For the third year running I'm taking part in A Buyer's Archive inspired by Elise, to keep track of my spending on clothes and accessories.

THIS YEAR

March seems to be the month that I start thinking about my summer wardrobe. I've obviously well and truly had enough of the cold weather and long for days when I can go out without a coat.

Gap cords  |  pre-loved from ebay  |  £6.49
I fancied something other than denim jeans for leg coverage, just for a change, and these are already down to less than £1.00 a wear. I've worn them 11 times already (yes I am counting).

Warehouse top  |  pre-loved from a charity shop  |  £1.00
Lovely colour, perfect for warm days, all for just a single pound. How could I leave this on the rail?

White Stuff shirt  |  pre-loved from a charity shop  |  £3.00
It just said 'take me home, you'll like me'. So I did.

H&M dress  |  pre-loved from a charity shop  |  £5.00
I think it was the that fact that the sun was shining that I bought this, the promise of warm days always makes me want to buy pretty dresses. It has arms and isn't stupidly short - perfect.

Bag  |  pre-loved from a charity shop  |  £3.50
I have thinned my bag collection to a chosen few but always felt a red one would be a good addition. And here it is, for the princely sum of £3.50.

Pink night shirt  |  Primark  |  £8.00
I'm developing a thing for night shirts, this is my second in three months. It's comfy, and washes and irons well.


LAST YEAR

Maxi skirt  |  pre-loved via ebay  |  £0.99
I've had this skirt a year, and it's been in the mend pile with a frayed seam since then. I'm now on a mission to get it mended and worn!

New Look heart shirt £4.00  |  F&F floral top £3.00  |  local charity shop 
Both have been worn a number of times. The heart shirt ripped under one of the arms, but this is one of the few items I've actually mended! It's not an invisible mend but I don't go around waving my arms about above my head (unless under the influence of alcohol and that doesn't happen much these days), so it's our secret.

New Look Shirt dress  |  pre-loved via ebay  |  £6.50
I wore this a lot last year, and recently I mended the frayed collar, and reattached one of the belt loops, so it's all ready for another year.

T-shirt £4.00  |  Dress £24.99  |  Dress £9.00  |  all New Look
T-shirt was worn a lot, the red dress once, the black dress not at all. The arrival of warmer weather means they'll be back in a capsule soon.

ASOS boyfriend jeans  |  pre-loved via ebay  |  £9.99
I wore these a few times but they're a little bit big... I'm wondering if it's time for these to revisit ebay?


Everything I purchased this month falls into the 'I wanted it' category, nothing here was needed, but I have evened out my new vs pre-loved purchases, bringing the score level at eight items each.


Total for March £26.99

Total so far for 2018: £92.23

Total at this time last year: £118.45

Left of £600.00 budget: £507.77

So, we're a quarter of the way through the year and I'm no where near being a quarter of the way through my budget, and I've spent less than this time last year. I'm kinda happy with that.

What have you been buying this month?

Look out for the #buyersarchive hashtag to see others taking part. 

Saturday March 24th was a busy day, and also #PhotoAnHour.

My day started at 6am, I got up to feed the cats, and was just in time to see Andy off to work.

By 7am I was showered and dressed, feeling excited about the day ahead.


At 8am I was in the car ready to drive to Southwold, an hour away. Today was the Beach Clean organised by local brewery Adnams. This is the third time I've been, each time more people have volunteered. The first time we were a group of about 35, this time our numbers had increased to 100.


Just after 9am I arrived in Southwold, found a prime (free!) parking spot by the pier, and headed to the beach for my pre-clean wander. I park near the pier, wander up to the meeting point, and from there we continue to the sea wall. Then I make my way back again meaning I walk the length of the beach twice.


At 10am I was still enjoying the solitude of the beach, it was a nice day, a coat and gloves were needed but walking kept me warm. I paddled in the sea - in welly boots, I'm not brave enough to go in barefoot at this time of year! How do people go swimming in the sea on Boxing Day?


By 11am the Beach Clean was underway. We'd signed in, been briefed, had a group photo and were recording everything we picked up within the first 100m of beach. It'll come as no surprise that plastic made up the bulk of the rubbish. We always find few odd socks, quite a lot of wet wipes, and bits of rope and string too.


At noon we'd reached the sea wall and our bags were collected together, this photo shows only a fraction of the collection - the van is already full. In total we gathered 108 bags of rubbish. The beach always looks clean, but so much of what we picked up was small, half buried, or entangled with seaweed.


