Voluspa Chestnut & Vetiver Reed Diffuser

The more I've been getting into the idea making my home feel as cosy and home-like as possible, the more I've found myself getting into things like candles and reed diffusers which I would never have given two hoots about in the past.

We've been hunting for the perfect reed diffuser for a while now and they either seem to be insanely expensive or smell like one of the following: "Fruit" (which I don't like - blegh), "Old Ladies' Houses", "Soap", "Something Foosty", or "Flowers That Make You Sneeze".

Eventually, after a lot of  going round shops, smelling bell-jars and giggling, we found this amazing Chestnut & Vetiver scented diffuser by Voluspa. 

Of course, the idea of spending £40 for a reed diffuser makes me feel itchy just thinking about it, but luckily, it was massively reduced in the sale! Ha! Oh, and it smells amazing. It's a foody, Christmassy scent, but not overpowering. It's still very strong though and kind of foresty too. I only wish they did refills!

Do you guys have any recommendations for good reed diffusers or other home scent products? (Or anywhere in the UK that does Voluspa refills..!? Help..!)

Recent Instagram Pics

♥ I tried experimenting with silver eyeliner, using it as a second 'flick'. I think white would maybe work better ... Also a weirdo came and tried to kiss me while I was taking photos.

♥ My attempt at beetroot pizza with feta and cavelo nero cabbage. It tasted incredible! Even if it was a bit like having jam on a pizza.

♥ Cleaning my marimo. I freshen his water once a week and give him a gentle squeeze evenly all over to get rid of any dirt particles. 

♥ And here's a recent (and very colourful) drawing of mine that I uploaded to instagram. You can see a proper picture of it here.

♥ Doing some research drawing for a new piece (an underwater one) with an amaretto coffee. Yum.

♥ Another make-up experiment: green on the top lid with pink glitter underneath. I don't think it really worked, but it was fun to do! Also I'm loving this lipstick which is Nyx's matte lipstick in the colour 'butter'. It's not really a genuine 'matte' effect, but it is a lovely greyish taupe colour.

Ritual Chamber - The Pits of Tentacled Screams

I was pretty excited when this is arrived in the post yesterday. 'The Pits of Tentacled Screams' by Ritual Chamber. The cassette came with a cute little screen-printed bag and embroidered patch (which gets mega points from me for featuring an upright cross so I can actually wear the thing. Yay!). Also did I mention the album is a cracker. I've been listening to it non-stop. Please check out the Ritual Chamber bandcamp if you like contemporary death metal that sounds like old school death metal. And who doesn't anyway?

Coffin Purses With Ornate Lining

I finished making another lot of coffin-shaped purses. I really liked the lining I used for this set; it's a sort of black, white and grey ornate flower and eyeball pattern. These purses are available to buy from my online shop.

Coffin Linings

My coffin-shaped wallets with crosses have all sold out. So today I got some sexy new coffin lining fabric to make more!

Pink Pressies

I always like to see what "little mindings" people got for Christmas so I thought I'd share mine here, including some bigger presents that came as a bit of a surprise.  

I couldn't believe the generosity of the girls in my department at work this year. Just look at the pile of pinky goodness they got me. The funniest has to be the bat notepad with pink edging that my department supervisor got me ("It was so you!")

The present I definitely was not expecting to get was my dad's old camera. He said he really wanted me to have it though. It's a bit more advanced than what I'm using right now, but luckily it comes with an instruction booklet which I'll need to pour over when I've got more time.

Here's a pile of cute stationary from my mum and dad and my sister and also a dress from the "goth section" of h&m that my sister got me. She knows me so well.

My dad also got me a neat little pink screw-driver which will come in incredibly handy and means that I won't have to keep borrowing Tim's all the time. Yay! And it's pink, of course.

"It was this or a skeleton toilet-roll holder." My sister again, being very sweet and looking all over for something will skulls on it for her weird little sister. 

I'd love to know what you guys got for Christmas, particularly if your pressies all had some strange accidental theme like all the pink things I got this year (although that's probably not so accidental since it's pretty obvious I like pink!).

Christmas 2014

I hope everyone had a good Christmas this year! We had a fairly low-key Christmas. Very few presents and we didn't even remember to put the tree up. Still, that's not really what Christmas is about and it's not as though anyone's really going to be mad if you don't decorate the house enough. For me anyway, the most important thing about Christmas is remembering the amazing gift of salvation we've been given in Jesus Christ, even if I find it hard to focus on that sometimes, amid all the rushing around to get things ready for Christmas. When I do stop to think and pray about it though, it blows my mind every time. Can't believe God gives us this love and forgiveness we don't deserve at all. Amazing! Anyway, I'm rambling...

Hey look it's the dark, thick-rimmed specs convention. On Christmas day I wore a black knitted mini-dress from Mango with my plastic harness from restyle. Bit of an odd-looking contraption to get into, but I love it! I also wore Illamasqua lipstick in the colour 'Kontrol' and did my eyes all glittery. Aww.

And I've already written about what my husband gave me for Christmas but, for him, I bought these t-shirts from Rotten Cotton. They're based on the films Braindead and Xtro, two of our favourite movies. When they arrived, I almost wished I'd got them in a size extra small and worn them myself instead, but Tim looks cracking in them, I've got to admit.