2016.

Image found via Pinterest here

Happy New Year! I can't believe that 2015 is already over, I feel like it should only be October...at the very latest. Looking back, I can see that I managed an impressive total of 5 blog posts over the last year - that must be some sort of record!

2015 was wonderful - it was the year that I married my best friend and I will always treasure it for that. The months leading up to our September wedding were a haze of preparation and excitement, and the day itself was simply magical (although if I could state one criticism, it's that it went far too quickly.) We went on a wonderful honeymoon in Sicily a few days after the wedding, which was absolutely blissful. We both took three weeks off to celebrate our wedding, three fabulous weeks which passed like three short minutes - why does that always happen with holidays and yet when you're not on holiday sometimes it feels like a month has passed before Friday finally arrives?

Saving up the annual leave to have three weeks off in a row meant that we had very little time off both before and after the wedding. 2015 was busy - 'busy' doesn't even seem like a strong enough word for work at the moment and, on top of that, I'm commuting almost 4 hours a day. Stupid really. As soon as I came back from honeymoon, I threw myself back into it and it was exhausting.

So it's not much of a surprise that as soon as I stopped for a breather at Christmas, I got sick and I've been ill for the majority of the holiday. Lesson learned!

Rather than make a list of resolutions this year, which somehow I never follow after a few weeks, I'm determined to start looking after myself a little more and have made a little list of must-dos which all revolve around that. I need to eat more healthily and make time to improve my fitness. Actually, the word' improve' implies some level of fitness which doesn't actually exist. I want to achieve some level of fitness (!), taking up yoga again and swimming more regularly. Mental fitness is important too and a good friend of mine (hi M!) recommended a meditation app, which I tried today for the first time and am hoping to fit into my schedule on a regular basis. I know it'll be difficult to stop my brain from stepping in and funnelling a whole range of thoughts into these sessions but with practice I'm sure it'll get easier.

I also want to really focus on some more me time, doing things that are relaxing (crafting, blogging, cooking) and help my brain to switch off from work, and more us time - I have a very understanding hubby but it is not fun that I come home from work every evening, absolutely exhausted, and fall asleep on the sofa an hour later. First step for the new year, we're planning a move to reduce my commute. Hooray!

So 2016, it's time for me to adjust my priorities - look after myself a little more and have some fun and adventures on the way. Let's go!

Three Day Weekend ♥

Oh my goodness, this three day weekend really couldn't have come at a more perfect time. I changed departments at work on Friday so the few weeks prior to that had been a whirl of trying to get as much as possible finished before drafting memos and handover notes, and then Friday itself meant starting from scratch again. It was a bit of a shock to the system. I left work on Friday evening with the thought of three free days stretching ahead, blissfully empty, and the knowledge that the mister was making homemade burgers for dinner - happy times.

Most of our weekends from now until the wedding are pretty busy and with the last few weeks being quite hectic for both of us, we decided to have a relaxed weekend...as well as spending some time working on the designs for our invitations and website.

Sunday strolls with this handsome chap.

I woke up on Saturday morning with my usual migraine (sigh) but I didn't mind just taking painkillers and relaxing, safe in the knowledge that I wasn't losing a lot of valuable weekend time. This did the trick and was followed by a lazy breakfast with the papers, before the mister headed to the gym and I cleaned the flat - I do like to start the weekend with a tidy home. We then decided to go into town, wandered around Soho for a while and booked tickets to watch 'The Falling' - set in an English school in 1969, where a fainting epidemic breaks out amongst the students after a tragedy hits. A beautiful, disturbing, well-acted melodrama - I'm still thinking about and digesting it a few days later. Definitely worth watching.

On Sunday morning, I pulled on my wellies and went out for a long walk with my aunt and her gorgeous 10 month old puppy. One day I want to have a pup of my own (black velvet pug please, and yes I already know what he'll be called) but until then I live vicariously through pictures of friends' pups and walks with the very handsome, very naughty Tio. He's such a sociable chap though that I'm able to make friends with lots of other hounds too, including (this weekend's highlight!) a pair of snorting French bulldogs.

