My Instagram Week: Double Edition!

Hello friends! We just got back from our holidays today and I thought you might like to see some pictures of what we've been up to. This is a special double edition since I got so many pictures I love when we were at the seaside I wanted to share lots of them with you. The weather wasn't great but we made the most of a sunny day on Tuesday to take baby Joe to the seaside for the first time. All the pictures above are from our afternoon at Lulworth Cove, which is a beautiful little seaside village with a fantastic sheltered beach. As you can probably tell, the pictures above also gave me a chance to try lots of iPhone photo apps for different filters and effects. I am always amazed at the great photos you can take on a phone these days, and since we lost the battery charger for our camera, my phone became our only source for holiday pictures.

1. Lulworth Cove beach
2. Locally caught crabs on sale at the beachside fish shop. We bought freshly caught local plaice and had them for our dinner that night.
3. The fish shop blackboard
4. Me almost getting my feet wet in the sea.
5. You can't go to the seaside without getting an ice-cream cone. I hadn't had mint choc chip for years!
6. The amazing cliffs at Lulworth, which is part of Dorset's Jurassic Coast. The scenery is incredible and there are lots of places to go fossil hunting - I think Joe will love this when he's a bit bigger.
7. The Lulworth Bucket Tree. I have no idea of the story behind this tree but I love it! They have a collection box there to raise money for charity as well.
8. A scallop shell found for me by my two boys.
9. Those same two boys having a paddle in the sea. What a handsome pair!

1. The picturesque village of Corfe Castle. I put this through a miniaturise filter but even in real life it looks like a model village.
2. Corfe Castle, an amazing ruined castle you can visit. We come here every time we are in Dorset, it is so brilliant and atmospheric.
3. Dan and Joe exploring Corfe Castle.
4. It was a rainy day on Wednesday so we took Joe to a soft play centre in Dorchester. He is only little but he loves to climb!
5. Swallows Cottage in Bere Regis, where we were staying.
6. Joe in the ball pool at soft play. It was nice to do something just for him, so we all got to do our favourite things on holiday.
7. On Thursday night we banned TV and laptops, so we listened to Adam and Joe Show podcasts from their old BBC 6 Music show, which never fail to make us cry with laughter, and did this Kings and Queens jigsaw puzzle! It turned into a really funny night and reminded me that it is good to force yourself to have some screen-free quality time together.
8. Joe has started really walking properly in the last few days. This is him in the pub with Dan's Mum, having so much fun walking like a big boy. We left Dorset on Friday and had a few days with Dan's parents, who live in the neighbouring county of Somerset. The pub up the road from them is the Five Dials in Horton. It is really great and family friendly, Joe had lots of fun meeting all the regulars and trying the local cider! They also do great food, including probably the best triple cooked chips I've ever had, I would definitely recommend a visit if you're ever in the area.
9. Milk and Alcohol! (Do you know the Dr Feelgood song?)

We had a wonderful time on our holidays but we were all glad to get home today and back to normal. I have been brainstorming lots of ideas for this blog over the coming months, and am in the process of a move from Blogger to Wordpress. I'm still working on getting to know WP, but I'll let you know once we're ready to make the big transfer. Have you made the move from Blogger to self-hosted WP? I love to hear any tips you might have!

What Really Great People Do

Font: {Skinny} Jeans

Happy Friday! I hope you had a great week this week. As you know, we are on holiday this week, so I am writing this post to you from the past (spooky!).

I only post quotations here that I really love and try to live by myself, and I find putting this post together each week really inspiring myself. I love this quotation because I hate it when people try to make themselves look better by putting others down. I am not saying I'm perfect and I have probably done this myself - it often feels like an instinctive way to act when you are feeling insecure. But I aspire to being secure enough in myself and what I do that I don't need to belittle anyone to make myself feel more important. There is room for everyone to be great together, and tearing down other people's work won't make yours better.

I love how supportive the blogging community has been to me so far, and I am all for collaboration, sharing and generosity. We are all stronger when we work together and support each other! Be really great this weekend,

Beautiful Book Covers

Hello friend! Every so often I like to share my collections with you (like my Champagne cork collection). Today I thought you might like to see my book collection. Now let's be specific: I have lots of books - too many perhaps - and I don't think of these as a collection: books are just something you have in your home, as far as I am concerned. My collection is specifically book covers (only I love books too much to part a book from its cover so they stay whole). I am always on the lookout in charity shops and jumble sales for books with beautiful and unusual covers. I like to display these at the front of my book shelves with the cover facing out, so that they make a pretty display for my home. Some are just so beautiful, others hilariously funny, whether for the design or the title.

