Reflecting on my week #82

* This post contains an item that was gifted.

You’ve got to love a Bank Holiday weekend haven’t you? Even though quite often the four day week that follows it feels like the longest week ever, and even though after a spectacular Easter the weather has resorted to more usual Bank Holiday behaviour. We packed a lot into ours, and quite honestly I think three day weekends are the way forward…

Next weekend it’s my oldest niece’s wedding, which seems to have come round all of a sudden. My preparations, which are mostly my outfit, have been coming together in dribs and drabs. I’m very much of the opinion that if you see something you like then you should buy it, and so a January sales item has become my wedding outfit. A couple of months later a hat of the same colour was added, rather fortuitously as the outfit wasn’t with me when I bought the hat.

Then last month I was out and chilly so popped into Zara to buy a cardigan, opting for something that would complement this outfit incase the day was chillier than we want it to be. Although I’m hoping it will be much warmer than this weekend, or else the cardy might not cut it. And I’m sure my niece is hoping for warmer weather too, as there aren’t many cardy-wearing brides are there?

 Which left shoes and a bag, and I’ve been undecided. I should go for white, but white shoes. Well they’re not really me, so of course I delayed and deliberated thinking I have silver ones that I could wear or tan sandals, they’d do too. With a week to go though, I thought I really ought to try and pull it all together. So on the outfit went, on went the jewellery, and the hat and MOH’s verdict was sought.

Bright.

Not quite the response I expected, but one that’s probably accurate. And that was without the shoes. The trousers were, of course too long. Adding the tan sandals, still too long. Higher shoes, that’s what’s needed my inner voice said, so out came the silver heels with an inbuilt wedge. Still too long. This length wasn’t going to be solved by heels. Stilts maybe, but not heels.

And so sewing was needed. MOH was instructed on how to pin and where. Then hemming was required. Lots of hemming. You see the trousers have lining, the sort of lining that’s not attached. It was already much shorter than the outer material, but to be safe I hemmed that too. Four rounds of handsewn hemming, trying for the stitches not to show on the outside.

HEMMING. LOTS OF HEMMING. BUT HAVING THREAD THAT MATCHED MY OUTFIT WAS AN UNEXPECTED SURPRISE.

HEMMING. LOTS OF HEMMING. BUT HAVING THREAD THAT MATCHED MY OUTFIT WAS AN UNEXPECTED SURPRISE.

But it’s done, it just needs pressing. And then setting aside ready for the weekend.

My shoe choice? I opted for my tan Hasbeens, which I expect to last the whole day in, and which seem the sensible choice having learnt that there’s a woodland path to the church from the car park. Having settled on the shoes, my bag choice followed. I have two, what I can now safely call vintage tan leather bags, as I learnt this weekend that for clothes and accessories anything over twenty years old is considered vintage. Both of my vintage tan bags, I’ve had since new, one is more used than the other. My initial thoughts were to smarten up my go to, more used bag, but I thought I’d look out the other one as it’s smaller and potentially smarter.

It’s also, as it turned out, a better match for my outfit and so that had a bit of a spruce up too. I coated it with olive oil to nourish and help soften the leather, following the advice and wisdom I received when I first bought my Hasbeens. And since I’d bought another pair of Hasbeens earlier in the year - another January sales purchase - these were olive oiled at the same time. These ones are mules, and despite looking a light tan in the picture below are actually more of a yellow, and I’m sure that won’t surprise you either.

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So it seems, now I’m all set. Outfit, shoes and an almost double vintage bag, which I think was probably my first handbag. It’s had some, but not very much use, so its condition is almost perfect and I’m sure was a present from my aunt. It’s funny how some things, especially those that are classically styled just take a little while for us to grow into, or a bit more of a while to be considered usable again. I’m sure this saddlebag-style bag has never really gone out of fashion, but now - or rather next week - is the time that it’s making a reappearance on my shoulder.

Although I’m now a little concerned that someone will make a 1970s connection or comment about my outfit. Clogs, as some might call Hasbeens, a saddle bag and, well for the rest of my outfit you’ll have to wait. But if anyone does, I’m just saying here I called it first!

