Moving Day

So Tales From The Faraway Tree?  My humble little blog of 2 and a half years.  It's served me well.  I've had a lot of fun, learnt an awful lot about myself and my style.  Seen it evolve and change.  I've made some friends.  Some have stuck around.  Others have disappeared without trace.  I've let my guard down and gone from "Lucy Nation" to Sarah Jane.  But for some time now I've felt this niggly feeling as though it is time to move on.   Time to let the axe come down on this tree.  This blog started out as an outlet for me and had no fixed direction whatsoever.   Over time, this has started to bug me.  Even now "Tales From The Faraway Tree"  doesn't really say a lot.  Initially I thought is sounded pretty and indicated that I was a reluctant adult perpetually stuck in childhood, which is true.  But who really gets that?  I'm not affiliated to Enid Blyton and sometimes wonder whether her estate will find me out one day and sue me!   The blogging world is a curious place and seems to change so drastically without you noticing it's happening.  This is why now seems as good a time as any to announce that I am officially moving house.  Shipping out.  Starting from scratch.

So here I introduce my new blog;-

Sarah Jane's Addiction

Yeh baby.  A new URL.  My tidy new home.  A blog for all sorts of beautiful things.  The best of the Faraway Tree with added focus on photography, places, aesthetics and life through a glitter lens.

Thank you so much to everyone who has followed this blog and supported me over the last 2 and a half years.  I'm gonna leave it up here for the time being but I hope you will continue adventuring with me and join me out in the wilderness...

xxxxx

I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers

The title quote from L.M. Montgomery uttered by the flame haired Anne Shirley pretty much sums up exactly how I feel about this time of year.  Autumn is the season I start to grow back into my own skin.  I am calmed and comforted by its presence.  Autumn is my time.

This year October has seen every single weekend completely booked up with weddings, family events and other social arrangements which all seem to have lined themselves up one after the other.  This combined with dealing with 2 children with a combination of chicken pox, the usual coughs and colds, and the worst teething pain I've ever known a baby to suffer, means that I have not had time to even check my reflection of late let alone operate in blogland.  I am finding solace in the thought of my forthcoming holiday where I will be hopefully be able to spend a few days drinking in visual beauty similar to that depicted in these photographs.

All photos found on this blog 

I hope you are enjoying the change of season wherever you may be.

xxx

Outfoxed... In More Ways Than One

Here I am in the park & ride of my local train station sporting today's outfit, a rather 'foxy' affair.

Dress and rather phallic looking tote bag both from Asos and both featuring foxes.  I didn't purposely co-ordinate honest.  Just a happy accident

Don't I look sulky?

I feel more and more uncomfortable in front of a camera as time goes on.  I hate looking at myself and hate the fact that I hate looking at myself, you know?

Maybe I'm still recovering from the great hair panic of last week.  

It started out quite innocently; I bleached my roots and gave the rest of my head another going over with the 30 vol

It came up like this.  The perfect shade of yellow to tone to platinum, right?  Just buy a light ash blonde box dye and job's a goodun.  Nope, that would be too simple.  I know, I'll just do like I saw in a Youtube tutorial once and mix a bit of Directions violet hair dye with conditioner and coat my hair in it.  It'll tone out the yellow and I'll be left with a perfect cool platinum shade.  Job done.

Clearly not.  Too much violet hair dye coupled with extremely porous hair = bright purple roots and random lavender patches.  Not a good look.

So instead of waiting for it to wash out I hit Youtube again for a tutorial and discovered 'bleach bathing'.  Don't ask!  I have no photographic evidence of the result of this failed experiment.  I was too busy hyperventilating.  Long story short, the purple turned what I can only describe as a light shade of bile green and the rest of it was completely stripped of any pigment at all.  Whiter than white.  Added to that, the texture of my hair after 3 repeated bleachings was that of wet cotton wool

Moral of this story, learn from my mistakes.  Go easy on the Youtube tutorials and, if in doubt, and I never thought I would say this being a lifelong home hair dyer, go to a salon!

I did, and after several hours of repairing treatments and 2 attempts at toning I ended up like this

Not my ideal shade but at this point I was so grateful I had hair left

I'm trying my best just to enjoy my new colour whilst conditoning the crap out of it at every opportunity.  Only, watching ITV's Cilla has made me think fondly of the colour I was so desperate to change...

Don't you just love this shade of red?  And I adore that bob

Sigh... the grass is always greener.  I really should know better by now

Postcards from Victorian Wales

Looking back at postcards of Victorian Wales.  They somehow keep me dreaming of autumn during the final, stubborn throes of summer


(yes that is a Victorian urinal -the mister knew I'd appreciate it)

EDIT - The 5th photo down is a urinal from the beautiful Lake Vrnwy Hotel, and yes I do love me some antique ceramics ;)