Filofax A5 Turqoise Patent Domino + My Birthday Present Haul

It was my birthday on Wednesday and I thought I would share with you the things that I was so lucky enough to receive. I felt (and still do) feel very loved. All my friends and family were so kind and thoughtful and generous and I got some lovely things. They all know me so well as you will see from the video, everything is just so me!



Some of the presentd I kinda didn't want to open, I mean I did because I wanted to see what was inside but the packaging was just so amazing that it seemed a shame to ruin it. I instantly thought of Julie Andrews and her voice has been going round in my head..."brown paper packages tied up with string" it is true isn't it, they are one of your favourite things especially when they are this pretty!

Mr B told me on Tuesday morning as he was leaving for work that he was expecting two parcels and that I wasn't to touch them or snoop. I mean seriously when someone says that to you, what are you going to do? That's right you are going to try to squeeze, shake and try to work out the contents of the box. I knew it was for me otherwise he wouldn't have said that, the other giveaway was that the box was covered in Colemans tape and Mr B never buys stationery!

Well on Wednesday when I opened my presents I discovered that it was what I thought it was. I had a good hunch as I tipped Jon off that Colemans had 30% off Filofaxes at the moment, he listened and he bought me the A5 Domino in patent turqoise. Oh my goodness, it looked lovely from photos on the net but in really life it is absolutely stunning. I love it so much!

I will be back at some point to share with you my set up. I have two A5 Filofaxes on the go already, one is a journal and the other is a home maintenace / household binder. All my other planners are personal size. One of my personal size planners houses all the information for the fur babies but I am finding this size not working. All the invoices and information the vets give us is A5 so time to upgrade the size of the girls planner! Of course I will show you how I set that up and everything. I have a few things in the pipeline I need to share, I just need to find the time in which to do it as life just seems so busy at the moment. Best use a planner to plan in some time then huh!

Anyways my lovlies, I hope you enjoyed seeing what I was very kindly given, I know a lot of you like hauls so you can discover new products yourself and just have a nosey, I know I do. I vlogged on my birthday as we went to London for the day and I have popped that in below if you would like to watch it. See you soon!

Book Review - The Ravens Head by Karen Maitland

Auther: Karen Maitland
Publisher: Headline Review (12 Mar. 2015)
ISBN: 978-1472215062

From the back:

A gothic delight, swirling with the smoke of alchemy about a young man whose clumsy attempt at blackmail leaves him master of a raven's head ... the Alchemical symbol of death 

The Raven's Head by Karen Maitland, author of the bestselling and much-loved Company of Liars, will delight fans of Kate Mosse or Deborah Harkness seeking a new, dark fix.


'A compelling blend of historical grit and supernatural twists' Daily Mail on The Falcons of Fire and Ice


Vincent is an apprentice librarian who stumbles upon a secret powerful enough to destroy his master. With the foolish arrogance of youth, he attempts blackmail but the attempt fails and Vincent finds himself on the run and in possession of an intricately carved silver raven's head.


Any attempt to sell the head fails ... until Vincent tries to palm it off on the intimidating Lord Sylvain - unbeknown to Vincent, a powerful Alchemist with an all-consuming quest. Once more Vincent's life is in danger because Sylvain and his neighbours, the menacing White Canons, consider him a predestined sacrifice in their shocking experiment.


Chilling and with compelling hints of the supernatural, The Raven's Head is a triumph for Karen Maitland, Queen of the Dark Ages.

My Review

OK so let me start by saying that this book really is as macabre as it says it is and even lurid at times! At times I was not sure if I liked it because it tugged on a slight moral thing for me (I really don't want to say what because I don't want to ruin the story!) but then I had to remember that it is set in an age where things are very different to how we live now. I am not sure when this is set but I kind of want to say medieval!?

I really struggled to get into Karen Maitland's 'The Vanishing Witch" and to some extend I did a little with this book but once I got into it, I was into it! The first half of the book, like many I read, was fairly slow going but you do have to bear with it because it really is setting the scene and weaving all of the details for what is to come later on in the book. Without all that it probably wouldn't make much sense.

