When life hands you lemons...

...Put them in the vintage enamel basin you bought at a jumble sale! I bought lots of cheap lemons today at the market, I'm really excited about recipes for making preserves out of them! I'm thinking: lemon barley water, or limoncello, or lemon curd, or Moroccan preserved lemons... Ah the possibilities! What's your favourite way to use lemons?

What's In My... Bathroom Cabinet?

Hello!

I hope you are having a good week, and if you aren't then at least you can be pleased that we've made it half way through the week now! The idea of this post came out of me wanting to post about beauty products I love. This isn't a sponsored post, no one is paying me to recommend or review anything, I just thought that you might find it useful to know which products I love. I have put many years of research into finding the products that work for me, read lots of websites, tried lots of products, and these are the ones I use most and love best. I hope you find it useful, or at least interesting to have a nose around my bathroom cabinet!

1. Gaviscon. This is left over from when I was pregnant! I suffered a lot with heartburn, which I found really miserable and uncomfortable. Gaviscon was definitely the best thing I found for it, and by the end I was swigging it straight from the bottle! I didn't realise until quite late on that if you ask your midwife you can get Gaviscon free on prescription while you are pregnant so I am always trying to spread the word to other pregnant ladies - know your rights and use them!

2. Vintage china flower basket and earthenware jar.
I was really pleased that these two charity shop finds found such convenient uses. I bought the flower basket because I loved the colour and shape, and that semi-matte glaze that ceramics from this period have. It makes such a pretty container for cotton wool pads. The little earthenware jar is really small and was part of a collection of bits and pieces someone had dug up and donated to a charity shop apparently uncleaned! I was looking for somewhere to keep my cotton buds and suddenly it occurred to me that this sweet little pot was the perfect size. I can also hook my tweezers over the side and stick my nail clippers in there. Although I can't tell you where to get your own, you can keep an eye out for unusual vintage containers to house mundane daily objects, and make your daily life a little more beautiful!


3. My perfumes.
I spent years trying out what must have been thousands of perfumes in department stores and duty free airport shops. Fragrance is such a personal, individual thing and I found it SO hard to find perfumes I really loved (and so easy to spray myself with 15 at a time that I hated!). I am not a fan of anything too flowery, too sweet, fruity or overpowering. I like perfumes that are quite fresh, with no hint of vanilla, fruit, chocolate or any of those sweet smells that seem to be used in lots of fragrances. The three I have here are all ones I love and never tire of. I know it is sort of pointless to try and describe smell in words, but if you haven't tried any of these, look out for them and give them a try the next time you're in a perfume department.

For classic ladylike occasions, I go for Chanel No. 5. This is of course a very famous and well known fragrance, and I think at first I was attracted by the Marilyn Monroe association it has, but I really do love it. It is obviously a classic for a reason. Incidentally, I always use the eau de toilette rather than the eau de parfum version since it is cheaper, but I have heard that they also smell subtly different so its worth checking. While this is a perfume that has been around for a long time, I don't find it old-ladyish at all, but modern and sophisticated. Wearing it makes me feel like a grown up woman.

For smart daytime use, I wear Hermes Eau de Merveilles eau de toilette. This is such a beautiful, unusual fragrance which I have had many complements about. I have read about it described as having a smell of salt and the sea, and it is as bracing and fresh as a sea breeze. I really can't think of another fragrance I tried that was anything like it, and can't recommend it highly enough.

For every day, I have recently started wearing The Sanctuary. I was given a really generous gift set by someone who knows how much I love the smell of their bath and body products (try their salt scrub, it is my absolute fave!). I wouldn't have thought to buy their Classic EDT fragrance but since trying it, I would definitely get it again. I find it smells fresh and clean, even on days where due to a demanding baby I haven't got a shower! It is also cheaper than the other two, hence why I think of it as an every day perfume.