London, you're beautiful in the sunshine.

The mister and I went for another walk today, along the river in the sunshine. It seems like a
completely different day as I type this looking out at the rain, but it was so warm this afternoon. We strolled along the river front, looking at some ducks having a snooze on a sunny ledge and little boats zooming along the Thames, before popping in to a pub beer garden to sip cool drinks in the shade. We talked wedding and honeymoon plans, which have really come along over the last few months. Over countless pots of tea this weekend, our invites, RSVPs and the wedding website have started to take shape too. It's all starting to feel more and more, excitingly real and I think it will be even more real when the invites go out. In just over four months time, I'm going to be a Mrs! Jeepers.

On that note, I think it's time for another cup of tea. Well played, long weekend. Same again next week?

National Stationery Week

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So I've just heard that this week is National Stationery Week in the UK. It's not like I really need an excuse to get excited about new stationery but...

I believe that the inspiration behind National Stationery Week (at least, this year) as well as celebrating all things stationery, is to celebrate the power of the written word and to encourage more children to put pen to paper. Don't get me wrong, an email or message from a friend with some news or just saying hello is always exciting, but a handwritten letter or card is infinitely more special. One of my dearest friends (hello Mels!) regularly sends letters and postcards, and their arrival never fails to put a smile on my face...particularly as they have a wonderful knack of arriving after a difficult day at work! I keep them all and am amassing quite a collection of memories and words to look back on and treasure.

A handwritten letter always makes me think of one glorious summer holiday while I was at school. It was very early in the holiday and I was spending the day at my Granddad's house, where my brother and I would always go while Mum was at work. I didn't want to go outside (too hot!), there was nothing on TV (snore!) and I didn't want to start my homework (that's what the last weekend before school is for!) I decided to write a letter to my best friends - twins - and the three of us were inseparable at school, which swiftly turned into a flurry of exchanged correspondence over the course of the summer. In an age before mobile phones, non-cordless landlines meant that phone calls to friends involved sitting in the hall whispering into the mouthpiece while various family members hovered nearby. These letters exchanged over the summer holiday were full of the snippets of news and secrets that could never be uttered aloud. By the end of the summer holiday, I had a little pile of envelopes which I still have - treasured memories of a summer before the years when we would hop on a train and go into town, just to sit around in cafes or endlessly browse the same shops.

One of my New Year's resolutions this year was to send more letters and so far, I've sent the grand total of ONE. Oh dear. I've sent a few cards and we're currently working on the designs for our wedding invitations, so that'll mean a lot of post to be sent out, but somehow I don't think that's quite the same! So this weekend, a three day weekend (bliss!), I'm determined to evoke a little bit of that summer (too many!) years ago - to put pen to paper and write a few letters to  some friends.

Happy National Stationery Week :)

So it's been a while...

I doubt anyone noticed I was gone but I really did miss my little corner of the Internet! My faithful old laptop gave up the ghost last year and I muddled along without it for as long as I could but this weekend, after some chats with the mister, I decided to splash out on a shiny new one. Unexcitingly, it was work that swung the decision - I really do need to work from home sometimes and as the mister does freelance work from time to time, I can't rely on his laptop whenever I need to.

But now I have a shiny new toy (eep!) and I'm so excited about all the planning, researching and blogging opportunities it brings...and work too, of course. Ahem.

It's good to be back!

Ipad Mini-me!

This year's birthday was a particularly exciting one as I unwrapped a beautiful Ipad Mini from my wonderful mister. I'd been wanting an Ipad ever since my friend Mel visited last summer with hers, and I saw all the possibilities it could bring to an organisey, planner-y, blog-reader-y soul like me. I put it out of my head though (too expensive!) but my mum getting one for Christmas only made things worse - would it be too much to say my family had to check my bag after every visit? Well, I did manage to resist but it was difficult.