From the start of the book we follow three 'sets' of people whose stories all come together at the end of the book into something quite alarming and very interesting. So you have all heard of the philosophers stone in Harry Potter right? Well erase all that and you will see alchemy in a very different way.

This book was addictive in the end and left me wanting more which I always think is a really good sign for a book and they way it was left means there could quite easily be a sequel!

My Life in a Book

How do you fancy having your entire life in one book? As a journaller and planner this sort of thing really does appeal to me greatly so I was really excited when the Author, Stephanie Dipple reach out to me and asked if I would be able to review her book. Well as you are reading this you know that I said yes lol! Would you like to look at the book first hand with me...



Stephanie has self published this book and I can see that she has put a lot of work into it. My initial thoughts were that I didn't like the cover as if this book is to last you a life time and you are constantly flicking through it over time it is going to become a bit dog eared and tatty. That being said it is just a cover and you could easily buy a nice cover for it so I wouldn't stop that from me going for it.

Having looked through it (I haven't used it because some of the responses would be waaaaaay to private and then I wouldn't be able to share it with you!) I think you could either write directly into the book or in some or all cases you might like to use this as a prompt book for writing into your journal. There are two reasons why I say you might want to put the details in your journal

1. Some of the sections have lots of room to write and others have very little so depending on your answers you may not have enough room to write.
2. The pages are plain white with the same Times New Roman font in (font I like as it is easy to read and very accessible) so by using your journal you could decorate, doodle and embellish further. Some people may not want to but I am a visual person so I need more colour in my life!
3. Some of your answers may change. For example my favourite colour now is totally different to what it was a couple of years ago. You may want to journal about those things regularly as they change.

So let's go over the negative aspects:
1. Flimsy cover - easily rectified
2. Plain non decorated interior - easily rectified
3. Some questions do not have much room to write - easily rectified
4. Some of the questions may be triggers / require you to go a bit deep so just be aware of that if this is something that you think may affect you.
5. Responses to questions may change - easily rectified

And the positives
1. Lots of prompts especially areas that you may not have thought about before
2. You can dip in and out and choose what you want to answer and when

As you can see the negative aspects are mostly all rectifiable if you use the book as a prompt to transfer into a journal. It all depends on how you would want to use the book.

Final thoughts
Overall I really like the idea of this book and you can see that Stephanie has put a lot of thought and energy into it. I would perhaps like the inside and cover to be more visually appealling but this may not have been possible with a self published work and it would be great if this could have a second publish to rectify that. A great book of prompts for new or seasoned journallers and a legacy you could leave behind, depending of course on whether you wanted to leave responses to all the questions! There are many of these types of books out there so I hope Stephanie doesn't get overlooked by the ones that are supported by big publishing houses as overall the actual written element of the book is great. Some really good prompts to get you thinking and as the book says - discover yourself!

Let me give you all of the details so that if you are interested in purchasing this book you can find it:

Author: Stephanie Dipple
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (10 Nov. 2014)
ISBN-13: 978-1503113275
Amazon link here

PLEASE NOTE: I was given this / these product(s) in exchange for my honest review and opinion, the fact that I was given these does not alter my opinion in anyway. This review is my own personal opionion on the product / company, given in good faith and has not be sponsored or endorsed. The photography unless otherwise stated / credited is also my own. None of the links are affiliate links

This weeks page decoration - My Birthday Week!

Well as you know I received my Websters Pages Color Crush planners on Friday and of course I have moved in! I had a little trouble trying to decide on which colour to go for first, I know planner problems right! Anyway it is my birthday this week and so I decided that it would be rather fitting to use the gold planner. Who doesn't love a bit of gold! I don't like wearing gold jewellery but I do like other gold things and this planner is no exception!

I haven't fully moved in yet so for now I have literally just decorated my pages for this week but rest assured I will be back next week to show you more of this beauty and how I have set it up. So for now here are this weeks pages...

Products Used
Planner: Websters Pages Color Crush Planner in Gold (Available in March)
Planner Inserts: Websters Pages week on two pages
Washi Tape: Happy Birthday tape was from my Etsy shop but has been discontinued by the manufacturer (sorry). All other tape is from Just Keep Pinning
Journal Card: Websters Pages Happy Storyteller 1
Dashboard: From Just Keep Pinning

I used the 'make a wish' card as I am rather hoping the Mr B might make me a birthday card and that I will have candles to blow out. He loves baking as you know if you follow his YouTube channel and he does love to experiment each year with a different cake bless him!

