Saturday Stars, Lovely Links #1

Salut mes chers!

Are you all having a wonderful weekend? I hope so! Today Steven and I are tackling the spare room which has been drowned in boxes since we moved, we're making headway. We took a little break to drink tea and eat shortbread biscuits and I decided to compile a little list of lovely links (me, a fan of alliteration you suggest?). I love making these lists and I have decided, in my attempt to be a more disciplined poster, that Saturdays would be the perfect day for such lists. At the end of the week, looking back on the awesome discovered in the week before and ready to go racing into the next one, prepared to root out the truffles of beauty and inspiration. I'm making myself hungry so please pull up this lovely clam chair, recline on the shiny shell pillow and devour some cookies with me. 

See? I wasn't kidding about the clam chair! What makes this even better is that I managed to track down where it's from (which is here) and it only costs £13.50! I think I might need to make this the centerpiece of my dressing room as a treat for managing to make it habitable again, what say you? I know it's for little girls, but we can keep secrets here right? 

Other places of loveliness and thought provokingity (it's a word!) from this week include:

♥ My friend Alice is so incredibly talented, her paintings always blow me away! Take a look at her Chanel Girl. I've been very lucky to have my portrait painted by her a number of times over the years and she just keeps getting better and better.

♥ Are We Making Ourselves Targets For Predators? This App Can Track Your Every Move...  is an article Gala Darling wrote this week that touches on the very important issue of privacy on the internet and how important it is to keep yourself safe.

♥ The Scribble Diary has been a favourite haunt of mine, in it's many incarnations, for a few years now. Lisa Currie makes super fun Scribble Prompts for you to print out and colour in, they're so great!

♥ I'm sure many of you have heard the phrase 'energy flows where thoughts go', the idea that the more we focus on something the more it happens! It might seem like this only applies to things we don't want, but actually you can put it into practice to bring positivity and greatness into your life. The Top 11 Tips for Manifesting gives some great pointers on how to do just that.

♥ This little piece of knitted art by Rachel at Cornflower Blue is so adorable, I love it!

♥ I've very recently signed up at Hello Cotton and so far I have to say, it's fantastic. It's a site for lady bloggers of many different catagories to come together, share their posts and create a community together. I love the positive, friendly atmosphere and the simplicity of navigating the site. My page is here if you'd like to join me there or drop me a line :)

♥ My absolute favourite post this week has to be A Few Thoughts on Midwifery by super sweet Sydney. My heart was fit to burst after reading her words on why she cares so much about becoming a Midwife because they resonated so much with my own feelings. One of my biggest goals for my career is to specialise in Obstetrics & Gynaecology which encompasses fertility issues/infertility, pregnancy, labor and many other things. I want to help women to feel confident and empowered, I want to offer support and safety in a time that can be so trying, difficult and frightening. Reading Sydney's piece just warmed my heart, knowing there are others out there who are so passionate about their cause is amazing.

♥ Why I Pursue Handmade is a great article about the passion, love and intensity that goes into handmade items and points out exactly why the handmade community is so worthy of support. I love that Erika doesn't villify those who buy more mass produced items, instead she just shares her views on why supporting handmade is a good thing. I couldn't agree more!

Have a wonderful weekend my sweets!

Book Review for Tara Frey's 'Blogging for Bliss' and a Little Peek at My Day

Good Afternoon my sweetlings,

I'm totally on a blogging roll right now, I'm really excited about the fact that I've been able to update every day for almost the whole week! I always admire the ladies (and gents) out there who seem to be able to update every single day, every week. It never fails to amaze me!

Today I'd like to share a variety of little things with you, including my newly reorganised shelves. I love rearranging the shelves around my computer with all my beloved trinkets and things I've collected on my wandering through life, it feels like a scrapbook of memories that you can hold. 

I'd also like to share with you a quick peek at my newest project, see if you can tell what it is! 

Firstly though I thought I would write a little review of the book I mentioned a few posts back, Tara Frey's Blogging for Bliss.

What really drew me to this book was the fact that it features lots of interviews with super crafty creative ladies in  the blogosphere. I actually found out about this book when the lovely Jenny of Everyday is a Holiday mentioned that she had been interviewed for it. Jenny's blog is so great that I knew the book had to feature lots of other awesome bloggers I'd never heard of before so I headed over to Amazon and managed to pick it up quite cheaply. 

I was rather impressed by how Tara managed to cover all the bases from blog creation to customisation and wrote in a style that was simultaneously easy to follow for beginners but still interested for people that already have a blog. The more technical sections of different blog hosts, layouts, blog etiquette and HTML were nicely broken up by sections of interviews throughout the book. It was really great to read about the experiences of so many different ladies, get their tips on what makes a good blog and to hear what they each struggle with. When bloggers get to seemingly lofty heights with hundreds of followers and sponsorships it can sometimes seem as though you can't approach them anymore but I loved how each of the ladies featured just seemed so down to earth and friendly. The inclusion of a little 'favourite blogs' section at the end of each interview sated my Wiki-Walking nature (Blogroll-Walking? When you go through peoples blogrolls and just click on anything that seems interesting, I've lost many hours and found many amazing bloggers that way!).

