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?

Post Comment Love 29-31 July 2016

Hello and welcome to another #PoCoLo and another Friday - yay! Welcome back if you've been here before and hello if it's your first time linking. I'm loving the variety of posts you link up each week and while I'm a bit behind on my reading - it's that nice weather again - I fully intend to get around to all of you, and catch up on myself.

I'm trying not to beat myself up too much about it - and hope you don't beat me up either - but when the weather is warm and the days are long, routine seems to fall by the wayside a bit. As usual I've been cramming in as much as I can and my posts this week have been inspired by a visit to Norfolk last weekend, it's been far too long since I was last there! 

My photo this week has links to Norfolk, but is of my dresser at home. I cut the lavender from the allotment earlier in the week and have hung it there to dry and to enjoy its scent. I'm quite proud of my little bit of lavender, I took the cuttings and nurtured them along to this.  And those cuttings came from a plant dad gave me - the Norfolk connection!

Newbie Showcase: Jade from The Parenting Jungle

I am Jade, creator of the The Parenting Jungle, a (somehow) multi-award nominated parent blogger (nanny??!), cake eater and Mummy to a five year old son, who is three foot of superhero-shaped excitement.

I trained in Primary education and Social work. Sadly neither of these courses educated me on how to get my own child to sleep, or eat anything but spaghetti hoops. I was a single parent until a few months ago. I am not sure what is more difficult, raising a child solo or trying to maintain a successful adult relationship when you have given up shaving your legs. I like loose routines, outdoor playing, positive reinforcement, dragon breathing (when you are cross & want to curse) and eating your kid’s leftovers.

I post about all things parent-hood. My blog is a colourful mishmash of photographs, personal experiences and heartfelt posts from the times where I wished I had another parent to hit me on the face with a soggy nappy and say, ‘you can get through this, it's ok if you are wearing yesterday’s pants’.  I try to always include tips and offer support to dispel that lingering grey feeling that we are not good enough as parents. When I give advice, I know that I am a novice and every parent is different. Diversity is good; look how successful skittles are. I also post family friendly recipes, have a Storytime vlog, lifestyle posts, offer product reviews, feature child friendly days out in the South West and whatever else tickles my mummy fancy. 

Five of my/my blogger buddies favourite Jungle posts are: 

1. My mum-splanations. Three common questions parents are asked and how I answered.

2. A note to a new mother. Mum to a mum. 

3. Thinking of the dad I never had before father’s day and what a dad means to my son.

4. The reality of separate parents and shared parenting: a Mummy’s feelings on weekends with Daddy.

5. MUMMY. I am going to poo in my Spiderman onesie.” The power battles of a five year old.

Connect with Jade here

Blog  -  Twitter  -  Facebook  -  Instagram  -  YouTube  - G+  -  StumbleUpon

If your blog is under a year old and you'd like to be a future Newbie Showcase please get in touch with Morgan or I. And if you've been meaning to send over your content, we have a gap for next week if you're interested. Nudge, nudge.

An InLinkz Link-up

It's all about the hollyhocks, roses and much more

Yes another Norfolk inspired post, I did warn you at the start of the week. Today we're taking a look around dad's garden because it's been a while since we last did that,  last Spring in fact, so we're well overdue a visit. And right now dad's garden is all about the hollyhocks, a flower I've not had much success with, yet. 

Dad's are in flower and edge most of his garden, like much of the rest of his garden there's whites, yellows and pinks and crimsons.

I couldn't help but take a closer look at one of them. Makes for an interesting picture I think and really shows off their detail, something you don't see at first.  And I'm sure that's a star in the middle.

I'm always keen to see what's going on in dad's greenhouse, and to check to see if that ginormous geranium, or at least a relative of it is still going strong.  Yeap, tick.  But look at the size of the aloe vera next to it, I had a proud aloe vera mummy moment, as all of those in that tub came from my plant.

Although none of mine are quite that large. I think the giant geranium is encouraging it!

The plant below is the parent of the yellow plant dad gave me, which I've planted in my new bed at the back of the garden. Mine's just starting to flower, and it's good to see what it'll look like soon. And isn't being able to swap plants one of the best bits about gardening?

Elsewhere in the garden there's roses galore.  These are clambering around an arch, well almost, there's so many flowers.

Dad's success with lupins trumps mine too.  I left with a pot of my own and I'm hoping the slugs and snails here don't look at them as dinner too soon.  But if mine don't survive, it looks like there'll be plenty of seeds to try again with.

The fuschias look ready to burst and I can't believe it'll be long before the little ballerinas are dancing around again. The dahlias too are flowering, the outline of each petal on this one is stunning.

In the front garden I spotted this delicately pink and yellow lily, and was pleased to see the yellow rose in flower too. I missed out on the pale yellow hollyhocks, but this more than made up for it.

It's all go in his veg plot too, which is just outside the kitchen door.  His onions put mine to shame, although you might want to sort that bindweed out there dad...

The apple tree is laden, and this is after it was thinned.  There's definitely something about the soil up there in Norfolk!

And it wouldn't be dad's garden without runner beans.

Or squashes. He has a whole bed full of leaves, flowers and fruit. It's a bit of a surprise bed as he's never sure quite what will come up. He found some seedlings growing in the greenhouse and moved them outside, they've turned out to be round yellow courgettes and a variety he hasn't purposefully grown for a couple of years.  Clearly the garden fancied growing some!

This year dad's been pleased with his foxgloves. In true Norfolk-style they're big. And almost as tall as a chimney. Well ok, the chimney is in the distance, but I do have photographic evidence look:

You'll not be surprised to know I left with some foxgloves too!