My Splodge Bear Dashboards

If you have been following me for a while now you will know that I have four bunnies (and two piggies) and they are my life as well as my inspiration. I am always drawing bunnies and have even shared how to draw a bunny tutorial with you. Many of you have been following my darling Splodgey's journey into old age and her battle with her cancers. It is with deep sadness that I write to say on Thursday night we had to say good bye to the sweetest, kind hearted little bunny there ever was. OK one of because all bunnies are beautiful. I am sharing this for a couple of reasons. Firstly because so many of you have been a part of our lives through my vlogs and social media and have been very supportive and I just wanted to let you all know that she is no longer with us. Obviously we are very sad but it is a weird sadness because we also knew that this day was imminent, she was old and poorly and it was inevitable. We are dealing with this in our own way. I wanted to let you know this way as I don't know if I could share that well in my vlogs without breaking down. Anyway, please don't feel bad for us and I don't want this post to be about sadness or sorrow, instead I want it to be positive which leads me onto...

I really wanted to do something for my darling girl as a little legacy or memory. She has an amazing story (which I will share below) and I feel that should live on some how. But how to do that? Well I came up with the only idea that a planner loving person could. As part of my processing of Splodge's passing I took to the paint and paintbrushes and painted my own little version of my little girl and it is then that the idea hit me!

I have turned my little painting into a dashboard in a way that I do with many of my paintings and this is now for sale over in my Etsy shop as both personal and A5.

An A5 dashboard costs £3.50 and a personal dashboard costs £2.50 and I will be donating ALL of the money from a purchase of the Splodgey dashboard to a rabbit rescue charity. Splodge was a rescue and she has been such an inspiration to us with her warm heart and funny little character. I wanted to put something back to rescues for the amazing work that they do in caring for these darling animals and also to help give both a bunny and a forever family they chance to be together. I have found a rescue that is in my home County of Cambridgeshire here in the UK and they are called 'The Rabbit Residence'. I will be paying the Etsy and PayPal transaction fees and also for the prints and materials so 100% of the purchase price will be going directly to the rescue.

Please don't feel pressured or 'guilt tripped' into feeling like you have to buy a dashboard but if you would like to then that would be fantastic. This was the only way I thought of as a memory and legacy for this darling little girl.

To purchase the dashboards please click on these links: A5 Here and Personal Here.

Thank you so much everyone for all your support and continued support, it truly means so much to me and I have met so many wonderful friends through blogging and YouTube. I created a video to share and talk more about this:



Splodgey's Story

In October 2010 Splodge and Nibbles were taken in by a friend of ours as they badly needed a home. My friend knew the home that they were from and sadly it was a home with domestic abuse and violence. My friend took them in temporarily as due to ill health she was not able to give them a permanent home. Splodge was 4 and Nibbles was 3. When they came to us they were both very shy, timid bunnies who could not bear to be touched most bunnies can be a bit timid when moving to a new home but this was more fear than anything and they hated Jon! Splodgey used to sit a bit funny and we wondered what that was all about and the vet confirmed to us that at some stage in her life she had had all of her legs broken and they hadn't set back in the proper place. She was mostly fine they were just missaligned which caused her to sit with them at an angle. In her long life these have never once shown to bother her. She was a very strong willed little girl who very much knew her own mind. She was a dedicated Mummy to Nibbles and was always very protective of her. Through lots of love, care and understanding they both grew to be very confident and comfortable around us and even used to take treats from out of our hands. With any bunnies you need to build up their trust and confidence and this was more the case with this pair. Unfortunately in February 2014 Splodge developed a growth on her tummy and at the time the vet only gave her 3 months to live. We so couldn't believe this given how much she was bounding round the house and tucking into her carrot and the vet was proved wrong. At the end of the year Splodge took a downward turn and had problems with her teeth which I discuss in the video below:



