Doin' it for the dudes

Right, I'll keep it brief and I promise this is the last time I'm going to mention Movember.

For the next 5 days all proceeds from my moustache necklaces will be donated to the Movember charity, including postage.

I only have two left at £10.00 each which can be found in the shop here.

Of course if you would like to donate to the charity without buying a necklace, you can do so by visiting the Movember website.

Clearing the crap

We have so much stuff!

And I don't even mean decent stuff. Or beautiful stuff. Or even plain useful stuff. Just irritating, space taking, headache inducing stuff. 

Old phone leads, old phones, so much outdated paperwork, batteries (that I'm not even sure work), clothes we haven't worn in years, things that we keep 'just in case'. Things that are taking over the rooms, drawers, cupboards and attic of this house.

I want a home that is only full of things that are loved and needed. Not stuff that was bought just for the sake of buying something. Or because despite not having used it for over 8 years, it just might come in handy one day. I've seen those extreme hoarder programmes. I know how it goes and I don't want to be crushed to death by a giant pile of Molly Makes magazines. Even if they are pretty.

So once again, I can see a charity shop/Freecyle/eBay/recylcing surge coming up. I'm not overly excited about this if I'm being brutally honest. Sure it's a damn sight more responsible and greener than just binning the whole lot, but it does take a lot of time and effort. I know Dan is particularly going to hate it. He's a 'give it to a charity shop or bin it' type of man. I get it. It's easier and why make life harder for yourself? Well, we do have a credit card bill that will benefit from the selling of stuff if I'm being honest here and I'll be buggered if we're dumping perfectly good stuff at the local tip. 

So here we go again. You can expect to see an updated 'Shop My Stuff' page soon and some more posts about our progress. God I hope there will be progress.

The 1989 Ask Anything Tag

Despite the title of this post, I'm not much of a Taylor Swift fan if I'm honest. But I'm always up for a laugh and I'd be lying if I said I hadn't thrown some serious shapes to 'Shake It Off' in the last 24 hours. Don't judge. It was a hoot.

1. Welcome to New York // If you could live in any city, which would it be and why?
Vancouver in a heartbeat. We went there on our honeymoon and instantly fell in love with the place. The folk are so friendly, the place is STUNNING and we just felt very at home there. So at home in fact that we even looked into selling up and emigrating...and then I fell pregnant *ahem*.

2. Blank Space // What is something that everyone thinks is true about you but is actually false? 
That I'm a push over. To be fair, I am to a certain point. And I have been known to let people take liberties in the past to avoid confrontation. But one funny thing that came from having Alessi is that it's made me care less about what people think and more about the possibility of them wasting my time. I am ALL about time these days. I consider it precious and feel very angry when I think anyone has taken up some of mine and been less than respectful with it. 

3. Style // What is one item in your closet that makes you feel unstoppable?
My dressing gown. 

4. Out of the Woods // What is one thing that you're afraid of?
Zombies. Whether it's the World War Z style zombies who make Usain Bolt look lazy or the slowly falling apart zombies of 21 Days Later. It's not right and if The Walking Dead is on our telly you can guarantee I'll be upstairs with my headphones on thank you very much.

5. All You Had To Do Was Stay // Who is someone you wish was still in your life?
I'm very lucky not to have lost anyone close to me and all people living who are no longer in my life are absent for a reason so no negative feelings here.

6. Shake It Off // What is something you have had to shake off?
Something that we all have to deal with in our own ways and that's other people's negativity. Sometimes people are negative towards us intentionally out of spite, other times it's completely unintentional and has nothing to do with us whatsoever. Focus on the people who make you smile and keep moving forward.

7. I Wish You Would // What is something you'd like to happen right now?
I'd like Dan to stop watching football. 

8. Bad Blood // Have you ever had someone stab you in the back?
Not literally. 

9. Wildest Dreams // What would you like to be remembered for?
For being a nice person, for being brave enough to do my own thing and maybe even for being the sort of person that made people smile. When it comes down to it, it really is the simple things like that, that matter.

10. How You Get The Girl // What is your favourite pick-up line?
It's been a very long time since I've done any picking up. Is punching someone on the arm and running away still a thing?

11. This Love // What is something you got back that you never thought you would?
When I was little, my dad bought me this teeny tiny teddy bear thing for my birthday (seriously it's only about 2cm tall). It's had everything happen to it. It got chewed by the dog, lost outside, left at a supermarket, the works. Each time I lost him, I thought it was gone for good and my mum was forever telling me off for the amount of fuss that tiny little sod caused. And now? Now he lives in my knicker drawer. It's a touching tale.

12. I Know Places // Where is one place you always feel safe?
Home. And anywhere with wifi.

13. Clean // What is an important lesson you have learned in life, and how did you learn it?
I almost don't want to write this as it sounds so tooth-achingly trite, but life really is too short to waste doing things you don't want to do with people you don't want to be with.
Wherever possible, save your precious moments for the people you enjoy and for doing the things you enjoy.

Thanks to the lovely Mark for the tag, that was my contribution. I tag anyone else who fancies it.

