Making-over MissSearles

You may remember the other day that I mentioned my new friend Lottie, she recently wrote a brilliant post titled If I can do it you can! after having lots of feedback from her Think frock it's Friday idea and people saying how does she always look so immaculately groomed.
She says

I am merely a housewife who decided about 18 months ago (post ops) that I would never again look a mess and that every day I would make the effort

I really admire her for this because it's something I'd like to be able to do too.
I feel like things have finally settled down for me, I'm happy back at home, seeing friends more and doing my own thing and feel like I'm back to the old me. I don't mean for this to sound completely shallow, because its quite the opposite its about me feeling good about myself, but I feel like I should be upholding the MissSearles image/persona in my day to day life rather than just in the blogosphere. Don't get me wrong, it's not like I don't make an effort ever, some days I'll pick out a nice outfit to wear to work and do my make-up, it's just that some days I wake up feeling whats the point in doing all that and its a mind-set I really really want to get out of because I don't want it dragging me down.
So I am...Making-over MissSearles  
First things first - Cleaning out my wardrobe
In her post Lottie shared a few tips with us, the first one being;

Go through your wardrobe and throw out everything that is too big/too small and that you really shouldn’t be seen in public in.  If you shouldn’t be seen in public in it you shouldn’t be seen in private by your family in it either.  This includes underwear and nightwear.  It’s painful and hard and you may well end up with a wardrobe of three things but better that than a wardrobe full of nasty horrible clothing.  If it’s not there you can’t put it on. I did this, it was painful but it felt soooo amazing to never have to look at the mountain of awful stuff I had and better still never have to put it on again

I've been meaning to do this for a long time and its probably ideal to do so now as I'm actually going out to buy new clothes next week :-)

Lottie has agreed to help me out with this and point me in the direction of the main items I should have in my wardrobe and will be sharing this in a guest post very soon!

Let the wardrobe cleansing commence...

Listening to my inner 'Yes' voice...and spending some money!

Every since I left school/went into full time work I've never actually had a full months wage to myself. There has always been things to save and pay for, mainly to do with moving out, weddings or ex's breaking my cars (honest to god my poor Punto never went wrong when I was driving it but as soon as I let a boyfriend drive it they broke it!)
Now that I've moved back with my parents and cleared the final bills from my house I've found I've had some money left over! For the first time in my life I've actually had a bit of 'Money Freedom' and I've taken it as a chance to treat myself.
My first big spend wasn't so much a 'I've got the money to do this' sorta thing but more of a 'I need a break and I can afford to do this' spur of the moment decision. I've booked flights to go to Canada to visit my family at the end of June.
I find it very hard to hear my inner yes voice, as one of my Twitter friends aptly put it, and always feel a pang of guilt over spending money on something that isn't really an essential. I'm so glad I didn't think to hard about booking the flights because if I'd have slept on it I probably would have talked myself out of it and not booked them at all and I really feel like I could do with the break just to relax.
My next purchases are a classic case of me indulging my geeky side. I've said for ages that I'd like to get myself a nice camera, I don't know enough about photography to splash out on a SLR so I went for, in my opinion, the next best thing... a Canon PowerShot SX20 IS

 

I also bought a Flip Video camera, justified by the fact that both of these would be useful for me to take on 'Tour' and the fact that I'm a sucker for anything gadgety.

I'm still getting to grips with working out how to use the camera properly but I'll be posting some photos soon!

A Tale of Persistance, Tracey (my new bestfriend) and radioactive banana videocameras

*I should probably point out first, I love getting deliveries/post/anything, also, if I buy something online I want it to come on the day they say it will...im not patient, I cant help it, when it comes to things like this I am a complete child-its an endering quality, ont you think?*
A few weeks ago I ordered myself a Flip video camera, it was supposed to turn up in time for the #ReadingTweetup but it didn't.
It is quite possible that I may have sulked about it a tiny bit, I gave Misco a call and asked when I could expect it and they said the next Tuesday at the latest (not brilliant but fine as long as I get it before going to Canada it's cool)
Tuesday rolls around and nothing :(
Wednesday, nothing. Make a phone call 'we're expecting stock tomorrow, it will be with you in Friday' Hhmph, ok.
Friday....DHL main arrives but no packages for me, another phone call 'It will be with you Monday' Its ok I can be patient, Monday is fine.
Monday....Nothing :( Too lazy to call again so send an email (it is also possible that I may have been harassing the lovely customer service people about the stock delivery via email...maybe) Reply 'Having problem obtaining stock from manufacturer' :(
Tuesday - Another phone call to customer services, got to speak to the lovely Tracey who is now my best friend...
Me- 'Hello, Ive called a few times over the past few weeks and keep getting told different dates for stock delivery on this item, are there any updates?'
Misco-'Hiya, actually I think I took your call last week about this! I'll just have a look for you...Oh..umm it's kinda outta stock until August...'
Me - 'Nooooooooo!!! Any chance there are any others in stock, other colours, anything??'
Misco - 'Hang on a sec...we do have some but they're more expensive (next model up)...and yellow..'
Me - 'How much more expensive?'
Misco - 'About £15'
Me - 'hmmm..how yellow? Banana yellow or Hi-vis jacket yellow?'
Misco - 'Radioactive banana yellow...BUT I could probably adjust the price for you and have it to you tomorrow morning!'
Me - 'You would be my best friend in the whole wide world if you could do that!!' :)
Misco - 'Ok that's all done for you :)

So I now have a new best friend, a radioactive banana yellow Flip video camera on it's way and more than likely, a restraining order to stop me calling customer services again!
Cheers @Misco_UK
All is good with the world :)