Polka Spots and Freckle Dots

Monday, 4 April 2016

My Quirky Brooch Collection

It's been a couple of years since I last shared a peek at my brooch collection, and since it's grown a little since then, I thought it was time I gave you guys another look.

I have just over thirty brooches and pins to my name, so I don't have a huge collection yet, but I love every piece I've collected so far just the same. I own mostly brightly-coloured novelty resin, acrylic, and wooden brooches, but I also have a handful that are made of metal - although I don't tend to wear them as often as the others. I get far more joy out of wearing something fun and colourful than I ever do from wearing something silver or gold. I'm weird like that.

I probably wear brooches more than any other type of jewellery, which is something I never thought I'd say. A decade ago, hell, even seven or eight years ago, I used to think brooches were only for crotchety old ladies, and I was adamant I'd never be caught dead wearing one. No hideous jewellery, for me, thanks. Then, as my tastes changed and I started to find my style, I began finding awesome kitsch jewellery at places like Camden Lock Market and Covent Garden, and I quickly began to love them. I no longer own most of the pieces of jewellery I bought back then, since I bought them during a time when I was far too frivolous, shopped a lot, and quickly got bored of my fashion purchases, but that's how my collection started. Now I wear a brooch with almost every outfit, and I like to think they add a fun touch to whatever I'm wearing. Plus they help to keep cardis in place over dresses and tops, and I can still wear them when my skin is too sore or hot to bear a piece of jewellery against it, (which is most of the time these days, thanks to pain and inflammation) and that's always a bonus. They're just so easy to wear.

Almost half of my collection came from Cath Kidston, including the seven colourful resin brooches , the wooden blue tit, and all of the metal wildlife pins. They make the best affordable brooches (usually around £6 each), but sadly only bring two or three out a season. I think they'd make a killing if they branched out and offered at least a dozen or two at a time, I know I'd buy them.

The deer, panda, bespectacled French bulldog, multi-coloured bird, and the green and white bird all came from a little local art shop in Cheltenham (artist unknown), and they're some of my favourite pieces of jewellery. I'm itching to go back for another visit to see if there are any new designs to find.

I won the My Little Pony, Hello Kitty, and Sylvanian bunny from Rachel's giveaway a few years ago, and the little pink bird from one ran by Char a year or two ago. The wooden swallow brooch is by Sass and Belle, and the pink cameo Flower (from Bambi) one was an Etsy find.

The three bejewelled metal brooches are all vintage pieces I picked up from a vintage stall at Camden Lock Market years ago, the grey owl was a gift from my Mum, the gold/bronze coloured owl was from Topshop or Accessorize a gazillion years ago, and the little gold lizard belonged to my Nan.

My collection is growing all the time, and I have a list of brooches as long as my arm that I'd love to add to it- mostly from Sugar and Vice, and Erstwilder. If I was rich, I'd buy so many of them. At the top of my wish list is this axolotl brooch from Sugar and Vice, which I'm hoping to treat myself to really soon, and Cath Kidston has the cutest little bee brooch I know I'll pick up next time I'm in town.

And that's my little brooch collection.

Do you collect cute and quirky brooches, or any other style of jewellery? Do you have a collection to put mine to shame?

Easter 2016

I know Easter was a week ago already (how did that happen?), but I'm going to share some snippets from my Easter weekend today anyway. I would've blogged about it sooner, but the weekend tired me out so much I've only just found some energy to finish editing my photos.

A cute Forever Friends Easter card I sent to my best friend, and her family.

On Good Friday, I spent a couple of hours putting together a box full of Easter chocolates to send up to my best friend and her son, and gathered together the Easter eggs ready to give to my family on Easter Sunday.

I dug out last year's Easter-egg shaped honeycomb decorations, and decided to hang them up on my bedroom wall under my rainbow garland, where I could see them, instead of hanging them downstairs where I spend little time. They're so colourful and cheerful, and really brightened up my bedroom.

Last Saturday, I got out of the house for a few hours for the first time in over two months, and tagged along to Bicester Village with my sister, Marie, who fancied a little Kate Spade spree. The weather was crap, but it could've been hailing boulders for all I cared; it was just so good to get out of the house for a while for something other than an appointment or a quick trip to the supermarket. The change of scenery definitely did me some good.

The outlet village was dressed up for Spring, with pretty pink and white silk flowers hung everywhere from lamp posts to window displays. My favourite was this silk cherry blossom tree, that was decorating the back of a little wooden building. I couldn't resist taking a few photos of because it looked so beautiful and realistic. Isn't it gorgeous?

On the way home from Bicester, I treated myself to a big bunch of colourful tulips from the supermarket, and gave half of them to my Mum, as there were so many. I love tulips, especially yellow ones, and it wouldn't be Easter without a vase or two of colourful Spring flowers brightening up the joint. I was a little gutted that this bunch only lasted three days, though.

On Easter Sunday, I spent the morning watching my all time favourite Easter film- Steel Magnolias! I've watched it every Easter for as long as I can remember, so it wouldn't be Easter without it now. I have to watch it every year- not that I ever need an excuse to curl up with this movie for a couple of hours. I've seen it roughly a gazillion times but it never fails to make me smile like I'm Sheldon Cooper gazing contently at a koala bear. Everything about it is awesome from the characters to the fashion and the one-liners to the God-awful armadillo groom's cake!

While I watched Steel Magnolias, I made up little paper bags of Guylian mini eggs, and Lindor chocolates to surprise my family with during Easter dinner.

I then went downstairs to make some cornflake cake Easter nests, although the dog was so excited to see me, my Mum ended up taking over and did most of the work while I got mauled and dive bombed by Rosie.

