vlog： a cosy autumn day, mini ikea haul + kitchen organisation

Gorgeous, gorgeous girls start their day with Avril Lavigne's first album. Good morning. Good morning. It is a bright and breezy autumn morning out there and I am just sorting my face out because I'm heading out today and I'm really excited. I do find with my makeup now, I feel like I don't really know what I'm doing with it anymore. If you're around my age, which is the ripe old age of 30 and one, I don't know whether you maybe might be feeling a bit like this now, but I have kind of lost interest in makeup over the years. I used to be super duper into it when I was kind of like late teens, early twenties and like beauty bloggers ruled the earth. And that was kind of the stage where I learned to at least do the basics of my makeup. And since those days, those days gone by, the vibe that I like to go for with my makeup has definitely changed in like a big way. I used to be like very into my eyeshadow. I loved the dark lip, very into like a big flick eyeliner. These days I'm very much a bare minimum kind of gal in every respect of life, really. Yes, girl, give us the bare minimum at all times. But what I'm trying to say is that the way that I apply my makeup and probably like the kinds of products that I go for and stuff haven't really changed all that much. And I'm starting to find that as my face is starting to change now, as I'm getting a bit older, you know, I'm starting to like see my face is looking a little bit different to how it used to, which is a topic for another day. It's a very weird thing. It's a very weird thing when that starts to happen. I'm noticing that my makeup definitely isn't sitting the same. You know, I feel like I need to refresh my makeup knowledge and figure out how do you apply makeup to a 30 year old face rather than a 20 year old face? Because it's a very different kettle of fish. When you're 20 makeup goes on so perfectly and so flawlessly because there's not a not a line to be seen. But now I'm starting to get some fine lines and my face is a little bit different. It definitely doesn't set the same as it used to. So I thought, started thinking like, oh, I'd love to kind of relearn how to apply makeup for my skin now. And I suddenly thought I was like, who is a person that I could look to to learn how to do that? I feel like there's a massive gap online. If anyone's up for filling a gap online, like a beauty guru who can teach 30 year olds plus how to apply makeup and maybe what kind of products to go for and stuff, but who also doesn't go for like filler and Botox and stuff. And there's nothing wrong with that whatsoever. But that still means that you're applying makeup to skin that looks like it sits on a 20 year old. Basically, I'm looking for some kind of like makeup artist person or a beauty influencer type person who teaches you how to adapt your makeup when you, you know, are 10 years older than last time you learned. It's like quite a weird feeling, isn't it? When you start to realise that your face is actually like changing a bit now. I notice that every so often, like when I'm doing my skincare or whatever, I think like, oh, that didn't used to be there. Hello, new friend. Because even things like this that I'm doing right now, like powdering my under eyes, this doesn't sit in the same way that it used to when I didn't have kind of fine lines that come out here. This is like a new development for me that I'm trying to figure out. So I'm just going to finish up here, this bronzer. Look at the state of this. I feel like this has been in my life longer than Adam has. The other thing I was thinking about makeup the other day as well is how a few years ago, well, it's probably more, it's getting on for probably 10 years again now. That kind of era of like 2012, 2013, when I was in the second half of uni and all that like beauty blogger stuff was so massive at that point. This like concept of really like hoarding makeup was a massive, massive thing. If you kind of got into all of that, you'll know what I mean. People would, I included, had like stacks and stacks and drawers full of makeup that you just accumulated and collected. And I was like really passionate about it. I loved it. And I feel like I've probably still got all that. So I really, really need to have a big makeup clear out at some point because that's just not the vibe anymore, is it? That's not what I want at all. I feel like this is all I need now. I need like a little pouch full of my essentials that I top up as I go. And when they run out, I replace them. And that whole idea of like hoarding makeup is still really ingrained in me. And I've still got all the things like my old MAC lipstick collections and old like MAC special collections, all the like Urban Decay naked palettes and stuff. They're all just sitting in the cupboard in the spare room. And for what? Why am I keeping them? So one of these days when I've got a spare Sunday afternoon, I'm definitely going to have to go through all that and have a really big clear out and a refresh. That is incredibly cold now. I've been talking too long. This blush is so terrifying. Every time I put it on my face, I'm like, how am I going to fix this? But it just blends out into the prettiest little... It's Selena Gomez's makeup collection. And this is the blush in the shade Happy. It's so cute. It just gives you like a really pink... It is actually like a happy kind of flush. But