Font: Lullaby

For example, I just had to buy "Spinsters in Jeopardy" when I found it in the Oxfam Bookshop in St Albans, the graphic design grabs you but the title is a classic! And that Jilly Cooper cover is just so cheesy, I couldn't believe it when I saw it. Only a Girl Wife was a gift to me from my sweet husband, probably a reference to the fact that I am SLIGHTLY older than him (as he likes to remind me...).

I think it is such a shame when beautiful book cover art is hidden on the shelf, and love seeing these great designs on the bookshelf every time I walk down our stairs. I have been thinking about ways to display then around my home, perhaps putting up shallow picture shelves like these ones from Ikea, so I could make an every changing display. If you love books too, why not pick a few favourites and use them as lively and unique art for your home?

Girl Crushing, Pt. 2: Gemma Arterton

A very classic pick this week. Gemma Arterton is one of those girls where you often mention her to other women and they go "Oh my god, she's SO beautiful". I wonder if us straight girls are her largest fan demographic? Anyway, just look, she is so lovely, one of those classic film star beauties that I think stands up to the old stars of the 40s and 50s. Her face! Swoon.

What do you think, do today's stars compare to movie stars from the golden age of Hollywood?

Four Things: Luxurious Beauty Gifts for New Mothers

In my experience, when you have a baby, you get showered in cards and gifts, but they are usually for the baby (pah!). Just after giving birth, I felt amazed and proud, but also exhausted and not looking my best, to say the least. I received some really lovely beauty products as new mum gifts and I appreciated them so much. It is nice to have treats that are just for you, and things that either help you feel or look better when you are in just about the least glamorous state it is possible to be in (that's how it was for me anyway...). If you have a friend who is just about to have a baby, I would recommend any of these as luxurious beauty treats for her:

1. Garnier Caffeine Eye Roll-On: It's no surprise that new mums are often in need of regular caffeine injections - I have never known tiredness like it - but did you know you can put it on your eyes too? To be honest, I think the thing I really love about this product is the applicator, the cooling and massaging properties of the roller ball are brilliant. The online reviews of this product seem to be a bit mixed, and I don't know if it makes a long term difference to eye bags, but it does give you an instant refreshing lift which can perk you up when you feel like your eyeballs need washing out.

2. YSL Touche Eclat: Almost everyone has heard of this cult beauty product, but the classics are classics for a reason. This is another instant lift product for times when you don't have a lot of time or energy but want to perk yourself up, or just make yourself look a little more presentable. The packaging and satisfying click button operation make this feel like a super-luxurious product and a real treat.

3. Luxurious bath oils: I love a hot bath at the best of times, but it is a super-duper treat in those early weeks when you have a newborn and seem to get very little time to yourself. Ideally, you need to accompany this gift with the promise to take the baby out of earshot for the duration of the bath. I love Aromatherapy Associates bath oils, though they are pretty expensive, but their Deep Relax Bath and Shower Oil always wins awards and gets rave reviews for its almost narcotic relaxing properties.

4. Clarins Beauty Flash Balm: A totally beauty classic, one of those products that is recommended time and again by beauty experts and magazine articles and has one about a million awards. I have no idea how it works, but it makes your skin instantly look and feel tighter and fresher, and it smells delicious - I'm sure the scent is as much part of the treatment as any of the ingredients. I found this a perfect gift for when you have a new baby since it is easy to apply, almost instant and is a great product for those times when you don't have the energy to put on makeup (or wash...) but want to freshen up and smarten up, perhaps when you have guests coming.

Accompany any of these products with a large bar of chocolate and you have a gift that will make a new mum feel special and a little bit more feminine and glamourous. Incidentally, I would be thrilled to get given any of these at any time, new baby or not... : )

We're All Going On A (Not Quite) Summer Holiday

I just thought I'd let you know that this week the Warner family are on holiday in Dorset (at the same cottage we went to for our honeymoon, did you see this post?). I'm so excited about our break, and I'm hoping we'll have good weather and can take baby Joe to paddle in the river and build sand castles at the seaside. Last time we took him there he was only a couple of months old, hopefully this time he'll be able to appreciate things a bit more!

I'm planning on posting about what we see and do (and eat!) once we're back, but in the meantime I have got this week's posts all done in advance so you will still have lots to read and look at while I'm away. I wanted to keep you in the loop so you know that replies to blog comments, emails and tweets might be a bit more delayed than usual - I am not sure I have the strength to go totally internet free for a whole week, but I won't be online as much as usual, which is probably a very good thing for me! I will try to catch up with everything I miss ASAP once we get back, and I should think I will still be posting photos on Instagram if you want to see what we get up to on our travels (I'm @heynicecardigan if you want to follow me).

