Quiet few weeks gone by and a head!

So life has not been overly exciting

I knew August would be a fairly dull month for me as we don’t have anything planned. We didn’t even go to the cinema this weekend, shock horror! There was just nothing we wanted to see playing so we decided to give it a miss. Matt however went and did airsoft! I was really proud of him, it can be real intimidating going somewhere you don’t know on your own with a group of strangers. He said he had a great day and wants to go again! So I am really pleased about that. However he looks like he has chicken pox with all the welts on his legs and midriff! Ouch. I spent the day on my own pottering around and doing house stuff, like tidying and the washing. Pretty boring but had to be done.

I have actually booked the 22^nd of August off and I am looking forward to a 4 day weekend yay! If Matt can get the time off I want at Christmas I still have 2 days to use somewhere and if not I will have a whole week off to use somewhere… not used to having actual holiday to use. I hope he gets the time off at Christmas because that means we will have 13 odd days off together, a whole 2 weeks almost :D fingers crossed he can.

As for holidays I am VERY much excited about going to France now. I am actually getting a slight autumnal feel…. I am not ready to say good bye to summer yet, but the shops are swapping shorts for coats and the nights and morning are DEFFINTLY getting cooler. But I am honestly enjoying summer this year and I don’t want it to end yet!! Not until mid-September anyway!

I started getting all my little bottles of stuff ready for my suitcase, I am also excited at the fact you can take two bags onto the plane now, so I don’t have to fart ass around mashing it into my case. I did look up times though and realised we have around a 4am start D: 4 FREAKING AM…… We have Euro Gamer on the Saturday so I am thinking maybe making myself get up at 7am on Sunday so I can fall asleep around 7pm to get up at 4am CHRIST that is soo early hahah! But it will be worth it when we are in France! Yay!

I have however been slightly more productive this last few weeks and I have got two designs up online! I have one for my pure excitement and joy of summer! Ice scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream.

I also finished this squirrel one that has gotten me in the mood for autumn! Cooler days and darker nights! Although I dread dropping Matt at the station in the dark again boo that sucks.

The bank holiday weekend though we are seeing Doctor who in the cinema, and we are also seeing both Sin City films in the cinema…. Pretty stoked about these. Then it’s only a matter of weeks until we have some time off yay!

I hope the rain clears up here and I can get some more of that vitamin D!

Makin' pancakes makin' bacon pancakes

So my charms have arrived. I have got them all together and up on my own online shop and onto Etsy too.

I haven’t really had any real interest yet and I have sold 2 to my sister. I was hoping I may have sold a handful by now alas.

But I’m going to keep looking up and hopefully I will sell some soon! Or at least get some interest!

So they are £8 each and they are printed on 1.5inch acrylic! The necklace is 18inch silver plated and so is the hoop. It’s also £1.50 p&p!

Buy them here in the UK

Etsy Shop

I plan on doing some more work soon to add to my library! I will get myself a craft stall somewhere too.

I’m real excited about this weekend too! Only half a day to go and I get a 4 day weekend. Tomorrow I plan to wake up early and attempt Bacon Pancakes for the Birthday BOY!

I'm not sure how these will go but hey ho lets try they look amazing and i'm starving hungry!

 Then he has the dentist alas. I plan on taking him out for lunch later and then leaving him to play his new game that comes out tomorrow. After that we will pack up and head to Nottingham around 6pm to spend the weekend with Laura and Sammi. I have a table booked at Annie’s Burger Shack too!

I then also have Tuesday off now to see Matt’s brother before he goes away to live in Singapore and then Thursday night is Chinese with Matt’s Dad and Julie! I’m going to get real fat bwhaah!

We are also seeing War Horse tonight being streamed from the theatre into the cinema so I am literally counting down the minutes until today is over!

It’s been a few weeks since I posted anything. I haven’t been overly busy but I have a few things to update on.

I will start off with design based updates. Finally I have pulled my finger out my bottom and I have started to get some bits done and I will start with the Paperchase competition.  Now I know Christmas (much to my dismay) is long gone, but this was a competition to design a Christmas Card for 2014!

‘The Paperchase Christmas Card Competition

Designed & Chosen by You

This year we are asking you to remember the best bits of your festivities and take part in our Christmas Design Competition.  For Christmas 2014 we would love a card designed and chosen by you!

Do What?

Design a new charity Christmas card, your design can be funny, emotional, patterned or plain. Just make it festive.

The winning design will be printed and sold in Paperchase stores across the land for Christmas 2014.

Why?

If the joy of taking part isn’t enough...

