Friday Favourites 29th October - 13th November 2016.
Friday Favourites 13th November 2016.
Well this is novel, a Friday Favourites on a Sunday? Go with me on this.
In my last weekly Friday Favourites I mentioned that I wasn't going to be posting weekly anymore and that I'd be doing just one round up a month in a bit of a bumper issue - unless I found otherwise.
And I found otherwise.
I found writing my weekly Favourites a real slog but I bloody love writing bumper issues and I kinda note down my favourite things in my blog planner and quite quickly I realised I was going to have way too much for a monthly post.
Sooooo the plan from now on is to one every fortnight or kinda halfway through the month (to the nearest Friday) except, here we are and it's Sunday evening. The past fortnight I've been hideously busy with just life. I've had some god awful internet days which obviously is less than ideal for blogging and I mentioned in this post I found myself in a bit of a mini rut and I've just had a load on. I needed to do A LOT for my business this week and my To Do list was as long as my arm and sadly blogging had to go to the back of the queue. Except I wasn't all that bothered about it....like my stats are fine, I didn't feel like the world was going to end and I just kinda went a bit blarghhh.
On Friday I spent the day out of the house hence this post didn't get the chance to go live and then yesterday I was launching my Christmas shop and uhm, watching Wales (priorities) and today I have been working but, but, I really wanted a mid month Friday Favs to go live and this is the story of why it's going up on a Sunday.
Most long winded introduction ever but hey, I feel like we haven't chatted in ages.
1. Halloween.
Now doesn't that seem like a long time ago? That's what I love about the bumper Friday Favs. My Halloween was very quiet this year, I was with my niece who was dressed as a pumpkin and then I worked in the evening and had a late night because Joss was working on a late shift. But. But. We got home like 11pm all weary and Joss' Mum had bought us these as a little Halloween treat. We had smarties and biscuits and mini chocolate fingers and oh mumma it was the best treat to come home to after a long day.
2. I Got A Job!
So for those of you who don't know I am a freelance illustrator for my day job and as I work from home in a very unpredictable way where I get commissioned to work. So be that blog work, cards, portraits, social media work, whatever it is I get asked to do it. I don't have a stable secure job and my most regular work is online based running a website and social media channels of a local society. Anyway this month (potentially the end of the last month) I got an offer from Chester Racecourse to pitch for a job and low and behold I got it. Pitching for a job requires proofs and examples and roughs and most importantly, quoting for the money and it's awfully stressful so I was made up to get it. So anyway now it's all been approved I am designing the children's menus for one of Chester Racecourse's restaurants and this is the one they're currently using before they use the Christmas design which I also illustrated. It's been a fun job to work on!
3. Primarni.
My love. If you didn't realise how much love I have for good old Primark you can read this post here but if you want a summary; it's a lot. Anyway this month I have basically been living in my Monsters Inc pjs that I got for my birthday and they are the fluffiest softest warmest most amazing pjs I have ever worn. Like they are way too warm to wear to bed even in this weather so they are my designated lounge wear at the moment. If you see them in your local store YOU NEED THEM. And then, oh boyyyy, then I went and bought the most outrageous pair of pointed leopard print boots and they're SO marmite but I bloody love them. They are awaiting their Instagram debut.
4. Rugby Season.
Doesn't matter if it's Autumn Internationals, The World Cup or The 6 Nations, international rugby season is one of my favourite times of year. Ok so admittedly Wales didn't get off to the BEST start (we were horrific let's not beat around the bush) but it's been such a corker of a season already and me and my jersey are looking forward to the next few weeks we have it on our TV.
5. Cold Weather Food.
I don't have any photos of my food the past few weeks because every single time I have demolished it before I could get a photo in but hey, thug life. One of the best best things about Autumn and Winter is bulking, we all need those extra few layers for the cold snap but for me it means hearty stodgy food and I have had it in the shed load the past fortnight. I started the month with homemade stew and dumplings made by Joss' mum who is the queen of it, it IS Winter food for me and then the following day I made me and Joss my mac and cheese which was incred. And thennnnn last week we had a TGI's which is less wintery per se but was still a massive meal and Joss had a burger that came with a side of gravy which screams cold weather to me. Now all I need is turkey dinner and toad in the hole and I'll be set.
