A consulting detective?

Lets take a moment to talk about Sherlock... shall we? Well I'm going to anyway, It's my blog and because I'm finally up to date! Its amazing, incredible, a bit addicting... I absolutely can not wait for season 3, shame it's probably over a year away though.
I've been browsing the world of tumblr, some people just know how to work magic with photoshop don't they? beautiful images and I thought I might show a few I found while on my dashboard travels :)
All with credit to the original makers of course.

by paperlings

by tuperting

by theskankbank

by earwen-neruda

I used to be absolutely addicted to tumblr! I learnt how to make gifs especially because of it and got pretty snazzy with photoshop sometimes ;) (or so I like to think!)

+Update status on the pineapple jelly ... Still not made. 

Water with the aid of colour

Photo by me

This freezing cold Monday evening is going to be spent painting with my trusty watercolours and watching the final Sherlock with Michael (because it is incredible, I recommend it to everyone on planet earth, honestly).

I was also going to make pineapple jelly tonight, because I'm really craving jelly!.. but I forgot and now it's too late, alas, maybe tomorrow.

Annabel xo

How to Complete a Uni Project

Artwork and images by Bryony Crane

Buy the book on Etsy!

This.. is relevant to my life, and probably any other student regardless of their course. I love the sweet illustrations and repeated cups of tea! ;) (... though I actually don't like tea all that much) You should have a peek at the lovely Bryony's shop & website most definitely!

Hope you have all been having a good weekend! xo

Birthday boy!

Hello! I've been absent for a few days, but I have a good reason, It was Michaels birthday yesterday! 20! We celebrated together by going to Pizza hut for our lunch/dinner (somewhere he had never been before, what!?) & then his parents had arranged with me to surprise him and bring him home for the weekend, so we're currently at his house, eating take-out plenty and watching films on an actual TV! ahh a student life.

I'm really loving instagram! I'm obsessed seriously, especially with just a few of the effects, mmm pretty. I like being able to share bits of my life easily, seeing as I really don't ever carry my real camera around, I'm just not that kinda girl (at the moment... maybe one day, seeing as I'm lusting over a pretty canon right now..)

Happy Friday! xo

Style Crushin'

So hey, I'm not the best dressed person around. I own a large collection of clothing that has cats on for goodness sake, (That's right, I said cats... 1 dress, 1 blouse, 1 jumper and 2 tee's to date) I can only dream of being a fancy fashion blogger (sometimes I do, it would be awesome to be so sassy) but I just don't own enough shoes for that kinda deal unfortunately.
I follow a few fashion/style blogs because I like to think I could be that well dressed... one day, when I sort out my personal style, which varies wildly these days, I think I'm getting better though.

Anyway, I thought I'd share with you today a gorgeous blog and fashionista I have only just discovered. Maddinka.com  Her blog is in polish so you'll need to translate it... but can I dress like her please?!

Isn't she along with her photo's absolutely gorgeous? gah!

xo

Doing this, doing that, and oh hey I got my hair cut.

I started my 2nd semester at university this week, & I can see a very busy 14 weeks ahead! I have a proposal to write about what I'm actually going to be doing (It's a real shame that I don't know just yet, because that would help a great deal) then you know.. the project itself, a research folder (basically I just go around finding artists I love and putting them in a folder, is it okay if I discovered them on Etsy? I think it is.) &! I also have a lecture based module titled "Ideas and images in modern art" hmmm...
Anyway, The most exciting thing that happened to me this week, or it might have been last week, the days have gone by so fast! is that I got my hair cut for the first time in 4-5 months, eeep! Hellooo fringe again! (or bangs  as Americans say.. where did they get that from? bangs? so strange!)

1. My glasses are wonky unless I push them up....

2. Timetable!

3. I painted my nails with a very cheap nail polish, so cheap it's actually water.

4. I had a disaster trying to jazz up my nails a bit more... don't even ask.

xo Annabel

A Wishlist

Now lets talk about this addiction I have to a little thing called handmade, okay? (Not to mention the general addiction to buying anything pretty I see, making me seriously poor all the time, savings? what are those?)

You should know I spend a good deal of time on Etsy, because it's a gold mine, a treasure trove of A* quality. It makes me weep a little inside that I've never won the lottery, or just generally been able to afford all of the beautiful things I find. I'd be a classy little gal surrounded by artwork and jewellery all the time, maybe some pretty vintage shoes on my feet and a hand crafted scarf round my neck. Lovely.

Alas, that is not the case, so instead I just click the little heart next to the pretties so I have them with me forever... in virtual terms, and can look at these hearted items whenever I please ;)

Here are a few of my recent favourite discoveries >> (click the images to go to the shops)

Moorea Seal

River Luna

Sleepyking

Michelle Chang Jewelry

etco

Happy Tuesday! xo

Sharing something silly on a Sunday.