She recovered pretty well and was back to her fairly usualy self although she was starting to slow down like most old folks do. A few weeks ago she had yet more problems with her teeth and we then found out that the cause of that was a tumour in her mouth causing her teeth to be pushed. She was still so lively and wanted to eat but couldn't so she moved on to soft food. We kept umming and ahhhing as to what to do, do we put her down? But she was still so happy and lively, we couldn't put a healthy lively bunny down like that. Until the day she went she was still so full of joy and a zest for life. That is Splodge's story. We love you baby, thank you for lighting up our life and filling us with so much joy and inspiration x

Websters Pages Color Crush Planner / Folio / Accessories Unboxing

As you know (because I may have mentioned it one or two times!) I was lucky enough to be chosen to be one of the design team member for the Websters Pages Color Crush Planner. I received my box of goodies today and I thought I would film an unboxing of the planners and associated goodies that I received. This is just a quick over view and I will do individual videos on each planner to give you a more in depth look.



To find out more about Websters Pages please visit: http://websterspages.com/

If you are in the UK you can purchase from Create and Craft and also from: http://www.craftie-charlie.co.uk

Why not come and join in the discussions in the Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ColorCrushPlannerLove/?fref=ts

Please do follow me on social media as I will be sharing my adventures with these planners!

Places you can find me:

Instagram: http://instagram.com/mrsbrimbles#
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MrsBrimble
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MrsBrimbles
Tumblr: http://mrsbrimbles.tumblr.com/
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/mrsbrimbles/

I haven't been journalling...

I haven't been journalling for a while as you know if you read my blog post on where I have been of late. It is largely journalling and creative past times that fuels my creativity and inspiration for blogging and such likeand I just thought I would sit down and vlog about it a bit. Oh and Florence Tinkerbell makes an appearance!

Cute Blog Award

 

Thank you so much Charlie for nominating me for the Cute Blog Award. If you don't already know Charlie, go and visit her over at: heycharlieblog.com/
Charlie has a planner too and is a stationery lover so you will find lots over on her blog to interest you for sure!

Right then so there are some rules and those are...

• Thank the person that nominates you
• Answer the following questions
• Tell my readers something new about me
• Nominate your own favourite blogs!

Ok so the questions I need to answer (and my answers of course!)

• What is your “go to” brand of makeup? I don't really have a 'go to' brand to be honest. I don't wear that much make up and I am always changing what I wear! Currently I am wearing... Be a Bombshell Csometics, Oxnex Eyeliner, Rimmel Scandal Eyes Retro Mascara, Boots No7 Blusher in Nude, Benefit Highbeam & Chanel lipstick in 23 Rouge coco. I have other makeup including eyeshadows but I am prefering a more natural look at the moment.
• What is your favorite fashion trend? Oh gosh, I really don't know! I don't think I have a trend particularly. I tend to just wear what I fancy / what I like. I do seriously need to update my wardrobe a bit. I don't know who I am fashion wise anymore!
• What is your favorite dessert? Bannoffee Pie. Always!
• What is your favorite color? Mint / Teal
• What is your middle name? I don't have one. My parents couldn't think of a name that went well with Anna that they both liked. Possibles were Mariah or Saphire but they could never agree so I am just Anna.
• What is the last song you listened to? Whilst writing this actually, I usually play music whilst on the computer. That song is Talking Heads, Burning down the house.
• Dogs or cats? Definitely dogs although I haven't had a dog since I was 18.

Now to tell you something you all don’t know about me…

• I always hate these...what don't you know about me that won't make me look odd or weird lol! hmmmm.....to choose one thing...OK so sticking with the name thing and my parents, my Dad nicknamed me 'worm' when I was little as I used to wiggle like a little wiggly worm and he still calls me it today. Or Babe. He calls me that too.

OK so who to nominate...and please go and check them out!

1. Lynn from Plannerbug: plannerbug.com who blogs all about planners
2. Ingrid & Sofie from The Prudent Pair: theprudentpair.tumblr.com a blog about thrift shopping.

3. Charlotte from The Robin's Nest: therobinsnest86.weebly.com a blog about planners
3. Zoe from a New Chapter: zoea2812.blogspot.co.uk a beauty blog

Thanks so much Charlie that was fun!

