A Tour Around My Jewellery

Recently Lee and I sorted out all my jewellery, matching up pairs of earrings, mending some things that were broken, and throwing out or donating some things that I didn't want any more. It took ages - we took it all up to the attic room and spent ages detangling necklaces and matching up stud earrings. I have a lot of jewellery. A lot of it is costume, but I do also have some very nice bits that I've been bought over the years. My mum loves jewellery too; I get it from her.

For ages I had a noticeboard with pins stuck in from which I hung necklaces, but this had stopped working for me as things fell off a lot. Then Lee bought me one of those jewellery or shoe hangers and I've had that for ages, on the wall next to the bed. But that wasn't really working out either, and honestly, I just wanted everything sorted out.

So once we'd sorted everything out I bought a few things. I have a gorgeous lilac leather jewellery box that my mum bought me from House of Fraser about ten years ago, so I obviously wasn't going to get rid of that, but it also doesn't fit much in it, so I needed something bigger. I've seen those jewellery armoires before, so ended up ordering one off eBay for the bargain price of £41. They have lots of different combinations of insides, but this one worked best for me. It arrived flat packed but it was really easy for Lee and I to put together. The front of it is a full length mirror, which I don't have, so that's nice and useful, with diamantes round the edge which is a nice touch.

I also ordered a couple of black plastic stud holders from eBay for a few quid each. Once everything arrived Lee and I spent quite some time putting everything in the right place. I have a system - my "best", most precious pieces are in the leather box, and everything else is in other places. I came across loads of jewellery that I'd forgotten I owned and it's been nice wearing stuff I haven't worn in ages. We were also "helped" by Ivy who enjoyed playing with necklaces that were dangling in front of her!

I thought I'd take some photos - it turned out to be quite a lot but I think they explain better than I can in words!

First of all here's some new jewellery that I got on holiday, in Florence, on the Ponte Vecchio. I've got lots of upcoming posts about my holiday, but I've been battling a horrible dental abscess and haven't got round to writing them up yet. My mum bought me the knot earrings and the Fleur de Lys, and I bought myself the Tree of Life. I love buying jewellery on holiday because it adds to the memories I think.

The inside of the armoire as a whole. It fits really nicely into this gap next to a chest of drawers.

The very top is for rings, which I didn't realise at first. So in here I've got more costume rings. The dots at the bottom left are nose studs I haven't worn yet

The main necklaces, this is for longer necklaces. There's some silver here among the costume stuff

Little shelves underneath the necklaces where I've put pendants that have no chain, and cards of earrings

On the left, here are all my dangly earrings (I can't say 'dangly earrings' without immediately going into a Victoria Wood impression - "have you seen me friend, Kimberley?"). I love dangly earrings but don't wear them often enough. Lots here are ones that I've made or that others have made for me

Under the dangly earrings are these two lots of costume necklaces. I love so many of these fun necklaces, especially my Hello Kitty ones!

Over on the other side of the room is the rest of my jewellery. These are all pins, they don't fit perfectly into this tray but I already had it so decided it would do!

One of my two earring holders - these are the more 'fun' earrings. Don't they look like I raided Claire's Accessories?!

This is the other earring holder, with some more precious earrings in the top. Some of these are sole earrings, too. When I was a teenager I used to wear six odd earrings at once, and although I don't usually do that anymore I can't bear to get rid of some of these! 

My bracelets all live on a kitchen roll holder, it's really useful for them! The only bracelets that don't are my charm ones, which live in a dish along with charms I have.

This is my gorgeous jewellery box, and these are my more precious rings, including the claddagh ring Lee bought me for my birthday and many others

One drawer of the box. Those pearls mean an awful lot to me - they were given to me by my uncle when I was a bridesmaid for him in 1989! I had them made a bit longer a few years ago so I could still wear them.

Here's my precious earrings and pendants, including a ruby elephant that my mum brought back from India in 1996. I love it. The two bracelets on the right are two I love a lot, too. I bought the amethyst one when I was 18 with the first paycheck I got from my first 'proper' job!

So there you go, just a quick look through some of my jewellery!

What I Wore September 10th

I headed off to my craft club on the morning of the 10th of September. I go most weeks; it's at Penistone library from 10-12.30, so only about fifteen minutes drive from my house. There's about 30 members, but that many people never come at the same time so there's anything from half a dozen to eighteen of us. This day there were about 13, with a couple of people popping in. I really like it; I just take my craft and get on with it and listen to the conversations around me for the most part, although I'm friendly too obviously. Some people start packing up around 12, but I usually stay until half past and do "just one more stitch".

