Monday 7 September 2015

I think it's time...

...for me to say goodbye. I'm sure you won't be that surprised really, it's been weeks since any content has been posted on here, and inspiration has been sincerely lacking, on my part anyway. For me, this particular blog had its time but now it's gone. Again, I say this from me, as there are two other people who own this blog and perhaps they will continue to post on here? I would certainly follow along if that were the case. 

But I am done. 

So long, farewell, auf wiedersehn, adieu. I will take nothing but fond memories and leave 7 years of internet footprints. 7 years is a pretty good show really!

If you would like to keep up with what's going on with me I do have another blog now which you can find here.

I'll maybe see you over there. But if not, it's been nice knowing you. Over to you Fizz and Tizz...  

Tuesday 4 August 2015

Breaking News

Miss Tizz is coming home very soon! I am very very excited. Let's have an extra very just because.

There are no firm plans in place but I am personally hoping for lots of eating, drinking, catching up, film/crap tv/Buffy watching (oh Netflix, what have you done!) and general happy times to be shared.

And even more breaking news is that Dizz and Fizz and Tizz are all going out together! We are heading to the Bowes Museum to see the Yves Saint Laurent exhibition. Ooooh fancy! It's a rare thing these days for all the bloggers to be around at the same time. I'll be blogging about the exhibition over on my other blog but maybe one of the others might add a few words to this fair blog...? Everybody send encouragement about this and then they will be forced into it!

Wednesday 22 July 2015

Roadtrippin'

We went, we saw, we did. It was totally fab and it's really opened my eyes to what this island I call home has to offer. We've already decided that every other year our holiday will now include exploring even more so if we're still blogging then, stay tuned for more road trip adventures. But for now, settle back and enjoy the journey.

Side note: this is the super quick version as I'll be blogging in more detail on my other blog. Which you can read here: 3 Things

Stratford Upon Avon: home of the Bard and all things Shakespeare. The very first ice cream of the holiday was consumed here (yum). Delightful little town with weeping willow trees and bunting lining the river, oh so charming. It started to lash down so we popped into the RSC and ended up on a behind the scenes tour (so good!) We started the following day at Anne Hathaway's cottage which was just so utterly charming I can't even...


 
Moreton-in-Marsh: (said in deep Gloucestershire, alright me lover type accent) When we realised we were so close we just had to call in here as one of my best uni friends grew up there. So of course we pulled up at the road sign and took a cheesy photo to send to her. But we also had a most delightful (warning: this word may be repeated many times throughout this post) lunch at an arboretum on this very bench.
 
 
Bath: stayed in a hotel in a village called Lower Limpley Stoke, which was either reached by the death road where we were narrowly wiped out by a white van (thanks sat nav) or by a much safer route simply by turning right (yay logic). Whilst in the delightful (told you!) Bath we visited the Roman Baths, the Abbey (where a crazy woman screamed the place down and lots of terribly British people tutted), ate takeout pizza in the park at the Royal Crescent, and may have consumed yet another ice cream or two.
 
 

 
Glastonbury/Street: We climbed the Tor. Ate another ice cream (ahem). Wandered the Chalice Gardens, trying to avoid the hippy woman who seemed to be doing some strange smell-o-rama ritual over the Chalice Well, drove to our simply lovely (trying to avoid use of delightful, oops) hotel in the town where Clarks shoes were made - who knew?!
 


 

Cornwall-bound (St Austell - The Lizard): The camping commenced! Meet Green, our tent (we called him that cos he's erm, green).


We ate the hugest fish and chips in Mevagissey:


Visited the Eden Project and the Lost Gardens of Heligan in one day, where my FitBit told me we did 20,000 steps and we were really rather tired.



I'll be talking about Cornwall more on the other blogs, but The Lizard gave us many delights including the most beautiful village of Coverack where the sea was turquoise, the cream teas were yummy, and the ice creams were actually made:


Wiltshire: Enter the luxury hotel. The most luxurious of all with only 3 rooms and a stonkingly good breakfast table.


