Let's play catch-up

So the last you heard from me (apart from yesterday), I was about to move house. Well, we're all moved in now and I have to say I love this house. Yes there are a few bits and pieces that need to be fixed but it's ours and I'm loving all the space. If you're interested, I'll do a proper house tour when we've completely unpacked and got it looking all nice. For now, here's what I'd been up to last week (Jordan posts coming soon!):

*Flowers from work for my birthday

*My Harry Potter inspired nails for my birthday (still got to narrow down all the photos!)

*Birthday present from Claire - lovingly stapled

*Sinister owls made by Claire

*Rose and my laptop

*The cats trying to come with me, ha ha

*Axl being a softy.

*New house - view from upstairs at the back of the house

*Me and the bf's mahoosive bedroom

*The joys of moving - so much yoghurt!

*4th of July shoe on my desk calendar

*So.Much.Tea!

*So.Much.Bubblewrap!

*My nails for Jordan - spots and stripes

*My latest print - ice creams. My new desktop background.

*Upcoming prints.

Only two more days of being in Jordan. I can't believe how fast the time went. Do I have to go back to work? I'm really excited for all the new products for my vintage shop. I'll post about that tomorrow...

Any tips on getting myself back to the real world with as little pain as possible? :P

My week: 25

I'll admit it. As I'm writing this, I'm sitting and watching the England vs Italy match. Yes, I'm into football at times. I'm just amazed that England are still in. Anyway, my week in photos.

*The awesome banana shoe on my desk calendar. 

*Crazy Rose

*Ginger cat paying us a little visit

*Crazy Axl - don't you just love it when you chuck a load of stuff on your bed and the cat comes and sits on it? He looked so hilarious I couldn't resist!

*Chris Hoy!

*A sneak peek of a new print I'm working on

*Deansgate before the torch came

*Random boy with torch - You go random boy! You could tell he was really happy. This was on Fountain Street.

Once again, I didn't take a lot of photos, but I do have two hauls to show you some time next week. I stopped by Primark on Saturday while running errands in town and I went to a car boot this morning. 

So Saturday after running errands, I went round to the bfs to hang out. We got a text from one of our friends saying that he was going to see the Olympic torch in town. So off we all went. I had actually completely forgotten that it was going to be in Manchester yesterday but I'm really glad that we went. 

We started on Deansgate which was great because Chris Hoy was carrying the torch! I don't have a photo of that because I knew I wouldn't get a good shot with my phone so I just filmed the entire thing. It's about 10 minutes long! When it had gone past, we walked to Fountain Street to see it pass again and this time it was random local boy (his full name) carrying it. I really liked seeing both sides of it - a celebrity and a local. The atmosphere was amazing and I can't believe I almost missed it. 

This morning, me and the bf went to a car boot (an indoor one of course!). I have to say I've been having a dry spell with jewellery buying for my vintage shop but this was a very successful day. I will show you my haul from that (and from Primark) soon. 

This week coming up is going to be epic as it's my birthday on Tuesday and I got the day off to go to the Harry Potter studios. Excite! I'm so glad I'm doing this as I'm a massive HP fan and I usually have a BBQ on my birthday (just look outside people - I don't think it's ever rained on my birthday before). Then at the weekend, I'm moving into my new house. Good times ahead whatever the weather. 

How was your week?

My week: 24

Another week gone, another week of rain. Someone stole the sun. Ah well, it can't put a dampener on my mood. It's my birthday in just over a week (going to be entering my mid twenties - eek 24!) and in less than two weeks I'll be moving house. Excite!

So I didn't take many photos at all this week, so here are my slightly pathetic offerings:

*I went to a fair in Chorlton yesterday and despite the weather I did quite well. I sold less items than the last time I went to this one but the items were more expensive (cha-ching). I have to personally thank the lady who in one swoop bought the cost of my stand. Thanks lady, you rule!

*Finally bought a lace dress. I've been wanting one for the last couple of years but could never find one with the right shape for me. It was from Primark and I love it :)

*Axl being friendly. I will miss those two kitties a lot though I probably won't miss having to do a ninja jumping spin every time I leave the house. Those with cats and no cat flap should understand. 

*My epic doodle skills. I used to do these all the time at school but never this big. My fourteen year old self would be proud. 

Apart from going to a vintage fair, my weekend was spent successfully getting the bf addicted to Beauty and the Geek. If you have not watched this before, you must. It is hilarious! We were both laughing our heads off. 

In preparation for the move, I have started squirrelling away packing equipment. Since I work in a homeware buying office (not doing buying), we get pretty big samples which obviously need big boxes. Every time I see a good one I just go, that's a nice box and smile. So far I have two living in my car and a whole load of bubble wrap. They were just going in the bin anyway so they may as well get some more use. Now I just need to start packing. 