Have a great week! Bon Voyage!

My First Guest Post!

Hello! Just to let you know that today I have written a guest post for my friend Rosie's blog, (do you remember, I blogged about her here recently too) all about our recent inspiration trip to London. Hop on over and check out all the pretty things we saw!

My Week in Instagrams

It's Saturday, no school today, here's what we're gonna do... Look at my Instagrams from this week!

1. Last weekend we had our first night without baby Joe. He stayed at my parents' house and we had Whisky Sours - and a lie in!
2. Croissants for breakfast the morning after, though the most priceless part of this was not having to feed a baby at the same time.
3. With cocktails, you need nibbles for a real party.
4. Last Sunday it was Dan's Grandad's 90th birthday so we drove down to south east London on Sunday. This is the view as you go into the Blackwall Tunnel, which takes you under the River Thames and into South London, where both Dan and my families originally came from.
5. The view from bed on a sunny day.
6. Dan and I managed to get a coffee date just the two of us this week as well, so lucky!
7. All the blossom's on the cherry trees this week, so pretty.
8. Dan is an amazing baker - I might try and get him to do some guest posts on his bread some time - and this is the type of bread he makes for our family just for every day. I don't know how I managed to get so lucky with my wonderful man, he's the best!
9. I saw these pretty forget-me-nots on a walk yesterday, I love that sweet blue shade.

So there we go, a visual guide to the last week as I saw it. I hope yours was wonderful and that you have a great weekend planned. Rain, rain, go away!

As Happy As You Choose To Be

Font: Dingleberry

Following on from my post earlier this week about gratitude, I thought this quotation was a good thought to hold close. I know that sometimes life really throws you some tough stuff to deal with, but a lot of the time being happy is as much about how you chose to look at things as it is about your objective circumstances. We all know people who seem to be amazingly happy despite tough circumstances, and I am always inspired most by people whose positive attitude is infectious and seemingly unassailable. It isn't always easy, keeping positive takes discipline and hard work at times but  I really believe being happy is as much about how you think as what you have.

This weekend I am making up my mind to be happy, how about you?

What's In My... Makeup Bag?

I am writing the post on the assumption that other people are as nosy as I am. I love looking through other people's makeup bags (I mean with permission, I'm not THAT nosy...) and finding out about products that work for them. If you met me you wouldn't necessarily guess from my appearance that I love cosmetics. The products, the advertising, the satisfying click when you close an expensive compact. I just love everything about the world of make up, there is just something so glamourous and ladylike and grown up about nice cosmetics. I know that a lot of the time I am buying into an impossible dream - as I say, if you saw me you would wonder if I was familiar with a hairbrush some days, let alone a lipstick - but I don't care, they are a relatively harmless pleasure, all things considered. Anyway, since we are all friends here, I thought you might be curious to know about what I carry in my basic makeup kit. Also, I make no apologies for the "Jackie Collins bonkbuster" styling of these photos, leopard and lace is a GREAT look!

By the way, this is not all of the makeup I own, but it is the stuff that I use pretty much every time I put on makeup (about once a month these days), and I have refined this collection through years of trial and error and meticulous research. Makeup is a pretty subjective thing, but I hope these recommendations might give you a few pointers towards some new products that you can love too.

Part one of my basic makeup is the base. These days I always start with Estee Lauder Double Wear Light (1) in Intensity 1.0. I discovered this when researching makeup for my wedding day (I did my own makeup on the day). A lot of people had recommended the original Double Wear foundation as one of the best long wearing foundations, but at the Estee Lauder counter the lady recommended that DW Light was better for weddings since it looked better in photographs. I was initially concerned that I needed fuller coverage than a 'light' foundation could provide, and imaged it would be more like a tinted moisturiser, but in fact  I find that this provides great coverage for my skin, which can be variable. And if you let a tiny dot dry a little on the back of your hand, it thickens up enough that I often use a little dab of this on top as a concealer. I am really happy with the consistency, colour, coverage, everything to do with this foundation. Ideally I wish it was a little cheaper, but I find it lasts well and a little goes a long way, and I definitely feel that foundation is one of the items of makeup that is worth spending a bit more on.

In terms on concealer I also use this Boots Number 7 Instant Radiance Concealer (2) under my eyes and perhaps around my nose. No offence to this product, which is great, but I do think of it as the poor woman's YSL Touche Eclat, which was the original 'clickey brush' concealer. These kind of concealers that say they add radiance (there are several brands that do them) are great for under eye shadows but too bright for covering spots and blemishes I find - those are not areas where you want to add radiance! 

