Spoiler alert - For the boyfriend only ;)

There is a cool shop in Lyon called Pylones, it's got similar stock to Octopus in the UK. I've only been in a couple of times because it's often really crowded, but I went in on Monday and bagged a couple of cute bits...

One of those cool hook thingies so you can keep your bag
secure under the table at a cafe or restaurant... or on a
train too I guess. Well, anywhere with a table really.


These cute little book marks and peanut erasers which will be gifts.

And these awesome eggcups. I'm sure the bf will love them too.
I couldn't resist their cute design and bright colours :)

Yesterday I had to buy clothes for my work experience placement, I went a little overboard, but I love everything I got (haha, as if I wouldn't) It's all very casual, but I really love the little shoes I bought, so maybe I'll do an outfit shot in the near future to show them off ;)

Have you purchased anything funky lately? Or do you have your eye on something or maybe just an awesome shop you should tell me about? You know I need another excuse to spend money ;)

Dressing up.

I love any excuse to dress up. Seeing as i'm not working a the moment I spend a lot of time in trackies, hawaiian shorts, or scruffy jeans and t-shirts. I've been out with friends and family a few times recently, but the weather is too unpredictable to really go all out on dressing up, mainly because I don't want to be too cold, nor do I want to have to lug around my winter coat in the sun.

Yesterday I threw caution to the wind and got dressed up to go to the V&A with my lovely bf to see the quilts exhibition. We've wanted to go for a while now, but it's been difficult with being out of the coutnry so much recently, but he's leaving for Italy on Tuesday so we made a last minute scramble out the door yesterday afternoon and trotted down to south kensington.

Tights and jacket from Primark, Dress from Peacocks, Necklace DIY

The quilts exhibition was really nice, but me and the bf both felt they could have had a little more variety. There weren't any vintage/antique American quilts and that would have been nice. I didn't take any pictures at the V&A, we went quicte late in the day and I only just managed to get in to the gift shop (it's full of wonderful and terribly expensive delights). I'm really glad I did, I ummed and ahhed about this rig, but decided to buy it in the end because it's so damn pretty. I've been wearing a lot more jewellery recently and I'm enjoying changing it everyday and this is perfect for all my sumery outfits.

It's absolutely huge, it's about 2cm tall and it's beautiful laquered wood. I'm totally digging it.

Papercraft.

Ever heard of papercraft? I hadn't until we went to the Modern Art Museum in Munich. The silly thing is that I'd seen the products of papercraft before, but had never heard of the name, or even thought to find out more.

There was a wonderful set of photographs by Thomas Demand at the Tate Modern some years ago. My bf took me to see them especially, because he liked them so much. Although he had explained them to me before I can't have been paying very good attention because it took me at least 4 minutes of studying these photographs before I realised they were paper reconstructions of original photographs which Demand had then photographed himself. His work is fantastic, you should look him up and go to see his work at any opportunity.

This was my first real introduction to the art of making things from paper (apart from an early crafting experience with quilling), but it wasn't until I saw this book in the Pinakothek der Moderne that I had a real interest and sudden thirst for recreating life in paper.

Step 1 - Purchase this very expensive but luscious book

Step 2 - Read said volume

Step 3 - Become a world master of Papercraft

These were my initial thoughts, but the world of Papercraft is so huge that I don't stand a chance. Plus making things out of paper isn't going to get me very far. Although I might try entering the Guinness world record for number of papercuts sustained in 1 hour.

I did, however, purchase the book. It set me back £29.95 and that huge dent in my bank account has left me smiling. The volume is superb and I can't wait to finish studying every single page so I can become a veritable master in the world of papercraft.

Papercraft: Design and Art with Paper. Here are some of my favourite pages, apologies for the bad photography.

Have you seen any art or books that have inspired you recently? Tell me all about it, I love learning new things :)

If I could have one more dress it would be...

From New Look and I know it's bad, but it's been reduced to £18 and I am soooooo tempted to buy it!

