The Mad Hatters Tea Party

On the 16th of August, my little sister Leigh turned 8 and to celebrate the occasion, my mum and I threw her a tea party! I had literally been planning for weeks in advance, and spent so much time rummaging around in charity shops and car boot sales for tea sets. I was also on a really tiny budget as we were renting a church hall which cost a small fortune in itself, but it was all worth it in the end! I took some inspiration from Pinterest and also kind of made things up as I went along depending on what I found in stores. Almost everything that I got for the table was from Poundland, aside from the tea sets, tea pots and plates which I sourced from charity shops.

The Happy List #5

I can't believe my last 'The Happy List' post was back in March! SO many things have made me happy since then, and I kind of regret not recording them. I think my problem with 'happy' things is that I don't realise how happy they make me until I look back on them, ya know? So I don't ever feel they're important enough to talk about at the time. BUT I'm going to rectify this wrong today, by talking about a few things that have made me happy recently!

Lush Brazilliant Shampoo Bar

It wasn't all that long ago that I bought Jumping Juniper, but my mum sorta accidentally DESTROYED it. (She left it in a tub under a leaky shower head. It essentially melted.) So whilst I was in my new-Lush-bath-bombs euphoria a couple of weeks ago, I managed to regain something resembling common sense and picked up a new shampoo bar. I was drawn to Brazilliant, a vibrant orange shampoo bar that strengthens hair. My hair isn't particularly damaged (nor is it curly/thick, which is what this product is meant to be for) but I thought that it's strengthening properties might help my fine, flat hair in some way. Plus, it smells divine.

Charity Shop & Car Boot Sale Haul

I think my favourite thing about summer is the fact that it's car boot sale season. There's nothing I love more on a lazy Sunday than waking up early, scouring through the clothing/books at the local car boot sale and then going somewhere for breakfast. My dad is an avid car-booter (is that even a word?) so it's become a kind of yearly tradition for us to go bargain hunting together. Another dearly beloved past-time of mine is charity shopping. I used to volunteer in a charity shop back when I was at college and I gained so much experience, as well as a complete wardrobe overhaul. If I'm being totally honest, 90% of my wardrobe is sourced from charity shops and car boot sales. I don't have the personal budget to shop in places like Topshop and Zara, so it's always nice to pick up something from there that is still in perfect condition yet is 75% cheaper.

 

I've collected a small grouping of clothes and books over the past two weeks or so across two outings, one of which was a car boot sale, the other was a charity shopping day trip that my mum and I went on. Today I thought I'd show you what I got!

 

Books.

Withdrawn at Leigh Woods

Slightly photo-heavy post coming at ya today, as I'm finally going to share the photos I took of the Withdrawn exhibit at Leigh Woods. I've been wanting to see this exhibit since it was installed back in April this year and a couple of weeks ago Luke & I decided to explore Bristol for the day and ended up at Leigh Woods (thanks Dad!).

Lush Haul | New Things & Old

 

The opening of the Lush Oxford Street store, full to the brim with limited edition products, caused more than a few earthquakes in the blogosphere this year. There are new bath bombs, bubble bars, make-up, shower gels, skincare... you name it, it's there. But all of the products were exclusive to the Oxford Street store, meaning unless you were willing to venture into London or to pay ridiculous prices for someone to buy things on you behalf, you had to go without. I'm not going to lie, and this may seem 100% extreme, I had a bit of a crisis about the fact that I couldn't get these products. If there's anything limited edition at Lush I'm all over it, but I knew that it was impossible for me to go to London to get these without having a mental breakdown. So I saved every spare bit of change I had in order to buy my most desired bath bombs when they eventually leaked into regular Lush stores.

 

THAT DAY HAS COME.

Desk Updates

Back in April of this year, I posted a Desk Tour. I'd just finished painting my bedroom (after putting it off for 6+ months..) and was excited about the novelty of having a desk so decided to snap some photos pretty quickly after it had all been thrown together. Fast forward to now and my desk area looks pretty different! All of the original basics are there: the same desk, same location, same chair, same photos etc but I've installed several splashes of colour in honour of summer recently, so I thought I'd update you all!

THIS is the colourful beauty that my desk area has become. It's actually quite comical just how much more colour I've injected. Go back and look at my original desk tour - it was pretty and simple, but lacking so much colour! My desk is now a more inspiring and cheerful place to reside.

Summer Book Haul

I've done pretty well with the whole 'one new book for every two read' deal I made with myself at the beginning of this year. In fact, the books in this post were the first books I've acquired for a couple of months now. They've all been on my to-buy list for a really long time, but now I have them! Now I just have to find somewhere to put them...