Keep The Dream Tight

I’ve moved! My boyfriend and I finally have our new flat!...

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 13:27:10 -0400

I’ve moved! My boyfriend and I finally have our new flat! We love love love it! It’s exactly us, highest ceilings ever, huge original sash bay windows that something like 8 ft high, beautifully grand ornate cornice and dado rails and centre rose… Whilst looking for flats, we knew exactly what we wanted but never thought we’d actually find it. So we’re still pretty stoked to wake up here every morning. We’ve already painted the whole flat with a lush white with a hint of grey and ikea is our church at the moment. Although, we do upcycle a lot of pieces and have lots of awesome ideas to breathe life into this space.

We are yet to purchase our new sofa and bed frame, we are going for a loft bed to utilise the space beneath the bed as an office space. I think it’s very clear that we will be living here for as long as possible, hoping until we get together a deposit to buy our own flat.

Now whenever we go out, we literally cannot wait to get back home again :) But the photo is of a cake I just baked for him because he’s at work right now and I thought I’d bake him up a treat!

I will put up more pictures when I think it is worthy!

Talking about the weather? Really?

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 13:16:00 -0400

I hate short talk… I hate talking about the weather, it’s almost a last resort topic to fill an awkward silence or humour the elderly; no offence but they love to talk about it being too cold or too hot or too wet. I think having a little chit chat with the elderly is the only time that is acceptable to bring the subject of weather into play.

But this year, the weather is an unavoidable topic because it’s spring and it’s still snowing. As a country we are rather bland when it comes to our 4 seasons. We’re 75% overcast most of the year (quite accurately too). So we’re used to dull days, we get over excited when the sun shows herself completely nude, unclothed in cloud, the shirts come off, the shorts come out, shades go on and we all start cooking outdoors… Despite the temperature, it’s mostly aesthetic, but it’ll do.

We pray for snow at christmas, and usually disappointed. After christmas we just keep our hearts set on the first day of spring, the daffodils, the trees putting their leaves back on and not having to wear a jacket to go out.

Although the world didn’t end and we made it to 2013 safely, I feel like something definitely did change. As I’m writing this post there is a little layer of snow on the ground outside, and the cold wind is giving us a glimpse of winters in the Baltic countries (this is very much an over statement). It’s confusing everybody.

I did a little research to see what the weather was like this time 10 years ago (super nerd) and it was drastically different, I’m talking 20°C on this day in 2003. Don’t expect any answers from me here at all, because I have none. I suppose I wanted to have a good old moan using modern technology.

My Dad has been saying for a while that something big is going to happen, he may be right, he may just be trying to scare me (I scare easy). I’m not even fond of the the heat, so the UK is just right for this strange, pasta hating, heat avoiding italian girl. But I would like to know what is happening in the world. I don’t enjoy leaving the house anymore because it’s so cold it hurts! Perhaps it will make me stronger! One can only hope.

So there, I spoke about the weather. Well I babbled pointlessly about it anyway.

This is what I am loving at the moment. Who isn’t? I will...

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 09:30:00 -0400

This is what I am loving at the moment. Who isn’t? I will be moving soon, and though I won’t have the luxury of these incredible floor to ceiling windows and phenomenally high ceilings (one day ju, one day) I am definitely pulling ideas from this theme, which will be hard considering that I have nearly every colour of the spectrum in my life, in a modestly vintage manner of course. But I want to strip back to basics and apply this raw industrial feel. We will be having some of our furniture handmade by a very talented friend if we have to the space for our ideas. Moving is probably my favourite thing, until of course I find the perfect home, but until then, new spaces, new designs, so exciting.

A Bug's Life.

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 09:38:00 -0400

My boyfriend rarely ever calls me by my name (Juliet incase you were wondering). He has, for a few years now called me Bug. This has derived from Jubug, and has many variants, like Buggles, Judlebug, Bugster you get the gist. Which just got me thinking that I should have named my blog A Bug’s Life. But hey ho, I chose it’s name to be something that would stick forever.

And the other thing about ‘Keep the Dream Tight’ is that it was between this and ‘Grow Up And Blow Away’. Which ever would be my blog’s name, the other I would tattoo on my arm.

