A Little Peek

Vix requested a close up of the piggy banks which show up in the background of some of my outfit pics and whilst I was photographing them I thought why not take a few more snaps. I'm not a particularly materialistic person; as long as I have books and cats and a cosy bed I'm quite happy. Having said that, I'm not a minimalist either. I like to surround myself with quite a lot of stuff. Here are some of the little things I love the most:

The piggy bank collection all started with a wonderful smiley face one. Alas it broke during the last house move and is no more, but owning that made people start buying me them. The big green pig was a gift from my dad, the camouflage one from my pal Lee, the name one and shoe one from my Mum. I bought myself the mushroom and Paddington boxes. The latter was from a tremendous shop in Liverpool called Utility which stocks all sorts of wonderful goodies. (The big gold A is from a salvage yard and apparently came from an old pub sign)

I often think I could quite happily live in a bookshop. I live surrounded by books as it is. There are shelves full of them everywhere, stacks at the bottom of the bed, piles dotted around the house. I've blogged about them here but the shelf in the above picture is my comfort shelf. I've read them all again and again (except The Great Roxhythe which is just dire) - you can probably tell by the state of some of them. Although I should point out most of the damage was done by previous careless owners and I'm a very good book owner and don't bend pages or break spines or suchlike.

Possibly the most beautiful shoes I own. These live tucked away in my wardrobe like the fragile and precious creatures they are, wrapped in tissue paper and sharing shelf space with my other IC heels. They don't mix with the common shoes.

Oscar, obviously.

And Toby Bear. Right, no mocking the 27 year old for still having a teddy bear, ok? He has a colourful history - many years he was the last bear in the shop and was rescued on Christmas Eve as he was lonely and dangling from a hook on the ceiling. (In deeply curious coincidence and all due to the randomness of the internet, I am now friends with the person who climbed up the ladder to unhook him, who then also turned out to be my next door neighbour when I was 1!) I like to imagine that he has a crazy life when I'm out at work.

(note - I do not promote ursine over-indulgence in banned substances - it's cornflour)

Ah, my beautiful hatboxes. A hat that would fit on my ginormous noggin would no way fit in them as they're not that big but I find them just the right size for stashing hair bands etc and bangles in. I've had them for years and they've suffered a bit from sun damage but the pattern is just as beautiful as ever. Makes me dream of being a grand Regency lady...