Riverisland sale

Today I popped into my local River Island store. I wasn't expecting to buy anything because I'm normally way too poor for RI. But they were having their January sale so I was quietly optimistic about it. I found this gorgeous pair of shoes. I've been looking for shoes like this for ages. They were originally sold for £36 down to £15 and once I'd tried them on I knew I had to have them. I was a little concerned they were the last pair and thought they must be faulty. But I searched every inch and found no fault. They are real leather and are very comfortable. I absolutely adore them!
I've been trying to be strict with myself when it comes to buying clothes now. I am only buying things when I can see it as part of an outfit of things I already have at home. And I could see these shoes going with so much. They have a balance of masculine and feminine with the chunkiness and the heel. I can see them adding an edge to an otherwise boring ensemble. I'm so excited to wear them :)
Xxxxxxx

I will post better pictures of them and everything when I get the chance. :)

So, Adult Life and Stuff...

Due to recent events in my life I've had to do the whole growing up thing pretty quickly. I'm 19 so technically I am already an adult but I'm talking even bigger/more mature adult things are now something that I have to do.

In the spring I will be moving from my current home to a flat. I will be taking on half the mortgage while my dad takes on the other half. So, mortgages. Yep, By the time I'm 20 I'm going to own my own property. I'm sure anyone reading this must be thinking 'Oh my god, that sounds amazing!' and yes, it is and I'm very excited. But there are lots of things that come along with owning your own property that you don't really think about at first and its pretty similar to renting your first place. 

I'm very lucky that the mortgage I'm taking on is going to be very low and with my boyfriend living there too, its basically going to be a walk in the park to pay for everything (this is because we will be selling a property and using the money to reduce the mortgage on the flat). But things like getting the mortgage in the first place, having a stable income and being organised enough to know exactly when every bit of money comes in or out of the house hold bills are the difficult bits. I have to be careful with money for the first time ever. Obviously, I have been careful with money before but before there was never the risk of losing my home... yeah. 

Another reason I'm very lucky is that I have a place to move into. Its a property that my family inherited that we rent out to other people. Once their tenancy runs out we can pretty much move straight in and take over the mortgage. So its sounding pretty good right?

Yes, it is. The only thing I have left to sort out is the stable income part. I am the unluckiest person with jobs. Its hard enough to find jobs at the moment and when I do find one, there is always something seriously wrong with it. Whether its unbearable managers or too low a wage or even the fact they've failed to provide payslips and ran their company illegally, I always end up having to leave. Luckily, a job has come up that I think will finally be the one. Its a company I've work for before and I really loved it and the only reason I left was because I was a Christmas temp, and had to. 

A permanent full time position in a store even closer to me has come up and I had an interview today. I am quietly confident about it. The people there know me and the manager said some very promising things so I'm going to keep my fingers crossed. By Friday I'll know about the job and I'm really excited! I'm not going to lie, I got back from the interview and genuinely danced through my house. 

I don't really know why I wrote this post. Probably because I just want to look back in a few months time and see where I was and how far I've come since then. I find keeping a diary is quite therapeutic. If anyone out there is in a similar situation to me where they are going through the process of moving out, I want you to know that I understand the stress. It can become quite unbearable at times and there are lots of things you need to have ready before you can even consider going. Sometimes you need to just take a step back from it all and not let it completely consume you.

New Handy Work!

I've never been a ring wearer. I've bitten my nails for as long as I can remember and so I've always done anything I can to hide my hands. So wearing rings was just a massive no no for me. Recently I decided to get some acrylic nails put on. I've tried everything to stop biting them and I didn't to damage my nails anymore but it was the only thing I hadn't tried. I was also worried about getting acrylic nails put on because because some of my nails are a little misshaped from biting them so much. I didn't want to draw more attention to my completely wrecked fingers.

I literally fell in love with the result. I kept the nails really short because needless to say I just pawed at everything and I was basically a cripple.

These two rings refused to sit nicely with the other rings so I had to wear them, sorry.

Because of my new found love of my hands, I popped into Newlook and took advantage of their buy one get one free on jewellery. I bought 2 sets of rings. 

The first set was 5 gold rings (the back row in the first picture and the large stone ring in the second). These were £5.99 and I think that was a pretty good price (just over £1 a ring) I think they are super dainty and cute which suits my extremely thin fingers. 

The second set was a set of 4 midi rings (front row in first picture and dark gold ring in the second picture). I've been loving the midi ring trend and always wanted to try it (if I ever had hands I were proud of). These were so cute and were only £2.99 (but I got them for free on the deal of course).

I was so happy with this purchase. Can we all just take a moment to look at my hands? Aren't they cute?

 This is the combination of rings that I wore today. Maybe a little too many for some people but I got a little too excited to wear them so tough. 

I definitely recommend going to your nearest Newlook and taking advantage of this deal. I got 9 rings for £5.99.. It can't get much better than that. Plus, did I mention my hands look cute?

Homeware Haul

I picked up a few homeware items the other day and I thought I would share them with you. Unfortunately the picture quality isn't that great but I'm running out of daylight and was desperate to get a blog post up. A little something you should know about me is that I am definitely a bargain hunter. I will never pay more than I think I should have to. I have 3 items to show you, 2 of which are from a charity shop, if that gives you an idea of how much I like to spend on things.

 The first thing item I picked up was this gorgeous photoframe from Store Twenty One. As you can see its a large (60cm x 60cm) white, heart shaped photo frame with 13 individual frames. It was only £5.99 which I was amazed at. I'm notorious for collaging me walls in loads of individual photographs. I think this will be a better way to still have lots of pictures but in a neater layout. I am very excited to use this!

 I then popped into one of my local charity shops. I'm looking to move out in the near (ish) future and I can't stop myself from buying pointless homey stuff. Including these little salt and pepper shakers. I know they probably seem very boring but they reminded me of an old fish and chip shop that is very special to me on the good old british coast. Ah, nostalgic memories. For 20p each I couldn't really say no.

And finally, in the same charity shop, these matching teacups and saucers for £1 each. Now, chances are I am just going to have these on display purely because of how pretty they are. Due to my lack of daylight, you can't see the colours properly. But the blue and pink pattern with the gold edging is just gorgeous. They are so dainty and adorable and I can't wait to walk into the kitchen of my new home with these on display. Its going to be so cute!

I also bought a big vintage mug which I wanted to show you but my dad has put it in the dishwasher and I can't get it out for another hour. It was a very wide mug with the words "hot soup" painted on it with lots of vegetables around it. The mug is that gorgeous vintage looking brown colour with the typical creamy beige colour on the inside. I'm literally waiting for it to be cold enough to justify having hot soup now. I probably need to get a life.

I hope you liked my mini haul. Feel free to leave any comments or suggestions!

x