So this is how it turned out… I have a balloon tattooed on my arm and my blog is where I execute my dreams, or things that will eventually lead up to my dreams.

Also, both names are song titles by Metric.

Slightly irrelevant post here, but some background info to my followers I guess.

LoveStruck Wedding Photography

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 18:59:31 -0400

LoveStruck Wedding Photography:

Our feature on business boom! :)

My colour scheme today. Yes I do not have girly fingers at all!

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 10:23:35 -0400

My colour scheme today. Yes I do not have girly fingers at all!

In my whole entire 25 years of living, I’ve only ever been...

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 10:04:52 -0400

In my whole entire 25 years of living, I’ve only ever been on one egg hunt and embarrassingly that was about 3 years ago! My wonderful boyfriend took me on this gorgeous trek in Lancashire to the highest point of the land. I’ve completely forgotten what it’s called, but we walked for hours through little streams, surrounded by daffodils and other wild flowers, discovering ancient bridges, we climbed old trees, walked up huge hills over looking the most breath taking views, and admired the remains of old castles that once stood on these parts. It was no where near as cold as this ‘spring’, it was perfect!

At the end of this walk, I found a egg shaped piece of paper in my jacket pocket with a clue on it about the glove box in the car… and my first ever easter egg hunt had began! 22 I was, and was still SO excited! I found another clue in the car and had a sweet little egg, the drive home took about an hour where I would unveil more clues and picked up little eggs along the way to eventually find my gorgeous easter egg followed by a night time BBQ and lying under the stars with a blanket, wrapped up warm. That was favourite easter, and the only easter egg hunt I think I have ever needed in my life.

But this easter, I will be seeing my Nephew, my brothers and I are all heading over to our parents house in the North (they used to live in Oxfordshire which was MUCH more convenient!) and I will be spending my first easter with my Nephew Antonio Joe, he is 3 and I am going to throw him an easter egg hunt! It won’t as fabulous as the one my boyfriend put on for me, but I can try my best!

And that’s what these ears are about! I made these cute little things last night out of excitement for the hunt I am planning! I hope I can pull it off! And I will be doing a Lithuanian tradition as well, as my man is from there, and since I’ve been with him, it’s a thing that we do every year, egg painting! But not using paint! So I hope little AJ will be just as excited as I am. I’ll be wearing my ears too.

This is just after I made my bottle, and I may have also used an...

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 09:52:19 -0400

This is just after I made my bottle, and I may have also used an old tub and wrapped that in string also >.< Got slightly carried away. I also covered the inside with brown paper because the black interior was too dark.

I cannot knit, I cannot crochet, I cannot sew. I wish I could do...

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 09:50:29 -0400

I cannot knit, I cannot crochet, I cannot sew. I wish I could do all of those things and I am pretty sure that the way things are going I am going to teach myself these crafts in the very near future! But the other day, I was desperate to do something along these lines! And I ended up finger knitting! It always turns out the same… sort of like a knitted snake! So I called it a knitted necklace!

I made another one the other night, because it’s so therapeutic to do, it ended up being about a meter and a half long! So I wrapped that around my mirror until I can make a heart out of it to put on my wall.

I have been crafting away lately, I do love my string and I have...

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 09:46:46 -0400

I have been crafting away lately, I do love my string and I have copious amounts of the stuff so I’m always thinking up new ways to create something out of it. This was painstakingly hard to achieve because I am limited on materials. I used a ceramic candle to mould this shape, it took about 3 to 4 attempts and hours of frustration for the mould to take and separate from the candle. It eventually happened, not as well as I’d hoped but it couldn’t have gone perfectly!

I wanted a little bowl to put my earrings in at night, so I thought I would make my own and this is it!

I collect bottles. I have done for a couple of years now. At the...

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 09:41:04 -0400

I collect bottles. I have done for a couple of years now. At the moment I collect small glass bottles which I usually put hand picked flowers in in order for them to dry out. I have some amazing dusty pink dried roses that have kept perfectly for 3 years nearly, but unfortunately they are in my parents house! Waiting for when I have my own place again to put them on display.

I decided that I wanted to do something with my bottles, I love good labels, so I used a bottle with a very contemporary label and lovingly wrapped it in string using glue. I loved the outcome. Then I took a typical coca cola bottle and covered it in ripped pieces of brown paper. But I love the label on the centre bottle, I usually love any label with Elderflower on it, not because it’s my favourite drink, but it’s usually labelled in a lush vintage style which I love.

