A month full of notebooks

And you know how much I like notebooks - it's been a good month!  I've been back to TK Maxx in Orpington, I just popped in one lunchtime to see what they had. And ended up leaving with more than I bargained for, ah well I'm sure they'll come in handy.

It started with a pretty daily planner, which has a tear off strip on the side for the to do list part, a clever idea I thought.

And then I spotted the A5 notebooks, and I knew it was dangerous. And how could I choose?

THOUGHTS

BRIGHT IDEAS

LET'S DO THIS

Yes, clearly I didn't choose, I bought them all - but at £5,99 a pop that wasn't so bad. I like their motivational messages too - and in the right order, there's the starting of a plan too.

But that's not all.  There was one more I couldn't resist.

MAKE IT HAPPEN

I love this bold design and at the moment it's in the pigeon shelves in the porch, so every time I walk past it it catches my eye and reminds me what to do.

And if that wasn't enough, earlier in the week I was at the TK Maxx and Homesense Christmas in July event - more on that next week - and I left with a lovely personalised notebook.  And yes, my personalisation was 139a - what else?! - I even watched it being done, absolutely fascinating.

So my July in paper has been all about notebooks. But you can never have too many, right?

Love this #69: Saltcreake Designs

A sunny Saturday morning in Norfolk and we popped along to see who and what was in the pop-up shops at the Dalegate Market in Burnham Deepdale. A fantastic idea and somewhere I'll be stopping in again the next time we're in Sunny Hunny. 

This weekend there was a sweet company, an artist and some woodcraft with items made from new and reclaimed wood. MOH was quite taken with a standard light made from an old beam, and it was lovely but something else had caught my eye.

And that was these upcycled home decor pieces by Saltcreake Designs - aren't they fab?

I loved them, but just don't have the space for them right now so I didn't leave with one, although I would have been more than happy to. I am though, adding these to an ever growing list of home items so that when I have the right space I know just what to buy. 

My favourite was the picture frame and chicken wire noticeboards, such a lovely idea. My dad and MOH were in agreement though and couldn't see the attraction of some jubilee clips on a board with some old jars, or a picture frame with chicken wire. Clearly it's one of those things that divides the genders in my family.

What do you think?

A new - and modern - coffee set

We're back from a weekend in Norfolk and I've a few Norfolk posts to share with you this week. I make no apology for that, as it's a beautiful place and one of those places that I find it easy to chill out and recharge in. As usual when leaving mum and dads, I left with more than I arrived with and full of cake, which of course is never a problem.  As well as our purchases - it's rare that I'll visit Norfolk and not buy some fish at the Fish Shed in Brancaster Staithe and so take up space in mum's fridge too - there were some aquilegias, lupins and foxgloves from dad's garden, a giant lettuce he'd grown and something more unusual, a coffee set.

But not just any coffee set.

This one, a Midwestern set called Plant Life, was a wedding present to my parents from my granddad, which they've hardly used (their words) since their wedding in 1958 and as I've recently developed a taste for coffee (thanks to Nespresso) when it was offered, I was thrilled to bring it home.

I have memories of the best dinner service coming out for special occasions as I grew up, and wanting  to be extra careful with it and not drop or damage it. I've a skill for being a tad clumsy you see, but I think I managed not to break any of this and I'm hoping that record continues. 

It's been a while though since I looked at the design more closely. I'm not sure back then that I ever really looked at it in the same way I do now. But now that I do, it makes me smile. Its images and drawings are still modern and contemporary, or at least not dated, if you prefer to think of it that way. 

And I've just the place for it too.  

It's now proudly sitting in my dresser, where I think it looks great. It goes nicely alongside my Le Creuset Classic orange casserole and the Norfolk-crafted earthenware noodle bowls and I love it against the duck egg blue and the wood. 

Bringing it home was the prompt I needed to spring clean the dresser's display cupboards and rejig what went where. Now it looks prettier but is still - probably more - functional, which is just as well as I've promised to put this to good use. 

Now, who's for coffee?