Christmas Tree Oh Christmas Tree.

It's really and properly almost, very nearly Christmas now! To the extent that I'm not embarrassed to show you my tree which has actually been decorated and spreading festive cheer for just over a week.  So snuggle down with a warm or tipsy beverage of sorts and grab a biccie; it's tree time!!

I'm always in charge of the tree. Harps and I always decorate it together but I'm definitely more bothered about him; this is actually the first year he hasn't lay on the floor, throwing the decorations at it, shouting "Christmas!" just to annoy me! (I think it was because he had the camera to keep him distracted.) Our little tree is on it's last legs. This will be the last year that we use it. Bought five years ago, we fell into the whole 'black Christmas tree' thing? Why was that a thing?! It was cheap and did the job with our minimum wage jobs. Next year we'll be going big and going real! Also check out my lovely festive reindeer made by the guys and gals at People & Gardens! That cheeky little fox below is one of the only non-handmade decorations we own but he's just so damn snazzy!

Slowly, over the years we've gathered little homemade Christmas decorations from friends and family. Every year it's my favourite part of decorating the tree. It's become a little tradition that Stacie makes me decorations for Christmas and I can't wait to see what's this years! Most of the above are hers but last year my brother and sister-in-law gave us their little handmade melted snowman bauble which is such a great idea don't you think?! This year our collection has already grown with some friends who are expecting their first baby next year (HUZZAH!) making us a mini Christmas Batman which is so cute and thoughtful and a great use of recycling their tree from last year by gifting it on this year! What a plan for next year ey?! 

So after a day of blanket, film watching and paper chain making. Christmas is slowly arriving in the Harps household. 

Now show me all your trees dammit!

Over & Out

Sophie X

November In Photos.

Psssttt...Winter has arrived friends. November is a funny old month; when leaves finally fall after hanging on seemingly impossibly for weeks, that darker, colder morning is hard to adjust to and the days seem to be swept away. I'm sure I probably haven't actually done that much during the month but it seems to fleet by nonetheless. My favourite photo of the month (which lets face it- all are Instagram snaps) is celebrating my seven year anniversary with this bundle of winter beard above. 

• My best friend was in an actual magazine for FOUR pages. It was the most brilliant of articles and you should check out her handmade knitwear winter discount here! 

• I ran around with the messiest hair pretty much all month. And wore the same scarf almost every single day.

• Local art in my local town. I walk past this all the time and never stop to look. It's quite great really!

• Dared to get the smallest pinch of festivities rolling in the house by buying this pretty little poinsettia for a whole pound at Lidl!

• Spent a Sunday sat up at the bar like a proper lad and put the world to right with a lovely friend.

• Started The Great Gatsby. It's all very grand! And invested in a snuggly wooly blanket that totally had to be bought being reduced from £59 to £17!! 

• Had one pretty stripes and snazzy sunrise! Look at that palm tree making St Austell look all fancy. You ain't fooling St Austell.

• And had a bitterly cold morning that was only made slightly better by this view over Truro .

• Baked for the first time in actual months. I wanted to get a little practice bake in before starting the festive treats and this banana, honey and blueberry loaf got pretty good reviews! 

• And finally, spent some time being an utter weirdo with this creature. 

I'm desperate to find some new and exciting people to stalk in this darker days, send me all the links to all the people! 

Love Sophie Xx

A Month Away In Photos.

This is probably the most summed up photo of my summer. Cake, flowers and a sneaky bunny.

Made some delicious brownies for a charity event!

Funky blue flowers.

Falmouth at 7am on a sunny morning makes early starts for work not half bad.

My hair is red again! Was it last time you saw me? Probably not! The ends have faded pretty badly now though!

I could spend all day organising shelves like this.

Good weekend everyone! How the golly gosh are you all?! It's been forever, ok well maybe not that long but it has been over a month since I last visited this little corner of the land and there a couple of reasons why it's taken me so long to get my backside in gear. Firstly; I've been pretty ill. Losing my voice for just over two weeks has had me pretty flat and sleeping at every single spare moment just became a bit necessary. Then, just as I was feeling better, a certain four legged creature whom stalks my life and my house decided he'd gnaw through my macbook charger (for the second time this year!) and do you know how bloody hard it is to get a replacement macbook charger in Cornwall?! Amazon to the rescue and ya-da ya-da here we are!

