28.02

Stems-of-ranunculus

So this week’s been all about the waiting. And I suck at waiting, so it’s not been the greatest. Our lovely new carpets couldn’t go down on Tuesday, since the wife of Jason’s friend (the friend who was due to fit the carpets) went into labour on Monday evening! I’d had a funny feeling it might happen, so wasn’t totally surprised when Jason called to tell me. It’s not the biggest deal in the world, and just means waiting a few days longer for the new carpet to go down, but I’ll admit I had kind of a major sense of humour failure about it. And now I’m over it, and ashamed to have been so moody and intolerable. But hey! We’ve lasted three years with these hideous pink monstrosities under our feet- what’s another few days, right? Here are a few of the things that’ve helped break me out of my funk this past week…

1. Performing a one-woman rendition of Beyonce’s ‘Run the World’ in the middle of the woods on Wednesday morning. Complete with stompy dance routine. Basically the best, most uplifting thing I’ve done all week. Or maybe ever. Try it!

2. Walking right to the top of the big hill near our house, and being high enough up to watch the cloud-shadows moving across the land.

3. Finishing a cup of tea just seconds before it got too cold to enjoy.

4. Experiencing golden hour light for the first time in months. It didn’t quite last a full hour, but it *did* happen, and it was beautiful.

5. The long, wild stems of ranunculus I treated myself to on Wednesday.

6. Being able to go out walking without a coat this week. I don’t think I’ve ever looked forward to warmer weather as much as I have this year.

7. The beautiful grey paint Jason mixed up (using the grey we bought and hated, and a cool stone colour we already owned) and painted on our bedroom walls. It’s just perfect.

8. Anticipating today’s lunch date with Jason. I’m going to go meet him at work, and he’s taking me out to the new Five Guys in Guildford. I’m so excited!

9. Learning how to style my fringe properly, after months of being totally rubbish at it. Huge round hairbrush + tapered hairdryer nozzle = happy bouncy fringe. Who knew?

10. Baking four-ingredient Nutella brownies, from A Cup of Jo. I’ve been on a major chocolate kick lately, and these are just the thing to satisfy a chocolate craving in a pinch.

Four posts I’ve enjoyed reading this week: This burrito bowl recipe, from Dinner: A Love Story. Excited to try the recipe this week! // Carin’s round up of the best eats in NYC // Jessica’s collection of the most darling peach tones.

What’s made you happy this week? :)

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Posted in 10 THINGS, HAPPINESS

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27.02

Stormy-sea
*Image via Tearing Down Doors

February’s blogs are a beautiful bunch. There are some dedicated to living healthily, others dedicated to living beautifully, and others dedicated to living simply. They’re all gorgeous and unique and memorable, and I’ve been so glad to add them to my reading list. I really think you’re going to enjoy getting to know them. Enjoy!

Jane Heinrichs- The Art of Living
It’s been such a pleasure to be introduced to Jane’s sweet blog this month. Jane is an artist, living in Cape Town (though she’s lived all over the place!) blogging about her life and work and loves. Her illustrations are absolutely darling, and make regular appearances on her lovely blog! My especial favourite post this month has been ‘A Day in the Life of Children’s Book Illustrator’. It satisfied every nosy bone in my body- I love love love reading about other people’s ‘everyday’, and Jane’s ‘every day’ sounds oh so lovely. You’re going to fall hard for her darling illustrations, I just know it!
Favourite post of the past month? A Day in the Life of a Children’s Book Illustrator (because being able to take a peep into the life of another person, living halfway across the world, just plain old blows me away)

Peanut Butter Cake
Becki’s blog is so, so lovely. I’m so glad to have had chance to get to know it this past month! She writes a lot about food (oh hey, girl after my own heart!)- sharing simple recipes, restaurant reviews, and photos that make me want to dive right into my computer screen. This month she’s been to Flesh and Bun for, well, flesh and buns, Bill’s for brunch, and also made the most perfect looking courgette spaghetti with salmon I ever did see! Peanut Butter Cake is just one of those blogs you can lose yourself in. And I definitely recommend that you do.
Favourite post of the past month? Flesh and Bun. (because it made F&B shoot straight to the top of my ‘to visit’ list!)

