Conversation Pieces

No Weddingnesday post today – though I have something good lined up for next week’s – as I’m just too busy at the moment to think weddings. However I do have some cake though if that makes up for it?

As it’s my birthday tomorrow (I’m leaving my 20s behind… ekkk!) I thought I’d share some virtual yumminess with you all.

The strangest thing about turning 30 is that everyone keeps asking me if I’m freaking out. (Admittedly I know some people who did freak out at this point.) But I can honestly say it doesn’t phase me at all.

For one thing, I’m sure I’ve been at least 30 for some time partly because ever since I turned 26, people have been doing the ‘oooh nearly 30′ thing.

For a second, I’m pretty sure I don’t look my age – I got asked at the cinema on Saturday if I was an adult or a child’s ticket. (Not entirely sure this is a good thing but I’m taking it as a compliment.)

And thirdly, I’m happier in my life now than I ever have been and if this is how happy I am at 29, roll on 30

Tomorrow the other half has a surprise day planned (you would think he’d be tired of doing surprises by now!) and then I’m taking a week off work. I was thinking of taking a blogging break too – which will allow me to get some pictures taken of my now infamous bathroom and some other things I’ve been promising to show for-like-ever!

So bye for now – see you all in November and when I’m in my 30s! xx

P.S. Depending on how it goes, I may end up doing a Halloween post on Halloween – need to see how well my costuming and decorating goes though!

P.P.S. How amazing are these cakes? I need to learn to bake properly!

Images via ffffound

So on Saturday I picked up this cute brooch from Marche Marche. I bought it for a friend but I’m beginning to think I should have kept it for myself.

We could do with a little luck to get us through this coming week. We’ve got lots of stuff going on – most of it good – but I have no idea how we are going to fit it all in.

We have three nights and two days before my birthday… with a few more days before our Halloween party… and before then we want to finish painting the flat, make our costumes, do the day jobs, do a rather large freelance job, sort out our tenant’s leaking bathroom which is leaking into downstairs flat for no apparent reason, Halloween-ify our flat, buy stuff to Halloween-ify our flat, convert 200 80s records to mp3, pick up a chaise lounge from Glasgow… and a couple of other even more random things!!

Wish us luck! xx

It has to be said I adore grey. We recently painted our living room floorboards a gorgeous dark ‘anthracite’ colour and I couldn’t stop staring at them afterwards and going ‘oooh’.

We’ve already got grey walls in our bedroom to offset our Orla Keily wallpaper, almost purpley grey walls in the living room,  a so-dark-grey-it’s-almost-black in the spare room and near black walls in the hall. And I just want to keep going… especially with the floor paint. (It really has made  a huge difference… will hopefully take some pics soon to share. I know I’m bad at doing that!)

The surprising thing is that I had no intention for this to be a ‘grey’ flat.

After having lived in a basement flat that had almost natural light and was painted white to compensate for it, I was determined this flat was going to bright and light and colourful.

But I hadn’t reckoned on two things…

• the fact that our new place gets lots and lots of light (so we never have to worry about it being bright, it does that all on its own)
• and that when you have lots of colourful things (as we do) you need a background that’ll make them ‘pop’

Anyway, when I saw this sign in a shop window in Islington when I was last down in London and I thought it was a perfect answer to why you end up living in a grey world.

Hope you all have a great weekend. I’ll be spending it going out to my favourite veggie restaurant (an engagement treat from friends), meeting a friend who’s up from London for an early birthday celebration, hopefully heading to craft market Marche Marche… and of course having a paint brush and a pot of grey paint in either hand (I might even do some painting with them!). xx

Oh my… India Knight has just posted some first look pics of Anthropologie. I just had to share my favourite of her pics – the chandelier, the narwhal, those goose measuring cups (see le petit oiseau for the very same cups that she found in a car boot sale!) and the button light shade. Ooooh… swoon!

All you Londoners will have to make me very jealous and confirm just how wonderful it is until I can make it down to London! (It might be a bit much to demand they open a second shop up in Scotland already!)

At the weekend (while still feeling blurrgh) I discovered Four Weddings…it’s the tv show where ‘four brides rate each other’s weddings to win their dream honeymoon’. It’s a rather cruel show but as with all these things completely and utterly compelling. After watching one episode, I dragged the other half through to watch another – which we did from behind cushions like it was a horror movie.

Here’s a clip in case you haven’t seen it yet or are outside of the UK and missing out!