Did you know Filofax do bags?

Did you know that Filofax also sells bags? Well I didn't, not until last year when I was browsing on the Filofax website. To be perfectly frank I have never purchased a Filofax directly from Filofax, usually I have bought my planners from another shop like Rymans or Paperchase but never directly.

If you remember back in November I won a Blogger competition with Filofax to come up with the idea for their next Blogger challenge. As my prize I was allowed to choose a few items from their website to keep for myself. Of course I didn't keep everything for myself, I never do but somethings I did and guess what...one of those things was a bag!

OK so why did this planner loving person opt for a bag over a planner? It would be most logical to go for a planner wouldn't it! Well it is no secret that I have one or two planners so I didn't technically "need" a new planner, although there are plenty that are on my one day wish list. So when browsing and trying to decide what I should go for I came across the Filofax bag section and one in particular caught my eye.

Now I have often said this over on my vlogging channel but I am not a clothes person. I wrote a guest blog post over on the Prudent Pair blog about that too! Arts and crafts stuff, yes but clothes not so much. I do like to look at clothes and accessories but never really find something that I like, anyway rather than repeat what I said in my blog post for the Prudent Pair why not read about it here They are a fledgling blog so would really appreciate the support. I am not a bag person, however this bag really caught my eye. I wasn't sure what it was about it, whether it was the colour or the style but I just knew that I had to have it!

I have held off posting a review about it because I like to give things a good road test before sharing a review. I think it is very important to get to really know a product and how it works before sharing an opinion. You may say that three months is too much time and I should know sooner than that, well as a general rule I don't use this style of bag that often. I prefer a cross body bag when I am out shopping because I like to have my hands free for browsing and carrying my shopping. There are times though when I want this style of bag or a bigger one. There are times when I need to carry a lot or I need to 'smarten up', you know that sort of thing. I told you I am not massively into clothes so I only have a couple of bags. My larger bag in this sort of style gave up the fight not long before I won the competition so I did need something to replace it so it was rather timely. Because I don't use this style of bag all that often this bag hasn't seen that much action so only now do I feel confident to write and share my review.

Well firstly I love the colour. On the website it is listed as 'bright blue' and well yes I think that is a very accurate description. In fact they also have this bag in black and burnt orange and I did struggle to decide on which colour to go for. The black is very classic and no doubt would go with everything but the two colours were calling out to my heart. I wear a lot of blue so that is purely what I based my decision on and nothing else. I am glad that I did go for that colour as it is stunning in every way but I do still love that burnt orange...

When it arrived it was in a dust bag tote which was nice to see it was protected. This is my very first leather bag so I don't really know what to expect from it or what to look for. As I said I am by no means a fashion blogger or guru and know nothing about these things. I can only speak as I find which I am sure is only a good thing as this way you get a very honest opinion. I don't know what to look out for and review in terms of composition and findings and all that jazz, is that even what one calls it? So here you go, here is my review. It's a nice bag. There you go thanks for reading, bye! he he! No in all seriousness, I really like it.

The bag is of the same quality that I have come to expect from other high end Filofax products. The grain of the leather is very similar to my Finsbury Filofax planner, I don't know if it is the same but it is very similar to me anyway. The zipper has leather tabs and there are little tabs at the end of the zipper with Filofax stamped into it so anyone could see that brand. I don't think you would purchase this bag to 'show off' the brand neccessarily as I don't think many people who are into bags would recognise this and appreciate the quality and value. Filofax and planner people would but I am not sure if you were not in this community if you would. I mean if I were spending this money on a bag and I wasn't into my planners, I probably wouldn't give this bag a second look and would probably opt for a 'well known bag name'. Such a shame as it is such a lovely bag it really is. It has a beautiful construction and I am very happy with it. The only thing I will say is that it needs to have 'things' in it in order to look good as other wise it has a squishy look to it, what I mean is that the sides sort of start to fall in a bit. The more that is in it, the more padded out it gets and looks much nicer from the outside. The bag on it's own is of a fairly sizeable weight without anything in it though so I would want to watch what I am cramming in there! The handles are very sturdy and even stand up on their own too which I really like.

