BEDN - Unusual Hobbies (aka my secret eraser stash of shame)

Today's prompt for Blog Every Day in November is Unusual Hobbies, and the little guy above is a bit of a hint about mine.

As a bit of a crafter I guess I have quite a few hobbies which wouldn't be considered as that unusual. However - I do have another hobby which I guess is a little unusual - I collect erasers (or for the 80's kids of the UK out there - rubbers - a word which has taken on a whole new meaning now)!

My love for stationery in general started when I was about 8 years old, and I don't think there's been a point in my life when it has lessened at all! So now I keep a box of erasers - about 90% of them of animals. I'm always on the look-out for a new eraser to add to the stash. A bit weird, huh?

This is a very tiny selection of some of the newer erasers in my collection...

And then there's all the vintage animals erasers - these were totally the favourite style of eraser for 8-year-old me...

Honestly though - this is the tip of the iceberg regarding my eraser stash - I may have a problem. It's a good job they're tiny and take up no space!

Do you have any 'unusual' hobbies or collections (although I can't help but think that everyone's hobbies are probably considered unusual by other people who just don't 'get' whatever that hobby may be!)?

Right, time to go and browse e-Bay for some more of the vintage erasers of my childhood collection.

Gah! I need help!

Bye for now xx

BEDN - Friday Night in...

I don't ask much from my Friday nights - some serious relaxation is really all I'm looking for. I'm trying to start a bit of a Friday night relaxation routine at the moment to help me unwind. It starts with listening to some music which I know will chill me out - Mumford & Sons, Ben Howard, Tom Odell...something along those lines.

As I mentioned in my recent Hello Fresh post - I'm really enjoying learning to do a bit of decent cooking, so that has definitely formed part of my Friday night in.

Next up is some crafting - and I feel a little bit happier with the world knowing that a book dedicated only to stitching Benedict Cumberbatch related patterns has been published. I snapped that bad boy up straight away because...well...I'm pretty sure it needs no explanation. Friday nights in will be dedicated to a bit of Cumberstitching for the near future.

And lastly - no Friday night in would be complete without something great on the TV. At the moment I can't recommend anything more than Mr Robot - I've watched my way through it once and am now on the return visit. It's mindblowing. I absolutely loved every minute. I'm not going to attempt a review - I wouldn't do it justice (the trailers for it certainly don't), but if you like beautiful imagery, acting so engaging you don't want to blink and some themes that make you sit back and think then this is probably for you (it's certainly not a show full of unicorns and rainbows though so if the grittier side of life isn't for you then this might be one to avoid).

If you have any ideas for the perfect Friday night in I'd love to hear them...or the perfect Friday night
out (I have those too...occasionally!).

Bye for now x

BEDN - Fireworks

Ahh fireworks - the beautiful lights shooting through the sky, the smell of bonfires in the air ... the idiots setting them off in dangerous places (aka the bus shelter near my house). I have a love-hate relationship with fireworks. They're so pretty and conjure some happy memories of being wrapped up in wooly layers oohing and ahhing as they do their thing.

The only thing I hate is the danger they pose to animals...and to some of the people that use them.

Buy hey, I don't want to sound like a fireworks scrooge so here are some photos I took using the fireworks setting on my camera (I was so impressed with this - these fireworks were probably about 6 miles in the distance and love the effect here)!

BEDN - Photography

I have a new camera! It's a Fujifilm FinePix S9400W and I'm in love. I could not be less qualified to review a camera so I'm not going to even try - there's a detailed review here in case you're interested.

There's no doubt in my mind that it's really wildlife photography I'd like to learn more about and practice. The first time I ever really used a camera was snapping pictures of animals on a school trip to a farm (the same visit that made me decide eating meat was not for me - clearly an important trip in my formative years) - and my love for photographing wildlife has stuck - I just have literally no clue about the techniques or skills involved.

I thought I'd share a few of my favourite wildlife pics taken so far on my new camera...

A bunny taken from afar...

Gorgeous bird of prey at a display event...

A flower and bee close-up

And the wildest of all wildlife - my kitties...Clara's photo is at the top of this post and then there's Bob...

I'm fairly sure I have more photos of my cats than is healthy...seriously. 

I've started an on-line course in photography to try and develop my skills so hope to be able to share some more of my pics in the future!

If anyone has any good tips I'd love to hear them!

Bye for now xx

BEDN - Food Glorious Food

I love the BEDN prompt for today because I've recently started to try and learn the fine art of cooking items that are slightly more complex than pasta & sauce and a curry straight out of the jar.

I guess I can be a bit of a lazy cook - I struggle to keep my cupboards stocked with all the ingredients needed to cook things from scratch and so resort to things that are quick and easy. That changed a few weeks ago when a friend referred me to Hello Fresh.

Hello Fresh is a weekly subscription service which delivers a box full of all the ingredients and instructions needed to cook three different meals for two people (different amounts available). I'm two weeks in to my subscription and here are my thoughts:

The recipes
The recipes so far have been absolutely gorgeous and really easy to follow. I've gone for the vegetarian option because the only meat I eat is fish, and they've honestly been some of the tastiest vegetarian meals I've ever cooked - including a paella, a greek ragu, a persian soup, welsh rarebit...

and my favourite so far, nachos!

