Showing posts with label Style Cure. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Style Cure. Show all posts

Monday, 16 May 2016

Update for the year and the future is coming

It is insane how fast this year has flown by, it's already the middle of May and that means that I have only mere months before I'm all done with study.



Come mid November after my final two exams are done, I'm a free woman - from university life at least - entering the big wide world of full time employment. I have a few ideas up my sleeve from working for myself as an ESOL Teacher, to finding full time work in a local tutoring service or school... or heading out overseas into the ESOL role I was offered in South Korea. There's plenty of options and I'm sure more will come knocking this year.


In the meantime I have to keep studying and reading - two more novels this week, and two essays by the end of the month... before two exams in June. I really hope I have managed to learn some relaxation techniques for my exam anxiety. I just want to pass the two classes and be done with school.

Then the excitement and madness of the Engagement Party in July with our families back in New Plymouth...            Before it all starts again for the second term of uni study!

(A dated selfie at Te Papa).

Daniel just celebrated making 5 years at his job at CricHQ which is quite impressive. He started at CricHQ when we hadn't started dating yet. I've certainly never worked that amount of time in one job!




I am also considering blogging more often in 2017, like a few times each week instead of just one post per week, but Daniel suggested I find a bit more of a niche market to write to, write about and share things from. Truth be told I don't really know what my overall theme or topic is, because I just write about my life - maybe I'm a lifestyle blogger? I do like a variety of themes though - I decided against cooking as an overall topic just because I find it hard to write a lot about cooking and baking... so while I enjoy doing it I won't be writing about it... I also like interior design type things but I also like to read about what others are doing in that realm!
It's hard to nail down to one or two topics.

If anyone has help or advice about how to nail down a blog topic - I'd love to hear it.
You can contact me on facebook - here, or on twitter here or leave me a comment below!

Until next Monday,
xo Lisa.






Monday, 17 August 2015

Modesty and the lace instillation into the floral dress.


Lately I've been thinking about modesty, how much skin I'm showing and what I'm showing. I'm in my final 18 months of university now and I've been thinking about how I want to be seen when I've graduated. I'm going into teaching and my course will take a further year of study after I've completed my BA. Of course teaching means I'll need to dress even more modestly than I do now. 

I bought this purple floral dress two years ago and wore it to my cousin's wedding. It was nice and it's knee length. However the cut outs along the top of the dress - especially the front showed a lot more boob than I was happy with. I wore a corset under it, not knowing how much worse this made the boob showing situation! (Urgh! Fashion horrors of the past!)
Thankfully I've learned the lesson. 

Recently I re-found my blue petticoat which I wasn't wearing as much - so I removed the lace trim off the lower hem of it and re-purposed it into the cut outs on the dress.

I've simply hand stitched them into place, and no stitches can be seen on the front or back material. Nicely done! I'm very happy with how it's turned out and impressed at my sewing ability. I've improved a lot since learning as a girl guide all those years ago. 

Following are some photos of the dress and of me wearing it.


New lace inserts sewn into place. (above and below).


The original cut outs along the back of the dress. (below).



I think I'll also wear this with a small cardy over it, so I'm not showing my shoulders so much. 
It's also a little cool at the moment to wear it, since we're heading into winter. 
I've been wearing longer sleeves and more layers recently. 


No quote this week, just more of my pondering about the term Modesty and what it means.


modesty

/ˈmɒd ə sti/ 







noun, plural modesties.

1.
the quality of being modest; freedom from vanity, boastfulness, etc.
2.
regard for decency of behavior, speech, dress, etc.
3.
simplicity; moderation.

Monday, 15 June 2015

How I organise stuff and a birthday shout out.


Happy Birthday for tomorrow for my little brother Chris!


 What's a birthday without candles and an embarrassing picture of you from when you were young?!


Double trouble, so cute!

Wednesday, 28 January 2015

The Apartment Year 3

Wow. Oh how time flies!
Dan and I have been living in our rented apartment for over 2 years now, we just signed on for another year - so we're good until January 2016.

During that time the apartment has housed three (or very, very briefly four) of us at any point in time.
Our first flatmate was with us in the first year, and when her and her girlfriend got engaged they decided to move in together. Since then we met Tom from Invercargill, he's a real character!
The three of us get on quite well and we're lucky he said he was keen to sign on for this year too, so we don't have to do the flatmate find any time too soon!

