Working, Walking & Wishing-you-were-here!

Hallo hallooo everyone, and welcome back to a new blog! I'm writing this one for the first time in a long time from lovely Anglesey, where I will now be living full time, which is terribly exciting! At the moment I am playing student again and living back in my childhood bedroom while I begin house-hunting for a cosy home for Farren and myself here in Wales. It was honestly a bit of a shock to the system to be back here full time, but oh blimey, have I missed it! I didn't really realise how much I did miss it until I was back here, and it sounds a silly thing to say but you really appreciate it when you've gone away and come back again. It is such a stunning place to live, and everywhere you look is remarkably picturesque. There's also such a lovely sense of 'home' here, because of the small town charm of the place and the fact that almost everybody knows each other! I'd forgotten that aspect of it until I went to look at a flat in the town, and the estate agent who works across the road from my Mum and I had also previously worked with Farren in a restaurant! Not only this, but the flat I viewed also previously belonged to another girl we both knew at school. Incredible, really, but that's the sort of place that it is, and it's wonderful. (This might sound like your worst nightmare but it's actually a really lovely family-ish feeling, everyone knows one another and it's quaint and cute and homey. Is homey a word? It just looks like I've mis-spelled honey. Now I'm questioning 'mis-spelled.' Please excuse me, it's quite late and I'm very sleepy!) Since coming back home, I've also kick-started a new healthy eating/healthy living lifestyle, since I'll be officially graduating next Summer, and those pictures (the ones of the graduate in the cap and gown smiling in the sun, usually next to a tree or something) seem to last a lifetime, so I want to make sure I look at least okay in them! Not just that but as some of you may well know, I have just finished working at Thorntons. Now, as one may expect, although working there was good for me in a lot of different ways, it was not good for the waistline, as I'm sure you can imagine! Everything there was absolutely divine, and with temptation around me constantly, it required an iron clad will not to give in to that temptation. Ladies and gentlemen, I simply do not have iron clad will! As such, since moving back, I have started to eat healthier and also I've started running with my Mum. Mum has been on a health kick for a while now and she is doing incredibly well, I'm so proud (and also insanely jealous) of the progress she's made, so now that I'm back under her roof, I'm going to try to give her a run for her money. (Pun absolutely intended!) So we've been going running together, and this evening, we decided to go for a brisk walk around Beaumaris front, because it was a beautiful day and the views, as usual, were incredible. (Why a 'brisk walk' and not a run, I hear you ask - it was so hot and we'd had such a busy day at work, it was all we could do to remain standing, let alone run! So a brisk walk it was.) A brisk walk with the occasional quick rest to take some pictures! (And even some selfies...We had to really, didn't we?)

Panoramic Perfection

Selfie 01

Pier

Selfie 02

Since being back, it has been a bit frantic, however, as tomorrow morning I will be dropping off a selection of our range to a very exciting new stockist. I'll keep their identity a secret for now, but we've been busy bees trying to get it organised, along with the printing and arrival of some brand new designs! Now available in cards and mugs (Partyin' Puffin not available in mugs just yet) are the following...

Partyin' Puffin! Puddin' has got himself in the party mood with some balloons, cake, and even a party hat!

Menai the turtle, more info to come on this terrific turtle baby soon so keep your eyes peeled!

And last but certainly not least, in fact one of my favourite puffin pals I think, Hamish the Highland cow!

So what with all this going on, as well as flat hunting, commissions and walking/starving (not really but no chocolate sadly so I might as well be starving), it's been a bit of a whirlwind week! Ah, it's okay, I hear you say, it's bank holiday weekend tomorrow so you'll have some time to catch up on everything...Nope! Working in retail means that a bank holiday weekend is in fact usually one of our busier times, so if anything, I'm going to be even more busy! I don't mind at all though, and like I said previously (I think in last week's blog post...it's getting hard to keep track!) I actually much prefer to be busy than idle. It's a bit dangerous to leave this imagination with too much time for itself, that's when then more quirky doodles come out! Better to be focused, I think. With that, and the fact that I have to be up very early tomorrow and it is shockingly late (I'm not even going to tell you what time it is, those amongst you who are not night owlies like myself would be stunned and horrified I think), and so I am off to sleep! As always, thanks for reading, and I'll catch you next week, Rachel x

P.S. Good luck to all those poor souls in the midst of exams, I empathize so much since it was only last year that I took my final exam! xox