4. Epson salts.
Have you ever tried adding Epson salts to your bath? They are meant to relax tired muscles, soften and detoxify your skin, and beat bloating. I am not making any medical claims for them here, but when I am tired and aching, or wanting to rid myself of water retention, I add a couple of handfuls of Epson Salts to my bath. They are easy to find in any pharmacy, and cheap too.


5. Liz Earle Skin Repair moisturiser.
Like with the perfumes, I have tried out so many moisturisers in the past, from all points on the price spectrum and this is the one I come back to. It is natural, gentle, non-greasy and effective at moisturising my erratic combination skin without leaving me greasy and shiny. My only wish is that it had an SPF, but that aside, it is my perfect day cream, and at least no SPF means you can use it at night too. I haven't yet found a Liz Earle product I don't like, and they always score highly in magazine polls. Do try them out - the Cleanse and Polish cleanser is legendary!

6. Spiezia Organics Organic Facial Cleanser
I am by no means strict about using organic beauty products, but this with this cleanser is is almost just an added bonus. It is one of those Eve Lom type oil-based cleansing balms that you remove with a muslin cloth. I find it a really effective cleanser and the oily consistency doesn't make my skin greasy, but means it doesn't have that tight stripped feeling some rinse off cleansers can give you. The main thing I love about this product though is the amazing fragrance. It is based on olive oil and scented essential oils and I couldn't tell you which of them makes me love this smell, but it is fresh and green smelling, with no hint of the lingering hippy shop smell that some essential oil based products can have.

7. Clarins Beauty Flash Balm and Dermalogica Total Eye Care
My secret weapons! Beauty Flash balm is such a cult classic product that it hardly needs any introduction, but I wanted to mention it her because one of my best friends gave me this tube as a new baby gift, along with some lovely bubble bath. This seemed like such a perfect gift for that time, when you are getting lots of presents for the baby, and not looking your best. It is a perfect product for freshening up your face when you have only had a couple of hours sleep but still have to face the world. The Dermalogica eye cream is less well known, but just as good. I am surprised there aren't more similar eye creams on the market since it is a great multi-tasker. What I like is that not only does it have a brightening peachy tint and caring ingredients, but also a gentle SPF to protect the eye area as well. To me it is like a combination of a normal eye cream and a brightening/concealing product, and another must have for baggy-eyed mornings.

What's in your bathroom cabinet? What are your hero products, favourite fragrances and everyday classics? Have a fragrant Wednesday!


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My Wedding: The Rings

Hi friend!

One thing I wanted to share with you over the coming weeks was some details from my wedding. It was back in 2010 - our two year anniversary is coming up in May! When I was planning our wedding I had a very small budget and a short time frame (engaged at Christmas, married in May) so I was always looking for help and tips! I loved reading wedding blogs and sites to get inspiration, and I thought some of you might find it useful to know what I did and what I learned.

The first step after we got engaged was to buy an engagement ring. I knew I wanted a vintage ring, and while Dan insisted he wanted to pay fir it himself, I didn't want him to spend more than he could afford.  So, we went to one of my favourite local shops, the Ampthill Antiques Emporium. This place is a real treasure trove. I tried on a few rings, which was SO exciting, since we'd only got engages the night before! We picked out this ring together. It is a diamond with gold and platinum setting, and it fit me perfectly without any adjustments. I think sometimes you have to pay attention to these signs! I don't think it is super old, but I love the sparkle of the diamond, and the old fashioned style. It was priced at £95, I don't mind telling you, and the shop knocked off £5 for cash! I love my ring and remembering that special Christmas Eve when we bought it, and I love that it wasn't new or expensive. My top tip to you would be to look out for a second hand engagement ring in junk shops, antique shops and charity shops. For me, it was really important that the ring felt like us, and it is not our style to spend lots of money we don't have on fancy bling.

My wedding ring is a family ring that belonged to my Dad's grandma, and was passed down from his mum. Again, this one fit me exactly with no adjustment, and I love the fact that it is an antique and a family heirloom. I hope I will be able to pass both these rings on down my family tree one day, and love to imagine the life they must have had before me - and after! It is always worth asking in your family if there are any rings that you could use, it is surprising how often older relatives have family jewellery they have inherited tucked away in boxes and drawers, and they are usually really pleased to think these things can have a new life and mark a new marriage.

