Easter

Well it has been a long (and sometimes testing 40 days and nights for lent) I knew chocolate would be difficult having a sweet tooth but who knew how my lack of facebook would effect me. I haven't been a fan of facebook for sometime, but going cold turkey is a whole new ball game. The first week was tough purely because of habit. I lost count the amount of times I clicked on the icon on my phone before being met with the log-in screen. Then there was constant references from my friends...'Have you seen blah blah from school's status update? Did you see the picture I uploaded from last night?' It meant nothing to me, but rather than feeling left out I actually started to feel a little smug that I wasn't wasting my time on such pointless things. The only thing I missed was being able to see pictures from my family, my cousin will regularly posts pictures of my godchildren and I have family in Australia who keep us updated. So what did I do at the end of the 40 days? Well of course I had to log back in for one last glance but I have deleted the app off my phone and spent a few hours deleting the people who I wouldn't say hello to in the street or seen for over 6 months. I can safely say I haven't missed out on a thing by not having Facebook and able to spend my time a lot more productively as you can see below....

Handmade Easter cards

Alternative Easter treats, bought the bags and labels from an eBay store and filled with my nieces favourite sweets

New cake book...already put notes on my favourite

Cooking equipment ready to go

Chocolate orange marble cake ready to go in the oven

All iced up to be served Easter Sunday

New vintage plates...with a few crumbs, I think that means they enjoyed it? :-)



Easter decorations (from pound land shh!)



Unfortunately the same cannot be said for a Chocolate and I haven't stopped indulging since! I know this must stop as I begin to train again for the London Marathon 2014. My next blog will be all about getting back in the fitness game!

Happy reading,

Grace xx

A Vintage Affair...

It is no secret I am fan of all things vintage and I have been lucky enough to go to two vintage fairs in the last month. There are so many stalls full of jewellery, clothes, crockery and home ware- not to mention singers and dancers providing entertainment. For only £1 admission the atmosphere is fantastic and bustling with a variety of people. I really would recommend going to one if a fair pops up if your area, they are great for something different in your home. Below are a few of my favourite vintage pieces...

Vinyl decal bird cages

 

 

Vintage frame with one of my favourite pictures of my Dad

Love jewellery stands stacked with loads of necklaces... more the better. My top tip is to put plaques and signs on there too for a great effect.

 

 

Picked up this cute washing-up liquid apron from a vintage fair for £3- never seen anything like this before!

Metal shirt clips add a twist to any boring shirt, even used them on my spring mac. Bought from a vintage fair for £2.

 Most recently I have really got into making my own handmade cards. Not always the most vintage designs but its nice to make them personal for each occasion. Here a few of my first designs ready to be personalised...

 

 

What I love about vintage items is that anything goes. Any colours, any designs, my rule is I will only buy it if I have never seen anything like it before or if its something that I think is really clever (like the washing-up liquid apron). There are lots of homemade items out there these days it really doesn't have to cost a lot to make your house a little different.

 

Keep posted for my next blog on some vintage Easter treats :-)

 

 

Love,

 

Grace xx

My lovely little weekend away...

Theres nothing worse than that Monday morning feeling...and even worse when you've had a lovely weekend away to show you how awesome weekends can be! I may have mentioned before that my boyfriend and I celebrated our one year anniversary earlier in the week. We didn't do much on the day apart from going for a drink where we went on our first date. We did meet each other there though so it was a little romantic, and I still got the same butterfly feelings some 365 days earlier :-) We had planned a night away in Manchester as a treat and I managed to get us an amazing hotel through group on. I'm not the biggest fan of modern hotels so the stone pillars, high ceilings and stain glass windows meant I was in my element at the Palace hotel on Oxford road. After a spot of shopping on Saturday we headed back to our room armed with a bottle of wine so Stew could watch the rugby and I could have a long, hot bath- heaven :-) We got ready and at 8pm used our free drink voucher (yes another win!) before sitting down for some amazing fillet steak and you guessed it...more wine! Its a good job we had that free breakfast in the morning to ease our poorly heads and we were up and out early to meet my bro and visit the art gallery.

 

 

I haven't been to an art gallery in years and Manchester Art Gallery was definitely worth the wait, even when you first enter you are greeted with stairs full of daffodils and different routes to explore. One of the first paintings I saw was to be by Raqib Shaw who would turn out to my favourite artist of the day. His work was unlike anything I had ever seen before, it was genuinely stunning to look at with bright colours, graphite, acrylic, enamel, glitter and rhinestones. I was so inspired Ive even found a design I'm going to try and give it the Raqib Shaw treatment (will keep you updated with that!)

 

 

 

 

I really would recommend going to Manchester, its a great balance of culture and shopping so you get the best of both. Try going to a pub called Bank not far from the art gallery. Very friendly and amazing food :-)

 

Happy reading,

 

Grace xx



Whats In My Shopping Bag.....

