hello friends...

hello friends...

... please come and visit me at my new blog: the adventures of folly golightly.

having spent some months out of the blogging world i've been thinking about my writing voice, and decided as much as i've enjoyed writing at unremarkable girl, a fresh start is what i really need. 

please click your way over and be amongst the first to say 'hello'. 

lots of love {em} xxx

lovely old favourites

i saw today that studies have shown the act of re-reading our favourite books can improve mental health by evoking a happier times without the need to leave your chair. research has also found that the second read brings on stronger emotions as you read more deeply into a novel, understanding things you missed the first time.

it's great to hear that there is some science behind the "re-read". with the amount of new books on the shelves, it's rare for me to go back to an old favourite, but if it's good for my brain - how can i refuse? i love discovering a new author, but there are some exceptions that i will always go back to:

* jane austen's 'emma' takes me back to that teenage year when i discovered my love of austen, and reminds me of being able to eat as much as i live without worrying about my waist. 

* the harry potter books still fill me with me the thrill of hogwarts and the warm feeling of lifetime friendship every time i read them (which will never be enough by the way!)

what are your re-reads? i'd love to hear what makes you keep going back for more!

{em} x

source stylist.co.uk

instagrams from the desert

last month the fella and i took an investigatory trip to dubai. this was the furthest east i've ever been and i'd heard so many stories about the middle east i didn't know what to expect! we were only there for a few days, which didn't seem to justify taking my big digital slr, so i had to resort to iphone photography. 

i got a bit over excited travelling business class on one of emirates' new A380s. yes - i took photos in the aeroplane toilets. check out the perfume selection and fresh flowers. who knew a living thing could survive in an cabin toilet?

we quickly learnt that everything in dubai is the biggest in the world. fact! the dubai mall has water features with the highest fountains in the world.

crazy huge waterfall with life-size creepy diver status inside a mall? why not!

but sunshine - oh the sunshine! there was lovely winter weather, though i believe we were lucky to escape the sandstorms. every night we saw an amazing sunset over an incredible skyline. 

aside from all the biggest-ing and bestest-ing, dubai has an amazing mix of cultures, which a week can only scratch the surface of. i have a feeling we'll be going back there pretty soon.

{em} x

the challenge begins...

i always wanted to set myself a reading challenge. i've been impressed by some of my favourite bloggers getting through the top 50 or 100 in a year but as this is already a busy year for me - i've aimed slightly lower. only 6, but i know you'll agree with me, 6 of the best.

that's right people. this year i plan to read all 6 books by the one and only jane austen. as a big fan of Ms A, i'm ashamed to admit that i've only actually read 'emma' from start to finish. the other's i have seen plenty of adaptations of from the great to the down right terrible. i know that 6 novel's isn't a particularly tall order, but i hope to read bits and pieces related to all 6 as i go, and maybe talk about some of the screen adaptations too. if that doesn't impress you, look i even made myself a little banner to go along with the challenge.

like it? eh? eh? 

so here's the bit where i need to ask for your help. if you are an austen lover, or even an austen hater, i'd love to know your views as i read through my little book stack. i already have some ideas about characters i can't abide, plot twists that confuse me and my very favourite of those top hat wearing men. 

pride and prejudice is well underway, have you read it? i'd love to hear if you love it or loathe it.

{em} x

wedding junkie: most pinned!

hello from dallas folks. since i'm out here in texas at the moment (for business and unfortunately not pleasure), i haven't had much time for blogging.

as my wedding is drawing closer by the day, i thought i'd show you this pic that i pinned on pinterest a few month ago which i getting repined all the time. i love this pretty wedding hair, and it seems so do lots of other people.

Source: citified.blogspot.com via Emma on Pinterest

wedding hair is something i haven't decided on yet. i can't recreate this as my hair is way too short, but i hope to come up with something natural and pretty like this. any suggestions?

{em} x

still searching for the perfect valentines card?

this week we ordered our wedding invitations. eek! i can't wait to show you a sneak peek when they arrived. 

the company we used was artcadia. so far they have been really helpful and quick answering my queries, which is great for the last minute bride like me. 

while i was stalking their site, i spotted their great valentines cards which i just had to order for the fella. 

if you are still searching for the perfect card, check out artcadia before they are all gone. 

{em} x

the road ahead

i'm sorry - i've been a bad blogger. 

the pressure of having to write something witty and insightful to kick off the new year totally got to me. i should mention what a whirlwind 2011 was. i had holidays galore, got engaged, lost my aunt, my little sis went off to university, my dad turned 60 and the list goes on. 

i should say something about 2012. getting married, moving up at work, maybe making a move out of the tiny apartment. giving up on some old things and trying out some new things. challenging myself more than ever. 

so here we are - in february. a little voice is telling me i just need to click 'publish post' and i'm back on track. are you with me?