On Mother’s day I bought some daffodils, I didn’t spend the day with my Mum so I thought I’d buy some flowers because that’s what usually happens when I’m with her. Also, it’s so very cold outside, I wanted to lure the spring in, or at least make my room feel as warm as I possibly could.

Here is the before and after of the blooming daffodils on my bedside table. I am very pleased with both the outcome of the bottles and the flowers.

So I'm 25.

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 10:03:44 -0500

I turned the daunting Two Five this past Sunday… And inevitably, I was miserable as hell, as I usually am on my birthday, because I refuse to go hand in hand with the ever passing time that is… my life. I hate turning a whole year older. In my mind I still see myself in my polka dot minnie mouse top and skirt ‘dancing’ (more bouncing on the spot and shaking my little bum) to records by Madonna and Michael Jackson.

It begs the question, when do we ‘grow up’? When in our lives do we realise we need to have our shit together, a solid plan, a steady relationship, a healthy social life, a job that pays enough to live in the city as well as time for your family and yourself… If I’m considering myself here, I have about 3% of the above. The weeks leading up to becoming 25 took it’s toll on me a little, I started to panic, I don’t even have a ‘job’, not really… Friends? Hardly, social life? If you call getting to know the indian family that run the local post office socialising, then I’m so on it. I live miles away from any family and as we’ve grown older we are less close than ever.

However, realistically, I founded a wedding photography business, creating it’s name, designing it’s logo, reaching out to clients, and shooting, that’s something, surely? I’ve given the odd bit of styling a bash, I’ve worked in endless retail stores, but really, if something’s not making me happy everyday, I tend to move on quickly. I can say with absolute confidence that the only thing I have pursued up to now, has been my partner in crime, the only ‘thing’ I haven’t lost interest in, and the only ‘thing’ that truly does make me happy everyday when I wake up. So at least I have that sorted at 25.

We’ve created our own world which sometimes we fear may be so vast and at the same time so small that there may not be any room for anyone else… We have our own inside jokes to the point where one look delivers an entire, detailed unsaid piece that we both completely understand. We are a couple of geeky, sad losers who spent his last birthday in Warner Brothers Harry Potter studios, with the photo of us in the flying car to prove it (hands down, one of the best things we have ever done). We sing the Rocky Balboa theme in the shower, yes, we have our own pieces that we are assigned to in the tune, it’s quite a performance. And we spend endless hours in our tiny little room, a room smaller than both of us lived in growing up individually, but we’ve created a haven for the two of us that’s so incredibly… us! It’s hard to leave. It’s almost like this room is an extension of ourselves, our minds and our ideas.

We sometimes wonder if other couples are this tightly knit… Outsiders probably think how can two people spend so much time together, surely one of them is more into it than the other, or someone is getting bored… We’re honestly just best friends, and that’s what we love. We have this brilliant relationship as a boyfriend and a girlfriend, where we’re in love and always remind each other of that, but then we have this girl and boy relationship, where we will rip each other to pieces, mocking each other, even fighting to the point of pain, somewhat like my brother and I as kids! It’s so much fun, the arguments are so intense and the making up results in a fresh new beginning every single time.

So, yes I am still trying to achieve the perfect job for myself, as he is out there achieving his photography career, our wedding business is our baby, our joint career, and we have our own careers for ourselves. And I have a minimal amount of friends, if not any at all really, but with him, I feel like I have all the friends I need.

Some people are much, much older than me and are still looking for the one, I feel incredibly blessed by the forces of nature that we two managed to bump into each other, the odds were against us. My family history so jumbled yet bringing my Mum and Dad (who are not from the UK nor the same continent) together in London, myself being born in the city and growing up in Oxfordshire, to then move to the north of England, where I was so very unhappy, and his family moving to the UK from Lithuania, ending up in the north of England also (at the same time that I moved there), and chose a university not in his own town, but in mine… And we both broke up with our exes at the same time. It just seems all very… meant to be? However soppy that sounds, I genuinely believe it.