Once I am happy with my base, the next stage is to add a little shine, though I mean very sparingly! This little tube (3) is a Body Shop gold highlighter cream (maybe a precursor to this product now?) that I don't think they make any more, that's how old it is. I should add that I am a terrible role model when it comes to keeping cosmetics for a long time. I have never paid much attention to all those bits of advice about throwing products out after 6 months or a year. I can only speak for myself, but I tend to keep things until I finish them, unless their consistency has changed, they smell funny or have dried up. Hence, I have the odd product like this that is older than I care to admit, but since I only use a tiny smidge each time - the aim is dewy radiance rather than disco glitter. I apply this to the tops of my cheekbones, my brow bone, perhaps the outer edge of my eyes and the inner corners of my eyelids. As I say, go slowly and be sparing, otherwise you'll look like one of the women from the start of Goldfinger.

After highlighter comes blusher. I use one of two Benefit products: Benetint cheek and lip stain (4) or this Powder Pop compact (5) which I think was limited edition and combines three of their best-selling blush/bronzer products - Hoola, Dallas, and Dandelion - with a mini brush as well. I already had the large size of Dandelion, which I totally recommend as a brightening pink blush, but I find this compact is very convenient for carrying in my makeup bag rather than separate blusher and bronzer. The bottle of Benetint is also a mini size which I got free with a magazine. It is super dinky and really handy for popping in your bag. I think the powder blushers give a more polished look but the Benetint is great for a more natural flushed look.

Of the three powders, I use Dallas the most, which I think of as a cross between a blusher and a bronzer. Though it comes with a brush, as you can see, I tend to use this larger retractable blusher brush (6) from Sephora instead since I live in fear of hard lines of stripy blusher, 80's style, so I think the larger and softer the brush the better, and retractable means it stays clean and tidy in my makeup bag. I bought this brush years ago in America and I don't think you can get it in the UK, but I'm sure you can get similar things. 

With my base done, I can move on to eyes and lips. I often put a thin layer of foundation on my eyelids to help my eye makeup last, but if I need my makeup to last all day I use this Clinique Touch Base for Eyes (1). I might also use this Laura Mercier Matte Eye Colour (2) in Buttercream to give a smooth light base for eye makeup. I then use these Clinique Colour Surge Eye Shadow Duo (3) in Double Date (another mini, this time a free gift with another Clinique purchase). I love the pretty pots of brightly coloured eye shadows, but boring brown is a useful basic to have for contouring and shading, and I although I got this one by chance as a free gift I am very happy with the taupey, beigey colours and how well it lasts. Like my blusher brush, this eye shadow brush (4) from the Body Shop is retractable. Brushes work so so so much better than those little foam applicators that usually come with eye shadows and you only need one or two good ones, I would urge you to invest in one. If I want more definition I may apply black liquid liner. This one is Liner Pinceau by Bourjois (5). I have tried the more expensive gel and cream liners that come in pots, but I have come back to this cheaper one which I really like, and find easier to apply. I am all for paying for quality, but the best product for you isn't always the most expensive. The final touch is to curl my lashes (6) and apply mascara. These two are Max Factor Masterpiece Mascara (8) in black. This is the waterproof version that I bought for my wedding, after extensive research in wedding magazines. I am happy enough with it, and it worked well for my wedding day, but most of the time I don't need to wear waterproof mascara and find it harder to apply so I also use this non-waterproof one by L'Oreal (7), again in black, which is ok, but I am in the market for a replacement, if you have any recommendations? I have used Clinique Naturally Glossy Mascara before, and was also thinking of trying our Maybeline Great Lash, which always gets great reviews. I don't usually wear makeup, but I might apply a bit of Benetint on my lips for a hint of colour, and top it off with a layer of good old Vaseline.

So there you go, my whole process from start to finish. The last thing I wanted to share with you is this little tine which I use for carrying cotton buds in my makeup bag. I find them essential for precise tidy ups, especially with eye makeup, but always found they got grubby and horrible at the bottom of my bag. But then I discovered this little tin, originally containing mints from Starbucks. It fits my cotton buds perfectly and keeps them fresh and clean on the go. I was so pleased with this little trick so I wanted to share it with you, especially if you've kept reading all the way to the bottom of this long post!

I hope you've found this sneak peak interesting. I'd love to hear about our favourite cosmetics and makeup tips.


