image from tumblr
Something I’ve been thinking about doing, as a sort of way of cataloging my year (something I’m a bit obsessed with), is to make a playlist at the end of every month that sums up what I was listening to in those weeks. I think you can tell so much about someone from what they’ve been listening to, and I love how a certain song can transport you back to what you were thinking or feeling when you listened to it most. So, I’m making these playlist and I’m going to post them here, just in case anyone is interested. They’re a mix of old favorites and new to me – I’m afraid I’m not very good at keeping up with newly released music! Without further ado, here is the link to January’s (rather short, actually) offering:
(Organ donor included as Alex kept humming it whilst we were waiting to sign up to the organ donation register and it made me laugh. See? Happy memories already!)
Enjoy! I love discovering new music, so I’d love to be linked to any playlists you happen to be making 
Photo from post squares on tumblr
So, my boyfriend is away recording oop north this weekend, and I have the house to myself. All to myself! (and Professor Moriarty, obviously) And what excites me about this? The chance to do some serious sorting.
I’m not joking. I’m looking forward to putting my hair in a headscarf (is it just me who does this when cleaning?), and organising, cleaning and tidying the whole house. It needs it! There’s just something that makes me feel so good when everything I own is in order and this is something I need having had pretty much the week from hell. If everything in my house is in order it feels so much easier to have my mind in order, too. Pathetic? Maybe 
I like to get up early(ish) on a Saturday and dance around the kitchen whilst giving everything a good clean. My usual choice of soundtrack to this was the Adam and Joe show on 6 Music but as that’s on hiatus I’ll need to find something else. Any suggestions for cleaning music? I’d absolutely love to make a cleaning playlist on spotify and share it!
January sort-out went kinda wrong somewhere in the middle so February is taking on the left over tasks: I WILL clear out my junk and sort out my life!
Part of this MASSIVE SORTOUT will, of course, be the afore mentioned Wardrobe Detox which I plan to blog about (assuming it goes well…). It’s a daunting task but I think I’m up to it! My main problem is the ridiculous emotional attachment I get to certain parts of my wardrobe which results in me being unable to get rid of them despite having not worn them in years. But, I have a plan! Oh yes I do. Watch this space……
And it’s done, finally. I’m so excited to have this looking just how I want (though doubtlessly a few more tweaks will follow as I notice things) and am so grateful to Katie for designing my amazing header. I totally reccomend her as highly as possible for design work – she made me exactly what I wanted from my (very vague) instructions! She also has an amazing kitten called Yoni who is so cool he has his own tumblr. Morry is jealous and insists we set him one up, but I can’t even keep up with my own!. If anyone can recommend a good client, I’d be grateful.
I have a few posts half written (although a huge article I had nearly finished just got lost when TextMate died. Boo!) so it will be business as usual here soon enough.
I don’t know about you, but I am definitely suffering from the winter blahs. It’s cold and grey and miserable, and I’m suffering from after-Christmas broke-ness and there seems to be nothing on the horizon to cheer me up. So I’ve gathered together my favorite things on the internet at the moment in the hopes of chasing the blues away:
♥ Glamour magazine gives us 11 ways to beat the winter wardrobe blahs – even before reading this I decided to wear brightly coloured tights all last week and it definitely lifted my spirits!
♥ I love bows, I love headbands, I love knitting so I really want to make this knitted bow headband
♥ Wise words in Gala Darling’s newest feature
♥ My friend Nicola’s latest venture. Who doesn’t love red pandas? (answer: nobody)
♥ Sushi etiquette from Swiss Miss. I love this – I get so annoyed watching people heap pickled ginger on their pieces of sushi!
♥ My favorite Star Trek community (shut up, I can like fashion AND Star Trek) has now raised over $15,000 for Haiti. I’m so proud & amazed by the generosity of people – donate! Go now!! I don’t care where you give it to just give them your money. Don’t have your Starbucks tomorrow morning, or leave the take away for a night or give up your pint after work. A little to you can mean a lot to someone else.
♥ Whenever I’m feeling blue about all the bad things in the world, I go and read the testimonials at Operation Nice. They never fail to make me smile & remind me how great people can actually be.
♥ Or, laugh at the stupidity of others at Overheard in New York
♥ On hanging a vintage dress from WishWishWish – such a good idea & such gorgeous pictures. They’re definitely inspiring me to do something with my collection of vintage dresses which are currently in a pile, on my floor.
♥ No link, but I just started watching Glee on C4 and it’s love! It’s making me super nostalgic for all my time spent doing musical theatre at Secondary School & made me realise that I should really try and join a choir/theatre group this year. I won’t let a complete lack of talent stand in my way! (It never stopped me before)
I’m hoping this generally feeling of blah goes away soon – I’ve had absolutley no motivation & lost any routine I might have had. See: staying in bed til gone 2pm, sleeping in my make-up, leavin dishes to pile up, and eating chocolate in place of actual meals. Oops! Next week it’s back to the gym, back to normal sleeping hours and no more wine. For a bit, anyway…
moke the labradoodle. Taken by debussycat
Snow! I bet you’re all as bored of it by now as I am, right? I’ve been pretty much living in my polka dot wellies (yeah, even my practical items of clothing are fun) and although I love snow, I’d love it a whole lot more if I didn’t have anywhere to be going. Huh.
