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!

Birthday Girl Birthday Weekend!

So as I now write this I am a grand age of 25! I have just had a 4 day weekend and to be honest has been amazing. It makes coming back to work really really hard. I only have to do three days but it seems soo long especially when Matt has the WHOLE DAMN week off.

So where should I start. I will start with Saturday and Sunday I guess. Saturday was slow I saw Gemma for a bit, I actually can’t remember what else I did. Oooh I popped to the Valley to get a couple of bits, but just chilled out for most the day.

Sunday was the first big awesome day. I woke up around 6am! This almost killed me, but I got up and curled my hair really nicely and did my makeup packed some ridiculously massive bag with a spare coat and all sorts and we headed off at just gone 7am. McDonald's breakfast was the first stop and I got one meal and a snack wrap cause HEY IT WAS MY BIRTHDAY WEEKEND :p couldn't actually eat it all. Then we arrived in London at the Olympia around 8:15am and parked up and joined the queue. It was pretty small to be honest and never really got too much bigger not compared to the summer anyway.

We went straight in around 9am and got two talk tickets that cost £40 eep. And then walked around the stalls twice as it was just sooo empty and quiet. We went and sat in the car as it hit me how tired I was and actually fell asleep for an hour. We then went back in to the talk with Michael Shanks and Suanne Braun and Michael’s wife joined in too which was great as I love her in SG1 and Andromeda. I have to say the talk didn't flow as well as past talks and there wasn't enough SG1 mention for my liking but it was enjoyable. Just wish I hadn't sat behind the really tall guy. Boo.

We ate Lunch in the car and did some more browsing. Matt wanted me to pick out thinks for my birthday which I did although the stalls were fewer and not as good as the summer so I didn't find that much stuff alas. 

I spent about an hour debating if I should get an autograph from Virginia Hey, and I’m glad I worked up the courage as she was the nicest lady ever! She was so chatty and happy and told me I had a beautiful name :D

Then I had Michael's photo shoot at 3:30pm and swooned a little. His Accent and how nice he was to me and then I hip bumped him when they took the photo all made me smile WAY TOO HARD eheheh! Not a fan of me in the photo but I think it is nice and natural!

I picked out a few bits during the day and we also grabbed tickets to the Star Trek talk that was free. That ended up being really awesome! Had two actors from Deep Space 9 and Voyager. The drive home was pretty horrible loads and loads of traffic but we got back and ate pizza and watched Star Trek!

Much to my dismay I forgot my camera and I didn't really take any pictures which really was a real shame! I will make sure to take some next time!

Monday was a lovely day. Just got up when I woke up and went into Croydon which was nice as it was soo quiet in there. Got a few bits I needed and Matt got me a lovely jumper for my Birthday to add to the pile of gifts he had bought me! We got home and I showered and chilled out and then got ready and went out for dinner with my Mum Dad and Sister. It was really lovely and the food was delicious.!

I got home stuffed to the rim and begun the countdown to midnight so I could open my gifts hahah! 

So midnight came and I got to open all my gifts! I've shown a few on here already. I ended up with 4 jumpers….

Polar Bear one (from Matt) – H! by Henry Holland

Polka dot (from Sister)– Forever 21

Squirrel and fox ones (from my Grandma) – New Look  

I got a dino from Matt and the pop figures as well as the tree necklace and snowflake necklace. We got them from Comic Con.

Sarah got me the air fresher and gloves and socks and Laura got me the other necklaces, note book and light coloured scarf. My aunt also got me the peter pan necklaces which I FREAKING LOVE! They looked soo good on with some of my jumpers!

I also got a beautiful coat from my mum and dad too but I haven’t taken a picture of it yet! It’s a Hell Bunny Millie coat I think I mentioned it in a previous post.

Then on Tuesday I got up early again and began my loooong 2-3 hour drive to Longleat safari park.

We were greedy again and stopped for Maccy D Breakfast again oops! Then carried on our journey, the M25 was horrible and very stop start but after that it was a clear run, a very long run but clear, took almost 3 hours in the end! We stopped off and then went straight into the Safari bit.

It was great and I really really enjoyed it. There was a lion that walked in front of my car and big animals you usually have to look through bars and windows to see were right next to my car. It was great soo much fun and amazing to see these animals so close. The Monkey bit though I did not enjoy I watched them peel the rubber off the car in front and snap the Ariel! Eeep I got out of there ASAP! 

The next bit was then a walk around zoo bit, but it was all so interactive. We got to walk with actual penguins and through lots of animal bits. We walked past a enclosure with birds and a man was in there feeding them and had two on his arm. I was like I WANNA DO THAT MATT. So we got £1 handed it over and got some bird food. I walked in hoping a bird would land on my arm and BAM around 7 just landed on me. They were in my hair and on my back and just everywhere! It was so funny Matt got some pretty good photos of me being mugged by the birds ehehe.

Matt got some beautiful pictures of the animals and I wanted to share a few below. He took over 200 so I just picked 10 of my favorites. 

So now I am back at work and it’s pretty awful. I generally had an amazing 4 days. The weather has been great, Sunday was perfect and it was sunny and dry till about 2pm yesterday and then started to spit around 4pm… but we left around 5 so it was fine.!

Now I have to wait until Christmas for some more time off. I cannot wait until the run up to Christmas; it will forever be my favourite time of the year!

I want to end on a comparison. A body and head shot of myself 1 year apart both a comic con in the same place. I think I have changed a lot :)