Lovely Things || October
October promised a quieter month. One of colder mornings, darker nights and steadily more orange trees. When I’ve looked back through my calendar it turns out I’ve actually packed a lot in, despite it feeling calmer. The beginning of the month feels like a lifetime ago, and in many ways the month has been quite up and down. I’ve got a huge amount to run through (I never learn!) so I’ll keep this bit short and sweet. Happy Halloween my lovelies!
Bloggers Blog Awards
I can’t quite believe that this was the start of the same mounth! Right at the beginning of October I hopped on a train for hours and hours ‘up north and spent a few exciting hours with a huge bunch of bloggers. I was terrified, admittedly, having never been to Leeds nor not knowing a single person there (other than from online) and there were some seriously Barry Big Times in attendance! I didn’t win the category I was nominated for, but I had a really great time all the same and was proud that I braved it and did something I was really scared to do!
Black & Blue
Not such a lovely thing, but one I actually found quite funny. Late one Sunday night Adam and I were getting things into the shed in the garden and I slipped off the step. In slow motion. as it happened I landed on top of the pressure washer which actually hurt more than I expected it too and caused lots of hopping around on one leg rubbing my thigh and trying not to swear. Just the shock of it even made me ugly cry for a few minutes which called for Adam to quickly stop laughing at my ridiculousness and get me some ice and wine (wine not necessary for the bruise, just, y’know, to make it better). It took 4 days before the bruise actually appeared (which makes me think it was worth the pain) as it looked badass!
The Dairy Show
One of the perks of the job is occasionally visiting shows with work. As we were promoting our anaerobic digestion systems built specifically for small farms, at the beginning of October we headed out to the Dairy Show and I spent a busy but enjoyable day chatting to farmers in the sunshine and searching out all the beautiful cows. #countrylife
RHS Rosemoor
As I wrote about in this post, during October Adam and I had the chance to visit RHS Rosemoor and part of the press trip was the loveliest stay in a local BnB – The Malt Scoop Inn. We spent the late afternoon napping and watching Shrek in our room, had the tastiest three course meal downstairs in the restaurant and the owner was unbelievably friendly. The place reminded me of a cross between a country pub and a cosy living room. I would 100% stay there again and if you’re ever looking for somewhere in Devon I’d check it out!
A Boaty Breakfast
I can’t quite believe this has made my lovely things for October, but yes, I’d never had a Maccy’s breakie before. As a lover of brunch, I always just assumed breakfast at McDonalds would be a bit gross, but I don’t know where this assumption came from. We had to be at the boat yard early one Saturday morning so I was lovingly treated by my boo to a Sausage McMuffin. Now if that’s not a lovely thing I don’t know what is! HA 🙂
Bloggers Brunch
Another month, another wonderful brunch with the Plymouth Bloggers. The more I get to know the beautiful group of girls, the more time I spend looking forward to our monthly coffee and eggs together. I love that I’ve made some great friends in Plymouth and brunch is legit one of my favourite things, so combining the two is always a winner. In October, we headed to the Seco Lounge and I had my faithful chorizo hash and flat white combo which I would recommend to anyone!
Christmas Blogger Swap
Due to the lack of The Perfect Strangers Project (Where have you gone btw?! They seem to have dropped off the face of the earth!) I have instead joined the Christmas Blogger Swap with a new blog I discovered on Twitter with A Piece of Viola . I’m looking forward to making up a little box for my partner and I get so much joy from finding lovely things I think they’ll love!
Mothy Moo
I debated whether to include this in my lovely things post, as it’s not a lovely thing at all, quite the opposite. However, Moth herself was an incredibly lovely thing, so she deserves her place entirely! Last Saturday afternoon I had a horrible phone call from my mum, saying that our lovely deerhound Moth had unexpectedly died. She was getting a bit older (8 is starting to be old for a big dog) but had recently been so full of life and happy. Basically, as Mum and Ned were running both the dogs in the field at sunset, Moth ran up to Ned and then collapsed. By the time he bent down to check on her she had already died. We think it was a heart attack. Losing a pet is very much losing a part of your family, and both Lark and the rest of us do really miss her a lot. Part of me is pleased she wouldn’t have known a thing, that she was busy doing something she loved, and didn’t ever have to get old and suffer, but that doesn’t stop me feeling so sad that she’s not around.
Product
I was torn that night whether to jump in the car and drive straight home. My family assured me I shouldn’t, but I was inevitably feeling pretty low. Instead, we went and had a much needed drink at Seco Lounge, followed by the viewing of a bizarre and wonderful play as part of the Outpost series at Ocean Studios in Royal William Yard. The play itself, Product, involved two actors- a mad and enthusiastic screenwriter, and a famous and beautiful actress. I loved that it was a monologue, that both cast members were so animated, and I actually really liked the strange story line that involved the actress falling in love with a suicide bomber. It was the perfect distraction and I was so pleased to be invited by New Model Theatre.
Food with my Favourites
It’s been a good few weeks for meals with some of my favourite people during October. I celebrated Kate’s birthday with Will, we caught up with Katie and Tom and their beautiful puppy Millie. We had a hilarious evening with Rach, Pete, Will and Kate one Monday night that we had off work too. I also managed to catch up with friends I haven’t seen in ages, like Anna and not-so-baby James, which had me drawing ducks on the bath and playing with trains, and Ali which left me with tears of laughter rolling down my face!
Another great meal was with my grandparents, uncle, aunt and cousins, and it’s always lovely to spend time with your family. In sort of related food news, the #bakeoffbakealong is now over for another year, much to the excitement of Adam who now has his weekends back rather than waiting for me to finish hours of baking in the kitchen!
New Improved Flavour
Burts Crisps sent me some of their Firecracker Lobster crisps to try out their new and improved flavour. I went for another crisp sandwich with some delicious prawn cocktail and rocket in a sourdough roll! Can’t say I can tell the difference in the flavour, but they still pack a punch and taste great!
The Next Step
A teeny tiny update on the ol’ buying a house saga is that we found out this week we can move one step further as the solicitors have sorted the boundary issues! Woo! We celebrated with a drive past so I could stare lovingly at the house I can’t wait to own, and then carried on through some beautiful villages I’m so excited to explore!
Oaken For Business
We’ve launched a new business! Well, I say we, it was definitely more Adam’s idea! As we desperately needed a new bath mat, and wanted a wooden one to replace our last, Adam thought he’d try his hand at making it. Turns out, it’s bloomin’ beautiful and definitely not as laborious as he originally expected. He certainly has some skills with wood (ehhhh… 😉 ) and after encouragement from everyone we showed the duckboard to, he’s now selling as Oaken Husbandry on Etsy, Amazon and Ebay! We’re going to be expanding into wine racks, coat stands, bookshelves, soap dishes and shoe racks, but any other wooden based ideas are greatly received!
Birthday Broface
On 29 October it was also my brother Harry’s birthday. He was off having wild Cornish fun at Masked Ball, but here’s a little cute photo of us to celebrate! xx
My quiet and calm October didn’t turn put to be so quiet and calm in the end, but it was one filled with some very lovely things, and some that were pretty tough. I can’t quite believe it’s November tomorrow, but after the amazing weather we’ve had this month, the fog rolling in over the last few days has certainly allowed winter to start creeping in. What’s been the best thing you’ve done this month?
*some of the products have been sent to me for the purpose of a review, but all opinions are my own*
