Thursday 15 May 2014

Thankful Thursday



Good Thursday to you all! I've gotta be honest, I'm not feeling all that thankful this Thursday. My boy is away on a course, it's been a long week and I'm pretty tired out. So we're gonna make it short and sweet ok? I've been reading some brilliant posts recently and can't wait to snuggle down on Sunday and share all my recent loves. I planned on it today, alas my weak body cannot cope.

A little bit of thanks goes to...


1) The world- For presenting this wonderful Tuesday afternoon treat. I sat down and painted a polystyrene dinosaur...of course....with tea and jelly babies. Happiness.



2) This bad boy


3) Animal Plasters- Because when you scrape your knee tripping over your loosely done up shoelaces  and want to cry like a little girl because it stings oh so bad, animal plasters make it that little bit easier to cope with. Especially if they're bat shaped and match your dress. Still hurt though.


4) These Cute Plants- A wonderful lady that I work with and I got chatting over lunch about my enjoyment of gardening, but lack of knowledge or understanding about how to actually look after plants. She's potted me a lovely selection of lavender, white foxgloves, tomato plants and a mystery plant she doesn't know the name of. I can't wait to get them all planted! I'll keep you posted!


5) A Delicious Dessert- This evening has been the highlight of my week. Sharing a delicious meal with a beautiful friend. She's the "Anything can happen." martyr of life. We had a brilliant catch up and Prezzo has just opened in St Austell, so we tried there. It was super tasty and I laughed more than I have all week. 


Forever and always, thank you to Lisette and the elusive Liona (we should all wish her sciencey exam luck!) for inspiring me to be more thankful. I've gotta say, writing this week's post has certainly cheered me up.
Love Sophie Xx

Wednesday 14 May 2014

Weird and Wonderful News Wednesday #16 Signatures- A Sad Story, Amazing Sand Drawing Art, Street Fridges to Inspire You, Some Charming Untranslatable Words & Bothering Batman.


Good Wednesday one and all! How are you all this week?! Don't react..at...all...you may scare it away...I think summer may be coming? *gasp* I know, I know, crazy bitch...
I've been spending a bit more time having Mac-fun. Harp's got involved and I make a pretty brilliant beaver (no pun intended) don't you think? Haha! 

Bothering Batman.

To begin with, you've probably seen my recent Batman video on Instagram or Facebook....If not, you should. Here it is. At this point I'd like to point out that all I did was record the video. Silly bunny.





Saudi Arabia: Man Installs Street Fridge For The Needy. Via bbcnews.com

An anonymous man has set up a working fridge in the street of his hometown, Hail. He intended it to be a way of helping those that needed it, to receive food without having to ask for help; keeping their pride and dignity. He started by leaving his leftovers but since then, it's taken off by storm and now more and more people are adding fresh food as well as leftovers in the fridge. Isn't that a lovely show of community spirit? Brilliant stuff.


Is a Signature Still Useful? Via BBCnews.com

A very interesting article about the decline of the signature. I'm curious to know, how you all feel? Do you think a signature symbolises somebody's identity? Has the signature had it's day? And also, our signatures change throughout our lives, is that something that we can adapt with? As the article quite rightly points out, from a security perspective, the days of using your name to verify who you are, are almost kaput. As technology develops, do you think that the signature will become more outdated? Personally, I love a signature. I see so many on a daily basis and you definitely notice the difference in generations of signatures. I like the people that take their time to do theirs, ensuring that whatever it is that their writing on has been sealed with their name. I think we should take more pride in a signature. HERE HERE! (You can tell my very British Grandpa helped raise me!)


Extraordinary Sand Drawing Art Via Buzzfeed.com

Wow. Just wow. I wish I could do this. 





Some Charming Illustrations For Some Untranslatable Words. Via Buzzfeed.com


I urge you to go and look at all of these. Even more-so to go and check out Anjana Iyer's website. It's unbelievably beautiful. She's an amazing illustrator. What a lovely 100 days project to do.  Some of these words are brilliant.











Love Sophie Xx

Sunday 11 May 2014

Batman Diaries #2


There are some things you should know...


I'm always watching.


I will love you on my terms.- Which may include nibbling at your favourite cardigan.


I'm a keen hide and seek enthusiast.



I fucking love a selfie.


This is MY house and we go on rabbit time.


Getting in your way is the highlight of my day.

