Mayday Fundayz.

So, on Friday, our friend Richard brought down his girlfriend, Fran, to meet us and they stayed for a couple of nights, along with Long, and it was nice. The main thing I learnt from this weekend is that I really, really can't drink how I used to, after a heavy one at the great (but much better when late) Snooty Fox, we spent Saturday night in with The Voice, Britain's Got Talent and 21 Jump Street, being 22+ is pretty wild.

I'm a bit sad that today's weather has been so unpredictable, all I've done is go food shopping, although after all the excitement of the rest of the weekend, I think a day hanging out in the flat is just what Moon and I needed.
Things that were good about this weekend:

My culinary skillz.
After seeing 'Home Cooking Made Easy' last week, I thought I'd give ol' Lorraine Pascale a run for her money with my own version of her cheese and bacon straws, they're as incredible as they sound. I also kind of followed (but mainly winged) a Gizzy Erskine recipe for the sausage rolls. I'm super proud of myself, but shamefully, both were nearly all gone before Richard and Fran even arrived(!)


Tasty drinks and fun games.
I tried Chambord for the first time on Friday and it was much, much tastier than I thought it would be, so Long got us two pretty great house-warming gifts.




Getting 'out-out'.


On Saturday, after nursing our sore heads with a Wetherspoons breakfast, we went over to The Living Rainforest, which is just outside of Newbury. It was okay, but felt like a bit of a rip-of considering it's basically just a massive, sweltering greenhouse, but we bonded over it's short comings and there were some fun things to see, even if there weren't any butterflies. You also get return visits for the one entry price so it's not too bad. Maybe I also didn't care for it much because it was really difficult to take photographs, I don't like the idea of a mouldy camera, plus it's much more fun to take photographs than constantly be wiping steam away from your lens.



Oddly-shaped flowers.


The noise this bird made.


Collective disgruntlement.




Newbury Farmer's Market.




My tomato plants have started growing!
And they've grown a lot just this weekend too. I might have to seek some advice from my Gran as to what to do next, but I'm so happy, not bad for The 99p Store. Sadly, Moon's chilli plant has yet to make an appearance.


This little lady.
She was on her very best behaviour, and didn't wake anyone up with yowling once, although Long did get a pretty bum deal having to sleep in our doorless lounge.



The beef Richard bought us.
All the house-warming gifts our friends have bought us so far have been wicked, but this was the most delicious. Richard picked this up for us from the butchers he used to work at and he definitely knows what he's talking about. This is less than half of it too, but it made for a perfect Sunday evening tea.
This sure was a nice way to spend a bank holiday weekend, I sort of immersed myself back in job hunting a bit today but I'm in a good place, and there's a new episode of 'Girls' to catch up with tonight!
I hope you've enjoyed the first of this month's bank holiday offerings as much I have. It's such a shame we can't really have more people than we did over at a time, we're nearly always thinking about ways to get around it, plus I still love our tiny flat ♥.

April Glossybox

This month's Glossybox was a pleasant surprise, although perhaps slightly later than I would have liked, I'm really impressed with nearly all the products I got this month. I've also given them a slightly fairer trial than I have for previous Glossyboxes.

---

So, this month's Glossybox theme was 'organic and natural', something that I personally don't really take into much consideration when purchasing beauty products. I'm not sure why, I'm just usually conscientious about price, smell and what it does, which is why Glossybox is so perfect for me as it means I get to try out things that I wouldn't usually. This month, basically all the products were full-size, so although they weren't quite in the same price vein as last month's luxury Harrod's box, their size meant that once again, Glossybox was good value for money.

As a major sucker for packaging and branding, I loved the texture and look of this month's box, which really fitted into the eco feel and would double-up as a super-cute giftbox.

---

Vinosource SOS Thirst-Quenching Serum, Caudalie
I really liked this product, and haven't used anything like it before. For a sample-size I also think it's gone pretty far and I have enough to last at least two more uses after using it throughout this week. It smells really nice, which as I said is a plus for me, but I also feel like it may have made a slight difference to my skin or at the very least made my moisturiser go a lot further. It's very hard to judge because using this fell on a week that I'd just changed my skincare routine. I really liked this product and despite being a 'thirst-quencher', I've found my skin to be less oily than usual.




