Category: fun stuff

fun stuff, happy mail, lifestyle boxes, mental health, reviews

Buddy Box – Let’s go to the Beach

ramblingmads

This month’s Buddy Box from The Blurt Foundation is beach themed. To be completely honest I wasn’t thrilled on first look. It felt a bit stingy and childish with a pencil, tin cup and stickers. 

But I do like the coconut water face mask and DIY pom pom garland Crafternoon kit. 

There’s also a lovely postcard message from the Blurt team and one to pass on to another person. 

I’ll be adding the postcard to my wall of positvity by my bed, I designed it to bring me cheer every morning and help me manage my bad days better. 

beauty, fun stuff, tag posts

Summer Lovin’ Tag

ramblingmads

The lovely Sal of Ummbaby fame did this tag post, so I swiped it. 

💄Favourite Perfume – this summer I’ve been turning to my beloved Chloe perfumes, today I’m wearing See by Chloe. 

💄Favourite Lip Colour – Revlon’s Ultra HD Matte in Devotion, real like it. 

💄Favourite Drink – I have been raiding Lidl for a gorgeous Cornish Elderflower Pressè – it’s a bit sweet for me so I dilute it with some water. Refreshing. 

💄Favourite Blush – recently I’ve been layering MUA in Cupcake with Benefit’s Highbeam – so I have softly glowing cheeks. 

💄Favourite Clothing Item- the maxi skirts are out in force at the moment but I found a gorgeous jacket in my wardrobe that I don’t remember buying (shopping amnesia anyone?) that looks great over a tee and skirt/leggings/maxidress/whatever!

💄Favourite Movie – I tend to watch more movies in the winter but I did watch 101 Dalmatians the other day. 

💄Favourite TV Show – we’re rocking the sci fi at the moment, with Dark Matter season 2 and The Killjoys due back on our screens in August. 

💄Favourite Food – squeaky cheese Aka Halloumi! On and in everything. Salads, sandwiches, paired with watermelon or cherries, drizzled with my favourite chilli sauce, just give me it! 

food, fun stuff, tag posts

25 Food Tag 

ramblingmads

​Spotted on Sarah’s blog – food and tag posts, yes please. 

1. What’s your favourite breakfast?

🍇Probably because I rarely have it, toast with butter and strawberry jam. 

2. How do you drink your coffee?

🍏Coffee is yuk. No ta. 

3. What’s on your favourite sandwich?

🧀Bacon, halloumi, lettuce and tomato with mayo. 

4. Soup or Salad?

🍜Soup and a sandwich or salad and sushi. Depends on the mood. 

5. What’s your favourite cookbook?

🎂I read cookbooks like novels but rarely consult them for actual cooking. 

6. No more sweets or no more hearty foods?

🍭Having actually given up sweets in the past, I could live without them quite easily. 

7. What’s your favourite Cuisine?

🍳Mediterranean food every time, from Turkey and Greece to Italy and France.

8. What’s your favourite food movie?

🍿There was a 90s Sarah Michelle Geller movie called Simply Irresistable that I was quite fond of. Films about food make me hungry. My favourite book about food is Chocolat by Joanne Harris. 

9. What’s your most guilty pleasure?

🍟I don’t believe in guilty pleasures- food should be enjoyed not treated as though there’s something ‘naughty’ about it. 

10. What’s your greatest inspiration source?

🍞The contents of my fridge/cupboards – necessity is the mother of invention. 

11. Cooking at home or going out for dinner?

🍍Both, depends on the circumstance. 

12. High end or low profile?

🍒Am I feeling fancy? Then fancy it is. 😉

13. What’s your favourite restaurant?

🌽The Turkish place in town is my go-to as it’s local, has excellent service, reasonable prices and delicious food.

14. I do my grocery shopping at:

🍑Lidl has saved me a fortune, but I go to Sainsbury’s as well.

15. The tastiest food I’ve ever eaten was:

🍦There is a place called Chilli Charlie’s by Santa Monica beach in California that does amazing chilli burgers. They remain in my brain and taste memories. 

17. Coffee with George Clooney or Heston Blumenthal?

🍢Coffee with Clooney and my mum as she loves him. 

18. What should not be missing in your kitchen?

🍉Sea salt, good black pepper, quality olive oil and chilli in various guises. 

19. What is your favourite snack?

🍅Popcorn or sunflower seeds roasted in their shells with salt. 

