If you’ve not discovered Sainsbury’s yet for clothes and homeware then WAKE UP!! Where have you been?? Living under a rock?!

It’s a well established fact that pretty much half my wardrobe comes from Sainsbury’s, but the rest of the house has been following suit recently as I’m be taking a look at some of the autumnal goodies in the Sainsbury’s homeware range.

Autumn has to be pretty much my favourite season. I’m tempted to say winter, because it just about contains Christmas, but it’s actually the build up to Christmas that I love most, rather than the day itself. By the 25th I’m pretty much done. I like the evenings getting darker, and the smell of mulled wine and mince pies. I like snuggling under cosy blankets, lighting candles, and watching Christmas films made for TV.

*happy sigh*

I’ve got a bit of a mustard theme going on in my living room already, so the Harvest Collection from Sainsbury’s fits perfectly. They do items for every room in the house, but I chose to focus on the living room – think cosy cushions, snuggly blankets and subtle autumn colours.

Now, if you’ve been to my house recently, you might be slightly suspicious about my need for any more cushions and blankets but I say ‘can you ever have too many?’

No is my answer. You can never go into autumn with too many blankets.

Have a look at the range online, but have a rummage in your local store too, as they’ll often have pieces in store that aren’t online. Here are some of my favourite pieces. View Post

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This is just a little post to help you get excited about Christmas!

Yay!!

Only about nine or so weeks to go now, and the underneath of our bed is already looking like a veritable grotto. I make no excuse at all for my love of Christmas. If you’re not a fan of anyone daring to so much as look at a mince pie before December 24th then you might want to look away from my blog for, ooh, a couple of months?

On my way home from work the other day I popped in the Taunton Visitor Centre, which is hosting the a Cards for Good Causes pop up Christmas shop. They’re selling masses of charity Christmas cards, and other bits and pieces like wrapping paper and other festive goodies.

Cards for Good Causes is the UK’s largest multi-charity Christmas card organisation, selling cards on behalf of over 250 charities, yet a lot of people have never even heard of it. Pop up shops open in libraries, churches, Tourist Information Centres, banks, and this year for the first time, even a ladies clothes shop in Bury St Edmunds. Fancy.

You can buy online too if you’re not near a pop up shop, so have a look at the Cards for Good Causes website here to find out more.

Anyway, to get to the point, I bought a load of cards, and now my card box at home has turned into more of a ‘card pile in the corner of the lounge’.

Here are my five favourites. Happy Christmas!

(The last one was the favourite of the woman in Specsavers, where I stopped afterwards to order new glasses.) View Post

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If you’re looking for a new approach to online storage, read on to find out more about 123Friday, and how to sign up with my special access code.

A little while ago Belle and I were on our final outing of the summer holidays, doing a spot of archery. (As you do.) Belle was poised, bow in hand, and I reached for my phone to take a picture.

‘Sorry,’ said my phone, (not out loud), ‘but you don’t have enough storage for that.’

Damn it.

And then of course you can’t just delete one photo to make room for another one. Oh no, that would be way to easy. Apparently to make room for just one photo, I have to delete 49 existing photos, and two apps. Grrr. Doesn’t my phone know who I am? I do interesting things phone, I need to be able to capture exciting shots at a moment’s notice.

When you’re in Paris and it’s 38 degrees for example, your ice cream just isn’t going to wait.

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Lately I’ve been getting a bit carried away with cushions. It’s not my fault, honestly. I just can’t seem to help myself. It’s because I’m a Taurus, so I love home comforts. You see? I’m helpless.

The trouble is though that I’m running out of sofas to put them on, and the sofas that we do have are becoming more like cushion storage areas than actual places where we can sit down. Thank goodness there are only three of us living at home because, honestly, if there were any more of us I’d have to use the cushions to build them a shelter in the garden.

There may only be three of us in our house, but what exactly do you do if your family is growing, and you need more space in your home, or even your car? And what about holidays?? (This is exactly why I won’t be having any more children.)

Here are a few things you might need to consider as your family gets bigger, with tips on everything from quirky storage to vinyl flooring.

 

Storage space

I’ve lived in houses of all shapes and sizes over the years, and I’ve become a bit of a whizz at maximising storage space. The trouble is that I’ve never actually owned a house, so I’ve not been able to do any of the really funky storage things I’d ideally like to do, like build in bookcases to fill whole walls, or to fit between steps on the staircase.

When you look hard, there are normally loads of quirky little spaces like this in a home that can be turned into handy storage.

interiors modern fireplace with bookshelves, family gets bigger View Post

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You know sometimes you have one of those days, or an outing of some kind, and at the end you sort of sigh to yourself, and think ‘well that was lovely’?

