This year

After last month's attack of the spends I thought I'd be more restrained with my spending this month, but it seems I haven't finished just yet.

Firstly, I picked up a fascinator for £6.00 and a pair of shorts, £2.50, in my local charity shop, not that I need either.

Then I decided I wanted a lace crop (but not too cropped) top to wear with the high waisted midi skirt I purchased last month. A quick look on ebay, a sneaky last minute bid, and this BNWT Topshop lace top was mine for £6.00.

I then wanted a cardigan for a funeral, for which we have been asked to wear colour. This turned out to be rather tricky as you don’t want to be too colourful, and there is a real possibility that you can look like you’re going to a wedding (especially as my most colourful items have been purchased specifically for weddings). In the end I settled on a patterned knee length skirt but I needed an appropriate top. So I purchased a cardigan from New Look that I know I’ll wear again, £9.99.

Next up I purchased 2 vest tops, £11.20 - 20% off in Miss Selfridge, to wear under the cardigan and the lace top. Talk about a cascade of spending.

Last Year


Asymmetric Knotted Sweater  |  Zara  |  £19.99
I have a love/hate relationship with this. Sometimes it's the exact thing, other times it just annoys me. Is this normal?

T-shirt bra   |  Asda  |  £4.00
Not pretty but practical and necessary. And worn a lot.

Fatface top | Mind charity shop | £3.00
This lost it's shape after a few washes, and so has been relegated to the 'stuff I sleep in' drawer.

Wrap top | ASOS | £26.00
I decided after I'd worn this a few times that I actually rather disliked it. It's long gone.


Necklace | Next | £14.00
Love this!


Crew neck jumper | ASOS | £16.00
I really rather like this. But haven't put it in a capsule for a while. 

T-shirt | Topshop | £14.00
An essential. I love the curved hem, it's really flattering.

Total for May: £35.69

Total so far for 2017: £264.95

Total at this time last year: £301.89

Looking at my purchases it's clear that May isn't a month in which I add much colour to my wardrobe.

Anyway, my total is still under what I'd spent at this time last year, and maybe now I've satisfied my spending itch I can have a more frugal month in June... we'll see - the arrival of summer always seems to make me crave new clothes.

Thanks to Elise for the inspiration and for organising the #buyersarchive hashtag.

A new year's resolution of mine was to make a bee bath and plant some bee friendly plants in the garden. With the weather warming up I've been spending more and more time outside and I'd started to ponder how I was going to go about it.

I decided to start with a few small additions - the bee bath and a plant or two that bees are known to love.

I'd purchased and potted up a lavender, and was spending the afternoon pottering in the garden. It was then that I discovered an old bird bath languishing in our hedge. The base was hideous - adorned with squirrels and ivy - but the top was the perfect thing to create a bee bath.


I scrubbed it (almost) clean and placed it on an old pot to give it a little height. I'd already purchased some glass pebbles in readiness, and I had a pot full of stones (used in some of the table decorations at our wedding), so I popped a few of these into the dish and arranged it next to my newly potted lavender.


I wanted some more glass pebbles, and found a seller on ebay selling a selection in different sizes and colours, they were exactly what I was looking for and I was able to convert my Nectar points into ebay vouchers, so I got them with parting with a single penny!

I keep it topped up with rain water, and I'm really pleased with how it has turned out. And I love that I could re-purpose an ugly old bird bath and make into something new.

The first time I see a bee using it I'll be chuffed to bits - "build it and they will come".

Moving forward I'd like to plant some flowering thyme, I have some seedlings currently doing well in the greenhouse, and I'd like to plant some different lavender varieties, and cotton lavender, with it's pale foliage and bright yellow flowers, in other areas of the garden.

One day I'll plant a lavender hedge around one side of the greenhouse, but first I need to dig out an old gnarly rosebush that's claimed the ground as it's own.


I'm also planning to plant a Californian lilac with it's clusters of gorgeous blue flowers at the side of the house and in the front garden. And a common myrtle with it's delicate white flowers some where else, possibly on the other side of the house. They're ready and waiting in the greenhouse.


I've read that bees are particularly attracted to blue, yellow and white flowers, so with luck these will bring the bees humming and buzzing about, and in time I'll add other plants that will further entice them.