I decided that Monday evening (after a very large sushi dinner) was the perfect time to re-arrange my room & study. It wasn’t. The dust has made me sneeze and I can’t really be bothered to finish tidying now the furniture has been moved, so I’m in bed with wine listening to my boyfriend’s radio show instead. Oops. However, my beautiful dressing table is now in the study so that I can 1) get ready in the morning without waking boyface up and 2) use it as a desk as well! I miss it in our room, but it got no use in there so I’m sure it’s happier now. I’ve found my camera too (yay!) so I will take some pics when I have it how I want it. I love looking at people’s workplaces! Show me yours?
I’m pleased to announce that my project with TomA is now up & running (well, just)! Aimed at being a celebration of all things tea, Make Us A Brew.. will feature reviews of teas, tea shops, our tea inspiration, tea based craft, books about tea and just about anything else you could wish to have on the subject of the nation’s favourite beverage.
There’s also a chance to join in with our Blind Tea Test which I am very excited about. Secret tea! Surely the best kind?
Join us, & put the kettle on!
picture from Chooknage at flickr. Mm, tea.
It’s cold.
I mean, really cold. I’m glad I had some leftover turkey chilli (thanks, Jamie!) to warm me up this lunch time or I’d be an icicle right now. The chill is not adding to my joy at being back at work – I’d forgotten back to work also meant back to an outdated version of windows and all the tasks I put off doing last year because I didn’t want to/didn’t understand them. Well done, Tamsin.
I’ve decided that the only way I’m going to get through this week is by 1) compiling a very precise to do list which I will then completley ignore and 2) dressing up. I’m going to wear something silly every day, preferably with sequins on but even if it’s just red sparkly nail varnish: It will still cheer me up. I might even take photos and post them here. Building a den is also high on my list of things to do, but sadly the post-Christmas/New Year tidy up of my house needs to happen first before we lose the cat in a pile of junk. URGH. Still – I have a new project in the works, in conjuction with my good pal TomA which I should be able to reveal in the next week or so. The picture above is a clue….
I wish I could wear pyjamas to work.
EDIT: I just remembered I have Chai Latte in my desk drawer. WIN!
(my dad & little brother setting off our New Years lantern. It was a little overshadowed by the pub some miles behind our house setting off about thirty in a line, but, whatever. I thought it was pretty cool)
The post-Christmas, January blues have well & truly set in now and I even sitting in my new cupcake pyjamas quaffing wine, watching CDWM & surveying the many, many boxes of chocolates I seem to have acquired isn’t cheering me up. I attempted some sales today and came away with two sheets of deer stickers from Paperchase, & little deer photo holders at a grand total of £1 for the lot. The sales mostly depressed me – the racks of sequinned tops & sparkly dresses that were so exciting before the holidays now seem a bit tacky with no parties to wear them to and I really couldn’t cope with fighting the hordes to get a look at a rack of necklaces in Accessorize.
I’m probably also suffering from Post-Who depression. Oh, how I cried. David Tennant really did take over the screens this Christmas didn’t he? I seem to have missed a lot of it (the perils of a family Christmas when the family totals 8 people: you have no chance of actually hearing anything that’s on TV even if you can get control of the remote) so at least I have a date with iPlayer to look forward to. One thing I did catch over Christmas was the new version of The Turn of the Screw – what a waste of time (though I have been in love with Michelle Dockery ever since The Hogfather). Why can’t someone adapt a book without feeling the need to spell absolutley everything out to modern audiences and invent backstory because God forbid anyone have any original thought about anything. It just seems to me that most drama on tv these days spoonfeeds the viewer and is little more than chewing gum for the brain. I actually composed an entire entry about this in my head, but due to my inability to write anything down, forgot it all. Oops.
At any rate, I hope I shake these winter blues soon. For now, I’m hoping that this list of 100 things to do when you’re upset from Gala Darling will provide me with some inspiration.
Mopey kisses,
Missbeliever
I hope everyone has has a fantastic new year& Christmas, and that you’re not too hungover today.
I got very spooky with lots of lovely presents and have been mostly relaxing at my parents in Cheshire, eating too much food and then more of the same at Alex’s in Shropshire. The gym certainly beckons me…
I’ve made a few resolutions – a few that I’ll keep personal to me, but also:
•get to the gym at least once a week. I can barely even squeeze into my ‘fat’ jeans anymore!
•Concentrate more on my craft. No more half finished sweaters!
•Watch more films. I used to be so good at keeping up & now I don’t even know what’s on half the time
•Read more books! I have a huge selection that I’ve not looked at and though i’m getting better I still don’t read like I used to
•Complete a total and utter wardrobe clear out! I keep doing half hearted ones but I an going to be RUTHLESS.
I’m testing out the wordpress app on my iPhone (zomg I heart it more than I thought possible!) which isn’t quite as easy as using my MacBook so I shall depart to continue my sofa lounging cake munching ways. Another resolution is to update this blog with some degree of regularity, so expect more soon! Munch munch…
Time for some blatant consumerism. Obviously, I want all the obvious things like world peace, equality everywhere & less bloody Cheryl Cole on the tv but failing all that, here’s a few things that would console me if I were to find them under the tree….
The Big Bang Theory seasons 1&2, an old school casio watch, a red duffle coat, old china teacups, good red wine, a decorative birdcage, a lovely slouchy grey bag (this Marc Jacobs one would be lovely, but I think I'm pushing my luck!), a leopard print fake fur coat, Viktor & Rolf Flowerbomb perfume, Eage vs Shark, stompy clompy work boots, an iphone, a lovely thick scarf (yes, I knit but I just don't have time ok? And I’m getting cold!).
Santa? Are you listening?