Our sole purpose was to go to Longleat here. Which we did. And while we were there we went on a safari! The actual road is probably only about a mile but it took us 2 hours to drive it we were so excited to see the animals roaming around! Definitely very cool.


Oh and we found our way to the middle of the maze without getting lost, yay!


Salisbury: A flying visit to Stonehenge, and then onwards to Old Sarum cos we joined the English Heritage and so we can go loads of places for free now. Stonehenge was brilliant. I didn't have high expectations but it was really interesting and you can get a lot closer than you realise to the very very old and big stones.


The Making of Harry Potter: And last but not least we went to the studio tour. OH MY GOD. I'm unwilling to talk about this too much as if you plan to go I wouldn't want to ruin any of the surprises, as they are jaw droppingly and often gasp out loud surprises. Absolutely a 5 star attraction, and even Wavey who knows a big fat zero about Potter world absolutely loved this. If you are wondering about whether to go and if it's worth the money, your answer is yes. A very large YES. So good. Sooooo good. Beyond good. Just go. Seriously.


So there you have it. A whistle stop tour of South West England. Blummin' great it was. We're thinking Scotland for the next one, oooohhhh...

Tuesday 30 June 2015

Trippy times!

It's trippy time central here! Tizz is on a jolly-holiday as I type and Wavey and I set off on our big road trip adventure round the fair British Isles in a couple of days.

I'll be blogging about the trips when I get back on my other blog which you can find here.

I hope you're enjoying this dual blogging. I've taken to sitting down and doing a post for here and a post for there on the same day. Not for any sort of regularity (say what?) but just cos once I'm in Blogger it makes sense! I'm trying to keep the content different too but sometimes (like this one) it's going to be a bit similar as there's only one me who is doing the same thing as the other me over there, if you see what I mean. Confused much?

We're camping for part of our trip so send good weather vibes our way. I would really love one holiday to not feature the bright green waterproof jacket...

Tuesday 23 June 2015

I MADE SOMETHING!

The last time we visited #yearofcraft it was to gain the grade 'F' for fail, total and utter fail but then that would have needed the grade 'TUF'. By we, I should hasten to add, I mean me. Fizz would win awards for all the crafting she does, she is a master (mistress?) crafter and is always making something. As would Tizz, who makes the most beeee-yoooo-tiful dresses that I think she should share on the blog. Don't you all agree...? Me though? The only things I generally make are cups of tea and dinner. Until last night. 

Have you ever bought anything that you just know you're going to wear to death? I like to think I'm not alone in this, but I freely admit that I am hard on my shoes/clothes/things and am prone to them breaking/wearing thin/needing to go in the bin on a more frequent basis than others. So this thing I loved before was a headband. But not one of those dodgy Alice band things as everyone knows they crucify the bones near your ears and give you a headache. This headband was essentially a long thin fabric covered thing that had wire inside so could be bent to all sorts of shapes and sizes to accommodate my giant hair/head. Man, I loved that thing. I wore it constantly. Up do, down do, all over the do. Until the day arrived when of course, it broke. Insert tearful emoji here. 

I tried to buy another one but by then the shops had decided they weren't going to stock that type of headband anymore and instead you had to buy elasticated things that just don't stay on my giant head. Ah-ha thinks I. I'll bet Fizz can help me make one of those. Several months later and we finally got round to it. 

Of course she could make one. Of course she had all the equipment, wire and funky cutting tool included. It was so easy we made 2! I can't claim entire responsibility as Fizz had to help along the way, but I did most of the sewing and the safety pin/wooden spoon poking (technical term). I am proper chuffed with the results and am wearing the blue one today as is evidenced in the hilarious face pulling photo below:


Friends, let me tell you. If you are of the large hair/messiness that I have going on these headbands are brilliant for creating fun hair days. And the wire inside means you can get super creative. So good! Oh go on, here's another photo then. 


They might not look like much, but these beauties will be worn until they inevitably break. But luckily I know just where I can go to make a new one. Long live the wire headbands!

Monday 22 June 2015

On being social

For the past three weekends Wavey and I have had some sort of social outing to attend. Sometimes even two nights out of the three in the weekend! And we have another social outing this weekend which makes 4. Out every single weekend in one month! And then we go on holiday for two weeks so will be here, there, and everywhere. Granny's going to need to lie down soon...

