A new home wishlist.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

01. I'm getting way ahead of myself considering I haven't even secured the new house we're hoping to rent, but I couldn't resist making notes on how I want each room to look and making a little wishlist. In my last home everything is very bright, floral and retro, but I'm hoping for a more minimalistic look to the new place. My current chopping boards are an old floral tray and a pink cupcake glass one, obviously which don't go together at all. I want to get this simple wooden heart one, can't believe it's only £4 from Wilko's!

02. I want to get rid of some of my cushions (again, lots of bright colours and flowers) and mix in a few simpler designs in the mix. I really want an old round one but they seem to be pretty hard to come across, I've not found one on my travels yet!

03. The new place has a dining room and smaller living room, so I really want my sideboard with the tv on, sofas and a new coffee table. I'm after an old one with two sections to put magazines, flowers and candles on. One like this would be perfect, but without the £100 pricetag!

04. I saw a picture on Pinterest of a kitchen plate display with cooking books in, which I love the idea of! The little hooks at the bottom are handy for tea towels or little cups, too.

05. I know I'm going to go plant crazy in the new place. I want some larger plants, succulents and cacti in pretty much every room to go with my more natural, simplistic style of home. I need to get myself to Ikea 'cause these set of three are perfect!

06. Another Ikea purchase, eeek! Every room has laminate flooring so I'm going to be on a major rug mission. I only have one of my own, and I'd love this little round rug for the living room. The print is so pretty, and it's a great price too.

07. Yep, another cushion. I want a mix of floral, geometric prints and plain colours, so this would be perfect too! I'll probably find some material myself though and make my own.

08. More plants! The new place also has a big back yard, not really with any soil but lots of paving which is perfect for contained plants. This little one is ever so pretty!

09. This is another thing I'll be making myself; the living room doesn't have a mantelpiece, so I can really imagine hanging a cute garland across the fireplace. I love the cute colours of this one.

10. I need some more cups and mugs (I think I have about two I actually like!), and again, Ikea is coming up trumps! I love the design of these and they are so cheap!

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The Happy list #2

01. New shoes. Alongside my pretty new mint green bag, I picked up these Betty London flats in my latest monthly shoes purchase. I do like my ballet flats with a tiny bit of a block heel, but these are deadly flat and have taken some getting used to! They are nicely padded though so are really comfortable for days of running errands or charity shopping. Speaking of, I picked up these black woven little wedges on my last day out with Mum; brand new and only £5!

02. The prospect of moving out. To put it lightly, I live in a shithole. You'll have to excuse my language, but if you saw it you'd understand; I moved in a few years ago when I was skint as they didn't take any deposit off you and the admin fees were very light too, but that is the price you may for single glazing, no proper flooring and damp & cracks on the walls in every room. After a few months of looking Kane and I have finally found a house which just seems us. No feature wallpaper or hideously modern kitchen (which are in abundance around Bolton), a great size and lovely location. We're off for a second viewing on Tuesday and hopefully we'll secure it then!

03. Clearing out. This goes hand in hand with #2, and the prospect of moving has had me filling bags for the charity shop. I decided last night I needed to downsize and an hour later I had already filled three bags. Stuff I bought for my shop mostly that will never, ever sell, even if I offer it for two or three pounds, so it's off to charity. I'm even thinking of downsizing some of my collections; come moving day I don't think I'll appreciate  the boxes of vintage flasks, vases and glasses.

04. Crafting. I used to be a big crafter, and recently Pinterest has been getting me back into it. As you can see from above, it's nothing ground breaking, but I've been finding little jars in charity shops and giving them new leases of life. What did I say about having a clear out?

05. Douwe Egberts caramel coffee. With toast for breakfast. Heaven.

06. My record collection. These are the majority of albums and I have about thirty singles too, so it's getting to be quite large (depending on who you ask!). It's getting to where I want it to be anyway, and I only have a few on my wishlist of bands I'd like to add to it, mostly the Kinks and Pixies, both of whom I'm having a hard time finding anything from!

07. The new Dairy Milk Marvellous Creations, with the jelly popping shells! Errrmaaagerrhd, I could eat it all day.

08. Feeling settled. I am a right homebody these days! Don't get me wrong, I do still like the occasion night out, or trip to the cinema, but there's no happier feeling than cooking tea with Kane and cuddling up on the sofa for a film. All together now.. *vomit*.

Spill the beans, what's been making you happy recently?

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Lush solid perfumes.

Being the 'Lushie' that I am, I'm always after trying out more ranges from Lush. I'd moved on from just buying bath bits onto skincare and haircare when I attended the Lush Gorilla Perfume event a few weeks ago, and was given the opportunity to try the perfume. These two solid perfumes appeared in my goody bag which I couldn't have been happier with.

