TTT – Kittenesque

Tag: TTT

07
Mar
2017

Tiny Things Tuesday #50

Wow, I can’t quite believe I have done 50 of these posts. I’ve never really kept up a public blog for this long before. I took today off of work so it’s felt like a mine mid week(ish) break for me. The majority of the posts I have written are these TTT ones which has been a good exercise in itself in gratitude and reflection. It make me happy to look back over that tag and remember things

I read a book in bed (this one) before getting up, making myself some fresh coffee and pancakes. I then pottered around the house, playing Stardew Valley, listening to music, washing up and then made a huge pan of sweetcorn chowder (recipe is from #2 of Grub zine)

1. I went one a day trip on Saturday with some friends to the Cotswold Farm Park to see their baby animals. We got to bottle feed some of the lambs as well as feed some sheep, goats, horses. I also got to see some piglets but sadly didn’t get close enough to cuddle one (a long time goal that still remains unfulfilled.) The little guy pictured here was called Bear and was an orphan but he seemed to be doing well and at one point he made a bid for freedom and was frolicking around the barn on his own.

2. I got this very exciting envelope through the post yesterday – it’s the first mailing of Cryptogram Puzzle Post by the very talented Jack Fallows. I’m pretty rusty at puzzle solving so I think I need to spend some quality time with this envelope and its contents at the weekend.

I had my first drumming lesson tonight. Turns out that I sadly don’t have an amazing skills that were just waiting to come out when I sat down. However I could see myself gradually improve over the course of the lesson which was pleasing. I struggle with learning new things a lot and its hard sometimes for me to motivate myself to practice and try when I don’t see any improvement. I need to keep reminding myself that I am doing these things for fun because I can take it too seriously.

It looks like there is going to be a new Moomin TV series and it looks really wonderful. You can help crowdfund it here and get all sorts of nice looking rewards or just get excited about seeing it when its out if you don’t want to contribute.

Now my bed and another book is calling. Till next time…

21
Feb
2017

Tiny things Tuesday #49

Categories: Uncategorised

I haven’t managed one of these Tuesday posts for a while but I was feeling particularly positive today so here goes…

1. A few weeks ago I devoured the whole first season of A series of Unfortunate Events on Netflix. I read (& loved) the books a good many years ago and I enjoyed the film but the rushed ending and part where they muddled up the timelines wasn’t great. I LOVE how the Netflix version seems to be so much more openly queer friendly with both Sir and Charles being explicitly depicted as a couple and the person of undetermined gender who appears to be playing it as non-binary. I’m excited for season 2.

2. Speaking of TV – I am also really enjoying Riverdale at the moment. I haven’t read the Archie Comics before so I’m pretty new to the story but the noir vibes reminded me of Veronica Mars which is always a good thing. So far my favorite character are Betty and Veronica (together) and Jughead. There is something about the way that it’s shot that also really reminds me of Life in Strange.

3. J got me this lovely Moomin cushion as a valentines gift. I love the print on it. I think I need to have a duvet days soon where I drink lots of coffee, make pancakes and read one of the books.

4. Tegan & Sara were amazing on Saturday evening at The Institute in Birmingham. You can see the set list here – I was most happy to hear Alligator and U-turn plus 100x because I knew it was one of J’s favorites. The tickets were part of my Christmas gift (tucked inside the CD of the latest album) and when I first opened them I was a little taken back because I hadn’t really listened to them in ages but as I started listening to the new album and re-visiting their old ones, a lot of memories started coming back and I realised how many emotions their music stirs up in me.

5. Stardew Valley – I brought this for my laptop about a month ago for around £12 and it terms of giving vallue for money, I cannot fault it! It’s a pretty simple game with a retro pixel art look to it that combines elements of Harvest Moon, Animal Crossing and other farming simulators I am finding it really relaxing to play (aside from when I die in the mines in the desert) Here’s a little article about how SV is an improvement on previous games of this type.

