For my birthday I wrote a list of things I wanted to achieve over the year. I'm now six months away from my birthday and I'm doing well in some areas but not so well in others.

Create calm

This was about a general feeling of unease I had about the number of things on the my to-do list. Things that had been on there too long and had begun to bother me.

The de-cluttering is an on going process but I do feel the house is more ordered and tidier as a result. I need to carve out some time to really get stuck in.

I'm also planning what to plant in the garden, and seeking out plants for my hanging baskets, as this was an area that needed lots of care and attention.

Also, I've looked at my daily schedule and created some time just for me, to do as I please. I finish work a little earlier in the day now and spend an hour either reading or sewing, or just pottering about.

In this time I've most recently been sewing my patchwork quilt in an attempt to get it finished before March 1st (which is two years since I started it, which is the day I was taught how to). And that's tomorrow, did I finish it? No, but I have made excellent progress this year.

Work and other commitments have been keeping me busy and I found myself getting a little overwhelmed at the end of 2015, it became clear I needed to establish some boundaries between work, other commitments, housekeeping, and time for myself.

This allows me to be more organised and I no longer feel like I'm constantly chasing my tail.

Improve my surroundings

I did a few little DIY jobs at the end of last year, but nothing has been done this year so far, I have lots of plans underway though, and more than a few lists!

Feel stronger and healthier

It's hard to answer this one. My attendance at exercise classes has waned for one reason or another but I am doing more exercise than I was this time last year. Do I feel any different? No, but as long as I keep trying I can only improve.

Eat healthier

I think I am, if only because I'm eating more fruit and veg and cooking from scratch more often. I drink much less alcohol these days, which I think I can squeeze under the 'eat healthier' banner. But there is room for improvement.

Make memories

I'm still a little unsure as to what I actually meant when I wrote this (I'm sure I knew what I meant at the time!). I think it's about going places, seeing people and experiencing new things - making the most of life.

I have some definite plans for this year, and more in the planning stages.

I plan to go to V Festival, go to an outside cinema screening in July (film to be confirmed but it looks like it's going to be The Lost Boys, which is a film I love and have watched countless times).

I'm pondering the idea of going to Latitude as a day guest. Andy and I are definitely going to try a new steak restaurant opening soon, and I want to attend Weird and Wonderful Wood, and maybe visit Banham Zoo as I haven't been for years.

I'm going to a local antiques fayre in May, and to a vintage fayre in April.

I want to have brunch at a local cafe The Teapot Project, a community interest company, that intercepts supermarket food destined for landfill, it's a pay-what-you-feel-it's-worth set up and I've heard great things about it.

I've booked tickets to see The Crime Museum Uncovered at the Museum of London with friends soon, and want to visit Vogue 100 A Century of Style at the National Portrait Gallery, and have a nosy around the Natural History Museum too.

I'll be dragging my friends and family along, and seeing as much of them as I can in between, because I want to see them more than I currently do. I have a tendency to stay at home, happily filling my time with the things that fill my head and take my fancy, but nurturing these relationships is so important.

So here I sit at 40 and a half years old, slightly healthier, calmer and a bit more organised, with lots of exciting plans coming up, and having typed this I think I'm doing better with these resolutions than I first thought.

But the most important question is - is a half birthday worthy of cake?

It's almost payday, which means I am a step closer to getting my hands on the things that have been tempting me this month!



Navy Pinafore Dress  |  Next  |  £34.00
Love this! The top isn't attached so it's two for the price of one. I love it's simplicity and it's pockets. I think this would be really versatile for my spring capsule wardrobe.

Aloe Soothing Rescue Cream Mask  |  The Body Shop  |  £14.00
My love for the Body Shop knows no bounds and after Caroline Hirons gave it the thumbs up I've been wanting to try it, my thirsty skin will thank me.

Clinique CC Cream |  £28.00
Apparently this is good stuff and I've almost finished my current BB cream. This pin made me want it (Pinterest strikes again!)

