50 Things you didn't know... And didn't particularly need to know...About ME!

Hello again!

Wow, two blog posts in the same month, you lucky people!

Inspired by Emma at Roselovelybones post, I have decided to tell you 50 things about myself, from the quite important to the utterly mundane, with one thing tying them all together... They are all about my favourite subject, me. (Disclaimer: I am in no way self loving, just a narcissist having a good day)

001: My favourite book of all time is The Picture of Dorian Gray. I just adore everything about it. I love the characters and the descriptions of rooms and the era and GAH... Everything. I feel quite close to the character of Dorian, and HATE Ben Barnes' portrayal of him. Hate hate hate. I do however, LOVE Stuart Townsend as Dorian... Dark hair and being a little bit older aside.

002: Speaking of Victorian London, that would be one of my favourite eras in history. I studied History to degree level and fell in love with Weimar Berlin, but my true first historical love is the Victorians. I don't know if maybe it was growing up in London, but I'm a Victorian history nut.

003: On the subject of History, and my degree, I received a 1.1 for my efforts.

004: I also wrote two dissertations silmuteneously, as I couldn't decide which one to give in. One was about Weimar Berlin, German Expressionism and the Third Reich, and the other one was about Victorian Mourning Rituals.

005: I grew up in Kentish Town, North West London. I spent all of my Sundays as a child walking round Hampstead Heath and on Saturdays me and my family used to go to Camden and hang out. I'm really really proud of where I come from and refuse to try to modify my accent to fit in the 'Shire!

006: My Mother is of Italian and Romani descent and my Father is Scottish. Hence my temper tantrums.

007: My favourite genre of film is Horror. Anytime, any place, any where... Stick on a horror film and I'm happy.

008: I am currently taking time out between my MA and my PhD. My degree was in History, My MA was in Cult Film and Television and my PhD... Wait and see!

009: I am really short. I'm 5'1". This means I can literally me picked up and placed in a different spot if I'm in your way.

0010: I have an eye colour somewhere between light yellow brown and full on yellow. In the sunlight my eyes scare me!

0011: I have a boyfriend  (I hate the term Fiancee, it sounds like we are 50), called Cole, who looks like he should be in Kings of Leon/Kasabian. He rocks that whole beard and hair thing.

0012: At the moment, my favourite thing to watch on television is Ripper Street, I bloody love it! Especially Capt. Homer Jackson, who is essentially my spirit animal.

0013: I can't say "rural areas" without making it sound like some sort of tropical disease.

0014: I have nicely skirted around the issue of my favourite film till now... I can't choose, I find it unfair and cruel that you are trying to make me.

0015: I am very odd when it comes to friends. I used to not really have any! I'm very solitary and perfectly happy with my own company. Up until the age of about 24, I really didn't see the point of friends. I then met Laura, who became my first proper friend! At this point in time, I have 3 people I call proper friends.

0016: Because I never really had any friends, I am quite bad at reading social cues and responding. I was called "Reid" at my last job because of this similarity with Spencer Reid from Criminal Minds.

0017: I love comic books. My favourites are The Walking Dead (before everyone else started bumming the series btw!) and Preacher. I did have a brief flirtation with Ultimate XMen.

0018: My natural hair colour is blond. At the moment I have dyed black hair with a white part at the front.

0019: I'm a vegetarian. I also have a vegan day once a week.

0020: I fucking hate Glee and everything it stands for.

0021: I used to smoke.

0022: I haven't had hair this nice since forever. I only have my friend Emily to thank for it's current state!

0023: I have a fear of having my Achilles tendons slashed. When I get out of bed I get out with my feet facing inwards, because there is blatantly a murderer under there.

0024: I have been really trying, since Xmas, to be a better person.

0025: I'm really not sure what I'm doing with my life! I kind of want to own a shop, I kind of want to be a lecturer, I kind of want to write about History and I kind of want to write about films. **sigh**

0026: My first gig was the Big Day Out in 1998. I went with my older brother and my boyfriend at the time and moshed to Placebo. Ha!

0027: I have quite a few tattoos, my biggest ones being the seams on my legs and the smallest being a pink diamond on my left middle finger. I am making an appointment this weekend to get my newest one, a stag on my thigh. After that it will be my feet!

0028: I used to have snakebite piercings.

0029: My favourite type of music.. is a bit all over the place. I like hardcore metal, I like grindcore and deathcore. I also like Kate Nash, an awful lot of indie, 1950S Death ballads, Rockabilly, 80s pop... it gets messy.

0030: I never moisturise my hands, its something I'm trying to work on.

0031: I love Alkaline Trio. They are my favourite band. Matt Skiba is a god and he makes the noise my soul makes.

0032: My favourite alcoholic drink is Gin and Tonic

0033: I have a pug called Hemingway, who is like my child. I would die for him!

0034: My favourite colour is black. Closely followed by gray, rust, burgundy, purple.

0035: I'm in love with my iPhone. I have had three since they came out, not because I have to have the newest model, but because I killed the first two. One got run over (don't ask) and one had a bath related mishap. The first one was called Metalli-phone, last one was called Dallas. This one doesn't have a name.

0036: I love zombies and zombie films. I can't wait till the zombie Armageddon .. Which is totes going to happen by the way.

0037: I am a little bit OCD about cleanliness.

0038: I used to work in Lush, they love the animals and the environment, but they do not give a shit about their employees, at all. I loved the people I worked with, bar most of the managers, who were twats.

0039: I wish I was more artistically inclined.

0040: I can understand written French, and written and spoken Italian. Can barely speak either though! I'm going to learn German soon though!

0041: I used to have an eating disorder. The least I have ever weighed was about 6 and a half stone. The most I have ever weighed was 15stone. Which considering my height, is completely mental! I'm OK with my weight at the moment, I could do with being a little more toned, so am taking up swimming. I've become OK with the fact that I am always going to be curvy, the way my bones are set up means I will always have big boobs, big hips and a little waist, and that's cool.

0042: I'm a Piscean. I'm not sure if I believe in star signs or not though.

0043: I want to write like Hemingway.

0044: I might be clever academically, but I literally have zero common sense! Also, very poor sense of direction unless I'm in London.

0045: I love New York, and have been there twice in the last three years. I love it so much, and so does Cole, that he decided to propose at the top of the Empire State Building.

0046:  I LOVE fashion. Not so much following trends, but how far fashion can push boundaries. I don't really know what 'look' I subscribe to, I just buy things I like!

0047: When I was seven, I wanted to be a rock star... Still kind of do.

0048: I love Christmas. I love Winter, presents, the food, the drink, the fairy lights!

0049: My favourite season is Autumn

0050: My favourite actor is Kyle Gallner. He is the bee's knees. I also like Cillian Murphy, Matthew Gray Gubler, Tom Hiddleston, Rachel Weisz... I'm sure there is a ton more, but I can't think!

Well, that's it! I hope it was informative, or at the very least, mildly amusing!

Laters potatas!

xxx

Well Hello bloggypeeps!

Bonjourno!

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and got everything their heart desired! I got some beautiful things, but I am loathe to do a "Christmas Haul" type post... Not least because on the 24th of January... It's a little late, non?

Really happy with my gifts though, not only those I receieved, but those that I got for other people. I put a lot more thought into my gifting this year, and as my first year as a person what has a full time job (next christmas it is back to studentdom :() I was able, for the first time in years, to buy people what I actually wanted to buy them, not just what I could afford!

My beautiful Hemingway, and my Christmassy foot! Xmas 2012

But enough about Christmas, and more about 2013! 2012 was a massive suck fest for me on a personal level. For various reasons that I don't really want to go into. It was a year of loss and huge upheaval for not only me, but my whole family. Things on January 24th 2013 are absolutely nothing like things on January 24th 2012. Last year I feel like although I was suffering with a loss, in a way I have gained something.

Before you think me mad, let me explain.

I have always liked to think of myself as this tough chick. Hard as nails. Inside however, I was a bundle of nervousness, lack of self worth, lack of confidence etc etc. As 2012 drew to a close, I decided that 2013 would be the year that I became what I want to be, the person I want to be.

I decided not to do anything drastic to start with, but to slowly prune out the parts of my life that I am unhappy with, or find lacking, then to 'water' the parts that I LOVE. And see what kind of Lenore grows in these fertile soils!.... Little over the top with the horticultural references there I think.

So what have I pruned and/or watered?

SOCIAL NETWORKING

I did the typical mass twitter exodus. I deleted all those celebrities that I just had to follow when I found out they had a twitter, then all the people I found boring, then all the things I added for a reason that was now unclear to me... and then.... then the hard bit.

What about all those people that you have added because you should? People like boyfriends friends girlfriends (not a problem I myself face, as my boyfriends best friends girlfriends are in  fact my bestfriends... that gets as confusing as it sounds). People like the friend of your friend, who you don't really see or particularly get on with, but it might be awkward if you see them again after deleting them.

In the end, I just thought... Fuck it. I deleted them... Facebook cull is looming though, and I'm not sure if I'm going to be as brave this time!

COOKING

I love to cook! It is one of my simplest and greatest of pleasures, to cook good food and let my family and friends enjoy it. Last year I started cooking a homemade meal most nights, as it got easier and I added more meals under my belt (ho ho ho) I found that it wasn't that hard for me to cook every night. So we are eating better food and more healthy for it!

FRIENDSHIP

I'm going to come clean. I'm a bit of a Sherlock. I don't play well with others and I don't make new friends easily. However, this last year I have made one or two friends that I like to refer to as lifetime friends. The sort of friends I hope to still be friends with when I'm all old and wrinkly. So instead of keeping up halfarsed efforts to talk to people I don't particularly like, I have started nurturing two really good and healthy friendships.

Happier, more smiley Gray!

MY PERSONALITY!
I'm a bit marmite. People either really like me and my quirks and flaws straight away, or really dislike me. I don't mind which camp people fall into, as I don't run my life as a popularity contest... However, I do sometimes feel myself consciously dumbing myself down, or pretending to be interested in things I'm not to fall in with people better. Over the last year I have learned to better discern the line between being friendly and interested so as not to be obnoxious and rude, and faking interest to gain friends. No more of the latter, I'm happy to say! I've also taken massive efforts with my 'look' in this first part of the year, I will never be a person with a definitive style as such, but I have started being much more into putting effort into making myself well turned out!


So yes, massively over the top and long post, but I did have a massive break, so it was probably needed, to get me back on this crazy horse called blogging!

What did you guys do last year or this year to make yourself the best you can be?

Toodlepip!
xx

Autumn Haul!

I've always been so lime green jello of bloggers who post their hauls on a regular basis, so having started a new job recently Mum lent me a little bit of cash (Total lifesaver, my Mum! It was so kind and generous of her to do that for me :) THANK YOU MUMMY!), and I decided to brave the chilly air and show you all the spoils of my battle!

We went to a beautiful little picturesque village near where we live and were pleased to find sales present in all our favourite shops! First up was The Body Shop.

The Body Shop was having a fantastic 30% off sale for loyalty card owners! 30 friggin' ass percent!

So I picked up these little bits! On the left is a Watermelon body lotion, I think this retails at £4.00, so mine was a steal at £1.60! (I'm not quite sure how that worked out... Is that even right? Did I get another 10% on top with the loyalty card?... Did I rob the Body Shop? :/) In the middle is the Vanilla perfume, which is normally around £12 I think, both me and Mum got one at £3.25 each! Finally is one of my staple beauty products, the Tea Tree Clarifying toner. I just LOVE this product. My skin is really quite changeable  affected by central heating, air conditioning, weather... and manages to run through the entire spectrum of skin types in a day sometimes! I'm one of those irritating people that when asked their skin type looks sheepish and whispers "I don't know". This is the only toner I have ever found that manages to keep up with my skin. This is the big bottle too! And for £3! (By the way, yes that is a deer with sparkly purple antlers in the background. Jealoussss?)

Next up was Paperchase. Everyone who knows me, knows that I have a weird obsession with stationery. My favourite time of year is Autumn, and not least for all the cool new bits and bobs that come out for the back to school rush! My favourite place to buy pens, paper and... paperclips (?) is by far and away Paperchase. I know they are a little on the expensive side for what the products are (I remember seeing post it notes in there once for £4... really Paperchase? Really?) But nowhere else comes close to them in terms of cards, notebooks etc. They were having a little clearout of some of the summery ranges and included in this was some birthday cards. I'm VERY VERY VERY bad at 1) remembering birthdays and 2)Remembering to give people the cards that are sitting in my handbag when I see them, so picking up some reduced cards for just such situations seemed very sensible!

As you can see, these ranged between £1.25 and £2.00 for the bigger one! STEAL I SAY! STEEEAL!!!

Also, I wanted to give a little bit of love to Wilkinsons.... Stay with me.
I *HATE* Wilkinsons. I hate it with the same level of poisonous bile in my throat that I usually reserve for people that jump queues, people that drive too close to the back of my car and finding a hair in your dinner, but today, while shuffling along behind my Mum like a stroppy teenager in there, I found the following:

Every Christmas... Well... Every September/October time, both me and Mummy candyfloss buy ourselves a little notebook each. In each of these notebooks is Christmas. Christmas down to the last detail. That may seem over the top or a little strange to some of you, but both me and the Mothership are scarily organised people, and really enjoy the actual act of organising. Don't buy us diamonds, buy us file dividers... really. These books are then kept in a secret place (i.e handbags... No man should ever look in a ladies handbag, and if he does without permission should be forced to eat the tampons that he thought were sweets), and have things like present ideas, food ideas etc written in them! So that book up tharrrr, with the keys on, is this years Xmas book. I also picked up this gorgeous wrapping paper and tag set. IT HAS DEERS ON ANY ARGUMENT AGAINST IT IS THEREFORE INVALID.

So yes. That was my haul. I did do other things there, such as gag at the awful smell of Lady Gaga's perfume (Smells like a baby prostitute), and swoon over the smell of Miss Dior (I resisted the urge to spray it straight up my nostrils to rid them of the stench of Lady Gaga's effort). Not quite as impressive as some blogger's hauls, but very practical none the less! I also bought a red top from new look with white lace on the collar and a possible dress for my upcoming engagement party! But pics of those will come later :)

For now, see ya later sweet potatas!

Jobs and Junk!

I've applied for the perfect job.
It may not seem like the perfect job to anyone else, but to me... it's spiffing.

I haven't recieved a phone call or an email yet, apart from one apologising for the delay in decisions, but they are trying to track everyone's references... Is it wrong that I have already started to plan what new stationery I can buy, and what things would make for a prettified desk?

Yes. It is. I don't even have the job yet and already my eyes are alight with the promise of desk tidies, and post it notes... How very sad!

I'm also looking into the absolute must have items for desk work, such as a good handcream, face mist and so on... So do leave me a comment if you can think of something I just... HAVE to have :)

Actualpain.org

I've fallen in love with Actual Pain! 

No, that isn't a reference to the laughable 50 Shades of poop books, it's an awesome clothing line!

The little deathcore kid inside me is actually SQUEALING at their designs!

... Just look:

Don't you think these would look amazing with a black bodycon skirt and a denim studded jacket!

What do you think of these designs? Your style? Not in a million?

Check them out! 

Actual Pain

Paloma hair...

My name is Lenore...

 And I'm in love with Paloma Faith's hair.

It's the most stunning combination of vintage and modern, edgy but classic. I love the colour, the cut, everything.

So I decided, with my shoulder length, dead straight, jet black hair... that I wanted Paloma hair. I tasked my very capable friend Emily with this tall order. First time she came round, she bleached the front twice and whacked a toner on it. It came out kind of like the back of Paloma's hair there, orangey... Teamed with black... I looked a little like Halloween had happened on my head.

Second time she whacked one more application of bleach on. White roots, orange ends.

Third time, Emily completely nailed it. My hair is now an awesome white at the front, which contrasts fantastically with the rest of my black hair. Yes. I am a happy chappy.

I think I may put a photo of that up tomorrow. But in the meantime...

This, This is me.