Sweater weather. That's how I'd describe it at the moment; spates of sunny intervals while the breeze picks up. Operation keep cosy is in effect. While I'm a jumper girl at heart, the merit of a snuggly sweater has not escaped my attention. (Count if you can, the number of times you've caught me in a cardi).
It's always a pleasure to share with you a new discovery when it comes to independent brands and on this occasion it's fabulous clothing label Whale of a Time from right here in my treasured land of Norfolk. What makes them brilliant is the ethos and direction that they have striven to employ. It really is inspiring to know that organic cotton is a priority and British design is being championed in what we are told is a world of 'fast fashion'. The best vessels are built to last.
If there is one thing I love it's a challenge on styling up a new piece!
I'm wearing the Minke sweatshirt which also comes in two other colour waves. It's a fun, retro style piece which is incredibly comfy to wear and is such great quality. The design lends itself to being worn with the majority of colours in my wardrobe but this time my navy skinnies insisted they were the perfect match to my sleeve stripes (they were right of course). Just in shot are my grey biker boots too.
What is easier to wear than a sweater? It's going to be perfect on those summer evenings just as the sun dips below the horizon and the cool night air flows in.

From this one piece you can gauge a fair amount about Whale of a Time clothing; simple, quality designs which can be worn everywhere. The new SS17 collection adds to an already solid range of t-shirts, sweaters, hoodies and bottoms as well as accessories; a well thought out theme runs through of colours, piping and striping and always with the cute little whale tail logo. It is immediately obvious that each piece belongs to the range.
I'm really impressed.

How would you wear a sweater? I have denim shorts in mind.
Sophie
A big thank you to Whale of a Time for sending me this sweater to feature. All content and opinions are my own. 

It never fails to amaze me when our allotment produces vegetables for us to take home and eat. Perhaps it's because the entire process of planting a teensy, tiny seed, watering it, watching the growth so slowly, then quickly until fruition is so astonishingly miraculous that it almost defies belief. How can it be so possible, on such a scale, with tangible results? Maybe it's because I cannot fully accept that I am capable of taking enough care of anything for it to flourish, or more to do with our rather dusty and stony looking allotment lot. Either way, the miracles keep on coming.We have plenty to look forward to this year: onions, shallots and garlic are doing well so far (and look pretty at sunset).




Last year was our best to date with home grown produce, it turned out to be a long season of fresh pickings. It's great to eat much of it as soon as possible, maybe only being picked within a couple of hours, but it's not always possible for whatever reason and more needs to be stored than eaten. Especially soft fruit like strawberries and raspberries, it's a case of pick it or lose it. I'll be honest,saying that we have more produce go to waste than I would wish and it frustrates me.
Things change.
I've discovered a nifty new idea to massively cut down on fresh produce waste at home which is an absolute winner. Hello Fresh Pod my new secret to keeping food fresh. All I have to do is pop this sachet in it's little cage and keep it in the fridge near my fruit and vegetables to ensure that everything stays good for longer. The cage is about the size of a credit card and slim, so it's not taking up much space at all.
How does Fresh Pod work? Well, fruit and veg give off ethylene gas as they ripen (and flowers give it off too, come to that) which encourages everything around them to ripen, thus giving off more gas and so forth. Inside the sachet are zeolite pellets which absorb ethylene and covert it into some lovely plant food - the whole thing is organically approved, perfectly safe and non-toxic. Fresh food can last up to four times longer! I've been trying it out for myself and have been really pleased with how much longer the vegetables have lasted. Unfortunately it's almost exclusively shop bought veg in my fridge at the moment - take things out of the plastic wrappers or best results. It's great to cut waste right down; in future I aim to eliminate it altogether!  A saving to the purse as well as the conscience.
An initial kit (£12.99) lasts 12 months and contains two pods and four sachets. As each sachet lasts 6 months this means you can keep one in your fridge and one in your fruit bowl too - pesky bananas trying to ripen everything else too fast! Refill packs (£7.95) last 12 months and contain 4 sachets to be used in the two pods you received in the initial kit. Once each sachet is finished with the contents can be used as plant fertilizer which is a cute and green little lifecycle. As well as household use Fresh Pod is available on a commercial scale too.
If you want to get yourself a 10% discount then use my special discount code and head over to Fresh Pod and enter SOPHIE10 when prompted. I must add that Fresh Pod are a Norfolk based brand and I'm thrilled to know that this innovative and waste saving product comes from my own patch. Great news!

Big thanks to Fresh Pod for coming up with such a simple yet clever product, review is all mu own content and opinions as always.
Sophie

I can hardly believe what an amazing backdrop that has been created; golden ears of barley sweeping into the horizon while the gorgeous purple wild flowers have been sown as a field boundary. The colours are rich and match each other so well, nature really does know best working with it's glorious palette.

You may be wondering why I'm wearing such an unusual dress... I was challenged to style up this stunning flower of romance hair flower from Glitzy Secrets in my preferred seventies look; which immediately had me searching my wardrobe for the perfect dress. The hair slide is a thing of beauty indeed; so pretty and delicate looking yet strong and secure, the sparkles make it feel like a really special piece. As well as being a gorgeous hair accessory for people, like me, who wear flowers in their hair it's definitely got that magical bridal feel to it too. I wore my hair down and loose; freshly washed and full of curls and clipped the slide onto one side. You could also have your hair up and clip it in to that as well, plus I also tried out clipping in to a spray of flowers which looked beautiful too.