{em} x

grand house tour ~ the study!

on with the little tour of my even little-er apartment. last up is the study. this room was supposed to be a second bedroom but with my need for an office, and 2 bunnies to home, a bed was never going to make it's way into here.

these days my work space is taken up with printers. when the fella moved in we couldn't decide which one to keep, so both are still here. under the desk is one of the favourite hang outs for my bunnies. here you can just about make out diggory under the radiator and agatha under the chair.

for this room i loved the idea of floor to ceiling bookshelves, but i couldn't find shelving the right height anywhere so ikea's billy range came to the rescue. many years ago, these shelves were a beautiful display of some of my favourite things, nowadays apart from a couple of birdcages, the cabinets are stuffed with books and more books (and some ugly flying manuals).

because of my wallpaper love, papering the backs of these shelves seemed only natural. i do really love the effect.

i also use the left over scraps to cover old ring binders that will look extra pretty on my shelves. what else can i use my beautiful wallpaper for? really i'm up for hearing some ideas!

i hope you enjoyed the tour of my little apartment. see you in the new year!

{em} x

instagrams on the beach

hello! i hope you had a lovely christmas. i enjoyed some down time which involved the fella and i flying half way round the world to florida for some wedding planning. we stayed on captiva off the gulf coast and enjoyed the beautiful weather and even more beautiful surroundings. 

thanks to the time difference, it was really easy to get up early in the morning. i loved getting up and running about 5km every morning before the sun got too hot. then heading back to our villa and making up pancakes for breakfast. i could eat them guilt free in the knowledge that i'd already burnt a few hundred cals!

during our first day we were astounded by the amount of wildlife to see around the island. we spotted manatees and dolphins within minutes of standing on the jetty. by the end of the week we were accustomed to such sights but not at all ready to leave them behind. 

most afternoons i indulged my love of the sunshine by spending a few hours soaking up the sun on the beach. my pale skin still requires lots of suncream, but i did manage to feel that lovely glow that only the sun can give. 

and call me old fashioned, but i could not get my head around the fact that even in florida, it was the week before christmas. christmas trees on the beach? "let it snow" on the radio? santa hats on a sunny day? very strange! as much as i love captiva, it was good to get home to the kind of christmas i know and love. 

i hope you had the kind of christmas you love too.

{em} x

christmas is my favourite!!

happy christmas friends

{em} plus diggory and agatha x

grand house tour ~ living space

next on the grand house tour is the living room, which is really a lounge, dining room and kitchen combined. i love this kind of open plan living, moving from cooking to eating to relaxing flows naturally in here as long as we keep the mess under control. 

i read somewhere that it is a crime against interior design to have a tv as the centre of a room, and since our's is a fairly big one, we had to find an even bigger mirror to balance up the room. 

lets play 'where's wally'... can you see me there in the mirror. i know it's not exactly professional but how do you escape that giant mirror? you wanna see more of that gorgeous sofa? 

my favourite part of the living room is my little corner where i can curl up in my purple armchair and read a book (or surf the web). 

i do love the mix of functions in here. despite being a room full of rooms, it feels really cozy thanks to heaps of pictures, flowers and lamps to provide the mood lighting. any day now i plan to christmas it all up, time for some fairy lights i think!

the last room on the tour is the study (and bedroom to my bunnies). prepare for a very small amount of excitement!

{em} x

it scrap{book}

i just about found time this month to get out my glue stick. i picked up some cute sticky notes at paperchase that are perfect for little accents on layouts and far too pretty for writing "get milk" on!

i'm thinking these might be the final pages for my florida scrapbook... even i am getting tired of looking at those beaches now. i really need to get out and take some pictures so i have something new to put with my pretty paper.

{em} x

quote lovely ~ roald dahl

what i'm reading - december issue

ooh lovely lovely books to read. the nights are drawing in, and i've plenty of time to snuggle up with my hot water bottle and a good read. well that and the time spent on a stuffy train with a thousand other commuters on their way into central manchester. so here's what i'm reading at the moment:

when god was a rabbit ~ sarah winman. i finished this off this morning instead of getting up early and going to the gym. a lovely novel about the love of siblings over the decades. if you liked 'one day' - this is for you.

every last one ~ anna quindlen. probably not one to read if you're feeling a bit blue already, but an interesting concept following the life of a woman who has lost almost everything. the book really gets going about half way through and is un-put-down-able until the end. 

drums on the night air ~ veronica cecil. this is next to read on my list. i was drawn to this book as my parents had their own african adventure with me when i was only a few years old. much more exciting than our own travels, this is the true story of veronica's escape from the war zone of the congo. 

the death instinct ~ jed rubenfeld. the sequel to 'the interpretation of murder', this latest offering from jed rubenfeld is just as gripping a mix of detective story and historical backdrop. if you thought that terrorism is a problem only the people of the 21st century have to suffer, you will think again from the opening pages which follow the events of the wall street bomb more than 100 years ago. 

have you finished any of these? i'd love to know your thoughts. what are you reading this cold winter evening?