I’ve also realised that I’m having a bit of an orange week: the outfit, the handbag and some new colour in my hair. Which isn’t actually orange, though it’s not that far off, it’s probably officially called copper or something, but orange is generic enough. So I wasn’t surprised when I opted to try the orange boxed coffee called Smooth Journey, which the Lost Sheep Coffee sent me to try.

SMOOTH JOURNEY COFFEE FROM THE LOST SHEEP COFFEE

SMOOTH JOURNEY COFFEE FROM THE LOST SHEEP COFFEE

Lost Sheep Coffee is an independently owned business based in Kent whose Nespresso compatible capsules are certified compostable. They have their own Speciality Coffee Roastery in Whitstable which are filled with their speciality grade coffee which they buy direct from the farmer, paying them up to four times more than they would receive through importers. A box of ten capsules retails for £3.95 and this is just one of two varieties available in capsules, the other is called Funky Camper, which I’ve yet to try.

For me, our Nespresso machine has revolutionised how we drink coffee, and while we send our capsules back for recycling we know they’re not the greenest of machines. However with compostable capsules that could change, and that is the reason for a snap of my compost bin. I’m keen to see how they rot down, but immediately after use you can see they’re already behaving differently to the Nespresso capsules.

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I’m a fair weather coffee drinker, enjoying a cup or two occasionally whereas MOH is a coffee every day type of guy. He prefers stronger tastes, me milder varieties, him with milk, me without - yes we couldn’t be more different at times - but interestingly we both enjoyed this coffee. The one suggestion I have for Lost Sheep Coffee is to include which size, or amount of water, to use. Is it a lungo or espresso, as I believe that determines the force that the machine pushes the water through the capsule.

That said, I’m looking forward to trying the lime green packaged Funky Camper variety next.

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There was some brief time in the garden but only in between the bouts of weather on Saturday. Rain, hailstones and wind, after one of the showers I nipped out to the greenhouse to pick some sage for dinner and couldn’t help but stop and take a few pictures. The rain glistening on the weigela was pretty spectacular and a reminder that we have plenty of gardening to do.

Instead though we’ve spent most of today at Grand Designs Live over at Excel, it’s one of my favourite home shows and I’ve plenty to share from there, and plenty of photos to edit from our visit, but look out for an overview post from this year’s show shortly.

* While the Lost Sheep Coffee was gifted, I was under no obligation to share it here on my blog.

Reflecting on my week #81

This last week I’ve decided to up my walking game in a bid to be a bit more active, and that’s meant the start of the #LongWalkHome for me over on my Instagram stories. With Greenwich Park on my doorstep and already part of my walking commute I figured that I’d be daft not to make more use of it. And so I have, my long walks home have included walking to parts of the park, like the Flower Garden, which I’ve not visited for quite a while. While I’m tracking my routes, speed and mileage out of curiosity and pure geekness, if anyone else clocks that I’m on a bit of a long winded route around the park, I’m convinced they’ll think I’m a little bonkers.

It’s not just in the park that I’ve ventured though, in an bid to make my 1.8mile route to and from work a little longer and more varied I’m taking different streets, quite often purposefully to take me out of my way a little. It’s paid off though as there’s plenty to see. I’m trying not to stop too often, but sometimes it would be rude not to, and take a snap or two. Like this one, it looks perfectly composed, and it is, but naturally so.

fallen cherry blossom

The fallen blossom in the background, the cluster of blossom falling onto the moss and the stone wall in the foreground. I’m not sure I could have placed these any more perfectly. Cherry blossom time in Greenwich Park is a pretty special, but busy time, so it’s nice to find something to photograph that not everyone has.

Sunday was London Marathon day, and for us that means quiet roads and usually I dub it ‘meet the neighbours day’ - this year though there were fewer of us, with even MOH off out early on a bike ride for the day. There were no less marathon runners though, and I thought the backdrop of the runners would provide the background I wanted for my #PissOffPhyllis badge - although if you saw on Instagram yesterday, you’ll have seen that a photo off the TV of someone running for Bowel cancer trumped this one.

london marathon 2019 and #pissoffphyllis

On Sunday evening I was part of something special, sending quite a large #LoveBomb to a fellow blogger who’s recently been diagnosed with Bowel cancer. Her reaction made me cry, but it was a reminder that bloggers are amazing. There’s more in my post from yesterday if you want to know more, or just go and check out the hashtag on any of your social channels.