6. I got exciting post from Wanikani the other day as a reward for completing the first 3 levels. It was a magnet, hand written postcard and sticker. I’m a sucker for surprise post and I’m also still really enjoying using Wanikani to learn Kanji. It has given some structure to my days especially as I tend to use my bus ride to work to work on revisions and new lessons.

Some other bits and pieces that I have also been enjoying;

I’m really into this article from Rookie on how to be alone. I’m an only child and having alone time is pretty vital to my wellbeing especially since I started living with someone else.

Spring being almost here. The evenings are finally getting lighter and it helps my mood so much.

Looking at the tweets from the Cat Reviewer.

It’s Sheffield zine fest this weekend and I’m excited to go and see my friends and eat some tasty food. Last year I had the best salt and chili tofu that I had ever had and I still think of it about once a month. Ahh!

I had my fringe (and thge reset of my hair) cut a few weeks ago after not bothering since the start of October. It actually feels like it had a style now and isn’t such a pain in the butt to blow dry in the mornings. It shocked me just how much of an impact it had on my mood and I guess its a reminder to myself that these things I sometimes think are trivial can make a difference.

10
Jan
2017

Tiny Things Tuesday #48

Categories: Uncategorised

Ah January, you are kind of a bitch. I’m struggling with my mental health at the moment. It’s nothing big, just January blues (at least I think) so I am trying to set myself small goals each day, find things to look forward to and plan lots of chill out time for my evenings and weekends.

I have got out of the habit of writing my Tuesday posts here but I wanted to make an effort to write in here again especially when it’s not always as easy to see the small positive things.

1. I wore this pin from Punky Pins today to work to cheer me up and remind me of the joy of coffee. If you don’t recognise the quote – it’s from Stranger Things – you can see a gif of the scene here. I’m looking forward to series 2 coming later this year and the pin is also a pretty good summation of how I like my mornings.

2. Even though I am not going to lessons any more, I am still carrying on with my Japanese study. At the moment I am using wanikani to start to learn kanji. The system they use really seems to work well and I like how from the start, you learn some useful kanji.

3. I’m still going to visit my squirrel pals when I am in the city centre. Last time I went looking for them, they were all hiding from the rain but I did see this trio of pigeons. I love their markings.

4. Look at my amazing scarf! I got it in the winter Pusheen subscription box (which was a Christmas gift) I wont go on about everything in the box but I will say that it is really good value and I’m so excited to get my other boxes through out this year.

Till next time..

27
Sep
2016

Tiny Things Tuesday #47

Categories: Uncategorised

Wow…it’s been months since I wrote a Tuesday post. I’m off work tomorrow for a day of admin and getting shit done. Before I get into my lazy evening, here’s some things I’ve been enjoying;

1. I’m probably a bit late to the party but I started listening to the My Dad wrote a porno podcasts when we were travelling to Luxembourg. For anyone who hadn’t heard of it – one of the presenters gets together with two friends to read out loud the self published erotic fiction that his father has written. Each week covers a different chapter of the novel which is called Belinda Blinked and honestly seems to be written by someone with NO knowledge of anatomy or what could possibly be sexy. It is ridiculously funny though. I was crying with laughter on the train to the airport at one of the episodes. I ended up finishing the whole of season 1 over the course of the holiday so I’m saving season 2 for my Tokyo trip.

2. I’ve been getting back into knitting socks lately – I usually get bored when making them when I’m on the second sock and don’t end up finishing them. I’ve tried making some slightly more complex ones and that seems to have piqued my interest again. Right now, I’m working on this pair of socks from this book and I’m really enjoying it. I’ve brought some bamboo needles and more yarn so I can knit some on my trip.

3. After procrastinating for ages and adding far too many links to my Pintrest boards – I’ve finally started a bullet journal! I’m using a cheap dotted notebook that I picked up from Tiger and it’s working out pretty well for me. I’ve been using it to keep track of things I want to do each month as well as my daily to-do lists and appointments. I’m also tracking some day to day health stuff and using it to make many to-do lists for Tokyo. Its also give me an opportunity to finally use some of my stash of washi tape and stickers too.