Shopper Bag  |   ASOS  |  £32.00
A lovely hue for spring, roomy and soft leather, will go nicely with denim, grey, mink, burgundy, navy, khaki and white - all colours that feature highly in my wardrobe.

Flora Filagree Earrings  |  Accessorize  |  £10.00
They're just so very pretty, and not too big - that's very important.

What's on your payday wishlist?

At any given time the number of ideas and ponderings floating around my mind goes well into double figures.

On Sunday I sat at my desk (to do some work) but instantly got lost in Pinterest.

To start with my thoughts where to just look at some pretty pictures for a short while and then start work. I whizzed down my feed randomly liking pins.

Here are some examples of my pinspired thoughts:

I can style my next day dress like this - add a black waistband, petticoat and accessories. I should wear more dresses. Who is this? Ulyana Sergeenko, I love her style.


I should have a tea party for my birthday invite all my female friends and wear a pretty dress. How old is this lady? About 70? I want a party with a cake on my 70th, I'll invite all my female friends and wear a pretty dress. I should wear more dresses.



This is a nice length. Will show this to my stylist at my next hair appointment.


Perfect to wear with my white lace maxi dress... maybe in sage green? Love the brooch. I should wear more dresses. And brooches.


Chefchaouen, Morocco. Wow! This looks gorgeous, I want to go.



This looks tasty. I should eat avocados. Avocados are good for you.

And just like every other time I sit down and waste time on Pinterest I doubt any of these thoughts will make it into reality. But it's nice to look at pretty pictures and lose myself in my thoughts for a while.

Do you Pin?

It's been a while since my last empties post, so I won't share everything I've used, just the things I think are worth a mention.

I knew it must've been a while since my last post because the bag I keep them in has been overflowing for weeks and now it's just getting in the way. This morning I kicked a shampoo bottle across the room, scaring a cat in the process.

I don't normally share bath empties because as long as they smell nice I'm easily pleased, but these two were delicious.

The Sanctuary Luxury Bath Float  |  Boots  |  £10.00
This was a treat-to-myself before Christmas. I love the smell of this range and even though it's far more than I'd normally spend on a bubble bath I really enjoyed soaking in this delightful smell!

Frosted Plum Bath Fizzers  |  The Body Shop  |  No longer available to buy
I loved the delicate pink hue of my bath water when I used these. And they smelled delicious too. My skin felt lovely and soft after using these, it's just a shame that they were limited edition and are no longer available.

My face saw a lot of new products.

Camomile Gentle Eye Make Up Remover  |  The Body Shop  |  £9.00
My sister in law gave me this as it irritated her eyes. I don't normally get a reaction from eye make up removers so I was happy to take it off her hands. But this made my eyes sting too and left them a little red. I was so surprised as this is suitable for sensitive eyes and is dermatologically and  opthalmologically tested. To be fair I wouldn't have continued to use this anyway as it doesn't shift the waterproof mascara that I wear everyday.

Naturally Radiant Glycolic Overnight Peel  |  Superdrug  |  £5.99
I spoke about his briefly in my New In post and I still love it. The kiwi fruit and mulberry extracts tackle dull skin and uneven skin tone, whilst the glycolic acid get to work smoothing the texture of your skin. It's a lovely gel formula that smells pleasantly masculine and results can be seen overnight.

Simply Pure Hydrating Serum  |  Superdrug  |  £2.69
This first featured in the same post as the above and is another product I'm glad I found. It's super cheap but so, so lovely. It's hydrating without feeling tacky, it sinks in well and it's easy to apply moisturiser afterwards. A great product and a great price!

24hr Soothing and Rehydrating Fresh Mask  |  Nuxe  |  £18.50
I got this in a beauty box some time ago. It has a lovely floral scent (mimosa I think) and leaves skin feeling soft, I washed this off after relaxing with it on my face for a while, it doesn't dry onthe skin so is great for using in the bath. You can just rub in the excess but I found this left my skin feeling a tiny bit tacky. A nice treat though.