My Easter loot, from the family. Is there anything better than Cadbury Easter eggs? If there is, I haven't heard of it.

I had hoped to spend the afternoon working my way through a few of these films before sitting down to Easter dinner, but things got a little chaotic, and movies soon became the last thing on my mind. Dinner was pushed back until the evening while my Dad and brother-in-law went to rescue my eighteen year old cousin from her controlling, abusive twat of a boyfriend, a two hour drive away, while we quickly straightened up the house. Thankfully, she was rescued in one piece (the boyfriend had legged it before my Dad and brother-in-law arrived! Ha!), although she was very fragile by the time she got to us, and it was heart breaking to see her so low. She'd moved hours from home to live with him earlier in the year, but he and his parents had been treating her like shit the entire time. He was so controlling he stopped her from visiting her parents, and talked her out of visiting us a few weeks ago, even though she'd bought the train tickets. I don't even want to think about what would've happened if she'd stayed with that pathetic piece of shit much longer, but I know we'd be looking at a very different outcome. I'm so proud of her for finally walking away and asking us for help.

I think we were able to keep her mind off of the break up, for a little while, at least, with a chatty family meal (a big turkey and beef roast with all the trimmings, Christmas-style), cake, chocolate, crazy puppy cuddles, and just being our usual daft selves. Easter Sunday is a good day for comfort food in our house- we only have a meal like it about three times a year, so it was well-timed. She stayed at my sister's for the night, as they had a spare room, and my parents drove her home to her Mam in Sunderland the next morning. I think she's doing a little better now she's back with her parents and her friends, but she isn't in great shape. He's completely chipped away at what little remained of her confidence and self-esteem. I hope this guy gets what's coming to him! Scum of the Earth.

And, I spent Easter Monday on puppy duties while the parents took my cousin home. I could barely move for the pain after a full-on weekend (I'd used up all of my spoons by Saturday am) but I had to work through it and somehow I managed it. I popped The Sound of Music on, ate some left over trifle, and thankfully got this little terror down for a two hour nap, so I put my feet up for a while, too. I was so shattered I was struggling to keep my eyes open by noon, so when the parents got home in the afternoon, I crawled straight up to bed and ended up napping on and off for the rest of the day.

And that is how I spent my Easter weekend!

How did you spend Easter this year? I hope you had a good one.

Wednesday Wish List

Here are some of the things on my wish list this week...

1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5 // 6 // 7 // 8 // 9 // 10 // 11 // 12 // 13 // 14

15 // 16 // 17 // 18 // 19 // 20 // 21 // 22 // 23 // 24 // 25 // 26 // 27

This week I'm mostly lusting after dresses and cute cardigans from Collectif, sun dresses from Dorothy Perkins, Betsey Johnson novelty bags (that ferris wheel, though!), Tatty Devine jewellery, and heaps of clothes from ASOS Curve.

What's on your wish list this week?

You can find more of the pieces I have my eye on at any given time on my style wish list boards on Pinterest.

Riverdrift House Easter Cross Stitch

Happy Easter Monday, everyone!

I hope you're all having a good one. I've had a lazy day watching The Sound of Music, playing with the puppy, eating left over trifle and turkey sandwiches, and napping- I'm so shattered! The last couple of days have really taken it out of me.

I'll be sharing a few snippets from my Easter weekend tomorrow, when I'll hopefully feel a little more alive, but for now I just wanted to quickly share my Easter cross stitch with you guys, before Easter is over for another year.

I made this cross stitch early last year, but I don't think I ever blogged about it in much detail.

I bought the cross stitch kit from a small Cornish brand called Riverdrift House, who I usually go to for new cross stitch kits because their designs are so pretty, easy to follow, and very affordable, too. I think I'm already on my 6th picture. I mostly stick to Christmas cross stitches, but I couldn't resist picking up the Happy Easter kit because it was so cute and colourful, and I wanted to branch out and try something new. I didn't enjoy working on it as much as the Christmas ones I've made, but it was fun stitching pastel coloured Easter eggs, cats, hearts, and butterflies for a while. I'm really pleased with the end result and I have to admit it came out well. It only took me around six weeks to finish it, (mostly by doing an hour or so a day) and I don't think I even made any mistakes, which is unusual for me! I usually get a few stitches wrong somewhere.

Predictably, I still haven't managed to get the picture framed yet, even though it's been over a year since I finished it. I never seem to get round to framing stuff, and I'm not sure why. Maybe I'll get my act together and have it framed in time for next Easter! (Yeah, right!) I'm a stitcher, not a framer!

If you want to give this cross stitch a go, you can find the kit here. You can also find the full range of Riverdrift House cross stitch kits over on their website and on Amazon, too.

Do you enjoy cross stitching in your spare time?

Posts you might also like

My Christmas Cross Stitches 2015

Noel Peace On Earth Christmas Cross Stitch

Lovely Links | Body Positivity, Chronic Illness, Mental Health & More

I'm sorry that posts are so thin on the ground at the moment. I'm suffering from a major bout of writer's block, and can't seem to break through it, even though I've got ten posts sitting half-finished in my drafts with photos at the ready.

I thought it was a good opportunity to share a mammoth list of posts I've read, enjoyed, been inspired by, or learnt something from over the last month or so. There are well over a hundred links in this post! A big chunk of them are about mental health, illness, and disability, but you'll also find links to body positivity and fat acceptance posts, random acts of kindness tales, and of course, a good dose of animal related stories, too. I don't expect anyone to read any or all of them, but I wanted to share them anyway, for anybody who might find them helpful, or need a reason to smile.