Super Naturally Healthy
I’ve absolutely loved working my way through Kezia’s site this past month. It’s *fascinating*. It’s absolutely chock full of information about how to live a healthy, happy life, recipes for meals and snacks to suit every possible diet, and even the option to opt-in for life coaching! Kezia is a wonder-woman! I’ve especially loved browsing the recipe section, and reading not only about why each recipe is delicious, but also in what ways it’ll help nourish my body. It’s the sort of site I know I’ll return to again and again, in search of good, solid advice about healthy eating.
Favourite post of the past month? Berry & Almond Winter Smoothie (because even though it technically wasn’t published this month, but it contains such insight into the trend for juicing and smoothie-making I can’t not share!)

World of Wynne
I just love Hanna’s blog. There’s something so tranquil about it. It’s the sort of blog I like to have a catch up on in the evenings, after a day of flicking through Pinterest+Twitter+Instagram at the speed of light all day long. This month Hanna’s made the most *glorious* looking doughnuts (linked below. Just wait until you see them!), shared photos of her beautiful array of Valentine’s flowers, stills from her favourite movie, and a snap or two of that handsome dog of hers. Absolutely the sort of blog that’ll sit high in my reading list for many months to come.
Favourite post of the past month? Glazed Chocolate Doughnuts (because just *look* at the glaze on those babies.)

Cocktails and Caroline
Caroline has done the absolute coolest stuff this month! In fact, I’ve kind of turned green with envy every time I’ve visited her blog. Which is every day, because I’ve been so eager to read what she’s been up to most recently. It’s a vicious cycle, you see? This month, Caroline’s been over in the States eating amazing food, attending sports games, and seeing the best sights the US of A has to offer. I especially loved her photos from the Lakers vs.Oklahoma City Thunder NBA game- they were the coolest! Head on over and get ready to feel some pangs of envy, okay?
Favourite post of the past month? My First NBA Game (because of that hot dog.)

And a few more darling blogs to have a read of! ::
Poppytails and Trails
All About the Girl,
Kimi and Me
Found Love Now What?

If you’d like to see your own blog featured here on Cider with Rosie, click through to the Sponsor page and take up an advert! It’d be lovely to have you!

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Posted in ADVERTISERS

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25.02

Split-pine Black-and-white-tree-grain Sap-inside-pine Split-pine-tree Fallen-pine-tree Fallen-pine

When Great Trees Fall
Maya Angelou, from a collection entitled I Shall Not Be Moved.

‘ When great trees fall,
rocks on distant hills shudder,
lions hunker down
in tall grasses,
and even elephants
lumber after safety.

When great trees fall
in forests,
small things recoil into silence,
their senses
eroded beyond fear.

When great souls die,
the air around us becomes
light, rare, sterile.
We breathe, briefly.
Our eyes, briefly,
see with
a hurtful clarity.
Our memory, suddenly sharpened,
examines,
gnaws on kind words
unsaid,
promised walks
never taken.

Great souls die and
our reality, bound to
them, takes leave of us.
Our souls,
dependent upon their
nurture,
now shrink, wizened.
Our minds, formed
and informed by their
radiance,
fall away.
We are not so much maddened
as reduced to the unutterable ignorance
of dark, cold
caves.

And when great souls die,
after a period peace blooms,
slowly and always
irregularly.  Spaces fill
with a kind of
soothing electric vibration.
Our senses, restored, never
to be the same, whisper to us.
They existed.  They existed.
We can be.  Be and be
better.  For they existed.’

