Favourites | March and April 2016

It's been a couple of months since I last wrote a monthly favourites post, so I've combined my favourites from March and April for a long over-due catch up.

A week or two ago, I treated myself to this gorgeous polka dot fit and flare dress from Billie and Blossom Curve at Dorothy Perkins, and it's quickly becoming one of my favourite dresses. The fabric is fantastic quality, it fits in all the right places, and the capped sleeves are surprisingly flattering on my upper arms (which as hard as I try, I still haven't learnt to love), so it's pretty much perfect in my eyes. Not that I can ever resist a navy polka dot frock! It's my first piece from Billie and Blossom Curve, but I'm so impressed with it that it definitely won't be my last. The dress comes in UK sizes 18-28, and retails for just £30.

I finally added the Accessorize red telephone box bag to my novelty bag collection last month, after coveting it for the best part of a year. I swooped when it was half price on promotion over Easter, and also found a 10% discount code (don't know if it still works but try RWDAW15), so I snagged this little baby for just £16.20! I adore it and only wish I'd bought one sooner. It's easily one of the best novelty bag designs I've ever seen, and one of the coolest in my ever-growing collection. It even holds a surprising amount of stuff, so it's actually fairly practical, too. 

I was lucky enough to win a set of Beanies chocolate-flavoured instant coffees, and the OPI New Orleans mini nail polish collection from Hollie / Pretty Big Butterflies' birthday giveaway last month, which was really exciting and sure put a smile on my face. I haven't tried any of the coffees yet, but they all sound amazing, and only have two calories per cup! I'm looking forward to finding out if they're as good as they sound. I have, however, sampled all of the mini nail polishes already, and all four shades are so beautiful, especially the duck-weed-green polish 'I'm Sooo Swamped'. I've already worn it a few times, and I'm definitely going to buy a full-sized bottle of it once I've used this little bottle up. The colour is to die for!

My best friend, Angela, came to stay for a few days at the beginning of April, and sweetly surprised me with a (belated) parcel of Easter chocolate. Yay, free chocolate! I think we've been sending each other Easter goodies each year since she moved back to Scotland in the late nineties! I have to admit, it was lovely getting them in person for a change. Did you try the Galaxy Golden Eggs over Easter?! OMG, they were so good!

I haven't had as much time or energy to cross stitch since we adopted our crazy puppy on the 1st of March, but I've been trying to get back in to the swing of things over the last couple of weeks. I'm doing my best to set aside at least an hour or two to sew every day, and I'm beginning to make progress on the 'home, sweet home' sampler I started months ago. I've completed just over a quarter, so I need to up my game, but I think it's beginning to look pretty damn good. 

Over the Easter weekend, I bought myself a lovely new diary from Cath Kidston, which was half price on sale at Bicester Village for £7.50. It's such a pretty diary with various Cath Kidston patterns bordering each page, a bold blue and pink Provence Rose print on the cover, and a pink polka dot inner cover. Each week is given a double page spread, with one page for the diary and the other for notes, which is the perfect amount of space for me as it'll mostly just be filled with medical appointments as I have no life. Haha! What I love about this diary is that it also features an address book towards the back, plus pages for notes, birthdays and events, travel plans, shopping lists, to do lists, recipes, films and books, and museums, galleries and exhibitions, so it can basically organise your entire life. If only they'd bring out a blogger's planner like this!

When I bought the diary, I also treated myself to a new clasp purse from Cath Kidston because my old red star-print one is sadly now tarnished and past its best. I couldn't leave without this cute navy and neon yellow polka dot purse when I realised it was just £7! It would've been rude not to take it home! It's a gorgeous little purse.

April wasn't a productive month when it came to enjoying films, books, and music. I didn't manage to find much time or energy for any of them; not with a hyper puppy about. I tried to read every day before bed, but only managed a few pages the entire month because I was so shattered and kept falling asleep after just a paragraph or two! Same happened when ever I tried to read in the day time. I didn't discover any new music at all, and the only new-to-me films I can remember watching are Inside Out, Non Stop, and Jurassic World. Jurassic World was soooo good! I was excited to finally get my hands on Mockingjay Part 2 on DVD back in March, though, as I'm a big fan of The Hunger Games series, and had been looking forward to watching it again ever since I saw it in the cinema last November. I think it's such a great film, amazingly true to the book, and a strong end to the saga.

My little fluff-ball, earlier today, aged 19 weeks. 

And finally, I couldn't end my favourites post without including my beautiful Tibetan terrier puppy, Rosie, who was my favourite thing about March and April. She's ridiculously adorable, even when she's being an absolute terror, and she makes me laugh and smile every day. What's not to love about being greeted with a wagging tail, or having a puppy literally jump in to your arms to smother you with kisses each time you let her out of the crate in the morning because she's so excited to see you? Puppy cuddles are the best! She's definitely changed my life for the better; providing me with companionship and giving me something to aim for every day. I feel like she's making me a less selfish person one day at a time.

What are you loving right now?