4. AUTUMN!! It’s gone from feeling like summer in the last few weeks to suddenly feeling really autumnal. I’ve been enjoying seeking out the squirrels that live by the cathedral in town and feeling them monkey nuts. They are so cute and friendly ♥

I keep listening to this song on repeat at the moment –

This is the official videa but annoyingly they cut out a lot of the intro so if you like, you can hear the full track here.

Till next time…

26
Apr
2016

Tiny things Tuesday #46

Categories: Uncategorised

The weather today has been ALL THE WEATHER – we’ve had sunshine, hail, snow, blue skies, snow, grey clouds and rain. I don’t know how to dress for weather than changes from one hour to the next.

At work we’re getting in to our busiest time of year so I’m gearing up for that while at the same time making sure to carve out time in the evening and on weekends to work on my own projects and to rest and recoup. I’m actually starting another Japanese class tomorrow night, but it’s only a 10 week course this time (and isn’t being assessed)

I’m looking forward to the upcoming long weekend. I’m off to Sheffield zine fest on the Saturday so I’m excited to see some of my pals there.

Here’s this weeks things;

1. I watched this incredibly cute documentary on Netflix called Twinsters which is the true story of two adopted Korean girls finding each other online and the crazy few months they had getting to know each other and exploring their history to see if they were related. I wont go into too many details aside to say that I found the documentary so uplifting and emotional. It was wonderfully shot, I loved the music but most of all – the two girls (Samantha and Anaïs) were so charming and funny that it was a pleasure to spend time learning about them. I actually enjoyed the film so much that I brought the book that they wrote too – Separated @ Birth and finished that yesterday.

2. I got sent a mystery package last week and it was a buddy box from the Blurt! One of my friends has sent it to me as a surprise. I had heard of the boxes before but this was my first time receiving one. Mine was a mini box and contained a lovely smelling foot scrub bar, some really cute bird shaped post-it notes and a cute sheep pin badge. There was also some postcards with uplifting pictures and words on. It was a really lovely thing to receive in the post.

3. My lunch today was some of this delicious smoked hummmus with some crackers. I don’t get to eat it very often because I can only seem to find it at Waitrose and that’s not my usual shop. I got to go to the store n a nearby town this week so I made sure to pick up some goodies including 2 pots of this hummus, some fancy dark chocolate and a 6 pack of my favorite soda (San Pellegrino grapefruit)

4. My Mum came to visit last week so I had a couple of days off of work. We went to the Herbert gallery to see the new exhibition of Grayson Perry’s tapestries called “The vanity of small differences“. I loved seeing all the tapestries in person and how amazingly detailed they were. I sneakily snapped a picture of this one as I was drawn to the scene in the kitchen with the mugs and cafetiere.

and now I’ve off to work on a secret craft project and watch something on Netflix.

05
Apr
2016

Tiny things Tuesday #45

Categories: Uncategorised

I haven’t been in the mood to write here on a Tuesday for a few weeks (in fact, looking at the calendar, I didn’t post at all in March). I think because I had been attending my evening class and we had tests to study for so I was a little reticent to cut into my studying/panicking time with writing here. Class has now finished and I’m waiting to see if they are going to run one for the summer term (which will be a refresher course rather than covering much new stuff).

I’ve got so much out of taking these classes even if I didn’t actually “succeed” in the sense of passing the certificate. I can now read hiragana pretty well and I’m taking baby steps towards learning katakana ready for my trip later in the year. I would say that I know at least 100 words or phrases which is about 95 more than I knew before I started the class! Plus it’s really increased my confidence in the sense that I am able to set out and do what I planned to.

and that leads me to the exciting news that…I’VE BOOKED MY FLIGHTS! I’ll be taking a solo trip to Tokyo for 11 nights in October. It actually feels real now that I have booked and I’m starting to make many, many lists of things to do and places to visit.