By 1pm I'd had a cheese and ham toasty and a mug of earl grey at a beach side cafe, and made my way to Harris & James for a salted caramel ice cream. If you're ever in Southwold you much seek out this shop, the staff are wonderful, the ice cream divine!


At 2pm it was time for me to make my way home, and to take one last photo of the pretty beach huts, this one being the prettiest of the pretties.


3pm. As I was passing B&Q on my way home I stopped to pick up some paint for our downstairs loo, and to pick up yet more green swatches for the bedroom. I've narrowed it down to two now, and there's hardly a shade between them so I think eeny meeny miny mo is the order of the day! It's between R260D and X128.

By 4pm I was at my desk. After 5 hours at the beach all I really wanted to do was lay on the sofa but a client had other ideas. Her website needed to launch on Monday (and it did), but she'd changed her mind about some of the design elements and I needed to get them changed and approved so that they could be implemented in time. Tea helped me through.

At 5pm I was waiting for client feedback and Tinker decided that she was due some attention. I can't tell you how much time I spend working around a cat. Sometimes she falls asleep on my arm so I have to work one handed.


6pm came all too soon, the day seemed to go by in a flash. But at least I was done, the design was signed off, the client happy, and I could make another cuppa and get my ass on the sofa at last. Tinker took this as her key to make sure I stayed where I was for the foreseeable and fell asleep on my chest.


And here is where I stopped taking photos. Andy came home at about 7pm, he made supper, and we watched The West Wing. Tinker didn't move far all evening, and Socks turned up at about 9pm, demanding his night time Dreamies.

It was my wish at the beginning of the year to avoid that Sunday night feeling of a weekend wasted. My goal was to have a plan in place for the coming weekend by each Friday evening, and this weekend was a busy one.

Thanks to Jane and Louisa for hosting, I really like looking back over these posts to see what my days consisted of.

How was your weekend?

I'll leave you with a few bonus pics from my day.







A happy by-product of the day was the opportunity to expand my seaglass collection. This is what I picked up, adding to my meagre collection of four tiny pieces.

SPRING! It's here. This always feels like the actual start of the year for me. The first few months are often spent hibernating, making plans, tentatively poking my head out of the safety of my home to see if it's warm enough to venture out.

With the (imminent?) arrival of blue skies and sunnier days I always feel more energised and optimistic, my head buzzes with ideas, and endless lists are made.

1. Make
I want to find a dress pattern and seek out some material to make a summer frock

2. See the bluebells
I have this on my list every year, and I doubt I need to explain why... I'm also looking forward to seeing if the ones I discovered in our back garden last year will make another appearance.

3. Hit the beach
I often visit Felixstowe, sometimes Southwold, and occasionally Aldeburgh, all or any of these would be fine.

4. DIY
Winter saw a slow but steady start on home improvement projects, but spring is the time to really get stuck in. I've been planning a bedroom makeover for ages and now is the time, especially as I've finally decided on the colour for the walls (probably).

5. Mend
I made a good start on the mend pile, but I still have a number of items left. I want to get it gone, asap.

6. Make pasta from scratch
I just fancy giving it a go.

7. Read 12 Books
The mission to read everything on my bookshelves goes on...

8. Get stuck into embroidery
I have an urge to try my hand at this, I had a quick go a few weeks ago, and now I've pinned the hell out of it, watched a load of YouTube tutorials, and admired all the pretty coloured threads, it's time to start another hobby that I probably don't have time for. Yay!

9. Have Afternoon Tea
I haven't had afternoon tea since I went with Sophie in 2015! I've been saying I'm going to take Mother for an age, it's time to make good on that promise. And it's a good excuse to wear a pretty dress.

10. Host Afternoon Tea
I can treat having afternoon tea as a fact finding mission, so I can host an afternoon tea for friends.

What plans do you have for spring?


Photo from Pixabay

More snow. It's spring now, sort it out.

Anyway, my plan for the weekend was a simple one, to knit.

I had a few knitting projects in progress, and two I wanted to start and finish before Easter arrived, so I got my sticks out, plonked myself on the sofa, and set to it. The snow wasn't deep enough to go outside and build a snowman (or snowcat), and the wind was brutal, so what else was I to do?

I started Monkey Moo several weeks ago using an odd ball of eyelash wool I picked up for 50p in a charity shop. It's not something I've used before, and the jury is still out. Good points? No one can see any mistakes as they're hidden by the fluff. Bad points? On smaller pieces you can't see the edges to sew it up.