PS. This font is Channel and the lace brush is by Nadine Pau on Deviant Art

Girl Crushing, Pt. 1: Michelle Williams

I am a happily married lady, but I can still admire a lovely face. I often find myself developing a little crush on beautiful ladies I admire for whatever reason. I thought you might like to share, and enjoy looking at beautiful faces with me. Here, in part one of this new series, is Michelle Williams who is also, by coincidence, my birthday twin. Ah Michelle, ma belle... There is something so dignified and serene about her, I really admire her quiet, thoughtful intelligence and demure, ladylike style. And to think, I never warmed to her on Dawson' Creek (yes, I watched DC, and I'm not ashamed!).

Do you like a little eye candy? Who's your latest girl crush? Let's share!

PS. This post in undeniably inspired (ahem...) by a blog I love called Got A Girl Crush. If like me, you love to look at beautiful pictures of amazing ladies to admire and inspire, you should add it to your daily reads. I also have a Pinterest board devoted to beautiful people, which you can find here.

Four Things: Fresh Scents for Spring Days

I love perfumes and find it such an interesting area of beauty, the process of creating classic fragrances is so complex and skilled. There is something so subtle and magical about the way a scent can instantly transport you to a certain moment in time, or evoke a certain feeling (I can't be the only one who is instantly transported back to their teenage years every time I smell an Impulse body spray, or a strong whiff of Lynx!!). When the weather turns brighter around this time of year, I always want to wear a fragrance that is as fresh and clean as a spring breeze. These are four of my favourites:

1. Hermes Eau Des Merveilles
This is my absolute number one fragrance and I will love it forever and ever. I spent ages (I mean YEARS) searching for a signature fragrance and I finally found this one about 5 years ago. It is often described as smelling salty, which seems a bit weird at first because you don't think of slat having a smell, but it is like a fresh sea breeze. I can't think of a better way to describe this fragrance, it isn't fruity or floral, it is just clean and fresh and bracing, and unlike any other perfume I have ever come across.

2. Jo Malone Lime Basil and Mandarin Cologne
This is a fragrance I have been stealing from my Mum for ages, and today she gave me the rest of her bottle (my Mum is someone who buys a lot of new perfumes and beauty products and them moves on from lots of them quite quickly, so there are often bits and pieces going spare, hooray!). I love colognes for every day, they are lighter and fresher than perfumes as a rule, and also, happily, cheaper. An eau de cologne usually has a fresh, clean fragrance, and the are nice to splash on after your shower. This one isn't as straighforwardly citrussy as the name might suggest, the basil aspect of the scent gives is a peppery-ness as well which makes it smell more complex. I think eau de colognes are not meant to last as well as the stronger eau de toilettes and eau de parfums but I find this one lasts really well. I believe this is one of Jo Malone's most popular fragrances and deservedly so, I can't imagine anyone not liking this fresh, clean, modern classic.

3. Acqua Di Parma Colonia
Another cologne, and this time a real classic, created in 1916. This is a unisex fragrance, as most colognes are, and has lots of citrus and herbal green notes. I think part of the appeal of this fragrance, aside from it smelling wonderful, is the idea of classic Italian sophistication and old-fashioned, proper grooming - it is amazing the powerful world of imagination that a great perfume can create.

4. Clarins Eau Dynamisante
A few years ago - probably before I discovered Eau Des Merveilles - I used to wear Eau Dynamisante all the time, it was definitely my daily perfume. Clarins classify this as one of their Treatment Fragrances, and describe it as a "mood-lifting essence... an instant antidote to exhaustion or stress". I think that sense, any good perfume is a treatment, in the sense that it can affect your mood and set a tone. It is another fresh cologne-type scent to splash on in the morning before you dress, and I always found it energising and invigorating, a definite morning fragrance.

I hope maybe this post will inspire you to try out some of these fragrances, and maybe get a fresh new scent for the spring. What are your favourite fresh clean fragrances?

An Attitude of Gratitude

Font: Kraft Nine

I have been thinking a lot recently about how lucky I am. I know it sounds a little cheesy but I often find myself thinking about this recently. I feel like at the moment my life is so lovely I can't quite believe it, and sometimes find myself thinking "surely no-one gets to be this lucky, something must go wrong some time soon".

I know this is a crazy way to think and it is mad to find something to worry about even when things are so good, but in the mean time I think it never hurts to appreciate what you have: I am young(ish!!), strong and healthy, I have a wonderful husband who I love very much, a beautiful little baby who was concieved without any trouble or stress, a nice house to live in in an area we came to live in quite by chance but absolutely love. I have a fantastic family who mostly live relatively nearby and parents who help us so much with baby Joe, babysitting and looking after him so Dan and I can get some time to ourselves. Because Dan works from home, it means we get to spend tonnes of time together as a family, and I don't have to deal with the loneliness and isolation that lots of stay-at-home mums do. Dan helps me so much with Joe, which is great for me and great for their relationship. A few years ago I could never have believed that I would be where I am now. Somehow I have managed to get everything I ever wanted. Now if that's not a very lovely and fortunate life, I don't know what is.

