Minimalist Revamp

I was today perusing the blog of a finnish cosmetics blogger/ sales person extraordinaire, Virve, and the entry of her new apartment and the massive cull in the items she owns.

This, for me, resonates quite a lot at the moment. I am planning on moving to a new city next summer, in search of a new career as a graduate, as well as new adventures (all things going well!). Because of that, I have to seriosly look into the amount of things I own, use up my excess cosmetics, edit, edit, edit.

But also, I have half of my student fees to be paid off in January, which adds to the intrigue in its own way. Because of the fees, I have to save money, only using what I have to. No buying more clothes, no makeup as I have plenty (one day I will actually blog of my cosmetics shame), no handbags.. just the necessary food, no frivolities.

I have also recently ate lots of crap food, and feel it in my physical appearance. Clothes don't fit, I feel sluggish and tired, my skin's lacklustre. I definitely am in need of a health kick, that is a definite.
It all links together, but how, may you ask. Simple.

Need to save + need to minimize and sort out wardrobe + need for a health kink = Operation Run-Up. A run-up to Christmas, a run up to 2011, a run-up to the move..

Where as people put on weight leading to the end of the year thanks to the holiday excesses, I intend to lose it. Whereas people lose money because of the same festivities, I intend to save it. My theme for the end of the year will be about loss - loss of weight, loss of an impractical wardrobe, loss of excess spending, loss of all the cosmetics I have in the house.
I will blog about it, I will ponder it, I will be honest about it.. it'll be a pain in the ass, but hopefully, it will be somewhat useful, both for me, but also for someone who reads the entries.

The issues I will tackle are:

* my wardrobe: my current wardrobe is quite disjointed, and doesn't really reflect who I am. I am a minimalis at heart, like materials like leather and felt, dark colours like black, grey and purple, inky blue and dark blue-green. Strong colours, strong lines, character.
I will actually, when I am clearing out my stuff, go through all my old magazines and create myself a general mood board, and maybe identify some new trends in the things I like. Fingers crossed, anyway, maybe I will have some sort of a 'lightbulb moment'!

* my health: I have put on weight recently, thanks to the wonders of hormones and eating loads of food which is less than healthy. I have already imposed a ban on candy, chololate and crisps - in the name of enjoyment I will allow myself the occasional pastry as life is too short to eat food what tastes like cardboard.
I also need to crack on with my gym routine, but also re-start my exercise classes again. Hopefully I will take up something that is more holistic, as at the moment I feel about as flexible as an iron bar, sadly.

* my finances: saving up and paying uni fees, tackling existing debts, it's all about re-evaluating my relationship with money and consumption.

* my future: I have been doing a lot of thinking recently, having tackled allsorts of issues at work recently. Evaluated what I want out of life, and believe you me, working 80+ hours a week and doing shifts.. really not a nice thing at my ripe age (of 31, if you need to know)

So there, such will life be. Looking at my dining room table, it doesn't look any clearer. But the crisp/candy/cholocate ban has worked since sunday. Just don't mention the handbag I ordered tonight ;-)..small steps.



Ooh, metal. My future new bag from Next, my staple for everything these days :-).

Students, Again

I have been reading the postings of the lovely Yummy (link in finnish, sorry), who's today travellened to London to start her University adventure. At the same time, today has seen an influx of student to the University of Nottingham - yes, it is that time again :-D.
I really remember those heady days of becoming a student, returning to Uni for a new year, making new friends, catching up with the old ones. The excitement, the alcohol, the freedom, the lecture halls.. such fantastic days!

My own studying will start next month - as always, my Uni is kicking off at the start of October, and my induction will be on the 6th onwards. Second year on a part-time Masters degree starts. It will be a busy year - two modules, one dissertation, a few applications to do a PhD.
Funnily enough, that seems progressing. I have an idea what I wanted to do, and approached someone who I wanted to be my supervisor. She's keen on the idea, and passed on my mail to the head of their department, who's sent me a mail saying he's very interested and the department would love to suervise me. Yay \o/ * victory dance *!