6. Blogging Baes.
I don't know if I'll ever NOT mention these gals in a favourites post. I feel like you get to a stage on social media where you have a little girl gang and I'm lucky enough to have these beauties at hand at all times on Whatsapp. The past few weeks we've gone from GUYS I JUST WANTED TO SAY I LOVE YOU AND I FEEL LIKE WE'VE KNOWN EACHOTHER FOREVER to learning German (thanks Hannah), sharing blog tips, sending homemade GIFs of ourselves, bitching and chatting and laughing and making 1000000 typos and then at one point we were like WE SHOULD ALL GO AWAY TOGETHER. Let's just remind ourselves here that at this point we haven't actually met Effi and Nina because they couldn't make the picnic we organised together. I bloody love the bones off them and they deserve a mention always.
7. My Little Bestie.
Ahhhh what do I even do now I don't have a weekly favourites list to talk about my niece in? If you've been reading the blog for a while now I became an Auntie last year and my little pal is now nearly 18 months old omfg kill me now. She's a lucky little gal as she has a big family including 2 aunties and she needs a lot of babysitting which means she's with the relatives A LOT which means we have a much closer relationship than a lot of aunties of babies. She's a lot of fun and she's been talking for a while now and lately she's gone wild. I have lost count of the words she can say, she just says everything she wants or wants to do and she's HILARIOUS. But, she's been saying names for a while now. She got mimi (Mummy) and Dada early on followed by Nain (my mum) and got the grandparents and her other Auntie quite easily but unsurprisingly I knew Auntie Gwennan would be a bit of a toughie for her. But for about a fortnight or so now she's finally cracked it in her own way and she practically screams GEE NUN when she needs me and be still my beating heart it's bloody adorable. Oh and yeah this is her Halloween outfit I took her to Tesco in.
8. Cardiff Underground.
Right so if you go to Cardiff at the moment there's these really intriguing pop up things in the shopping centre called #ilovesthediff. They're like book titles all relating to Cardiff and all kinds of really cool things you don't reeeeally notice but this was my fav that I spotted last week. It's like a pretend Underground system of South Wales and Cardiff based on the London Tube and it would be bloody ace if it actually came true. I'm not going to pin point specific points but if you know me or the area you'll find my village, Joss' village, where I went to school, where my grandparents live, where my Dad and brother work and a whole host of other places familiar to me. It's pretty blaaady ace.
9. Buster The Boxer.
I mean obvs this had to be up there didn't it? After the shock of this week's Presidential Election John Lewis took pity on us and released their Christmas advert (I like to think it wasn't scheduled and they just went nawww poor world). And they've done it again. This one didn't make me cry which I was disappointed at for like all of 2 seconds until that silent bit comes on and it's just Buster jumping over the fence. Bloody loved it and this year they've teamed up with The Wildlife Trust and you can buy a whole host of fluffy foxes and hedgehogs and of course Buster for you to buy. Now all we need is the Holidays Are Coming advert and Christmas will be onnnnnn.
10. Christmas Shopping.
Yep I have officially started. In case you didn't know, Joss, my boyfriend works as a carer and so his schedule is VERY hectic and very long and they're not allowed time off between December and January so Christmas for us the past 2 years has been a bit last minute plans. With that in mind we worked out we needed one day together to do our Christmas shopping and I'll be able to finish the bulk on my own and because of the who what when of his rota we did it last Friday, the whole reason this post wasn't written then. We had a TGI Friday's, we went to Cardiff and Bridgend and about 32947357834 different shops and we were out alllll day accompanied by a Christmas CD my Dad bought me for the festive day. We got a lot, we got all the boring things like wrapping paper and bags and I snapped up some new decorations for my tree and we had a really cute day.
11. More Popular Than Twitter.
I'd forgotten about this so I am SO glad I had the good sense to write it down in my trusty blog planner as a fav of the past few days. The gorgeous babe that is Rachel from NoSpaceForMilk tweeted me last week to say that my humble little blog appears as suggested before Twitter and naturally, I took that to mean I am more famous than the social media site. Like I think that's fair enough, we can all accept that I'm sure. This had to be on my favs because 1. It was hilarious and 2. She's generally a massive babe and I love her and she deserved a mention all of her very own because it was her birthday a few days ago too. Love you pal!
12. My Christmas Shop.
Well I had to leave it to the end didn't I? The main reason I have been so busy the past fortnight or so is getting ready for the launch of my Etsy Christmas shop which I wanted to be a week ago but life and deliveries delay. Boo. Anyway my Christmas shop is live and full of what I hope are lovely Christmas gifts and cards and lots of fun things for bloggers too which you should probably all check out and purchase a little summin summin because you love me and want me to make some cash so I can make more lovely products. K thanks. -insert heart emoji here-
And that's it- another Friday Favs (on a Sunday) is over and done with and the next exciting instalment will be in another fortnight or so! See you on the flip side babies!