Never enough time for a duvet day.

...says the girl who only rolled out of bed at quarter to 12 this morning. I do genuinely feel a lack of relaxation in my life though, hopefully I will have some friendlier hours this week and I can spend less time thinking about being in bed. I'm only making this a quick one to share some snaps from Saturday, when it was a bit nicer than it is now, who would have thought these were taken just three days ago and that it's supposed to be June! As a British person, it's definitely instilled in me to complain about the weather but I have found that I do it a ridiculous amount on here, so I'll just say that the weather was adequate on Saturday and leave it at that.



Doll has been behaving particularly strangely over the last few days. I wonder if it's her hormones settling down, but she was sat watching us eat, how a dog perhaps would, and even ate a plain piece of bread. She's been super affectionate too, which I love, but love less at 5am.
Aside from being super tired all the time, I've got to pop out and pick myself up a new phone later as I lost mine between the car and the flat on Friday night and some lamo has picked it up and rather than be decent and bring it back has decided to keep it. I'm also having steak tonight, and catching up on some much needed tidying and the latest episode of Girls (my creys that it's the season finale next week!). For what was left of this morning - and for most of this afternoon - I've been preparing for an interview I have on Thursday and taking some poorly designed online assessments for the one recruitment agency in Newbury that I'm not signed up with.

Saturday was a nice day because Moon was finally able to get some well-deserved rest after a stressful couple of weeks and a fun night out seeing The Maccabees the night before. He made me breakfast, then we did some gardening before heading up the town. I know it doesn't sound that interesting but we've barely had any time to do anything like that in between having people to visit and rushing off elsewhere, so although I was working in the evening, it was pretty great to spend part of the weekend by ourselves.

My 99p Store tomato plants are thriving and Saturday was the day to pot them up outside. I haven't checked on them just yet and I hope they're alright, but I'm pretty pleased that I've been able to make something grow, and grow so well too!



We picked up this strawberry plant while it was still just flowering and potted it up at home. I'm so excited that some actual strawberries are coming through. I hope they're tasty.


We're also growing beans, raddishes, globe carrots and purple spring onions, but none of them are quite through yet. By the looks of things we also might have a slug/snail problem which needs to be sorted pronto.



So this is our garden, it was much better with trees but I quite like it.



We've been taking Dolly out on a lead, I don't want to let her out properly until she's all grown back from her operation and generally I'm just a bit weary of letting her out unsupervised anyway. She seems to have taken to the lead well though, even if it does frustrate her a bit when she's trying to hunt birds.. and flies.


Cardigan: Urban Outfitters
Dress: Yumi
Tights: Primark
Shoes: Converse
I hate these tights, they never stay in the right place but I like the colour too much to get rid of them.


I came back from town with flowers and this dress from Peacocks. The Peacocks in Newbury has just opened up again after being closed down for ages, the selection isn't great and I only popped in to look for tights, which they didn't even have. This dress is awesome though, it's a lovely length and fit, I was a bit stressed out that it was so crinkled though, despite being brand new, not something I'm used to when buying something new from a shop. I know I have enough animal-print things, but the colour and everything else about it, not to mention the friendly £18 price tag were too much to resist.


I hope to plant this out when the weather's nicer again. I got it half-price in Wilkinsons, it will be so nice for the bees.



I picked up these from a market stall and they're still going strong. Daisies are one of my favourite flowers ♥




The last thing I bought on Saturday was a frame for our Pie & Vinyl print, which after much (unnecessary) stressin', Moon framed and hung on the wall. I think the brown makes a welcome change from all the black frames we have around the house and goes so well with the print, I love it, it was definitely worth the extra money.



Anyway, it's time for lunch before being over-sold to by Phone Shop people...

No Rest.

I can't believe it's been a week since I was in Portsmouth on my way back from Devon. I've only had one day off since then and most of the week has kind of blended together, especially since I've mainly been doing evenings. Anyway, I figured that today was as good a milestone as any to share my Devon (ish) buys with you, mainly because it feels like the next post I have lined up wouldn't make as much sense without it.

Cat brooch, £3.95, Humbug Gifts
This is one of a selection of adorable plastic brooches offered by Sidmouth-based gift shop, 'Humbug'. I must say that the range of items available is very wide and all at such a reasonable price, I couldn't help picking up a few things.



Ladybird Postcard set (framed), £12.99, Humbug Gifts
I was able to choose from a huge box of Ladybird book postcards, and Humbug kindly framed it for me. I was mainly after the Beaky print, but I don't think it would have looked quite the same on it's own as it's so small, I remembered the story instantly and Ladybird will always been deeply rooted in my childhood. This triptych now sits in the front room, but I don't want to show you because it's still a mess thanks to Moon.


W.C sign, £3.50, Humbug Gifts
Now pinned to our bathroom door. ♥


This is a side-note, but I thought that Humbug's branding was particularly effective, yet simple. It's given us some ideas for something we're working on.



Rob Ryan Card, £2.99, Moko
I picked this up in a little gift shop in Exeter. It now sits next to my limited edition Rob Ryan print in the bathroom. I like it because it fits in with the blue colour scheme, as well as reminding me of the dreamy bells plates that I've been lusting over.