the fun plan for today is this morning, I am meeting my friend Gemma and we're actually going to like a really cute, fun little morning. We're going to a little like farm pumpkin patch type situation, which she fancied going to. And she was like, you love doing silly things. Would you like to come? And then when I get back from dallying around the pumpkins with Gemma, I am dragging Adam by his hair to Ikea this evening. I think it's probably grounds for a split, honestly, that I am making him come to Ikea with me on a Saturday night. But needs must. And we really need to pick up a few bits before we can deck out the kitchen properly. And we're at the point now where we really want to like fill the kitchen up and get it sorted, get everything back in. And let's have a quick outfit change. Oh, why have I done that? Oh, I knew that was cold. So I'm going to have a little outfit change. Let's see what we can find. I think I know the jumper I want to wear. And then I think I'd quite like to do a little autumnal skirt. I think I'm going to go for this lovely blue colour. This nice like cornflower blue, I guess I would call it. It's got like a little high neck to it. Let's do that. I'm going to need some tights. And then this skirt, you've probably seen me wear this before. It's an absolute fave. But it's this like really cute mix of different check patterns. I absolutely love it. And it's got like a little pleat to it. Let's do this with black tights and black boots. And then I'll probably chuck my big camel coat on. This is the combo. I'm really enjoying the little mixture of colours actually. This is a fairly cropped jumper. But I feel like I would like it to sit a bit more like that. So it feels like it's tucked into the skirt a little bit more. So I'm going to do my favourite trick. You didn't know you were going to be experiencing one of the greatest life lessons of all time today. But here we go. Let me just enlighten you. All you need to do is find what every respectable woman has in her life. This pile of slightly gross bubbles. If you gather the ends of your jumper in a little knot like this. Bundle it up like a ponytail. And then you can just tuck that under. And it turns into like the perfect little... Well, sort of perfect. It makes the jumper like sit really well and really nicely. So all I need to do is grab my bag. I think I'll take my new bag actually. Which I'll show you because I was fully brainwashed and I'm very here for it. But before I head out, let me just tell you about the incredibly exciting new development in our lives. Which is our new bed. Can we just take a moment for probably the best decision I've ever made as a grown-up. So a couple of weeks ago now, probably even slightly longer I would say. We decided to take the plunge and go for a bit of an upgrade for our bed situation. And we have upgraded to an Emma mattress and an Emma divan bed. And Emma have very kindly sponsored this video. It's something we've been thinking about for a while. Our old bed was actually broken and it was never quite the comfy, super duper setup that we wanted it to be. It was never quite right for us. So just in time for hibernation season, when you want your bed to be extra cinnamon bun levels of cosy and comfortable. We decided to go for an Emma mattress. And when I tell you the last couple of weeks have literally been probably the best sleep that I have since I was like a wee baby. I am in general a terrible sleeper because I'm such a worrier. I will fall asleep reasonably easy after I've been reading for a little while. But my problem is that I'll wake up in the middle of the night if something's not quite right. And then I'll be awake for hours just worrying about things. The past couple of weeks that has not been happening to me. And I honestly can't remember the last time in my life where I slept as soundly and peacefully as I have been over the past couple of weeks. And I truly believe it is down to this mattress. The level of comfort. I've never had a bed like it. And Adam literally said last night when we were in bed, it feels like we're sleeping in a hotel bed. And I feel like that's the ultimate compliment really, isn't it? And in my head, changing our bed was going to be like a really big deal. I wasn't really looking forward to it very much. But it was actually so easy from start to finish. I got a very precise delivery slot for when it was all going to arrive. Mattress arrives kind of rolled up in a box so that you can transport it quite easily. And I did the whole thing literally all by myself. That's how easy it was to set up. Just a little reminder from me to you, having felt the benefits of it for the past couple of weeks. The importance of a good night's sleep. You just cannot underestimate it. It affects so much. Like your attention and your concentration while you're working during the day. Your immune system and keeping yourself healthy. Everything to do with your physical and your mental well-being. It's basically all tied up in a good night's sleep. So that is my little rave of the day about our amazing new mattress from Emma. I cannot recommend it enough. Honestly, it's a game changer. So if you want to live your hotel bed, cinnamon bun dream... Dream. That's a great pun right there. I'm going to pop a link to Emma in the description box down below, along with my discount code, which is LUCIEWOOD, all in capital letters. And that can get you up to 