Blogtober Day 31 - Halloween!

I do enjoy Halloween. I love horror movies, the spooky side of life and cheesy decorations. :D This year I haven't really done much - just painted my nails:

The first picture was stage one of the initial attempt which I then had to remove for an interview (it went well and I should hear in just over a week).

This was this mornings attempt two. Practice will make perfect I think. Believe it or not my right hand came out better despite me being right handed. Must be residual traces of my childhood ambidextrous-ness coming out - I really need to practice that in case I break my arm or something.

Also meet Ethel. Ethel is my Halloween stuffed cat that I bought at the PDSA when I was volunteering there. It was probably Halloween 2012, I also bought a mug but I don't have a picture of that. She got the name Ethel from the Worst Witch books. The main villain girl is called Ethel Hallow and of course Hallow is the first half of Halloween but I didn't think that made a good name so I stuck with Ethel :)

Blogtober Day 29 - Year In Review So Far.

So far this year has been like any other with a noticeable exception. I'll do a timeline sort of thing.

January: I had been volunteering at Oxfam with mum since November and it was fine. She had been ordered by the job centre to find voluntary work, I happened to be there and got suckered into joining too. We did Saturday afternoons. The normal job centre hassles.
February: Still at Oxfam. Did a course which I hated. The tutor said some rather out of line things regarding my weight, how close I am to mum and making assumptions about my mental health.
March: Mum got her job at Co-op so we both left Oxfam. I had to do organised work experience with the job centre so I started volunteering as Sue Ryder.
April: The car failed it's MOT so we had to scrap it.
May: Nothing of note that I can remember. Interviews, job centre hassle. The usual.
June: Did a course on Business Admin. It involved an interview at the end but despite the assumption of a lot of people on the course not having previous experience lack of experience was given as one of their reasons for not hiring me. I didn't mind too much as it was zero hours contract as and when you're needed and thanks to travel I was pretty much limited to two locations.
July: Left Sue Ryder. Someone mum knows sold us a car.
August: I had my 24th birthday. The job centre started talking about threats of full-time work experience at a city farm in Bristol.which I really enjoyerd.
September: I had a taster shift at Waitrose for something called Feeding Britain's Future which I really enjoyed, seeing behind the scenes etc. My job centre adviser thought it was a proper job interview though *rollseyes*. He did get me an interview with Churchill Cleaning Services which has lead to my job at the primary school down the road. The people I work with are nice and the job itself is fine, it's just 10 hours is not enough.
October: Nothing major so far this month. I am in the process of arranging an interview for later this week and I'm currently on half term so no work. There are a couple of other things in the works which I don't want to discuss in too much detail yet.

There we have it, my year so far. Started the same as any other, voluntary work, worry that things will never change, but now I have a job and things are starting to look up a bit - finally! :D

Catch Up

I really am terrible at post names aren't I...

So a catch up for the past week or so. Monday I put in a CV at Brewer's Fayre restaurant, Tuesday I did my volunteering. Found some really nice stuff: black leather brogue ankle boots size 9, New Look bird print dress size 24, Red or Dead leather satchel (perfect size) a couple of CDs, a couple of books and some Clarks ankle boots which are a size 7 1/2 yet fit... Quite well actually... Weird. I also found some Yours heart trim tights new in pack in size 3. I tried them on this morning and I think I put them on the wrong way round but they fit alright. I'm not used to tights XD the heart trim seems too high though, I don't think it would be seen wearing a dress. Maybe short shorts though... It's no big deal though, it's just nice to have tights for if I get invited out anywhere nice.

So Mondays outfit I forgot to take a picture of but it was just black t-shirt, black calf-length skirt, black leggings and black Converse high-tops with blue laces. I wanted to look smart because of the whole taking my CV in thing.

This was Tuesday's outfit for the charity shop. Dress from Evans via the charity shop, leggings from eBay and Converse from size.co.uk with laces from biglaces.co.uk. I love this dress, it's so light and airy for the summer weather. It has actually been quite warm lately.

Thursday I had an interview at Brewer's Fayre but no outfit from then: black trousers, blue and red floral top and Doc Martens - they need new insoles though, the old ones were rather cheap and have started to rub on my left foot. The interview went alright and I have a trial shift next Wednesday evening, hopefully it'll go alright and I'll like it. I'm determined to like it. I need some job, any job and at least it's local so no travel costs. There are a couple of other places I will apply to though, the local Lidl and Coffee1 in the next town. That one is a bit of a pain as it will involve travel but if I got it I'd probably get a bike with my first wage and cycle there unless the weather is horrible in which case I would get the bus XD

Friday I was in Clevedon for my Pinnacle People job search group. The weather was a bit cooler so I wore trousers:

Yep the faithful spotted ones again :D along with a top I got from Yours a few years ago, I've lost weight since then so it's rather loose... Shoes are green Vans lace ups with rainbow laces. Mum just came up behind me and asked why am I looking so miserable in the photo... It's my natural face! Smiling looks awkward to me. Although to make her ladyship happy I will try and do happier faces in the future ^_^

I think that's all my news for now. I will be back Monday with the first Shoe Showcase :D

Stef Out xx

Outfit!

