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  1. Mollie Makes

    May 13, 2011 by Nikki

    If you’re at all in to crafts, I would Mollie Makes coverguess you’ve probably seen the chatter about Mollie Makes, the new craft magazine from Future. I’ve been reading the blog for a while, and the sneak peeks and general tone of the blog have been getting me a little bit excited…

    The first issue launched yesterday, and I managed to pick a copy up from WH Smiths in Waterloo on my way home – I did sign up for a subscription on their 3 issues for a fiver offer, but wanted to by the first copy so I could cancel if I wasn’t that keen. Making magazine was a recent launch that I got really excited about, only to find that there was something lacking about the actual mag, and if I’m honest, I was a little bit underwhelmed by that, so I was preparing myself for disappointment again.

    I needn’t have worried. It’s gorgeous. I flicked through it initially, just drinking in the pictures, before actually reading a single thing! I think more then a craft magazine, it’s more a crafty lifestyles magazine – and Manda of TreefallDesigns seems to agree! This isn’t a criticism at all btw, I love it. It reminds me a bit of Martha Stewart Living as well, but without the glossy finish to the projects that always intimidate me a bit when looking through MSL! Again, not a criticism – all the projects featured seem like things you could actually make, without having to buy huge amounts of new (and as I find with MSL, often expensive!)  equipment and they also seem to be pitched just right – for me at least!

    So, will I be keeping thr subscription? Based on this, I would definately say yes – and I would recommend you take one out too!

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  2. 30 days of lists – day one.

    May 1, 2011 by Nikki

    photo by nikki m
    photo, a photo by nikki m on Flickr.

    Ive had a lovely weekend, and I have much to blog about! But, for now, look at my so called ‘Easter Cactus’! I thought the little pink buds I had before were the flower, but apparently not! <3

    Another reason for squeezing this update in tonight was that I want to make May my 30 days of lists month. I missed this when it started, but I liked the idea of it and decided that May would be a good month to look at it – I’ll maybe do a round up or something on the 31st day! Part of the idea is to put a bit of effort towards showing off your lists, and maybe I’ll do that another night – I may even go back and update this one! – but for tonight, have a simple list.

    List 1: A few things about yourself

    I suppose in no particular order I’m a girlfriend, a daughter, a baker, a friend, a crafter (I knit, sew, embroider and crochet), and ipad fiend, a competent cook, a book lover, a domestic goddess wannabe, a magazine addict, an RSS junkie, a database monkey, a bit of a mess magnet, a WI member, a wannabe runner…

    Do you think I’ve missed anything? Fancy joining in?

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  3. Prints I love

    April 27, 2011 by Nikki

    I Love Uuuuuuuuu - Print

    I came across this print on Etsy, and fell in love with it immediately! My love for owls is well documented, but I do find that now they’re so popular, there’s a lot of owl stuff around that is all very samey and it’s nice to see something a bit new and different :)

    Buy here: Etsy: I Love Uuuuuuuuu Print

    Image taken from here

    Another print I’d love is this one from Kris Atomic . I’m not known for being the smiliest person alive, despite how I may feel, and as well as the print, would love this on a tote bag :D

    Buy here: Kris Atomic – Chronic Bitchface print

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  4. Helen Gordon

    April 26, 2011 by Nikki

    Folk Flower lampshade

    Folk Flower lampshade

    I’ve just been alerted to Helen Gordon by Relly, and am crushing hard for the Folk Flower range – specifically this lightshade, and cushion

    Large Red Flower with small flower stripe cushion

    Relly said on twitter that the designs were as cool as Emma Bridgewater, but less ubiquitous then Cath Kidston, and I have to say I agree. The florals are a bit cleaner and less chintzy then Cath K in my opinion as well – a reto style floral that will go nicely in my (imginary!) clean white minimalist living space.

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  5. Horticultural delights

    April 25, 2011 by Nikki

    Sigh, four day weekend is nearly over, and I’m not lucky enough to have the three days off in-between as we’re so busy at work. Oh well – it’s been a lovely few days off. And, it’s only 3 days at work – that’s nothing! Then, another four day weekend! I’m planning to do not a huge amount – this weekend meant doing all the housework in preparation for my Mum’s visit so that’s all done for a couple of weeks, save pushing the hoover round…oh, and attacking the huge pile of ironing – anyone fancy tackling that for me? ;)

    Horticultural delights by nikki m
    Horticultural delights, a photo by nikki m on Flickr.

