Lust List

It's my birthday in 2 weeks. This means trawling the virtual ether for prettiness to drop some heavy hints (subtlety has never been my strong point). It's been fun. Here is this week's list:

Alfie the Apple - twobadbananas

Rob Ryan Bells Vase - Wild Wolf 

Josie Nautical Striped Dress - Oliver Bonas 

Friendship Bracelet - NOTHS

Bohemian Ceramic Bowl Set - Horsfall & Wright

FINISH Flat Sandals - ASOS

An exhausted lady's make-up bag

In Days Gone By I would think nothing of casually leaving the house without a scrap of make up on. These days have sadly passed for a number of reasons

a) 'Casually' leaving the house? Oh, come on.

b) I am 33 in 2 weeks time. This didn't bother me until I got a new camera. Like seeing yourself in HD all your crinkly glory in EVERY PHOTOGRAPH YOU OWN

c) In the last 5 years I've been through 2 pregnancies, childbirth (twice, obvs) and now am keeper to 2 small people who don't rate sleep as highly as I do. Turns out this takes its toll on your face. Who knew??

So these days there is at the very least a slick of mascara and liberal slather of foundation before I start my day.

I've experimented with many a product promising concealing, brightening, tightening and lifting over the last few years and these, my friends are my failsafe exhaustion-busters...

1. Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum

2. No. 7 Instant Radiance Beauty Lotion

3. Rimmel Lash Accelerator

4. Clinique Shimmering Tones Powder

5. Benefit Boi-ing concealer

And this is the result. Alot less scary than the original version

Will you be my friend?

A handful of times in my life I've met someone (usually female) and just sort of 'clicked'. That happened today at work. My last client of the day came in and I felt like I could talk to her forever. We found out loads of coincidences and parallels in our lives and I found myself really wanting to be her friend.

Which is weird, because you can't really just say to someone "will you be my friend?" especially when you're meeting on a professional level.

If this were a sexual thing, with a bloke, it would be different (if I weren't painfully shy and like, married) because then it's acceptable to ask to see someone again, but what do you do in this situation?

Is it ok to ask someone to be your friend? Is it possible to do it without seeming sad, lonely and desperate? I'm none of those things *cough* maybe sad *cough* but genuinely would love to meet for a cuppa, perhaps a playdate and get to know her better.

How about you - anyone ever brave enough to actually do this? I'm genuinely intrigued.

Disclaimer: I realise I may sound a touch stalker-ish after re-reading this. I promise I'm a well-rounded, normal individual with plenty of *actual* friends. Not just the ones in my head.

Bristol: the M Shed edition

FINALLY we have sunshine. I'm not going to bang on about my rainy day woes but lets just say they have been plentiful. Andy's brother and sis-in-law were visiting from London Town so we decided to take a trip into Bristol (something we don't do nearly often enough, I LOVE exploring the Harbourside) and visit M Shed.

M Shed is a museum dedicated to the history of Bristol. Perfect for families, it has lots of interactive exhibits to capture the imagination of little visitors. As well as the big old bus which is always a big hit, they are also displaying the pirate ship used in Bristol-based Aardman Animations' lastest film The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists.

And of course, no day in the sunshine would be complete without an ice cream at the end.

Childrens books: Nancy Tillman

Whilst searching for sewing patterns, I came across the blog of Lazy Seamstress. Jeanette's daughter, Florence was born on the same day as Max but sadly passed away just a few hours later.

Jeanette wrote a post about buying this book by Nancy Tillman for Florence. After reading her post I bought the book myself and it has since become one of my favourite childrens books.

Nancy writes beautifully and captures perfecty the love for a child. The story behind my buying the book gives the words a different significance than if I'd simply seen it on a shelf in a bookshop. It remains a emotive reminder of how precious life is and all we have to be thankful for.

P.S. I have also since bought this book by the same author. Equally as beautiful

Lust List

If this blog had a Lust List (it doesn't, I've checked) this week, it would look something like this...

1. Karoliina top - POP! The Fashion Store

2. Skirt - H&M

3. VERA Flatform shoes - ASOS

4. Vintage spoon ring - POP! The Fashion Store

5. Woofie cushion - John Lewis

6. Jubilee mug - Emma Bridgewater

Back!

Jeez, it's been forever since I've posted on here. I kind of fell out of love with blogging since it landed me in trouble a month or so ago. I took a little hiatus from Twitter and have left the blog (pretty much) alone for a while.

Anyhow, after a tricky few weeks I'm rested, back on form and ready to start again. So hi :)

So, yeah, what have I been up to for the last month? As always I turn to the good old iPhone for an update...

Camping. We bought a (cheap) campervan a few years ago. Honestly, it's been nothing but trouble. Something has happened every time we've been away in it, I'm convinced it's jinxed. It's cost a bloody fortune since we got it (there was a reason it was so cheap). Anyway, although this trip started well, didn't end so well...

This was the view on (what was supposed to be)  our last day. The less said about that the better.

Decorating. So we've had a child in that room for 4 years and we've only just decorated. What of it?

Writing. And eating. And writing. I went to a fitness convention a few weeks back and attended a lecture on nutrition. Backed up by extensive research, the basic gist of it was that if we focus too much on counting calories, we can make the wrong choices and become deficient in nutients vital to health. Without the basic foundations of health we cannot lose fat efficiently which is where many people go wrong. It might all be a bit boring to alot of people (diet bore-yawn!) but I find it fascinating and as such have spent weeks researching the topic and have written my very own eBook.

Of course, part of that research was to find or write recipes which of course needed road testing. Man, that was hard. Why I felt the need to photograph these meals I don't know but hey,they make this page look pretty.

Celebrating. My Dad turned 60 this month so we had a family weekend in Devon, grown-ups only. My Stepmum asked me to make a golf-themed cake which I feared would go horribly wrong but was actually pleased with the result. I *think* it tasted ok but it was consumed at 1am after an evenings frivolities so none of us can really be sure.

Marvellous.

Cycling. I was volunteered (thanks, husband *waves fist*) to do a charity bike ride from Bristol to Weston yesterday with the kids' nursery in aid of the Dame Kelly Holmes Legacy. 30 Miles, I thought, I can do that. I cycle to work and regularly do a longer ride of  20ms or so on a weekend so thought it'd be fine.

Then they asked me to cycle home again. Yep, stupidly agreed (it's for the kids, innit?). It was hard, especially on the way back when there were only 4 of us who didn't get the train back so the speed was increased and there were less stops. All good though, an amazing effort from all and yes, I do have a very sore bum today.

If anyone is kind enough to want to donate to the foundation by the way, you can do so via Paypal using the email address andysherlock@yahoo.com giving your name for the sponsorship form. Thank you :)