A rather magical weekend

Hey m'dears!

How have you been?

I felt so relaxed after my week off I was practically floating on a cartoon cloud. I did everything I'd hoped to do and so much more. I also ate an excessive number of carbohydrates, which I'm pretty sure is what people are referring to when they use the phrase "living the dream".

Me, enthusiastically slicing carbs. Hurrah!

My outing to London Zoo on Friday far exceeded my expectations (admittedly, I was mainly expecting to fall asleep in front of the monkeys). I don't know if it was the company (charming), the caffeine (delicious), or the animals (awesome) but I was still partying 23 hours after my 2am wake-up call. And by "partying" I mean "drinking pre-made mojitos in the park", because I'm all class.

Thankfully, being up that early gave me plenty of time to research hipster coffee haunts, and The Coffee Jar more than delivered in the form of totally kick-arse white chocolate and hazelnut cookies:

I spotted all kinds of weird and wonderful critters on our way round, topped off by being INCREDIBLY brave during the Spider Walk (i.e. being put in a room with a whole bunch of BLOODY MASSIVE SPIDERS who were completely free to move around and/or jump in your face, and managing not to cry). I definitely earned the ice-cream I scoffed afterwards, and I'm pretty sure shaking from fear burns calories too.

HUUUUUGE moth. These things were so vast we all thought they were fake. Nope.

The Lesser Striped Upside-Down Bird*

Couldn't spot this guy, so I assumed that he was hiding from fish school name-taunting bullies

Although, my favourite sight of the entire day had to be this:

As for last weekend, it was literally magical, because I got to attend a Harry Potter themed Hen Do. Most of the magic was organised (fantastically!) by the Hen's sister; including HP themed goody bags, surprise boxes of (gluten free) baked goods, and amazing activities- a delicious dinner, pottery painting, and drinking so many cocktails that some girls' stomachs decided to expelliarmus their contents. Does that make throwing up sound more or less gross!?

My contribution to the weekend's agenda was a Potter-themed Scavenger Hunt, taking the Hens on a tour of Worthing and creating a legitimate excuse for some Hen Do-themed hashtags. Double win.  

Each team had an illustrated list of things to find and photograph:

The pottery painting may well have been my favourite part of the weekend, and I think it's fair to say the owner of Art-Ful is my (much cooler) kindred spirit:

Batman, Lichtenstein, incredible fonts...

... AND FAKE DEER HEADS.

This was my super-sophisticated contribution; I can't wait to get this bad boy home and full of amaretto sours.

Finally, despite seeing ocarpis, glow-in-the-dark beetles, and a man who looked like Dumbledore over the weekend, the weirdest thing I spotted has to be just how freakily disproportionate my thumb is to, well, everything else in the world. How could I never have noticed that before?!?



Seriously- have you ever seen a bigger thumb (excluding foam ones at baseball games)?!

Katie xxx

* OK, OK I made that name up. I never said I was David Attenborough**.

** I wish I was David Attenborough.

Six Things Sunday

Hey m'dears!

Happy Sunday! Hope you're having a brilliant day and spoiling all the fathers in your life. Unfortunately, my Dad refuses to acknowledge Fathers' Day; so I'm considering sending my card to the North Pole instead to try and sweeten up Santa before next Christmas. Genius, no?

Aside from penning potential missives to the Arctic, here are six other things I've been up to this week:

1. Channelling The Proclaimers
I didn't quite get to 10,000 miles, but I did manage to chalk up over TEN miles this morning across the South Downs. Which would probably have sounded more impressive if I hadn't mentioned 10,000 miles first, huh?

I left at the crack of dawn (well, 9.15; which is the crack of dawn on a Sunday) and spent three hours wandering up hill, down dale, and err... through fields of cows.

The scenery wasn't bad either...

Even washing is more picturesque in the countryside

2. Glamorous Lunch Dates
Sometimes you just can't beat a solo lunch date with a magazine and excessive amounts of carbohydrates.

My lunch date with Kate Hudson

3. Discovering my Soul Sista
I spontaneously picked up Hadley Freedman's book "Be Awesome: Modern Life for Modern Ladies" at the library last weekend and hungrily devoured it in less than two days. I had an "OMG! What if we're BRAIN TWINS?!" moment the minute I saw she'd referenced The Princess Bride in the opening paragraph. Later references to Bill and Ted and her identical hatred of Andie MacDowell (see: Four Weddings and a Funeral) confirmed my suspicions. 

