weekend wanderings #14

(images from ladiedottie.bandcamp.com, stylemepretty.com, and messynessychic.com)

• Apparently I've had my head somewhere else this week, because I've been obsessed with travel videos and photography of other places, one of the things I have really been enjoying are Ladiedottie's vlogs. She lives in Reno in the states and documents her life daily, and the videos are so amazing, they make me want to drop everything and go drive around mountains forever. She also has an amazing outro song that I have to listen to the very end of, it's lovely.
• I find Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart so adorable, together and this video made me and my mum laugh, they're the perfect old-married-couple.
• Photos of a trip to Italy that are giving me itchy feet again. I want an Italian summer, this spring rain is starting to get on my nerves.
• I've actually never read anything by Gabriel Garcia Marquez until he's died, but I read these 6 short stories after reading about magical realism, and it's made me want to read some more.
• A very photography-heavy post today, but these 80's spring break photos are everything, just so great and a real frozen moment in time. I feel like even though there is so much digital media and photography at the moment, because it is digital, a lot of it will disappear as I get older. These are things I worry about, even though I probably shouldn't..
• These fashion illustrations using petals are something that I find so cool, I used to be really obsessed with fashion illustration, I still love it, but don't consume as much of it as I used to, and this was enjoyable to see.
• I came across Fill My Little World this week, and I absolutely love everything she posts, just a really lovely blog with not nearly enough followers.

Right guys, I've had a very healthy eating day today, knowing that I wanted to have some ice-cream tonight and oh man am I excited for that. Now I need to find my slippers because I have chilly feet. 

Q #2

I really love this idea - for someone that has lived an hour or two from the sea in my life, I have a huge affinity for the water, and the ocean, in particular. I think I just feel like it can heal anything - in much the same way that a good cry, I suppose. Maybe it's all a religious thing, an ablution, but anyway, I think a reminder that sometimes hard work and a good cry are necessary.

groundbreaking florals

After living inside giant hand-knit sweaters and brothers/fathers hand-me-downs for five months, I feel like I've emerged from hibernation these past two weeks. This, coupled with the fact I've lost quite a bit of weight this year, have made me seriously need some spring-appropriate clothing. I went with the intention of getting just a few basic black vests (why stray from tradition, I suppose?) and happened on this t-shirt in Primark. It's so different from anything I usually wear, that I really love it. It's just a black t-shirt in the back, but it's just the right length for a t-shirt on my 5'10 1/2 frame (so it would probably run longer on shorter girls). I wore this on Easter sunday with my blue pants for lunch with the family, and it looked nice, I think.

Of course, I got the obligatory black and white vests and such, as well as a really nice sheer kimono from H&M, and a light-weight knit kimono/cardigan from there too. Good things. Now I just need a warm day when I'm not stuck at work to wear them!

weekend wanderings #13

(images from blog.mrprintables.com, bullettmedia.com and dezeen.com)

• I have a friend that loves making pom-poms, and I came across this absolutely amazing step-by-step guide on how to make fruit pom-poms. I am so excited to show her this next time I see her! I'm considering scouring my mothers yarn-drawers for some appropriate coloured wool - that watermelon one is calling me..
• An essay extract on the colour blue. This might just appeal to me, but maybe a few of you out there are as intrigued by colour as I am. 
• I don't know why, but I really want a beautiful crystal and copper water decanter and cup set. I just feel like there is a hole in my life there - it would make drawing water the most beautiful, ritualised thing. The set comes with charcoal to purify the water. It's an absolutely stunning piece of design that I need.
• For forty years, a family was cut off from civilisation in the Siberian wilderness. Stories like this make their way into my periphery every so often and I'm fascinated by them. If I was a writer, I would want to write stories about things like this. But I'm not, so I just stick to imagining how amazing that book would be. How language changes over time intrigues me, in insular communities, and how people can survive like that.
• This Ficticious Dishes book by Dinah Fried has been popping up on my Facebook and Tumblr feeds this week and they so amaze me - I have this weird fascination with how food is described in novels, and seeing them so perfectly laid out and stylised really appeals to me. It's on my wishlist now, anyway.
• And two blogs I am enjoying this week are alovelybeing.com and thelittlenightowl.com. 

