Lifestyle - A Garden Makeover

When I did my post about the Liebster Award I had to think up some questions to ask my nominees and it seemed unfair to not answer them myself, too. So here goes:

1. What's your motivation for blogging?

I started blogging because I was depressed and it was to help me organise my thoughts, now I just really enjoy being able to share the things I love with anyone who might be reading! I find it a fun thing to do and it still helps me to focus and clear up space in my head.

2. Is there anything you would change about yourself and why?

I'm not a big believer in regrets, I don't think they serve much purpose and I'm pretty much the same about who I am too. I would like to lose some weight as it's not healthy to be as big as I am, but I do go to the gym regularly and I walk everywhere so I don't count myself as unfit... 

3. What's your favourite book?

Why did I ask this?! I cannot pick just one. But I suppose if I was going to be trapped on a desert island the book I would most like to have with me (other than a book on survival skills) would be Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. I've read it over and over...

4. Do you have any pets?

Um, no, but I would love a cat. 

5. Do you have a pet hate?

I hate people cracking their knuckles!

6. Who inspires you?

My biggest inspiration is probably my mum. Yeah, I know. But I always take her advice and respect her opinion. She shows me the way when I can't see it and she somehow manages to always give off a calm, yet determined, vibe.

Oh, and she smells like coffee :)

7. What's the best piece of advice you've ever been given?

You'll never know if you don't try.

8. What would you do if you won the lottery?

Buy the house I'm currently renting and do it up properly. Put in a nice arbour for my new garden. Then I would make sure all my friends had something they needed and lastly, go on a big holiday somewhere warm and sunny. Oh, and I'd give some to a couple of charities that I care deeply about... (MS Society, Cancer Research UK, RSPB, Scope, Hull Animal Welfare Trust and Dove House (and probably a couple of others as well.)) 

9. What's your next ambition?

To have a paid job!

10. What's your favourite flavour of ice cream?

As long as it's got chocolate in I'm usually good! Probably Ben and Jerry's Phish Food...

11. Are you happy right now? 

Yes. And it's been a very long time since I have been able to say that!

So, that is my contribution. I shall now leave the Liebster Award alone and you can all heave a sigh of relief! 

I mentioned in those answers that I have a new garden. What I meant by that is that I have done up my garden to such an extent it looks like a new one! My neighbour and I pruned back all the privet hedging down both sides of the garden. We also got rid of all the random debris that was at the bottom of the garden and had been left by the previous tenant. 

The right hand side, after pruning (basically this was what we did in the morning)

I have no idea why this one is so blurry, and I didn't even notice until after we'd cut all of this hedge back too! (you can see the weird structure that was left by the old tenants too...)

The agency had been meant to tidy that up, but never did.

We trimmed back the hedge at the bottom of the garden and found that there was a patch of actual earth in there. The word garden is probably an overstatement. It's a concrete yard, but much bigger then I had realised! We also sorted the gate so it actually worked as such. It took us a whole day and I spent the two subsequent days with arms that were incredibly sore...

et voila! This is before we sorted the gate, but the garden is unrecognisable from earlier...

I went out on Saturday and got some flowers to put in my new flowerbed and planted them up on Sunday. I have put 2 lupins, a verbena, 2 lavenders and some pansies in :) 

Not the neatest, but it's all mine :)

Now, I just sit back and wait for them to grow... 

Love, Pearl.

Liebster Award

I got a lovely surprise when logging in to the blog the other day. I found out I had been nominated for a Leibster Award by the beautiful Sarah over at Here You Me! (Great blog Sarah, I love your 101 in 1001 feature.) It totally took me by surprise as I had not heard of it before, but now I have and it has led me on a lovely blog discovery adventure! 

If you are not aware, a Liebster Award is a way of getting other bloggers known, shared and generally getting the word out about them, if they have under 500 followers.

A few simple rules apply - 

1. Thank the blogger who nominated you

2. Answer the 11 questions given to you

3. Nominate 11 other followers with less than 500 followers

4. Post 11 questions for your nominees to answer

5.Tag your nominees & post a comment on their blog to let them know you nominated them

These are my answers to the questions Sarah asked:

1. What one beauty product would you recommend?

I'm not terribly in to beauty products really but have always loved the range from Barry M. I do love a good manicure and have been obsessed with their colours since I was a teenager.

