Casa de Corduroy Clouds

I thought I would do a series of posts on some of my favourite parts of my home. We are currently renting so can’t do any decorating (I long for the day when I own my own home and can buy some Farrow and Ball paint!) so we try to make it our own by adding some quirky bits and pieces around the flat that we have picked up from all over. Hope you like!

This week I have been mostly...

Eating, drinking, getting belated birthday presents and reading (P.S The wedding diets also not really happened)!

Primark Haul

 I accidentally went for a little look around Primark on my lunch hour yesterday and on my way to the till to get the face wipes stumbled upon all these things so had to buy them too – oops!

Spotty navy elasticated waist and pleated skirt dress - £10

Chartreuse flowery dress (this feels like thick cotton/light denim) - £10

Navy and white stripy jersey dress - £10

Black flower embossed skater dress with capped sleeves - £13

Boxy sleeved black shirt - £8

Stripy navy and white round neck cardigan - £6

Black baggy studded vest (sort of satin-y) - £4

Face wipes - £1

Silver feathered statement necklace - £4

I'm hoping the necklace and shirt go well together!

I haven’t tried anything on yet so hopefully they will all look good on.  These face wipes are excellent value I always get them – I have quite sensitive skin but these are great and don’t irritate me at all!

Waiting to be read....

“If you have enough book space, I don't want to talk to you.” Terry Pratchett

I always have a stack of books ready to be read.  Here’s what I currently have piling up to read next (once I’ve managed to finally finish Citadel)…

·         Die Trying by Lee Child – the second in the Jack Reacher series – I quite enjoyed the first one so will keep going with them but might get a bit sick of them during a VERY long series as how many times can one person be in a life threatening situation and then somehow manage to survive – I think my threshold will probably be about book 4 or 5!

·         On Dublin Street by Samantha Young – I’ve read some of this authors YA fantasy novels and really like them – am a bit worried this might be a bit 50 shades but am willing to .give it a go.

·         Dark Places by Gillian Flynn – having read Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn and really enjoying it (bar the last 5 pages) I’m looking forward to trying something else she has written

·         Paper Towns by John Green – again I’ve just read the fault in our stars and loved it so looking forward to reading more from this author.

·         The Twelve by Justin Cronin – this is the second novel in the series and though I found the last one quite hard going in places I did enjoy it so will carry the story on.

·         Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor – again the second in a  series.  A YA series but with a bit more depth to it than usual and some great world building so am looking forward to starting this one

Have you read any of these?  Any recommendations?

Cross-stitch

I’m a big fan of cross-stitch and am hoping to incorporate it into the wedding somehow.  Here’s some pictures of bits and bobs I’ve made recently.

Book club

As I’ve said before I’m part of three book clubs.  Two as a regular member and one that I run.  Running this book club doesn’t take too much effort’ just some reminder emails really.  It’s at work and the book discussion is only  a small part of the night – the larger parts being wine, potato skins and gossip.  It was established when a group of us all worked together and enjoyed reading but we have now all moved to separate parts of the company we work in so it’s good to get the chance to get together and have a catch up.  Sometimes the numbers are small – the least we’ve had show up is 3 and sometimes everyone comes – 10 for the max!  We meet approximately every 6 weeks and though the book discussions can sometimes be fairly limited, if the other chat takes over, the numbers do seem to deteriorate if the book hasn’t enthralled anyone/everyone so it is the choice of the book that is paramount to getting people to show up!  The worst turn outs we have had have definitely been for the books that no one was really interested in such as Lance Armstrongs autobiography.  We discuss at each meeting what the next choice will be – everyone can offer suggestions and then we just go with the consensus but I’ve found that the best choices are when a book is:

·         Highly publicised – in the charts or various media book clubs like the channel 5, Richard and Judy, Waterstones etc

·         Cheap – so everyone can get a copy again helped by point 1 as these are usually on special offer

Tonight’s book club was Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn which is massive at the moment and definitely grabbed everyone tonight – 9 came in total so was one of our best turn outs in forever!  Everyone had read the book (again another miracle) and everyone had something to say.  I personally really enjoyed this book – I love unreliable narrators and the two main characters in this book were SOOOO unreliable.  This book definitely kept everyone intrigued till the end.  Unfortunately it’s the ending that let the book down for me and for others at the group – the final few pages just weren’t feasible to me (but I won’t give anything away!).  I would give this book 4/5 and am definitely going to read for of Gillian Flynn’s books.  Everyone else seemed to agree with 4/5 too!  Finally, just a few pics of what we get up to at book club.

Wedding Inspiration

Some pics that I've amassed on my wedding pintrest board.  Pintrest has given me way too many ideas though - there are just so many different ways to do things its difficult to choose just one dress and just one cake!!! 

Original sources can be found at my Pintrest

B O O K S

I love reading.  There isn’t a day goes by where I don’t read.  It usually happens on the bus into work, in the bath, in bed, in the park (on the few and far between days where we have a summer) etc etc.  I have a very broad range of genres I tend to read and am quite happy to try anything new – so any recommendations would be gratefully received and taken up on!

The past few weeks reading, below, show just how different my tastes can be.  I won’t do synopsis’ for the books – goodreads is great for this and if you enjoy reading you should definitely join this website – friend me too I love seeing what others are reading – link on the right of the screen!