Overall I am really pleased with it. The bag is stylish and fits in with my style. It is practical as well as looking good and I know that it is sturdy and durable and of a good quality to hopefully last a long time. I think I will get tired of this bag before it wears out!

So this post is just my review on thoughts on the bag in general and on the outside of the bag. I am planning to do a whole other blog post on the inside as, well, the inside is rather lovely. That and I thought you gals might like to see what I carry in there and can get in there too!

Well as a non fashion blogger and someone who doesn't 'style' outfits I don't think I did too badly! This is just me and what I would normally wear so you can see how a 'real' person would wear and use this bag. I like to keep it real he he!

I will be back soon with an inside look / tour for you so stay tuned for that. If there is anything else you would like to know about this bag then please do let me know so that I can include it in my next post for you.

I am not sure where this bag retails other than on the Filofax website but here are the details:

Calipso Handbag by Filofax
Bright Blue Leather, also available in Black & Burnt Organge
Product Code: 828033
RRP: £139.00

Material Exterior: soft leather with a small grain texture

Material Interior: external leather and polyester lightly corded lining - colour matched to leather

Height: 440mm

Width: 354mm

Depth: 85mm

Closure Detail: reverse nylon zip with two leather zip pulls.

PLEASE NOTE: I was given this product as my prize winnings from Filofax. I have not been asked to give a review, this was given to me as a prize only. The fact that I was given these does not alter my opinion in anyway. This review is my own personal opionion on the product / company, given in good faith and has not be sponsored or endorsed. The photography unless otherwise stated / credited is also my own. None of the links are affiliate links

This weeks pages - Feelin' Foxy!

I am sticking with a lovey dovey kinda mood this week, mainly because I decorated my pages on Friday so not even valentine's day and I am still feeling the romance!

Products Used
Planner: Filofax Personal Ochre Malden
Planner Inserts: My Grid Won2P
Stickers: Target $1 spot (sent to me by a friend!)
Washi Tape: From the Idea Owl

February Brimbles Box Reveal

It's February Brimbles Box reveal time! I know most have you have probably seen what is in the box from various social media platform shares but I like to make sure that most have you have recieved your box before I do an 'official' reveal here!

So what was in the box this month?

The lovely Alexis was one of my guest bloggers this month and you can watch her unboxing below or carry on reading for photos and a description:



There are more videos in the YouTube Brimbles Box playlist if you would like to see what other people thought of their box. These are all honest opinions!

So of course as always we start with a postcard from me:

So every box had the same items in:

Washi / Paper tape roll - Various valentines designs
Signo Uniball Pen in pink with pink ink
2 x White corrector tape which together make a heart shape
Pack of cute stickers (80 in total)
Booklet of 180 cupcake themed sticky notes and page flags
Box of macaron / macaroon pencil erasers

The lovely folks who received a planner box either in personal or A5 would have received one of the following dashboards which as you know is a reproduction of my art work.

Along with a Snoopy planner charm

And for the lovely folks who opted for a Stationery box they received a lovely tin to put all their little bits and bobs in

I hope you all enjoyed your boxes! If you like what you saw but missed out, don't worry, I do still have some boxes left aaaaaaand I have a discount code for you which gives you £5.00 off from now through to Monday after valentine's day. That is my valentines present to you! Just code code: Happyvday in the check out.

The March boxes ship at the end of February so there is still plenty of time to order a one off box or to take out a monthly subscription.

Lots of love
A x

It's been all go here!

Hello everyone. Things have been a bit slow and quiet on the little old blog front haven't they? To be fair I have also been quiet on YouTube too! I am still posting regularly over on instagram although naughty me, I am a day or two behind on the daily photo challenege but I have time to catch up.

So what has been going on here in Anna land? Well this last week or so has been a whirlwind of crazy in the Brim household. We have been without hot water or heating for days and it is going to be yet more days until we get some. Argghhhhh! Not good for winter although it is milder than it has been thankfully. We had our boiler serviced but in doing so it was then condemned as they found out it was leaking and very dangerous. Not good indeed. The past week I have had a British gas engineer here every day. EVERY DAY. For hours at a time. Hopefully today the new boiler will be ordered and it can be installed early next week. You don't realise how much you rely on one until you don't have it. Oh and who knew boilers cost so freaking much! Geeez it's like taking out a new mortgage. It is old so I guess it was only a matter of time but still! So between phone calls and house visits with British Gas, we have been snuggling to keep warm and boiling the kettle every time we want warm / hot water. Fun times!

