You've Got Mail!

Well I do feel very privileged today. I got a gorgeous Interflora delivery courtesy of Kane (the K!tour ticket looser) and his Mam.

A beautiful arrangement and I'm thrilled with it. I love the fact that it has virtually no packaging also but comes in a gorgeous vase, that I will keep and cherish for years to come. How lovely. I feel very special!

Of course, in true blogging spirit, I won't just be enjoying the flowers, I'm going to photograph them beautifully and use them for the next round of home made greetings cards. Stand by, family and friends!

I really am a little lacking in the motivation department at the moment and I don't know why. I need to get "back in my bucket" as my Yoga teacher used to say. I seem to be a little preoccupied, but with what I'm not sure.

So we had our delivery today from the salvage yard so work is about to commence on our steps. I hear, though, that we are due for a shed load of snow, so I may not be able to get as much done as I would like.

And I had to pop to our local (ish) health food shop, I rejected the major high street health food shop and went to a little independent - I really recommend it, it's like a treasure trove. I've recently been diagnosed with acne for the first time in my life (I'm 33!) and have very recently had a massive and painful break out. A very good friend years ago gave me the Dr Gillian McKeith "you are what you eat" book and I recalled a chapter which indicates that break-outs in certain areas are indicative of underlying problems, so I got the book out.

The book recommends that for spots in the mouth area, Agnus Castus be taken. It says that Agnus Castus helps to regulate the reproductive area, but , to be honest, I'm only really interested in getting rid of the spots! When I went into the store (I'm told that tincture is better than pills) the very knowledgeable lady assistant told me that it has the single most powerful hormone regulatory properties. And the break outs do indicate an imbalance. How very interesting to see if this fairly gross smelling taken in water sorts me out. I might put the diagnoses for the other areas on here too - might help some of you lovely peeps?

So I picked up copies of a couple of magazines while I'm there, and, even though I have previously picked up and read through the gorgeous Aura magazine, this time, I cannot help but be overwhelmed by the size of the alternative community in Wales. With the help of some friends yesterday I came across the Chapter Arts Centre "Fairtrade Fortnight" commencing Friday. I'm only available on Friday, this weekend, unfortunately, so I don't know what I'm going to catch, but I'm going to go down for a look. One of the administrators of the Facebook page very kindly put a link to my blog on their Facebook page too! How lovely! THANK YOU!

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=313702085956&ref=mf

Carrier Bag Envy

Birthday present for Batty delivered. Result; even better than expected. Not many people get their birthday surprise spoiled by a national newspaper. But then I've never been asked to tell a national newspaper what gift I've got any of my bezzie mates for their birthdays either. And not that many of the bezzie mates have ever bought ME flowers on THEIR birthday to say thank you for their present. All of those things have happened in the last week.

I was secretly hoping to receive for some flowers, not that it's a regular occurrence (although I should say that my husband is rather good in the flower department), but I didn't think I could really put the purchasing of flowers down on the "essentials" list. I was hoping for them so that I could photograph them to use them for my handmade birthday cards. Now I can. And, as usual, they're not the usual sort of flowers that one would photograph for cards. Which usually means that they'll turn out weirdly better than expected.

I collected the two Battys from the train station after their marathon sale busting shopping spree. Of course, as they bundled their many bags into the car, they were begging for forgiveness. I must be honest I did feel a pang of jealousy at all the lovely bags, despite not knowing their contents. The boots (the main reason for the trip) were placed on the holy feet before I'd even pulled off. As I was told of the wondrous bargains (and some of them really were wondrous) I must admit that in order to suppress the envy I smothered it with smugness. I don't need any of that stuff, I didn't have to go out all day slip sliding around our Capital spending money I don't have on stuff I don't really want.

My fabulous friend I talked of yesterday told me that she doesn't like the sales because the retailers don't treat the items with nearly as much respect as they do when the items are full price. That's a really good point, isn't it, actually? All the reduced stuff is chucked in tote bins, thrown on rails. But hey, if some one's offering you the chance to buy something you've been after for ages at a really reduced price ... It's just a shame that they have to present that way. Maybe it's some psychological trick to make us feel like we are at a jumble sale and more likely to part with our hard earned cash?

So that's the key, really, isn't it? It's only a bargain if you really want/need it in the first place. The sales are wonderful if you're going for something or things in particular. Batty #2 bought dramatically reduced trainers for her kids because they needed trainers; the other ones were getting too small = bargain. Batty #1 had been eyeing up these fabulous boots for 9 months at least; craved them, saved for them; got 60% off the price = bargain. There's a lot to be said for the sales and who on earth am I to say don't go? The truth is, in this year of evaluation (which is kind of how I'm looking at it) that I might take the opportunity to decide what I might buy in the sales next year, if anything.