Sometimes being a grown up with your own house and a long list of responsibilities is tough. Since Christmas we’ve had so many things break down or go wrong and they’ve all been worryingly expensive and complicated to fix. We’ve had to put things like booking a holiday and home improvements on hold and keep our fingers crossed that there’s an end in sight.
Yet as I write this I’m curled up on the sofa and the cats have been taking it in turns to jump up beside me for cuddles. N has brought home some fresh flowers and yesterday I had a lovely day out in Cambridge with my mum. It occurs to me that the good most definitely outweighs the bad and I have a lot to be grateful for. Maybe being an adult isn’t quite so bad after all…
With that in mind, I’m going to use this post to remind me of all the things that have kept me smiling recently.
N brings home a couple of bunches every week during the season and whenever I look at them they instantly lift my mood. My Instagram is full of them from March til May, because that kind of cheerful feeling needs to be shared!
I received a £5 off voucher from Tesco in the post a while back which meant that I could treat myself to even more fresh flowers – happy days! I’m actually really impressed with their range and find that a bunch from there lasts just long enough that I only have to replace them once a week. It doesn’t feel the same in the house if we don’t have at least one vase of fresh flowers on the go these days.
I usually pop around to my parents a few times a month but yesterday was the first time I’d seen the puppies for ages. I was amazed at how much Jake and Toby have grown as they’re looking more and more like grown up dog every day. Inside though they are still excitable, mischievous little puppies who go loopy every time I visit – they are all waggy tails and teeth!
You can see what they looked like before here!
I love flicking through cookbooks to find new recipe inspiration and recently added some new ones to my collection.
Jamie Oliver has recently transformed his own diet which inspired his latest book Everyday Super Food. The healthy balanced breakfast ideas are really inspiring me right now – I’m excited to try out some smoothie bowls with his granola dust!
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| Photo credit: @juniperfoxx |
HelloMissJordan recommended this one. Not only does it put a huge smile on my face every time I see Juniper’s snaggle toothed smile, but it’s also an incredibly responsible and educational feed too. Juniper’s owner goes to great lengths in her comments to provide a realistic account of what life with a fox at home is like and why commenters posting ‘I want one’ should stop and think.
Remember last year when I went on a picnic, got a dog tipsy by accident and snarfed down bags of Corkers Crisps? (If you don’t all is explained here!). Since then Corkers have extended their range of vegetable crisps and sent me a packet of each to see what I thought. It’s not exactly picnic weather yet so I’ve settled for treating myself to a packet every now and again at home.
Their original Root Vegetables with Sea Salt variety is just delicious (beetroot crisps are on another level) and the two new flavours didn’t disappoint either.
The Parsnip with Honey and Black Pepper flavour is sweet with a bit of a kick and the Sweet Potato with Chilli are gorgeously crunchy and moreish.
They tend to be sold through independent stockists so the easiest way to find them is to look in Waitrose…although I’ve spotted them being served on the Virgin East Coast rail service too!
I had an exciting meeting in Cambridge yesterday morning and took my mum along so that we could spend the rest of the day exploring the city.
We spent time in the Grand Arcade Shopping Centre where I finally got a close up look at Kiko Cosmetics, before moving down some of the side streets to the Jo Malone boutique store. We must have tried every single scent!
Before we left we had just enough time for a stroll along by the colleges. I spotted a blossom tree (yay for spring!) and couldn’t resist taking some pictures. As I stood there snapping away all these other tourist types began to join me with their cameras and iphones. I found this highly amusing – I think I started an Instagram Flashmob!
What’s been making you smile recently?