How was your week?

My week: 22 & 23

To make up for my lack of a my week post last week, I have turned today's post into a 2 week edition. This also includes the bank holiday weekend where I drove back to Nottinghamshire to meet with the family. 

*Clearing out my room and found buttons!

*My new Primark maxi skirt and new look kitten heels.

*Umbrella illustration.

*The weather when it was actually still sunny. (Come back sun!)

*Took Woy for a cheeky car wash before seeing my parents.

*My outfit going to town with my mum.

*Going through my old things at home - this was on the contributors page of a magazine I interned for in Jordan. Yes that is only a wig!

*Forgot that I had left a Lush christmas bath bomb at home. Score!

*My desk at work - it is under there somewhere.

*My bicycle painting.

*Lunch at Las Iguanas with my mum and brother. I just loved the decor colours.

*Really pretty road on the way home which I turned into a print.

*This is apparently a shoe...

*Both my housemates cats asleep on my bed. So cute.

*Went to the pub yesterday to watch both matches for Euro 2012. I was really disappointed as they should have been exciting games.

*A bit of old school Cliff Richard on the TV before the match. 

So a busy couple of weeks. I had an awesome time at home. It was really great to see my family and even though I didn't get the Tuesday off, I made the most of the three days I had. The only disappointment was that I didn't get to do a car boot sale as it was chucking it down on the Sunday. I really wanted to both get rid of stuff and buy some things for my vintage shop. This was the car boot that I got some amazing things at last time so I wasn't happy at all. I will definitely be heading back in August for the next bank holiday. I hope it's sunny then!

This weekend was a great one since we finally found a house to move in at the end of this month. I was starting to get worried there. It was the first one of the day that we saw. Love at first sight. I couldn't believe that it was the one I had been overlooking for the last couple of months. It's beautiful and spacious and in an awesome area so I couldn't be happier. Roll on the end of June!

How was your week?

My week: 19

Another week gone. This was the weekend of 2 vintage fairs! I've never done that before. Hard core.

*I finally finished the illustration for my banner. I was only doing it during my lunch breaks on a sketchbook ap on my iPad. What do you think?

*How cute are these magazine racks? I need to get one once I move. Saw these at the Vintage Village fair in Stockport at the stall across from mine. 

*Little doodles while I work. I just can't help it. Oh and that's a teacup saying drink me, it's hard to tell!

*The stand in the same room as me at the Chorlton Craft and Vintage fair. Jewellery by the lovely Michelle. 

*Axl using his scratching post as a head rubber. He was really going to town!

My clothes rail at the Chorlton fair.

*Slingshot shoe. Another treasure from my shoe a day calendar. 

*This picture really doesn't do justice to how pretty the sky was last night.

Another week at work same old, but something different I did this week was do 2 fairs. So it's safe to say I'm pretty tired. It was my first time at the Chorlton fair but I'm definitely going back. Not only did I sell a lot but I really liked the vibe of the place. Plus, wasn't the weather gorgeous this weekend? At least it was up here in Manchester. 

The Vintage Village was a good one as well even though I was very late! But I can proudly say I set up very quickly by myself. I also found out that Woy my car really doesn't like steep steep hills! He's ok and so am I now, ha ha. 

Now I'm going to take a break and just chill for the remainder of the evening (like an hour before I have to go to bed!)

My week 18

A bit delayed but I needed a day to recover from the vintage fair on Saturday which was amazing. Due to my new camera and my laptop not getting along very well, I can't share any photos from it yet but I promise I'll get some up soon. Anyway, the photos from my iPhone are here so here's my week:

*Went to the Manchester Fashion Network talk "Making it on your own" - very interesting!

*The happy skirt of happiness!

*Axl really likes bags.

*Love spending my lunch breaks at work on my iPad reading blogs. Chills me out instantly.

*Love this shirt that I got in Florida (see it here).

*Grey grey weather this week. Come on summer, hurry up!

*Nessie sucking on the side of the fish tank. This guy is massive!

*I am very proud that I only bought one thing at the vintage fair on Saturday and it was this amazing necklace. I am in love with it as I've never seen anything like it. And it was only £5. Will properly show it off when my camera and laptop kiss and make up. 

The two high points of this week were definitely the MFN talk and the vintage fair. This is what I want to be doing all the time. I learned loads at the talk from the three panelists who all had started their own businesses and can't wait to put it all into practise with my own business. Inspiring. As for the vintage fair, I had a blast. The atmosphere, the people, the music - I loved it. It's such a great confidence booster seeing people admire and buy things you've put a lot of thought into making and picking out. It's amazing selling your stuff face to face. This is what I want to do. I can't wait to share the photos with you. 