Here’s this weeks things;

1. I did an order from iHerb a few weeks ago for the first time. One of the things I was excited to get was this lip balm. I have a lot of other crazy rumors balms as they are sold in Holland and Barrett in the UK but they don’t stock this flavour. It’s so good! just like cinnamon rolls with frosting.

2. Life is Strange – I have been re-playing some of my old favourite games recently rather than looking at anything new but then at the weekend – this arrived! I haven’t played much of it yet but it’s an interesting premise and so far I like what I have seen in terms of the application of it. From what I’ve seen so far, it’s not a typical action game – more like an immersive story similar to Gone Home (which I also enjoyed) – I love being able to read through diary entries and look at all the things you encounter in the environment.

3. Zombies, run! – Speaking of games, I got a new phone a few weeks ago and for the first time in years – I actually have some spare space of it. This means I’ve re-installed this game and gone out for some walks while playing it. So far, I’m re-listening to episodes that I have heard before to catch up on the story but I’m looking forward to hearing more.

4. I had a mini bottle of this Chocolate cookie syrup in a gift set a while ago but decided to treat myself to a full size bottle for when I am drinking coffee at home. The other benefit is that I can have fancy coffee at home when I feel like doing that instead of going out to get it.

Till next time…

16
Feb
2016

Tiny things Tuesday #44

Categories: Uncategorised

It was (pretty much) still daylight when I left work today. YES! Spring is coming.

I had a good weekend where I went to a gig in Birmingham on Friday to see T-shirt Weather, Okinawa Picture Show, No Ditching and Jesus and his Judgemental father. They were all really good live and it was nice to hang out with pals too.

On Saturday I slept a lot to make up for my late night (we got home at midnight which is pretty much now classed as a late night for me) On Sunday I went to the cinema to see Deadpool with J and we ate katsu curry at Wagamamas. I loved Deadpool (aside from that one really transphobic “joke” which pissed me off) and it was nice to have some ridiculous escapism on a Sunday afternoon. When we came out of Wagamamas there was even a few flakes of snow falling.

Here’s this weeks things;

1. Look at this valentines card that my sponsor owl Iolo sent me! What a cutie!

2. I was also treated to this cute mug from J (and made breakfast in bed) I had spotted it in town before but thought it was a bit egocentric to buy it for myself so I was happy to get it as a gift.

I feel like I don’t have much to write about these but that doesn’t matter. I’m filling out a gratitude diary each night that a friend sent me from Flow and it’s really nice to just write a few things about positive stuff.

Till next time…

09
Feb
2016

Tiny things Tuesday #43

Categories: Uncategorised

My laptop is back! The positive was that it wasn’t the harddrive so I haven’t lost any of my data. It’s so nice to be able to type properly and listen to all the music that I didn’t have on my ipod.

I’m finding that I have too much to do at the moment and not so much a case of not enough time but a case of not enough time to relax AND do the things I need or want to do. I’m still learning my own limits. Taking one evening a night to attend a class leaves me a little exhausted the following night so I find that I just spend evenings either at class, studying or relaxing. I feel guilty sometimes like I should be doing more but then when I try to do more, I wipe myself out.

Here’s this weeks things;

1. I have been hoarding this unicorn horn bath bar for month now and finally used it on Sunday evening. It was lovely to relax with after a weekend of tidying and sorting. I also put on a face mask and concentrated on stretching out my achy back and legs.

2. The sad ghost club does some wonderful work around mental health support and awareness as well as making some super cute illustrations. I treated myself to one of their shirts last week and its so soft and lovely.

3. I love pancakes! They are a staple thing that I will make for people who stay over at our house (and just for me and J on a weekend if I am feeling fancy). I usually make crepe style ones but after having some amazing american style ones that my friend Sarah made, I tried making my own tonight (and last night as a practice run) I used this recipe from Edgy Veg and it worked so well. I substituted the coconut oil with standard sunflower oil and found the trick was to wait until bubbled came through the batter to the topside before flipping them over.

