Weirdo Zine Fest 2019

In February Weirdo Zine Fest was held in Leeds. Kirsty has organised it here and in London before, but I've never been able to go. But this time I applied for a table and got one, so we could definitely go! 

So Lee and I set off bright and early on Saturday to Leeds and got there around 11. It turned out we could park on the street just behind the library which was ideal. We got in to the room and to our table and it turned out we were between my friends Lou and Fay and near Janet, which was lovely - we had a nice little corner! The fest started at 12 and there was a steady stream of people coming through. I spoke to loads of friends, including Sarah who I haven't seen in ages, and bought a bunch of new zines. I made a couple of new connections too which was really nice! I also spoke to Saffa, who I met before at Northwest Zine Fest, and who has an illustration in a new LGBTQ+ book called Proud. I'm really pleased she's featured in the book!

I will definitely go to Weirdo Zine Fest again even if I don't table - it's got a really open atmosphere and the room was perfect for the requirements. 

Afterwards we set off to go meet Janet and Thomas and Lou and Emma for tea, but we took a wrong turning and ended up getting really lost. Leeds' one way system is a nightmare. We ended up just coming home instead which was a shame as I'd have really liked to have tea with people. Next time!

As ever, if you'd like to buy any of my zines, my Etsy shop is here. 

My nails were this Essie shade, a gorgeous dusty pink 

A few weeks ago before the fest I'd been into an international supermarket in Sheffield and picked up some new-to-me fizzy drinks. This one was lush, it tasted like bubblegum

Me behind our stall

Lee behind our stall

And finally here's all the new zines I came home with!

A Star Wars Make

I recently finished this Star Wars cross stitch and wanted to share it with you! I started it last year but I've been working on it on and off. The intricacy of the pattern meant that it took a lot of concentration so I couldn't work on in for long at a time. I started with the top of the helmet, then worked my way down. I finally finished it at the end of January.

I love the floral pattern and I obviously love Star Wars, and the Etsy shop I bought the pattern from has a ton of similar patterns, so I may well do another one at some point. I could have a whole row! I need to get this framed now.

I've started a beach themed stitch-along which has a pattern release once a month all the way up to September; as I write this I've just finished the first instalment. I'm a bit between projects at the moment... Not sure what to do with myself!

Films of the Month - January

I am finally almost caught up with posts! I got behind in November when I was doing Nanowrimo, and for all of December and January I've been running weeks behind trying to post. But after a quiet couple of weekends at the end of January and beginning of February, I can confidently say I'm now caught up! Of course, you won't be reading this until March, but that's scheduling for you.

I watched seventeen films in January, and went to the cinema twice! It was a good month filmwise. Except for the last film I saw, which was problematic to say the least. I had heard it wasn't good, but wanted to see it myself. I'm glad I now have a fully formed opinion, but.... It is a bad film. It didn't deserve all the accolades it won. That's all I'm saying.

This is what I watched:

The Force Awakens

The Aristocats

A documentary on YouTube called The Secret of Landfill, interesting but horrifying

The Sound of Music Live

Shaun of the Dead

Love Simon

The Favourite

A Simple Favor (these two posters are so similar!)

Mary Poppins Returns - thought it was great except for Ben Whishaw

The Last Jedi (so emo)

About A Boy

101 Dalmatians

Logan, which is great but so dark

Queen Days of Our Lives - really good documentary about the band

Men in Black - one of mine and Lee's favourite films, and yes I'm very excited for the fourth one! 

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat - weird, just weird

And lastly the film that was really problematic

Visit to Titanic Spa

Lee and I went to Titanic Spa as a special treat for my birthday. I heard of the spa ages ago and really wanted to go, and then I bought vouchers for my mum for her birthday. We're actually going in March, we haven't yet been! But I am signed up to their emails so when I saw a special offer for a January evening I thought Lee and I should go. Lee's never been to anywhere like that before so he was intrigued!

The offer was for an evening twilight spa, from 6-9pm, for the heat and ice experience, and canapes. This also included use of the swimming pool and the outdoor hot tub. We were told to arrive a little bit early, but we were actually there around 5pm, so we got a drink in the bistro area.

At 5.30 we were shown round and into the changing rooms. We got changed into swimming costumes and put our robes and slippers on. The robe wasn't quite big enough for me, but I used a towel underneath and that was better.

