Can You Be Too Old For Florals....

Thank you for all the owl comments in my last post, those eyes are still watching me ;0)

So, this post has a floral theme, and I am wondering, should there be an age limit on wearing florals. My favourite buy from the sales ( I think was £7.00) and which I love to wear is this pretty and very CK esque little cardigan, I wear it with skinny jeans, with not so skinny jeans, with skirts and tights, and as the sun is out today *YIPPEE* soon hopefully I shall be wearing it with my little shabby denim summer skirts and flip flops, wishful thinking perhaps....

Anyway here she is....

I rather like it don't you. Anyway the florals straight away jumped out and me and I promptly went over to the desk and handed my money over. Roll on a week or so, and whilst have a lazy Sunday morning stumbled upon Hollyoaks on the television. Hollyoaks always takes me back, as I remember going for an audition to be in it when it first came out all those years ago, anyway am digressing. Whilst kind of watching ( yes I am embarrassed ) one of the characters, a character age of maybe 17/18 was wearing this exact same cardigan. It looked very nice on her, and then got me thinking.

Am I told old to be wearing florals, should there be an upper age limit, like the wearing of skirts above ones knee, is the wearing of florals a little, how can I put it, kind of childish. Only suitable for those age 5 and under. Can I ever be taken seriously wearing such pretty floral prints.

Well I am in love with them and I would say every single day somehow, somewhere,  I wear some form of floral, whether it be my earrings....

Or even my shoes....

There is always a floral in there. Interiors wise I think you can get away with florals, though again can it be overdone ? I am so inspired by Alice Whately's lovely book In Bloom....helps you get it just right with the floral decor.

Make do and mend....

Simple chic....

Feminine florals....

New romantic....

Pretty prints....

But when it comes to actually gracing ourselves with florals, well is it a bit too much. For me, enough is never enough and until I am told otherwise, I shall keep bringing those floral frocks out of the wardrobe ( yes, even at my age ) I would so love this little number to be pulled out of it one day....

Or is that taking it a bit too far at my age....

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Wit Wooo....

Are you an owl person, seems there are many, many about. Is it only me that has noticed pretty much every high street store has some sort of owl inspired pretty in it. Well, I say pretty, not sure, for me, if they really are, could it be those BIG eyes....

Here is a selection of what I have seen....

You can even get your little one to dress up as an owl....

Well of course, I like to give everything a little go, so I made a little owl doorstop,  handmade with pretty fabric and a little pink in there.

I don't know though, those eyes sometimes look like they are following me....

The owl, named Olive, was made for my make an item a month challenge, hosted by The Felt Fairy I kind of make things on a daily basis for my little folksy shop etc, but can't remember the last time I made something for me. So my personal challenge is to try and make one little item each month that is for keepsies.

I am so looking forward to making something else for the challenge using some of the lovely Kokka fabric I won for a giveaway hosted at Celtic Fushion Fabric's Blog The giveaway was if we could design our own fabric, what would we name it. I would so love to design my own fabric and have lots of ideas of what I would like my own designed fabric to look like. As for a name, I was thinking along the lines of whimsical, floaty, dreamy, so came up with " Wish Upon A Star" I was so overwhelmed to have won, and look some owl inspiration for me too.

So *owl* long do you think this owl thing shall be around for, do you like the owl look. I remember it first time round, was it last year or the year before, maybe it has never really gone away. 

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It Is The Little Things....

With me not really doing these January/February months, and craving the sunshine, I notice it is the little things in life that give me the little lift I need.

Doesn't life always seem better with painted nails....

I certainly feel a little brighter with my nail paint on. I can go weeks without wearing any, and then, when that first coat has been painted on, it's like I get a little spark of happiness and my hands feel all dressed up and ready for anything....

Ohooo dear, is it wrong to get a little giddy over nail polish ;0) I especially love this one I am wearing in the photograph, not so summery I agree, but takes me back to my wearing of Chanel's Rouge Noir, a dark mysterious red, boy I love that colour.

Though the price! Well, lets just say you could use the same amount to buy a small meal for 2, so now that my money habits have changed ( a little ) am always out for a bargain. I think the one I am wearing is called Ruby Gem and is by No17, much kinder on my pretty wallet.

Of course, you can't do your finger nails, without doing your toes too, I like to be all matching :0)

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Nokia N8 Review....

 As perhaps many of you do too, and with blogging being such an excellent marketing tool, I occasionally get emails from companies asking if I would like to review their products, and if so, perhaps I would like to write my thoughts about the item on my blog. Some of these emails I take great interest in, some I don't, and the products offered for review are not for me, or in keeping with my blog. Well, upon opening a parcel that had been delivered to my doorstep, I remembered an email I was sent via Nokia, asking if I would like to have a little play with the new Nokia N8 and their Ovi software. Now, I feel like I could possibly be the only girl on the planet with what I call, an old fashioned handset, iphones and the like seeming far too gadgetry ( made up word ) for my abilities, so stuck with my old pink mobile, with proper little buttons. 

 Of course I was overwhelmed to be given the opportunity to review a *smart* phone and couldn't wait to get playing....

