Biscuiteers

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Biscuiteers is a shop and cafe that specialises in beautifully iced cookies. You can buy a ready-iced treat for someone or you can ice your own biscuits in the cafe. We spent a cosy couple of hours icing silly faces and outfits on to gingerbread men and 'Day Of The Dead' style patterns on to cookie skulls.

It made me remember last Christmas when I had a lovely afternoon icing gingerbread cookies. It's such a simple pastime but something that gets you away from screens and gadgets and absorbed in creating... and eating : )

Illustrator Inspiration - Oh Squirrel

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I met Katie from Oh Squirrel at the Renegade Craft Fair this weekend and bought one of her fabulous glittery prints which you can see below. I love being inspired by individual creatives who have followed their dream and discovered this lovely video on her website. It tells her story and definitely qualifies as a #littlebitofpretty!

Even The Thought Of Mulled Wine

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I know, I know, it's too early to think about Christmas! But I've been designing a few more Christmas cards this week and it made me think of mulled wine. Or anything mulled really! The second I see it on a pub chalkboard I have to pop in to have a glass. Although my cousin would tell you I have absolutely no idea how to make it and she once found me just boiling red wine with an orange in it. This year, I will make it my goal to learn how to properly make it! I'll share the recipe here : )

Saturday Song - Cloudbusting

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"I just know that something good is going to happen..."

An extra song this weekend as sometimes a piece of music plays at exactly the right moment. This was played on BBC 6 Music during Mary Anne Hobbs' breakfast show. I hadn't heard it for ages and just sat still and listened. Something about the marching beat, strings and echoes of 'yeah yeah yeah oh' feels tenacious, determined and strangely powerful.

Words Beneath My Feet

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I went to a Headspace seminar a few years ago to learn about mindfulness and one of the techniques they taught us was mindful walking. It's simply noticing your surroundings and breath rather than missing everything by thinking about problems or plans. I like noticing little details like words beneath my feet especially ones you wouldn't expect to see.

Hygge

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Yesterday hygge was announced as one of the 'words of the year' by the Collins English Dictionary and if you walk into any bookshop in the UK at the moment you will see books on the subject piled high ready for the Christmas season. Like many others, I've noticed the word tip-toeing into our collective consciousness and I feel like hygge is exactly what we all need. A bit like how mindfulness reminds me to be in the moment, hygge reminds me that simple pleasures and a feeling of cosy contentment and security is important to our wellbeing. Hygge is all about the feeling of absolute peace and warmth which we sometimes forget in our frenetic world. It can be anything from curling up with a good book to enjoying a hot chocolate under a fluffy blanket or a cosy, wine-fuelled dinner with friends, all preferably by candlelight, although I think fairylight would do the trick.

Illustration Inspiration - Taryn Draws

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Taryn Knight is well-known on Twitter for being a huge Harry Potter fan and her many drawings of Harry and his friends are wonderful. She has such a whimsical style and I love the texture she achieves in her drawings using Kyle T Webster brushes. This video of Lucy from The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe is a really lovely example.