by Carla Louise | Jul 25, 2012 | Thrifting |
Haha… 100 days of no spending… with the few weeks I’ve just had my resolve has been sorely tested. My bank balance is still looking a bit sad, but certainly better than it would have been if I’d been spending with complete abandon. Good.
Wedding week was a write off – I knew that when I started the challenge. Loads of expected and unexpected expenses, so just tried to be sensible. Charges still cropping up and my credit card bill is horrific. And I may have indulged in a magazine or three for the flight home. Oops.
Otherwise I’ve been very good – had one slip up for a grey maxi dress which I can wear to work, and have totally failed to keep my three-dinners-out-a-month rule – it seems more like three a week at the moment! But you only live once.
I’ve been exercising on skates and on the bike, both of which are free – and really looking forward to burlesque class tonight, I missed a week for wedding, skipped a week due to tiredness and there was a week with no class so it’s been AGES since I danced!
Camping weekend yielded much loveliness, most of it free/swapped – which is brilliant. By the end of this year Poppy will be sporting a badge-free exterior, a spoiler, red engine bits and maybe a twin exit exhaust. Excellent.
I have sold some makeup on ebay and will be adding more makeup, clothes and other things as I clear out, and the DF shop is slowly building sales too. Mainly in stationery, oddly!
I have also taken part in two craft swaps and the things I received were amazing – will definitely be doing more of these, it’s so lovely to receive presents and is challenging me creatively too 🙂 (my polka dot swap is yet to be sent to its recipient – that’s this weekend’s job!)
Not much on my wishlist – have been too busy to notice much besides the things I want for Poppy!
So overall for these first six weeks I’d give myself a 6 out of 10 for achievement and an 8 out of 10 for effort. Definite room for improvement – and I’m planning a nice gentle August!
by Carla Louise | Apr 16, 2012 | Uncategorized |
Ohh, how I love Instagram. Hoping for lots more week-in-photos kind of posts 🙂
Top to bottom, L-R: a wooden mouse I keep on my desk; the Move Dancewear catalogue making me daydream; a splash of colourful tulips outside St Paul’s Cathedral; me in my skates and new sparkly legwarmers; Dad waving me off from the balcony of their new flat; sugar free Polos – keeping me sane during the diet!
by Carla Louise | Jan 17, 2012 | Uncategorized |
Stupidly excited to discover that Rollerworld in Colchester, where I usually skate (when I skate indoors) was used in a Boogie Pimps video of a song I actually recognise!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBrnQwoshKw]
Doesn’t it look awesome? Here’s my other favourite skating inspiration music video…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eE-dwpWpscU]
Fresh inspiration to find some lessons and practice, practice, practice… I WILL be that good! 🙂
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 | Jun 16, 2011 | Uncategorized |
A random selection this week… it’s been an odd sort of week but there have still been things to smile about!
- Today is Lizzy’s 21st. Squee! Happy birthday chica! Cocktails tomorrow… and blue hair!
- Corsets – I love them! Hoping to order a couple for the Fling and Heather’s wedding
- lying in the sun on the floor at lunchtime, making notes and not caring what people think
- being super-inspired for all my different projects and making tonnes of plans
- BBQing in the rain for my Gran’s 82nd birthday
- Rollerskating… I can still do it! Eeeeee! And flying round the rink is definitely one of the best feelings in the world
- 2 new members for etc – and it’s only our first exhibition! now planning lots of other things to do with it
- dinner with an old friend who now lives abroad – these catchups are glorious but all too rare
- seeing my advert published in an email *pic*
- my housemate finishing an assignment, thus giving us an excuse to go out for dinner
- the Fling is coming…
- hunting for cars for the rally – found a Golf which would be awesome
- have survived the day job for three months this week
- as mentioned in a previous post, the clientsfromhell.net and damnyouautocorrect websites – so much inappropriate but much-needed laughter!
- a girl on the tube this morning wearing the MOST gorgeous vintage lace dress, with her hair in victory rolls, bright red lipstick and carrying a parasol. I wanted to be her!!
- My blackbird popped up on my way to work this morning too – I thought he’d abandoned me since the rain arrived!
- My friends are amazing – able to improve my mood even if I’ve had the day from hell and am all emotional and rubbish. I obviously know this anyway, but it’s wonderful to be reminded.
by Carla Louise | Jun 9, 2011 | Uncategorized |
Because I didn’t already have enough hobbies and things to spend my money on, I’ve discovered street skating. Or should I say, rediscovered rollerskating, and realised you can do it outdoors with hundreds of like-minded people! Have spoken to the lovely people at DemonXtreme in Colchester and from Saturday will be the proud owner of a new pair of skates with indoor and outdoor wheels 😀 They’re going to be standard white figure skates as I’ll still want to skate indoors too, but once I get a bit better again, I’ll decopatch them 😀 Patchwork skates ftw 🙂
So once I’ve got my balance back and remembered how to go, stop, speed up, slow down… haha, I’m definitely going to be like Bambi on ice for a bit… then I can go have fun with these guys:
- Easy Saturday Skate – two chilled out laps round Battersea Park on a Saturday morning – no traffic. Yes please!
- Sunday Stroll – beginner/intermediate level amble round London on skates on a Sunday morning. Welcomes quads as well as inlines (and I’ve never got on well with inline skates, much though I’ve tried). Again, yes please!
- London Skate – this I’m hoping to do later in the summer when I’ve built up my confidence and fitness considerably, it’s a Wednesday night street skate sticking to main roads with no hills.
- LFNS (London Friday Night Skate) – this is for when I get MUCH better, an intermediate/advanced skate round London on a Friday night involving hills and sprints. Yeah… as I’m fairly sure I’ve forgotten how to stop, this is going to take a bit more practice!!
- The Goodwood Roller Marathon – is on 14th August this year. On the off chance I’m a) fit enough, b) have improved enough by then and c) not in Nottingham sorting out the rally car that weekend, I may possibly try one of the mini races. There is no way in hell I’ll be able to do the 22 miles, but may aim for that in 2012 as skating round a race track has to be a particularly awesome thing to do 😀
Yay 😀
Oh, and I’d love to go and see the London Rollergirls in action, but can’t see me ever joining a Derby team – could definitely get addicted to watching though!