Words were muttered, bad words.

That said, it might be nice to use for a larger project, hence jury still sitting awkwardly on the fence, trying not to fall off.

I only had one leg left to make before I could claim a victory over this troublesome wool, I wasn't going to be defeated. I love this Monkey Moo pattern, and I think his fluffy head looks super cute (but maybe his nose isn't quite right?) but I prefer him when rendered in normal wool.

I have a lion pattern, and the mane might be a good use for the remaining wool ...?


I then turned my attention to another partially finished project and finished this pink bunny, and then started a grey one with longer, floppier ears. I want to keep them both, but they're destined to be given away as Easter gifts.


I'm now working my way through a puppy. Only half a leg and two arms to go.  I'm sticking with just one wool throughout on this one, it's a slightly textured wool and works beautifully for this pattern. I think I'm going to want to keep him as well.

Do you knit? What's on your sticks?

It was my wish at the beginning of the year to avoid that Sunday night feeling of a weekend wasted. My goal was to have a plan in place for the coming weekend by each Friday evening. This weekend, in addition to knitting and tutting at the weather, I played delivery driver for my brother, and my Dad, ate Chinese food, and enjoyed a roast chicken dinner, cooked by my husband, with his parents.

Weekend well spent.

My plans for last weekend were postponed due to the snow. It seems odd to say that now, the snow seems like such a long time ago, almost all evidence of it has disappeared. I was meant to be meeting a friend for a catch up and charity shop rummage, but the roads were too hectic for either of us to make it.

So instead of buying clothes I decided to mend some, and turned my attention to my enormous mend pile. I had three items with frayed hems or seams that needed mending, and a shirt that I wanted to remove the collar and make into a grandad style. This doesn't really make much of a dent in the mend pile but it means I have these things ready for my spring capsule wardrobe; instead of wishing I could wear these items, I can!

This weekend my main plan was to see my Mum on Sunday, Mother's Day. It was lovely to spend time with my her and her husband, and eat the enormous roast chicken dinner Andy cooked, but I was distracted, a little lost in my own thoughts. I found Mother's Day hard.


That evening, in an effort to occupy my mind, I decided to have a go at embroidery. I've always wanted to give it a try, and a recent pinning spree has added fuel to the fire. I found a quick star tutorial, grabbed some scrap material and had a go. Yeah, it's something that's gonna feature in my life again, and soon!

It was my wish at the beginning of the year to avoid that Sunday night feeling of a weekend wasted. My goal was to have a plan in place for the coming weekend by each Friday evening. These were two weekends well spent, I think. The mend pile was tackled, I spent some quality time with family, and I tried my hand at a new skill.

What have you been up to?

I'm normally someone who doesn't give up, but today I decided that I had to walk away.

After losing our baby in November we've had a lot to deal with, physically, emotionally, mentally. It's been exhausting at times, and the situation has been made harder by well meaning 'help' and the issues this raised.

I met with the Bereavement Midwife in November, and at the time I felt that it had been really helpful to meet with her. But as time has gone by I've begun to realise that it's been more of a hindrance than a help.

(Edit: The Bereavement Midwife is employed by the hospital to offer help and support to those who've suffered baby loss. She is not a counselor, although I am seeing a counselor, and those sessions have been extremely helpful.)

She offered me information on help and support groups that were available. She was able to answer the two questions I had. One of which I couldn't ask her, I had to email her my question because the words were simply too hard to say, but she understood. She found the answers and told me in a kind and sympathetic manner.

When we met she also asked me some very specific questions about things I was asked and told after my operation. She gleaned information from our conversation and called it feedback. She went away, spoke to people involved and got back to me with answers to questions that I'd never actually asked in the first place.

And here is where the problem begins. Her answers raised more questions, and once they were asked I wanted answers. What I was being told was so different from what I had been led to believe.

Andy and I left the hospital believing certain things, and I think these past few months would've been so much easier if we'd been left in that state of blissful ignorance.

Trying to get answers has been hard, and it's taken a long time, with lots of back and forth. Four months on and there are things I still don't know.

Not getting these answers led me to request my medical records. There was one form I wanted to see, just one. They sent me everything, except that one form, and in looking through my records to find it, I discovered things I really didn't want to know. Things that I can never erase from my memory.

It feels as if things are getting harder and more distressing with each turn of events, and it's made a hard situation worse.

Of course we are immensely grateful for the care I received and for the most part everyone we encountered was very caring and professional, but a few things were missed, and mistakes were made that will have lasting emotional consequences.