I've now accepted the fact there's no point in me ever trying to write a book, because it would essentially be this one; just not as well written. Bravo, Hadley. 

4. Staring at steers
I spotted this guy early on this morning's jaunt and was very impressed by his trompe l'oile-ness:

Then I almost (literally) bumped into this guy who, you'll have to admit, is even more impressive:

Please excuse AWFUL photo quality. Just pretend it's a watercolour painting.

5. Feeling all feminist
Yesterday morning I was feeling rather blue, but this was solved the minute I found a bargain box set of Gilmore Girls Season 2 (the very reason I went into that shop, no less!) and marathoned the first 4 episodes. You can't beat a bit of linguistically-gymnastic sass.

6. Petitioning
For the management at Poundland to take their hard-working staff to Longleat (and not just because it's awesome):

What have you been up to this week?

I'm linking up to gorgeous Hannah's The Week That Was Captured #TWTWC

Katie xxx

The Enchanted Sloth & Other Stories

So, now you've all breathed a sigh of relief about the lack of piratical/outer-space-related activities in my life recently, I can get on with, err... spending at least 5 minutes wondering how one goes about becoming a SPACE PIRATE...

Sorry. Where was I? Oh yes - showing you what I've been doing recently. Here goes...

1. Feeling enchanted
I have to admit, my go-to criteria for choosing a new bottle of soap doesn't normally involve assessing it's level of enchantment (it's usually discount and/or smell, depending on my current ratio of thrifty vs. how desperately I want my hands to smell like coconut*). Then I saw this one and all previous thoughts vanished faster than one can say "Enchanté, Mademoiselle Clean-Hands". Which is what I'm forcing everyone to call me from now on.

2. Being lustful in Liberty 

Mostly in the fancy-pants homewares department. I photographed what seemed like hundreds of products I intend to purchase plagiarise the very minute I have my own place/access to my craft stuff again. These were a few of my favourites:

Awesome ceramic chopping board/tray that resembles an artist's palette

Gorgeous fonts, stars and deer? Can't imagine why this set caught my eye...

Looks like the Animals of Liberty Wood met a rather unfortunate ending too

Sneaky fancy-sofa selfie

3. Discovering

The coolest stone on the whole of Brighton beach. I'm sure you'll agree the resemblance is uncanny:

4.  Admiring Irony

Yes, the box was empty...

5. Feeling 3,000 kinds of happy

..and beyond, actually; I reached 3,000 things on this year's Happy Things List last week. THREE THOUSAND - despite my lack of TV/internet access. Not too shabby, 2015(!); especially as my 2014 list only reached 2,302 for the whole year.

No. 3,000 was a pretty good one too

6. Smiling Rye-ly

Well, it was a proper grin really - but I couldn't pass up that pun! I received this gorgeous postcard after a friend's day trip to the seaside. Spontaneously gifted postcards are definitely a winner. 

Have you ever found a stone that resembles an 80's cult movie character? Or been utterly enchanted by some soap?

Katie xxx

*The answer is normally "medium". 

Goody Bags and Gerberas

I think it's fairly safe to assume that any weekend which starts with winning a musical chairs/dance-off hybrid is going to end up being pretty amazeballs.

I spent Friday night at my friend's birthday party (at a bar in Brighton), and laughed so many belly laughs I was rather disappointed not to wake up with a six pack on Saturday*. The laughter was due to a so-good-I-wish-I-could-bottle-it combination of excellent people (including Captain Morgan, who actually is bottled...), a glow-stick related "challenge"** which I found almost impossible (I blame the Captain), and winning a game of musical chairs which turned into a dance off! It was a close-run thing though; I got so into throwing shapes to Sussudio I nearly forgot to dive for the chair!

If all of that wasn't enough to make it the party of the year, my friend also gave out goody bags! They included colouring pencils, sweeties, the aforementioned glow-sticks, party popper, paracetamol and those little fluffy Easter chicks. Incredible.

They were dinosaur goody bags too!! Eep!

Yesterday I drove to a girlfriend's house and back on my own - thankfully without incident (I hate driving). The driving stress was more than made up for by several hours of putting the world to rights over cups of tea, hearing about my friend's amazing adventures in Australia, swapping very belated Christmas presents (and early birthday presents for me) and getting to see my friend in her wedding dress (I'm going to be one of her bridesmaids in November).