Cocktail is quite a floral scent, inspired classic French perfumery, with it's main notes being of ylang-ylang, jasmine, rose and sandalwood. As with all the solid perfumes, they come in the same black packaging; the lid screws off easily and the perfume is simply pushed up from the bottle and applied to the skin. Some of the colour does actually come off onto my skin, but it fades quickly so isn't too much of a problem. In the packaging, this smells gorgeous, but on me comes off a little too old fashioned, and strangely with a hint of mint in the background. It is a pretty scent though, so I think I'll pass it onto a friend and see how it smells on her! Cocktail costs £8.

1000 kisses is a completely different scent; very citrusy and fresh, with the main notes being mandarin with a hint of musk. It's a very light scent which I've been wearing a lot recently, it goes hand in hand with the beautiful summer weather. I love reading the inspirations behind all the fragrances, this particular one is named after '1000 Kisses Deep' by Leonard Cohen. Both the fragrances have a pretty good lasting time, but they're incredibly easy to pop into your handbag and apply whilst you're out if you need a top up. 1000 kisses costs £6.

Have you tried any of the solid perfumes? What did you think of them?

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p.s. Like many of you, I'm 100% confused as to whether GFC is actually closing or not, but just incase I'd love for you to go over and follow me on Bloglovin'!

A day trip to Ramsbottom, part #2

The second part of our little day out included a drive out to Holden Wood Antique Centre in Haslingden. It's in an old converted church which really adds to the feel of the place, and has little units dotted around so there's a really good variation of stock. There was a lot of antiques, but obviously the name suggests that! There were still lots of gorgeous vintage bits hidden amongst them, but sadly a distinct lack of clothes which I missed a bit.

I have a major thing for vintage hair accessories at the moment, so that little box of hair pieces is crying out for me now that I'm home. Mum and I both loved the little monkeys on the glasses too, but we couldn't see a price on them. And as always, the tins drew us in but we didn't take any home.

I debated with myself whether to take these little drawers home for ages! I absolutely loved the peachy colour and design of them, but they're not hugely practical for a hallway and I did already have two pieces already in my hall. Anyway, for £20 I decided they were too good to be true, and I promptly cleaned and cleared the space ready for them. I'm really happy I got them in the end, and my new Mandy doll set goes perfectly on top too! What do you think of my buys?

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A day trip to Ramsbottom, part #1

This weekend Mum and I took a little trip to Ramsbottom for the day. I love going to little towns like this for an explore around (mostly just the charity shops!) but no car or extra money lying around means it pretty much never happens. Mum took me out for the day anyway, and our first destination was The Chocolate Cafe. We just stopped off for breakfast so we didn't get any of the delicious looking cakes, but I did get a real chocolate mocha that was bloomin' good! Mum also treated me to one of their handmade chocolate bars which I'm trying not to devour too quickly - at £3.50 a pop it needs to be savoured!

After we'd popped into all the charity shops we went to Memories Antique Centre, which was just like a two storey treasure trove! I immediately spotted an old Mandy paper doll set, then made my way into the back where there is an absolutely gorgeous selection of vintage dresses and accessories, all of which was pretty reasonably priced!

There was a great selection of everything old; clothing, glassware (babycham glasses galore!), old radios, and ridiculous amounts of jewellery, all of which I was drooling over. There really was something for everyone. I'm hoping to be able to take a trip there again soon. I didn't want this post to be massively picture heavy, so stay tuned for past #2 of my trip later this week!

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DIY: Make your own lampshade.

Since I found this 1960s teak lamp at a car boot for just 50p, I've been on a hunt to find a suitable shade for it. Old lampshades aren't something you can find a great deal of, so it eventually hit me that I should just be making my own! I picked up a plain cream shade for 99p at a charity shop and everything else used was just things I had around the house. It's incredibly easy to do and pretty self explanitory, but I thought I'd give some instructions anyway!

What you need:
A plain lampshade, some material, mod podge, a paintbrush, scissors, chalk, and of course a lamp!

01. Measure out the lampshade and then mark out the material you're going to cut. I left about half an inch on each side for the material to be folded over the edge and stuck down. Mark with chalk and cut, keeping in a straight line.

02. Apply a thin layer of mod podge in separate parts of around 2-3 inches each. Attach the material, pulling tightly and smoothing down as you go. Do this in small parts so the material is easier to control and you won't make any mistakes. At the end of the material, fold it over and glue down so there are no raw edges. Once all the material is firmly attached, go around the top and bottom applying mod podge over the material to stick it to the shade. You'll need a bit more glue for this bit, but it will dry clear.

And that, is pretty much it! I told you it was easy; it's really a quick but effective little craft that can be very inexpensive depending on what materials you use. In total this cost me less than £2 and it's brightened up my room wonderfully! What do you think? Would you give this a go?

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