Here's a close-up of the limited edition Rob Ryan screen print I received with the second issue It's Nice That, it's one of my favourite things I own.



Pie & Vinyl poster, £5, Pie & Vinyl
Last weekend was definitely a big one for picking up art for our home. This is a limited edition print (42/50) and was the last one of the bunch.
I hope you've started the week on a nice note, even if it is tipping it down where you are as well.

Jubilation, etc.

I figured that now was as good a time as any to do a post, you know, in between taking the cat to the vet, showering, doing laundry and taking myself off to register with a doctor, all before a 1-9pm stint at work. Phew!

Despite it being cut short by having to get back to work yesterday, I had a pretty great Bank Holiday Weekend. Perhaps it would have been nice to have my own Jubilee celebrations, but just from wandering around, I was was able to take in enough second-hand celebration from elsewhere. After leaving Little Doll with my Gran on Friday night, we were up early on Saturday morning to head down to Sidmouth to stay with Moon's Gran. I usually kind of like it down there because it's so peaceful and away from 'it all' and although the weather wasn't brilliant and it took us a while to get there, it was all worth it.

After lunch, and getting settled, we had a wander around Sidmouth, which hasn't changed much since I visited it briefly last year, although there has been an increase of reasonably-priced gift shops. I picked up a few nice things and wish I could have bought a whole lot more. I was rocking the standard 'long car journey hair' when we popped in to The Mocha for a coffee. Despite the effort it took to get there, we actually ended up slumped in front of Casualty and asleep before midnight, terrible for a pair of early-twenty-somethings.

This used to be one of those weird nautical-themed shops but now it's looking pretty trendy.




Don't let the face fool you, I was in love with The Mocha's makeover and their choice of statement teal walls. ♥


I definitely think it would be better if more places had flowers up and down their high-streets.

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We were up early again to go over the Exeter, one of my favourite UK cities. I sure hope my sister is accepted at university there so I can go there more often. I even found a couple of hidden treasures that I'd love to check out again. Of course, everything was Jubilee-themed, but I was really impressed with the window displays of the shops, from independent up to Topshop, everything looked so nice - it also probably helped that we managed to see tiny bit of sun.


One of my favourite finds, was a shop called, Mount's Bay Trading Co.. The interiors right down to the stock, everything was just lovely, I didn't want to leave. They sell a variety of vintage and contemporary homewares and clothing and all at a reasonable price. I was left a bit spoilt for choice so, being me, left empty-handed, which I'm sad about because everything was so beautiful, I wish I'd had the nerve to take a few more snaps inside.





Urban Outfitters, Exeter.

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Once we got back from Exeter, it was time to head out for a walk, we even stumbled upon Sidmouth's street party. I would have been in my element shooting this properly but I only grabbed a few snaps, it looked like such fun.





I fall more in love with King Charles spaniels every time I see one.


Moon was convinced that this driftwood would look neat in our garden, which to be fair, it would have. Thank God he forgot about the idea of driving down to pick it up because along with everything his dad made us take back to Newbury, we were only just able to fit ourselves in the car.




Jacob's Ladder, Sidmouth.




Jacket: New Look
Dress: Primark
Belt: eBay
Leggings: Asda
Shoes: New Look




Moon took this and he's very happy with it.

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We were much more adventurous on Sunday night and took ourselves to a pub on the seafront. It wasn't that nice but it was good to have a chat and a few drinks, plus we made friends with this cutie.

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We rounded up our Bank Holiday trip with a detour to Portsmouth, as I said yesterday, to see Moon's brother and his girlfriend, as well as have some nomz at The Belle Isle and check out Pie & Vinyl.

I did a stand-up job as map reader, no one got lost, minus a scary single-laned short cut down a windy country road, but that wasn't really my fault.





Lyme Regis looks like the nicest town, I'd love to have a proper look around next time I'm round that way.



I have so much love for The Belle Isle in Southsea, the food is amazing, the atmosphere is great, what more could you ask for?


This weekend has not been kind to my waistline...


Pie & Vinyl, Castle Road, Southsea.


Pie & Vinyl is such a good, but unusual concept for a shop. It has a vintage-feel, not just because half of it's main stock is in records, but other details within the interior, I like it. It was a bit warm though, apparently due to the oven, but I bet it will be super-cosy when autumn rolls around.







I expect Pie & Vinyl to receive a lot of attention, in fact, you can check out Charlotte's post here, from when she popped in for pie and a coffee.

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I suppose that's it, I wanted to be quite photo-heavy. After all that activity, we got home and Moon decided to do this to the front room...
...and it's still kind of a mess now.
It was a nice way to spend the weekend, I still don't feel completely settled down because we almost haven't had a free weekend since we moved. Hopefully this will mark a peak at which we'll start to calm down and start relaxing properly. I hope you had a fabulous Jubilee weekend and, if you're back to work, that you're not too sad about it.

TL;DR: Basically, I spent my weekend in Devon and it was nice.