I haven't been shopping in ages so whilst I had a £50 bullring voucher in hand I decided now was the right time to spend it. The problem with a voucher is that you are always looking for that 'perfect item' as you dont want to waste it on just anything. I already had in mind a floral topshop playsuit I had my eye on for some time. Unfortunately once I had it on it did not live up to expectations and the search continued. I must of been influenced by the small bit of a sunshine weve had this weekend as my purchases show....

 

I loved this silky top from Primark, thought it looked a lot more expensive than its £10 pricetag!

 

Neon is set to be HUGE this spring/summer so I have invested in a neon pink knitted jumper to wear over the top of a crisp white shirt teamed with skinny jeans and some brogues...geek chic at its best.

 

I am the worlds worst for not wearing any colour at all, black, grey and navy being a staple in my wardobe I decided to purchase this cute £13 primark dress. Ballerinas and my beige mac are my thoughts but might try and rock it up with my leather jacket too.

 

 

I have been looking for a drop hem dress for ages and my fashion crush Laura Whitmore wore one just like it so I was pleased as punch when I found this for £16 in New Look!

 

Well I couldnt resist a little black! Every girl needs some black ballerina's....

 

I love quirky accessories, dont wear them often but Im really keen to get into the piled high bangle look. I already have some evil eye jewellery but I cant get enough of it. I have a pendant I bought from New York that I want to make a bracelet from :-)

 

 

 

 

This super practical purse and phone holder is amazing. It holds your phone and your money & cards. My friend Christina introduced me to this and I managed to get the last polka dot one yesterday from Primark for £4. Perfect for any night out then lugging round a big purse!

 

Want to take part in whats in my shopping bag? Email grace.collins@live.co.uk

Happy reading,

Grace xx

L.O.V.E

Valentines is fast approaching, and it makes me laugh every year how far it can divide opinion. I have never been a fan of over the top gestures, preferring a more personal present any day but I can never understand why people are so against it? This can be said for many other celebrations- Christmas, royal holidays etc. In my opinion, when there is so much sadness and anger in the world why would you choose to not celebrate something so focused on bringing people together and love? The most common opposition I hear is 'its all marketing' and 'you don't need a holiday to tell people you love them'. This is all well and good, but I wish to meet a person who makes those closest to them feel appreciated every single day of the year? I for one am guilty of not always spending enough time with people I care about, or taking the time to make sure they are OK. Our lives seem to revolve around time, not having enough of it and for some- having too much (see previous post about what makes you happy) so if an occasion is what we need to prompt us to appreciate those close to us so be it. And for those who say its all marketing- simple- don't buy anything. Make something if you wish, or just a simple message on a mirror will suffice. We all think those closest to us know how much we love them but when was the last time you told them? (tip: go do it now!)

 Everyone has the right to be in love, and I never realised just how important it can be. It is not limited just to that from a boyfriend or girlfriend, although I have found out how important this can be of late. This last time last year I was single, pre-occupied by bungee jumps and holding tarantula's (www.23b423.blogpsot.com) and a boyfriend could not of been furthest from my mind. I had even made a point to my housemate that I would not pursue anyone who came on the scene as I didn't think it was fair whilst I was busy with something so personal to me. But one Sunday afternoon I was to meet the person who would change all that. Having swapped my weekend shift at the pub to a daytime I ended up serving a family who I had got to know over the last few months and in particular a certain son of theirs I had never met. Although nothing happened there and then by the powers of facebook (yes that very social networking site I moaned about in my first post) we got chatting, swapped numbers and arranged our first date the very next day. You would be right in thinking that this would be going against my refusal to pursue, however anyone who didn't mess around with texting for 3 weeks before going on a date instantly made me intrigued. Even after a lovely chat over a drink (I chatted he listened I'm told!) I was still a little reluctant for anything to come out of it, but something couldn't stop me seeing him again. I think part of this was due to the fact he was so different to anyone I had dated before- he was polite, funny and nothing short of a gentleman, the complete opposite of anything I would count as my 'type'. Whilst I was worried that perhaps it would turn out to be nothing more than friendship its that foundation that makes us stronger then ever, not only did I gain a boyfriend I also gained a best friend. It may not be the constant roller coaster I was used to but I wouldn't swap it for the world and I can tell I have matured as I appreciate it so much (and I still get butterflies to this day) I don't want to be waiting for a text message all day...I want to be waking up to one and I don't want to be arguing about where to go...I want to to be struggling to fit in all the things we have planned. I always thought relationships would be stifling and stop me being who I want to be, but I would actually say it has made me into a better person. Not only do I learn new things everyday from him but I also have the confidence to do things differently. I know there is always going to be someone there to support me if it goes wrong or congratulate me if it goes right. When I look at my grandparents who are still as madly in love as the day they met, I can tell it isn't based on trying to out do each other or being stubborn. They are a team who have worked through any problems and took on the world together. It sounds cheesy but there isn't anyone who doesn't want to fall in love in their life, isn't that what we all search for? I think if we all showed a little more old fashioned values and respect to our other halves relationships would last a lot longer. You may be thinking who am I to judge how love works? This may be so but with anything I think you need to know what you want in order to gain it. One day I want my grandchildren to look at me and I think I want what they have.