So, after unwrapping a very familiar box on the morning of my birthday, I was more of an ecstatic go lucky Cat, than a mere happy one. It was a very early start to a birthday this year as well as I had an early morning appointment booked (10am! On a Saturday!) with my Mum to try on some wedding dresses. But I hardly noticed the time...until the mister actually had to take the Ipad out of my hands so I'd be able to leave the house on time. 

A few weeks have passed now but the thrill really hasn't worn off. Whereas in the past I'd crank up my clunky old laptop (she's quite a few years old now, bless her) to browse Instagram, Pinterest or my favourite blogs in the evening, or use my phone, it's a real pleasure to view them on the Ipad. I don't have the newest version but the images are still beautifully crisp, and it's just so much more convenient to use, usually either curled up on the sofa with a mug of tea or last thing at night tucked up in bed, when I really should be sleeping. *ahem*

I think I need to do a little more research to ensure that I'm getting the most out of my little Ipad though. As well as the usual-suspects (Pinterest, Bloglovin, Twitter and Facebook), I have Flow, which is an Ipad-friendly Instagram app. It has a larger display than Instagram and is a lovely method of browsing the site. I use Evernote to create notes, lists and checklists - I have a particularly detailed wedding checklist on the go, which is particularly exciting now that the year to go countdown has begun! I've also recently discovered the Pocket app. This enables you to save web pages into one place so that you can read them later, offline. It's especially useful for those of us with wifi-only devices, so I can catch up on interesting articles or posts when out and about. 

I would love to know if there are other apps I should download though...please let me know your favourites! If only to get me away from the Hay Day app, which I should never have been introduced to...

Weekend Catch-Ups

It's been a strange sort of weekend. After a fun night out on Friday, catching up with a friend I hadn't seen in far too long, I woke up on Saturday morning with a horrible headache and spent most of the day in a migraine haze. To those of you lucky enough not to suffer from migraines - I'm so jealous! If you do, however, I'd love to hear any little coping strategies you've discovered. My usual technique is to take some painkillers and rub some tiger balm on my temples before lying down in a dark room - the tiger balm sends a delicious warmth though my head which somehow seems to reduce the tension.

Source 

Alas, nothing seemed to work on Saturday though and I spent a good amount of the day curled into a sad little ball and feeling very sorry for myself.

Thankfully, come late-afternoon, the mister (who was also suffering with a cold) and I had a visit from a good friend who came over just to cook us dinner - aren't we lucky?! A delicious monkfish curry with mushroom pilau rice, no less. We felt very spoiled. And full. 

Today I headed over to my parents' house to begin the terrifying job that is Organising My Bookshelves. Living in a tiny flat, I could only bring a tiny percentage of my books with me when I moved and so my childhood room doesn't really look much different without me there. However, it's about time to begin sorting through my books to put them into boxes to wait for the magical day when I can have my very own house with a library (and an attic bedroom, beautiful kitchen with aga, a study, and a garden WITH CHICKENS) so that my Mum and Dad can actually make some use of the room.

It wasn't an easy task - my books are stacked three-deep on the shelves and entirely in alphabetical order - my first Saturday job was in a library and, you know, I'm fun like that - so I felt quite sad taking them all down. I have so many memories associated with those books - childhood books, university texts and all manner of Japanese books picked up while I was living out there. It wasn't just the books themselves that evoked so many memories though but the little items tucked inside - train tickets from London to Scotland (I got through so many books on my journeys to and from university!), scraps of paper covered in doodles, old concert tickets and exhibition notes. As you can probably imagine, a lot of time was taken up by flicking through my favourites; deciding which ones can go into storage and creating a pile of others that are too well-loved to store for long.

Image found on Pinterest here

I have three big boxes that are almost full and two big bags to donate to my local Oxfam bookshop (although I'm loath to part with them). It's very much an ongoing process though and I'm already looking forward to un-boxing all of my boxed-up favourites again and arranging them on my future bookshelves.

So in a suitably nostalgic mood, I'm now curled up on the sofa watching the Artist - a gloriously nostalgic nod to the silent movie era. Very cosy.

A quiet weekend but enjoyable in its own way, and productive too. I hope you all had wonderful weekends. Can it really almost be Monday already?!