60% off over on the Emma website. So I mentioned that I've got a new little bag, which I'm going to take out today. And it is this, which you may recognise. It might not look like very much. In fact, it's probably the most humble looking bag. But this is the crossbody bag from Uniqlo, which has been like going viral over TikTok and Instagram. I've been so heavily influenced by a couple of girls that I follow. I actually used it as my carry-on bag when we went to my pal's wedding in Scotland a couple of weekends ago. And it's like the perfect little travel bag for flying. Honestly, if you're flying anywhere, you need one of these. I know it might not look very much, but it's just so easy to chuck on. It goes with everything, obviously, because it's black, but they do lots of other lovely colours as well. I've got my eye on the orange one. But the magical thing about it is that you can just fit so much in this pouch. Honestly, it's great. So I've shoved this like enormous tote bag in as well, so that I can bring home my prize pumpkin later. But the thing about this bag, which really, this was the thing that like properly sold it to me. This is like really ultimate nerd behaviour. It fits a paperback in it, which is just honestly, I never knew. It's like the perfect fit. I never knew how much I needed that in my life. Normally, if I'm taking a book out with me, I'll take a tote bag because I can just chuck it in there. But I don't always want a big tote bag. Sometimes I just want a little bag like this. So the fact that this fits a paperback in it, glorious. And this is what I'm reading at the moment. I'm reading The Silence of the Girls. I've only got a few pages left, but this is by Pat Barker. And it is very good. I've really enjoyed it, but it is bleak. Like a retelling of the Battle of Troy, but all about the women that were kind of held in the war camps as slaves, basically. And it's as bleak as it sounds. Honestly, it's quite uplifting at times. And like, I'm enjoying the female friendships and stuff. It's not the most joyful read I've ever picked up. And I've got a bit of a train journey ahead of me. So just perfect. Let's stuff this tote bag in as well. We're off. Got a very sunny little cat here. Oh, big yawn. Who's going to help me show you all the goodies that we picked up in Ikea? Aren't you, missus? Oh, to be a cat. Okay, please do excuse the chaotic mess behind me. This is everything. Well, it's not even everything. This is but a small selection of what's got to somehow go back into that kitchen. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. So it's actually the day after. The trickery of filming. It's actually the day after our little Ikea trip. And we got in from Ikea. What is it about Ikea that just drains the life out of you, honestly? Even if it's just a little one like the one in Hammersmith, you leave with just like a broken shell of a human. So we got home and basically just crashed and watched the finale of the new Lord of the Rings show. Which, if you are not watching it, it is so good. We literally loved it. I'm really sad that the first season is already over. I think we've actually enjoyed that more than House of the Dragon, Game of Thrones. If I could go back in time, I would probably watch them one at a time, I think. Because it got a little bit confusing at times. But Lord of the Rings, Rings of Power, I think it's called. So good. Anyway, that's not what I'm here to talk about. Before I inevitably start... Oh, sorry. Did I interrupt your sleep? Hello. How are you doing? Have you come to say hi? No. Leaving instantly. Let me show you the little haul of what we picked up in Ikea. I will warn you in advance, it's not hugely exciting. I wanted to buy lots more exciting things, but Adam was really reining me in. I was picking up vases, I was picking up napkins, I was picking up fun kitchen hooks, and he was having absolutely none of it. So I feel like in every couple, there needs to be one who enjoys an Ikea vase and one that just wants to go home as quickly as possible. So let's start with the slightly less fun stuff. The whole purpose that we actually went to Ikea was to stock up on these bad boys. These are the standard Ikea jars. I don't even know if they've got a name, but they're just the pretty classic clip down lids. They have like a suction to the lid so that things stay fresh. And basically that big top shelf that we've got that runs above the fridge, I think we're just going to have like back to back jars on there of all the main ingredients, flours, pastas, rices or stuff like that. We've already got a couple of those, so we didn't have to go too crazy. But we did buy a trio of those, and then while we were picking these up, we also spotted that they do a fun little small version. So I actually thought we got two of these, but I could only find one. But hey, it's a fun tiny jar. To me, this looks like a biscuit tin, but he thought it would be quite nice for pasta, I think. I think that'll be a quite nice little pasta jar. It's still sealed at the moment, but it has got like a suction thing on it for freshness. And then I really like these. He was less convinced by these, I think. I was going to call them boxes, they're not really boxes, they're kind of like, they're like glass Tupperwares. And you can buy different lid fixtures for them, but I just thought these wooden ones were really nice. So I'm not entirely sure what's going to go in here, but