Necklace is from Lily Blanche and the usual array of accessories from charity shops

When creating my outfit my first reaction was to suspect I didn't own much seventies inspired pieces (wrong, about 65% of my clothes are) so my fears were quelled once I started pulling out items I liked best. Mostly dresses, with prints, except this one which cried out to be worn. It's an amazing vintage piece which has absolutely zero purpose except to hang on the rail and look like a wedding dress. It's another one of those buys which I couldn't resist but can't exactly say I'd ever have cause to wear but at £4 I had to have it.

Obviously I love the dress; when usually I'd shy away from such feature-sized short sleeves I'm embracing them and relishing how they look just right with the rest of the dress. The lace panel-strips are the second detail which makes the dress.

If I ever renew my wedding vows I want to wear this exact outfit again and stand in this very spot, it seems just about perfect to me. Do you think so? I do.

Sophie

Thanks to Glitzy Secrets for sending me such a gorgeous clip to style up

Once in a while I make a real gem of a discovery; recently I was introduced to Uncommongoods who are to date the very most inspirational brand I've had the pleasure to find. What's so special about them? Well as well as having an amazing selection of nature based jewellery (you have to take a look here) they have hearteningly high ethics as a brand; committed to increasing sustainability and working with suppliers to continue raising 'green' standards. None of the products sold contain any fur, feathers, leather or pearls and instead the emphasis is very much more on including recycled, reclaimed and handmade pieces that have a story, a purpose and that radiate beauty.

There are not all that many companies that impress me on an emotional level but I was honestly quite touched to read all about the way they work, ethical is the way forward and Uncommongoods are leading from the front. There is a lovely introduction with each product about it's background and about who makes it, I spent ages reading and thoroughly enjoyed finding out how concepts for individual pieces were conceived.

What's tickled my fancy? Well, plenty! I'm somewhat smitten by their range of necklaces, in particular this lemon balm leaf impression pendent by Neena Jhaveri as well as this love birds locket by Britta Ambauen.

There are so many necklaces that are exactly my cup of tea; like this beautiful locket and my favourite – a perfect one for me at the moment, pendent with strawberry leaves pressed into clay.

How delightful are these Starfish and Bird lockets by Catherine Weitzman? This simple silver necklace handmade by husband and wife team Rhonda and Elijah Wyman is something I would wear all the time.

Nancy Nelson believes that jewellery should evoke an emotion and tell a story; this leaf birch cuff in brass is so natural, in sweet aesthetic juxtaposition Lisa and Sean Reico have created a cuff which fuses modern minimalism and pure nature together by sandwiching fern leaves between two panels of eco-friendly resin. Remarkable!

You can explore the full range of bracelets here.

I don't know about you but I'm blown away by the creativity on offer. This set of 7 bracelets representing the Story of the Earth by Lis Giròn is absolutely me; simple yet meaningful.

Having a quick peruse around the rest of the site I was drawn to this beautiful forest birds mobile and this raindrops mobile but there are literally hundreds of things I'd love to make mine (don't mention the stationery section!).

Are you as bowled over by Uncommon Goods as I am? What catches your eye?

Sophie

This is a sponsored post put together by myself, all opinions my own as always.

It's funny isn't it, how taste changes all the time. I went through a phase of avoiding t-shirts for years but this last year I've totally u-turned and can't get enough of them now. This amazing tee is one of the brand new designs from Chyvonne Le Monnier, an alternative fashion indie designer. All their pieces are eco friendly and ethical which is just great as well as being good quality and really pocket friendly. I adore this tee, it's such a statement piece and really works with my big buckled boots, studded skinny jeans and belt, plus a choker of course.
You remember I wore the Mercury tank tee last year? Well now there is a whole new collection coming really soon and I'm the first one to give a sneak preview. You can thank me later for the tip off.
What design is your favourite? You can preorder them from next Saturday at chyvonnelemonnier.com so keep your eyes peeled and on sale from 2nd May. Let me know what you buy!
Sophie
Thank you to Chyvonne Le Monnier for gifting me the tee to style up and for giving us an exclusive preview

Although I rarely venture on to the high street for bulk buying of wardrobe fodder I do still fall into the trap of stocking up on cheap basics from the usual haunts. Vest tops are usually cheap as chips and unsurprisingly tend to last as long as chips too.

When I attended the launch of The Norfolk Boutique earlier in the year I took the opportunity to invest in a much higher quality Switcher vest top, which is made from gorgeously soft cotton. To be fair I've not worn it much yet (else you would have seen it before) but it looks and feels exactly the same after a few washes. This is the start of making more considered choices with basics, I want to feel comfortable in everything I own so a cull is called for of all the aged vest and long sleeved tops that have seen far better days.

I should point out to anyone fairly new round here that the vast majority of my wardrobe is filled with second hand buys from charity shops and ebay, mostly newish pieces and a few good vintage items.

Vest top – Switcher from The Norfolk Boutique, blouse, jeans and necklace – charity shops, boots – yard sale, belt - QD

Five years ago I would have been the very last person to shop at an independent boutique as I didn't really buy all that much to start with and the idea of spending any more than the bare minimum would have filled me with horror. These days I am all about trying to shop local, buying quality over quantity (it's a work in progress ok) and enjoying the good things in life. Would I rather have four roughed up, shrunken vest tops or a single lovely soft one? It's a no-brainer surely.

If you're looking for a piece that you want to be sure you wont see another woman out on the street wearing then head to a local independent boutique. They will have a range of fabulous exciting pieces, a beautiful store and first class customer service. Why? Because they CARE. It's their livelihood and they have a vested interest in making it a success. This is why the high street can only ever crawl in behind that.

Have you shopped in a local boutique before?

Sophie