Nothing hugely adventurous happened, you didn’t spend loads of money, but you did something that was just nice, that left you feeling all warm and content with life.

That happened to us a few weeks ago.

Belle and I went to Stourhead, a National Trust place about an hour away from us, and met up with a friend and her nine month old twin girls. (#Rinstwins if you want to check them out on Instagram – how awesome to be called Rin and have twins?! They are made for social media.)

The sky was a bright blue, the forecast promised sunshine all day long, and we had nothing to do and nowhere to be. (Apart from sat down at regular intervals for the twins to snack, which suited me just fine.) We hadn’t got quite as far as packing a picnic, because I love the treat of eating out in a cafe, but I had packed us a little rucksack of essentials – water bottles, mini-cheddars, suntan lotion, and Kleenex pocket packs. It’s weird, but although I was always the parent who forgot wipes, I’ve turned into the woman who always has tissues. There is something very comforting and satisfying about carrying tissues, and that feeling of needing one, and then actually having one – it’s ace.

autumn picnic Stourhead View Post

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As you know from my recent laundry hacks post, one of my worst chores ever is washing clothes. It’s not so much that it’s difficult or messy, it’s just that you never get a sense of satisfaction from it because it’s never truly done. Even if you’ve done all the washing, there’s still the clothes you’re wearing, and then you’re right back to square one the next day. I know that technically this is true with all chores, but there’s something about seeing that one pair of pants at the bottom of the laundry basket that just makes me want to sigh and give up.

Not only is it the clothes in the basket that annoy me, but the clothes scattered all over the house that are supposedly ‘drying’. It’s officially autumn now after all, and raining as I type. Unfortunately for me, I live in a small house with no room for a tumble dryer or dishwasher or anything fancy. I don’t even have a very good airer, so usually end up hastily clearing away towels from banisters and t-shirts from the top of doors when people come over.

My current airer is a standard massive plastic thing that takes up about half my lounge, in a very unsexy way. Lately I’ve been spending rather too much time looking at the range at Airers4you, imagining my dream drying scenarios. This is probably information I should keep to myself, but you know I’m not good at that. View Post

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I have a funny feeling that I may be becoming the go to person for bladder weakness. It’s nice to have a niche I guess, especially with Pelvic Floor Week coming up, but it makes me wonder exactly how it has happened. Do I come out top if you Google ‘bloggers with weak pelvic floors’? And if so, how do they know??

It’s a worry.

(Note: as I write this, I do need a wee, but I’m holding it in, to get all the nutrients.*)

pelvic floor week Innovo

Me, super tanned from my recent holiday in Greece. (Not really.)

Whatever the reason, I don’t really mind, as I actually think it’s something that we should talk about much more. There’s a common misconception that a bit of a leak when you cough, or a life without trampolines, is just something you have to accept as you get older and have babies.

It isn’t. View Post

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Last week Belle and I had a valuable lesson in ‘the importance of trying new things’, or, more specifically, the art of axe and knife throwing.

You may remember how I teased you a couple of weeks ago with a post about taking on a challenge with the National Trust, where I asked you to vote for what you’d like me to do. Axe throwing won the vote and I was secretly very pleased as it’s something I’ve never done before, and hopefully, unless I find myself alone in the woods with just an axe and a ferocious bear, not something I will ever do again.

axe throwing south west outdoor festival national trust channel adventure

We were taught the art of axe throwing by a company called Channel Adventure, who are based not far from us, on the edge of Exmoor National Park. They run all sorts of adventurous looking courses and activities, and are heavily involved in the National Trust’s new festival, the South West Outdoor Festival. Channel Adventure are going to be offering various activities over the festival weekend, including rock climbing, rafting, kayaking and, you guessed it, axe throwing. If our little adventure tickles your fancy, do have a look at the South West Outdoor Festival, and you could have a go for yourself.

We rocked up at the venue at 10am on a Friday morning. Belle had made cupcakes, which immediately went down well with the two woman who were our teachers for the morning. (Didn’t I bring her up nice?) We were joined a few minutes later by a group of three teenage boys who looked like they were too cool to be anywhere other than Snapchat, and who kept their hoods up permanently to make the point. Apparently they were from Birmingham, staying with the aunt of one of them for a couple of weeks.

“They don’t want to be here,” said the aunt as she dropped them off, “but I’ve booked them in and they’re doing it.” View Post

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I’ve always had really vivid dreams. Often they have a feature film quality to them – big long adventures that feel like they go on for hours and that leave me feeling exhausted when I wake up in the morning.

In the last couple of weeks though, I’ve had some really weird dreams, dreams that have left me feeling a bit awkward with myself.