EDIT:

Ok, so I bought it. And some floral pumps... they were both on sale and I'm a shopaholic. Plus when the weather gets prettier I am going to spend all my time in dresses. YAY!

However now I'm desperately wanting these two pairs of delightful shoes from Rocket Dog to go with all my dresses.

Snippet £24.99, Rocket Dog



Snippy £24.99, Rocket Dog

Argh, so much wanting, so little money!

Awaiting spring...

I didn't really get excited about spring/summer nudes until I went to the shops yesterday. It was a mistake and completley unplanned. I was supposed to be going to the cinema but I left it too late and it was packed with school kids so I hit the shopping centre instead. I hadn't intended to purchase anything except office stuff from the £1 store (which I also did) but I walked through Primark and saw a couple of lovely sun dresses, one in apricot and the other in charcoal. I picked them up, held them against me in the mirror and put them back. While walking to the exit I saw a gorgeous nude faux suede blazer, I immediately picked my size and went back for the charcoal dress. I looked for ages for a grey blazer to go with the apricot dress but to no avail so I picked a white dress and black blazer and headed for the changing room where I fell in love with the nude blazer and the charcoal dress and promptly purchased them to wear to my niece's confirmation next weekend.

Today I actually managed to get up early enough for the first Alice in Wonderland show of the day and stupidly went back into Primark where I purchased the apricot dress and a cute navy and pink floral dress. I also got an adorable mint and black polka dot top (which I'm wearing), a much needed nude coloured bra and a couple of camisoles (I hate wearing a top or dress with nothing underneath). Oh and a cute cream bag with gold detail.

My innocent cinema and errand trip turned into a miniature spending spree!

I walked through New Look to use their escalator and saw a gorgeous mint and cream lace dress and almost ran through the shop before anything else caught my eye. Now all my new purchases are awaiting better weather so I can dress up like peaches and cream. I've fallen in love with the pastels and nudes of the season and spent ages yesterday trawling the net for the perfect shoes to accompany said colour scheme.

I found them...

I honestly think I may have a spending problem.

Tomorrow morning I'm getting up early to go back into town with my mum who wants to see if she can find anything nice for next week. I think I might persuade her to buy me the cream version of the polka dot top. It's only £3 after all...

Art Deco Glass

So I mentioned in this post that I'd purchased a delightful trinket box, it arrived some time ago and has been sitting on my shelf looking pretty ever since, but I've decided it's time to show it to the world...

The Shelf it calls home


Pretty Pretty!


Behold the treasures that lie within.

I decided it deserved some pretty trinkets to look after so I dumped most of the loose things from my bedside table thingy into it including 3 pairs of cute earrings, 2 pretty rings, my panda usb key and my favourite cherry Hello Kitty lip balm. I also realise now that I am going to have to get the glass cleaner out and give it a good polish!

I think eventually it will house the jewellery that I currently have on my etsy favourites... either that or the miniature animal collection I aspire to have :)

eep!

I can't stop spending, and it's definitely hormonal. I'm excited for the arrival of my packages, but it means I really have to knuckle down with trying to earn money as well as spending it. I bought some craft related items so I'll have new things to try out too, which should be fun... except me and the hot glue gun are not best of friends!

Not much else is going on... I've been holed up for most of the day moaning and complaining about menstrual cramps. They hurt. Alot.

But it helps when you have pretty things like shoes and etsy and ebay and a whole array of gorgeous items in your wishlist that you'll probably never own but desperately want, to occupy the time... I decluttered my etsy hearts yesterday only to fill them up again and I spent the whole evening lusting over Art Deco glass... drool.

I managed to bag a beautiful pink glass trinket holder, which I'm really looking forward to receiving. Fingers crossed it makes it through the mail ok :)

Anyhoo, enough spending for now... I hope!

edit: I also really want a dolls house wall shelf... it's like a cross section of a tiny house with tiny compartments to display cute knick knacks in, but they are impossible to find in the UK. Luckily I have 5 of those printing drawers in Lyon, which I may attempt to convert into said display units. Seeing as I was thinking of using them to display keys, this should go down well as a practice run :)

Uh Oh.