The winner will receive £200 and a Paperchase goody bag

The winning design will be a used as part of our Charity Christmas Cards range

Imagine the glory of handing out your own professionally produced cards!’

So that is what is was all about. I saw this back at the beginning on January. In true Toria style I of course didn’t get round to starting this until the day before it was due in February. Luckily I had a design from December I was ACHING to put together but never got round to it so I went from there. I ended up being really pleased with the result and although it was the day before I was pleased to submit what I had designed. The final entries were meant to be going up on the 12^th Feb and then the winner announced on the 20^th. As you can guess that has come and gone and no word from Paperchase so that’s kind of annoying. They said they had more entries than planned but still they are taking a rather long time with no update.

Anyway this is my final design.

So I am keeping my eyes peeled for an update.!

Moving on I was rather productive Monday evening. I have been saying I want to have my own little shop and sell necklaces and my designs and such…. I decided to do this is MAY! MAY 2013! I realised that was almost a year ago and I thought SOD IT!

I’m going to do it. So I went home and I ordered my first batch of acrylic charms. I then set up a little shop and I then bought e-mail hosting, ordered business cards and did everything I have been putting off for a year! Now I cannot WAIT for them to come! I’m going to hobby craft this evening to get some equipment for putting them together when they come!

I’m ever so excited. I know it’s a tiny start but at least I have started it now and hopefully I can grow it from here! I plan on getting 2 more designs made if these turn out well maybe at the end of the month!

So that’s that with design. I hope within the next week to 2 weeks I can post up some photos of the charms as necklaces. I really hope they come out nicely!

Moving on to dress related things. So basically I am dress obsessed. I’ve decided a new me this year and new start. New job weight lost! (almost back to the weight I was before Christmas) so I’m going to go with a style I’ve always wanted to indulge in but felt too big and clumsy to wear before. I REALLY believe in loving yourself whatever your size. I follow lots of plus sized blogs and these girls all look fabulous. It’s obviously looking good come through confidence NOT your dress size. What is sad though is I cannot apply this to myself. I still see flaws and I still see so much room for improvement and I WONT look good until the weight is lost. This makes me sad and disappointed in myself.

Anyway moving on.

I will start with my Owl Dress.

I saw this on thecluelessgirl blog. I thought it looked lovely on her! I looked it up on yours clothing and it was £12 in the sale. I was a little unsure on sizing as I’m a 12-14 in dresses and being a plus size store I worried the 14 may of come up a little larger. But I didn’t need to fear it fitted amazing!

The next dress I was strolling through town at lunch time. There was a little dress shop next to Debenhams and I poked my head in. I saw a little pink number with pandas all over it! I squealed a little, worried that it wouldn’t fit as these little shops tend to run up very small, but it fitted well and I was exceptionally pleased. Then I was informed it was only £10 so I ran to a cash machine and snatched it up straight away without hesitation.

  

My last 2 that I am excited about come from Soho’s and they are Hell Bunny dresses. The first one was the last in stock and in my size and they put it up for £5!! A FIVER I guess to clear old stock. I ummmed about it and then pictured wearing it to the beach on a really hot day and I was SOLD!

I’m quite pleased with it and I worried it would be a little short but I think it’s a nice length actually!

The last one is a replacement for the one that didn’t fit. Soho’s did 50% off of sale items and it cost about £17! The one I ordered didn’t fit at all so I changed the style and I am really pleased with this one! It’s a real beaut!

Of course I am pinning after things and currently on my wish list are cropped cardigans which I hope they bring out soon I guess it’s still a little cold for them and these two dresses. In actual fact its possible that the first one MAY come home with me tonight mwuaha

Got some plans this weekend. Had a lovely weekend just gone went to a party and saw friends I hadn’t seen in YEARS AND YEARS! Did lots of dancing and had party food. Of course as always went too quickly.

Now I am dead excited about all my charms and business cards to arrive so I can get them up on my shop asap!

Christmas Wish List

So in 2 weeks’ time I will be doing my second to last day at WDR. Then I will be venturing off and starting my new career at Metropolis. I am really looking forward to it. I’ve really hit a point here where I am getting quite stale and annoyed. I have to do a lot of work that I don’t actually want to do and I spend way too much time procrastinating. Plus we moved desks again last week and I hate the seat that I have now got. I have my back to the whole room and it’s just not that comfortable in here, but I got the crummy seat because I leave soon so I guess it’s not forever!

So on good news the countdown to Christmas is started, well it started for me back on October haha! I have asked for some bits of clothes for Christmas. It helps that I am liking clothes much more than I was with my weight lose! I have more confidence to wear what I want.

