toile de jouy

Hey friends!

Sophie here, how are you? I’ve been really ill with a cold for the past few days so I won’t inflict any pictures of myself on you, however I have done a bit of DIY to keep myself busy so I thought I’d show you what I’ve been up to! 

  

B&Q Toile Blue Gold Wallpaper, £19.98

 

A few weeks ago I found this beautiful wallpaper , £19.98 at B&Q. It’s a pale blue-grey toile de jouy pattern on an off white background. The images are pastoral (little row boats, streams, bridges, houses that belong in the French countryside) and almost look like they’ve been painted on in watercolour. I fell in love with this as soon as I saw it, but as I rent an apartment I can’t really wallpaper properly so I wasn’t entirely sure what I was going to do with it. 

 

 I applied some to this little panel in my hallway, it’s only a small area but it does catch your eye as you walk in. As I said I’m not really supposed to paste it on properly (or if I did I’d have the joy of removing it when I leave) so I had to be a bit creative with sticking it up temporarily. I actually used white-tac, I know you’re cringing but I didn’t just stick four blobs in each corner, I made tiny thin strips to go all the way along all 4 edges, then spent about 3 years massaging it on, peeling it off and re-aligning! This really was as painstaking as it sounds but once I started I was determined to finish, and my hard work paid off as the edges are all nice and flat and neat and the people that have seen it thought I’d pasted it on!

  After cutting out my first panel, I stuck the piece I was left with just around the corner on a blank bit of wall. I think this ties the two sections of the hallway together and stops the other wall from looking a bit random on it’s own.

  

I also made these tapestry style wall-hangings which I’m really pleased with! This wasn’t as easy as it seemed in my head but I got there in the end. From B&Q I picked up 4 pieces of wooden beading / doweling, I chose quite thick ones to get the effect I wanted but they were super cheap, £1.99 each. My boyfriend helped me saw them down to size and file them off (and yes by helped me, I mean did this for me).

 

And there I am varnishing / staining them, I used B&Q’s own interior wood varnish in antique pine (£5.98) and they came out a really nice colour after just one coat.

The next step was to glue the edges of the wallpaper panels (top and bottom) to the doweling and wrap it around slightly so you can’t see the join. I also bought some gold chain (B&Q again) to hang them up with, I attached the chain to the poles using gold push pins, and then used a single gold push pin to hang them on the wall (this way it will only leave a tiny hole).

And here they are in action!

 As I was on a roll, I also made this for the hallway to hang up our keys:

 

Wilko photo frame gold effect, £2.40

 The frame was stupidly cheap from Wilko’s, £2.40! I just removed the glass and the back, cut a piece of my wallpaper to size and used two of my gold push pins as key hangers.

 

 

Thanks for reading guys! I know it hasn’t been the usual post but I hope you enjoyed it, and maybe I’ve given you some ideas if you rent too :)

Lots of loves

Sophie x

Super easy New Year's Eve nail ideas

Hey guys!

Here are a few nail art ideas for New Year's Eve. I say 'nail art' but there really is no art involved at all, they're all really really easy to do and  use affordable products, all of which I'll really briefly review as I go!

Carnival by Technic

Carnival Glitter polish by Technic, without flash

Carnival glitter polish by Technic, with flash

 Jenn got me this amazing Technic glitter nail polish for Christmas, the name is 'Carnival', and it's a clear polish loaded with flecks of different size and colour holographic glitter. At the moment I can see red, gold, silver, blue and green but I seem to notice another colour every time I look at it! Carnival and other Technic nail products are available from Bodycare, but I'm not sure about the price as this was a gift.

#1

For this one, I brushed Carnival onto my nails in the usual way I would apply a polish. I didn't use a base coat so this was to give a nice shine to my nail and add a few flecks of glitter here and there. Applied in this way, not much glitter actually gets onto the nail. For the tips, I applied Carnival in a dabbing motion instead, which allowed me to concentrate the glitter on the ends of my nails. 

#2 

 

To add a bit more sparkle, you could use the dabbing technique to apply more glitter to the top half of the nail, gradually getting less and less towards the cuticle for a glittery ombre effect!

#3

 

And if you wanted to go all out, dab the glitter all over your nail and layer as much as you like! (It is new year's eve!)

 All in all I love this nail polish, it's really easy to  achieve a subtle look with one coat or a reaaaally glittery one with just a few! Loving the colours and different types of glitter, especially at this time of year. 

Black Multi Glitter by Barry M

Black Multi Glitter by Barry M, without flash

Black Multi Glitter by Barry M, with flash

  Black Multi Glitter does what it says on the bottle, it's a highly pigmented black polish with loads of really fine multi-coloured glitter mixed in. Most of the glitter looks silvery but when the light catches it you can see glints of pink, red, green blue, etc etc! The thing I have about this one is that it looks amazing in the bottle and from the description, but I've used this a few times now and been disappointed with how it looks on my nails. I thought I may as well show you...

 

 Although it's really pigmented, I still needed two coats to get full coverage. I think the top picture looks pretty much like any plain black polish, and although the flash picks up the glitter a little, I don't really think it's much to write home about. I've seen other reviews and pictures of this polish on nails and it looks amazing, but never seems to work that way for me! It just seems to dry really gritty and dull on my nails, and base and top coats don't seem to help, am I doing something wrong!?

If you want to give this one a go yourself, I had mine from Superdrug although I can't find it on the Boots or Superdrug websites! It's also available from ASOS for £2.99. 

Gold Mine by Barry M

Gold Mine Glitter by Barry M, without flash

Gold Mine Glitter by Barry M, with flash

 In complete contrast to the previous Barry M polish, I LOVE this one!! Gold Mine Glitter is a really pigmented black polish with tonnes of large-ish gold flecks, perfect for a night out or if you fancy something a bit more special than plain black. You can purchase Gold Mine Glitter from Boots or Superdrug, £2.99 from both stores.

#4

This, again, is impressively pigmented for a black, but to get completely full coverage you ideally need 2-3 coats. I find this one to be really difficult to remove so rather than layering it (and to save wasting it) I'd advice using one layer over a plain black polish. In this picture I'm wearing it over Barry M Black Multi Glitter (above). 

 And my personal favourite...

#5

 

I really like dark nails, so I wanted something dark but with a bit of sparkle for New Year's Eve. I think this combination of Carnival over Barry M Black Multi Glitter is perfect, it reminds me a little of fireworks on the night sky! I tried adding a bit more Carnival glitter for a more full-on look (below), but at the moment I'm thinking of keeping it subtle.

#6

 

I wasn't wearing any top coat in these pictures as I was removing the polish and re-applying really quickly, and I think you could probably get away without it. I pretty much always wear some top coat when I do my nails properly, just to give them that extra shine and protect the polish underneath. Just in case you're interested, this is my favourite:

Wet Look Top Coat by Save the Nail

It gives a really high shine finish, goes on smoothly and lasts really well. I also think it brings out the colours of the polish underneath and really makes them pop! Definitely worth the money as it's lasted me ages (£6.95 from Boots). :)

Thank you so much for reading and happy new year guys!

Sophie xxx