I'm sure we'll find something. Did these earn an eye roll from my other half? Yes, they did. He wasn't convinced that now was the time to buy these, but I say it's never too early. So I bought some Christmas decorations. I just had them all hanging together and they looked so pretty and I just couldn't resist these huge big paper stars. You'll be able to see they've got like a gold edge to them. And then look, look how pretty they are. They're quite big. They were only a fiver each. So maybe a little premature on the Christmas decorations, but I couldn't resist. And I knew that we wouldn't be going back to Ikea anytime soon. And hey, when our house looks like an adorable grotto, I'll say, told you so. And just to really confuse things and prove that it's always time to be festive, whatever the season, I did buy a pumpkin at the pumpkin patch and I'm just going to go out on a limb and say, is this not the most perfect pumpkin you've ever seen in your entire life? Look at that body. Look at that fullness. She's stunning. I'm actually very daunted by this task. I'm slightly filled with dread at the thought of trying to organise this kitchen, but I'm just going to crack on, see how I can get on, see how much progress I make. And then inevitably, Adam, who's the one who actually uses the kitchen, will come home and rearrange everything anyway. So it's all good. Listen to I am, baby with me. Dishwasher salt, dishwasher salt. Man, I feel like mould is something I'm just going to start saying every day. Goodbye, missing you, wow, wow. Had to go for an outfit change and a hair up because I am sweating, dancing. This is the bag that all the herbs were chucked into and we've had some kind of spice explosion. I suspect it's cumin. And I never saw you cumin. There. Pasta, rice. Nice. More pasta. You don't have too much pasta in this house. That's true. Four nights a week. Flour. Lovely. That's all for now. Looks nice. Lost interest now. Oh, they do look nice. Isn't it nice? Yay. As you can see, it's now literally pitch black outside, so I'm giving up for the day. I've done enough. We've got a good start going, but I haven't even reached these jars yet. But we've set up a little coffee corner right here. Actually, I need to find somewhere for the coffee pods to go. They need a little home, but we'll think about that next time. We've got plates and bowls and dishes and stuff all up here. My little ghost jar in pride of place. Oh, yeah. We can put something in him, actually. There's nothing in him yet. I've gone for mugs and glasses and stuff up here just temporarily. I feel like they might need a better home than that. But for now, they're up there. A few bits on here with the Google home. And then up on this shelf, we've got all our jars and stuff that are starting to fill up. We can probably fit a couple more on there, I think, once we decide what's going in. The egg house, pride of place. This cupboard in the corner is proving to be very useful. This has got like all the leftover crockery. We've got jars and tins and packets and all sorts in here. Other little bits and bobs and bottom shelf is going to be cleaning stuff. I was just saying that the last thing that doesn't really have a home yet is cat food, which is really bad news for Flo. She's now sulking on the beanbag because cat food has no home just yet. Don't worry, we'll find a spot. So I have just got into bed. I've got my retainers in, so if I'm a little bit lispy, that explains that one. Always makes me laugh when my hair sits like this. Looks like I've got little wings coming out of my head. Anyway, I thought I would just sign off this one for today. I finished The Silence of the Girls yesterday and I am now getting stuck in. And when I say getting stuck in, I mean, this is quite the monster. This is Babel by R.F. Kuang. I saw this all over BookTok, instantly was like, well, that's now top of my list. And the more and more that I did see about it on TikTok, the more and more obsessed I became with wanting to read this book. When I tell you, I went into three different bookshops to hunt this down and it was sold out everywhere. So I feel like it's some kind of phenomenon. It's one of those as well where I don't even particularly know why I feel so drawn to it. Just as soon as I kind of saw it, I was so intrigued. It's really going to help me confront my fear of enormous books. I don't think it's a fear. It's more of just like an eye roll. This is very inconvenient. I don't have the upper body strength to read this in bed. I'm not sure this one's going to be fitting in my Uniqlo pouch anytime soon, but hopefully it will be a good bedtime read. Let me know if you have read this one and what you thought about it. So thank you guys so much for watching. I feel like I've been a little bit all over the place in this vlog, but I hope you enjoyed hanging out with me. And just before I sign off, don't forget as well, if you are thinking about trying an Emma mattress for yourself, you can head down to the description box where there will be a link and the code LUCIEWOOD will get you up to 60% off across the Emma website. That is me signing off. Thank you so much for watching. I really appreciate it. I hope all is well with you. I hope you're doing well. Let me know some good news in the comments. Let me know what's going on in your life. And that is all. So I will see you very soon with another video from me and my enormous book. Good night.