‘Er… dude, did you just dream that? Are you okay?’

Like the dream about the extra arms. They had grown out of either side of me, from my waist, and were the same size and shape as my regular arms. I looked it up afterwards, and dreaming of having extra arms is a classic apparently when you feel like you have a lot going on, and literally could do with an extra pair of hands, but in all the interpretations I read, the extra arms were helpful.

Not so mine.

My extra arms were intent on making life as difficult for me as possible, and were totally outside my control. Their favourite thing to interfere with was me going to the toilet. In the dream I was desperate for a wee, but every time I tried to go, the extra arms would wrestle with me to pull my trousers back up. It was really not cool. There I was, shouting at them, and trying to wrench them off my pants, and they were just looking evil and chuckling to themselves. (They probably weren’t actually chuckling, because they were arms, but it felt like it.)

And then there was the dream where I discovered I had a magical power. If I looked at someone that had made me feel angry or anxious, and stared hard, they would go kind of fuzzy, and then turn into a can of tuna.

can of tuna, dreams

I mean, that’s weird isn’t it?

This magical ability was a novelty to start with, but then it went a bit mad, and I couldn’t control it any more, and suddenly there was a lot of tuna. I won’t go into the plot, but let’s just say it was very complex and went on for a long time. I got really scared, and couldn’t look at anyone directly – what if I accidentally turned someone I loved into a can of tuna? What if someone realised it was me, and locked me up in some sort of… well… I don’t know what. Where do you put a crazy lady who can’t help but turn people into tuna with her eyes?!

I looked up what it means to dream of a can of tuna, but there wasn’t a lot of specific information to be honest. One website said ‘To see tuna in your dream symbolizes stamina and agility. Through your life experiences, you will build character and become stronger.’ That sounded okay to me. There was a lot about fishing, catching fish, holding fish, but very little about the ability to turn people into canned fish with the power of your mind, funnily enough.

It’s exhausting.

I’d say I could do with a sleep, but well, I don’t really think that would help, do you?

What are your weirdest dreams?

Image – ooddysmile stocker/shutterstock

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I was 19 when I started my economics degree and Bee was two. I needed to make some money, but late night bar work isn’t really an option when you have a toddler to look after. I needed a part time job for just a few hours a week that could be flexible around Bee and ideally that I could do from home. I’d always been a bit of a nerd at school, with a talent for maths, and so I decided I’d try my hand at being a private tutor. Most of my maths lessons at school had been me going around the room, once I’d raced through the questions, helping other people, so how hard could it be?

become private tutor find private tutor

This was 1997, before I owned a computer, let alone had access to the internet, so to advertise my services as a private tutor I went into my local newspaper and paid for a tiny classified ad. I charged £7.50 an hour, which was pretty cheap even for 1997, but then I figured I was only 19 and that I shouldn’t push my luck.  View Post

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I was staying overnight in a hotel recently, as I do now and again, for work, or sometimes just for fun because I like hotel toiletries. I was sat (in a lying down sort of way) on the bed, watching a bit of TV before going for dinner. I sneezed. I sneezed again, and a little bit of wee came out.

(Stops typing briefly to hide under my desk.)

pelvic floor tips and exercises

It wasn’t a gush by any means – I didn’t need to pretend I’d spilt a glass of water and call down to reception for fresh sheets – but it was enough to make me feel about 63 years old. If I had had a Sunday supplement with me I’d have ordered some stretchy waisted trousers as a sort of reflex reaction. View Post

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I have confession that is going to BLOW YOUR MIND. (Okay, so if you know me at all it probably won’t, but I was trying to add a sense of drama. Did it work?)

I am totally rubbish at back ups. When conversation turns to phone or computer backups, (which I can’t say it does terribly often to be honest), it always goes something like:

Other person: So, when did you last back up your phone?

Me: What?

Other person: Your phone, when did you last back up all your pictures and contacts?

Me, pretending not to hear: What now?

You get the idea.

I did once back all of my phone photos onto a memory stick, via a laptop, so that I could switch them all over to my new phone, but then a dog ate it. I’m not even kidding, a dog actually ate it. And so that was that, thousands of precious family memories, lost forever in a dog’s digestive system.

Because I know that I’m hopeless, I have taken steps to try to make sure that backups happen without me actually having to do anything. For my computer this means doing as much as I can in Google Drive, and in online design apps like Canva, and for my phone, I now use MEEM Memory.

The beauty of MEEM is that I have to do pretty much nothing at all. (My best thing.) It’s essentially a charging cable, but with a built in data backup device, so you don’t need to remember to do anything, or have extra cables, or an external hard drive or anything like that.

MEEM memory automatic phone backup device View Post

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