Part of my present haul - so cute!

My present haul was completely overwhelming and left me feeling utterly spoilt. I got this mug and the matching plate, an adorable tea strainer, a "K" Scrabble coaster, a delicious looking tape-measure, and some pretty tissues. I'm hoping I can use the tissues without accidentally committing treason. Surely it's illegal to blow one's nose on the guards at Buckingham Palace?! I also received the hedgehog socks above, and this amazing deer head all the way from Aus (which circumvents Tom's Stag Ban because it has a loophole for presents!)

I also received a seriously stupendous bunch of flowers, which I managed to split up into five(!) arrangements and placed all around the house. I don't actually own any proper vases, so I used...

A spray-painted milk bottle; my go-to vessel for gerberas, which are my favourite flower

The metal jug I got for Christmas

A jar which used to hold dried sage - the label left stripes of glue around it but I like the pattern

An old light fitting from our bathroom before we did it up

And a recently emptied jar from the larder, complete with blackboard foil label

I ended up bailing on my original plans for today (to hang out with some lovely blogger types) due to getting soaked three minutes after leaving the house thanks to an unexpected downpour, which made me realise how much I needed a duvet day. I feel really sad I didn't see the girls, but glad that I took time to recuperate after the rest of my busy weekend.

What did you get up to this weekend? 

Katie xxx

* Who am I kidding? I always hope to wake up with a six pack - but belly laughs are basically crunches, right? So it was almost a possibility!

** The "challenge" was to fasten a glow-stick around your own wrist, using one hand. Everyone else completed it in under three minutes. It took me AN HOUR AND A HALF. Thankfully, I redeemed myself shortly afterwards with my musical chairs prowess.

Prints Charming*

Do you want to know one of the most exciting things to happen to me so far this year? 

It's pretty epic. Hold on to your bobble hats, people:

Tom and I have decided what to put on the blank wall above our sofa.

Told you it was epic.

I'd been swinging between a triptych of large frames, a collection of faux animal heads, and a picture ledge (like a Linda Barker/Tarzan hybrid) but after spotting some beautiful rooms with picture ledges in the latest Ideal Home my mind was made up. Plus, no matter how hard I pleaded, I'm pretty sure Tom wouldn't let a stuffed unicorn head into the house.... Sadface.

It'll kind of look like this...
[Image Source]

So I've placed an Ikea order for two picture ledges and a smorgasbord of white frames in varying shapes and sizes so our display will (hopefully!) still look as eclectic as the rest of our house. We're planning to put two ledges next to each other, to span the length of our sofa; so we'll have 2.3m of stacking space to play with! 

[image source]

Then, as if I hadn't just spent enough money on Ribbas and Ubersluckens and whatnot, I logged on to Rockett St George (one of my go-to sites for industrial interior gorgeousness) to do a little internet-window shopping. I promise it was meant to be window-shopping, until I saw that this beauty (who'd been on my wishlist since the Great Deer Hunt of 2013) had gone into the January sale. Oops. But look how pretty:

Plaster of Paris Roe Deer head from Rockett St George

He hasn't arrived yet, but when he does he's got to go straight into the loft; because apparently deer now have to be "Just For Christmas" in this house. Boooooooo.

Anyway, the point of this post (and that pun) is that I bought a whole load of frames but currently have nothing to fill them with. So I've been rounding up potentially awesome prints from all over the internet. Which one(s) do you think I should get? 

I tracked down this Dancing Foxes print after spotting it on Laura's blog.
This one is actually the greeting card version - small and sweet.

I love all of these tea prints by Peskimo but this one is my favourite

Ok, this isn't a print at all. But COME ON- (re)drawing Nic Cage's
hair would provide hours minutes of entertainment

I'm slightly freaked out that Joe Carr is stalking my dreams.
There are no words to describe how amazeballs this is.

This Tiger Timbergram is an A3 version of the
wooden postcard I bought my friend Holly

I really love this print. Something about it reminds me of Escape To Witch Mountain.

This print would certainly give guests a hint of the colour they
can find elsewhere in our house

This lovely mountain print is currently on sale too!

There's nothing like a bit of enthusiasm

If you've seen any other awesome prints recently please do send me links (in the comments or on twitter) so I can drool over them too!

Katie xxx

* Just FYI, this may be my favourite play-on-words of all time. Apart from perhaps the Ninjaraffe.