Friday 19 June 2015

901!

Did you know that we've written 901 posts on this here blog. 901! That is unbelievable! Just another 99 to go and we can have the Happy 1000 posts party! 

Bloggy land has changed massively since we started this way back in 2007. It's a strange world now that seems to move from the teeny tiny blogs like ours that get a few page views from some loyal readers (thank you all for sticking with us for all these years!) to people who make a daily living from being bloggers, with thousands of page views, and who appear to live a life of constant travel, product launches, and wearing huge amounts of make-up. Bonkers. 

I try not to think about the future too much, of bloggy land and You Tube and the like, cos sometimes it scares me a bit. I can't see where it can go from here. These people with millions of subscribers and followers - I mean, what?! It's barmy, scary, and fascinating all at the same time. One of the most rapid things I have ever seen was when David Beckham joined Instagram. It was his 40th birthday and he posted 6 photos and in one day he went from zero to something crazy like 6 million followers. How do you even comprehend? Staggering. 

I hope we will make it to 1000 posts, but I do sometimes wonder. The urge to blog is not always there and I know I go through phases with it. But that's ok I think. We're not here to make money, or for the numbers, or for whatever it is those people need to strive for to make it their income, but we are here to share the fun times and the fun things. Cheers to that! 

Wednesday 10 June 2015

Baffled, befuddled, and a few other choice words beginning with B

Yesterday was not a happy day. All kinds of things occurred that seemed to conspire against me feeling any kind of smiley thoughts. It started with finding out that an event we were really looking forward to had been cancelled. I only found out this was the case when I sent a message to the organiser asking for start times, how I would get my tickets, and so on. By the return message I got the impression it had been cancelled for weeks but no-one had thought to let me know. An attendee. Who had paid upfront for tickets. Strike one! I'm still chasing the refund...

There was a brief interlude of happy when I caught up with an old friend over a morning coffee and a croissant and a good old chin wag, followed by having my hair did and the most bounciest blow dry I have ever had - quite literally, my hair was bouncing as I walked. Joyous hair! 

Further unhappy events occurred later that afternoon when I received a message from a business man informing me that he had contacted someone about our job and they would be calling me soon to make an appointment. Erm, what? This business man came and gave us a half hearted quote weeks ago and then nothing. Zero communication. We took the silence to mean that he really didn't want the job and looked elsewhere. How is this a way of going about your business? I mean seriously, HOW? Customers are not mind readers. We don't know unless you tell us, by maybe contacting us (a small hint is all we need) to express your interest. Completely baffled, and I would admit to slightly mortified, we had to text him back to tell him we had chosen to take our business elsewhere. Strike two! Safe to say that I've not had a reply from that awkward text...

Next up, let's talk parcels. As in ordering things online and then needing to return them. It seems to me that it's the norm these days that return postage will be free. Or you can Collect+ or some sort of courier equivalent. I am therefore befuddled when not one but two things I have recently ordered and then needed to return have forced me to pay the return postage with no compensation. Frankly I think this is bollocks. When something is free to deliver, how can it then cost money to return? Share the love people! I'm looking at you SportsDirect and Anthropologie (and don't even start me on that one - who only supplies one curtain - ONE?! Curtains come in pairs!) Strike three! 

The final strike (come on down number four!) came at theatre where yet again the bas**** masking tape had started to roll off our painted set AGAIN! Nooooooo! How many times must we paint those bright orange walls? Oh and then I spilled paint on a freshly laid carpet, mainly due to overhearing the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard in all my time there, and had to run around like a loon with kitchen roll and a damp cloth (thankfully it came off). 

What a day. What a bloomin' day. I sincerely hope that today turns out better. So far, so okay, as the electrician who said he would be here at 9 am actually turned up! And his ballpark quote is well within our budget. And he seemed like a nice guy (though slightly too sniffly and snorty for such an early hour) so here's hoping we have successfully found one business man to do some work for us. Go team! Come on Wednesday, give me all you've got! 