I haven't done one of these in such a long time, but I found a whole lot of things around the internet this week that I wanted to share with you - so thought I would do this. Be sure to check out some of my old posts like this, they have some interesting little tidbits. Also, I'm posting this on Monday because it's a bank holiday, which is basically still the weekend, right? Even if I had to work today!

easter feasts

Easter Sunday is a thing I really love. Having worked practically every Sunday (minus the 4 or 5 weeks of holiday I get per year..) since I was like, 17, I really enjoy getting Easter off. I did have to do a horrible shift yesterday, though, in which I chipped my tooth (on the most inconvenient bank-holiday weekend when NO dentists are open!) so I feel that I really deserve this day off. Anyway, Easter isn't anything, really, without Rice Krispie nests - I had to go to three different stores to try and find mini-eggs because apparently they were sold out everywhere on thursday? What is up with that. Anyway, they're the laziest 'cake' to make, but they looked cute in these giant Ikea cake cases I had lying around.

This week, my younger brother is back from uni, and my older bro and his girlfriend are popping by for lunch today, so I'm looking forward to a lunch-time roast with the family and Easter chocolate and chilling with absolutely nothing to do all day except try not to cut my mouth on what feels like the fang I have. Now I'm off to read some books, do a bit of knitting, eat Lindt bunnies and roast veg and probably have an afternoon nap like on Christmas day, haha.

Happy Easter if you're into that, if not, enjoy the bank holiday weekend!

Q #1

I have thought about maybe doing a new feature on my blog of some interesting quotes as I reblog quite a few over on my tumblr and thought it might be something nice to start doing over here. I know this quote is from the Wasteland by T.S. Eliot, which isn't exactly romantic, but there is something about the thoughts of rain and lilacs that make me itchy for spring, even when it's here. Anyway, I thought this was fitting for a Good Friday, hope you're enjoying the long weekend.

black days

It's no secret on this blog that I have had struggles with depression, and today has been what I affectionately call 'black days'. They are days I just write off, essentially. They're the days where I lie in bed and cry for two hours straight or feel sick to my stomach about my life, and I know there are other people out there that feel like this, too. I know that it's not normal to want to ruin everything I've worked really hard for just because today is really hard. So this just a reminder, a placeholder on my blog for future black days, because there will be many. That just because today sucks, tomorrow might be bit brighter. It might be - but it might not be.. sometimes things get better before they get worse. Either way, be strong and good luck if you're suffering from black days or grey days. 

just summer spring things

I know that really, it's only just spring, but today was so nice though, I felt tricked into thinking it was later in the year. I had a summer dress on and my sunglasses and was sunning myself with my mum in the twenty-two degree weather that I could be forgiven for hoping that this warm weather sticks around, right? 

I feel like this post is very blogger-y, which makes me laugh, because I'm not, at all. Like, cherry blossoms and close-up photos of food and candles, haha. Oh well, these things make me feel like summer! The cherry trees where I live are all coming into blossom and it really is one of my favourite things. Ours blossomed on Saturday, and it's been buzzing with bees ever since, so today I pinched a bit for my room. 

I also know summer is on the way when strawberries start getting cheaper in the stores, and I eat them out of my mum's really adorable patterned bowls with copious amounts of my new favourite yoghurt and wildflower honey. I've been obsessed with greek yoghurt and honey at the moment - but I think that is probably a whole different post about my 'healthy eating' haha. 

This candle I got in Tesco today, it's one by Price's and it apparently smells like Earl Grey tea - I'm not sure about that but it sort of smells like a fresh, but slightly spicy orange (my mum tells me this is bergamot, apparently!) which I am enjoying. 

Anyway, this has sort of been a nothing-y post, but I am content with that. Hopefully, I'll have some more interesting things for you over the next few weeks, if I don't descend into a Game of Thrones/ASOIAF coma  (I'm desperately trying to finish ADWD Part 2 before the next season starts!). 

Right, let me know what you're up to this week, if anything!