What is the story of your wedding rings? What do you think of buying them second hand?

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Monday Make: Dry Wipe Boards Two Ways

Hi there,

I hope you had a great weekend. I did lots of planning and organising for developing this blog, though I don't want to give away all my plans just yet!

Today I have finally got round to a project I have been wanting to do for ages. I saw this idea to use frames to make dry wipe boards for your home on Pinterest last year. I don't know who originally came up with this idea, and I don't claim it as my own. It was one of those ideas that seems so obvious once you see it, it makes you wonder how you didn't come up with it yourself.

Basically, the principle is that the glass (or perspex) of the frame is a wipe clean surface that you can write on with a white board marker. You can then customise this with any kind of paper, photographs or fabric you can think of. Easy! I have made two frames for my home today, which took about half an hour for both. It is cheap, easy and totally customisible - what's not to love? I went for two contrasting looks, just to show how versatile this project is. 

The first one I made using a beautiful piece of fancy edged vintage linen that I bought in a bundle with a load of doileys, hankies and other treasures from a charity shop down in Somerset. I picked this one because it happened to fit my frame (a cheap one from Wilkinson) perfectly, which I took as a sign! I like that with this one the fabric isn't pressed completely flat so you can still see the texture and creases and I love the gentle, neutral colour palette and simplicity of the design. This would work well with all kinds of textiles from bright prints to lace to those lovely vintage hand embroidered hankies and napkins you often find in charity shops.

The second one I made used another cheap frame, this one from Ikea, and used a piece of Orla Kiely wrapping paper I got from John Lewis today. In fact, I think the paper probably cost more than the frame! I simply cut the paper to size and put it in the frame, done! This is a much more modern, graphic style, and I think it looks really great, and much more expensive than it actually was. I think in total both these dry wipe boards cost me less than £10.

I am thrilled with how this project has come out, both boards look great in my home and will be really useful as well as beautiful. Most people probably have a frame and a bit of nice wrapping paper, leftover wallpaper or fabric at home already, so this is the kind of quick project that you could easily accomplish in an evening. The great thing is that you can change them as often as you like and customise them to match or contrast with any colour scheme. These would be a great homemade gift since they work for meal planners, shopping lists, to do lists or just leaving your sweetheart little notes before you go out... Enjoy making your own customised dry wipe board at home and combining home organisation with prettiness!

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Five minutes peace...

Good morning!

I hope you had a great week and are looking forward to your weekend. If you are a mum like me, you will know how precious a little peace and quiet can be. This morning Mr Cardigan has taken the baby out for the morning, leaving me free to do lots of useful jobs - or nothing at all! This morning the main thing I want to do is get planning future blog posts. I'm getting really excited, I can't wait to share my ideas with you! But before getting down to business, its important to have a good breakfast, and whenever I'm treating myself to a special solo breakfast, it is always coffee and croissants, yum! What's your favourite weekend breakfast? And how do you like to spend a free Saturday morning to yourself?

The other thing I have to get working on is the plans for my little boy's FIRST birthday next weekend. I can't believe its come round so fast, and I really want to make it special, so next week is going to be all about birthday cakes and birthday makes. I'm hoping to have some great ideas to show you if you are planning any baby birthdays soon. But before I show you my ideas, I have to come up with them so let's get to work!

Have a wonderful weekend, whether your as busy as a bee or as lazy as a sloth!

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Credits:
Bird and tape strip images by the Graphics Fairy via Pugly Pixel
Image edited using Picnik

Quotation of the Week: Action!

This week's inspiration for the weekend is courtesy of Joan Baez (not that I know her personally, you understand...). I love the directness and simplicity of this quotation, and speaking as someone who is easily bogged down by despair and would like to take more action in life, I think it is one that can be useful every day. I thought I would put it in ironic blue on a handkerchief to remind myself not to sit and drown in my own tears when things get me down: do something!