The book is also full of beautiful photography to break up the text and make it an enjoyable and relaxing read and the sections about blog set up and different hosts has really useful screen captures included to make it really simple to follow. I imagine this would be a great book for anybody looking to start their first blog who might feel a bit lost! I even got my mum to have a look at it (I'm trying to coax her into the idea of starting her own online shop selling the adorable dog jumpers she makes, they are SO cute! So far she has conceeded to the idea of working with me doing the internet related aspect and her doing the knitting!).

And now here are some photos of my past day or so, fancy an apple?

I picked up this book for £1.50 at a charity shop the other day, The Celtic Spirit by Caitlín Matthews. I love all the celtic mythology and stories and this weaves Irish, Scottish, Welsh and British mythology together with a seperate little story and 'homework' for each day of the year. 

I picked up the nail polish from the market, a lilac and glittery lilac which are both really pretty and look great on together. The crystals are clear quartz and something I'm not entirely sure of. The necklace was an amazing find, it's the celestial hare with the Three Aspects of the Goddess behind it and a little sun at the bottom.

I was trying to get a close up of my rings in this picture but I also like all the textures going on. The ring on the right is the one Steven got me at the Vintage Fair in Lincoln a few years ago, a synthetic sapphire ring from the 1930s. The ring on the left was given to me by my mum a few days ago, it looks to be from around the same era and has an amazing little cameo woman playing a tiny little harp. 

I've arranged my top shelf with my tarot cards on one side. The wooden box holds my Tarot of the Moon Garden deck, my oldest deck that I got when I was 13. Above it is my set of Clow Cards from the manga and anime Cardcaptors, they actually work really well as a divinatory tool but they have no guide book (at least not that I can read!) so reading them is just intuitive. The cards next to the box are the Messages from your Animal Spirit Guides oracle cards and then the cards next to those are The Goddess Tarot which is my newest deck. One of my decks is still in a box with my runes but they'll go up there too once we're unpacked.

This statue of Buddha has been with me since I was 10 years old or so. I found him at a jumble sale and he's been with me ever since. I'm not sure what happened to him for him to be so scratched up, but I'm so fond of him and always have him with me. The Yin Yang is actually a ring.

A few months ago I won the giveaway at ♥elycia (another super sweet girl!). As a result I got to pick 2 lip balms, 2 roll on perfumes and a face mask from Earthtastic! which was really exciting. I'm actually going to do a review post for all the products soon because they are AMAZING! I've never found a product that has so successfully made me smell like a Cherry Bakewell before (here is the perfume on Etsy if that prospect is as appealing to you as it was to me!), and they're totally vegan friendly too which is just the icing on the cake. 

My snack corner is currently stocked with Pink Lady apples, which are the best apples in the world. Naturally they are chilling out on top of The Best of Frank Sinatra.

My crafting shelf with all my gemstones arranged by colour. The amethyst and clear quartz as well as the shells are just for a little extra decoration.

And last but not least, here is a little sneaky peeky of what I'm getting up to at the moment, I can't wait to share the finished product with you!

Can you guess what it is?

The World is Gonna Pick You Up

 Good Morning my dears (I think I will always get irrationally excited at being able to actually say good morning here!)

I hope you all are having a wonderful day and have a heart full of adventures. The sun seems to be shining down endlessly at the moment and I feel as though my soul has woken up at the touch of it. I want to spend every day outside right now, listening to the birds and the revving motorbike sound of the hundreds of frogs in the pond (one of my favourite sounds in the world, it just makes me giggle to hear it!). I wonder if there is something in the world that lets you listen to the plants growing, I imagine there must be something somewhere, or perhaps it will be my greatest invention!

I have so many little plans sparking in my mind right now of things I want to do and create. I love that feeling of inspiration that seems to set your blood alight, sparkling with energy and passion. My newest idea should hopefully lead to the restocking of my Etsy, or my Ebay shop (I've yet to decide, and yet to actually set up an actual shop on Ebay).

I want to also say a huge thank you to everyone who has left a question (or a few!) for Steven and I to answer in our Vlog. Steven is feeling a little shy about it, but I think he'll love it once he gets into the swing of it.

Now without furthur ado, please join me on my continued wandering through the past few days and the last few days of March ♥. I have the picnic, bring your blankets!

 According to Steven this is almost a signiature pose for me! I don't know whether its that I do this a lot or I just do it when someone is pointing a camera at me and I'm not sure what to do, but either way there are many pictures of it. 