New In The Shop - Gift Sets

Christmas is coming. The lights have been switched on here in Bath. John Lewis have released their Christmas ad (and overpriced penguin toys *ahem*) and we received our letter from Alessi's nursery about the nativity play. There's no hiding from it folks, it's coming for us all. 

With that in mind, it now seems like an excellent time to tell you about the new gift sets I've listed in the shop. If you're looking for some gift inspiration for someone special (or even yourself) then why not start here?

There are few necklace and earrings sets to choose from and all can be found here in the shop.

The Edie dresses can even be bought as a set with a coordinating bead necklace now too!

In fact I'm really loving these necklaces, so expect to see more in the future. 

I stupidly didn't take any more photos of the teal Edie dress after this so I can't yet list it in the shop. I attempted to take some photos earlier today, but oh my god. The weather in Bath today is so grim that it's proving impossible. I'll have to wait until later in the week and hope the weather decides to play ball. Of course I will keep you all posted.

I hope you're all having a great start to your week!

X

Hearts

A couple of weeks ago, I handed Alessi a sheet of heart stickers to keep her entertained for a few minutes. What proceeded was a toddler wandering the entire house, putting heart stickers on everything.

I should probably explain. One of Alessi's favourite things at the moment is a CBeebies programme called 'Bing Bunny'. One of the episodes saw Bing and one of his friends stick hearts on all of their favourite things. I didn't remember this when I handed her the stickers. She did. 

Since then I've removed so many stickers, but there are still loads everywhere. I think it's time to take them all down now, but before I do I wanted to keep a little record of her game. It was wonderful discovering new stickers. In the bed, on 'her' ukulele (it's mine for the record), on her teddies and her favourite books. 

Here are some of the other places that are still wearing the hearts. 

Clockwise from left, her drawer doorknob, her blackboard, her dressing up box with the scary looking bears and her blackboard again.

The stair gate, my sewing table, the wall above our bed and my overlocker.

The stairs (most of the steps got hearted), the clothes dryer, the toilet and the washing machine.

They were literally all over the place. And it made me smile on a daily basis for almost two weeks. 

Thanks kid. You're awesome.

Pumpkin Pie

I'm not sure what got into me this week, but I've been on a bit of a cooking and baking spree. This is unusual for the simple reason that I can't cook. I made cup cakes at the start of the week. The sponge was soggy, the butter cream was drippy and it was so sugary it was headache inducing. 

Nevertheless I persevered and I'm glad I did. Everything I made this week was a massive let down, except these golden beauties.

I made some using tinned puree and the rest from the pumpkin lantern we made for Halloween. I wanted to see if they differed in taste. The simple answer? They didn't. If I hadn't baked them myself I wouldn't have noticed the slightest difference. What I would say is that using tinned pumpkin takes out the faff of cooking the pumpkin flesh and draining it as cooked pumpkin is pretty watery. But then it has the advantage of being cheaper than buying tins of the puree online. So you know, swings and roundabouts.

If you haven't eaten any pumpkin pie yet this autumn. Get on it.

Movember, Halloween and er, Mould. Oh my!

It feels as though I haven't blogged in forever, so I'm surprised to see it's only been two weeks. I really do miss this little space of mine if I stay away too long.

The reason for the brief absence was simply wanting to give a couple projects my full attention. All the necklaces are listed in the shop now which is something I've been planning on doing for aaaages. I've made a dress for a friend and got a butt load of admin tasks done too.

Note to self though, if I have to put a day aside for general admin, stock up on biscuits. And good coffee.

Whilst I'm on the subject of necklaces, now is a good time to announce that for the month of November, all proceeds from the moustache necklaces (necklace price and postage), will go to the Movember Campaign charity. Because you know, I can't grow a 'tache myself. And before any of you (husband dear) make comments about how actually I probably could, shut up.

Necklaces are £10 and can be found here in the shop. Alternatively if you would like to donate to the charity directly, or would just like to find out more, you can do so by visiting uk.movember.com

In other news, Halloween has come and gone in a bit of a blur. We didn't take Pip trick or treating as we figured that she's still a bit young for it all. She had great fun running to the door and sharing 'her' sweets with all the other children. There were a few tears when the last ones were given away though. Opps. 

And although the weather is still unseasonably warm for the time of year, it has been very seasonably wet. Which means a damp and in some cases, a mouldy house again. To cut a long story short, downstairs can get pretty damp if we don't keep on top of it and mould tends to form in the living room. One of the external walls needs repointing, a job we were planning on doing over the summer. But then we had those storms last winter which blew down our garden fencing and well, that plan was blown away along with it. We'll try again next year. Providing nothing else falls down/blows away/blows up of course. And with this old house, who can tell.

Still, I'm not complaining. The nights are cosy and I'm feeling more connected to this season than any other that has passed so far this year. I'm looking forward to celebrating Bonfire Night next weekend with some friends and Pip has her 'ear mups' (ear muffs) at the ready in case the fireworks are too loud. And then after that I'm guessing it will be safe to crack out the 'C' word right?

If your answer to that was no then you might want to avoid my blog for a while. Just saying.

*Whispers*

Christmas! Christmas! Christmas!