Day Trip

This weekend, I took a drive up to Bourton-on-the-Water in the Cotswolds. This was my first trip to the Cotswolds and I was not disappointed! I picked it after seeing a friend’s posts on Instagram and was quite jealous of the stone houses and shops. Sporadic rain showers didn’t stop anyone from visiting on a lovely autumn day weekend. The town also lent itself to being very dog-friendly for walking. Most shops don’t allow pets, but there are plenty of places to sit and eat outside with your dog and plenty seemed to enjoy the fast-moving creek that ran through town! My 3 monsters were left at home as I don’t have a car that is big enough to fit them yet. The big attraction was the Model Village, a Grade II listed site, that is made in 1:9 scale to the village itself circa 1937. My parents and I loved it!

Living in the UK over two years now, I am utterly convinced there is so much to see in this country, I will never see everything (sadly)! On this trip, I didn’t visit any formal heritage sites visited, but I have English Heritage and National Trust memberships that have easily paid for themselves in just a few trips. Personally, I think they are great value for the money and you are contributing to help preserve some of the most beautiful architecture and historic sites in the world. Many sites near me are seasonal and are starting to close, so it gives me plenty of time to explore all sorts of other places around the country. Get out and see what’s around where you live!

Tackling the Fluff

Just because I have pets does not mean I want a house that “looks” like I have pets. Especially multiple pets. One would naturally assume that with greyhounds who are naturally thin and have a short, almost non-existent coat, it wouldn’t be a problem, right? Wrong. So wrong! For me, I am constantly battling the fluff.

My dogs (and one in particular) shed constantly. I almost never put away my vacuum. In the US, I had a top of the line Miele. I had a Dyson for awhile too, but got rid of it for the Miele and was SO happy. Why? Fluff. The Miele has bags to contain it. Heavy duty allergen reducing bags. No emptying a container and having dust and errant fluffs re-populate your space. The suction on it was also amazing and got up even the most embedded hairs in fabric.

Then I moved to the UK right before the weird EU vacuum rules came into place. When I went to purchase about two weeks later, I was no longer able to get a vacuum that was loud or sucked up all my stuff. (For those of you not in the EU, there really are laws that say your vacuum has to be so energy efficient and can’t be too loud.) I didn’t think it would make too much of a difference. I ended up purchasing another brand and hated it. Hated. It was fine on hard floor surfaces, but I could get fluff and hair out of carpet easier with my bare hands than with that vacuum. I honestly love to vacuum and this sub-par one made the chore one I actually dreaded because it never gave me the satisfaction of my house looking clean. Finally, several months ago, after much research, I broke down and got another Miele.

If you are in need of a new vacuum to tackle your errant fluffs (or you want a super clean home), you don’t necessarily need one for “dogs and cats” either. What you need is one with an electric brush head (it’s rare in the US to have a vacuum that doesn’t have an electric brush head)!

 

Miele Celebration C3 £400

 

The Celebration can be found for around £400, but wow, lots of cash, right? The downside is the cord is attached to the hose on the outside, which is a bit of a pain, but hey, it is amazing at cleaning! The updated model from Miele is the Complete Electro Plus C3 at £450! The new model is supposed to be more eco-friendly and energy efficient for the EU, but for me, these things are not as important as having a clean home. I really did not want to spend such a ridiculous amount on a vacuum again, but I was drowning in fluff.

As you read this blog, you’ll learn that I like nice things, but I strongly dislike having to pay full price if it can be avoided. Solution? The Miele Outlet! If you live in the south of England, Miele has an outlet store outside of Oxford. From my house, it was about 1.5-hour drive each way. The trick is to look online, review the stock list (knowing the particular model helps), head out, and buy. I also considered an upright model that also had the electric brush head in case the Celebration one I wanted was no longer available when I arrived. The Miele Outlet does NOT reserve items over the phone and they do not tell you how many of each item they have. They have very limited hours. Knowing that in advance makes a huge difference if you are driving from a considerable distance. (When I went, there was even a guy on his 4th trip buying various appliances for the home he was remodeling and one of the women working said they routinely get people in from as far away as Scotland!)