We went into the heat and ice experience rooms. It's all in one, in a big circle with showers in the middle. There's a sauna, a hotter sauna, foot baths, two steam rooms, the ice room, an aromatherapy room, and a tiny plunge pool. We started off in the coolest rooms. Lee doesn't deal with heat well so he didn't go in the hottest rooms, and I didn't spend loads of time in them. But I got nice and hot, and then plunged in the plunge pool to cool down and get the endorphins going!

We did that a couple of times and then went to swim. The pool is partially saltwater so really nice to float in. We swam for a bit then went outside to the hot tub. It was freezing but the jacuzzi is lovely and hot.

After that we had our drinks and canapes, they were nice enough. There's water fountains in a couple of places so do keep drinking water as you're sweating out a lot. It is a bit disconcerting because you have to walk through the bistro to get to and from the pool and hot tub, while people are eating, I found that quite odd to be honest!

After we'd rested for a bit we went into the relaxation room. It's a quiet room near the changing rooms filled with cosy seating and beanbags. I was reading my book but Lee, who was a bit under the weather, fell asleep! Then we went back into the heat and ice rooms and did the circuit again.

By 9pm we had had enough time, so we got dressed and left. We'd taken snacks to eat afterwards and I would recommend doing this because you can feel a bit faint otherwise. Lee enjoyed it, he said it felt really indulgent. He said he would go again on a similarly priced special offer.

I've been to Harrogate baths and to Spa 1877 in Sheffield, and I have to say that I prefer both of those to Titanic. I think you get more for your money. Titanic is really posh and if you want the whole shebang then go for it, but I'm not sure it's worth it. Overall I like Spa1877 best for value for money. But if you like swimming and a jacuzzi then Titanic is better - Lee loves both of these so that was good for him as there was less emphasis on the heat stuff, which he doesn't like. I would go again, I'm looking forward to going with my mum in March and seeing what she thinks of it!

Titanic is an old mill that has been converted into flats, so residents use the gym too. It's a really astonishing building and I'm glad they've preserved it

Having a glass of prosecco while waiting to go in 

The book I was reading at the time! 

Trip to Manchester January 21st

Lee had two days off after my birthday, we had talked about going away but couldn't find anything cheap enough, plus I had to go to work to do the wages, so we decided to stay at home but plan some fun things to do. We wanted to go to Slatterys in Manchester, I've been a couple of times recently but Lee hasn't been in years and he kept complaining about it so I booked a table.

We got there about midday and got seated. I had rarebit with garlic mushrooms on top, and Lee had a jacket potato I think. We each had a hot chocolate, which are literally melted chocolate and hot milk that you mix together to make delicious. Then Lee had an ice cream sundae and I had the wicked chocolate sampler which is a bunch of cakes and two chocolate cups, one of which is filled with cream and the other is filled with melted chocolate. I knew I wouldn't eat all of it but I also knew I could bring most of it home! So I did!

After Slatterys we went into the Northern Quarter because I wanted to go to Salford Zine Library which is housed in Nexus Art Cafe. As we were looking for a parking space I saw Fred Aldous, which sells art and craft supplies. I've heard of it, there's one in Leeds as well as in Manchester, but I've never been. I also knew they had a photobooth so we parked and went in!

We got some cute photos and then wandered through the whole shop (there's three floors). There was so much I liked! But I contained myself and bought some jewellery making supplies, a candle making kit, and some presents for my friend Sarah.

We also went into Forbidden Planet, where I have to give a shout out to the assistant in there who moved stuff off a chair for me so that I could sit down while Lee browsed - such a simple gesture but it meant a lot because I could rest while Lee didn't feel pressured to leave. We went into a record shop too but didn't buy anything although I could've spent about £100. Then we went into the Zine Library.

It hasn't been there very long, but there's a lovely mural and tons of zines, and some stools to sit on. Lee and I both browsed for ages and Lee even found a copy of his own zine, Primark Punk. I read some great music ones which I really liked. I'm so glad we went!

We left about 4pm because our parking was running out and because we had somewhere else in the evening, but I'll leave that for next post...

Hot chocolate with one of Slatterys signature discs in the top...

Rarebit with garlic mushrooms

Lee's sundae

My dessert - so yummy

Yarn bombed pillar in Fred Aldous

Photobooth photos

I liked this even though it's a bank advert

The zine library. You can post your own donations in the postbox

So many!

