I just want to eat pasta and watch TV

 The title of this blog post, 'I just want to eat pasta and watch TV,' is what my two year old said to me one evening this week, having come back home from nursery. She'd leant in, a reverent expression on her face as she whispered that immortal line and I find myself chuckling about it still, several days later. Her delivery, her seriousness, it seemed so beyond her years. It also spoke to a part of me that absolutely just wants to eat pasta and watch TV!  

The funny thing is, I spend an inordinate amount of time worrying about whether my kids watch too much TV, it fuels a neurotic vigour that has me creating activities to keep us away from it, whether that be, frog marching them around our local woods or copious trips to the library. 

My eldest daughter is proving to be a great teacher, she reminds me often, to stop trying to curate our life into what I think it should look like and just ground myself in where we are. Here's the thing. We're allowed to eat pasta and watch TV and we don't need to be busy in order to 'earn the rest.' Pasta isn't a sin, TV isn't a sin, they're just things. We're allowed to enjoy these things. 

So, I hope you get to eat pasta and watch TV.- It's totally okay if you do. 

I don't know about you, but I'm getting bored about apologising for not posting on here enough, I'm not sure who you are dear reader, perhaps I'm speaking into an empty room, the thing is, I don't mind, not really. I so want to create community here, but ultimately I don't mind if it is just me. I never feel bad about writing, to quote Dr Seuss, I'm the 'youest you' or should that be 'the meest, me?!' when I write, if you're along for the ride that's great, but even so I'll be here anyway. 

 So,...what have the last few weeks entailed? 

After a postponement due to the arrival of my gorgeous baby nephew, my youngest daughter Marina's much anticipated first birthday party finally happened...just not quite as planned. Rain thwarted our garden party idea (thank you British summer), the bouncy castle was cancelled and our 30+ guest list was hacked down to just family. After weeks of planning it was somewhat bittersweet to have it reduced to just family, but it has meant we've had party food leftovers for weeks and I got some real quality time with my family, which is few and far between these days. 

I think the impact of having my first baby during the Covid-19 lockdown has meant I make a MASSIVE fuss about celebrating special occasions, as we missed out on so much with Eni. She was six months old when she got to meet extended family. For this reason I went a bit OTT on the decorating for Marina's party, I decided to use my vintage tea cups as a theme and this spiralled into gingham table cloths, paper lanterns, flowers, old books and bunting. 

I feel a great deal of pride about this cake. Not only was it made from scratch, it was vegan and I made my own icing using butter, sugar, dark chocolate, salt and vanilla. The secret to the most heavenly vegan chocolate cake you can imagine, is adding tea soaked prunes to the cake mix. I swear down, this is what makes it so decadent and dare I say it, moist.  

I also made my signature tea cocktails, this one my sister Laura is holding, is a jasmine green tea and prosecco mix, with a frozen blackberry in to make it pretty! 

In other news, these are my current reads, all reserved books from the library which I pay a couple of quid for. I don't mind paying even though I give them back, because anything that supports local libraries feels worthwhile. 

I'm a really slow reader these days as it takes so much mental energy after work, the unpaid emotional labour of running a household, on top of the daily kid wrangling to be able to focus enough to read, it's so much easier to vegetate in front of a box set. I need stories in my life, it makes me a better writer and books like The Witches of Vardo, grab me, despite the tiredness. Anya Bergman has lived in Norway, (where this story is set) and her knowledge breathes through the plot, it makes the place seem so accessible, so vivid in your mind. This story is about several accused women during the Norwegian witch trials and to put it simply - it's bloody brilliant. The only thing I didn't like is that I didn't write it myself!  

As for OOTD (if you're old like me and didn't know what that acronym meant, it stands for 'outfit of the day.')! 

This little hippie get up is what I wore to Marina's party, everything bar the white top is thrifted (that was a panic buy in Sainsburys when I was 9 months pregnant with my first baby)! 

I love buying second hand but I'm also trying to champion re-wearing stuff I already have, so here's the moon hair accessory I featured last time that I'm just loving and wearing allllll the time whilst my fringe is that frustrating in between stage. 

Apparently this new to me tan faux leather coat makes it impossible for me to look directly into the camera!! When this vintage 70s coat popped up on Vinted for £10 it was too good to ignore. I've been searching for a 70s coat I can wear in rainy weather and this absolutely fits the bill. Once again, everything I'm wearing is second hand. 

As you can see from this outfit, the whimsy goth, witchy aesthetic is still a favourite of mine! I don't know what it is about a  witchy dress and lace up boots combo that I love, but gosh do I love it! 

Clothes aside, it was this 70s teapot I found in my local Sue Ryder charity shop that had me giddy. At £2.50 it was an absolute steal and has been serving friends and family ever since. I'm always on the hunt for a snazzy 70s teapot to indulge my tea addiction! 

Well, that's this weeks roundup done. I'll leave you with a photo of my local pub which is doing a very good job of making me feel like summer isn't quite done with us yet. How beautiful are these hanging baskets! 

I'll be getting my much anticipated perm tomorrow, so will update soon with (hopefully) 90's Julia Robert's style curls! 

Until next time 

Love Sophia xxx