I am learning to be less involved with my family, I’m such a passionate family girl, watching both my brothers start their lives and live far away from me has been one of the toughest things I’ve had to endure, but, now I’m 25, I need to deal with my shit and realise that this is how it goes… Soon, I will have ‘the career’, the house, the family will come along, because we need back up singers for our Rocky Theme of course.

I’ve tried to become more of a woman in terms of how I dress and present myself, it doesn’t work, I can do it and pull of it well, but it’s like wearing two left shoes. I’ve only just started to wear eye shadow for christ’s sake! I enjoy my attire, it’s playful and fun and comfortable. I can do the sex appeal, I just keep it behind closed doors is all.

Since my first year of uni, perhaps before then considering my behaviour as a teen, I realised the feminist in me, not the bra burning, man hating, menstrual blood eating enthusiast, but the kind who believes in complete equality in the human race. Being brought up with two brothers and an Italian father, the woman’s ‘place’ in the world was very obvious, surrounded by utensils, apron on, food on the table when the men come back from work. This is something I knew I wasn’t going to grow into when I grew into a bra (still room for improvement mind). These roles in gender anger me, and what angers me more so, is that because I enjoy cooking (I’m italian… it’s in my blood, cooking is an art form that tastes as good as it looks) some think I’m being hypocritical and see it as ‘cooking for my man’. Believe me, my man cooks, and he cooks so fucking well.

Though, when I tell my Dad these days, my dreams and aspirations, I get this almost empty ‘I wish you luck’, because I think he still believes that I should cater to my man. While he’s out working and earning the money, I should be in the home, raising children, cooking, cleaning… It’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks I suppose. He is, after all, 76 years young, a fabulous Father, a brilliantly energetic man with hundreds of stories to tell, and so funny. But, perhaps the ideals of a modern woman is something he can’t get his head around. I intend on showing him what I mean though. Sometimes, I imagine he views me as a male with the way that I talk and act. Men in my house are lucky, my Mother runs around them like a headless chicken making sure they’re watered and fed.

But going back to what I was originally babbling on about, growing up!! I guess, there is no time to grow up, there is no specific age to be settled. For me, having the one I want it all with is enough for now. Others need the job first, others need the job more than anything else. I’ll always be completely young at heart and never try to be something uncomfortable. I’m still growing into myself, still learning who I am. I feel myself most when I am with him. But, when I find the shoe that fits on the job front, I think I will bloom quite nicely, confidently, but most of all, comfortably.

I made this out of a glass bottle, pva and string! Proud.

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 15:32:38 -0500

I made this out of a glass bottle, pva and string! Proud.

Same as before, different angle! Still love it!

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 15:30:37 -0500

Same as before, different angle! Still love it!

I got this bunch of flowers for valentines day, and today I had...

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 15:22:29 -0500

I got this bunch of flowers for valentines day, and today I had to throw them away, I saved a few! I put them in the bath and took this surprisingly gorgeous pic :)

20% off from one of the leading vintage wedding photographers!...

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 07:54:03 -0500

20% off from one of the leading vintage wedding photographers! UK and Destination Weddings all in on this offer. Book your wedding in the next 14 days to get hold of this Valentines Special! Not a competition! Everyone who books in the next 14 days wins! Reblog!!
Come and like us on Facebook

Here is our website

And feel free to come follow us on Twitter

So I discovered Sims… I’ve lost the little life I...

Sat, 26 Jan 2013 16:51:00 -0500

So I discovered Sims… I’ve lost the little life I had. Building my dream home, and going overboard… Yes please :) I even created a separate apartment on the first floor for when my ‘first born’ grows up! Always thinking ahead is Ju. Not only do I have an oversized house where only 3 adults live, I am married and have a baby! However, I think that this is a safe place to do that. As in reality I am nowhere near ready for that stuff, so I can play away with my grown up life and then hit ‘exit’ when I’ve had enough, little different in the real world!

I thought I would share my new favourite thing on here ^_^

"Why do people say “grow some balls”? Balls are weak and sensitive. If you wanna be..."

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 08:03:17 -0500

““Why do people say “grow some balls”? Balls are weak and sensitive. If you wanna be tough, grow a vagina. Those things can take a pounding.””

- Betty White

Photo

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 10:00:35 -0500

Photo

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 09:58:45 -0500