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.

The Maccabees, Alexandra Palace.

'Hi, how are you? What do you do? What do you listen to? Where do you go?
Are you with them? Are you with us? Who are your friends?'

---

So I kind of think, unless that person was right at the front, looking at other people's gig photos can tend to be a bit unfun, but I just to had to post about The Maccabees at Alexandra Palace on Friday night because they were simply incredible. I thought that the only thing that could have improved upon their performance when I saw them last time would have been being in the crowd rather than being made to sit down, because they were pretty perfect, but no, they raised the bar yet again, with this being easily the best I've ever seen them live.

I can barely put into words how incredible they were, I was basically borderline hysterical for about 80% of the gig. They played an even better put together set with the perfect combination of new and old, even with the jumping chino-wankers on board the 'banter bus', it was awesome. I may or may not (but actually basically did), have nearly cried at the end of their last song.

We were caught in some terrible traffic on the way there, but managed to arrive at the venue with enough time to catch the second half of Baxter Dury.
Alexandra Palace is a beautiful venue, in a wonderful setting overlooking all of London. The light set-up also added to the electric atmosphere and I might go as far to say it was almost Coldplay-esque. You can take a look at some more official photos on The Maccabees' Tumblr. I'd definitely say my favourite moment was their Motown version of 'About Your Dress' so many 'shoo waps', it was an awesome mid-point and a perfect sideline to make up for the fact that Orlando messed up a tiny bit of Latchmere. Click through to the best video I could find, which is surprising because there were far too many people not living in the moment and videoing the entire thing.


I'd love to pop up to Alexandra Palace on a warm day, it'd be so nice to hang out and bring a picnic.





The second headliner was British Sea Power, who we saw a few years ago at Guilfest. They were as good as I can remember but I must say that I don't know much about them. They certainly know how to get the party going though and their last song really lifted the room, how could it not?
They had a bear!


British Sea Power's Bear.






Despite the horrid traffic at the beginning of the evening, it was pretty great to not have to worry about public transport at the end of the night, and parking was pretty decent anyway.
Due to becoming an old woman, it was lovely to experience such a well-organised venue, with plenty of room despite being packed and enough doors to get out quickly at the end. It was such a great gig, I can't wait to see the guys again soon.