Vitamin E Moisture Lotion SPF 15  |  The Body Shop  |  £13.00
I found this left my skin felt greasy so I used this as a neck cream instead. I don't normally use a separate cream for my neck but I didn't want to waste it. It's nice but not for me.

I'm still searching for my perfect shampoo and conditioner.

OGX Renewing Argan Oil of Morocco Shampoo and Conditioner  |  Boots  |  £6.99 each
I liked these but they didn't wow me, and had the same niggles as they first OGX shampoo and conditioner I tried - stiff bottles make it hard to squeeze out the product, the product itself is very thick which doesn't help, and you can't balance it on it's head when the product runs low.

Dove Oxygen Moisture Shampoo and Conditioner  |  Boots  |  £5.99 each
Nice but it's not 'the one'. My hair felt clean and soft but... I don' know, it just wasn't amazing.

Lee Stafford Big Fat Mousse Spray  |  Boots  |  £6.99
I've had this for ages and have finally I've decided to bin it. It sounded like the perfect thing for me as I hate the feel of mousse on my palms. It fizzes (like that powder sweet you pour onto your tongue, what's that called?) which is kinda fun and is a nice mousse in terms of hold and not feeling stiff or tacky in your hair, but this sprays mousse everywhere and scares the cats.

Elegant Touch Rapid Dry for Nails  |  Boots  |  £3.05
This is a must for me because as soon as I paint my nails I get an itchy nose / have to go to the loo / forget that I've just painted my nails and start using my hands...

Rhubarb and Rose Replenishing Hand Cream  |  Molton Brown  |  £10.00 for full size 40ml tube
This was in a Birchbox and I love the scent! It's deliciously rhubarbular (and also moisturises nicely).

Two of my mascara staples.

Max Factor Masterpiece High Definition Mascara in black waterproof  |  Boots  |  £9.99
My lashes are stubborn, they don't like to hold a curl and I find very few brushes and formulas that work well for me. This is one that does.

Clinique Bottom Lash Mascara  |  Boots  |  £13.50
Really Ree recommended this and I haven't used anything else since. I've already purchased a replacement. It has a teeny tiny brush that gets to all my bottom lashes. Normal sized mascara wands are too big and I just end up making a mess.


Of course I've used my usual suspects - Dove Original Deodorant (have yet to find anything that rivals this), Garner Micellar Cleansing Water, The Body Shop Camomile Sumptuous Cleansing Butter, and the The Body Shop Camomile Waterproof Eye & Lip Make-Up Remover.

I was delighted to read Caroline Hirons post What To Buy? The Body Shop and see my favourite cleansing butter featured. If Caroline Hirons says something is good, then you know it's going to be good.

The post made me want to try several other Body Shop products though - the Nutriganics range sounds amazing and the Aloe Cream Mask and the Warming Mineral Mask have all made their way onto my must-try list, which is a tad on the ridiculously long side at the moment!

What have you enjoyed using recently?

On Saturday morning my postie knocked on the door and surprised me with a unexpected parcel. The lovely guys at Corkers Crisps had sent me a box full of their delicious crisps!

They have some new flavours and a new look. As a graphic designer I love a little brand refresh, and as someone who really appreciates crisps, I love eating crisps!


The new look gets the thumbs up from me. Based on the everything that is quintessentially British, they are still easily identifiable as Corkers but the colours pack more punch. The ghosted British icon wallpaper background has been replaced with a vibrant collection of colourful graphics.

The new look packaging better represents their quirky, original ethos. I like it.

As for the new flavours, they've added to the vegetable crisp range with Parsnip with Honey & Black Pepper, and Sweet Potato with Chilli (as part of the redesign the vegetable crisps can now be identified by the teapot graphic, the potato crisps by the bowler hat).