Tuesday 2 June 2015

It was the in-between times

Well hello! Thought I'd pop back over here for a quick blog chat. How's things? Everyone having fun? Isn't this weather brilliant shite? Erm, hello, isn't June supposed to equal Summer? Not gales that are so strong they can blow down the bird house that lives in the next door neighbour garden, sheesh! 

Anyhoo, here I am. And as the title suggests I'm in between things. When I say things I mean jobs. I finished the other job, the one I got straight out of uni that I was so excited about, and then practically remained silent about it on here? Yeah that turned out to be yet another doozy. And when I say doozy what I actually mean is: it was absolutely bloody awful but I made a pact to myself that I would keep the moaning to a minimum...in blogland at least. But I survived! One whole year, well, almost. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger and all that jazz. 

Good news is I have another job, yay! Another temporary post, more projects stuff, this time right from the very beginning. I feel excited about it but I'm keeping it low key as I can't help but have this awful feeling that maybe I'm destined to never be happy in work-land and that would frankly be very sucky. So fingers crossed and all that jazz. 

I have a bit of time in between the jobs. Which is kind of okay and kind of very boring. Yesterday I did so many housewife-y type jobs Wavey almost came home to someone in a sticky out skirt with many petticoats and 1950s pin curls. That ironing - UGH! Today has been a bit more fun. I went shopping for electronic ice boxes (who knew?!), baked some cakes for theatre tonight, prepared some fishcake mixture for the tea tonight, need to do the mammoth piles of washing up that have resulted from all of the above kitchen activity. Oh and I did day 4 of my 30 days of yoga challenge. See how I keep myself busy? As tempting as it is to binge watch on series 3 of The Good Wife methinks that would be a slippery slope...

Who knows what tomorrow might bring. It's just too exciting! (how do people do this no work thing?) I will try and blog more over here a bit more but don't forget you can check out my other blog too (get me, two blogs Dizz!) which you can find right here! 

Over and out! 

Saturday 16 May 2015

New Blog

Sooooooo, after many moons of umm-ing and ahh-ing I finally did it and decided to start my own blog: Three Be The Things

Don't panic, don't panic, I'll still be writing here, but that new one over there? That lets me share all those product reviews, and places to go, and exhibitions I see, and just general other stuff that I've always felt didn't really belong here, as this is more about the adventures of Dizz and Fizz and Tizz. 

I do hope you'll pop on over and have a read. And add it to your reader / bookmark it. And I also hope you enjoy the content, and the big ass photographs cos the new layout lets me have 'em LARGE! 

Off you go then. Click the link up there ^^ (please).

Friday 15 May 2015

Visiting Miss Tizz

Monday found me on the first of many trains (choo choo!) heading towards London town to see the lovely Miss Tizz for 4 whole days. Well, kinda when you include travel, I was there for 2 full days. And what a brillo 2 full days we had. We walked, we talked, we laughed, we drank wine, we ate cupcakes, we had a picnic in the grounds of the Natural History Museum, we braved the huge crowds at the Victoria and Albert Museum to see the Alexander McQueen exhibition, Savage Beauty - all in all, a jolly good time was had by all. 

Oh and we watched Pitch Perfect which was hi-larious and toe-tapping. 

I didn't take too many photos as I was too busy snapchatting (what you waiting for? Get joining and follow me for the chuckles: ClaireJens) but here's a few of what I saw, innit. 







There's a whole load of fun memories from my mini-hol but I think my most favourite moment of all was after the picnic, with the sun blazing down on us, we sat on the stripey picnic rug and I played DJ with some old school tunes, like Jackie Wilson and Van Morrison, and tried our hardest not to sing out loud in front of the whole of London...

Happy happy days. 

Saturday 9 May 2015

Farewell Facebook...

One month ago I decided to give up Facebook, just to see how I would get on. I wrote about it here: A Little Challenge

One month down the line and I am absolutely loving it. It has by far been one of the best things I have done in a long time. It's hard to describe but I really feel so free. I'm no longer tied into that aimless scrolling that I had going on (very bad habit), I don't miss updating my status, and I don't miss reading what other people are up to either. So I think I'm done. Farewell to Facebook. 

