What’s in a name? Part one

Ever wonder why this is pretty little blog and not some other title? I started it back in 2006(ish) because I had started a little online business called Pretty Little Parcels. I was very excited about Pretty Little Parcels when I started it. It was a time when I was really starting to engage with the idea of being more actively online. I’d started reading Brocantehome which is the first blog I can recall reading and being excited about visiting daily. I think I was also quite into the idea of making part of my living online. Seduced by the glamour of the dot com.

Anyway inspiration struck and I began PLP. The basis concept of PLP was sending out boxes with a few delightful surprise items in them. A bit like a cracker. So there would be something to make you feel beautiful, something delicious, something fun and something to make you think. I started the blog partly as a way of promotion but soon realised that I liked being able to record my thoughts and write about life.

I’m shutting down Pretty Little Parcels, but keeping the blogging. PLP was a great learning experience and didn’t leave me at a loss financially. I’m just not willing to devote the time to marketing it. Also I have issues with what I’m putting in the parcels. I was just experimenting with veganism when I started it and had no problems buying products with milk in them to go in the parcels. Now it doesn’t feel right for me to do so. On a similar note I’ve also gotten into the habit of not buying things. I’m sure a lot of products that I bought for parcels were made in sweatshops.

One of the biggest problems with my life (and it’s a blessing really!) is that there are so many things that I am interested in. I have to face up and realise that I can’t do them all at once. It’s time to move on. To focus. We think nothing of decluttering our homes, our desks, our wardrobes and our fridges. We’re not so good at decluttering our lives. Doing less better rather then more in a haphazard not really committed manner.

It’s nearly September and time for life to move on.

Get ready for the second act!

I love September

September is one of my favourite months. It’s got that fresh start, back to school, will-try-harder-this-year vibe. It seems like a whole world of possibilities being laid out in front of me. It signifies that it’s officially OK not to expect the weather to be good just because it’s August. Not to feel like you must party every night just because that’s what you’re supposed to do in the summer.

It’s been quite a hectic summer for me with lots going on at work and at home. So I really am anticipating with glee the possibility of being at my desk most days. It’s fun to plan lunches and outfits. I look forward to catching up with the gossip and the joy of working with my colleagues. I’ll be able to attend lunchtime exercise classes every week instead of grabbing the odd class here and there.

I like the thought of getting into a routine (although I suppose ritual would do just as well here?). Enjoying a cup of tea, the radio and a good book before retiring for the night. Waking up feeling fresh (and smiling!) before the alarm sounds. Watching for the colours of the trees to start changing. Anticipating the first nip of winter in the air.

September is a month of calm anticipation even if it doesn’t always come with a new pencil case. Don't forget to count your blessings.

Summer must be here

How do I know that summer must be here? Because last night I put my winter clothes away and got out my summer ones. I'm really thrilled (as usual) to discover that I own so many lovely things. however, I am slightly surprised at the vast quantities of shoes that I have unpacked.

Quite frankly the weather has been so changeable Iwas begining to think that I would just be in my winter clothes right through to October with the odd day here and there taken care of with a few pieces I have made. I am slightly nervous about the chilly temperature predicted for the end of the week but who knows wth weather. It's all chaos theory anyway and sometimes you just have to take a chance.

I am thinking that while delighting in my summer clothes I may plan in advance a few combinations for chillier days.

I'm also going to try and look after myself this week. I seem to have had a few very busy weeks with work and other things. I feel exhausted, am fretting over small things and just don't feel right. My puff pastry wouldn't puff. My eating habits are all over the place (either nothing or too much). I've missed a number of exercise opportunities. A friend suggested that I check my biorhythms and rather amusingly they do seem to be on a downward spiral at present.

Last week I purchased some delicious looking spinach at the market. Then on Saturday when I popped to the deli to do our grocery shopping I discovered raspberry cider vinegar and lemon infused olive oil. So I am planning lots of delicious salads. I simply can't decide which dressing to enjoy first.

So here's to a week with lots of salad, exercise and early nights followed up (hopefully) by lashings of blogging, creativity and cupboard clearouts.

I'm so looking forward to sharing my adventures with henna, updates on allotment and share the joy that having a study slowly emptying of clutter bring.

My photos

I just find it so hard to believe we are midway through January. Time to start blogging again on a regular basis!