4. I haven’t finished reading the whole of “The life changing magic of tidying up” by Marie Kondo but I liked what I have read. I’m working on overhauling my house at the moment and at the weekend I used Marie’s method of organizing clothes to sort my wardrobe and drawers. Look at all my neatly folded tops! I hope it’s something I can maintain.

Till next time…

02
Feb
2016

Tiny things Tuesday #42

Categories: Uncategorised

I went to Weirdo Zine fest in London at the weekend. I even managed to make a tiny zine to take with me dedicated to my love of stationery.

The zine fest was a lot of fun and I’m glad I went although it did wipe me out energy wise pretty much all of yesterday. I’m so glad that I booked the day off of work to sleep and recuperate. It was really good to be able to visit DIY Spare for London too. Such a good idea and I would love to see something like this happen in the West Midlands.

Here’s this weeks things;

1. I haven’t really had chance to read all of the lovely looking zines that I picked up yet but I just wanted to highlight this beautiful patch that I got alongside the SAD care zine from Kim Searle – there were a few designs to choose from in the patches but I loved the look of this one most of all. The other designs came on stickers in the pack though so I didn’t feel like I missed out on them.

2. Someone added me to a crochet group on facebook and I keep meaning to leave because it’s pretty high traffic but every time I do, I see loads of lovely projects and yarn so maybe I’ll keep on there for a while. A lot of people on the group have been making C2C blankets (corner to corner) and I really liked how they look especially with variegated yarns so I decided to start my own at the weekend as a more portable project that the other blanket I am working on (which uses 14 colours of yarn so isn’t that portable) I used this post and video tutorial to learn how to make this blanket.

3. As today is the start of my working week, it was good to have the added motivation of going out for a curry and catch up with some friends tonight to get me through the day. I’ve had such a craving for curry lately (possibly as I have been drooling over Jack Monroe’s Instagram feed. Everything that they make looks so delicious)

4. I got my fringe cut back in on Friday so today I have been revelling in all of the “ooh nice hair” compliments. I’m unsure if I am going to keep dyeing it purple and green shares for much longer so I combined my left over bits of dye to give myself a mixed shade new look! I feel much more “me” with a fringe again. It’s hard to explain but it just feel really right.

Wanna know what David Bowie was doing when he was your age. This website makes it easy (to realise you are wasting your life!)

Till next time…

19
Jan
2016

Tiny things Tuesday #41

Categories: Uncategorised

I’m missing writing on here. I’m missing writing in general. I’m jotting down snippets of pieces for zines in a note file on my phone but I don’t have a laptop at home to properly sit and bash things out on and as much as I thought I could do without one, I think maybe I can’t.

Anyway, I have taken the opportunity while J is out at the gym to use his laptop and write one of these posts.

Here’s this week’s things;

1. This week has already been tiring as I’ve been helping to prepare for award ceremonies at work in the latter part of this week. I’d promised myself a proper, long, relaxing bath this evening after spending 2 days hunched in a chair, sorting through piles of paperwork. Here’s me relaxing with don’t look at me face mask from Lush (the irony of that name and picture combo is not lost on me). I look like a smurph but it did make my skin feel good.

2. I’ve been watching a lot of Gilmore Girls recentry. I treated myself to the first few seasons on DVD second hand and its been great cozy January watching for me. I’m dreaming of drinking coffee and eating pancakes at Luke’s diner.

3. Speaking of cozy January activities – Joe brought me the set of the Moomin stories. I can’t wait to read them under blankets.

4. I spent Friday night and Saturday day in Birmingham with J. Friday marked 5 years of us officially seeing each other. On our first date, we went to the Urban Coffee Company in Birmingham so we dropped in there again to reminisce. I tried a coconut latte for the first time too and it was pretty tasty. I don’t know what I was expecting but it was coconutty without being overwhelming and sweet enough that I didn’t need sugar or syrup in my coffee.

Till next time…