Friday Favourites 28th November - 4th December 2015

Oh hey there, it's December. Wot. It's been another hectic week and I have experienced stress levels only similar to those of deadlines at university but I have made it to Friday and am praying I can wrap my head around things next week. However, even in the stormiest, most stressful weeks, there are still (at least) five things that made me happy!

1. Vale Cider (again, soz not soz).

I have been going on about it, writing about it, hinting toward it and generally building up the hype but finally this weekend my commissioned illustrations for Vale Cider that I worked on in October went live and were viewed by the general public in all their glory. Unfortunately, due to the 'adverse weather conditions' (absolute raging storm), a whole bunch of fayre's and shows were cancelled or changed with very little notice and so I didn't get to go work for Vale Cider this week. However, my stuff was still up and there are bound to be 849238-23859037583947589347 other shows to sell at so watch this space for a bit more appley goodness.

Find Vale Cider on Facebook or have a peep at their website.

2. Six Years Late To The Party...

Yes, little known fact but I never bothered to sit my driving test. In fact I barely bothered to learn at all. It literally didn't interest me, I didn't need a car 6 years ago when I was 17, I couldn't keep one in university and I plain never got round to it. However, due my upcoming move (full details next week) I decided enough was enough and I actually needed to get round to sitting a test and so I took an intensive course with Cats Eyes and bish bash bosh three weeks later, last Monday I sat my first ever driving test and passed! I even got a congrats card from the parents, it was a pretty proud moment especially since my younger brother has been driving for three years.

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3. .....Followed It Up With.

Oh yes I went the whole hog and passed my driving test Monday and signed for a car on Thursday. I don't do anything by halves. Although my bank account is weeping at the thought of parting with the last of my hard earned savings (I bought a car and an iMac in a fortnight, someone help me), I am the proud owner of a baby blue 2012 Citroen C1 and I am counting down the days (thanks advent calendar) until I can pick it up next week.

*image from Citroen website.

4. Christmas Shopping.

Another little known fact (I'm full of it today); my other half got a job as a carer last summer and it apparently is the most strenuous job worked by the most dedicated, amazing, selfless people. I could go on all day about the role of a carer and the importance of their job and how terribly they are treated and paid but here is not the time or the place. The point is I barely see the boy when he's working because we don't live together (update coming I promise) and he frequently is up at 5am and home at 11pm which basically means I am sleeping. All the time. Oops. So! This week he has annual leave and a whole week off and whilst his car broke down (awks), I am so pleased to be able to actually spend time doing things normal people do so yesterday we went for lunch out and then did our Christmas shopping. In one go. For thirty people. It took 7 hours.

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5. Internet.

This one might be a bit off the cuff. The internet and the phone lines have been down at my house for a week now with no signs of being fixed. Ever. I On Wednesday I was on the phone with our provider from 10am-2pm and nada. Nothing. No progress. As a self professed internet addict this was a problem for me (no Facebook, no Intsa, whutttt) but mainly it was a problem for my business. A massive chunk of my work is done online and it just so happens this week I had two deadlines, for which the work required a massive amount of internet access. You can imagine my delight about it not working. In the end I had to resort to using my data on my iPhone and now I have a cheeky £40.00 charge coming my way on my next phone bill..... All I can say is thank god for scheduling of tweets, Instagram posts and most importantly, blogs which got me as far as Wednesday. This might not seem like the best thing to add to my favourites list but I am currently sat writing this in my boyfriends house with a fully functioning router and connection and it is sheer bliss. Amazing.

So another week closer to Christmas and another Best Of The Week over and done with. Any minute now I'll be working on a Best Of The Year post and it'll be January.

Blogger and Illustrator

Friday Favourites 28th November - 4th December 2015