Generally Gemma

Liberty

 

Whilst I was on Regent Street on Friday it would have been rude not to pop into Liberty. And now for a shameful confession. I have never been before! And I am furious with myself for not going when I had a job and therefore money to spend!

 

Besides all the loveliness contained within the building itself really is the most gorgeous thing ever. I had a vague idea that it was off a side street somewhere and was a little bit worried that I might not see it, but there is no way on earth that you can mistake that frontage. 

 

Inside there are amazing sort of installation things made of the products they sell like this faux chandelier made of scarves. I was a little nervous of taking pictures so most of the interior ones are taken on my phone, which hasn't the greatest of cameras. 

 

The entrance to heaven. 

 

Buttons for all!

 

Beautiful fabric.

 

Not exactly craftiness but these are my absolute most favorite things in the world. I used to work in a posh chocolate shop that sold them and acquired a very expensive addiction in the meantime! Although it has been a VERY long time since I had any. 

All in all head to Liberty! Once I have another job I will certainly be heading back again! Although I did treat myself to a few little tiny things. Sadly not nearly enough for my liking!

 

These two buttons to make into a brooch. The big mother of pearl purple one is practically the size of my palm!

 

And I had to buy a couple of these. Just because I needed to have them.

Anthropologie London Opening

 

Yesterday I decided to treat myself to a morning on Regent Street with a very limited budget! Anthropologie is a website that I have drooled over for years and I have been terribly close so many times to placing an order and paying the extortionate shipping rates and no doubt customs charges to hold some of their beautiful goodies in my own sweaty little paws.

So when I heard that they were opening their first European store in London my heart did a little skip, my palms got a little bit sweatier and I knew that I was going to have to take a trip there. I hadn't planned to go on opening day but hey what the hell!

 

Besides the gorgeous clothes and home ware that they sell one of the other things that Anthropologie is famous for is their interiors. And let me tell you folks it certainly doesn't disappoint, from the enormous living plant wall that is watered from rain gathered from the roof

to the incredible chandeliers that hang in the stair well

 

to the mesmerising teabag installation in the window. The whole place is fabulous.

 

Anthropologie do sell a lovely line of clothes but given my current weight fluctuation issues I paid no attention to those and instead drooled over the home ware instead. 

 

 

 

And of course, what shopping trip is complete without a little self gifting?

I think I showed remarkable restraint considering all the yummy deliciousness that was there! Of course I can't promise that I will when I go again, which the second I have a proper job and a decent pay cheque I can assure I will be doing!

Toast

One of the things that drew me to blogging was the gorgeous stuff that I was seeing bloggers create. I was inspired not only by their blogs to start myself but also to start crafting which was something I never really had done before. 

The one area of crafting that I had dipped my toe into was scrap booking and one of the first blogs I read was Elsie's. At the time she had a line of scrap booking products for a company and then awhile later she opened up her own shop, Red Velvet Art which contains loads of yummy stuff. But one of the places I was particularly drawn to was her range of canvases that she painted.  A couple of weeks ago I had an email that told me that some of them were on sale and being that the pennies aren't exactly flowing in at the moment I took the opportunity to bag myself a little cheering bargain.

I know that is the most awful cliche, that when women are down they go shopping. For me though it isn't necessarily the shopping and it certainly isn't shopping in real life. For me the added bonus is the anticipation of post! Of the non-bill variety of course!

So put my order in and less than a week later! (Which from the States to England is pretty impressive!) This little beauty arrived to grace the G&G household!

Where exactly it is going to go I have no idea. G and I often buy things for the wall which never make it up. Not because we don't love them but because we actually aren't terribly good at putting holes in the wall to take anything. It always ends up as a giant mess that is going to cost us deposit money when we one day leave our lovely little home. So, we often say that we aren't necessarily buying for now but for later. For now though. Mr and Mrs Toast are sitting on the book shelf to make me smile when I look up from the sofa. 

 (By the way, I am the happy toast on the left, G, AKA Mr Misery, is the toast on the right.)

new toy

A new hoover may not seem a terribly interesting thing to get excited about but excited I am! For years and years G and I have had a parade of various hoovers of the pull around variety. I can't stand them, using them made my back hurt even before my back problems earlier this year.

So hoovering was always G's job and what a meal he always used to make over it! Which in turn of course meant that it got done once in a blue moon! Literally not often at all which in a house where someone is beloved of playing with thread is not a good plan!

I was thinking about it the other day and then pushing the idea away because of course these things cost money! When I was struck with a fabulous idea! My Tesco loyalty card points!!! I totted them up and who would have known that I had exactly the right amount needed for this little baby! Delirious with happiness doesn't begin to cover it! So at the weekend off to the supermarket we went with my vouchers clutched in my sweaty little paw and exchanged those lovely bits of paper for a brand new toy! It's like a freebie!! 

And 20% more pick up! Which with hair that is long and sheds as rapidly as mine does can only be a plus point! And having used it today to work my angst out I can confirm it does everything it says on the tin!!

re the job interview, I am waiting to hear, not too sure how well it went though so we shall see. Thank-you so much everyone for your best wishes and good lucks. It means a lot. 

Clementine

This is the whole of the sneak peak that I showed the other day. G and I went to a car boot sale the other weekend and after two hours of schlepping around and not a SINGLE purchase made I was beginning to feel terribly despondent and at odds with the entire world. I mean honestly, what sort of individual goes to a car boot sale and then comes home with nothing? Certainly not me, I normally find a load of things, even if when I get home I sometimes experience a small amount of buyers remorse. 

Then we rounded a corner into the last handful of stalls and my heart started to beat a little faster. That tap dance it does when you know you are seeing something that you are going to love, a find of excellence! And underneath it all a small feeling of dread that somehow G is going to hate it and create a fuss about me taking it home! 