Usually Marathon Day means a cooked breakfast, as it’s hard work watching 20,000 or so runners go past. But there’s not much fun in a lone cooked breakfast, especially when you’re trying to be good, so another tack was called for this year. The revised approach also gave me the perfect opportunity to use my new crockery.

breakfast detritus

Saturday I dragged MOH up to the garden centre. My plan was to get him to lug the seed compost that was on my list, and that happened, but somehow we made a few extra stops along the way and I returned home with a couple of tomato plants, a sage plant and some new solar lights which look interesting. There was soil compost too so that’s a bonus, although there’s been little seed planting as such so far, but with lighter evenings there’s a chance for some evening greenhouse pottering.

tomatoes and sage

It was so chilly though on Saturday that I didn’t brave the garden, in fact in the end we caved and the heating went on for a short while. C’mon weather, it’s April.

Telling Phyllis to Move On

Now I don’t often swear, and rarely swear on here but today I’m going to make an exception, so if you’re likely to be offended then please just skip this post. I hope you don’t though, because it’s about cancer which quite frankly is offensive and indiscriminate.

Sadly cancer isn’t a stranger in my family, or yours too I suspect. My parents have both had their own battle with the disease (which they both won) but unfortunately my FIL wasn’t so lucky and we lost him last summer. I’ve friends that have encountered cancer, with mixed success, and I’m sure you have too.

One of those is Emma from Island Living 365 who has recently been diagnosed with Bowel cancer and who is bravely sharing her cancer journey online. Despite her recent post entitled Running away from Bowel Cancer she’s doing far from that. Instead she’s planning to run - or as she would say - plod, in the Race for Life for Cancer Research UK in Jersey at the end of May. While she’s already smashed her fundraising target, it would be great if we could add to her total, if you’re able to, to help beat cancer for everyone sooner.

Emma has named her cancer Phyllis and her updates regularly include #PissOffPhyllis - today many of the blogging community are showing our support for Emma and encouraging Phyllis (and her friends) to move on, as they’re really not welcome. Anywhere. Any of them.

We’ve all got badges with the #PissOffPhyllis message (thanks Lucy and the BlogOn team!) and we’re wearing them proudly and hitting our blogs and social media to show Emma our support. If you’re able to share this post, or any of my social posts for this on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram then I’d really appreciate your help.

April is Bowel cancer Awareness month

So it’s only fitting that we’ve managed to get this arranged to sneak in to the end of this month, and appropriate that I include some information about Bowel cancer too:

  • Bowel cancer is the second biggest cancer killer in the UK claiming more than 16,000 lives a year, that's over 44 people every day.

  • Bowel cancer is the fourth most common cancer in the UK, after breast, prostate and lung cancers.

  • Every 15 minutes in the UK someone is diagnosed with bowel cancer. That’s almost 42,000 people every year. Every 30 minutes someone dies from the disease in the UK. 

  • More than nine out of ten new cases (94%) are diagnosed in people over the age of 50, and nearly six out of ten cases (58%) are diagnosed in people aged 70 or over. But bowel cancer can affect any age. More than 2,500 people under 50 are diagnosed with bowel cancer in the UK every year.

  • 1 in 14 men and 1 in 19 women will be diagnosed with bowel cancer during their lifetime.

Bowel cancer is very treatable but the earlier it is diagnosed, the easier it is to treat. People whose cancer is diagnosed at an early stage have a much higher chance of successful treatment than those whose cancer has become more widespread. If you have any symptoms, don’t be embarrassed and don’t ignore them. Doctors are used to seeing lots of people with bowel problems.

The symptoms of Bowel cancer can include:

  • Bleeding from your bottom and/or blood in your poo

  • A persistent and unexplained change in bowel habit 

  • Unexplained weight loss

  • Extreme tiredness for no obvious reason

  • A pain or lump in your tummy

So Phyllis, it’s time for you (and all your friends) to move on

You’re most definitely not welcome. In fact I’ve struggled to find anywhere where you are welcome.

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If you would also like to support Emma beating cancer you can follow her updates on her blog, Facebook, Twitter and/or Instagram. Or if you can spare a pound or two then a donation to her fundraising page for Cancer Research UK would be appreciated.  Thank you.

PoCoLo