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#docraftsmonday

Monday's will never be the same again! Well... they'll be similar, but with one subtle but fantastic difference. Today is the inaugural #docraftsmonday and in celebration I've been crafting with some products that you've probably never seen before - that's because they're not out till March!


On the left is the newest incarnation of the Papermania Capsule Collection - Oyster Blush and on the right is another new Papermania collection called Bellisima. Both are super pretty so it's hard to choose between them!

If you're been crafting recently you can get involved with #docraftsmonday too. Take a pic and share it on your favourite social media platform. Add the hashtag '#docraftsmonday' on facebook, twitter, and instagram and you're in! On twitter be sure to tag docrafts by adding @docraftsteam to your tweet, and on facebook tag @officialdocraftspage so we can all see what you've been up to! It doesn't matter what sort of craft you've been doing, be it papercraft, home decor, sewing, baking or anything else!

I'll be keeping an eye out for the #docraftsmonday tag so will check in on as many of your crafty endeavours as possible!

Current and January Favourites - Things I'm Loving Right Now!

I've never done a blog post like this, but I've recently been watching a whole lot of You Tube recently ad this seems to be 'the done thing' among vloggers, so why not cross it over to a regular blog? So here goes with my first ever January Current Favourites! While most of the favourites vids you see on You Tube are almost wholly beauty related, as expected mine is a bit more eclectic and decidedly less 'high end'!

First up is this Carmex lip balm - even though we've not had a huge amount of cold dry weather so far this winter, I find myself on more than my fair share of sand blasted, wind swept beaches and cliff tops and chapping of the lips is a definite problem! I have quite a few lip balms and this is definitely the best for me at the moment. It's not too creamy or greasy and moisturises without being oily and sticky. Best of all it's only £2.69!

Next favourite is my Fitbit! I won't bore you again with my saga of how much I love this, but if you want to read more than go here! Suffice to say it's been a favourite for a while (since June) but I can't resist putting it into my first post of this type!

 Next up are a pair of sunglasses. I'm a big sunglasses fan, but REALLY can't be trusted with fancy designer versions - I've lost count of the number of pairs I've either sat on while they were in my back pocket, or knocked on the driveway and then driven over, or lost in the sea..... you get the picture. So when Primark roll out their sunglasses at this time of year, I go to town!

I bought some classic faux Aviator Ray Bans as well as some black faux Wayfarers plus my favourites at the moment these white 'faux-farers'! Lots of fun and just the thing to get me in the mood for Spring! I'm pretty sure they were each a single solitary quid. One. Uno.

Favourite crafty thing of the month has to be these mini typewriter style alpha stickers from Papermania. They're in the Madame Payraud collection and I literally can't craft without them. They're just £2.50 and I can't think of something I've crafted without them this month!

Next is a bargain sales purchase that I picked up from Cath Kidston in the new year. While the exact purse isn't available anymore there are a few similar ones that are still up for grabs - mine was reduced to just £3.50!! I also have a regular large Cath Kidston purse, but when I'm out without a bag it's too big to pop in a coat or jeans pocket so this is my sneaky solution. This zippy purse holds a couple of cards, but cash for car parks/emergencies and is perfect for when I'm out walking.

It's especially perfect as it slots perfectly into the breast pocket of my much beloved Rab PS Zip top.

 Next faves are the Revlon Lip Butters - I really love these for their moisturising feel and the great range of colours. I prefer the shades that are fairly near to natural lip colour (but better) with my favourites being Pink Truffle, Peach Parfait and Berry Smoothie. I find it quite hard to resist picking another one up every time I find myself in Boots!

Second to last is Fruit Tea! I've never liked coffee and have now pretty much given up tea too. For a while I drank hot water all on it's tod, but am not a total convert to fruit teas. I'm not a fan of anything herbal and despite the efforts of Emma I can't bring myself to enjoy green tea, but anything a bit more berryish (that's totally a word) is good with me. My favourite's have to be Berry Blitz with Echinacea from Morrisons and Sainsbury's Blackberry, Blueberry and Acai Berry infusion. Yummy and zero calories!

Last up is a You Tuber! Rosanna Pansino makes cool cakes and other treats each with a 'geeky' twist. Loving her Star Wars things especially and this Indian Jones - Monkey Brains pudding is awesome! Take a look - I'm sure you'll love her too!



I hope you've enjoyed my favourites for January - I'm hoping to make this a fairly regular thing so come back early Feb for another!

Colour Inspiration #2 - Berry Tones

 It's time for another dose of colour inspiration, and today is all about berry tones. My picture was taken in the Autumn during a walk at Radipole Lakes RSPB reserve in Weymouth. I really love this little patch of the countryside nestling in the middle of the town. There are plenty of birds to observe and it's a great place for a short stroll too.