Lots of people don't have half as much as we do, and plenty of people who are richer in financial terms wish they had the time and happy family situation that we have. Sometimes when we visit friends with larger houses and fancier holidays than we have it is easy to wish we were wealthier and had more, but we are so amazingly rich in time instead, and most of the people I know with more money than us have paid for it in the time they have. I don't mean to sound pollyanna-ish about things, I am very aware that these are tough times for many many people, but there is so much to be grateful for, and it is all too easy to lose sight of the good things we have.

I hope this doesn't come across as horribly smug, I really don't mean it to. One of the things I was always sure about from the outset of starting this blog is that I really want it to be positive, optimistic, creative and inspiring. This doesn't mean that in real life I am always positive or optimistic - anyone who knows me will tell you I can be as cynical and pessimistic as the next person, but that isn't something I want to put my time and energy into sharing or developing, and it isn't something I imagine many people would rush to read.

I think that cynicism and negativity are often falsely perceived as cleverer and more intellectual ways to see the world, with the idea that the optimist is simply naive and doesn't perceive the problems an pessimist can see. I don't mean to blow my own trumpet, but I am an intelligent person with a degree from one of the UKs top universities and I really strongly disagree with this idea: I find it is much more challenging to work on being positive and constructive than picking holes in things and moaning. These are often just the lazy alternative to trying to really do something, or risking failure or ridicule (which, as Adam Ant taught us, is nothing to be scared of!). In writing this blog, I am trying to work on living the most interesting life I can and being more positive, more inspired and more creative. If I can help other people do the same by sharing what I know and do then that is a wonderful thought.

This is a different kind of post to the ones I usually post, though don't worry, there will still be pretty pictures and cheerful chat again soon! I hope that maybe this post will inspire you to look at the little (and big) things you have in your life to be grateful for. And if you are currently feeling that you don't have much to be thankful for at the moment, then I hope things turn around for you soon.

My Week In Instagrams

1. Last weekend we took baby Joe to the farm shop near us, he loved seeing the chickens and rabbits they have there. It is such a great place to shop since you drive through the fields where most of their fruit and veg is grown to get to the shop. This pretty pink rhubarb caught my eye, it's one of my favourites.
2. We bought a bargain bag of carrots so I made these delicious carrot cup cakes -anything tastes great when you put cream cheese icing on top of it! The recipe is from Nigella Lawson's How To Be A Domestic Goddess if you'd like to try making them yourself.
3. I drank some of our sloe gin from last autumn with tonic and a slice of lime, delicious! I posted about how to make sole gin a while ago, read up now and get prepared for this autumn's sloe harvest.
4. Easter weekend was last weekend. This is all that remains of my chocolate bunny...
5. I love this sweet sewing box I got from an Oxfam shop in St Albans this week.
6. I met my sister for soup, sandwiches, and exciting chat about working together on some projects for this blog.
7. I was inspired by Emma who writes at Food Coma and A Beautiful Mess and posted recently about her green smoothie challenge. I tried one out myself, made with fresh spinach, frozen banana and pineapple. 
8. On Friday we took a trip to the museum in Tring. It is part of the Natural History Museum (whose main museum is in London) and its full of stuffed animals. It is an amazing place to take children: here is Joe meeting a tiger.
9. I love the pretty pastels that are so fashionable this spring. I thought I would try updating my look (!!!) with these sweet nail varnishes - a flash of fresh colour is always welcome!

So that's what my week looked like this week - very pink and green! I hope you had a great and colourful week too. Have a wonderful weekend,

Earn It First

Font: NeoRetroDraw | Dotted border brush: Pugly Pixel
Watercolour brush background made using brushes by Fudge Graphics

I admit it it, I am not always the most hard working person in the world. That's not to say I never work hard, but as I get older I realise how much I have always laboured under the misapprehension that if something is hard, it is a sign you shouldn't do it. That is to say, I aspired to a life of effortless brilliance and ease, avoiding things I wasn't naturally good at. But as I get older I realise that this is a) not true, and b) can prevent you from lots of good things in life.

The more I think about it, the more I realise that actually, hard work is not something to be feared, and having to put in a great effort shouldn't be taken as a sign that you are doing the wrong thing. Everyone who has ever achieved anything great has had to work hard to earn it, and it is the knowledge of deserving something that makes getting it all the sweeter. So this weekend, I am going to try to remember that nothing worth having comes easy, and try to remember how good it feels when you get where you're going and look back with pride at how you got there.