Here you shall find out how un gadgetry I really am, as it took me two hours to work out how to plug it in, though am a quick learner, and soon got to grips with setting the battery up and roughly how it worked.  The handset itself is in the classic black colour and being a girly girl, I knew I could soon jazz it up with a pretty cover. It really feels very smooth and sturdy and almost like it could easily take one or two decent knocks in it's lifetime. It has a 12 mega pixel camera with inbuilt flash, which I have to say is superb, and the video is pretty good too.

Having never had a touch screen phone before, I really have nothing to compare the quality to, but as far as I can tell, is bright, clear and although being a novice touch screen user it did seem pretty easy to use. One thing that did get me a little perplexed was the sim card. With this handset coming its way from America, it's sim card was of the international variety, and just didn't seem to work within the U.K. After a little fiddle and thinking, I thought popping my sim card from my old handset may do the trick, and indeed it did seem to work. Now all I needed was an internet connection. After some help from  Violet Posy who also received the same handset, I realised I could use my own home wifi to use the software. Ovi, Nokia's name for their software on the handset has all I would ever need, and more, social applications, games, music, and a store where you can purchase many other applications for the handset. One application that really interested me was the Ovi Maps.

Ovi Maps is something that turns the Nokia N8 into a rival for an expensive TomTom navigation gadget. Ovi Maps is a GPS solution that’ll let you search for places to go and tell you how to get there, turn by turn. Ovi maps was pre installed on the handset and is a free application. As long as you’re connected to the web, it’ll seek out whatever you need. You can browse nearby attractions and much more, my favourite, shops, and also restaurants hotels etc. Ovi maps also comes with a selection of voice packs that can guide you from one place to another, and these are fun to listen too, your chosen voice pack can be downloaded from the Ovi maps servers. You can even record your own or a friends/loved one’s voice for use in the Sat Nav Ovi Maps navigation, which is quite straight forward and fun to do. Miss. Poppins volunteered to be our voice, she had to record 50 or so commands, ie turn left, turn right, take second exit on the left, etc etc, in a quiet place and each command could be reviewed, the recording took approximately 5 minutes. Once recorded the voice pack can then be downloaded to Ovi maps, and when opened, one selects own voice and then you can all have a giggle listening to your own sat nav voice commands on journeys.

So, for me, I have to say the N8 is somewhat of a *wow* handset, I know everyone seems to be talking about the iphone, and I am sure is pretty lovely to own, but for now I think I shall get to know this sleek, smart fella a little better, and maybe find there are one or two more fancy tricks up his sleeve....

Do You Do It....

Valentine's that is....

It drives me crazy sometimes the high street commercialism of it all. As soon as Christmas is out of way and we are spent up, Oh no, we need to get our hard earned pennies out again and spend it on some tat, for the ones we love. I do wonder if I am a little hypocritical, as of course I sell pretty wares, and of course I promote certain items on a seasonal basis, so am I not a part if this commercialism. Though of course I would certainly like to think my items are not tat, and they have in no way been part of a manufactured run of things that just have no purpose whatsoever ( red, cheap looking plastic roses spring to mind )

I do think some of the Valentine's items available in stores are quite laughable, ( chocolate willies) though I guess if it does make one laugh then maybe that is alright. Laughter they say is good for the soul, and I do lurrrrvve chocolate :0) Though with Christmas, and my poor husband's wallet barely being closed, he then feels he has to dive in and get his money out, yet again for Valentines, and then of course soon there shall be Mother's Day. Do we WANT to do it, or do we feel we HAVE to do it, would it appear mean if there were no gifts upon Mother's breakfast trays, no valentine's treats declaring our love.... I think a sweet hand drawn painting , a big squeeze from the children, perhaps a little inexpensive handmade with love gift, means so much more than anything one could buy in a high street shop.

So, for me, I shall be looking here for an inexpensive gift for my man, and I shall be asking him if he really wants to spend his pennies to spend them there too. I remember being single and I used to quite dislike Valentine's, all these lovey dovey people holding hands and smooching and oohing and ahhing ( of which I am now perhaps, on a good day, one of those people )

Bless my mum, she always used to send me a card, even when I was living at home, would address it, post it and put a big ? on it....

I think to this day, she doesn't realise I knew they were from her ;0)

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Say A little Prayer....

New year, new start and all that....

All I want this year to start with is good health to everyone in my family. My husbands mum has yet again been admitted to hospital with breathing problems, and now she has MRSA. Everyone is thinking of her and she is now on the antibiotics to treat the MRSA, though we are all hoping and praying she finds the strength to fight it and gets home soon. I don't know too much about the effects of MRSA, though perhaps that is a good thing, I am not the best of people to be googling health conditions etc. though know it can make people feel very, very poorly. My prayers are with you lovely mother in law.

It really does put life into perspective when ill health comes along for a visit, also emotionally I think of my husband and the children. What may be going through my husband's mind, especially, what he is thinking. I am so the talker of the family, but we are all different aren't we and although my husband I would say is very much in touch with his emotions, sometimes I would like to dig a little deeper and find out how he really feels. I can't help myself.

So, get well soon Ma, hope you are getting the treatment, care and attention you deserve and that the family are all around the dinner table very soon, laughing and joking whilst listening to silly jokes, not mine of course ;0) Before I go to bed I shall say a little prayer for your speedy recovery....

Wishing you all more than anything, a healthy, and a very happy 2011.

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