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Showing posts from 2020

Book Review - Christmas With The Teashop Girls, Elaine Everest

 A small disclaimer before we delve into all things bookish and festive. I haven't quite finished this novel yet, but I am well on my way and wanted to share some thoughts while there's still time to treat your e-reader/kindle, or even just buy a Christmas book to read all year round. Thank you to Elaine and ed. Pr for this #gifted review copy.  Christmas With The Teashop Girls is the second in this historical series and opens in late 1940. The novel follows Rose Neville, her mum, friends, and all the residents of the Sea View Guesthouse, along with workers at two Joe Lyons tearooms. Elaine weaved together a whole host of different characters in the first novel and adds to them further in this one. Lady Diana, her chauffeur/concierge, and Councillor Wendy Mould bring some spark and life to this wartime tale, and there are a few surprises as well.  An unexpected twist early on sees Rose and Flora stranded on a boat out in the water. It's almost a passing reference to somethi

Craft Consortium Christmas Stamps - And Handmade Cards

Look away now if you don't want a dose of festive craft, but if you do, welcome. This blog is all about the cute festive stamps from the brand Craft Consortium.  I don't know about any of my creative friends who might be reading this, but one of the things I enjoyed the most, at least in the early stages of lockdown was the time to completely switch off and sit and craft, without anything else in the back of my mind. I've finished a couple of projects, started a couple of cross stitch (they will be finished at some point), and had the chance to properly play with my Craft Consortium Christmas Stamps.  These guys are fast becoming my favourite brand for Christmas stamps, and very much up my street with their cute theming. One major plus point for me is the variety of stamp sizes on one sheet of stamps, making them ideal for different card sizes, sometimes building scenes, and making matching items like gift tags. The sets I have that I use for Christmas are  It's Snome T

Beauty Samples & A Better Beauty Routine

I've never been quite sure how to describe my relationship with beauty. It's not that I'm disinterested, but I'm not the world's best at keeping up with any kind of routine. I can happily go without make-up, although let's face it, we all have things we'd rather cover-up, and I have in the past just grabbed whatever beauty products I've been gifted. Safe to say I'm not neglectful of my skin, but I'm a bit haphazard, and I haven't really been that interested in the products I put on it, bar the fact that they helped, or made my skin feel or smell nice. Free beauty samples are changing that, and hopefully for the better. My friend virtually sent me an opportunity to try out a perfume sample ages ago, via a So Post sampling campaign, and since then I've managed to get my hands on some pretty cool Happy Mail. A fair amount has been free samples through marketing offers, once from O2 priority, and other offers from brands, or shops like Bo

Stickii Club Sticker Subscription Service Review

It's been a while since I have posted anything stationery related here, but as a long term penpal and crafter I love all things cute, colourful, and stationery related. I was recently #gifted the opportunity to try out Stickii Club, a sticker subscription service that is based in the US and ships worldwide. Sign-up When you sign up you can choose between 3 different themes: cute, retro (Victoriana, nature, vintage), and pop (quirky and offbeat), which you can switch between if you want to try out another theme one month. The site and social media feed also give you sneak peeks of what is coming up that month so you know what you're getting, or could be getting, if you are considering subscribing. One thing that made Stickii stand out from the off is their use of in-house designers who put together the stickers etc. each month, under chosen themes. There's no sourcing from other suppliers and from looking at their past packs online, there's a lot of variety there. W

Theatre Severn Live Stream With Flash A Tribute To Queen

Read all about Flash: A Tribute To Queen and their weekend live stream at Theatre Severn, Shrewsbury.  One of the best things about lockdown and the very difficult time we are still going through is watching my favourite creatives, and people I've worked for/written about, embrace new things and push their comfort zones. Watching and then looking at the reactions afterward, not only from the crowd but from the band themselves is heartwarming to see. I think now more than ever we all need a bit of escapism, and to connect with each other and music if and when we can, and the human side of a band is something we all love to respond to.  Flash: A Tribute To Queen (one of my last clients before lockdown hit) teamed up with Wild Edric Media and Theatre Severn Shrewsbury to put on a live stream broadcast to support the theatre, a venue like many other arts spaces that are wondering what their future will shape up to be. Flash played for an hour with a pro streaming, staging, and lighti

Disney Questions and Answers

I think the title of this post may give it away, but yes I am a big Disney fan. When I've been watching Disney videos on Youtube I see some tag videos on there, but I am not a fan of being in front of the camera, so I thought I'd blog my Q&A instead.  If you're a blogger/Disney fan would be great to see your answers in a blog post too. 1. How did you get into Disney? I grew up with the films, and they gradually entered my life when I was old enough to watch them (Bambi was banned at first for obvious reasons!). I remember not having much patience for Fantasia but fell in love with some of the other films on first watch. At some point Walt Disney World really started to be advertised in the UK, and that got me even more excited, especially after some neighbours had been to the Californian version. To a young me it was just magical, and the ultimate place to go on holiday. 2. Have you been to any Disney parks? Yes! I was really lucky to go to Orlando twice

Spotlight On: Miranda Dickinson (Author)

Hi everyone, How is everyone doing? It's a crazy time to be alive right now, isn't it? I really wish everyone well and hope you are all staying safe, washing those hands, and keeping sane during these difficult and stressful times. Let's hope as a nation/world we can all play our part and beat this invisible evil virus into submission, and enjoy life (whatever life will be) more and as we should be. I've been wanting to catch up with some blog writing for a while to keep me busy but wasn't really sure what to write - so I thought I'd just shine a spotlight on some of my favourite things/people, etc. that are inspiring me right now, just to show a bit of support where I can. Miranda Dickinson became one of my favourite authors a while back. I remember at the time being heavily in to historical sagas, and devouring so many I basically ended up with genre fatigue (if that's not a thing, I've just invented it!) and needed something new. I turned to c

The Girl With The Amber Comb By Linda Finlay - Blog Tour Review

I think it's safe to say we are living in uncertain times right now, and what a crazy time to be writing a book review. Crazy, but in some ways apt, as I think now is the perfect time to switch off from the news and social media when you can, and lose yourself in a book. I'm very happy to join in with the book tour for The Girl With The Amber Comb, and a big thank you to HQ Stories for gifting me a copy of the book for review. Linda Finlay is a new author to me, but one through her seven published novels who is famed for West Country sagas based around traditional crafts, and The Girl With The Amber Comb is no exception. One of the first things that struck me as I started reading was the sense of place, and how deeply rooted the story is, in its Somerset location. I have read a lot of historical sagas, but this is the first one that I felt was really anchored in its location, and couldn't have been set anywhere else. But it wasn't just the sense of place that made

From Zero To One - Mardi Gras (single review)

With 60,000 views and counting since it's debut on January 17th, the video for Mardi Gras' latest single release is making waves, and I'm not surprised! Out of all the songs I've heard since discovering this Italian band, From Zero To One is one of the strongest, and most powerful. Although the song has been out for a while, I have held back on doing a review because I didn't (in the best possible way) know what to write about this track, that I had a pretty instant love for. I downloaded it after first listen, turned up the volume, and hit the repeat button- which probably tells you all you need to know, but I will go on. In 'From Zero To One' Mardi Gras has created a catchy, soaring pop/rock song, that's as slick as it is edgy. There are softer vocal moments, and a focus at the start on acoustic/piano in the mix, with the electric rock elements front and centre later on. To add to the creativity there are some poignant spoke word parts in Engl