{em} x

instragrams in the city

on monday i was visiting my company's london office. the location is incredible and every time i'm there i can't help but feel proud to work in such a place. it was a cold and rainy day, but the mix of old and new buildings around london bridge provide a great backdrop to some serious business meetings. 

as much as i love the city, i'm always glad when it's time to head home. i find people who never smile and the jam packed underground pretty tiring and often need to sleep for an hour or too on the train home. it's even better when the train home is running on time! overall a successful trip.

{em} x

grand house tour ~ the bedroom!

with the prospect that i might be moving out of my little apartment next year, i thought i should start appreciating what i have here before it's gone. so i thought i would share a little house tour with you guys. to call it the grand house tour might be a small exaggeration, but i have a lot here to be proud of so i'm gonna roll with it. 

i bought my apartment in 2006 when i was just 22. it was supposed to be a rental investment but i just couldn't resist moving in. living on my own wasn't at all daunting. i embraced having my own space, and tried to make every corner of it totally "me". i finally got the chance to indulge in my love of wallpaper of decadent chairs, and i wasn't afraid to go a little crazy at times. 

up first on our tour is the bedroom. i took to this room with my paintbrush almost immediately, and as soon as i thought the walls had dried out, papered the feature wall behind the bed. 

i adore this handprinted paper by louise body, it's kind of naughty and only suitable for the bedroom! if you look a bit closer at my side of the bed, you'll see that it's really overflowing with paperbacks and teddies. this is where the next few books i plan to read reside... at the moment i have a substantial backlog! not too pretty right?

...well i'm a slave to paper and bears. one of my other weaknesses is chairs. this one i spotted at a furniture shop closing down sale. i guess it was for the showroom to exhibit just how well they can meet the tastes of even the craziest person. anyway i can't resist a bargain or a velvet stripe, so this one came home with me.

i fear my fella hates this room - it's a girl's indulgence with throw pillows and hats hanging off every corner. luckily he only has to sleep in here, and has plenty of his own touches in other rooms. well that's just about it for the bedroom. i'm ashamed to say my overflowing wardrobe didn't make the cut this time, but you can imagine that i'm sure! next up i'll be boring you with my living room... prepare yourself for more unusual chairs!

{em} x

this november week

well hello there friends. how has your week been? we've had some sad news in the family and the mood here has been sombre. nevertheless there are some things that have brightened up my world and i'd love to share them with you. 

- flowers from my fella to mark 3 years of being a couple. i guess this is the last time we will celebrate this little anniversary i invented, as next time we will have a proper anniversary to enjoy. what a crazy thought!

- these vintage air hostess pictures (found via galadarling.com) are fascinating. i love those funky boots.

- watching marilyn monroe and laurence olivier in 'the prince and the showgirl'. marilyn is still a glamour puss even though she wears the same white dress throughout the whole film.

- if you've ever read or watched some of the twilight stories, you might enjoy this literary examination of bella swan. 

what's been cheering you up this week?

{em} x

been pinned much lately?

hi friends, i just saw this cool tip (via amyistheparty.com). if you want to see if anything from your blog has been pinned on pinterest, you can just go to http://pinterest.com/source/yourblogname

for example, i looked at...

http://pinterest.com/source/unremarkablegirl.blogspot.com/

.. to see who'd pinned me. i feel practically famous!

{em} x

autumn musings

first of all, apologies for my quietness over the last few weeks. i was feeling poorly and keeping up with essential activities was about all i could manage. i was disappointed not have time to line up a 10 things post, and will do my best to make next month's extra good. anyway, i'm back to feeling better now and happy to be here. 

i was looking through my photo files this evening, and i stumbled on one of my favourite autumnal photographs that i thought i would share with you. 

this was taken on winter hill here in bolton, 2 years ago, just as the sun was going down. i love the way i captured all the colours of autumn and it reminds me of those glass bottles filled with coloured sand to make a pretty picture. 

that tree in the foreground is as gnarled and ugly as a tree can be, and yet it's shapes intrigue me. what did it look like during that summer? what does it look like now a few years on? i love that it stands there so proud. is it possible to see determination in a tree? why am i asking so many questions?

do you have a favourite photograph that you like for some quite peculiar reason? i'd love to hear about it, if only to prove i'm not completely mad!

{em} x

quote lovely - voltaire