So I squatted down beside this fire screen and stroked the lady held within and asked how much she was. All the while feeling G standing at my shoulder huffing and puffing and about to launch into his "we have no more space for dusty tat" monologue! She cost me £5 which I think was a pretty decent price for something that was of such a size, G was not in agreement, but after a small wander away from the stall and, I am ashamed to say, a small amount of emotional blackmail he caved and agreed that we could bring her home. 

She isn't perfect, there are a few stitches that have come loose in her bonnet and there are a few dirt spots as she is completely unprotected and just stretched on to the wooden frame work. I am thinking about possibly removing her from the frame worked and having her properly framed and put behind glass to hang on a wall. I'm also pondering whether cleaning her up would ruin the feeling of the piece and actually how one would go about cleaning a vintage piece of embroidery!

I don't have many vintage embroideries, I have a couple of tablecloths and some bits and pieces but what I do own is pretty much packed away waiting for the day that I buy my house and can find places for them or perhaps, horror of horrors, cut them up and create something new out of them. Clementine, as I have decided to call her, though is out and proud. We have the ugliest old gas fire in our living room and whilst Clementine doesn't completely cover it she certainly goes a good way to making it less of an eye sore!

Just to bore you a little bit further! Look at those hollyhocks! To be honest I think would have bought this for the hollyhocks alone! If I have a thing for embroidery I have a total lust for embroidered hollyhocks!

sneak peak

As you can imagine I have been a little busy today! And now it is my guilty pleasure program. The Big Brother final, the horror of admitting that in public may scar me for life! So in the meantime I leave you with a sneak peek of a recent purchase I made, one that I think might be one of my favorite finds ever!

Thanks for all your good wishes and luck on my previous post. Second interviews are being set up for next week and I have my fingers crossed that I get one! 

Oh Orla!

I love Orla Kiely but her normal stuff is just way out or my price range. Imagine my joy as I saw that she was doing a more affordable range. And then a split second later imagine my horror and sadness when I realised it wouldn't be available in the UK. BOO HISS!

Wish Fulfilment

I've had a hankering for a new camera for years now, since before I started blogging. I wanted something that was better than a point and shoot but I am terribly frightened of SLRs. Both the technical ability that is needed to operate one and the price tag that even the cheapest comes with!

I think the S5700 is a good compromise, it has plenty of manual settings to play with if I want to and a super dandy automatic setting plus a lovely macro and these days I am all about the macro!

I need to practise with it obviously. In the main because it is quite a bit weightier than the old one. I have to hold it in a completely different way and treat it utterly differently. I think I'd become quite complacent with my old faithful.

I will still be using old faithful. It will be the one that I carry in my bag everywhere I go. But after three years of wishing I am seriously looking forward to playing with a new piece of kit.

A grown-up cup of tea

Well folks I have been ill. Not badly ill, but with enough sniffle to make me not want to sit at a lap top. Enough of the mopes to make taking pictures not especially appealing. And then I got hit by the beginning of the year urge to clean. (Not something that happens very often around here G will tell you!) Also after having lived here for nearly two years I now think I might finally know how I want the furniture, so there will be a rather large rearrangement of the house coming. (I think I heard G shudder at that thought!)

I have been donating and chucking with aplomb, clearing out wardrobes and cupboards and actually flipping a duster round!I came to the conclusion that if I did again ever fit into clothes I owned at eighteen chances are it may not be in the best of taste to wear them. After all what does a nearly thirty year old need with a sparkly slashed to the navel halter neck? Not a great deal of call for those down the pub on a Friday night. I held one small triangle of lycra up and G wanted to know why I was keeping a burnt orange headscarf. Somehow the idea that it might be a top never occurred to him. So my youth has been consigned to bin bags, although I have kept a couple of choice items that held simply too much sentimental value for me to get rid of.

So, I did have to do a little buying of things to cheer myself up.

(Excuse the lighting and the general bad quality. Not getting home till after dark doesn't really mesh well with the lighting of photos.)

I finally own a teapot! And I did rather feel that I needed the little milk jug and sugar bowl. They called out to me, asking for me to love them and so I have. I feel if I am getting rid of teenage sparkly tops then I need a grown-up thing to replace them with. So, I shall be taking tea in style from now on!

Lets go fly a kite...

.... or not.

This was to have been my plan for the weekend. Flying my new kite in the park whilst drinking tea from my new thermos. Sadly the weather took against me and it was not to be. Which was not a good thing. It meant I had to spend the weekend cleaning the house up after the festivities. Something that always depresses me. Somehow the house always seems so empty and joyless after the Christmas decorations have come down.

A good blow in the park whilst struggling with my new toy would have been just the ticket. G was somewhat dubious. He fears that he may have some masochistic tendencies as it was he that bought me the kite. He had visions of us spending the weekend at the park rather differently. That is me shouting, "run faster G, run faster the kite needs more speed!" Then me growing bored of it and retiring to a bench to sip tea from the thermos and trying to take pictures of him and the kite. "Can't you make it go a bit higher? Can you make it hover in front of that cloud? No the other one!" I think he was rather pleased that the weather was somewhat inclement.

So with the removal of the tree and the sparkle I try and fill the house with flowers in an attempt to look forward to Spring and the arrival of the sunshine once again. Although this seems to be happening a little too quickly. I am a little tiny bit concerned that some of our bulbs have green shoots showing already. Surely that can't be a good thing?!?

And this is a little bit of Spring that I can carry with me. At the moment this little Coalport brooch is attached to my black Winter coat and whenever I look down it makes me feel as though the gloom won't last long. A bargain bit of happiness for only 25 p!

So come on Spring! I am more than ready for you!