I think by now, if you read my blog on a regular basis, you will know that I like things. I love books, jewellery, music, food and notebooks. This post is a selection of the ten things that I am currently enjoying the most. Just to inject a little lightness back into our lives after last weeks post…I am going to talk about my frivolous spending habit.
Just before Christmas my father decided that we needed a Sonos speaker in our lives, so went out and bought the Play5 the same night. I cannot tell you how good this speaker is as well as receiving a years free subscription to Deezer when you buy any Sonos speaker. We have spent many a night since listening to music until the small hours with no sign of distortion, no matter how loud you play it. If you’re looking for a good quality wireless speaker and you are willing to spend a little more on it, I cant recommend the Sonos Play5 highly enough. (You must listen to Phil Collins – In the air tonight, they were made for each other).
Stampers. I love stationary and I’ve been looking for a decent alphabet stamp set that also comes with an ink pad for ages and then I found one. Tiger was the place that realised my dreams and had this awesome wooden stamp set with a black and red ink pad for a whole foursterlingpounds. Bargain! I love it and I’m finding it hard not to use it to write everything.
This year I have decided to learn more stuff. I like learning and I don’t do enough of it these days. So, why not give French a go. I was fairly good, (and in the top French class at school…although I have no idea how) so I thought I would give it a try once more. Thanks to the app Duolingo, my french has come on leaps and bounds in such a short period of time. With bite size chunks you can get stuck into and stutus bars that slowly go down over time so you have to go back and refresh yourself to keep the bars full. The app gets you to translate English into French and vise versa but it also works with your mobile microphone and gets you to practise speaking your chosen language too. There are so many languages you can choose from to learn from Spanish to Swedish, Ukranian to German. If you have been looking to take up another language, I would highly recommend you do it with Duolingo.
The Body Finder series by Kimberly Derting. This set of books follows Violet Ambrose, who has a rather morbid gift…she can find dead people. When Violet is near a dead person who has been murdered and not yet laid to rest, they give off an echo. This can be in the form of noise, smell or visionary, but once Violet has caught on, she cannot rest until the body has been found and buried. With a serial killer on the loose in the first book the story moves at a fast pace and its easy to get swept up in all the mystery and teenage drama over her best friend Jay. I am just finishing the second book, and whilst not as fast paced as the first book, it is still a good/easy read. I am hoping for a little more action in the third book though.
I have a serious macaroon addiction. Yes, they should be covered in liquid gold for the price they want to charge, but you will understand if you have ever had one of these beautifully coloured, crispy fluffy clouds. Julien Plumart‘s are my absolute favourites with flavours such as rose, red berries and violet and salted caramel to name a few. The perfect decadent treat to transport you to Paris in the nineteentwenties…or maybe that’s just me.
I got a two month free trial of Amazon Prime Instant, which is probably the last thing I needed, given my infatuation with Netflix. However, with Weeds having made the move across to Amazon a while back I never got to finish the saga or fill my Hunter Parish and Guillermo Diaz fix. The most exciting thing about the new year was that it brought the Pretty Little Liars to Netflix. I had to stop watching the girls a few seasons back now, but I was soon buried deep in the mysteries of A. Currently wading my way through House we are now on season six, and I love Hugh Laurie a little more each day. Considering the show works to the same format each episode, it never manages to get boring. A family friend has been telling me I should watch Hostages for ages, so when I saw it pop up on Amazon I took the plunge and I am completely caught up in all the conspiratorial mayhem and intertwining story lines. Go watch them all, now.
I got this Q&A five year journal for Christmas and I love it. The premise is fairly obvious each day of the year has a different question and 5 opportunities to answer the same question on the same day each year for 5 years, whether consecutive or not. I think it may be really interesting when I am nearing my thirtieth birthday to see how much things have or haven’t changed from now.
Shameless selfie. No, its not my face that is my favourite but my necklace! I have long had a love affair with the very talented duo of Sugar and Vice and their much talent at making beautiful accessories. I am completely in love with this pentagram necklace and I have been living in it since it arrived. Perfect for coven chic and witchy wonderfulness. It is one of those necklaces that I am considering buying a backup of, just incase something terrible happens to it. I would really love a mirrored version of it too.
If you have not listened to the Serial podcast yet, why on earth not?! It will take over your life and soon enough you will be trying to figure out whether Adnan is innocent too or if anyone in this complex story telling the truth?! Told over 12 gripping episodes, we follow the story of Adnan Syed and the murder of his highschool girlfriend Hae Min Lee in 1999. You will hear police interviews and recent accounts of everyone surrounding the murder that winter. As well as phone conversations from Syed from the prison he was sentenced to fifteen years ago. This is a true story and all the accounts you hear are real too. I cannot tell you how good this is and how I need everyone I know to listen to it so we can discuss it in depth, all of the time! I have even gone as far as to download podcasts of other people discussing it to hear their opinions too.
And lastly, this gem of a song. You know how sometimes you can like an album and then all of a sudden you just become obsessed with one song, well that happened here. The melody and lyrics sung hauntingly by Dallas Green is just perfection. O’sister used to be my favourite until Little Hell usurped it. Have a listen and fall in love with the rawness of Dallas’ voice and beautiful lyrics.
A melancholic playlist.
Belle of the Bluegrass 