Andy isn't a fan of vegetable crisps (which suits me, it means I get to eat them all!). But I did let him try these new flavours as he loves anything with chilli, and his love of parsnips knows no bounds.

Andy and I sampled the delights of Corkers crisps back in September. I fed him as he drove his tractor up and down, and tried to guess the flavours. It was fun, it was funny.

It's an afternoon I often think about and it always makes me smile.

Corkers now remind me of summer, of hanging out and laughing with my husband, and spending a lazy afternoon doing very little (well I didn't do much, Andy was working ...).

It seemed perfectly timed that another box of crisps arrived for me to share with Andy on Valentine's Day.

Forget expensive gifts, chocolates and roses - romance resides in the bottom of a packet of crisps in our house!

We tried the vegetable crisps first. As I predicted I loved the parsnip ones, sadly so did Andy which meant I had to be a nice wife and share them. The sweet potato and chilli crisps were spicy and a nice twist on regular vegetable crisps. If you're a fan of vegetable crisps these won't disappoint.

It seems the Red Leicester and Caramelised Onion might have been replaced with Cheddar Cheese and Chive. Not for the faint-hearted this flavour packs a serious punch! They are Delicious (note the capital 'D').

The one thing you can say about Corkers crisps is that they are flavourful, these are not delicate hints of flavour, but tastebud assaulting, make you sit up and pay attention flavours, teamed with a good satisfying crunch.

They're every bit as good as I remembered.

For my own amusement I wanted to see if Andy could correctly identify the flavours after our blind taste test back in September. He couldn't. But he was close enough.

I let Andy have the Duck and Hoisin Sauce crisps all to himself because they're his favourite. And he's mine.

///  Thank you to Corkers Crisps for sending me these tasty morsels just in time for Valentine's Day. All opinions, and crisp related memories are entirely my own  ///

A year ago I'd sewn together 206 hexi flowers for my patchwork quilt.

Today I have sewn 308 of the little blighters together, I've added 67 so far this year which seems pretty good going considering for the whole of 2015 I only added 35. What can I say? I go in fits and starts.

Above is the beginning of 2016. I had to start moving the sofa out of the way so I could lay it out flat.

And here it is one month in to 2016.

It's really starting to feel like I'm on the home straight, but as I get closer to finishing it I'm getting nervous about the final stages of turning it in a quilt. What if I make a real balls up of the edging and ruin my efforts of the past two years?

I've seriously contemplated paying someone else to back it and edge it.

But I know if I do, I'll regret it, it would no longer be all my own work. I couldn't take full credit.

I'd always be saying, 'yes I made it but someone else finished it for me' and thinking 'because you where too much of a chicken to look the thing in the eye and sew on it's edging'.

I foresee some YouTube tutorials coming on.

It's time to put on my big girl pants and do this.

(Wish me luck)

I completed Dry January. Not for charity, and not on purpose either.

I got to the 19th January and realised I hadn't had an alcoholic drink since News Year's Eve, I'd been poorly and just hadn't felt like it.

I had a cold, sore throat, cough... nothing tasted like it should. Tea tasted like dishwater, food like gravel, and wine like acid.

So I just continued not drinking, to see if I could. Turns out I can.

Do I feel better? I can't say I've seen a discernible difference.

Did I lose weight? Nope.

More energy? Not really.

Clearer skin? Sadly, no.

More money? Andy buys the wine...

What can I say about my alcohol free month?

I've learnt that I can live without my nightly glass of red.

I can say I'm less sleepy of an evening, I'm staying up later.

What I used to think of as 'slightly hungover' has just turned out to be me really not being much of a morning person.

There were times when I thought a cold, crisp G&T would be just the thing, but it was fleeting. I'd call it a thought rather than a craving.

How long will this last? I have no idea. But I can say that this accidental Dry January of mine has raised some questions for me.

