The Attic's 'Rafters Jewellery' Is Open For Business!

Hello all!

Terribly exciting news! Talulah's Attic is now opening Rafters Jewellery!

A modest collection of unique costume jewellery is available to you lovely people at bargain prices.

All pieces are brand new and very distinctive.

In this post I will show just a few items, to test the waters and see how much interest there is before posting the whole collection.

Tribal Spike Ring - £4

Cross Drop Earrings - £3

 

Bronze Crocodile Ring - £4

Skull, Crown & Rhinestone Necklace - £4 

(please note: centre stone available in Red/Blue)

White Crystal Studs - £2

If you would like to purchase any of the items above, please leave a comment below or email;

talulahsattic@gmail.com

Delivery costs £1.50 for one item, but only 50p per additional item.

It would mean the world to me if you would share the link to this post with your followers and try and help make the Rafters reach as far as possible!

Thank you my lovelies!

Take care, Taz x

“The Most Beautiful Make Up Of A Woman Is Passion. But Cosmetics Are Easier To Buy.” - Yves Saint-Laurent

I don't know about you, but I have an absolute nightmare when it comes to finding a make up brand I can commit to. It seems like every time I find a type of foundation that I love, it goes a little like this;

it's perfect for me
wow!
how did I ever live without this in my life??
...
actually it's a bit dry
its the wrong colour really
oh god I look HIDEOUS!

and this isn't just foundation, it's every piece of make up I own. I have my staple favourites (naturally, these are the ones that I usually have to take out a mortgage to buy) but my daily wear make up bag changes constantly. I've decided to stop wasting my money on trying every new cosmetic item that gets released and instead focus on trying to find the right shades and 'types' (do I want creams, mousses, powders?) of make up to suit my face.

I've never ordered from the Make Up Academy before but a lovely Twitter friend of mine told me about a sale they had on, so I went for it and bought a few items, just to try different things out.

For my base I got these items;

Matte Perfect Foundation in Fair - BB All in One Beauty Balm in Light Rose - Matte Perfect Primer - Matte Perfect Loose Powder in Translucent - Blusher in Shade 4

I haven't used a BB cream yet and thought I should give it a go considering all the hype about it. The foundation is nice and smooth and the colour isn't too bold but also isn't pale enough to wash me out.

For my eyes;

Pearl Eye Shadows in Shade 11 (a muted bronze) & Shade 15 (metallic dark grey) - Eye Dust in Shade 5 - 3 in 1 Extreme Contour Liner in Black Shade 1 - Glam Textured Lashes

For my lips;

Sheer Finish Lipgloss in Just Incase - Lipstick in Juicy & Bare - Kiss Proof Lip Stain in Fabulicious

I really wanted to try a lip stain as I hate the 'clarty' feel of more intense lipsticks but you don't always want a gloss. I decided to try this one out just to see if stains appeal to me.

Finally, for my nails I got;

Nail Polish in All Nude & Pistachio Ice Cream

I've seen a few posts about these calm pastel colours and at £1 each they were definitely worth a try!

Overall It only cost around £30 (about the price of one of those pricey foundations) and I have a lot of new items to play with. 

Has anyone else bought regularly from Makeup Academy? What are your favourite items?

Lots of love, Taz x

Afternoon Tea And Wandering In The Snow

Okay, no excuses or apologies for my absense. I'm back now, so let us not dwell!

Just a VERY quick post tonight to tell you about my weekend.

Since Christmas and New Year has been over and done with I've been trying to keep to a very strict diet, and it's working wonders, but the fact is I LOVE CAKE. One of the things me and my mum do to have a really good chat is go for afternoon tea so, as a treat, we went over to Crathorne Hall on Saturday and indulged!

It was so delicious, the best part being the miniature Black Forest Gateux and a White Chocolate Ganache Tiffin.
Afterwards we put our walking boots on and went for a walk around the grounds. There was about a foot of snow in parts and I ended up with snow in places I can't even talk about.

It was a lovely day and we did it just in time as by this morning all the snow had disappeared!

Have you been enjoying the snow, or are you glad it's all over with? Let me know about your perfect Afternoon Tea treat in the comments below!

Until next time, take care, lots of love Taz x

What I Like About Photographs Is That They Capture A Moment Thats Gone Forever, Impossible To Reproduce.