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Posted in PHOTOGRAPHY

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24.02

Cider-with-Rosie-Decorating

We spent it decorating, of course. It basically involved a whole load of sanding and painting, and then resanding and repainting when Teddy brushed up against wet paint and stuck it with a ton of long black hairs, and then a bit more sanding for good measure.

My Mum gave me some little cotton gloves the other day so that I could wear them at night with lots of hand cream on (Yep, Jason *is* a lucky guy) but they came into their own this weekend as my ‘sanding gloves’. I wore those babies all weekend long, and they protected my hands from the worst of the sanding paper damage. Though to be honest with you, my hands are now so rough that I could all but sand down a radiator with them bare, no need for sanding paper. Le sigh.This has turned into a mega whinge. It’s not supposed to be. Though I have kind of hit my decorating limit. It was fun for the first couple of days, but I think Jason and I are both pretty sick of it all now. Even Teddy’s had enough. He had to stay shut in the kitchen for most of Saturday, and made it quite clear that he was not impressed with the situation. He spent his weekend stealing scraps of sandpaper (though I couldn’t for the life of me work out where he kept producing it from), and throwing a strop when he wasn’t allowed into the living room. That dog gives the best stink eye.

AND NOW! Get ready, because I’m going to bestow upon you all my tips for an easy decorating process! (serious pearls of wisdom here, let me tell you):

ONE!: Never eat yoghurt shortly after using polyfiller, and then lick a blob of what looks like yoghurt off the back of your hand. Because it might just not be yoghurt, right? (p.s. Polyfiller tastes bad.) (p.p.s. I learnt this a couple of years back during a different decorating project, but the advice is still sound.)

TWO!: Give yourself an insanely short time period in which to complete said DIY/decorating project! I’m of the opinion (<*typo* I just wrote ‘I’m of the onion’. Great.) that if you give yourself two weeks to complete a project that could, with hard work, be completed in one, it’s impossible not to drag your feet and have it end up taking longer than it needs to. I find mess incredibly stressful, and so would rather have complete chaos in every room of the house for a short period of time, than have to live with ongoing (< *typo* I SERIOUSLY JUST WROTE ONION AGAIN. WHAT IS GOING ON?) mess in one or two rooms for a longer period. Also, Jason and I are both dreadful ‘do it in a minute-ers’, and so do well when under the cosh.

THREE!: Been rinsing for ten minutes? Yep. That paint roller probably still has paint in it.

FOUR!: Four words for you: Netflix. In. The. Background. We’ve been playing old episodes of The Office (U.S, of course) constantly over the past few days. It’s been a lifesaver. We would have been watching House of Cards, but sanding makes so much noise and we didn’t want to miss anything. (Sidenote: We’re on episode 3 of season 1 of HOC. When does it get amazing?)

FIVE!: Don’t make rush decisions about paint colours. That’s all I’ll say about that. (And also, it should be illegal for paint to look different when swatched versus how it looks all over the walls. Illegal.)

SIX!: If your partner’s better at painting/furniture assembling/drilling/*insert other random DIY job here* than you are, totally just let them do it. Jason is the King of neat cutting-in, whereas I am Queen of wobbly lines. I used to try and do the painting anyway, not because I enjoyed it at all but just to prove that I could, and that led to a whole lot of uhh…’constructive criticism’, shall we say? ;) Now I just willingly hand the reins over to Jason, and act as paintbrush and roller-washer in chief instead. It makes for a far easier life!

And so endeth Rosie’s tips for a stress-free (HA! Impossible!) decorating project! Now, please tell me all about the lovely things you did this weekend! Because I’d like to live vicariously through you, and pretend eating half a pack of mini Cadbury’s Creme Eggs isn’t the most fun I’ve had in the past 48 hours. So lay it on me! (Also, sunshine! How splendid is it? I’m about to go and get ready to walk that handsome pooch of ours, and will be making the bold move of going scarf-less! Roll on Spring!)

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10 Comments
Posted in A SNAPSHOT, WEEKEND

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