    I’d forgotten how pretty our flat looks in the sun – we’re north/south facing, and the lounge and kitchen especially look gorgeous in the sun. My windowsills are full of flowers and herbs, and the armchair in the bay window in the lounge is my new favourite place to sit with a cup of tea, and knit or read, with the breeze blowing through, and the birds in the tree outside.

    I’ve also got vases of freesias around the flat from a couple of bunches Mum bought me – I split the stems out in to long ones for one vase, and then the little ones growing off the stems I put in to little vases, including one for my bed side table :) They’re starting to smell gorgeous and I’m looking forward to them opening fully :)

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  6. Making new friends

    April 10, 2011 by Nikki

    We made a new friend today. He’s currently in a box in our kitchen.

    This sounds more dramatic then it really is ;) Earlier this afternoon, James called me to look out of our kitchen window. We have a large communal garden, and there’s a fair bit of local wildlife around – we’ve got two identifiable squirrels, several cats, a fax, and a host of different bird species. I wasn’t expecting to see a tortoise ambling across the lawn. The neighbours who were out there went over to it and peered at it for a while, before it moved on. Later on, James noticed it was back, and we decided we ought to do something about it. Armed with a box, he went and caught it – admittedly not a difficult task – and brought it back upstairs where we peered at it for a bit, before calling the Tortoise Association, who suggested we pop it in a bowl with a small amount of water in case it was thirsty, and then call the RSPCA. The only out of hours number we could find purported to be for reporting cruelty to animals, so we decided to wait until tomorrow, until further digging revealed it to be a general number.

    They’re coming to collect him tomorrow, and in the mean time he’s in a box in our kitchen. He’s not as majestic as the fine creature above, but he didn’t seem very keen in partaking of a photshoot ;)

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  7. The best bed sheets in the world!

    March 7, 2011 by Nikki

    This weekend has been a bit of a splurge. Gulp. 

    I’ve wanted an ipad for ages, and even more so since J bought one a few weeks ago. I decided I would be sensible, and wait until my birthday in May, save up a bit, and then ask people for money for my birthday, and get one then. I decided I’d get a refurb one (basically one where someone’s sent it back after a couple of days, which means it can’t be sold as new) as they have a fair bit off them, and Apple replace the screen/case/battery, fully test it and offer a 1 year warranty. My phone’s a refurb model, and I’ve had no problems with it all.

    Apple then announced the ipad 2 on Wednesday night, and when J had a look at the refurbs on Thursday morning, he noticed the price had gone down. Not by a little – a 16gig wifi one was now £289. Once the first gen ones are gone, that will be it, and they won’t be this cheap for a long time again. So, I kind of bought one. She’s LOVELY, and exactly as I had hoped. Although an ipad 2 would have been nice, I decided it wasn’t that much better to justify the extra £200 it would cost. Using it in conjunction with with the keyboard to write this is nifty, and I can kind of see this replacing my laptop for day to day stuff.

    I then bought what may just be the most beautiful bedlinen l have ever seen in my entire life. I saw it on a blog a while ago, and whilst Mum and I were in Ikea today, I decided to throw caution to the wind, and now, 8 hours later, I’m back in London with it adorning my bed. I think I’m in love.

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  8. Feeling guilty.

    February 21, 2011 by Nikki

    Ask anyone who knows me, and they’ll agree I have a problem with guilt. I feel guilty about the smallest things, and feel guilty even when I shouldn’t need to. If I suggest someone sees a film, or reads a book, and they don’t like it…I feel guilty. I’m ridiculous, I know.

    So, I kind of feel guilty about this weekend. I had huge plans, for all the stuff I was going to do, and I’ve not done a lot of it if I’m honest. I spent most of yesterday curled up in an armchair, reading, watching TV and noodling around with some crochet, and felt a bit guilty about it. Weekends seem fleeting, and doing nothing seems a bit like a waste of them.

    I shouldn’t though. It had been a busy, hard week at work, and I was tired. Last weekend was hella busy, as I was cleaning like a woman possessed to make sue the flat was ready for the landlord’s inspection. I’d had several nights out, and hadn’t slept all that well. So maybe a day like that was necessary. Needed to recharge a bit. So why do I feel guilty, like I’m wasting time, if I don’t have something to show for it. Hell, I’m even feeling like I need to justify it to people reading this!