Once again January is an alcohol free zone for me and Dear Heart. I've been taking the opportunity to set in place routines that I want to follow over the year and have been trying to spend more time working through my sewing to do pile. After a few weeks break over Christmas I'm now walking again on Saturday mornings. However bits of the trail have been rather soggy. Last week part was even flooded, luckily it was just before my turn around point. I'm now wearing wellingtons when I walk on this particular trail.




I'm making good progress on my fabric sewing to do pile and once that's sorted I'm going to start making gift bags to use up my fabric stash. Here are some pictures of present bags I made around Christmas.

Jingle bells and let it snow bags used snowflake sequins that were a table decoration (and destined for the bin) at a party and a bell from a long ago eaten chocolate reindeer.

I was also quite pleased with these gift tags made from magazine cuttings and fabric scraps. I couldn't find (until it was too late) where I'd put the Christmas cards from the previous year to make tags from.

and more Christmas bags...

Just for variety a few birthday bags

Here is the apple pie I made for our Thanksgiving themed dinner in December. I veganised Linda McCartney's recipe that uses cream cheese. I was delicious and there was enough left over for me to enjoy some for lunch the following week. One the subject of food, my lovely sister bought me a stick blender a a Christmas present. She didn't think it was a particularly great thing to give me but shrugged as it was on my list. I love my stick blender. No more batch blending of soup which resulted in soup dripped all over the work surface. Dear Heart will eat almost any soup as long as it is blended. He claimed the simply lovely carrot soup (from the garden of Vegan) that I made last weekend was the best soup I had ever made. Pretty high praise for a few carrots, some stock, dill and soya milk. I did make home made bread to go with it as well. the really easy bread recipe takes so little time and it's so nice to have fresh hot bread with home made soup.

That's all for now but more photos soon of some sewing projects I'm working on.

Where did it go?

It's just really hit me that summer is gone. This isn't a couple of days of rain in August. I can't assume that normal summer service will be resumed soon. It's October. It's Autumn proper. It's serious.

Things that have made me realise this:

• I'm wearing my new winter boots and thick tights.
• I've been cooking cold weather dinners for a few weeks.
• I've planned 90% of my Yule shopping.
• Manure day at the allotment is a month away

I've also looked at my entries for last October and realise that I changed my wardrobe over on 10th October last year.

Time to accept it's not going to get any warmer for a least 5 months and start taking action to take advantage of this.

Something old, something new

I've got my new winter boots from Bourgeois Boheme and they are gorgeous (and they sensibly have adjustable straps to make them fit around my calves). I definitely needed new boots following the loose sole incident earlier in the year (see Pride comes before post in March).

Not only is the product really good, so was the service. This company has tried to make the experience as lovely as possible. When I needed to exchange ,because the boots I'd been eyeing up all year didn't actually fit me, it was no problem.

I'm thrilled to hear that Bourgeois Boheme will be at the Christmas without Cruelty fayre and have told Dear Heart that we need to go so that he can buy my Christmas present. Amazingly he agreed!

That being the new out of the way, I've been using something old - my Popeye lunchbox. It still has a label stuck inside with my name and class. I've used an insulated bag in the past but I like the more rigid metal container as it means things are less likely to get squashed. The flask is proving great for carrying soups without leaks.

Life is grand. I've had a marvellous week of early starts, evenings with cups of tea and early nights. Tonight I'm looking forward to a Whisky Sour (tried one at a barbecue last weekend- yum), but only one. I want to walk on Saturday morning and then engage in autumn type activities!

September

Isn't September a totally amazing month? You get the new start buzz of January but without the grey skies, depleted bank balance and general sense of gloom. There's enough of a nip in the air to make PJs, baked potatoes and hot tea an option. Yet it's still warm enough to venture for a walk without a jacket. The last of the summer fruit is still available but the first of the autumn stuff is coming in too.

The summer after I graduated I ran a B&B in a tiny isolated village in France. I had a marvellous time. However, I began to long for Autumn and particularly autumn in England. There were a stack of old glossies magazines and I lingered over recipes for stew and autumn fashions from a decade earlier. I also discovered an old paperback copy of September by Rosamund Pilcher.

So I'm happily cooking potatoes from my allotment, making soup and sorting out slightly warmer clothes to wear (not that this summer allowed for much skimpiness!). I'm happily snuggling on the sofa of an evening reading It's vintage, Darling! by Christa Weil and looking forward to my new boots arriving from Bourgeois Boheme. I'm considering the possibility of taking a days leave in October just to sort out my winter clothes. I can't decide it's a terribly sensible idea or totally friv. Would I be better spending a day making soup?