The pinks, purples and indigo shades really appeal to me, so much so I was inspired to paint a feature wall in my dining room using a gorgeous shade of 'Forest Fruits' from the Colours range from B&Q.

I'd just love to see if you use this as inspiration to get creative - whatever form that might take!

Leave me a comment below so I can come and visit your blog too!

My iPhone saved my life and other stories.

While the title of this blog post seem extreme unlikely, in a sense my upgrade to an iPhone from the wasteland of android hell with an HTC Wildfire, was certainly the catalyst to 6 months of changes in my life.

Back at the beginning of June the long awaited end of my 24 month phone contract arrived and I took the plunge to buy an iPhone 5. I’m not a stranger to Apple. I was probably the only person in the world who owned an iPad and a Macbook Pro, but not an iPhone, so the wealth of apps and functionality wasn’t a revelation in itself, but the subtle difference was all this data and accessibility was happily nestling in my pocket.

At about the same time my good friend Emma and I had a chat about our mutual desire to shed a few pounds and get in shape. I’d been making some effort to eat better and exercise more for a little while and had definitely lost a few pounds, but it was all a bit haphazard. She started a Facebook group to give us a bit of accountability and I invested in something I’d been eyeing up for a little while - A Fitbit One. 

This clever little device is a posh pedometer that you attach to yourself each day. It tracks steps taken, flights of stairs climbed and distance walked and beams all that info straight to your iPhone via Bluetooth. This in itself is a huge motivator to move more. Firing up the accompanying app gives a moment to moment count of your activity that day so far. Meeting your own target for the day becomes hugely important and as if that isn’t reward enough there are virtual badges that your device ‘awards’ you as you achieve certain targets over time! The first few of these come thick and fast to get you motivated straight away!

The other thing this clever little device can do is talk to the second app that has contributed to my life change - My Fitness Pal. Basically speaking MFP is a calorie tracker, but with the added function of allowing you to track your exercise meaning you can adjust your food intake to suit your own personal activity and requirements. You can manually add your work outs, but I mainly leave it to the Fitbit to talk to MFP. Only non-step based exercise like cycling, weight training or swimming need to be added.

First job with MFP is to add your vital statistics... height, weight (gulp!) etc are all dialled in and a modest weekly weight loss target added (no more than two pounds a week and much less if you have less to lose). With all the shocking details recorded and added I had my calorie target for the day. The exercise my Fitbit records means you get to eat back some of those calories, a literal reward for exercising!

I should say that at least initially it definitely helps to weigh and measure your foods, until you get the hang of portion and serving sizes, but once you’re got it nailed it’s super easy to select foods from the database that you eat often for fast and efficient logging of your calorie intake. It turned out that this was definitely my downfall. Pre-MFP I had no idea how much I was really eating despite usually picking what seemed to be fairly healthy options most of the time.

And that was it. Once I started and got into the habit, I was converted. Somehow having all this info at my fingertips made me both super motivated and super organised.

Over the next 6 and a bit months I shed exactly 4 stone. I’ve got plenty more to lose (to date I’ve now lost 61lbs), but I feel fitter, less tired and altogether more determined generally in life. 

While crediting my iPhone with all this might seem a bit flippant, It’s been hard work. So lets just say it was the catalyst to change... that seems fair.

If you've got this far I'll leave you with my then/now shot... 

Remembering Summer Nights

While summer is a memory from what seems a VERY long time ago, it definitely helps to revisit those wonderful long evenings with a spot of scrapbooking.

I broke out one of my favourite Instagram images from a long walk back at the end of the summer and used one of my new favourite collections - the Madame Payraud collection from Papermania. It's a stunning eclectic mix of vintage labels and ephemera with so many gorgeous dimensional embellishments! My favourite bit of the collection has to be these fabulous little alpha stickers! I *literally* can't craft live without them!

Look how cute they looked when you squish the edges into an inkpad - this has to be the easiest way to distress the edges of little things.

 And I shoe-horned them in again for the date inside one of the pretty frames.

Another fun part are the pleated fabric trims - these come nesting on a wonderful wooden bobbin held in place with a cute mini safety pin!

For all the info on making my page check out the docrafts website.

Colour Inspiration #1 - Sunshine on a Rainy Day

I'm often asked about where the best places to get inspiration and the usual answer is all around you. Of course it's not always that easy and sometimes we all need a little helping hand. So today sees my first colour inspiration post. I've used one of my own photographs to pull a fun and complimentary colour palette together which will hopefully be just the nudge you use to try something new where colour is concerned or just to kick start your crafting/decorating/outfit of the day!

This week's picture is on some gorgeous Montbretia in my garden and while it'll be a little while before it's in bloom this splash of colour seems perfect to brighten up a dull January day.

Please do share in the comments if you make or create something using my colour combo! I'd love to come and see what you make of it!