Outfit | Planes, Trains + CAT Boots

Hollie wears - Zara Coat | COS Dress | Topshop Leggings | Boots c/o CAT | COS Mittens | Longchamp Bag | Zara Scarf

The best things about Christmas is getting time to spend with Hollie. I never shy away from the fact that my working life can get pretty lonely at times - I usually try to combat this by going to the gym, getting out on my bike or nipping to Hollie's parents' for a coffee. The door is always open for me there. So this gone Christmas we agreed to see each other as much as possible. Granted, it either involved grabbing coffee, beer shopping, eating Toblerone or watching John Candy's filmography on our new smart tv, but it was pretty spot on. Planes, Trains + Automobiles people!

A coffee break usually ends up with us heading out to "the wall" - the light was pretty perfect on this particular day. Hollie's on her feet all day at work so these CAT Boots have been a blessing – she's all about the comfort. Trainers, boots, sandals....anything flat really. So much so she even received this really sweet book for Christmas by Hannah Rochell. It's well worth checking out if you're into footwear design + illustration. A few weeks in and the CAT boots are still her no.1 choice.

Eeeeee I don't know, she makes it look so easy.

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Nice Things #3 - Enjoying At Home

 The lads on the road

 J.R. Watkins Room Freshener picked up in Orlando

 Bloody loves these

I don't but many albums but anything Hot Chip is well worth it

Here's a few things I've been enjoying at home lately. I never seen to devote much to to reading or listening to music without it being somehow revolving around staring at a computer screen so I've been trying to fix that over the last couple of weeks.

The main thing I have been enjoying at home wouldn't be able to fit on the stool, I've been catching up with missed episodes of Africa on iPlayer, amazing. If anyone was to ask me what my dream job would be I might well now just say a wildlife cameraman. I remember the buzz around Frozen Planet a couple of years ago and it's great to here so many people enjoying this new series.

Has anyone else been watching Africa? 

Giveaway - Don't forget to enter the Pierre' Sqaures Giveaway to win a floral pocket square

Nice Things #2 - The Birthday Presents

Lexon Calculator for those sums

Paris Versus New York by Vahram Muratyan

Loads more quality reading material

Oi Polloi gift voucher, back of the net

One of THEE greatest and jazziest cards ever!

Well it's that time of the year and the friends & family have come up trumps once again. On Sunday I turned the ripe old age of 27. I'm not where I thought I would be in life but I've got a roof over my head, two part time jobs, an internship and a wonderful girlfriend so it ain't all bad. The time will come, I just need to keep positive and pro-active. 

Even though I wasn't feeling my usual chipper self on Sunday morning we got the formalities out of the way and headed down to Avenham Park to check out the last day of the Preston Guild (a celebration of brilliant people and things in the area which only comes around every 20 years!). After an ice cream and some serious dog watching we headed back and got stuck into some presents.

It was a book-heavy year with no complaints. I've been after Paris Verses New York ever since I found out the blog had been turned into a book (or was it the opposite?), check out the blog; it illustrates the differences between the two cities in the form of cartoons. Roadside America is just about the best book I own now, it's full of weird and wonderful happenings from around the States. If you're into advertising, oddities or kitsch stuff then this is the book for you. The whole gang clubbed together to get me a gift voucher for Oi Polloi in Manchester, I usually can't afford anything in there other than socks so I can treat myself to some decent clobber.

Thank you all for your birthday wishes, here to another year.

Nice Things #1 - J.R Watkins Hand Soap

J.R Watkins Aloe & Green Tea Hand Soap

You know when someone knows you when they arrive home from a holiday with your favorite hand soap. I love this stuff, J.R Watkins (I've posted about them before here) make some top notch natural products with lovely packaging to boot. But it's not a case of fake old times, this is the proper stuff. Hollie jets off the Florida a couple of times a year and always brings back ace stuff. Along with this she bought me a load of American chocolate bars and a book of old army slang, see. I've not tried the Aloe & Green Tea before but I suspect I'm in for a right treat.

I'm a no frills kind of guy, it's small stuff makes me happy. I firmly believe that lots of good small things makes the bigger more stressful things in life that much easier deal with. Whose with me?

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this yet but I've started interning at menswear store Togs + Clogs, been there for about 2 months now and everything is going good. I'm an unpaid marketing assistant right now but hopefully I can make a real difference and turn it into a paid position. You can follow my progress on their Facebook page if you wish.

Fun Times This Way

Hand Pressed print by Thursday Press c/o Not On The High Street

This post has been a long time coming, NOTHS sent over this hand made letterpress print about a month ago now and I've had a tricky time trying to find a frame to fit. Let's call it a senior moment, in our house we've never had many picture frames (if we did it's me dressed up as a shepard in the Christmas nativity) so I didn't know about what sizes fit with what. A few weeks searching for a 9x12 frame then it hit me, it's blumming a4. Doy!

Anyway NOTHS offered my a voucher to spend in their store so I picked the Dept. of Messing About print, which is now sitting on top of a pile of books in my bedroom. I picked up the frame in a charity shop for 50p. The print is 1 of 21 and has been made with the old wooden letterpress blocks, the kind you always see at flea markets.

Enjoy your weekend guys.