A Penny For Them - Lifestyle blogger living in Essex and working in London. Writing about life, love, fun and frolics.

Penny May 1, 2019 Lifestyle

Dear Diary… A Short Break (We’re Moving House!)

It’s been a couple of months since my last “Dear Diary…” life update post and, somehow, things have been simultaneously quite quiet and really eventful at the same time. I think, realistically, I’m not going to be able to blog much in the next month or so as my free time is going to spent focussing on things that need to be done offline. Namely, we have to pack up our entire house and move – not the easiest thing when you’ve got one leg that doesn’t work properly!

So, starting at the beginning of this story, our Landlord popped round on Tuesday evening a few weeks ago to tell us that she is going to sell the house we’re currently living in. In a way it was a bolt out of the blue, but I had been harbouring a little feeling in my bones for a few weeks which told me that our time in this house was coming to an end. I don’t know why; I just knew.

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Penny April 23, 2019 Home & Garden

Celebrating Shakespeare Day (& Pushing My Boundaries) With Viking {AD-GIFTED}

Celebrating Shakespeare Day (& Pushing My Boundaries) With Viking <font size="3">{AD-GIFTED}</font>

This post contains gifted items

Happy Shakespeare Day everyone! Without a doubt one of the most important figures in both British history and in worldwide literary history, on the 23rd April every year he’s celebrated, and today I’m working with Viking to celebrate him in my very own way.

I have some really strong memories attached to Shakespeare, all in very different ways. I can still vividly recollect sitting at my desk in English class as the teacher went round the room getting everyone to read a paragraph each – I can still feel that dread and fear in the pit of my stomach, knowing it would be my turn soon, and I can feel the fire of embarrassment sweeping through my face as people heckled “We can’t hear you” as I quickly tried to read my paragraph to get the moment over and done with. But, I also have memories of a brilliant, sunny weekend in Stratford-upon-Avon last year for Ben’s birthday, visiting Shakespeare’s old haunts and being wowed that a man from such humble beginnings over 400 years ago is still such an important part of society today. I also had the pleasure of spending an evening watching the Royal Shakespeare Company performing The Merry Wives Of Windsor with the wonderful Grace last year (read her review of it here), and I think watching it being performed is definitely my favourite way of hearing his stories, although I am going to try and read some of his stuff soon and see if my brain can cope with it yet!

Anyway, Viking contacted me and said they would like to challenge me to create something in honour of the big man himself, and being an absolute stationery addicted fiend I jumped at the chance!

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Penny April 7, 2019 Fashion & Beauty

Kitting Out The Boyf: High Quality & Low Prices With Samuel Windsor {AD}

Kitting Out The Boyf: High Quality & Low Prices With Samuel Windsor <font size="3">{AD}</font>

This is a sponsored post. Contains gifted items.

There has been a lot going on in my life recently. Actually, there’s been a lot going on in my life for the past 2 years or so – I feel like I need my very own cliff-hanger score, like the duff-duff-duffs at the end of Eastenders. Sometimes it has felt like I’ve been stumbling from one stress to the next, with barely a moment to breathe inbetween, but through it all I’ve had one constant (well, four, if you count the animals) – my Ben. Throughout the worries, the illnesses, the tears, the raging anger, the bed-rest and rehabilitation, he’s been there for me every single step of the way, never faltering in his support of me.

I’ve always considered myself a very independent person, never relying on anyone other than myself, but just recently whilst I was signed off sick I was dealing with something particularly horrible and after spending an entire day in meltdown, I realised my heart and mind only stilled when he walked in the door. I guess this is what people mean when they say someone is their ‘rock’ – something I’ve never understood before. Having someone to call home rather than somewhere is something entirely new to me, but it’s pretty special and I will always be grateful to him for loving me.

Don’t worry, this post isn’t a schmooze-fest of love declarations – in fact, I want to talk to you about some items that I was sent for Ben, kind courtesy of Samuel Windsor.

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Penny March 7, 2019 APFT Book Club

My Recent Reads – January & February 2019

This post includes affiliate links

As I’ve mentioned in a few of my posts recently, at the beginning of the year I decided that I wanted to take more time out for reading. It’s such a good way of switching off and clearing the mind, and I wanted to stop wasting so much time online scrolling social media endlessly. So, I set myself a Goodreads challenge – albeit a slightly ambitious one of reading 52 books this year – and I also set up my online book club. You can read more about that here, and if it sounds up your street, you can join here.

When I’m looking for something new to read I tend to base it on recommendations. I have a whole folder of screenshots on my phone from where friends have shared the books they’ve loved and I’m adding them all to my To Be Read list. So, with this in mind, I thought it made sense to share my Recent Reads each month, and let you know what I have thought of each of them – the good, the bad and the ugly. Hopefully one of you may find a new book for your list!

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Penny March 1, 2019 Lifestyle

Dear Diary… February 2019: Recovery, Mindfulness and An Anniversary

Happy March everyone! Spring doesn’t arrive for another few weeks but with the way the weather has been recently you would think it was already here! (Not that I’ve any idea what the weather is like as I’m still stuck indoors). That said, as lovely as it is to have clear blue skies, a gentle breeze and the temperature in the high-teens and early-twenties, I can’t help but be slightly worried about what this all means. Global Warming is happening right before our eyes.

So far this year life has been pretty quiet as I’ve been on bed/sofa rest but I went to the hospital earlier this week and I have completed stage 1 of healing and am now embarking on stage 2 which is all about the quality of the final heal. I’m allowed to put my foot down on the floor now but can’t bear weight on it yet – that’s something I’ll be working on over the next 6 weeks or so and hopefully in a couple of months I’ll be able to walk without the need for crutches. Fingers crossed! To be honest, I didn’t realise it was such a long process; I think I thought it would be a few weeks and I’d be up and about, but that’s not the case. It’ll all be worth it in the end though if it’s worked.

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