Drew Barrymore made me do it.

 

There's nowt more terrifying than being halfway through a home dye job and realising you've been rash and impetuous. Having seen a photo of Drew Barrymore's Ombre hair from the mid 00's, I was in love and in a surge of excitement, bought a home dye kit from Superdrug, all in the space of 24 hours. 

The photo that started it all...

You'd think given my back history of sporting everything from a self inflicted McDonalds M shaped fringe, to cousin it style long hair, to blotchy copper red (I managed to only dye the roots as it took nowhere else), I'd be adverse to home dye jobs, but there you go, hindsight is a bitch. 

Fundamentally I'm a tight wad. And even though I'm incredibly enamoured to Ben my hairdresser, who I occasionally frequent for a shag, (a shag haircut you filthy animals), I've become apoplectic about shelling out £200 for a dye job. I just can't do it.

Hence, Tuesday evening I found myself shuddering in our freezing bathroom, questioning my life as bleach simmered away on the ends of my straggly, thinning, post partum hair. If I'd stopped to question my behaviour I'd self analyse and say that I think its all to do with carving out identity from a body and mind that no longer belong to me. I once read that motherhood is death in increments and whilst its honestly the best decision I've ever made, I have wistfully said goodbye to girlhood, my toned body and my carefree surfing days. Like I said, I wouldn't change it for the world, but something about owning being able to change my hair, and/or convey my interior life in the fashion I choose to wear and writing on this blog, all feel like a bit of anarchy in an otherwise (lovely) suburban life. 

So here are the somewhat brassy but passable results:

Having had very encouraging reactions from my friends (one of whom is from the Yorkshire Dales and the other a psychotherapist...you know I'm going to get truth bombs from that cohort), I've decided to proudly wave the Ombre flag and consider this a happy conclusion. I must admit I'm fortunate to have wavy hair, which is disguising how utterly shite my Ombre skills are, if I ever straighten this hair you'll see a very wonky line!

Pre Ombre hair! Wow it looks so dull in comparison now! 

This week I've been deep in the trenches of small human wrangling, (my baby and toddler), its an utterly magical time and I can see how I'll cherish these moments years from now. It can also be a windowless era, by that I mean, I've naturally had to become more insular whilst life wraps around their needs above all else. Sometimes that sacrifice is hard, when you're gazing out at a landscape littered with people apparently leading fabulous, exciting lives. I recently came across my old surf blog and honestly its roused the dormant surfer in me, especially because I've spotted a second hand surfboard on Facebook market place 40 minutes from me...

The above outfit was what I'd picked to wear for a night out with my amazing work colleagues, (we all became mammas within a few months of each other which so we've become an amazing ready made, support group). Feeling very excited to have a night out, 20 minutes later I was back on my drive having been curtailed by a crash on the motorway impeding my journey, an upset toddler who'd witnessed my departure and a baby refusing milk unless it's from my boobs. Whilst I consoled myself with frozen pizza, it's only now that I feel somewhat glum that this outfit never got an airing. 

The skirt was £5 from Vinted (and I'm told by the seller, was purchased in India and has a magical story, which I must explore), the polo neck was a gift from my sister, the waistcoat is a blog favourite £15 from Vinted and the necklace was a gift from my husband's trip to Ghana. 

 

As you can see the waistcoat has had a fair few outings this week. I wore it with a charity shopped 70's style Zara jumper and my Scope charity shopped Oasis jeans (I think £5 last year). The second outfit I wore for coffee with another lovely mom friend, was a green scandi style vintage jumper I got YEARS ago from Birmingham Oasis market and the jeans (they're flares) were £3 from Tesco, again perhaps 5/6 years ago! 

Being as it's taking three hundred years to dry clothes in my old, damp, tumble dryer absent cottage I've been wearing this dress repeatedly, it's a previously featured blogged dress I got for £11 off Depop. The hideously grey days and therefore poor lighting of this photo don't do it justice, neither does the maxi cardigan which is hiding the lovely sleeves. Its one of my go to hippie dresses that muffles lumps and bumps but somehow still makes you feel cute! You'll also notice I'm sporting some new pink glasses. I finally made use of my free eye test voucher from work and used my birthday money to buy some fancy frames. As with every frame I've bought there's a moment of doubt as my poor vision means that I never quite know if the frames I pick suit me, until they've got my super duper lenses in! 