20. What’s on your pizza?

🍤Chicken, chilli oil, those little peppers, tomatoes, cheese. 

21. What food do you really dislike?

🍌Mushrooms eurgh

22. What’s your favourite food blog?

🍐Does Nigella’s instagram count? 

23. What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten?

🌶Snails – I really don’t get the hype 

24. What’s on your food bucket list?

🍱The perfect creme brulee 

25. I couldn’t live without:

🍬Diet coke – fuelled by it. Also cheese. 

BONUS question:

If you could only eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?

🍸Cheese – it improves any dish. 

If you want to do this tag, go for it, and let me know. 

#paperhaul, art, fun stuff, giveaway, lifestyle boxes, reviews, stationery

#paperhaul from Crafty Creatives & Giveaway 

ramblingmads

As a stationery nerd this is one of my fave letterbox subscription boxes.

Each month’s is decorated by a different illustrator, allowing you to support artists and charity as 20p from each box goes to Post Pals,  which sends letters to children in hospital. 

This month’s box contains quirky illustrations from Louise at Gaze of Dolls Designs based on Alice in Wonderland, and this month I have a box to giveaway too (see the bottom of the post).

There’s some fab stickers 

This card is brilliant 

Postcards I can’t wait to send

These little cards and notepad are my favourite and there’s washi tape for wrapping presents too. 

If you like the designs and want a box for yourself you can subscribe here. 

And you can win your own box of Louise’s fabulous designs right here.

adventures, art, fun stuff

MAD Museum, Stratford on Avon 

ramblingmads

​You may well have read my post about my recent trip to Stratford – if not, why not? 

One of the places we visited was the MAD Museum – situated above some of the shops down the road from Shakespeare’s Birth Place. 

MAD stands for Mechanical Art and Design. 

I wasn’t convinced I’d be interested, but it was actually incredibly fascinating. 

Almost all of the exhibits were interactive, you pushed a button (or put your foot on the pedal, or clapped!) and it came to life. 

From clever wooden models that moved by a crank, to marble runs that far exceeded the one I had as a kid, the original Meccano ferris wheel, and so much more. 

I took a lot of photos, you were encouraged to, and recorded some videos of the brilliant creations moving. 

If you’re in that part of the world and looking for something a bit different to explore, I highly recommend it. 

Gold Clock – Gordon Bradt
Gremlins Vandalise Shakespeare – Victorian Model Workshop

Row Fish – John Morgan

I foolishly didn’t take down the names of all the exhibits I photographed, so if you are the artist, I’m sorry. 

adventures, fun stuff, relationships, travel

Stratford on Avon 

ramblingmads

So a little back story for you. My secondary school did one school trip a year (seriously) and in year 8 we were supposed to go to Stratford on Avon (home of the Bard) but because of what my head master called ‘a lunatic fringe’ our trip was cancelled. 

I have two degrees in English Literature and am a massive word nerd/lit geek. 

Seven years ago I met the Mr – his last name is Shakespeare. He’s very loosely related to William Shakespeare. 

Anyway onto this weekend. 

Last night I was told to pack an overnight bag and hop in the car. I had no idea where we were going. I only found out this morning because of his clever plan. We spent the night in a Premier Inn near Birmingham. Yep, the most famous playwright was a Midlands boy. 

Parking the car next to Stratford Hospital we set off on foot to explore Tudor houses, beautiful gardens, a high street full of puns and navigate around several huge tour groups. 

At the top end of the street is a statue of The Fool, welcoming you to Shakespeare’s town. 

A little further down is the centre run by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, which includes the preserved buildings that belonged to Shakespeare’s parents, Anne and John. It has been turned into a museum, complete with interactive areas in the glovers’ workshop (John Shakespeare was a tanner and glover as well as an Alderman, Council member and general person of note in the community). 

It would have been nicer without the very shouty lady in Tudor costume upstairs by the master bedroom. 

The grounds were stunning, a lovely garden that is clearly well tended, and certainly enjoyable in the summer sunshine. There’s a gift shop, obviously, where you can buy all sorts of related merchandise. 

We also wandered down to Shakespeare’s daughter’s house, where she lived with her husband. Again, it is beautifully presented and contains a cafe and actors performing scenes in the garden. 

Lunch was a huge Ploughman’s in a rather excellent cafe just down from the Birth Place. 

