dressing table decor

To my utter delight, I recently discovered my local H&M had a makeover, and now includes a delightful Homeware department... My bank balance will probably be less delighted, in the future, but hey-ho...

workspace sneakpeek

I don't know about you, but something I really enjoy is seeing the space that other people work in. In a concerted effort to try and improve my posture and stop spending as much time blogging in bed (although that is exactly where I am right now, oops) I have been trying to make my desk-space a more inviting place. Usually it is a dumping ground for magazines, bills, letters, make-up, used cotton pads, etc. You name it, it usually ends up there..

So, I thought I would show you around my space a little bit, but I wasn't sure how to do this post, without rambling on a whole lot.. Therefore I've condensed this to a list of my few favourite bits and bobs.. 

• My lovely friend Kiki gifted me these two lovely round green agate slices because she knows how much I love crystals and rocks and anything related. I use them as coasters, and they're pretty perfect.
• On a similar note, aren't my little trio of brass trinket boxes just amazing? I've found quite a few in charity shops over the years, and nearly all of them contain gems of some kind. I split these three on my desk into colour, and they're usually forming a little pyramid..
• It's probably psychological but having greenery around me makes me feel so much better - my favourites are my mini-crassula in a jar and my spider plant given to me as a cutting from an internship.
• Candles: I have a selection dotted about my room, but my favourite is my nearly-dead melted stub of a giant pillar candle that I've been burning for about a year. I don't know where my mum got it, but it's lasted forever. Scentless, it just makes my room feel cosy.
• Jars of, er, stuff... That's pretty vague, I know, but how else do you describe a giant jar full of pinecones and bark, or an old candle jar filled with shells and trinkets from the beach, or my lipsticks in another old candle jar with my favourite lipsticks in?
• A little bit of art, here and there. You can sort of see the quilted koi-pond my mum made for me, or the manual-panoramic-photographs I took in Verona, both of which I really love. I also have a print I got for free at an event, reminding me to be a bit more optimistic, some old photographs my dad took of Salford in the 1970's, and some feathers found, collected, and gifted over the years. I want to add to the collection above my desk, but I'm not sure how to arrange these..

What do you think? I know it's rather white, but I can't think too well if there is a lot going on right in front of my eyes... It's definitely making me work there a lot more, which is good, I think. 

If you have any questions about any of the things I've not touched on, let me know, I'll be happy to answer any questions. If you've done one of these posts, please link it in the comments, I'd really love to see it! I'm horrifically nosy, you see... 

bedroom snippets; greenery

I've recently put a lot of effort into re-decorating my bedroom, and getting my bits and bobs sorted - I'm hoping to make this into something of a feature, because I have lots of nice things that I want to show someone, as I'm quite proud of what I've done with the place. My room has had a few incarnations and I promised I would show you when it was done.. So here we go! 

First to show you is my small collection of plants.. I love houseplants and cacti and succulents and they improve the air quality (particularly spider plants and such) so I really love having them around. I have all sorts scattered around my room, and the house actually, but these are my favourites. I think I'm pretty good at growing them too, as the spider plant on the left in the bottom photo was a 'baby' that a friend had given me, and now has tiny 'babies' of its own. Pretty neat. (Cat ornament is something my mum had when she was kid and I love it haha.) 

vintage tins

I have a thing for tins. I'm not sure why, but I like little tin cases I can squirrel away little bits in. Like who'd have thought an old Elastoplast tin was the perfect size for my business cards? It's werid how things you have lying around forever suddenly become the most perfect vehicle. 

I picked up these awesome little tins at a car boot sale about a year ago, and now they all have inhabitants. I used to have lots of little plastic pots of pins or needles or things like that lying around my room - but since I've put them in these I display them a lot more. In the sellotape tin I have a load of fine pins and drawing pins and such, the blackcurrant tins has big magnetic nails for hanging my artwork in, the cinnamon tablet tin holds post-it note highlighter things. I have an old Paprika tin that houses ink-pen nibs too. 

quilt life

So here is a thing that I did: I made a quilt. Bit weird, I know, but let me explain. 

My mother has always sewn or knitted or stitched or quilted - as long as I can remember there have always been bit of thread or wool strewn around our living room and we frequently stab ourselves with needles or pins left on the floor.. But it's something that the women in my family have always done on both sides - one of my grandmothers worked as a dressmaker for a long time, and the other made clothes in a factory during the war, and I think it's just one of those things that has been passed down to my mum, and to me. That said; I drove my mum to a fabric shop to look for something she needed a few weeks ago, and this pack of pre-cut quilt squares caught my eye - some of them had bears and reindeer on and leaves and things, plus they were made out of flannel, so unbelievably soft! So my mum sat with me and showed me the best ways to sew them together, and how to quilt it by hand (that's sewing through all the layers by hand - the diagonal lines you can see) and do the binding and such. It didn't really take me that long, but it's not very complicated. You should see some of the things my mums friends do, they're absolutely mad. 

I am VERY pleased with my little quilt, it's super soft and even though it's quite thin and lightweight, its very cosy and comfy and I just love it. I know a few people in the blogging world are getting into crochet and knitting and such and so I thought I would share this! If you want any further details I'm sure I can do that , but please let me know what you think. (: