Lix Hewett

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Shopping Guide: The Housewarming

posted on December 17, 2014

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For my very first shopping guide — I hesitate to call it a Christmas gift guide, at this point, though I’m sure you can still get some shopping in for domestic orders! — I decided to focus on home and living. Specifically, comfort and warmth. The word housewarming is what it is for a reason… I’m sure.

FOR THE EARS
Ted Baker: Fastnet Folding Portable Speaker (£199.95, also black/white/pink)
Ted Baker: Rockall Over Ear Headphones (£179.95, also black/white)

Music can make such a difference in someone’s life. As someone who forgets to listen to music for long periods of time and then regrets it when she does it again and realizes how helpful it is, I know this well. At the moment, the only ways I can listen to music are my laptop’s built-in speakers, and the headset of my phone, which won’t stick in my ears no matter how hard I try. So a pair of warm, comfy headphones — and a portable speaker for when I’m home — would be a truly welcome addition to my life. These two sets from Ted Baker are gorgeous on top of useful, too.

FOR THE NOSE
Floric: After the Rain Bouquet & Bath Box (£58.99)*

I have to admit I’ve never got the appeal of flowers, but I know they brighten a lot of people’s days, and that’s no small feat. The above gift set from Floric — from whom I received a stunning white rose bouquet last month — combines the temporary pleasure of flowers with a little bit of pragmatism in their bath box.

FOR THE WARMTH
Heat Holders: Striped Thermal Socks (£7, other colors available)*
Heat Holders: Antique Silver Thermal Blanket (£25)

Sometimes even the best heating won’t keep you warm in winter, and for that, I recommend Heat Holders. I can vouch for the effectiveness of their products; I received two pairs of socks and wear them on a regular basis. They’re lovely socks lined with fleece, and they’re so thick the first time I put them on I worried I wouldn’t be able to squeeze my feet into my sneakers. Luckily, the fabric flattens under pressure, and just leaves the warmth.

FOR THE SKIN
John Lewis: Ribbon Pleats Duvet Cover and Pillowcase Set (£25.00 – £55.00)
John Lewis: Supima Cotton Towels in Platinum (£4.00 – £32.00, other colors available)

There’s nothing more day-throwing than sleeping uncomfortably. Sleep and showers are my constant, the one thing I need every day to be a halfway functional human being the next day. I think most people who’ve recently moved can use these things — an extra set of towels and an extra set of bedding. (For some, it may not be an extra one. I moved here without bedding and with only one hair towel; I couldn’t fit anything else in my suitcases.) These sets from John Lewis are relatively affordable, and would make a great group present, too, as they’re, well, sets.

FOR THE LITTLE THINGS
Pia Jewellery: Three Drawer Jewellery Box (£85)*

Pia Jewellery is a company that carries a collection of jewellery — of course — as well as a selection of accessories, clothing and gifts. I received an umbrella and a pair of black gloves that I can’t say enough good things about — and which you’ll see on the blog sooner rather than later. For this shopping guide, however, I chose to focus on one of their ‘extras’ — a beautiful three-drawer jewellery box. I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s super picky about how they store their jewelry, and ends up hating every arrangement. I’ve long wanted a nice, tiered box, and this one looks like a fantastic fit.

FOR THE COMFORT
Cookes Furniture: Black Ink Splash Candleholder (£15)
Cookes Furniture: Chloe Footstool (£325)
Made.com: Flynn Square Armchair in Beige (£329 — usual price £1,150! — also black/gray)

If you’ve got the budget, and your giftee is cool with it (or your giftee is yourself), you can go a little further and help with the furniture. A house needs places to sit, to curl up with your legs under your butt while you do things on your laptop or read, and the armchair from Made.com is the type of armchair I dream of. If you’ve already got one, or a nice couch, the perfect addition for extra comfort would be a footstool, and I singled out the Chloe footstool from Cookes Furniture for the puffy look and the neutral tones.

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As always, my choices are informed by what I need and a certain sense of pragmatism. I also made an effort to make them all go together, for the sake of the graphic, though many of the items featured are also available in other colors and even fabrics. I had a lot of fun putting this together, so you can expect more guides like this in the future.

Are you giving any gifts for the home this season? What are you going with, if so?

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Inspiration: Dream Kitchens With MyAppliances.co.uk

posted on October 22, 2014

I’ve always wanted a proper kitchen. Not a big one necessarily, just something clean and well-equipped where I could bake without going, “oh right, the oven doesn’t work,” or, “oh right, the replacement oven doesn’t bake things evenly because it only heats from the top,” or, “oh right, I can’t fit a pie in the donut-shaped Dutch oven my mom borrowed from the elderly lady she takes care of,” or, “wait, if I want to make a pie, I need a pie pan…” (Okay, the last one doesn’t really have to do with interior design, but it’s been on my mind lately.)

My favorite kitchens I’ve had access to in London were the ones in Streatham and Crouch End. I think all owners were foodies — Crouch End girl definitely loved to cook, and in fact one of the reasons she didn’t think we were compatible is she wanted someone who wasn’t a weird picky eater to cook for. I miss that kitchen. And her Sunday roasts. I haven’t had roasted potatoes in an age. I did have fries in Hampstead Heath, and then I moved here and didn’t have a freezer. That’s what I’ve missed the most.

It turns out however that you can keep french fries in the fridge for a week before they go bad, so I’m definitely going to do that as soon as I find some goddamn french fries. They’re always out of stock. I don’t know what’s up with that.

Sometimes I still think about how I really want a proper kitchen, though, and how I want to rewatch Julie & Julia, which is probably the first time I found myself wanting a proper kitchen in the first place, and I think about my great aunt’s kitchen that she had redone last year and the kitchen in Streatham, and I’m struck by how much I like those towers of integrated appliances where the oven is stacked atop the microwave stacked atop a cupboard. That shit is awesome and it’s so great to have the oven at eye level, like — so great.

In that spirit — the Julie & Julia spirit; I may have started reading the book, and I’m trying to push through the first chapter and see if she stops using weird mental illness-based hyberbole and metaphors — I’ve put together a collage of some of my favorite kitchen pins from my interiors board, and a wishlist of appliances from MyAppliances.co.uk that I’m certain would not only make it easier for me to bake, but actually motivate me to do it.

Kitchen Inspiration (Pinterest Collage)

Sources: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / Follow me on Pinterest!

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Inspiration: Home Offices & Workspaces

posted on October 9, 2014

I finally have my own desk slash workspace in my room, but for the first four months I was here in London — and let’s be real, a lot of the years before that, when I had a workspace but it was in a room I shared with my sister — I had some real trouble finding comfortable places to work. Eventually, I got into a habit of going to Starbucks, and I’m still doing that regularly despite having a workspace — it gets me out of the house and really helps me relax. Plus, I like to lie back on a big comfy chair with my laptop and an iced latte, and I can’t do that at home.

Yet. I keep an eye out for armchairs.

I also keep an eye out for cafés to try and review and work in, even if I haven’t branched out of Starbucks yet. And I continue to sigh wistfully at pretty offices on Pinterest like it’s my job. Today I thought I’d share some of that inspiration with you, and introduce you to a range of serviced and virtual offices in London that would definitely come in handy every now and then, if I had the money.

offices

Sources: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | see more pins

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The State of My Sleep Schedule As Illustrated By Feather & Black’s Sleep Book

posted on September 16, 2014

This post began last Thursday, when I was fighting a website theme after an all-nighter (the key was in the documentation) and thinking about writing this post, only I was too busy so I jokingly asked my best friend if she was up for guest-posting on my blog about my sleep schedule issues, by which I meant write this post so I didn’t have to.

So in the immortal (because it’s in the chat log) words of Annemari,

“Sometimes I wake up and Lix will still be up. Sometimes I spend the whole day wondering where Lix is and then she comes online around 7 PM and says she just woke up. But she’s been a lot better at it lately! The end.”

Thanks, babes.

I want to say ‘a lot better’ fell by the wayside this week, but I guess if you compare this week to last year, or the year before, it’s still a massive improvement. I’ve only got up after 6 PM about four times in the four months since I moved to London. But I’m still a lot more likely to get out of bed on the wrong side of noon than the right one, and I’m still here, writing this post at 4:30 AM and contemplating another all-nighter, because the last one reset my sleep schedule so nicely, if by ’nicely’ you mean ‘not at all.’

But I want to be tired again! I don’t want to toss and turn for three hours like last night, which would come down to the same thing as going to bed at 6 AM, which means I will wake up at 1 PM like this morning, and then I won’t be able to sleep tomorrow night, either.

So on that note, I am going to liveblog my reading of an ebook that Feather and Black, the bedroom retailer, put out about Britain’s sleeping habits. You can download the ebook for free here, and you can even opt out of signing up for their newsletter while you do it. Sweet. Good stuff.

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Weekly Wishes #20: Bedroom Slash Workspace Revamp

posted on January 13, 2014

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Back for a new round of Weekly Wishes – boy, I missed this link-up. It’s become the easiest blog post I write all week and one of the most satisfying, too. The Weekly Wishes community is such a great, encouraging one! I usually pick a prettier type picture for the post graphic, but I thought my cat sitting in the middle of my desk was appropriate for this week’s goal and hey, Oxford is in it. That’s plenty of pretty. If the picture were also good, y’all’s eyeballs might explode.

As I mentioned in my previous post, you’re going to be getting a proper yearly resolutions/goals post soon — or possibly several — but for the purposes of Weekly Wishes, I am going to stick to one thing that I want to accomplish the bulk of this week:

I want to revamp my workspace.

My workspace that doubles as my bedroom — which I finally have all to myself again now that my grandma’s gone and my sister’s back in her own room — and which I basically spend 90% of my time in. Possibly more. I’m a major introvert and homebody and my parents smoke around the house, which makes me feel literally sick, so I really do spend a lot of time holed up in here, and that’s just how I like it. The other 10% of my time is divided in trips to the kitchen, trips to the bathroom, shopping for supplies, and shooting stuff in my patio. Boring yet necessary stuff. Except the shooting, that’s really quite fun. Cold, but fun.

For the past couple of years — okay, for the years between 2008 and 2012 I was too depressed to give a fuck about how my room looked, and then in 2012 I made a goal — a new year’s resolution, actually, almost a word of the year if it weren’t two: get out. At that time, “get out” meant move out with my mom and sister and away from my father. I still want that, but that goal shifted to moving to the UK on my own (though preferably with my friend Annemari) over the course of 2013, and it’s currently moving to London, same parenthetical. The point is that my room felt — is — temporary and even now it makes little sense to buy heavy things, even if they’re business investments, because I’m not hauling a printer or a sewing machine across the continent, that would be ridiculous.

The line that runs through my head a lot lately is “let’s pack up and move this year,” which I got from the title of a fanfic a friend wrote, which she got from Matt Nathanson, which I suspected before I actually googled it, by the way, Jess, you’re really predictable and I love it. What I want to emphasize in that line is the ‘this year.’ I want to move this year, and I’d like to move before or in September. The nice thought behind it is being settled there by the time Annemari’s birthday rolls around.

Either way, that’s a whole lot of months, and if I’m going to be pushing my business hard enough to save up enough money to make that move, that is also a whole lot of work. That I will be doing in this room. So I think it makes sense to spruce it up a little into something mildly photographable. I don’t want this project to drag me back or to drag, period, so I’m focusing on it this week and this week only, at least for now.

The first thing I did this morning, after showering but — perhaps ill-advisedly — before breakfast, was move a corner shelf to the corner where it was last year, between my bed and the wall. I like it there because it does the job of a nightstand and clears a nice pathway to the right of my bed that I can walk through. There’s a waist-level shelf affixed to the wall there, and placing my bed like that makes it usable as opposed to a dumping ground for stuff that my cat will doubtlessly kick off once a day and twice on Sundays.

I don’t want to do a lot more furniture moving. My lower back keeps glaring at me in the form of intermittent sharp pain. Besides, I already did a bit of rearranging when my sister first claimed the other bedroom as her own and made it inhabitable by human beings with eyes (RIP the Panic Room™). I’m going off on a lot of tangents here. Let’s skip to the part where I list all the things I want to keep in mind/change/replace.

TASK BREAKDOWN

  • Get a new damn chair. I’ve been waffling over this because I thought it would be upwards of 60€ and ha, ha, what money, but I think I may be able to catch a sale on an office chair for 30€ and it would be invaluable to have a chair that doesn’t creak every time I move. Also, one that has wheels in the event that I also
  • Get a small desk for my sewing machine and/or my laptop. It’s exhausting hauling it up and down and it hurts my motivation. It just does. It needs to fit into the space between my bed and my desk OR the space where the corner bookshelf used to be, which means it can be 60 cm wide at most, which is just fine with me and will probably be cheaper than a proper desk. It also needs to have plenty of space for my legs, and if it has a footer for the sewing machine pedal, that would be swell, but not necessary.
  • Find someone on Etsy to trade me a coaster. I’m tired of cleaning coffee rims off my desk. I realize that this is my fault but hey, that’s why I’m the one fixing it.
  • Hang something up. This is more of a long-term thing because I’m hoping I can collaborate with a company and get one of my images printed as a relatively visible canvas. It may not be an awful idea to find some hangers to hang like… scarves and shit off of. Don’t actually make that many scarves, though, so maybe shelving. Need to keep that in mind when looking at desks/sewing machine tables/drafting tables.
  • Storage is definitely a big important thing, though; now that I have more space, maybe I can finally organize everything in a way I can see it. I have a couple of nice sturdy boxes from perfume my grandma bought, which I’m definitely going to use, though I’m not sure what I’ll put in them yet. I really want to keep some stuff permanently on my desk. I won a $25 gift card to Etsy from The Dahlia Scene and this may be what I spend that on — that is, if I don’t spend it on sewing supplies instead. We shall see.