Have a great weekend, hard workers!

Free Stuff Is The Best Stuff!

2colorideas Sans / BodoniFLF / Clumsy / Dingleberry / Emmy 3D / Ignite the Light / Mossy / Dubiel / Wednesday Matinee / Rose Tattoo / Peixe Frito / MariDavid / Sverige Script / Maharani

As you may know if you have read this blog before, I am always on the lookout for great free resources to download, and free fonts are my favourite! If I find something great and free then of course I want to share it with you so here are some of my most recent discoveries. There is a real range of styles here - I was hunting for a nice italic serif fonts like you see so often in magazines, but I can't help getting distracted by a pretty hand drawn font so I often get a bit off course. I particularly love Maridavid since I was recently eyeing up another similar paid font but couldn't justify the cost and now I have found this lovely alternative.

Go wild and download them all (I did!)

Yeah, that's my sister!

Some of my favourite blogs are one where they are created by a group of friends. In particular, I am always so inspired by the way sisters Elsie and Emma work together on A Beautiful Mess. I have two younger sisters and I am really excited about hopefully getting them involved in some of my blogging projects. Today I met my sister Sarah (the middle sister) for lunch and we talked about doing some exciting blog projects in the next few months. She was also wearing a particularly nice cardigan and asked if I'd like to feature it here so I thought, why not?

Sarah and I are only 15 months apart in age so we've always been close. But I'm sure lots of you know what it's like, as you grow up and move to live in different towns, get busy jobs and busy lives (and then one of you gets married and has a baby!) it gets harder to spend time together. Sarah is trained in textiles and now teaches food technology at secondary school and works incredibly hard all through the school year. With both of our busy lives we don't get to hang out as much we used to, so I am really excited about the idea of working together on this blog as an excuse to spend more quality sister time together. Also, Sarah is really creative and has her own flat full of lovely things and rooms to photograph, things she and her talented friends have made, and a kitchen for baking tasty sisterly treats! I think it will add so much to this blog to have her involved since in some ways we are very similar, but in other ways our styles differ: Sarah is much more into a co-ordinated look while I am always a little more haphazard, and she is great at arranging things and making them look just so. You just wait, I'll show you soon!

Incidentally, how cool is her cardigan? It is fully reversible, so you can wear it with the grey side or the black side out (without having all the labels and seems sticking out!). She got it from a French Connection outlet shop near to where she lives. It is super-cute and just her style.

I know I keep saying it but I can't tell you how excited I am to collaborate with my lovely sister on some new projects, things are always more fun with two! I hope I will also be able to introduce you to our youngest sister, Rosie, soon too. Look out for some great sister posts in the next few months!

I Am Currently...

Obsessing over: Ways to tweak and improve this blog! I am so enjoying working on my blog and trying to make it the best it can be, but it seems like painting the Forth Bridge sometimes. I will have little phases of concentrating on a certain area - building Twitter followers, working on design, photography, post ideas, or building links with other bloggers - and inevitably it means that at the same time some other area of blogging is getting neglected. But on the other hand this blog's only a little baby really, I've only been working on it a couple of months so of course it will take a while to work out the best ways of doing things!

Working on: Trying to find a balance between being a good mummy and having enough time for myself (think this may be an ongoing problem...!). Everyone warns you about the guilt you feel as a mum, and its true, it can be hard to look after a baby all day, but when you get time off it can be almost as hard trying not to feel like you shouldn't be having time off. It is very strange to go from having worked in a job full time ever since graduating to being a full time mum. Looking after a baby is hard and tiring in a while different way, and it is a job you can't leave at the end of the day. I know that actually having a bit of time to myself helps me be a good mum, and gives other members of my family a chance to build their own relationships with baby Joe, but it is a challenge to leave the guilt behind sometimes.

Thinking about: How to manage my time to get everything done and give enough time to all the people I love. It is definitely a challenge, but I think I need to be stricter about the times I spend with friends and family, the time I give to working on this blog and the time I keep for myself (if there's any left!). I think giving myself clear blocks of time to work on the blog might help to stop me spending too much of my family time on the laptop. And I want enough time away from the computer to work on creative projects so I have interesting stuff to blog about! I am thinking I will have a couple of sessions a week where I take my laptop to a local coffee shop with free WiFi and work really hard on this site without any distractions, and then make sure I have some dedicated time where I put away my laptop and smart phone and have quality time with my boys too.