We didn’t go to Anne Hathaway’s cottage but did drive past, or Mary Arden’s farm as it was a bit out of the way but did enjoy strolling around the lovely market town and admiring all the preserved Tudor half-timbered houses and pretty church. 

We also visited the MAD Museum (which I decided to review seperately). 

I wanted to see New Place, recently excavated, which Shakespeare bought after becoming successful, but unfortunately the opening has been delayed due to heavy rainfall flooding the site. 

Anne Hathaway’s Cottage

Hall’s Croft
Statue in the garden at Hall’s Croft
Shakespeare’s school house
I am so glad I have a modern kitchen!
New Place Museum
The local brew
One tiny part of the stunning garden
One bust of W.S
Where would you rather eat?
Yes that is indeed a Shakespeare action figure in the middle
He gets everywhere!
The Shakespeare family crest
The Fool
The birth place aka Mr & Mrs Shakespeare’s house

We had a bit of fun spotting various references to Shakespeare and his works all over Stratford, some in the strangest of places (see photos) and the town also hosts a year round Christmas shop, a Beatrix Potter shop, a magic shop, teddy bear factory, and lots of cafes. 

Oh, and one other thing happened. 

With a little help from Shakesbear here, the Mr asked me to marry him. We’ve been driving each other crackers for 7 years now and in the beautiful garden at Shakespeare’s childhood home, his distant relation (there are no direct descendants) asked me to be his. 

He’s not very romantic or soppy (thank goodness) so this was rather special. We’ll be celebrating with family and friends soon but I will need all your advice please as I plan a wedding.  

beauty, fun stuff, tag posts

Make Up Addict Tag

ramblingmads

Another tag post borrowed from the lovely Sal Ummbaby. 😊

💋What product do you keep buying even though you have plenty in your collection? 

Nail polish, ooh shiny! 

💋What one product can’t you live without? 

Moisturiser – I have thirsty skin

💋What’s your favourite make up brand? 

Lush have lovely colourful make up, but I am fickle and love many different brands. 

💋How big is your make up collection? 

Ridiculous. It’s taking over. 

💋How do you store it? 

I have many storage boxes, labelled up for my apparent convenience. 

💋How many items of make up are in your handbag right now? 

A slightly ridiculous amount – I can do my make up on the go between work and social life. 

💋Which other blogger’s stash would you raid? 

Caroline Hirons’ skincare stash would be amazing. 

💋How long does it take you to get ready and how many products do you use?

About 15 minutes including hair and perfume. It takes a lot of products to get me ready but only a tiny amount of each. 

💋Have you ever bought a product knowing you won’t use it? 

I have bought products and not used them, but never intentionally. 

If you want to join in with this tag, do, and let me know so I can check out your answers. 

fun stuff, happy mail, jewellery, lifestyle boxes, reviews, stationery

Happy Flair

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Happy Flair is a new subscription box from the team behind Punky Pins – a box full of accessories and stationery curated around a theme. Last month’s was Alice in Wonderland and this month’s is cult favourite Clueless, celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. 

I had to explain what Clueless is to the Mr, who has never seen it. Hopefully I don’t have to do that here. If you haven’t seen it – it’s on Netflix. 

Each box is designed to fit through the letterbox and packed full of brightly coloured flair. Brooches, badges, a necklace, postcards and more. Here’s some snaps. 

Cher’s unique style of plaid suits features too – the clothes in the film were pretty fantastic. 

These boxes are great fun and would make fab gifts for someone else or yourself. 

beauty, fun stuff, lifestyle boxes, reviews

Moi-Meme – 

ramblingmads

Moi-Meme is a new quarterly subscription box that costs a little bit more than some others (£45) but is filled with beautiful, hand selected, personalised items for you and your home. It’s perfect if you like a bit of luxury and feels like a gift to yourself. 

My first box arrived on Saturday morning and was a lot bigger than I expected. As it’s an entirely new box, there weren’t any spoilers or previous boxes reviewed online so I had no real idea what to expect. 

More luxurious boxes seem to be becoming quite popular, from Look Incredible’s Deluxe box to the pretty much permanently sold out Cohorted box or the rather too expensive for me Cult Beauty Box, the make up world has plenty but I don’t think there are that many luxury boxes with more of a lifestyle bent, which is where Moi-Meme seems to have spotted a gap in the market. 