Love Batman Xx

Thursday 8 May 2014

Thankful Thursday.


So, another Thursday is upon us and the week is drawing to a close..almost..sort of..well it's over half way through. Which means that I getting ever so closer to the sweet, sweet excitement that in just over two weeks, I am on holibols for TWO WEEKS! YES TWO WHOLE WEEKS with Harps! I'm ever so excited, though so far the only plans I have officially made is getting Batman's claws clipped (I'm far too scared to try myself) and polyfillering some holes...Hahaha! There is one very exciting plan, and that's my dear girl Stacie's graduate fashion show! I can't wait to see the collections from everybody (fo sure hers will be the bestest though!). Annnnd it's in Plymouth, which also means seeing my other girl, Liona (though we haven't planned this yet- Liona, this is me making plans with you.)


Now for some thanks.


1) Car Trips with Bimble.- It isn't as often as I'd like that Bimble and I spend time together. Whenever I'm at mum's he tends to be at work, and whereas he has Thursdays off, I'm a Tuesday girl. However, we did take a trip to Kingsley Village (the best place for a great selection of local Cornish goodies) and I took some terrible quality snaps of us in the car. He was pretty tired, but just look at that cutie pie grin! 


2) Childhood Pets.- The cat on the left is my childhood pet, Polo. He's been my best friend for a good number of years now, he knows all my secrets and he's shared all my heartbreak. I used to have him trained that at night when I said "bedtime Polo." he'd run upstairs and sit on my bed. Sadly he couldn't come with me when I moved into the big, bad world because my landlord hates cats (crazy man!), so he's spending his last days with his best friend Oli. He's the persian cat you can sort of see on the right. He was adopted from a cat protection home after Polo's best friend, Puff, died. At first they really didn't get along, but now they're old and can't be bothered to fight anymore.



3) The Satisfaction of Finishing One Book and Starting Another.- I've finally finished Angela's Ashes. Pheewww. I've been reading that forever! I'll post all about it soon. I'm starting on the sequel! 

4) Hearing Funny Responses to my New Favourite Question.- "If hypothetically, you were to attempt to throw an animal over a rugby post, what is the heaviest animal that you think you could throw?"...Answers in all forms would be appreciated.



As always, on Thursday you can't forget to be thankful to the people that inspired you to give the thanks. Thumbs up to you Liona and Lisette
Love Sophie Xx

Wednesday 7 May 2014

Weird and Wonderful News Wednesday #15 Charts That Demonstrate Where to Pet Pets, Robosex?! Longest Separated Twins Find Each Other and Two Skaters Are Trying to Build Ethiopia's First Skate Park.

Good morning land of water and greenery! Back to work I go after a few lovely days off and I'm feeling pretty pretty pretty pretty good.(seriously if you don't get my Larry David references I'm disappointed.) I'm missing my little bunny, I'd like to take him to work and keep him in my office- I'm certain he'd attract loads more customers, but I'm not sure that the company suggestion page has a section for petting zoo requirements  requests. I'm gonna work on it. Really, there should be a petting zoo pretty much everywhere. Supermarkets, swimming pools, traffic lights, doctors surgeries, churches, libraries, public toilets....the list goes on. All of these places are perfectly suitable for a little petting zoo (free range, happy animals, of course!) I'll start a petition. I've been reading oodles of news stories whilst I've been off, most of which have been disappointingly miserable. So this week, I am to spring a little life into your step and help you recover from the post bank holiday blues.

Let us crack on...

Robosex?! Via TheSun Newspaper.


I took a photo of a tiny article that featured in yesterdays The Sun newspaper. Don't ask me why we buy it, we're suckers for Dear Deidree. ONE IN SIX BRITS WOULD HAVE SEX WITH A ROBOT?! I'm sorry, but have I missed something here?! I want a list of possible reasons that people would, right now please. That's incredibly creepy...what is wrong with people? With a combined fear of mannequins, Arnold Schwarzenegger and technology, this is quite possibly one of the most petrifying thoughts of my life. Robot porn would be creepy as fuck too. 




Charts That Illustrate How to Pet Your Pets Via Buzzfeed.com

All of these are brilliant, but the hedgehog one actually made me belly laugh. You're welcome.