Special shout out to Tom as it's his birthday today.


Saturday, 31 August 2013

Day 21 Style Cure (Final day!)

Day 21.
I made it. An entire month! Okay, so to sum up: today I vaccuumed the floors as I was cleaning so the 'after' photos would look amazingly awesome and I moved the new red rag rug to find...


Tuesday, 13 August 2013

Day 8 of the Style Cure August 2013.

Welcome to day 8! How time flies when you're having fun!
Today we're choosing pint colours and thinking about our décor pairings.


Saturday, 10 August 2013

Thursday, 8 August 2013

Style Cure Day 5!

Style Cure Day 5 is to create a floor plan.
Because I'm not doing over a whole room - rather I am doing over parts -due to finances I went with brainstorming more ideas for how I'd like the space to look.

Saturday, 3 August 2013

Day 2 of the Style Cure

So we're at Day 2 of the Style Cure already.

“You can have it all. Just not all at once.” 
― Oprah Winfrey
Thank you Oprah, that sums me up at the moment. With a budget at $0 and a head filled with ideas and dreams of ways to improve our situation, ah, one can do little but dream sometimes.
-- Hopefully in the near future I can afford to fulfil some of these ideas!

Today we're looking for ideas of what we like, things we desire and so on.

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/day-2-weekend-chore-go-on-a-style-treasure-hunt-apartment-therapys-style-cure-192595


I created an inspiration board type dealio over on Pinterest;
You can look at it here;

http://pinterest.com/listay1/style-cure/

This is my main board which I am adding to every moment I can.


I also have other boards which are pretty sweet.
I started this one about Apartment Style's I adore.
Since we live in an apartment I am always looking for new ways to do things - soundproofing, neighbours noises, quiet zones in the apartment, colours and creating hang out zones.
http://pinterest.com/listay1/apartment-love/

And another one here about life in New Zealand:
Just interesting/ pretty pictures I've found online or added on myself.
http://pinterest.com/listay1/new-zealand-home/


“There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.” 
― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

“People think dreams aren't real just because they aren't made of matter, of particles. Dreams are real. But they are made of viewpoints, of images, of memories and puns and lost hopes.” 
― Neil Gaiman




Friday, 2 August 2013

August Style Cure from Apartment Therapy. Day ONE

This August I have decided to do the Apartment Therapy STYLE CURE:

Here goes, First challenge is relatively easy;

Fill in a questionnaire: 
The questionnaire can be found here: https://s3.amazonaws.com/atads/2013StyleCureInterview.pdf

1. List your favourites in each category:

Actor: Johnny Depp.

Actress: Meryl Strepp.

Artist: Mark Ryden (http://www.markryden.com/)

Writer: J R R Tolkien.

Music: Macklemore's Rapper: "Thrift Shop", "Wing$",  "Same Love" and "Can't hold us".

Restaurant: Tulsi (Indian restaurant).

Automobile: Mini. The old school ones from the 70's.

Movie or Television Show: Moulin Rouge.

Clothing (pieces, designers or stores): Pagani / Glassons. (It's a tie!)

Furniture (pieces, designers or stores): This is a tricky one for me. I'm trying to upgrade the furniture, but it's expensive and time consuming. As a result I have quite a bit of stuff made from MDF and it's on the cheap end of the scale. Ideally I'd like to get a whole bunch of New Traditional type stuff.
(I like the lines and styles of the traditional things, but Dan also likes the more modern pieces.)

2 Choose three words to describe your personal style: Eclectic: I have items from thrift shops and more expensive items (like shoes).
On the edge of the Hip Hop culture. (I love hip hop as a dance form).
Conservative yet slightly Rockabilly: if I could rock the 1950's look all the time, I would.

3. Think back over all the homes you have lived in, both as a child and an adult. Which 
rooms would you choose as your favorites and how would you describe them? 
Favorite room from a childhood home and description: A toy/ storage type room my dad built one weekend in the wall of our shared bedroom (Sister and I shared a room). Our bedroom on the 2nd floor had a void in the wall where the angled roof came down, so dad and some friends cut a hole in the wall and put a floor down. That's where we stored our soft toys and it made a great hiding spot!
Favorite room from an adult home and description: A spare bedroom at the end of the house. I made it into my art studio. It had great light and was very private because it backed straight onto a very large park: Pukekura Park (in New Plymouth, New Zealand).
TIED WITH: Our current bedroom: although I feel it still needs just a little bit of love to make it perfect.