So, let us catch up with lemonade and cake!

Love Sophie and A Very Naughty Batman Xx

Batman Diaries #9 A Very Important Day.

Batman has had a life changing day. He's finally been outside in the garden! It's no secret that our little bun is actually a massive pain in the arse- stubborn as hell and no way was he ever going to let us get him in a little harness (and finding one small enough proved to be impossible!) He's more than happy to get into his little pet carrier though and we know how much he loves lounging in the sun through the window. 

Finally we've found a little pen for him that was a) Affordable- most of the runs or pens we'd found had been really overpriced this scraped in at just under £30! b) Very safe- Of course any sort of harm coming to my bun was number one priority but this pen comes with a half netted/ half shaded cover for sneaky birds and cats from above, pegs into the ground so that little Batman can't squirm his way out into harm and is really the perfect height and diameter for him to have a nice run around without being vulnerable. c) Super easy use- It literally took us less than five minutes to put it up and take it down after Batman was finished frolicking- remember not to keep little buns out in the sun for too long! Especially if they're a bit weird like Batman and don't like to go in the shade much.

After a while of trying to convince Batman to use the door of his new pen, we ended up putting his whole carrier in the pen so he still had a familiar place to run back into and could come out in his own time. He was pretty unsure for a while...

New found freedom! Eventually he emerged, stretching and sniffing, sneaking and stalking little bugs and blades of grass. 

Settling down for a snack and some sunshine. 

Do any of you have any tips for keeping small pets safe outside? Whether it be cooling down tips or fun ideas for buns in the sun? This summer is going to be much more exciting for our little Batman. He really did love his first time outside!

Love Sophie & Batman Xx

Batman Diaries #8 Batman's Ready For Summer.

Let's all cheer for Batman's malt being over! Seriously he's in such a grump over the few weeks in spring that he sheds his winter coat. He's back to looking slick and quite frankly- handsome. Sunny weather brings out the best in Batman, who loves nothing more than a day of frolicking around the house, a few blueberries for good measure and afternoon sun on our bed gives him the perfect place for a little snooze and some play. 

I'm finding that slowly he's becoming more affectionate. Batman's never liked being picked up- only a handful of times has he 'let' anyone hold him. He used to hate even being stroked for too long, preferring to run in circles as fast as he can. Now though, coming out of his rabbit 'teens' there are days where he prefers to snuggle, give kisses and be fussed over. He's gained a trust that means even when he's playing, he rarely uses his claws. 

Despite him completely dominating our house and having complete control of both of us, summer really does make him happier and this year we've bought him an outside pen to play in, we've got a whole new adventure to plan for.

Love Sophie and Batman Xx

Green Fingers.

Am I getting old? I feel like I'm gaining such an appreciation for my garden and growing things that I'm sure I'm going to need tenna-lady soon? It's great though isn't it? Getting muddy under the nails, coming outside each morning and "ooh-ing" over what's sprouted over night *note to self, start naming your plants*...I literally have no idea what's growing in my garden. All packets of seeds were bought based on the pretty picture on the front, all of which got stuck into compost like a five year old growing cress...yet I've discovered something- That's literally what gardening is! The whole stick a seed in some mud, put it in the sun and water it (barely though- thanks Cornish weather!) ACTUALLY WORKS. That's all there is to it...(could I offend any more actual gardeners with this post?)

Batman is happy that there's some green stuff to eat, the forget me nots that Leona gave me a while back are taking over all other plants- those bad boys want to rule to roost (see what I mean, I genuinely think my plants have attitude??) My freckles have enjoyed making appearances and my hair just looks too snazzy in the wind not to take selfies. I'm not sure Harps is that keen every time I come home with new plant pots or more half-dead looking weeds from the bargain section in Lidl. I'm becoming proud of my garden- minus the day where my next door neighbour 'casually' left some 'Gardeners World' magazines on our joining fence. 

Any planting or growing tips? My main problems seem to have been..

1) Small children from next door pulling out my baby fir-tree which now sits rather miserably hanging to one side...

2) FUCKING CATS POOING IN MY GARDEN! 

3) The snails/slugs/ whatever arseholes that destroyed my sunflowers...How do I make them pay?

Oh and just to add to the garden excitement, last weekend we invested in an outdoor pen for Batman. Seeing as he won't let us put a harness on him, we still want him to enjoy the summer with us and we grabbed the perfect bargain when we saw it. Stay tuned for Batman's first adventure outdoors very soon!