Don't feel too sorry for me missing out on girls night this week, as my hubby has treated me to a meal out at 'The Real Greek,' one of my favourite chain restaurants. We attempted Reading city with the notion we'd start some Christmas shopping. I'd got the idea that there were charity shops I could frequent, whilst hubby would nip into some high street stores he needed to visit. We went into Marks and Spencer, promptly lost the toddler who treated the large open plan children's section as her personal maze and realised we have vastly overestimated our ability to shop with a toddler in tow. 

We retreated instead to the Real Greek, where I had a halloumi flatbread wrap and baklava for dessert. 

I wore my favourite 'Devonshire Lady' vintage 70's prairie dress with THAT waistcoat again and a thrifted New Look belt. You can't see but I'm wearing my super comfy Clarks Artisan 70's style lace up boots that I got from eBay (I think they were £15). I love this look for my go to 70's hippie chick look. I don't know why dressing this way makes me happy but by heck it does! 

In all honesty I'm struggling this festive season to stick to my second hand shopping, largely because we're doing secret Santa this year on both sides of the family, and the names I've drawn have both provided lists of things they'd like from high-street or online stores. I'm trying to placate myself with the gentle reminder that if I'm shopping second hand all year, buying two presents from a high street store isn't a crime. Still, it feels amoral to not be thrifting, particularly at the most materialistic time of the year. I'm also contending with the biological urge to spoil my girls, I've bought a couple things from Lidl and Amazon (boo hiss), but I am going to be helping Santa, by buying most of their gifts from second hand stores. I'd originally asked my Dad to build a reading nook for them (shelves in our dining room and kid sized cupboard), but being as my Mom has corralled him into finishing their hallway, I won't be getting bespoke reading nooks anytime soon! I am exploring perhaps treating my eldest to an experience like horse riding lessons rather than lots of presents but again, I'm dithering over what to do. How do you balance wanting to spoil your kids, whilst also emphasisng that time spent together is far more precious than things?! 

Speaking of thriftiness I thought I'd share a money saving recipe that not only packs a protein punch but is kind to the ole wallet too! Having watched the price of food inflate over the last few months I'm constantly trying to think of ways to make our food go further and I think these lentil and red kidney bean burgers are one way to do it with kidney beans costing just 30p and a bag of lentils £1.09 which last for several other meals. 

Red Kidney Bean and Lentil Burgers 

Serves 4 

 

Ingredients 

1 red onion 

2 slices of bread blended into crumbs (I like Lidl's malted brown loaf)

1 can red kidney beans

1 cup of cooked red lentils (I cooked mine in water and stock for ten minutes until water absorbed)

Half a grated courgette

1 table spoon of zaatar 

1 teaspoon of coriander 

1 teaspoon of paprika 

1 crumbled vegetable stock cube

3 tablespoons of plain flour

salt to taste 

pepper to taste 

Olive oil 

1. Blitz the bread into bread crumbs (I use a nutribullet which does a grand job) and put on one side. 
2. In a bowl add finely chopped red onion, cooked lentils, courgette, spices, salt and pepper and mix together until well combined. 
3. Add in the kidney beans and using a potato masher, squash the kidney beans so they break form, you want a chunky consistency. 
4. Into the bowl add the crumbled stock cube, bread crumbs and flour. You'll know you've got the right consistency when a dough begins to form, you may need to add more flour depending on if the mixture is too wet. 

 

5. Add olive oil to a frying pan (you can deep fry these or to keep them healthier by just adding a little oil). Meanwhile form patties with the mixture and start to fry. You need to keep an eye on these to ensure they don't burn. I had these on gas mark 5 and turned every few minutes so they were cooked all the way through. 

6. Once cooked serve with pitta bread, veggies or you could even make your own Greek lemon roasted potatoes! Enjoy this healthy veggie mid week dinner- best of all you'll have loads of surplus so you can freeze these or have them the next day for lunch! 

Well my lovelies that's been quite an essay, hope you've enjoyed this latest instalment!

 Until next time...

Love Soph 

xxx