And yet more!

And here's Lee with his own zine!

What I Wore on My Birthday

I couldn't decide what to wear on my birthday because I wanted something a bit special but didn't have anything new (I know! And me a blogger, too), so I thought about it and decided on this Scarlett & Jo dress. I haven't worn it in forever, but wearing it again I'm not sure why because it's lovely on and feels great.

It has a couple of layers which help it to poof out. I find the top shows my bra so I pin it closed with a couple of safety pins and it looks fine. I love the gros grain ribbon around the middle, and I of course love the pattern. I put it with my Claire Richards cardigan which I love but again don't wear often as it's long sleeved and quite thick. It's very cute, though. The press studs have little bows on them.

I wore pink jewellery including this necklace which is a pink apple with a glittery leaf on it, I'll have to try to remember to take a photo close up because it's very kitsch and I love it.

Sorry for the dimness of this picture, the kitchen lighting isn't ideal but it was last thing at night by the time I remembered to get a photo!

A Look Inside My Bullet Journal

Just a note to say that I have joined in Rose McGowan's book tour here on my book blog. Please do click over and have a read!

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I'm sure you can't have missed bullet journalling becoming really huge in the past couple of years. I too saw people creating really beautiful spreads and daily task lists on Instagram, and loved them but knew I couldn't produce something as beautiful.

But I am a notekeeper, a list maker, a journaller. I used to keep paper journals obsessively, writing every day and sticking all kinds of everything into them until they would barely shut. I have a big stash of scrap booking stuff left over from those days. I stopped journalling when I started blogging - this is my journal and is how I remember what I've done/where I've been, for the most part. But I still kept lists, of books I've read, films I've watched. So I knew a bullet journal type of book would work for me.

I tried to use one of the many notebooks I've got, but that didn't take, so last May I bought a dotted Leuchtterm in a gorgeous teal/turquoise colour. I started with lists but then I found I was sticking ephemera in too and writing about places I'd been, so I just embraced it. I don't work every day so I don't need a daily to do list like the original method advocates, so I just started writing lists and things I wanted to keep track of. I love the index feature in the front of the book, I can't tell you how many times a day I flick to that. I didn't use all of the teal notebook before Christmas, but I wanted a new book for 2019.

I've spent a lot of January setting up new trackers and getting my stationery sorted out. Lee bought me a bunch of pens for Christmas which are perfect, and Jeni brought me some new washi tape and pens when she visited in November, and I also bought a bunch of planner stickers off eBay on New Year's Eve. I've been using it for a month and thought I would share some photos even though it'll be quite a bit later by the time you read this. I'll try and do an update later in the year!

Pens! Gosh don't you love pens? I do. I've got a mixture here of Bic fineliners, some Chinese fineliners, some Pilot Frixion pens Jeni brought me and a biro. Oh and a mini ruler which I find really helpful!

My highlighter pens, also Pilot Frixion ones. I love the pastel colours of these, I use them at work as well, they travel around in my everyday pencil case whereas the other ones don't.

My Leuchtterm, I'm liking the grey.

Inside the front cover, here's a bunch of stickers. The Girls Just Wanna... one was in my diary last year so I cut it out of there and stuck it in here. Quite a few of these stickers were gifts.

The all important index.

I saw some bullet journal bloggers do this, so I did it for myself: chose words for 2019. 

Theatre and cinema tracker and my cross stitch tracker - there's a crochet one just over the page. You can see I used a Smash book cut out on this page

Letters sent and received, using old stamps (I have tons of old stamps) and a card topper on the left there.

A to do list of the stuff behind my desk (it's such a mess) and of some TV I want to watch.

Journalling about the cat, this is a scrapbook page but the cat in the picture looks just like ours!

At the back of the book I have several pages given over to books read, and also a page this year of the library books I've got. As always you can read my book reviews here. 

Happy Planner brand stickers, some of them are a bit cheesy but I like them anyway

Scrapbooking stuff, stickers, and post it notes

The Pilot Frixion pens are soooo nice to write with

Washi tape! I have so many but I love them all, these are the ones Jeni brought.

This is all the lovely gifts Jeni brought me, I love the pencil case, I'm using that for the pens above!

Do you keep a bullet journal? Do you have any questions?