Right, I really need to stop spending money. I just bought a subscription to Lula. ok, so it's only £20, but it's £20 I'm not going to earn back any time soon! I realised upon submitting my subscription that I should be getting my first issue of Make Up Artists Magazine next month *squee*

I spent most of yesterday with my old school Friend H, who I hadn't seen in about 5 or 6 years. We'd kept in contact through various means but as time went by we both continually chickened out of meeting up again for fear of it being weird or awkward. She finally moved to London a week ago so I went over to snoop around her flat and drink some wine. We also watched Summer Heights High and the awesome Death Becomes Her. All in all, it was a great afternoon/evening and wasn't awkward or weird at all. It also made me miss the days when films were only 90 minutes long.

Next week is 'Job Week' so I'm going to sign up to a bunch of agencies and apply for a bunch of admin jobs in the vain hope I can bag something that pays £20k or more and isn't too demanding or scary so I can finally save money to replenish my savings account and to go toward Japan!

Fingers crossed :)

Consumeritis

I am a really big fan of etsy, I love the great range of things available there and the amazing ideas it gives me for things to make myself. I also love to fantasize about all the wonderful things I would buy and display or wear on a day to day basis. I wanted to mention a seller that I love Unique Art Pendants, I really do love the pendants, and the rings and I really like the prints for sale there too. I have my eye on a few things there but they are way out of my price range at the moment, seeing as I still don't have a job, but I've had these earrings in my favourites for a while now and I wanted to share because they are adorable, and a steal at only $10...

I love them :D

Shoe Heaven

Well, I received my Melissa's after a few days of patiently waiting and getting excited every time the postman came and it was certainly worth the wait! I was going to create a sexy strip tease set of photos like I did for my IR boots, but I couldn't wait to get them on and I'm still in my trakkies so I wouldn't have made for a good photo.

Here is a pic I filched from google...


but it doesn't do them justice. They are amazing, the flocked finish doesn't look so great here, but it's lovely in real life. Also you can't smell them... they are bubblegum scented! They've actually filled the room with their wonderfully synthetic smell (I love plasticy smells) and although I'm still in the process of wearing them in, which has proved more difficult since I've been out of heels for a while, I'm totally in love with them!

I have a problem...

My original intent for this blog was a log of the things that made me smile in my day to day life. It was only earlier today that I realised that is probably going to revolve around purchases, with the odd bit of travel thrown infor good measure. Why? Because I am a massive consumer. I'm addicted to buying things. I can't help it! It's almost out of control!!!

So now you know one of my worst features and I've admitted that I have this problem, I can move on.

Today I bought a new pair of jeans, identical to the ones I'm currently wearing, but new because mine are getting holey. Not holy as in blessed by a deity, which could be pretty cool... super jeans with the power to heal, but holey meaning they have holes in. Or rather one large hole in the inner thigh of the right leg.

New Look. £10. Bargain.

I also bought a bunch of tights from Primark, mostly because they are cheap and seeing as I'm losing weight Idon't want to start forking out £10 a pop for tights that won't last. I got some black 40D, some sheer natural tights, black ribbed, grey ribbed, grey 80D and some fishnets. I haven't worn fishnets for some 7 years now. In fact I haven't worn them since I got fat. That's not a coincidence by the way. However, fishnets are flattering and I want to wear more skirts and I like the range of tights and did I mention they are flattering?

I also (this'll be my last purchase of the day) got my parcel from the book people, so I'm all set for making low points meals, awesome tasty treats as gifts, I'm also ready to relearn French, really learn Italian and pick up a little German before our Munich trip in March. I also got the pocket literary guide which is just some cute facts about literature.

I also caved last night and orders some melissa's... pics to come when I recieve the package. Shoe porn = Lush.

My future posts won't just be a list of things I've purchased. Promise.

xx