Certified Organic Eyeliner in 07 Graphite, INIKA Cosmetics
I don't use pencil eyeliner that often anymore, but I have to give this one major props. Firstly, it's the first eyeliner in ages that I've used which hasn't smudged after a few hours wear. It's not the most interesting colours compared to those I've seen on other reviews, but it's very wearable, and I've never even thought about a grey eyeliner before. With a thicker application the colour is almost black, but it still has a silvery-blueish tint, which is a nice touch. The fact that it's organic is good but having nothing to compare it to as to whether that is why it's so good I can't say that should be it's biggest plus. Priced at £11.75 it's a lot more than I would usually spend on this kind of product, so I'm very pleased that it was the full-sized version in this month's box


Sandalwood Natural Body Wash, Ayuuri
Another full-sized product and again with the shower gel. Having received such a surplus amount at Christmas from relatives, it feels like I'll never have to actually buy shower gel again! So, this is a lovely product, I adore the smell and the benefits that come with it; Vitamin E and oils of Sandalwood - are great. On first use I didn't even really have to moisturise afterwards.


100% Organic Lip Balm in Rambling Rose, Figs & Rouge
Three out of five products this month were full-size, so that's pretty awesome. I loved the texture of this lip balm, it's unlike any I've used before. It begins with a grainy feeling on application with then smooths and leaves lips feeling fully nourished (and it really does feel like that!). The major downfall with this product for me was the taste, it's not as though I go around eating lip balm but even when drinking water, I just got a huge intake of rose which was incredibly unpleasant. Rose is probably one of my least-favourite flavours, fine to smell, but unpleasant to ingest. So sadly this will be getting minimal use purely for that, although I'll definitely turn to it if my lips are particularly dry.


Perfume, Kai
I thought the sample applicator for this product was pretty measly, although overall I didn't really like the smell of the perfume anyway, it was a bit too floral and sweet for my taste.
I think April's Glossybox offering was pretty good, although my dislike for the lip balm and perfume were down to my opinions on taste/smell, each product had it's pluses... apart from maybe the perfume. The organic theme was a great way to kick off spring, hopefully we'll actually be able to see some more springtime weather this month, I think England could do with some sunshine.

Rainbow chest.

This is from a long time again, so long ago, I almost shouldn't really be posting it, but I wanted to share it with you because it gave me a great sense of accomplishment. I would have shared sooner, but apart from a couple of days, I've been so busy with other things.

Today, all I have to do is some laundry and to clean the house, so I thought this should take priority as I promised myself I'd upload it as soon as I had internet, and it's been nearly a week since that happened, so here we go...

---

This chest was originally from Ikea, we've had two for as long as I can remember, and have usually used them for laundry hampers. Since I moved into my first house at University, this particular chest has followed me to each house since. I've used it mainly for storage and it was looking pretty tired and was (some how) covered in nail polish and stuck-on paper. So, I thought it would be appropriate to give it a makeover before I moved again and it would follow me once more, plus it saved on thinking about laundry hampers.

Everything I bought to do this was from Wilkinson. I was going to paint it all one colour but found out buckets of paint are way to expensive, considering I wouldn't use it all. So I picked up some of Wilkinson's sample sizes, which were £1 each and much better value, mainly because of their size, than branded samples. I did use two yellows in the end, but that's mainly due to the amount I used. Unfortunately I can't remember the names of the paint for you, all I know is the blue colour is called 'Minted' and sadly didn't live up to is minty expectations, but overall went quite well with the other colours anyway.

Supplies:
Paint
Paintbrushes, from large to small (for tiny details)
Sanding block
Sandpaper - to get rid of muck and smooth the surface
Masking tape
Warm water

---

Here is Moon being super-helpful as always, but I did the rest by myself, even putting everything back together!


Even now that she's moved in here, this is still going on, great place for hunting, apparently.







We had a big move around yesterday, so where the chest is at the moment isn't how it is in this photo, but you get the general idea. This was a much easier project than I had anticipated and I've since moved on to painting something else, which I finished yesterday and hopefully won't take as long to share with you. I can't say that enjoyed the painting side of things that much, but the end result of having something new and exactly how I wanted it for a fraction of the cost was such a great feeling.