 Love comes in many different forms but no one can deny that love makes the world a better place and there isn't anyone who would give up the chance to be in love.

Happy reading,

Grace x

PMA..Positive Mental Attitude

After I finished my blog 23 things to do before 23 (www.23b423.blogspot.com) I decided to take a little break from blogging. Even though it was hands down the best experience of my life and my proudest moments, it was also emotionally draining! Recently I have had a bit of a tough time with feeling down. I have never been a person for self pity or feeling negative but after pulling out the London Marathon it really did have a big effect on me. Whilst I would moan at every opportunity at running in the cold and dark, as soon as I couldn't do it I missed it (story of my life wanting what I can't have!). I am the sort of person who tends to make everything into a domino effect, if I have a bit of bad luck I look at the bad in everything and before you know it you're getting sucked into a black hole of negativity. I HATE negativity...I am strong believer that a positive mental attitude can change your everyday life and the only person that can do that is yourself. No matter what people say to you if you don't want to do it yourself that's half the battle lost...

...So in order to make myself feel a bit more like the old Grace I have wrote a list of all the things that make me happy. Number one was BLOGGING! I loved writing, its like having a conversation with yourself and getting everything out in the open certainly makes me feel better. I'm going to make sure I blog once a week even, and least then it gives me the motivation to make sure I have something worth writing about :-)

I recently lovely weekend with my friends drinking tea and eating cake, I felt like I hadn't seen them in so long. You can forget sometimes how long it has been since you have properly spent time with people as you speak all the time through text and see whats going on facebook. Ahh FACEBOOK, my guilty pleasure...it can annoy me so much how addictive it can be. I definitely don't think its healthy how I feel the need to go on there everyday and how judgemental people can be by what others write. Don't get me wrong I love seeing pictures of my brother in Australia etc but lets face it- half the time we are being nosey at the people we haven't seen in years from school! So for lent this year I am giving up facebook. 40 days and 40 nights of no facebook at all, I will delete the app from my phone so nothing can get through!

Other things on my happy list-

• exercise, its amazing how therapeutic it can be and even though I cannot run just yet I am going to look into starting a yoga class for something to help me relax. I'm also partial to a walk (when I can get people to join me) so every month I'm making sure I make that time to stretch my legs!
• travel, I have a lovely trip to Manchester to look forward to and my parents caravan in Wales re-opens at the end of the month so I am going to spend as much time as I can there this year.
• date night, my lovely boyfriend and I have been together a year soon and we've made a promise to ensure we have a nice night out every month.
• bake, I do love a little baking session and I am currently trying to perfect baking a heart inside a cake. Ive also purchased some lovely edible vintage buttons I'm going to be using for some birthday cakes soon.
• getting creative, i LOVE making things and going to try and make personalised items for every birthday and celebration this year.
• payday treats, I'm currently saving for my own house which can feel like torture but I'm going to make sure every payday I allow myself a little treat to keep myself sane!
• having a bath & painting my nails, now I'm back at my mum and dads I can finally have baths in a nice big tub and I'm going to ensure I have one every Sunday followed by painting my nails. I'm not very experimental with bright clothing but anyone can carry off a different nail paint
• old school music, music has the ability to take you back to any moment, happy and sad. When I was a kid I loved nothing more than coming home from school putting on my latest single (yes single!) and dancing to the same song repetitively. Ive just added my old Ashlee Simpson albums to my ipod and its making my journey to work more bearable. Next one on is my old b*witched album (yes really!)
• doing NOTHING, i find it impossible to sit and relax sometimes but I'm making a conscious effort to allow myself time to recharge my batteries and not feel guilty about it!
• coin flipping, when I lived with my best friend Alison we would constantly make decisions by flipping a coin. Whether it be what we ate that night, if we went out, what to wear etc etc. It certainly added a fun element to our lives and sometimes we would end up going somewhere we had never been before. But remember when the coin has spoken you have to follow its decision! :-)

They make sound silly, petty things but think how often you do things that make you really happy. Its so easy to get wrapped up in life's everyday worries but always make sure you make the time to do the things that make you smile. Its your life and you get to choose how you spend it!


Happy reading & keep smiling,

Grace xx