I have a photo planned as my farewell...

You never know, I might decide to take it up again. I remember opening my account in 2007, as we worked endless hours of overtime in libraryland, we all joined at the same time so that we could play Pirates - anyone remember those days? It's such a vastly different place to be now. So even though it's a farewell, it's a fond one. No hard feelings and all that. Later, alligators...


Wednesday 6 May 2015

Gotta love elephants

I know I'm not alone in liking elephants, but I just love this little chap.  


Can you believe I made him at my very first pottery class?  I wouldn't have thought it would be possible to create something so gorgeous so soon! It's all due to the amazing  Alison Baker of loveheartworkshops.co.uk - she is a real inspiration. 

Not sure why this text is centred. Ho hum.

Friday 1 May 2015

SNAP!

It's 3 weeks tomorrow since I started my Facebook detox. I'll let you into a little secret...I think I'm done with it. Seriously. The past 3 weeks has been brilliant and a real revelation. I would definitely have admitted to being slightly obsessed with checking Facebook, either on my phone or tablet, that little blue F logo taunting me to click and scroll. The 3 weeks have flown by and I can honestly say that I don't miss it at all. I don't miss finding myself irritated by things that people were posting or sharing, I don't miss updating everyone with what I'm up to or where I am, and I definitely don't miss the aimless scrolling. One more week left of the challenge but I think it could well be the end of the relationship. I'll let you know the final outcome next week. 

But! That's not to say that I'm removing myself entirely from the internetty, clearly, as I am typing this up about to publish any moment... 

I am still loving Instagram but my most recent discovery is SnapChat. Are any of you on it? I originally downloaded it out of curiosity as quite a few of the bloggers/vloggers that I follow are on there and I wanted to know what it was all about. I'm still very much in the early stages of figuring out how it all works but it's a whole lotta fun! I love the idea of short snippets of video that you add to your 'story'. Today was the first day that I made a little story, a whole 24 seconds story of mine and Wavey's fun Friday. If you fancy checking it out my username is ClaireJens. Maybe see you there - let me know your username in the comments and we can SNAP together! 

Sunday 26 April 2015

Capturing real life

I have to face it, the Year of Craft has come to a complete and utter standstill as other things have moved in and taken over, mainly because I have to force myself into crafting as it's just not my thing. I think it's probably time I accepted that really. Instead I joined an online photography class, which I think you're supposed to turn into a scrapbook, but that involves crafting, and we all know where that will end. So I was thinking about how I would make it work and I thought, I can totally do an online scrapbook as an alternative and tie it in with the blog as well. And here we are. Let's capture real life.

Week 1: Good Morning - cleanse, tone, moisturise; Good Night - reading myself into slumber



Week 2: Guilty Pleasures - a '99' with a flake and red sauce, best eaten at the beach...


Week 3: Nature - anywhere and everywhere, I love being outside the most!




Week 4: Out-takes - these are always going to be of Wavey, but I love taking photos of him when he's not looking, he always looks so serious! 



I'm going to say right off, that this class is supposed to be done week by week but as per everything else that I do, it's a case of when I have time. So it's capturing real life in probably more than 52 weeks, and it's not in a scrapbook, and some of the photos were taken previously. One day I might just play by some rules...

PS. If you're interested in the class, I bought it from A Beautiful Mess which is one of my most loved blogs ever! 

Wednesday 15 April 2015

Don't go!

Facebook is not happy with my month long detox. I'm only 4 days in and I've had at least 2 emails from them each day telling me how many notifications I'm missing, the huge number of events I've been invited to, the friends I might know that I'm desperately missing out on by not connecting to them...they really don't make it very easy for you to decide to go. 

But fear not, I am holding strong. I ended up opting to uninstall the app from my phone as I went to the settings and switched off the notifications. Seconds later I got a notification. Erm, no. So it's gone from my phone. It's still on my tablet but they are actually honouring my opting out of notifications. 