---

I'm thinking of having a big revamp elsewhere, and once I have some time to meticulously go over it, I'll be giving my blog a bit of a facelift. Also, don't know if you noticed but I used my tablet for the 'before' and 'after' photos, bit naff, I know but I want to try and use it more. I've had my Wacom tablet for years but never really used it due to lack of space, now I have tons of space so I thought I'd whip it out - it took me so long to do these that neither of the words mean anything to me anymore. I hope to practice and use different techniques to get better, I know it will take a bit of getting use to though.

---

Have you done any fun DIY projects lately?

Tuesday Tabs #15

Time to de-clutter my tabs bar once more, a much more productive way to wait for paint to dry.

Currently I think I need at least a 28 hour day, that would be good, I can't seem to fit everything in. Doll is settling in almost too well, and although she was being - weirdly - affectionate when I returned from an interview this afternoon, I didn't appreciate her loud wailing outside our bedroom door at 5 o'clock this morning, so our visitors are probably in for a treat when they stay at the weekend...

I'm not sure how much I want to talk about job hunting today, I'll just say it's steady and leave it at that. I can't get any more fed up with it than I am already. Let's just get started, shall we?

---

Due to all the stress, I kind of failed April's Photo A Day challenge, so I'm going to try and start again with this months, again from Fat Mum Slim. I might only post it once a week though rather than every day. I didn't like how cluttered it made my blog look if I posted something else. #ocd

(via It's Nice That)

I don't know what Ikea think they're playing at by being this awesome but how good is this? Following the previous week's announcement about their new TV units, I was already pleasantly surprised, but this is too up my street. Ikea are doing all kinds of exciting things at the moment and KNÄPPA is one of them, would love to know when it will be released so I can try one out.

(via The Dainty Squid)

Make A Run For It Skirt, $188.99, Modcloth
I have too many printed animal items of clothing, but this skirt is perfect, and the colour is lovely, definitely in need of more orange in my wardrobe.


Wombat Hug Brooch, $AUS35, Made By White
Wombats are wicked, easily my favourite Australian animal and I don't actually have that many brooches, let alone any wooden ones.


Interview with The Maccabees for Swiss TV Show 'POPBAR'. They say some good things, like how it's silly to cover The Beatles.


How many great movies are coming out in the next few months?! I'm a big one for trying to avoid full-trailers if possible, especially if I've already heard good press about a film or know who's going to be in it. However, I'm a little obsessed by this viral trailer for Ridley Scott's Prometheus, everyone needs to at least watch this trailer, but the film itself, judging from it's official trailer, just looks generally epic.


'LOL I'm just kitten' t-shirt, $28, Burger and Friends


Hand screen-printed Dala horse, Seventy Tree
Ever so slightly gutted that this piece is now no longer available. ;(


Rob Ryan's Bells vase, £35, John Lewis
I'm obsessed with Rob Ryan's 'Bells' series at the moment, it just makes me feel so warm because the words are so beautifully put. I'm also lusting after the plates, but as I wouldn't want to eat off of them and have no where to display them, I'm mainly eyeing up this vase, especially since seeing it on display in the local John Lewis, perf. ♥

---

Link Love: ♥

Camera Bag Round-up from A Beautiful Mess — I'm currently waiting on a new bag, but a huge, and I mean huge part of me wishes I had the will-power to save up for a great-quality, pretty camera bag like the ones talked about here. It's a really strong well-rounded overview too, talking a bit more about what else is on offer other than Jo Totes. Don't get me wrong, I adore Jo Totes, I'd just never considered there were other similar brands.

Perfectly-timed Animal Pictures

Per Johansen's Mæt (Full) — Wonderfully, grotesque still life images from Danish photographer Per Johansen.

Make a teddybear from a sock — This is a super-cute craft idea, definitely on my to-do list once I get the never-ending list of everything else out of the way.

Create Your Own Fabric Patterns — Amazing!

It Looks Hard But Isn't: 15 Dishes to Impress Your Guests — Don't think I'm quite ready to impress people with my cooking just yet, but living in your own (non-student) home does bring about a certain notion of 'entertaining' rather than the more manageable 'drinking'. I like cooking anyway, so if nothing else these are some good ideas to test out on Moon at least.

---

Currently listening: 'Call Me Maybe' - Carly Rae Jepsen
Currently watching: HBO's 'Girls' (Lena Dunham ♥)