I've decided to do an Instagram post.
In the past I've heard people go on about how dull they are, and how people fail to see the point in them... Well, with an attitude like that, what's the point of having Instagram at all? Surely the whole idea is to show people what you've been up to and the pictures you've taken while doing it.
Anyway, I LIKE THEM. So there :) I love nosing at what people have been up to and I especially love a good instagram. (My best friend's fail safe of getting me to go places with her is now "You can Instagram it!" haha)
If you fall into the demographic of instagram-blog-post haters, I suggest you depart now, you have been warned!

 

 

 Last weekend we went to Northallerton for some late lunch. We hadn't realised it, but there was a Beer Fest going on which had a Continental Market attached to it. They had an amazing stall with bowls upon bowls of Turkish Delight, Olives and Pastries like Baklava which I absolutely love! I also bought some macaroons whilst I was there which I've never had before but always wanted to try. They're delicious! Will definitely be buying some again.

I found the beautiful blue velvet shoes in Topshop. I don't usually go for velvetty things (I'm not keen on the feel of them) but these were just so gorgeous with their sparkly heel and platform. They were £75.

Me and Morag also found those rather fetching police headbands out shopping. Aren't they attractive! Haha!

Obviously there's another photo of my beautiful Bobby sleeping on the sofa. She looks quite big there but she's still only a kitten. So cute!

 

We have finally been re-visiting our beloved Tea House this week! Now that the Autumn months are creeping in and the temperature is dropping we've really felt the need for some nice warming tea! On that day we had an array of Fairy Princess Tea, Spiced Orange Chai Tea, and Rose Bud Tea, all of which were delicious!

The top right is a photo I took at Rushpool Hall. We visit it regularly and I actually had my 18th Birthday there years ago so it has some lovely memories for me.

I've been having some more Autumnal walks which I really enjoy. I love it when the ground is crisp and crunches under your feet!

Has anyone tried the new Pumpkin Spice Latte at Starbucks? I bought my first one at the beginning of last week and didn't know what to expect... I'm now on about my fifth, so you can assume I loved it! It's very seasonal and warms you up on a chilly day!

 

We had a lovely meal at Pizza Express the other weekend and my favourite bit was definitely dessert. I had the Semi Freddo Reale and a Tia Maria coffee. Delicious!

This weekend we went to York for a big surprise birthday celebration, which was great fun (and, amazingly, all came together in the end!) we had a gorgeous meal at Rustique, a small French restaurant on Castlegate. There was a Kinky Donuts stall (that made me giggle), the York Eye, and of course a Hotel Chocolat, where I couldn't resist getting some goodies!

Then after arriving home on Sunday evening, my best friend asked if I fancied a trip to the beach (she used the old Instagram line) so I got a lovely photo of the pier all lit up at Saltburn.

So there you have it, my fortnight in Instagrams! I hope you liked it and it wasn't too "dull" :)

What have you been doing lately? And how are you liking the Autumn coming upon us?

Take care, Lots of Love, Taz x

London 2012: When Our Time Came, Britain, We Did It Right!

NB: Please click on the photos to view properly, this new layout is playing havoc with them!

 

Last weekend I went to the London 2012 Paralympics and it was hands-down one of the best experiences I've ever had. The atmosphere was amazing all through the Park and all of the Gamesmakers were so happy and helpful.

  We were seeing the Athletics so were in the Olympic Stadium and it was completely electric. Having seen it so much on telly, I thought I had a good idea of what it would be like, but I was wrong. I expected the view from our seats (the middle price category of 3) to be quite restricted and to only see the Athletes as little dots on a miles-away track, but the view was fantastic! We could see everything, track and field.

The best moments for me were; first, seeing Richard Whitehead win and receive his Gold medal. The place went insane when he won, and I have to admit to emitting noises and screeches I never expected I had in me! Singing the National Anthem as a crowd of 80,000 was just unreal!

We saw 6 GB medals in total!

 

The other stand out moment was seeing Houssien Omar Hassan, an Athlete from Djibouti running the 1500m. He's the one in blue on the above photos. When the pistol went, all of the runners set off and it quickly became clear that he wouldn't be in the running for the medals. He was lapped twice by the other competitors and was still on his first lap when the group had finished. But the most inspiring and humbling thing was that as he went round, barely faster than a stumble, the entire stadium stood up and cheered him on as if he was in the lead. A mexican wave-style round of applause greeted him from every stand as he went by. Even the commentators, whose speech was audible only to the TV Broadcast for all other events, came back through the speakers to will him on and all the screens you see on the photos lit up with "MAKE SOME NOISE!". It was a very emotional 11 minutes and as he crossed the line, the cheer went up as if he'd just won gold. He certainly won something.