Am I missing it? Not at all. There's been all kinds of things happening where normally I would have reached for my phone to update the world but instead I have simply kept quiet and gone about my day... (haha, as I'm typing this up I've just got yet another email with people I might know on there)... and I am definitely not missing the irritation that often went with my aimless scrolling. 

So far, so good. I wonder how many emails I will get? Maybe I should start keeping a tally...

Sunday 12 April 2015

A Little Challenge/A Little Chaos

I'm the kind of person who has to think about things for a while before putting them into action. Especially if it's something that might prove hard or will see me challenge myself. For a while I'd been thinking about going Facebook free for a month. A month seemed like a good enough test, it's long enough to see if it's possible to opt out entirely which is my ultimate aim. My little challenge started today. 

Let me explain myself. For quite a while now I've found myself scrolling aimlessly up and down Facebook on both my phone and my tablet, occasionally enjoying the updates but more often than not feeling irritated, even angry, about what someone might have posted. I know there's the unfollow option, which I have used many times, but it was starting to feel like it was something bigger. I'm embarrassed to admit it but I think it was turning into a compulsion. And not just for checking it either. Wherever I was, whoever I was with, I was choosing to record moments of my life instead of just, you know, living them. When I went to Brighton I promised myself that I would be more present, just be, yet I still managed to check in here, post a photo there...and no criticism to anyone here but I wasn't the only one. 

It's so weird, this thing where we share all this information about our lives. Out of all my friends I only know one person who has absolutely no presence on any social media channel. She is always entirely present, never checks her phone when you go out, and just enjoys being somewhere. It's inspiring. I've taken this good example and turned it around on myself. No Facebook for a month. I hope I will make it through. It's only the first day but it feels good. I'll keep you posted...

(Disclaimer: as I have job responsibilities I will be using the Pages Manager element of Facebook - this challenge is for my personal page only). 

From a challenge to chaos. A Little Chaos if you will. Yesterday I downloaded a voucher that entitled me to 2 free tickets to see a preview screening of this film. I love anything that's free and if it's cinema, well cha-ching as cinema visits are expensive! I knew nothing about the film other than that Kate Winslet was in it as she was on the ticket image. Our seats left a little to be desired, being only 3 rows back from the front, but once my neck had adjusted to the weird angle I settled in for the film. 

And what a delightful film it was! The (very) basic premise is that Kate Winslet is a gardener who challenges the 'order' in the French court of Louis XIV to be chosen as the only female gardener to design and create one of the many gardens at Versailles. It's directed by Alan Rickman, his directorial debut, and he also plays the King. I won't tell you too much more in case you decide to go and see it, which I would recommend. It's beautifully filmed, the costume detail is immense, it's gentle, occasionally funny, but the story is sufficiently absorbing to hold your attention all the way through. I really did enjoy it, and so did Wavey. 

There's all kinds of films out at the cinema at the moment so I am planning on many more visits over the next few weeks. Hopefully there will be more free visits as that makes it even better! Any recommendations welcomed below... 

Monday 6 April 2015

Spring is here!

The pox is almost gone, it was a long and glorious bank holiday filled weekend, and the sun came out to play! Glory glory hallelujah! 

We've eaten our own body weight in all the refined and bad for you sugar, we've slept in, we've sat outside, and we've been to the beach. What a cracking start to Spring. 

Come on you sunshine days!





Thursday 2 April 2015

I think burning them might be a bit far, but...

**Spoiler alert** If you are in any way sensitive or offended by underwear (especially bra) talk, turn away now. Anyone left? Proceeding on then. 

One of my very best besties has this thing where she comes home from work and the first thing she does is take her bra off. I just used to nod along when she would say things like, oh the relief, cos I never really understood it. My primary aim when I'm buying a bra is comfort, none of this fancy dancy dressing them all up in lace type thing for me, it's just not my thing you know? Stay with me, there is a point to this underwear talk. Maybe I should get to it now? Good idea. 

With the shingles also came this weird other red rash that was in a place where the underwire of a bra would rub (too much information? Too late!) and so whilst I've been off work, I've been bra-less. And it's been good, like GOOD! I've taken to wearing a vest, a bit like you do between the ages of birth up to whenever you might start wearing a bra, or deciding that a vest just isn't cool. I love a good vest, keeps you toasty and roasty in the winter time and cool in the summer, but that's probably a whole other wardrobe related post. 