I hope this quotation inspires you to take action this weekend!

Handkerchief image: Pugly Pixel
Fonts: Learning Curve Dashed, Kingthings Xstitch


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L is for Love It!

I just wanted to quickly show you this beautiful print that I just purchased from Rebekka Seale's Etsy shop (she also blogs at Hello Friend and has an official website as well). I found her work via A Beautiful Mess, one of my favourite blogs in the world. The funny thing was, her work already seemed familiar to me and I think that I have seen it around online - probably on Pinterest! - quite a bit before finally discovering who was behind it.

I can't decide yet whether I am going to keep this lovely print for myself of give it as a present: my sister loves anything with birds on and her name begins with S, so I originally thought I would give it to her, but I am not sure I'll be able to give it away... It's a tough call, though I always think that the harder a present is to give away, the better a gift it is. Check out here lovely flower prints and house portraits online, I am totally in love with all her work and I'm sure you will be too!

I love discovering beautiful new things, and I'm so excited for my order to arrive - all the way from Nashville USA. And you might remember in my last post I mentioned that I had interviewed for a job yesterday - well I just heard today that I got it, so there's lots to celebrate today!

Hope you had a great day today too,


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A Romantic Gesture

I just wanted to share these amazing tulips that my husband bought for me yesterday. I had a job interview and although it is a role I am well qualified to do (over-qualified even), I was really nervous about the interview. It was really strange to do something so professional - and have to look so smart! - after over a year off on maternity leave. I found the interview surprisingly tough, my brain felt so foggy and I felt like I rambled a bit. I was so happy to come home to these lovely flowers.

I love tulips for their amazing range of colours. They always remind me of those beautiful quiet still life paintings from the Dutch Golden Age. These are so unusual with their frilled edge, I really love them, and my wonderful husband. What are your favourite flowers to give and receive? What are your favourite everyday romantic gestures?

Have a wonderful day today,


PS. I should hear about the job today, wish me luck!

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Make homemade gnocchi

The other day we made our own potato gnocchi for the first time, and it turned out really well! We had some beef stew in the freezer and rather than serve it old skool with mash or dumplings (not that I don't have a lot of love for both these ways), we also like to use it as a sauce for pasta or gnocchi. This is really delicious, makes a nice change and can really help to stretch your stew.

Gnocchi with beef stew.

Usually we would buy fresh or vacuum packed gnocchi from the supermarket but we had some elderly potatoes in the cupboard and thought we might try making our own. This turned out to be thrifty, easy and YUM. We followed the recipe from Elizabeth David's Italian Food, which I give below if you want to try it out.


Elizabeth David's Gnocchi di Patate


2lbs potatoes, cooked
2 Eggs
1/2lb Flour
1oz Butter


Puree the potatoes, as dry as possible. Mix in the butter and eggs. Season with salt and pepper and knead to a dough. 


Roll it in to sausage-like rolls of the thickness of the finger. Cut into pieces about ¾ inch. long, and make a dent in each one with a fork or your finger.


Drop them one by one in to a large pan of gently boiled salted water and cook them for about 3 minutes: when they float to the top they are done. Take them out of the pan with a perforated spoon.


My top tips would be that we boiled our potatoes but I think you would get a drier puree if you baked them (as you would make jacket potatoes) and then scoop out the cooked flesh. Mr Cardigan, who made the dough, found he had to add a lot of extra flour to make a dough. Also, we halved that recipe and it easily served two adults and a baby. In fact, the baby seemed to really love them, which was another bonus.


This is a less daunting prospect, somehow, than making your own pasta, but still gives you that feeling that you are living the Tuscan earth mother dream with bambini running around your rambling farmhouse while you swarthy Italian husband gathers olives to make oil... Or whatever.


I hope you enjoy trying this recipe out.

Cardigan of the week: White Stuff

Hello there peeps,

This week's cardigan of the week is a real beauty, with an ethereal tree silhouette print. You can buy it online from White Stuff.