Afterwards I popped to the shop for some lunch. I'd had some kind of stomach bug which meant I'd not been eating much, but I finally felt a bit better so got a sandwich and a chocolate twist :)

I got this top off Bettie; she'd bought it in H&M when rushing, so she'd not looked at it carefully and didn't realise it had the "frilly bits" on the sides, which she didn't like. She thought I would like it, and I do. I hadn't got round to wearing it as I've been having problems with nude bras, in that I can't find a decent one, but I was late to craft club so just pulled it out and put it on with an orangey bra underneath. I decided it utterly didn't matter and I honestly don't think it does! It's a nice soft material, really comfortable to wear, and I like the style. I'll definitely wear it again soon!

Films of the Month - August

I watched loads of films in August, which was helped by the fact that Lee and I were away and made time to watch films. But I watched a lot by myself too, including ten I'd never seen before.

Here's what I watched:

I'd never seen the Basketball Diaries and I really liked it, it's dark and depressing but Leo is great

I'd never seen Shakespeare in Love, I know right, like was I even a teenager in the 90s? In my defence I was very busy listening to the Manics and watching Trainspotting. I didn't much rate this, but I'm glad I watched it

I'd heard mixed reviews about the Death of Stalin but I quite liked it, but then I like Armando Ianucci's stuff. Jason Isaacs was the best thing about it, but it was all pretty good

I know it was August but I hadn't seen this sequel so I thought why not. It was a cold and cosy kind of day anyway. I liked it, all the main actors were great, Susan Sarandon was probably my favourite though

I've seen Four Lions before but not for years, it is really funny.

I saw about this film on Twitter because the filmmakers have released it for free on their website in the hopes that people will review it on IMDB. Well you know I like a Yorkshire yarn so I watched it, and I really liked it. It's got a lot of typically Yorkshire stuff going on, and it's very moving and it looks beautiful. Check it out for yourself!

All of book Twitter was going mad over this Netflix adaptation of Jenny Han's book, so I watched it on the day it came out. I haven't read the book but I LOVED the film. I thought it was cute and sweet and it looks gorgeous. Also John Corbett! Definitely check this out if you like YA fiction

Lee and I watched this while we were in Wales, I still really love it. Kate McKinnon is my favourite

I wanted to watch this so we watched it in Wales. It's odd? Winona is obviously great but everything else about it is odd

I also wanted to watch Road House because I've never seen it. It's okay. Patrick Swayze was a bit of a dish though

Lee swears he'd never seen Lilo and Stitch before but I know I had so I think he might have. He liked it anyway

I saw this fan documentary about Bruce Springsteen while scrolling Netflix and thought I'd check it out because I love him. It's very cute, there's lots of interesting stories about Bruce and how much people love him. I really liked it, but I'm not sure non-fans would?

Someone was talking about Set It Up on Twitter, so I watched it one afternoon. I liked it, the main characters are so-so but I really liked Lucy Liu's character. It was a cute romantic comedy

Finally, on the last day of the month, I watched The Italian Job, one of my very favourite comfort films. I hadn't watched it in ages!

Afternoon in a Hot Tub

At the beginning of September Laura, aka Lolly Likes, invited us over to her house to use her hot tub. She and her partner bought one second hand a few weeks ago and have got it all set up in their garden. She invited me and Lee and Bettie and Jen over on Saturday afternoon and as it turned out it was a really sunny day, but it actually wouldn't have mattered if it wasn't because the hot tub is really warm and it's in a gazebo so wouldn't be freezing.

We all took some snacks and ate them first before going outside. Jen isn't a fan of hot tubs so she just sat and chatted to us. Laura's little boy was wandering around, playing with his ball and on his slide; he's such a little sweetie and always wants to chat. Bettie and Lee and I got straight into the hot tub and Laura joined us later. We had some drinks and food and generally just lazed around. The tub has bubbles and is really hot! I liked it a lot.

I'd packed my swimming costume but at the last moment decided to pack a bikini instead. Well, kind of. I have this bra bikini top that I got ages ago but don't often wear. It's from Elomi in a 40HH and it's SO comfortable. Much more comfortable than any of the bras I own, for sure. Plus it's underwired. My bottoms are from Marks and Spencer and are from the men's department. They're quite comfortable. I wouldn't wear this outfit to swim in general, but when in the privacy of a friend's home then for sure I will!

It was such a lovely afternoon with lovely people!

The tub!

Bettie and Lee, Bettie's costume is really nice!

My hair when damp goes curly

Laura took this, thanks for letting me steal it

And thanks for letting us use your hot tub!

