My Favourite Things: February

I'm not sure how interesting my post about my favourite things in January actually was for anyone who read it, 

but I enjoyed writing it so I decided to do it again this month....or again this month lol. 

It was kind of cathartic, not only to focus on some positive thought but also to reflect on how fortunate I am in times when I feel a bit sorry for myself - I have a lifestyle that allows me to have favourite possessions - I don't take that for granted.

I've linked to them where I can in case anyone is interested.

Clothes 

February was the month of skirts - I've acquired two this month! 

And they both have pockets!!! I love pockets!!! Pockets!!!

This little beauty came from Cath Kidston,
I really like Cath Kidston stuff but some of it can be a little out of my price range so I my purchases there are generally now and again - this was an early birthday present from Mum. The print reminded me of London - I've been a few times with my friend but I've never actually been to the Palace so I've never seen a Palace Guard up close but I figured this was the next best thing! 

This skirt is a Hell Bunny skirt and I absolutely adore it, I have another two skirts this length, one is pink with black polkadots and the other is black with zombie pin-up girls.  It does all the right things to make me feel comfortable and pretty and has a 50s vibe to the cut that goes well with my shape. 

The circus themed print is really fun and colourful!
My phone camera hasn't done it justice at all but its beautiful.

Feeeeet!

Yes - these are socks, I like socks. Socks and me go way back.
However, socks can be a massive annoyance to me, once you wash them they go a bit stiff and dry and start to lose a little of their comfort with each wear.  I bought these a few days ago in Accessorize when the socks I had on were catching on my shoes and causing my shoes to dig into my heels - ain't nobody got time for that!  When I bought these they instantly felt like my feet had met their sock soul mate. Yes, that's a weird sentence - do I care? Nope. 

Books

The Ladybird Book of The Hipster by J.A HAZELEY and J.P MORRIS - this book is part of a recently released series of Ladybird books aimed at grownups. 

 As a kid I was read a lot of ladybird books that I really enjoyed.  This series pokes fun at some topical things in the modern day but in keeping with the style of writing in the ladybird books I read as a child.  I found it really funny and would definitely read some of the others in the series. 

Read More

Dear Wee Rachie: Learn to say no.

Dear Wee Rachel, 

Learn to say no.

No is a great word, use it! You are great at using it! Whether it’s your brother asking if he can use your room to watch TV (the TV you have in there right now is pants, so for context, you end up with Gran Brown’s big ass telly at some point, never mind why) or Mum asking if you have or will tidy your room. 

At some point over the years, I can’t really remember when, you develop this compulsive need to please people, to have them think that you are effortlessly nice and will always say yes and find a way to help them if you can.  Don’t misunderstand me, it’s not a bad way to be but sometimes Rachel, I could have kicked you hard in the face with a thousand stilettos - you’ll never own any because you’d break your neck and you’d look like an idiot, but that’s irrelevant. 

Saying yes is fine, being nice is a fantastic thing to be, but this fear of saying no is not even close to being acceptable.   

People will still like you even if you say no, you don’t need to let Mark and Toto (don’t even get me started on the stupid nicknames the kids you spent your days with at school had) talk you into letting them have the money you brought with you for lunch, what the hell are you going to buy lunch with? No wonder you have no energy and fall asleep in class, you muppet! 

They aren’t bullying you – they like you, but don’t think for a second they aren’t taking advantage of the fact you don’t like saying no.

You don’t need to carry Jamie and Graeme’s English work in your bag every day because they have dirty P.E kits in their bag,  if they have messy essays that’s their problem, tell them no! 

You don’t need to supply everyone in your class with a pen just because they asked you and they know you have enough pens to start a sustainable stationary business. Of course they’ll like you, you’ll be Pen Girl and Pen Girl is a cool thing to be (I’m sorry, it doesn’t come with a cape, in hindsight that would have been epic – sorry!) but when you reach the stage of allowing literally every single person in your English class borrow a pen from you on a daily basis because you don’t want to say no, you are letting people abuse your kindness and walk all over you.

There are probably other slightly more important examples in your upcoming future of when you really should have said no but I won't give you a hard time for those - screw ups are part of how you learn not to be an asshat.

I get it, I really do! You are afraid if you say no people won’t like you or want to be your friend or think you are nice or think you are 'socially acceptable'. 
I want to impress upon you that saying yes doesn’t make a damn bit of difference! 

There will still be people who dislike you, get used to it.   There will be people who think you aren’t a nice person, so what? 

 Stop saying yes to things you don’t want to do or it will turn you into someone you don’t want to be.  Start saying no to things you don’t want to do and become the person you do want to be. 

The people worth having in your life will still like you, the people who know you will like you for you - whether you say yes or no.

It’s not all bad, sometimes not saying no when you want to works out great, you didn’t really want to say yes when Gillian asked if you wanted to help out at youth club and it’s one of the best things you ever said yes to.

P.S – Wear what you want! I’m not suggesting you should turn up to your Gran's house in an outfit made from barbed wire and a dustbin but don’t save your stripey socks or funky shoes for a day when you won’t be in a class with any dumbasses, dress like you! 

Read More

My Favourite Things: January

I've been singing a lot of songs from The Sound of Music over the week or so as it seems to be the only thing that settles my baby nephew Harry when I'm looking after him. 
That's possibly his way of saying 'Okay Auntie Rachie, if you stop singing....I'll go for a snooze!'

Seeing as 'My Favourite Things' has been going round my head on a loop it gave me some inspiration  to do a blog post on some of the things I've discovered in the month of January that I've really enjoyed. 

Yes, I know it is February......but I'm only a day late! 

 I don't know if it's something I'll do more of, I'll see how I feel, I thought it would be a good way to mix 'feel good' with doing something productive like writing. 

Food and Drink

Caveman Cookies

I came across these by chance while browsing my local Wholefoods for some Dairy Free snackage and was pleasantly surprised.  The idea behind them being that the ingredients were all materials available to cavemen so no flour, no milk, no sugar......what some of them do have is nuts, which is fine for me, but probably not for someone with an allergy to nuts.
Nice soft consistency and just enough to satisfy my hunger!

Rebel Kitchen Banana Mylk

Again I came across a box of these by chance in Wholefoods and was curious enough to buy one!

As the packing suggests, it's probably aimed at a young persons perhaps for putting in a lunch box but there's nothing to suggest a 26 year old can't enjoy a nice drink of Banana and Coconut Milk through a straw!

They do have other flavours but my taste buds were more attracted to the Banana!

Shoes

These were a Christmas present from my Mum but they turned up in January so I've been treating them as New Year Shoes.  I adore the cats print!
They are comfy and cute! I'll go into more of a description when I put them in a Shoe Diary Post.

Clothes 

This isn't a spectacular picture but I am loving this cape by Banned!

It originally came with a detachable faux fur collar but I wasn't too keen on it... so I detatched it!

Love the colour and it's super comfy! 
I have a green coat which is also made by Banned, it's longer and more tailored but because I love it so much I knew I'd feel the same about this.

I'll hopefully get a fair bit of wear out of it before the warm weather reappears.

Blogs 

http://www.braintreeclothing.com/blog/

I like to read blogs and I recently discovered this one........Brain Tree are a fashion label but they also run a really interesting and positive blog, filled with tips for improving your lifestyle, home improvement, relaxation etc.  After looking at just a few posts, I already felt a bit more positive about my day - which is sort of the effect I'd like this blog to have for others.

Their clothes and accessories are really nice too.....

Read More