New beardginnings

Well, hi there!!

Gosh, there's a lot of spiderwebs and dust bunnies around here... Hang on a second while I whip around with the vacuum cleaner...

Apologies - I've been rather distracted with setting up and running my own graphic design, illustration and animation business - CommuniKate Design Limited - feel free to hop on over if you'd like to have a snoop :) 

Right. That's better. 

So - how ARE you?! What's new? What's the same? What's with the non-chronological Instagram feed*? So many questions...

So, I'm back. With a rather exciting announcement... Nope- not that! The bump's made of nothing more than excessive quantities of pizza (I'm thinking of calling it Margaret-a. Marge for short). 

My news is that I'm making a return to blogging. Right now (literally as I type), and in pre-penned, scheduled future posts. But it's not going to be on here... 

Oh, I also met a chameleon this summer. Winning at life, right?!

Instead, I'm setting up residence as the in-house blogger for EastWing Grooming Co. - a new company selling seriously excellent men's grooming products, co-owned by my friend James. Beards aren't really my area of expertise (although you'll all know how much I appreciate a good one- my love for Joe is still going strong!), but James has said I can write about anything I darn well please. So it's essentially going to be Hook, Line & Sink Her Part 2... 

The products look pretty damn fancy too, huh?

Obviously, James has no idea what he's let himself in for, as I'm currently working out how many posts I can write about perfect Nicolas Cage movie & biscuit combos:

- Con Air and custard creams

- Face Off and jammy dodgers

- It Could Happen To You and chocolate hobnobs... 

You get the idea. 

There'll also be travel posts, top tips about Brighton, and probably a few interior design posts too - as I've finally moved into my very own flat! Cue spending all my pocket money in the children's lighting section of Ikea...

And building a splashback out of Lego...

So, if you'd like to hear more about what I've been up to (and find out more about some seriously delicious-smelling beard products) I'm going to be wittering away over here for the foreseeable future. I can't wait to see your lovely faces again!! 

Katie xxx

*Yes, I know that was ages ago- but I'm still confused by it.

Happiness is...

... Rounding up your friends in the park 
For a spontaneous picnic and game of rounders. One round robin text of "Grab a blanket, a bag of crisps, and a bottle of suncream*", and there we were running around the park like dogs let off their leashes. It was all fun and literal games until I full-on collided with one of them (we both dodged the same way while running at full speed. It was NOT pretty). Then it got serious for a minute because they thought I was dead. Then it went back to fun again. 

Oh, and my friend taught me how to hulahoop, at the grand old age of 28. Woop!

.... Stew in a storm
When the weather subsequently decided not to play ball, we chose not to either. Instead, we de-camped to a local pub to devour big bowls of steaming Polish stew and dumplings, curled up on Chesterfield sofas (us, not the dumplings. That would be weird). Thunderstorms don't get better than that.

... Ridiculous makeovers
I inherited a plastic bin from the previous inhabitant of my room, which was rather handy as I didn't own one at the time (ice-cream maker: yes. Bin: no. Priorities, people). After realising it was pretty much the only non-DIY-d thing on display, I decided that need to be rectified STAT...

The "before" bin. Snore.

One trip to Homesense later, and my bin was looking 18 kinds of fabulous. Ta da!

It's so ridiculous, throwing rubbish away has become instantly hilarious.

... It's pronounced "freet-za"
AKA, FREE PIZZA. Yes, that's right. FREE. PIZZA. A friend of mine somehow managed to get his jammy hands (not literally- I don't think he even likes jam that much) on 8 tickets to the opening party for Franco Manca's new Brighton restaurant. When he asked me if I wanted to go to a sourdough pizza restaurant for dinner where everything would be LITERALLY FREE, I nearly offered him my first born child. Ok, ok, I also offered to carry his. FREE. PIZZA. 

... NEON DINOSAUR THEMED CRAZY GOLF
And I thought my life had peaked at freeza.... There are no words. Thank you, thank you, Globalls (snigger) for bringing your magical presence into my life.

... Double mate dates at an ice-cream parlour
Like teenagers from the 1950's. Giggling and straw-sharing mandatory. 

So tell me - what have I missed? 

Katie xxx

*Oh, and a P.S. assuring them my phone hadn't been stolen, seeing as I was apparently texting them about sport... EURGH.

Sharpie Shoes DIY

Hello lovelies!

Happy Friday! Have you got nice plans for the weekend? 

It feels like a really long time since I posted a DIY tutorial. Probably because all my recent crafting has involved making clothes from duvet covers, and those tutorials would go something like:
1. Cut up duvet. 
2. Sew bits of it together until it covers you enough that you don't get arrested.

This one is much simpler to explain, with the added bonus of nostalgia. Until this week I'd completely forgotten that I used to draw on my shoes as a teen; my favourites were some canvas high-tops Biro-d with Batman and Spiderman (this was before official comic book Converse. Yes, kids, I'm that old). It's safe to say my Mum's LEAST favourite pair were the new school shoes I swirled with black glitter paint; which earned me detention and had to be immediately replaced (that was pretty much the only time I got into trouble at school. Naturally, it was glitter-related). Oops.

I had to go Work Shoe Shopping earlier this week, which I tend to find rather depressing because my clown-sized feet only fit into Boring Shoes from the men's section. And I'm just not a boring shoe kind of person. Luck was on my side this time, when I found a pair of black Chelsea-style boots in the Topman sale- I even managed to wrangle an extra discount because one of them had a silver pen mark on the toe... *Cue Contemplative Evil Genius face and a detour into WH Smiths*

Shoes before. YAAAAAWN.

I'm sure a lot of you are thinking "Oh, those are lovely as they are; why would you scribble on them?". The answer, my friends, is SHINY. Yes, that is a legitimate answer. And here's the maths to go with it:

Boots + silver Sharpie + an hour or so of spare time =

Hurrah! It's like WALKING ON SPACE. Which I'm pretty sure basically makes me a qualified astronaut. 

Let's just all keep our fingers crossed my boss doesn't give me detention...

Katie xxx