I've had my fair share of nights out that ended in passing out rather than going to sleep, waking with a monster hangover and no memory of most of the previous evening. But it's not just about nights like that. It's the one or two (or more) glasses of wine I had every night. The ones I drank without even really noticing. The habit drinking.

I could drink red wine all night, any night of the week - most nights of the week - and not give it a second thought.

I'm sounding like a reformed smoker who moans about the smell of smoke.

Perhaps I'll continue and make it a 'dry winter', perhaps I'll  have the odd glass of wine or a G&T on occasion, but I do think my days of drinking almost every night are gone. So whilst I see no discernible difference physically, I do feel different emotionally.

When it comes to social drinking, I have to admit, I've wondered how I'll 'get away' with not drinking on a night out. Living in a rural area means I can easily use the excuse of driving, but also I'm a little nervous at the thought of socialising without alcohol.

My ideal would be to have one or two and move on to soft drinks. But if I have one, I'll always be encouraged to have another, and I'm the first to admit that I don't need an awful lot of encouragement! Switching to soft drinks before the night is over will be hard.

Someone once said to me, in a throw away comment, not meaning to be hurtful, that 'you're no fun when you're not drinking'. This wiggled in under my subconscious and stayed there.

If I'm honest, I do feel more relaxed when I've had a drink, I'm chattier, but of course being relaxed and chatty often turns in to being utterly shitfaced. Clearly I don't know my limits, or if I do I'm past the point of caring by the time I get there.

I am a quiet person in comparison to my drinking alter ego, perhaps I'm not as much fun. I'm definitely not as loud or talkative, but I'm still me.

My relationship with alcohol feels like it has changed during January. I really don't think I'll fall back into the habit of drinking every night, and I honestly say that I don't want to ever get completely blotto ever again, but the real test will be on my next night out, when someone says 'oh go on, have another one'.

Worth a read - Article by Judith Woods in the Telegraph about her experience of Dry January.

For the past year I've been enjoying having a good ole nosy at the monthly purchases of Elise with her monthly Buyer's Archive. Janet joined in too, and now I'm joining the party.

I'm hoping that my purchases will be kept to a minimum this year as I'm trying out a capsule wardrobe but it'll be a good way to track what I'm spending. I always keep a record of what I buy each year but I don't keep tabs on the overall spend, which is how I ended up spending rather a lot last year.

So, for January it's 'just' four items.

At the very beginning of the month I purchased a long navy cardigan from George. I thought it was £14 but at the checkout it came up as £8 and I wasn't going to argue.

I have a number of knitwear items from George and I've always been really happy with the quality, they wash well, hold their shape and don't immediately bobble.

I very rarely go into Primark (I can't even remember the last time), but I nipped in to buy a sports bra that I spied from the street (£4). Perfect for my Pilates class. Whilst making my way to the checkout I found a pair of black suede heels in the sale at £6 - a wardrobe staple if ever there was, right?

My biggest expense was another long cardigan (£40), I only popped into Next to buy some birthday cards (they do some nice ones for men) when I saw this. Utter impulse purchase. But I love it and immediately added it to my capsule wardrobe.

It's less beige than in the photo, more creamy. It's utterly impractical for me. Mud and cats feature too highly in my life for a soft cream cardigan, so I wondered if I should return it. I put it back in the carrier bag, I took it out, I tried it on again.

I'm keeping it, practical or not.

And FYI, I forgot to even look at the birthday cards!

Total: £58.00

I have no idea what I spent in January last year but I'd guess at it being a lot more.

I have a figure of £400 in mind as a total spend for 2016, so I'll need to keep a tight rein on spending if I want succeed.

This month I haven't gone out with clothes shopping in mind specifically, I haven't even set foot into a charity shop yet this year, but I have purchased things whilst going about my daily life. It's not that I'm trying not to spend at the moment, it's more that I don't think I need to with my capsule wardrobe - which was kinda the point of doing it.

Follow Elise on Twitter to see everyone who's taken part. I love a nosy around other peoples wardrobes don't you?