valentine's OOTD.

I just wanted to do a very quick post to show you all what I'll be wearing for Valentine's.
It's one of my favourite occasions... Although saying that, I pretty much love every special occasion because most of them involve food of some form. But this one being based around chocolates and flowers, what's not to love!
Even before I met Gareth I used to love seeing all the pretty pink and red sweeties and chocolates in the shops and if you're single, it's such a good excuse for a night out with the girls.

I've bought him a little something which I won't reveal on here... Just in case he reads this. But I'm so excited to see him open it. I'll instagram a picture of it tomorrow, so make sure you're following me on there.

So tomorrow night Gareth is taking me out for dinner to a gorgeous restaurant near Hitchin. We've been there once before on a double date and really liked it, so thought we would give it a whirl again.
I'll let you know how the food is.

Here is what I'll be wearing...

Cardigan: New Look

Crop Top: New Look

Skirt: Topshop

Necklace: New Look

Heels: Christian Louboutin Pigalle from Net a porter

My beautiful Loubs... I have worn these twice in my life,
they are THE MOST uncomfortable shoes ever

A New Look necklace which I customised 

by removing the extra chains...

And by I, I mean Gareth

I have purple pastel nails tonight, but I might swap them for coral pink tomorrow.
This ones a Barry M shade which I adore,
I don't think they sell it any more but here is a similar one

Please excuse my crude photography. Whilst I am a photographer by trade... I am not used to photographing myself at all! I'm sure I will improve with a little practice.

Anyway, I've tried to keep my outfit fairly girly whilst staying true to my slightly alternative edge. Let me know what you think of it in the comments below.
I haven't decided on a handbag or make up yet, these are things I will most probably be doing in a mad rush after work tomorrow night. I'll try and instagram a photo of the final look before we go out, so stay tuned.

Thanks for reading :)

room by room... our spare room.

Over the next few months I'm going to be doing a room by room house tour. I'm starting with our spare room, as it's the most finished room we have at the moment. 
My interior design skills leave a little to be desired, so please comment and let me know what you love and don't love.

Since we moved in, the spare room has had a lick of both gloss and emulsion paint, a lovely new carpet, new blinds and we've filled it with some of my favourite pieces.

The name spare room always make it sound like it's a bit unloved... But I promise this one is very much loved!
It's a small double room with a built in wardrobe. Perfect for guests, like when my parents come to visit. At the moment the built in wardrobe is full of Gareth's clothes, but the long terms plan is to put his clothes in our bedroom and mine in the office come dressing room. That way guests can have plenty of space to store their belongings.

In terms of work still left to do in this room... We have a built in wardrobe, which we're looking at replacing the doors on. The current doors are very dated and poor quality, so I'm hoping to find some white high gloss ones to fit, with simple silver bar handles.
We also need to replace the light fittings in the whole of the house, bar the bathrooms and conservatory, so this will get done at some point fairly soon.

As you can see, we've kept it fairly neutral with colourful accents. You'll probably see a little theme here developing around our home :)I always feel colour schemes can date fairly quickly and when you're on a budget, keeping the fixtures and fittings neutral means you can change the colour scheme so easily. We've gone for purple in here, just because my bedroom was purple before we moved in together to the flat and I had some key pieces which I really wanted to keep.

The chair is Philippe Starck, bought from Designers Guild. I've had it since my teens, I think my Mum wanted to start developing my taste for design early in life! My bedroom was lilac when I was about 12 and I absolutely adored this chair. I used to sit in it at my desk, chatting on MSN until the wee hours.

Seems a bit of a waste using such a special piece like this, so the chair will become a chair when I find a nice white bedside table to replace it.

The Robert's Radio was a present from Gareth to myself for my 23rd birthday. I'd wanted one for ages and was so surprised and happy when I opened it :)

It goes perfectly with my Jason Munn print, bought from the Richard Goodall in Manchester (pictured at the top of this post).

It's a gig poster from the band The National.

I'm not a huge fan of their music, but I just loved the poster.

The reindeer rug is a favourite of Gareth's, we've used it as a throw for the bed. It came from a market in Finland when he was out there on holiday. It moults everywhere so was banished to underneath the bed in our flat, but it seems sad to hide it away when it holds memories of travelling... I've nicknamed it Robby the Reindeer! 
I'm thinking it might look nice in our living room when the new sofas arrive next week, so it may get relocated at some point.

Anyway, there's a whistle stop tour of our spare room for you. Like I say, there's still a little bit of work left to do, but it's finished for the most part.

I've got quite a few rooms left to blog about... What would you like to see next?!