Hello! I hope you've had a good week? I've been hampered by a bit of a cold, and I managed to get whacked in the eye by a bramble (yes, ouch) but those things aside it's been good.

Filling the house with flowers
I popped to Aldi and picked up two bunches of their bargain roses. I've had these before and they lasted three weeks! But instead of putting them in a large vase in the dining room, I popped them into three smaller vases and distributed them around the house. My favourite sits on my bedside table. This is something that needs to happen more often.


Mending
I've had three pairs of ripped jeans sitting in my wardrobe for ages waiting for me to mend them, an idle scroll through my Pinterest feed gave me an idea, and I went about cutting up one of Andy's old work shirts to patch them with.  I've still got one pair to repair but it feels good to have finally started on my mend pile.


Baking
I really enjoyed, not only baking but eating, my Lemon Thumbprint Cookies last week, and I wanted to make something else. A few very ripe bananas were perfect for this Banana Oatmeal Cookie recipe. They are so simple to make, and the kitchen smelled divine for hours after cooking. The cookies only lasted a fraction longer.

Breaking sunglasses
Some how I managed to break two pairs of sunglasses this week, one during the bramble incident, the other I have no idea. The frame snapped at the top meaning the lens fell out, both in the same place, on the same eye - spooky. Good job I did buy a new pair last month.

Hoping for rain
We've had no significant rainfall here for three months, and being married to an arable farmer it makes for frustrating times. We need rain. They all work so hard on the farm, all year round, and it's so frustrating that the success of the crops depend on the weather. So if you know of an effective rain dance, you know what you need to do...

Looking forward to...
A morning cinema date with my husband on Sunday, eating the first of my mixed lettuce leaves crop, planting out some more seeds in the greenhouse, and getting properly stuck into my latest read - Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey.

Have you had a good week?

Greenhouse pottering
I've spent a lot of time in my greenhouse this week, it's old and and in need of some serious TLC but I love it. I'm growing numerous things but sometimes I just sit in there with a cup of tea, sometimes with a book. It's warm, my cats love to join me in there and at this time of year, when the weather can be a little chilly, it allows me to be outside without having to brave the elements.

Knitting
Every once in a while I get the urge to knit. I love knitting Monkey Moo, he knits up super quick and is always loved by his recipient.

Baking
A slightly out of date jar of lemon curd inspired me to pop on my pinny and make some Lemon Curd Thumbprint Cookies (I wasn't about to let a use by date cheat me out of the lemony goodness). They're utterly delicious! It's left me with a hankering to bake more often, perhaps some banana oat cookies...?

Reading
My current read is charming, and one I found via Yarn Along - Sylvia's Farm: The Journal of an Improbable Shepherd by Sylvia Jorrin. I'm really enjoying the short chapters, each a stand alone story of the farm. It leaves me a desire to make the most of each and every single day, to do just one more thing to work towards a goal, and to be happy and grateful with my lot.

Changing my routine
I decided to change my working hours in an attempt to have a little more routine to my days. Now I work in the mornings, I'm at my desk by 8am and finish some where between noon and 1pm.

The afternoons are mine. This is when I get my housework done, or I potter in the greenhouse, maybe read for an hour, write my meal plan, bake, go for a walk. It feels nice to know that after lunch I can ignore the emails and focus on everything else that life entails.

Before doing this, I had a 'just quickly' mindset, where I'd just quickly pop some washing on, just quickly run the vacuum around, just quickly nip outside and water the plants. I found that I'd 'work' a full day but rarely get more than half a days work done.

If I need to work into the afternoon then I do but I find this way I can concentrate on the task in hand. I feel like I'm achieving more each day. Multitasking has it's place but day-to-day I'm finding it's better to focus on one thing at a time.

Also
Having a bit of a bee moment. Thanks to Instagram I was alerted to a rather delicious sounding coconut and pear lip balm, it's limited edition and for each one sold 5,000 wild flower seeds are planted. Isn't that lovely? I purchased three (they're as nice as they sound), and gave one to my Mum.

I also uploaded a #SelflessSelfie via the Burt's Bees website, they add flowers to your selfie and with each one uploaded a further 5,000 seeds are planted.

Meanwhile in my own garden I've been planting bee friendly plants and made a bee bath, but that's for another post...

What have you been up to this week?