Smiling on Sunday :: On Monday.

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I'm not going to lie to you, after the mega-high at the tail-end of last week, there have been a few things to worry about. Between job uncertainty and the sad news of Robin Williams' passing, the first half of this week didn't bring that much for me to be happy about.

That said, it was my birthday week, and having booked myself in for a long weekend at 'home-home', bagging a few interviews and making a trip up to London, this weekend has been another great one.
Turning 25 is still strange to me but I think it's going to be alright, so much has changed in the last five years that it's easy to see some progress on the horizon, and I'm quite excited about that.

IRL:

• Birthday treats and surprises – I felt truly spoilt on Saturday and will have lots to share with you over the next few days. Starting with a cream tea breakfast at cat-lady mecca, Lady Dinah's Cat Emporium followed by my 'surprise gift' of a box at The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. We then had a wander around Covent Garden before heading to secret Mexican restaurant, La Bodega Negra - what a treat! Mr Moon definitely won major boyfriend points and it was just the nicest day
• Let's go to the theatre some more! – After seeing a grand total of two plays this year, Moon has finally discovered that the theatre isn't all singing hams and he quite likes it. I'm not saying we'll be regulars now or anything but it's pretty cool to see that he's broadened his horizons a bit
• Little Doll feeling better – Dolly had some kind of virus all last week, which was a little worrying. She now seems to be completely better, her third eyelids are back where they should be and she's going outside again. I'm obviously happy she's not ill anymore anyway but the fact she won't be inclined to use the litter tray for a while is one of the best things about her recovery

Must-Try Recipes:

• Sweet Potato Nachos with Smoked Cheddar and Black Beans - Mexican food is one of my favourites and if Moon and I are out to dinner and there are nachos, you can bet we'll be eating them. These sound like a great twist and while the sweet potato hype has never really hit me, you can't beat anything covered in cheese
• Summertime Tea - I kind hate flavoured teas, they always smell so delicious and wind up tasting the same as each other, at least to me anyway. Mixing it with other (real) flavours to make something refreshing and (sort of) healthy sounds pretty good to me though.

Lovely Links:

This cute illustrated 'dress like a bookworm' wishlist from HelloGiggles.com


Sophie Gamand's lovely Pit Bull Flower Power photography series has the cute-o-meter dialled up to 11. I'm a firm believer in it often being a case of bad training than a case of bad dog. In fact, all of Sophie's dog portraits are wonderful, I've really been covetting a pup of my own lately.

• This list of beautiful Robin Williams stories - I, as I've seen from so many others, am genuinely mourning for the loss of Robin Williams. It still seems strange to say that given that I'd never met him and only watched his films but from comedy to drama, his are some films that I really love and I'd always name him among my favourite actors of all time.
  I even stuck it out with The Crazy Ones because of him, and despite the show's shortcomings, he's as brilliant as ever. It breaks my heart reading new details every day but his passing seems to have marked an opening for dialogue, that it's important to realise that some of us are fighting a hard fight and we need to take notice

Today has me looking ahead to a fresh week, hopefully with new challenges and slightly more of the positive thinking that was washing over me this time last week.