We reasoned the plus side of watching this show was it got us talking about what we did like (and dislike) about the weddings which might help us get a firmer grasp of what we want to do… and if not, at least we’ve had some fun (even if it is at other people’s expense!)

Anyway, talking of fun… here’s a few fun wedding things I bookmarked this week:

Can you have a kissing booth at your wedding? (Imagine the pics of all your friends and family kissing at it!) I’m not sure but I thought this poster by roll and tumble press was rather sweet all the same.

I like the idea that this necklace from Bejewelled Bespoke could transform a non-wedding dress into something more special… good to bear in mind if I find something I really love that doesn’t feel that weddingy.

Came across these wedding favours by kats krafts and liked the idea of something guests could keep that’s quite fun. Then I remembered the time I came up with an idea for a campaign teaser for journalists that involved 1000 of these… and remembered how damn hard they are to fold (and I only ever folded 10 out of the 1000!) Maybe not then…

I thought this wedding dress from Dalena Vintage is super sweet… it makes me think of waves and airtex school PE t-shirts (perhaps the oddest combination of stuff ever!).

And talking of odd… if you’re fed up of fascinators, don’t like veils and don’t fancy a hat, how about a Lady Gaga style hair bow?

Ok, I may have strayed into Halloween territory with this bow by black satin shoes but you know someone out there must be thinking about it for their day!

Or how about this deer headband I spotted over at Kingdom of Style… not sure whether this would be less or more crazy.

Think that’s enough nonsense from me today… I don’t think my brain will have any more sensible wedding thoughts until Halloween is out of the way… All I can think of right now is turning myself into a character who looks a bit like this – can you tell who it is?

Happy weddingnesday everyone xx

Last pic via angel lust pr

, originally uploaded by Olivia Bee.

Yay to finally feeling better and feeling more like myself again…

Yay to having a proper cooker installed and the other half baking his world’s best brownies for the first time in ages…

Yay to a lovely Sunday spent market shopping, eating udon noodles (and dalmatian dogs called Harry trying to steal them off us) and laughing again…

And yay to my birthday being not so far away

Has anything made you go ‘yay!’ today?

Saw this kitchen via Design Sponge‘s twitter page… The lucky owners Philippe Simon and Pillard Rosetti customized their IKEA kitchen island by covering it with over 20,000 LEGO pieces. I so love it!

I’m still sick so this Friday I have postponed what I was going to post on so I can post on Halloween. Now that may seem a bit weird but I love Halloween so this is an attempt to cheer myself up.

Actually love isn’t a strong enough word for how I feel about Halloween. I have more boxes of Halloween decorations than I do Christmas ones (and I actually prefer Halloween to Christmas… there I said it!) Why? Well, a couple of reasons. The most obvious is that my birthday is around then so almost every year we have a Halloween party. I can honestly say that opening our front door to see what our friends have chosen to come as is one of my favourite things – everyone always makes a real effort (even those who say they don’t like dressing up) and it makes me love them all the more!

In previous years, I’ve been a dead doll (in the New York Halloween parade… amazing! These were the best vids I could find online… sound is pretty ropey but you get the idea!)…

…I’ve also been Elphaba from Wicked (in retrospect I should have painted myself green properly as you can’t see in the pics that I’m covered in green sparkles)…

…and the Kate Beckinsale character from Underworld (you’ll not be surprised to learn that was the other half’s suggestion!) And yes, I don’t remember the bit in the movie where she was pissing herself laughing either!

(Yes that is Wonder Woman behind me with a machine gun… it was a good vs evil theme that year and all the ‘good’ people ended up stealing all the guns, swords etc!)

This year, we’re having an 80s themed Halloween party… think Ghostbusters, Count Duckula, Lost Boys etc… so it’ll be a little bit less Halloweeny than previous years.

I’m currently trying to compile a big list of 80s food and looking for decoration ideas so if you have any suggestions they’ll be most welcome. (On the list so far… creamola foam (if only it was still around), pop tarts, pot noodles, marshmallow top hats, half orange with cheese and pineapple sticks, soda stream, slush puppy, findus crispy pancakes, and my little pony fairy cakes you make from a box! God, the 80s were unhealthy!!)

Anyway, that’s enough of my babble, here’s the Halloweeny things I found to share…

And I had to include these from Cut Out + Keep… A Halloween eye ball made from a swiss ball and milk carton ghosts!

1. threadless
2. thebeeskneesdesigns
3. pamwares
4. crafterella
5. mrYen
6. FunFavors
7. topsyturvydesign
8. lupin
9. whiskerkisses