Luckily I am not hugely endowed in the boob-age department so this bra-free thing is not that big of a deal, but I'm starting to feel that I could totally get on board with this as a regular thing. There's a lot of people out there who do you know. I follow The Blonde Salad on Instagram and she always seems to rock out without one. Mind you, she is a model and therefore rake thin with teeny tiny boobs but you know, backs my story up. And let's not forget the biggest inspiration of all: 

Charlie Dimmock. Not only is she a gardener and a frizzy red head, she's infamous for going bra-less, even when Alan Titchmarsh and Tommy were digging by her side! If Charlie can, I can too! And the 70s are coming into fashion for summer and I'm pretty sure they burned bras then, so...set them free sisters! 

Wednesday 1 April 2015

Update

I have updated the picture of Dizz and Wavey to be more accurate.


Heehee.

Sunday 29 March 2015

Happy Together

Pox update: my right eye is red and swollen and looks like I've been 10 rounds with Mike Tyson. My forehead is dotty and spotty and red and looks like I most definitely have the pox. All round, I am a picture of attractiveness. At least today I made the choice to not wear leggings as trousers...it's the small things. 

In other happy news, Wavey has got a new boy toy. Here he is with his shiny new lawn mower, using the filter that is called 'Happy Together' in Candy Camera. Sums it up pretty well I think. 


Friday 27 March 2015

A plague on both your houses!

You know those comedy filters you can apply in all the latest technology that have amusing names like 'monster' or 'freak'? Don't need them. Got my own going on. Swollen right eye and pox on my forehead.

Bet you wish you were as hot as me right now...

Thursday 26 March 2015

Tingles? No, I said shingles!

I owe all critters and other bitey type creatures an apology. It wasn't one of them that was causing the itchy, stabby, I want to claw my face off thing I had going on yesterday. It was in actual fact, shingles. Oh happy day. Lucky me. If you too want to be lucky, just come and see me in the next couple of days and let's touch foreheads and then you too could have the itchy/stabby/burny thing. No? Don't blame you really...

It's not the best thing I've ever had. For one it really looks unattractive. Somehow kids with the pox type thing never look that bad but a grown up? Hmmm not such a great style choice. 

And it hurts. 

My doc advised me to take time off work due to the age group of the people I work with. Rang my boss. She tried to pretend she cared but I didn't really feel the love coming through. Luckily I have a whole lotta love from a whole lotta other people though as already have had delivery of two bunches of flowers and some hot cross buns. Yay! 

So I'll be here on the sofa for a while. Itching, burning, stabbing. Do you think it's punishment for enjoying Brighton too much? *sick face* 

Wednesday 25 March 2015

Do Over

Oh Wednesday, what did I do to deserve today? What a day! Grand plans were planned, I was going to Stokesley with my Ma, I was meeting one of my learners from my job to get some signatures, we were going to eat cake and drink tea and wander aimlessly in the Spring sunshine. NUH-UHHHH! My car wouldn't start! Zzhum zzhum zzhum ... Nothing. Kaput. Poor little Zippy. He's totally sulking as he's been parked up for days whilst I've been away. There'll be a serious talking to and jump leads later. 

Next up let's talk evil bitey creatures/critters. Something of said evil bitey nature has munched on me good and proper. And where are these delightful bitey things? One is smack bang in the centre of my forehead and is bright red, sore, and SO ITCHY I WANT TO MAUL MY FACE OFF! The other one is on my eyelid. My eyelid! I mean, what?! So hurty *sad face* With both of those things combined my upper head looks like some sort of demonic red and swollen thing. Nice! 

While we're at it, what is with this cold? This cold will not die! I swear I've had it for the whole of Winter now. Today I have spent £13 of my hard earned cash in some echinacea in an attempt to get it gone and good! Enough already. Like seriously. 

So that is Wednesday. Good times or what? Should have just stayed in bed...