It is a nice, lighter weight for spring - hopefully we've see the worst of the cold for this winter, I can't wait until the daffodils start coming out and suddenly its Easter and everything's sunshine and optimism.


PS. I love cardigans, heaven knows no one could love a cardigan more than me. However, I'm sort of not feeling this column at the moment so I'm going to be starting out with a new Wednesday feature from next week. Keep an eye out for it! Don't worry, when I find a great cardi I still want to share it, but they will probably go on my Tumblr, So Many Lovely Things, so check there for top cardigans.

Monday Make: Magnetic mustard!

Hi, did you have a great weekend? I hope so. Ours was good but mega-busy, my in-laws were up for a seed sale at Waddesdon Manor (my father-in-law has his own business as a heritage seed merchant, and Mr Cardigan works for the family company too. If you or someone you know is a gardener then check them out online and on Twitter). The weather was terrible on Saturday but beautiful on Sunday, ideal for getting outside and walking with the buggy in the lovely grounds of Waddesdon.

I wanted to share with you this quick little make that I did over the weekend. I love some of the classic designs that are still used in food packaging here in the UK. Some of them have barely changed from the Victorian originals. However, Mr Cardigan tends to get a little annoyed at the number of golden syrup tins and the like that clutter out home, so I am always on the lookout for ways to put my hoard to good use in the home. Useful and beautiful, that's the dream!

What you'll need.

All I did was to super glue these little magnets onto one side of this empty Coleman's Mustard Powder tin, wait for the glue to dry and voila! A handy magnetic container for your fridge or (in my case) boiler. I have used mine to store drawing pins for the pin board opposite, but it would also be a great place to keep a pen to go with my shopping list here.

The great thing is that you can use different sized tins (and more magnets and glue) depending on what you want to store. I have a beautiful Spanish paprika tin that I'm going to do this with, and it would also be great with those larger decorative tins of olive oil you can buy. This project really couldn't be simpler, quicker or cheaper to do, so do have a go yourself!

This said, I made a couple of mistakes which you can avoid... The main thing that I did wrong was to stick the magnets on the wrong way round (dur!). Only one side is magnetic so do check that the magnetic side is facing out before you glue them. If, like me, you stick the wrong side, I simply prised them off with a knife - be careful! - and glued them back the other way round. Since you don't see the magnet side it doesn't actually matter if the tin is chipped, its just a pain to change them. I also didn't put enough magnets to the back to start with, so the weight of the drawing pins meant the tin slid down the front of the boiler. Again, this is easy to fix, just stick on some more magnets until it holds in place!

I hope this little make inspires you to get sticking this week!


PS. I love this shopping list pad, we are now on our second. There is also a meal planner pad too which between them go a long way to helping me keep organised. Both are by Knock Knock and are available to buy on Amazon.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

Another week, another new look... Yet again I have fiddled around with the design of this blog. I have to say, I really loved the old design from a visual point of view but I was concerned about the readability so I have pared everything down again. There may be some tweaks to come, so don't be confused if things change again - we'll get there in the end!

Hope you're having a wild Saturday night,

DIY idea: frame your first dance 7"

Happy weekend!

I just wanted to quickly post about this idea my husband had. We bought and were given 7" singles of the song we walked out of the registry office to (The Ramones "Baby I Love You") and our first dance (Fleetwood Mac "Need Your Love So Bad") at our wedding in 2010. He found these frames for singles, they arrived today and we just put them up now.

They looked so great I really wanted to share this idea with you as a not-too-cheesy way to remember your wedding in the form of some great looking wall art. It would also make a great wedding or anniversary present that would be both original, personal and potentially quite cheap. With older sings you could also frame the sheet music.

I hope this post inspires you to dig out some of your favourite singles again and show them the light of day! What ways have you found to commemorate your wedding in your home?

Have a lovely weekend.