Budget-wise, if I don’t have to touch the money in my Paypal account, that would be excellent. That would mean I worked all my semi-superfluous expenses (including my shopping “spree” last week) into my Christmas money from relatives + the money leftover from the last two phone bills I transferred money to my mom’s account to cover, and I won’t feel as bad about investing in my living space.

That said, if anyone has tips, DIY tutorials, words of warning or anything else they’d like to share with me on the subject of redecorating a room (even stories about how you’ve done it yourself, or product recommendations!), I am all ears!

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A Budgeting Affair

posted on September 26, 2013

Or a prioritized wishlist — depends on the angle you look at it. I wanted to write it down so I thought I’d go ahead and blog about it.

So if you’ve known me for a bit, you know I’m really strapped for money — my mom is on welfare and that’s basically the family’s sole source of income (though my grandma and aunt help us out), so if I want to invest in my work, I have to figure that out myself. Which is what I’ve been doing this year, little by little. Priority #0 was a new laptop, which I got through my Indiegogo campaign, so this is some of what I’ve got left now, somewhat in order:
priority-list

  1. Custom-printed Spoonflower fabric (and other supplies, not pictured) for my campaign rewards.
  2. A tripod for my Canon and a remote control so I don’t have to depend on my mom for product modeling and outfit shoots. The tripod will come in handy for more than that, though, I’m sure.
  3. A serger machine. This is a Bernette 610D from Bernina, which I’ve heard great things about from seamstresses, but I don’t have my heart set on any particular one.
  4. A new winter coat, preferably gray or green. This one is from Ruche, which has the most gorgeous selection of clothing.
  5. This — is not exactly what it looks like, but basically: going legal as self-employed. I can register for taxes fine, but to be officially self-employed, I have to register for social security fees, which are over 500€ a month, which is about seven times what I’ve made all year (Indiegogo campaign notwithstanding). I want to do this properly, but I can’t afford to do this properly, but I’d like to at some point. Even though a part of me would like to think I’ll be in England by that point, which means I should research their self-employment requirements and fees. I’m so new at all of this, you guys. It’s terrifying. But anyway, for starters, I should renew my expired ID.
  6. A printer. Not necessarily large format, since I can get those prints at my lab and I do love their quality — but a printer for graphic design and photo cards would be pretty fantastic. This one is an Epson, which I’ve heard  great things about from photographers. Mostly about the Stylus range, and this one is a workforce printer, but I think that would work all right for my current purposes.
  7. A new lens. I haven’t settled on one, but anything’s better than the 18-35 mm default my Canon came with.
  8. Plane tickets! To London to meet Annemari in January or February, with the added cost of a place to stay… and possibly no return ticket for me. Who knows, y’all. Again with the terrifying, but I want to relocate so badly, even if I’d miss my cat and my mom and my sister with a passion. But I feel like it’d be the least scary way to move there, not really meaning to stay and then just seeing how it goes. I don’t know.

A place of my own while I get there (until I get my room back to myself in December or January) wouldn’t be amiss, either. Even if it’s a tiny studio apartment. As long as I’m alone, I’m good.

So that’s my priority list, for anyone wondering why I rarely buy anything and why, when I spend money, I feel sort of like shit. I’ve been considering running a follow-up campaign when I’m done with these rewards to fund the serger and the fabric, but the last campaign was a huge headache so I’m not sure about that. I’ll see how the shop does first. I’ve also been thinking about doing a fixed-funding campaign later on to fund my move to the UK where all the rewards are photo shoots (product, portrait, etc.), which I really like the thought of. But again, that’s for later. (Even though pushing a move earlier would mean postponing the printer — weight — and the social security registration, possibly.)

Anyway, right now, this is what I’m looking at. If you have any advice for getting these things or want to recommend any particular brand or model, I’m all ears! Otherwise, I’d love to know what you’re currently prioritizing — are you saving for anything? What do you have your eye on?