Bag – Next

Dress – A Wear

T-Shirt – H! by Henry Holland

Skirt – New Look

I also have some more geeky bits I’ve getting too of course! Wouldn’t be right without those! A Loki Pop Funko Figure and a Doctor Who soft toy! I’m sure I will track more down bwahaha! I would love some boots but I’m giving up on finding any!

I was hoping to do some christmasy things this year, such as going to winter wonderland. However I dunno if I will go. I am planning on going to Nottingham next weekend to stay with Laura and Sammi so I am looking forward to that! I think I will visit some garden centres too as they are awesome at Christmas time! :)

Lots to look forward to in December!

I have also been working on a design; it is an avatar on me. I’ve always wanted on to use and I have worked on a few but never been overly happy and I have felt like it’s needed updating for a while. It’s interesting to look at where I started and see where I took it!

This is where I am at the moment. I think she has a much better shape and lots of character! I’m hoping to finish her/me this week. I would like to start a Christmas design soon too so hopefully I can get both done and finished before Christmas rolls around, and it is rolling around bloody quickly!

I shall be an Illustrator

I haven’t posted in a few weeks. This is bad of me. Although I have been busy in a productive way!

So I attended MCM expo almost two weeks ago now. It was an insanely busy day. Really too busy at points. We queued for TWO hours to get a ticket. The hall was completely packed out smelt pretty iffy too haha! We had a look around and I really wanted to get a game signed for Matt. Turned out he wasn’t around until later and all the tickets had gone. Boo. They also has GIANT MINIONS! I wanted to take one home D:

What caught my eye the most though was all the little stands and the illustrator stands. I went to one  Jess Bradley stand and I fell in love with her art. I was feeling super sad because that’s what I really want to do. And then it dawned on me, I could do that I've just been too damn lazy to both and that annoyed me.

So I got home and found an awesome necklace that makes necklaces like the ones I love, it works out so cheap around £2 a necklace and I would like to sell them for £8-£10 a necklace. I would like to do greeting cards and prints and badge and all sorts. It’s quite exciting. So I came up with a plan.

1. Design and print business cards.
2. Make 1-3 designs per week MINIMUM.
3. Update blog everyday on Tumblr.
4.  Pick 5 designs to get printed onto necklaces.
5.  Design backing cards to display necklaces.
6. Attend a craft fair and see how they go and get my work out there!!!

Anyway so far it has gone quite well. I have two designs I am pleased with. They aren't quite finished yet though. It’s only minor touches I need to do to them!

I am actually super motivated and I can’t wait to really get this rolling. SO I really want to be a illustrator of character design and this is what I am going to do I have decided! I will make all the strange weird things in my head come to life, god knows there is enough of it haha!

Matt also got a new job, I’m not sure if I mentioned that in my last post. And I FINALLY after 10months of temping got offered my job. The downside is that I also got offered a job interview for job I really want in Croydon. It’s on Tuesday and I really REALLY want it! It’s for a production designer so the job sounds good its more money and cost of travel would be less than a quarter of what I am paying now. SOO I have everything crossed.

I also started to teach matt to drive, that has been a little scary in places, but he is doing very very well! He just needs a little more confidence I think.

Tonight I am going to get ready in the toilet after work and head down to Burgess Hill, his work are having a leaving dinner for him and I was invited so I’m pretty excited about that! Downside is though I bought my favourite dress with me but you have to wear a vest top under it and I forgot the vest top. Boo.

I don’t have any plans to do much this weekend. I think it will be a weekend of lying in bed watching Dexter (which I am currently re-obsessed with) and doing some design work. I went to see the hangover last week but it was pretty naff and tbh I was pretty pissed off too and hurt about something else it sorta crushed my mood for the weekend. I must NOT go shopping or spend much money as mine and Matt’s pay have gotten a little fucked due to him changing jobs and me changing the way I get paid :/ So staying in bed seems like a great idea. I have to get a top at lunch though as I said above and I’m sooooo fucking tempted to get this really cute little peach dress I saw ages ago! BUT I MUST NOT…. It’s like £20 and I need to save that!

I’ll end with so tales of my bank holiday weekend. I was meant to see my friends on the bank holiday but they blew me out except one and I really didn’t want to sit in a pub all day when the weather was beautiful and I had a rare extra day off. SOOO I called my trusty sister and we went to Brighton. It was lovely! Ate some Mexican food, looked down the laines, and then went to the beach, I also enjoyed a ride on a carousel. It made me dizzy and I was a little sick in my mouth. LOVELY!

Let’s hope the weather picks up as it’s been so beautiful all week and this morning it started to thunder lightening and RAIN, lots of rain again. Thank god for English weather. Yuk.