Home goodies... from a garden centre?!

Last week I tagged along with my Dad to our local garden centre.

I thought garden centres were just for weedkiller & watering cans, maybe a picnic table if you were at a particularly exotic one.

But, I actually ended up stumbling across loooads of goodies for my room!

First, I stumbled across these framed prints, at £5.99 each :)
I walked past them a few times without them catching my eye, but when I looked closely I saw they have teeny tiny cartoon pictures from various films of each decade. I loved looking at them so much and trying to guess what film they were I decided I should probably buy one and continue guessing at home ;)
Problem is, I couldn't decide which one to buy... so I might have got a bit carried away and got them all!
Only problem is, they didn't have a 1980's one.. so my strip of pictures will be a bit lopsided :(
I'll definitely be keeping my eyes peeled for it!

In amongst the pictures, I also happened to spot this framed "Romeo and Juliet" print.

Being a bit of a literary geek, I couldn't resist adding it to the basket, as it was always my absolute favourite by Billy Shakes.
I thought it'd look really nice propped up on my bookshelf (disguising all my less-intellectual books, like 50 Shades of Grey ;] )

Next I spotted this in a little bargain bin, going for 99p!

I'm a sucker for a reduced price anyway, and I thought it would be very cute to hang outside my bedroom door.

In keeping with the white wrought iron appearance, I saw this bad boy, which I think was about £8.99.
It was displayed in the kitchen section with a cookery book propped open on it which looked really sweet. However, since I don't have full reign of a kitchen yet I thought I'd alter it and put some of my books on it on top of my bookshelf.
For now I put on my illustrated copy of "Alice in Wonderland" on it, so I have the Cheshire cat keeping an eye on me.

I then spied these rather useful little wicker baskets. They were reduced from £10 to just £5.99. At just 2 pounds a basket, I couldn't very well resist. I'm very VERY disorganised with my various beauty products, so I thought these would be a neat way to organise my bits and bobs.

I had a little sort out of my beauty, and decided to put my skin care travel size/testers/smaller bottles in the smallest basket...

 ...Then all my daily moisturisers/ cleansers/ zit fighting instruments in the middle sized ones.
This is perfect to keep on my bedside table :) and will hopefully encourage me to be a bit more organised with my skincare routine!

Finally, in my biggest basket I put all my hair products/ body bits. 

I thought I'd keep this on my dressing table along with my hairbrush, to encourage myself to make a bit more effort with my hair rather than giving it a buzz with the dryer and putting it into a rough ponytail as I do usually *smacks wrist*.

Anyone who knows me knows I am OBSESSED with clocks. So naturally, I needed a new one to brighten up my room!

I wasn't sure about this clock to begin with, but when I saw it at a distance it was actually really striking, and I figured it would be particularly eye catching on my white walls (and it looked vaguely Jack Daniels esque! Never a bad thing ;] )

I spotted this bottle & it was just too cute to leave.

I wasn't entirely sure what to use it for at first, but as I walked around the store I spotted a HUGE display of fake flowers! I thought this little array made for an eye-catching bunch and might brighten up my windowsill :)

I think the bottle was £3.99 and the flowers around £1.50 each!

Finally, I bought this little box, which I believe was £4.99 :)

It looks a bit like a book from the side so makes it quite versatile as to how you display it which I thought was handy. I decided I would use it as a "memories" box, and keep anything and everything that has sentimental value to me in it :) 

So far I have a "Good luck" card from my parents from my high school exams, and a little teddy that I had in with me when I had my first operation aged 8 (he has a little hospital wristband around him that says he belongs to me - my nurse was lovely!)

So, purse strings considerably lighter, that concluded my purchases for the time being!

I had no idea garden centres could be full of so many cute things for the home, I will DEFINITELY be looking into more quirky places to buy little bits :)

Moving out & my new bedroom!

This last weekend may have only been a few days but to me it felt about a week. It was one of those weekends where everything seemed to go wrong! 

I went up to Manchester on Friday to pack up my room in my old student house in the suburbs of Manchester, ready to move to a brand spanking new flat in the city centre ;) The plan was reasonably straightforward: spend the weekend packing up, then on Monday I would go and collect the keys from the agent at 11am, then get back to my house ready to meet my "man with a van" I'd sought out who was helping me move at 1pm. How naive and optimistic I was!