My darling girls have had their ups and downs this week. Splodgey as you know has been up and down the past few months with her health. She is 9 and has a tumour on her tummy which isn't bothering her at all, there has been no change but she has now developed one on her mouth. The vets says she is not in any pain but it is interfering with her eating. She is still a happy bunny and enjoys sitting and watching the babies play around. She prefers to just sit and watch them rather than joining in but she is still happy. She comes running out in the morning to say hello which melts my heart every single day. She has slowed down loads, like most old folks do I guess and she is also a lot more cuddly lately. This is a big thing as both Splodge and Nibbles came from a home with domestic abuse and at some point they had their legs broken. When we first got them it took a while for them to accept us and they weren't keen on being touched. So for Splodge to be all cuddley and want to be held is a massive thing. Like a lot of old folks she can't chew hard stuff any more so she is on mushed up food. As I say she is still happy and lively, she just needs help to eat. Mummy has to syringe her some food every now and then and all food she is eating has to be wet, soft and mushy. We know we have that awful time approaching, goodness knows when, of, you know, making that final decision. Never a nice thing to think about or have to do.

Nibbles too has a problem with her teeth and had to have an operation on her molars. She was a good girl and got through the operation with no problems and has been eating like a trooper ever since. With Splodge slowing down, Nibbles has been taking over the parenting of the babies. Luna Petunia Macaroon and Florence Tinkerbell (yes I know!!!!!) have settled in nicely and I now call them my three amigos. They are inseperable which is lovely. As I say Splodge just likes to watch. Oh my goodness the babies have sooooooooo much energy it is crazy. They are into everything and anything, it is exhausting just watching but it is nice to have them around and has given Nibbles a spring in her step which is lovely to see.

The piggies are as cheeky as ever. They were so funny the other day, I thought I was going to have a complaint from British Gas about one of their members of staff having been harrassed. The whole time he was working on the boiler (which is in their room), Betty was whoooooping at him, starring at him and pacing up and down her house every where he went in the room. It was quite funny really!

It only took us a year and a half but we finally found furniture that we both liked and it was delivered last Friday. I love it and it makes the living room look nice and homely. The babies sneak in there every now and then even though they know they are not allowed, they are chewers and I just don't want them chewing my new furniture! All of my photos in this post are taken from my instagram feed because I am too lazy to take some photos. I will soon though and show you what it looks like. I love it and couldn't be happier. We went for the Cambridge range from Next.

What else is there to update you on? Well I have quite a few things in the pipeline that I am working on behind the scenes as it were and hopefully it won't be too long before I can show and tell! One of the things is I am talking to a lovely high end company in the States about stocking their products so hopefully I will be able to update you on that soon.

I am working on some new printable planner inserts but as with all of my inserts I like to give them a good 'road test' before I release them for free or for sale. As all of my inserts are ones that I use too so I gotta make sure that they work and don't need any tweaks or anything. Hopefully I will be able to show those off in the coming weeks.

Talking of showing off, I know that my Websters Pages Color Crush planner in winging it's way to me and I am giddy excited about getting that and showing it off. Eeeeek, I seriously can't contain my excitement. Please tell me that other people get this excited by new planners!

I have been working hard on the next Brimbles Box which is the March one, due to dispatch at the end of February. I hope you like it. I have been working hard to find new suppliers and to put it together for you. I will be revealing the contents of the February box, probably tomorrow. I know a lot of you have probably seen it but I don't like to do an official reveal here on the blog until I know that people have received theirs and I know my friends in the States take a little longer.

mmmm yes lastly (as I know this is a rather long blog post now!) I for a while now have wanted to change the design elements of the blog and website but wasn't sure in what direction. I was just growing bored of it you know. I don't know why, I just was and fancied a change so this morning I got up and decided to change my logo, graphics and design elements. What do you think? I like it, it is much more in keeping with what I wanted. I wanted something much 'cleaner', classic and versatile which I think this is now. I would love to know what you think too!

