Dusty hearts

Dress - Topshop

Cardigan - Zara

Shoes - Clarks

This dress is 4 years old but it still keeps making an appearance as, to be honest, I have been running out of clean clothes to wear. At the moment every evening or weekend time is taken up with doing house things, so the washing isn't a priority! Don't worry though, I have managed to do some tonight. We have spent all weekend up at the house painting and sanding down the living room and guest bedroom. I was sanding down all the polyfilla in the guest bedroom and it was SO dusty, it made my hair look like I was going grey. It was so dusty on the windows, I decided to do a window doodle:

The list of things to do at the house is ever expanding! We found some damp patches when we stripped the wallpaper so they really need to be sorted out and we are also trying to sort out the double glazing this week. The plan is to get the living room finished ASAP, we've just finalised our choices for the paint colours after much deliberation. So many nice colours and combinations, too few rooms & walls! 

I think I will keep our living room a secret now until I can do a big 'final reveal', but what are you favourite colours for living rooms?

Home sweet home

We have the keys to our house! We got them last week and it has been non-stop since. We have had a new boiler fitted and received our new kitchen ready to fit it. We've also found some damp patches on the chimney breast which is quite distressing... There is lots to work do and we won't have any internet yet, so blogging may be intermittent until we are settled. I can't wait until we are all settled and to show you how we do it all up! But for now you can have a nosy at our 'before' photos on my flickr set here.

Anyone have any tips on how to stay organised throughout a big house renovation & move?!

Mustard yellow

Mustard yellow is one of my favourite colours, right after pillar box red and royal blue. It helps that they all go quite well together too! Hence I couldn't resist this dress in the Topshop sale.

I love the little crochet collar on it, it feels so 60s. It's also super super comfy. I imagine it will bobble rather easily but I only paid £18 for it so it won't be the end of the world. I wore it with my loafers I previously posted about (can't get them off my feet at the moment!) and my trusty Topshop peter pan collar jacket. I have a great fondness of all things mustard yellow. It all began with a mustard coloured cardigan purchased in 2006 which can be seen here. Also note the 2 yellow handbags! I am also currently lusting over a lot of mustard items for A/W, which I will share later this week. I always love mustard but even more so in the Autumn for some reason. 

What are you favourite autumnal colours? I know we're not in autumn yet but this weather feels like we are!

Loafing around

Shoes - Tesco
Dress - Peacocks
Necklace - Accessorize

This I what I wore on Saturday after working til 1, for an afternoon of loafing around. We spent the afternoon making mood boards for the new house and looking at paint swatches. We've decided on a colour scheme for the bedroom, but we are still undecided on what colours or wallpaper to have in the dining room and living room. Well, we have idea but we're not sure of which way around to have them. We get the house keys at the end of this week so we will be spending the weekend cleaning and painting. I am so excited! I will take lots of before photos for comparison, because I think that will be good to look back on all the gradual changes we make to the house as we make it 'ours'. 

I am on a bit of a loafers kick at the moment, I picked these up from Tesco for just £14 and have already nearly wore them to death, oops. 

Graduation day

Yesterday I graduated with my MA in Information & Library Management, it feels amazing to say that I'm a master of something! 2 years ago I graduated with a BA in English and didn't have any real idea that I was going to be a librarian. It was just a small acorn in my mind and how it has grown in the last 2 years!

The graduated was lovely. I got to pose in front of both of Liverpool's cathedrals, first the wigwam and then the Anglican, which is where LJMU always has it's graduation ceremonies. My only gripe is that the ceremony was very long and very boring! To be honest, I only wanted to wear the cap & gown and get my photos taken and also catch up with old class mates I haven't seen in over a year. I got to do all of that, but also had to endure the less fun bits too.

I know quite a few other bloggers have been graduating this week too so I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's outfits! For my first graduation, I kept it simple with just a white shirt and black skirt like you're told to wear, but this time I wore an old Miss Selfridge dress because it had buttons down the front but was also a lot prettier than the average graduation outfit. I wore my Duo shoes too, but they ended up hurting me so badly because I have never worn them without tights before! What did you wear to your graduation?

Birthday cheesecake

For my birthday at the weekend I made this yummy, yummy strawberry cheesecake using the strawberries we picked at Kenyon Hall Farm. The recipe is from the Hummingbird Bakery Cake Days book and is so delicious & rich. It has a digestive biscuit base, a cream cheese strawberry compote flavoured filling, and a mascarpone cream topping. I had to bake the cake in a water bath which ensued in chaos as the water started to leak into the cake and made the base soggy! I swear I will not make my own birthday cake next year, I will get Scott to make me one. No one should have to make their own birthday cake should they? Then again, this wasn't a traditional birthday cake. I didn't even put candles in it and have anyone sing me happy birthday! 

Do you prefer a traditional birthday cake or would you have a cheesecake? 

23

Loafers - Tesco

Dress - Topshop

Cardigan - M&S

Handbag - Asos

It was my birthday yesterday but because we have been so busy/stressed with the house purchase, I wasn't that excited at all. Even Scott commented that he might have forgot because I wasn't giving him the daily countdown like I usually do every year. I guess as you get older birthdays become less of a big deal. We decided to venture to The Tate Liverpool to go and see the new Magritte exhibition.

It was such a lovely day in Liverpool, it's so nice being by the water when it's sunny. It was still really windy though as it always is in Liverpool. I had a few Marilyn Monroe moments in that dress! The Magritte exhibition was really good and interesting, it included some of his personal photos too which I really loved. I really love surrealism, it's always done with so much actual artistic talent but so much imagination too. 

After the exhibition, we hit up Habitat to stock up on some frames for the house. It's sad that it's closing down in Liverpool and people are losing their jobs in an already dire job market, but on the other hand the sale has come at a good time for us too. We bought £150 worth of stuff for £100 and framed lots of our art last night too. 

If everything goes to plan, we should have the keys to the house in less than 2 weeks! I can't wait to get in, but we have a few things to do before we can move in. It's exciting but also nerve wracking. I imagine that blog posts may become even more sporadic once we move in, but I can always been caught tweeting @afeitar. 

Strawberry picking

Last weekend myself & Scott headed over to Kenyon Hall Farm to big the reddest, juiciest strawberries you have ever seen. They are so much tastier than the supermarket strawberries! We also picked up some redcurrants that I've used for red onion & red currant relish which is deeeeelicious with any cheese. It's my birthday at the weekend so I'm going to make a strawberries & cream cheesecake from the new hummingbird bakery book because it looks SO delicious, when I first got the book I said 'I NEED to make that in the summer!'. I am also cursed with the curse of always making my own birthday cake. I can't complain though, because I am rather fussy when it comes to cake and would rather make my own. Especially strawberries & cream cheesecake with locally picked strawberries! Yum.