 Steven being a Patterned Captain and looking out to sea (or river, can you Look Out to River? I say yes!)

 A lovely patterned table that was sat by the riverside. There's something about repeated patterns that draws me in somehow. 

 This one is the 'feature wall' in my parents bedroom. When I think back I'm quite certain that my parents room was the incubator for my love of plants, I can't remember a time when they didn't have curtains, wall paper, bedding or even lampshades with floral patterns.

 A little hidey-hole in the rock. I love how it's just been built in to the natural shape, it seems to fit there perfectly.

 Hibernating snails that I found on the way home from town that day. I was hoping they would be ready to come out and play but I think they have a few more weeks of slumber yet. 

 Growing merrily on my mum's windowsill next to a whole host of other little sprouts. 

 Oh my sir, where did all your hair go! His hair was starting to bother him so I shaved it all off, rather shorter than we had thought it would be but we both like it. Also it's really fun to run your hands over, so fuzzy and soft!

 My strange and wonderful cat Drusilla. I have never met a cat quite like her, she is one of a kind. 

 This photograph encapsulates our emotional range as we were trying to dig a hole to plant my magnolia tree in. So many huge rocks, it was rather ridiculous and we both ended up sitting next to the hole digging with our hands in the end. 

 Holding little bulbs to be planted around the magnolia, I have no idea what they are yet! 

 My hair is growing like wildfire at the moment! It always has but it's never so obvious as when it's short like this.

Dru helping us to pot the plants, most of her role was just supervision but I think she did a rather marvelous job of keeping us on the right track.

Forever is Ours

Good Afternoon my sweetlings,

Ahhh, home sweet home! Home has been the theme of my week so far, along with family. Steven and I went to stay with my folks for a few days, we wandered around town in the sun and marvelled at how nothing ever seems to change. That seems to be the way with small towns, it's quite surreal to walk around and realise that nothing has really changed since you were a child. It always makes me feel very strange, somehow simultaneously comforted and a little antsy, as though I've stepped into a time warp (minus the dancing!) without realising and fallen back into my childhood.

Still, the place I come from is beautiful. There's a castle and the oldest chemist shop in the whole of England, cobblestones and a river with boats to go rowing in. Going back always reminds me of all the things I got up to as a little girl with my friends, the forts and club houses we made, the little hidden places that seemed as though they had been built for us. It makes me wonder at all the history of the places around us, not just the 'real' history but all the history of the people who have passed through and made their memories too. 

  So here's to the little version of me, who still hides in the ruins of the castle and goes paddling in secluded parts of the river. Who still sits by the lake for hours just waiting to see a frog, the girl who made up a million and one stories and kept up with them all. As far as I move from this place and as much as I hunger for adventure and new places to learn and explore, a part of me will always be here. This is where I grew up.

 

I have to start a post about where I grew up with the creature I grew up with. This is my cat Thomas. He is 18 years old and was bought for me just before I started at school, when I was 4 years old and knee high to a grasshopper. He's been with me through everything and he's seen a lot of change in all his years. He's had countless companions both big and small and never once tried to eat any of my pet rodents (and I've had a lot of those over the years!). He kept me company in bed when I was little and frightened of everything and he still kept me company when I was finishing college, keeping me awake at night demanding to be fussed. I've spied on him under the bed with his big yellow lamp eyes glowing, and he's spied on me and scared me to death a fair few times as well! Black cats can blend scarily well with a lot of things, it must be said.

His name comes from Thomas O'Malley, the suave ginger tom-cat from The Artistocats which I was completely obsessed with as a child. Him being black apparently did nothing to deter me from my name choice (though when we first got him my parents thought he was a girl and we called him Holly, I have no idea why!). He has a funny swaggering walk that is just begging to have music put to it and the best look of snooty disinterest. Yet sitting down next to him is pretty much all the provocation he needs to start purring and rubbing him face all over you. 

And he totally doesn't mind if you rub your face on him! I don't know how many times I must have kissed that little spot on his big flat head over the years, hundreds, thousands I'm sure. He bends down to let me plant my face there now and I like to breath in and smell his kind of musty cat smell.

The walk down to the river is steep, with completely uneven steps waiting to trip you up and pretty much guarentee that you'll have scratched yourself, tripped and probably fallen over by the time you reach the bottom.

The castle stands on a hill and overlooks the river. It's a small castle (or so I've been told!) and I can never remember much of the history of it. I just like the look of it with all it's little windows and secret places.

It seems rather fitting that I should be posting a picture of myself wearing dungarees in a post centered around my childhood. I loved dungarees as a kid and could very rarely find any. Now that I'm older I probably shouldn't even own up to wearing them, but I have no shame! Indeed, I rather love my dungarees.

Can you spot the little secret in this post? It starts with a R and goes 'tweet tweet tweet!'