Bottomless Brunch in York

At the end of the summer I had a trip to York to see my friends Sam and Jac. Jacqui lives in York so we often go to hers to hang out. It was ten years since Jac and I met in person so we wanted to do something to celebrate that. Sam suggested going out for bottomless brunch so we booked a table at All Bar One for 1pm.

It is £25 each and I would say it's definitely worth that. We were shown to our table and given the main menu as well as the bottomless brunch menu. There are about six choices for brunch; Sam and Jac both went for the steak sandwich and I went for eggs royale and added some chips. Then you can choose from either a glass of prosecco, a Bloody Mary, or a mimosa. We all went for mimosas which are champagne mixed with orange juice.

The food came quickly and was really delicious. The drinks were good, and while I didn't feel like the waiters were hovering over us, they were pretty quick to notice our glasses were empty and offer another. You can change which drink you have, which is good, and which I might do if I went again, but we all stuck with mimosas as they were yummy. You get two hours from the time you order food to drink for free, which is a really generous time slot. We had dessert too and about ten minutes before the end of our time slot a waiter came and told us that, and asked if we'd like one last drink. I think it was done really well in a busy restaurant, I was pretty impressed.

After we'd eaten we walked to the Minster yard, because there was a temporary bar there that Jac wanted us to see. It was Thor's tipi and while there's outside space it was raining so we headed inside where it's really cosy. There are boxes and benches all over to sit on, and a real fire in the middle to keep it warm! We sat on the edge and had some wine, but then a bench came free round the fire so we moved there for a bit to appreciate the heat. It was a cute little bar, I'm glad we went!

After that we went back to Jacqui's and spent the evening watching rubbish on TV and chatting, it was lovely and just what I needed - I haven't laughed that much in ages

I wore my Simply Be lemon dress and green cardigan which came from Peacocks. I rarely wear this dress as it's very loud and I have to be in the right mood for it, but it seemed perfect for the day and certainly cheered me up in the rain.

Eggs Royale

The Minster in the rain. I went to university in York so it's a place that's very special to me

Inside the tipi

The fire

Selfie of the three of us

And finally my lemon dress!

Meal Out in Wakefield

At the end of August I'd made plans to meet up with my friends Katie and Sheryl. I went to York St John with both of them as undergraduates and we meet up every now and then, usually in Wakefield as they both live there and I'm close enough (I'm from Wakefield originally). Katie suggested going to Robatary, which is quite new in Wakefield, so I booked a table for 7pm.

It's in the place of a restaurant that I really like called Qubana, which has moved into the old Barclays bank building, so I was familiar with the place. I arrived first and went to the bar. The decor is really different now and feels quite opulent with quite a retro vibe too. I liked it. They had a menu of 6 cocktails which were on two-for-one so I ordered two Mai Tais and waited for the others.

Katie arrived and had my other drink and then we sat down. The booths are really squishy and comfortable, with blue velvet seats. I liked them a lot! We got to looking at the menu while waiting for Sheryl.

The food is described as "pan Pacific" so there's some American stuff, some Chinese, some Japanese, and so on. There's a selection of small plates which can be shared like tapas or eaten as a starter, and then there's a ton of main courses to choose from. I was intrigued by a lot of the menu and utterly couldn't make up my mind, but Katie and I have pretty similar taste in food so we decided to share some dishes like tapes. We had the American platter, some sweet potato fries, the shredded duck pancakes, and tempura chicken. When they came they were all yummy but some were a bit cold, which was a shame. But by and large I liked them.

There were a few desserts; Sheryl had a brownie (she had katsu curry for her main course which looked yummy) which is the one I would have gone fore. We all had a dessert cocktail - Sheryl and I went for a candy floss one and Katie had a white chocolate martini. Mine was yummy. I was impressed with the cocktail selection actually - the ones on two-for-one were varied. We tried four of them and I would drink each of them again although I liked the Chinese Cosmopolitan best.

I wore this black and floral dress from Yours; I've posted it before. It's one of my favourite dresses but I haven't worn it in ages! I felt really nice so took a toilet selfie, sorry it's so dark!

Dress - a bit creased from how I was sitting I think

Candy floss cocktail complete with popping candy on the outside

I'm not sure what this one was, but it was nice, and I really liked the glasses!

What I Wore August 21st

I bought a new dress to go out on Lee's birthday. I'd done some sale shopping with Simply Be, but ended up only keeping this. I really like it, but it's a bit different from what I would usually wear I think. It's from Lovedrobe and it feels quite short on me but I don't think it looks too short, so I'm just going to suck it up and wear it!

I love Bardot style stops, I like how they look on me and this works better than most and stays where it's supposed to. I love the stripes, I think this is a dress you could wear at any time of year and it would look good. I will definitely be wearing this more!