I’ll dig for water and fashion our very own wishing well

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.

all those used up clichés, well they’ve worn enough in the wind

As I haven’t done a GUY FRIDAY for ages, I present to you some of my favourite men you can find on Netflix!
Brendan Hines  – Lie To Me. Unfortunately there are only 3 series of this program which I became slightly obsessed with. Brendan plays a character called Eli Loker, who at the start never tells a lie, although he still has difficulties getting along with his boss. Its witty, pseudo intellectual and written by the same people that write the Mentalist. In my books that makes it a winner. Plus Brendan Hines looks a little like Adam Brody.

Penn Badgley – Gossip Girl. Okay, so Penn’s character Dan Humphrey was never my favourite character, but then no one could really compete with Chuck Bass for me. However, when Penn is not being Dan, he is rather beautiful. Plus, I have been a huge Gossip Girl fan since the beginning.

Hunter Parish – Weeds. Now, I am not usually one for blondes, but you can’t deny how pretty Hunter is. I am desperate for Netflix to add the newer series of Weeds. A) because that would mean seeing Hunter/Silas Botwin as a grown man rather than a teenager and B) more Guillermo Diaz!

Zachary Quinto – Heroes. I have just started watching Heroes from the beginning again as it was so long ago since I last watched it and I didn’t get to see any after series 1 because our tv wouldn’t record it. But I am looking forward to watching them all, especially as I needed something the fill the void of Lie to Me/White Collar and Weeds. And who can deny that Zachary/Sylar isn’t lovely to look at (and Milo Ventimiglia).

Ross McCall – White Collar. I have just finished all 3 series of White Collar that Netflix currently provide (although there are 2 more series) and oh boy was it a cliff hanger! Ross plays a con artist called Matthew Keller who is the main character, Neal Caffrey/Matt Bomer’s, arch rival. I didn’t realise that Ross was Scottish until I looked him up for this post, but it only makes me like him even more.

Kristoffer Polaha – Life Unexpected. I liked this series when it was on e4 and was pleased to see that it was on Netflix, so I can rewatch it if I feel the need. Kristoffer plays a bartender/father called Baze. He is the comic relief of the show although he does have a deeper side too. If you like teen dramas and Britt Roberson its worth a watch.

Aaron Paul – Breaking Bad. I mainly signed up to Netflix to watch Breaking Bad as everyone had been raving about it for so long! However, because my sister wanted to watch it too and she is never in, we haven’t even got through the first series yet. But I may just have to leave her to watch it on her own time and fully get into this series. Aaron plays Jesse Pinkman and although his jeans are ridiculous, he’s pretty hot.

Tom Hughes – Silk. This legal drama originally aired on the BBC and I was hooked instantly. It is brilliantly written and as well as Tom it also stars the lovely Rupert Penry-Jones. They are currently making another series apparently, which I am very excited about. The only sad thing is that Tom Huges is only in the first series as Nick Slade, a trainee lawyer. Never fear though, he has been in many other things such as Cemetery Junction and the newest episode of Miss Marple.

David Dawson – Secret Diary of a Call Girl. I never fancied this series when it was on the tv, but I needed something that was a light a fluffy to watch one day and though I would give it a go. I loved it and watched all 4 series in only a couple of days. David plays an affluent eccentric called Byron and I loved him in this. He has been in so many things but hasn’t yet been given a main role. I first noticed him as a dandy news paper reported in Ripper Street and fell in love with him and when I discovered he was in this series I was most pleased.

Tim Roth – Lie to Me. As I said at the beginning of this post I became obsessed with this series and in no small part because of the amazing part of Cal Lightman that Tim Roth plays. An odd man with an incredible brain and interesting people skills. Please go and watch it, I absolutely loved it. Roth is a firm favourite with Quentin Tarantino and is in films such as Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs as well as so many other programs and films. I love him.

So that is my list of noteworthy men on Netflix. Enjoy. x

 

(I do not own these images.)

Twenty five years from now, will you come to my cremation? Sherry or beer, family and friends, Will you be there? Will you be there?

I don’t often use Spotify but so many people do, so I thought I would make a playlist of songs that I love. I have made a collection of 30 tracks, all fairly varied from one another. I will try and link it back to my profile, but I have no idea what I am doing when it comes to Spotify. We shall see if I manage to master it enough to do so.

I don’t think many of them are particularly new songs…some of them are from the 50s. There should be enough of a variation for you to find at least one song you like. I hope. If you click on the photo above it should link you to my playlist if I have managed to do it right. If not, let me know and I will try and figure it out.
And as I haven’t done a GUY FRIDAY in ages, here are 3 boys to cheer up this grey Friday.

Guillermo Diaz
Dylan O’Brien
Jake Johnson

(I do not own these images).

If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better

Once again I have been a terrible blog owner. Procrastination is something I am far too good at and then I dislocated my knee again and various other excuses. But that is exactly what they are, excuses. Sometime I just have nothing to say or the melancholy and apathy of the world overwhelms me and I just cant get anything done. There is also the internal debate of “do I write what I want to write or what people want to read about more (beards)”. I have decided that at the moment, this blog is for me and I will post what I want to post. So there. Plus, I really don’t have that much to write on the subject of men with beards…really there isnt much to write. They are just men, with hair on their faces. If I am to post such a post it will be because they are a nice person or they are doing something interesting.
I have started writing something though. I don’t know where it is going but I am enjoying writing it, although it is very rough at the moment. Its cathartic and nostalgic. I may post some small excerpts on here at some point, we shall see.
In other news, I have watched all 3 series of Weeds on Netflix and I NEED more. I need all the seasons!

(I do not own this image)