Friday 30 November 2018

Friday Smiles: Dressing my feet in Hogwarts Houses Uniforms & Treating Myself To An Advent Calendar 😊

Disclaimer:  I haven't been paid to promote any products, I'm just hoping to share some smiles 😊

Hello Honeys,
If you're on Instagram you might have seen me post a photo recently of the latest additions to my sock collection 😊  Socks Rosie? Socks made you smile?  oooooo just wait till you see them honeys 😊 they're not your run of the mill plain old socks you pull on and forget about 😊

If you've been reading this blog for a while you'll know I'm a bit of a Potter fan.... well strictly speaking I'm an Alan Rickman fan who went to see the first Potter movie because dear Mr Rickman was in it and then fell in love with the Potter world ❤

Well, Potter collectables seem to be appearing everywhere right now, from make up and toiletries, tote bags, pyjamas & nightshirts, bedding & cushions all the way to socks.  Socks you say Rosie? Well there are a lot of sock designs out there honeys but these have jumped to the top of my favourites list...

Harry Potter Hogwarts Houses socks from Primark

Sorry! I just made that little high pitched squeal noise again 😊  When removed from their packaging these socks, designed to resemble the uniforms of all four houses of Hogwarts, look like this...

Harry Potter Hogwarts Houses socks from Primark are making me smile :)

Wednesday 14 November 2018

Cheryl's Magical Recycled Harry Potter Themed Light Bottles

Disclaimer: I haven't been paid to recommend any products, I just wanted to share some beautiful crafts being made by a friend. The photos in this post (except my rose at the end) remain the property of Its On The Cards and are used with kind permission of Cheryl, thank you honey x

Hi honeys
How are you today? The weather's been shocking here most of this week, constant rain ☂ Oh well, you know what they say, if we didn't have rain we'd never see rainbows 🌈

Do you remember I shared some beautiful terrariums created by a dear friend, Cheryl, recently honeys? If you missed the post you can see it here, well today I thought I'd share a few of the gorgeous Harry Potter themed light bottles she's been making....


Cheryl's Beautiful Light Bottles - Happiness can always be found if one only remembers to turn on the light.

Isn't it stunning?  The bottle in the image above has Dumbledore's famous quote "Happiness can be found in the darkest of times if one only remembers to turn on the light..." from The Prisoner of Azkaban.  Let's have a look at some of Cheryl's other bottles...

Friday 9 November 2018

10 Easy Ways To Practice Self Care & Find Your Calm

Disclaimer:  Please consult your Doctor or health care professional before starting on any kind of exercise if you have any health issues honeys x

Hi Honeys
How are you today? It's another Friday and as usual I have a couple of very busy shifts ahead of me.  It's a busy time of year all around of course because we're now in the run up to Christmas.  Would I sound awful if I said I'd be happy to hibernate till Spring? 

Now I sound like the Grinch don't I?  I don't have anything against Christmas itself dear ones but I don't cope terribly well with all of the overwhelm that accompanies it.  At work that is, not at home.  There is no overwhelm in our little home, it's my happy place.  I work retail honeys and retail at this time of year with only a few weeks left till the holidays is all about overwhelm. 

I was watching a Columbo dvd last night (it was the one with Johnny Cash as guest star, I ❤❤❤Peter Falk as Columbo. and Johnny Cash too so it's one of my favourites) well anyway, a thought drifted aimlessly through my otherwise happy mind that I had work today and how busy (and noisy) it'll be and I have to admit my heart sank a little.

You might have heard me mention honeys, how important self care is?  It's vital that we take a little extra care of ourselves, all of us, not just if you have chronic health issues as I have.

You're so worth caring for dear ones but sometimes, especially in the run up to the holidays when there is never enough hours in the day to get through everything on your to-do list, well somehow self care just slips further and further down the to-do list until it gets forgotten about in the scramble to make the holidays perfect for everyone else. 

10 easy ways to practice a little self care & find your calm

It really isn't so difficult to head off that overwhelm at the pass honeys, to re-fill your happiness chest so that you can cope a little better with all of the demands of organising, cooking, shopping and hugging the holidays bring every year.... I adore the hugging part, that's my favourite bit and we already share that anyway 😊  You know the old saying, a hug is the perfect gift, one size fits all,  nobody minds when it's returned and the only accessories needed are smiles πŸ˜ƒ 

For all those other holiday chores, you know what dear ones, we are our own worst enemies!  We need to learn to delegate.  OK, let's see a show of hands.... who knocks themselves silly every year doing the shopping, the cooking the decorating & tree fixing and cleaning the house from top to bottom for visitors and never stops to ask anyone around them for help?  You see the problem?

Divide and conquer that to-do list.  Write out everything that needs done and split it and share those jobs out.  Split that list with your partner, with friends and with the children. Tiny humans can clean their rooms for Santa visiting.  Why not set up an elf camera so Santa can see how helpful they're being and tell them they'll for sure end up on the "nice" list,  hint: Poundland (Dollar stores) B&M Amazon and lots of others have Elf accessories this year including a perfect little artificial "Elf Cam" or why not make one?

OK, so we've decided to delegate some of the work of the holidays, and yes I know it sounds wonderful and oh so easy and yes I'm fully aware that we'll all still end up doing too much and feeling that overwhelm if we're not careful so.... I thought I'd share 10 of my favourite ways to practice a little self care and just take a little time to find our calm.

Why not grab a cuppa honeys (and maybe a cookie) and I'll share my favourite ways to top up my little store of happiness and smiles that lets me (mostly) avoid feeling stressed πŸ˜„  I'll see you back here in a few minutes....

Thursday 1 November 2018

Finding Beauty in Recycling

Disclaimer:  I haven't been paid to promote any products, I just wanted to share some really beautiful things being created by a dear friend.  I loved seeing them and thought you might too x  Please note: these images remain the property of It's On The Cards and are used here with kind permission, thank you Cheryl xx 


Hello Honeys
How are you today?  It's been such a busy week here, I did some shopping on Tuesday (a rare thing for me since other than going to work and trips to the Doctor's surgery or to the arthritis clinic at the hospital I'm rarely out at all) and I spent most of yesterday afternoon making up goodie bags for visits by tiny trick or treaters πŸ‘»

Since another (very) busy weekend lies ahead of me, and since I know that in order to have a chance of getting through my increasingly busy shifts, I have to rest today and re-charge my batteries.  I thought I'd do that by enjoying a little calm time spent enjoying some beautiful images of some stunning terrariums created by a dear friend.

Terrariums are everywhere right now, in all different sizes.  From a tiny glass dish being home to a single small succulent, to a much larger container housing an assortment of little cacti and other tiny succulents.

No matter how many terrariums you've seen though honeys, you won't have seen any as awesome as the ones you'll see in this post, all lovingly created by a dear friend Cheryl...

Cheryl's Beautiful Terrariums - created using beautiful recycled glass bottles, these terrariums are a true work of art.

Isn't this just beautiful honeys?  There's something very calming about these beautiful mini gardens.  They'd be perfect I think as part of a small meditation space, a reading nook or just to sit on a window ledge to bring a little of the outside in πŸ’š

There are quite a few (really beautiful) images in this post dear ones, so it might be a good idea to fetch a cuppa and maybe a cookie?  Meet you back here in a few minutes...