Ann Hunt and her twin sister, Elizabeth Hamel, are 78 years old and this article told the fascinating and heartwarming story of these ladies finding each other after a lifetime apart. Ann contacted Elizabeth after finding out that they were related, she'd never known until researching the family tree.    Unlike Ann, Elizabeth knew she'd been adopted and that she had a twin but after being relocated to Oregon US, time had passed, both had married and been widowed; it grew unlikely that they would be reunited. The article goes on to explain how it came that one daughter stayed with their mother whilst the other adopted, how they met face to face for the first time and more interestingly, the similarities and differences between them. There are tests to confirm as to whether they are identical twins or not. Though they look similar, it's far from obvious as to whether they are identical or not. The studies being conducted are to show as to how much an environment has an effect on the way you look, to the extent that two exact replicas of one person could end up looking rather separate. Fascinating stuff.







Check it out.




Love Sophie Xx





Tuesday 6 May 2014

When You Live Beside the Seaside...And a Review of The Cornish Tea Company.



"The cure for anything is salt water: water, sweat or the sea."- Isak Dinesen.




Good Afternoon tinterweb friends! I have to say, I enjoy the life of not working. I'm pretty sure I could get used to it. Honestly, I've had three wonderful days off (the perks of working Saturdays and having Tuesdays off.) I've been spending lots of time with this little fella, walking on pebble beaches with my man and drinking lots of tea, accompanied by a plethora of pastries of course. Not to forget catching up on all of you beautiful fellow writers. P.s. I hope you all like my leftover from easter "HAPPY" bunting?! Batman sure does!



It was another visit to Charlestown (see my location location location post) with my boy. The weather was pretty windy, and if I'm honest, I really didn't expect it to be so busy! But I suppose that's a bank holiday weekend in Cornwall for ya. The walk certainly blew the cobwebs away! I'm not much of a fan of pebbled beaches; they hurt my knees and make me feel like I'm going to fall over, but Charlestown always reminds me of visiting my Nanny & Grandpa before we moved down. I used to come here with Nanny and sit on the rocks singing "I'm a little mermaid, sitting on the rocks." She found it hilarious and always reminded me of it. So we went for a little wonder, and I wished I could find a snazzy artefact to talk to you all about. Alas, I only saw an orange juice carton. Not easy to make that out to be treasure.

The Cornish Tea Company aka Smugglers Brew.



As soon as I saw this bright yellow packaging and the words 'Smugglers Brew' (coincidently, also the company's twitter name) I knew I had to buy this. I like to think of my blog as quite a Cornwall inspired selection of rambles (and you all know how much I love tea...it's pretty much mentioned all the time.) My daily tea of choice is usually Yorkshire Tea, because I think you get a really full, rich flavour. I'm partial to a green tea and earl grey, but this involves getting the teapot out and I'm a bit too lazy to do that every day. Yes, in the summer, I do enjoy a fruity tea (mango being the best) but generally, black tea in a mug is where it's at. Lets be honest. Anyway, the packaging is fab- there's little snippets of Cornwall history, funny quips (think Ben & Jerrys/ Innocent-esque) and a philosophical question..."To dunk or not to dunk."...What more can a girl want. Well, you want the tea to be good. I also grabbed their partner company (actually I think they may be all in one)- Cornish Gold Coffee, (but as we know, I don't drink coffee- so I'll get Harps to review that and get back to you.) And a bit of sneaky delicious fudge. Pretty perfect bank holiday right?  They came foil wrapped for extra freshness, but when I opened it I must admit I panicked a little at the small, circular bag. (I've definitely fallen for the abstract bag shapes- despite it having no difference on the actual tea) I was concerned that it would mean I was on the train to Weak Teasville, and poured the water in dubiously. Almost as soon as I poured, the little bag came to life, dying the boiled water blacker and stronger than most teas I've tried (and we know this is a lot). I was so so impressed, it really is a delicious tea! It has a strong black tea flavour, without being too overpowering. It has officially replaced my morning tea, and being local is just a bonus really! 

"NEVER TRUST A MAN WHO, WHEN LEFT ALONE IN A ROOM WITH A TEA COSY,  DOESN’T TRY IT ON” BILLY CONNOLLY.

Have a brilliant week ladies and gents!
Love Sophie Xx 

Thursday 1 May 2014

Thankful Thursday Is Here And I Reached a Blogging Milestone!