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green – my book of the year so far!  I loved it – a beautifully written and poignant story about two teenagers suffering from cancer.  Though a sad subject there were some really funny moments and the characters seemed so life like.  I did have to stop reading this on the bus one day as I could feel the tears coming!  Would definitely recommend! 5/5

Beautiful creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl – I wanted to try this after seeing that the film version was coming out and I ended up with the paperback with the film cast on the front.  Big mistake – all I kept looking at was who had been cast and then trying to figure out why as no one apart from Emma Thomson seemed to be anything like described in the book.  This was so off-putting especially with the ‘dark’ Ridley who was 17 with blonde hair yet played by Emmy Rossum????  Anyway I digress, the book itself was an ok read as far as YA fiction goes.  The best part was that the narrator was Ethan the male protagonist so a bit of a shift from the norm but I just felt a bit bored by the plot and a bit let down at the end – which as with every YA book is never actually an ending but a to be continued so we can make even more money out the idea!  3/5

Murder Farm by Andrea Maria Schlenkel – I’m a massive fan of The Killing and The Bridge TV series and this led me to join a book club that specialises in European crime.  It’s been going for just over a year and I’ve read crime fiction from most parts of Europe now.  This book is set in Germany and though a short book it really hooked me.  Each chapter is told from the point of view of a different character mostly in the form of witness statements following the murder and I loved this way of storytelling.  As the reader you feel that you are the only person that gets all of the information and can put everything together to try to figure out who the killer is and ultimately are the only one who really knows what happened.  The book was loosely based on a true story which made it all the more chilling.  One of the better books I have read as part of this book club. 4/5

The Greatcoat by Helen Dunmore – this was the monthly read for another book club I’m in.  Again another short read that reminded me a bit of some of Susan Hill’s ghost stories.  The main difference being though I didn’t find this scary in the slightest whereas some of Susan Hills stories can be quite chilling.  It was an ok read but I just didn’t care about any of the characters – probably due to the length of the book – it could easily have been padded out a bit to give it more depth. 3/5

 

A Cold Season by Alison Littlewood – I picked this up on a  recent visit to the library thinking it was more of a crime novel but it ended up being supernatural – if I read the blurb on the back before I started reading then I would have known.  The descriptions of the lonely and isolated village and mill were impressive and created a very sinister and cold atmosphere that you could really imagine but this was let down by the characters and plot – all a bit clichéd for me I’m afraid. 2.5/5

 

The Girl You Left behind by Jojo Moyes – a recommendation from a friend.  Now we all know you should never judge a book by its cover but I definitely do and this cover just made me think chick lit!  It is in parts – its set in two time periods; WW1 and around the present day.  The present day stuff was much more chick lit and I struggled to like any of the characters, bar the old school friend or care about what was happening to them with the court case.  However, the saving grace for this book was the historical element – it evoked the harshness and loneliness of the period and I think the book would have been all the better for just focussing on this part of the story.  3/5

And am currently struggling through Citadel by Kate Mosse.  This is the third book she has written in the Languedoc series.  I really did enjoy the first two but have taken some time to get to grips with this one.  The supernatural element in the first two is such a strong theme but I feel like it is much weaker in Citadel and actually if it wasn’t there would probably not be missed.   I am enjoying the story of France during WW2 though ( a bit reminiscent of the Jojo Moyes one above but that was WW1) so will keep slogging but at 696 pages it is a long one!

I think it’s about time I picked up a classic as it’s been a while.  I recently treated myself to the beautiful Barnes and Noble Hardback version of Jane Eyre with some Amazon vouchers I got for my birthday so think a re-read of this may be on the cards.  I love this collection and am coveting them all!!!!!!!!!

Wedding Weight

Ok so I’m trying to go on a  diet for my wedding.  I figure if I write this down even if no one reads it I’m still accountable for what I say I’m going to do and it will hopefully give me a kick up the you know what.  I went on the scales after new year and was disgusted with how much I weighed.  I’ve never been skinny I just thought of myself as not very lean and not surprising seen as I rarely exercise.  I thought the weight I was would have given me such a  shock that I would start being good getting ready for the wedding but unfortunately that just hasn’t happened.  I may have a good few days but then I have some awful days and I really need to try to get my weight loss into gear.  Me and two of my closest friends are going together in the scales now every Monday – camaraderie helps!  Yesterday was the first day – we followed our trip to the scales with a pizza slice??????????  Arrggh need to get so much better at this.  I am going to try slimming world.  My mum has been on this diet and lost an amazing 4 stone and is now a size 8/10.  Though in my wildest dreams I would love to be that size I just don’t think a) I could get there and b) I would look any good!  I am quite a curvy lady and I don’t want to lose my curves but I do want to lose the flab!  If I could get down to a 12 like I was when I left University I would be so happy with that.  I also think that this should be a manageable weight for me to maintain.  I don’t want to lose loads and then put it all back on again!  So here goes  I’m going to try my hardest and will keep the blog updates with how I’m getting on!

Recently I have been....

Trying to sort all my crafty things into the one place
Enjoying chunkiness in all its varieties
Cooking up a mexican feast
Visiting our wedding venue and starting to get excited
Reading issue 3 of Homemaker magazine - can't believe I've just seen this and missed out on issues 1 and 2!
Spending too much time trying to make things look pretty