Right then me dears, I am going to end this post now before it becomes huge!!! I am sure there is more to update you on lol! So hopefully I will be back with more blog and youtube content soon. oh p.s. please check out my friends blog The Prudent Pair as I have been guest blogging over there. They are a fledgling blog so they would love to have some support.

TTFN x

This Week's Pages - Valentine's Love Bugs!

I felt more in a doodling kind of mood this week so doodle I did do. He he I felt that was going to turn into a little song then! Well as it is Valentine's week I thought I would go for a love bug theme.

Products Used
Planner: Filofax Personal Ochre Malden
Planner Inserts: My Grid Won2P
Stickers: Hearts, arrow and banner from My Mind's Eye, Cupid's arrow
Journal Card: My Mind's Eye, Cupid's arrow
Dashboard: Love Bug from my Etsy Shop

I haven't doodled on my pages for ages. (What is wrong with me today, that rhymed and again I felt like bursting into song!!) I really enjoyed it and I should so do it more often, I know I should because that is how I first started with my inserts. I should go back to my roots more often but then, I do love my stickers. Who doesn't love to play with stickers?

Irealised that I might not actually have that much room to write this week so I added a journalling card so that I could use that for little lists and notes and such like. I mean I have a to do list and note section in my planner which I use daily but it is also nice to keep details in your week as well so that they are there at the quickest of glances. OK it was also an excuse to use this journal card as it matches he he!

So one side is red chevron and I can write on in black and the other has a design on it but I can write on it with my white uniball signo which I love!

Of course my week wouldn't be complete without a matching dashboard now would it!

If you like the look of my love bugs and would like something similar for this valentine's week, or any week for that matter, I have ladybugs over in my Etsy shop.

Hope you have a lovely week everybody and enjoy your Valentine's Day if you celebrate. Mr B and I aren't really one for going to a restaurant or anything all lovey dovey but I am sure we will do something. I have a great gift lined up for him and I will be sharing it with you soon because it is related...

#plannernerd Merchandise!

I don't know why but I woke up really early today, we are talking 5am which for me is early especially in the winter time when it is dark outside and all I want to do is hibernate under my warm duvet. Anyway I thought I might as well get up and be productive and I thought you might like to see what I did...

I was sketching and doodling and drinking tea. I love the hashtag #planneraddict and
#plannernerd and suddenly the idea hit me to combine it all and so my little
#plannernerd was born. She is actually going to be a dashboard available in my Etsy shop (personal size only) within the next week or so because I just fell in love with her. So if you like her watch out for that. Anyway I thought she would look really cool on a mug and I really fancied her on a mug so I hopped on over to Society6 and uploaded my artwork and she is now over there available as certain merchandise. What do you guys think?

You can also get it as stationery which I think would be great to send a card to a fellow #plannernerd lol!

 

Why not pop on over to my Society6 which is available at: www.society6.com/annabrim as I will be uploading some of my other artwork over the coming weeks. Do you have any of your favourite dashboards that you would like to see in other products?

My little winter bunny dashboard, this one...

is already over ther as a mug and cushion and all that jazz!

What do you think? I think I might be a little bit addicted now to seeing how my artwork looks on mugs etc. If you have any favourites you have of my artwork please let me know and I will prioritise those first.

Please note with Society6 I have no control over pricing. I upload my artwork and Society6 set the price and it is Society6 that you will deal with for your ordering etc but as the artist I do get a (very) small cut of the sale. Seriously I get like 50p or £1 but it is the best way I have found to offer variety of products without me having to order 5000 of each item lol!

January Fauxbonichi Flip Through

It is time again to share with you my journal pages from the last month in my Fauxbonichi. I have been blown away by the amount of people who asked if I will share again this month. I am incredibly flattered that so many of you would like to see my pages so of course, here is my flip through. I hope you enjoy watching it as much as I enjoy creating my pages and then revisiting them again.

I also like to pick out a few of my favourite pages to share in photograph form here on the blog. I think Tigger has to be my top fav though!!