Post Comment Love and a Summer Photo Collage 2-4 September 2016

Woah! How did September get here so fast?  I don't know either, but welcome back to Post Comment Love, we've got a photo challenge for you this week, but more on that in a bit.

I must admit though September is one of my favourite months, so I'm not too disappointed. It's when my garden - and now hopefully the allotment - becomes most productive, and that's always rewarding. There's always the rush too to get the tomatoes ripened before the weather turns, and I expect this year will be no different. Although over the years I've experimented with many ways of using green tomatoes so I can be *almost* disappointed when there's not a glut!

Photo credit: Unsplash

Reminder: Get in touch to feature on our #BloggerShowcase

Over the last few weeks Morgan and I have shared details of how you can get involved with our new #BloggerShowcase feature. Thanks to those of you who've been in touch already, we've got our first few scheduled, but it's not too late if you're interested in taking part.

Get in touch with Morgan and I and we'll explain more. Then once we've got your information we'll schedule your date. We'd love to hear from you!

Get involved: A Summer Photo Collage 

But in the meantime we want to celebrate summer by creating a photo collage with your help. We want you to share with us a single photo that sums up your summer. Then Morgan and I will feature the images you share with us in next week's post, and we'll include a link back to your blog.

So send us one photo that sums up your summer, add your name and your blog url and then pop back again next week to see the #PoCoLo Summer Photo Collage. We can't wait to see what you share - and yes it's harder than you think -  already I can't decide which photo I'll choose to sum up my summer! 

Make sure you get them to us by Wednesday evening to ensure we can include them.

An InLinkz Link-up

A stay clean orange scrubber

Yes, that's what I thought too. You're thinking that's too good to be true right? It's what I was thought when Kuhn Rikon sent me one of their stay clean scrubbers, that and how it reminded me of sticklebricks!

Image credit: Kuhn Rikon

It was much less like a sticklebrick when it arrived though. It's made of silicone which gives it a soft, flexible feel, which is just what you want from something you'll be using on your pots and pans. And I didn't mind the orange either, although if that's not your colour it's also available in white, red, blue and green.

It claims that you'll have no more smelly sponges, and let's be fair sponges can get pretty smelly which is why I don't have one. There's one in the kitchen at work and I can't bear to touch it to move it out of the sink, let alone use it anywhere near my mug. Kuhn Rikon say because silicone dries faster it doesn't harbour the bacteria, like a normal sponge does. And to give it a thorough clean you can just pop it into the microwave. Being silicone it's also dishwasher safe and heat resistant up to 260 degrees C.

So how did I get on?

Well, all in the name of research you understand I'd managed to burn something on my frying pan. I can't remember what, but it wasn't shifting and it seemed just the thing to try this on. There are apparently over 5000 silicone bristles on each scrubber - I took them at their word for this! 

So I set to work. And shortly after MOH got in on the act too. He is the master cleaner in this house, so it was useful to have his view. And he approved too.

And now it's firmly positioned in our washing up caddy which lives by the side of the sink. I said before I didn't mind the orange, looking at this caddy it seems I'm not the matching kind of girl I thought I was, more of one that's happy with any colour whether it's lime green, orange or pink - and even the washing up liquid is blue. 

And I'm already trying to work out if I could borrow it once a week to take to work to give my mug there a proper clean. As carrying a silicone sponge will be way easier than bringing the mug home each time it needs a clean. And when I take it to work - you see, it's already a when - there's no way I'm leaving it by the sink, as I'm pretty sure I won't be the only one impressed by it.

I never realised that silicone could be quite so versatile, but it really seems to be. Who knew.

This is a collaborative post with Kuhn Rikon, but all views are my own.

Lighting a dark corner of my bedroom

Even before we redecorated our bedroom the mirror and space I use for my dressing table was a long way away from natural light, and despite the overhead spotlights often darker than I'd like for putting on my make-up. It was easily fixed of course with a table lamp, and once that was in place everything was fine.

That is until the lamp stopped working.  The last time I turned it on, it wouldn't turn off unless I pulled the plug from the wall, so that was pretty frustrating. But it made me realise I needed to replace it with another lamp, because since then we've decorated our bedroom in more dramatic colours.

The light needed to be functional and direct light upwards so that I stood a chance of applying my make-up in a non-Alice Cooper like way, and so when I dried my hair I could see what I was doing. A lamp with a shade wasn't going to help me much and so my hunt began. It turned out it was easier than I thought.

As I quite quickly spotted this light - the Claudia 2 Way Modern Touch Table Lamp - by Iconic Lights, and thought it'd be just the thing. And it is. The finish is Black Chrome, and if I'm honest I'd not heard of that before, but luckily it goes well with the darker, more dramatic decor and is what I hoped it would be. Shiny like chrome, but black. But not too black.

Oh, and in case you're thinking wow that's tidy (and for the record so am I), it's not. The majority of my make-up and other paraphernalia is in one of the top drawers and out of sight. I know where everything is, well the stuff I use regularly and I much prefer it this way, as it means I can pretend I'm tidier than I actually am!

Here's it lit up.

And despite knowing it used touch technology, of course the first thing I did once it was in place was look for the switch!  Thankfully though I'm past that now and have programmed myself to touch the base three times to get it to the bright setting I like. There's low and medium too, as well as off.

I expected the base to quite quickly be full of make-upy, smeared finger prints - but it isn't, in fact it's hard to spot any, which is just brilliant!

I was impressed that it arrived with bulbs so I could use it straight away - and a spare bulb - how often does that happen? When I'd ordered it MOH's first question was about which bulbs it took. I had no idea - it's G9 btw - I just hoped that it would be a useful and stylish addition to the bedroom, and stop me from scrabbling around with plugs to turn the broken lamp on.

I've been using it for two weeks now and I it's definitely both stylish and useful.  The lack of fingerprints are a bonus too.

And I think it looks just right in this space, don't you?

The Claudia 2 Way Modern Touch Table Lamp is available from Iconic Lights for £25 in three colour ways - black chrome as I have here, polished chrome and antique brass. And that seems very reasonable to me.

* I was sent this lamp to review as part of my role as one of Iconic Lights' approved blogging ambassadors, but all views and opinions are my own.