Oh my oh my am I feeling thankful this Thursday! So thankful that I have indeed just welled with thanks when I told Harps I was thankful for being engaged to him for six months tomorrow and it made me so happy I had a little tear! I know, I'm adorable. Well check me out just blurting my thanks out there without even saying hello! It's getting close to that end of week feeling, plus there's another bank holiday on Monday. *All hail Sophie day*. AND today is officially mayday! So happy mayday to you all! How are you all?! I've been a busy little shark this week! It's nice to sit down this evening and despite having a bit of a cold coming on *crossed fingers it isn't going to develop* I'm feeling in a chirpy, reflective kind of mood that will certainly make the weekend come a little faster!


Feeling super thankful for:


1) Fresh Flowers- I've got a little addiction to buying fresh flowers recently. I think that they make a room look brighter, more cared about and basically like you've made a little bit of an effort to make your house nicer? I also have a particular love for tulips. They remind me of lovely strolls though Amsterdam and happy times with my boy. I got these bad boys for £2.00! I bought them Sunday and even I can do the math, that at 50p per day (at the most so far!). I'm worth it.

2) Over 100 Followers on Bloglovin!- OH MY GOD! This is just awesome. Like actually awesome. I started this blog in November 2013, and to have just passed my six month blabbing milestone, to suddenly receive a little email saying "Congratulations, you have 100 followers" I was astounded! Who knew that so many of you would find me as hilarious as I do?! I want to thank every single one of you, I am grateful to all of you and I've made so many lovely friends that I can't imagine not talking to! If we haven't spoken yet, SAY HELLO! Add me on twitter @SophieHasNoName or instagram @sophiehasnoname and we can become best friends! 

3) #sophieswolferspotting- This is a game that I created a few years ago...to play with myself. It's basically a growing collections of people that I stalk and then take sneaky photos of when they are wearing those universally known weird wolf fleeces. Only wolf ones really count, even though there are other types. It's a great game to play and I'd love to see some of your wolfer spottings. The closer the better! I'm thankful for finding one after a quiet winter with not many about. 

4) Getting Found- My darling friend Tracey (read her blog, she's super!) and I met up last night for a new shoot idea she's had. (I'm not telling you because all will revealed soon). We went somewhere that I'd never been to and she hadn't visited for about 10 years. As you can see above, it was pretty pretty pretty pretty foggy and we could only see about 25 metres in front of us. We hunted around for this place for ages, and 40 minutes later realised that we were totally lost. And it was getting dark. And our phones were dying. So I proceeded to ask her my 3 favourite questions to ask anyone to help us stay calm;

  • What is your favourite biscuit? You can tell loads about someone from this answer. *Jam cream*
  • If you could be an animal, what animal would you be? The obvious question to always ask- and the hardest for me- I think maybe a monkey? Pretty great tail right there.
  • Hypothetically (of course), What is the heaviest animal that you think you could throw over a rugby goal post (whatever that's called)? I think I could throw a small goat? Maybe a koala? 
Anyway, an hour later and much more fretting later, a lovely lady found us whilst walking her dog Boo and saved the day. She walked with us back to the car park (not our car park though, we'd told her we were in the wrong one) and we walked along the main road until our feet bled and we fell about laughing about it in the car. 


5) Being Engaged For Six Months- As most of you know, Harps and I got engaged in the magical city of Rome on our five year anniversary. It was freaking unbelievable and I'm going to do a lovely in depth post for our six years. It really hasn't stopped being awesomely fantastic and I'm sitting like a cheshire cat writing this. I wanted to include a few photos of that magical day. The first being a very relieved looking Harps! This was taken at dinner at like 11.30 at night because it took me so long to go anywhere because I was prancing around so much. Which bring me to the last and something brilliantly coincidental  that I didn't realise until literally a couple of weeks ago, we shared a plate of spaghetti and meatballs....JUST LIKE LADY AND THE TRAMP! Because the whole thing was just that perfect! And the middle photo was taken on the morning of our anniversary on our way to Vatican City. I think if I'd known I was getting engaged that day, I maybe would have tried to get a nice photo of us, instead of pulling my best grumpy cat face in every photo. I've perfected it though haven't I?


So yep. Look at all that thanks rolled into one week! Thank you to the stupendous Lisette for inspiring me to be more thankful. And the one hell'va sexy woman Liona for not only inspiring me, but also making my dreams that little bit sweeter ;-)
Love Sophie Xx