As I was on the loooong train up to Manchester from Norfolk on the Friday my housemate-to-be phoned me in a panic, saying the estate agents weren't allowing her to sign the contracts, and therefore I would be unable to pick up my key on Monday (she would be at work on Monday, and I couldn't pick up my keys until she had signed the contract...). After a stressful 12 hours, thank goodness it got sorted and she was allowed to sign the following morning, so I carried on the laborious process of packing up my room ready for my removal van at 1pm on Monday. Why on earth I feel the need to have 3 sets of fairy lights and an ornamental sewing machine in a Uni room is quite beyond me, but there we go!

So all packed up, on the morning of Monday I went into town for my 11 o'clock appointment to collect my keys. But when I got there I was told that they had my appointment written down for 1pm, so the agents were still doing the inventory at my new flat so I couldn't collect my key! Despite me meekly protesting that I needed to go home to meet my man with a van (I am the sort that would tell a waitress my food was delicious even if it was still not defrosted - aka, rubbish complainer) I agreed to hang around for an hour by which time I was assured thee inventory should be done and the key ready. However, after going back to the agent after an hour AND A HALF, I got told that there was a delay so someone would meet me at the flat at 2pm. So I pelted it back to my old house where the removal van was waiting for me. Luckily the guy helping me was LOVELY, we got packed up super speedy and we were on our way from the suburbs to the big city! We got to the flat in good time and parked up outside, however as time went on and it got more and more past 2 I started getting anxious and decided to call the agents. A very snotty woman told me she had no idea where I would have got the idea that someone would meet me at the apartment, and that "that would never happen". Feeling waves of panic I insisted they were, so she went to check and when she came back to the phone she told me the guy with the key HAD been there but had now left and would be back in 10 minutes. When he finally got there he gave me my key but said he didn't know any of the codes (there are 3 codes you have to get through before you even get to my front door, that is some boss security). So I then had to run and grab a poor unassuming boy then entering the building.

5 trips in the lift later (moving into a flat is NO JOKE) all my belongings were lugged up to my new home on the second floor. I gave myself no time to relax though, as I was desperate to get my new bedroom looking like home!

Sorry the images are rubbish quality, I just took some very quick snaps on my phone as I was rushing out :)

But I'm pretty proud of how I managed to use the space, it was a much smaller bedroom than the one I had in my house before so I to be quite creative with how I stored everything!

Let me know your thoughts & ideas :) I'd LOVE any suggestions!

A makeover for the boudoir

I'm definitely one of those people who really struggles with cleaning out their room. I don't just mean because I'm lazy and messy - I definitely am, both of those things, but it's not JUST because of those unfortunate characteristics that I regrettably embody. It's mostly because I am a gigantic hoarder, and I really struggle with throwing things away. I'm hugely sentimental about inanimate objects, and even clothes - I have T-shirts that I haven't worn since I was 6 (which my now-21 year old body would DEFINITELY reject if I try to put them on) but I refuse to throw out because my Grandad bought them for me when we went to Belgium. I realise it's silly, but I fear that T-shirt with the teddy bears on probably will never leave my possession.

Now, that is all well and good, but now I'm home from Uni I have found myself trapped in a 15-year-old me's bedroom because I've never thrown anything out, and slowly a pile of old junk and new is filling up my floor to a state where even I struggle with being in my room. In order to avoid any further injuries - I've already tripped over my still-unpacked suitcase from uni and given my shin a thwack on the door - it's time to do something.

As well as having a big old clear up and restocking the local Oxfam, I thought it'd be the perfect time to give my room a bit of a makeover. Each year at Uni I have absolutely loved moving into a new room each year, and getting creative with my space. I've been looking up some room design ideas on Google images, and decided I really love these styles:

They're a bit different - the first two are more shabby chic, and the bottom one is more based around the wood. I love elements of both though, and am going to have to get my thinking cap on around how I can bring in my favourite parts of both styles! My current furniture in my bedroom is heavily pine based, so at the moment I'm thinking I'll keep with my furniture (partly due to having a look on the John Lewis website and nearly fainting at the cost of a new wardrobe) but maybe try and accessorise with vintage and shabby chic ornaments and wall art :) it's going to be a looooooong process, but I'll upload photos when I've done! Phew.

Let me know what you think and if you have any ideas!