Anway, I got a “seconds” vacuum, just in a plain box rather than a fancy labeled box, with the same warranty, that didn’t appear to have been used at all. Instead of paying £400, I paid $125! Saving almost £300 was worth the drive. When I got home, I used up an entire bag in about 3 hours vacuuming my bedrooms and stairs multiple times to FINALLY pick up all the fluffs the original vacuum I purchased failed to do. Technically, I also saved an additional £45 – knocking the price down to £80 because I was also able to sell the other vacuum on a local resale site since I had all the manuals, a spare bag, all the attachments, etc.! Bargain!

 

This post is in no way sponsored by Miele. I simply love my mine and wanted to share it with you! 

Day Trip

Several weeks ago, I heard a quick blurb on a morning show about free things to do for the weekend. Loving anything free, I quickly looked up Heritage Open Days and learned about the hundreds of properties, including historic and cultural sites, free to the public 8-11 September! Game on! There were tons of properties near me – many of which I’d never heard of before. 10miles down the road, Old Warden in Bedfordshire had 3 properties managed by the Landmark Trust participating. Landmark Trust makes historic properties available for vacation/holiday rentals at, in my opinion, reasonable rates for long weekend and weekly rates! You just bring your own groceries if you decide to stay. And the bonus – many even allow pets! When you have dogs, it’s hard to find a hotel on vacation that will allow them, let alone some cool historic properties!

Photos (clockwise): Grounds of the Shuttleworth Estate heading up to Queen Anne’s Summerhouse; Queen Anne’s Summerhouse; Warden Abbey; Hare & Hounds Pub (great food with a resident lab); horse cemetery near Queen Anne’s Summerhouse.

Saturday Morning Greyhounds

Always having a large yard in the US, such a commodity is rare in the UK at my price point. Accordingly, I rent a paddock for my dogs to run that’s about 15 miles from my house and we go every Saturday morning, rain or shine. (I personally don’t think it’s far, but to most people in the UK, driving about 30min isn’t necessarily common practice.)

Greyhounds typically sleep more than they exercise, but having this field is a great opportunity to practice off-leash recall and to let the boys get a really great run in, even if it seems like they spend 99% of the time we’re there eating grass like a bunch of cows. Sadly, no matter how much running they do, they don’t get as tired as I would like. Ruby rarely goes with us because she 1) hates riding in the car with the boys and 2) she can be a fair-weather dog and will refuse to interact with nature unless it’s on her terms.

The field has also been a place I’ve tried out the fun photo features with my 6s Plus after I took an advanced photography workshop at my local Apple store. After taking that class, I was really intrigued by a clip-on lens for my phone they demoed, but TBH, I didn’t like the idea of paying £60 for it if I wouldn’t use it frequently. Voila! Amazon to the rescue! I found a clip on lens attachment from VicTsing at a much more reasonable £14.99! VicTsing seems like a pretty reliable brand, it has lots of good reviews (including mine) and for the price – even if it sucked or failed miserably at some point, I’m not out a ton of money. So far, it’s working great despite being a bit of a struggle to get on my phone when I want to take a picture of something quickly – rather than 2 micro-lenses, I could do with 1 and a wide angle lens from them for £16.99.

 

 

Bella Freud

Coveting knitwear is a very, very bad habit I have. I routinely (though not necessarily wisely) purchase lots of cashmere and extra fine merino in the end-of-season sales. Who doesn’t like a discount, right? Most of my cashmere in the past has come from JCrew, but I have been known to buy it from Norstrom, Macy’s and others. Last year, I was absolutely blown away by the quality of cashmere at Uniqlo. Sadly, in the US, I didn’t have a Uniqlo location near me so it readily slipped my mind as a place to shop.

Nonetheless, I have been coveting a Bella Freud sweater for a long time now. I love the 1970 sweater but was not 110% convinced on the pink and red colours it came in (and the ones everyone is photographed in online). I do wear pink and red and have both colours in my closet, but I know for that sweater’s price point I wouldn’t get good cost-per-wear value. Enter Alex Stedman (a.k.a. The Frugality) and her event at Bella Freud last week. Alex (not like I really know her personally, aside from meeting her at this and another event last year) has a great sense of affordable, classic, yet trendy style with a mix of designers and price points which I like even more. I was super excited for the event, despite the prospect of trying on sweaters on the last 30c day in the city until next year!