So, whilst I don't yet have the full story, I have to walk away. I have to draw a line under it, so that I can put it behind me and move on. The answers won't change what happened, and I need to step away from the negativity, and the frustration.

The situation has been weighing me down, keeping me up at night, stopping me from healing. The only thing I can control are my own actions, and by walking away I take back control, I decide what happens.

So, I've to decide to forgive those who let me down, who misinformed me, who didn't do what they were supposed to do.
 
I'm letting go in order to move on, because every ounce of my being tells me that it is the right thing to do, for me.

I had a rather concerning thought the other day. I was drinking a mug of ordinary tea, with milk, which is how I'd taken my tea for as long as I can remember (I gave up taking sugar when I was 8 and saw ants in the sugar bowl at Brownie camp). Anyway, my thought was 'I don't really like tea anymore'.

I know, right?!

To clarify, I mean I don't like tea like that anymore. Bog standard tea with a splash of cow's milk simply doesn't float my boat these days.

It occurred to me that my tea tastes have broadened somewhat over the past few years. I used to have just one box of teabags in my cupboard - PG Tips pyramid bags - and I'd drink several cups a day.

I gave up dairy for a while a last year and couldn't face black tea without milk so I started to experiment with different types of tea, and as a consequence I developed a taste for a bit of variety in my daily drinking.


My first drink of the day is usually a glass of water, but after that, it's tea until bedtime.

I have no routine, I simply open the cupboard and see what takes my fancy. For ages Twinings Bakewell Green Tea has been a favourite, along with a strangely moreish turmeric tea, I can't put my finger on why I like it, but I do.

Often after supper I'll have mint tea, and in the run up to Christmas I was feeling festive and sipping chai tea lattes.

I was introduced to Teapigs via a Twitter competition and found I really enjoyed their Yerba Mate, and Tung Ting Oolong tea temples. I'm not the biggest fan of fruit teas as the aroma promises so much but the taste always fails to deliver.

Earl Grey makes a regular appearance in my mug, as does jasmine tea.

If I do have a 'normal' tea these days it's without milk and very weak - I mean dip the bag, just once, and remove it, no lingering. I usually only drink this when there's no alternative. I've taken to carrying my own teabags around in my bag, which people are starting to get used to, they barely raise an eyebrow these days. My Dad has taken to keeping a box of the bakewell green tea in his cupboard just for me.

Recently I've discovered to another tea company. Adagio Teas got in touch and asked if I'd like to try some of their loose leaf teas, no one will be surprised to discover that I said a very enthusiastic 'yes please!', with my love of tea, and the first half of this post sitting in my drafts folder, it was a no-brainer.


I wasn't expecting the motherload of teas to turn up on my doorstep a few days later. Honestly, it made my day. There are so many! Luckily they all have a long shelf life, because it's going to take me a while to get through them all.

My biggest problem was which one to try first? They had all my favourites covered - oolong teas, jasmine teas, earl grey - and many more besides. I've been sent sample packs containing different varieties of each. Honestly, I had no idea there were so many different varieties and blends.

In the end I settled on trying one of the chai varieties (chocolate) and made myself a chai latte with rice milk. It was perfect for a snowy day, with a storm raging outside. It was spicy and warming, with a smooth chocolately after taste. It really perked me up.


The following morning I opted for the intriguing Lemon Meringue Green Tea, this time using one of their convenient paper filters, which make using loose leaf tea a cinch (not that using a tea strainer is all that difficult). It has a lovely subtle flavour, with a nice zing to the after taste. I had two cups in quick succession.

Then, despite my usual dislike of fruity teas, I tried the Berry Creme Compote. Just look at the pretty blend of rose hips, hibiscus flowers, apple pieces, blue cornflowers, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries.

This was actually quite nice, it wasn't over the top fruity and had a nice smooth flavour. It's probably not one I'd buy for myself but one that I would happily drink on occasion. I'm obviously more of an actual tea drinker, herbals teas just aren't my thing. But tastes change and you have to try things again every once in a while, don't you think?

I have some fruity oolongs, and green rooiboos to try, among others, which I think will be more to my tea taste. I feel rather spoilt for choice.

I've been sharing a few I've tried on Instagram, with more to come, giving mini reviews of each if you fancy finding out a little more. With the amount of blends to try my Insta feed will soon be full of tea!

How do you take yours?



Thanks to Adagio Teas for sending me these teas to try, all opinions are my own.