The instructions come on individual cards with all the information in easy to follow steps...and mean you can make the meals again...and again...bonus!

The ingredients

The ingredients have been so lovely so far - the fresh food has been gorgeous. A lot of the ingredients are organic and everything in general has been of a really high quality.

The ingredients mostly come measured out already, which has really helped take out some of my initial terror when it comes to dabbling in some new recipes and techniques.

Value

I'm a bit torn on the value. The subscription I'm on is £36 per week which seemed a bit expensive at first - there's no way we'd normally spend that on three meals. However - the portion sizes are really generous, ingredients are stunning and I'm actually learning some new skills so it's pretty much a cookery course from the comfort of my own home. Everything is really well packaged as well (with a very innovative use of sheep's wool to keep things cool). When I add everything up it's good value for me, for now. I'm not sure that it would be without the 'experience' element, but as long as they keep up with a variety of recipes I'm happy!

Overall experience

 There are a couple of things I'd like to change - although I've loved the recipes so far, being able to have a bit of choice about what is arriving each week would be great. I'd also love to be able to occasionally add in one of the fish options every now and then. The only other downside is the price which is likely to stop a lot of people from signing up. However - the Mr and I have had some fun cooking together, I'm gaining in confidence regarding how to put together meals from scratch and how to use some ingredients I haven't tried before - and have now had six flipping gorgeous meals.

So far I'm definitely a happy Hello Fresh customer - I just need to perfect my food photography skills and I'll be posting my own recipes here in no time...errrr...maybe.

Bye for now!!

BEDN - Monday Love

Print from TheWatermelonFactory on Etsy

In general I have to confess that I don't particularly like Mondays. If I dig deep into my subconscious I sure my hatred mild dislike of Mondays is linked to my childhood obsession with Garfield and his clear disdain for this particular day (I mean...the little fuzzball even had a whole book dedicated to his hatred of Mondays)...

Available at RetroActiveToys on Etsy

But if I put my grumpy inner-Garfield to one side I kind of like the idea that Mondays should be seen as a fresh start - a time to try something new or approach an old problem in a new way. Having this as a blogging prompt for today inspired to try a few new things today and I thought I'd share in case they help spread the Monday love...

1. Buy a new piece of stationery - I appreciate this is probably a more positive step for people like me who are stationery obsessed, but stick with me on this one any bizarre people out there who don't drool over a shiny new pen. Today I bought a lovely new notebook to start writing out some of my work notes in. It felt like an automatic fresh start  
2. Take some time for some planning - Whatever your current commitments in life, a little bit of time out at the beginning of the week to plan next steps/ a schedule for the week can help it seem a bit less overwhelming. And if you have a shiny new notebook to write it out in? Bonus.
3. Do at least one thing that will make you smile - It's really easy to get sucked into the negative vacuum of a bad Monday - so taking some time out to call a friend, watch a favourite TV programme or read a chapter of a book can help shake that off and put it into perspective. Do something for you or a loved one that makes you happy, just because you can.  
4. Write a list of good things that are going to happen this week - I'm a massive fan of to-do lists but my Monday to-do list can be kind of terrifying. To combat this I'm made a seperate list of some of the nicer things I plan to do this week - go to the gym, start my Christmas crafting, seeing family. It's really helped me to balance the bad with the good and stopped that total feeling of being overwhlmed (it's also a wonderful excuse to buy your favourite indulgence just because..you know...buying it is a good thing you're going to do this week)
5. Be mindful - I've started using Headspace to learn mindfulness techniques and oh my god the positive impact it's having is huge. So it you feel yourself getting into a Monday panic take a deep breath (or 10) and spend a few minutes on calming your mind. Headspace is fab, but there are loads of online guides/ books and apps to support in learning the techniques.

Although Mondays can sometimes be a bit difficult to deal with, working out a little strategy for getting through them with a smile can really help....and it'll be Friday before you know it!

 Now go kick Monday's arse!

Blog Every Day in November - Something New

I did the 'Blog Every Day in November' over at Rosalilium a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it as a way of encouraging and supporting me back into writing. Sooo...here I am again. 

My blogging habits of late have mostly involved having lots of ideas floating around my head but getting none of them onto my blog. Be that because of writers block, lack of confidence in my blogging ability or a total lack of focus (uh-huh- tick, tick and tick). Whatever the excuse, I'm hoping that this will get me past that little block I currently have.

Today's prompt is 'Something new about yourself' so here's a few new things I've been up to recently which may find themselves creeping into my blog very soon...

1. I've joined a gym! (that's right...exercise my friends, exercise)
2. I've started an Etsy shop - finally!
3. I've joined the National Trust and am spending some lovely days wandering around some beautiful places 
4. I've invested in a new camera and a photography course - time to learn how to take pictures that aren't a fuzzy mess!
5. For the first time ever I've started getting organised for Christmas early - presents are being bought, and crafty projects started - so no more last minute panic on Christmas Eve sewing presents until I lose my vision and all feeling in my hands - this year I'll be a super organised Christmas goddess. Uh-huh, that's me!

Anyway, I'm looking forward to being around these parts a lot more in November - see you very soon!

Kat xx