Birchanger Green services. So I got there ridiculously early and sat and sunbathed and read a book in the sunshine (and had a sneaky KFC for lunch!) while I waited for him, Jim & Karine and Nigel to turn up.
(Can’t find a pic of my car in the car park )
As it happened the traffic was completely horrific so I had longer than planned to read and chill out, but eventually got a call saying they were there and to head off, and they’d catch me up. Knowing they were all in turboed cars, I did.
And spent the next 30 miles driving as slowly as I possibly dared, letting trucks overtake me and desperately looking in my mirrors for signs of MR2s coming over the horizon! Eventually decided to go off at a junction and over the roundabout to delay myself – got back on the sliproad and they all shot past me! But I beeped and they’d seen me so I caught up, and then the drive got fun! (the traffic was stil horrific and there was lots of stopping and starting, but it’s fun driving in convoy with friends. Jim & Karine livened up the journey by dropping back and chucking jelly babies at us – hit my car but not me, sadly, but the thought was there!
We arrived in Peterborough about 4ish I think, although I was so excited to be there I didn’t actually look at the time. The rest of the afternoon passed in a blur of chatting and hugging and catching up with people, it was so lovely to see old friends, and be introduced to new ones! It was also fantastic to finally meet the people behind the usernames I’d been chatting to for so long J
Michelle and Ian’s place is beautiful, with space for us all and beautifully put together both inside and out. The pool was warm, the hot tub was warmer and they had two BBQs and several fridges for all our drinks J and a BAR!
Friday night was spent munching takeaway, deciding on treasure hunt partners (for anyone curious, this is the closest we got to keys in a bowl, lol – just names in a hat for who drove and who navigated the next morning!) and then drinking, dancing, swimming (Anna and I got in the pool at stupid o clock) and talking. I even braved the hot tub. I drank far too much, to the point where I flashed my floozies (only a little bit!) for Rob and Russ (and Luke – who I then spent ages trying to convince I was normal. I hope I succeeded!) and had an unexpectedly fabulous time – much better than every time I go out clubbing and try hard to have fun. I think I eventually went to bed about 2am, and did that really annoying thing where you try to be quiet and make more noise than you would have done normally. Oops.
Saturday morning was a convoy of all of us, which definitely ranks among the most exhilarating experiences of my life – was such a kick to see so many roadsters and other toyotas all together, revel in the looks we got and know that every car contained a friend of mine J (yeah, I’m a sappy idiot, lol).
My Poppy is the car on the very far end 🙂
Then the treasure hunt was on, and we all met back at the house for a photoshoot and lunch. Look at the pretty cars…
(this pic courtesy of Luke Abbott – I failed to get a decent pic of all the cars together)
Took the opportunity to get a new profile pic too..
Saturday afternoon was really chilled, involving chatting, playing pool, reading magazines and in my case napping *blush*. I came back outside blinking at about 6ish and asked if I’d missed anything. Someone said ‘yeah, you’ve slept so long Amy Winehouse is dead’. Which obviously I dismissed as the usual bant. Then realised it was true and was actually quite sad!
The chilled vibe continued into the evening, only with added alcohol, and I remember sitting at one point by the pool, lit by candles, laughing at something ridiculous (I believe spiderman pants and a drawing of thongs and mankinis were involved) with some of my favourite people in the world and just being the happiest and most content I can remember for ages.
L-R Me, Rob, Wills
Hou in foreground, Anna and someone headless in background
Then we had dinner, then we drank and danced and talked some more, I dropped my duvet in a puddle, we realised it was actually quite cold and broke out the sleeping bags, and I continued drinking and got sleepier and sleepier. We had some ridiculous but wonderful conversational moments (and ahem, educational too) and I gave up trying to stay awake and went to bed somewhere between three and half three.
L-R – Jim, Luke, Wills, me, Beka, Karine, Brad
Anna and I having a silly moment in the hot tub
L-R Brad, Luke, Jim
L-R Jim, Brad, me, Beka
Sunday morning… was mostly full of people ambling around sleepily, talking about the weekend and their plans for getting home. We had an amazing full English breakfast, then people started to wander off. Which made me really sad, actually.
So we said our goodbyes and promised to get on facebook/keep in touch/do this again really soon, and then Anna and I went and spent the afternoon sat in a pub garden talking about how lovely it had been.
Returned home, helped my housemate pack some of her stuff, and then settled down to the flurry of photos, new friends, messages and comments on facebook. Turns out that this year, it’s not just me that’s soppily nostalgic about the weekend and would much rather it hadn’t ended. Everyone’s struggled to get back to reality this week. And I’d like to think that we’ll all stay friends for a very long time, having experienced it together. There’s not many groups of people I could have an entire weekend with without getting seriously cross with some of them at some stage. And I’ve never in my life met so many new friends at once!
Best. Meet. Ever.
And I really hope we do another big one before next CAE – I can’t wait a whole year to see these guys again!
*apologies to anyone reading this who went, my words and photos don’t do justice to how awesome it was.
**apologies to anyone reading this who didn’t go, who is probably bored senseless. But really – if you do one thing this year, buy a Toyota and join us next year!
by Carla Louise | Aug 4, 2011 | Books |
On reading the blog of a dear friend who I’d entirely forgotten had a blog of her own (that’s been going six years! SIX! I’m so impressed…) I found her words rang incredibly true, and just had to share them…
“To me, my blog is almost like a patchwork blanket that I work on from time to time. There have been times when I have not posted as often as I would like to, but having a blog never really goes away. I like that it is never finished, that I am always adding a little bit more here or there to it.”
This is a wonderful way of describing a blog, and indeed is how I feel about this one – I want it to be like a patchwork blanket of memories so I can look back on my life and see what I was doing, loving, thinking, making, creating 🙂
Her gorgeous blog is here Little Sips of Tea. Go and read 🙂
xx