PS. Don't you love this Polaroid style frame, complete with vintage sellotape? And the roses, for a wedding-y touch. I am currently in love with the blog bling created by the inspiring Pugly Pixel blog. You can download the rose clip art from Pugly Pixel, and the Polaroid frame I found out about from PP, but is actually from Fuzzimo, which is a complete treasure trove of images and clip art for FREE!

I love that we live in a modern world where such talented, creative people are happy to share so much with the online community for free, this must surely earn you a LOT of good karma - no coming back as a dung beetle for them!

Quotation of the week: Episode 2

Happy Friday dear Cardiganeers!

So, the second in our weekly series, "Quotation of the Week", giving you a little brain food to take into the coming weekend. Did you have a good week? Did you drag yourself through it, always keeping the weekend in sight? Well if you had a bad week the good news is, its almost over! Keep on trucking, it'll be 6 o clock before you know it and you can have a little sit down and maybe a cocktail. I hope you have a wonderful weekend planned. I can't think of exactly what mine has in store at the moment, except that it better contain the drop scones I shared with you last weekend, or else Mr Cardigan will be recieving a strongly worded letter of complaint...


I love this quotation because I am someone who struggles to make decisions and agonises over the multitude of choices we have in modern life these days. So, my message of the week is, stop dithering and pick something! Mostly this is a message from me to me, but I hope it might help you if you are stuck in the mud of decision-making hell. Remember, it is better to go with one option that to waste all your time trying to choose.


Have a fabulous and decisive weekend!




PS. I designed and laid this quotation out myself but I originally found it on Pinterest here. I love discovering new fonts and am always on the lookout for handsome free fonts to download. The one I use here is called Rosecube, I found it on The Homemade Home and you can get it on Dafont.

Cardigan of the week: Valentines Special

Hello!

Did you have a fabulous Valentine's Day yesterday? I hope you were feeling the love, whether you are married, dating or single.

Since it was Valentine's Day yesterday I've found you a romantic cardigan of the week which could also be an easy customisation project for a cardigan you already have. Changing the buttons and adding shaped pockets can give any cardigan a handmade feel and is easy to achieve in an evening. If you don't want to do it yourself, you can buy this supercute cardi from ASOS instead. The thing I like about this cardigan is that the heart button detail is subtle enough to add a little romance to every day.

Have a great day!

Amy Xxx

Putting the Sun in Sunday

Morning lovelies,

I thought I would just quickly share with you one of our Sunday traditions here in the Cardigan household - or sometimes a Saturday tradition as well! Since having a baby nearly a year ago, I have found I am always looking to start family traditions that my little boy will grow up with, both for special occasion days but also for ordinary days too. For a few years now, Friday has been homemade pizza night in our house, and I can't wait till little Joe is old enough to pick out his favourite toppings for his own pizza. It is really nice to build in these little treats and markers each week, giving us things to look forward to and a shape to our family life.

Drop Scones on a Sunday Morning

For the last few months our weekend breakfast has been the wholemeal dropscones featured in the River Cottage Everyday book. This is a great book that we use all the time, since, as the name suggests, it has lots of everyday recipes (as opposed to those equally lovely recipe books with lots of dinner party type recipes that are great to use but don't tend to be the ones that end up with wrinkled pages and food splatters from repeated use). Don't be put off by the thought of wholemeal flour, they are so delicious and not at all worthy.

We add sultanas to ours as they cook and serve them with a little bit of salted butter - I think this pretty much negates the health benefits of the wholemeal flour! We usually listen to Cerys Matthews on BBC 6 Music while we are eating them. Here is a picture of the last of our pancakes this morning, along with Mr Cardigan's espresso in the background from my NEW COFFEE MACHINE! My love for the coffee machine is probably the subject of a whole other blog post...

If you would like to make these drop scones you can find the recipe on the River Cottage website or in the original book which you can find on Amazon (and all over the place in shops as well). I have to say, I also have a great affection for this book since my husband bought me an autographed copy for my birthday!

What are your favourite and most used cookery books? And do you have your own family weekend traditions?