EDIT: Just a quick edit to add the Bloglovin code <a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/6897149/?claim=g7z4mjp8q3y">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a> :)

Following on from my last post I have decided that I will post outfits occasionally. If I'm wearing something interesting that is... Stuff like jeans and my Batman t-shirt or black trousers and lilac polo-shirt will probably only get posted once to showcase a casual outfit in my world even if I wear them regularly.

This is me in all my fat glory in yesterday's outfit (today is a pyjama day) :D sorry for not smiling but I seem to have the whole Bitchy Resting Face thing that I read about somewhere XD smiling is not my natural face shape. Also excuse the pile of pyjamas on the floor (the red lump) the space by my bed in front of the bookcase is the easiest place to take pictures, I can't figure out how to get my whole head, body and feet in though... The bookcase shelf I used is a little high but the next one down even using boxes is too low. My room is light green though I'd prefer purple. You can see some of my many ornaments behind. There are some dolphins, a dragon, a faerie, some horses and some of the owls. They are a minuscule amount of my collection. I have shelves all over my room. I might take some pictures for another post. And of my bookshelves. My books have flooded out of my room to the hallway and mum's room XD.

So the outfit. The top is from Evans when I was still at school, maybe aged 16/17 or so, I remember wearing it on a day trip to Weymouth with my best friend/ex-girlfriend and her grandparents so they could book a caravan holiday for the four of us for the following September. I'm pretty sure that was my second sixth form year as Sarah only did one year of sixth form where I did 2 (trying to pass Maths and English which I eventually did on the second year so third go) and I remember she didn't go back to school with me.

Anyway enough rambling about the past... I don't remember what size the top was unfortunately. Only that for years it was too small but has recently become quite loose - side note I weighed yesterday morning and have lost 3 pounds, and this is without any specific diet/exercise routine - so I'm wearing it more, it's nice and light for the non-summer summer. The trousers are also Evans via the PDSA charity shop where I work. They're a size 26 which I expected to be too big as I have some old Asda jeans in a 24 which are too loose. I don't usually like polka dots, they seem old lady-fied to me but I really like these trousers. They needed taking up though XD short-ass 5 foot 4 here. I think they were designed for someone at least 2 inches taller. You can't see my feet but I'm wearing old Converse high-tops with light blue laces over multi-coloured red, yellow, white and orange striped socks.

This is my face when I was at the charity shop. I added my snake necklace (bought off of eBay for 99p) and a touch of make-up: eyeliner, mascara and a smidgen of blue eyeshadow though it had probably been sweated off by the time I took this on my phone - hence the quality.

I love the charity shop, I always find such interesting things and because I work/volunteer there (2 years 3 months) I can get things dirt cheap or even free. This week I got 4 books (Thud! by Terry Pratchett, Is It Just Me? by Miranda Hart, Understanding Cats and Radio Times Doctor Who) and a little notebook. I also got a dress. Pauline the manager was steaming this red and white striped halterneck maxi dress and I commented that it would make a nice skirt, then Pauline saw what appeared to be a stain (it was actually just a clump of thread stuck to the inside) so she let me have it for free! It was brand new with tags as well, £10 from Primark in size 12. For the fun of it I decided to try it on and the elastic stretched enough to fit round me, though a 14 would have better stretch since the overstretch made a couple of tiny holes... I have recently learned that some Primark stuff is available via Asos and although they only go up to a 20 (and I'm usually a 24-ish though I have got as low as 18 in my wardrobe) after this experiment I'd be inclined to try their stuff. Particularly as it's all so cheap.

So yeah I'm going to get mum to make the dress into a maxi skirt, she should be able to do it fairly quickly. After that it's just my jumper needs finishing... I have this men's jumper from H&M (if I recall) which fits perfectly slouchy on the body but the sleeves are so long I have to turn them about 3 times which looks scruffy. Mum has taken the sleeves off to shorten them but that's as far as she got which didn't matter as we had those couple of weeks of sunshine but then it went miserable and today it's back to sun. I think British weather is bipolar with more downs than ups. Though from what I know from friends in Europe, Canada and America it's been the same everywhere. Wintery-type weather lasting longer than normal. It's odd...

Here have a manicure, excuse the awful skin. I have a tendency to pick at the skin round my nails, my right hand is the worst currently. Both varnishes are by Avon. Nailwear Pro+ in Starry Sky (silver) and Mosaic Effects in Plum Illusion (purple crackle). Covered by an ancient clear topcoat.

So coming up on the blog. Shoe Showcase where I show you the shoes I own and review them for comfort, things that could be improved etc. Unfortunately I only own one pair of girly shoes and they were a lucky charity shop finds. Generally I prefer the look of Converse, Dr Martens etc over stiletto heels anyway but I am very limited by the fact that I have size UK 9 feet. They are also fairly wide though not as wide as the wide fitting some companies do (example some Evans biker boots I had, can't remember what width they were but they were too wide and kept falling off), my feet are also flat and turn out which leads to a lot of issues with comfort. Also coming up... More outfits I guess, and showing you my room and all my books.

I am going to try to be more of a blogger. I want to up my confidence and I often read on blogs that their blogs have helped that. I want to showcase my thoughts more. E.g. Family and Friends. My dreams. Wishlists as well.

Stef Out xx