You can give the boxes as gift subscriptions and you’ll need to fill out their questionnaire when you subscribe so they can get things personalised. But interestingly, for some of the items, you can exchange them for a different size or colour.

This is a new idea and one I think is quite useful. Sometimes the box companies get it wrong, and a lot of the complaints about other subscription boxes seem to revolve around the fact that often the items seem to be completely off the wall when it comes to the profile you filled out. 

So, what did I get in my first Moi-Meme box you ask? Well, let’s dive in. 

Firstly the box itself is personalised, with a sticker, so I know this box is mine. I like this little touch. 

The box is themed too, this is The Adventure Box and just rather lovely. 

From designer Lisa Angel there is a gorgeous scarf (3 designs available) I have the very pretty peacock feather design. I love scarves as accessories and add them to outfits and bags all the time so this will certainly be making its debut soon. 

There is also a really pretty bracelet of silver beads on a delicate blue cord. It looks rather chic on my wrist and will go nicely with most summer (and other seasonal) outfits. 

I don’t know how they knew at Moi-Meme but I love notebooks, I have hundreds and I’m always picking them up. Most get used, some get lost, but this one is mine. 

My passport is not as well used as I’d like, mostly because it’s pretty new and you don’t get stamps for travelling in Europe (yet). But this Laurige France passport holder is very smart and soft. I think my burgundy British passport will look rather swish tucked into this. Now to plan a holiday! 

Now, frequent fliers will know I love beauty treats, and these Evolve Organic Beauty tubs of body polish and butter are right up my street. 

The polish is a sugar based scrub with no soap but lots of skin friendly natural oils to remove dead skin and leave you all fresh. Then you apply its friend, the shea butter based moisturiser. Again full of skin loving natural ingredients, it smells delicious and goes on like a dream. 

All in all, I love this box. It’s gorgeous. 

I am also impressed with their customer service offers – if you want to exchange certain items (scarf, bracelet, passport holder) for different designs/sizes you can. Or you can pop onto their online shop and buy more goodies for you or as gifts. The booklet has all the details. 

Did you subscribe to Moi-Meme or are you tempted? Let me know your thoughts in the comments. 

books, fun stuff

PokemonGo Reading Tag 

ramblingmads

Stacey at Pretty Books did this fun tag, combining books with everyone’s current obsession – Pokemon Go! 

The first I read for myself was a Beatrix Potter book of rhymes – I was three. I have no real memory of this, just what my Mum said. My favourite book growing up was Black Beauty by Anna Sewell, which sparked a love of horses. 

Alice in Wonderland – it’s a strange, magical book that I’ll never tire off because there’s so much to unpack. 

Harry Potter fans look away now! 

I can’t bear that series- I have my reasons and if you’d like to discuss them, please email me at ramblingmadsblog@gmail.com 

I don’t know about love but I quite liked The Magicians by Lev Grossman – despite it’s obvious influences and many references to a Narnia-like land. 

Nothing phases me – I have read my way through some enormous books and series’. 

I read Red Hot Chili Peppers’ lead singer Anthony Kiedis’ autobiography Scar Tissue in one sitting, his life was so gripping and the writing hooked me in. 

Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None – gripping. 

Erm, I am rather invested in Claire and Jamie in the Outlander books at the moment, and waiting for the next one. 

From an academic perspective I am quite interested in the un/authorised sequels of classic children’s novels like Peter Pan and The Wind in the Willows. 

The Gentlemen Bastard sequence by Scott Lynch is fabulous and seriously underrated. I thought that it would be just another fantasy series but it’s a cracking read – bring on book 4. 

Although I’ve read them now, the hype around The Raven Boys and its sequels, was pretty heavy. But then I started reading them and was hooked. 

The Discworld series’ collector editions are pretty lovely and I certainly wouldn’t mind having them on my shelves. 

Erm, I don’t know – if someone could suggest an upcoming release they think I’d enjoy – please do. 

Anything Neil Gaiman or Tamora Pierce write – as far as I’m concerned they’re both genuises. 

I waited five years for The Republic of Thieves to finally be published – don’t do it to me again Scott Lynch. 

The final ever book written by Terry Pratchett will be released later this year and that’s pretty exciting and a little sad. 

If you’d like to do this tag, go for it. It was quite fun and gave me an opportunity to think about the books I’ve read over the years.