2. How do you plan and schedule your blogging around every day life (work, college etc.)?

Plan? What's that? Ha! Having said that at the moment I am trying to get myself organised and have proper posting days and more of an idea of what each post might be about. I have spent a lot of time recently hunting down new blogs to give me some more ideas of what I could be doing myself. My next plan is to get a custom blog design (possibly from Tea Party Beauty as I'm a little in love with her cute butterfly social media buttons!) as I really want to stamp out this blog as being my personal space.

3. What are your hobbies outside of blogging?

Crafts! All sorts of different ones. My biggest love at the moment is crochet but I also knit, draw, sew, papercraft and anything else you can think of. I'm dying to learn proper dressmaking and have had a couple of goes at making things for madam like this fairy skirt and also the top to match... I also love reading and have given myself a Reading Challenge for this year which you can follow on the blog.

4. What is your favourite TV show?

My TV died just before the Olympics in 2012 and therefore I don't get much TV watching in. But I am addicted to The Great British Sewing Bee and watch it on iplayer as soon as I can after it's been broadcast! 

5. Do you have any pets?

No :( My parents have four cats who I am frequently required to look after whilst they go on a jaunt and then I also get to look after my Dad's two tanks of fish (one tropical, one marine) the fish have been more problematic, to be honest!

6. What is your favourite gadget?
I have to go with my phone. I feel so pathetically lost without it. I don't have a lot of technology having been out of work for 5+ years whilst child-rearing, but I would really like a tablet as I think both madam and I would get a lot of use out of it. I've played with an ipad a couple of times and they are quite fun... 

7. What is your preferred area to blog about - lifestyle, fashion, beauty or something else?
I blog mainly about lifestyle. My crafts, the things I've been cooking/baking (like my new Pearl's Pantry feature), my reading and just generally what I've been getting up to and what I think about stuff. I originally started the blog when I was in the middle of a depression and it was a way for me to voice what was inside that I was finding so hard to say.

8. Which bloggers inspire you?
I really enjoy reading Sarah's blog essbeevee and like her mix of fashion, food and good books. My reading challenge was inspired by the books are amazing feature on her blog. I love Tilly and the Buttons which I started following after last years Great British Sewing Bee... I also really enjoy Thread Carefully, Dolly Clackett and Hyperbole and a Half.

9. Which is your favourite season?
I'm a Spring and Autumn kind of girl. I love all the colours bursting out all over the place after winter and the warmth of the colours as they then fade away again. The bright clarity of Spring and the crisp freshness of Autumn. I love the unexpected warm days and the way everything seems bathed in a beautiful light (have I waxed lyrical enough?). Summer is too hot and Winter is wet, cold and miserable.

10. Girls night out or night in?
Oh, night in, definitely. There's nothing I like more than having the girls round, some snacks and some booze and a really good natter. 

11. Which is your favourite high street clothes store?
At the moment it's Yours. Being a big girl I struggle to find good stuff on the high street and within my budget. This gives me good choices at prices I can afford. 

So, having answered my questions I shall move on to:

The nominees; 
1. Blooming Boo Boo at Blooming Boo
2. CraftyGoggins at CraftyGoggins
3. Mona of Mona's Miscellany
4. Stacey at peppanip 
5. Tabatha and Julia at Thread Carefully 
6. Hayley at Downs Side Up 
7. Greville of Greville and the Tombstones 
8. Michelle at Marshmallow Musings 
9. Louisa at duck in a dress 
10. Nicola at nicolabishopx 
11. Sarah Elizabeth at Scandinavian On The Inside 

And my questions for you all:
1. What's your motivation for blogging?
2. Is there anything you would change about yourself and why?
3. What's your favourite book?
4. Do you have any pets?
5. Do you have a pet hate?
6. Who inspires you?
7. What's the best piece of advice you've ever been given?
8. What would you do if you won the lottery?
9. What's your next ambition?
10. What's your favourite flavour of ice cream?
11. Are you happy right now?

I really hope that all my nominees answer the questions and I will do so myself in another post :) 

This isn't the food post I promised the other day but I have some plans in that respect for another time! 

I'm really chuffed to have been nominated and have really enjoyed getting to know some new blogs whilst finding my nominees. 

Love,  Pearl.