Tuesday 24 March 2015

Brighton Belles

I first encoutered Brighton when I was a student in London a hundred years ago. I had two friends who were from down that way and I used to get the coach from London (£7 day return!), meet them there, and we'd spend the whole day running in and out of the waves on the pebbley beach and exploring the Laines. I loved it every single time and always knew I would be back. And I was. The weekend just gone.

As a kind of belated birthday celebration I arranged a girls weekend away with my Brighton Belles, call them my main ladies: Fizz, Tizz, and Deb-izz. Sadly, Fizz couldn't join us as she was struck down by the f-cold that may be a little like the f-bomb in that it almost flattened her (out). Boo to the hoo. Sad as we were, we couldn't let it stop us from having the best of times. 

So much fun times. We walked (miles), we explored, we ate outrageously expensive 99 icecream cones (surely a 99 is supposed to be 99p and not £2.50...?), we ate soup out of jars, drank cocktails, walked (more miles), hunted for legs, ate stacks of yummy food, waaaay too much cake (I think my cake hangover came in at 2 days, still feel a bit queasy when I think about it to be honest), had lots of laughter and fun and all round happy times. Here's some visuals:




I had the best weekend. Big thanks to my Brighton Belles for agreeing to join me, and roll on the next annual trip, cos we totally decided that we have to have an annual ladies trip away now. Now I'm just counting down the days until my next trip when I get to see the ever fab Miss Tizz in fair London town. See you soon, lady!

 

Tuesday 17 March 2015

Why now?!

Warning: this post contains a lot of complaining. If you are challenged in the compassion department do not read any further.

I haven't had a cold all winter. I've been getting lots of vitamin C and avoiding infected people and keeping my hands clean and generally doing all the right things, and I've been smugly healthy until now. So why oh why oh why do I have to go and get a nasty, poxy chest cold just days before I'm due to go on a jolly jaunt? My chest hurts, my throat is raw, I can't sleep for coughing, I'm alternating between shivering and sweating, everything aches, wah, wah, wah!

I suppose on the grand scale of things my having a cold is not the worst thing that's happening in the world right now. I shouldn't complain. But stuff it, I'm being selfish, and I am complaining. No fair. NO FAIR.

Silver lining: no one is going to want to share a room with Phlegm Woman, so I might get my own room...

Wednesday 4 March 2015

February Fail

Year of Craft, two months in, total fail. Oh well. In my defence we were packing up to move house and so crafting took kind of a back burner...

Month 3: Mad March. Will there be more than one craft to make up for it? Will there even be a craft at all?! Stay tuned...

Sunday 1 March 2015

The little magic pot

Cardboard, newspaper, bubble wrap, packing tape, constant washing up, cold weather, hot rooms - all of the above have played absolute havoc with my hands in the past couple of weeks. The result is hands that look like they belong to someone who is 107 and worked outdoors every day of their lives. Dry, cracked, red, and downright sore! Not good at all. I tried various handcreams and the like but to no avail. And then I remembered this little pot:

Don't be fooled by the simple packaging - this little pot holds magical properties! I've been lathering it on first thing on a morning and then last thing at night and slowly but surely my 107 year old hands are slowly starting to resemble the hands that are in fact 40 years old. I'm declaring it - this pot is a little pot of magic! 

The magic didn't stop there. As well as hands of 107 year old people, I also had shins that were soooo itchy I wanted to tear all my skin off, until this little magic pot stepped up to the podium. Three nights with this little gem smothered all over my legs just before bed and they have been restored to normal Winter legs *happy dance* 

Today some little critter bit me in the garage so I've tried putting it on that too. Basically, any ailment of any kind now and this little pot of magic is my go to. I'm already getting worried as it's almost at scraping the barrel stage, definitely time for a new order. 

I've checked their website out and the company are all kinds of fab. The little pot of magic is made right here in Britain, they are BUAV approved, they have won several awards, the product contains nothing chemical or nasty in it at all...are you feeling the love right there? MOA: it's magic and marvellous, and it's under a tenner! 

If my rave review hasn't convinced you, pop on over to their website here and have a look for yourself. Highly recommended.