Love Sophie Xx

Ring-A Ring O' Roses...(my first bbq of the year)

There are no pretty maids all in a row here. Just thought I'd get that out of the way incase you mis-clicked...It's basically a fancy title for what I've been up to the last week. Haven't we had glorious sunshine?! I've been racing outside at every given opportunity but surprisingly my area manager didn't agree that a bank-on-a-beach is quite what the company needs. He'll regret it I'm sure. 

Oh and I'd just like to make a note that the grass photographed above is most certainly NOT my garden! Harps is obsessed with our lawn, funnily I spoke with Michelle about this and we decided that all manly men are the same when it comes to lawn care- do you have an obsessive lawn man? 

I had to go to a meeting sit in an office for hours on end whilst sunshine mocked me on Wednesday and had absolutely no option but to treat myself to a mini haul at The Body Shop. I saw Rosie post about their banana shampoo the other week and just had to get some. It's amazing of course. I also find that their hemp hand moisturiser is just the best ever for my dry little paws (oh and it's buy one get one half price so I had no choice really but to get a couple of other bits!) Whilst we're on the subject can we just talk about how fucking amazing Rosie looked at her wedding? Congratulations beautiful lady and I hope you both have a fabulous month in Bali- that's a couple of blog posts I can't wait to read! 

I had Friday off and my mum needed a bit of adult time. I've got a little post coming up about caring for someone full time and I think you'll all agree that carers do not get any where near as much praise as they deserve! We headed to Charlies Boathouse (see previous posts here) and scoffed ourselves silly whilst putting the world to right. 

The day after I may or may not have had this delicious hot dog from Bangers With a Twist in Falmouth- it'd been such a busy Saturday at work that I hadn't had the chance to escape for some lunch. Luckily, on my way to the station, this little restaurant/cafe shouted to me from across the street where I was met by such lovely staff that understood my lunch woes and packed me on my way with this beauty! I'd definitely recommend popping in!

SUNDAY! THE DAY OF REST! I pottered around in the garden; pruning, weeding and planting to my little heart's content. Seriously, if my garden doesn't look like the bleeds Eden Project by the end of this summer there will be war. Harps whispered sweet nothings to his lawn (or something like that) and though there was a bit of a chilly wind, only gale force winds would have kept me inside.

Late afternoon we changed out of gardening gear and headed over to my parents for THE FIRST OFFICIAL BBQ OF THE YEAR! Isn't potato salad just delicious? Do any of you ever read these posts and wonder why I'm not 50st? Me too...

Back at work and swan watching on my lunch break. Like I said every second in the sun counts! 

And here's a farewell photo from Batman. He's been pretty grumpy because he's malting but on Sunday evening he slept most of it off in the cutest way ever. 

Love Sophie Xx

Signs of Spring.

Wave your hands in the air like you just don't care! *Flails around for a moment or two* Spring has shown it's wonderful first signs and I for one am whooping with joy both literally and metaphorically!  As you can see from my rather surprised looking face to the left; (and showing off my new No7 face match thingy magingy lipstick!) I opened the curtains to glorious sunshine on Sunday and promptly skipped out into the garden where I spent the day de-weeding, garden prepping and seed planting (as well as being introduced to the new neighbours next door and their 3 year old who by the afternoon was running around my front garden naked?! Oh and a cat came into the house TWICE Batman was NOT impressed!) It's been the first weekend in a while I've felt glad to be productive and not just wanted to crawl back under a blanket and binge watch Netflix- damn it felt good.

There's a smell of fresh rain and freshly mowed lawns in the air- the birds are singing just that little bit louder and the warmth of the sun is something I feel I've been longing for months now.

There have been other, subtler signs of Spring; 

• Hot cross buns after a long day in the garden. Smothered with plenty of butter of course ;-).

• Batman enjoying a plum whilst mid-malt. Seriously I have his fur just sticking to everything at the moment- it's making him pretty grumpy too!

• Repotting house plants (and tending to my rather sad looking aloe vera plant!)

• Nursing my very much growing forget me not's and getting excited for them flowering!

• Starting (and finishing) new books. I'm enjoying how quickly I can get through these Nick Hornby books. They're such easy yet engaging reads.

How are you all enjoying the return to warmer weathers? 

Love Sophie Xx