How was your week?

My week 16

This week appeared to drag a bit didn't it? Just me? I blame the rain. 

*My awesome cloud nails.

*Axl doing the creep. If you don't know what the creep is then educate yourself. Nicki Minaj makes a cameo in it! 

*1960s shoe on my shoe calendar. Is it a heel or is it a wedge?

*The view on my train journey to Sheffield to see my family.

I had a lovely weekend. I saw my parents, brother and grandma on Saturday which was great as I hadn't seen my mum for a month and a half and my dad for about 3 months. Went to meadow hall but didn't really buy anything. But, I did get my early birthday presents. I got my dad's professional camera that he doesn't use and an iPad 1 (I love my family's hand me downs)! My brother also gave me his old bamboo tablet that he doesn't use so I can get my drawings onto my laptop. Don't even care that I won't have anything to open on my birthday which isn't until June. So excited. I is spoiled.

Today, I planned on hitting 5 car boots to get some vintage stock for my shop. I ended up going to 6 and only 3 of them were open because of all the rain. It's really hard to find a decent car boot in Manchester. Is it just me? I prefer the ones in the countryside like the one near my family home. I've only been there once but I got some amazing things. Particularly the brooches. A cameo, hot air balloon, bicycle and some army style wings. All of those sold straight away and I haven't been able to find a car boot that great since. Still, I got a few bits today. Take a look:

Sorry for the bad photos - I just got some quick snaps before I went to the bf's house. Not a bad haul anyway I think.

How has your week been?

My week 10

A much better week I'm glad to say.

*Went to Sheffield on Saturday to see my mum and do some shopping at Meadowhall. May have bought a couple of things including a certain blouse I blogged about the other day. 

*We went to Rice for lunch which was really fun. I've never been before and my mums always up for trying new food so we went. 

*I had the mongolian lamb with ginger, rice and veggies. Was very tasty!

*Axl stretching out across my bed. He's a grumpy man but can be very cuddly at times.

*My mum got to meet my baby (my Alexa).

*My outfit I wore (new shirt bought yesterday) to the cinema today to see Safe House. I rather liked it. Was a man film with shooting but also actually had a plot. 

*Rose giving me the "Who you taking photos, just pet me woman!" look.

I also booked my plans for next weekend for Claire's birthday. Looking forward to it - a mini road trip, a travelodge and paying to get scared in the woods (yes seriously!).

How was your week?

My week 5

I don't care that it's way past noon and I'm still in my pyjamas. It's sunday and they have pandas on, so it's ok. 

Kinky boots. This picture on my shoe desk calendar made me smile.

 

A couple of yums from the week. Claire (my bfs house mate) made us some awesome mac and cheese with breadcrumbs, cut up sausages, mustard and lea and perrins among other things. It was amazing. And I got to take left overs to work the next day. Score! I also went to Yo Sushi with my mum and brother. My brother had not been before so that was funny. He's very sarcastic so his reactions to stuff made me laugh. 

Decided to be a bit weird and wear my butterfly necklace that I got from Primark a couple of years ago and have only worn once. Wore it with my sheer black shirt with leather detail, skinny jeans, black wedges and my grey half sleeve batwing cardie. Still not 100% sure if it worked but ah well. Fashion is for fun and I had fun wearing this outfit. 

Look how far I am now! This series of books (there are 12 at the moment - I am on 4) is taking a ridiculous amount of time for someone who usually reads so fast. Anyone who has read these will know why I'm taking so long. Am really enjoying it though. 

Housemates cats, Rose and Axl. Look how cute they are!

Saw this guy in the window of House of Fraser in Meadowhall. He was actually cycling! Love it.

 

Me and the bf getting ready for our impromptu night out last night. Luckily I had bought this dress earlier at Meadowhall. Was £85 at monsoon but I got it for £25.50 in the sale! And how cool is the bfs t-shirt. We saw it online and had to get it. It's Darth Vader, Sauron and Voldemort having drinks at a bar. Awesome. 

How was your week?

Cats are funny things

This is Axl. 

He is one of my housemates' cats (his sister is called Rose who I have introduced before - they are guns and roses fans, lol). He is a rather odd fellow who likes bags, the smell of shampoo, stretching into the weirdest positions and purring extremely loud.

He has no shame.

Apologies for the messy floor. My internet only works well on the floor so this is where my laptop lives. Axl decided to wander into my room after I'd had a shower and went mental sniffing the towel that I'd dried my hair with. This is how he ended up. Legs a kimbo and front paws up making him pose like a rabbit. An odd fellow indeed...