Enjoy your Sunday,

Love

Amy Xxx

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Quotation of the Week: Mary Oliver

Good afternoon friends,

I hope you're having a great Friday and have a wonderful weekend planned. We are taking little Joe the baby swimming tomorrow morning with some friends, which should be lots of fun, if not exactly the lazy Saturday morning lie-ins of yore...

So, another new weekly column: I love a good old quotation, me. I'm always looking for inpsiration in life, and nothing is more pleasing than to recognise a feeling you have always had, put more concisely and succinctly than you had ever been able to express it before. I thought you might enjoy sharing some of my favourite quotations, hopefully they will find you just when you need them.

This is an excerpt from the poem Starlings in Winter (I found the full poem online here if you would like to read it). I hadn't heard of Mary Oliver before - I don't know whether this makes me sound like a dunce or not, I think maybe she's more famous in America than here in the UK. Anyway, this is such an inspiring passage and I hope you love it as much as I do.

...I want to think again of dangerous and noble things. 

I want to be light and frolicsome. 

I want to be improbably beautiful and afraid of nothing, 

as though I had wings. 

Mary Oliver

I originally found this poem - like everything! - on Pinterest - as a beautiful lino cut print, which you can see here. I wanted to post a link to the original source for this print, and to credit the artist, but the link I had no longer works, so if you do know, please leave a comment and I can make sure the right people get their dues!

Have a wonderful weekend,

Love,

Amy Xxx

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Cardigan of the week: Howies Agatha

In the first of a new weekly column, if column it be, here is my recommendation for this week's cardigan of the week. What I love most about this is that it looks like something a real land girl might have worn, sensible, warm, and mulchy-coloured. And reduced! Howies is a great company who produce practical, ethical and handsome looking clothing and I can't recommend them highly enough. You can buy this cardi, for the moment at least, on the Howies website at the bargain price of £39.

Watch out for another cardigan of the week next week.

Love 

Amy Xxx

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"Who are you? Who-hoo, who-hoo? (I really wanna know)"

Hello there follower of the cardigan!

I thought since you had found your way here you might be interested to know a bit more about me. I am the mother of a baby boy who turns one at the start of March. I used to work in museums but was made redundant at the end of last year and so am at a bit of a career crossroads at the moment, trying to work out what I want to do, what I can do, and how much of it I can fit in and still be a good mum.

Me and my lovely boy

I love history - which is why I was drawn to working in museums - cooking, design, typography, discovering vintage treasures in unexpected places, music, reading, writing, and making things. In the absence of a proper job (ahem) this year, I am hoping to spend more time pursuing my interests and seeing where it leads me, perhaps to a new career? I am also hoping to lose approximately a million stone of baby weight and, frankly, pre-baby weight this year, so if I come up with any genius tips on how to do that I'll let you know.

I'm hoping to use this blog as a place to share tips and good things, vent my spleen, think out loud and make contact with new people and exciting opportunities. The coming year feels like its going to be a bit of a leap into uncharted territory, hopefully onwards and upwards!

Have a great day,

Love Amy Xxx

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Can you pin it? Yes you can (now)!

Hi friend,

Some great typography I found in Pinterest here

Are you on Pinterest yet? I've found that, like everyone says, it is totally addictive, but hey, at least its not crack right? Of course, pinning projects is not actually the same as doing them, the road to hell, good intentions, etc. Anyway, I'm hoping to make my posts interesting enough that some of you might want to share them on Pinterest, and so I've made it super easy for you by adding a Pin It button to all my posts. Check it out at the end of this post, check out Pinterest (as long as you have some spare time and are prepared to lose it...) and have a great day.

Love,

Amy

PS. If you want to follow me and my pins on Pinterest, there's a button for that too, top right!

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Hello Friend!

Welcome to my blog. This is a place for all my thoughts about everything, including things I think, things I make, things I do, things my baby does, things that make you go argh. Things. I'm looking forward to sharing them with you!

Have a lovely day,

Amy Xxx