I’ve probably walked past the Bella Freud shop a dozen times in the past but never went in. The shop space is amazing – they even have a little outside garden/patio which I think for any space in London is quite rare. Anyway, I walked away with this little gem, thanks to the generous offer Alex’s event provided:

 

1970 Rainbow

Filtered via Instagram, the sweater is actually dark blue, not black. I certainly think for the price point, I will get great cost-per-wear out of it. I also went up a size (maybe two sizes?) as I do like my sweaters a bit big/slouchy. The small fit, the medium was better and would have worked, but I opted for the large. In the winter I am generally always cold and have a t-shirt or two, or a buttoned shirt of some sort underneath – so I didn’t want to feel constricted – especially in a sweater I justed dropped a huge chunk of cash on.

Another option at a slightly lower price point is the rainbow cuff sweater at Wyse London because it comes in grey and navy. The grey could still be an option for me…and their Instagram is also hinting at a grey cardigan with pink rainbow trim!

The next step is to keep those white dogs away from it or I’ll never get rid of the fluffs that will magically fuse to the threads!

 

Costa Flat White

Thanks to Lucinda over at The London Mummy, I learned that Costa was offering a master class on how to make the perfect flat white! Oddly enough, walking through town last weekend, my mom asked me what exactly a flat white was – and to be honest – I had no clue. I don’t drink coffee. Not. At. All. Nonetheless, when this opportunity came up, we decided to check it out!

While there is a Costa in town, they weren’t offering the class, so off to Stevenage we went! On top of learning about Costa’s processes, we also learned it the UK’s favourite coffee shop and the only one that uses 100% rainforest certified coffee. Mom and I learned how to make a latte, cappuccino, cortado, and of course, the flat white.

A perfect cappuccino – it should also have that coffee ring around the edge of the cup

How strong is your foam? You should be able to balance a spoon on the top of your foam (it will take several minutes for it to break through!

Flat whites only have a 15-second pour and you froth your milk before you make the coffee! The other trick is making sure the temperature of the milk isn’t above 140 (max maybe 150). Why? You’ll burn the milk and/or breakdown the proteins in the milk that can lead to an upset stomach – no fun.

The perfect Flat White

Even as you drink it down, the pattern in the flat white remains!

Cortado

The lovely little leaf pattern takes a steady hand and lots of practice. Mom tried and failed miserably, but she did find her new drink. What did she like specifically? Even though technically it’s a stronger drink than a latte, she thought Costa’s coffee was nice and smooth – not bitter at all.

Frothing the milk first

Then you make the coffee

Pretty designs require a steady hand!

Thanks to Kiel and the staff at Costa Stevenage Queensway (near the train station) for indulging us after-hours last night!

Welcome!

After much contemplation, I finally decided to start a (new) blog. I had a tiny blog, years ago when blog posting was in its infancy and long before Facebook and other social media became popular. It faded after so many changes in my life, but I have decided to revive it here with a new focus and direction. Life changes, right?

So why “covered in dog fluff?” It is, literally, the story of my life at this point. I am always covered in it. I had cats for years, and now, I have greyhounds. Three greyhounds. Specifically, two white greyhounds. White greyhounds that shed more than a Persian cat in July. White greyhounds that leave me constantly battling fluff all over my house and everything I own! All. The. Time.

How do you have nice things when you’re always covered in fluff? How do you try and get dressed in the morning (wearing black or dark clothes) when you’re covered in fluff so embedded it is impossible to remove with a lint roller?

Fluff aside, products here are things I like, love, and actually use. Trips are places I have been and recommend. Clothes and living are things I like, think are practical, or just new adventures and, hopefully, a good value for the money. Food is picky, often simple, generally comforting, mostly healthy, and not at all trendy. There are even days when sustenance is just a sack of liquorice and copious amounts of very strong black tea!

So, grab a cup of your favourite whatever, even while you multi-task on other things, and enjoy…

-Cindi

 

Left to Right: Angus, Flash, and Ruby

 

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