January Cat Lady

I'm sort of from a family of cat ladies, so for Christmas, my sister and I treated my Gran to a spot of afternoon tea at Lady Dinah's Cat Emporium. Since we lost Suzie at the grand old age of 20 a few months ago, I know my Gran has been a little sad - having come to the conclusion that she probably won't get another cat of her own, we thought this might be the next best thing.

Quite a bit has changed about the café since I visited it shortly after it opened back in 2014 but it's still a nice experience. I've heard mixed reviews over the years, with a few complaining that the cats seem bored, that the food was average but I can't say that either time I've visited that that has been the case.




I feel like I've been quite lucky to go when it's not been busy and the cats have been pretty active. There's something so relaxing about petting a cat. Even though most of the cats aren't lap cats, it's not like that's something I'm not used to so it was just nice to be there. The staff were a little more strict about touching the cats while they're sleeping and things like that but other than that it was a really lovely afternoon.





Wookie is still my favourite, with his human face and the fact he's about 15 times the size of a regular cat :)










How cute are these little sandwiches? ^_^










We spent a little over two hours there, unfortunately my sister had work in the evening so it meant we couldn't keep on mooching once we'd finished. My hipster Gran was quite taken with the Sunday markets of Brick Lane.




It's so lovely to sit inside and see how happy people walking by are when the see the cats in the window ♥
I can't really recommend Lady Dinah's enough, we actually weren't the only people to take our Granny there that afternoon either. It's such a cute way to spend a January Sunday ♥

Photo An Hour » January 2016 » 31/01

As I'm feeling a bit more like getting in on the blogging thing, I thought I'd kick it up a gear and do a Photo An Hour.

A few years ago, I did one a month for the whole year and I've been doing them on and off for the whole time I've had this blog, even taking part in the 1 Day 12 Pictures occasionally too.

I do enjoy how they're a little bit of a snapshot into what I was up to at the time. So, without further rambling, here is a Photo An Hour for the last day in January 2016.


9am: // Moon and I are in a pretty solid routine of waking up only a little later than we normally would on a weekday at weekends. Our bed is ridiculously comfortable but it is pretty good, even on a Sunday to feel like you've got up and done some stuff that day. This Sunday was a little bit of a struggle, thanks to the grey weather though.


10am: // Catching Doll in the act – she's actually settled in to the house really well and seems so much happier than she ever was at the flat. Over the winter she's become a bit of an accidental house cat, just because of how the house is, we can't let her come and go as she pleases as much but I think she's cool with it, and actually, she doesn't seem to fancy going out all that much either.


11am: // Taking in a new magazine – I have so much magazine reading to catch up on, Ernest Journal was a nice little find at the Old Fire Station in Oxford. I'll have to head back there to see more of their arts mag collection soon.

Sometimes sitting and watching Sunday Brunch of a morning can do a world of good. And what kind of contemporary couple would we be if we weren't doing that while on our phones? ♥


12pm: // On the road to hit up Banbury for a Sunday mooch.



1pm: // Discovering the lovely Little Amsterdam, Banbury Café of the Year 2015. A lovely restaurant specialising in dutch pancakes, absolute dream for a real-life Sunday brunch.


2pm: // Moon modelling his sweet new cap.



3pm: // Spotting some filming on Banbury town centre, which fooled us into thinking there was a crime scene... I'll tell you, post-Making a Murderer, that fact was a lot more disappointing than it should have been.


4pm // Home again with a few goodies from Tiger.


5pm: // Continuing the Dutch dining theme of the day with a tasty stroopwaffel ♥


6pm: // Playing a new video game, Moon downloaded The Long Dark, which might actually be one of my favourite games ever. I'm not a big gamer or anything but I do tend to dabble, and The Long Dark is not only quite pretty to look at but much more my pace in that I'm not having to shoot anyone and I can completely take my own time - except not actually because I'll freeze to death.


7pm: // Whipping up dinner for the evening, a tasty red Thai curry soup.


8pm: // Sunday night shower with the best shower gel of all time.


9pm: // Sunday night movie, 99 Homes in case you were wondering - you can see my review here.
I'm hoping to stay just as chill this weekend, perfect for this time of year I think, have you got any nice plans?

Home » 1 Year On...

It's a year this week since Moon and found, put and offer in and were accepted on a mortgage for our new home and I can't quite believe how quickly that time has gone.

While working on a few things from Google Drive last week, I found the photos I took from when I was showing my Mum the house that I would then go on to show anyone who asked in the lead up to us actually living there and it's crazy to think that we even went for it. It's not that we've changed all that much about the house, I mean, structurally it's exactly the same but we've had to do so much painting and we're still not even finished!

I guess we just really loved the potential, but I'll tell you what, decorating a house is so far removed from the cutesy painting montages from the movies, like, it's the least fun thing I've ever done. I am really happy with the result so far though and even though we won't have been here a full year until April rolls around, it's still pretty fun to see the changes our house has gone through in the last 12 months.

Christmas at Blenheim.

*First Christmas Market of the Year klaxon*


What a lovely little Saturday. It's beginning to feel that with the year winding down - where has November gone? - Moon and I are finally getting our lives back on track post-house move. We're settling in nicely after a quick 7 months and it feels pretty good.


This weekend was the first in a while where we've slept in but not overslept, started the day with a relaxed breakfast before heading out and doing something fun.

As Blenheim Palace is now just 20 minutes down the road from us and we love a good fair, the Living Craft fair seemed like the perfect opportunity to pick up an annual pass.



After that first visit, I can honestly say I'm in love and I'm so pleased we'll be able to come and go as we please for the next year. The grounds are absolutely beautiful and we're so lucky that the weather turned from wintery showers to bright sunshine, even if it did take 6 or so hours for the feeling to return to my legs once we got home - I can't wait for more chilly walks and seeing in all the seasons, it's looking like a summer picnic will be a must.

The fair itself was pretty good and actually full of quite a few retailers I hadn't seen before. Going to a few of these things, particularly in the same area, you often see the same products over and over but Living Craft wasn't like that. We managed to pick up a few Christmas bits but didn't get nearly as much shopping done as we would have hoped - still, December is still a week away, there's no need to worry.





The pictures don't do them justice but these adorable houses hide incense pastilles that make them smoke when they're lit. ADORABLE. ♥


Ditto these tiny AGAs.





Moon trying his hand at giant knitting. It didn't go that well...


Unfortunately, and I'm not sure if it was because of the extra crowds drawn in by the fair, but we didn't manage to take in much of the house, the queues were ridiculous! I'm hoping we might be able to pop back before the season is over and have a look because I think the house is fully decked out but I'm sure we'll get around to it eventually even if it's not this year. It's the one thing I wish we'd done with the afternoon but the leisurely hour-long stroll along the lake (THERE'S A FRIGGING LAKE!) away from the crowds, more than made up for it.









I was so surprised by how low the sun was all day, even though all of these were taken pre-lunchtime! It did make for some beautiful lighting though.




Even though it's well sign-posted and a really short walk from the main palace, it seems that so few people were willing to take advantage of the sunny afternoon by taking a walk down to the Cascades.



Lake Blenheim.




The arboretum was my favourite part of the lakeside walk, I can imagine it looked beautiful when the leaves were changing a few weeks ago.







I always find myself enjoying the changing of the seasons and while I must say that I'm pretty pleased to have not had to defrost my car yet, chilly walks and warming up afterwards are nothing but a good thing, and after such a wet and mild autumn, a cold and crisp weekend to blow the cobwebs out was just what I needed.