4. Whom do you consider a role model? My Boyfriend Dan.



(Props to those who get the Macklemore reference here).

What three adjectives describe the qualities that you admire in this person?
That he is accepting of whatever I throw at him: no job, no money.
That he is kind.
That he is hard-working to help ensure we keep a roof over our heads and that he succeeds in his occupation.


5. Every home has areas that are “just right”. Which three spots or things in your 
home do you feel are beautiful and feel proud of, right now, as is:
1. My DIY shelf I created from a set of old drawers which had seen better days.
2. Art that I've created around the place. (Paintings).
3. The pin-board I put up a couple of weeks ago, in the lounge, showing off my photography.







6. A month from now, at the end of the Style Cure, how would you like your friends 
to describe your home?
Even better arranged & even more homely!


  • Then, afterwards, analyze your responses: Go over your answers and make some connections to reflect upon.

    Questions 1 and 2 work together to help form a picture of your style - do the choices feel connected and consistent or varied and eclectic? Which of the words that you chose for question 2 could also be used to describe the majority of your favorites in question 1? What are the outliers? Example: Are you into the classics or searching for what's next? Do the offbeat notes or items in a space make the room for you or simply make you uncomfortable?
Eclectic with Modern Traditional. 
The offbeat things that just don't work in the space don't stay there long, they're not comfortable pieces or designs so they get moved out quickly. One example is our couch. It folds out to a sofa bed thing and it's really uncomfortable as a couch as well as a bed! I'd love to upgrade it at some stage... but it's also the BF's loved piece of furniture. Need to convince him that it's seen better days and can't be around forever. 


Questions 3 and 5 are different ways of connecting with what you find pleasing, comfortable and beautiful. You've tapped into your preferences in both a memory-based emotional way and in a practical, observational way to form a picture of a room you will enjoy spending time in. Example: Bright, simple and sparsely decorated sunlight-filled space or moody, happily cluttered, knick-knack embracing rooms lit by candlelight?

The spaces are eclectic-ly cluttered with pieces on every surface. The walls however are pretty sparse, we have posters, prints, and a lot of canvas' hung but they each have space around them. They're visually pleasing. Some of these surfaces *are* a little too cluttered so I may work on that.  

  • Questions 4 and 6 are both about your aspirations and therefore can help to form a direction and goals for your Cure in terms of what you want your room makeover to provide to your homelife. Example: You'd like your friend to say "everything works so well together!" can be translated into a goal of "putting more thought into coordinating pieces". Think about the ways your aspirations can lead you - will they translate into going for better overall organization or finally embracing a more fearless use of color?
Overall better organisation. We moved in to the space around 7 months ago and it still doesn't quite feel like home. On the whole it's 70% home but not quite. Some things just feel a little out of space. However considering we're renting as well we cannot change some of the things - the horrible carpet which is stained, the paint colours, the white-ware, they have to stay. We can't change them.
Our items can be changed however, so I'd like to open up the entry way and declutter things. 



We don't have that table and so many chairs now. So that helps. 
The white trolley things looks better now as well. 
 


The blue smaller table with 2 chairs. 
One chair is now over in the lounge, so it doesn't look so crazy with 2 chairs for one table-space.



The competition/event can be found here: http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/the-style-cure-is-coming-sign-up-now-to-update-decorate-a-room-this-august-192191?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DAILY+8113+-+The+Style+Cure+Begins&utm_content=DAILY+8113+-+The+Style+Cure+Begins+CID_05905176652bf7e72764972daf1be485&utm_source=email_newsletter&utm_term=although%20I%20hope%20you%20are

Day one starts here:
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/day-1-fill-out-a-style-interview-apartment-therapy-style-cure-192586?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DAILY+8113+-+The+Style+Cure+Begins&utm_content=DAILY+8113+-+The+Style+Cure+Begins+CID_05905176652bf7e72764972daf1be485&utm_source=email_newsletter&utm_term=interview%20questionnaire