I hope you all enjoyed the Olympics & Paralympics, tell me about your favourite moment in the comments below :)

Take Care, Lot of Love, Taz x

To Many People Holidays Are Not Voyages Of Discovery, But A Ritual Of Reassurance.

Afternoon all!

I got back from my little holiday last weekend so wanted to show you what I got up to.

However, after reading through some of my past posts, I've realised I do have a tendancy to 'waffle'. So for this post I'm going to try and summarise a bit more and let my photos do the talking.

We stayed in a little cottage quite near York, and it was small but really cosy. Bijou, if you like! And the view was beautiful.

Just down the road was Yorkshire Lavender which I didnt really expect to enjoy that much. But there was actually lots to see and do, including some cute little deer and an interesting cricket game sculpture.

We also had some amazing things to eat, like Lavender Ice Cream, Lavender Tea and (yes, you guessed it) Lavender Shortbread!

We also visited Malton, Hovingham and Gilling, which are all beautifully picturesque villages, and the gorgeous Benningbrough Hall where we had tea and lunch before looking around the house. 

The weather was great all week and the most spectacular thing was the clear nights. Because of being out in the countryside there was absolutely no light pollution. I took a few photos just on the off-chance of them picking something up. After filtering and HDR-ing the hell out of them, this was one of the results;

Finally, on the day that we left, we decided to take a trip over to Castle Howard for lunch. We were seated by a family who were all laughing and chatting, when an older gentleman turned and smiled at my mum, greeting her with a happy "hello there!" and then we realised it was Michael Parkinson!

He was visiting on his way to do a show at Scarborough theatre, and had stopped for lunch with his family. He was a lovely man and chatted with us throughout lunch.

It was a lovely relaxing week. Hope you're all having wonderful trips this summer. Tell me about them below!

Lots of Love, Taz x

Every Summer Has A Story

Wow.

It's been such a long time since my last post, and for that I am eternally sorry!

I should probably catch you up on what I've been up to.
I got my Uni results for this year back, and came out with an overall first, which I'm very pleased with.

Since Summer began I haven't had a minute spare (hence the total lack of blogging) but I spent a lot of time seeing friends and catching up. And drank a fair amount of cocktails too :)

First week of the holidays I was cat-sitting for my God Parents. They live by the sea and luckily a lot of friends (& my big brother) live over there so I got plenty of beach time (and more cocktails) in!

One day we went over to a place called Sledmere House, which was beautiful!

And another we headed to the Forge Valley. It was really stunning!

My godparents cats are gorgeous and still only really small so they would come for cuddles all the time. So adorable!

Paige - we were watching Lovejoy at this time! We know how to live.

Bobby - she spent every night just gazing at me from my lap!

 While I was shopping over there, I came across a little sweet shop which did some amazing stuff I'd never seen before. There were a lot of American sweets & drinks but I was taken in by this giant block of Equador (I think) Hot Chocolate which you break a bit off and drop it into milk. It's meant to be the tastiest thing ever!

The Sweet Shop on Bar Street

Leading on from that, I am on a determined health kick!
(I didn't buy the hot chocolate... sob!)
Perhaps spurred on by the Olympics, and all the outrageously beautiful people that went with it, I'm really trying to cut down on the bad stuff. I have a few healthy but tasty recipes to post, hopefully not in the too distant future!
My main downfall is alcohol.
I just can't part with my mojitos and wine. Does anyone know any nice alternatives I could give a try?
My friend and I are also going to start swimming regularly. (Mostly to try and bag guys who look like Michael Phelps or Ryan Lochte!)

Speaking of the Olympics, wasn't it fabulous?!
I enjoyed every minute of it and really think the whole event did us, as a nation, proud!
After a gruelling SIX HOURS (Yes, SIX) at the computer I finally managed to get Athletics tickets for the Paralympics so I will certainly be blogging about that!

I've been working hard at our various Halls and Castles since I got back and will post lots of pictures in another post.

Hours of hard work but I finally got the library in order!

There's a lot more to tell you but I'm very aware of not waffling on(!) so I will leave this one here for today. Here are just a round up of pictures I've taken over Summer so far.

Our friend's Jayne & Tony got married and I took this photo outside the church.

Our hotel we stayed in for the Wedding Reception.

Our GOLD post box! 

Thanks for bearing with me! Until next time, take care!

Lots of Love, Taz x