    Like I said though, I think this downtime was needed. Today I’ve done a fair bit – tided up and pushed the hoover round, cleaned the kitchen, made a bara brith, sorted out a load of starred RSS articles so I can look through them, had friends over for Sunday lunch, done two loads of laundry and read some of my book. And blogged of course. I think that’s okay. I probably should have done some ironing though ;)

    There was some excitement this morning though – this is at the end of my road! I was in the bath when it happened – it was so loud, I actually thought something had happened by our house. The windows shook, and I kind of made a mess as I jumped out of the bath to see if I could see anything. I’m surprised no one was killed looking at the photos – it seems weird that a hole that big can be blown in someone’s house, and that they’re mostly okay. Scary.

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  9. Domestic pleasures

    February 15, 2011 by Nikki

    Hmm. The ipad wordpress app is a bit unstable. The expression on James’ face when he pressed publish…and half his entry appeared to have disappeared was not a pleasant one ;) Luckily, it was still there when he logged in to the website, but even so ;) So, for the time being, I’m using the notes app, which I actually quite like – you’re writing on a yellow legal pad, in a comic sans-esque font, and it looks quite nice.

    Yesterday was full of win quite frankly. I found out that an old friend is engaged, and I ‘m going to their engagement party in a couple of weeks, and then another friend proposed to his girlfriend last night. I’ve known about this for a while, and not being able to say anything has been *killing* me! I’m so excited, and looking forward to hearing all their plans :-D

    The landlord came round this morning, and declared everything good. The weekend of panic cleaning obviously wasn’t needed to the extent I did it to, but I have to say, the flat looks really nice and shiny clean now :) I do like our little flat – although as I mentioned before it’s a bit cluttered at times, it’s cosy, and, I like to think, welcoming. We’ve got heaps of cushions, and throws on the three piece suite, and I like to think people feel comfortable here. 

    This weekend is looking to be a fairly quiet one, and this pleases me. Saturday, as far as I know at the moment looks to be empty, and I have vague plans to make some pillow cases out of a fleecy throw to cover some old pillows we have, maybe make a bara brith, and get some hooking done in front of a film. I want to finish my garland, and figure out the granny stripe.  Win.

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  10. I have a confession

    February 13, 2011 by Nikki

    I’m…a bit of a hoarder. I love the idea of a clean, minimalist house, with shelves with just a vase and a paperweight on, but in my flat, shelves are crammed with books, and surfaces are covered with more books.

    Admitting this, even though I am nowhere near Mr Trebus levels of hoarding, it still feels bit shameful to admit this. When you have so many books and magazines lying around, keeping the flat tidy can take a lot of work, and it’s tiring. I’m fed up of it to be honest. I would love to have space to actually put things, you know?

    Yesterday, I started to take steps to try and solve the issue. It’s slow, and hard, and kind of terrifying sometimes to find out just how much I do have. I’ve thrown away so much stuff this weekend – do I really need copies of my appraisal from 2005? Or the certificate I got for employee of the month?

    So, this weekend has meant I’ve thrown away pretty much a whole recycling crate of old magazines and paperwork, and I have a huge pile of copies of Olive, Good Food, Delicious and other assorted food magazines going to someone off Freecycle. I’ve kept a few – some vegetarian issues, ones with great features in, and most of the festive issues – and next weekend I’ll go through those and pull out the recipes I want and file them. I did think about doing that for them all, but realised that would likely be a bad idea, and I’d end up with as much…stuff as before.

    So they’re gone. And it’s a bit sad. And hard! I’m having such second thoughts about getting rid of them, but it needs to be done. Next weekend is pencilled in to go through my stash of craft magazines, and get rid of those. I think these ones I will flick through and pull out any patterns I want – but the rest need to go.

    It’s kind of exciting, you know? Once I have all this under control, I will do this monthly, as I get new magazines – once they’re read and digested, they’ll be pulled apart and filed, and recycled or passed on if suitable. I’ve given away a huge amount of books recently, and the books I have left are being read, then if I don’t honestly think I will read it again, it will be got rid of. Offered to friends, left on the station book swap shelf, taken to a charity shop. Anything but left on my shelves!

    Hopefully, this is the start of the new me. A me that isn’t a little bit ashamed of her possessions. A more streamlined, tidier me.

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