As a sidenote, there mas been very little fashion/beauty-type postings here. Simple reason - my camera wire has gone AWOL. I have a few pics of my new bauty haul stuff, as well as my handbags, but cannot post the little blighters.
Fingers crossed I will find the wire soon, and get back to business. The plans are to make a posting on the five last bags I bought (I am a bag lady), plus to post about sorting my wardrobe out.
Oh yes, the last one has been a task and a half. After deciding I want to keep my privacy and to stay home alone, I ave decided to move my stuff to the bigger bedroom with a few wardrobes. That has left me to the process of sorting out my wardrobe. I have lots of clothest that I do not wear, plus with a possible move ahead of me next year, because of my potential studies, I feel it is time to start downscaling with clothes, accessories and makeup. God knows how that will work out, seeing as I just today found myself a lovely eyeshadow quad by Tigi from TK Maxx :-p..

Laziness

I have been stuck at work since last week, and will carry on work until next week. I've had to call the fire service in, the ambulance in, have broken things, gotten grounchy, been tired, stressed, annoyed, generally shattered.
So where does that leave me?
On Wednesday, I will be finally having a day off, and will be popping over to Leicester to spend a day horading more books, and meeting up with a University friend for some coffee, lunch and chatting about further studies. But with the tiredness, I am suddenly struck with a dilemma - I really cannot be bothered to make an effort. Casual slouchy clothes, trainers, no makeup, hair thrown in a ponytail, those are the things that appeal to me. Not the usual stuff I like - looking minimalistically rock, having eyebrows that are done, generally looking, well, passable.

Damned you, work, making me want to look like me, with no improvements. We cannot have that ;-)!



P.S. I miss dancing.

Personal Challenges, Part 1: Eyes

Everyone has things about them they like.


Me, I like my eye colour. It is quite nice, even if hard to describe. I don't like my eyes, though, they're small and a pain in the ass to make up nicely. Hence why I rarely try, I just let them be. And it's a shame, as I am sure I could really make something nice of them.. well, of the colour, anyway.

So that is my personal challenge. To learn to make something out of my eyes. Still, the problem is defining the exact colour of the damned things. I could highlight the brown, which is a nice enough colour. I could emphasise the gray-ish edge of my eyes, or the green in them.

I could play around with the eye liners I have but do not use. Slap on mascara. paint on eye shadow, play around with primer potions.

Where to start, people, where to start... and most of all, how to keep up the habit once I find something that works?

Lumene Love

I am so tired after a nightshift, plus sorting out a financial disaster of the house deposit, that my head will not produce any text that will make any sense.

So here are a few photos from my Lumene haul from my recent finnish trip. Gorgeous colours. I am quite useless with the eye makeup side of things, but hopefully these will inspire me to dip my toe into it. I did get a few lipsticks too, but that's another whole post altogether..

13082010 - Friday the 13th

Truth be told, today hasn't been that bad of a day. Yes, I overslept, missed my bus and was late for work. But I also had a good day at work, got free cake and had a marvellous dinner, as well as came home to no bills. Bonus.

I was pondering about different things to blog about. I cannot do the usual 'what I wore today' stuff because not only do I wear a uniform pretty much every day due to work, on days off I tend to thrown on a black shirt, jeans and trainers. My 'outfit' is all about the bags, scarves and coats.
It's kind of hard to do a 'style blog' about an utfit when your outfit is all-black and quite simple - and always looking the same! still, style isn't always about the clothes, it's about the other stuff, too.

What I was pondering was writing about the stuff I carry with me, a kind of written version of 'what's in my purse'- videos. Which I love, by the way, in my voyeuristic way.
So that is definitely oncoming. As are blogs about my other obsession, make-up. Love the stuff, even though the question is why someone who doesn't wear makeup to work loves it so much. Lip cosmetics, I have always loved. But truth be told, I don't tend to use them that much either. A slick of lipbalm to stop chapping, and job's a good 'un.

Ideas, ideas.. all there, all good, all having to wait until later, or atleast until I have had my coffee.

A/W 2010 Inspiration

A/W 2010 by julietdeltasierra featuring Balenciaga bags

Boxed In

So I was supposed to go and watch a film today, walk around, enjoy the great outdoors and generally enjoy a day off for once.
Instead I overslept, and have spend the day indoors warding off the rain and trying to sort things out. Especially that damned shoe box above which I have on my dresser, which is crammed full of stuff that I have bought and chucked in. Any beautyhaul..that's where I usually lash it, and then forget it.

In it, such little treasures as this were found:



Ah, BeneFit and Smashbox.. nice. And may I say that for such a woman as myself, who isn't at all glittery or pink, the haul does look very girly indeed. Just look at the butterfly brooch in the picture of the box (from Primark, the source of all things sparkly and good)..damn damn damn, what did come over me (just you wait for the day when I take photos of all the other glittery stuff I have ;-) )?