Friday Favourites 28th October - 10th November 2017
FF28.10.2017
Oh hi, the last time I wrote one of these it was October. No biggie.
Now it's November I am very much in the Christmas spirit - I'm sorry but I'm one of those people. I heard my first Christmas song in a shop today, I have googled this years Christmas decorations approx 10 times and I have 3 cardboard boxes in my spare room of presents.
This past fortnight has been as busy as ever but it's been a pleasant sort of busy, with lots of fun festive types of things, lots of work and the odd bar of chocolate or two. But onto the favourites....
1. Christmas commissions.
I mean I can't actually show you any of these yet because they haven't arrived with their owner/been sent out to family but basically I've finished a whole load of commissions of late. I've been working on a personalised children's book as a gift for a family for over a year now and at the end of October it was finally finished and printed and bound into an actual book and they look amazing. I also completed a personalised Christmas card commission which was really fun and I've just yesterday printed a new baby card which is on it's way to Scotland. It's nice to be busy! Visit my illustration website here.
2. Halloween Eve.
Halloween seems like an absolute lifetime ago doesn't it? The day itself for us was a quiet one - we made pumpkin pie and watched GBBO final but the build up for us was the best. On the Saturday night before Halloween I cleaned the house and at around 9pm we decided to have a spooky night in. We set up The Nightmare Before Christmas on the laptop in the kitchen, we carved our pumpkins and I baked Halloween cookies and cupcakes. My cookies recipe was the same as this one I used last Christmas but I've made fairy cakes zero times on my own before and I was pleasantly surprised with how easy it was - and how good they tasted!
3. Festive hunt.
On the Sunday before Halloween we invited my brother, his fiancée, my niece and my parents over for a Halloween hunt. She's only two so she's way too small for trick or treating but she really gets into the spirit of a hunt (she still asks us to repeat her Easter one) so we set one up for her at ours. As well as the cupcakes and biscuits - which the adults wolfed down- we had all our decorations up and she wandered round the farm looking at the animals and fed the pigs some apples. The hunt itself was based on numbers which she can recognise so she found 1 to 10 and behind each one was a small chocolate bar or a gift like crayons and the final present was a Halloween themed book. There was also a bag of chocolate for my Mum and Dad and another for her parents and she collected them all in a pumpkin bucket - which matched her pumpkin costume!
4. Pumpkin.
On Halloween I text my bestie asking what her son, my godson, was dressed up as for the occasion. She text back saying that because he was born 7 weeks early and was still a tiny tiny little man she couldn't find a costume for him and it damn near broke my heart. So I hot footed it over to Tesco who did new born or 1 month outfits and I picked him up this pumpkin costume and sent it in the post. He got it the day after Halloween and had a belated photo shoot and can we just take a moment to appreciate how fucking cute?
5. Blue Planet II
I mean is there anything more soothing and British that Attenborough's voice on a Sunday night? Blue Planet II has started again on the BBC and it's just amazing. It doesn't matter if you have zero interest in fish, it's an incredible documentary and it just kinda puts into perspective how small we are in such a massive, undiscovered world. There's been 2 episodes so far with the third on this Sunday and you can catch up on iPlayer here.
6. Welsh Internationals.
It's rugby season again! It's the time of the year the home nations are playing international friendlies and Wales are kicking off 4 stonking weeks with Oz tomorrow. I am SO looking forward to having rugby back on my screen but even better, not all games are sold out. So whilst we couldn't justify the £90.00 per ticket for New Zealand I did get me, my boyfriend, my parents, my brother and his fiancée tickets for Wales Georgia next week and I am buzzzzing to see Wales live again. (image from the 6 nations this February soz).
7. Conflict of seasons.
So last week I was walking one of my neighbours dogs for them and it was sunny and I was only wearing jeans and a jumper and no coat and I had a flask of tea and I had a biiig conflict of seasons. I am in love with autumn, it's my fav season and I am all about the cold twang in the air but walking in the sun made me lust after warm days when you don't need a coat. It was one of those moments when you feel proper alive and in the moment and I felt a bit like a girl boss with my takeout coffee (read made at home flask of tea) and it was real living.
8. Harry P marathon.
So last weekend I said to Joss that we were having a Harry Potter marathon and he was partaking. I have said before that Harry P has always felt like a festive movie for me because they always have a snowy Christmas scene so I decided that between now and Christmas Day we'd watched a different Hazza movie every weekend tucked up in bed. We have a TV in our room that was mine from university and we never use it so last Saturday I made macaroni cheese, we ate it tucked up in our pjs and watched the Philospher's Stone with the dog and paused it halfway through for a hot chocolate. And it was bloody glorious, very hygge and now I am excited to get the next one going.
9. Lazy Thoughts.
I had to give this lil babe a shout out in this round up because she gave me an Instagram shout out last week. It was one of those FF on Instagram and she tagged me (first might I add) and my following really peaked after she did it. Not only is she a babe but also her Instagram is pretty banging so I'm not telling you what to do but you should definitely go and follow her....
10. IRL bloggers.
And from one blogger to another! Last weekend I was working a bitterly cold farmers market in Cowbridge with our cider business and the lovely Llinos came to visit me! Llinos and I don't live a million miles away from each other and yet this was the first time we've met and it was SO good to finally put a name to a face! Just a shame we missed out on a selfie opportunity....
11. Christmas baking.
You know tis the season when the Christmas cake gets going. I am NOT a fan of Christmas cake (I mean the mass of nuts in it that I'm allergic to is a good start) but I do love the tradition of my Mum soaking it in alcohol and popping it in the oven and we all stir the mixture and make a wish. This year for the first time though my niece baked it with her with her own apron and she bloody loved it. There is something so much more magical about the festive season when there's a little person involved.
12. Weekend away.
Yes that's right we've left the parents at home and I'm writing this from a hotel bed with free wifi and a bar of caramel on my bedside table. For our last 'free' weekend before Christmas Joss and I have come back to Dorset because we didn't feel we had enough time here in the summer so we're away for two nights for some autumnal walks and National Trust properties and the rugby and I think we became middle aged without realising it. But I am glad to be away all the same!
Now I don't want to alarm anyone but there's only like 3 of these before Christmas so you might want to think about turkey and crackers and quality street or summin.....
