Appreciating disc-blasting technology

So here's what I've been learning/reading/making/watching/listening/eating/drinking/wishing:

Spent a whole day with my brother and sister, my parents, cousins and my aunts and uncles, a large dog, some cows, giant Jenga, a moderate amount of rain and a lot of cake.  Lucky me for having a pretty nice family. Funny how it takes a nerf gun and a game of tetherball to make you realise things like this.

I'm reading Extremely loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer - I'm halfway through it on my kindle and still not completely sold.  Might not be up there on my Goodreads list but it's alright.  Looking forward to starting a handful of other books that are on my shelf.  Anyone have good book recommendations? I will add them to my list! 

I did a 10k run in May and totally made these lemon date bars from Tracy Shutterbean's website as a pre-run munch.  They were delicious and maybe even partially responsible for my (personal best) finishing time of 53 minutes! I'm running the British 10k on July 8th and if you'd like to sponsor me I'm raising money for AKU, a lesser known charity setup by a friend of a friend.

We went to see Moonrise Kingdom the other week.  It was wonderful and funny and just so clever.  I suggest you go and see it. 

I'm listening to TriSwim coach podcasts - and I don't care what you say!  Been training for a one mile open water swim which takes place next weekend so it's good to hear some tips and motivation in my ears while I'm working.  You can still sponsor my swim and even sign up yourself if you fancy!

Totally addicted to coco pops and just discovered Chipotle Tabasco sauce.  I'm not sure these two things should ever be combined but they will most definitely be appearing in my life in excessive amounts until I no doubt overdo it.

Minimum of two black coffees before 11am or things can get nasty.  Brew Dog Punk IPA has had me loosey goosey a few times this month - good stuff but strong.  I've also been really getting my drink on with my water intake.  I deserve a sticker or something.

I need a helmet.  I wish I would hurry up and decide on one.

Other things of interest:
I totally got interviewed by etsy for their "Quit your day job" series.  You can read the post on the etsy blog.
I designed some cards for a lady to send after a close family member of hers died.  I chose a Johnny Cash quote and some thistles and had them printed on some nice textured matt card.
I've become mildly addicted (I'm pretty sure this is entirely normal) to Pinterest and relatively obsessed with the idea of buying a new (different to the one I already have) bike.

I'll leave you now, as I have some delicious pulled pork rolls to eat.

Catchup/a lot of cake

October went something like this:

Uhh so I turned one year older which called for consumption of a lot of food in celebration: some delicious lamb burgers at the Cornerhouse, and some spicy breakfast eggs at Giraffe. In between, I received some super awesome birthday presents from my lovely family and got to open them all in bed with a cup of tea.

The mailman delivered some rad dino-stickers from my buddy Grace (from now on unless you're including dino stickers in my mail, I'm not reading it. This goes for you, Tesco Clubcard.)

I was also baked and presented with probably the best birthday cake in the history of the whole world by my brother's super awesome girlfriend Charlie.

Some serious time was also spent in TK Maxx contemplating gold shoes, cutlery and glass tumblers. (wish I'd gotten the shoes.)

Ate some more cake (can you see a theme happening here?) from Waitrose and some American Snacks which were given to me by my slightly mental friend Katherine Beefheart.

Wore my new skirt and got a super new stockist for my cards, manfriends, brooches and christmas fishes.

Ate quite a lot of lucky charms (part of the American Snack collection) and sewed quite a lot of pillows for orders whilst watching quite a lot of episodes of Made in Chelsea.

Spent some quality time with my favourite person. Visited with my family and his family and cooked some delicious beef.

Got my autumnal/holiday themed cards ready for November (head over to my vimeo page and check out my first video post!)

Took a few breaks in between painting a heck (and I mean a heck) of a lot of these:

And that's that. I think?

Oh I also visited my sensational sister and spent some time with her and her boyfriend, which was so nice. Got cooked some pretty darn tasty quesadillas and got to check out their newest animation. (If you ever watch e4 you might see their ident, it's called mousehouse and this is it.)

I'm off now to cook some veggie sausages and watch some crap on the tv. It's been a long day and I've got another long day tomorrow!

Thanks for reading, thanks for following, thanks for buying. Have a good evening chaps xxx