Anticipating: Our family holiday to Dorset at the end of this month. We are going down to the family cottage (where we spent our honeymoon). We can't wait, last time we went was nearly a year ago and Joe was only a couple of months old, this time we'll be able to have so much fun with him, playing i the garden and going to the seaside. We might even take him to Monkey World (have you been there? Its THE BEST!)


Listening to: I've been trying to keep my energy levels up and get lots of housework done by playing some 80s funk and soul, I was loving a bit of Chaka Khan recently!

Eating: The last of my Easter chocolate - its too hard to leave it alone! Think this week will be a bit of a mini detox - I felt really inspired by Emma's post on A Beautiful Mess yesterday about her 5 Day Green Smoothie Challenge, think I might get back into making breakfast smoothies, so fresh and healthy for first thing!

Wishing: I hadn't just eaten that chocolate! And that we get some sunny weather again this week, I was just getting used to the sunshine when it turned grey again. Rain, rain, go away...

A little insight into my current state of mind - clearly a few themes come through there! What are you currently up to?

PS: A confession: this is not an original post idea! I have been inspired by Dani's Currently post on her great blog Sometimes Sweet. She mentioned in her post that she was happy for other people to do their own Currently posts and I felt really inspired by her post to do just that! Please do head over and check out Sometimes Sweet, it's a lovely read.

My Week In Instagrams

1. Baby Joe and I were out early last Sunday, the supermarket car park was a ghost town, we felt like the only ones up and out!
2. How pretty are these pins I found at my Mum's?
3. We've all had a horrible cold all this week so we've been trying to self medicate with a hot toddy every evening!
4. Easter nest cakes go with Easter week like love and marriage, or a horse and carriage. Yum.
5. The main thing.
6. I went on a lovely trip to London this week, without baby Joe! Look at this totally dreamy window display at Laduree.
7. The main purpose of the trip was to see the David Hockney exhibition at the Royal Academy, which closes this week. I'm not sure if you're really allowed to take photos in there but I sneaked this one!
8. Lovely cotton prints at Liberty. If you've never been to Liberty before, I absolutely recommend it. It is the most beautiful shop in the world and sells so many pretty things, it is a London must see.
9. We took a trip to see our friends for Sunday lunch. I love how the combination of sunny weather and those clever Instagram filters can make a drive on the M1 look like a California road trip!

That's how my week looked this week. How was yours? I hope it was fantastic and that you have a wonderful Easter weekend (or Passover. Or just Bank Holiday!)

Old Friends Are Gold

Happy Friday, we survived another week! I hope it was a good one for you. As you may already know, I like to post a quotation on a Friday to give you (and me!) a little weekend inspiration. I thought this week as well as giving you a little quotation about friendship I would also dedicate this post to my dear friend Rosie. Rosie and I have been friends since school, which means we have known each other for coming close to (whisper it!) 20 years. That's a lot of tears, laughter, embarrassing stories, breakups, weddings, birthdays and babies.

She has two boys under the age of three (and a husband, and a dog!). Her youngest boy is almost exactly the same age as baby Joe - it was so fun being pregnant together last year, and has been invaluable to share the experience of our babies' first year since then, and now we are not only fellow mummies but blogging partners in crime too!

 Rosie is one of those people who really doesn't realise how amazing they are. She got a FIRST (wowza!) in business at university, then trained and worked as a professional florist, then a youth worker and now she is running an Etsy business as Rosie and The Boys selling her her paper cut artwork. As you can see from these photos, her designs are so beautiful and intricate, I really love them and am in awe of her talent and determination in developing her business and her blog.

One of the advantages of having a florist for one of your best friends is that when you get married they offer to do the flowers for you! At least, if they are Rosie they do... I absolutely loved my wedding bouquet and we had so much fun going to the flower markets early in the morning and buying all the flowers. Rosie went the extra mile gathering cow parsley from the hedgerows and honeysuckle from her own garden for the bouquets. The end result was totally dreamy and exactly what I had hoped for.

Rosie works harder than I think I would be capable of, while also raising her two adorable sons. She gives so much to her friends and family, is involved in her local community, and is one of the most moral and honourable people I have ever met. No-one deserves success in business (and life) more than her. I love the fact that I can use this blog to share Rosie's work with you, and hopefully get her wider recognition. If you would like to find out more, then hop straight on over to her blog, her Etsy shop, her Twitter account or her Facebook page. I also think it is always worth taking a moment to remember the value of true friendship, it really is rare, and precious when you find it, and something to treasure.

Have a great weekend!


PS. Not sure who originally came up with the Silver and Gold quotation, do you know?