And how could I possibly leave you without this? It would be completely wrong of me to do so! Steven and I grew up miles and miles away from eachother, even years apart from eachother, yet sometimes I find it odd how simillar our childhoods seem in a way. Perhaps it accounts in some small way from how simillar we can be now, and how shamelessly silly we both are!

P.S: Today is the last day to shoot us some questions if you feel so inclined!

Spring Daydreaming

Good Afternoon my dears,

I woke up this morning bright eyed and bushy tailed, just knowing it's Spring seems to make everything feel better don't you think? I've been doing research for work and listening to Frank Sinatra, I love listening to the oldies (I'd never heard them called this until the other day but I think it's rather endearing!). I think a little Elvis might be in order later, do you have any favourite oldies? In other musical discoveries I've been dipping my toes into the musical creations of Marina & The Diamonds. So far Primadonna is my favourite!

The weather has been rather beautiful these past few days, warm and sunny and hazy. I love looking at the common opposite work in the haze, all the trees blurred and faded in the distance like a watercolour painting, making everything feel dreamy. It makes me think of the paintings by Valerianna at RavenWood Forest, her work is beautiful.

 I spent part of yesterday stroking horses and having my handbag nibbled by one in particular that refused to let me walk away and also had a wander around the garden at work looking at all the buds on the trees and the flowers that are starting to appear in profusion. Having such a beautiful garden at work eases the yearning I have for our old garden, now that it's warmer I'm excited to do my reading out there amongst the trees. There is a gorgeous Magnolia tree with flowers still tucked up tight, I can't wait for her to flower and to sit beneath her. Magnolias are one of my all time favourite trees (I feel like I'm always saying this!), in my dream world there are Magnolia trees everywhere to lay beneath and breath in the perfumed air. I kind of feel like that tree is there to tell me I'm on the right path. There's an apple tree that is laden with apples in the Autumn, Tony (the owner of the clinic I work at, pretty much an acupuncture mastermind!) let me pick lots to take home for apple pie when I first started working there. There are raspberries everywhere too and a Cherry Blossom.

Today I'd like to share some photos I've taken over the past week. Can you tell how madly excited I am about all these sprouting plants right now? 

Just a quick note, if you have any questions you'd like Steven and I to answer in our Vlog next week I'd love if you could nip over to this post and let me know! Thank you my darlings ♥

    

Lemonbalm starting to come back again. This herb is great in teas to give it a slightly lemony, citrus taste without it being too sharp. It tends to pop up in a lot of Stomach Calming and Anxiety Soothing teas as well.

I'm not sure what this weed is, I feel like it might be Willowherb but I'm not sure since I've never seen it in flower before. Whatever it is, it's beautiful with it's dainty, tiny white flowers.

Wildflowers in our Wildflower Pot. Last year Steven sprinkled some Wildflower seeds in there and they never took so we assumed they'd died, but this year mysterious little beauties are springing up, such a lovely surprise!

These remind me of tiny little faerie cups. I always forget what they're called so I just call them Lavender Bells or Faerie Flowers. 

Golden Marjoram is starting to come back again too. I love how a lot of herbs spring again from where they died off the year before, like new birth rising from the ashes of what came before. 

Well hello there Stanley! Are you enjoying your new garden? 

I'll take that as a resounding yes! 

The weather is warm enough to go without my huge coat, I'm so happy! This black cardigan has been with me since the dawn of time it seems (or since I was 13 but that feels a very long time ago). The dress is one of my favourites for summer, the pattern is seashells and coral. The bag was a gift from my daddy on my birthday, it is bottomless.

I think it must be Ladybird breeding season at the moment because they are out in full force! I've spotted so many the past few weeks and I love it, they're so amazing aren't they? I feel like they're sassy somehow, little sassy bugs.

I like to pick them up and watch them crawl on my hands. 

Hello beautiful man, fancy seeing you here! Look at that big mop of hair, secretly I am rolling about in glee that he hasn't had it cut off yet (I have a serious weak spot for boys with long hair, especially this one).

Let me introduce you to Sir Bob. He's a cat that lives on the road my work is on, we picked him up for a fuss when we were on our way to town the other day and ended up stroking him and cooing over him like totally mad old cat people for at least half an hour. He was loving it! There is another black and white cat on this road actually called Bob, even though I could swear Bob is a girl. Since all the cats on that road seem to be Black and White I've taken to given them all variations of the name Bob.

He was trying his best to look regal (even though he just looks sort of mad here) despite the fact that he was drooling constantly and kept wiping it on Steven's hand. Total monster but so cute!

Before I go I'm dying to share this amazing book I bought, I started reading it this morning (in between watering the plants and being ambushed by next doors unbelievably adorable dog) and I love it so far!

Blogging for Bliss by Tara Frey.

What are your favourite things about Spring my loves?