Have I even mentioned I LOVE red pandas?? Seriously, they're adorable. Right up there with cats and chinchillas... and plain none red-pandas too ;)

I saw this video on CharlottesWeb, where Becca of Diary of a Diva was doing a guest post, & the moment I saw the panda prettyness I was googly-eyed once again. You should most definitely watch this!

I also just purchased this blouse, because hello, only £15 instead of £60 and it has cats on it. I was about to purchase it on ASOS for £24 in their sale.. when I luckily had a peek on the Dahlia website! bargain! It's actually quite a bit lighter than that image shows, at least I think it is. I'm just hoping it suits me! :) 

Hope you've has a pretty great weekend

xo

How do you choose?

So, I've wanted to open up my own shop online for months now, I've been secretly preparing myself, gathering supplies, designing and creating whenever I have a free moment.

And then came the time to looking into actually getting this baby up and running! my original choice was Etsy, I've had my username as my shop name since the start... but... I noticed these other market places popping up and blogs & shops I followed were with these hosts instead. So I took a peek into what they were offering, so much variety! How do I choose?!
There's Goodsie, which I discovered when Kara opened up her new shop Stuffkaramade and it was so pretty! so different to the always white and orange Etsy. However I noticed it costs $15 a month there, and in the early stages of a business, a business that might not even succeed, am I willing to spend that much and not make a single penny profit for what could be months? Not right now no.
Then of course there's big cartel but this again charges you monthly, not as much at first, but if you want to upgrade or expand your line, things could get mighty costly, double that of goodsie for the full package!
Lastly I discovered Storenvy, from the lovely Dana over at Wonder Forest and her shop! Finally, an online store that's free free free! The customisation reminded me of Goodsie, which I liked and you can edit practically everything with a little bit of knowledge! There are a few drawbacks like the others... The community is much much smaller than Etsy, I'm not sure if that's a blessing or a curse, people are accustomed to Etsy, I know I am, I feel comfortable making a purchase there, it's all very easy. Yet opening a shop on Etsy is joining hundreds of thousands of shops, making you feel a little lost among the crowd without some serious advertising! In contrast to this Storenvy (as im typing this) has 9,672 stores, and even though that can sound a lot, compared to the giant Etsy, it's teeny tiny!

I'm sorry about that mouthful! all I really wanted to say is that I've decided to open two stores! One with Etsy and one with Storenvy, because I feel like I'll be attracting two different audiences (hopefully) I *think* I'm going to be advertising my Storenvy store as my main shop, but I've always dreamed of having a successful Etsy shop... so I'm currently at a bit of a loss of what to do, feel free to please give me some guidance! ;)

Shop my Etsy - Shop my Storenvy

(have a nosy around them both, tell me what you like best :))

Annabel xo

What I wore.

(kind of)
(I just took a picture of the print)
(awkward)

but on a more serious note, this dress is absolutely gorgeous. It's from H&M (before Christmas) and was part of my present off of Michael, because I pined over it for about a month ;)

Anyway, I'm off to make spaghetti bolognaise for tea, I can't wait, literally I've been craving it for about a week.

bye bye! xo

Lusting over...

Can I please, and by please I mean pretty please! have this gorgeous blouse in my wardrobe..

From Vanilla & Lace

Someone make me some strawberry milk whoopie pies? drool!

From SprinkleBakes

Inspired

...to work on my typography more this year!
Look at these incredible hand lettered pieces made into letterpress prints by tagteamtompkins on etsy, they're simply lovely.

More for my ever-growing Etsy wishlist I think! ;)
Happy Saturday xo

Where have I been?!

Happy new year! :) Hope you have all had a lovely time over the holiday period :) I thought I would have been back to posting quite a few days before this but I wildly underestimated how busy I would be travelling everywhere, missing trains(!!!) and being with my family! Plus I didn't quite know what to post for some reason, probably just bloggers block ;) no doubt caused by eating too much. 

I do have something to share with you today though, A blog make-over I did for the lovely Modern Buttercup blog! It was my first go at designing anything for anyone else before (so the stakes were high!) The theme was really just a simple blog layout with pale yellows and blues. I'm not a 'from scratch' blog designer... I just do image designs really, So I used a lovely free template from pugly pixel and we tweaked it to suit her needs. I did get a bit sassy with a pretty sweet nav bar! You really should go check it out and run your mouse over the buttons ;) *proudmama* Overall I call it a successful 'refresh' & I'm so glad she likes it :)

 

And finally a few snaps from Christmas at home with my mum and then my dads, surrounded by a very cuddly cat that appeared to have missed me (So of course I melted) & I also got my lovely package from Emma! I still need to blog about that when I get back to uni and can take lots of pictures (though I appear to have eaten some of it....)