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.

A truckload of blu tack

Hey m'dears :) 

Have you had a nice day? 

Mine has mostly involved eating Nutella on sourdough toast, and was therefore AWESOME. The consumption of Nutella was basically compulsory, because this morning I managed to summon the energy to fulfil my bi-annual urge to go for a run. Pretty amazing, eh? *waits patiently for award*

As I only run for about twenty minutes every six months, and don't do any exercise in between, I was stupidly proud of doing 5.5km in less than 35 minutes. I wasn't actually running for the entire time, but there were some pretty steep hills involved; and I have the fitness levels of an octogenarian with a lifelong allergy to cardio. 

I didn't take any photos of myself post-run, but here's an
artist's impression of my face. AKA Sweaty Tomato. 

After a few hours' recouping from my exertions, comforted by various Kirstie and Phil re-runs and aforementioned Nutella-slathered toast, I felt the need to complete a mini makeover of our guest room. 

To set the scene- one of my school friends stayed with us for a while just after we bought our house, due to landing a job practically in our back garden. Unfortunately, the posters that said put up whilst staying with us took pieces of the wallpaper with them when he left. Almost three years later, I decided something had to be done. 

A few holes shown in red circles of shame (added during editing-
my friend didn't circle them afterwards to highlight what he'd done :p)

My solution was, naturally, to cover the wall in maps. It's what I do. A lot. So, here's a DIY with how to create your very own Map Wall.

You will need:
- Sufficient maps to cover your chosen wall.
- Lots of Blu Tack
- Scissors/craft knife
- Something to distract your boyfriend so he doesn't realise what you're doing or become suspicious of the ominous silence whilst you're busy blu-tacking*. 
- Snacks to keep your strength up. 

Method:

1. Use craft knife/scissors to cut maps to size, and to fit them around any sockets or light switches. 

2. Stick maps to wall with plenty of blu tack, to ensure they don't fall off in the night, making a loud noise that wakes you in a blind panic that burglars are trying to steal your collection of Nicolas Cage DVDs**. 

3. Make sure to eat plenty of snacks to keep your strength up. After all, you're a runner now and runners need lots of carbs. Or chocolate. Either works.  

I was considering adding a "route" of red wool all over the wall, to represent an epic journey. However, I restrained myself. Not because I was worried about the room becoming seriously OTT maps-wise (the chest of drawers is in here too); but because I thought it might look like one of those boards detectives use in the movies when trying to solve a murder. 

What do you think? Too much? 

Katie xxx 

* The Grand Prix works pretty well. Thanks, Formula 1!

** Could happen. 

Hampshire mini-break - Day 1 - Petworth House and Gardens

Last week, Tom and I went on a mini-break to Hampshire. Although Hampshire isn't particularly far from our house in East Sussex, we wanted to fill our days with as many adventures as we possibly could, and therefore decided to stay in a local B&B. 

We recently became members of the National Trust, and decided to stop off at a few NT places on our way to Hampshire (members of the National Trust apparently refer to it as "NT" - makes me feel like part of an exclusive club, where everyone is wearing matching cagoules...). We ended up spending most of the day at Petworth House and Gardens because it turned out to be ruddy brilliant, and Petworth town is absolutely beautiful too. 

We had lunch in one of the nicest cafes I've been to in my entire life- it's called Tiffins Tearoom, and I honestly can't recommend it enough. If you're ever near Petworth (or don't mind driving a long way for a lovely lunch!) please go and check this place out. The owners were absolutely brilliant; unbelievably friendly and welcoming, and said "Well done, team" when we managed to eat all of our cake! :) 

Tiffins Tearoom. I was tempted to hide under the table and stay forever

We had this. It was EPIC. 

It's days out like this that make me so glad someone came up with digital photography- as developing the 150-odd photographs I took throughout the day would cost an absolute fortune if they'd been on film! The kitchens in particular were stunning; I just couldn't stop taking pictures of all the shiny copper jelly moulds and wacky antique packaging. 

I've uploaded a few of my favourite photos from Petworth below, and might pop an extra one or two up on my flickr account soon too. My favourite fact of the day is that I've been unknowingly eating Royally Appointed mustard.

After spending so much time eating scones walking round Petworth gardens photographing huge dragonflies, we only managed a quick stroll round the grounds of Hinton Ampner on the way to our B&B - but saw lots of nice plants (including their "Plant of the Week"- brilliant!) and some sheep. Always a winner. 

Our room at the B&B was absolutely beautiful- I never got round to taking a photograph, but I've pinched the one below off of their website. Beam-tastic, eh? 

I'm planning to put up a post on the rest of our holiday later in the week- so keep your peepers peeled :)

Katie xx

P.S. A big smiley "welcome" to my new followers- thank you all very much for reading my blog, and please do let me know what you think :) 

My 50p chest of drawers

Hello lovelies

Sorry it's been so quiet around here recently. I've been busy working on several home-décor projects that are taking longer than anticipated, and I don't like showing you anything that's half-finished. Except for half-finished pieces of cake, because - let's be honest - I can never restrain myself long enough to take a photo when cake is put in front of me; taking a bite definitely comes first!

However, last Saturday morning I started and completed a project that's been on my to-do list for nearly two years. I'm really, really happy with the result, and the people I've shown it to already have all been very impressed- mostly with the fact that it cost me less than £1! 

When we moved into our house we found this chest of drawers squirrelled away in the loft:

Apologies for shoddy photography here- my camera was having a tantrum

For a free chest of drawers, it's certainly not to be sniffed at, but it couldn't have been further from my personal taste if it tried (sorry, 'drawers!). I love old, knocked about, quirky things- a few scuffs here and there makes furniture all the more loved-looking in my opinion- and I thought the plasticky-mdf-ness of these drawers was just... eurgh. But, that said, they're a very handy storage option for our spare room- we keep the bedding for our guest bed in them, plus all our spare blankets (I am a bit of a blanket-buying fiend, and just can't resist a knitted/crocheted charity shop bargain!)

I recently found some vintage maps of Italy from our local flea market for my favourite price of all - FREE! :) Which made me a very happy girl indeed, but even more so when I realised what I could use them for... Introducing, my 50p chest of drawers(!)* 

I particularly like how it looks with the poster I picked up in an antique shop last week - The A-Z of Carnivorous Dinosaurs; our guest room is nothing if not educational :)

*50p was for the PVA glue I used to stick it all together...

P.S. I've entered my post in Faith, Hope and Charity Shopping's cartography-tastic "Ta Da Tuesday"